Chapter 626: Ch 626 - Sweet Potatoes Aren’t Eaten Like That

Set down those destiny and chains, and live for the path you choose for yourself.

Wen Ruzhi stepped out of the courtyard, replaying in her mind the words that annoying boy had once said to her.

She pushed open the gate and found herself once again on the bustling street of the Northern Alley of the Imperial Capital, surrounded by the press of passing people.

For a moment Wen Ruzhi felt strangely emptied out, her shoulders lighter than they had ever been. And yet deep inside there was still only hollowness and loneliness.

"But... what is my dao?"

"Now that I’m free of the clan’s hold, what am I supposed to do..."

The girl stood in the middle of the street, dazzled by the bright lanterns lining the way.

She pulled up the hood of her black robe and walked on without aim, drifting along with the flow of people.

At some point near the end of the street, Wen Ruzhi’s gaze caught on a familiar young man’s back.

Only this time, unlike on the Dao Testing Pavilion, the young man was surrounded by a handful of bright, lively girls.

"Senior brother, senior brother, I want to eat this one!"

A young girl in green clung to his hand, eyes shining as she pointed at a roasting stove by the roadside.

Beside him, a white-haired girl wrapped in a jade brocade cloak puffed up. "What’s that? What’s that? I wants to try one too!"

"What kind of food is this? It looks dirty... but it smells so good!"

The white-haired girl pressed in close after the first.

Behind them, a girl with charming features in a peach-colored dress mocked, "She doesn’t even know what the food of the common folk looks like. Your Majesty really is the one who asks why the poor don’t eat meat porridge."

"Aiya, young misses, these are roasted sweet potatoes. Would you like to give one a try?"

The old man at the stove set down his work and greeted them warmly when he saw the noble guests.

The young man in white smiled faintly and drew a few copper coins from his sleeve.

"Give them four sweet potatoes to share."

"Right away, sir!"

The girls took the steaming sweet potatoes from the vendor, then linked arms with the young man on either side, chatting and laughing as the whole group set off east toward the fireworks gala.

Wen Ruzhi stood by the road in silence, watching them disappear into the distance.

"Sweet potato..."

She softly repeated the word the young man had used. She did not know what it was, but the sweet fragrance alone set her stomach growling.

Wen Ruzhi drew a deep breath, slipped through the crowd, and stopped at the same stall the young man had just left.

"Young miss, what would you like? I have flatbread, baked potatoes, baked taro..."

"Roasted sweet potato."

She lifted her small chin with a firm voice. Beneath the hood her Purple Phantom Dual Pupils watched the old man with an oddly nervous focus.

"Roasted sweet potato, right away, young miss!"

The vendor was quick. In moments he wrapped a fresh one in oil paper.

Wen Ruzhi pulled out a silver ingot and handed it to him, then took the steaming sweet potato and cradled it against her chest, falling into a strange daze.

Aoww...

Without bothering to blow on it, she lowered her head and bit down.

Sweetness, threaded with a faint bitterness, brought back a memory she had not touched in years, of being held in her mother’s arms and fed as a child...

"It’s..... good..."

She did not understand why, but as she savored the sweetness in her mouth, tears welled at the corners of her eyes against her will.

Just then the vendor’s voice came again, flustered.

"Young miss! This ingot is far too valuable. A small business like mine can’t make change for it!"

The vendor’s voice broke into Wen Ruzhi’s thoughts.

She lifted her head at the sound, and the sight of her tear-streaked, red-rimmed face left him momentarily stunned.

"Aiya, aiya, young miss, please don’t cry... I’ll go to the next stall and borrow change for you, all right?"

The old man scrambled for words.

Then a set of footsteps came to a stop behind her.

"No need for change, old man. It’s only a few coppers. I’ll cover it for her."

The young man’s voice was gentle, calm, and easy. But to Wen Ruzhi’s ears it struck like thunder in a silent night.

