RIIDMDR chapter 159

Nan Xu carried timber every day, and he noticed that his shoulder muscles had become firmer. When he rolled up his sleeves and put in a little effort, he could see the bulging muscles, which made him feel even more satisfied.

One day, as he passed by the nursery, he glanced inside as usual, then stopped. In the nursery, which had been empty for several months, a few small seedlings had sprouted inconspicuously.

Nan Xu crouched down to get a closer look. They didn’t look like weeds. In the distance, the fox demon who tended the flowers and plants was carrying a water jug towards them. The jug naturally contained spiritual water, freshly fetched from the mountains. The water was said to come from a pit with an underground spring, but the flow was pitifully small. A month’s worth wouldn’t even fill a small bowl.

Fortunately, the spring was located in the territory of the Nine-Tailed Fox Clan. The clan was wealthy and didn’t need the spring, so they used it to irrigate their garden. In another small clan, it would probably be treasured and worshiped, with members fighting over a single drop of water.

Looking at the fox demon’s serious and focused face, Nan Xu sighed inwardly. Growing precious flowers and plants truly required professionals. He was better suited to growing vegetables.

After inspecting the seedlings, Nan Xu stood up, dusted off his trousers, and prepared to leave.

“Huh?” Nan Xu had only taken two steps when he heard the fox demon’s voice. He turned back. The fox demon was bent over close to the seedlings looking shocked as if in disbelief. He was probably disheartened by the nursery’s long period of stagnation.

It seemed the seedlings had just sprouted today. Nan Xu lifted his foot and left. He was covered in sweat and filthy from the wood, so he needed to go back to the garden and bathe.

Even after entering the spiritual environment of three thousand years ago, Nanxu still wasn’t used to using the Cleansing Technique for washing. To make matters worse, he hadn’t brought a change of clothes. Yunyi had bought him a set from a fox demon who lived at the foot of the mountain. However, even the finest fabric would fade and wear out with daily use.

Nanxu boiled a kettle of water and poured it into a tub filled with cold water. After testing the temperature with his hand, he quickly stripped off his clothes and jumped into the tub once the water wasn’t too cold.

The sun hadn’t set yet. Yunyi and Jing Yuan were still overseeing the demons they had hired to repair the courtyard. Since no other demons would bother them there, Nan Xu wasn’t too secretive while bathing. The door to the side room was open, and he hummed a little tune as he scooped water over himself.

Amidst the sound of water, he seemed to hear footsteps approaching. Nan Xu had excellent hearing and tried to peek into the courtyard, but a corner of the screen blocked his view.

Had Yun Yi and Jing Yuan returned early today?

Just as he was about to call out to one of the demons, the footsteps paused briefly before resuming and growing closer.

The person stepped over the threshold and into the room. Nan Xu sat in the bathtub, hesitating about whether to abandon his half-finished bath and step out from behind the screen to peek inside.

“What are you doing behind the screen?” A familiar voice asked from behind the screen. Nan Xu breathed a sigh of relief. It wasn’t a strange fox demon; otherwise, he would have had to get up to entertain it.

“Taking a bath,” Nan Xu replied.

Tingchuan seemed puzzled for a moment, then continued, “Yunyi told me a few days ago that your clothes were old. I sent a little demon from the mountains to buy you two new sets. Try them on to see if they fit. If any alterations are needed, let me know and I’ll find a skilled sewing demon to help you.”

Overjoyed to hear about new clothes, Nanxu exclaimed, “Yunyi is truly a good demon.”

Tingchuan fell silent for a few moments, his tone growing colder. “Then I’ll be going now.”

Nanxu didn’t notice and hurriedly called out to Tingchuan, who was about to leave: “Could you bring the new clothes in for me? I’ll wear them later.”

“Otherwise, I’ll have to go out naked to get them. If other demons see my skin like this, it’s not fair,” Nanxu muttered.

Tingchuan, standing behind the screen, heard every word. For a few seconds, he was speechless. He hadn’t even closed the door while bathing, being cautious, yet he felt deeply ashamed to be seen naked.

Tingchuan hesitated for a moment, then took his clothes and went behind the screen. The low-level demon was male, like himself, so there was no need to arouse suspicion. But when he saw the scene behind the screen, he was stunned.

Nan Xu’s lean arms were draped over the bathtub, and his head was resting on them. He tilted his head slightly and looked up at Tingchuan with a bright grin. His hair was wet and dripped down his cheeks. Perhaps from the bath, his dark eyes were glistening with moisture, making him look like a clean yet pitiful newborn fox demon cub. His fair back was captivating, too.

Tingchuan subconsciously looked away, having dismissed any previous thoughts of avoiding suspicion. He put down the clothes he was holding, turned, and walked out.

“Hey! Why are you running so fast? Did I say something to upset your young master’s temper?” Nan Xu asked, puzzled. After hearing Tingchuan’s footsteps fade into the distance, Nan Xu muttered to himself, “I was going to ask you to bring another pot of hot water. Because you delayed me, the bathwater’s gone cold.”

Nan Xu leaned back against the wall, scooped up a ladle of water, and poured it over himself. Actually, the cold water wasn’t unbearable. It always cooled down by the time he was almost finished bathing. It wasn’t a problem in the summer, but seeing Tingchuan made those small, tolerable details seem magnified.

After all, back on Zhuyu Mountain, Tingchuan would boil water for him outside before his baths. On bitterly cold winter nights, Tingchuan would sit on a small stool in the shed, adding firewood to keep Nan Xu warm.

