The JJWXC raws are here. Please support Musuli if you can! The novel is very cheap to buy; this guide tells you how to use JJWXC.
---
Chapter 69: Dog Tag (IV)
Translator’s note / content warning (SPOILERS FOR CH 69):
In this chapter, Xue Xian regains the use of his legs and can walk again. He is very excited by this and the narration describes his former disability in slightly unfavorable terms.
---
"Speak." Xuanmin was still standing with his back to Xue Xian. As always, he spoke simply, his words direct.
The soldier seemed not to have expected them to agree so readily, or perhaps he was simply confused. He paused for a while, then said, "Could I... Could I please trouble the two of you to bring me to my home?" [a]
Stunned, Xue Xian peered out from behind Xuanmin and asked, "Your home?"
"Yes." The soldier nodded and slowly explained, "Earlier, I heard you mention Boji Mountain. My home happens to be on the sunny side of Boji Mountain –– a small village at its foot."
That really wasn't very far at all: all they had to do was leave the hollow and go around the mountain.
But...
Didn't you just say that, as soon as you became conscious, you heard us say we wanted to leave?! But now your story’s changed! When did you hear us say Boji Mountain? When did you become conscious? Xue Xian screamed in his head. He'd wanted to scream it out loud, but had then decided that it was best to keep as straight an expression as possible. He stiffened his back and stopped sticking his head out from behind Xuanmin to peek at the soldier.
"My parents and wife are still there. I thought... if you could bring my dog tag to them, they can at least have some closure," the soldier was saying. Thankfully, he was in a melancholy mood and did not notice Xue Xian's reaction to his previous words. He concentrated on speaking to Xuanmin, telling the story of how and when he'd come to join the military, and how many years it had been since he'd been home. He spoke in a rambling, stumbling manner, but it was not the irritating kind of rambling.
Xue Xian pressed his hands against the table. Initially, he was listening intently to everything the soldier was saying. But soon, with his eyes fixed on Xuanmin's back, he began to zone out again.
Then he suddenly realised that he had never seen Xuanmin’s back before.
At first, Xue Xian had been a paper man and was always hanging off the side of Xuanmin's hip. All Xuanmin had been able to see of Xue Xian had been the top of his head, and when Xue Xian had looked up, he’d mainly seen the bottom of Xuanmin's chin. Then, Xue Xian had become a golden marble, and he’d had far fewer opportunities to even peek his head out of the pouch. After he'd gotten his original body back, he had been either a tiny creature coiled around Xuanmin's wrist or an enormous, mountain-sized beast coiled around Xuanmin’s whole body. And even when Xue Xian had been in his human form, he had usually been carried in Xuanmin's arms, and had liked to cover his face with a black cloth. Next, he’d gotten a wheelchair and become able to go around by himself, but he'd always insisted on being at the front of the group...
All in all, as Xue Xian looked back now, he realised that he only ever saw Xuanmin from all sorts of weird angles –– never so normally as now. Indeed, it was instead Xue Xian’s back that Xuanmin often saw.
He had to admit, this was an excellent angle to be viewed at: no matter how uncontrolled the expression in your eyes was, the other person would never be able to see, which meant you didn’t have to worry about making things awkward.
Xuanmin's shoulders were very wide. From beneath that thin white robe, they appeared sturdy and muscular. He was even taller than Xue Xian had assumed: he was able to completely block someone behind him and inhibit their entire line of sight.
A back like this gave Xue Xian the urge to get closer.
Xue Xian's hands on the desk twitched, but before he could raise them, he heard the soldier finish his story and say to Xuanmin, "I beg you to allow me this final request. When I return to the earth, I will serve you hand and foot––" [b]
"No need," Xuanmin said coolly, interrupting the man. "You have not yet entered the resurrection cycle, and mustn't speak nonsense."
The soldier thought that Xuanmin had denied him. He became panic-stricken and began to blubber.
Xuanmin added, "We will tidy up here, and then bring you back."
The soldier thanked him profusely.
Xue Xian placed his hands back onto the table, pressing down. Thanks to the nature of his position, with Xue Xian staring at Xuanmin’s back and thus avoiding awkward eye contact, Xue Xian’s unease from before had diluted a little. He asked, "You're just taking that one book?"
"No need. I've memorised the contents." Xuanmin glanced at him, then suddenly turned around and walked over. "It is almost wu geng. By the time we take this soldier back to his home, it will be sunrise."
