Chapter 2

When Qing Xian heard this, a hint of confusion flashed in his eyes, and he felt himself being put down.

“Let go,” the woman said coldly.

He hesitated for a moment, then obediently released his arms from around her neck.

“Since you’re not Shan Zhang’s nephew, you can’t stay in the mountain. I’ll take you down,” Su Rong said. Meanwhile, she would go to pick up the real nephew of Shan Zhang.

Qing Xian’s face grew even paler, suddenly feeling as if his heart was covered by this fine rain, damp and cold.

So the kindness just now was all because of mistaken identity…

“Su Rong!” While the two were in confrontation, a voice came from up the mountain.

“Su Rong, weren’t you supposed to pick up someone? Why have you been gone so long without arriving? Shan Zhang is worried and sent me to find you,” Si Tu Tang said to Su Rong.

Then she turned her gaze to Qing Xian beside her and asked puzzledly, “Is this Shan Zhang’s nephew? Since you’re almost there, why did you stop here instead of continuing?”

“Wrong person,” Su Rong said coldly. “He’s not Shan Zhang’s nephew. I picked up the wrong person. If you have time, go pick up the right person now. I have something to say to this gentleman.”

Si Tu Tang looked at the two of them. Although she found it strange what had happened, she wasn’t a particularly curious person. She just said, “Alright, I’ll go pick up the person then.”

Si Tu Tang nodded to Qing Xian, and Qing Xian returned the gesture.

After Si Tu Tang left, Su Rong said, “It’s getting late. I’ll take you down the mountain by a shortcut. Otherwise, it might be dark by the time you get down.”

Qing Xian didn’t move, standing in place without a word.

Su Rong turned to look at him, “Why aren’t you moving?”

Qing Xian looked up at her and said, “I came to the academy to study. Now that I’ve reached the gates of the academy, I won’t leave.”

For Qing Xian, he had no money and nowhere to go if he went down the mountain. It was better to have a place to settle on the mountain first.

“I remember telling you earlier that the mountain doesn’t accept male students,” Su Rong said.

“I, I can work for you,” Qing Xian said.

Hearing this, Su Rong snorted with laughter.

Although the man before her was not much different in height from herself, looking taller and more slender than most men.

But just from his delicate, fair face and slender, graceful fingers, it was clear he wasn’t someone who could do manual labor.

Qing Xian pressed his lips tightly, not knowing how to explain.

His whip wounds from before hadn’t healed yet, and he had just been soaked in the rain. Now with the wind blowing, he felt dizzy.

The person in front of him seemed to split into multiple blurry images, swaying back and forth before his eyes.

He finally couldn’t hold on and collapsed.

Su Rong looked somewhat speechlessly at the man who had fallen into her arms, really not expecting him to faint just like that.

His pale little face was like those precious porcelain pieces, delicate and fragile.

Only his pale, diamond-shaped lips remained tightly closed even in his unconscious state, hard and stubborn.

Su Rong took away the oil paper umbrella from his hand and carried him towards her own courtyard.

Fine rain fell all around, but there seemed to be an invisible barrier around her, separating the two of them from the dense curtain of rain.

Su Rong carried Qing Xian to her own room. Seeing his outer clothes were almost completely wet, she hesitated to put him down.

She didn’t quite want to dirty her own bed.

His clothes were soaked through, and the hem of his robe was covered in dense mud splatters…

She sighed silently, quickly removed his outer clothes, used magic to dry his undergarments, and only then tucked him into the blankets.

The principle of “practice makes perfect” applied equally to Su Rong, though not because she had any illness.

It was just that injuries were as common as meals for her, and over time she had gained more experience in dealing with injuries and illnesses.

She reached out to take Qing Xian’s pulse and could see from his pulse that he had a slight fever. As for the rest…

Su Rong propped him up and sure enough, saw that the clothes on his back were completely soaked with blood. The flesh had probably stuck to the clothes, making them difficult to separate.

“Tsk,” it seemed she had brought back a troublesome person.

She removed Qing Xian’s clothes, took out the medicinal ointment from the small drawer by the bed, and used her fingers to apply the ointment to the wounds on his back.

She watched as the blood on the wounds slowly stopped, gradually showing signs of healing.

Su Rong’s eyes deepened.

Her medicines were all of her own concoction, with ingredients collected from rare treasures of the six realms. How was it possible that a mere mortal’s small whip wound couldn’t be completely healed at once?

She checked his pulse again, and he was indeed an ordinary mortal.

This was quite strange.

Her gaze turned somewhat investigative as she looked at Qing Xian, mixed with a bit of curiosity and interest.

Keeping him around might actually be fine. The human realm was really boring, and it was rare to meet an interesting person.

…

Qing Xian was currently in a dream, where he had ascended to the throne.

On the day of the ceremony, the six realms came to offer congratulations, gathering in the Chongming Hall.

At the solemn and serious moment, a deeply experienced deity interrupted the proceedings.

“Young Master Qing Xian is just a man, how can he inherit the throne?” Her words were earnest, each one like a pearl.

Other immortals also chimed in, and the sacred Chongming Hall became like a noisy marketplace, suddenly chaotic and clamorous.

“How can the supreme ruler of the divine realm be a man? We object!”

“That’s right! We object!”

“Our vast divine realm isn’t short of female immortals, who wouldn’t be better than a man?”

A thousand words, a cacophony of voices, like a group of monsters baring their fangs, fiercely pouncing towards Qing Xian.

He looked past the agitated immortals, gazing distantly towards the wide-open hall doors, where a wife and husband were coldly watching him.

As if to say, if you can’t handle this, prepare to be punished.

Qing Xian mumbled, “No… Mother Emperor… Father Empress… No, I don’t want…”

Su Rong had gone out to deal with the mix-up about picking up the wrong person. When she returned, she found him caught in a nightmare.

