In this world, there will always be people whose hearts are not dead
Qin Xuan raised his wine cup and took a sip. He drank by himself, his expression relieved. "Very good. Died of old age."
Qin Shu raised his eyebrows and said calmly, "Dying of old age is a way to say goodbye to an old man in his seventies or eighties."
Qin Xuan shook his head. "His body was ruined by Master Yanshi. The main vein that runs through his heart and lungs was severed at both ends, and his Qi channel was cut off from the beginning. He won't live to be seventy or eighty. Even that little brat Yuan Feng knows this."
Qin Shu paused with his fingertips. "How could someone die so young? You should have informed Yunzhong earlier. Perhaps there was a way to turn things around."
Qin Xuan just shook his head and laughed: "I said no, and that's it."
Qin Xuan's tone was calm and relaxed, and he didn't seem to be talking about life and death, but rather something as ordinary as the withering and flourishing of spring grass and the blooming and falling of flowers in the courtyard.
Qin Shu looked at him quietly, a trace of inexplicable emotion flashed across his face, and finally he just sighed: "That's right."
I am afraid that there is no other medical book in this world that is better than the national treasure "Bodhi Enlightenment".
Qin Xuan raised his head and drank the wine in the cup until it was almost empty. Then he looked up at him and said, "Third Brother, how do you live your life to truly live it?"
Qin Shu continued to pour his wine as he answered steadily and accurately: "Life is like morning dew, death is like a returning wild goose. Keep your heart, experience life, be affectionate, be proactive, and have no regrets. This is how you will live a life worthwhile."
Qin Xuan was stunned for a moment, then suddenly smiled and touched the brim of his glass. "That's it. As long as you live to the fullest, what difference does ten years make?"
Qin Shu's eyes grew increasingly complex. "Back in Wanrong Village, you abandoned the throne and chose to approach him. You even brought us to a head-on confrontation over him."
He reflected a somewhat indistinguishable deep meaning: "I thought you valued him very much."
Qin Xuan lowered his head to pour himself some wine. The wine was clear, and the corners of his lips curved slightly, as if he remembered something, and smiled faintly: "If I said that I was not familiar with Yuan Yi at that time. I went there seriously to treat the illness. Would you believe it?"
Qin Shu understood what he meant and his eyes flickered. "Not familiar? Then why did you care about him? And you used such a lame excuse of amnesia. A dignified prince took out the Book of State Protection and helped a stranger heal his pulse and prolong his life?"
Qin Xuan smiled and drank the wine in one gulp. "I was a bit more miserable back then. On the one hand, I was worried that Master Yan would find out about my knowledge of medical classics, and on the other hand, I was worried that Wen Congren would see through me. I even dared to use the Bodhi Enlightenment Heart Sutra secretly. When my father came to appoint the crown prince and asked me to do so, he just thought I was just freeloading."
The light of wine fell into his eyes, reflecting a rustling old dream.
Qin Xuan whispered, as if mumbling, or as if talking to himself: "The Buddha said, greed, anger, ignorance and delusion."
Qin Xuan's tone was calm, yet it revealed a hint of exhaustion. "Third Brother, this is my second time as emperor."
Qin Shu didn't say anything, just looked at him quietly.
Qin Xuan gently put down the empty cup: "Last time, I thought I could save all the people in this world."
Qin Xuan looked at him, his eyes calm and composed, his tone still calm: "Looking around, what's going on in the world? It's nothing but private schemes."
"What is an official? He who draws the land with a pen, whoever draws three feet of land shall have grain; with one stroke of the pen, the life and death of the people shall be decided."
"The world does not belong to the people, but to the officials. The benefits of the world fall into the hands of only a few powerful people."
He paused, his fingers lightly brushing the rim of the glass. The wine was cold, but the glass was not empty.
"Ten years of hard study yield not the path to enlightenment, but a ladder to success."
"This world is seriously ill."
He looked up at Qin Shu, his voice lowered, but every word was as sharp as a knife: "I once thought about being you, but I couldn't kill so many people after all."
"So what if they're the emperor? If you're not cruel enough, they can bully you."
"If you can't kill decisively, if you take a step back, they will advance a foot."
