Chapter 124: Nanling Yaohua
Since Luxianbei was spotted by Jumeng in her magical girl outfit, leading to some inexplicable misunderstandings, she had completely fallen into a state of isolation.
During the three or so hours from the afternoon to evening, she stayed alone upstairs, not saying a word, quiet to the point of being unsettling.
Luxianbei lay on the bed, staring blankly at the ceiling, quietly contemplating something.
Although she felt an overwhelming sense of shame when Jumeng saw that scene, upon reflection, it didn’t seem like a big deal. At most, people would think she had some peculiar hobbies.
Peculiar hobbies—neither illegal nor intrusive, so why should she be discriminated against? This is my home; I have the final say in everything.
Luxianbei’s thickness of skin is just like this, with an adaptability akin to a cockroach. As long as she was alive and well, everything else was insignificant.
There’s a saying, “Those without shame are invincible in the world.”
However, Jumeng did not know that what she saw—the sight of Luxianbei in her magical girl outfit—would have no impact on her. In fact, this situation was advantageous for her. Luxianbei thought.
In her view, every evening, whether there was something to do or not, she had to “disappear” for several minutes under Jumeng’s watchful eye, which would inevitably raise her suspicions.
Now, she could conveniently use this as an opportunity to create a façade of isolation, allowing her to “run away from home” at will.
But before that, perhaps a little preparation was necessary. Luxianbei thought, narrowing her eyes slightly.
With this in mind, she promptly got out of bed and dove into the storage room, rummaging through a sewing kit and the guitar bag holding the Ming King statue, busying herself.
Raised in a single-parent household, with a father whose lifestyle was particularly rough, Luxianbei almost had to rely on herself for everything besides food, shelter, and tuition fees—her practical skills were not lacking at all.
Adjusting the guitar bag a bit was completely within her capabilities.
Focusing on the modification work for the Ming King statue, time passed unnoticed, and by a little after four in the afternoon, as the sunlight showed the first hints of dusk, Luxianbei finally completed the transformation of the guitar bag.
This guitar bag, originally sourced from Su Mi, was already oversized, with plenty of leftover space for storing an item like the Ming King statue.
After Luxianbei’s careful modifications, adding two compartments, she took out a poker g*n and an ancestral kitchen kn*fe, placing them inside the compartments, perfectly filling up the remaining space.
Thus, the good guitar bag, thanks to Luxianbei’s modifications, transformed into a portable arsenal for confronting urban legends, including long-range, close-range, sharp, and blunt weapons.
After glancing over the modified guitar bag, Luxianbei felt very satisfied, thought for a moment while scratching her head, then took another drawstring bag originally used for shoes, finally shouldering the guitar bag and picking up an ancient camphor wood box containing bamboo slips.
Before going downstairs, she glanced at the magical girl outfit throwaway on the bedside, rolled her eyes, and said irritably, “I ask you, can you change back to your original form? If you can…”
Before Luxianbei finished speaking, her coat lifted into the air, twisting into a ball, quickly writhing, shimmering with a faint glow, transforming back into its original red and white storm jacket, and quietly landed on Luxianbei’s shoulders, affectionately rubbing against her cheek.
Now we’re talking! Luxianbei thought happily, putting on her coat and heading downstairs.
When Luxianbei arrived downstairs, with the help of the various urban legends in the apartment, Jumeng had completed more than half of her talisman-making process.
Seeing Luxianbei emerge from her isolation, Jumeng wore a broad smile, wanting to strike up a conversation with her. However, Luxianbei, sticking to her original plan, coldly snorted without expression, “Whoosh!” She tossed the finished talismans into the drawstring bag, sealed it, and hanging it onto the guitar bag, turned around and left without looking back.
Leaving Jumeng alone, her face filled with frustration, breath caught in her chest, unable to exhale or swallow.
Seeing this, the eye stopped its work, curiously leaning over to whisper to the other urban legends, “Hey, hey! What do you think is going on between those two? Did they have a falling out?”
The other urban legends glanced at Jumeng’s dark complexion, remaining silent, “…”
“Speaking of which, this girl is pretty impressive. Just a few seconds of going upstairs, and she made Luxianbei go into self-isolation. What do you think, at home, who should we follow in the future?”
The other urban legends, “…” This is adult business; how dare we discuss it! You better shut up!
