Yun Buizha was more than happy with this suggestion,
Regaining his previous joy, quickly forgetting about the weirdness from earlier.
Xue Hua no longer said anything, rather he quietly followed, and went along with them, holding onto the hem of Yue Ran's sleeves as they walked to the woodcutter's house.
And soon, the tension from moments earlier just seems to be a distant memory now.
Soon, a small house could be seen, separate from all the others as it stood lonely in the corner with its yards and wooden fenced walls,
Near the open rooms, a dead tree trunk with an axe stuck to it and pieces of logs scattered around near its area drew Xue Hua's attention, signs of Yun Buizha's morning labor,
There also was a shed not far from that very spot that was undeniably for storage.
Somehow, Yun Buizha seemed to have a change in his emotions, as he awkwardly laughed, apologising for how messy and small his house was.
While both weren't false, Yue Ran hardly gave them mind, after all he had slept in caves much more cramped or in other places that would seem ridiculous while he was with his master,
Who was a man who often went with the flow and rarely made prior plans for their stay like where they would sleep or what he would eat. So regardless, before his master finally began garnering the senses needed to care for an ordinary child, Yue Ran had already gone through everything and where they slept hardly mattered.
Xue Hua too didn't mind, actually he wouldn't really call the house small, although messy was undeniable with how the pieces of logs and woods were scattered in the yard, but still, the path to the entrance door was kept tidy
Places hardly mattered if the immortal was going to be with him,
As long as he didn't feel lonely...like that night he'd be fine,
He would.
Yun Buizha led them inside, telling them to wear their shoes in, since the floors were cold. Unlike cultivators or immortals, mortals often took their shoes off before entering someone's house.
Xue Hua seemed to have learned about it for the first time being directed stated to do so, as he stared at his shoes for quite some time after that.
The walls were thick and old but they were clean, the house had three rooms, Xue Hua looked around, then while he looked out the window he saw a small room built a few distance away from the house,
It seemed to be a kitchen with the things he could make out, and beside it was a small space with a roof that kept firewood.
They were brought into a spacious room that almost seemed bare but not empty, because it had life, just from looking around they could still see the ghosts of past owners or people.
A strange feeling washed over Xue Hua
It was... indescribable
A feeling like walking through fields of wheat, something he had never experienced.
On the walls were old ornaments hung together,
There was even a piece of paper that was framed, but Xue Hua didn't have the chance to read it.
Even so, he understood that it had deep significance, the paper had crumpled by the edges, the frame had started to chip, but still the characters, the strokes were all perfectly clear.
Yun Buizha himself seemed to have a strange pride towards it, but when he caught Xue Hua's eyes he awkwardly looked away from the frame, laughing as he scratched his neck.
But he was never good at hiding his emotions it seems,
Recalling the way he talked and how he had the habit of babbling over, Xue Hua had a thought that, perhaps with how expressive he was when he talked, he would have been a better fit for a story teller rather than a woodcutter.
People who had similar spirits like him would surely be drawn to him and the way he told stories, he might've even become a famed story teller, perhaps he ended up in the wrong line of work.
Yun Buizha swiftly brought out two cushions for his guests
"I'll get you two some tea"
He quickly said and went out of the room.
Despite his slight awkwardness he seems to really be quite eager to talk about his village,
It didn't take much time for him to return with a teapot in his hand,
Placing the glasses on the table he poured the tea
It was clear how he wasn't used to it with the way he almost spilled the tea many times
Exhaling a breath of relief he also sat down on the tough wooden chair that kept their body far from the ground. Yun Buizha felt that he didn't need any cushion since he was much more used to the hard wood than the soft sinking cushions.
But he didn't want to seat his guests in bare wood, he placed the tea in front of them and himself on the table before shifting around and taking his own seat.
The liquid swirled around in the glass with steam rising, Yun Buizha himself had just started drinking tea a couple of months ago because of lady Shu who had given him some tea leaves to enjoy by himself, if not for that he would have never bothered with such sophisticated activity.
So it was no wonder that he didn't know how to boil tea and would often mess it up. It wasn't until recently that he turned decent and was able to make consumable tea.
Yue Ran brought the cup near his nose as the steam carried the scent of chrysanthemum, Xue Hua stared at him, then picked up the cup with both his hands and brought it close to his nose, taking in the steam through his nose.
In imitation, his eyes widened in pleasant surprise, the smell was so pleasant that he immediately tried to take a sip,
Yue Ran, predicting his course of actions, placed his hand in front of his mouth, stopping him.
"It's hot"
He reminded the impulsive boy,
"So, what did you want to talk about?"
Yun Buizha opened his mouth,
He was itching to talk as he kept looking at them before turning away, then sneaking a glance once more.
"The 'ever blooming tree' "
Yue Ran out his cup down,
"or so you said, right?"
Yun Buizha nodded waiting on him to continue,
The first question that was on Yue Ran's mind was
"First of all, why is it called that?"
He inquired.
Yun Buizha was waiting for that very question, and soon he couldn't contain his smile as he talked,
"It's certainly an odd name, right?" He admitted,
"Well, aside from the things I said previously" he inhaled slowly,
"it actually used to just be an ordinary plum blossom tree around four years back" he revealed
"It was planted by Mrs. Tang, after she gave birth to the little lady"
Yun Buizha thought about the past and continued, "according to words, she was in labour for almost an entire day after struggling the entire night so..."
