Chapter 200 - 126: The Saintess Is No Longer Saintly

Chapter 200: Chapter 126: The Saintess Is No Longer Saintly

...

"Are you really going to build a road for us?" Ah Hu asked from beside him.

"Of course. You’re the twenty-ninth person to ask me that," Su Ran said, sipping his rice wine. "I’ll say it again: I keep my word. I’m not here just to eat, drink, and have fun for free."

"Oh..." Ah Hu nodded. "Then what’s your relationship with Yiren?"

"Friends. Just regular friends."

"That’s good, then."

"Hm?" Su Ran glanced at Ah Hu. ’He has a girlfriend, but he’s still thinking about Xie Yiren? "That’s good"? Sounds like he thinks being ’just friends’ is the best we can be.’

Ah Hu smiled. "Did Yiren not tell you about her status?"

"What status? The village chief’s granddaughter?"

"Er... It’s nothing. Come on, drink up." ’Since Yiren hasn’t revealed her identity as the Saintess, she must have her reasons,’ Ah Hu thought, so he didn’t dare say more.

Still, he felt he had to give the uninformed man a warning.

"Boss Su, it’s best if you just stay friends with Yiren. Don’t get any closer. Don’t ask why, just trust me on this. Come on, let’s drink! We’re not going home until we’re drunk!"

Su Ran: ???

...

Next came another round of toasts. Swept up in everyone’s enthusiasm, Su Ran thought, ’If I get drunk, so be it. It’s not every day I get to be this happy.’ But Xie Yiren didn’t see it that way. She came over and urged everyone to stop pressuring him to drink.

Feeling a little dizzy, Su Ran said, "It’s fine! Everyone’s having a good time. Come on, let’s drink!"

"No more drinking," Xie Yiren whispered to him. "If you get drunk, you might lose control, and I won’t let you sleep in my arms."

After all, if Su Ran got drunk, wouldn’t she be the one to suffer?

"I have excellent self-control. That kind of thing won’t happen."

"You think I’d bet my virtue on your self-control?"

"..."

"Fine, go ahead and drink. You said your self-control is good, so drink up. I’ll just bring a pair of scissors with me tonight. If you lose control, I’ll snip it right off!"

Hearing this, he put his wine cup down. "I’m not drinking anymore. I really can’t have another drop, or I’ll actually get drunk. I’ll finish this one, but after that, everyone drink as you please."

Xie Yiren let out a satisfied chuckle and nodded. "Come on, I’ll teach you how to do our local dance. Don’t be shy, let’s go~"

...

The singing stopped, the dancing ended, and the banquet was over. Everyone returned home to get some sleep.

Su Ran, Xie Yiren, and Ah Weng returned to the stilt house compound. Su Ran’s room was in the stilt house across the courtyard, separate from Xie Yiren and Ah Weng.

"I drank too much. I’m getting sleepy. Good night." Su Ran stretched, returned to his small building to sleep, and Xie Yiren and Ah Weng went back to their house and closed the main door.

Ah Weng went to his room to change into his sleepwear. When he came out for a drink of water, he saw Xie Yiren boiling more water. "Yiren, are you going to take a bath on a cold day like this?"

"Mhm."

"Let me boil the water for you."

"No, no, Ah Weng, you’re tired too. You should go back to your room and sleep. Don’t worry about me."

Although Xie Yiren wasn’t his biological granddaughter, she was very filial.

Ah Weng sat down beside her, lit his long-stemmed pipe, and said with heartache, "Yiren, the people in the village are too feudal. They’re still clinging to that old-fashioned Saintess System. It’s really made you suffer."

Xie Yiren poked the fire with a pair of tongs, rested her head on her knees, and said, "It’s okay. This is just my fate."

"Sigh... If it becomes too much, you should just leave and not come back. You’re still young. You deserve your own happiness. They can’t take your life away from you."

"I’m not leaving. I’ll stay in the village. Besides..." Xie Yiren smiled. "It’s okay if I can’t have a lover."

Ah Weng didn’t say anything more. With a sigh, he got up and went back to his room.

Xie Yiren sighed, lost in a young woman’s private thoughts.

This was a very ancient Miao Clan tribe deep in a primeval forest, one that still followed a traditional Saintess System. The so-called Saintess was, in essence, a spiritual belief—similar to a living Buddha—worshipped and revered by the faithful.

In gaining the most revered status, she naturally had to give some things up—for example, love.

The Saintess was sacred and inviolable. If someone were to defile the Saintess—to make her no longer "saintly"—it would be tantamount to stealing the faith of everyone in this ancient village. It was a very serious matter.

Of course, in modern society, this would seem absurd and inhumane. But every tribe has its traditions and customs, and small, deep-mountain tribes like this one were especially feudal and stubborn.

In truth, Xie Yiren could have completely ignored this inhumane custom. She could have walked out of these mountains, never returned to this godforsaken place, and dated whomever she pleased. But she was someone who couldn’t bear to leave her hometown, so she was unwilling to do so. She preferred to use her special status to help the villagers prosper, which she felt was a way of living up to her duty as ’Saintess’.

However...

Then again, a girl sometimes needs a man’s encouragement. If she were to meet her ’peerless hero,’ and he wasn’t afraid, then Xie Yiren wouldn’t be afraid either. At worst, she would risk it all and give up this status.

She glanced at the stilt house across the way. ’Could he be the one?’

GURGLE... The water finally came to a boil.

She poured it into a bucket of cold water, carried it back to her room, and closed the door. She stripped naked, then ladled a scoop of warm water over her neck, letting it trail down her curvaceous skin and drip onto the floor.

「Meanwhile.」

Having had the foresight to know there’d be no internet and nothing to do at night, Su Ran had brought his Steam Deck and was now playing *The Witcher 3* to pass the time.

KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK. There was a knock on the door.

"Come in."

CREAK~

Xie Yiren pushed the door open and slipped inside, closing it behind her. She watched as Su Ran, without even looking up, continued to lie back on the bed playing his game. He even patted the empty space beside him.

"..."

’His attitude makes it seem like I’m here to provide some kind of "room service."’

’A bombshell with a baby face just got out of the shower and came to your room, and you’re just playing video games?’

She walked over and snatched the handheld console from him.