To Get Married - Chapter 21.1

Chapter 21.1

Time always comes and goes in a rush, never speeding up or waiting for anyone.

When I started elementary school, junior high felt so far away. When I started junior high, high school felt just as distant.

But when the day of graduation and promotion finally arrived, looking back, it all felt as if many years ago was no different from yesterday. It seemed so long ago, yet in the blink of an eye, you had become a person with history.

It was like after junior high, looking back at the newly enrolled elementary school students, or after the start of the eighth grade, watching the younger students suffer through military training, rain or shine or under the scorching sun.

All you could really do was sigh, “Time flies so fast. We were just like that…”

Then, the students—who definitely had cell phones and QQ groups—each took out a handwritten student yearbook, distributing pages to the classmates they wanted to keep in touch with. Finally, they collected the pages, sealed the books, and it was anyone’s guess who would actually remember whom years later.

Lu Yudong received a few yearbook pages but didn’t buy one herself. Over three years of junior high, she was an invisible presence in the class. Not many people cared about her, and she didn’t care about many people, either.

Both she and Zhang Ziyun successfully passed the entrance exam for the senior high division of Wenhai Middle School. Her most important friend wouldn’t be separated from her, so there was nothing else to be nostalgic about.

The last time Lu Yudong went to school was because Zhang Ziyun said tidying her dorm room alone was too boring, so she went to school to keep Zhang Ziyun company while she packed some things in the dorm.

Zhang Ziyun came late. Her roommates’ beds and cabinets had already been cleared out. The dorm room was a mess, and only Zhang Ziyun had yet to pack anything.

Lu Yudong was afraid of just getting in the way. After helping tidy the bedding and the unneeded textbooks, she sat aside and started to daydream, not interfering further.

Zhang Ziyun was squatting, putting away clutter under the bed, when she suddenly said, “Lu Yudong, we might not be in the same class in high school.”

Lu Yudong curved her brows and smiled: “When that happens, I’ll just find you after school, no matter which class you’re in. We can still run to the cafeteria together and go back to class together.”

“That works.” Zhang Ziyun stood up and grinned: “You’ll come to my classroom?”

“Whatever works,” Lu Yudong said, walking to the window, squinting at the blinding sunlight outside. “Maybe we’ll even be in the same class?”

“That would be best,” Zhang Ziyun said. Then, as if remembering something, she muttered softly, “Zhang Hao missed the Wenhai score by over ten points. He clearly didn’t pass, but he insisted on going. I heard his family has connections, and they’re going to push him in. He can even choose his class…”

Lu Yudong turned around: “I heard that missing one point means paying 20,000 yuan?”

“His family has money. It’s only about 300,000 or 400,000 yuan,” Zhang Ziyun said with a tone of disdain. But then her attitude changed: “Lu Yudong, say… Zhang Hao said his family has connections, right? If we ask him for help, maybe we can be assigned to the same class?”

Lu Yudong shook her head, walking back to the bed to sit down: “How about we just let nature take its course? Let’s not bother him. We’re not close…”

“Whether we’re close or not depends on the situation. Why don’t you understand? If he wasn’t bluffing and really has connections, then putting the two of us in the same class is just a matter of opening his mouth, right?” Zhang Ziyun said, “I’ll ask him later. If we can be together, great. If not, then so be it. Asking won’t make us pregnant.”

“…” Lu Yudong pouted and stopped talking.

Zhang Ziyun was halfway through packing when her family arrived to pick her up.

Her aunt and uncle were both loud, and Zhang Ziyun’s voice got much louder, too. The previously quiet dorm room suddenly became lively. Lu Yudong felt like she was no longer needed, so she said goodbye and went home first.

When she arrived home, Manzhu was cooking noodles in the kitchen. Seeing that Lu Yudong hadn’t eaten out with her classmate, she cooked an extra bowl.

After the meal, Manzhu pulled out a measuring tape from somewhere and motioned for Lu Yudong to stand against the wall so she could measure her height.

Lu Yudong knew her height because she had recently undergone a physical exam organized by the school for the high school entrance exam.

However, seeing Manzhu holding the tape measure next to her, she still obediently stood against the wall and let Manzhu measure her again.

“One meter fifty-five,” Manzhu smiled happily. “You’ve grown quite a bit since last time.”

“Hehe.” Lu Yudong laughed, took the measuring tape, looked up, and asked, “I want to play this too!”

“Play this?” Manzhu looked confused.

Lu Yudong nodded, pulled Manzhu to the wall, and Manzhu instantly understood what she meant. She cooperated by taking off her shoes and standing straight with her bare feet against the wall.

Three years ago, Lu Yudong was only about 1.35 meters tall and had to look up to talk to Manzhu. Now, standing together, they were less than a head apart.