“Why is everyone silent? I think we should firmly follow Luxianbei! I think she has great potential, and chances are, she’ll mostly be up there…”
Feeling a chill rise behind, the eye abruptly stopped speaking, twisting its body to look back, but before it could make out anything, it was struck by a thunderous barrage of vines and fainted.
Looking like a pile of mud, lying on the ground twitching, the other urban legends suddenly fell silent, with Jumeng’s voice drifting eerily in their ears.
“I, Jumeng, will never be beneath anyone! Even if there’s something going on, I will be on top, understand?” Jumeng lifted her chin, proudly declaring.
“Understood, we all understand!” the other urban legends replied eagerly.
Originally, the urban legends didn’t quite understand the relationship between Jumeng and Luxianbei. However, after hearing Jumeng’s words, it all became clear.
She not only wanted to seize this apartment but also wanted to sleep with the witch! That’s truly… terrifying!
“As long as you understand, hurry up and keep working; don’t even think about slacking off!”
……
After leaving the Jingyi Apartment Complex, Luxianbei didn’t head directly to Gate Four of the school to look for the Decapitated Senior. Instead, she waved down a taxi and headed towards Mudan Street.
Previously, when Jumeng had made the first talisman, she had already attempted shooting with a poker g*n.
Perhaps due to the quality of the peach wood initial spring breeze talisman being significantly larger than the poker card, the effect was not ideal; it barely flew a meter before failing and drooping limply to the ground.
However, this did not pose a problem for Luxianbei. Having already modified the guitar bag, a little modification to the poker g*n wouldn’t be difficult either.
Only, compared to the easily modifiable guitar bag, for the poker g*n’s modification, she would need a bit of help from the old residents of Mudan Street.
……
Having lived on Mudan Street for over a decade, Luxianbei was entirely familiar with the layout of the entire street and knew where to buy what, which small alleys offered the best views, and which paths saved time—these felt almost instinctual to her.
Around five o’clock in the afternoon, the rosy slanting rays of sun had already tinged the sky red. The shops along Mudan Street began to pack up their storefronts, putting up boards to close shop.
Leaves fluttered down the street, and visitors grew sparse; the ancient street was returning to tranquility.
Passing through an antique-style archway, Luxianbei wasted no time and made a beeline to a few old neighborhood shops she had planned.
Master Chang at the East Street corner was a renowned mechanic; any bicycle problem, he could restore it to like new.
Not only that, if anyone had a small appliance, high heels, or large cast iron pot to repair, he could handle it seamlessly.
Luxianbei often stood in front of Master Chang’s stall as a child, influenced by his near-magical skills, and picked up a few things along the way.
So, when she thought of modifying the poker g*n, the first person that came to mind was Master Chang. As long as he was involved, not to mention modifications; with a blueprint and enough materials, they could even fabricate one on-site.
When Luxianbei found Master Chang, he was wiping his hands covered in oil stains, preparing to close shop. Seeing Luxianbei, he looked like he had seen a thief, flinging down the rag and shouldering his tool bag ready to run.
“Master Chang, Master Chang, don’t run! I’m not stealing your tires today!”
Luxianbei grabbed Master Chang’s tool bag shoulder strap. He twitched his mouth, thinking to himself, is this really about stealing tires?
This is about inserting firecrackers into the air pump, adding ghost peppers to lunch boxes, dragging in customers to talk nonsense for over three hours until almost getting his stall smashed… and a series of mischievous antics!
Luxianbei had been quite a troublesome kid, deeply inheriting his father’s cooking skills, so the old residents had a mix of love and hate towards her.
What child isn’t annoying? And who doesn’t like a boy who can cook?
Facing someone like Master Chang, who had psychological trauma from his childhood, Luxianbei tried every means to persuade him, promising to cook a meal for him next time, and finally got him to reluctantly agree.
I have to say, Master Chang’s skill is indeed exceptional; after Luxianbei handed the poker g*n to him, he only took two minutes to completely disassemble it.
After disassembling the poker g*n, Master Chang donned his glasses, scrutinizing the internal structure of the g*n before turning to Luxianbei and saying, “Alright, I know how to modify it; give me half an hour.”
After he finished speaking, he didn’t start working but slyly eyed Luxianbei, remaining silent.
Luxianbei was baffled under Master Chang’s gaze, asking blankly, “What’s wrong, Master Chang? Do you need any materials? I can go fetch them!”
