Volume One Chapter Thirty-Four: Aftermath

Climbing the stairs all the way to the fifth floor, he discovered that the sisters, Yanxi and Dongdong Li, were just pulling out their keys, about to enter their apartment.

“Yanxi! Dongdong!” Mo De called out from a distance and jogged over. As he drew closer, he noticed that the sisters were laden with fishing gear, clearly just returning from a fishing trip.

“Let me help you with that,” Mo De reached out to assist with their load.

“Oh! It's little Mo De, no need, really...” Yanxi seemed startled and tried to stop his hand. After all, their fishing bag contained not rods and tackle but an assortment of weapons belonging to Dongdong. Yet Dongdong simply handed him the fish box, which held several live fish they'd just selected from the market. They’d intended the fish for dinner, but while choosing them, had noticed sympathetic looks from the people around.

“Wow, you two made quite the haul,” Mo De remarked after a glance inside. There weren’t many fish, but each was impressively large—good enough to fetch a handsome price at the market.

“Oh, just lucky, I suppose...” Yanxi blushed, while Dongdong chimed in, “Anglers never come back empty-handed. Want to take a couple for yourself?”

“No, no, you worked hard for these,” Mo De declined quickly.

As they spoke, the group entered the apartment. Mo De briefly explained that he was now sharing his place with Mu Qing. Naturally, he couldn’t tell the whole truth, so he “slightly” embellished the story.

“If your cousin is here for some peace and recuperation, that’s no problem at all. As for rent—” Dongdong glanced at Yanxi, signaling her to continue.

“Oh, right, you don’t need to worry about rent, Mo De. Uncle Changsheng prepaid enough for three years before his last business trip,” Yanxi hurried to add, nearly biting her tongue in her nervousness, even though they’d rehearsed this lie a few times.

“So Uncle Changsheng already made arrangements?” Mo De paused, then smiled. “Honestly, he could have at least mentioned it to me.”

It was the first time Dongdong had seen an unguarded smile on Mo De’s face. The boy who once buried so much in his heart now spoke of Changsheng without sorrow or resentment. It seemed the child was finally moving on.

“Would you like to stay for dinner? You can invite your cousin too,” Dongdong, uncharacteristically, offered a smile, and Yanxi brightened up as well. “Yes, join us, Mo De! It’s livelier with everyone!”

“No need, I just ate with Qing... with my cousin. You two go ahead and prepare dinner, I won’t keep you,” Mo De squeezed out, unable to call her “Sister Qing.” After bidding them goodbye, he turned and headed downstairs.

As they watched him disappear at the stairwell, the sisters pulled their heads back and closed the door.

“Is that ‘Qing’ the same girl we found before?” Yanxi asked, setting down her backpack and carrying a bag of vegetables and the fish box into the kitchen.

“It should be,” Dongdong replied as she opened the fishing bag and carefully maintained each sectioned weapon inside—a dismantled spear and blade. “Her aura matches.”

“Dongdong, do you think that girl really killed the Calamity Apostle?” Yanxi asked as she knocked out one of the unlucky fish with the back of her knife and began cleaning it with practiced ease.

“It’s likely. We were among the first to set out, yet still arrived late—the Apostle was already dead. If anyone acted before us, it had to be Mo De’s ‘cousin.’ And with injuries like those, only someone at the same level could have fought her to such an extent,” Dongdong said, returning her blades to their scabbards and tucking the weapon bag back under the sofa when she finished.

“But could she really defeat an Apostle of the Calamity Church alone? That title requires at least peak-level mastery, doesn’t it?”

“Even at the peak, there are stronger and weaker. Besides, that Apostle seemed severely wounded already; whether his strength was at its peak is another matter,” Dongdong replied, sprawling on the sofa with her phone.

“Dongdong, between you and her, who’s stronger?” Yanxi poked her head out of the kitchen, her large eyes full of curiosity.

“Hard to say, I haven’t fought her,” Dongdong answered indifferently. She never cared for competition.

“She seems younger than both of us and already so powerful. Truly, the younger generations outdo the old…” Yanxi sighed, her small face adopting an exaggeratedly world-weary expression.

“The world is full of wonders, especially in these mad times. Hurry up with dinner, I’m starving,” Dongdong replied, shifting position and focusing on her phone. Yanxi withdrew her head and continued preparing their meal.

