Chapter 118 A truly cowardly person only dares to be brave once in their life. ...
Yue Yining finally accepted Ye Miheng's invitation. The two hitched up a car and drove to Jinling early the next morning.
In the autumn of Jinling, the riverbanks are clear and the sand is white. Inside the Qingyun Temple, Yue Yining met the Flower Venerable, Hua Siren, whom he had not seen for six years.
She still looks as young as she did six years ago. Time may have ruthlessly sculpted the faces of others, showing no mercy, but on her face, it has been as gentle as a mother's hand stroking her child, unwilling to add even a single wrinkle to her smooth, fair skin.
A bright and charming beautiful woman called the two into the hall and served them a pot of freshly brewed chrysanthemum tea.
Yue Yining: "Venerable Flower, it's been a long time."
Hua Si looked her over carefully and smiled, "Indeed, you've grown into a beautiful young woman. I almost didn't recognize you."
The three chatted for a while when a young boy from the temple called Ye Miheng over from the corridor, saying that Elder Li from the side hall wanted him to come and catch up.
Ye Miheng clicked his tongue, clearly unwilling, but not daring to refuse. He bid farewell to Yue Yining and Hua Siren, and followed the sweeping boy.
For a moment, the hall became much quieter. Outside the corridor, the maple trees, fiery red like a sea of flames, stood silently burning.
Hua Siren looked at her, her smile growing wider: "It's been a long time since you've been to Qingyun Temple, hasn't it? We've just arrived during the peak of autumn scenery, why don't you stay at the temple with Miheng for a few more days before returning to the capital?"
Yue Yining: "I appreciate Venerable Hua's kindness, but there's no need for it."
"I still have many official duties to attend to in the capital, and I can't leave for too long." Yue Yining glanced out the open window. "The scenery is beautiful, but I can't stay long. After all, it's late autumn, and the wind picked up today. I imagine the path will be covered with fallen petals tomorrow."
This is a clear polite refusal.
Yue Yining realized that the sweeping boy was arranged by Hua Siren. The child was young and couldn't hide his thoughts. When he told Ye Miheng to leave, he glanced at Hua Siren several times.
I just don't know what Hua Siren planned to talk to her about, going to all this trouble to invite her here and be alone with her.
Yue Yining wasn't the type to passively retaliate, so she took the initiative to speak, "Venerable Flower, I have a question I've always wanted to ask you."
"you say."
Yue Yining: "Ye Miheng should be the next Venerable One of Qingyun Temple, right? Why did you allow him to go down the mountain to travel around, and then let him participate in the struggle for the throne and become an official in the court?"
"If you ask why..." Hua Siren smiled brightly, her eyes clear and sparkling, "You know, I might not have many years left to live."
Yue Yining paused, a flash of old memories crossing her mind, and she immediately understood.
She immediately lowered her head and said quickly, "I'm sorry."
Hua Siren: "Why should I apologize?"
"Because you calculated my fate but didn't tell me?" Hua Siren looked at her with a smile. "What's wrong with that? Among the living celestial masters, there are no more than three people who can calculate my fate. The fact that you could calculate it shows that your divination skills are superb. I don't feel offended, don't worry."
“…I did indeed calculate your fate,” Yue Yining said, “but I still don’t understand what this has to do with your promise to let Ye Miheng go down the mountain to become an official.”
“My days are numbered. Qingyun Temple will change hands in less than ten years. Ye Miheng is my most prized disciple. When he turns thirty, he will become the next Venerable One to preside over Qingyun Temple.”
Hua Siren gently stirred the chrysanthemums floating on the water with the lid of her bowl. The water-soaked flowers opened their faded petals, swaying in the water and releasing their last bit of sweetness.
She looked at the chrysanthemums, her voice as soft and sweet as a budding flower, "Once he becomes a Venerable One, he will no longer have the freedom to come and go as he pleases."
"Your master and I have sat in this position for decades, like auspicious beasts locked on an altar. We have no worries about food and clothing and enjoy all the honors. But if we want to leave and completely shed this responsibility, we must find a successor. There must be an auspicious beast in the altar, and it doesn't matter who it is."
“The process of taking on apprentices is like choosing replacements. Once they can stand on their own, they can escape the cage. Your master was so against you going down the mountain, perhaps because she had raised you for almost ten years, only to have it all come to nothing, which is why she was so furious.”
Yue Yining paused for a moment.
Just as Hua Siren lowered her head to drink her tea, she suddenly spoke up: "I don't understand why Venerable Hua would belittle herself like this."
Hua Siren paused, looked up, and Yue Yining looked at her: "I don't think that Master raised me so that I could replace her. Similarly, Venerable Hua did not take Ye Miheng as her disciple for freedom."
