Green Waterfall in its Youth 9
The air seemed to freeze for a moment. Yuan Xi's reflection in the mirror paused, and then, sorrow, like a water stain, silently spread across his eyes.
“…Yes.” Yuan Xi put down the mirror, his pale hand touching Shi Qing’s tear-streaked face. His voice was as soft as a sigh, but his tone was very serious.
"When I woke up, Senior Sister Hongyue and several other fellow disciples seemed to breathe a sigh of relief, especially Senior Sister Hongyue. After I got used to my current state and could walk normally, she said there was a fool who was even more stubborn than me waiting here, and asked me if I remembered how I promised him."
Shi Qing: "So you came here."
“So I came here,” Yuan Xi said. “In my current state, to put it nicely, I’m just a dream puppet with its own consciousness. …The experiment was quite difficult and painful.”
"I know." