Yu Sheng felt that the protagonist, Zhan Xiaotian, had a problematic attitude toward life. After acquiring his golden finger, he no longer treated his own body with care.
The rabbit bite wasn’t serious, but it was clear that Zhan Xiaotian treated this rabbit bite the same way he treated his broken leg, which was a serious injury. This indicated a significant issue.
He looked at Zhan Xiaotian seriously, frowning as he advised, “You can’t be careless. If the rabbit bites you, you should gently kick it away to scare it off. The same goes for other injuries. You may not easily die, but you’re still human; you can feel pain and bleed. If the injury is serious, it can leave you immobile.”
Zhan Xiaotian silently gazed at him, his eyes sparkling, showing a smile toward Yu Sheng.
“Moreover, people who care about you will worry when they see you like this. Taking care of yourself is the prerequisite for everything.” Yu Sheng felt a surge of passion as he spoke, and after finishing, he paused, feeling a bit embarrassed and worried that he had lectured too much, which might annoy Zhan Xiaotian. “Well, this is just… my own opinion. You should focus on healing here for now.”
After speaking, he stood up, picking up the little rabbit and cradling it in his arms. The pitiful little rabbit immediately perked up, its ears standing tall, moving its mouth to reveal its two tiny sharp teeth, sitting upright in Yu Sheng's arms with an air of superiority.
However, from Yu Sheng’s perspective, he couldn’t see this show of superiority.
Zhan Xiaotian’s expression froze, and his smile gradually faded. “Do you really like pets, Senior?”
“It’s usually quite well-behaved,” Yu Sheng quickly explained, fearing that Zhan Xiaotian would hold a grudge. Suddenly, an idea struck him. “Moreover, this is the only relic of another senior. You came here to pay your respects to him, right? That… old gentleman.”
Yu Sheng naively thought that for the sake of his master, Zhan Xiaotian would surely let bygones be bygones and get along peacefully with the little rabbit.
“Master…” Zhan Xiaotian murmured, and for a moment, Yu Sheng almost thought he was calling him directly. He subconsciously tightened his grip, holding the little rabbit's short tail.
“What you’re referring to is my master, but in my impression, he never raised any pets.” As Zhan Xiaotian spoke, his gaze shifted downwards, locking eyes with the rabbit. “I watched my master pass away, and not to mention pets, I hardly ever saw any birds.”
“Is that so…” Yusheng replied expressionlessly, his mind racing as he frantically thought of an excuse. “Maybe the animal was just in the process of becoming beautiful at that time.”
Oh my God, who am I, where am I, what did I just say...
The little rabbit seemed to sense something, raising its tiny head to look up, revealing its fluffy chin and soft belly. Yu Sheng feeling guilty, patted it a couple of times, thinking that this little guy probably couldn’t understand him, right? Yes, it definitely doesn’t understand; no need to panic.
“I’ll step out for a moment. Don’t move around here; you might strain your injury.”
After saying that, he made a hasty exit.
Gracefully, steadily and slowly walking out of the cave, as soon as Yu Sheng was out of Zhan Xiaotian’s sight, he immediately revealed his true self. His shoulders slumped, and with a quick breath, he dashed out, turning into a fleeting shadow that bolted into a desolate area.
—
Time was limited. He had to restore his ‘grave’ before Zhan Xiaotian found out!
Now, Zhan Xiaotian was no longer that easily deceived little child from before. If he only used illusions, he would definitely expose his flaws, making explanations even more difficult...
As he dug through a pile of fallen leaves and rotten paper money, the little rabbit also hopped out and mimicked him, digging around beside him with its little paws moving quickly.
Yu Sheng vaguely remembered that after he crawled out of the grave mound, he casually pulled out the tombstone and threw it into the pit without thinking much about it. Later, when Yin Wangzhi fell down, worried about being discovered and causing misunderstandings, he even went out of his way to compact the soil in the pit.
Afterward, Wen Jiu came down and reclaimed the surrounding wasteland; the trees and grass had changed shape, making it impossible to find the location of that grave mound based on the references from his memory. He could only rely on a rough impression and spread his net wide to dig everywhere.
