Chapter 633: I Don't Even Care to Listen

"Have you eaten, daughter? Dad will take you out for something good."

"..."

"Why the long face? Little girls should smile more."

"I won't!"

"Smile!"

Yu Hongjin immediately froze, squeezing out a forced smile.

Mo Yuan nodded and said, "Not bad."

Yu Hongjin sighed in relief, the corners of her mouth dropping back down.

"Keep smiling, don't stop!"

"You, you, you..."

Yu Hongjin stopped walking. She simply sat down on the ground and threw a tantrum.

"Aren't you just bullying people?!"

"You aren't even human."

"Bullying a fish, then!"

"What kind of fish looks like that?"

"..."

Yu Hongjin looked at him helplessly. "It's always you! You're always bullying me. I haven't even done anything to you, and you're still taking advantage of me!"

Mo Yuan smiled and said, "Alright, I'm just teasing you. How could I really bully you?"

"You are!"

Yu Hongjin lowered her head, unwilling to pay him any more attention.

Mo Yuan gave her a pull and said, "Get up."

Yu Hongjin let him pull her to her feet.

Mo Yuan then asked, "Why did you trick the wine sellers? You even changed your face."

Yu Hongjin said, "If I didn't do that, I wouldn't be able to buy any wine."

"Sister Yun already gave the word to all the wine sellers in the city. None of them will sell to me, so I can only pretend to be someone else to buy it."

"How pitiful."

"I know, right!" Yu Hongjin raised her head. "They won't even let people drink wine. Isn't this just asking for my life?"

Mo Yuan smiled. "It's fine, Dad will buy you some wine. Let's go."

"Don't think that just because you buy me wine, you're actually my dad!"

"Haha..."

Mo Yuan found a nearby Wine Tavern and ordered a pot of good wine.

After leaving the Wine Tavern, Yu Hongjin hugged the wine pot, drinking as she walked.

She was incredibly happy to have wine to drink.

"Satisfied?" Mo Yuan asked with a smile.

"Hehe."

Yu Hongjin hugged the wine pot and said, "Delicious."

Ever since her allowance had been docked, it had been a long time since she had tasted such good wine.

As a fish, she was truly very simple-minded.

Once she was happy from drinking wine, she could completely forget all the unhappy things.

"Mo Yuan."

"Hmm?"

"Is the Desolate Sea fun?"

"The Desolate Sea..."

Mo Yuan thought for a moment and said, "It's not peaceful, and it's not fun. It's not as good as the Mortal World."

"Whoa, good thing you brought me back halfway."

"That's true. You got lucky."

"Right?"

Yu Hongjin looked triumphant and took another sip from her wine pot.

Seeing her act like her life depended on wine, Mo Yuan couldn't help but laugh. "Can you really be this happy drinking alone?"

"Of course!"

Yu Hongjin said, "The storyteller in the tea house said that in this world, only good wine must not be let down. I think that makes a lot of sense."

"I'm afraid things only make sense to you if they suit your tastes. If they don't, they make no sense at all."

"Nonsense!" Yu Hongjin thought about it and added, "But what you said also makes some sense."

Mo Yuan smiled and said, "You really are optimistic."

"Thinking back, I used to be even more mischievous than you. Robbing, blocking roads, bickering—I did it all."

"I can tell," Yu Hongjin said.

Mo Yuan cast a glance at her, and Yu Hongjin immediately shrank her neck back.

She looked up and asked, "Aren't you still like that now?"

Mo Yuan shook his head and said, "I am, but it just doesn't feel as interesting as it used to be. When I was in the Desolate Sea, if I wanted something, people would obediently deliver it to me. They were always incredibly respectful when they saw me, but their acting was truly terrible. Their faces were full of flattery, all false affection and empty pleasantries."

"And so?"

"Gradually, I just stopped enjoying causing trouble so much."

Mo Yuan let out a breath and said, "That's why I envy you. With drinking alone, you've really managed to stay exactly the same as you were from the beginning. That isn't an easy thing to do."

Yu Hongjin glanced at the wine pot she was hugging. She scrunched her brows together and said, "I don't really get it."

Why would she care about all this pointless nonsense?

Mo Yuan laughed. "It's fine if you don't get it. It would be bad if you did."

As he spoke, he suddenly paused.

All of a sudden, he realized that there seemed to be a shadow in his words.

It was Mister Chen.

Mo Yuan couldn't remember exactly when, but it seemed Mister Chen had once said something similar.

Coming back to his senses, he just shook his head and smiled.

Mo Yuan said, "Alright, I'm going to look for Mister Chen. You head back."

Yu Hongjin asked, "You're looking for Chen Changsheng?"

"He's at my house right now."

"Huh?"

Yu Hongjin then recounted what had happened earlier.

Mo Yuan was momentarily stunned after hearing this. He hadn't realized things had played out like that.

"Miss Yun?"

Mo Yuan recalled and said, "That Sister Yun of yours? The one from Yan County back then?"

"Right," Yu Hongjin said, blinking.

Mo Yuan paused. He also remembered the young woman who frequently came to the temple in those years to deliver candied fruit and lotus flowers.

Mister had purposely stopped in Qingshan City.

Could it be for this Miss Yun?

"It really is..."

Mo Yuan paused slightly before saying, "Impressive!"

Looking at it this way, Mister wasn't completely uninterested in matters of romance and affection after all.

"What's impressive?"

"Nothing."

Mo Yuan then asked, "By the way, wasn't Miss Yun in Yan County before? Why did she move over here?"

"About that..." Mentioning this matter, Yu Hongjin's expression soured. She pouted and said, "Isn't it all because of that guy surnamed Chen? Just talking about him makes me angry."

"Miss Yun is truly devoted."

Mo Yuan muttered, then added, "If I were Mister Chen, I'd also feel unworthy of such deep affection."

Yu Hongjin raised her brows. "I'm not happy about it. Ever since Sister Yun met that guy surnamed Chen, she hasn't been happy for years. She waits day and night, but she waits for nothing. Sister Yun treats me the best, and I can't stand seeing her unhappy."

Hearing this, Mo Yuan paused. He opened his mouth and said, "Actually, it's not Mister's fault either. Mister..."

"Are cultivators really that busy?"

Yu Hongjin asked, "Aren't you quite free, Mo Yuan? Weren't you just touring the mountains and playing in the waters before? Even if someone is busy, they shouldn't be so busy that they can only meet once every few years, right?"

She lowered her head and kicked a stone by the side of the road, muttering, "She's waited until her hair turned white..."

Mo Yuan opened his mouth, but he didn't know how to refute her.

Shaking his head with a sigh, he said, "Perhaps Mister also has his own helpless circumstances."

Yu Hongjin curled her lips and said nothing more.

Mo Yuan looked at her and said, "Besides, what do you know about this stuff? Matters of love and affection in this world never made sense to begin with, much less distinguished between right and wrong."

Yu Hongjin didn't understand. She said, "How can there be things that don't make sense?"

Mo Yuan froze for a moment upon hearing this, then laughed. He patted her head and said, "That's why I said you're a little girl."

"What does this have to do with me being a little girl?"

Mo Yuan didn't explain. He knew Yu Hongjin wouldn't understand.

"Mo Yuan, why aren't you saying anything?"

"Even if I told you, you wouldn't understand."

"Hmph, I don't even care to listen."

Yu Hongjin hugged her wine pot, took a huge gulp, and went right back to happily enjoying herself.