Chapter 107 The Cause: Dependent on Each Other for Life.
As the sun rises, its soft light awakens all things from their slumber.
A heavy, damp chill brushed past the tip of the nose; the person on the bed fluttered their eyelashes, mumbled a few words, and seemed reluctant to wake up. Then, there was a knock on the door, and a young man's gentle voice came through:
"Li Xia, get up."
This sound finally woke Shen Lixia completely. She got out of bed, responded with an "okay," and quickly went to wash up and change her clothes. When she opened the door, Qiao Yanshen was leaning against the side of the porch, with a few glistening water droplets still on his body, looking as if he had just washed his face.
Shen Lixia blinked and asked, "What did Senior Sister just do?"
Qiao Yanshen smiled, made a hand gesture to wipe the sweat from his body, and said, "I went for a run up the mountain for a while..."
I also practiced my footwork and sword techniques.
"Senior sister is indeed very diligent." The boy nodded, then suddenly felt that he should be punished for sleeping soundly all night. "I'll come with you next time."
Qiao Yanshen said, "Don't let me influence you. You have your own way of cultivating. Everyone needs a moment to relax. Nothing should be rushed."
"I'll be right there." Shen Lixia nodded, took the keys, and closed the door. "Shall we go call that...who was it again?"
"Chi... but I don't think that sounds like a name."
"She seems to have forgotten everything, I wonder if she'll remember anything someday. Let's just call her Chi for now."
The two chatted as they walked to the door of the room where Chi was. Learning that Chi couldn't do anything right now and that his cultivation was only at the Golden Core stage, Shen Lixia felt somewhat relieved. She knocked on the door and called out, "Good morning! Time to go!"
After calling out for a long time without any response, Shen Lixia called out again. However, there was complete silence inside the room; not only was there no response, but there wasn't even a sound of someone getting out of bed.
"Could she have sneaked out to play with the kittens?" The boy pressed his ear to the door, listened, and knocked twice. "Of course, she could also have overslept..."
Qiao Yanshen silently transmitted his thoughts to Chi in his mind, and after repeating it twice, he heard a muffled response: "Come in... I didn't lock the door."
What are you going in there for...?
Even though she thought it to herself, she opened the door anyway. "She said to let us in first."
After answering, Chi seemed to have fallen asleep again, remaining silent. The two walked to the bedside, where a jumble of things obscured their view, resembling a tomb mound piled high with stones—but made up of pillows and blankets. The cabinet was open, and the inside was empty.
The tomb mound, as if alive, was slowly rising and falling. A pillow, on the verge of falling, finally rolled down, but was caught by Shen Lixia with lightning speed.
She turned her head and mouthed, "What's going on?"
Qiao Yan squatted down, gently lifted one corner of the blanket, and after confirming that there was no bloodstain or anything else creepy, said calmly, "They probably felt cold."
This is even more absurd. It's early autumn in July, and the summer heat hasn't subsided yet. People are still sweating and eating popsicles on the street. How can it be described as "cold"? Not to mention that there are no ice buckets in the hotel. The second floor is never warm in winter and cool in summer. If it were in the past, Shen Lixia would be so hot that she would wake up in the middle of the night to drink a glass of water.
Qiao Yanshen understood her surprise and explained, "Have you noticed? Her face is very pale, and she has forgotten a lot of things... More than an ordinary 'life,' she seems like someone who has just passed through the gates of hell, and her condition is very unstable. I've heard that when people are on the verge of death, they desperately search for a source of warmth to crawl into."
Upon hearing this, Shen Lixia recalled that the divine fire within her body was not as restless as before. This time, it was exceptionally calm, only slightly conveying a subtle but not exactly disgusting emotion when Chi made his move to kill.
Chi huddled among the pile of things, sleeping silently like a wounded big cat. Shen Lixia knew that sympathizing with an enemy—a former enemy—was actually inappropriate, but she still felt a strange tenderness in her heart.
She said, "Senior, please sit here and let her sleep a little longer. I'll go downstairs to find something."
With her cultivation stable in the late Foundation Establishment stage, it was fine for her to eat occasionally. Qiao Yanshen considered this and didn't stop her, nodding and saying, "Call me if you need anything."
After the boy left, she found a chair, took out the notebook and pen she had brought with her, and started writing and drawing, summarizing what she had practiced that morning. The surrounding environment was quiet, and her attention naturally relaxed. Qiao Yanshen quickly became immersed in her thoughts, not even noticing that the person on the bed slowly moved away from those "fortresses" and got out of bed to sit in front of her.
