Be Gentle, Immortal Master

Chapter 197 – You Can’t Run Away From Me

Notwithstanding the constant seductions, Bai Ye did hold up to his side of the bargain as our deal continued. We selected a list of simple exercises to slowly ease him back into physical activities, which he practiced meticulously every morning. He would then sit at my desk and read those incomprehensible scripts, while I brewed the medicine and went through my own material to study. The day would pass in blissful silence as I occasionally glanced up at him, marveling at how different this quietness between us felt from the one weeks ago.

When the potion was ready, he would drink it obediently, though complaining immediately afterward that it was too bitter, and that rinsing down the taste with water was far from enough. If I pretended that I didn't understand his hint, he would catch me in his arms, begging and pleading and coaxing until I gave up and rewarded him with a kiss. He would say that I tasted sweeter than a candied date. I would call him shameless. The same scene would repeat the next day, and the day after.

Time slipped by fast just like that. For some reason that I couldn't fathom, the Gatekeeper and the other masters still hadn't come back to our hall yet. I didn't expect their patience to last so long, but considering Bai Ye was getting better day by day, everything worked out in our favor. At the very least, it was becoming quite likely that whenever they decided to show up again, the conversation would no longer have to involve the mystery around Bai Ye's condition.

So I let myself slowly forget about those annoyances and enjoy the simple life that finally descended upon us. Before we knew it, the coldest days of winter had already arrived.

"Is it even worth the effort to sweep the entrance today?" I mumbled when I woke up to the heaviest snowfall of the year and looked out the window. In merely a night, the accumulation had completely buried all the short bushes in the garden, and I wondered if I'd be able to walk outside at all with the snow almost at my waist. As if that wasn't enough, more flurries were still falling, blinding my eyes with a solid sheet of glaring whiteness.

"No," Bai Ye said nonchalantly and stretched his arm straight, pulling me back under the blankets. "So come back to sleep with me … Since when did you become so eager about clearing off the snow anyway? You used to love snow."

I winced. Of course I wouldn't tell him it was because of that vision in the crystal he gave me—ever since seeing that scene, I couldn't stop linking the sight of white flurries to the tragedy of our past. "I … suppose I finally grew up," I said sheepishly. "I'm not at the age to make snowmen anymore, after all."

He seemed caught off guard for a moment by my words. Then he laughed. "For someone who made snowmen every year for almost a century, this is the last thing I'd expect to hear from you, Qing-er."

"Every year for almost a century?" I gasped. "Was I really that childish in my past life?"

He rubbed the top of my head, tousling my hair a little. "I didn't think it was childish."

Grimacing at his gesture that obviously felt like he was trying to comfort a child, I wiggled out of his embrace. "I don't believe you," I pouted. "You must've thought I was ridiculous and impossible to entertain."

He raised an eyebrow. "Do I need to prove it to you?" Rolling out of the bed, he fetched his fur robes and tossed me a set of mine. "I suppose I don't need your permission to go build a snowman with you, do I?"

My jaw fell at his suggestion. Then I laughed so hard that I almost choked. The legendary swordmaster Bai Ye … was going to build a snowman with me? Even during my first years at Mount Hua, this would be such an unimaginable thought that even the younger me wouldn't dare envision. But the novelty of it thrilled me. "Only if you promise to build one taller than yourself," I said as I hastily donned my layers. "And if you make it fat too, then maybe there won't be any snow left for me to clear after all."

It took us no time to get ready and dash into the garden. I examined the playground in front of us, planning out where to start rolling the spheres. "I'll start in that corner," I called to him as I glanced over the garden. "I'll need your help to— Ouch!"

Something hard and soft at the same time hit me in the back of my head, and when I turned over to look in the direction where it came from, a sliver of icy coldness seeped down my collar, slithering down my back and giving me a tingling shudder. Then I found myself staring at Bai Ye's smirking face. "You— You hit me with a snowball?" I gaped at him, utterly in disbelief at how much of a child he had turned into.

He laughed, and in my rage, I picked up a huge chunk of snow and threw it back at him. We started chasing in the garden—or crawling, as the accumulation was too deep for either of us to walk properly—and our laughs soon turned into shouts and excited screams. "Bai Ye!" I pounded one snowball after another at his back while he retreated, until finally, I cornered him against a wall in front of the corridor. "You can't run away from me!" I gloated with another snowball in hand, threatening to smear it onto his face.

But then I stilled when I fixed my eyes on him. Pinned between me and the wall, he was staring into my eyes with only a tiny distance between us. He was smiling. His cheeks were flushed, likely because of this being the first time he had stepped out of the room to move around in months. His lips were parted, panting from our earlier chasing. "Qing-er," he chuckled a little breathlessly. "I wouldn't dream of ever running away from—"

Before he could utter another word, I dropped the snowball onto the ground, and I crushed my lips onto his.