Chapter 262 Jinjiang
The gate of the yard slowly closed.
Until Yan Shixun and Xie Lin had left for a long time, Zheng Tiantian had been holding the little puppet, standing behind the gate with her head down, not saying a word and refusing to move.
It was like she was playing a puppet game with the little puppet in her arms.
Zheng Shumu also stood with Zheng Tiantian without saying a word.
He was no longer the brother who doted on his sister unconditionally in front of Yan Shixun just now. After his smile faded, his simple and weather-beaten face showed a bit of helplessness and fatigue.
"Tiantian, you..."
Zheng Shumu wanted to say something.
But when Zheng Tiantian heard the voice and looked up, the pair of eyes that looked over were as cold as the water in Baizhi Lake.
Suddenly, all of Zheng Shuli's emotions were like a flame extinguished by water, and he couldn't utter a word.
"What do you want to say, brother?"
Zheng Tiantian's voice was so soft that it was blown away by the wind.
She stared at Zheng Shumu steadily, but there was no cuteness in her beautiful big eyes. Her dull eyes reminded people of the glass eyes of an exquisite doll, and their inorganic clarity was creepy.
"If it weren't for my incompetent brother, how could I become what I am now? My brother now wants to blame me?"
Zheng Tiantian raised her lips and smiled sarcastically: "But my brother never saved me, what should I do? I can only save myself."
"No one, whether it was you or my brother, came to save Tiantian... Tiantian was in a lot of pain, and was bleeding, but my brother didn't show up, and no one came to save me. I didn't want to die, so I had to let others die. It's fair, isn't it?"
"Brother, you just remembered to blame me now, isn't it too late? Ah, I know."
Zheng Tiantian looked up at Zheng Shumu with a smile, but the words she said made Zheng Shumu's heart sink.
"That guy surnamed Yan, is he the descendant of the previous ghost exorcist?"
Zheng Tiantian tilted her head and said in a sweet voice: "Brother, you think I don't know what you did, right? It's the statue that the exorcist gave you. This time, you still want to protect the man named Yan? Just because he is related to the previous exorcist?"
"Tiantian is very sad, brother."
Zheng Tiantian pouted, feeling very aggrieved: "I am obviously your sister, but why didn't you protect me, brother? Do you want to see what happened back then happen again?"
"no!"
Zheng Shumu felt a pain in his heart when he heard Zheng Tiantian's words, and he suddenly yelled and interrupted Zheng Tiantian.
His pupils constricted, he gasped for breath, and even his hands hanging by his sides trembled uncontrollably.
Zheng Shumu's eyes reappeared the scene of the past, the dark village, the shaking vision, the cold hand pulling him, the shouts and footsteps behind him, and he ran until he was exhausted but did not dare to stop for a moment...
The deepest despair and pain were dug out again by Zheng Tiantian and laid bare before her eyes.
A look of pain appeared on Zheng Shumu's face, and the look he gave Zheng Tiantian was filled with deep guilt and heartache.
Zheng Tiantian just snorted, without saying another word, and turned to walk into the house.
The corners of her beautiful skirt drew arcs in the air, and the little puppet hanging in her arms made slight sounds when its hands and feet collided.
As she walked through the yard, the wooden puppets placed in the yard, with their empty eyes, slowly moved their gazes and kept staring at her.
Like soldiers obeying their commander.
Only Zheng Shumu was left standing behind the gate. He slowly turned around and looked at Zheng Tiantian's back with an indescribable look of bitterness in his eyes.
All the words in my heart finally turned into a sigh.
In an instant, Zheng Shumu seemed to have aged ten years, and his heart and eyes were filled with fatigue.
He dragged his feet and walked slowly towards the workshop.
The fire was still crackling, but the two chairs next to it were empty.
Zheng Shumu lowered his head and looked at the chair, thinking of Yan Shixun's outstanding posture when he sat there with his back as straight as a pine tree, and his bright and sharp eyes when Yan Shixun talked about the path he adhered to.
picture.
So similar.
