Nocturne
When the morning dew fell on the corner of the bamboo house, Yunxiu was squatting beside the stove, watching Yan Xiu add firewood into the stove.
The firelight cast a warm glow on his profile, his dark hair drooping, hiding a shallow scar on his brow. It was left there during his previous fight with Zhi Huan, now covered with a pale pink scab, softening his usual hard features.
"The water will soon boil." Yan Xiu suddenly spoke, and when he turned his head, the ends of his hair brushed against his collar.
"Go pick two banyan trees outside the yard. I saw that old banyan tree had some green fruits yesterday."
Yunxiu responded, and when he stood up, he tripped over the firewood beside the stove. Just as he was about to fall, someone suddenly grabbed his wrist.
Yan Xiu's palm, warm from the stove, gently brushed against a shallow scar on her wrist. Though it had healed now, a pale white mark remained. As he released his grip, Yan Xiu gently supported her arm, "Walk slowly. The ground is slippery with dew."
The old banyan tree outside the yard is just to the east of the bamboo house. Its trunk is thick, but its branches and leaves are sparse. There are only a few green banyan fruits on the top, hidden among the yellow leaves.
Yunxiu reached for the fruit on tiptoe for a long time. Just as her fingertips touched one, the ground beneath her feet suddenly slipped and she fell backward. Yunxiu sighed in exasperation, tapped her toes lightly, and nimbly flew up, reaching for three more fruit.
"You can't fall down while picking fruit... your skills are really rusty."
When Yunxiu turned around, Yan Xiu was looking at her from inside the room with a helpless smile on his face. Yunxiu caught the soft light in his eyes, and her ears suddenly felt hot.
"Who made the fruit grow so tall? No, you, can't laugh!"
When the porridge was cooked, the morning light had already climbed through the window lattice of the bamboo house and fell on the stone table.
Yan Xiu filled two bowls of porridge and put the extra banyan fruit into Yunxiu's bowl.
"Eat more. Your spiritual veins are still weak."
Yunxiu lowered her head, stirring the porridge. Somehow, she suddenly remembered Yingtang always drying banyan fruit in front of the bamboo house, and her eyes felt slightly sore.
Yan Xiu seemed to have sensed her emotions. He didn't say anything, but just picked all the wild vegetables from his bowl and put them into hers.
The wild vegetable is purslane picked from the stream. It is cooked until soft and has a slightly bitter taste, which just balances the sweetness of the banyan fruit.
The two of them ate porridge in silence. The only sound was the wind blowing the sycamore leaves to fall outside the yard, and the occasional chirping of unknown insects, which made the dead silent Yaoxi Mountain a little more lively.
After breakfast, Yan Xiu went to the stream to fetch water, while Yun Xiu cleaned up in the yard.
She found the bamboo broom left by Yingtang and swept the fallen leaves in the corner of the yard bit by bit. When she swept under the old sycamore tree, she found a few tender green buds emerging from the roots of the tree.
She squatted down and gently touched the tip of the bud with her fingertips.
"What are you looking at?"
Yan Xiu came back with a bucket of water and saw her squatting under a tree without moving. When he walked over, he squatted down too.
He followed Yunxiu's gaze and also saw those new sprouts.
Yunxiu's eyes were red, but the wind was blowing, so she tried hard not to cry.
She hadn't had time to grieve for a long time, and when she suddenly returned to the old place, she found it hard to bear for a moment.
Yan Xiu looked at her for a while, then took Yun Xiu's hand and asked, "Do you want to hug me?"
Yunxiu looked up at him, and Yan Xiu said, "There are two sad people here, at least they can comfort each other."
The atmosphere suddenly became half-dead. Yunxiu was so angry that she wanted to hit someone. Yan Xiu held her in his arms and whispered:
"If they could really see, they certainly wouldn't want you to cry all the time."
Even so, his voice became lower and lower, and his sobs were almost inaudible.
In the afternoon, Yan Xiu helped Yun Xiu to gather her spiritual energy. They sat on a futon in the bamboo hut, Yan Xiu's palm pressed against Yun Xiu's back, his spiritual energy flowing slowly along her spiritual veins.
Yunxiu could clearly feel that his divine power was extremely cautious and avoided the divine energy area in her heart.
Could it be that he was afraid of summoning the ancient gods? Yunxiu wondered inexplicably.
"Does it hurt?"
Yan Xiu's voice sounded in his ears, and he seemed a little nervous.
Yunxiu shook his head: "It doesn't hurt, I just feel warm."
