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CHAPTER 15: Riding Together
Could Little Lian actually be jealous that she'd gotten to ride a crane?
If it weren't for her twisted ankle, she probably wouldn't have ended up riding one today either.
Still, she understood his reaction. A crane wasn't exactly a common mount, after all.
Part of the reason was that cranes were omnivorous with famously picky tastes, requiring different food depending on the season.
Most cultivators who kept mounts in this world opted for gentler, plant-eating spirit beasts, horses, deer, sheep, and the like, letting them graze freely on grass most of the time, with the occasional spirit herb as a treat.
Carnivorous mounts were far less common, a good example being the Bliss Sect's own sect master, who rode a bluebird, while the novel's later-stage overpowered male lead rode a white tiger. Though these creatures could hunt for themselves occasionally, they still cost their owners considerable expense to keep fed with meat.
The strangest mount of all, unsurprisingly, belonged to the story's great villain, Ji Wuyan: an enormous four-winged serpent that ate neither plants nor meat, requiring instead that its owner regularly feed it spiritual energy through drops of his own blood.
Perhaps from consuming so much spiritual energy, the serpent didn't hiss the way ordinary snakes did, but instead produced a deafening, bell-like toll with every breath, which meant that in the novel, Ji Wuyan's every entrance came with what amounted to his own personal death-knell sound effect.[Note 1]
Every mount listed above, cranes included, came with no small cost simply to feed, whereas Chu Li herself would naturally have chosen a standard flying artifact instead, elegant, ethereal, and far more economical.
After all, unlike Dandan, a flying artifact didn't have a mouth that needed feeding.
Chu Li knew perfectly well that being able to ride a crane today had far less to do with her twisted ankle and far more to do with simply having a friend like Qi Ying, wealthy enough to afford keeping one. It was purely a matter of being conveniently close to the right connections.
Not wanting to further stir up Little Lian's feelings, Chu Li did her best to answer him objectively, without letting her own enthusiasm show through. "I've ridden horses a few times before. Riding a crane isn't nearly as steady as riding a horse. It's much bumpier, and far less predictable."
Little Lian glanced up at her silently, his expression giving nothing away.
Chu Li suspected he'd never ridden a horse before, given how little her reference point seemed to register with him. "Have you ever ridden a horse?"
Little Lian looked away, his tone flat. "Horses are so ordinary. What's the point of riding one?"
Chu Li understood then, he really had never ridden a horse, and here she'd been happily riding a crane right in front of him, which could only have made things sting even worse.
He'd only just arrived at this cultivation sect and had already been through so much upheaval. Under the circumstances, it made sense he'd feel a little slighted by this too.
Whatever else he was, he was still just an innocent seventeen-year-old boy at heart.
But it didn't matter. Since he'd chosen to stay by her side, she'd make sure to do whatever she could to make up for it.
Chu Li leaned to one side, cupping a hand over her mouth to whisper to Qi Ying. "Can Dandan carry two people at once?"
"Of course she can. If it weren't for the limited space on a crane's back, Dandan's strong enough to carry four or five people without any trouble." Qi Ying looked a little puzzled. "Why are you suddenly asking me this?"
"I think Little Lian's a bit envious that I got to ride her, but he's too proud to admit it. If he could ride Dandan too, I think it would cheer him up." Chu Li tilted her lips into a slight pout, furrowing her brow, doing her best impression of the most innocent expression she could manage. "For my sake, would you let Little Lian ride along with me?"
"Just ask me directly. No need to turn on the charm for my benefit. If you've got that much energy to spare, you'd be better off using it on him." Qi Ying tilted her chin toward Little Lian, standing on the other side of Dandan.
Chu Li blinked, wide-eyed. "I wasn't trying to charm you at all..."
"Go look in a mirror before you try telling me that again." Qi Ying teased.
Chu Li couldn't help but laugh, quickly lowering her eyes into an exaggerated look of apology. "Sorry. I'll definitely do it again."
"Watch out, or my partner might get jealous." Qi Ying burst out laughing along with her. "All right, let me get Dandan to stop for a moment. You go get Little Lian ready."
Qi Ying gave a low whistle, and the crane obediently came to a halt.
Chu Li bent down and caught Little Lian's hand as he trailed quietly behind, patting the space on the crane's back behind her. "Well? Get on."
He blinked, startled. "What do you mean, Sister?"
"Ah Ying's already agreed to let you ride too!" Before he could hesitate any further, Chu Li cast a quick spell and hoisted him up onto the crane's back in one smooth motion.
Sensing the sudden extra weight settling onto her, Dandan gave an irritable flap of her wings, but quickly calmed back down under Qi Ying's soothing touch.
Once she felt the boy settle in behind her, Chu Li reached back, took hold of his hands, and guided them around her own waist.
She grabbed hold of the base of Dandan's feathers again, and without turning to look at him, warned Little Lian, "You won't be able to grip the feathers properly from back there. You'll need to hold onto me instead."
He said nothing, though the long fingers now resting at her waist were unmistakably stiff with tension.
"Off we go!" Qi Ying gave Dandan's wing a light pat, and the massive crane lifted her head, letting out a high, resonant cry before setting off once more.
