Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
Carrying the plaque and trespassing the enemy’s house, raising havoc in the city, with just a few quiet lines, the girl that had been gone for seven years was brought back to life, her scarlet robes billowing around her fearlessly. Zong Yue’s eyes had started to moisten again, but Meng Fuyao couldn’t help but clap her hands in approval, declaring, “What a good woman!”
Zong Yue glanced at her gratefully and continued softly, “I knew that you would like her, you two are very similar in some areas, but after prolonged interaction, there are also many differences. It’s just a pity that she wasn’t willing to compromise like you, she was too stubborn and unyielding, or else she wouldn’t have…”
His voice trailed off, and Meng Fuyao sighed, hugging her knees as she stared at the moon. She had a nagging question in her heart, but after hearing Zong Yue’s tone, the enemy must have been an extremely vicious person. Why else would he still not kill Nie Ru Han despite being publicly humiliated by her?
“Back then I didn’t know that she had done all this and I even accused her of being birds of the same feather with that enemy of mine, because back then the country’s nobles all knew that despite being labeled as the young mistress of the Nie family, Nie Ru Han was actually the illegitimate daughter of the enemy who was adopted by the Nie family. But back then Ru Han herself didn’t know about it; given her fiery temper, nobody dared to tell her, and after that, she really paid no heed to her family’s objections and went around looking for a master and seek revenge for me. The Nie family couldn’t do anything about it and went to beg her biological father, so the enemy summoned several fake ‘masters’ to teach her ‘earthshaking skills’. Ru Han was delighted and devoted herself to practicing day and night, but because she was an aristocrat, she couldn’t go out to duel, so she battled the masters at home and naturally, she would always win. Hence, she began to feel accomplished in her abilities and really tried to assassinate her father. Needless to say, she failed, but she was indignant and claimed she’d heard that I wasn’t dead yet and that she wanted to find me and die together.”
Meng Fuyao was amused at what she’d heard, and if not for the atmosphere and the fact that the person in question was already dead, she would have laughed. ‘Ah, this ferocious yet adorable girl, how wonderful would it be if she were still alive? The poison-tongued guy may not be so lonely or poison-tongued anymore.’
Zong Yue turned to look at her with a hint of amusement in his eyes as he said, “Smile if you want, she’s always been a happy-go-lucky girl, she wouldn’t mind it.”
Meng Fuyao replied gently, “I believe that she would be even more willing to see you smile.”
Zong Yue did not reply and turned his head away, lightly tapping the golden-red ocarina in his palm. After a long time, he opened his mouth again, but his voice came out hoarse.
“She traveled afar, but her skill had never gotten better. Her biological father was a meticulous man who did not miss anything and had sent a considerable number of men to follow her. Once she encountered any danger, they would discreetly use a flying needle to eliminate the danger. As such, she actually managed to make a name for herself out there and became known as the ‘Sky Needle Witch’.
Meng Fuyao laughed for real this time. “Ah, innocent witch.”
“That year, she really bumped into me in another country. Back then I was having a duel with someone, and she happened to chance upon it. She had exclaimed when she understood the level of her own skills, but I was distracted by her and lost to my opponent. She saved me after I got injured and took care of me for a long time, yet when I woke up, I immediately pushed her away, mistaking the guards behind her for assassins sent to kill me.”
“It rained heavily that night, and we were stuck in a mountain cave. I was in the cave and she squatted by the entrance in the rain. She did not beg me to let her in, instead saying, ‘A-Yue, I finally know what true martial skills are today, I’ve been mistaken… A-Yue, I heard that your medical skills are exceptional, help me, help me raise my skill level and we can go back and kill him together.’ Yet I stuck my nose in the air and told her to get lost. After looking at me for a long time, she got up and left.”
The night rain fell harshly, and the mountain wind shrieked mercilessly as the fiancé in the cave, and the fiancée outside missed the chance to embrace and share their warmth due to a cruel twist of fate and misunderstanding. From then on, they would never have the chance again.
“The next time I met her, another year had passed again, at an inn. I saw her enter the inn together with a green-robed man, laughing and chatting merrily, so I went upstairs to confront her. Yet I noticed that she did not look well, as though her inner energy was blocked. I also didn’t know where she had managed to develop inner energy during the past year, and I wanted to stop her and treat her, yet after seeing her carefree and happy expression with that man, I didn’t feel good, so I just left and went back to my room. And the room they booked was right next to mine.
“In the middle of the night, I heard some sounds coming from the room next door. I was filled with rage and hatred at the time and thought that in the end, she was a loose woman, and it was the right decision to ignore her. Following that, I heard the bed next door begin to rock; it was summer then, so they used bamboo beds, and once there was movement, the sound could be heard very clearly. The more I heard, the angrier and more frustrated I felt, even intending to kill off the adulterous pair, but then I thought that to see such a scene would be the filthiest thing in the world…”
He lowered his head and shut his eyes, suddenly becoming quiet. After a long time, with his eyelashes glittering with beads of tears, he said softly, “In the end, I didn’t go, in the end, I didn’t go…”
The fragmented memories of the past seemed to resurface and bring about a melancholic pain, and Zong Yue’s breathing became heavier. The golden-red ocarina in his hands trembled in his palm as he grasped it tightly.
