Chapter 106 The Peach Blossoms Bloom Again

Through millennia of reincarnation, cause and effect remain unchanged.

This family has been reunited once again, drawn together by the spindle of fate.

This time, however, the world has changed.

Jiang Jinshu, who was once confined to her boudoir, now stands proudly under the spotlight, her talents, once hidden away, now shining brightly on the field.

This moment, she may have been waiting for for a thousand years.

A true pearl, even if covered in dust for a thousand years, will still shine brightly once the dust is wiped away.

Jiang Jincheng, however, would have been exposed for his true colors if his family hadn't poured their hearts and souls into supporting him.

His inherent mediocrity, even after a thousand years of reincarnation, could not glean even a fraction of his sister's brilliance.

Jiang's father didn't even look at Jiang Jincheng lying on the ground. His trembling hand grabbed Lu Yao's clothes, and turbid tears streamed down his face.

"Master Lu! I beg you, destroy this evil thing quickly! Jinshu's eyes... please save her..."

Lu Yao's fingertip suddenly brushed against the edge of the copper coin, drawing out a drop of blood.

She tossed the blood-stained coin into the air, and it hovered three inches above the voodoo doll, beginning to spin rapidly.

"Using blood as the catalyst and incantations as the pact."

She chanted an incantation and made a strange hand seal with her right hand.

Suddenly, the copper coin burst forth with dazzling golden light, illuminating the entire dormitory as if it were daytime.

In the golden light, the voodoo doll began to convulse violently, the silver needles wrapped around it clanging before snapping.

On the doll's snow-white silk body, the birth dates and times written in cinnabar began to twist and deform, struggling to escape as if they were alive.

Lu Yao sneered, pulled a yellowed talisman from her sleeve, and slapped it onto the doll's crown: "Disperse!"

The moment the talisman touched the doll, a sudden gust of cold wind swept through the entire dormitory.

A faint, piercing scream could be heard coming from inside the doll's body, before it turned into a wisp of black smoke and vanished.

The once malevolent voodoo doll had now turned into a pile of charred ashes.

Jiang Jincheng screamed and covered his eyes, black blood seeping from between his fingers.

Jiang's father looked on in horror.

Lu Yao explained calmly, "It backfired."

The barrage of comments was a feast for the eyes, and I was completely satisfied.

[Aaaaaah, the golden light is blinding me! Heavenly Master Sister, kill me!]

[The doll moved! It moved! It's wriggling!! (Screenshotting frantically)]

The silver needle broke! It broke! Is Jiang Jincheng doomed??

[Protected by bullet comments! Prosperity, democracy, civility, and harmony!!!]

[Jiang Jinshu, wake up! Your brother is getting his comeuppance!]

Jiang Jinshu should be fine, right? Next year's gold medal is practically guaranteed.

...

Jiang Jinshu slept soundly in his hospital bed, as if he had fallen into a dream that spanned a thousand years.

She dreamt that she was sitting by the window in her boudoir, and Jiang Jincheng snatched the manuscript from her hand.

Her mother pushed open the door and entered, carrying a bowl of dark, medicinal soup. She gently coaxed her to drink it, saying, "Jinshu, this is medicine to improve your eyesight. Your brother specially asked for it for you."

She dreamt of a night of torrential rain, where a Taoist priest in green robes stood at the entrance of an alley, holding an oil-paper umbrella painted with yin and yang symbols. Rain dripped down the ribs of the umbrella, splashing tiny water droplets on the bluestone slabs.

“Your brother gained fame by stealing your poems, and your parents need his academic achievements to bring glory to the family.” The Celestial Master’s voice was as cold as frost. “They are afraid that you will reveal the truth, so they want to gouge out the light in your eyes and lock you in a cage.”

Jiang Jinshu stood in the rain, raindrops sliding down her hair.

"Does the young lady want justice?" the Taoist priest asked.

"Yes," she heard herself say, her voice so soft it was almost drowned out by the rain, yet so firm it seemed to come from the depths of her soul.

—And so, she really got justice.

When the plaque in front of the Jiang residence was taken down, the whole capital was in an uproar.

The scholars cursed her for being unfilial and disrespectful to her brothers, the teachers shook their heads and sighed, "A woman's virtue lies in her lack of talent," and even the tea vendors on the street pointed at her and said, "I heard it was her who personally sent her father and brothers to prison."

The marriage, which was between a couple of similar social standing, naturally fell through.

When the matchmaker came to return the betrothal gifts, her eyes were filled with disdain, as if she were looking at something filthy: "What family would dare to marry such a woman? She can even take her own parents to court. Won't she ride roughshod over her husband's family in the future?"