In almost the same instant, beneath her black robe, her body gave a small shiver, as if it had grown a reflexive answer to his voice. In a single heartbeat every wall around her heart was breached, inside and out.

"Here."

The young man spoke again, light and unhurried.

He reached out from behind her, and the height difference let his pale arm pass easily by her face. A row of teeth marks ran along that arm as he handed the copper coins to the vendor.

Those were her teeth marks, left when she had bitten down on him in helpless fury during the tournament.

"Right away! Young miss, please keep your ingot!"

The old man took the three copper coins and handed the silver ingot back to the hooded girl with the sweet potato cradled in her arms, smiling all the while.

Wen Ruzhi took the ingot, but kept her head down, refusing to turn around.

She simply stood there.

A light rain began to fall from the night sky, drumming softly against her black hood. The water trailed down and dripped onto the roasted sweet potato in her arms.

Click.

Yino quietly opened an umbrella, shielding the girl with the sweet potato from the rain.

"Why..."

She kept her head bowed, her front teeth pressing into her lower lip as a faint tremor ran through her.

Yino did not answer. He simply reached down and took the roasted sweet potato from her arms.

Wen Ruzhi’s eyes flew wide, as if the sweet memory of her mother were being snatched away with it. Anxious, she finally turned around.

"This sweet potato is meant to be peeled before you eat it. You don’t even know that?"

Yino sighed and quietly began peeling the skin for her. "You just bit straight through the burnt skin. No wonder it was bitter enough to make you cry..."

Even as he spoke, he stripped away the upper half of the peel and pressed the sweet potato back into her arms.

The rain pattered down.

Wen Ruzhi cradled the sweet potato again and bent her head for another bite.

Sure enough, this time there was only sweetness, with none of the choking bitterness from before. It tasted exactly like the sweet bites her mother had once fed her as a child.

"Yino, you little thief, how dare you ditch this one and run off to sneak sweet potatoes by yourself!"

"Senior brother, isn’t this girl the one from before..."

A handful of girls’ voices drifted up behind him.

They had caught up, peeking around Yino with a careful sort of curiosity, gathering around Wen Ruzhi to study the mysterious girl wrapped in the black hooded cloak, a roasted sweet potato held to her chest, her eyes red.

"It’s no fun playing alone. Want to come watch the fireworks gala with us?"

Yino spoke lightly and held out his hand.

Wen Ruzhi’s purple pupils froze for a heartbeat, a faint glimmer of moisture reflecting in their depths. She cautiously glanced over the bright, varied faces of the girls around Yino, and then at last, in disbelief, lifted her head to meet his eyes.

Almost without thinking, Wen Ruzhi reached out her hand.

But just then Yino withdrew his. A flicker of indifference crossed his eyes as he flicked his sleeve and turned to leave.

"Forget it then, if you don’t want to."

The words had barely left him when Wen Ruzhi rushed forward two steps and caught his arm.

"I, I’ll go..."

"And where do you want to go?" A trace of amusement glinted in Yino’s eyes.

"I don’t know..."

Wen Ruzhi kept her head bowed, her voice barely a whisper, yet the jade hand gripping his sleeve clung tight.

A flicker of softness crossed her dual pupils, then steadied into something firmer. She drew in a deep breath and swallowed back every tear that had not yet fallen. "Wherever you go..."

"To watch the fireworks, then?"

"Mn."

...

...

...

Frost Palace.

Moon Origin Sacred Land, Biluo Qing Hall.

At the far end of the hall, the silver-haired lady’s spirit body opened her Moon Pupils atop the Jade Platform.

Before those Moon Pupils, with their faint trace of divinity, came another flawless moon Lady whose features were carved from almost the same mold, stepping forward with a light tread.

"All these years, proud as you are, like me, you’ve rarely come to see me."

Atop the Jade Platform the Silver Moon Lady spoke in a cool, clear voice.

Her Moon Pupils narrowed slightly with a flicker of curiosity. "Well? Have you run into a wall in your trials among mortals, and come to me for guidance?"