We Agreed On Experiencing Life, So Why Did You Immortals Become Real?

Chapter 556: Do You... Like Me? (2 in 1)

Early morning.

The sky was only faintly bright, and morning lesson had just ended inside Sikong Temple’s great hall.

Xiao Mo packed his medicine box and prepared to go down the mountain to practice medicine and diagnose patients.

“Senior Brother, are you going down the mountain?”

Just as Xiao Mo passed through the front hall, Xujing, who had been lowering his head to sweep fallen leaves and incense ash, raised his head, hugged his broom, and asked curiously.

“Mm.” Xiao Mo reached out and gently rubbed Xujing’s bald head, his tone mild. “The abbot has been annotating several Buddhist scriptures these days and does not have time to go down the mountain, so I will go down in the abbot’s place to practice medicine.”

“Then, Senior Brother... are you going with that pretty elder sister?” Xujing asked again.

Xiao Mo paused slightly, then laughed aloud. “How did you know that? Did the abbot tell you?”

“No.” Xujing lifted his head proudly. “I guessed.”

But very soon, the pride in his eyes quietly disappeared, replaced by a faint trace of worry.

“Senior Brother Queyin, that pretty elder sister has been coming to find you every day these past few days. Even though I haven’t seen that elder sister with my own eyes, Xule, Xuchan, and the others all say that elder sister is extremely pretty. Everyone has been secretly guessing... whether you’ve fallen for that elder sister.”

“And they also said you might break the precepts, return to secular life, go down the mountain, marry, and have children.” Xujing looked at Xiao Mo seriously. “Senior Brother, is that true?”

“What do you think?” Xiao Mo asked without hurry.

“I don’t believe it!”

Xujing answered.

“Whether it’s the abbot or the elders, they all say you have deep Buddhist affinity, extraordinary wisdom-root, and that you’re a genius rarely seen in this world.”

“If you were outside these little temples in the Western Region, Senior Brother, you could even become a Buddhist heir! I don’t believe Senior Brother would really be bewitched by that elder sister!”

“When Senior Brother becomes the abbot of Sikong Temple in the future, then this junior brother of yours will become an elder! The two of us brothers will carry Sikong Temple forward together and make it greater and greater. Not only in our little area, either. In the future, we’ll open Sikong Temple all across the world, so even more people can hear the Buddhist teachings!”

“Hahaha...”

Xiao Mo still could not hold back his laughter. He reached out and lightly patted Xujing’s head.

“You little brat. Your ambitions are quite lofty.”

“Right?” Xujing smiled proudly, but then he put away his smile again and said seriously, “So, Senior Brother, you absolutely can’t lose yourself to beauty and let a woman lure you away! Senior Brother Queyin, you once said something very reasonable—women will only affect the speed at which we recite scripture!”

“All right. Senior Brother understands.” Xiao Mo patted his smooth little head and answered with a smile. “Then Senior Brother will do his best.”

“Monk...”

Just as Xiao Mo’s words had barely fallen, a young woman’s voice, light and sweet like a silver bell, came from the front entrance of Sikong Temple.

Xujing quickly looked toward the voice and saw a young woman dressed in plain farm-girl linen clothes and trousers stepping lightly and cheerfully into the temple with a bright, bouncing gait.

The young woman’s brows and eyes curved, radiant as she looked about.

That pair of beautiful fox eyes was filled even more with overflowing joy.

With every light step she took, the high ponytail tied behind her head swayed lively from side to side, like the first ray of morning sunlight.

It was clearly the most ordinary attire of an ordinary farm girl. Her entire body was plain and simple, without the slightest extra ornament.

Yet such a simple outfit, when worn on her, looked exceptionally beautiful, as if even the coarse weave of the cloth had been dyed in her colors.

“Monk, are we going to practice medicine or not? I waited outside for you for so long and never saw you come out.”

Tushan Jingci stopped beside Xiao Mo, turned her face slightly, and looked at him with those beautiful fox eyes carrying a tiny bit of complaint.

“My apologies. Packing the medicine box took a little longer.”

Xiao Mo explained gently, then turned sideways and spoke to Xujing beside him.

“Xujing, this is the pretty elder sister you and the others have been talking about these past few days.”

“Miss Jingci, this is my youngest junior brother. His Dharma name is Xujing.”

“G-greetings, female benefactor...” Xujing quickly straightened his small body, put his palms together, and saluted properly.

