Liu Zhuang Xian

Lu Xiaochan fell asleep while lying on the edge of the bathtub, lost in his thoughts.

It was a deep sleep. When he opened his eyes, he saw the young boy from his previous dream sitting in a very spacious room.

The four walls were pure white and transparent, like mirrors, which made the room feel especially cold and desolate.

The young boy was frowning, tilting his head at the mirror and fiddling with his hair.

On the left side of his head, there was a small circular area where the hair had completely fallen out!

The young boy reluctantly kept arranging his hair, trying to cover up that small bald spot. But no matter how he arranged it, the bald spot remained obvious.

“Ah! Ah! Ah! I can’t believe I have alopecia! Everyone calls me ‘Little Immortal Child’! Who has ever seen a ‘Little Immortal Child’ with alopecia!” The young boy felt extremely aggrieved. He then slammed his fist against the mirror-like wall. “It’s all because of that old liar! He tricked me into coming here! This place is so cold and empty, with bare white everywhere! That’s why my head has gone bald too!”

“And that Sword Master is so aloof, doesn’t even fart all day! I don’t have anyone to talk to! Every night I shiver while hugging my blanket! I haven’t felt any warmth at all! I’ve developed alopecia from too much worry!”

The young boy stubbornly tried to comb all the hair from the right side to the left, but that small bald spot happened to be near the hairline and couldn’t be covered!

“Ah! Ah! Ah!” The young boy messed up his hair in frustration. Looking at his reflection on the wall, he suddenly smiled. “The three thousand troublesome hairs—I might as well get rid of them all! If I shave it all off and go completely bald, I won’t care about that small bald spot anymore!”

Having made up his mind, the young boy started humming a tune. He took out a small dagger from his waist and began shaving his head.

There was a “swish swish” sound as strands of soft black hair left his body and fell to the ground.

Just as he was about to finish, he suddenly felt a chill on his back. Before he could turn around, the hand holding the dagger was seized. His wrist bone was almost crushed, and the young boy cried out “Ouch—”. His fingers loosened, and the echo of the dagger hitting the ground lingered.

“What are you doing?”

The cold voice reverberated with the four walls, pressuring the young boy so much that he couldn’t lift his head.

“I have alopecia! So I thought I’d shave my head bald!”

“Bald?”

“Bald means no hair!”

“Why?”

“Well… well… to apply medicine! It’s inconvenient with hair!” The young boy stared pitifully at his wrist.

It was about to break! Would he not only have alopecia but also lose his hand and foot?

The other person released his hand, and the young boy ran away immediately.

“I’m a guest, so I won’t clean up! You can just wave your sleeve and blow away the hair on the ground!”

He ran desperately through the long corridor, fearing that the other person would catch him again.

After running far away, he realized that apart from his own footsteps, no one was chasing him. So he looked back.

He only saw that in the original spot, the figure that had always stood tall and still in his impression was slowly bending down, seemingly picking up the hair from the ground strand by strand.

It was as if it wasn’t his hair, but the softest and most precious brocade in the world.

“It’s just hair…”

The young boy turned back and ran to a small house. He fumbled with herbs, made a black and pungent medicinal paste, spread it on a plaster, and slapped it onto his bald spot with a “pat”.

He looked left and right. Although his eyes were almost tearing up from the smell of the plaster, he decided to endure it.

First, growing hair was important, and second, he could sit in front of that annoying person and suffocate him with the smell!

“Huh? Why does it look more and more like the little unlucky god from the opera who goes around with a broken bowl losing money?” Lu Xiaochan touched his head. “Whatever!”

He ran all the way to the room of the annoying person he had been talking about.

The other person turned his back, putting something into a long, narrow brocade box. Hearing him enter, he quickly closed the box.

The young boy sat cross-legged and lifted his chin. “What treasure are you hiding?”

“Nothing.” The man in plain long robes sat down. His wrists were beautiful, with elegant curves that subtly revealed strength. His slender fingers calmly opened a book scroll.

The young boy deliberately moved his head closer, wanting to see if the other person would at least sneeze, if not tear up, from the pungent smell of the medicinal plaster.

Unexpectedly, the man reached out his hand and gently stroked the young boy’s smooth head, only saying. “It will grow back.”

The young boy continued to keep his head stretched out, not believing he couldn’t affect him with the smell.

But the man truly had no reaction, while the boy’s own eyes were red from the fumes, and the area with the plaster felt hot and painful.

