Under One Person: The Taoist Priest Descends the Mountain

wow-

The minibus door opened, and Xia He boarded first, followed closely by Cheng Mo. Only the last three seats remained on the bus, mostly occupied by villagers carrying large and small bags. Most of them were asleep, glancing at each other as the bus stopped before falling back asleep.

The two walked straight there. Xia He sat by the window, curiously peeking out the window, and Cheng Mo sat down next to her.

The car restarted and swayed as it drove onto the bumpy country road, the rolling mountains outside the window beginning to recede slowly.

"Hey, little Taoist priest," Xia He suddenly turned her head, "how did you know there was a car here?"

Cheng Mo was resting with his eyes closed, and didn't even lift his eyelids when he heard this: "Don't you do any research before you go out?"

Xia He was taken aback: "What strategy?"

"Route planning, transportation methods, you know?" Cheng Mo opened his eyes, looking at him with a hopeless expression. "You really think I took that mountain path to avoid crowds?"

Xia He: "Isn't that right?"

She blinked, her long pink eyelashes fluttering, her eyes clear yet tinged with foolishness.

Cheng Mo patiently explained, "To get from Qinchuan County to Guizhou by bus, you have to transfer four times and take a long detour. We'll go through the mountain road we took before and wait for this bus."

He stamped his foot: "Once we get to the city, we can take a train or a long-distance bus to Qianyang in one trip. It saves time, effort, and money."

Xia He's expression shifted from blankness to realization, then to disbelief: "So... you've been lying to me the whole way?"

Her eyes widened, and her cheeks puffed out slightly, like a squirrel whose pine cone had been stolen.

Cheng Mo's lips curled up: "Hehehe~"

"You deliberately watched me go hiking like an idiot!" she said angrily, slapping Cheng Mo's arm hard.

Snapped!

The sound was crisp and clear.

The next second—

"Hiss—" Xia He gasped, pulling her hand back, her eyes instantly welling up with tears. "How come your arm is so hard?!"

She rubbed her reddened palms vigorously, wincing in pain.

Cheng Mo raised an eyebrow and asked slowly, "When you bang your head against a wall, do you curse that the wall is too hard?"

Xia He: "..."

She stared at Cheng Mo's calm face for three seconds, and suddenly, without being taught, she pinched the soft flesh on Cheng Mo's side with her thumb and forefinger and twisted it forcefully!

"Hiss!" Cheng Mo gasped, "You're ruthless."

Xia He smiled smugly, increasing the pressure on her hand instead of decreasing it, twisting it in the opposite direction once more before letting go and clapping her hands: "Hmph, serves you right for playing me."

Cheng Mo rubbed his side and shook his head helplessly.

As the two were arguing, a baby's cry suddenly came from the front row.

"Wow—wow—"

The loud crying startled many passengers, who frowned and looked in the direction of the sound.

A young couple sat in the aisle section of the carriage.

The wife was gently soothing a swaddled baby in her arms, while the husband bowed apologetically to those around him, saying, "I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry, the baby is hungry..."

Most of the passengers simply shook their heads and looked away to continue dozing off.

When you're out and about, it's always good to be considerate of others. Everyone has kids, right? Who knows, next time you'll be the one bringing your own child.

The young mother whispered to her husband, "Do you have any formula left? Could you mix some?"

The young father hurriedly rummaged through his bag for baby bottles and formula cans, frantically trying to retrieve them.

The child was still crying, and the sound was particularly jarring in the enclosed carriage.

"Holy shit!"

A curse erupted from the front row.

A burly man with a round face and a thick beard suddenly turned around, glaring at the young couple with bloodshot eyes: "Your child keeps crying, don't you know how to comfort him?!"

At this point, a round face and a full beard were not synonymous with zero; this face would only make people think of a fierce person.

The young father was taken aback by the shout, then explained gently, "I'm sorry, sir, we can't control a child's crying..."

"If you can't control it, then don't have the baby!" the burly man shouted even louder. "And if you do have it, don't bring it out! Don't you know how to walk? You've kept everyone on the bus awake, don't you know that?!"

