Dreaming for 10,000 years

Chapter 371 Different
He built his own house and lives there. He spends his days planting trees and has a drinking buddy. He doesn't have to worry about the Huashan Sect or anything else.

Those worldly affairs were becoming increasingly distant to him, and life was so simple. Little by little, Linghu Chong suddenly felt a sense of belonging to this small courtyard in the desert.

It was as if this was his home.

Sometimes, however, he would stare blankly at the moon, just as he was right now.

The desert night was exceptionally clear, with the Milky Way stretching across the sky like a ribbon. Linghu Chong sat with his knees drawn up to his chest on the newly built thatched roof, gazing at the moon that was not yet full, the night breeze ruffling his disheveled hair.

"Hey~" Lu Xiaofeng's voice came from below. The chubby boy propped his legs up on the table in the courtyard, crossed his legs, and half-reclined, holding a clay wine pot: "Brother, are you thinking about Junior Sister again? How can you be so clueless at your age? You're still pretending to be sad?"

“My surname is Linghu, not Ling,” Linghu Chong shook his head helplessly. This was the seventh time he had been corrected.

"Understood, brother." Lu Xiaofeng took a swig of wine, his Adam's apple bobbing up and down.

"..." Linghu Chong was quite helpless. Like father, like son. He knew who Lu Xiaofeng was imitating.

He was also quite wary of Shi Fei. In his eyes, Shi Fei was very mysterious, but he was very stubborn about planting trees, as if he really wanted to fill the desert with trees.

“A real man should not worry about not having a wife! Take it easy,” Lu Xiaofeng said to the dull-witted Linghu Chong.

Linghu Chong isn't stupid, but compared to Lu Xiaofeng, he's still a bit dull.

Under the moonlight, Linghu Chong's profile was bathed in a silvery glow. He looked at the chubby eighteen-year-old boy and said softly, "You don't have a junior sister, you wouldn't understand."

"Although I don't have a junior sister," Lu Xiaofeng suddenly sat up straight, twirling the wine pot between his fingers, "I do have a cousin, an older cousin, and also Xiao Hong, Xiao Cui, and A Zhu."

"Who is that?" Linghu Chong's eyes widened.

“Naturally, it’s the girls I’ve liked,” Lu Xiaofeng said seriously, his pockmarked face looking particularly earnest in the moonlight.

"...You don't just fall in love with every girl you meet, do you?" Linghu Chong asked in surprise.

"Don't you fall in love with every girl you meet?" Lu Xiaofeng retorted.

"Are you even human?" they both asked in unison.

The night wind suddenly became noisy. Linghu Chong meant that such promiscuity was contrary to the way of a gentleman, while Lu Xiaofeng thought it was simply unbelievable that someone as grown up as Linghu Chong could be so devoted to one another.

"What's wrong with a man being infatuated?" Linghu Chong said in a low voice, "On the contrary, it's you who falls in love with every woman you see, isn't that wrong?"

Lu Xiaofeng swirled the wine jug, his gaze suddenly drifting into the distance: "Shouldn't we be liking each girl we meet? Every girl has her own unique charm; we can't let her down!"

"Is that what you call liking someone? You're clearly just after their body! That's despicable!" Linghu Chong picked up a piece of wood or a pebble and threw it at him.

Lu Xiaofeng pinched the piece of wood between two fingers and said, "What's wrong with a man being base?"

Linghu Chong fell completely silent.

“I was the same way back then, only caring about what I wanted in my heart, and as a result, I missed the people around me.” Lu Xiaofeng suddenly lowered his voice and murmured to himself, “Only when you lose and miss something do you have regrets.”

"It's like, even though she's explained it very clearly, you still don't understand. You only understand what she's saying after a long time, when you suddenly remember it."

"The face is gone, I know not where; but the peach blossoms still smile in the spring breeze!"

Looking at the chubby boy who was pretending to be sad, Linghu Chong couldn't help but say, "Does anyone still like you looking like that?"

"..." Upon hearing this, Lu Xiaofeng's face flushed red. "Linghu Chong, I'm giving you face by calling you 'Brother Ling.' Otherwise, I'd call you 'Ling Dog Ling'! I'm the lovable Lu Xiaofeng!" "Loved by everyone?" Linghu Chong sized up the round-faced, pockmarked chubby boy in the moonlight, laughing so hard he almost fell over. "Hahaha—"

Lu Xiaofeng is now a chubby little boy with pockmarks all over his face, and has nothing to do with being lovable.

"Damn it! Linghu Chong! I'll show you the power of my Spirit Rhinoceros Finger!" Lu Xiaofeng jumped up in a rage and struck the vital points on Linghu Chong's body.

"I'm not afraid of you!" Linghu Chong grabbed a tree branch and used it as a sword to strike Lu Xiaofeng.

One was recovering from a serious injury and had no internal strength left, while the other was only eighteen years old and had not yet reached maturity. The two moved and shifted under the moonlight, their movements as haphazard as chickens pecking at each other, withered branches and finger shadows intertwining.

After the two of them were exhausted from fighting, Lu Xiaofeng sat down on the ground, panting, and said without any grace, "You dog, do you know how powerful you are now?"

Linghu Chong, panting, said, "I'm not Ling Gou, I'm Ling Bei."

"Damn it!" Lu Xiaofeng roared, and the two started fighting again! Just then, they heard Shi Fei shout, "What's all the noise about? It's so late, why aren't you asleep?"

The two then stopped playing around and obediently went back to their room to sleep.

Lying on his bed, Linghu Chong watched as a sliver of moonlight shone through the roof of the saxaul-covered house, like a silver sword slanted into the earthen wall. Suddenly, he thought of his days on Mount Hua.

The master's stern instructions, the junior sister's silvery laughter, and the junior brothers' shouts while practicing swordsmanship—these memories became clearer in the darkness.

He sat up abruptly, the coarse cloth quilt slipping to the ground. The humiliation of the Golden Saber Wang family of Luoyang, the cold stares of his fellow disciples, the image of his junior sister and Lin Pingzhi holding hands.

These memories are like a persistent, intractable disease; the more you try to forget them, the more vivid they become.

He tossed and turned, sometimes thinking about the days he practiced swordsmanship with his junior sister, sometimes about his junior sister holding hands with Lin Pingzhi, and sometimes about being falsely accused of stealing the skills.

The night breeze rustled softly through the newly pasted window paper. Linghu Chong tiptoed open the door and sat in the courtyard, lost in thought.

Those past events, like waves in his heart, suddenly surged up today. They were also like a knot tied in his heart, the more he struggled, the more he couldn't forget them.

He was unwilling to forget it either.

"Shh—" A hissing sound suddenly came from the side.

Lu Xiaofeng poked his head out of the window: "Still not asleep?"

Seeing that Linghu Chong was about to speak, he looked around furtively, then pointed towards the main room: "Don't speak, come inside."

Upon entering the room, where no lights were on, Lu Xiaofeng poured Linghu Chong a cup of wine by the dim light and said in a thief's tone, "This is something I secretly hid. You're not still thinking about your junior sister, are you?"

He was afraid that if he made too much noise, he would disturb Shi Fei and get yelled at by Shi Fei.

Linghu Chong remained silent, and a silence spread between the two of them.

Lu Xiaofeng sighed and said, "You are clearly a few years older than me, but brother, if I may be so bold, you are still a bit immature."

It's strange, even though Lu Xiaofeng is only eighteen years old and Linghu Chong is already a seasoned veteran of twenty-five or twenty-six, Lu Xiaofeng still says that Linghu Chong is immature.

Because they belong to different worlds.

(End of this chapter)