But he wasn’t facing Tingchuan from three thousand years in the future. He needed to tone down the spoiled air he’d developed under Tingchuan’s influence.

Nan Xu sighed, missing the Tingchuan who waited for him outside the formation.

His gaze fell on the stack of clothes. Tingchuan had been quite generous this time, giving him about ten sets at once. The colors were similar to what he usually wore, and the fabric looked incredibly soft and comfortable. Nan Xu’s slight disappointment eased somewhat.

The water had cooled, and he was almost finished bathing. Just as he stood up to get dressed, he heard footsteps again. This time, Nan Xu could identify who it was from the footsteps alone.

The man entered the room and walked straight behind the screen. Nan Xu sat back down in the water, wondering what was going on, when Tingchuan returned with a jug of water. He walked to the bathtub, and their eyes met.

“You… heard it, huh?” Nan Xu asked, looking up.

Tingchuan hummed in response and explained, “The fire on the stove went out, so I heated it up a bit more.”

He poured water into the tub. Adding a jug of hot water to a jug of cold water only resulted in lukewarm water. However, Tingchuan lacked the skill to pour the bathwater properly, pouring the entire jug of boiling water into one spot. Nan Xu immediately felt the water next to his body heat up rapidly. Only after a moment did he feel the burn and start yelping.

Tingchuan immediately put away the jug he was pouring from. Looking at Nanxu, who kept complaining about being too hot, he asked a strange question: “Are you a fish demon?”

Nanxu: ?

Nanxu stirred the bathwater until it cooled down before responding, “What?”

Another strange moment of eye contact ensued. Tingchuan put down the jug. “Pour it yourself!”

He strode away again, his steps less leisurely than usual.

Nanxu added hot water to his bath, intending to bathe a little longer while the water was still warm. Tingchuan repeated Nanxu’s question several times before realizing why he had asked it.

He had heard the turtle demon in the South China Sea say that the water demons didn’t bathe in hot water; they preferred ice-cold water.

Tingchuan, annoyed by his lapse in composure, watched Nanxu splash around, shout about the heat, and almost jump out. This gave him a glimpse of what was happening underwater.

Yunyi and Jingyuan returned at that moment, strolling slowly back from another intersection. Seeing Tingchuan’s hurried pace, Yunyi said, “Why is he walking so fast? Judging by the direction he came from, it seems to be our courtyard. Could he have bullied the little demon?”

Jingyuan: “We’ll know when we get back.”

The wind carried their fragmented words to Tingchuan’s ears. Tingchuan frowned. That little demon didn’t have much cultivation. Yunyi, who loved to challenge and spar, had really gotten along well with him. Besides, if they went back now, wouldn’t they see that little demon bathing?

The mere thought made him uneasy. Before he could grasp the reason for his change in mood, he instinctively stopped and called out to the two demons who were about to walk away.

Nan Xu was, of course, unaware of the situation outside. After bathing and changing into new clothes, which were much more comfortable than his previous two sets, he realized they must have cost a fortune. Unfortunately, he was currently penniless and had no one from his own clan to rely on. He was just mooching food and lodging from various clans. If Tingchuan asked him for money, well, he’d just owe him. He could pay him back in three thousand years.

After Yun Yi and the others returned at the usual time, the courtyard remained silent. Nan Xu sat by the lotus pond, eating walnuts. There were no other ingredients here, so he relied on his spiritual energy to survive, yet he still felt strangely hungry.

As darkness fell and frogs croaked from somewhere in the lotus pond, Nan Xu heard two footsteps approaching.

Yun Yi and Jing Yuan entered the courtyard, looking exhausted. Jing Yuan greeted Nan Xu, then went inside to get some water. Yun Yi came over and took two walnuts from Nan Xu’s hand. As he ate them, he said, “That kid Tingchuan has a problem.”

Nan Xu asked curiously, “What?”

“All the fox demons who were doing the work went down the mountain. But he dragged Jing Yuan and me along to check the repair progress. He nitpicked and found a bunch of faults. It’s really unethical,” said Yun Yi indignantly, crunching the walnuts loudly.

A few days later, Nan Xu passed by the nursery again and saw that several more seedlings had sprouted. The first few had already grown leaves and looked somewhat familiar, but Nan Xu couldn’t immediately recall where he had seen them before. He stopped thinking about it, though. After all, his rapeseed flowers had been pulled up, so what grew in this nursery was none of his concern.

The fox demon who planted the flowers was very happy. Every time Nanxu passed by, he saw the fox demon fertilizing the flowers and catching insects. While moving wood, Nanxu overheard the fox demon boasting to Tingchuan about a different variety of flower he had grown. Tingchuan rewarded the fox demon with a treasured jade pendant from the Nine-Tailed Fox Clan’s treasury.

Nan Xu felt a pang of envy upon hearing this. The treasures in the Nine-Tailed Fox Clan’s storeroom must be worth a fortune. Why hadn’t he thought to ask Tingchuan for a reward when his rapeseed flowers sprouted?

He only thought this for a moment before forgetting about it. Half a month later, on his way back to the courtyard, the fox demon who had planted the flowers grabbed him. The fox demon rattled off a string of words, but Nan Xu couldn’t understand a single word, either due to his heavy dialect or his rapid speech. However, judging from the fox demon’s demeanor, he seemed excessively excited.

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