Luo Jianqing was still smiling when she stopped to cough. He gave her a glass of warm water. She looked at Luo Jianqing with joy in her eyes, “we once gave him a name called Gu Niansheng.”
Luo Jianqing lightly nodded, “it’s a good one.”
Grandma Gu smiled and sipped some water.
It was raining outside. Dropping on the ground without a sound, the rain in spring was light and mild. When Luo Jianqing stood up to shut the windows, he heard an old kind voice said something before he even turned his back.
“Niansheng, how are you these years?”
Luo Jianqing was petrified.
“Are your step-parents treating you well? Do you have any siblings? Where do you live? Are you married?”
Luo Jianqing was standing still, didn’t turn his head.
Coughing while smiling, grandma Gu said, “I forgot that you went to learn how to be an immortal. Your master must have been nice to you. Is he……”
“Grandma Gu!”
Heard Luo Jianqing’s words, grandma Gu quivered and slowly shut up her mouth.
After a long silence, grandma Gu wiped out the tears and said in a cracked voice, “our second child was a girl. We named her Gu Amei and gave her a nickname ‘Niansheng’. She was beautiful, married to a young man from another village. She died because of dystocia. Her husband didn’t marry until the third year by when he suddenly became rich and married another girl. My daughter, however, didn’t have a chance to enjoy her life for even one day.
“When I was little, I heard the elders talking about karma. My son only lived a few days after his birth. Amei inherited his name, and, just like my husband and I, was cursed by that.”
Staring at the ground, Luo Jianqing was still facing the window.
“The villagers are saying that we are nice and kind, but they don’t know we are always haunted by our dreams. I remember one night I had a dream in which my son came back and told me he was scared of the thunder. He told me that it was cold lying in the Luo River.
“My husband and I didn’t have a single peaceful night for twenty-seven years until the immortal came.
“It was our karma. We did something wrong……to our own child.
She choked with sobs. Luo Jianqing couldn’t help himself but turned his head. He saw the old woman was crying. The quilt was wetted by the tears. She was crying and shivering uncontrollably.
Luo Jianqing made his way towards grandma Gu. Before he could say anything, she said, “three years ago, the immortal told us that we were about to leave this world. We told them that we did not want to live any longer as well. What we really wanted was death, so that we could reunite with our children. However, the immortal said that our son was still waiting for us……waiting for us to break the bond that connected our family.
“We asked him where our Niansheng was.”
“He told us……that we would know when the time is right.”
“We managed to live another three years just because of his words. Actually, we didn’t eat the herbs. That’s surely a precious thing. We want to give it to our Niansheng. We’ve been wondering for three years how he’s gonna look like.”
“He’s in his late thirties. Maybe he has a wonderful life. Maybe he already had his own family now, with beautiful wife and lovely child. Maybe he’s like that immortal. So gorgeous. So kind. Befallen our yard one day and told us he’s coming to cut the bond.”
“When that day came, I was doing laundry. I saw a man floating in the middle of the river. I took a gleam when he was rescued ashore, and I knew, at that moment, this is my son.”
“My Niansheng is even more handsome than I ever imagined.
“He is so gorgeous, so nice. We don’t deserve a son like this. I know, after my death, he’s gonna be an immortal. It’s good. He should be one. He doesn’t need parents like us. Then what’s the meaning of……our bond?”
“Mom……” Luo Jianqing sobbed.
Grandma Gu suddenly lifted her head, staring at the handsome young man standing in front.
It was after a while before she beckoned him finally.
“Niansheng, how are you……these years?”
She said the words with extreme carefulness and mild voice as if she didn’t want to scare him.
Luo Jianqing held her hand and nodded, “my life is very satisfying.”
“Do you have any child?”
Luo Jianqing shook his head.
“Are you married?”
He nodded, “I have somebody that I really like.”
Grandma Gu beamed with pleasure, “it’s good……it’s good.”
The light kindled in the house. The thunder and lightning outside couldn’t disturb the peaceful kind vibe within. Grandma Gu was very happy. She said a lot as if she had countless things to tell Luo Jianqing. It was till the sunrise her voice became weaker and weaker.
In the end, grandma Gu was leaning on Luo Jianqing’s chest and mumbling, “that day, I was the one who decided to abandon you, not your father……it’s true, not your father. We regretted before we got to our house. We found a ship and searched you around in the Luo River but couldn’t find you……we really couldn’t find you. We found a lot of money in our house after we returned. We hid them all under this bed. Take the money. They are yours. We didn’t even tell Amei……”
Luo Jianqing nodded hard.
Looking right into this handsome man, Grandma Gu lifted her head. She looked at him as if she didn’t want to leave this world, not after she finally had the chance to look at her son. She smiled slowly, “your master must have been treating you well. Niansheng, his eyes were beaming with delight when he spoke of you.”
Luo Jianqing couldn’t move his body.
She was still speaking, “your master spat out lots of blood when he left. You must take good care of him.”
Shivering in shock, Luo Jianqing widened his eyes.
Grandma Gu’s eyes were slowly closing. Voice weakening and fingers losing strength, using the last bit of her energy, she still gazed at Luo Jianqing. A relieving smile emerged, for one second, she became the beautiful girl who enchanted every young man in the region dozens of years ago.
She said, “Niansheng, our bond……was cut.”
“Splat——”
Her arm dropped at the moment she finished the sentence.
Stupified, Luo Jianqing held the old woman in his arms. A long-time passed. His tears were finally running out.
He felt something inside him vanished at the moment grandma Gu stopped her breath. That thing was constraining him for forty-one years, and he didn’t notice it at all. It was the bond between the family which was buried at the deepest corner in his heart and was broken following grandma Gu’s last words.
What was the meaning of breaking the mortal bond?
Must we become indifferent of love and hate to be immortal?
Thunder was roaring in the firmament. Countless lightning was rushing towards the ground like silver snakes. Then a heavy rain followed.
In terrible weather like this, Luo Jianqing buried grandma Gu with grandpa Gu. He knelt before the tombstone, kowtowed forty-one times, and then using Sword Qi left a phrase on the tombstone:
‘by their son – Gu Niansheng’
The last bit of the bond had disappeared. Luo Jianqing looked up at the sky. There was nothing but coldness and anger on his face,
“Who’s to blame for the flood and thunder forty-one years ago?
“Why the fate asked me to break the mortal bond?
“Why is it that we have to be indifferent to immortal?
“Why do we need to leave behind the love and hate?
“I, Luo Jianqing, swear that I will succeed with all the mortal emotions still inside me.”
Emerging and rumbling from the underground, an ancient invisible power accumulated around Luo Jianqing.
This was the Third Seizure of the Nine Heavenly Seizure Record – Seizing Right and Wrong!