The young father's face flushed red, and he was getting a little angry: "No, why are you arguing with a child? Weren't you a child? Didn't you cry and make a fuss when you were little?"

"What did I do wrong when I was a kid?" The burly man slammed his hand on the armrest of the chair. "Did my crying bother you when I was a kid?!"

The young father was speechless, choked by his unreasonable words, and stammered "this...this..." for a long time.

Seeing her husband at a disadvantage, and worried that continuing the argument would anger more passengers, the young mother had no choice but to suppress her displeasure and gently chime in, "Sir, he doesn't usually cry like this. He's just hungry. I'll feed him right away. I'm so sorry..."

The burly man sneered, his tone sarcastic: "I've traveled all over the country for so many years, and I've never seen parents who don't even know when their children are hungry. You two are really something."

That's really an unpleasant thing to say.

An elderly woman with gray hair on the bus couldn't stand it anymore. She turned around, holding onto the back of her seat, and said, "You young people can't say that. First-time parents are bound to make mistakes."

She turned back to the young father, her tone reproachful: "You young man, hurry up and make some formula for the baby, you've woken up everyone on the bus."

The young father was holding his crying child in one arm and trying to unscrew the formula can with the other. He was busy with both ends and in a flurry of activity when the can cap fell to the ground with a "clatter" and rolled into the aisle.

"My wife has very little breast milk, and the baby doesn't like formula..." he explained sheepishly as he bent down to pick up a bottle cap, "I'm so sorry..."

Xia He leaned against the back of the seat, watching with great interest.

She nudged Cheng Mo's arm and whispered, "Why are some people so unreasonable?"

She paused, then her eyes crinkled into a smile: "Besides, children are so cute. They only cry when they're uncomfortable. Who hasn't been a child before, and who hasn't disturbed others? Don't you think so, little Taoist priest?"

Cheng Mo smiled gently: "Kids are indeed adorable."

The young mother, seemingly unable to bear the stares from those around her and the child's incessant crying, whispered to her husband, "Look, the child's constant crying isn't working; it's really disturbing everyone... How about we get off up ahead?"

The young father looked around, then at his child, somewhat reluctantly, but eventually gathered up the bags scattered on the seat.

The young mother raised her voice and called towards the driver's seat, "Driver, could you please stop the car up ahead? We're getting out!"

The driver glanced in the rearview mirror, said nothing, and simply slowed down slightly.

Xia He nudged Cheng Mo with her elbow: "They even forced the guy out of the car... Tell me, wasn't that guy pretty amazing?"

Cheng Mo nodded, his gaze remaining calmly fixed ahead: "Indeed impressive."

As he spoke, he took out the envelope given to him by the master from his pocket, pulled out two red bills and put them into his inner pocket, and then, quite slowly... began to fold the empty envelope.

Xia He asked curiously, "What are you doing?"

Cheng Mo deftly flipped through the paper envelope with his fingertips, and it quickly took on a sharp triangular shape in his hand.

"I'll fold something nice," he replied casually without looking up, "and give it to you later."

"Give it to me?" Xia He's eyes lit up, and she leaned closer to see what he was folding.

The car came to a complete stop, and the door opened with a "whoosh".

The young mother held her still-soothing child, while the young father, carrying large bags and bundles, prepared to get off the bus with a grim expression.

Just then, the round-faced, bearded, burly man in the front row suddenly opened his eyes, stretched out his large hand, and blocked the aisle, obstructing the couple's path.

"Wait a minute! You think you can just leave after waking me up? Not so easy!"

The young father's temper flared: "What else do you want? We've already gotten off the bus!"

"How about it?" the burly man sneered, shoving the young father's shoulder. "Pay up!"

"Pay up?" The young father was practically laughing in anger. "What do we need to pay you? Get out of the way!"

The other passengers on the bus were also drawn to this unexpected turn of events, and they all looked over and whispered among themselves.

The burly man spoke with righteous indignation, spitting almost onto the other man's face: "Compensation for emotional distress, do you understand? Do you know how much my sleep is worth? You ruined my big business deal later, can you afford to compensate me?!"

He had a loud voice and an unyielding attitude.