Translated by XephiZ
Edited by Aelryinth
—
The bar at the relay station was surprisingly crowded. Many men that had come so far away from their homes to work here could not resist the urge to share their hard-earned money with the unfamiliar yet friendly ladies in the bar.
Mu Bai felt extremely uncomfortable in his seat. He had an urge to leave, but the lady sitting beside him kept taking the initiative to talk to him. She had a depressed look when she saw the cold look on his face. “Do you despise girls like me?”
“No, not at all; I’m just not used to coming to a place like this,” Mu Bai explained quickly.
“Then why aren’t you drinking? I’ve already given you three toasts. Look at how much fun they are having,” the lady with light eyeliner said.
The lady was very young, in her twenties. Her makeup was a little clumsy, slightly spoiling her rather good-looking face. Mu Bai had spent most of his time on his cultivation, and rarely had the time to go on dates. He did not know what to do when a woman suddenly approached him.
Meanwhile, Mo Fan and Zhao Manyan were like regular customers of the bar. They continued to drink while playing with dice and yelling out numbers. Mu Bai had no idea how the game worked. He only knew the loser had to empty a glass of beer, so they were drinking at quite an insane pace.
They had important work to do tomorrow. Were they not worried they would mess it up if they drank too much? The two ladies that were drinking along with them seemed a little shy at first, but after around ten minutes, they were laughing out loud while hanging their arms around one another. It looked like four men were drinking instead.
Mu Bai was having a hard time enjoying himself, maintaining a certain distance from the lady beside him. He was mindful of his words, too. To his relief, the lady could tell that Mu Bai was from a well-educated family of the city, since his temperament was different from those who had grown up in the mountains like them. She could not help but feel inferior around him. It was not like she had never met customers like him, but most of them only treated her as a tool to vent their desires. They would just pay her after the job without treating her seriously.
Mo Fan suddenly turned around and asked seriously, “Mu Bai, don’t tell me you’re still a virgin?”
The other two ladies giggled as Mu Bai blushed. He felt so awkward that he was lost for words.
Even he did not expect that he would remain single for so many years. It was mainly because he had lost his passion and anticipation for sex after everything he he had gone through. He had placed all his focus on becoming stronger, as if he was trying to run away from something.
He used to look down at Mo Fan because of how vulgar and lowly the man was. However, when he saw them having so much fun with the women, he was slightly jealous of how free and unconstrained they were.
“Should we go for a walk instead? I know a nice spot. There’s nothing much in the mountains, but at least the air is very refreshing,” the hostess with light eyeliner said.
“Mm, sure,” Mu Bai immediately agreed to the suggestion, since he was feeling uncomfortable in the bar. He had never been to a place like this before.
Bo City had been built on a mountain too, but its terrain was gentler, unlike the steep and jagged mountains and hills of Kunlun Mountain…
Mu Bai followed the woman to get her purse before leaving the bar. He caught a glimpse of a familiar face in a little booth with curtains. He did not recognize who the person was, as the lighting was too dark. The person was most likely in the booth because he did not want anyone to recognize him.
—
The woman brought Mu Bai to the outskirts of the relay station. She had obviously grown up here since she had led Mu Bai along a mountain path that most people did not know existed. They went along the narrow mountain path that was covered in moss and found themselves at the spacious top of a mountain with a clear view. It was an uncultivated land with no factories and constructions. Mu Bai took a deep breath and immediately felt the phlegm stuck in his throat dissolving. The air was cool and refreshing. He could even feel it purifying his lungs.
“I like to come here whenever I’m feeling down when I was a kid. The view of the valley, the glowing stars in the sky, the pleasant scent of the flowers, and the chirps of the insects make me forget all my troubles,” the woman said.
“Mm, it’s very comfortable here,” the night breeze blew the fringe in front of Mu Bai’s forehead up, revealing his face. He preferred to keep his fringe long to cover his eyebrows and forehead. It made him feel more secure.
The woman stared at Mu Bai’s fac, dazzled. She spoke after a while, “You’re very good-looking.”
“Good-looking? Isn’t that normally used to describe women?” Mu Bai was startled.
“Mmm… but men can be good-looking too, like you, clean and handsome,” the woman said.
Mu Bai smiled. He was quite pleased by the compliment. It had been a long time since anyone described him like that. Most people only described him as gloomy and quiet over the years.
“Are you feeling troubled? Why is your brow furrowed all the time?” the woman said. She took a step forward and fondled Mu Bai’s brow. “Look, there are already lines here.”
Mu Bai took a step back. He was not used to such intimate interaction. He was used to being on the alert.
However, he quickly noticed the disappointment on the woman’s face. He said apologetically, “Sorry, it’s just my normal reaction…”
“Is it really difficult for you to trust someone? Or you just don’t like women like me touching you?” the woman asked.
“Something happened before, so I can’t get myself to trust anyone, including those who are the closest to me,” Mu Bai said.
