758: Chapter 12 Reciprocity _1 758: Chapter 12 Reciprocity _1 Humans face of myriad sufferings; one al can dispel a thousand worries.
For Jiang Anan, as long as her brother was by her side, there was no trouble that delicious food couldn’t solve.
For Jiang Wang, seeing her eat with a face covered in grease, laughing heartily, was his greatest reward.
No amount of hardship or effort was too great.
In this vast world, they were each other’s only kin.
“Anan.”
Jiang Wang looked at her for a while, then spoke, “Brother has to go.
This ti, it may also be very busy for a long ti.”
Jiang Anan’s little hand clutched her chopsticks, pushing the noodles around, and her mood suddenly fell, “Will you co to see for the New Year?”
“Of course,” Jiang Wang touched her little head: “We had an agreent.
Your brother will miss you too.”
“Then be careful on your way,” Jiang Anan said softly.
“Walking down the road, it’s others who should be careful now,” Jiang Wang bragged on purpose: “Your brother is known to be a fierce and intimidating figure!”
“Hmph,” Jiang Anan wrinkled her little nose, glanced at Jiang Wang, then turned her head back.
And continued to eat her noodles.
“Co on, give us a smile,” Jiang Wang teased her.
Jiang Anan pouted and would not cooperate.
“Smile for , little fatty~” Jiang Wang’s voice rose and fell with inflection.
“You’re the fatty!” Jiang Anan put down her chopsticks and lunged at Jiang Wang, baring her teeth and claws.
They played for a while.
“I’m off,” Jiang Wang said.
Jiang Anan sat back down, picked up her chopsticks again.
“Mhm,” she said.
Jiang Wang didn’t speak again, he turned and left the room, gently closing the door behind him.
The little Jiang Anan didn’t watch his retreating figure; she just sat there obediently, slowly eating her noodles.
She was good; she didn’t cry.
Only.
“The New Year has just begun, yet I’m already looking forward to New Year’s Eve.”
…
…
Not long after leaving Jiang Anan’s room, he happened to bump into Ye Qingyu.
“Fellow Daoist Ye, I was just looking for you!” Jiang Wang said happily.
Ye Qingyu blinked, and pressed down the exquisite pagoda she was about to take out, “What do you need for?”
Jiang Wang confidently took a brocaded box out of his storage box and handed it over, “Take a look.”
This box had just been filled with fluffy bamboo cakes, which he found rather nice, tidied up, and then used to hold sothing else.
“What’s this?”
Ye Qingyu’s eyes sparkled with amusent as she took the brocaded box, opened it, and looked inside.
Lying within was a perfectly round bead, one-third the size of a fist, with a sky-blue color and streaks of cloud-like white, absolutely beautiful.
Her smile blossod, reaching the corners of her mouth.
As Ye Lingxiao’s daughter and the only princess of Yun Country, what rare treasure hadn’t she seen?
But Jiang Wang’s gift still pleased her imnsely.
“This is a naturally-ford Magic Artifact, the Wind-Calming Pearl, which I obtained from a secret place,” he said.
Jiang Wang confidently skipped over the dangerous process of obtaining the Wind-Calming Pearl and said rather sheepishly, “Anan has used so many resources from Lingxiao Pavilion, and I truly appreciate it.
Please accept this Wind-Calming Pearl as a recompense, Fellow Daoist Ye, and don’t disdain it.”
Ye Qingyu’s smile disappeared in an instant as she snapped the box shut, placed it back in Jiang Wang’s hands, “Anan is a direct disciple of Lingxiao Pavilion.
It’s only right and proper for Lingxiao Pavilion to cultivate its own disciples; there’s no need for any recompense.
Fellow Daoist Jiang, you should keep it.”
“Fellow Daoist Ye, you’re misunderstanding ,” Jiang Wang said, holding the box, at a loss as to where he had gone wrong, and anxiously added, “I didn’t an Lingxiao Pavilion needs recompense; it’s just expressing gratitude, that’s right, gratitude.”
“No need to be polite,” Ye Qingyu smiled distantly but politely.
“Lingxiao Pavilion lacks nothing.”
“I wasn’t saying that Lingxiao Pavilion was lacking this,” Jiang Wang said, his usual combat wit and decisiveness replaced by a sowhat dejected tone.
“I’m not good with words.
I just wanted to give you this pearl as a way to say thank you.”
Ye Qingyu’s heart softened a bit, but she still said, “You’re not good with words?
When I see you arguing with others, you’re quite formidable.
