A Guide to Self-Rescue in the Cultivation World - Chapter 31

After that seemingly jocular conversation with her Master, Zhou Suyao felt much calmer. She walked slowly through the mountains and, before she knew it, found herself on Eldest Senior Brother’s peak, within the blazing bloom of the peach blossom forest.

It was past late spring, and the peach blossoms were past their peak, but ever since Eldest Senior Brother recovered, these flowers continued to bloom brilliantly under his cultivation.

Clumps of tender pink blanketed the hillside. A clear breeze swept through, scattering the petals like snow.

It was like a snowfall of rosy-red petals.

And in the midst of this “snow scene” was a slender figure.

He stood beneath an ancient peach tree.

Zhou Suyao recognized him instantly: it was her Eldest Senior Brother, Zhou Shan Yuan.

He wasn’t practicing his sword or meditating. He had his wide sleeves rolled up, revealing his overly pale wrists.

Looking closer, she could see he was holding a small white jade pestle, slightly bent over, meticulously grinding peach blossom petals in a stone mortar into a fine powder.

His movements were graceful and smooth. Had Zhou Suyao not seen what he was doing, she, like any observer, would have mistakenly thought he was practicing some supreme cultivation technique.

Sunlight filtered through the interlaced branches, casting dappled shadows on him. His already stunning profile appeared even more profound in the interplay of light and dark. His long eyelashes were lowered, completely concealing any emotion in his eyes, as if his entire being was detached from worldly affairs, merging with the surrounding peach forest to become a picture of tranquility.

Zhou Suyao’s steps involuntarily came to a halt.

His appearance now, the way his arms trembled when he held her in the Imperial City, the descriptions of him from Third Senior Brother… all the images and sounds surged into her mind at once. A sudden, inexplicable courage—or rather, a powerful, unstoppable urge—gripped her. She desperately wanted to ask him clearly:

Eldest Senior Brother, who exactly are you?

Should I… should I trust you?

What kind of secret is hidden beneath the layers of mist surrounding you?

Zhou Suyao took a deep breath and, stepping on the soft, fallen petals, walked slowly towards him.

The closer she got, the more she could smell the clear peach blossom fragrance on him, and the clearer she could see his profile, focused to the point of being almost devout as he ground the petals.

Even when loose petals drifted onto his face with the breeze, he made no excessive movements.

He simply remained still, utterly still.

Zhou Suyao didn’t know why her heartbeat involuntarily quickened or why fine sweat was pooling in her palms.

Finally, she stopped a few steps behind him. She opened her mouth, but found her throat dry and tight.

The questions that had revolved in her heart countless times were now impossible to utter.

How should she ask?

Should she directly ask, “Eldest Senior Brother, are you a good person or a bad person?”

Or ask, “What are you and Master hiding from me?”

Or perhaps, “What is the purpose behind your kindness to me?”

Any of these questions felt so abrupt, offensive, and even utterly foolish in the presence of his peaceful, flower-grinding scene.

She was momentarily trapped, her cheeks flushing, almost wanting to turn and run away.

But in that exact moment.

Zhou Shan Yuan stopped his work.

He didn’t turn around, as if he had known of her arrival all along. He simply shifted slightly, using the finger lightly dusted with pollen to pick up a small, exquisitely shaped peach blossom pastry from a delicate food box nearby.

Then he turned and faced her directly.

He smiled faintly. His eyes seemed devoid of coldness or distance, instead carrying an ineffable gentleness and focus, like melting snow in early spring.

Zhou Suyao felt a wave of clear peach blossom scent wash over her. For a moment, she couldn’t tell if the fragrance originated from the vast peach forest.

Or from the Eldest Senior Brother standing before her.

Before Zhou Suyao could react at all, a wave of sweetness and softness touched her lips.

The hand offering the pastry was cool at the fingertips, carrying the fresh scent of peach blossoms, and even, subtly, brushing her lower lip.

Zhou Suyao instantly tensed up, her mind blank. She could only stare blankly at his close, almost divine face.

He then leaned in slightly, his voice deep and pleasant, like the clear clash of jade pendants.

“I thought, since it was the first time I made it, it might not taste good, so I planned to let Master taste-test the poison first.”