His divine power was no longer as cold and hard as before. Instead, it carried a gentle warmth, like the sunshine on a spring day, flowing down along his spiritual veins and dispelling all the remaining aches and pains.
After sorting out their divine powers, the two sat on the stone steps outside the yard to bask in the sun.
Yunxiu leaned against the trunk of the old sycamore tree, looking at the sea of clouds in the distance. Suddenly, he remembered what happened in the cave. After hesitating for a moment, he asked:
"Brother, I seemed to hear your voice in the cave earlier. You said you wanted to tell me something in person... What was it?"
Yan Xiu's body suddenly paused, and the tips of his ears turned red instantly.
He turned to look at Yunhai, avoiding Yunxiu's gaze, unconsciously clenched his sleeves, and spoke in an unnatural voice:
"You must be remembering it wrongly. There was no sound at all. It must have been an illusion."
Yunxiu frowned. "If I remember correctly, you clearly said, 'I want to tell her in person...' But I didn't hear the rest of it clearly."
He was silent for a moment before he slowly spoke:
"You were able to hear strange noises, but that was just a side effect of your resurrection. Now that the side effects have subsided, you've naturally stopped hearing them."
Yunxiu stared at his profile and saw that the tips of his ears were still red, obviously trying to hide it. He smiled and said:
"Why shouldn't we talk about it? Anyway, we don't know if there will be a tomorrow or the next time we meet, so you can say whatever you want."
Yan Xiu looked at Yun Xiu thoughtfully for a long time before saying, "That's right."
Yunxiu didn't ask any more questions, and he breathed a sigh of relief, yet also felt a little lost. He secretly turned his head to glance at Yunxiu, and saw her lowering her head to caress the white jade statue. The sunlight fell on her hair, like a layer of gold.
The two of them lived an exceptionally peaceful life in the next few days.
Every morning, Yunxiu would go to the stream to pick wild vegetables, while Yanxiu would light a fire in the yard and cook porridge. In their free time, the two of them would work together to tend to the yard. Yunxiu would bring back some wildflower seedlings from the stream and plant them under the window of the bamboo house, and Yanxiu would help her loosen the soil and water them.
The two of them even gave the seedlings names: the lavender one was called "Evening Star" and the light pink one was called "Morning Dew."
One evening, the two of them sat under an old sycamore tree and watched the sunset.
The sea of clouds was dyed orange, giving everything a warm glow.
Yunxiu leaned on Yanxiu's shoulder, holding a freshly picked wild fruit in his hand, chewing it slowly, and suddenly said:
"Brother, I used to think Yaoxi Mountain was so small. I'd seen every inch of it, and nothing was new to me. But now I feel like Yaoxi Mountain is too big. I can't remember every inch of it."
Yan Xiu's shoulders were a little stiff, and he tried to relax slowly. He raised his hand and gently curled the ends of Yun Xiu's hair:
"Later, let's plant flowers in the yard and raise a few birds, okay?"
Yunxiu looked up at him, her eyes sparkling. "You still want to raise a bird? Okay, I want to raise a little white bird like the one I used to have."
The sun gradually sank, and the wind blew the parasol leaves to the ground at their feet. Yunxiu suddenly thought of Wuyi again.
"If Wu Yi were still alive, he would definitely not like these flowers. He always said that he wanted to plant all the sycamore trees in the yard so that they would provide shade in the summer."
Yan Xiu's eyes darkened, but he still said gently:
"Everything has a beginning and an end, but it's not yet visible. In who knows how many years—perhaps after the next rain, the next wind—the sycamore leaves will grow again."
Yunxiu clutched the white jade statue in her arms, feeling a little more at ease. She leaned back against Yan Xiu's shoulder, watching the last bit of light disappear from the sky.
Yan Xiu didn't say anything, but just patted her back gently.
At night, Yunxiu lay on the bed. Yan Xiu was at the table, sorting through the magic scrolls left by his master in the moonlight. They contained some methods of controlling divine power.
"Senior Brother," Yunxiu suddenly spoke.
"Hmm?" Yan Xiu instinctively heard the unusual tone in Yun Xiu's voice.
"If you survive tomorrow, I'll be very happy."
"What nonsense are you talking about?" Yan Xiu answered quickly and urgently, even with a hint of scolding.
Yunxiu was not annoyed and repeated it seriously.
"I'm serious. Brother, you have less divine power in your body to begin with, so your chances of survival are greater. In any case... I'd be very happy if you survived."
"My life was originally given by you, wasn't it? At that time, all my divine power and immortal energy were exhausted, and there were no immortal spirits left to transform... Living is all about creating memories. I am already very satisfied. It's enough."