Now that they were face to face, the afterglow from earlier surged back up again within Xue Xian.
Xuanmin was avoiding Xue Xian’s gaze. As he reached out to take Xue Xian into his arms again, Xue Xian automatically complied, although his entire body had become tense and as stiff as a board.
But as soon as Xue Xian’s body came into contact with Xuanmin's robe, he suddenly realised. He said, "My legs have healed."
As he’d spoken, he'd abruptly raised his head, and now there was a thud as he bumped his head right into Xuanmin's chin.
Xue Xian hissed unhappily, but before he could do anything else, a hand came down onto the part of his head that had been bumped. A thumb even rubbed gently over that spot.
"A dragon's head isn't so easily dented. I was hissing for you," Xue Xian said. After the nonsense that had occurred before, this was the aftermath: every slight touch from Xuanmin was impossible to ignore. Xue Xian kept his tense neck completely frozen, and he allowed Xuanmin to pat his head a little longer before he stiffly said, "Did you bite down on your tongue?"
"It is fine," Xuanmin replied. He took his hand away and took a step back, his gaze falling on Xue Xian's legs swinging down from the edge of the table. "Did you say your legs had healed?"
Xue Xian nodded. "Earlier, you gave me your copper coin pendant for me to heal with. At some point in the evening, I came to and realised I had actually successfully healed them, but I didn't... get the chance to say..."
Damn his reckless mouth. Before Xue Xian had realised what he was saying, he'd already given most of it away, so he’d had no choice but to finish his sentence.
Didn't get the chance to say...
And why hadn't he had the chance to say? Because the night had taken an indecent turn.
You really know exactly the right thing to say, don't you? thought Xue Xian.
He looked away and put on a casual tone. "So basically, first of all my legs are fine now, and second of all I'm going to shut up now. So there." He pursed his lips tightly, as though he wished he could simply fuse his lips together and never speak again.
Xuanmin uttered a deep “Mn,” signalling that he had heard Xue Xian.
Before that weird atmosphere could rise back up again, Xuanmin was already walking toward the prayer mat and putting the books he'd flipped back onto the bookcase.
Xue Xian stole a glance at him, then quickly looked away. He gritted his teeth and pressed his hands against the table, then tried to move his legs.
He could move them!
Of course he could move them... He'd already moved earlier, when he had parted his knees to let Xuanmin move closer.
As Xue Xian cursed himself, he brought his feet down to the ground and pushed himself up from the table.
Obviously, a pair of legs that had spent half a year completely paralysed and that could now move just a little could not necessarily hold up the entire weight of a person.
Xue Xian's knees immediately buckled, and he almost crumpled to the ground in a most humiliating manner. But as he stumbled, a hand instantly shot out to grip his wrist. The hand's palm faced up so that it steadily supported his weight. The grip was strong and firm, and held him so tightly that the knuckles on the back of that hand protruded from the tension.
"Weren't you tidying the books?" Xue Xian said, shocked. "Do you have eyes on the back of your head now?"
Xuanmin did not answer that question. Instead, he frowned and said, "How could you fall?"
"I could fly into the sky fine. Why are there so many obstacles to walking on the ground?" Xue Xian muttered unhappily.
As he leaned against Xuanmin, he tried to direct more strength into his legs. Those legs, which had not felt anything for six months, now slowly began to feel a tingling numbness, like countless fine needles had been stuck into each and every one of his nerves.
It was a highly uncomfortable feeling, but Xue Xian was overjoyed. Because as the prickling feeling gradually disappeared, those legs that had slumbered for so long were now truly awake.
"I can walk again," Xue Xian said to Xuanmin, looking both amazed and at a loss.
He used Xuanmin's hand as a support to lift each of his legs and twist his ankles, working away the last of the numbness. Then, he tried to take a step.
"I really can walk again." As Xue Xian spoke, he sounded as though he were in a dream –– part of him could barely believe it, as though he had been gifted with something extraordinary.
A divine dragon who was naturally arrogant and stubborn, who was used to flying high into the sky to frolic among storm clouds, was now utterly taken aback by something so small and simple –– it really was rather unbelievable.
As he raised his head to look back at Xuanmin, Xue Xian noticed that, at some point and for some reason, Xuanmin had begun to gaze at his face.
"What's wrong with my face?" Xue Xian demanded. Dragging himself out of that state of wonder and excitement, he raised a hand to touch his face. "Do I look stupid right now? If someone had broken your legs and made them paralysed for half a year, your reaction would probably be even worse than mine..." he said, half in self-deprecation, half in mockery.