Just like that gentleman back then, his determination is admirable, worthy of our respect and should not be offended.
Zheng Shumu was stunned for a long time before he slowly pulled over the chair and sat where Yan Shixun had just sat.
The fire reflected on his cheeks and the flames danced in his eyes, flickering on and off. He suddenly felt that he had just said goodbye to that real person yesterday.
Zheng Shumu never thought that he was a lucky man. He even often wondered if he had done bad things in his previous life, so he had to live such a hard and rough life in this life. Even God didn't like him and made his family broken up and he suffered all kinds of suffering in the world.
But the gentleman who appeared in Baizhi Lake in early spring, dressed in white, was Zheng Shumu's greatest luck in his life.
The gentleman smiled and asked him loudly across the lake with his sleeves gathered for directions, but he could see at a glance the sins that had come from him.
However, the gentleman's gaze as he looked at him did not change at all, without any contempt or fear, still clear and gentle.
At that time, Zheng Shumu couldn't help wondering, doesn't this person know fear? Or is he ridiculously kind?
Zheng Shumu sneered at this and malicious thoughts arose in his mind.
He wanted to destroy the smile on this man's face, make his white gown covered with mud, make the unbreakable green pine fall into the abyss, and have his kind exterior torn off.
But……
When Zheng Shumu opened his eyes that morning, he heard a knock on the door outside the yard.
The man was still wearing a clean white shirt, standing under the dead branches with a smile on his face, calling him, "Brother Tree."
Zheng Shumu was shocked that the man had survived, and he was also deeply stunned.
"I didn't expect you to survive..."
Zheng Shumu sneered: "However, after seeing those things, can you still call me that? Calling an animal a human is really disgusting hypocrisy."
But the man was not angry, but laughed with his head raised, looking handsome and unrestrained: "Brother Shu Mu, everything in the world has its cause and effect, it's just a bite or a drink. You killed them, didn't they do something wrong?"
"I never said I was a kind person. I am just a layman who travels around and makes friends."
The man smiled and said, "I don't think I have introduced myself yet? Sorry. I am Li Chengyun, my Dharma name is Chengyun, and my name and Tao are one."
Before Zheng Shumu could react, the man moved into his house naturally, as if he was a close friend he had known for many years.
Even Zheng Shumu himself began to doubt himself. Could it be that his memory had deteriorated after so many experiences of life and death, and he had forgotten that he actually had such a friend?
Zheng Shumu said it angrily, but whenever Li Chengyun invited him to drink and hang out, he would walk over unconsciously. Under his reluctant complaints, there was a smile on the corners of his mouth that he couldn't suppress.
He has no friends.
Since the night his mother died, he has been living in hatred and pain.
Not until his revenge was achieved did he seem to be able to breathe again.
But after the pleasure, Zheng Shumu did not feel as happy and relaxed as he had imagined every time before. Instead, he became confused and helpless.
Because he had traveled between life and death so many times, he even began to blur his original identity and purpose. Every time he dreamed, he would always return to that night many years ago.
It was as if he had actually died with his mother in the cold lake that night, but he himself had forgotten it.
All remaining memories of being alive are false.
Li Chengyun appeared at that point in time and pulled Zheng Shuli, who was gradually becoming confused, back to the human world from the fork in the road.
Zheng Shumu also gradually felt that it was only now that he began to live like a human being.
Rather than those dead wood carvings.
It is not a shadow puppet that is manipulated by someone to appear behind the screen.
“Bang!”
Sparks flew from the fire, waking Zheng Shuli who was immersed in his memories.
He snapped back to his senses, blinked, and regained consciousness.
The room outside was still pitch black. Zheng Tiantian, who didn't like fire, didn't light a candle. She just hummed a tuneless tune happily in the deep darkness.
Her skirt was spinning in the air like a blooming flower, so beautiful.
Zheng Shumu looked in the direction of the singing, his eyes dull and gloomy.
As Zheng Tiantian sang, she was gradually joined by the sound of tiny knocking sounds, like the sound of wood colliding.
