After resolving the issue of the Zhuxie Sword, Luo Yu'an spent the Mid-Autumn Festival with his sister and then returned to his old home.
As for Ku Sheng and Luo Yujing, they continued their journey, this time not for the Zhuxie Sword, but for Ku Sheng.
Kusheng often fed Luo Yujing blood, but he himself did not suck blood, maintaining extreme restraint. Even when Luo Yu'an offered to provide some blood, Kusheng refused. Luo Yujing was worried that he would become weak if he continued to do so for a long time, so Kusheng suggested that they could find some places with spiritual energy to practice.
Because there are very few places with spiritual energy left nowadays, most of them are in the depths of remote forests, the heart of snow-capped mountains and the like, so they decided to explore around and find a place with more spiritual energy to live in.
Finally, they chose the deep mountains of Taibai Mountain, where there were basically no human traces and even adventure-loving travelers could not reach it.
Although the place is good, there is no signal. Luo Yujing wants to contact her sister, so she needs to cross mountains and ridges to find a place with signal. Standing on the top of the mountain, holding the phone, looking left and right and up and down for the faint signal.
Luo Yu'an hadn't been able to contact her sister for half a month. When she did get in touch again, the signal was bad and she hung up unexpectedly in the middle of the conversation. When she learned that her sister was going to live in the mountains, Luo Yu'an didn't say anything. She just asked someone to prepare and went to Taibai Mountain that day to install several signal towers in the mountains.
This time, the signal is finally smooth.
"It will be convenient for us to keep in touch this way." Luo Yu'an said, "Since you guys are going to live there, why don't I have someone build a house for you as well?"
"Forget it, sister. We have already built a house ourselves. It is a tree house built on a high branch. We can overlook the forest and sea of clouds below. The view is great. And we will not stay here all the time. We will go out for a walk after a while. We don't need a very exquisite house."
The two chatted for a while, and Luo Yu'an remembered something and asked, "Xiao Jing, haven't you confessed your feelings to Ku Sheng yet?"
Luo Yujing paused: "...I've already said it."
That very night their cabin was completed.
Kusheng was unwilling to drink blood, and only practiced in the moonlight at night. Luo Yujing sat beside him, listening to his instructions and practicing together. The bright moonlight sprinkled on his body, and then gradually became dim, leaving only a few strands of light. Luo Yujing heard Kusheng ask in the sound of the forest wind: "Are you well now?"
"What's good?"
"Now, can you accept a man's admiration for you?"
Luo Yujing didn't expect Kusheng to say this. She thought that Kusheng must have guessed what she had been through. He had seen her at her most miserable, her most painful struggle, her rejection and vigilance towards men, so he didn't dare to disturb her along the way.
"Yes... but I can only accept you." Luo Yujing hesitated for several months before finally blurting out, "I love you."
Ku Sheng had his back to her, and when he heard her speak so bluntly, he suddenly pressed his forehead and lowered his head, moaning.
Luo Yujing rushed forward and pressed down on his back, trying to pry his head up to see what you meant by 'ah ah'! Answer me now!"
After finally lifting his head up and seeing his expression clearly, Luo Yujing let go and as if she was infected by him, she also felt shy.
"Damn it! Why are you so shy!"
"Damn it! I'm not shy!" Kusheng grabbed the mask beside him and put it on his face in vain.
The two sat facing each other for a while, Kusheng reached out and pulled her, Luo Yujing rushed over and hugged him. Kusheng put his hand on her back and pulled her into his arms.
Then he whispered something in her ear.
— "You are like a piece of snow to me."
On a cold winter day, it floated down from the well and landed on him.
When it really snowed in winter, the entire forest of Taibai Mountain was covered in thick snow. Their wooden house on the tree looked like a big snowball from a distance. The cold wind blew and blew into the house through the gaps in the wood.
But the two zombies didn't feel cold, and Luo Yujing even ran to the snow in the forest to play in the snow. There were icicles hanging on the branches and leaves, and there was fluffy and soft white snow underneath. Luo Yujing was digging the snow excitedly, and after a while, he turned his head and found that Kusheng was gone.
She thought he had run away out of boredom, and looked around but couldn't find him. Later, she found him lying on the snow next to her, buried by the snow she dug out. She stepped on the big snow pile, and he was right underneath, not making a sound. When she got angry and yelled "damn it", he dug himself out from underneath.
He really likes the feeling of being submerged and covered by snow... But snow melts into water, just in a different form. Why wouldn't he be happy to soak in it
Luo Yujing suddenly found a brilliant idea: she could rub him with snow!
For the whole winter, Kusheng was chased everywhere by her.
With the arrival of spring, the forest revives. Although there is no snow, all kinds of flowers bloom in the mountains like clouds and mist. You can spend a whole day just by going to the nearby flowers to see them.
Summer, with its scorching sun, is the season that Kusheng dislikes the most. Luo Yujing couldn’t understand it when she was still a human, but only after she became a zombie did she understand how terrible it feels to be scorched by the sun.
Fortunately, there is usually shade in the mountains in summer, and countless trees above their heads block the sunlight for them. The deep mountains of Taibai Mountain are a great place to escape the summer heat.