She walked over quickly, grabbed his wildly flailing hands, and pressed them down on the bed.

With his hands restrained, Qing Xian felt as if someone was suddenly whipping his back with a divine whip, one lash after another.

Each divine lash was cold and severe, showing no mercy.

Finally, he woke up in the midst of his struggles.

Opening his eyes, he saw Su Rong sitting by his bed. For the first time, disregarding his image as the divine realm’s crown prince, he tremblingly embraced the woman sitting by the bed.

He used all his strength, as if clutching at a final lifeline.

But such force was barely a light touch that Su Rong could easily push away.

She pulled his hands away, looking at his somewhat bewildered eyes, and said coldly, “Now that you’re awake, take your medicine.”

“Medicine?”

Su Rong picked up the medicine bowl from the small table by the bed and handed it to Qing Xian.

The medicine was bitter, and he turned his face away from the pungent smell.

Then he felt a bit cold and paused in his movement.

“Your upper clothes were stained with blood, so I changed them for you,” Su Rong explained briefly before turning his face back.

Qing Xian glanced at her, but ultimately just pulled the quilt to cover himself completely.

Judging by this woman’s demeanor, she probably didn’t have any other intentions towards him…

“Take your medicine,” Su Rong held the medicine bowl in front of him.

“This medicine…” won’t help my injuries, and it’s bitter…

But before he could finish speaking, his mouth was blocked by a porcelain spoon, and the woman’s cool voice sounded by his ear: “After you finish the medicine, just rest and don’t move around.”

Then a bowl of warm medicine went completely into his stomach.

“What’s your name?” After feeding him the medicine, Su Rong wiped his mouth with a towel and asked coldly.

“Um… Qing Xian,” Qing Xian’s face was a bit red; he had never been cared for like this before.

“Surname Qing?” Su Rong tossed the towel in her hand into the water basin, asking casually.

“Mm,” Qing Xian hesitated and said, “No.”

“And then?” Su Rong looked up at him.

“My surname is…” Qing Xian didn’t know what surname to make up, when he heard the woman say,

“Think about it carefully, I have things to attend to.” She stood up, carrying the water basin, her movements casual.

As if she was impatient to wait, or as if she found it boring and couldn’t be bothered to hear his answer.

Qing Xian’s heart involuntarily tightened.

As she reached the door, Su Rong paused and said, “By the way, my name is Su Rong.”

“Su Rong?” Qing Xian murmured unconsciously. The thin quilt slipped from his front, and he paused, his cheeks flushing.

“Don’t go yet, I… I want some clothes.”

“They’re right by the bed, you can reach out and grab them,” Su Rong said.

Qing Xian instinctively replied, “How do you have men’s clothes here?”

Su Rong didn’t answer his question and turned to leave the room.

Qing Xian looked at the pile of clothes nearby but didn’t touch them. For the first time, he felt a bit willful and thought: he didn’t want to wear clothes she had given to other men.

He didn’t know why, but a sense of possessiveness he had never felt before welled up in his heart.

He hadn’t even had such thoughts about his only friend, Long Ling.

This desire to want someone to belong only to himself seemed somewhat dark to him.

Su Rong hadn’t mentioned whether she would keep him here, nor in what capacity she would keep him here.

Qing Xian couldn’t quite gauge her thoughts. According to human customs, if one had seen a man’s body, they should marry him, right?

But from Su Rong’s expression, it seemed she had no such thoughts.

His face reddened a bit as he wrapped the quilt around himself and lay back down…

He seemed to have fallen a bit for a mortal woman.

Long Ling once said that if you like someone, you’ll feel hot and your heart will race when you think of them, and you’ll want to be with them forever.

But this person is a mortal…

Qing Xian buried his face in the quilt, not daring to let anyone see his little thoughts.

Never mind, he could only stay in the mortal realm for three months. After three months, they would never see each other again. He shouldn’t have any thoughts he shouldn’t have.

…

Shan Zhang called Su Rong over.

“I’ve already had Little Tang settle Little Xu. As for the man you brought back…”

Shan Zhang hesitated and said, “You brought him to your own courtyard, which is indeed damaging to his reputation. This… how do you intend to handle it?”

“I will handle this matter myself,” Su Rong said.

“Since that’s the case, I won’t interfere. Also, accommodations in the mountain are limited…”

“My courtyard still has a vacant spot, you need not worry.”

“Since you’ve already arranged everything, I won’t say more. You have two classes to teach tomorrow, don’t forget,” Shan Zhang said.

“I know, when have I ever missed a class?” Su Rong smiled.

Shan Zhang said, “You’ve never missed one, but with you like this, I just can’t help but worry.”

She also didn’t understand why she had agreed to let her join the academy as a teacher earlier.

Oh, she remembered now. Her martial arts skills were indeed formidable. In just two or three moves, she had knocked down all the fighters Shan Zhang had arranged, without even giving them a chance to fight back.

That’s why she overlooked Su Rong’s unorthodox personality and made an exception to hire her.

…

When Su Rong returned to the room, she saw that the clothes she had prepared were still neatly piled to one side, untouched.

She walked to the bedside and asked with some exasperation, “Didn’t you want clothes?”

“I don’t want ones that others have worn,” came a muffled voice from under the quilt, but the words clearly reached Su Rong’s ears.

“If that’s the case, then don’t wear them,” Su Rong put the clothes away. “I’m not too keen on giving you clothes to wear anyway.”

Hearing this, Qing Xian poked his head out and grabbed her sleeve, asking, “Are these your clothes?”

“What else?” Su Rong said, “Did you think I would specially go down the mountain to buy some for you?”

“Never mind, I’ll make do with your clothes for now,” Qing Xian said, his face red.