Although Xujing was only eight or nine years old and did not have many opinions about women, he dared guarantee that the elder sister before him was definitely the most beautiful female benefactor he had ever seen!

“Greetings, little monk.” Tushan Jingci nodded slightly, then immediately turned to Xiao Mo and urged him, “It’s getting late, Master Queyin. Let’s hurry and go.”

“Mm.”

Xiao Mo gave Xujing a few final instructions before turning around and leaving the temple together with Tushan Jingci.

Xiao Mo walked straight ahead, his steps steady and calm.

Tushan Jingci followed beside him, her fair little hands clasped behind her back. Her steps were light and quick, and from time to time, she would turn her face and ask Xiao Mo something, her tone full of unconcealable delight.

Xiao Mo only answered gently, occasionally responding with a few words, neither hurried nor slow.

Tushan Jingci sometimes covered her mouth and laughed softly. When she looked at Xiao Mo’s profile, those beautiful fox eyes were filled with a tenderness she could not hide.

Tree shadows swayed. Birds called again and again. The mountain wind blew past, gently scattering the two shadows, one tall and one short, across the stone steps, where they overlapped and then slowly separated again.

Xujing watched the two of them leave side by side. He could not help reaching up to scratch the back of his bare head, his face blank and innocent.

Even Xujing himself could not explain what was going on, but he just felt that when his senior brother and that female benefactor stood together, they seemed especially well-matched.

On the mountain road.

As Tushan Jingci walked, she softly told Xiao Mo which households they would visit today, what symptoms each had, which family’s condition was more urgent, and whom they should see first.

Fortunately, among the households they needed to treat today, most had only minor problems such as bruises, sprains, chills, or coughs. They were not particularly difficult.

Xiao Mo brought Tushan Jingci into one household after another.

Many households, after seeing a monk from Sikong Temple arrive, would all let out an unconscious breath of relief, as if the heart hanging in their chest had finally settled.

During the diagnoses, Xiao Mo also followed the abbot’s instructions. While treating patients, he patiently explained to Tushan Jingci the causes of the illnesses and the pairing of medicinal principles, teaching her medical skills so that this young lady could one day support herself...

When noon came, Xiao Mo originally intended to simply eat a few mouthfuls of dry flatbread.

But Tushan Jingci had prepared a food box in advance. Smiling, she took out plate after plate of vegetarian dishes and placed them between the two of them.

“How is it? I wonder whether this humble girl’s cooking suits Master Queyin’s taste?”

Tushan Jingci looked at Xiao Mo with °• N 𝑜 v 𝑒 l i g h t •° eyes full of expectation.

“Mm... Your cooking is truly excellent, Miss.”

Xiao Mo nodded. His tone was calm, but a trace of hard-to-detect surprise hid in his eyes.

The Jingci from before—forget cooking a meal or making dishes, even if she had only been asked to start a fire, she could have gotten herself covered in ash.

Yet unexpectedly, after all these years, Jingci’s cooking had improved so much.

“If it’s good, then eat a little more.”

Hearing Xiao Mo’s praise, Tushan Jingci quickly used her chopsticks to place all kinds of food from the food box into Xiao Mo’s bowl, one piece after another, looking as if she wished she could pour the whole box in.

“And if you like eating it, then I’ll make it for you every day from now on, all right?” She stopped her chopsticks and tested him.

Xiao Mo only lowered his head and remained silent, quietly eating the food in his bowl, as if he had heard nothing.

“Hmph...” Tushan Jingci pouted her little mouth and muttered softly, “Blockhead...”

Xiao Mo heard it, but still did not answer, only treating that coquettish complaint as if it had been scattered away by the mountain wind.

In the days that followed.

Every morning, after Xiao Mo finished morning lesson, he would carry his medicine box on his back, walk out of Sikong Temple’s gate, and diagnose and treat the common people.

And every day, Tushan Jingci would arrive early at the temple gate, waiting with a bright smile for Xiao Mo to come out.

The two of them spent almost the entire day together, inseparable.

Only when the sun gradually sank westward and dusk closed in on all sides would Xiao Mo escort the young woman back to the small courtyard where she lived, then return to Sikong Temple.

The season gradually entered deep summer, and the weather grew hotter and hotter.

When the two of them walked through the mountains, they would often find a clear spring to wash their faces and relieve the heat.