Having been caught in the act, Xuanmin slowly looked away. "Take a few more steps," he said. "I'll support you."
Xue Xian was so invested in the joy of getting his legs back that he did not notice that there was a rare layer of warmth in Xuanmin's tone.
It was clear now that the zuzong’s physicality was indeed different from humans'. Those legs that hadn't moved for half a year needed only a few more steps to regain some more strength, and soon began to move as though they had never been paralysed at all. Only Xue Xian himself knew that, inside his body, there were still bones missing. The fact that he could walk now was all thanks to the golden threads drawn out by Xuanmin's pendant.
But those threads were ultimately still prosthetics, and would not last very long. If Xue Xian wanted to fully heal, he still needed to find those missing vertebrae...
So what? At least now he could walk, and he could run. Just this small fact made Xue Xian happy. He felt as though he had finally been relieved of an impossibly heavy load, and that feeling was enough to bury all of his previous emotions.
He had even forgotten all about the awkwardness. Steadily, he walked up the stairs and returned outside, where he pointed at the wheelchair and jutted his chin out at Xuanmin, saying, "I'll give this to you as a present. Perhaps in fifty years you'll need it."
Xuanmin: “…”
If Xuanmin continued to let the niezhang roam all about the room with nowhere to expend his newfound energy, he was bound to start saying even more absurd things. Xuanmin did not delay: he brought the dazed soldier's spirit with him and walked out of the mountain hollow with Xue Xian.
The two were not afraid of the poisonous fog, and the soldier, who was not alive, was naturally not afraid either.
So they were out of Boji Mountain in no time. They followed the foot of the mountain and headed toward the village on the south side.
Although the mountain hollow was covered in fog, the other side was in fact clean and clear. On that rare night without any rain nor snow, a crescent of silver moon hung above the mountain peak and cast a white glow across the land.
When Xue Xian walked, his steps were subtle and steady. His pace was neither hurried nor too slow, and he made no noise at all. The way he walked was highly different from his usual troublesome personality, and in fact far more similar to Xuanmin.
As they walked along the mountain road, that thin black robe of Xue Xian’s rippled lightly in the breeze and sometimes glided over the long stalks of grass pushing out of the soil. Half of his lanky silhouette was outlined by the white light of the moon, and the other half was submerged in the inky darkness of the night, as black as his robes.
Xue Xian and Xuanmin walking side by side made quite the uncanny pair: one white, one black. Even looking at them sent chills down the soldier’s spine.
Halfway through their journey, the wu geng bells and drums had rung out all across Qingping County. Successive ringing sounds reached out from the center of the xian cheng. In the outskirts of the village south of the mountain, the clucks of chickens and the barks of dogs began to sound out, one after the other.
By the time the group arrived at the village gate, most of the inhabitants were already awake and the sound of murmurs could be heard beyond.
The group had a resentful spirit with them, and, although he was a frail, wispy thing of a ghost, they were still bound to scare the villagers. So before they entered the village, in order to avoid unnecessary hassle and delay them further, Xue Xian cast a spell on the three of them so that no person or animal could see or hear them. They were hidden.
"Where's your house?" Xue Xian asked.
The soldier pointed a finger ahead. "If we follow this street, there is a pond over there, and we can follow it around. My house is behind it."
"Let's go, then," Xue Xian said –– but, suddenly, he heard a gloomy sighing noise somewhere close by.
That sudden sigh was highly startling, especially in contrast to the peaceful streets of the village.
Next, someone in the village screamed, provoking more shouts and murmurs as people rushed over to help them. Amid the chaos, someone's dog also began to bark furiously, and was quickly joined by a chorus of other crazed, terrified dogs.
Yet, that melancholy sigh was not at all unfamiliar to Xue Xian.
He looked up and scoffed. "You really know how to pick a time."
---
The author has something to say:
The updates from these few days are not super long. Mainly I’m trying to deal with the jetlag from my all-nighters. Updates will start getting longer again soon, kiss~
---
[a] 老家 (lao3 jia1), literally “old home”, means one’s hometown or place of origin.
[b] 做牛做马 (zuo4 niu2 zuo4 ma3), literally “be a cow, be a horse” is a phrase that means to perform every type of labor or task for someone as their servant.
This chapter was beta’d by Rogue!
No comments:
Post a Comment