The wooden puppets placed in the living room also raised their arms stiffly and slowly and clapped their hands for Zheng Tiantian.
The little puppet on the table also shook its head and swung its legs.
Under Zheng Tiantian's leadership, all the wooden puppets seemed to come to life in an instant, and their every move was no different from that of living people.
There was no one in the dim living room, but it was bustling with activity.
The wooden puppets are crowded together in the dark place, like evil spirits lurking under the water.
Zheng Tiantian looked aside nonchalantly with a sarcastic look in her eyes.
——You see, some people stand in the light and mistakenly think that they are one of the people there and forget what they did in the past.
He did something bad but pretended to be a good person. It's really annoying... Don't you think so, Pinocchio?
Zheng Shumu watched all this quietly, and his body, which had been warmed by the fire beside him, gradually cooled down.
He lowered his head, his eyes dim and unclear.
After a long time, Zheng Shumu turned around slowly, dragged his feet, and walked slowly towards the half-carved statue of an old man in the workshop.
Some things have been delayed for too long, and it is time to end...
Uncle Bai.
…
Yan Shixun stood in Master Bai's house. Master Bai hung his head, his eyelids still drooping, and looked unwilling to speak.
There was dead silence in the room.
Even outside the yard, the sounds gradually died down.
I don’t know if it’s because the night is getting darker and the villagers are used to going to bed early, but the lively atmosphere when Yan Shixun and his party first arrived in the village has disappeared. Every household is silent, and there is no sound of dogs barking or geese cooing.
It seemed as if the whole village had fallen into a deep sleep.
Yan Shixun frowned and turned his head to look out the window. He suddenly felt that it was abnormally quiet outside. Even the air had suddenly become several degrees colder. The cold breath spread upward from the soles of his feet.
He stood up and walked to the window, put one hand in his coat pocket, and looked out. However, he could only vaguely see the lights of the village outside through the dusty and blurry glass.
The outline of the village was vaguely outlined. In the starless and moonless night, everything was blurred. Even the illuminated windows of the houses seemed like dim curtains, and the figures walking past the windows were shadow puppets controlled by people.
Yan Shixun's heart skipped a beat.
The village scene outside the window gradually overlapped with the scene when he left the Lake Theater. The village he saw at that time seemed to be the same.
It's as if... there has never been a real village in the first place.
Only the props of the shadow play are used repeatedly by the people behind the scenes, so similar scenes are repeated.
In an instant, Yan Shixun suddenly remembered that not only had the magazine interview he had seen before mentioned that Master Bai had invited the carpenter to the village, but Master Bai also seemed to have mentioned Carpenter Zheng when he was talking to the official person in charge in reality.
Yan Shixun could tell from Master Bai's expression that Master Bai felt guilty towards Carpenter Zheng and his family.
Zheng...Zheng Shuli, carpenter.
So, the person who was invited to the village by Master Bai that year was Zheng Shumu's father.
At that time, Zheng Shumu had no plans to continue learning carpentry, but was obsessed with shadow puppetry.
It is even possible that Carpenter Zheng would agree to Master Bai's invitation and move his family to the Bai village just because Zheng Shumu liked shadow puppetry when he was a child.
Therefore, fathers want to provide their children with the best learning environment and spoil their children. It doesn’t matter even if the children don’t want to inherit the ancestral carpentry skills. As long as the children like it, they can do whatever they want in the future.
However, in the Bai village, Carpenter Zheng and his wife died in an accident.
Moreover, their deaths were related to the people in the Bai village.
So Zheng Shumu hated the villagers and the shadow play. He gave up the shadow play he loved and picked up the family tradition of carpentry again. While inheriting this craft, he also used it as a tool to take revenge on the villagers.
Therefore, Master Bai feels guilty towards Zheng Shumu, and maybe even because of this emotion, Master Bai will turn a blind eye to everything Zheng Shumu has done.
or……
Willingly being used by Zheng Shumu.
In just a short moment, because of the similar silence in the village, all the previous fragments of clues were connected into a complete line in Yan Shixun's mind.
