Guo Jing patted Yang Guo's shoulder, his eyes rimmed red:
"Guo'er, don't listen to your Aunt Guo's nagging. What does all that matter!"
"Whatever you like, whatever you want, whatever you love to eat..."
"...just tell your Uncle Guo."
"Your Uncle Guo will grant it all."
Yang Guo almost blurted out: I want the Nine Yin Manual.
On second thought, he probably wouldn't give it to him anyway.
Besides, it was somewhat impolite.
Huang Rong rolled her eyes at Guo Jing, looking over the tattered rags on Yang Guo's body:
"Hero Guo should stop bragging big talk. Buying a few sets of new clothes for Guo'er right now is what's proper."
Guo Jing looked down and realized as well:
"Right, buy clothes first."
...
Half an incense stick later.
The largest silk and garment shop in the east of Jiaxing City.
The shopkeeper was leaning behind a mahogany counter, clicking his abacus beads.
Suddenly, three figures flashed past the threshold, the leader being a ragged little beggar.
The shopkeeper frowned, grabbed a feather duster, and was about to chase them out:
"Go, go, go! There's porridge being distributed in the back alley! Don't dirty my newly imported Shu..."
Clack!!
Huang Rong slammed several ingots of snowflake silver steadily right under the shopkeeper's eyes!
The shopkeeper's eyes went wide on the spot.
Yang Guo was also stunned for a moment.
In the past, he had been pushed into a desperate corner for just eighteen coins of medicine money.
Now, with a casual slap on the table, Huang Rong produced dozens of taels of silver.
Huang Rong withdrew her wrist, her expression calm as water:
"Bring out all the well-fitting adolescent robes made of your finest fabrics and embroidery suited for this child."
"Then go to the back hall and boil two large tubs of hot water. Cut full bars of scented soap!"
The fat on the shopkeeper's face squeezed into a smile like a rotten persimmon, the feather duster long tossed aside:
"Oh my, noble lady! Living Bodhisattva!"
"This lowly one was blind as a bat. I'll have the clerk arrange it right away!"
...
An incense stick's time passed.
The heavy wooden doors of the garment shop's back hall were pushed open with a soft creak.
Yang Guo stepped out.
The mud and dirt all over him had been washed squeaky clean, replaced by a moon-white cloud-patterned silk robe.
At his waist was fastened a warm, smooth rhino horn jade belt, and on his feet were a pair of blue satin deer-leather boots.
His jet-black long hair was wiped dry and neatly tied behind his head with a hair ribbon.
Without the grime obscuring it, Yang Guo's peerlessly handsome face was revealed completely beneath the daylight.
The shopkeeper, holding a teapot, gasped aloud, the tea lid falling to the ground with a clatter:
"Th-this... is this the little fellow who was rolling in the mud just now?!"
"Could he be a little prince who ran away from some prince's manor?!"
Hearing the words "little prince," Huang Rong, standing in front of the hall, felt her heart tighten sharply, her hand unconsciously tightening its grip on the Dog-Beating Staff.
Too similar.
This face, this tall and straight figure, especially that trace of casual, untamed arrogance deep in his eyes.
Even more striking than Yang Kang back in those days!
If he were left to grow up so wildly and unchecked, in the future this jianghu would likely have another romantic troublemaker stirring up storms!
Meanwhile, Guo Jing, standing on the other side...
...froze in place as if struck by lightning after just one look.
His eyes instantly turned terrifyingly red.
Guo Jing gritted his back teeth tightly. Pointing at the other silk robes hanging on the wooden rack, he said to the shopkeeper in a trembling voice:
"Shopkeeper, we'll take this one... and take the child to the inner hall to try on those others as well."
The shopkeeper led Yang Guo into the inner hall again.
Guo Jing turned around abruptly, pressing his large hand against a thick mahogany pillar, veins bulging on the back of his hand.
His broad shoulders began to heave violently, and suppressed sobs issued from deep in his throat.
Huang Rong felt a pang in her heart. Stepping forward quickly, she lightly pressed her hand against Guo Jing's trembling back:
"Jing-ge, what's wrong with you?"
"We've already found Guo'er. Today is a day of great joy."
"Guo'er is standing right before you alive and well. Why are you spellbound again?"
Guo Jing closed his eyes, hot tears running down his rugged cheeks.
Wiping his tears with his sleeve, he said in a hoarse voice:
"Rong'er!"
"Just now, watching Guo'er put on that silk robe... it felt as if Brother Kang were standing right before my eyes!"
"Back then, if I hadn't been so foolish... if I had tried with all my might to pull him away from Wanyan Honglie earlier..."
