After hanging up the phone, Yang Feilong couldn't help but frown.
"If there's something, just go take care of it. Girlfriends are meant to be appeased! If you don't appease them, who knows if your girlfriend will still be yours one day," Bai Yidie said with a sharp tongue.
This made Yang Feilong want to laugh and cry. "Master, is this how you tease your disciple? I just wanted to stay with you!"
"I don't need you to accompany me," Bai Yidie glanced at Yang Feilong and said haughtily, "Alright, go say goodbye to your girlfriend Yixue. I'm returning to the Daoist temple. If I can come back before the New Year, I will. It's fine if I can't!"
With that, her figure flickered and she vanished from the spot.
This left Yang Feilong feeling quite helpless.
Master was as decisive as ever, not like a girl at all. In fact, what he wanted to do most was to spend the New Year with his Master.
The Spring Festival was now very close, with less than seven or eight days left!
He wondered if he could make it back before the New Year after this trip.
Of course, before going to handle his business, he had to say hello to Ouyang Yixue, otherwise, Ouyang Yixue would surely be sad and disappointed.
Soon, Yang Feilong returned to the miniature world and met Ouyang Yixue.
As for the others, they had gone to cultivate!
Seeing Yang Feilong, Ouyang Yixue looked at him and noticed the absence of Divine Doctor Bai behind him. She asked anxiously, "Feilong, where is Master?"
"Master has returned to the Daoist temple," Yang Feilong said with a smile.
"Why did Master leave? Is she not satisfied with me?" Ouyang Yixue asked pitifully.
"She is very satisfied with you!" Yang Feilong touched Ouyang Yixue's cheek and kissed her lips, saying, "It's just that she also needs to cultivate and refine pills and such, so she doesn't have time to come and say goodbye to you."
"Is that so?" Ouyang Yixue relaxed slightly. "As long as she's not dissatisfied with me!"
"You're so beautiful, so gentle, and so virtuous. Master couldn't possibly dislike you," Yang Feilong said with a smile to comfort her.
"That's good then!" Ouyang Yixue giggled, "Shall we go cultivate?"
"I'm afraid I can't accompany you to cultivate this time!" Yang Feilong said with a wry smile.
"Ah? What's wrong?" Ouyang Yixue's expression tightened, and she asked repeatedly.
"I have something to attend to. You and your family can continue cultivating here," Yang Feilong said. "I'll tell you how to enter and exit the formation later."
"You have business to attend to? How long will it take?" Ouyang Yixue looked at Yang Feilong with reluctance. "Can I go with you?"
"It's not very convenient," Yang Feilong said helplessly.
"Is it another one of your girlfriends who needs something?" Ouyang Yixue's face showed a hint of bitterness.
"En," Yang Feilong nodded. Although keeping it from Ouyang Yixue might make her feel better, he wasn't hers alone. She knew this before, and ultimately, she had to accept this fact. Just because he had been accompanying her recently didn't mean she could consider him hers alone. This was unfair to his girlfriends. However, he still wanted to spend more time with her, but he had urgent matters to attend to now, so it couldn't be helped.
"Alright then!" Ouyang Yixue was a little disappointed but quickly regained her composure. She had been so accustomed to Yang Feilong's company lately that hearing he had to leave her for a while made her feel sad. But after adjusting, although her heart still felt a little uneasy, she had managed to adapt!
"I'm sorry," Yang Feilong said apologetically, then pulled Ouyang Yixue into his arms and comforted her for a long time, even sharing several passionate kisses. Of course, the latter ones were initiated by Ouyang Yixue in her emotional state.
In the end, Yang Feilong temporarily bid farewell to the reluctant Ouyang Yixue.
However, he promised Ouyang Yixue that he would definitely return to Baiyun Mountain before the New Year. This was not a false promise, as he wanted to spend the New Year with his Master. This meant he would certainly have to return to Baiyun Mountain before the year ended.
"I just wonder if there will be any more surprises before the New Year," Yang Feilong mused.
After all, there was a saying that held true: no one knows whether tomorrow or an accident will come first.
After leaving the miniature world, Yang Feilong first went to the Daoist temple.
Yang Feilong hadn't even called out his Master's name before the Daoist temple manifested, clearly indicating that his Master knew of his arrival.
"Didn't you go to take care of your business? Why are you back at the Daoist temple?" Bai Yidie was reading in the study.
"Today is Little New Year. I don't know if I can make it back on time before the New Year, so I wanted to spend more time with Master," Yang Feilong poured his Master a cup of tea and said. Primarily, it was enough to rush over early tomorrow morning; today wasn't that urgent.
