Chapter 47

Chapter 47: Here, the Stars You Want, I’ve Caught Them for You

Looking back, it was Chu Yao, impatient.

“Everyone’s lying down, why are you the only one standing? Showing off, are you?”

Only then did Xie Chenzhou realize that there was a row of people lying neatly on the grass.

Even the boisterous Shen Mingchao and the talkative Wen Buyu had laid down.

His rising motion paused, and he slowly lay back down.

A cool mountain breeze brushed through the grass, making a rustling sound.

A few stars, flickering on and off, rose up, high and low, bright and dim.

The insects were still chirping, not heart-wrenchingly, but with a melodious twist.

As if the beginning of another beautiful dream.

Xie Chenzhou was a little dazed.

Suddenly, a warm hand touched his hand unintentionally, and he quickly retracted it, feeling cold.

After a few breaths, the hand covered his back again.

He turned his head and met the girl’s clear eyes.

“Your hands are so cold, like ice.”

She complained softly, turned sideways, wrapped his hand in hers and rubbed it, blowing a breath into his palm. When she looked up, her pupils were like black pearls in the water:

“I’ll warm them up for you, they’ll be warm soon.”

Xie Chenzhou looked at her eyes, his usually unhurried heart skipped a beat.

Perhaps he was really drunk, he moved his fingertips, as if bewitched, held his breath, carefully, slowly, and tentatively reached out to hook her pinky finger.

Just before he succeeded, she suddenly pulled her hand back and turned to talk to the others.

Xie Chenzhou looked at his hand, a trace of disappointment flashed in his eyes.

Sang Nian was oblivious, pointing to a moving light in the sky and said excitedly to Chu Yao:

“Is that a shooting star?”

Chu Yao corrected:

“That’s not a shooting star, it’s someone fighting and falling from the sky, their clothes are on fire.”

Su Xueyin added:

“It could also be a flying boat traveling at night, the lights on it are very bright.”

Sang Nian: “I don’t care, it’s a shooting star.”

Taking advantage of the alcohol, she was almost domineering:

“I want to make a wish.”

Chu Yao: “Make a wish?”

Su Xueyin: “Make a wish?”

Shen Mingchao: “Make a wish?”

Sang Nian said: “In my hometown, people say that if you make a wish on a shooting star, it will definitely come true.”

Wen Buyu heard this and asked in a daze:

“Junior Sister Sang, is that true?”

Sang Nian: “It should be true, right? I’ve never made a wish.”

Shen Mingchao said with a thick tongue:

“Ke, it must be fake, I’ve never heard of such a good thing in the world.”

Sang Nian thought for a moment and sat up:

“Why don’t we all tell our wishes? What if they really come true?”

Everyone sat up and looked at each other.

Sang Nian said: “I’ll go first.”

She clasped her hands together, her face full of hope:

“I want to be happy every day, and when everything is over, I want to go home and eat watermelon with seeds.”

“What kind of broken wish is that?” Shen Mingchao was the first to express his contempt, “Listen to this prince’s wish.”

He swayed to his feet, patted his chest hard, and shouted to the shooting star in the sky with a face full of excitement:

“I, Shen Mingchao, will become the number one swordsman in the cultivation world! Then, I will travel the world with one sword, see all the beautiful scenery in the world, and defeat all the invincible masters!

What Xiao Zhuochen, Wen Buyu, and that Xie Chenzhou, none of them are my match!”

Sang Nian listened and was equally contemptuous:

“Hope and wishful thinking are still different.”

Shen Mingchao glared at her and was about to fight her.

Wen Buyu pressed him down and said softly:

“Junior Brother, don’t be so irritable, Senior Brother will teach you to recite the Clear Heart Mantra, follow me, observe emptiness as emptiness, emptiness as no emptiness…”

Shen Mingchao looked faintly dead:

“Senior Brother, don’t you have any wishes?”

He didn’t expect Wen Buyu to answer, but unexpectedly, Wen Buyu nodded:

“Yes.”

Shen Mingchao was excited: “What is it?”