It turned out Manzhu’s height was 1.67 meters.

Although not considered tall, her figure looked quite perfect.

Lu Yudong thought for a moment, then boldly reached out and wrapped her arms around Manzhu’s waist. Under Manzhu’s slightly surprised gaze, she started measuring her waist circumference.

“Do you need to measure this too?” Manzhu couldn’t help but laugh.

“It’s just for fun!” Lu Yudong said, tightening the tape measure with her fingertip, checking the number, and then starting to measure her bust.

“Why are you measuring all this?” Manzhu said, but she tried to cooperate as much as possible, with no sign of aversion on her face.

“No reason,” Lu Yudong said, putting away the measuring tape.

She still remembered Manzhu’s “birthday”: July twenty-eighth.

That was the day of her car accident three years ago, the day she lost her parents, and the day she and Manzhu were both reborn. It was coming up this summer vacation.

This was a summer vacation with no homework. Because of this, before Manzhu’s birthday, Lu Yudong dedicated most of her energy to cultivating her magic.

To maintain sufficient focus, she rarely went to Bu Shi Gu Ren in the evenings.

Yan Zhaomu had said that the most fundamental parts of cultivation were learning to use the spiritual power within her body for defense or attack, then spirit manipulation (Yu Ling), and finally, energy condensation (Ning Qi).

In layman’s terms, using spiritual power was like fighting barehanded with internal energy in a Wuxia novel. Spirit manipulation was like a martial artist learning to use a weapon, but it wasn’t a weapon; it was like a water cultivator controlling water, or a fire cultivator controlling fire.

The first two were just entry-level and not difficult. The challenging part was the last one: energy condensation.

Energy condensation meant using one’s own spiritual power as a guide to gather the portion of the world’s spiritual energy that one could control, leveraging that power to achieve the greatest possible result with the least amount of self-depletion.

The current Lu Yudong could already manipulate water currents at will. Yan Zhaomu’s demand for her was now a step higher.

He wanted Lu Yudong to condense water out of thin air.

“This is too difficult, isn’t it?” When Lu Yudong first heard this request, her eyes were full of disbelief. “Isn’t that creating something from nothing?”

“No,” Yan Zhaomu said. He casually formed a hand seal, and when he spread his palm, it held a sphere of water, like a small spring, swirling without scattering. “I told you, the heaven, the spiritual energy of heaven and earth, is e-everywhere… not n-nonexistent.”

Lu Yudong blinked, half understanding.

“Y-you, you need to, to use your heart to, to, to feel…”

“To feel it!” Lu Yudong nodded emphatically, indicating she understood. “So, when you say ‘out of thin air,’ it’s not actually creating something from nothing. Water is everywhere. Just because you can’t feel it doesn’t mean it’s not there.”

“Mhm.” Yan Zhaomu nodded in agreement.

What he wanted was for Lu Yudong to find the “water” within the spiritual energy of heaven and earth, which ordinary people couldn’t perceive.

From that day on, Lu Yudong began to meditate and use her own spiritual power to sense the spiritual energy of heaven and earth.

Initially, she felt nothing. But as time went by, she gradually perceived a very subtle sensation.

The feeling was like a thin layer of something covering her entire body, making her no longer feel the heat of the weather, which was very comfortable.

And outside that layer was the invisible rain and dew floating everywhere, carrying a slight coolness, slowly flowing through the world, as if she could touch it if she reached out.

So this was what the spiritual energy of heaven and earth, untouchable by the naked eye, was like. No wonder Yan Zhaomu could so easily condense energy into water. Water truly was everywhere.

She excitedly ran to Yan Zhaomu and told him about her discovery.

A flicker of surprise crossed Yan Zhaomu’s eyes, then he composed himself and said: “Good. Th-then, try to… to, to grab, grab hold of it.”

Lu Yudong nodded, closed her eyes, and once again sensed the “water” in the spiritual energy of heaven and earth. But when she reached out to touch it, she found that it dispersed before contact, unable to even dampen her fingertips.

After multiple attempts, her hands still couldn’t gather a single drop of water.

Lu Yudong opened her eyes, bit her lip tearfully, and lowered her head: “Little Master, I, I… I can’t catch it. I’m too stupid.”

The young girl’s voice, cracking slightly due to puberty, sounded pitiful.

“Not stupid,” Yan Zhaomu patted Lu Yudong’s shoulder, his gaze gentle. “D-don’t, don’t rush… T-take, take your time.”

Lu Yudong nodded glumly, turned, walked to the corner, and began practicing diligently by herself.

Mu Chensan saw Lu Yudong looking dejected and couldn’t help but walk over curiously: “What’s the situation? Is the little girl too slow, and you scolded her?”

