Chapter 3: A Chance Encounter at the Market

Chapter 3: A Chance Encounter at the Market

The morning birdsong gently roused Xue An from sleep.

He rarely slept so soundly.

In fact, ever since embarking on the path of cultivation, he had hardly slept at all.

Xue An tried to get up, only to find his two daughters sound asleep, nestled against him.

The two little girls, identical as if carved from jade, looked irresistibly adorable in their slumber.

A faint smile crossed Xue An’s lips, and a sudden calm settled over his heart.

All those petty immortal disputes could just be cast aside.

From today onward, he would be a devoted father!

“Daddy, don’t go!” murmured Xue Xiang in her sleep, her long lashes fluttering slightly.

“Daddy will never leave you. Never,” Xue An whispered softly, words meant both for his children and for himself.

Only when the sun was high in the sky did Xue Xiang and Xue Nian finally awake.

Xue An gently pinched their chubby cheeks and chuckled, “You two little lazybones, the sun has been shining on your backsides for ages and you’re only waking now?”

The girls saw the sun high above and hurriedly sprang into action.

“Oh, come on! Today Daddy’s taking us out for a feast!”

After a flurry of activity, the two girls dressed and washed up.

Xue Nian sat on a small stool first, while Xue Xiang expertly combed her hair.

Then they switched places, with Xue Nian combing her sister’s hair.

Watching their skilled hands, Xue An felt a lump form in his throat.

“Is this how you usually do it?”

“Mm-hmm, Aunt Xuan told us that since we’re girls, we must be clean and tidy when going out, so no one looks down on us!” Xue Xiang said solemnly.

Xue An smiled.

He had come to understand the temperaments of his daughters.

Xue Xiang, the elder sister, behaved like a little adult, speaking in a serious, sometimes amusingly stern way.

Xue Nian, the younger, was gentler and more shy.

Once they were ready, Xue An’s eyes brightened.

The two girls, dressed identically and wearing the same hairstyle, stood there like two halves of a mirror.

He could hardly tell them apart.

“Daddy, can you tell who’s the older sister and who’s the younger?”

The girls spun around, grinning.

Xue An felt dizzy. “I honestly can’t tell!”

“Daddy, you’re so silly! I’m the older sister because my dimple on the left is deeper.”

“I’m the younger, and my dimple on the right is deeper!”

Looking at his clever daughters, Xue An scooped them up in a warm embrace.

“Come on, my little treasures, let’s go have that big feast!”

***

The busiest pedestrian street in Beijiang City.

Xue An carried one daughter in each arm, parading proudly.

Handsome by nature, and after three millennia of cultivation, he now bore an even more captivating aura.

His two daughters, identical and utterly well-behaved, were the perfect picture of cuteness.

Naturally, they attracted countless curious glances.

Many passersby stopped, their faces softening with smiles.

“Daddy, where are we going?” Xue Xiang asked quietly.

“To eat hamburgers, of course!”

Xue Xiang pulled out a few bills from her pocket and handed them to Xue An with tiny fingers.

“Daddy, this is money we earned ourselves!”

Xue An was momentarily taken aback.

Then he understood: this four-year-old girl was worried he might not have money to treat them.

He laughed softly.

“Good daughters, no need. Daddy has money!”

Xue An had stashed some coins in a piggy bank at home. After returning, he was relieved to find the money still there.

Though not much—just over a thousand yuan—it would suffice for now.

As for the future…

Xue An, after all, was a cultivation master. How could he be worried about money?

Hamburgers were hardly gourmet, but Xue An ate heartily.

As long as he was with his daughters, the food mattered little.

“Are you full?” he asked.

“We want to pack the leftovers to eat tonight!” Xue Xiang whispered.

Xue An paused, then sighed.

“Think about it, Nian Nian, you and Xiang, look at Daddy.

I know you’ve suffered before, but now Daddy’s back. Whatever you want to eat or play with, just tell me. Daddy will make your wishes come true! Don’t be so sensible; it hurts Daddy’s heart. You should just play and eat to your heart’s content!”

Xue Xiang and Xue Nian nodded, half understanding.

“Come on! Let’s go have some ice cream now!”

***

At dusk,

Xue Xiang and Xue Nian each hugged a giant stuffed bear, beaming with joy.

Xue An followed behind, smiling at the sight of his two daughters bouncing along.

“Daddy, where are we going?”

Xue An smiled faintly. “To buy some things. Then Daddy will cook something delicious for you.”

“Yay!” Xue Nian, a true foodie, cheered upon hearing this.

Xue Xiang gave her sister a playful tap on the head and scolded with hands on hips, “Eating, eating, always eating. Look at your face, it’s so round now!”

In truth, her own face was even rounder.

But Xue Nian just covered her head and giggled.

***

Xue An led his daughters to Beijiang’s largest medicinal herb market.

He planned to buy ingredients to refine the Basic Vitality Pill.

This pill was the foundation of all elixirs.

For mortals, it could enhance physical strength.

Xue An intended to make it for his daughters.

Once an exalted cultivator, refining such a pill was effortless for him.

But even a master couldn’t conjure herbs out of thin air.

Especially now, when Earth’s spiritual energy was scarce, hardly any valuable herbs were in sight.

After wandering the market, Xue An felt a tinge of disappointment.

“Yo, isn’t this the great talent Xue Da?”

Looking up, Xue An saw a man in a suit standing by the roadside, accompanied by a flashy woman heavily made up.

Xue An furrowed his brow, recalling who the man was.

Lin Feng.

A high school classmate.

His family was in the herbal medicine business, quite large scale, a wealthy second-generation heir.

But Xue An had never gotten along with him in school.

“I heard you disappeared four years ago without a trace. How come you suddenly came back?” Lin Feng said, eyeing Xue An up and down.

Seeing Xue An’s outdated clothes, all from street vendors, disdain deepened on Lin Feng’s face.

Xue An paid no mind.

Why bother with an insignificant ant?

Lin Feng went on, “Oh, I forgot to introduce her. You probably know this one too,” he said, gesturing to the woman beside him.

“Seems you two are old acquaintances, right, Du Juan?”

Du Juan.

Now Xue An remembered.

No wonder the woman looked familiar—she was also a high school classmate.

Back then, naïve Xue An had even had a crush on Du Juan.

But Du Juan was adept at using her beauty to gain advantages. She neither accepted nor rejected Xue An’s affections, always keeping him at arm’s length.

Later, Xue An realized this and threw himself into his studies, eventually getting accepted to Zhongdu University.

He never expected to run into these two here.

A faint smile curled at the corner of Xue An’s mouth.

(End of Chapter)