“But since you’ve arrived, you try it.”

He looked into her suddenly wide eyes, which were filled with astonishment and helplessness. There was a hard-to-miss nuance in his tone, as if he was carefully begging for closeness.

“Is it too sweet? Not to your liking?”

The cool touch and fragrance on her lips felt like a tiny electric current, momentarily short-circuiting Zhou Suyao’s brain. She almost instinctively parted her lips, allowing Eldest Senior Brother to place the pastry between her teeth.

As her teeth closed on the pastry, an incredibly rich sweetness, almost dominating, instantly seized her taste buds.

It wasn’t just sweet; it was cloyingly sweet, a sweetness that tightened her throat.

Even the tip of her tongue felt a little sour.

She frowned slightly, choked by the sweetness, and instinctively wanted to cough. But when she looked into Zhou Shan Yuan’s eyes, she forcibly held it back.

Zhou Shan Yuan’s head was slightly lowered. He was so close that she could almost see the shadow cast by his eyelashes on his eyelid.

His heart fluttered slightly.

He pursed his lips, his concentration briefly breaking.

Hold your breath… focus your mind…

But she probably liked this kind of sweetness.

Zhou Suyao stared into his eyes. They were so focused; it seemed that in this moment, all he cared about was her assessment of this one bite of peach blossom pastry.

It was as if this undeniably intimate act was, in his eyes, just a perfectly natural thing to do.

In that instant, all her prepared questions, all her doubts, and all her unspeakable emotions were completely blocked by that focused, pure gaze.

She couldn’t ask a single question.

She couldn’t speak a single word.

What could she say? That the peach blossom cake too sweet?

Or:

Whose Senior Brother are you, really?

The atmosphere froze. In the surrounding air, only the sound of peach petals rustling in the wind and the strained silence between the two remained.

Time seemed to stretch.

They remained like that, one looking slightly up, the other looking down, in this almost cliché romantic scene, neither one breaking eye contact first.

And neither one spoke first.

Zhou Suyao could even hear her own heart pounding like a drum.

Each beat struck her eardrums.

And shattered the suffocating tranquility.

Just as she felt she was about to be drowned by the silence, to the point of suffocation—

“Eldest Senior Brother! I brought the fermented rice you wanted! Can this stuff really be used to brew peach blossom wine…?”

A loud voice, laced with impatience, instantly tore through the peace of the peach forest.

And the voice immediately cut off.

Following it, another, startled voice let out a hushed cry: “Second Senior Brother! Don’t make noise!”

Zhou Suyao was jolted back to reality by the two voices. Like she had been scalded, she instantly took a step back, widening the distance between herself and Zhou Shan Yuan. Her cheeks, belatedly, began to burn.

She turned around in a panic, looking towards the source of the sound.

At the entrance to the peach forest, Second Senior Brother, Qu Mingwu, was carrying a medium-sized wine jar, rigid in shock. His eyes held an unmistakable look of disbelief.

Beside him, Third Senior Brother was desperately gripping his other arm, his entire face flushed red, looking as if he wanted to say something but didn’t know how, so he just grimaced and tried to pull Second Senior Brother away.

Four people, eight eyes, met in an awkward stare in the peach forest.

The air died for a moment.

The next second, Zhou Zonglan seemed to finally regain his senses. He gave the still-dazed Qu Mingwu a hard yank and stammered frantically: “S-sorry! Eldest Senior Brother! Little Junior Sister! We didn’t see anything! We’re leaving now! Right away!”

With that, he pulled with all his might, dragging the still-confused Qu Mingwu—who hadn’t fully grasped the situation—and turned to run.

Qu Mingwu stumbled, the wine jar on his shoulder nearly slipping. He instinctively protected the jar, and as he was being dragged away by Third Senior Brother, he turned back to look at the two of them, his expression contorted with his conflicted feelings.

But in the end, he said nothing. Shaking off Zhou Zonglan’s hand, he sighed helplessly: “Fine, I’ll walk myself.”

The two gradually disappeared, though the way they were huddled together, whispering and muttering, suggested they were still exchanging slanderous commentary. Zhou Suyao watched them go. She didn’t even dare to touch her own face, certain that it was now crimson.