Chu Li had already grown used to the gentle rolling sway of Dandan's gait, but the boy behind her clearly hadn't.
His hands had only been resting loosely at her waist at first, but the moment Dandan began to move, the momentum pulled him backward, one hand slipping dangerously close to losing its grip on her waist entirely.
"Didn't I tell you to hold onto me properly?" Chu Li caught his slipping hand and pressed it firmly back against her waist. "Don't let go, whatever you do, or you'll be joining me on the injury list by the time we get home."
He clearly didn't dare take the warning lightly after that, holding onto her waist obediently, his fingers interlaced tightly, as though terrified of upsetting her.
The stretch of steps Dandan descended proved especially demanding. Chu Li found herself swaying not just side to side, but forward and back as well.
It took considerable effort just to keep her grip on Dandan's feathers, enough to keep herself from spinning dizzily in every direction. The boy behind her wasn't nearly so fortunate, accidentally bumping into her back, his warm breath landing unexpectedly against the side of her neck.
A tingling, electric sensation shot through Chu Li's entire body at the contact, her strength suddenly draining away just like her injured ankle, and she very nearly lost her own grip on the crane's feathers. To keep from toppling backward and dragging Little Lian down with her, she had no choice but to lean forward on instinct.
Which, in turn, meant that the boy still holding her waist inevitably came along with the motion, pressed almost entirely against her back.
In his panic, his hands tightened considerably around her waist.
Chu Li had never minded Little Lian holding onto her waist before, but now, she could feel the precise shape of each individual finger, as though, with just a little more force, his hands might press right through her, or perhaps... snap her spine in two.
That unsettling thought sent her heart racing.
It wasn't until Dandan finally stepped off the last stair, the path leveling out beneath them, that Little Lian straightened his back first, and only then did Chu Li right herself as well.
Walking ahead, Qi Ying let out a sudden exclamation. "That was quite a long flight of steps. Good thing you didn't have to walk it yourself, Xiao Li."
She turned back, her tone shifting slightly, clearly caught off guard. "...Is something wrong with you two?"
Chu Li and Little Lian's breathing came in overlapping, ragged gasps, the ordeal of the stairs having left a lasting impression neither of them could quite shake off just yet.
"We're fine!" Chu Li managed, still catching her breath, raising a hand toward Qi Ying.
Qi Ying's expression froze awkwardly. "...You really don't look fine."
Chu Li offered a strained, unfinished smile, feeling roughly a hundred times more embarrassed inside than Qi Ying could ever have guessed.
Once past the steps, the two of them, plus the crane, arrived at an open stretch of grassland.
This area buzzed with foot traffic, one of the busiest crossroads in the entire sect.
And an enormous crane carrying two passengers at once was, without question, quite the eye-catching sight in motion.
A crowd of curious female disciples gathered from every direction, though they clearly kept their distance, staying several yards back from Dandan out of caution.
They watched Chu Li with a mixture of awe and bewilderment, murmuring among themselves.
"Since when is Senior Sister Qi's crane this large? It's even taller than my own partner!"
"Wasn't that Chu Li the one who scared off the queen bee just yesterday? Now she's riding around on a crane too?"
"She actually let her partner ride the same crane as her? What in the world is going on with that partner of hers?"
Amid the murmuring, one female disciple, carrying a stack of scrolls, spoke up with a notably sharper voice. "None of you are properly preparing for the sect's upcoming competition, and yet here you all are, wasting time gawking at someone else's little show. Don't come crying to me later when you find out you didn't make the cut!"
The moment those words left her mouth, the entire area fell into stunned silence.
A moment later, the crowd dispersed, thoroughly deflated.
"A sect competition?" Chu Li glanced at Qi Ying, puzzled. "Is there some kind of internal tournament coming up?"
"They must be referring to the one happening a month from now." Qi Ying tapped a finger against her temple. "It's a competition the sect holds to select new inner-sect disciples. Unless you're in a rush to advance, there's no need to worry about it."
Chu Li let out a breath of relief. "For a second there, I thought I'd forgotten about something important."
Every year, the Bliss Sect held this kind of internal evaluation. Outer disciples who passed would be promoted to inner-sect status, moving out of the crowded outer-sect courtyard and into their own private cottage.
But qualifying for inner-sect status required at least Foundation Establishment cultivation, and with Little Lian's spirit root still unstable for at least another two or three months, there was no realistic way Chu Li could make any substantial progress cultivating with him before then.
Still, it reminded her of something worth keeping in mind.
Over the next few months, while she worked on filling Little Lian's spiritual deficit, she should also start gently preparing him, easing him into a proper understanding of what being a partner actually entailed.
Back at their quarters, after seeing off Qi Ying and Dandan, Chu Li immediately applied a specialized bruise ointment to her injured ankle.
The medicine worked well, but its side effect left her drowsy, requiring her to lie in bed for the better part of the afternoon.
She gave up on preparing lunch entirely, letting Little Lian make do with fruit for the time being.