Jiang Jinshu, on the contrary, felt more relaxed than ever before.

Standing in the empty Jiang family compound, she said to Lu Yao, "I want to open an academy that only accepts female students."

Lu Yao smiled, the copper coin flipping between her fingers: "I'll help you."

—And so, the girls' academy in the south of the city was built.

Qiao Fuling was the first to come seeking refuge. She was once a well-bred young lady from a noble family, educated in poetry and literature, and skilled in music and painting. But a kidnapping during the Lantern Festival that year shattered her life. After being rescued and brought back to the manor, her father and brothers considered her a disgrace to the family, and her mother, with tears in her eyes, locked her in a side courtyard. She faked her death to escape. Qiao Fuling became Jiang Jinshu's right-hand woman.

Next came the third young lady from the family of the Vice Minister of Revenue. She was holding a thick ledger, her eyes shining brightly: "I secretly managed the shop for three years, and my father actually said that all this money was earned by my brother."

Even the tofu beauty at the alley entrance came, busy in the kitchen with her sleeves rolled up: "Although I am illiterate, I can teach girls how to make tofu—this skill is passed down to women, not men!"

Life at the academy was lively and fulfilling.

Jiang Jinshu taught the girls to read, write, and understand right from wrong.

Lu Yao would occasionally come to give lectures, talking about the local customs and beautiful landscapes of the country, and the audience would be filled with bright, hopeful eyes.

Later, when Lu Yao became the Imperial Preceptor, the plaque of the academy was changed to "Zhaoling Women's Academy," a name personally inscribed by the Emperor.

The powerful and wealthy in the capital rushed to send their daughters here, as if the old saying that "women are not talented" had never existed.

Jiang Jinshu thought that life would continue like this.

Until natural disaster struck.

Three consecutive years of severe drought left the Central Plains barren. Although the capital city barely survived thanks to the Grand Canal, starving corpses lay on the streets every day.

Lu Yao volunteered to leave the capital to pray for rain. Before leaving, she buried three copper coins under the peach tree at the entrance of the academy, saying, "When I return, this tree should be in bloom."

But she was gone for three years.

The peach blossoms bloomed and faded so quickly.

When the timely rain finally fell, the entire capital city was in an uproar.

It is said that the Imperial Preceptor had accumulated enough merit to ascend to immortality, and he severed his own immortal bones to pray for rain for the people, which caused the torrential rain to fall.

The people spontaneously set up incense tables at their doorsteps, waiting to welcome the return of the Imperial Preceptor.

Jiang Jinshu led the female students to work through the night to make "Ten Thousand People Umbrellas," while the tofu beauty made ninety-nine baskets of "Fortune Cakes" to distribute along the way.

They waited and waited, but all they received was devastating news—

Lu Yao was ambushed on her way back to the capital.

The seventh prince colluded with her biological parents, using blood ties as a guide, to set up nine soul-suppressing steles at Broken Soul Ridge.

When Jiang Jinshu and the others arrived, they saw nine eerie human-shaped stone tablets standing on the edge of the cliff, with bloodstains still wet on the inscriptions.

Jiang Jinshu knelt before the monument, his hands trembling as he stroked the engravings.

She swore a blood oath.

"Even if I were to reincarnate for countless lifetimes, I would still suffer the pain of having my eyes gouged out and going blind..."

"I will also wait for her return."

The River of Oblivion surged, and she leaped into the cycle of reincarnation.

In her first life, she was an embroiderer. The patterns on the "Admonitions for Women" that she embroidered were actually rebellious poems. When the authorities came to arrest her, she set herself on fire in her embroidery workshop, blinding herself in the smoke.

In her second life, she was a porcelain craftswoman who discovered the method for firing celadon with crackle patterns. When the local bullies tried to seize the secret recipe, she was blinded by a shard of porcelain.

...

The pain of having one's eyes gouged out for nine lifetimes means that one will never see the light of day for nine lifetimes.

Those dark memories that burned, shattered, and pierced through her now transform into an inextinguishable spark deep within her pupils.

"Don't be afraid," a voice that had haunted my dreams whispered softly, "I'm back."

When Jiang Jinshu opened her eyes again, the long-awaited light surged in like a tide, and what came into view was the face of the young female national teacher from her dream.

“You…the peach blossoms have already bloomed.” Jiang Jinshu grabbed her sleeve, trembling. “You mustn’t break your promise this time.”

Lu Yao chuckled softly, "How could I dare to betray the light that was bought with nine lifetimes of darkness?"