Unfortunately, a thunderstorm in late summer happened to hit their tree house, and their tree house and the entire tree caught fire. The fire was crackling and even the rain could not put out the fire.
The two men held up large leaves to block the rain and stood under the tree watching the thunder and fire burn.
"I should have installed a lightning rod earlier."
"It's built too high, and it's easy to attract lightning."
"Now that the house is on fire, what shall we do?"
"Just find another place to build it."
"Why don't we come back this winter and rebuild it? It's all burned down anyway. Let's go for a walk outside while the autumn is cool and come back."
"Damn it, you obviously wanted to go visit your sister!"
"Vinegar, vinegar, vinegar... It's the aroma of aged vinegar! Why don't we go to Xishan to see where the aromatic vinegar is produced?"
"… "
They left Taibai Mountain and traveled throughout the autumn. They also went to Tengzhou to find the old man from the Shang family and asked him to maintain the Zhuxie Sword.
Mr. Shang received them with a sour face, and took good care of the sword for the sake of the Evil-Slaying Sword. When he sent them away, he reminded them: "This sword is precious, it needs to be maintained every year. Remember to send it back next year!"
Mr. Shang is the last swordsmith who knows how to maintain swords. His son, Mr. Shang, did not inherit this talent. They can bring the Zhuxie Sword here every year for maintenance, but they don’t know how many more years they can come.
In the old house, Luo Yu'an often received parcels from her sister. At first, she and Kusheng were practicing in Taibai Mountain, and the parcels sent were all mountain products, which were things that Luo Yujing found special or interesting when she was playing in the mountains.
Among them were plants, which Luo Yu'an planted in the courtyard of the shrine. He tasted the edible ones and kept all the inedible ones.
In the undeveloped Taibai Mountains, Luo Yujing lived a free and easy life. Luo Yu'an could feel her ease and happiness just from the photos she sent him.
Later, there were packages sent from other places. They were from Luo Yujing and Kusheng who left Taibai Mountain and traveled around. Whenever they saw local specialties in a place, they would buy some and send them to her.
During festivals, such as Mid-Autumn Festival or Chinese New Year, Ku Sheng and Luo Yujing would come to Yuzhou to celebrate together.
"Xiao Jing, Yuhan District is currently opening an underground ruins exhibition. Would you like to go with me to take a look?" Luo Yu'an asked.
Luo Yujing nodded in agreement. This time, she did not bring Kusheng along, and Luo Yu'an did not bring an assistant either. The two sisters, carrying their bags, mingled among the crowd like two ordinary tourists.
Before Luo Yujing got into trouble, she had told Luo Yu'an that she wanted to visit Yuhan District after the exams were over and before going to college. At that time, she didn't know anything, hadn't been to many places, and hadn't seen many things. Later, she experienced too much and had long forgotten that little wish, but obviously, her sister still remembered it.
"I always felt sorry at that time for not taking leave earlier to come and see you. Now I feel better." Luo Yu'an said with a smile.
Although things and people have changed, fortunately regrets can still be smoothed out.
The two of them followed the crowd on the tour, and then sat leisurely on the chairs provided for tourists to rest nearby, chatting casually.
"Do you still remember your friend named Jiang in high school?" Luo Yu'an asked.
Luo Yujing remembered that it was the friend who liked the star and broke up with her. She hadn't paid attention to her since she came back, and she didn't know why her sister suddenly asked, "What's wrong with her?"
"After the criminal information of those four people was published on the Internet, what Jiang did to you was also known. She fabricated false information and led her fans to attack you... Because of this reversal, she was insulted and later committed suicide because she couldn't bear it."
Luo Yujing said calmly: "Is that so."
Using public opinion to kill others, and eventually being killed by public opinion, doesn't sound like there's anything to be happy about.
"I want to take you to see someone else." Luo Yu'an said.
They came to a school, it was just time to go home from school. Among the groups of students, there was a young girl with a backpack on her back. She was squatting in a stationery store next to the school, choosing stationery.
Luo Yu'an stood across the street, pointed at the girl and said, "She is Mei Li, the daughter of Duan Leyan, one of the four murderers. Her family fell apart when she was four years old, so she changed her surname to Duan and followed her mother's surname, Mei. Her mother died three or four years ago... She is sixteen years old now, and I have been supporting her to go to school."
Luo Yujing understood what her sister meant and said, "It has nothing to do with her, sister. I don't mind you helping her."
The two stood on the street for a while, watching the girl holding the newly bought stationery and quickly disappearing on the street.
"Let's go, we should go back too."
"Um."
The two sisters left together. Mei Li, who was standing at the corner of the street, suddenly noticed something and looked back in confusion, only to see a bustling crowd. She retracted her gaze and continued walking forward. She saw the owner of a flower shop nearby bring out a pot of purple irises. She couldn't help but slow down her pace and take a closer look.
It’s really beautiful, she thought, and for some reason she felt happier.
They walked briskly in different directions.
—The painful days will eventually pass, they are all pursuing their own lives and eventually become the protagonists of their own world.
(End of full text)