As luck would have it, the sect delivered the confiscated spirit pills taken from Qin Yuxi right around midday, a lovely shade of lilac in color, and just one pill left Little Lian fully sated all the way through the evening.
Thanks to that pill, the Xuanzhu binding on his wrist gained another satisfying red bean's width of progress.
That night, before bed, Chu Li was thrilled to discover her ankle could finally bear weight again. In her excitement, she didn't even bother wiping off the leftover ointment before beckoning Little Lian over, ready to follow through on their agreement to drip wax and stimulate his pressure points.
The boy obediently slipped off the top of his robe and lay down on the bamboo cot, having, just as he'd said the day before, fully come to accept the wax treatment as routine.
Candle in hand, Chu Li instructed him in an ordinary tone, "Turn over. Lie on your back this time."
Little Lian sounded confused. "Didn't you always have me lie face-down before, Sister?"
Chu Li answered without missing a beat. "Tonight makes up for last night's session too, so it only makes sense to do the front once and the back once."
Despite her explanation, Little Lian still looked visibly tense, hesitating without moving.
Chu Li propped her chin in her hand, sitting at the edge of the cot, simply watching him.
After a long moment, he finally gave in under the weight of her silent insistence, turning over obediently, his gaze pointedly averted, refusing to meet hers.
Perhaps thanks to the spiritual nourishment he'd been receiving, the old scars across his chest had faded noticeably further than before.
The boy's chest rose and fell gently, his skin pale and fine-grained, his stomach lean yet firm.
Chu Li studied his body the way one might examine a rare, irreplaceable piece of porcelain, without the slightest hesitation or reservation.
Compared to what she was about to do next, simply looking at him hardly counted as anything at all.
She pulled out a deep crimson silk handkerchief from behind her, something she'd dug out from around the room earlier, the color dark enough to block out more light than a paler cloth would.
Chu Li folded the handkerchief carefully several times over, then leaned down and covered his eyes with it.
Though a simple spell could have accomplished the same thing instantly, she always felt that doing it by hand herself lent the whole process a certain sense of ceremony.
The moment the cloth covered his eyes, Little Lian's breath caught, his voice thick with confusion. "Sister, what are you doing?"
Chu Li lit the candle in her hand, her tone carrying an air of practiced seriousness. "Lying like this, I worry the candlelight might strain your eyes later."
Little Lian seemed to accept the explanation without further questioning, though his hands curled at his sides, clearly still somewhat resistant to the whole thing.
Having given her instructions, Chu Li didn't rush straight into dripping the wax. Instead, she pulled out a white jade hairpin and held it near his covered eyes, asking with deliberate casualness, "Look, do you think this black hairpin in my hand looks nice?"
Little Lian pressed his lips together. "Sister, I can't see it clearly."
Chu Li tested him a few more times with different hair ornaments, and once she was fully satisfied he genuinely couldn't see a thing, she put the items away, satisfied, and reached down to tug the robe already resting at his waist a little further down, revealing the faint outline of his hip lines before finally pulling her hand back, pleased.
His throat bobbed as he swallowed, his fists clenched tightly at his sides, his stomach visibly tensing. "Sister, weren't you supposed to be dripping wax on me? Why are you pulling at my clothes instead?"
"Lie still, don't move." Chu Li roughly measured the width of his hips with her hands and said nothing further.
The bamboo cot creaked faintly with her movement, the rustle of fabric shifting against fabric filling the quiet room.
The sounds only left the boy feeling more unsettled.
He endured it in silence for a while longer, but eventually gave in to the urge to defy her instructions, lifting his head to try to look. Chu Li's hand shot out immediately, covering his eyes.
She scolded him lightly, clearly displeased. "Didn't I tell you to lie still? What do you think you're doing, moving on your own like that?"
Her palm pressed over the handkerchief now slightly slipping loose, shielding his eyes once more.
And her body, without deviating an inch, sat squarely astride his thighs.
【Author's Note】
【Bonus scene】
Ji Wuyan: I've ridden a serpent that could reduce a mountain to rubble with its roar. Why would I be afraid of some crane?
Chu Li: So where's your serpent now, then?
Ji Wuyan: ...Charging up on spiritual energy.
A four-winged serpent: every self-respecting villain's ultimate mount.
Fully charged, it can cover a thousand miles a day. Uncharged, it can barely move an inch.
【Note 1】From the Baidu Baike entry on the "mingshe" (鸣蛇, "singing serpent").
"The mingshe is a divine beast from ancient Chinese mythology. According to the Classic of Mountains and Seas (山海经), the mingshe resembles an ordinary serpent in body, but bears four wings and produces a deep, tolling sound like that of a large bell."
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Translator's Notes for Curious Readers 🤍
The Classic of Mountains and Seas (山海经, Shan Hai Jing) referenced in the author's footnote is a real, ancient Chinese text (compiled roughly between the Warring States period and early Han dynasty) cataloguing mythical geography, deities, and strange creatures. It's a common source for monster and beast designs in Chinese fantasy fiction, and the author is citing it here as genuine background for the fictional "mingshe" serpent, in the same half-joking, footnote-heavy style used throughout the author's notes in this novel.
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