Chapter Forty-Four: Farewell, Snot Girl

  After crossing the mountain ditch under my feet, I turned a bend and saw the continuous hills and the lush trees on the hills. Of course, in this snowy day, the luxuriant trees are not visible. The snow all over the mountains covered all the thick trees as big as human waist, and on an open area halfway up the mountain, there stood several wooden houses built with rolled wood. The wooden houses were arranged in a concave shape, with a stone well in the middle. At this time, one of the wooden houses was emitting a faint smoke from its chimney.

  "You've added two more rooms? Not bad, must have cost a lot of money?"

  "My savings, almost all spent on building this house. This is our home, I must take good care of it. Once we've put down the burdens on our shoulders, we can live a peaceful life at home." Mei Jiugu and the female demon walked hand in hand on the snowy mountain slope, as if returning to the carefree days of their childhood, speaking calmly.

  Two people chatted casually, including what they saw and heard on the way, including my story with Deng Cao, and also including that apprentice of Yao Nu who ran to Korea to eat ramen!

  "Master!"

  "Awesome!!"

  Husband!!!!!

  It wasn't until the demoness had called out to me three times that I finally came back to my senses from the endless scenery of mountains and snow all around.

  "Master, you're calling me?" I looked at the angry little bird-like girl standing in front of me with her eyebrows furrowed and asked hurriedly as I ran over to her.

  "Dead little boy, I called you 'disciple's younger brother' and you didn't hear me, I called your name and you pretended not to hear. Hmph, but when I call you 'husband', you suddenly can hear! The demoness coldly smiled and reached out to pinch my ear, scolding me in a playful tone. Meanwhile, Mei Jiugu standing beside us was watching the commotion with great interest."

  "Master, if you twist it again, it will come off! Be gentle, be gentle!" The cold wind was biting, my ears had long since lost all feeling, how could I endure the torture inflicted by this demoness? A good man doesn't take advantage of a situation, so I hurriedly cried out for mercy.

  "Bring it!" The demon girl gave me face and let go of her hand, then stretched out her palm towards me.

  "What!?" I was startled, and weakly asked. Don't think that just because I'm not paying attention to outside matters, you can treat me like a fool. These two women have been talking about money all along the way, aren't they just setting the rhythm for me? The saying "wealth is not revealed" is indeed reasonable. Who let the witch figure out my bottom line? It seems that this blood is inevitable.

  "What did you say? You're such a clever person, can't you guess what's on a woman's mind?" The seductress sneered and directly reached into the poor Taoist's bag to dig around.

  "Here, take it to supplement your family expenses. If it's not enough, just go find him and get it from him directly. These two kids are quite wealthy!" The demon girl rummaged through my bag and pulled out a thick stack of renminbi, didn't even count them before shoving them into Mei Jiugu's hands, speaking as if no one was around.

  "Then your little husband at home won't have any objections, will he?" Mei Jiugu smiled and nodded as she counted the money, adding a sentence to ask.

  "How dare you!" The demoness exuded an overbearing aura, very much like a queen, and glared at me with a sideways glance.

  "This woman is really good at acting, it's as if I had actually fallen for her! Hmph!" I thought to myself.

  "What's with the face? What's wrong? Don't you like it?" The poor Taoist's cultivation was still not deep enough, and he couldn't control his facial expression well, so he was caught off guard by the demon girl.

  "I don't dare, I'm willing! What's mine is yours, and what's yours is still yours!" I didn't know if the demon girl was asking me if I was willing to take out money or if I was willing to be her little husband. Anyway, well, let's just go along with what she said for now. Who made me, a poor Daoist, unable to win against her?"

  "Jingying, we have a guest!" After much difficulty in teasing and deceiving the female demon, they finally arrived at the door of the small wooden house halfway up the mountain. Mei Jiugu stood in the courtyard and loudly called out to someone inside. It seemed that this Jingying was her successor. However, the name Jingying sounded so familiar to me, why did it seem like I had heard it before?

  "Master, you're back!" Along with the sweet and crispy voice, a girl with two small braids, wearing clothes similar to Mei Jiugu's style, walked out of the house.

  "This child can't stay still for a moment, what's he doing at home again?" Mei Jiugu stretched out her hand and wiped away the smudge of black ash on her apprentice's face, asking with doting concern.

  "It's snowing so heavily, Master is still going out. I want to help Master boil some hot water and soak your feet later!" The girl named Jingying said obediently. However, at this moment, my attention was completely focused on the girl's chest.

  Don't get me wrong, I'm not that kind of hungry ghost who can't resist anything. The reason I've been staring at her is because of the chain hanging from her chest. A silver chain, a silver chain carved with the twelve zodiac signs. Looking at this familiar silver chain, my thoughts went back to my childhood!

  "Sparkling, Auntie doesn't have anything good to give you. This necklace was given to me by Mingming's grandmother, and now Auntie is giving it to you!"

  "Jingying, remember to come visit Auntie often from now on!"