“Oh? May I ask what happened?” the woman asked.
“I prefer you not to,” Mu Bai shook his head.
“Did your close ones leave you? I noticed that you are wearing a bracelet on your hand. It’s very old-fashioned, but you seemed afraid to let it get dirty in the bar,” the woman asked.
“My mother used to wear it. She passed away two years ago,” Mu Bai said.
He rarely mentioned that to anyone, but for some reason, he was willing to share it with the woman. Perhaps it was because he was at a remote place, and everyone was a complete stranger to him. Even if he told someone, it would not reveal the grief in his heart.
After the Calamity of the Ancient Capital, Mu He was sentenced to death, and his mother had passed away in sorrow. He was suddenly left alone in the world. Every time he closed his eyes, he would see a head covered in blood rolling down a flight of stairs. The head would face him and glare at him before grunting, “I treated you like my own son; why did you betray me still!?”
Even his mother was not willing to accept the truth, right up to the moment she closed her eyes forever. He was alone now; he had nowhere to go, and cultivating had become the only source of oxygen for him.
Mu Bai was confident that Mu He was Great Deacon Hujin, but he also knew that the man had never tried to set him up. Otherwise, Mu He would not have brought Yu Ang to Mu Zhuoyun, but him instead!
“Have you seen the stars before?” the woman asked.
“I have,” Mu Bai said.
“I’m referring to the sight of stars filling up the sky like grapes hanging all around us. I’ve been to some of the cities before, but I noticed there aren’t as many stars there. It’s very beautiful; it feels like you’re lying in the middle of them,” the woman said, lifting her gaze.
Mu Bai lifted his gaze too, but unfortunately, he could not see any stars since it was a cloudy night. Mu Bai was struggling to imagine the sight that the woman was mentioning.
“I heard from your friends that you guys are going somewhere very dangerous. You might end up losing your lives,” the woman said.
“Mm, it’s quite dangerous,” Mu Bai nodded.
“Then you must come back safely. There’s a chance that the wind will start blowing the night after tomorrow. It will drive the clouds and the dust away, so the sky will be the clearest by then. If you come here again, you’ll see the stars as I’ve mentioned,” the woman said with great anticipation.
“You seem to be very familiar with this place,” Mu Bai said.
“Yeah, I’ve grown up here,” the woman said.
“Then why did you choose this as your work? Did someone force you to do it? I’m sorry, I didn’t mean anything,” Mu Bai said.
“Not at all. I just want to eat nice food, live a better life, and wear nice clothes. Besides, instead of watching out for people harboring malicious thoughts, isn’t it better to make them pay instead…” the woman said.
Mu Bai was suddenly lost for words. He thought most women that decided to become escorts had no choice but to do it for a living, but he seemed to have overcomplicated it. He could not find any words to refute the woman’s answer either.
“I have to go, I’m going into the mountains tomorrow,” Mu Bai said.
“Mm, I’ll send you back. I have no idea how late they are going to drink. To be honest, I prefer attending to customers like you and your friends. You just want to have some drinks and chat with us. We can just talk about local affairs and boast around to kill some time. It doesn’t matter if we get down to the real ‘business’, it just depends if you guys are still sober or not. We are enjoying ourselves too. It’s been a while since I last saw Sister Li and Sister Sang laughing like that,” the woman said.
“Mm, I can tell you are good at conversations,” Mu Bai nodded.
“It’s the basics of what we do… well it also depends on who our customers are.”
—
When Mu Bai returned to where they were staying for the night, he immediately saw Mo Fan and Zhao Manyan sleeping soundly in the stinking corridor. If Mu Bai hd not known who they were, he would not have believed they were on the national team. Such a disgrace to the country!
“Hey, Mr. Mu is back, how did it go with Xiao Zhou?” the woman called Sister Sang smiled when she saw Mu Bai returning alone. She was not surprised.
On the other side, Sister Li glanced at Mo Fan and Zhao Manyan, who were asleep like dead pigs, and said with a giggle, “They were boasting how their faces wouldn’t even turn red after drinking a whole carton of beer, but they ended up like this before finishing half a carton. Now that you’re back, can you please drag them into their rooms? We are too tired to do it.”
“Oh, Xiao Zhou is fine, I’ll do it. You two should go home and rest,” Mu Bai said.
“Xiao Zhou isn’t really the talkative kind, so I hope you didn’t mind… anyway, come visit us again!” Sister Sang seemed quite concerned about Xiao Zhou’s image.
“Mm, I understand, you two can go now,” Mu Bai did not want anyone to see them like this. He quickly dragged Mo Fan and Zhao Manyan to their rooms.
“Mr. Mu, your friends haven’t paid yet,” Sister Li called out.
Mu Bai’s face darkened immediately.
F**k, not only did they drag him along to find escorts, they didn’t even pay them! These two sons of b**ches!
