Chapter 34.1: Mountain Village.
Chapter 34 Part 1
Xi Jia immediately sent a reply and asked Pei Yu what had happened.
After a moment, Charlatan Pei sent a bunch of “crying bitter tears” stickers and also even sent a bunch of YouCheater.jpgs. Only then did he start to criticize Xi Jia: 【 Brother Jia, what did you originally say to me, what did you say to me?! You said you didn’t want the masses to know about your Body of Extreme Yin and wanted me to keep your secret. I’m so loyal that even now, I haven’t said it to anyone. I didn’t even tell my master. Now everything’s just great. “Ghosts Know” uploaded that article, and my master had asked me what this was about the moment he saw. I couldn’t say that I didn’t know about your physique. Then……then, my master beat me until I was half dead, ah!!! 】
Xi Jia: 【 …… 】
【 Brother Jia, how could you do this to me, how could you QAQ?! My master said that I made the sect lose at least 100,000 points, and he wants me to hand over all the points that I earn for the next half a year. Brother Jia, Master just beat me up this morning. Now, he says he’ll head out to eat dinner and will come back and beat me. I don’t care, Brother Jia, you have to protect me ah, you definitely have to protect me, ah! 】
Although he felt very speechless, Xi Jia still realistically said: 【 ……I’m in G Province right now, you’re at the capital. Even if I fly, I wouldn’t be able to fly to you. En, Pei Yu, you should just sacrifice a bit. In the future, I’ll burn you paper money every year on this day. 】
Pei Yu cried bitterly: 【 Brother Jia, don’t be like this!!! 】
Xi Jia helplessly shook his head and told Pei Yu about the situation he had encountered at Poyang Ghost Market. At that time, Xi Jia really was pressed with no better option. More than 1,000 Celestial Masters and countless wild ghosts all stared on as he used his neck……err, used his neck to break that sword. If he said, “That sword broke because it’s too inferior, and it has nothing to do with me,” Measurement might knock himself dead in grievance using his body, spurting blood 3 feet into the air.
Pei Yu naturally also understood Xi Jia’s predicament, but he rubbed his butt that was swollen due to his master’s beating as he lamented: 【 Then, Brother Jia, what should I do? Master might really beat me to death! Totally beat me to death mercilessly! 】
Xi Jia thought for quite a while before he made a suggestion: 【 Can’t you just leave and lie low before your master comes back? 】
Pei Yu: 【 ……Eh?! 】
After a long time, Charlatan Pei excitedly sent a bunch of exclamation points: 【 Brother Jia, you’re so smart! My junior sister plans on going out to ghost hunt, I’ll accompany her. Junior Sister is still young, only 19 years old this year. She’ll be going faraway, as a senior brother, I can’t be at ease. Together, have to go together! I need to properly protect Junior Sister, hahahaha!!! 】
Xi Jia, “……” Shouldn’t you have thought of such an easy method already?!
Pei Yu already set off to pack his luggage, planning to leave and lie low. Xi Jia placed his phone down. Once he looked up, he saw Ye Jingzhi holding chopsticks in one hand and a bowl in the other, anxiously looking at him. The food on the table and the rice in the bowl hadn’t been touched. Xi Jia and Pei Yu had chatted for ten minutes, and Ye Jingzhi waited like this for ten minutes.
Xi Jia’s heart was slightly stirred, and he asked, “Master Ye……why aren’t you eating?”
Ye Jingzhi hid the expectations in his eyes, “Waiting……waiting to eat together with you.”
How could Xi Jia realize that bit of Master Ye’s small thoughts. He only thought that Master Ye was so considerate and attentive. Waiting for him to eat together so he wouldn’t eat leftovers. Thus, he picked up his chopsticks and grabbed a piece of chicken.
Ye Jingzhi never made this dish before. When Xi Jia was eating, he didn’t really notice. But when he just took a bite, the meat was soft, tender, and fragrant, and once it entered the mouth, the rich juiciness perfectly seep through the mouth. Only the heavy and thick feeling of the meat burst into a strong taste in his mouth.
Xi Jia widened his eyes in pleasant surprise, looking at Master Ye, “Delicious! So tasty!”
