FRIVOLOUS SNOW

41|Everything

Yong Jie looked at Yong Xian who was wearing black robes. Yong Xian never wear robes in entire black color but he intended to wear them for as long as he could or even forever. Almost three weeks have passed when they went back from HuangWu and now, they were getting ready to leave Dashan again.

Yong Yi wished to go too but he has errands in Dashan. He only bid goodbye to his brothers and hoped for their safe trip.

They rode in their horses without talking, only Yong Jie trying to annoy or start a conversation to Yao Xue but Yao Xue only gave him a cold shoulder or just boringly glance at him making Yong Jie shut his mouth as he pouts his lips in boredom.

They occasionally ask the villagers about anything strange going on in their place until they reached the borders of Dashan and Xiāng Liao country. By dusk, they arrived in a city and looked for an inn to stay for the night. Yong Xian went out to look for an apothecary in the city. It wasn't the city he usually buys medicinal stocks, but maybe he could find some of the things he needed to buy.

Yong Jie and Yao Xue were in charge of the inn and Yong Jie insisted to pay for only two rooms saying it would be thrifty to share a room and Yong Xian will be in the other room.

Yao Xue just stayed silent and paid for the rooms with gold coin surprising the innkeeper. It was rare for someone to pay them gold coins but looking at Yao Xue, he indeed looked like a rich young master.

Yong Jie was glad when he saw the tub in their room. He badly wants to take a bath missing the hot spring in the Yong Sect Palace. The inn helper fetched hot water for the bath and Yong Jie happily disrobed without caring for Yao Xue's presence sitting in the living area of the room and wiping Jinghua.

Yao Xue didn't care either nor take a glace to Yong Jie as he leisurely took a bath.

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Zi Xin looked at the talisman planted on the door inside Cheng Xin's room. Zi Xin wasn't good at reading talismans but Chen Xin himself was good. He spends most of his days in his room studying talismans since he couldn't go out to train.

It was a talisman that preventing the door from opening from the other side. Cheng Xin intends to hide his corpse, putting a talisman outside his room to create a facade of the room to turn into a wall. No wonder the burglars couldn't get inside Cheng Xin's room. Zi Xin plucked the yellow talisman and went out of the room occasionally coughing while rubbing his neck. The painful feeling of getting choked to death by a rope was still stinging on his neck. His throat was also dry, he badly needed water to drink.

The house was so quiet, dust everywhere and dried leaves on the floor since the front door was wide open.

He searched for water and was glad to find jars in the kitchen but found it all empty making his heart sank.

He ransacked Cheng Xin's memory and remembered about a lake not far from the manor. He went out of the Manor and never felt so glad to see the glittering body of water. He hastily threw himself to the lake after disrobing everything. The water was cold but it was better than nothing at all. Cheng Xin's body was beyond thin, even Zi Xin was surprised.

After Cheng Xin turned into a lunatic, people start giving him leftovers or over riped fruits to eat as sympathy. Before Cheng Xin hung himself, he hadn't been eating for three days. It was sad thinking back about it.

Zi Xin drank the water not caring if he was bathing in it. After bathing until he was satisfied he went back to the Manor to look for fresh clothes.

Cheng Xin's clothes were all white. Everything was white so he murmured his apologies as he went inside the Manor's Madame's wardrobe hoping for a pink robe and his eyes brightened when Zi Xin saw a yellow robe. In Cheng Xin's memory, he never saw his mother ever wore the robe before so he felt relaxed thinking he wouldn't wear after a dead woman's robes yet he couldn't be choosy.

Zi Xin happily wore it and checked himself in the mirror. The robes looked good and seeing Cheng Xin's face cleaned surprised Zi Xin. The man has delicate pale and sickly skin, his eyes were in a rare color of brown and turn light brown if rays of sunlight touch it. The red marks at his neck left by the rope were so visible making him wince recalling the painful feeling of being hanged making him cough.

Zi Xin grunted as he felt his stomach ached. He was hungry. Zi Xin searched the Madame's room for coins and found nothing so he returned to Cheng Xin's and was surprised to find no coins too. Cheng Xin doesn't need coins, of course, since everything was given to him without him buying it. Zi Xin knew it because he has Cheng Xin's memories but he was still taking chances of finding coins.

Zi Xin scanned the room and saw a gold plated brush pen that the Madame gave to Cheng Xin as a present. He could sell it or exchange it into gold coins. Zi Xin was planning to leave the Manor and go back to Dashan.

Zi Xin already missed his family and the Yong elder brothers too. Thinking about seeing them again inspired Zi Xin to get going. Shan Guo is located south and Zi Xin needed to pass Xiāng Liao country which was in between Shan Guo and Dashan.

Zi Xin picked everything of value and placed it inside a pouch and he also grabbed a handful of black rectangular yellow papers. He could use talismans to protect himself. Zi Xin remembered about the mark on his neck so he took one of Cheng Xin's white robes and tore it making a long strip of cloth to cover his neck, twirling it around.

Zi Xin would do everything to go back to Dashan.

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