He immediately turned around and looked at Master Bai, and asked in astonishment, "Is it Zheng Shumu who has been using shadow puppetry as a cover to deceive the world?"
"Is it him who used your skills to hide behind the scenes and manipulate all this and trap us here?"
Master Bai's eyelids trembled.
Under his drooping skin, his eyeballs rolled slowly, then opened a crack and looked seriously at Yan Shixun in front of him.
He stared at Yan Shixun for a long while before lowering his head again.
Even if the truth was seen through by others, it would only cause a little shock to him. He was amazed at the sharpness of the young man in front of him, and then he returned to silence again.
It was like a small stone was thrown into the lake, causing a few splashes, and then everything returned to silence.
Master Bai sat quietly in the armchair, so quiet that even the sound of his breathing almost disappeared in the air.
Shadow puppet characters were hung on all four walls of the grand living room. When Master Bai closed his eyes, he seemed to merge into the surroundings.
He is also a forgotten and dusty shadow puppet, no different from other shadow puppet characters.
However, the houses, where no one came, gradually weathered and broke down, and were finally buried in the yellow sand. No one knew anymore that there had once been a village here.
And the once-popular shadow puppetry.
Master Bai didn't say anything, but his attitude indirectly gave Yan Shixun the answer.
Yan Shixun understood what Master Bai wanted to tell him, and also understood another thing because of Master Bai's actions.
——They are not just in the shadow play.
Moreover, the person who was manipulating all this behind the scenes was also watching them.
It's like being a spectator sitting in the audience, watching with relish the shadow puppet characters on the stage being manipulated to perform various actions, and watching them struggle in despair because of the hardships and difficulties they encounter.
But the audience below the stage laughed and applauded.
Having figured everything out, Yan Shixun immediately turned around and took big strides to leave Master Bai's house.
But just as he took a step, he suddenly heard Master Bai's voice, coming in a low voice from the darkness.
“…trees.”
Master Bai's voice, which had not been spoken to for a long time, was hoarse and rough, like the hissing of an evil ghost: "Take the trees away."
Yan Shixun's body stiffened and he turned to look at Master Bai in surprise.
What's going on?
When he asked Master Bai about the person behind the scenes just now, Master Bai did not deny it, but now he revealed that he wanted him to protect Zheng Shuli.
Is it because Master Bai feels guilty about Zheng Shumu?
Without waiting for Yan Shixun to ask, Master Bai lifted his drooping eyelids, looked at him with dead eyes, and asked softly: "Is what you saw really a living person?"
Master Bai grinned, "Kid, did you know that shadow play has another name... Ghost Play?"
Yan Shixun's eyes slowly widened.
In a flash, he realized what Master Bai wanted to remind him of.
In this ghost play, all the people who died in reality can continue to live like normal people here.
Not to mention the person behind the scenes, who had reversed the positions of the shadow puppet and reality in order to avoid the detection of heaven and earth.
If that’s the case, then apart from Zheng Shumu, who is suspected to be the man behind the scenes, and Master Bai, who is the medium of the shadow play, the other villagers... do they really exist?
After this thought came to Yan Shixun's mind, the first thing that came to his mind was Uncle Bai's house where they were staying.
When he asked before, Uncle Bai told him frankly that everyone in the village who knew shadow puppetry was dead.
But this village was originally inhabited by a shadow puppet craftsman named Bai, so other relatives came to live here, and they have relied on this craft to make a living for dozens of generations. It is hard to say who is completely unfamiliar with shadow puppetry after being influenced by it.
...What about Uncle Bai?
Uncle Bai lives next to the shadow puppet master's house. How could he know what happened so clearly and yet still survive?
Or to put it another way - Uncle Bai, is he really still alive?
And all the villagers and children he saw in the village along the way, are they really still alive?
Yan Shixun's thoughts suddenly froze.
He realized that he had been deceived by the inertia of thinking.
In fact, he saw almost no adult villagers in the village except Uncle Bai Sanshu and Zheng Shumu.
