Chapter 62: New Year's Eve of the Ximao Year

Seeing Ouyang Feng jumping and shouting on the dock yet lacking the courage to sail after them himself, Li Mochou couldn't help but burst into a chuckle. That smile was like a fresh breeze gently sweeping by, like the clouds parting to reveal the bright moon!

As she turned her head to look at Qiu Zhiqing, her delicate and beautiful face, set against the warm winter sun, was reminiscent of an immortal turning her head to glance back.

Unfortunately, Qiu Zhiqing was utterly devoid of romantic sentiment. He spat out a mouthful of blood and staggered back a few steps, collapsing into the cabin of the boat...

"Hey, you~~" Li Mochou reached out, wanting to support Qiu Zhiqing, but he did not give her the chance. He pulled himself up into a cross-legged sitting posture. The sequelae of forcibly channeling his internal energy earlier to make the small boat pull away had clearly flared up.

Noticing the trace of worry in Li Mochou's eyes, Qiu Zhiqing managed a forced smile and said, "Don't worry, I only sustained some minor injuries and am in no serious condition. Let's not go too far just yet. Judging by the looks of it, this boat doesn't belong to anyone wealthy. We can just wait here in the middle of the river for a little while..."

At this point, he couldn't help coughing twice, and a streak of fresh blood seeped from the corner of his mouth. Seeing this, Li Mochou quickly cut in, "I know, stop talking! If the owner is reasonable, I'll pay them; if not, I'll just drive the boat away directly!"

After catching his breath, Qiu Zhiqing said in a low voice, "Nonsense! Taking things without asking is wrong to begin with, so it is understandable even if their attitude isn't good! As long as they harbor no malicious intent toward us, what harm is there in giving them a bit more silver?"

Fearing that he might worsen his injuries, Li Mochou had no choice but to reluctantly agree. In truth, according to her original intentions, she would have simply sailed away immediately—why wait around for the boat's owner to come asking for money? If anyone dared demand money from her, she would guarantee that they'd be discussing medical fees at the apothecary!

This showed that the current Li Mochou had not yet reached the point of slaughtering the innocent indiscriminately; otherwise, she would have made the person asking for money go discuss prices with a coffin maker!

Before long, Ouyang Feng, who had been jumping and shouting on the dock, turned and hopped away, likely having suffered another episode of his affliction. Successive groups of people began to arrive at the dock one after another, among them the boatman they were waiting for.

The boatman was an honest and kind-hearted peasant. Seeing that a beauty fair as an immortal was willing to spend three strings of cash to buy his humble little boat, although he felt a pang of reluctance in his heart, the thought that three strings of cash would be enough to invite his neighbors to help him build two even better boats quickly made him agree.

Noticing that the newcomer was quite reasonable, Li Mochou took out the five taels of silver Qiu Zhiqing had given her earlier. Judging its weight by eye, she drew Qiu Zhiqing's long sword, cleaved the silver with a single stroke, and tossed the larger piece to him.

She then steered the boat downstream. Estimating their pace, Li Mochou calculated that they would enter the Huai River and reach Zhongli County by the following day.

This time, Qiu Zhiqing and Li Mochou did not dare to linger, choosing instead to sail straight downstream. After all, Qiu Zhiqing's current condition was far too wretched; had he not purchased medicine earlier, it was doubtful he would even have been able to muster the breath to circulate his qi.

Three days later, Qiu Zhiqing and Li Mochou chose a small island in Hongze Lake to temporarily evade Ouyang Feng. However, ever since they caught a distant glimpse of him on the bank three days ago, Ouyang Feng had not reappeared once over the past seventy-two hours.

Therefore, the two decided to temporarily hide out on the island, primarily because Qiu Zhiqing was severely injured, and should Li Mochou encounter Ouyang Feng alone, her only option would be to flee.

Looking at the crude, purely handmade thatched cottage before him, Qiu Zhiqing said apologetically, "I am truly sorry. It is I who have dragged you down; otherwise, you might have made your escape long ago on your own!"

He genuinely believed this. Li Mochou's lightness skill was a notch faster than Ouyang Feng's, and had it not been for the burden of carrying him, she might well have slipped away long ago.

Yet the person involved, Li Mochou, did not see it that way at all. She shook her head slightly and said, "Escape? Where could I escape to? Back to Zhongnan Mountain as I originally planned? These past few days have made me realize that I used to rely solely on my master's formidable martial arts, never expecting that the one we would provoke this time would be Ouyang Feng..."

As she spoke, she tossed a bundle of reeds up to Qiu Zhiqing on the roof before continuing, "Had it not been for you, who knows, returning to the Ancient Tomb might only have brought disaster upon my master. I truly never imagined that the formidable Western Poison, one of the Five Greats, would actually lose his mind. How is it that even in such a state, he remains utterly obsessed with his martial arts manual?"

Hearing this and recalling Ouyang Feng's earlier frantic jumping and shouting on the dock, Qiu Zhiqing couldn't help but laugh dryly. "Hard to say. Everyone has their own persistent attachments, even when they've lost their minds!"

With that, he laid the reeds across the roof. Suddenly, a gust of north wind swept past, lifting up all the freshly laid and yet-to-be-secured reeds. At that very moment, across a span of several centuries, Qiu Zhiqing found himself resonating deeply with Du Fu—his thatched roof being torn apart by the autumn wind! Except, the wind tearing apart his roof was from the north.

Seeing Qiu Zhiqing's awkward plight from below, Li Mochou could not help breaking into a radiant smile, though unfortunately, Qiu Zhiqing missed the chance to appreciate it. Remembering her previous words, a hint of melancholy washed over her, and she murmured, "Perhaps that's true. Everyone has their own persistence."

