Little Cat: “……”

The little cat was momentarily speechless, giving up on prodding and lying down to continue sleeping.
Ending the topic about the owner, Lin Zhusheng took the extra seeds he had and began to survey the land, trying to find a corner that could accommodate their growth.
“Creek—”

During his inspection, a sound came from next door, the wooden door creaked open, and he turned to see his neighbor, Zhang Jing, who had just gotten out of bed, standing at the door to greet the morning sun. They unexpectedly locked eyes.
Zhang Jing: “……”

Zhang Jing’s stretching motion came to a halt.
It was early in the morning, and running into each other like this surely meant trouble was brewing.
Lin Zhusheng wasn’t calculating anything bad. He simply made eye contact with his neighbor and casually glanced over Zhang Jing’s land.

Although the yard wasn’t as big as his, it seemed like it could grow quite a bit.
Noticing that his gaze swept over his yard, Zhang Jing, though unsure of what might happen, quickly acted on his first instinct to stop him, saying, “Don’t come over…”

Lin Zhusheng climbed over the fence and walked over, rubbing his hands together as he said, “Are you not planning to plant anything in your yard? Let me show you something good.”
Great, he was completely ignoring Zhang Jing.

As expected, Zhang Jing’s yard was invaded.
He lost his yard but gained half of whatever would grow there and a pile of snacks.
“……”
He had been wondering for a long time where this person got the energy to do so many things every day.
Sitting under the eaves with a pile of snacks that he couldn’t finish in a day, he looked at the person who was busy in the yard and randomly picked a snack to eat, saying, “By the way, this day off from the training ground isn’t for you to farm; it’s for you to practice your sword skills and solidify your foundation, preparing for future training.”

Although he often had little accidents, the farmer Lin was doing fine with his sword practice and wasn’t worried at all. He just took a moment from his busy schedule to respond, “Oh.”
Then he casually asked, “What are we practicing next?”
Zhang Jing said, “Sword flight.”

Those few short words had a huge impact. Lin Zhusheng’s busy hands froze, and he tensed up, forcing out a sound from his throat: “……Huh?”
Retracting his earlier statement, it seemed his sword practice wouldn’t be so smooth anymore.
Instantly sensing something was off, Zhang Jing stopped munching on his snack and precisely caught the key point, saying, “Are you afraid of sword flight?”
Lin Zhusheng quickly waved his hand, defending himself, “That’s not fear.”
Zhang Jing’s lips curled up, “Oh ho.”

His attitude was really annoying, and Lin Zhusheng furrowed his brows, sincerely suggesting, “Why don’t you go back to how you were when we first met? That way, you’d be easier on the eyes.”
Some people were still around, but they were already worth reminiscing about. Back then, this person had a hint of shyness and restraint, not like now, where he looked so annoyingly cocky.
Change was impossible; they could only continue to hurt each other like this.
Lin Zhusheng also smiled and changed the original division of the yard’s crops from fifty-fifty to sixty-forty, with him getting the larger share.

An ordinary conversation turned the once cheerful farmer into a heavy-hearted one, his mood so off that even the Confucian scholar and Wu Qi could notice.
No matter how unwilling he was, the thrilling and exciting sword flight class that no one was looking forward to still came.

The person who used to be very active during training was now unusually quiet, standing at the back of the crowd with his little broken wooden sword, not saying a word, trying to minimize his presence.
Sword flight mainly relied on spiritual power; as long as one had enough spiritual power, controlling it was basically no problem. It was a skill that seemed complex but was actually quite simple.
Lin Shifu, who had drained the spiritual energy from two mountains, had no shortage of spiritual power, making it easy for him to make the sword float.

But when it came to adding himself to the mix, it didn’t work.
Standing on his little broken wooden sword, he was careful when he was just one centimeter off the ground, trembling when he was a decimeter high, and when he reached half a meter, he was swaying left and right before jumping off the sword to escape quickly.
Beside him, Zhang Jing clapped, “Impressive.”
With a flick of his eyes, Lin Zhusheng jumped up and reached out, directly pulling Zhang Jing down from the sword.

Both of them landed, and although he hadn’t improved, he didn’t let the other get the better of him. He picked up his little wooden sword, placed it on his hip, and squinted with a smile.
The sword practice ended with both of them dropping their swords, and at the end, Lin Zhusheng received a shoulder pat from the elder, encouraging him that it was okay to try again next time.
Objectively speaking, he felt that trying again next time probably wouldn’t work either.
Sword flight was a necessary skill for sword cultivators, and no matter what, he had to learn it. Still heavy-hearted, the farmer went to the academy and the library in the afternoon, and instead of exploring new maps as usual, he went home to practice his sword.

He practiced his sword, and the ones suffering were always the peach forest across the street and the little cat. With no one around, he could practice however he wanted.
A little cat that originally planned to go back to bed was forcibly dragged up to accompany him to the peach forest, staring with sleepy eyes as he stood on the sword, unable to last even a second before jumping off again, repeating this over and over.
Little Cat: “……”

After repeating so many times that it felt dizzying, it couldn’t tell if it was sick or if this person was sick.
Finally, after he jumped off the sword once more, it couldn’t help but speak up, “Do you really want to practice?”

“How rude,” Lin Zhusheng’s eyes widened, saying, “Aren’t I trying hard to practice?”
The little cat tightened and then relaxed its paws, saying, “Then why not try to hold on for two seconds?”
It looked up, pointing its paw at the branches of the peach tree above, saying, “If you fall, the tree will catch you; you won’t get hurt.”
Lin Zhusheng followed its gaze upward and patted the tree trunk.

