[Translation] Fate Chooses You (佳偶天成) by Shi Si Lang (十四郎): Chapter 3: She Meets Him Again

 

“Madam Steward, is the Fox Immortal Lord still angry at me?”

On a spring afternoon, Xin Mei sat inside the Purple Bamboo Pavilion surrounded by fragrant blossoms, eating rice noodles while questioning the stewardess beside her.

The stewardess remained perfectly calm.

“Boss Xin, rest assured. The Valley Master is not such a narrow-minded immortal.”

“Oh? Then why is he dressed like that today? And why does he keep turning around to glare at me?”

Xin Mei looked up toward the Fox Immortal sitting by the river opposite her, fishing.

He was dressed in an extremely manly suit of armor, a long saber hanging at his waist. Every incense stick’s worth of time, he would rise and pace majestically in front of her once, occasionally drawing his blade to slash dead branches or patches of grass. Whenever she looked his way, he would shoot her a viciously cold glare before casually sitting back down to fish again.

Come to think of it, yesterday while she was helping the new disciples train spirit beasts, he had also wandered around nearby from time to time. Yesterday he’d dressed like a wandering swordsman, even covering one eye with black cloth to pretend to be a one-eyed rogue.

And the day before that, he seemed to have been dressed as a celestial exorcist…

“He has a few special days every month. You’ll get used to it.”

People who served immortals daily truly were different. How could they stay so calm?

Xin Mei nodded admiringly and continued eating her noodles.

“Huh? Why is this little girl still here?”

A voice outside the pavilion suddenly rose sharply, sounding extremely rude.

Xin Mei turned and saw the immortal named Meishan approaching with a huge bundle of brightly colored spiritual flowers and herbs in his arms. He cast her an unfriendly glance.

That single look contained an impressively complicated mixture of embarrassment, humiliation, irritation, annoyance, and forced superiority — an emotional combination rarely found all together in ordinary humans.

“Spirit beasts aren’t talismans. You can’t deliver them one day and use them the next; someone has to train them. Those new disciples are all clumsy, so I asked her to stay and help.”

Zhen Hongsheng casually tossed the fish he had just caught back into the river while explaining.

When Meishan entered the pavilion, Xin Mei stood and bowed politely.

“Greetings, Lord Meishan.”

Meishan responded coldly with an “Mm.”

Just seeing her irritated him. She always reminded him of the humiliating scene from several days ago. To immortals, dignity was more important than heaven itself. Honestly, he wished she would disappear to the ends of the earth and never appear again.

A gust of wind carried the overwhelming smell of alcohol from him. Xin Mei continued eating noodles while casually saying:

“Lord Meishan, excessive drinking harms the body. You’re so thin and delicate — just like the skinny bamboo poles we use to dry laundry in my courtyard. You should really eat more.”

Meishan pressed a hand against his forehead, forcefully suppressing the bulging veins there.

He hated hearing words like “thin,” “weak,” “slender,” or “bamboo pole,” yet she had somehow managed to include every single taboo in one sentence.

Looking down at his own hand, he seriously considered whether he should strangle her.

“G-Greetings, Valley Master, Lord Meishan… Boss Xin…”

A timid voice suddenly came from outside the pavilion.

Xin Mei looked up and immediately brightened.

Quickly finishing the rest of her noodles, she jumped outside smiling.

“Brother Dahu! Need something?”

Zhang Dahu blushed shyly, his voice softer than a mosquito’s buzz.

“I only came to ask Boss Xin for guidance on training spirit beasts… That spirit monkey refuses to eat no matter what, and scratches me whenever I get close…”

“Oh, no problem. I’ll go help you take a look.”

Xin Mei immediately prepared to leave.

Behind her, Zhen Hongsheng coughed forcefully several times and glared at her icily.

“My disciples are not for sale.”

Xin Mei sighed.

Fine. If he wouldn’t sell, then he wouldn’t sell. What a pity — he would have made quite a good husband.

Watching the two walk away, the utterly confused Meishan asked:

“Sell what??”

Zhen Hongsheng reeled in a koi fish, still bitterly indignant.

“That little girl has taken a liking to the gate disciple Zhang Dahu. Says he’s an unparalleled handsome man.”

In truth, he was deeply resentful over Xin Mei’s distorted sense of beauty. She couldn’t distinguish beauty from ugliness at all! How could Zhang Dahu’s square plank-like face qualify as unparalleled beauty? Meanwhile, he himself was so incredibly handsome and elegant, yet she’d called him womanly.

Meishan recalled the gate disciple from earlier — a square, upright face as stiff and straight as a wooden board.

Mm. Unparalleled handsome man indeed…

He burst into laughter so hard he rolled around clutching his stomach.

Xin Mei stayed in Chongling Valley for half a month straight.

