Chapter 9 Not So Bad
Chapter Nine
Long Xiaoshan felt rather awkward, but it was pouring rain outside and he had no way of avoiding it.
Just then, a gust of mountain wind swept in, carrying the heavy rain into the cave. Chun Tao sneezed several times in succession, her nose running uncontrollably, and she hung her head in embarrassed silence.
Even though it was July, the wind in the deep mountains was still very cold.
Moreover, Chun Tao was soaked through.
Long Xiaoshan felt his own clothes, which he had dried using the heat from his practice of the Longevity Art while needling earlier. Deciding to take action, he took off his T-shirt and handed it to Chun Tao, saying, "You should wear my clothes first. Take off yours and let them dry, otherwise, you'll catch a cold."
"No, no need," Chun Tao quickly waved her hands and refused.
"Quickly change into it!" Long Xiaoshan said sternly, stuffing the T-shirt into Chun Tao's arms, then he walked out of the cave entrance.
"Little Xiaoshan!" Chun Tao saw Long Xiaoshan run out into the rain, and when she chased him to the entrance, he had already disappeared without a trace. She stood there, not knowing what to do with the T-shirt Long Xiaoshan had left with her.
After calling out for a long time with no reply from Long Xiaoshan, a layer of mist formed in Chun Tao's eyes.
She took off her wet clothes and put on Long Xiaoshan's T-shirt, then hurried to the cave's mouth and shouted, "Little Xiaoshan, come back in! I've changed."
After a while, Long Xiaoshan emerged from some corner outside, a large green leaf atop his head.
Despite the leaf, the pouring rain outside still left Long Xiaoshan drenched like a drowned rat. When he entered the cave, the water streamed off him, quickly forming a large puddle.
Seeing Long Xiaoshan soaked like that, Chun Tao's heart felt as though it had been stuffed with an unripe green plum, souring with each pulse.
She thought to herself that if little Xiaoshan were really such a bad person, he wouldn't have left the cave just now.
He wouldn't have stayed outside getting drenched without coming in.
She had thought too badly of little Xiaoshan.
After all, he had already saved her twice.
Long Xiaoshan circulated his energy to dry off a bit of the water on his body and noticing Chun Tao staring at him, he smiled and said, "Chun Tao, what has captivated your attention so deeply?"
Chun Tao blushed and asked, "Little Xiaoshan, what's with your body?"
Long Xiaoshan knew Chun Tao was asking about the scars on his body. He shook his head and said, "It's nothing. Sit here for a moment. I don't think this rain will stop anytime soon. I'll go further inside the cave to see if I can find something to start a fire with."
The abandoned Guanyin Cave extended more than ten meters inward.
But it was pitch dark.
"Little Xiaoshan, maybe you shouldn't go. It's all dark in there; what if there's a snake?" Chun Tao said worriedly.
"It's okay, I can see," he reassured her.
Long Xiaoshan's vision was far above that of an average person, allowing him to see quite clearly even in the dark. For precaution, however, he picked up a stone to hold in his hand.
Soon, he ventured inside the Guanyin Cave, only to discover, surprisingly, that it was very clean; there was no sign of snakes, not even insects or ants.
Inside, the original stone-carved Guanyin Statue had been destroyed, leaving only half of its figure intact, with bits of broken wood scattered on the ground, presumably remnants of what used to be the offering table.
Long Xiaoshan clasped his hands in prayer and bowed in respect to the remaining Guanyin Statue.
After paying his respects, he gathered a pile of broken wood, intending to take it outside and start a fire.
After a few steps,
suddenly Long Xiaoshan stumbled, falling forward, and the pieces of wood in his hands scattered all over the place.
"Little Xiaoshan, what happened?" Hearing the commotion inside, Chun Tao's anxious voice came from outside.
"No, no issue, just tripped by accident." Long Xiaoshan grimaced, clutching his foot, sucking in the cold air. He didn't know what he had kicked just now; it was exceptionally hard, causing his toe to bleed, even flipping half of his toenail.
