24 Mildew was suspiciously friendly

Mildew was making a racket up in the maples trees.

Lai Yiteng turned his gaze over immediately. Two dark crow eyes stared back, but there was a single reflection of light in them that sparkled white and pure. Innumerable thoughts and emotions seemed to be held within Mildew' playfully tilted head and beady eyes.

"How strange," Lai Yiteng decided to narrate since Xian Wu couldn't see anything, "there's a crow over there that seems to want my attention."

Xian Wu wanted to tug out his hair, but did not dare make a sound or move a muscle as he kept his best poker face. But Mildew, why are you exposing yourself? Why didn't you quietly follow us and then report back to Song Zhenxi on where we'll be going to?

Mildew provided no answers, there was only the flapping of wings as it flew down and landed on Lai Yiteng's shoulder without any warning. The crow's size was at least as large as a cat, bigger than the normal size of its other kin. Mildew made soft cawing noises and rubbed its beak under Lai Yiteng's chin lovingly.

Xian Wu was aghast after hearing noises with no context of what actions went behind them.

"What's going on? W-What happened?" Mildew was known to peck out eyeballs, it wasn't attacking Lai Yiteng, was it?

Lai Yiteng stared into the sparkling eyes of the crow. It was pretty irresistible. He took a hand, hesitating, but then tentatively rubbed the crow on the head, finding out that all those feathers were actually pretty soft and silky. Just because crows were viewed as ominous symbols of death didn't mean they wouldn't groom themselves carefully!

"…how can a wild animal be so tame," muttered Lai Yiteng. He narrowed his eyes at Mildew but felt his heart softening when the bird ruffled up its feathers and made its chest all puffy. "It…it must be somebody's lost pet."

Amused, Xian Wu scratched his head a bit, then replied, "Probably?"

That line of thinking wasn't too far off, actually, because Song Zhenxi and Mildew had a blood pact between them. But Lai Yiteng was a little naive in this aspect, he must not know much about mythical beasts at all. To be fair, the younger hadn't experienced much of the world at the secluded and reserved Lotus Sect that valued rectitude where beasts and creatures besides humans were viewed as inferior.

In general intelligent animals were rare to begin with, so many people only knew of them from tales. As such, Lai Yiteng who grew up in Lotus Sect would have only been taught very little about them.

Lai Yiteng took out an extra dumpling and broke off a chunk of dough. He put out an open palm to the crow on his shoulder and Mildew gave a caw before nibbling it up.

Xian Wu sighed, "Now you're feeding it…"

Since when did Mildew act cute for anyone besides Song Zhenxi?

Lai Yiteng gave an awkward cough, eating the rest of the dumpling himself, then closed his eyes as though deciding something. He carefully shooed Mildew off his shoulder and into the air.

"We have to be on our way. No more time for distractions. Go on back to where you came from, crow. I don't have the money to feed you every day and I already have one too many burdens."

The 'burden' he referred to was clearly Xian Wu. But in any case, Lai Yiteng and Xian Wu strode back out on the winding trail, heading back towards the main road.

Mildew flew in circles under the maple branches before following after them.

When they made it back to the wider dirt road, a few farmers driving carts were meandering by. Xian Wu ran only ran his way to Lai Yiteng by late afternoon, and now evening wasn't so far off.

Lai Yiteng naturally planned to travel during the night again to avoid public eye as much as possible. He looked up and saw the crow still gliding above them, seeming to wait and see which directions they would chose to go.

Xian Wu also thought it was peculiar that Mildew followed them so eagerly. The crow had also led him to those ominous corpses earlier…it couldn't be that Mildew was interested in whatever creature had done that? Ah, that could be it.

At some point, Lai Yiteng also found it strange and said, "That crow keeps following us. Do you suppose we should scare it away?"

Xian Wu seriously and solemnly replied. "It's too late, you've already fed it some food. That's how stray cats and dogs are, too. You feed them once and they'll never leave you alone. Tsk tsk, you should have thought of that before treating it kindly! Doesn't everybody know that?"

"…I didn't know that." Lai Yiteng felt a little embarrassed and stuffy, the tips of his ears turning red. Good thing that Xian Wu couldn't see it. "So what if I didn't?"

Xian Wu almost choked as he tried to hold in his laughter. He chewed his lower lip to avoid it, but it sure felt good to fluster Lai Yiteng after he'd had a blindfold put over his face.

"Well, you can't just knock it out of the sky, now can you? Hm, well…maybe we could. Do you want me to do it?" Xian Wu took a finger and slowly began to slip off his blindfold.

"Stop that," Lai Yiteng snapped, "don't you dare."

"What don't I dare to do?"

"You know what I mean!" Lai Yiteng meant it both as 'don't throw things at the bird' and 'don't take off your blindfold'. Xian Wu was already trying to worm out of the conditions they'd set, truly a snake of a man! But all Lai Yiteng received in return to his threat was an easy smile.

Xian Wu trotted up next to him and spread out his hands in a gesture of helplessness. "You're right, throwing things at an animal would be cruel. So, I guess we have no choice but to let it just follow us for now."

Lai Yiteng just grumbled something, still sleep deprived.

Finally there was a bit of peace between them as they traveled.

Quietly listening on of Lai Yiteng's breathing, it was a little shallow and faint even though they were only walking, so Xian Wu thought it wasn't a good sign. Especially so in this hot afternoon sun that continued to pour down on their heads. Moreover, hadn't Yi'er been beaten up on by Gojun Lao?

As Xian Wu was troubled over these matters he heard the sounds of a oxen cart rolling past them in the same direction and came up with an easy solution.

"Alas, it's so hard to be a blind man…" Xian Wu bemoaned to no one in particular. He pretended to stumble over his own foot.

Lai Yiteng stopped in his tracks and swiveled his head around with confusion.

Xian Wu continued, "If only someone would be willing to spare a bit of wagon space for me to rest on this long journey…!"

Lai Yiteng furrowed his brow. What the heck?

The oxen cart driver who'd been passing right next to them widened his old and wizened eyes. He slowed down his oxen to a standstill, their wiry tails swiping at flies.

"You two lookin' for a ride?"

"No, we'll be fine," said Lai Yiteng, suspicious of Xian Wu's every action.

"What?" said the old man. His ears were pretty bad. "Speak up, Missy."

"…"

"Hey…" Xian Wu said to Lai Yiteng, "Just see where he'd headed, cause' if its in the way you want to go, we can save time and energy. Plus it's free."

Yes, it's true that it's free…Lai Yiteng liked things that were free.

The old oxen cart driver said, "I dunno what you two Daoists are bickering over. Just hop on if you want, but make it snappy! I needa make it to Baihu village by nightfall."

Baihu village…wasn't too far from the haunted village that Lai Yiteng wanted to go to. The name of the area on the map was 'Deathly Howling Mountain'. Given that he was still pretty tired, he twisted his brows before sitting down on the back of the cart with politeness.

Xian Wu grinned and followed suit.

"Okay!" he shouted, "We're on, old man."

The cart diver was in his upper sixties, been a farmer for decades, and didn't even mind being called 'old geezer' let alone 'old man'. He gave a grunt and whipped his oxen onward.

In the back of his wagon was a load of hay for the goats, but there was plenty of space to sit down. Lai Yiteng nestled down slightly and let out a sigh, catching his breath. He stared at each and every passerby, but none seemed suspicious.

That crow was still flying in the blue sky above them, following.

Xian Wu merely leaned back on the hay, plucking up a strand and placing it between his lips to twiddle with, and let the winds whistle against his ears.