Fearing that he would break it, Meng Fuyao retrieved it gently from his hands and said, “Is this something she left behind? Don’t break it.”
Zong Yue responded with a faint “Mn” and focused on calming his breathing. After several moments, he turned and smiled at her, yet his smile did not harbor any happiness, and Meng Fuyao quickly averted her eyes and turned away.
“The next morning when I had paid for my room and was about to leave, one of the inn’s servants was knocking next door. I didn’t pay much heed to it and intended to walk away, but when the servant pushed lightly, the door opened by itself.”
The door opened.
Seven years ago, the door opened slowly, and sunlight streamed in, shining into the small bedroom. The sunlight was blinding and hurt his eyes, yet from then on he would forever be engulfed in pain and darkness.
That door had been locked up with a thousand chains, never to open, thrown into the deepest recesses of his heart.
“… She had died on the bed, and the corpse of a man in green robes was lying on the floor.”
Meng Fuyao let out a curt “ah”. Although from Zong Yue’s description she knew that Nie Ruhan was definitely not a promiscuous woman who fooled around, she was shocked to hear that this was how she died and she remained flabbergasted at the cold cruelty of her fate.
Zong Yue’s voice had quietened considerably, as if speaking to this point was the most painful of all, to the point where he had become numb and unable to feel anymore.
“That night, the green-robed man wanted to rape her, and she probably expected it, so she kept a knife beside her pillow. There was probably a struggle, and in the struggle, although she had managed to kill the other party, the inner energy controlling her anger suddenly went out of control. After that, the rocking sound from the bamboo bed was due to the extreme pain when she went into psychosis before she died.”
“When she died, her body was curled up, one hand grabbing her chest, the other reaching out as if yearning for something…”
Meng Fuyao bit her lip. ‘What a cruel way to die…’
In the small inn, with all lights extinguished, one struggled alone in the darkness as she fought the final battle of her life, the other enraged due to a misunderstanding, eventually not making the crucial step to save her.
When she died, she did not know that the person she was calling for was just next door; when she died, he did not know that she had never betrayed him.
Was the hand that reached out during the last moment of Nie Ru Han’s life an illusion that she conjured with her final breath, having mistaken the hard wall for the chest of the man she loved?
Yet she would never know his true feelings behind the wall.
So close, yet so far.
And Zong Yue was not speaking anymore.
But Meng Fuyao had already understood everything he said.
The reason behind his haste was but an attempt to relieve the unrelievable burden in his heart.
That year, if he had helped Ru Han raise her skill level, she would not have approached quack doctors in desperation and built up inner energy the wrong way, resulting in her being prone to psychosis and her death at the inn.
That chance meeting at the inn, if he had treated her once he saw that she was not well, things would not have turned out this way either.
These two mistakes had taken away all the happiness in his life, resulting in his haste in trying to help Meng Fuyao raise her spiritual level. He was afraid that if she encountered any danger, just like Ru Han, she might hurt herself because she did not have enough power.
The reason why he was so dedicated to helping Meng Fuyao control her wounds, treating her immediately when any problem popped up before her body had any chance to even recover by itself, was because he was afraid that Meng Fuyao would be like Ru Han, and he would miss the opportunity to save her and lose her life.
A large part of how Zong Yue gained the title of ‘Holy Doctor’ was due to the speed of his treatment; once he accepted a patient, he would go all out and work day and night to treat the patient in the fastest time possible. Meng Fuyao had thought that this was just his personality, but now she knew that the reason for his haste was an irreversible mistake.
The nightmares of his past that he could never escape!
Meng Fuyao sighed, the breeze carrying her sigh into the night. However, Zong Yue took back the ocarina in her palm and rubbed it tenderly before bringing it to his lips. A stream of music drifted from his lips, carrying the pain and sadness of the past, as well as a hint of longing that could never be extinguished. It was the melody of a girl dancing among the falling autumn leaves, treading lightly on the maple leaves without breaking any of them. The years continued to go by, and the fallen leaves could never return to its branch, yet its memory remained ever so warmly.
A song of “The Sorrow of Loss”.
Humans are always suffering from the sorrow of loss, yet refuse to reconcile.
Standing atop the pavilion, in the night breeze, under the moonlight, he slowly began to blow his ancient ocarina.
The young girl decked in elegant robes, her eyes bright and sharp, bent down to scold him, “You’re such a scrawny and useless chicken, you won’t be able to protect me at all!” The young girl stuck her nose in the air with a childish temper. Only that many years later, what she said would actually come true.
And that year on Xuanyuan Mountain, vibrant and full of life, the young woman leaped across tree after tree as he raised his head to gaze at the greenery above him, catching a glimpse of her lowered eyelids—luminous as snow, like a snowflake that had fallen on her eye.
