Translator: Dj22031
Editor: Dj22031
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Gu Nian stopped in front of him and asked uneasily: “Did the company call you again?”
“No, it was Luo Zhan.”
Gu Nian was shocked: “Does your family know?”
“Um.”
“Is Grandpa Luo angry?”
“No,” Luo Xiu said calmly, “He has a lot of tolerance and won’t get angry over such a thing.”
“Oh.”
Gu Nian nodded uncertainly.
Wearing the mask was really tiring, so Gu Nian looked around to make sure there were no young people around, then she pulled the mask down to her chin.
She took a deep breath and smiled with crooked eyebrows: “Sure enough, the air in the mountains and forests is so much cleaner. Let’s take a walk here while there are fewer people.”
“Well, it’s up to you.”
Along the path to the back of the front hall, Luo Xiu and Gu Nian stepped on the bluestone slabs and walked among the trees that had lost their leaves.
Gu Nian kicked away the broken soil on the bluestone floor and said with a smile: “I used to come here once a month and always felt that the environment here was very good. I also thought that when I save enough money in the future, I would find a place like this in the mountains and forests, then buy a sturdier and warmer house to retire in.”
Luo Xiu slowed down his steps and looked back at her: “Then what.”
“Then?” Gu Nian turned around, “What then?”
“Like, what kind of house would that be?”
“…”
Gu Nian thought carefully and said while thinking: “It will be hidden in a deep forest. It should be an ancient house with many spires and look similar to the color of the entire forest. It will have a small porch of several square meters, extending into the brown land. In the summer, the cats and dogs kept at home will run out together and lie side by side on the small porch to bask in the sun.”
“The house doesn’t need to be very high, just one floor is enough. The living room after entering should have a high ceiling, an old European style wall, a fireplace, a sofa on the opposite side, and a woolen blanket that you can lean on and read. Next to it should be a sofa. There will be only one bedroom, and the bedroom should have a large floor-to-ceiling window.”
“In winter, the stove in the bedroom will be placed in the corner. The dry firewood lying inside would burn red, making a sizzling sound in the quiet air. The glass next to the stove should be floor-to-ceiling, where I could see the dark forest branches outside the window stretch and bend, the white sky and the wind and snow blowing outside, but there would be no sound…”
Gu Nian was immersed in her most dreamlike idea. It took a long time before she woke up. She quickly turned around and asked a little embarrassedly: “Am I talking too much by myself?”
“No,” Luo Xiu looked up at her, “Why is there only one bedroom?”
Gu Nian pursed her lips: “Because we are planning my retirement home, and Ms. Gu should be gone by that time. There probably won’t be any other friends coming and going for a long time, it’s just me, so…”
“It’ll be cold.”
“?”
Gu Nian looked up blankly, not understanding the meaning of Luo Xiu’s words.
Then she saw the man leaning over and taking her hand that was hanging by her side. The fingers that had been stretched out when she was happy were wrapped in his palm.
Then Luo Xiu raised his eyes and looked at her deeply: “A person alone will be cold.”
Gu Nian reacted and chuckled: “Because when I had this dream, you weren’t here yet.”
Luo Xiu: “You have me in it now?”
“Yeah, of course.” Gu Nian joked and patted the broken leaves that fell from the branches on his shoulder, “I’ll add a bedroom for you next to mine.”
“Don’t want.”
“Um?”
As soon as Gu Nian put down her hand, she heard the answer of rejection. She turned around in confusion, but before she could see the person’s eyes clearly, Luo Xiu came forward to hold her and gently kissed the corner of her lips.
Still holding her hand tightly, his voice was hoarse with a smile as he said——
“Don’t add a bedroom, make the bed in the bedroom a double bed.”
Gu Nian: “…!”
Thinking of the “accident” that almost happened just before, Gu Nian blushed within a few seconds.
Luo Xiu noticed this and couldn’t help but ask with a smile: “What are you thinking about?”
“!” Gu Nian was so frightened that she almost jumped out, “It’s not me, I didn’t do it!”
Luo Xiu lowered his eyes and smiled deeper: “Okay, you didn’t.”
“…”
Gu Nian looked away with a guilty conscience, her cheeks getting redder and hotter.
Before Gu Nian could think of a way to change the subject, she felt the top of her head sinking——
Luo Xiu touched Gu Nian’s head, suppressed his smile, his eyes were deep and serious, and his voice was low and steady: “Deep forest, ancient house, heavy snow, and stoves, these are all beautiful, but don’t be alone.”
Gu Nian nodded, turned back, and smiled with crooked eyes: “It sounds too lonely, right?”
“Um.”
Gu Nian squeezed Luo Xiu’s hand: “I only realized it after I met you – this dream is really beautiful, but entering such a dream, I seem to be apart from anyone else in the world. Before I met you, I wasn’t afraid of ending like this, but now…”
Gu Nian turned around and met those gentle and deep eyes that showed a rare uneasiness. She bent her eyes and smiled: “I want to choose a place with you.”
Luo Xiu’s eyes moved and he opened his mouth to speak.