Yan Zhaomu shook his head: “Too… too fast. She, she can already, sense, the spiritual energy of heaven and earth.”

“…” Mu Chensan stared at Lu Yudong’s back with a look of astonishment. After a good while, he finally exclaimed: “Really? I’m starting to regret not taking on this prodigy myself.”

Yan Zhaomu gave Mu Chensan a disdainful glance.

“What’s with that look?”

“C-cultivating Netherworld power, j-just don’t lead, lead students astray,” Yan Zhaomu said, turning to walk away.

“Hmph,” Mu Chensan rolled his eyes. “Isn’t it all the spiritual energy of heaven and earth? Why should it be ranked by nobility?”

With that, he raised his hand and conjured a ball of black spiritual energy. After thinking for a moment, he muttered to himself: “It does look a little unsuitable for a little girl, but people have to grow up, right?”

Lu Yudong didn’t hear the brief conversation between the two.

In the days that followed, Lu Yudong wrestled with the “water” she saw when concentrating.

Until one night, she finally touched a drop of it.

Then, following that momentary sensation, she successfully condensed a small sphere of water at her fingertip.

Lu Yudong succeeded. This seemingly small breakthrough made her so happy that she ran several laps in her small room, then rushed into Bu Shi Gu Ren.

She wanted to tell Yan Zhaomu, and even more, she wanted to tell Manzhu.

It just so happened that a regular customer of Bu Shi Gu Ren was celebrating a birthday, bringing friends for a small party, making the whole evening exceptionally busy.

Manzhu was sitting on the stage, singing songs requested by customers who paid for them. Yan Zhaomu was busy mixing drinks for the guests, with a small queue forming, and had no time to attend to her.

Lu Yudong stood to the side, pouting. She waited and waited but couldn’t find a spare moment. She simply plopped down on a tall stool at the bar, propped her head on one hand, and stared blankly at her busy little master.

Yan Zhaomu saw Lu Yudong sitting idly for a long time, so he handed her a bottle of grape-flavored Mirinda.

Lu Yudong held the Mirinda and stayed there until the bar closed in the early hours of the morning.

After all the guests had left, she grabbed Manzhu, refusing to let her go. She stood properly in front of the bar, extended her right hand toward Yan Zhaomu, who was tidying up, her eyes full of the expectation of praise.

Then, with a strain that looked like she was holding back from using the restroom, she finally managed to conjure a small water sphere after a great effort.

At that moment, the surrounding demons and spirits who were watching were stunned.

Lu Yudong instinctively glanced at Manzhu and Yan Zhaomu’s expressions, finding their gazes complicated. She unconsciously pursed her lips, furrowed her brow, and lowered her head.

“Did… did I embarrass myself?” she asked softly.

Manzhu snapped out of her daze and stroked Lu Yudong’s head: “You are too smart.”

“Huh?”

“Little Sister Yudong! You’ve been cultivating for less than three years, and you can already condense energy!” Huan Xi said, her pretty face instantly crumbling. She turned, hugged Xiao Zhi, and feigned sorrow: “We’ve been cultivating for over three hundred years, and we haven’t even mastered spirit manipulation yet!”

Lu Yudong remembered that Yan Zhaomu had once said that although humans had short lifespans, they possessed a unique advantage in cultivation. As long as the spiritual meridians were open, their perception of spiritual power would inevitably be much stronger than that of demons.

There were even extremely rare cultivation prodigies in the world who, if they cultivated diligently, could catch up to demons who had practiced for thousands of years in just ten or twenty years of effort.

But the prerequisite was dedicated cultivation.

For three years, Lu Yudong had prioritized her studies, yet her progress was so rapid, astonishing everyone present.

“What do you mean?” Lu Yudong tugged at Manzhu’s sleeve, her eyes sparkling with a little bit of pride. “Are you saying I’m really great?”

“Yes,” Manzhu bent her beautiful eyes into a smile at her.

Lu Yudong hugged Manzhu’s arm, happily saying: “Little Master is a good teacher!”

After her moment of joy, under the demons’ shocked and envious gazes, Lu Yudong grabbed Manzhu’s hand and skipped all the way home.

Yan Zhaomu finished tidying the bar, locked the door, and was about to turn off the lights and head upstairs when he saw Mu Chensan pouring a drink at the counter.

“Wash your own glass after you finish,” Yan Zhaomu put down the hand that was reaching for the light switch and turned toward the stairs. After only two steps, an insulating barrier enveloped the area around them.

Mu Chensan said in a deep voice: “Don’t you feel that something isn’t right about Lu Yudong? Someone who only opened her spiritual meridians at age eleven cannot be a prodigy.”

“Yes, not right…”