Wen Buyu: “I want to protect all living beings and defend the righteous path of the world.”

Shen Mingchao was very disappointed:

“Senior Brother, you’re so fake, who would think about these things all the time?”

Wen Buyu smiled but didn’t answer, and turned to ask:

“What about you two junior sisters?”

Su Xueyin twirled a strand of her long hair with her fingertip, saying a little shyly:

“I don’t have any grand ambitions, I just want to be good friends with you forever, always together.”

Chu Yao clenched her fist, also standing up and shouting:

“I, Song Chu Yao, will be recognized by my father and make everyone who looks down on me see me in a new light!”

Su Xueyin immediately clapped softly:

“Senior Sister is the best, you’ll definitely achieve it!”

Sang Nian poked Xie Chenzhou’s face:

“Your turn.”

Xie Chenzhou turned over, muttering:

“I don’t have any wishes.”

Sang Nian: “Really?”

Xie Chenzhou paused, his voice very low:

“I used to.”

In the distant past, in the dark dungeon, in the cold iron cage.

“Then make a wish again,” Sang Nian said confidently, “You don’t need a shooting star, I’ll make it happen for you.”

Xie Chenzhou: “What if I want the stars in the sky?”

Sang Nian: “Be normal, or I’ll hit you.”

Xie Chenzhou snorted:

“You’re just playing with me.”

Sang Nian sighed deeply at his back:

“Fine, you win.”

She got up and walked away without looking back.

Xie Chenzhou’s expression dimmed, his eyelashes drooping, covering the emotions in his eyes.

After an unknown amount of time, long enough for Chu Yao and the others to fall asleep.

Someone pushed his shoulder.

He got up and looked.

The moonlight was like water, the girl was squatting on the grass, her skirt spread out like flowers, the red ribbon in her hair was loose and scattered, as if it was about to fall apart at any moment.

She clasped her hands together, gestured towards him with her chin, and said in a whisper:

“Come here.”

Xie Chenzhou squatted down in front of her:

“What?”

Sang Nian leaned closer to him, gently opening her clasped hands:

“Here, I’ve caught the stars you want for you.”

In the not-so-dark summer night, two green lights flickered slightly, slowly flying out of her palm, lighting up the young man’s dark eyes.

He gasped.

It was – two fireflies.

Sang Nian still had a few blades of grass on her head, and her nose was covered with mud, looking particularly comical.

She complained softly:

“The fireflies on this Guzhu Peak are almost becoming spirits, I can’t hurt them, it took me a long time to catch these two, I’m exhausted.”

Seeing that Xie Chenzhou didn’t say anything for a long time, she touched her nose:

“Okay, I admit I did switch concepts, strictly speaking, this doesn’t count as stars in the sky, but -“

She suddenly grabbed his sleeve, lay down on the grass beside him, and said seriously:

“Look, from this angle, aren’t they stars?”

“They have light, they are beautiful, and they can fly around to simulate shooting stars.”

Xie Chenzhou was silent for a long time, then said hoarsely:

“Yeah, they are stars.”

They were the stars that the child who had been locked in the dark dungeon had longed for, begged for, and hoped for day and night.

Stars.

She caught them for him.

She really, caught them for him.

Ding~ Xie Chenzhou’s favorability +99999

Xie Chenzhou’s current favorability: 0

Sang Nian’s eyes widened.

Help, she seems to be hallucinating from drinking too much.

She knocked her head hard, trying to look at the words on the panel.

Xie Chenzhou? 0?

It must be a hallucination.

Xie Chenzhou’s fingertips touched the fireflies on his head lightly, his voice very soft, so soft that Sang Nian could barely hear it:

“I used to want to kill you, but now, I don’t seem to think so anymore.”

Sang Nian stammered:

“Th-that’s good.”

Xie Chenzhou didn’t say anything.

The wind picked up again.

A faint scent of grass brushed past his nose, and dark clouds briefly covered the moon.

All was silent.

For a moment, just a moment, Xie Chenzhou thought:

Perhaps, he… could try to be friends with Sang Nian.

Just ordinary friends.