"On the contrary, you... Senior Brother, forget us, forget the ancient gods, and go to the mortal world to live a peaceful life."
No way. Yan Xiu didn't dare to look back, nor did he dare to stop, just pretending to be very busy.
Just when Yunxiu thought he wouldn't answer, Yan Xiu turned around and looked at her and replied:
"You left us behind last time and left. Do you want me to go through this a second time?"
Yunxiu was stunned. She sat up and looked at Yan Xiu, but he turned away hurriedly and refused to let her look anymore.
"Yingtang cried every night, saying that you were just like Jinger, disappearing without a word and never having the chance to see you again."
Yunxiu lifted the thin blanket and stepped barefoot on the cool bluestone, forgetting to wear shoes. She walked up to Yan Xiu and asked him:
"What about you? How have you been doing since I disappeared?"
Yan Xiu's grip on the scroll suddenly tightened, and even his breathing slowed down.
He didn't turn around, but simply pushed the scroll towards the edge of the table, as if trying to push away the surging emotions. "There's nothing to say."
"How come there's nothing to say?"
Yunxiu happened to meet his downcast gaze, and saw that the moonlight reflected in his eyes was bitter:
"Let me guess...are you practicing swordplay every day, or are you just staring blankly at this bamboo house? Are you keeping the things I gave you before?"
She deliberately picked up trivial old things to ask, like knocking gently on the closed door of his heart with a small stone.
"I've been trying to learn how to braid ropes, but I've never been good at it. I couldn't get halfway through the hanging rope. You always complained that I was braiding it too loosely, saying the silver bells would fall off. I tried to tighten it up, but when I finished, I looked at it and it wasn't the way you wanted it."
He raised his hand and rubbed his brow, as if trying to dispel the surging memories:
"I couldn't cook porridge well either. You like the banyan fruit cooked until it's soft, but I could never get the heat right, so it was either too raw or turned into a paste. Eventually I just stopped cooking and ate some dried spiritual fruit every day. That was until Wu Yi realized my immortal power was disrupted and forced me to drink the wild vegetable soup he cooked."
"When the divine power is disordered, is it very uncomfortable?"
Yan Xiu's body trembled, and he finally looked up at her, the redness in his eyes no longer hidden.
Yunxiu just looked at him like this, neither urging nor speaking, until Yan Xiu could no longer bear it.
"It's even worse than being struck by Zhi Huan's sword. I can't eat or sleep. Every time I open my eyes and close them, I see the scene of your soul scattering. It's even worse at night. My spirit veins feel like they're being pricked by countless needles. I can only meditate to suppress the pain, but once I calm down, I see your shadow all over again."
He paused, opened his mouth but couldn't stop sobbing.
"Later, I tried to reshape your body, drawing on the original divine power within me as a guide. But at the time, my mind was restless and I couldn't control my divine power at all. As soon as I drew out the soul fragments from the statue, Zhi Huan rushed out of my spiritual veins. He was originally the other half of my soul. Once my will gave way, I could no longer suppress him."
Yan Xiu turned his head away. He didn't look at Yunxiu, but only at the moonlight outside the window:
"It was then that I realized that without you, I couldn't even protect myself. It seemed like the meaning of survival had been scattered along with you into the mountains."
Yunxiu stared at his reddened eyes, then suddenly turned and walked out of the yard. Yan Xiu was still stunned when she saw her dragging a dusty wine jar from a wooden box in the backyard. She returned with the jar, her face a little dusty, but she smiled brightly:
"This is the wine that Master hid before, and I haven't touched it."
She found a bowl and poured two bowls of wine. The wine was a light pink and had a sweet aroma of aging.
She handed one bowl to Yan Xiu, held the other herself, and gently hooked her hand around his arm:
"Brother, let's have a drink. Just consider it as... an early celebration that we found a solution, and also a celebration that... we can still be together now."
Yan Xiu watched her movements, trembling, but did not refuse.
Yan Xiu looked at the light in her eyes and felt a lump in his throat.
He followed her movements, letting the two bowls clink together gently. The wine slid down his throat, bringing with it a slightly warm taste.
After Yunxiu finished drinking, he gently shook the empty bowl and said with a smile:
"This wine is sweeter than I thought. If I could still drink it..."
Yan Xiu didn't say anything, but just reached out to wipe the dust off her face. The warmth from his fingertips passed through her skin, making Yun Xiu's nose sore.
They hugged and kissed under the moonlight.
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