The girl slid open the door to a hut near the center of the village. “Here! All new arrivals stay here, until they build their own house. You have a roommate right now, but he should move out any time!”

Oh? A roommate? Hui peeked inside.

The small hut stood empty, save a single cot. Atop the cot, a single man sat in lotus pose, long hair draped over his shoulders and all the way down to his waist. He wore the patched, tattered remains of what had once been fine robes, though unlike Hui’s, the holes cut jagged gashes in his robes rather than neat burn holes.

“Zheng Ming, are you ready to move out yet?” the girl asked cheerfully.

The man ignored her.

She turned to Hui, still beaming. “Treat him as furniture. He doesn’t move much.”

Er, Elder Sister, how am I supposed to treat him as furniture when he’s sitting on the only furniture I have? Outwardly, Hui bowed. “Of course, Elder Sister.”

With a last smile, she retreated.

Hui looked around the hut. Walking a quick circle, he checked the window in the hut’s rear, pushing open the wooden shutter that hung over it, then went back to the door. Right in the center of the village, huh? They’re keeping an eye on me, and they aren’t even pretending not to. I need to fit in, at least for a while, if I’m going to escape.

Which means living as a mortal.

Hui considered for a moment, then shrugged. I need to heal up from my ascension injuries, anyways. Although I’m not happy about being unable to look for Zhubi for the time being, I also didn’t see any serious threats around me, and, after all, Zhubi just evolved into a dragon. I think he’ll be okay. Dragons are dangerous beings.

Still can’t help but worry, though.

A faint aura of qi surrounded the man atop the bed. Hui gave him a glance. He’s meditating. I won’t disturb him. Leaving him on the cot, he wandered outside.

The same lively village as before awaited. Without a place to be or anything in particular to do, Hui wandered the roads, taking in the huts and cottages. Children giggled. Townspeople called out to one another cheerfully. A few girls cast glances his way, fluttering their lashes.

An ordinary life.

Darkness clouded his vision. Dingy walls, stained with cigarette smoke. The small apartment, choked with it. Ashtrays mixed in with garbage on the floor, picking his way through. Ahead of him, a mountain rose out of the filth, snoring, huge as a bear, still reeking with alcohol from the previous night. “Dad—”

Hui shook his head hard enough to lash his face with his ponytail. No. Not like that. An ordinary life. Not my ordinary life. A simple, usual, completely un-strange life, lived quietly with loved ones, eating good food, raising good children, living and dying within a few hundred feet of where you were born.

I suppose… it’s not bad.

A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

He sighed out, suddenly exhausted. Hui sagged onto a nearby fence post, all the weight of the world bearing down on him. Gazing up at the sky, he let his mind wander, looking at nothing at all.

I’m so tired. I’ve been working so hard for so long. I want to take a break. I just want to rest.

“Oh! There you are.”

He turned.

The girl stood beside him, beaming as usual. She tilted her head. Her hair fell cutely around her face. “That’s right, I forgot to introduce myself. Jie Lanlei, at your service.”

“X—Xiao Hui,” Hui returned. Someone in the Immortal Realm is looking for Weiheng Hui. Better to go by my usual pseudonym.

“Are you tired?” she asked.

“Huh? Ah… no,” Hui lied, quickly sitting upright and correcting his posture. The last thing I want to do is show weakness in this strange place!

“It’s okay. This place is a place of rest.” Jie Lanlei settled beside him, resting her hands in her lap. “Some of us were born here, but more of us came from below. Here, you can take a break. You don’t need to do anything but live a mortal life.”

Hui looked at her. “Where did you come from?”

“Me? I was born here,” she said, smiling easily. “But my parents came from below. They told me it was a land of strife and danger, full of death and disease… we have none of that, here. Some people even call it a paradise.”

“An Immortal paradise,” Hui murmured half to himself, chuckling. When I read that phrase in books, a small, ordinary village isn’t exactly what I had in mind.

“That’s it! I never understood it. What’s Immortal?” she asked, tilting her head.

“Immortal is…” Hui looked at her. He closed his mouth. How do you explain ‘to be without death’ to someone who has never experienced death?

“In any case, Elder Sister shouldn’t worry about it,” Hui finished, waving his hand.

Jie Lanlei pouted. “That’s what everyone says.”

“Have you lived in this village all your life, then?” Hui asked, tilting his head back at her.

She beamed. “I—”

Her expression went blank. She gazed into infinity.

Hui leaned in front of her, breaking her line of sight. No response. He waved his hand in front of her face. “Elder Sister…?”

Startling back to life, Jie Lanlei grinned. “What is it?”

Er, why do I feel like I just glitched out an NPC? Hui swallowed. He smiled back at her, hiding his nervousness. “Nothing, nothing at all, Elder Sister. I, er, think I’ll go for a walk.”

Jie Xinlei jumped up. “May I come along? That is—” She glanced at the ground, suddenly demure. “If you’ll have me…”

I’d really rather walk alone, Elder Sister! But… but in this spooky village, where the people are half NPCs and the whole thing has the ‘you’re going to die’ vibe of a slasher movie before the slasher shows up, I don’t think I should refuse! Hui ran a hand behind the back of his neck and laughed lightly, the sound coming out a little nervous. “Oh, of course, Elder Sister!”

“To be honest, mother has been looking for a… a match for me,” Jie Xinlei said. A bit of a blush crawled over her face. She glanced at the floor, then peeked at Hui. “I think… she hopes… it might be you.”

Hui coughed, startled. “Elder Sister, I appreciate the thought, but I have two wives and two children already. I’m a married man.”

Her brows furrowed. “In the Immortal Realm?”

“Er, I was married in the mortal realm, but one of my wives already asce—”

“Then it’s fine! The mortal world is of no consequence to the Immortal Realm,” Jie Xinlei said, smiling broadly.

Hui stiffened. He put on a bland smile, silently screaming inside. Should I applaud Elder Sister for her mental flexibility and broad, open take on life? Or should I point out that Elder Sister just deconsecrated the majority of Immortal cultivators’ marriages? What would Fen Long have to say about that, huh?

Haaa. I already know there’s no point arguing. Elder Sister will just return to NPC mode, won’t she? Better to play along. I’ll find a better way to refuse her later. If I refuse now, she’ll definitely fight it. Instead, I should simply become such a terrible husband candidate that she has no interest in monopolizing me!

Hui nodded to himself. Quietly, a tiny voice in the back of his mind added, and it’s a great objective to work forward while I have to pretend to have fallen for this place’s charm.

I’m not falling for it. I’m not! It’s right when everyone’s fallen for the small town’s charm that the slasher strikes. I’ve seen enough horror movies to not fall for that one!