Finally, Chi spoke up: "With your serious cultivation, you'll probably be able to go to the Upper Realm soon."
Qiao Yanshen looked up and sighed softly, "I don't know either, but things may not go so smoothly ahead; there are many more tribulations waiting for us."
"intuition?"
"Combined with the results of astrology."
Chi raised an eyebrow. "Astrology? I didn't expect that people in this world haven't forgotten the method of drawing guidance from the stars. However, astrological phenomena are not so easy to interpret; you may have misread them."
Qiao Yan knew that her real intention was to tell her to relax, so she didn't argue much. Seeing that she had fallen silent, Chi knew that she wouldn't listen to her, so she changed the subject, her gaze falling on the strange pen: "What is this?"
"Pen." Qiao Yanshen picked up the ballpoint pen and showed it to the other person.
Her eyes lit up when she saw the demon, and she couldn't help but chuckle as she placed the pen directly in its hand. Like coaxing a child, she handed over her notebook and said gently, "Would you like to try writing with it?"
Chi awkwardly pushed away the notebook she was offered, but then, as if afraid she'd change her mind, quickly took it, placed it on her lap, and began fiddling with the ballpoint pen in her hand. She soon noticed the nib was facing the wrong way, gripped it firmly with the same soft-grip technique, and frowned as she wrote: "Why is this paper so slippery..."
She quickly wrote several soft, noodle-like characters, which looked very strange and were not written in the script commonly used in the world. Qiao Yanshen simply sat down next to her and finally managed to recognize that it seemed to be written in seal script.
It seems that Chi must have been a person from the ancient times—or at least from the ancient times of this world. She carefully examined the words, but unexpectedly several horizontal lines were suddenly drawn across them, and then Chi closed the notebook.
Qiao Yanshen asked in confusion, "What are you doing?"
“It’s ugly,” Chi replied in a muffled voice, handing the pen and notebook back to her. “I don’t think it should be written so badly… People used to praise my handwriting.”
"Because you're using an unsuitable tool, just like my junior sister," Qiao Yanshen laughed. "The basic structure is nice, but if you change your pen, you'll definitely be able to write beautiful characters."
Chi was stunned for a moment before raising his hand to rub his temples.
The person she had just mentioned praising her handwriting was only a fragmented memory, a vague concept, and she couldn't actually remember who that person was. But as Qiao Yanshen spoke, that person suddenly became clear, as if a layer of mist had been wiped away, revealing a gentle face and a pair of watery eyes.
Light blue. Dark blue.
Although the colors are different, they all share the same softness.
A slight stinging sensation came over her, and she pursed her lips. The barrier in her heart that kept her emotions at bay seemed to be cracking softly.
Just then, light footsteps came from outside the door. Shen Lixia walked into the room with brown sugar glutinous rice cakes wrapped in oil paper. She naturally pulled over a small table and placed the glutinous rice cakes on it.
"Come and try it! I've heard that the desserts in the southern part of the Fifth Domain are delicious. The shop is still preparing ice cream bowls; we'll go downstairs to eat them later."
More and more memories flooded back. From the aroma of brown sugar filling her mouth when she first tasted the glutinous rice cake, to the soft and hot inside when she bit into the crispy fried glutinous rice, it must have been the first time she had ever eaten human food. Before, in the Southern Kingdom's palace, the men ate such rich and greasy food that it was nauseating, not to mention all kinds of "nutritious" ingredients, which made her lose the desire to eat them.
In comparison, these simple, mild-tasting snacks are actually quite delicious.
Chi couldn't explain her feelings; she simply lowered her head and put another piece of glutinous rice cake into her mouth. She suddenly hated herself for remembering nothing, even more than she hated the person who had caused her to lose all her memories. Demons weren't supposed to have emotions, so why did she feel the pain of losing her memories, and why did recalling them now bring an unbearable, aching sorrow to her heart? Abandoning the past should have been insignificant.
The more she thought about it, the less she understood. She could only vent her anger by chewing on the delicious snacks in her mouth, her eyes wide open, her pupils a vivid, almost dripping red.
"...Is it not tasty?" Shen Lixia glanced at Chi and secretly communicated with Qiao Yanshen telepathically.
Qiao Yanshen replied with a smile, "Why would I keep eating it if it's not delicious?"
She knew Chi had something on his mind, but perhaps she shouldn't ask now. The person before her had eyes like a deep, dark sea, sometimes with glimmers of dawn, but mostly filled with a surging sense of bewilderment, completely swallowing up any clarity.
It is perhaps more merciful to make someone lose their memory and forget their entire life than to make them remember where they came from but not know why they are so.