He would spend some time with his Master and then travel in the latter half of the night!
"It's Little New Year this year. You can go and spend some time with your adoptive parents. In previous years, you always stayed on the mountain with me, whether it was Little New Year or New Year's Day, you never visited your parents. Although they are only your adoptive parents, they have treated you very well," Bai Yidie sighed and said. "Back then, to cure your illness, they sent their own biological daughter to live at school and took you everywhere to seek medical help, enduring immense hardship. They heard rumors of a divine doctor on Baiyun Mountain, so they traveled through mountains and rivers, searching like headless flies on Baiyun Mountain for months. When I met them, the couple was in rags, looking like savages. However, you, their child, were well taken care of. Actually, for some reason, I didn't want to take disciples, but their sincerity moved me, and I accepted you as my disciple. I told them not to come looking for you, and even though it was difficult for them, they agreed! This is why every year I let you go down the mountain to visit them. As adoptive parents, they are actually better than many biological parents."
Listening to Bai Yidie's words, Yang Feilong stood frozen, pursing his lips, unable to speak for a long time.
His adoptive parents had never mentioned this, nor had his Master. Perhaps they felt it was a sentimental matter. Of course, before this, he had only heard his Master say that his adoptive parents had sacrificed a lot to save him. At that time, he didn't have much understanding of these things, and he was often unconscious, with fragmented memories. Hearing his Master's words, he recalled carefully and vaguely remembered many scenes.
It seemed that from a very young age, his adoptive parents had been taking him everywhere to seek medical treatment.
Yes!
They were just ordinary people.
One could imagine how much they had sacrificed.
He heard that to save him, they had once spent all their savings and incurred significant debt. If he hadn't been taken in by his Master at the age of eight, they would likely still be struggling after so many years. Why did they always work from dawn till dusk? Wasn't it to repay the debts incurred for his treatment?
"Go, go and see them. After you finish your business, don't rush back to accompany me. Spend the New Year with them. Perhaps, this is their long-awaited wish," Bai Yidie put down her book and said to Yang Feilong.
"I understand," Yang Feilong took a deep breath and nodded slowly.
After speaking, Yang Feilong left the Daoist temple.
He now felt a strong urge to see his adoptive parents and understand why they treated him so well.
...
The twenty-third day of the twelfth lunar month.
In big cities, the festive atmosphere of the New Year was not yet apparent, but in counties and villages, the New Year spirit was strong, with every household preparing for the festivities.
Students had also gone on holiday.
Especially the children, who gathered in groups of three or five, playing games, kicking shuttlecocks, jumping rope, playing hopscotch, and having a blast.
Children were also singing New Year's rhymes and arguing about whose rhyme was correct.
"Little child, little child, don't be greedy, after Laba is New Year. Laba porridge, drink for a few days, rattle-rattle is the twenty-third. Twenty-third, candy and melon sticky; twenty-fourth, sweep the house; twenty-fifth, make tofu; twenty-sixth, stew pork; twenty-seventh, kill the rooster; twenty-eighth, knead the dough; twenty-ninth, steam the buns. Stay up all night on the thirtieth, walk around the streets on the first and second of the month."
"What you're singing is wrong, it should be sung like this: Laba porridge, cook for a few days, rattle-rattle is the twenty-third. Twenty-third, candy pot sticky, twenty-fourth, sweep the house day, twenty-fifth, push the coal rat, twenty-sixth, stew pork, twenty-seventh, slaughter the rooster, twenty-eighth, knead white flour, twenty-ninth, steam the buns, stay up all night on the thirtieth, on New Year's Day, sister pulls brother to twist."
"..."
In fact, the rhymes were not exactly the same, but they conveyed the same meaning: it was the New Year, and there should be a festive spirit!
Yang Feilong drove his car, quietly observing such scenes. He felt an inexplicable warmth, and a rare smile appeared on his lips. He himself used to love bickering and arguing with his sister back then. In the blink of an eye, it had been more than ten years.
"Child, child, don't be greedy, after Laba is New Year; Laba porridge, a few more days, rattle-rattle is the twenty-third; twenty-third, candy and melon sticky, twenty-fourth, sweep the house; twenty-fifth, make tofu, twenty-sixth, stew pork; twenty-seventh, slaughter the New Year chicken, twenty-eighth, knead the dough; twenty-ninth, steam the buns, stay up all night on the thirtieth; twist on New Year's Day, dumplings on New Year's Eve every year." Yang Feilong softly sang. This was taught to him by his adoptive parents, and it wasn't entirely the same as the two children arguing about who was right and who was wrong.
Not long after, the car stopped in front of a courtyard.