“Not! You being here prevents me from working. You go do whatever you need to do, and if you don’t have anything to do, find a place to play! Come back in half an hour to pick it up!”
Master Chang understood Luxianbei too well; if he stayed there, and they started a conversation, let alone half an hour, it might take three hours to get it done.
With a dismissive shrug, Luxianbei silently complied and left.
If I can’t stay, I’ll just leave; anyway, I happen to have a place I want to go. But I still need to clarify—right now, I’m really a good kid! Luxianbei thought.
……
The place Luxianbei wanted to go was a tower located at the end of Mudan Street. The entire tower was built from fine wood, featuring an ancient mortise and tenon structure. A long time ago, it housed many statues, but those were all taken away and burned during the “Four Olds” campaign.
By the time Luxianbei started to remember things, the tower had already been closed off, with multiple tiger-head locks on the doors. It took her quite a long time to figure out a route to climb from the outside to the top of the tower.
Since then, the top of that tower, which overlooked half of Mudan Street, had become her secret base.
Well, boys always want a similar secret base when they are young.
Luxianbei hadn’t been to the tower in a long time. Following the familiar route in her memory, she climbed up the old tower’s outer wall, surprisingly finding that perhaps because she had grown since childhood, what once was difficult to climb now felt particularly easy.
She spent less than five minutes climbing from the base to the top of the tower.
Leaping over the railing and into the corridor at the top, Luxianbei dusted herself off, and as she lifted her head, she encountered an astonishing sight.
The mottled and colorful twilight painted half the sky into brocade silk, silently spilling down, laying over the tower. This was the view that the tower should have every evening as dusk approached.
However, today at the top of the tower, there was a different kind of scenery.
A girl dressed in a coarse white dress sat on the edge of the tower, seemingly overshadowing and capturing the beauty of the twilight for herself.
Simply by sitting there, the girl added a picturesque quality to the tower.
She had an indescribably beautiful snow-white face, her lips not turning up in a smile yet still sweet and charming.
Her bright, spring-like eyes resembled those of a newborn beast, filled with vigor beneath their clarity, and the rosy twilight reflected in her eyes, seemingly tinting them with a hint of charm and sorrow.
Just picturing her with her ruby lips slightly parted in a smile would send a shiver down one’s spine.
Moreover, beneath that unforgettable beauty, she had an outstanding figure.
With a narrow waist, slender legs, and delicately carved shoulders, the loose coarse white dress couldn’t conceal the peaks that rose high beneath the fabric.
What startled Luxianbei the most was that despite her refreshing and ethereal looks, what she was doing was decidedly down-to-earth.
With three to four pieces of beef and half a roast chicken, she needed neither bowls nor chopsticks, nor gloves—just her delicate hands, tearing small pieces to feed into her mouth, then parting her powdery lips to lick the greasy residue off her fingers, and finally reaching for a large bottle of soda beside her, voraciously gulping down nearly half in one go.
Who is this??? Luxianbei furrowed her brows, thinking, she barged into my secret base for a picnic without my approval?
Feeling furious about an unknown intruder in her secret space, Luxianbei was incensed, akin to feeling NTR’d, and for a moment didn’t consider that the girl might be an urban legend or something of the sort.
Fuming, she rolled up her sleeves, ready to confront the girl, when the girl turned around, her curious eyes fixed on her, softly asking, “Want some?”
Luxianbei, “……”
What’s this logic? Provoking me? Does she think I wouldn’t dare to eat?
After a few seconds of silence, she rolled her eyes and nonchalantly approached the girl, squatting beside her, ripping off a large chunk of meat from the chicken leg and stuffing it into her mouth.
After wolfing down the chicken leg, she turned and grabbed a handful of beef, randomly shoving it into her mouth.
The girl, witnessing this, was momentarily stunned, her lips slightly parted before she “pfft!” burst into laughter.
“Haha, I thought we’d hit it off at first glance, but I didn’t expect you to be so interesting. If I weren’t already engaged, we might just try dating.”
Luxianbei poked at the beef stuck between her teeth, rolled her eyes again, realizing that such a beautiful girl was already taken?
Well, that leaves even less to talk about!
Who the heck is so lucky?
“By the way, I’m Nanling Yaohua. What about you?”
“I am…”