Qin Xuan lowered his eyelashes, the candlelight illuminating half of his face, making it flicker. "I'm really not a worthy emperor."
"The Vajra glares, the Bodhisattva lowers his brows. But I see neither the Bodhisattva nor the Tathagata."
His voice was very soft, as if he was talking to himself: "Later I thought, perhaps there is no Buddha in this world."
As Qin Xuan spoke, his eyes fell on the solitary lamp on the table. The flickering light seemed to reflect a distant dream through the mist of the mortal world. The light was unsteady and his expression softened.
"Winter, the twenty-first year of Zhenghe."
He paused, as if turning the page of an old memory, "I once personally removed a forbidden technique from a person."
Qin Shu looked at Qin Shu, his tone was calm, but it felt like a thousand pounds of weight when it came out.
"That year, there was a severe drought and epidemic. The capital was in great famine. A hectoliter of rice cost ten thousand coins, and people were cannibalizing each other."
"Officials dared not speak out, and local officials around the imperial city only sought to cover up the disaster and drove the victims into the mountains."
"I left the city incognito and walked along the mountain path. On the way in, I saw refugees who had frozen to death lying in the gullies beside the slopes."
"At the foot of the mountain stood a dilapidated land temple, its mud walls peeling and exposed to the elements. Dozens of refugees were crammed inside, starving to the point of being skeletons."
"The statue of the land god stands high in the shrine, but it can't even protect the few feet of wind and rain in this temple."
He paused, as if his throat was blocked by wind, or as if he was recalling the scene at that moment.
"I saw him there."
"He's different from those people. He's terribly dirty, but his clothes are made of fine Suzhou embroidery. He's not a real refugee."
"At first glance, I could tell there was something wrong with him. His sea of consciousness was unstable, like a life talisman, like a 偃術 (偃術), in short, a technique related to controlling the mind, but most of it had been unleashed."
Qin Xuan's voice softened. "I used my Bodhi mind to restore his consciousness... but as soon as his consciousness returned, his Qi began to rapidly become chaotic."
"I realized that the mind-controlling technique is actually a life-saving technique. If it's unlocked, he won't live long."
Qin Xuan sighed softly: "But he still thanked me."
"He said his brother had gotten separated and he wanted to go look for him. He asked me to borrow some money, and I felt bad for him, so I gave him the only two banknotes I had."
Having said that, he lowered his head and sipped his wine. His tone was as calm as if he was talking about an insignificant matter, but his fingertips tightened slightly.
"The next day, I brought the imperial guards and took the county magistrate all the way back to the mountain."
"The mountain road remains the same, and the corpses haven't moved. It was so cold that even the appearance of those who died of starvation hasn't changed."
He paused, his eyes flickering over the remaining candlelight on the table. "I thought I would see the same temple, dilapidated and deserted."
"But in front of the temple, there's a porridge stall. Through the snow, there's smoke from cooking, the smell of firewood, and the sound of people."
"At that moment, I actually wondered if I had wronged the county magistrate."
"I walked in and saw him kneeling on the ground, holding a weathered old man in his arms. He was trying to feed porridge to the dying man."
"I asked him, aren't you going to look for your brother?"
"He said he's looking, but he hasn't found anything yet."
Qin Xuan smiled slightly, but there was a distant light in his eyes.
"I walked over and told him, 'You're dying, you don't have that much time.'"
"He listened, just smiled and said, 'But they're still alive.'"
Qin Xuan's tone was calm, as if he was recounting an old story. "Saving people seemed like a matter of course to him."
He raised his eyes and looked at Qin Shu: "At that moment, I suddenly felt that there was a Buddha in that temple."
"It's not the clay statue on the shrine, it's that mouthful of porridge."
“The Buddha is not in the temple, but in the world.”
Qin Xuan smiled softly, the candlelight flickering slightly, and his eyes were also tinged with warmth: "Later, I went to the temple every few days to help him distribute porridge and help him look for people."
"Only half a month."
"He's run out of energy."
"He never found his brother until he died."
"But the porridge shed didn't collapse. The survivors in the temple started going down the mountain to look for firewood and food to rescue more people."
He let out a soft breath, as if letting go of the things that had been weighing on his heart for years. "In this world, there will always be people whose hearts are still alive. There will always be people who, even in the midst of turmoil, can shine like a light to others."