With his cultivation, digging wouldn’t tire him too much. After digging for a long time with a rabbit, when Yu Sheng finally found the tombstone and breathed a sigh of relief, more than a stick of incense had already passed.
The big white rabbit, more accurately, the big white ball that had turned into a big white rabbit, had disappeared. Yu Sheng turned around and eventually discovered the white mass at the bottom of a pit that was more than three people deep.
The big white rabbit was crouched at the bottom of the pit, propped up on its back legs, staring at Yu Sheng with its little bean-like eyes, its ears twitching.
Is this rabbit a bit dim-witted…?
Yu Sheng said, “...Come out, good rabbit.”
He was both amused and exasperated, feeling that the white ball must have a somewhat incomplete mind. Like other spirit pets, it had the desire to help but ended up doing the wrong thing. He felt no anger at all and took out his dust whisk to pull the ball out of the pit. Time was urgent, so he temporarily left the pit alone and turned to continue arranging the grave mound.
While he was busy, the big white rabbit bounced away. As it hopped out, Yu Sheng specially reminded it, “Don’t dig any more holes, okay?”
The big white rabbit seemed to understand, nodding its head, raising its front paws to make a bow before continuing on its way.
While Yu Sheng pondered how to restore the grave mound, he shook his head with a smile, thinking that this spirit pet was truly cute and thoughtful. Perhaps it had bitten Zhang Xiaotian out of a protective instinct. He had even taken it out to avoid a fight between them, which turned out to be unnecessary worry.
Yu Sheng deliberately laid a layer of old soil on the dirt mound of the grave and sprinkled it with many scraps of paper money to avoid raising suspicion. Just as he was about to insert the tombstone, he suddenly heard a strange noise behind him.
Turning around, he was shocked to see Zhang Xiaotian…
Only his upper body was visible.
His lower body had fallen into the pit.
Fortunately, since he was the protagonist and agile, it seemed that at the moment he fell, he managed to wedge his sword at his waist against the edge of the hole, which provided some leverage and prevented him from falling entirely.
Oh no, oh no! Yu Sheng panicked internally, glancing at Zhang Xiaotian and then at the tombstone in his hand that hadn’t been properly buried yet. His mind went blank along with his expression. “A-Are you alright? I was going to fill in the pit soon…”
Why is he out here instead of resting in the cave?!
Yu Sheng hurried over and pulled him out of the pit. Zhang Xiaotian still had injuries, and his movements were hindered. If he really fell in, it would be adding injury to insult.
Once Zhang Xiaotian was finally back on solid ground, he stumbled and leaned against Yu Sheng, looking like he was giving a big hug. However, due to their height difference, he didn’t seem weak at all; instead, he had a hungry tiger pouncing stance.
“Are you worried I’d step into a trap if you didn’t let me out?”
Yu Sheng felt guilty and began to sweat, but he responded seriously, trying to sound convincing, “What trap? It’s just a wrongly dug pit. It’s… a rabbit, you know, rabbits love to dig holes. It might be about to give birth and needs to build a nest.”
“A nest? What kind of animal builds a nest like this…” Zhang Xiaotian laughed out of anger, then, supporting himself on Yu Sheng’s shoulder, he barely steadied himself. “No, why am I even discussing this? I meant to say, if it’s not a trap, why cover the deep pit with branches and leaves for concealment?”
“No way,” Yu Sheng exclaimed in protest, “You must be mistaken!”
Seeing his reaction, Zhang Xiaotian narrowed his eyes, suddenly getting angry. “Then what about that rabbit?”
Yu Sheng was startled, thinking this was bad. “Don’t be mad! After it dug the hole, I told it not to worry about it. It was probably an accident. It must have wanted to cover the hole, which is why it brought so many dead branches and leaves…”
This reasoning was quite logical; after all, it was just a white ball. With such a low intellect, it wouldn’t suddenly become smart enough to set traps and would have trouble even watering a garden or weeding.
