Chapter 76

Zixiu and his father trekked back to Yu’s Village under Mount Windward in September, the season of sweet-scented osmanthus. Though it was surrounded by mountains on three sides and was relatively remote, Yu’s Village wasn’t far from Luanzhou. If people rode fast on the state road, they could get there in a day. The two of them had no horses and dared not take the state road, so they could only detour on foot. Besides, on their way back, they had to stay in the ruined temples and caves in the mountains for a few days from time to time because of the poor health of Zixiu, who always broke out in rashes, ran a fever, and had heatstroke. Moreover, as Zixiu was ‘pregnant’, to keep him from being overtired, Liu Wuyi had to let him rest for some time every distance. Therefore, it took them nearly two months to come back!

As Zixiu had once told Nangong Du about the Cirrus Valley in Mount Windward, to prevent that pervert’s men from finding them, Liu Wuyi and Zixiu didn’t choose to go home from the nearby town. They hadn’t intended to stay in Yu’s Village, but as it would take another day to get to the Cirrus Valley and it was getting dark outside, they had to spend the night here. Moreover, they had no food at home, so even if they went back, they had to dig wild vegetables, pick mushrooms, and hunt wild rabbits here and there in the mountains. The two of them had been eating these for two months in a row and they looked pale from malnutrition.

When they were resting behind a haystack outside the village, they ran into an old hunter, Yu Laosan, who had just returned from shopping in town. Years ago, Yu Laosan fell into a hole and broke his leg while hunting. Fortunately, Liu Wuyi happened to see him on his way to town to sell medicinal herbs and carried him off the mountain. Since then, the two families began to associate. The moment he saw the one who had saved his life, Yu Laosan was so excited that he immediately invited Liu Wuyi and his son to visit his family. Liu Wuyi didn’t turn him down and before night fell, they came to Yu’s house.

It wasn’t until they got into the house that Zixiu knew Yu Laosan was the grandpa of the Yu Xiaohu who was about his age his father had told him about. A few days ago when the baby was a month old, Yu Laosan had been complaining about the absence of Liu Wuyi and his son from the celebration.

From his features and profile, Zixiu could tell his father didn’t lie to him, and this Yu Xiaohu was really about his age. It was incredible that a baby-faced teenager was already a dad! What shocked him even more was the girl sitting opposite, who looked no older than 14, turned out to be Yu Xiaohu’s wife! When Zixiu saw the reddish, wrinkled face of the baby in the girl’s arms, he couldn’t help but feel creepy. Lowering his head, he started digging the noodles in his bowl!

“Take your time. There are still noodles in the wok!” Yu Laosan laughed and the wrinkles on his face became even more obvious. He liked kids who ate like a horse. “Shiliu, refill the bowl for your Brother Liu!” he told his grandson’s wife.

“Wait a minute!” Yu Xiaohu’s wife answered without hesitation. After coaxing the baby for a short moment, he gave it to her husband and walked into the kitchen.

It reminded Zixiu of what he himself would look like holding a baby in his arms. Widening his eyes, he put down his bowl and thumped his chest a few times before he finally swallowed the noodles stuck in his throat. ‘Gosh! What have I been thinking!’

After dinner, it was completely dark outside. Holding the oil lamp, Yu Xiaohu led the guests to the wing he had cleaned up. After a while, he knocked on the door again with two sets of clean clothes in his hands, saying that the hot water was ready for Liu Wuyi and Zixiu to bathe.

Zixiu almost sprang up with joy. As he hadn’t bathed in two months, he already stank! It was unbelievable that the Yu family could even stand the terrible smell and eat with them! He immediately took off the robe which was no longer distinguishable in colour and rushed out with the clean clothes in his hand. However, the next second, he was grabbed by his father from behind and pulled back to the room.

“Why are you in such a hurry? Let’s not bath until we get home!” Liu Wuyi reprimanded with a serious look. As his son smelled of ‘the Swirling Clouds’, he didn’t want him to take a bath here.

Zixiu wasn’t sensitive to his own body odour, and he knew nothing about ‘the Swirling Clouds’. Now he felt itchy all over, so he couldn’t help but wonder why his father didn’t let him bathe. “Dad, your son stinks!”

“It doesn’t matter!” Liu Wuyi would rather his son stank than take a bath so that those ‘flies’ from the Valley of Fallen Blossom wouldn’t find them following the scent of ‘the Swirling Clouds’.

“If I go to bed without a bath, I’ll stain the quilt!” Leaning against the door, Zixiu was reluctant to go to bed as if he couldn’t bear the itch anymore.

Liu Wuyi was rendered speechless. He was aware that the two of them were indeed very dirty, so he gave up the idea of preventing Zixiu from taking a bath here.

“If you want to take a bath, just go ahead. But don’t blame me for not reminding you once you bring Lingxiao here!”

Hearing Lingxiao’s name, Zixiu looked around instinctively but found nothing abnormal. ‘How come I’ll bring Lingxiao here by merely taking a bath?’ Zixiu wondered. “Dad, what do you mean?”

“You have the fragrance of ‘the Swirling Clouds’ on you, and everyone from the Valley of Fallen Blossoms can smell it miles away!”

‘Fragrance? They can smell it from miles away?’ Zixiu looked at his father in a daze, and he immediately grabbed the forepart of his clothes and sniffed hard before a sickening, sour smell rushed into his nostrils.

“Urgh—” Zixiu vomited from the smell.

Liu Wuyi’s face darkened in an instant, and it took him quite a while before he continued, “As your mom had no breastmilk after giving birth to you, she had been feeding you with the soup made from ‘the Swirling Clouds’, so over time, you got the smell of that herb!”

“This is incredible!” Zixiu widened his eyes in disbelief.

Liu Wuyi had figured out what his son might ask next, and he immediately put on a disdainful look. “‘The Swirling Clouds’ is made from a kind of herb only found in the Valley of Fallen Blossoms, so if people from the valley can’t identify it, nobody else can tell what it is!”

Zixiu nodded, and now he was aware how come Luo Huali had shown up in Nangong Du’s mansion. According to his father, ‘the Swirling Clouds’ was unique to the Valley of Fallen Blossoms, and Luo Huali addressed himself as Zixiu’s senior brother, saying that they had been apart for thirteen years, so Zixiu was sure he had spent some time in the valley as a child. However, from the way his father spoke, he could tell that he didn’t like the Valley of Fallen Blossoms. ‘Dad has never told me about this place before. There must be something behind this!’ Zixiu thought.

“Don’t think too much!” Seeing his son lost in thought, Liu Wuyi felt so helpless that he decided to tell the truth.

“Your dad is a loser. He lost to Lingxiao’s dad in both the medical and martial arts competitions, so he had to leave the Valley of Fallen Blossoms years ago!” With that, before his son could react, Liu Wuyi picked up a clean suit from the bed and went to the bathroom.