"I've let it go. All living beings can save themselves. I can't save them, and they never needed me to save them."
The wine in the glass is empty.
Qin Xuan paused, half smiling, "Last time, I wanted to save the world, but it turned out that no one needed my help. This time, I thought, protecting a few people is enough. That's why I didn't compete with you for the position of crown prince."
He raised his eyes to look at Qin Shu, his eyes showing the calmness of seeing through everything: "Third Brother, maybe you can save all living beings."
"You dare to kill, dare to fight, dare to turn the world upside down."
Qin Xuan paused, a smile on his lips, as if he was mocking himself, but also as if he was sincere: "For someone like me, it is already very difficult to make someone's good deeds and evil deeds be rewarded."
Qin Shu raised his eyebrows, his tone teasing: "He died so early, can it be considered as a reward for good deeds?"
Qin Xuan nodded, his expression calm. "For him, that's probably it. At least this time, he doesn't have to worry about what his troublesome brother will do if he leaves that brat alone."
He paused, as if remembering something, and the corners of his mouth curled up slightly: "That little brat cried like a fool. But strangely enough, his brother was able to accept it all like a normal person."
Qin Shu sighed softly, the corners of his lips curled up: "Back then, just because I lifted the forbidden technique, that little devil chased me and killed me for a whole year. Every time he saw me, he bit me, like a mad dog."
Qin Shu tsks, and glances at Qin Xuan with a half-smile: "You still remember."
Qin Xuan laughed and shook his head, "I can't forget it. In the end, that brat chopped me to pieces."
He shook his head, his tone softening, "For the past few years, right here in this martial arts gym, that brat has been following Chu Ming, tinkering with all sorts of bizarre gadgets every day, turning any scrap metal into something special. Those apprentices are really supportive, calling him 'Senior Brother' all the time, in a way that's sickeningly sweet."
Qin Xuan lowered his eyes, a look of belated relief on his face: "I really never thought that Yuan Feng would one day become like a normal person."
He took another sip of his wine, his tone tinged with a not-so-heavy regret: "I've thought about it before, it would have been better if it had been earlier."
"If I could have met him earlier than those Yanshi, perhaps... he could have died of old age."
Qin Xuan's tone was calm, and he finally smiled, as if to laugh away the remaining regret.
"But looking back, if I were the person I used to be, I would definitely say that this ending is already very good."
"That's how people are. Once you get something, you want something better."
“You’ll never be satisfied.”
Qin Shu shook the wine but didn't drink. He only sighed and said, "Royal brother, you... have read too many Buddhist books. Your realm is so high that you are almost floating in the clouds."
He raised his eyes and looked at Qin Xuan: "Life is in this world, since it is unbreakable, so what if I am trapped in this world? Life and death are impermanent, gains and losses are uncertain, but I am just happy with it."
Qin Xuan tilted his head to look at him, his eyebrows raised, and his smile reappeared: "You are only happy because that family's Lu Shizi is here."
His eyes were dim: "Third brother, you have changed a lot."
Qin Shu didn't respond, just took a sip of wine. He smiled and didn't deny it.
After a long time, Qin Shu picked up the wine cup, stood up and pushed the door.
The wind rushed in from the night, frost accumulated on the eaves, and the whole place was quiet and cold.
He raised his head, drank the contents of the cup, and said with unprecedented conviction: "Brother Huang, you are wrong. I have never changed."
He has walked too many dangerous roads and killed too many people in his life, and has long been accustomed to looking at others coldly and treating himself coldly.
Human life is like a play, and the country is like a game. If there is anything that can make him willing not to break this game, it is just that at a certain moment, someone reaches out to him.
There was someone who was willing to catch him even when he was in a mess.
He knew he was still selfish. He didn't change, nor did he suddenly realize it, he just made the choice calmly.
That man liked peace, so he withdrew his troops and stopped fighting, lived with the people, looked at the snow-covered mountains and rivers, and looked indifferently at the smoke from the cooking fires in the world.
The man hated killing, so he did not draw his blade, but sheathed the accumulated coldness and blood inertia over the years bit by bit.
He can be whatever the other party expects him to be.
He enjoyed it and enjoyed it.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
