Chapter 11 - It’s embarrassing to wheedle, Sansheng (2/2)

Given that Moxi had a disability in this lifetime, I first thought that it was best if we lived in isolation. This way, we could save ourselves from the trouble of earthly gossips. But then I thought that he should have a say in how to live own life. He still needed to cross his trial. If I blindly protected him, I’d cause him to fail his trial…

Heavenly law would not spare me.

011

I shook Moxi’s tiny fists. While he still hadn’t completely opened his palm, I stuffed a coin into his hand and said, “Moxi, if it’s face, we’re going to lie low in the city. If it’s tail, we’re going to lie low in the countryside. Give it a toss.”

He flipped his hand and slapped the coin in my face. I scowled, not knowing whether I should cry or not.

I sincerely felt that Old Meng’s soup hadn’t taken its effect. Otherwise, how could he have had the heart to raise his hand at such a beautiful face like mine?

I glanced at the coin on the ground, saying, “You say so yourself. Lying low in the city it is.” Moxi sucked on his fist, licking it without a care for anything else. Since he was busy drooling all over his chin, he had no extra time to spare me any of his attention.

The dashing God of War from Heaven had become so tragically ugly after reincarnation…

If I were to sketch his appearance right now and let him take a look at it later, I bet his face was going to be priceless.

Since Moxi had chosen to lie low in the city, I picked a big city to make sure I gave him exactly what he wanted. After much deliberation, I concluded that the capital was the most suitable. That very night, we rode on clouds and arrived in the capital the next day.

Considering that I was going to raise Moxi until he reached his adulthood, I couldn’t let myself be the reason for him to spend his childhood moving around from place to place with no stable home. I gathered the forces of darkness inside of me to put away and decided that from here on out, I would not use magic again unless it was absolutely necessary.

I rented a cottage and furnished it. Afterwards, I watched Moxi as I very seriously thought about the lives we’d live without magic.

I poked his nose: “And what will you do for a living?”

Perhaps he felt that my tone was too disdainful of him, for he expressed dissatisfaction by drooling onto my hand. I quietly turned my hand and wiped the saliva back onto his hair.

He opened his mouth soundlessly, pushing me away with his tiny fists.

“Now is the only time I can pick on you. When you’re back to being the God of War,

I’ve no idea how you’re going to get back at me. I can’t afford to suffer a loss.” Like that, I wiped my saliva-stained hand onto him even harder.

I was still thinking about our livelihoods into the next day.

It wasn’t difficult to make money from magic. The difficulty lay in how to divert the neighbors’ suspicion from my making money by just sitting around at home all day.

I sat in the doorway cradling Moxi. In this exact moment of headache, a drunkard wobbly passed by our house. I stared at his back for a second before turning to ask Moxi: “How do you feel about alcohol?”

He was sucking on his finger, fast asleep.

Seven years later. There stood a tavern on the east side of the capital.

I knocked on the counter. Behind it, the shopkeeper who was settling accounts raised his eyes to look up. When he saw me, he smiled and said, “Miss Sansheng, why are you visiting the tavern today?”

“I couldn’t find Moxi at home. I thought he might have come here so I came to take a look.” I looked around but didn’t find Moxi. “How is business lately?” I asked.

“Business is very good recently. Would you like to check the books?” Accountant Liu was an honest, good-natured elderly man. I had always trusted him. Besides, this pub was just a front. When I really needed money, all I had to do was flip my hand and make a turn. I waved my hand telling him there was no need.

Upstairs, a small figure flashed by the corner of my eyes. I looked up to find that it

was Moxi. I smiled and waved to him: “Moxi! Time to go home for dinner.”

When he saw me, Moxi beamed and made a dash down the stairs.

Some of the guests who came to drink couldn’t help themselves from clucking curiously. Accountant Liu couldn’t help shaking his head. “You’re still young, miss. People are bound to misunderstand if you keep sticking by the young master’s side this way. Over time, I fear you will ruin your future prospects!”

I told everyone that Moxi was a child I had adopted – a little brother I was raising.

Toward this ‘noble’ action of mine, those who knew me always responded with a rueful look.

Moxi ran to my side. Hearing this, he looked quizzically at Accountant Liu and then turned around to look at me. I crouched down to wipe the dirt from Moxi’s face before replying with little concern: “Then let them misunderstand. It’s not as if I want anything from them. For me, all I need in this life is Moxi.”

Like a little grown-up, Moxi smiled and brushed aside the messy bangs on my forehead for me.

Accountant Liu sighed again. “Miss Sansheng, you’re still too young after all.”

I held Moxi’s hand as I said to Accountant Liu in all seriousness: “I’m not young. My skin just doesn’t wrinkle and my hair doesn’t gray, that’s all.” It was difficult enough for a rock to grow hair, let alone wrinkles and creases.

Accountant Liu continued to think I was just joking. Not wanting to explain anymore, I took a hold of Moxi’s hand and slowly made our way home.

While we were having dinner, Moxi suddenly and very anxiously gestured something to me. I watched for a time before I realized that he was asking me if I would be leaving with someone else.

Cool as a cucumber, I gave him a drumstick. “Do you want me to leave with someone else?”

Holding his bowl, he shook his head somewhat dolefully. After half a day of

gestures, he essentially told me that Xiao Ding’s older sister next-door had gone away with someone else and wouldn’t be coming back to see Xiao Ding anymore.

He was afraid I’d go away just like Xiao Ding’s sister.

I had never hid his origins from him, and in the past, he had never felt there to be anything amiss. But since the year before last, after starting school, he was beginning to realize that there was something different between himself and the others. Perhaps people had said something to make him afraid that even I did not want him anymore. He did everything by himself and became so well-behaved that he wasn’t nearly as troublesome as other children.

His mindfulness broke my heart.

Had I known this, I would’ve taken him to the mountains where he could live more freely and I could be a more comfortable guardian.

I patted his head, warmly saying: “Sansheng won’t go anywhere. Wherever you are is wherever I’ll be.” I came here to seduce him, so how could I ever have the heart to leave?

His eyes gleamed upon hearing this. He let me play with his soft hair as he finished his plate.

In the evening, I had just sent Moxi to bed when I heard a small sound in the yard.

I furrowed my brow in thought, wondering which idiot had picked my yard to steal from. I was slightly startled when I opened the door. It wasn’t a burglar but a large man in night-traveling clothes. At this moment, he was clutching the wound at his waist and leaning against the wall as he hid himself in the shadows of the night.

He had no idea that I could still see everything even if I were blindfolded.

Pursing my lips, I pretended not to have seen him and went to the far corner of the yard to bring a bucket of water back to the house.

The capital was placed under curfew that night. Outside, the entire sky was lit by bright torches. I hugged Moxi and fell to a peaceful sleep. But before I fell asleep, I faintly wondered if perhaps Moxi’s tribulation had begun or if this was merely a coincidence. Whatever it may be, it was going to be a pain in the neck. If I still found him here tomorrow…

I’d have to knock him out and throw him into the street.