"What did you say?" Qiu Zhiqing, still up on the roof battling the north wind, thought she had said something but failed to catch it clearly, prompting him to ask.

"It's nothing. I said I'm going to go gather the reeds back up, you just stay up there and don't move!" With that, she picked up Qiu Zhiqing's long sword and went off to retrieve the reeds. What a pitiful long sword; ever since it fell into Qiu Zhiqing's hands, it had hardly ever been used for any proper swordplay...

A few days later, under Qiu Zhiqing's guidance, two thatched cottages were successfully completed. In the middle of construction, Qiu Zhiqing had made a trip out to a nearby county town to purchase some quilts, daily necessities, rice, and flour. Thus, the two settled into a temporary residence on the island, one practicing martial arts and the other recuperating.

Early one morning, after Qiu Zhiqing finished absorbing the morning qi and completed his morning meditation, just as he was about to prepare breakfast, he suddenly heard someone calling out to him from the lakeside. Looking closely, he realized it really was someone: a middle-aged man was punting a boat toward the edge of the island, calling out while carrying some items.

Qiu Zhiqing went out to meet him with a smile and said, "Ah, it's Brother Xu Four. Have you fully recovered?" This man surnamed Xu was ranked fourth in his family. Previously, suffering from rheumatism, he had received a few massages from Qiu Zhiqing along with a prescription for some common herbal medicines.

After drinking the decoction, his ailment had basically never flared up again. Moreover, quite a few villagers from his village had also asked Qiu Zhiqing to treat their illnesses, though he generally did not allow them onto the island, mostly out of fear that Ouyang Feng might be lured over and harm them.

"Taoist Priest, isn't today New Year's Eve? Seeing as everyone chipped in to gather a few things, they asked me to bring them over as a gift for the Priest! For the past half month, we've relied entirely on your miraculous healing hands. Many chronic illnesses in the village have all been cured by you, Priest."

With that, he unloaded the items: some rice, cured fish, and he had even thoughtfully prepared some table salt for them, which was a genuine hard currency!

"There's even white flour and napa cabbage? You really put a lot of thought into this. Please thank the villagers for me, but it's likely you won't need to make this trip anymore starting today!"

Unexpectedly, these words caused Xu Four's expression to change drastically. He hurriedly said, "Did the Priest hear some nonsense? It was all that scoundrel Liu, who insisted on claiming the Priest was some fugitive and even went to the county seat to look at the wanted posters..."

Through his words, Qiu Zhiqing finally understood the situation. It turned out that without his knowledge, he had been suspected of being a wanted criminal. Although he himself knew nothing of it, the villagers still felt somewhat guilty, hence they had taken the opportunity of New Year's Eve to send him gifts in a roundabout way.

Shaking his head with a chuckle, seeing how nervous Xu Four looked, Qiu Zhiqing reassured him, "Brother Xu Four needn't be anxious. It's just that we are about to leave. We only came here to tide over the winter temporarily, and we still have to return..."

With a smile, he sent Brother Xu Four off. In truth, Xu Four was about the same age as him, only looking somewhat older due to weathering. As for being reported to the authorities, he wasn't particularly worried; after half a month of recuperation, his injuries had largely healed.

Because he had been diligently practicing his circulation, his understanding of the *Innate Skill* had actually ascended to a higher level, and his internal energy had also advanced. That certainly counted as good news.

Since today happened to be New Year's Eve and they now had ingredients, he planned to make some dumplings. Inspecting the fish trap he had set the previous night, the harvest was quite good, containing both fish and crabs...

He picked and chose, releasing all the small and immature ones back into the wild. Then, after sensing carefully with his mind for a moment, he used two sticks to fish out three relatively large river clams, returning quite satisfied to prepare breakfast...

After finishing breakfast, Li Mochou went back to study her martial arts manual, while Qiu Zhiqing set about making New Year's Eve dinner!

By dusk, Li Mochou emerged to head into the "great hall" newly built by Qiu Zhiqing some time ago to prepare for the evening meal. Given their limited conditions, they could only manage two meals a day. Seeing that the table was laden not only with roasted fish, stir-fried clam meat, roasted crabs, and dumplings, but also cured fish...

"Why is the meal so lavish today?" she asked as she dished out a bowl of rice for herself and one for Qiu Zhiqing.

Placing the final bowl of soup on the table, he replied, "Brother Xu Four from the neighboring village brought over some ingredients today, and incidentally told me that today is New Year's Eve. Figuring that it's a holiday after all, I thought I'd whip up something nice..."

As he spoke, his voice trailed off. Looking at the beauty before him with tears glistening in her eyes, Qiu Zhiqing remarkably exhibited some rare emotional intelligence for once. Yet comforting people was hardly his forte.

Qiu Zhiqing thought to himself, "I wonder if reciting a few passages of the *Numinous Treasure Scripture of Salvation* would be of any use right now?" Of course, he couldn't possibly say this aloud; he could only think it, otherwise he might very well end up being...

Before Qiu Zhiqing could voice any questions, Li Mochou composed herself, took a deep breath, and said, "It's nothing. I just suddenly thought of how back in the Ancient Tomb, Master never bothered with any of these festivities, yet Granny always managed to find a way to get some nice food for me and Junior Sister whenever a holiday rolled around..."

She had never imagined that the New Year's Eve of this Xinmao year would be spent together with Qiu Zhiqing on this nameless little island in Hongze Lake...