The only people he saw alive and kicking were the children playing outside. As for the other villagers, he only heard their voices or saw their vague shadows through the windows.
Because when they arrived at the village, it was dinner time, and everyone should be at home.
So Yan Shixun did not realize this problem at first.
It was not until now, with Master Bai's reminder, that Yan Shixun suddenly realized the loophole.
If there are only shadows and sounds, what is the difference between it and shadow play?
And if Uncle Bai's face gets older and has more wrinkles...
Yan Shixun quickly painted the face of Uncle Bai in his mind.
Then he discovered that this face was exactly the same as the one he had seen in the Shadow Puppet Museum before!
The old man guarding the shadow puppet museum and charging admission fees was clearly Uncle Bai San, who looked even older and more vicissitudes of life.
What’s even more coincidental is that Uncle Bai’s house is also at the entrance of the village.
Like, a gravekeeper.
Yan Shixun raised his eyes to look at Master Bai in astonishment. Master Bai also clearly realized from this handsome face that this young man had figured out everything just because of his reminder.
Master Bai laughed softly, and then his laughter grew louder and louder, until even his chest was shaking.
But he soon began to cough violently, and his laughter was mixed with the sound of coughing and blood foam in his throat.
His body, as old as a candle in the wind, could not bear such drastic emotional fluctuations.
But Master Bai felt very happy.
After living in seclusion for many years, his life gradually became dull, and the guilt weighed on him so much that he couldn't breathe, and he lost hope in everything.
He hoped that the child could live a good life and never refused any request from the child.
However, he could only watch the child sinking into the quagmire.
He is supposed to be the one seeking revenge, so why is he living a life more painful than his enemies?
Master Bai wanted to do something, even though he knew he was not qualified to do so.
However, he couldn't actually do anything.
Just like when Carpenter Zheng’s family was murdered many years ago, he was ostracized and isolated by the entire village and knew nothing about these things.
He was too powerless to do anything except roaring, crying, and pounding the table when facing the corpse, which was ridiculed by other villagers as a hypocrite.
A long time ago, even when he was still a child, Master Bai had already vaguely realized that the people in the village were no longer tired of shadow puppetry, and they were more yearning for the extravagant and glamorous world outside.
But at that time, his father just touched his head and told him lovingly that as long as he did his best, no matter what others did, as long as their lineage quietly and steadily learned shadow puppetry, the shadow puppetry passed down from their ancestors would not be lost.
That was also the first time his father told him the true face of southwestern shadow puppetry.
"Son, what do you think the shadow puppets passed down from our ancestors are? Are they just something to amuse children at the market?"
His father shook his head slightly: "In the shadow play, there is a thousand years of our time, and the truth from a thousand years ago."
"What we pass on is not only shadow puppetry, but also everything that has happened on this land. When later generations want to know what happened here thousands of years ago, they will come to look for Southwest Shadow Puppetry."
'Our mission is to pass it on and not let it be lost, so that later generations will forget the past.'
His father taught him this.
Therefore, Master Bai also followed the instructions and focused only on honing his skills and polishing his works, and recorded on paper all the inheritance that had been passed down through word of mouth in the past.
He felt gratified that even if something unexpected happened to him one day, shadow puppetry would not be lost.
Later inheritors would rely on these notes to rediscover what shadow puppetry once looked like.
But in the end, it seemed that he really only managed to keep himself out of trouble.
The environment that he had always ignored had slowly deteriorated and became unfamiliar to him without him noticing.
Those childhood playmates no longer express their amazement and joy like they did when they first saw the shadow play in their childhood. They no longer like the Monkey King, and they no longer get so excited about the havoc in Heaven that they clap their hands until they turn red and shout the Monkey King’s name at the top of their lungs.
All they talk about is money and status.
They either brag about their work being bought by someone, or they are proud of which TV station they were interviewed by, or how much money they make from one of their performances.
Even shadow puppet craftsmen from the same origin have devoted themselves to innovation and promotion in order to compete with each other.
Some abandoned traditional repertoires and features, and edited new plays that were more popular with young audiences. Others were not convinced and simply advertised that they could perform shadow puppets with their feet.