It seemed pretty sturdy.
Alright, he bravely went up.
Stepping back onto the wooden sword, he closed his eyes and opened them again. The little broken wooden sword trembled slightly and began to rise slowly.
…It felt a bit nice.

Not daring to look down, he stared straight ahead, his gaze as firm as if he wanted to join the party, fixated on the patterns of the peach tree, not moving an inch.
The height was enough to see the peach branches, breaking his previous record of only half a meter. Adjusting his breathing to manual mode, Lin Zhusheng breathed slowly, his gaze gradually focusing on the peach blossom petals on the branches.

A gentle breeze blew, causing the petals to flutter, and he, caught off guard, let his gaze drop.
—Alright, it’s over.
In an instant, his pupils shifted from the petals to the ground behind them.
“……”

The ground was very high, at least two meters off the ground. With a “thud,” without a moment’s hesitation, he jumped off the sword, instantly wrapping his hands and feet tightly around the peach tree trunk, pressing his face against the bark, and then he didn’t move again.
The wooden sword that had been floating in the air fell, landing not far from the little cat with a few “bang bang” sounds.

The little cat lifted its head, silently meeting the gaze of the person hanging from the tree, and finally sighed, saying, “I’ll go find Zhang Jing to help.”
The person hanging from the tree let out a weak voice that sounded like he was about to die: “……Please hurry.”

The little cat walked away with a tired and speechless gait, leaving the peach forest and stepping onto the path.

It was quite lucky; as soon as it got on the path, it saw a figure. Walking over, the little cat stepped on the person’s shoe, perfectly bumping into them, and looked up to say, “That person is hanging from a tree…”
Halfway through its sentence, it met a pair of unexpectedly calm eyes, and the little cat’s voice suddenly stopped.

With a low vantage point and limited visibility, it had mistaken the person.
It wasn’t Zhang Jing; it was… hmm, Wen Baizhou, a person who had suddenly appeared here for some unknown reason.

—It didn’t matter who it was, as long as it was a person.
After a brief pause, considering that someone was still hanging in the tree, the little cat continued to finish its previous sentence.

Thus, the recently arrived Wen Baizhou was drafted into service, led by the little cat into the peach forest.
When they arrived, the person hanging from the tree was still there, with both hands and feet tightly pressed against it, only a tuft of hair wrapped in a hairband and the hem of his clothes hanging down, looking like he wanted to merge with the tree.

Lin Zhusheng had turned into Lin Taosheng, lonely and stuck to the peach tree for a while. Just as he was starting to suspect that the little cat had quietly slipped away under the pretense of looking for someone, he finally heard footsteps again. Slowly turning his head, the moment he saw the figure approaching, the tears that had been welling up in his eyes burst forth, and he cried out, “Senior Brother!”
That shout, filled with emotion, made the listener sad and brought tears to the hearer’s eyes.
Too embarrassing, the little cat pretended not to hear, turning its head to squat down beside it, burying its head.

The little cat could turn its head, but the senior brother couldn’t. Before the person could continue to cry out, Wen Baizhou took two steps forward, not asking how he ended up hanging from the tree, but timely said, “I’m here.”

A gust of wind blew, rustling the leaves, and in a daze, Lin Taosheng felt the branches moving along with him. He closed his eyes tightly, clinging to the tree, letting out a voice that sounded like he was about to die.

Weak as if he had suffered the ten tortures, it felt like he was about to start giving his last words in the next second, distributing the messy things in his two broken wooden boxes.
With his eyes closed, other senses were infinitely magnified, and the sounds of leaves and petals rustling in the wind mixed with the subtle sound of his robe fluttering, pulling him in.
“Open your eyes.”

The sound of cold jade clashing rang out nearby, sending a shiver through his ears.
At this critical moment, Lin Zhusheng, who was very obedient, opened his eyes, but not fully; he squinted slightly, raising his head a bit, tears still streaming down.

It wasn’t an illusion; it was really close. The moment he opened his eyes, he saw a familiar face that should have been below. With sharp brows and eyes relaxed, those calm eyes seemed to carry a hint of a smile, though it could just be his imagination.
…A smile? That should be an illusion.

His hand clenched into a fist, lightly resting against his lips, his gaze temporarily shifting from the person who seemed to grow from the tree to Wen Baizhou, who lowered his eyes, his expression still unchanged, slightly extending his hand, saying, “Grab my hand.”

Feeling like he had turned into a piece of bark on the tree, Lin Taosheng wanted to move but didn’t dare to. His fingers twitched slightly before quickly sticking back to the tree.

“Don’t be afraid,” Wen Baizhou said, not retracting his outstretched hand, “I’m here; you won’t fall.”
Lin Taosheng: “Are you serious?”
Wen Baizhou nodded, “I am serious.”

A person who was very daring when it came to doing things, receiving a positive response, Lin Zhusheng, without a moment’s hesitation, raised his hand that was clinging to the tree branch and touched the hand that was extended toward him.

The moment his fingers fell into the icy palm, they were gripped tightly, and then a strong force came.
As the action shifted, his gaze was suddenly drawn to the breathtakingly high view, and he transformed into a screeching upright ape, burying his face into the cold-scented robe, feeling the sudden sensation of weightlessness as he rapidly descended.