“I see.” Zhang Xiaotian’s gaze darkened little by little, then he shifted his focus. “Why does my master’s grave look like this? Could it be that rabbit was building a nest when…”
Yu Sheng: !!!
He almost forgot the most important thing! The tombstone was still crooked!
“That’s… how do I explain this?!”
Zhang Xiaotian looked at him, his expression gradually darkening, stuttering as if someone had dug up his ancestor's grave, feeling both wronged and filled with suppressed anger. “Senior, are you still going to keep this from me? The grave of my master has been destroyed, and at this point, you still want to protect a rabbit?”
Yu Sheng was so frightened that his fingers trembled, almost throwing the person hanging onto him away. “No, wait! Let me explain!”
As the saying goes, one lie requires ten more to cover it. By that logic, Yu Sheng felt that given one lie, he could fabricate an entire world of deceptions to save himself.
Zhang Xiaotian indeed fell silent, staring at him without speaking, waiting for an explanation.
“Well, the grave wasn’t actually caused by the rabbit,” Yu Sheng said, his face growing red with shame. “It was me…”
His voice was too low for Zhang Xiaotian to hear clearly, so he leaned in a bit closer. “Hmm?”
“...I discovered it not long ago, and the rabbit has been by my side the whole time.” Yu Sheng braced himself to continue fabricating. “I’m not really sure what happened, but I thought it would hurt you if you saw it, so I wanted to fix it before you noticed.”
“Since you’re not sure who did it, then it’s necessary to investigate properly,” Zhang Xiaotian seemed convinced. “Could you please help support me as we go? I want to fix my master’s grave and pay my respects.”
“Okay.” Yu Sheng slowly relaxed a bit, feeling emotional. After so many years, Zhang Xiaotian was still as trusting as ever, pure and straightforward.
Fortunately, as the main character, he was strong enough; ordinary people wouldn’t dare to deceive him. Otherwise, how could he have maintained such a pure heart for so long?
He helped Zhang Xiaotian to the grave, and Zhang Xiaotian let go, kneeling on one knee. His injured leg pained his knee, and he bent forward to maintain his balance, carefully propping up and fixing the tombstone, then meticulously wiping the dust off of it.
Finally, he took out one offering after another from his storage bag: sticky rice cakes, brown sugar cakes, osmanthus cakes, and fruit wines, rice wines, and sweet glutinous rice balls contained in various jars…
There were even some foods that were obviously unavailable for purchase, which he had mentioned during his time caring for the protagonist at the cliff’s bottom. For example, deep-fried milk, which he had only talked about making but hadn’t had the conditions or materials to prepare until Wen Jiu came. Yu Sheng didn’t know how Zhang Xiaotian had gotten hold of them.
Yu Sheng swallowed hard, suddenly realizing these were all his favorite snacks. “Hey, Young Master Zhang, your offerings are so abundant! Your master in the afterlife must be very touched.”
Zhang Xiaotian looked up, his gaze deep and his expression pained. “Unfortunately, he can no longer eat or drink… Master, I miss you so much. If you were still alive, I could honor you with these things, alas…”
Then he took a cup of fragrant wine nearby and poured it out at the grave without leaving a drop.
Yu Sheng also knelt beside him, his almond-shaped eyes misting over, feeling genuinely distressed. “Wah, he can’t eat or drink anymore…”
Zhang Xiaotian seemed moved as he looked at him. He filled another cup and handed it over. “Since the senior also misses the master…”
Yu Sheng’s eyes lit up. “Then I’ll drink to…”
Zhang Xiaotian mercilessly finished his sentence, then picked up another cup himself, demonstrating as he poured it out. “Let us pay our respects to the master together, so he can enjoy a good drink in the afterlife.”
Yu Sheng had no choice but to tremble as he poured the wine at the base of the tombstone, his heart filled with struggle. He sniffed back tears and then caught a whiff of the rich fragrance. “...Do we have to throw all this food away too?”
Deep-fried milk! That’s deep-fried milk! It’s not sold in any points mall! There’s none available outside the cliff either! I haven’t had it for almost a hundred years!!
Wasting food! What a waste! This is such a waste! The master never taught you this!
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