He trailed off halfway, staring at the liquid swirled,
" When she saw the little lady, she immediately thought about the plum tree found in her hometown"
Even Xue Hua hadn't heard this story, so he-
despite trying to act like he wasn't interested, caved into his curiosity.
"The Chief spared no effort in acquiring a small plum sapling that could withstand the north"
"Why didn't she plant it within the manor?"
Xue Hua interrupted,
If it was such a significant thing, why did she plant it in the middle of the village and not where she could see it every waking moment?
Yun Buizha shook his head, "according to her, she wanted her happiness to be shared among the villagers, so she planted it in the middle of the village"
Glancing outside the window, he resumed.
"About how the name came to be... It's a different story,"
He leaned his body back on the chair and stared at the ground for a moment.
" Four years ago, while the little lady was still five, Mrs. Tang died."
A sigh escaped his lips,
"The birth was very difficult on her and she never truly recovered from it and similarly the tree too started dying even though it had managed to grow mature, it couldn't survive in North for long,
If he were being honest, it was already surprising when the tree managed to grow mature despite the constant storms and winds that visited us"
"However, it was never truly a plant that could live long in such weather even if it managed to stay alive despite the temperatures and snow, so it wasn't surprising when it began drying up with no sun"
"but miraculously--"
"It suddenly came back to life last year!" He exclaimed, lightly slamming his hands on the table.
"Most villagers believed that because the little lady often slept beneath the tree and spent time under its shade just like when her mother was alive, the mother's spirit felt extreme sympathy and gave up its reincarnation and returned as the tree spirit."
Gave up reincarnation?
Xue Hua was confused, why would she do it? She would've grown just fine even if she didn't.
"From then on" he thought for a moment, in case he was wrong,
"the tree always remained full of blossoms not a single bloom falling, and somehow people started referring to it as
'the ever blooming tree'" he concluded with a smile tapping the surface of the table,
Then he suddenly remembered something,
"That one time, when the little lady got lost, everyone had thought that she was dead and were trying to prepare for the funeral, Aunty Ming in her final attempt to help, prayed to the tree"
He was lost in thoughts himself, as he continued rambling,
"And...just some few moments later she returned, someone had found her not far from the village area, but since then she's been sick till now..."
Showing a complicated expression for a brief moment,
He tried to change the subject.
"So--"
Before he could finish his words, his head fell on the table with a loud thud, Yue Ran silently walked towards him and checked his pulse, Xue Hua was still surprised, calling him
"Gege?"
Xue Hua looked at his immortal's face, indifferent and calm, like a pond of still water, before either of them could notice Yue Ran had struck the woodcutter making him lose consciousness.
But Yue Ran didn't turn to see the kid's expression, he simply reassured him,, "he'll be awake after a couple of hours"
Xue Hua glanced at the unconscious Yun Buizha and looked away, nodding, even though he hadn't actually thought about him, he was just...surprised to see what had happened.
While the immortal was ready to go out, Xue Hua was suddenly hit with a wave of nausea as he stood up.
He quickly shut his mouth, but before he could bring his hands anywhere near his face, he was hit with another wave,
Making him lose balance and fall to the ground, making a reaching sound as he felt his internal organs twist pushing out everything he had consumed.
He couldn't stop himself, he couldn't even look anywhere else, when he tried his head felt like it was being smashed into a wall.
The foul smell returned.
Much stronger now as it seemed to feel the air, so whenever he breathed in, his nausea only got worse.
His hands trembled, fixed on the ground.
While the other tried to clutch his stomach.
In desperation, as soon as he paused he fumbled around his clothes looking for the handkerchief, he dug around his body however, the longer he searched he felt his vision getting even more blurry,
He hadn't noticed yet,
He was crying.
He had never felt this helpless, his body never felt this foreign, and the crawling sensation...
It all came to him all at once
He tried to grab his throat as he felt the sensation crawl through his throat.
Then, he saw two boots in before him, on the ground, he didn't need to look up to know
So, despite the torrents of emotions,
He smiled.
His ears buzzed and his skin felt numb, he couldn't say a word but it felt as though everything was okay.
Yue Ran was with him.
And the crashing waves of emotions began to settle.
Yue Ran frowned as he looked down at the slouched kid
Was this because Yun Buizha was unconscious?
But then why was he the only one affected?
Yue Ran didn't feel any difference in the atmosphere, everything was stable, there weren't any changes at all.
His fingers twitched as he reached out, awkwardly caressing the kid's back.
As his gaze fell on the kid, he also noticed the substances that exited the kid.
And soon, he lifted Xue Hua, taking off his cloak he covered the crawled up kid and took him in his arms, he didn't need to see his expression to know that the kid was in quite a predicament.
'I should hurry'
He mumbled and made his way towards the far house that had started to light its surroundings as the sun soon began to set.
The people in the village were still chatting about while some had begun returning home to prepare to set towards the lit manor.
They didn't notice that an immortal was passing them through the breeze
His moves, graceful and gentle hardly making a sound, his breaths stabilised as he moved with the wind.
And soon--
they reached their room.
The soft scent, of dew kissed lilies in spring enveloped around Xue Hua as he pulled the immortal's clothes towards his face, he wanted to bury himself in it,
The warmth from the cloak made him feel that his body, was once again his
It was ironic, the flower that was known to be toxic for both humans and animals, had such a soft smell, and that this warm person carried the scent of a hostile flower like lily of the valley.
But for some reason, he felt that this scent suited him more than anything.