And so, unsurprisingly, one morning a little skylark fluttered down before her.

It was one of the tiny spirit beasts specially used by Xinxie Manor to deliver messages.

A note was tied to the skylark’s leg. Her father had written a hurried line:

How goes the matter of the son-in-law? In a little over one month you will turn sixteen. Before then, you must absolutely get married!

The final five words had been written in cinnabar ink, bright red and horrifying to behold.

Xin Mei suddenly felt rather guilty. Recently she really had become too relaxed. Chongling Valley had spoiled her with delicious food and beautiful scenery, and she had actually forgotten such an extremely important matter.

Filled with remorse, she returned to her room to pack her belongings and went that very day to bid farewell to Zhen Hongsheng.

This petty fox immortal still seemed resentful over what had happened half a month earlier.

He merely said:

“Send someone to notify Zhang Dahu that he is forbidden from gate duty today. Tell him to stay in his room so people will stop obsessing over him.”

Xin Mei looked up at him.

In order to emphasize his masculine aura, he now constantly wore a sword at his waist, a chest mirror over his heart, and a black velvet cloak over everything, looking as though he were about to head to war.

After considering carefully, she said:

“Fox Immortal Lord’s outfit today is indeed extremely heroic.”

Zhen Hongsheng instantly brightened, smiling ear to ear.

“You’ve finally developed some taste. Excellent, excellent!”

She continued:

“You look just like General Pengrong from the paintings — valiant and imposing.”

General Pengrong was a legendary invincible hero from ancient Qiong Kingdom lore.

Most importantly… she was a female general.

Zhen Hongsheng ran away in tears.

Xin Mei’s mood became wonderful again.

Carrying her bundle and taking Qiuyue along, she began flying back home.

It didn’t matter. There were plenty of towns along the way. Clearly, husbands were best purchased in places full of mortals. Immortals were all petty and unreliable.

Inside Chongling Valley, spring flourished brightly, but outside the valley endless rain poured down. Xin Mei hadn’t brought any waterproof talismans. Flying through weather like this on Qiuyue’s back would simply be asking for suffering.

Spotting a vast forest ahead, she quickly instructed Qiuyue to land atop the trees, then transformed the pelican into a talisman and tucked it into her robes.

The sky was already darkening. She likely wouldn’t reach a town today and would have to camp outdoors again.

Leaping lightly down from the treetop, she landed gracefully—

Directly into a puddle of muddy water.

Splash!

Mud sprayed across half her body.

Xin Mei casually brushed at her clothes without concern. This was one of her better qualities: unlike ordinary girls, she wasn’t obsessively particular about cleanliness.

If her senior sister from the manor got splashed with mud, she’d probably faint on the spot. That woman couldn’t even tolerate a speck of dust on her sleeve without shrieking dramatically.

Xin Mei removed her outer robe and found a dry place beneath a tree to hang it up with branches. She was even considering removing her inner robe to let it dry when she suddenly sensed something strange behind her.

Turning around, she saw a man standing beneath the opposite tree.

He held a wooden sword and a small carving knife in his hands. Wood shavings littered the ground around him.

Xin Mei froze.

The man made absolutely no attempt to avoid looking at her. He simply stared straight at her as though observing a wooden post.

And then…

His face and clothes seemed to be covered in the mud she had splashed moments earlier.

It was even dripping down the bridge of his nose.

Xin Mei stiffly turned around, picked up her robe from the drying rack, put it back on, then took out a handkerchief and walked over to offer it to him.

“…Sorry. I didn’t do it on purpose.”

It was an extremely sincere apology.

The man glanced at her, then at the handkerchief. He neither spoke nor accepted it, merely wiping his face with his sleeve before lowering his head to continue carving the wooden sword.

Poor thing. Was he perhaps a handsome man who was both deaf and mute?

Xin Mei looked at him a few more times.

But somehow… the more she looked, the more familiar he seemed.

Had she met him somewhere before?

Though his head was lowered, the uniquely deep yet gentle contours of his face were unlike those of ordinary people from Qiong Kingdom. He was also a full head taller than most men.

Occasionally he would lift the wooden sword before his eyes and run his fingers lightly along it, as though testing whether it felt suitable.

At moments like that, his refined features became clearly visible. There was a sharp, aloof dignity in his expression. Though he held only an unfinished wooden sword, he himself resembled a peerless blade on the verge of leaving its sheath — cold, radiant, and beautiful.

Uh…

The more she looked, the more familiar he became.

The wooden sword was quickly finished. The man brushed away the moisture from its blade and suddenly spoke.

“You cannot stay here tonight. It’s dangerous.”

His voice was cool and extraordinarily pleasant.

Xin Mei’s eyes widened.

This person…

This person—

Wasn’t he the very man who had struck her awake that night at the imperial mausoleum?!