Didn’t you make Jiao Xiong jump with anger?”
“That’s different.”
“How is it different?”
“I don’t care about them, don’t have to mind their feelings.
Then my tongue isn’t tied.”
Ye Qingyu slightly lifted her chin.
“Is that so?”
“It’s true, Daoist Ye,” Jiang Wang pleaded with his hands together.
“If I said sothing wrong, I apologize.
Please don’t be mad anymore.”
Ye Qingyu wasn’t angry anymore, but she found Jiang Wang’s deanor curiously interesting and endearing—much more so than when he was fierce and aggressive.
“Where is the apology from soone still wearing a mask and hiding their true self?” she teased on purpose.
“This…” Jiang Wang hesitated.
“If you don’t want to take it off, then don’t,” Ye Qingyu said.
“It’s fine, I won’t force you.”
Even if Jiang Wang was slow, he knew the “it’s fine” here didn’t really an it was fine.
He gritted his teeth, removed the mountain ghost mask, and revealed his face with two dark circles around his eyes.
The left half of his face was still slightly swollen.
“Pfft!”
Ye Qingyu burst out laughing but quickly composed herself.
“I shouldn’t laugh, sorry.”
Jiang Wang resignedly said, “No worries, go ahead and laugh.”
Ye Qingyu wasn’t soone who laughed easily, but Jiang Wang’s appearance now was simply too comical.
At Chi Yun Mountain, he had been so imposing—slaying Jiao Xiong, killing Chi Yue, defeating the Cloud Roaming Elder, and threatening Dou Min.
How powerful he was!
She had heard from her father that on New Year’s Eve he had stord into Xin’an City by night, killed Zhuang Country’s Deputy Pri Minister Dong Ah, and escaped from the clutches of Zhuang Gaoxian and Du Ruhui.
If these feats were to spread, his na would surely shake the world.
Who wouldn’t praise him as a young prodigy?
Yet now, he was before her with a bruised and swollen face like a pig’s head.
The contrast was so stark that she couldn’t help but chuckle.
After laughing for a bit, Ye Qingyu finally asked, “How did you end up like this?”
Since Ye Qingyu had seen him in this state, Jiang Wang gave up a bit on himself and mumbled, “A monk did it.”
“Which monk was so excessive?” Ye Qingyu asked.
Jiang Wang sighed.
“I won’t be able to save face from this situation anyti soon.”
He didn’t want to talk more about Ku Jue because that would involve the matter of being hunted by the officials of Yun Country, and he had promised Ye Lingxiao that he would never drag Ye Qingyu into his troubles.
So, he offered the box again.
“Can you accept my apology now?”
“Alright, I’ll accept it begrudgingly,” Ye Qingyu said with a laugh, taking the Wind-Calming Pearl into her hand, then with a flip of her palm she took out a small, delicate Lingxiao Pavilion.
“I have a gift for you too!”
Jiang Wang wanted to say that the Wind-Calming Pearl was not a gift but a debt repaynt, a fulfillnt of a past promise.
However, the reaction from Cloud Top Fairy Palace within the Five Prefectures Sea made him forget all that.
He had long suspected that the Lingxiao Pavilion contained sothing vital for the revival of the Cloud Top Fairy Palace, likely similar to the Spiritual Emptiness Hall.
Regardless of whether it was called Lingxiao Pavilion or Yunxiao Pavilion, the response from the Cloud Top Fairy Palace at that mont confird its significance.
Jiang Wang took a deep breath and said, “I cannot accept it.”
He truly wanted it, but the reason he hadn’t asked Ye Qingyu outright was that he hadn’t found sothing of equal value to offer in return.
He didn’t want to take without giving sothing back.
Ye Qingyu blinked her eyes, her smile starting to fade.
“You won’t accept a gift from a friend?”
Jiang Wang pursed his lips and finally took it.
He would rember this kindness—no need for too many words of promise.
The small, delicate pavilion, the mont it was in his hands, flashed with light and directly entered the Five Prefectures Sea, falling into the ruins of the Cloud Top Fairy Palace.
The chubby White Cloud Child leaped out, cheering, “It’s here!”
“I do indeed need it,” Jiang Wang said amidst the changes occurring inside the Cloud Top Fairy Palace in his body.
“But what should I give in thanks?”
“My father said you’re Anan’s brother, not an outsider,” Ye Qingyu replied, shaking the box in her hand with her eyes curving into crescents.
“Between friends, it’s the giving and receiving that matters!”
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