The Mirror of Startling Beauty: Her courtiers are everywhere

At this moment, Yaoguang City is still fast asleep in the gap between day and night.

A beam of morning light pierced through the lake's surface and fell into the ancient city at the bottom of the lake.

It cascades down from the narrow gap between two old wooden buildings, like a piece of pale gold silk that was accidentally dropped by some celestial being.

Passing through the mist, through the dew hanging from the eaves, through the medicinal fragrance that has never dissipated for thousands of years, it just so happens to envelop Jiu Fangzhi.

He stood right in the center of that dazzling waterfall of light.

She seemed to be glowing, radiating a subtle, unseen warmth.

His junior sister, Tang Xixue, was walking backwards with her hands behind her back, smiling at him.

Those clear eyes held an undisguised intimacy.

Jiu Fangzhi opened his mouth.

The morning light fell on his slightly bobbing Adam's apple.

He had something on his lips.

But when the words reached his lips, they were like wings dampened by the morning mist, heavy and unable to fly out.

He suddenly realized something that made him uneasy.

He didn't know what tone to use when speaking to her.

Using the tone of a senior student?

Those words of advice were already memorized so well that I could recite them backwards with my eyes closed.

But at this moment, none of those high-sounding words are of any use.

Because the way she looked at him wasn't the innocent way a junior sister would look at a senior brother.

And he suddenly realized that he didn't seem to be... the kind of pure affection a senior brother has for a junior sister.

The mask concealed the suddenly tense jawline, but it couldn't hide the fleeting helplessness in his eyes.

That helplessness is extremely rare.

In Jiu Fangzhi's case, it was downright pathetic.

Who is he?

He is the Heavenly Mysterious Emperor, a man who can set up traps and formations without changing his expression when surrounded by heavy troops, and a man who can stand ramrod straight when accepting the responsibility of entrusting his orphan to his master's spirit.

He was never flustered, never lost his composure, and never showed such an expression in front of anyone... as if he had been touched on some corner of his heart that he himself had never explored.

What's hidden in that corner?

He dared not look, dared not think, and dared not even admit that such a corner existed.

"Junior Sister".

He finally spoke.

His voice was calm and steady, carrying the composure characteristic of an elder brother, as if the momentary loss of composure in his eyes had never happened.

"Be careful not to fall if you walk backwards."

This is not a blame.

From the tone to the wording, there was not a hint of blame; it was a habitual admonition.

Just like before in the Valley of Divine Medicine, she stepped on the wet mud by the edge of the medicinal field to reach the Crimson Flame Flower blooming high up, her toes trembling on the slippery mud ridge. He saw her from afar on the ridge, walked over quickly, and said the same thing.

She was only twelve years old then, thin and frail like a bamboo willow, and he was afraid she would be blown away if the wind was strong.

She heard his voice, turned around and smiled at him, but slipped and almost fell into the mud. He caught her by the waist in time.

At that time, she was as light as a falling flower.

He could lift her up with one hand.

His heart didn't race at that time.

He simply frowned and placed her on the dry stone path, then knelt down to wipe the mud off her shoes, saying to her as he did so:

"The medicinal herb field is muddy and wet. What if you slip and fall? If you want that flower, let your senior brother pick it."

At that time, he spoke the words "senior brother" frankly and confidently.

"Ha ha."

Tang Xixue laughed out loud.

The laughter was clear and crisp, leaping lightly from the throat like a glass bell jingling in the morning breeze, shattering the silence that had lingered on the long street all night.

Even a gray cat perched on the eaves of a street corner was startled, pricked up its ears and glanced this way, then lazily closed its eyes again.

When she smiles, her eyes curve into two crescent moons, with the corners of her eyes slightly upturned, giving her a touch of girlish charm and vivacity.

"Oh my, the young couple is so sweet."

Several women who were selecting spiritual fruits on the stone steps by the roadside turned their heads to look.

They were the original inhabitants of Yaoguang City, dressed simply but cleanly, and wearing delicate bracelets woven from withered vines and spirit flowers on their wrists.

The woman at the head of the group saw the young man in black standing frozen in place.

He was like a pine tree suddenly frozen by the mountain wind, every muscle from his shoulders and back to his waist taut.

Those hands hanging at her sides seemed to be unsure where to go.

What was most eye-catching were the tips of his ears, which peeked out from the edge of the silver mask, as red as if they had been burned by the morning light.

The women exchanged smiles.

"Look, that young man is even shy."

The smile held a hint of knowing wisdom from someone who had been there, as well as a touch of their own distant memories that had been stirred up.

Who hasn't had a time like that?

You think you've hidden your thoughts perfectly, but others can see right through you.

It's so sweet, it's like the whole spring day has been crushed and mixed into your eyes.

"Isn't that right? Just looking at it makes me happy."

Another woman chimed in, her movements slowing as she picked out the spirit fruits, preoccupied with watching the two figures standing side by side.

"My husband was like that back then too. His ears would turn red before he even spoke, like he was a fool."

"That's how newlyweds are."

Her eyes and brows couldn't hide her joy, and every move she made carried an intimacy that no one else could intrude upon.

"Okay, my... senior brother."

Tang Xixue pronounced those two words lightly and softly, as if she were holding a piece of maltose on the tip of her tongue.

He deliberately lingered between his teeth for a moment, gently licking the tooth with the tip of his tongue before slowly releasing it.

She still called him "senior brother".

Two words: clean and tidy, exactly the same as ten years ago.

But the tone is different, the upward arc at the end of the note is different, and the look in the eyes is different.

Ten years ago, she called him "senior brother," like a fledgling bird recognizing its nest.