Ye Jingzhi was biting his chopsticks and staring at Xi Jia anxiously. Suddenly hearing these words, his pupils widened a bit. Then, he nodded hard and happily, and finally began to eat.
For the meal, the two of them ate quite happily.
Xi Jia cleared the entire plate of chicken. Ye Jingzhi watching him eat so happily, made him happy.
After eating, Xi Jia went to wash the dishes. Once done, he rubbed his belly, and he couldn’t help but mutter a sentence, “……I’ve gotten fatter?”
At this moment in time, Master Ye was currently sitting on the sofa and happily thinking: What should I make for wife tomorrow?
The next day, Master Ye worked hard for a long time again, brought the food to the table, and anxiously continued to wait for Xi Jia’s reaction. However this time, Xi Jia didn’t talk much and only ate a single bowl of rice. More than half of the food remained on the plates before his chopsticks stopped moving.
Ye Jingzhi’s chopsticks stiffly slowed in midair. He saw Xi Jia had already set down his bowl and started to play on his phone. He felt upset for a long time before he summoned the courage to ask, “Today……today, how come you’re only eating this much?”
Xi Jia looked up, “I’m full, Master Ye.”
Ye Jingzhi, “……You ate two bowls of rice yesterday.”
Once he heard this, Xi Jia’s complexion suddenly changed. He rubbed his little stomach, and righteously expressed, “Master Ye, I usually only eat one bowl of rice, really, only one bowl.”
Master Ye grievingly lowered his head to eat, his heart started beating like a drum: I can’t hold onto wife’s stomach anymore……
All day long, Ye Jingzhi’s mood wasn’t very high. Coming back from ghost hunting at night, he was also a bit absent-minded. He still bought a big watermelon to take back, picked out all the seeds for Xi Jia, loaded them into a glass bowl, and pushed it in front of him.
This time, Xi Jia already ate half of a watermelon, seeing this half of scooped and seedless watermelon, his forefinger moved, subconsciously bringing the watermelon over. In response, Ye Jingzhi’s eyes immediately brightened, but he hadn’t been happy for a minute before Xi Jia swallowed a mouthful of saliva and pushed the watermelon back.
Ye Jingzhi, “!!!”
Xi Jia, “M-Master Ye, I’m full today. Why don’t you eat? Thank you.”
Master Ye didn’t dare refuse wife’s good intention and held the watermelon, eating it bit by bit. It was hard to swallow, and he was so upset that he was about to cry.
This riddle lasted for three days before there was an answer. Before that, Ye Jingzhi had already been feeling upset for three entire days. No matter how hard he worked on cooking, no matter how hard he tried to make tasty things for Xi Jia, Xi Jia would always only eat a little, and then he would no longer glance at them again.
At noon that day, Xi Jia rubbed his little belly and suddenly noticed that the little bit of fat had disappeared. During lunch, he happily ate two bowls of rice consecutively. Ye Jingzhi watched with wide eyes, and he was so happy that he didn’t know what he should say.
After they finished eating, Xi Jia finally said the reason for his strangeness the past few days, “Master Ye, your cooking is too delicious, I became all fat! I can’t blindly eat like this again, and I must control my diet. If I continue to be fed by you like this, I’ll definitely be done for.”
All the grievances vanished into thin air at this time.
So, he ate this little because he wanted to lose weight!
Master Ye was extremely happy, and he started to deeply think again: What recipes won’t gain weight easily but are also delicious?
In the next few days, the lives of the two men returned to what it was before. From the start, Xi Jia never thought about the topic of going home because Master Ye’s skill was truly too great!
How could there be such a warm-hearted, capable, and reticent man who gave off a sense of security in this world!?
Xi Jia never thought that he was a lazy person before. But after living with Master Ye, he unexpectedly discovered that the number of times he budged became less and less. After getting up every morning, the home would have already been swept sparkling clean, and the aromatic breakfast was already arranged on the table. What did he want to eat for lunch? Master Ye could make it! What did he want to eat for dinner? Master Ye could make anything for seven days without repeating!
Living together with Ye Jingzhi, perhaps that was the ultimate wish of everyone.
Furthermore, if he left……would Master Ye become lonely being by himself again?