“You could have refused Ye Miheng’s request to come down the mountain and let him stay with you on the mountain. After all, you only have ten years left to live. If it were me, I would have done the same. Who wouldn’t want to have loved ones by their side in the last years of their life? It’s only natural for a dying person to become selfish and want to live for themselves.”
Yue Yining said, “But you agreed to his request and let him go down the mountain. Because you knew that if he stayed on the mountain with you until you died, he would be trapped on this mountain for the rest of his life. You felt sorry for him, so you agreed to his request. These were the last ten years of his life when he could be willful and free, even though these were also the last ten years of your life.”
The hall fell silent for a moment.
“...Look at what you’re saying,” Hua Siren suddenly laughed, “You’re making me sound like such a selfless and great person. You’re really good with words.”
Yue Yining said, "I was just speaking my mind, and I had no intention of flattering you."
"Although I am no longer my master's disciple and am no longer worthy to speak for her, I have followed her for seven years and I know her."
“She took me as her disciple out of a heart that cherished my talent. As time went by, she developed some affection and responsibility for me. If it were anyone else, my master would have taken her up the mountain, taken her as his disciple, and carefully nurtured and taught her. I was just lucky to be there and to have the talent for the Five Arts. That’s all.”
“No, you’re not just lucky.” Hua Siren looked at her, her eyes deep and smiling. “Do you know? Your personality is almost exactly the same as hers when she was young.”
Yue Yining was stunned: "...My master when he was young?"
“Yes. That was many years ago, about twenty years ago?” Hua Siren laughed. “Your master was about the same age as you are now back then.”
"No, wait, it seems like it's even a little younger than you? Hahaha, I don't quite remember."
"Back then, after the late emperor deposed the crown prince and re-established the foundation of the nation, among the several adult princes, the second prince was the most powerful and the oldest. At that time, the current emperor was just the fifth prince from a declining maternal clan, lacking both the status of legitimate son and eldest son, and basically no one had high hopes for him." Hua Siren spoke with great enthusiasm and a sigh of regret as she recounted the gossip from many years ago. "Your master was also a disciple of the Venerable of Zijin Temple at that time, and like you, she was the most outstanding among the younger generation of celestial masters. If she considered herself second, no one would dare to claim first place."
"You probably don't know, do you? Your master and the late emperor's second prince had an affair."
Yue Yining was greatly shocked. Her eyes widened: "My master and the Second Prince?!"
"That's right."
"Actually, I don't know how she got together with the late emperor's second prince. Later, the second prince frequently came to the temple to look for her, and I ran into him. That's when she admitted to me that it was true," Hua Siren said with a smile. "Although she always pretended not to care in front of me, I know that she had thought about marrying him. However, due to her status as a Celestial Master, she would inevitably be criticized if she married into the royal family. Moreover, she is definitely going to be the next Venerable of Zijin Temple, so she can't get married."
"The only thing she could do was to sacrifice her own lifespan to divine her beloved's future, plan for him, and help him ascend to the throne of the supreme ruler."
"As soon as she helped the Second Prince to the position of Crown Prince, the late Emperor passed away. The current Emperor, Wei Tianxuan, led his troops into the palace and shot him dead with an arrow during the chaos." Hua Siren clicked her tongue and said, "When a person dies, it's like a lamp going out. Even if the Second Prince had any power or connections behind him, they all vanished in an instant. So did people's hearts."
"Qiu Wuzhu was able to escape from the chaotic palace because her master risked his life to protect her, but he was accidentally hit by a stray arrow, the wound became infected, and he died before he could return to Luoyang City."
"Your master changed completely from that time on. She used to be a very cheerful person, but suddenly she became cold. You could stay with her for half a day without her saying a word. It was so cold it could freeze you to death."
Yue Yining was stunned and couldn't come to her senses for a long time.
She opened her mouth, only to find her voice dry: "...Master, she has never told me any of this."
"Do you know why?" Hua Siren smiled meaningfully, "Because she has never been able to let go. Her loved ones and closest relatives all died because of this. If I were her, I would definitely regret participating in the struggle for the throne."
"In the divination Qiu Wuzhu made back then, the Second Prince was not destined to be emperor. She refused to accept it and went against the will of Heaven to make him ascend the throne. In the end, wasn't the fate of Heaven corrected, and she ended up with such a tragic end? If she had accepted her fate back then, perhaps the Second Prince could have died peacefully, and her master would not have died in Yanjing."
“It’s hard to talk about things that are truly heart-wrenching. Even if you just tell the whole story, you have to relive the feeling of despair and helplessness you felt back then. Not everyone has that courage. Avoiding it is always easier than facing it. Your master was just a coward.”
Yue Yining remained silent for a long time.
She had said this to Wei Yihua as well; she was a coward.
A coward only dares to be brave once in their life, and that's a desperate gamble. Success means life, failure means death. She knows the price all too well, and she can bear it.
