## AST 1859 - A slap! Living till old age, or die of illness

Qing Shui truly didn’t mean to do that. Until now, his hand was still buried deep within her cleavage, tightly squeezed by her breasts. That feeling caused his heart to beat faster. It felt so beautiful that even words couldn’t describe it.

When Sheng Jun came back to her senses, she looked at Qing Shui with rage in her eyes and slapped him.

Pa!

A loud and clear noise came through. Sheng Jun was stunned. Actually, she thought that Qing Shui would evade it. She felt a bit guilty looking at the palm imprint on the pale and handsome face. But then when she thought about what he did to her, she felt that he sort of deserved it.

Qing Shui let go of her hand and revealed a helpless smile, “I didn’t mean to molest you. You may not believe me and since you have already hit me, please stop being angry.”

Qing Shui wasn’t sure if it was the second or third time he has gotten slapped by this woman. He didn’t find it that embarrassing. After all, he was the one at fault. Even if his intention was to teach her stuff, he should never have done something like that. It was being disrespectful to a woman.

Hence, he didn’t blame Sheng Jun for the things that happened. Certainly, he also wouldn’t think of himself as a cheap person. It was perfectly normal for her to react this way from the things which he did before. He should have considered himself lucky that she didn’t take the matter to heart.

“Why didn’t you dodge?” Sheng Jun seemed a bit guilty. Getting slapped in the face was very embarrassing, especially in the case of formidable warriors or people with high status.

“I deserved it. In comparison to the slap, I feel that you suffered even more.” Qing Shui smiled bitterly while looking at the beautiful woman.

Sheng Jun lowered her head slightly. She was feeling very confused. She has had quite a few interactions with this man before. Last time, they even had body contacts with each other. Even if they had their clothes on during the interactions, her heart was still unable to rest easy for quite a long time.

As warriors, even if she was a woman, it was no excuse for her to care so much about mere body contacts. Otherwise, she would be better off staying in her room sewing clothes. However, there still should be a limit to it. Before she met Qing Shui, her hand has never been touched by anyone of the opposite sex.

She didn’t like Qing Shui, let alone loving him. But one thing was sure, she absolutely didn’t hate him. She subconsciously treated him as her best friend, a friend whom she could trust and also rely on.

Though she was also aware that her feeling would change, she was also quite rational about it. The more one tried to suppress certain things, the easier it would be for it to burst. Why not choose to go with the flow instead? If in the end, it still came eventually, she also wouldn’t resist it.

Which woman wouldn’t yearn for love? Which woman didn’t have their own love fantasy? They all hoped that one day, they could meet an outstanding man whom they liked and also liked them back. However, it was very difficult for such things to happen, particularly in the case of outstanding men.

In everyone’s subconscious mind, there would be a balance. This balance was a mixture of everything. It could be used to weigh many things. It didn’t just weigh on mere feelings, backgrounds or external looks. What it sought was a match.

However, humans were bound to run into unfortunate things throughout their lifetime. They should have considered themselves very lucky if there were one or two incidents which happened as they wished. A human’s life was bound to be filled with hardships. As they lived, they would start to experience pains from getting old, pains from becoming ill, pains from dying, pains from losing the person they loved. Resentments would only lead to pain, greed would also lead to pain. Last but not least, the pain brought on by the five skandhas.

Living was a painful thing. It was painful to witness the realistic world. The very pain came from within ourselves, it came from the very fact that we were alive.

The suffering came along as a person aged. All of their beauty would disappear into the wrinkles on their faces. Standing against the flow of time was out of the question. One could do nothing other than slowly succumb to it, as their life neared its end. For a person to watch his or her agility slowly disappeared into the passage of time, was it not painful?

The pain of diseases.

The pain of death.

Death might not necessarily be a painful process. But to leave the things we loved dearly was very painful. Furthermore, the fear brought by the realization of dying far surpassed the pain which death could possibly bring forth.

The pain of sadness.

Humans were emotional creatures which afraid of being alone. Love was a behavior in which a person sought approval from somebody. Family love, couple’s love, and friendship love. But once a person dedicated themselves to love, they were bound to experience the pain of losing the people whom they cherished. The pain of losing someone you loved, in particular, was capable of gripping one’s heart to its core.

The pain of regret.

Desire was just like a rubber band that was extended in one’s hand, if a person didn’t manage to find a place to attach it to, once it bounced back, the one who got hit would often be the person who shot the rubber band themselves.

Even resentments could also be painful.