...

Mo De returned to his room, but upon entering, noticed the television in the living room flicking rapidly through channels. Her fingers were injured, and she was supposed to be resting—couldn’t she wait a moment for him to come back and change the channel?

A little annoyed, he strode into the living room.

“You’re back so soon,” Mu Qing greeted him lazily, still sprawled across the sofa, one hand resting on the armrest, the other waving at him.

Both her legs, encased in plaster, were stretched out on the sofa. One delicate foot steadied the remote, while her other foot’s nimble toes pressed the buttons, flipping channels nonstop.

“Weren’t your legs injured?” Mo De couldn’t help but be speechless at her antics. Trust her to think of changing channels with her feet.

“You said it yourself—my legs are hurt, not my toes.” As if showing off, she released the remote with both feet, flexing her toes with surprising dexterity. “I’ve got fractures and pulled muscles, not paralysis,” she said carelessly.

Mo De went to the bathroom, grabbed a toothbrush and cup, and returned with a basin of warm water.

“Come wash up,” he said, dragging a chair from the dining room and setting the basin atop it, preparing to help her wash up.

“Isn’t it a bit early for that?” Mu Qing was baffled by his sudden insistence.

“I have school tomorrow, so I’m going to bed early,” Mo De replied. He was indeed exhausted—not just from poor sleep these days, but from stress as well.

“Alright...” Mu Qing could see he was too tired even to banter, so she cooperated and sat up.

“Can I take off your sunglasses for a bit?” Mo De asked as he wet a towel, seeking her consent.

“For a while, it’s fine, I can mana—” Before she could finish, her vision went black, and a warm, damp cloth pressed against her face, stifling her words more effectively than her own surliness.

He swiftly and carefully wiped her face, then cleaned the brown-tinted sunglasses in his hand before replacing them over her tightly closed eyes.

“Can’t you at least let me finish talking?!” Mu Qing protested as her vision returned.

“Heh. Open your mouth, time to brush your teeth,” Mo De replied, his smile forced but his hands meticulous. Seeing resistance was futile, Mu Qing obediently opened her mouth.

As she massaged her aching jaw, Mu Qing glared at his back—he’d made her hold her mouth open for five minutes. She was sure he was getting back at her for using her feet on the remote earlier.

Fetching fresh water, Mo De returned to the living room.

“Stop, stop—” Seeing him reaching for her feet, Mu Qing surrendered at once. She didn’t want him to discover how ticklish she was. “I can wash my own feet!”

“I wasn’t planning to help you. Haven’t you heard of propriety between men and women?” Mo De draped the towel over his arm and gave her a bemused look, then went to rest on another sofa.

Her pale feet soaking in warm water, her toes gently rubbing against each other, Mu Qing’s mind whirled with thoughts until Mo De interrupted her reverie.

“Mu Qing, do you remember the name of the Apostle you fought?” He’d already heard her recount the battle, but he wanted more detail.

“His name was Quantu, a typical madman of the Calamity Church. If not for a string of coincidences, the one who would have fallen would be me,” Mu Qing said, her expression darkening at the memory.

“He was fighting me while holding off several military units on the steppe with dozens of Mist Spirits. And I’m certain he was already carrying old wounds into our battle.”

“That Elemental Spirit was a Twin Lotus, a sacred medicine. When I arrived, he’d already been waiting there for a while.” At the time, Mu Qing hadn’t expected to encounter a Calamity Apostle while following her intuition.

“Twin Lotus? But the geology and climate of the Qin Emperor Mountain range aren’t suitable for a Twin Lotus…” Mo De mused. Usually, treasures like these only grew in environments matching their attributes. The few Twin Lotuses discovered in the past all came from lakes and marshes, not mountain depths.

“No doubt—it was a red-yellow Twin Lotus,” Mu Qing insisted. Her sunglasses gave her a perfectly clear and precise view.

“Red-yellow?” Mo De was even more puzzled; all recorded Twin Lotuses were jade-black. “Are you sure you didn’t mistake another Elemental Spirit for—”

“My family has one at home. I even snuck a petal to eat as a child. I couldn’t be mistaken,” Mu Qing said with certainty.