Chapter 47: This Woman Exists Only in Heaven

The furnishings in the side room were sparse, leaving the interior somewhat empty. A casual glance revealed a mouse in the northeast corner, sneaking about with shifty eyes, its pointed snout moving rapidly. It must have found some delicacy somewhere, and thinking the side room rarely saw visitors and was thus safe, it had come to feast here.

Lu Rou’s piercing scream only caused the mouse to rear up on its hind legs, its forepaws raised and pausing briefly, before it bent down and resumed its meal. It seemed oblivious to the two humans before it, unaware of the imminent danger.

Women are naturally afraid of mice and snakes; men are naturally not. Thus, mutual complementarity arises.

Just moments ago, Lu Rou had been brooding over matters of marriage, but as her mood shifted, she was startled by this audacious mouse. It provided Li Dong a perfect opportunity to please her—an opportunity he would not let slip.

Li Dong quickly raised his forefinger to his lips, whispering a quiet “shh,” so Lu Rou wouldn’t scare the mouse away.

Lu Rou’s eyes widened, her body stiff, rooted to the spot as fear overtook her.

Silently, Li Dong unfastened a jade piece from his waist, glanced at the mouse’s location, and suddenly let it fly, aiming for the mouse’s head.

The mouse, enjoying its meal, heard the whistling sound and looked up, but before it could see what was coming, it was struck and rolled several feet away, its limbs twitching weakly before it lay still.

Li Dong cursed his luck. He had hoped to kill it with a single blow, so he could boast before Lu Rou, but had merely struck its body. It appeared only temporarily stunned, not truly dead.

“Finish it! Finish it! Quick, finish it!” Lu Rou exhaled in relief, furious that the mouse had ruined her mood, and urged Li Dong on anxiously.

His heart stirred, and he recalled his girlfriend before he crossed over—Dang Yuqian—who, like Lu Rou, was terrified of mice. Shaking his head helplessly, he stepped toward the mouse, intending to crush it underfoot.

He raised his foot, but before he could bring it down, the mouse suddenly flipped over and darted into the hole in the wall, vanishing from sight and leaving behind its unfinished meal.

Lu Rou was disgruntled, scolding, “Why didn’t you kill it? You let it get away for nothing. It’ll come back to disgust me again.”

“Disgust” is always a woman’s first reaction to mice; Dang Yuqian said much the same.

Li Dong blushed deeply, stammered, and finally managed, “It’s better this way. Let it go back and warn the others—not to mess with us, so they won’t dare come out and scare you again.”

Lu Rou covered her mouth and giggled, her ornaments swaying as if she were on a swing. “How can such a disgusting thing be so funny when you talk about it?”

Li Dong chuckled, then said earnestly, “There are even more amusing stories about mice. Want to hear one?”

“No, no, no!” Lu Rou stamped her foot, pouting and acting coy. “If you tell more of those terrifying ghost stories, believe me, I’ll find a way to scare you half to death!”

Li Dong shook his head repeatedly, mimicking her tone, “No, no, no, it’s not a ghost story. It’s a story about feelings between a man and a woman…” He had meant to say “love story,” but in the Sui Dynasty, the word “love” did not exist, and Lu Rou wouldn’t understand, so he changed it to “feelings.”

“Then you tell me a story!” Li Dong asked.

“No!”

“Let’s go outside for fun!”

“No!”

“How about we catch butterflies in the back garden?”

“No catching!” Lu Rou was resolute, answering every suggestion with “no,” waiting to see what trick Li Dong would try to tell his mouse story.

“Alright, I won’t tell the story then.”

“No!” The word slipped out, and Lu Rou realized she’d fallen into his trap. He said he wouldn’t tell it, she said no—which meant she agreed. Her cheeks flushed. “You have so many tricks!”

Li Dong grinned triumphantly, his thoughts drifting back more than a thousand years—to a place torn by war, where life hung by a thread, and he was on a peacekeeping mission.

“There was a mouse, very brave and very calm, who commanded a troop to defend its home and country, waging war against evil mice that lurked in the shadows, harming others.”

“He was an outstanding leader, slaying many of the bad mice and earning his subordinates’ admiration. But the bad mice were countless—kill one batch and another appeared—the war dragged on, and he did not return home for three years.”

This mouse had a fiancée who missed him terribly. She lived far from the battlefield, unable to reach him. Hearing from older mice that eating salt would turn a mouse into a bat, able to fly to her beloved, she ate the salt without hesitation and became a flying mouse.

But upon reaching the battlefield, she faced a dilemma: unable to understand the local mice’s language, she disguised herself, dressed in coarse cloth and smeared her beautiful face so no one would recognize her, and worked at an inn.

A year passed before she learned the language; during that time, she found out where her beloved was fighting. One night, as all mice slept, she took some rations and sneaked off to find him.

Along the way, she encountered many dangers and bad mice, but since she had made herself look hideous, she survived every ordeal and finally found her beloved.

Her beloved was wounded, resting on a couch, when the woman he’d longed for appeared. Despite her ugly disguise and the frightening wings on her back, he recognized her instantly.

He pinched his thigh and felt pain, knowing it was no dream. Moved beyond words, he wept tears he had never shed before—a mouse who had seen too much death, never wept, but was touched by his mate, who had done something earth-shattering, something no other mouse could do.

As the story unfolded, Li Dong’s tone grew solemn. If Lu Rou weren’t there, he would have sobbed aloud, for he wasn’t really telling a mouse’s love story, but his own with Dang Yuqian.

During his three years abroad on peacekeeping duty, Li Dong thought of her by day, by night, on the battlefield, after the battle—never a moment passed without longing for her. But separated by distance, he had no chance to see her.

Dang Yuqian, determined to see him, sought out a professor at the Foreign Language Institute to learn Vitolania for a year, then worked hard to lose weight and applied to become a flight attendant on flights to Vitolania. Each time she was rejected, but she never gave up, applying again and again until the interviewer was moved and finally hired her.

When Dang Yuqian, after countless trials and dangers, stood before Li Dong, he was deeply moved. Was there any woman more devoted to love than Dang Yuqian? Any other would have long since sought another man. But she repaid him in this way.

Flight attendant was a profession Lu Rou could not comprehend; Li Dong described her as a bat that could fly. In truth, on the battlefield, battered and dirtied by shellfire, Li Dong often felt himself no different from a gray mouse. Lu Rou’s disgust at mice reminded him of the time he returned home, took Dang Yuqian to Mount Tai, and unwittingly crossed over to this era.

“What happened then? How did the story end after the two mice met?” Lu Rou, moved by the tale, pressed anxiously for the conclusion.