For example, when a person’s love wasn’t reciprocated back, he would often find a method which deceived himself and others to numb himself. It was resentment. Actually, upon hating someone, the person hated the version of himself who was helpless to face the truths. Did this not sound painful enough?

The pain brought on by the five skandhas.

To Face against too many helpless options would only lead a person to lose themselves. From then, they would only fall into nothing but the abyss of pain. There was once a saying, “A person isn’t considered a normal human if he didn’t learn to treat his life indifferently”.

Throughout one’s entire life, those were precisely the pains which a person had to go through. There couldn’t be more joy than finding happiness amidst these hardships. Though the pains that were mentioned above might sound a bit exaggerated, it was also true if one tried to think about it. To be born, to get old, to get sick and to die, which of them weren’t a painful process? The obstacles one faced to seek love were also a painful process and so was experiencing the death of friends and family members.

But there were also some things which could counter these pains. That was time. Everything became insignificant in front of time. In time, certain things, regardless of whether it was important or not, would be slowly forgotten. Time was the best medicine. It could cure everything, although it seemed like something which could never be solved.

Sheng Jun didn’t know if she would get married to anyone, nor did she know whether she would ever stumble upon her ideal husband. However, she also didn’t try to resist it. If she ever ran into someone who suited her, she would definitely get married. She was very traditional and at the same time, also perfect. In her mind, she has actually been holding a very traditional thought. If she never managed to have her own family and have her own son and daughter, she would regret it greatly. In fact, it might turn out to be one of the most regretful things in her life.

“I don’t blame you for it. Nor shall you blame yourself for it. I am in the wrong here. I shouldn’t have slapped you. In fact, I thought that you would dodge it.” She was looking at Qing Shui’s now indistinct palm imprint.

“I will never do it again in the future. I will try my best to control myself. Before this, it was because I got distracted. Even I didn’t expect myself to do something like this. Talking about all of these will seem like I am just looking for excuses, but please, believe in your own charm.” Qing Shui rubbed his nose. As of now, even he found himself a bit shameless. The reason why he molested her was because she was beautiful. Who said that you were allowed to molest a woman just because she was beautiful? A person’s beauty wasn’t the reason for you to molest her.

Upon hearing what Qing Shui said, for some reason, Sheng Jun started feeling a bit depressed. No men have dared to do anything to her. Qing Shui was the first person to do so. Deep down, she wasn’t really that angry. Maybe it was because every woman would subconsciously hope to have a man whom she could flirt with.

Men and women were basically the same. Only women tended to be more emotional whereas men were more impulsive.

“Alright, let’s stop talking about this and have some wine together. I am in the mood to drink some wine.” Sheng Jun smiled and looked at Qing Shui.

All along, Qing Shui has been feeling that something wasn’t right about Sheng Jun. But he wasn’t sure exactly what was weird. When it came to what a woman was thinking, he could never figure it out. He has also never once thought about how Sheng Jun viewed himself. He just couldn’t seem to feel that they walked on the same path. She was too righteous and holy. And him on the other hand, when standing in front of her, it made him feel a bit dark and evil.

“Alright!” Qing Shui agreed to it naturally.

Delicious dishes, the best wine accompanied by the most beautiful woman. Qing Shui was able to tell that Sheng Jun was quite enthusiastic to drink today. He wasn’t worried about her getting drunk as it was hardly possible with her current strength.

Their purpose of drinking wine was just to create a mood. Actually, this was what everybody wanted to achieve when drinking wine, whether it was in his previous incarnation, or in the current world he was in. During joyous moments, people drank wine. At a moment of sadness, they also drank wine. People drank during joyous moments as a way of celebrations and at sad moments as a way to help release their stress.

“Tell me about the Heaven Star Immortal Sect!” Qing Shui looked for a topic to talk to her about.

Sheng Jun seemed to know that Qing Shui wanted to talk about this matter. She put down the wine cup in her hand and boldly looked at Qing Shui. Her eyes were very bright, like the clear moon in the sky. Though profound, it was incomparably pure and clean, making people felt unusually comfortable.

“The sect which my father comes from is also an immortal sect. Not only that, he is the Sect Lord in our sect. But just as he said, immortal sects are also divided into weak, mediocre and strong ones. Our clan is a part of Sacred Origin Immortal Sect, which is significantly weaker than the Heaven Star Immortal Sect.” Sheng Jun talked about the story of her own clan. This was also a sign of the trust she had in Qing Shui.