But whether Tushan Jingci was washing her face or drinking water, she seemed far too “unrestrained.”

Spring water slid slowly down the young woman’s fair cheeks, flowed across her snowy-white jaw, passed over her delicate and beautiful collarbones, and finally vanished into that high, swelling expanse of snowy softness.

Sometimes she would even extend her pink little tongue and lightly lick her damp lips, or slightly tug open her collar, deliberately revealing a glimpse of pale skin.

Every time, Xiao Mo would avert his gaze and not dare look too much.

And whenever Tushan Jingci saw this, she would reveal a smile of success.

Occasionally, when they passed by a stream, if no patient was urgently waiting for treatment, she would sit beside the water, dip her fair little feet into the stream, straighten the jade-white arches of her feet, and kick up splash after splash of water toward Xiao Mo.

When the water stirred up by those jade feet accidentally splashed into Xiao Mo’s mouth, he would keep spitting the stream water back out, looking somewhat disheveled.

Seeing him like that, the young woman laughed even more happily.

These quiet and beautiful days continued for roughly half a month.

If it were possible, Tushan Jingci truly wished they could go on like this for the rest of their lives.

Only...

What left her rather depressed was that she had already exhausted every method to “seduce” Xiao Mo.

Yet this blockhead monk always remained unmoved.

But she could clearly feel that he did like her!

“Ah!”

One day, half a month later, while Tushan Jingci was following Xiao Mo along the mountain path, she suddenly let out a cry of alarm.

By the time Xiao Mo reacted, Tushan Jingci had already fallen sideways onto the ground.

A snake suddenly darted into the grass.

“Miss Jingci, are you all right?” Xiao Mo quickly stepped forward.

“Of course I’m not all right.”

Tushan Jingci raised her lovely head. Her beautiful eyes were already watery, shimmering with crystal light.

She slightly lifted her trouser leg, revealing a fair, slender ankle. Two tiny bloody holes were marked on it, and a faint bluish-purple color showed around the wound. Her tone was full of worry.

“Monk, that snake... was it poisonous? Am I going to die?”

Xiao Mo lowered his head and carefully examined the wound. “This humble monk did not see it very clearly just now, but there should not be many poisonous snakes on this mountain. Miss, there is no need to panic too much.”

“Not many doesn’t mean there aren’t any...”

Tushan Jingci’s voice carried a bit of a sob as she looked up at Xiao Mo pitifully.

“Monk, can... can you help me suck the poison out? In those storybooks, that’s how they always write it. As long as the poisonous blood is sucked out, everything will be fine.”

“There is actually no need for such trouble.” Xiao Mo’s tone was calm and patient. “I can teach you to press several acupoints and force the poisonous blood out yourself. That would be safer.”

“No, no...” Tushan Jingci leaned against the tree trunk and panted slightly. Her chest rose and fell intensely, and her voice became delicate and weak. “I don’t have any strength in my body now. My head is dizzy. How would I still have the mind to learn? Monk, just do it yourself.”

“This...” Xiao Mo hesitated. “I would need to touch your foot, Miss. That would probably be... rather improper...”

“If it’s you, then it’s all right.” Tushan Jingci blushed slightly, her voice so soft it was almost inaudible. “Hurry... You can’t just watch me die from poison and refuse to save me, can you...”

Seeing Tushan Jingci like this, Xiao Mo sighed lightly in his heart. “Then this humble monk... will be rude.”

He slowly crouched down, carefully lifted her little foot, placed it on his knee, then reached out and gently removed the embroidered shoe from her foot.

The young woman’s fair toes were revealed one by one, like clear grains of rice.

Beneath the pale skin of her foot, there was a faint layer of clean translucence and a soft flush.

Her full heel and delicate sole together traced a perfect, gentle curve.

Even though a thin layer of sweat showed on her sole, there was not the slightest unpleasant smell. Instead, a faint, elegant fragrance like wildflowers lingered around it.

What ordinary woman’s foot would be like this? Only a cultivator could be so pure and flawless, unstained by even the slightest impurity.

Looking at Jingci’s feigned weak appearance, he could not help shaking his head lightly. She truly seemed afraid that he would not guess it.

“Monk, stop looking...” Tushan Jingci lightly poked Xiao Mo’s abdomen with her toes and urged him, “Hurry and detoxify me...”

“Please endure it for a moment, Miss.”