She never considered that there might be a third possibility: that someone might have died in her place, and she would live with lifelong regret.
"Both of you asked to come down the mountain, but I agreed to Ye Miheng's request, while Qiu Wuzhu didn't agree and even severed ties with you. Don't you hate her for being so heartless?" Hua Siren said with a smile.
Yue Yining came to her senses and simply said, "That's different."
Hua Si Ren knew that Ye Miheng would return after going down the mountain, while Qiu Wuzhu and she both knew that once she went down the mountain, she would never come back.
“…Thank you.” Yue Yining bowed her head. “If you hadn’t told me, I might never have known about my master’s past experiences.”
Hua Siren scrutinized her, her fingers lightly tracing the rim of the cup. She suddenly spoke, "You don't think I'm telling you all this because I suddenly felt like telling a story, do you?"
“Of course not,” Yue Yining replied calmly. “I had a guess before I came. It must be that Master said something to you.”
Yue Yining wasn't naive enough to think that Qiu Wuzhu sent Hua Siren to find her because he missed her.
Her disagreements with her master were far more serious than her disagreements with others.
When Yue Yining decided to leave the mountain, Qiu Wuzhu said that once she left, she should never come back.
Even if Yue Yining regrets it in the future, she will never forgive her again; even if Yue Yining comes to her door begging one day, she will never see her again.
“I raised you with all my heart and soul, imparting to you all the five arts of metaphysics without reservation. But I never expected you to become so independent that you no longer respect your master.” Qiu Wuzhu stood on the stone platform in front of the mountain gate, looking down at her, and said in a cold voice, “If you insist on leaving the mountain, our master-disciple relationship will be severed, and we will never meet again in this life.”
"From this day forward, do not say that you are my disciple, Qiu Wuzhu."
These words were undeniably heavy.
Yue Yining responded by kneeling down and kowtowing nine times, until her forehead was worn raw and bleeding from the rough stone steps.
She bowed her head deeply, her posture one of utter respect.
"Please rest assured, Master, I would never be so shameless."
"Master, from now on, please pretend that I have never been your disciple." Yue Yining closed her eyes, letting the blood flow from her closed eyelids and drip into the cracks in the stone. "But in Yining's heart, you will always be my master."
She was determined to leave.
I have already failed to repay all the kindness I have received in this life, and I am filled with anxiety and shame.
I only wish that in the next life I could repay your kindness by repaying your kindness with my life, even unto death.
At this moment, Yue Yining already understood Hua Siren's intentions.
Master hadn't given up trying to persuade her, which was why he brought in Venerable Flower. As for whether telling her this story was Hua Siren's own idea or Qiu Wuzhu's, it didn't matter.
In her view, no matter what Hua Siren said or did, it would be to no avail. Yue Yining was confident of this; she knew herself, and now she was almost impossible to be swayed by any unfounded words.
Qiu Wuzhu's past story had indeed surprised her, and Yue Yining was not entirely unmoved by what she heard. She gained some insight and could understand why Qiu Wuzhu had been so opposed to her going down the mountain.
However, she never blamed Qiu Wuzhu.
What will Master say? Provoke her? Slander her? Lie to her? Or try to appeal to her emotions again? And how should she respond?
Yue Yining was meticulous in her thinking and calmly analyzed the situation.
Hua Siren didn't say anything more, but with a knowing look on her face, she stood up and went to the cabinet behind her to retrieve a letter.
She held the letter in her hand as if it were something completely unimportant, then casually tossed it to Yue Yining, saying, "Open it and take a look."
Yue Yining looked at the letter in her hand. The thick and tough mulberry paper was dyed a dark reddish-black. When opened, it was lined with fine and soft silk, which was obviously not of ordinary quality, but rather made by a high-ranking family, a powerful official or nobleman.
There was only a thin sheet of Xuan paper inside, and judging from the ink stains, it had been there for some time.
Unfolding the letter, Yue Yining slowly read through its contents, her eyes widening involuntarily, her fingers trembling.
With a "crack", Yue Yining, caught off guard, accidentally broke the teacup beside her.
Hua Siren looked over and, unsurprisingly, saw Yue Yining's horrified expression.
Hua Siren stopped laughing and just looked at her quietly, with a hint of pity in her eyes.
"This is what your master asked me to give you." Hua Siren looked at the distraught Yue Yining and said, "She told me that you are smart enough to understand everything after reading this letter, and she doesn't need to say anything more."
It seems her old friend was right again.
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Author's Note: The next chapter will explain everything [rainbow fart]. Don't worry, I won't keep you in suspense.
(Please don't skip to the next chapter! The next chapter is about Yu Yu and Ning Ning confronting each other. If you skip it, you won't understand the later romantic storyline.)
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