"...advised him a few more times..."
"...stopped him a few more times..."
"...would he have avoided straying onto the wrong path step by step?"
"He, Sister Mu, and Guo'er might have been enjoying family happiness together just like us."
"Every time Guo'er put on new clothes..."
"...the ones standing beside him picking them out might have been his own parents."
Guo Jing wiped away his tears and continued in a low voice:
"If that day had truly come..."
"...Brother Kang might be scolding Guo'er for being lazy in his martial arts practice..."
"...Sister Mu would be right beside protecting the child..."
"...our two families would live close by..."
"...Fu'er loves to cause a racket, so she might run over every day to play with Guo'er..."
"...and during holidays..."
"...the two of our families would sit around one table..."
"...drinking, eating, watching the two kids squabble..."
Speaking up to this point, Guo Jing actually chuckled softly.
Yet as he smiled, his eyes turned even redder:
"How wonderful that would have been."
Huang Rong's voice was gentle, yet filled with a clear-headed composure that saw through the world:
"Jing-ge, you are always so stubborn, shouldering the responsibility of the whole world on your own shoulders."
"But you must realize that in this world, no one can walk another person's path for them."
"It's not as if we didn't earnestly persuade Yang Kang back then."
"He was the one who coveted wealth and glory. He was the one who couldn't bear to leave the fine clothes and gourmet food of a little prince!"
"He insisted on being Wanyan Kang of the Great Jin Dynasty. Not even Sister Mu's devoted and unyielding nature could keep him back."
"How could you possibly stop someone who was dead set on jumping into an abyss?"
"Why must you blame yourself so heavily for his mistakes?"
Guo Jing opened his mouth, wanting to argue:
"But if I had been firmer back then, and..."
Huang Rong cut him off on the spot:
"Stop right there! There are no 'ifs' in this world!"
Huang Rong raised her hand, gesturing toward the curtain of the fitting room, and said softly:
"Your Brother Kang is no longer here."
"Sister Mu is no longer here either."
"Even if you overthink what happened over ten years ago a thousand times..."
"...they won't come back."
"But Guo'er is still here."
Guo Jing's gaze slowly fell upon that curtain.
He suddenly fell quiet.
Those words...
...were like ripping open a vent in the knot that had been twisted tightly in his heart.
Huang Rong drew a silk handkerchief bearing a faint peach blossom fragrance from her sleeve and gently pressed it against the corners of Guo Jing's eyes.
As she wiped his tears, she gave him a mock-reproachful glare and burst into laughter:
"Alright, alright, stop it already!"
"You are now Hero Guo, a man whose fame shakes the jianghu. You haven't so much as grunted when slashed with several bloody wounds."
"Look at you today. Your tear bubbles are denser than the plum rains of Jiaxing Prefecture. How many times have you cried now?"
Guo Jing's face flushed bright red with embarrassment:
"It's not that exaggerated."
Huang Rong said with utter seriousness, "It is."
"I was almost thinking of having the shopkeeper bring a wooden basin to catch them."
Guo Jing felt a bit sheepish:
"I just..."
Huang Rong said:
"I know."
"You're just happy in your heart to see Guo'er."
"But even if you're happy, you can't keep crying like this."
Huang Rong helped him straighten his lapels and teased:
"In a moment, when Guo'er finishes changing and comes out, if he sees his uncle constantly sniffling and blubbering, he'll think I'm always bullying you."
Hearing this, Guo Jing took two deep breaths and finally managed to calm his emotions.
"Rong'er, stay here with Guo'er while he tries on clothes. I'll go to the nearby Tianxiang Restaurant to arrange the meal first."
Huang Rong grabbed his sleeve, a face full of bewilderment:
"Why such a rush? Can't we just go over together after Guo'er finishes trying them on?"
Guo Jing said softly:
"Guo'er has been braving the wind and sleeping outdoors for so many years; he probably hasn't had a single full meal."
"I'll arrange it first. Once you two finish picking, we can eat right away when you head over."
Before the words even finished falling, Guo Jing didn't give Huang Rong a chance to object at all.
Right inside the garment shop, he executed the Quanzhen Sect's supreme lightness skill, the "Golden Goose Art"!
With a whoosh, bringing along a gust of wind, he vanished into thin air in an instant.
Huang Rong stood bewildered in the wind, helplessly covering her forehead, sighing in her heart:
"This silly brother... using the supreme lightness skill of the world's number one Daoist sect just to order a few dishes."
"If those stubborn Daoists of the Quanzhen Sect saw this, they'd scold him to death."
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