Their figures quickly vanished beyond the peach forest, leaving only the sound of their hurried footsteps and a few startled petals.

In the forest, only Zhou Suyao and Zhou Shan Yuan remained.

However, the previous strained and intimate atmosphere had been completely shattered by the sudden intrusion and escape.

Zhou Suyao felt the heat on her face was almost smoking. She didn’t dare look at Zhou Shan Yuan, instead staring down at the petals clinging to the tips of her shoes.

In truth, her heart was still hammering, and her mind was a jumbled mess.

She didn’t even want to think about what Second and Third Senior Brothers might be imagining about the scene they had just witnessed.

Compared to her flustered state, Zhou Shan Yuan appeared much calmer.

He merely glanced lightly in the direction the two had disappeared, his face utterly unperturbed, as if the small commotion had never occurred.

Then, as if nothing had happened, he spoke softly again, his tone placid:

“So, was it too sweet?”

“No…”

Zhou Suyao opened her mouth. Faced with Eldest Senior Brother’s gentle, calm inquiry, she became somewhat incoherent, explaining in a panic: “No… that’s not what I meant. The pastry tastes great, it’s just… It’s just that I… I might prefer lighter flavors… But it really is delicious! Truly!”

The more she spoke, the more confused she became. She wished she could regurgitate the pastry or, like in the movie Let the Bullets Fly, cut open her stomach to restore the pastry’s original form to prove she “really liked it.”

The more she explained, the more flustered she got. Not knowing what to say or whether Eldest Senior Brother thought she was being insincere, she finally lowered her eyes, unable to meet his gaze any longer.

Only her lower lip, where his fingertip had brushed, seemed to be faintly and persistently burning.

Seeing her eager, helpless attempts to justify herself, Zhou Shan Yuan couldn’t help but let out a soft chuckle. The corner of his mouth seemed to curve upward ever so slightly.

The curve was faint and fleeting, almost an illusion caused by the sunlight filtering through the peach branches. But to Zhou Suyao, it felt as though the ice and snow around her had melted a little.

“It’s alright,” his voice remained low and gentle. “You don’t need to be so nervous.”

He paused, his gaze passing over her flushed ear tips. He felt his own face subtly warming. He said slowly, “If you don’t like it this sweet, I will make one more to your liking later.”

He said this with perfect naturalness, as if pondering and adjusting the sweetness of the peach blossom pastry for her was a matter of course, something he was naturally supposed to do. He then subtly raised a hand, gesturing: “The ones earlier were just a trial batch. If you don’t like it, I won’t make this next one so sweet.”

“Besides,” his topic shifted seamlessly, “Master must have already told you that the Disciple Assessment is imminent. I can’t offer much help with that, so let me at least make you something you enjoy, to show my genuine concern.”

Zhou Suyao was startled and slowly nodded. She didn’t know how to respond to such a statement, so she simply offered: “Master warned me  to keep a low profile.”

“Mm,” Zhou Shan Yuan said. “Since you’ve taken the hint, you should focus even more on conserving your energy.”

“Your injuries are newly healed, and your spiritual power is not fully restored. Take these days to recuperate well. Don’t rush around.”

“Go back,” he finally said, his tone carrying an unquestionable authority. “It’s getting late. The cold dew is heavy in the mountains. Go back early, lest the chill enter your body and harm you.”

With that, he turned back, picked up the white jade pestle, and once again, the surroundings seemed detached from him.

Zhou Suyao stood rooted to the spot, watching his focused profile. The cloying sweetness on her tongue hadn’t completely faded, and mixed with the peach blossom scent on him, it made her heart flutter.

She still had so many things to say, so many things to ask.

But in the end, she simply said softly to his back, “Yes.”

“Eldest Senior Brother, I’ll head back now.”

Zhou Shan Yuan didn’t turn around, simply giving a slight nod.

Zhou Suyao turned, walking step by step out of the peach blossom forest. The setting sun stretched her shadow long, casting it into the fallen petals.

And she didn’t know that the gaze behind her followed her the moment she turned.

Quietly, until she reached the end of the peach forest path.