Follow the path of Dao from infancy

Li Hao stepped out of the Divine General Mansion, leisurely strolling through Qingzhou City with Bian Ruxue.

He took her to taste delicious foods, watch grand operas, and listen to storytelling.

They also went to a nearby lake outside the city, where he caught dragonflies and butterflies for her, and pressed them into a specimen book using the pages of a sword manual as a gift for her.

Although both were no ordinary people, doing these ordinary things, their faces were still filled with smiles.

During their jaunt in the countryside, Li Hao brought paper, brushes, and rolls of canvas, and painted numerous portraits for Bian Ruxue, with varied backgrounds and perspectives, totaling over a hundred pieces, which almost exhausted his painting experience.

But painting for her, Li Hao wasn’t doing it for the experience.

On the outskirts of the city, not at the Blackwater Demon Lake where the second master Li Muxiu took Li Hao, but by the bank of another, smaller demon lake.

Li Hao brought a fishing rod to fish, while Bian Ruxue sat by his side, with the little white fox Xiao Rou lying in the girl’s arms, playfully frolicking with her.

When tired from playing, the girl would rest her cheeks on her small hands and quietly watch Li Hao fish.

Seeing the young man gaze intently at the float, his serious demeanor was just like when he was a child, and it made her smile subtly.

An image of that childhood courtyard seemed to appear before Bian Ruxue’s eyes.

In that courtyard, as she practiced swordsmanship, she would hear from a nearby pavilion the youthful, unweathered voice:

“Ah, Uncle Lin, you’ve placed it in the wrong spot again!”

“The pieces aren’t supposed to go inside the squares, they belong on the intersecting lines!”

“You’ve lost again, Uncle Lin!”

Every time she grew tired from practicing swordplay, she would look up at the pavilion, and finding the boy there brought her peace.

The cheerful laughter seemed like only yesterday, still resounding clearly in her ears at this moment.

The young man’s gaze was fixed on the lake’s float, while the girl’s gaze was fixed on the young man’s profile, both seemingly lost in their thoughts.

Suddenly, the float moved.

The young man yanked the fishing rod fiercely, as if drawing a curved bow to its full extent, and quickly, a demon fish from the Power Passage Realm was pulled ashore.

For such demons below the Soul Succession Realm, one could fish using rods and special lines made from tough metals.

“Brother Hao is amazing!”

The girl, regaining her senses, clapped her hands and cheered joyfully.

Li Hao smiled, killed the demon fish with a snap of his fingers, tossing it aside, and seeing that it was getting dark, he reeled in his rod, pulling up a basket from the water containing several ordinary fish.

He released them without much thought.

After packing up his seat and stool used for fishing, he called over the little white fox, and said to Bian Ruxue, “Let’s go home.”

“Okay.”

Bian Ruxue nodded with a smile; everything was carried by Li Hao, and with her hands behind her back, she walked with a lively skip, following behind Li Hao.

The mountainous smoke of evening cooking fires had just started, and the couple by the lake also headed home.

Their steps back were not hurried, passing by the fields and villages, they came across a field of melons.

Only a single earth dog guarded the melon field, and Li Hao, with a smile, had Xiao Rou distract the dog while he stole a watermelon from another part.

Holding the watermelon, he ran. Once a good distance away, he casually tossed down a couple of silver coins into the melon pit.

At a distant hillside, Li Hao knocked open the large melon, and its bright red flesh was revealed. He handed half to the young girl.

Li Hao had no such formalities; he simply buried his head and started munching away, juice spilling everywhere.

But Bian Ruxue was much more graceful and ladylike; with a light touch of her fingers on the hilt, the blade slid from the sheath, and with a flash of silver light, the watermelon was cut into several crescent-shaped pieces.

She handed a piece to Li Hao, and he started eating it as well.

“Days like this are so comfortable…” said Li Hao, sitting on the hillside, his palms pressed against the ground behind him, looking into the distance as the setting sun fell, its afterglow reaching the ends of the earth.

Hearing Li Hao’s words, Bian Ruxue paused slightly in her melon-eating, then smiled and said, “Yes, they are.”

Li Hao chuckled, finishing off his half of the melon while Bian Ruxue shared hers with the little white fox. After they had all eaten, they went home together.

Seeing that Li Hao and Bian Ruxue had returned late, with mud on their trousers and bootlegs, Li Tian Gang said to Li Hao:

“Take Xue’er to nicer places to play; don’t always go to those dirty, messy places. And this fishing rod—you go fishing, but what about Xue’er? Won’t she get bored? You should consider more for others.”

Li Hao listened expressionlessly, seeming to smile for a moment, he nodded and murmured an acknowledgment before turning away.

Bian Ruxue hastily said to Li Tian Gang, “Uncle, it was actually me who wanted to watch Hao fish. He’s really good at it, and he likes fishing. I can tell.”

Li Tian Gang was very fond and affectionate towards this future daughter-in-law; his gaze softened as he said:

“I know he likes it, but since you rarely come back, you can’t always indulge him, always accompany him. If one day I’m not here, if you keep being so soft-hearted, you’ll suffer.”

“Uncle, don’t talk like that, you won’t have anything wrong with you,” Bian Ruxue hurriedly said.

Li Tian Gang smiled and replied, “Good girl, Xue’er, don’t worry about me; you should think more for yourself.”

Bian Ruxue was momentarily stunned, then nodded, “I will.”

Another few days passed.

Li Hao continued to accompany Bian Ruxue around the city. As luck would have it, a temple fair was being held on the west side of the city, and they went there to enjoy themselves, watching fireworks resembling silver trees, street performers showing mortal skills, and shadow puppet plays.

The temple fair was about to end yet the pair still felt unsatisfied.

Li Hao carried an armful of things they had bought and had not brought any trusted aides to wait on them so that he and Xue’er could be at ease.

“Are you happy?”

Sitting on a stone by the roadside, shoulder to shoulder, watching the sunset beyond the city walls, Li Hao asked with a smile.