Now she calls him "senior brother," what does that mean?

She didn't say anything, and he didn't ask.

Tang Xixue turned around, her green skirt drawing a light semicircle in the air, like a lotus blooming.

She walked alongside him again.

Take three steps.

Five steps.

By the seventh step, her sleeve had inadvertently brushed against the back of his hand.

The touch was so light, it brushed across the skin in an instant, and disappeared before the temperature could even be clearly transmitted.

It was so light that it could be explained away as an "unintentional act."

But Jiu Fang knew that it wasn't unintentional.

Because he saw her fingertips curl slightly when she withdrew her hand.

That was an unconscious action born of guilt after doing something wrong.

The gesture was exactly the same as ten years ago when she secretly added two extra spoonfuls of honey to his teapot and then hid her hands behind her back.

He neither looked down to look nor said anything.

But that hand quietly shrank half an inch into the dark sleeve, as if trying to hide some shameful evidence.

But the sensation still lingered on the back of my hand.

It's warm.

It's soft.

Like downy feathers that have been warmed by the afternoon sun in spring for a whole hour, wrapped in just the right body temperature, they gently and comfortably cover the skin.

Itchy, spreading from that one point in all directions, climbing up the wrist along the meridians, around the forearm, and tingling all the way to the fingertips.

Lingering.

He quietly curled his fingers, trying to dispel the feeling.

But the moment my fingertips touched my palm, I remembered that warmth and softness even more clearly.

He tilted his head slightly and glanced at her profile out of the corner of his eye.

"Junior Sister..."

She was looking ahead nonchalantly, the tip of her nose tinged with a pale golden fuzz in the morning light, and the corners of her mouth still held that unique curve that came from trying hard to suppress a smile.

He slowed his pace.

It was placed very discreetly, as if it had always been moving at this slow pace.

It just so happened that it made it easier for her to keep up, so that she didn't have to be slightly out of breath trying to keep up with him, and shortened the distance between them from an arm's length to half an arm's length.

What she didn't know was that he was awake when she fell asleep in his arms last night.

All night long, from beginning to end, he counted every single breath he took.

Her body was as cold as a piece of jade soaked in the night dew, and he could only transfer his body heat to her little by little.

She nestled in his arms, her breathing even and deep.

The small hand resting on his waist gripped the corner of his dark outer robe tightly, as if even in her dreams she was afraid he would leave.

He should have let go.

There is a difference between men and women; the junior sister is superior.

It is the most natural thing in the world for a senior brother to take care of a junior sister.

But Jiu Fangzhi knew in his heart that there were plenty of senior brothers in the world who would take care of their junior sister, but none of them would take care of her in bed.

No one would stay awake all night, staring at their junior sister's face after she fell asleep.

Although Jiu Fangzhi was not exactly a gentleman, he had never harbored the slightest disrespect towards his junior sister.

She was his junior sister, entrusted to him by his master. She was a disciple of the Divine Medicine Valley and a little girl he had watched grow up.

Over the years, he has kept to his proper place, acting with propriety and drawing clear lines.

But last night, that line became blurred.

It wasn't her who was blurry, it was him.

He told himself that it was because the fog was too thick and the night was too cold that he couldn't let go of her hand, otherwise what if his junior sister got cold?

How do we obtain the spiritual essence tomorrow?

How do we find our way out?

He told himself it was because the ancient city was strange in every way.

He had to stay by her side every step of the way; this was his duty as her senior brother, and it was the vow he made before his master's spirit tablet before his death.

He used these high-sounding excuses to deceive himself.

He felt perfectly justified and self-righteous in deceiving her; he even tightened his arms slightly in the darkness to make her more comfortable leaning against him.

But when she snuggled closer to him in her sleep and pressed her face against his chest, his heart skipped a beat.

That's not just a little bit of chaos.

It is completely disordered.

It pounded heavily against his chest, one blow after another, like a caged beast that had gone mad and was trying to break free.

That cannot be explained by any excuse.

That was something he knew from the ninth day.

I want to hold her.

I want to protect her.

He wanted her to always sleep peacefully and without any worries next to him, within easy reach of him.

It doesn't matter if the world ends or the night goes on forever.

He was ten years older than her.

A full ten years have passed.

While she was recuperating in the Divine Medicine Valley, he was already able to refine a batch of Rejuvenation Pills of excellent quality on his own.

Standing in the misty medicinal atmosphere of the alchemy room, I used long chopsticks to pick out the round and plump pills from the alchemy furnace and stacked them one by one into the jade box.

The Master passed by the door, glanced at it, and nodded approvingly.

And what about her?

She was just a frail, delicate young girl, leaning thinly against a soft couch under the eaves, her knees covered with a thick blanket. She would fall seriously ill from time to time, her breath barely a whisper.

Her small face was so white it was almost transparent, and even her lips were a pale pink, like the faded petals of a begonia after being soaked in rain.

He saw her from afar and thought to himself, "This junior sister is probably not going to live a long life."

This thought lingered in his mind for a long time.

He was afraid every time she got sick.

Fearing that their master might send a telepathic message saying that their junior sister had caught a fever again, or that she had secretly gone to sit on the cliff edge behind the mountain again.

He feared she would be like the thin snow of spring, melting away silently as soon as the sun came out, leaving no trace.

In the blink of an eye, she has grown into a doctor who can stand on her own.

Standing before him, her smiling eyes held something that made him uneasy.

He knew her stubbornness better than anyone else.

I feel sorry for her hardships.

Others only see her now as a doctor with superb medical skills and miraculous healing abilities, but only he knows how difficult it was for her to survive.