Xi Jia slowly turned his head, secretly watching the back of the person being busy in the kitchen. He recalled those words that the aunty selling vegetables had said, and also thought of Ye Jingzhi’s opinion of taking a nod as a greeting. Since he was little, no one had taught this person how to interact with others. He flipped through those profound books on magic techniques and brought himself up with great effort so he could integrate into this world.
He slowly became a very outstanding person with a noble moral character and a soft heart.
However, how many people would know about these things?
In the eyes of everyone, they only had one impression of him which was his terrifying strength. Besides this, there was a phrase of “moral model” that could be said as an objective evaluation, but simply couldn’t be counted as having an understanding.
Merely a phrase “moral model” and nothing more, how could it express how good this person was clearly?
These people didn’t understand Ye Jingzhi and simply didn’t want to get to know him.
Now, if even he were to leave, Master Ye would become alone again.
Ye Jingzhi only by himself, how lonely would that be?
Yesterday afternoon, Xi Jia was reading a script that Chen Tao had sent over when he suddenly saw Ye Jingzhi take a little paper person from his Qiankun bag. He threw it into the air and drew a few golden runes. The little paper person immediately changed into a faceless big paper person. Ye Jingzhi and that paper person each held one end of a bed, planning on flipping it over.
Ye Jingzhi’s house was very old-fashioned, and the furniture inside were all things that were commonly seen in the previous century. The mattress was reversible: one side was a soft mattress that could be used to sleep on when the weather was cold, and it was very cozy; the other side was a hard wooden board that could be flipped over to this side during the summer to sleep on with a summer sleeping mat spread over it.1 This mattress was very heavy because it was made from wood. It wasn’t made from the low-cost particle boards that’s popular nowadays.
Seeing Ye Jingzhi and the little paper person moving the bed, Xi Jia suddenly froze, and he subconsciously stood up and asked, “Master Ye, you want to move the bed?”
Ye Jingzhi looked at Xi Jia and lightly nodded.
Xi Jia didn’t understand and asked, “Why didn’t you call me to help you move?” Even using a spell to conjure a paper person?
Ye Jingzhi was immediately dumbfounded. After a long time had past, a low voice said, “I……I was always alone before. When I was eight, I learned the paper doll techniques. I’m used to using the paper dolls for help.”
Only the paper dolls would help him……
Also, he was eight when he learned this spell? Then, what about before he was eight?
Xi Jia’s heart hurt all of a sudden. He strode forward and took the wooden board that the paper person was holding, slightly smiling, “Master Ye, let’s do it together.”
Ye Jingzhi looked at him for a long time, and the corners of his lips couldn’t help but curve, “Okay.”
Ye Jingzhi didn’t like to use too many spells at home, and Xi Jia already noticed this issue. He had asked Ye Jingzhi questions like why didn’t he use a spell to clean and sanitize or why didn’t he use magic to move things. Ye Jingzhi answered like this, “Master said that magic is used for ghost hunting. We are Celestial Masters, but even more so, we are still ordinary humans that need to live like ordinary people.”
Xi Jia deeply felt that Master Ye’s master was a truly wonderful person. No wonder it was necessary to bring his disciple to live in such a lively residential area. This was called “A mountain forest is but a temporal retreat. The madding crowd is the real place to sequester.”2
Translator’s Addition:
Mirror:
![IMG_0112](https://spicychickentranslations.files.wordpress.com/2019/04/img_0112.jpg?w=809)
Readers: patpat.png
Translator’s Notes:
1 I couldn’t find a picture of that exact matress, but I hope the description was enough. A summer sleeping mat is usually made from bamboo, here’s a pic:
![](https://i0.wp.com/img10.360buyimg.com/imgzone/jfs/t2155/240/2867519468/1229500/9b5be469/571db8a0N6e08be7c.png)
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2 小隐隐于野,大隐隐于市 “A mountain forest is but a temporal retreat. The madding crowd is the real place to sequester.” – Found this translation online and that guy said he also found it online without crediting who, so credits to that fellow netizen. This is a Daoist philosophy in which tranquility and leisure life doesn’t necessarily have to be found in the mountains, forests, or wilderness. The higher level of living in seclusion can be found in the bustling city, tranquility can be attained starting from a calm and benevolent heart. ↵