After finishing their snacks, the three packed their belongings, went downstairs for some iced desserts, and then set off towards Yingzhou.
The prefecture was actually quite large, and finding a village that might be deep in the mountains was not easy. Shen Lixia took out a map and examined it carefully. She could barely make out a direction from the words stained with blood. After asking around, the group finally arrived at a market town in a vast mountain forest before sunset.
“I heard there’s a clinic here,” Qiao Yanshen suggested, combining the information he’d gathered along the way. “If it’s an epidemic, the doctor might know the cause.”
As luck would have it, while searching for a clinic, they came across a street vendor selling baked flatbread. The flatbread smelled wonderful, so Shen Lixia suggested buying some, thinking that the doctor there might not have eaten yet.
The other two didn't expose her little craving for food and bought some pancakes along with her. The street vendor, while wrapping the pancakes, muttered, "I've run into a celestial master again... Is this the latest fashion trend?"
Shen Lixia keenly caught the words "immortal master" in her words and couldn't help but ask, "Auntie, what did the last 'immortal master' you met look like, and where did she go?"
The street vendor pondered for a moment, then pointed at Qiao Yanshen, "Just like her, dressed in all white—wearing a beautiful mask. Sigh, she's really tall; she probably has to bend down to enter. She's heading towards the clinic."
Could someone have noticed something amiss beforehand? But according to the group of young men, only their group of cultivators had visited that village and noticed anything unusual.
Perhaps he was just a random cultivator passing by.
However, when they arrived at the clinic, the doctor's words shattered Shen Lixia's guess. It was already sunset, and the dim evening mist made the clinic feel exceptionally warm, even the smell of Chinese herbs didn't seem so bitter.
The doctor first sent her two daughters to play in their room before receiving the group. She seemed quite surprised that a small clinic could have several spiritual masters coming to inquire about the situation within a few days, and she poured them tea with extra enthusiasm, answering their questions about the epidemic.
"If we're talking about something 'strange,' it's probably last year when a child came to me carrying her older sister, hoping I could help her—alas, she didn't have much money left at that time..." The doctor frowned slightly as he mentioned this. "She came from Xiaoshang Village, which is probably a place that you have to go through to find by following this mountain forest and going through several turns into the deep mountains... The village doctor there is unethical; he cheated her out of all her money but didn't cure her illness."
Upon hearing this, Shen Lixia gripped her teacup tighter.
"Her sister's illness, while initially difficult to treat, was not incurable; but because it was delayed like this, it became terminal and incurable. I did not charge her any money, but let them stay for a few days, and went to find nearby cultivators to ask if there was any way... One medical cultivator agreed, but when he came to her bedside, he said that this person's life force had been completely exhausted and she should have passed away long ago. She was probably only holding on for a few days because of her obsession, and she only had two or three more days to live."
The doctor rubbed the back of his hand, looked away, and sighed.
"That child eventually left. She was very sensible and said she shouldn't trouble me anymore, so she carried her older sister back home. Before she left, I learned that her name was Shang He—it was quite a coincidence, because I later remembered when I was looking through the account books that about seven years ago, a child named Shang Ying also came to the clinic carrying someone on her back, and the child on her back happened to be named 'Ahe'..."
Time flies, and memories are blurred. It was a stormy night, the child on the boy's back was wrapped up tightly, but she herself was soaked to the bone. She ran into the clinic, panting, put down all the money in her hand, and begged me, choking back tears, to treat her sister's illness.
She remembered him as a person with composure in the face of danger. Even though he was extremely anxious, he still spoke clearly, first explaining his purpose and then promising to make up the difference on time if he didn't have enough money.
Although they had only met twice, he could never forget those bright and determined eyes that remained even when soaked by the rain, as if they could bear all the dangers of the world on their shoulders, leaving tender love and warmth for the frail infant in their arms—perhaps this is what it means to depend on each other for survival.
But fate had other plans. On one hand, there was the ultimate life; on the other, seven years later, only death remained. No one could have imagined that the second time they met, the boy would be so withered, barely able to open his eyes.
It was a beautiful spring day, but the boy was like snow, melting away hastily as spring warmed and flowers bloomed.
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Author's note: The following will feature the appearance of the main characters in the "plague" story, and you can probably guess that the main characters will soon meet Teacher Si without their knowledge.
Then, the story of these two sisters actually corresponds to Teacher Si's story to some extent.
I hope to show the complexity of the character, rather than simply writing about a "villain"! Because the Shang sisters also have a lot of suffering, I will spend some time writing about them.
(I really love writing about sisters who have had a tough life...)
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