“Brother Hao, are you awake?” Li Yiruo offered a dazzling smile.
Ding Hao opened his mouth and felt a little groggy. He sat up propping against the stone bench with his hands. He found that after the revelry the whole yard was in a mess. He didn’t even know where Wang Xiaoqi and the others were. Only Li Yiruo and he were in the yard.
There was a touch of tiredness in between her eyebrows. Apparently she did not sleep well.
“You… didn’t sleep at all?” Without any reason, Ding Hao suddenly took pity on her, and he couldn’t help but hold her hands.
There was a slight flush on Li Yiruo’s cheeks. However, she did not withdraw her hands and allowed Ding Hao to hold her fine and smooth little hands. She smiled and said, “You drank too much last night and kept vomiting. You also yelled some strange names. All the others left, and senior brother Li Lan asked me to stay and take care of you, in case you caught a cold!”
“Li Lan?”
Ding Hao was shocked for a while. He wondered what Li Lan was planning. “He knows that my Qi cultivation has almost reached the level of Primordial Grandmaster. Even if I sleep on an ice block, I’ll be fine. Why would he purposefully ask Li Yiruo to take care of me?”
Ding Hao held the girl’s hands on impulse. He felt as if he were holding the best thing in the world. Her soft and smooth hands were so fascinating. Ding Hao wanted to loosen her hands, but then he thought it was inappropriate to do so. He didn’t know what to say for a while. Then Ding Hao slowly sat up and said casually, “Oh, Did I say a lot of strange names? What did I say?”
“For example, you said, ‘One who doesn’t know Wu Tenglan watched those adult… movies in vain’, ‘Jobs died too young’, ‘You must eat salty bean curd jelly’, ‘Burn these homosexuals’, ‘My broadsword is ready for battle’, ‘For Demacia’, ‘To the field of justice’ and so on.” Li Yiruo who had a good memory imitated what Ding Hao said vividly.
Immediately Ding Hao broke out in a sweat.
“Demacia something is alright. How could I even say Tenglan out loud? Fortunately this girl doesn’t know what adult movies are, otherwise the image of a successful young person that I have been maintaining for a long time could have been destroyed,” Ding Hao thought.
“Oh, then I didn’t say anything strange?” Ding Hao said diffidently.
Li Yiruo shook her head and said firmly, “No.”
“Oh, that’s good.” Ding Hao sighed with relief and gently loosened the girl’s slender hands. He went to the well to wash his face and then felt refreshed.
Li Yiruo turned around and picked up the broom to clean the messy yard.
Ding Hao turned and saw that scene. It reached into the tenderest part of his heart.
He was not that hardhearted.
“For such a long time, this girl had been as lofty as a princess. The girl who was admired by almost all male nominal disciples of the five academies was used to be condescending to everything. However, since when did she swallow her pride and started to contribute quietly?”
She brought him special meals, risked her life to save Zhang Fan, beat Jiang Feng angrily, and endured staying in the gloomy and cold prison…
She did all those for whom?
When they had first met, she was arrogant and domineering. For whom did she change completely within a year?
“Leave that alone,” Ding Hao took the broom from Li Yiruo’s hand and threw it aside. “Yiruo, I’ll walk you home. Have a good rest.”
“Okay.” The beautiful girl nodded in obedience without saying anything else. Then she walked out of the yard with Ding Hao.
The previous night had long passed.
However; it seemed that time had accelerated and decades had cycled in the big yard of nominal disciples.
When Ding Hao walked out of the gate, he was surprised to find that the busy five academies had turned desolate overnight. Articles of daily use were everywhere and some of them were flying in the wind. There were only a few people straggling in the street.
There was no rushing for cultivation, no congregation in the Hall of Military Affairs, nor growling from the instructors…
It seemed that it had turned into an empty city overnight.
Ding Hao knew that it was because many people had failed in the end. They had to end their career as nominal disciples and leave the Swordsmanship-seeking Sect dejectedly. The entire area of the five academies would be emptied for the next batch of nominal disciples.
Another round was about to begin.
During that time, people were inclined to feel sad.
It was unknown when Li Yiruo’s fine little hand held Ding Hao’s palm again. Everything was very natural. They didn’t say anything, and walked side by side along the shadowy path. Trees had already unfolded their leaves, the green grass on both sides the path was extremely beautiful.
Ding Hao had never felt so calm before.
They had arrived at the number eight academy from the Western Academy of red shirts before they knew it.
Li Yiruo had been living there for a year.
Ding Hao was surprised to find that Li Yiruo had gone to his academy for countless times, but that was the first time he went to her place.
When they were at the gate, two beautiful girls in red robes were coming out of the academy.
There were several dignified male disciples following them, whose manners were good. Obviously, they were the young geniuses who had succeeded and stayed in the Sect. Among them there was Fang Tianyi in a bluish robe. They came out from the Academy with large packages while laughing happily.
“Qingtan, Tianyin, are you moving out so soon?” Li Yiruo asked.
Li Yiruo stepped forward quickly. Those two girls were her roommates, who were in the list of the top 200. It was not bad for them to enter the inner core of the Swordsmanship-seeking Sect.
They had been living together for a year. Their relationships were good. Li Yiruo felt really sad when seeing them leave.
“Hey, Yiruo, you are finally back. We have been waiting for you since last night. How come you didn’t come back to us? How could you forget our appointment? You ditched friends for a boy,” Tianyin complained, seemingly dissatisfied. She was a cute little girl with a chubby face.
Li Yiruo showed a slight regret.
Indeed, the three little girls had planned to have a heart-to-heart talk the previous night. Who knew she had to take care of a drunken Ding Hao all night. She almost missed the opportunity to say goodbye to her two roommates.