Xiao Mo returned to himself, reached out and pressed several acupoints near her ankle, then brought his fingers together, pressed against her calf, and slowly pushed downward from above, forcing the poisoned blood out little by little.

Immediately afterward, Xiao Mo took out the medicinal herbs he carried with him, quickly crushed them in his palm, and gently applied them to the wound on her ankle.

After putting Tushan Jingci’s shoe back on for her, Xiao Mo raised his head and asked, “Can you try standing and walking, Miss?”

“It hurts too much. I can’t stand up at all.” Tushan Jingci shook her head and said, her face full of grievance, “Monk, carry me back.”

“...”

Xiao Mo was speechless for a moment.

“What?” The young woman’s bewitching fox eyes seemed to turn into lingering threads of silk, wrapping around Xiao Mo in circle after circle. “You’ve already touched my foot. Are you still unwilling to carry me? Besides, it’s not the first time you’ve carried me.”

Xiao Mo looked at Jingci’s smiling face after her scheme succeeded and understood in his heart that if he did not carry her, she would not walk.

And so, Xiao Mo could only crouch down lightly in front of Tushan Jingci.

At this moment, the young woman seemed to suddenly no longer feel any pain. Without the slightest politeness, she threw herself onto Xiao Mo’s back, and even lightly rubbed her cheek against his back.

Xiao Mo carried Tushan Jingci on his back and walked down the mountain path step by step.

Tushan Jingci, meanwhile, looked like nothing had happened at all. She softly hummed a little tune, and that little foot whose shoe had been removed swayed back and forth, glowing faintly beneath the summer sunlight.

The young woman had plucked a strand of silvergrass in her hand and lightly tapped Xiao Mo’s smooth, bald head with it again and again.

“Monk...”

After a long while, the young woman softly called to him. Her beautiful fox eyes were filled entirely with his figure.

“Does Miss need something?” Xiao Mo asked gently.

“Mm... actually, it’s not really anything.” Tushan Jingci’s tone carried a bit of playfulness. “It’s just that I suddenly remembered that story you told me before.”

“A story?” Xiao Mo asked, puzzled. “Which one are you referring to, Miss?”

“The story of the monk carrying a young woman across the river.”

Tushan Jingci reached out and touched Xiao Mo’s bald head, slowly recounting it.

“An old monk brought a young monk traveling through the world. On the way, they came across a river. A young woman was standing by the riverbank, hesitating and uncertain how to cross.”

“So the old monk said nothing further. He stepped forward on his own initiative, carried the young woman across the river on his back, then gently put her down and continued on his way.”

“All along the road, the young monk was full of doubt. Finally, he could not help asking, ‘Master, that was a violation of the precepts, wasn’t it? Why did you carry a woman?’”

“The old monk smiled faintly and answered calmly, ‘What I carried was clearly a Buddha. What woman was there?’”

“So it was that story.” Xiao Mo remembered it. “But I do not know why Miss suddenly brought it up.”

“Because...”

Tushan Jingci’s eyes curved into two beautiful crescents, and her voice was soft as the wind.

“When you told me that story, this was how you explained it—the old monk had Buddha in his heart, so everyone he saw was Buddha. What he carried on his back was also Buddha. That was why the old monk did not even think before carrying that young woman across the river.”

“As for the young monk, he cared about that woman in his heart. He worried that if he carried her, it would damage his own Buddhist heart, so he did not dare carry her.”

Tushan Jingci quietly looked at Xiao Mo’s profile, faint laughter rippling in her eyes.

“But...”

“The last time you carried me, you hesitated.”

“This time, when I was bitten by a snake and asked you to help remove the poison, you hesitated too.”

“When I asked you to carry me again, you still hesitated.”

She paused slightly, and her voice became even gentler. Resting her head on Xiao Mo’s shoulder, her long lashes fluttered in the breeze, like butterflies lightly beating their wings.

“Say, Monk...”

Tushan Jingci brought her fresh, tender lips gently close to Xiao Mo’s ear. Her warm breath drifted quietly into his heart-lake, stirring ripple after ripple.

“In your heart, are you never able to treat me as Buddha?”

“Are you worried... that as long as you come close to me, you’ll damage your Buddhist heart?”

Her voice grew lower and lower, so low that it was almost only breath, yet every word slipped into Xiao Mo’s ear.

“You...”

“Do you like me?”