The young boy decided to stop this method that harmed himself more than his target.

After a few days, hair really started growing where the young boy had applied the medicine.

At first, it was just a small patch of sparse fuzz, soft and delicate, but the young boy was very happy. He would touch it several times a day himself. The cold life devoid of any fun seemed to have gained a bit of hope.

However, one night when he woke up needing to urinate, the young boy couldn’t feel happy at all.

He was sleeping on his side facing inward. Before he could turn over, he realized someone was lying behind him.

Because the other person’s chest was very warm, the cold-fearing young boy kept backing into the other’s embrace. The other person actually hugged him in response, fingers gently stroking the new fuzz on top of his head!

Sometimes using fingertips to tease, sometimes gently rubbing with knuckles, over and over, endlessly!

How outrageous!

The young boy immediately elbowed backward, but the other person hugged him and flipped over, pinning him down.

Meeting those eyes, the young boy was stunned. He knew the man’s eyes were beautiful.

Deep-set, with elegant contours yet gentle, the outer corners slightly upturned, carrying a hint of sharpness.

But in these eyes, the young boy saw an enduring flame of longevity, burning on its own, as if waiting for something in the long, numb passage of time.

“Why aren’t you sleeping?”

Still that calm tone, emotions undetectable. Perhaps it was because his warm breath reached the young boy’s lips as he spoke, brushing imperceptibly over his upper lip.

“You… what are you doing touching me there all the time!”

What if you make the hair I’ve finally grown fall out again!

He glared with round eyes, trying to appear not to be losing in momentum. But the other’s gaze remained calm, and as he glared and glared, his eyes grew tired and blinked.

“Because your hair is very soft.”

The young boy suddenly realized something. “Wait! When did you start touching my hair!”

“Every day.”

Like a drop of water falling into boiling oil, it exploded!

A surge of anger rushed from the young boy’s chest to his forehead. “So after all this time, the bald spot on my head was caused by your touching! If it could be rubbed bald by you, does that mean you touch the same spot every time!”

“Yes.”

The other person actually answered as if it was perfectly natural!

“Why do you always touch me here!” The young boy pointed at the bald spot on his forehead and asked.

Though he immediately realized what he should be concerned about was – isn’t there something wrong with this person, coming to his bedside at night to lie there and touch his hair all night!

“Because I can still feel your eyebrows.”

Should I be extremely grateful for your honesty?

No, wait, it’s amazing my eyebrows are still there! Thank heavens!

“Go away – you’re not allowed to sleep next to me anymore! You’re not allowed to touch my hair! You can’t touch me anywhere!”

The young boy was angry. He raised his hand and pushed against the other’s shoulder, but the other didn’t budge. His side-lying position looking at him didn’t even tremble. But for the first time, the young boy saw his brow furrow.

“Why not allowed?”

“Touching other people’s hair is a weird habit! Weird habits should be corrected!” The young boy scowled and pushed the other person again forcefully, but this time his wrist was seized, and his whole body was pulled over.

“I don’t like touching other people’s hair.” He lowered his eyes to look at the young boy, his voice close to the ear, not loud but very forceful, as if he might bite the young boy’s ear at any moment.

“Liar! You don’t like touching other people’s hair! Yet you made me go bald!”

The young boy gritted his teeth, determined to avenge his bald head. His fingertips drew a circle in the air, but before he could push out a spiritual incantation, the other’s palm came close, and the incantation instantly vanished.

Then, the young boy’s fingers were firmly gripped. The other released his spiritual energy, and the cultivator of over two thousand years instantly subdued the young boy.

“I don’t like other people’s hair, I only like yours.”

The words fell gently.

“You’re bullying me! So what if you have over two thousand years of cultivation? Are you bullying me because I only have six hundred years?”

The young boy struggled hard, the newly grown fuzz on his head repeatedly brushing against the other’s chin.

“Don’t move.”

He spoke a bit faster than usual. His embrace suddenly tightened, nearly breaking the young boy’s bones. Moreover, the spiritual energy he released seemed to condense into some kind of formation, directly pressing down on the young boy so that except for blinking, he couldn’t even move his fingers.

“Can you please not always touch that one spot on my head…”

The young boy finally realized the vast gap in their cultivation levels. All struggle was meaningless, and what was more infuriating was that the other didn’t understand or care about his dissatisfaction. He could only settle for second best…

“Why?”

“At least let me go bald evenly…”

The young boy lamented miserably.