Before the first word was spoken, a tone of voice that was very lazy and ruined the scenery came from diagonally in front of the two people——
“I don’t mind choking on two mouthfuls of dog food in the middle of the afternoon, but doing such a romantic thing in the Taoist temple of the Quanzhen Sect, Luo Xiu, you are really not afraid of attracting thunder, are you?”
“…”
The sudden voice was enough to startle Gu Nian, let alone the other party directly called Luo Xiu by name.
Gu Nian was frightened, and her first reaction was to turn around and look around to make sure there were no other passers-by on the trail, and then she breathed a sigh of relief.
After regaining consciousness, Gu Nian raised her head and looked in the direction where the sound came from.
There she saw a….Taoist priest.
Gu Nian: “?”
With the emotion of being suppressed, Gu Nian looked at the other person blankly: he was wearing a moon crown, a monk’s robe, and hemp shoes, all dressed up like a serious Taoist priest.
Apart from his somewhat careless demeanor, he didn’t look like a charlatan.
What’s more, when the other party saw her looking at him, he straightened his clothes, performed a very standard Ziwu Jue[1], and bowed towards her.
“Blessings are immeasurable.”
Gu Nian: “…”
It was a pity that the Taoist greeting that was given by this young Taoist priest sounded like “Your Majesty, please come to me” in the lazy tone of the young Taoist priest.
Feeling shocked, Gu Nian slowly remembered to speak, and consciously replied to the other party, “You have mercy.”
Then she turned to Luo Xiu and her voice was low, as she secretly pointed her finger at the young Taoist priest not far away who had raised his head by now: “Do you know him?”
Luo Xiu: “Yes, he is my friend.”
Gu Nian held it back for a moment: “Really a Taoist priest?”
“Really.”
“…”
Seeing Gu Nian looking at the man suspiciously, Luo Xiu couldn’t help but smile: “An Yi, whose Taoist name is ‘Zhiwi’, was a close disciple of the previous master of Dao Ci Temple. The current master of the temple is his senior brother. He is very senior in the Taoist temple, and the youngest disciples in the temple have to call him…”
One or two meters away, a little Taoist boy passed outside the sparse forest that could not stop people. He had just taken two steps this way when he was suddenly startled.
The little Taoist boy lowered his head in a whoosh, and bowed to the lazy and unruly young Taoist priest with the Ziwu Jue——
“Uncle Taishi[2]!”
Gu Nian: …oh haha.
This was really a big, big seniority.
The little Taoist boy ran away in fright. After Luo Xiu’s surprise, he raised his eyes and looked at An Yi with a smile: “Weren’t you still the Shishu[3] two years ago? Why did they change it again?”
An Yi lazily walked forward on his hemp shoes: “Then you have to ask those who recruit disciples why they are not so diligent when practicing.”
Gu Nian’s eyes were even duller.
Luo Xiu glanced back and couldn’t help but laugh: “Don’t feel weird, there are very few Taoist priests like him, no, I should say I have only seen one person.”
An Yi didn’t care and didn’t argue.
Gu Nian smiled: “Zhi…Zhiwu Taoist seems to be more detached from restraints, free and casual.”
“Well,” Luo Xiu smiled faintly, “So the old temple master gave him a nickname, telling him to be reserved and reticent, but it’s a pity that he didn’t listen.”
An Yi pouted: “It’s a pity. My master should have left this nickname to you.”
“——?”
Gu Nian became alert in a second and instinctively took a small step in front of Luo Xiu. She looked at the young Taoist priest very warily: “Luo Xiu is no longer becoming a monk.”
“…”
An Yi choked and looked at Luo Xiu for a long time. The man had a smile in his eyes, with deep and shallow emotions in his eyes, which were focused, only staring at the little girl in front of him.
An Yi wiped his face without looking: “Did you even tell her about your previous plan to become a monk?”
Luo Xiu raised his eyes and said, “I have nothing I can’t say to Nian Nian.”
“You are really open-minded.”
“Fine.”
“…”
An Yi turned around and said, “You’re here, so let’s sit in the greenhouse for a while. I’ve asked people to prepare the mountain spring water for making tea. It should be boiled now.”
Luo Xiu responded and led Gu Nian to follow.
Gu Nian asked Luo Xiu doubtfully: “Did you tell him before you came that you were coming?”
Luo Xiu: “No.”
Gu Nian: “Then why did he seem to know about it in advance and even boiled water?”
“That you have to ask him.”
Luo Xiu’s eyes and voice fell together, and the young Taoist priest walking a few meters in front had to stop and turn around: “I knew as soon as you entered the temple.”
Gu Nian was silent for two seconds, then raised her eyes in surprise: “Taoist magic?”
“…”
An Yi was stunned.
Luo Xiu turned his face sideways and laughed dumbly.
The forest was quiet for a few seconds.
An Yi turned back expressionlessly: “…We also have surveillance cameras here.”
Gu Nian: “….?”
A second or two later, Luo Xiu took away a “red lantern”.
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It’s a common Daoist mudra.
[2] Grandmaster.
[3] Uncle-master.