After a while, Long Xiaoshan caught his breath and limped towards where he had tripped.
He searched the ground bitterly and finally found the culprit.
It was a bottle, half-buried in the ground, with a long neck covered in quite a bit of dust. At the mouth of the bottle, there were some bloodstains—blood from Long Xiaoshan's foot from earlier.
Long Xiaoshan didn't expect that a small bottle had caused his injury.
Annoyed, he grabbed the neck of the bottle and pulled hard, but it wouldn't budge. Long Xiaoshan was disbelieving; as someone who had practiced martial arts, his strength was much greater than the average person's, so how could he not pull out such a tiny bottle?
He tried several more times, only to confirm that he couldn't remove it.
Stubbornness surged in Long Xiaoshan. He took a piece of wood with a pointed end and dug the soil around the small bottle. At last, the full extent of the bottle was revealed—it was a delicate-looking double-eared small bottle, slightly longer than a palm, glowing a greenish hue, incredibly beautiful.
"It would be nice to take it back for little Ling to use for her flowers," Long Xiaoshan reached out to grab the small bottle and upon doing so, realized unexpectedly how heavy it was.
No wonder he couldn't pull it out earlier.
The bottle must weigh a good few dozen pounds.
How could a bottle be this heavy— it shouldn't be so, even if it were a metal bottle. Long Xiaoshan tapped the body of the bottle lightly, confirming it sounded like porcelain.
He grasped the bottle firmly and tilted it, emptying it, but there was nothing inside, merely hollow.
This was bizarre.
Long Xiaoshan felt the bottle was defying the laws of physics.
Moreover, the bottle even felt warm to the touch. Just as Long Xiaoshan was baffled by the bottle's strangeness, footsteps approached, and Chun Tao's anxious voice could be heard: "little Xiaoshan, little Xiaoshan, are you there?"
Long Xiaoshan realized he had been studying the bottle for such a long time that Chun Tao must be getting worried.
He quickly said, "Chun Tao, I'm here, don't come in, it's dark. I'm coming out now."
Long Xiaoshan firmly picked up the bottle, then picked up the broken wood, and limped outside.
Seeing Long Xiaoshan emerge, Chun Tao breathed a sigh of relief, but when she saw him limping, she hurriedly asked, "Xiaoshan, what happened to your foot?"
"It's nothing, I just kicked a... stone earlier." Long Xiaoshan felt silly saying he kicked a small bottle, so he changed his story.
"I told you not to go in there. Come on, let me bandage it." Upon seeing that Long Xiaoshan's big toe's nail had been flipped over and was swollen like a radish, Chun Tao quickly had Long Xiaoshan sit down.
Long Xiaoshan casually took a medicinal herb from the basket and said, "I can do it, this is for stopping the bleeding."
"You're hurt, let me do it."
Chun Tao snatched the medicinal herb from Long Xiaoshan's hand, chewed it up in her mouth, pressed it into a small cake, and applied it to Long Xiaoshan's toe. Then she tore a strip of cloth and carefully wrapped it up.
Watching her skilled movements, Long Xiaoshan smiled, "Chun Tao, you're quite good at bandaging."
"My mother-in-law's eyes aren't good, and she likes to walk around, often getting injured. I've learned how to do it myself over time," Chun Tao said, somewhat shyly.
Long Xiaoshan found her blushing at every turn quite amusing.
"I'll start a fire," Long Xiaoshan stood up, picked up a piece of wood, sharpened it with a knife into some fine shavings and a long stick. He took another piece of wood and hollowed out a small hole, placing the fine wood dust inside. Long Xiaoshan inserted one end of the stick into the hole, his palms clamped around it, and rapidly started twisting.
Before long, white smoke began to rise from the pit.
Long Xiaoshan carefully poured out the glowing wood dust onto the shavings and blew gently. The fire quickly took hold.
"little Xiaoshan, you're amazing," Chun Tao clapped her hands, her big eyes sparkling with admiration as she watched Long Xiaoshan.