Chapter 3: Chapter 3 Accidental Encounter in the Market
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
The chirping of birds in the early morning woke up Xue An.
He seldom slept so soundly.
In fact, since embarking on the path of immortal cultivation, he barely slept at all.
Xue An tried to get up, only to find his two daughters sprawled on top of him, sound asleep.
The two girls, identical and delicately cute, looked absolutely adorable in their slumber.
Xue An smiled faintly, feeling a sudden calm in his heart.
All that nonsense about the strife of the Immortals can go to hell.
From today on, I’m going to be a qualified “Daddy Daddy”!
“Daddy, don’t leave!” Xue Xiang suddenly murmured in her sleep, her long eyelashes trembling slightly.
“Daddy won’t leave you, never!” Xue An said softly, as if speaking to the children and to himself.
It wasn’t until the sun was well up in the sky that Xue Xiang and her sister Xue Nian woke up.
Xue An pinched their chubby little cheeks and said with a laugh, “You two little sleepyheads, the sun is already shining on your butts and you’re just waking up?”
It was only then that Xue Xiang and Xue Nian noticed how high the sun was outside, and they both started to panic.
“Oh no, hurry up, Daddy is taking us out for a big meal today!”
After a bout of hurrying and bustling, the two girls got dressed and washed up.
Xue Nian sat on a small stool first, and Xue Xiang adeptly combed her hair from behind.
Then it was Xue Xiang’s turn to sit down, and Xue Nian took her turn combing her sister’s hair from behind.
Watching the children’s skilled movements, Xue An’s eyes grew a bit moist.
“Do you…always do this?”
“Mhm, Auntie Xuan’Er said that, as girls, we have to be neat and tidy when we go out so that no one looks down on us!” Xue Xiang said earnestly.
Xue An had to smile.
By now, he had also figured out the temperaments of his two daughters.
Xue Xiang, the elder sister, behaved like a little adult, speaking in such a proper manner that sometimes one couldn’t help but laugh and cry at the same time.
Xue Nian, the younger sister, was comparably a lot gentler and shyer.
After the two daughters were ready to go, Xue An couldn’t help but be impressed.
The girls, dressed in the same clothes with similar hairstyles, stood side by side as if there were a mirror between them.
Even Xue An had a hard time telling them apart.
“Daddy, can you tell who is the elder sister and who is the younger sister?”
After twirling around a few times, the girls asked, giggling.
Xue An felt a bit dizzy, “I don’t know! I really can’t tell you apart!”
“Daddy is so silly! Look, I’m the elder sister because my dimple is deeper on the left.”
“I’m the younger sister, my dimple is deeper on the right!”
Xue An, looking at his two clever and witty daughters, couldn’t help but sweep them up in his arms.
“Let’s go! My two treasures, we are off to have a feast!”
The most bustling pedestrian street in Beijiang City.
Xue An, with one daughter in each arm, strutted down the street.
Xue An was handsome to begin with, and the trials of the past three thousand years had only added an entrancing charm to his appearance.
And the two little girls, identical and supremely cute and well-behaved.
Such a combination naturally attracted countless gazes.
Many people couldn’t help but stop and smile.
“Daddy, where are we going?” Xue Xiang asked quietly.
“We’re going to eat hamburgers, of course!”
Xue Xiang pulled out some money from her pocket and handed it to Xue An with her little hands.
“Daddy, this is the money we made from selling flowers!”
Xue An was taken aback.
Then he understood what Xue Xiang meant.
This four-year-old little girl was worried he didn’t have money to buy them food!
Xue An chuckled to himself.
“My good daughter, there’s no need, Daddy has money!”
Xue An had previously placed some change in a piggy bank at home, and now that he was back, he found the money still there.
Although it wasn’t much, just over a thousand yuan, it was at least enough to cover expenses for the time being.
As for the future…
Xue An felt, after all, he was the Immortal Venerable, wasn’t he? How could he worry about making money?
Truth be told, the hamburger was quite unappetizing, but Xue An still ate it with relish.
As long as he could be by his daughter’s side, what he ate truly didn’t matter.
“Are you full?” Xue An asked.
“We’d like to take the leftovers home to eat tonight!” Xue Xiang said softly.
Xue An was stunned for a moment before he sighed, “Xiang Xiang, Nian Nian, look at daddy!”
“I know you’ve suffered before, but now that daddy is back, whatever you want to eat or play, just tell daddy, and I will fulfill your wishes! Don’t be so sensible; it breaks daddy’s heart! What you should do is to play to your heart’s content and eat to your heart’s content!”
Xue Xiang and Xue Nian nodded, not quite understanding.
“Let’s go! Let’s go have some ice cream now!”
As evening approached.
Xue Xiang and Xue Nian each held a giant stuffed bear, their faces filled with happy smiles.
Xue An followed behind, watching his two daughters’ bouncing figures with a smile also emerging on his face.
“Daddy, where are we going?” Xue Xiang asked.
Xue An smiled slightly, “We’re going to buy some things! Then daddy will make something delicious for you!”
“Great!” Xue Nian, being a bona fide foodie, cheered at the mention of delicious food.
Xue Xiang, disappointed like someone let down by a hopeful prospect, tapped her sister on the head before she admonished with her little hands on her hips, “Eat, eat, eat, all you know is to eat, look at your cheeks, they’re so round now!”
Actually, her cheeks looked even rounder.
Nonetheless, Xue Nian covered her head and giggled foolishly.
Xue An took his daughter to the largest medicinal herb market in Beijiang.
He planned to buy some herbs there and then to concoct the Primordial Essence Elixir.
The Primordial Essence Elixir was the most basic elixir.
It could enhance one’s physique after consumption by mortals.
Xue An planned to concoct it for his daughter’s consumption.
As a one-time Immortal Venerable, it was naturally effortless for him to concoct such an elixir, but even an Immortal Venerable couldn’t conjure materials out of thin air.
Especially now, as the Earth’s spiritual energy was so scarce, there weren’t any herbs worthy of notice.
After walking around the market, Xue An also felt a faint disappointment.
“Wow, isn’t this the talented Mr. Xue?”
Looking up, Xue An saw a man in a suit and leather shoes standing by the roadside, with a flamboyantly dressed woman with heavy makeup beside him.
Xue An frowned slightly and, after thinking for a moment, remembered who this person was.
Lin Feng.
A former high school classmate.
His family was in the medicinal herb business, quite a large scale, essentially a second-generation rich kid.
However, Xue An had not gotten along with this person during their school days.
“I heard that the talented Mr. Xue disappeared four years ago without a trace. How come all of a sudden you’re back?” As Lin Feng spoke, his eyes sized up Xue An.
Upon noticing that Xue An was dressed in an outdated fashion, with everything on him seemingly bought from street stalls, the contempt on his face grew even thicker.
Xue An didn’t care about these things.
Would you pay attention to an ant?
Lin Feng added, “Oh, I forgot to introduce her. You must know this person, right?”
He said this, pointing to the woman by his side.
“Look, the two of you are old acquaintances! Isn’t that right, Du Juan?”
Du Juan.
Only then did Xue An remember.
No wonder he found the woman familiar; she also turned out to be a high school classmate.
Moreover, the naive Xue An from the past had once pursued this Du Juan.
But during their school days, Du Juan had been adept at using her beauty to gain advantages. With the handsome Xue An, she neither rejected nor accepted, always stringing him along with an attitude of being close yet distant.
It was much later that Xue An understood her ways, eventually focusing on his studies and getting admitted into Zhongdu University.
But he had not expected to encounter these two individuals here.
A faint smile appeared at the corner of Xue An’s mouth.