Others would do something bad when others were about to perform on stage, causing them to have diarrhea and be unable to sit on the stage, so they would naturally take over the performance.
People in the same industry look down on each other and show off their unique abilities.
Although he is famous for his title of shadow puppet master, the shadow puppetry occupies less and less of their words.
Master Bai saw this.
Unwilling to follow the same style as others, he was gradually marginalized by the villagers. However, due to his title of officially certified inheritor, they had to get along with him. However, they often rolled their eyes and told him to give up the title of inheritor so that others could better promote Southwestern shadow puppetry.
Master Bai smiled but said nothing. After thinking for a long time, he decided to invite Carpenter Zheng, whom he met by chance, to help him perfect the southwestern shadow puppetry known for its "bone".
Since the biggest difference between Southwestern shadow puppetry and other shadow puppetry lies in the exquisiteness and flexibility of the frame making, he can definitely make Southwestern shadow puppetry more exquisite by starting with the improvement of the frame.
Carpenter Zheng’s family has been carpenters for generations and has been famous in his original place of residence for a long time, known far and wide.
Carpenter Zheng was very hesitant about moving.
Although he also wanted to create something with his friends, for a craftsman who loves the inherited craft, being able to improve his skills is far more joyful than money.
That is the realization of personal value and sense of accomplishment.
However, Carpenter Zheng not only had a huge amount of clutter accumulated over generations of his family, but also had a wife and children.
For him, moving is something that requires careful consideration.
But when Carpenter Zheng and his son were leaving Master Bai's house, they happened to meet Master Bai who was going to the market to perform shadow play, so he invited the father and son to go with them.
Zheng Shumu, who was still a child at the time, happily shouted the name of the Monkey King and clapped his hands until they turned red.
Little Zheng Shumu was so excited that he was sweating and his face was flushed as he told his father that he had found something he really liked and he was determined to become the best shadow puppet craftsman!
Carpenter Zheng looked at the child and laughed too.
Soon after, Carpenter Zheng moved to the village with his family.
When the villagers heard that Carpenter Zheng was a famous person, they came enthusiastically to help with the move.
But when they were unloading the boxes from the pickup truck, the young men were surprised by the heaviness of the boxes in their hands, so they quietly opened the boxes while no one was paying attention.
Then what they saw was part of the wealth accumulated by Carpenter Zheng’s family over generations, as well as a lot of precious wood worth one gold per gram.
The young people became interested and coveted the money of Carpenter Zheng.
They are like poisonous snakes lurking in the grass.
The right time to take action soon arrived. They ignored Carpenter Zheng's pleadings, killed him, hid his body behind a curtain in the warehouse, and then took away some of his property.
Young people will not hide their thoughts, and when they have money they always want to show off proudly, and they also buy many items that exceed their original wealth.
Their elders and relatives soon discovered the extra wealth they had.
However, they just scolded the young people for not saying it earlier. It was obvious that Carpenter Zheng's family was much richer than this, so what was the point of just robbing them?
Now Carpenter Zheng is an orphan and a widow, so those riches are within his reach.
So everyone decided to get rid of the mother and son, and then take all the wealth of Carpenter Zheng's family for themselves and divide it equally among all the participants.
At this time, Carpenter Zheng's wife discovered that her husband was missing and was searching for him with her big belly.
Finally, she saw her husband's body thrown in the warehouse like a piece of rotten meat, behind the curtain, with his eyes open.
The wife fainted from crying.
However, this alerted the enemy and alarmed other villagers.
While they pretended to comfort Carpenter Zheng's wife, saying that they would find out who killed Carpenter Zheng, they winked at each other and went to her house that night to kill her and the child.
By the time Master Bai found out about this, everything was already a foregone conclusion.
Master Bai's voice was hoarse, and he would pause for a while after speaking a few words due to exhaustion. When he finished speaking, his cloudy eyes were filled with tears.
The room was silent.