  Childhood memories, bit by bit, surged up in my mind. The 17- or 18-year-old girl in front of me seemed to gradually shrink, shrink again, and shrink some more! Until she transformed into that little girl wearing a cotton-padded jacket, with two small braids on her head, and two sparkling streams of snot perpetually hanging from her nose!

  "Huang Jingying, Niutian Yu, how are you here?" I couldn't help but rush forward and grab Huang's hand, asking excitedly. In this situation, my actions had nothing to do with romance, only the cherished memories of our childhood.

  "Ah! Who are you?" Hearing this long-unheard nickname "Nose Mucus Girl", Huo Jingying looked at me with some disbelief.

  "You are the wind, I am the sand. Entwined forever, till the end of the world!"

  Okay, I admit that my mind is a mess right now. In a daze, I seem to have heard the popular background music ringing in my ears again. And the snowflakes around me also seemed to slow down at this moment. Everything was so sentimental and beautiful.

  "I'm Lou Mengmeng, Lou Meow? You don't remember?" I pulled Hou Jingying's hand, only to hastily remind her there. But completely didn't notice that at this time, the demon girl's face was somewhat gloomy and had some abnormalities.

  "Ah~ Neko, it's you! How did you end up here?" Nasal Beauty didn't disappoint me, she finally remembered who I was. Overjoyed, she even let out a sharp cry to express her excited emotions.

  "It's really you! So many years, and not a word from you. I didn't know you lived here. My mom still keeps mentioning you, saying it's been over ten years since we last saw each other, and she doesn't even know if you're doing well!" Childhood friends reuniting always have so much to talk about. That's exactly my situation now - I wish I could tell her everything that's happened since we parted ways."

  I was speaking incessantly like a machine gun, and Nuo gently wiped away the frost on my eyebrows with her hand. She calmly allowed me to hold her hand, listening to my words there!

  "Hmm, shall we go inside and chat? It's too cold outside! Jingying, look what delicious things I've brought for you?" Just as our conversation was getting interesting, the demoness interrupted us, cutting off our words.

  "Ah! Thank you, Master Shu, so many candies!" Only then did Nuo Ti discover that there were several people surrounding her, staring at me and her. Flustered, she quickly withdrew her hand and turned to take the package of colorful candies handed over by the demon girl, smiling shyly as she thanked her.

  "Everyone come inside, it's warm in the house! Jingying, go heat up the kang, this journey has frozen me and your Shu uncle solid." Mei Jiugu shook off the snow on her body, stomped the snow water off her feet, and said to Niesen. Done, she looked at her disciple and the demon girl with a half-smile that wasn't quite a smile.

  As soon as I opened the door and entered the house, a warm current rushed towards me. Before I could find a place to sit down, the down hat wrapped around my head couldn't be worn anymore. After quickly untying the hat and opening up the down jacket on my body, I finally felt a bit more comfortable.

  The furnishings in the house are very simple. Near the window, a kang was built, and on it was placed a small wooden table. At the head of the kang was a five-shelf cabinet, with two thick quilts stacked on top. In the center of the room was an eight-immortals table, plus four long benches. On the eight-immortals table were placed a coarse ceramic teapot and several tea cups, and on the wall were pasted a few watercolor paintings. That's all!

  "How is it? This house isn't worse than those big hotels, right? Look, you're even sweating." The demon girl's meaning I understood, she was saying that the temperature in this house wasn't inferior to those large hotels with central air conditioning. After speaking, the demon girl pulled out a handkerchief from her bosom and gently wiped away the beads of sweat on my forehead.

  But I will correct her that those are just water droplets formed from the snowflakes on her head, not the sweat she said? Obviously, I won't be so stupid! Because I deeply know the consequences of making a demon girl lose face in front of people.

  "It's great, quite warm. In this house, I think just wearing a sweater is enough."

  "It's good to get used to it, and since you've all come from afar, why not stay a few more days? You three younger ones can also take this opportunity to get closer and understand each other better. After all, the Four Symbols are not just one person. There will be many things that require the Four Symbols to work together in the future!" Mei Jiugu said, adjusting her sleeves before turning to me and Dengcao.

  "Shadow, you should also control that disciple of yours! A big girl like her, not staying by Master's side to cultivate every day, but running off to Korea. The Four Symbols are interconnected, if one ring has a problem, the price is the lives of the other three." As she spoke, Mei Jiugu poured a cup of tea for each of us from the teapot on the table, then turned her head and said to the demon girl.

  "I'll go catch that dead girl back. All day long, she only knows how to run to the small internet cafe at the foot of the mountain, 3 yuan an hour, and she can stay there for a whole day! Which month is it not me who goes to wipe her debt for her? This little girl, just mentioning her makes me angry!" The witch had some gnashing of teeth when talking about her own problematic apprentice.

  Actually, I know that the female demon is not angry at her disciple for not practicing well. She's actually heartbroken about the money she pays every month to repay her disciple's debts!