Venerated Venomous Consort

The deserted territory remained untraversed, and the silent hills remained static. There was no sign of Gu Xijiu within a hundred miles of the place they had met earlier.

Obviously, she was no longer in the area.

Where would she go?

…

Once again, Di Fuyi stepped foot into the Tianyin Valley, a place where he had avoided for more than two years. The servants in the Tianyin Valley carried out their respective chores as usual. All of them were kept occupied. “National Master, what brings you here?” A servant was surprised to find him in the valley.

Di Fuyi went straight to the point and asked, “Has the Divine Lord returned?”

The servant answered with a shake of his head. “No, she has been out for more than 20 days now and has yet to return to her residence.”

Apparently, she had not returned.

Somehow, Di Fuyi seemed relieved. “When the Divine Lord comes back from her travels, please notify me at once. I have something of grave importance to discuss with her. Not a moment of delay is allowed.” He then handed over a directed audio amulet to the servant.

The servant was unsure of the reason behind the National Master’s urgency, but he knew how much the Divine Lord cared for the man. No one was allowed to say anything disrespectful against the National Master, so he knew he had to reflect the same amount of respect that the Divine Lord had for him.

Once the servant accepted the device, Di Fuyi turned and left.

He wanted to go to the glacier first, but the thought of his abandoned residence reminded him of his priorities. Swiftly, he made a quick turn and headed in a different direction.

The gallons of fine wine that he intended to give to Gu Xijiu were all stored in the abandoned residence.

He had to dig into the ground to uncover the big jars of wine that were left underground for fermentation. The tantalizing fragrance of the wine had filled the air. It seemed that the underground fermentation had certainly worked some magic in the wine.

Di Fuyi knew that there was no way she could resist the temptation of such finely-made wine.

Also, he guessed that if she had not returned to the Tianyin Valley, she must have visited the glacier to restore her spiritual power.

Knowing her, these were the only two places that she would go to if she needed to recover. He would surely find her in either place.

Back at the glacier, the whole place was buried in a layer of thick, white snow.

Di Fuyi went straight to the ice cabin to look for Gu Xijiu.

The igloo still stood in solidarity against the vast white snow in the vicinity. None of the furniture in the cabin had changed or been moved, and Gu Xijiu was nowhere to be seen.

Disappointed, he took a look around the cabin to check if there were any traces of her left behind.

From what he discovered, she must have visited the place at least three times in the past two years. Each visit would have been for about two weeks.

To his surprise, she did not make her way here this time. Was she still on her way? Or did she need to recover elsewhere because of the nature of the injury?

He found two scrunched balls of paper in one of the corners of the cabin and opened them. Although it was messy, he could tell at once that it was Gu Xijiu’s handwriting.

It looked like she wrote the words out of boredom, as some of the content did not make much sense.

“If only he waited for an hour more, things would be fine –

Maybe we were never meant to be –

I am not feeling well. My heart aches a little –

He has not been here for two months now, not even once. Perhaps he will never come.

Although his culinary skills are far from impressive, his ability to make wine was undoubtedly amazing. I wonder if we’ll have another drink together.

…

Di Fuyi could feel his fingers going numb and noticed that his fingertips had turned whitish.

Although there were no names mentioned, he knew very well that he was the one she was writing about.

Apparently, she was not completely emotionless, after all.

Perhaps she had visited the glacier so frequently over the past two years just to see him.

Nevertheless, he did not quite understand what she meant by ‘if he only waited for an hour more.’

He straightened up the other piece of paper and started reading its contents too. His face went pale, almost instantaneously. He was so shocked that he could not even stand up straight.

He read the scribbles that were on the second piece of paper and almost sank to the ground.

– I do not have much time.

– There is only half a month left.

– I want to live my life in my last days. I will not keep worrying about Fan Qianshi anymore. I want to taste all the good food in the world and have no regrets.

– I am still craving for the wine that he made.

– Actually, I am a little scared.

Di Fuyi’s hands started trembling uncontrollably.

From the traces of the ink, he could tell that the message was written about half a month ago.