Yan Shixun stood in the darkness not far away with one hand in his pocket. He lowered his head slightly, and his hair fell down, blocking his eyes, making it impossible to see his expression.
No one spoke first.
Yan Shixun had never imagined that such a thing had happened in this village before, and that behind Zheng Shumu... there was such a deep blood feud.
"I can tell you everything. Whatever you want, I'll give it to you. There's only one condition."
The moment Master Bai slowly raised his head, tears flowed down his uneven cheeks.
“Take the trees… away.”
"Don't let him stay here any longer, and don't let him be trapped by hatred. He should have started his own life a long time ago. Instead of living in the past like he is now, and ruining his own life in order to take revenge on those people."
Master Bai choked up: "You... maybe, you can do it."
When Yan Shixun raised his eyes, he saw Master Bai's tearful face.
He was silent for a moment, then asked softly, "Even if he caused the death of everyone and trapped us in the shadow play, and the evil power was so strong that we had to invite the ebony idol to suppress it, do you still think he is worth saving?"
Hearing Yan Shixun's words, Master Bai seemed very surprised: "Do you know the ebony statue?"
"No, that's not right. Do you think the ebony idol is used to suppress trees?"
Master Bai seemed to have heard something ridiculous. He shook his head and said, "The deaths of all the people in the village were indeed caused by the trees. But after that Buddhist monk accidentally entered the White Paper Lake a few years ago, the trees changed. He is now a good boy."
Layperson?
Yan Shixun thought of the painting hanging in Zheng Shumu's house and asked quickly, "Master Bai, do you know the name of that Buddhist?"
Master Bai nodded. "He is a very unique person. He came here to look for Southwest shadow puppets and asked me about things that happened thousands of years ago. Shadow puppetry destroyed Shu Shu's life... but it also left him a glimmer of hope, allowing him to start living like a human being."
Master Bai smiled bitterly: "That lay Buddhist Chengyun was a powerful figure. But later I heard that he died as a martyr."
The moment Yan Shixun heard Master Bai's words, he felt his brain "buzz!" and it went blank in an instant.
It was as if all the scenes around him were collapsing and disappearing, and the last time he met Li Chengyun reappeared in his mind. The man gathered his sleeves, smiled lightly under the slanting branches, and talked about reunion.
But they were never reunited.
Yan Shixun slowly clenched his hands hanging at his sides, squeezing them until his finger bones turned white and his nails dug deeply into his palms.
Even though he knew very well that Li Chengyun had died several years ago, he was the one who personally arranged Li Chengyun's funeral. As Li Chengyun's direct disciple and son, he saw Li Chengyun off for the last time and watched Li Chengyun being buried with his own eyes.
But over the years, he never had the courage to turn around and face Li Chengyun's death again.
That is a pain that cannot be mentioned.
And now, Master Bai's words tore open his healed scar, and the once festering wound began to bleed again.
Yan Shixun forced himself to calm down after Li Chengyun's death.
His Adam's apple rolled and his voice became hoarse: "Then, do you know how that Chengyun Layman...died?"
The once sharp mind is like a stuck disk, struggling to continue functioning.
But the strong emotions that he forced himself to suppress made Yan Shixun's eyes red, his throat sore and dry, and even his limbs trembled.
The news of Li Chengyun's death was brought back by other people. The young Yan Shixun did not know the specific cause of Li Chengyun's death, nor did he know what led to his death.
All he saw was a cold corpse with a smile on its lips.
Li Chengyun, Master... knowing the end of death, I don't have any anger towards the world.
He left with a smile, as if he died as he wished.
Yan Shixun blinked quickly, forcing back the tears that were welling up in his eyes.
Master Bai saw Yan Shixun's exposed emotions and slowly realized something. His face turned serious and he asked him, "What is your relationship with Master Chengyun? Are you his descendant or his disciple?"
Yan Shixun opened his mouth, but failed to make any sound several times.
As tears rolled down the corners of his eyes, Yan Shixun forced a smile with difficulty.
"He used to be the one who shielded me from the wind and rain."
"He is my master, father, and best friend."
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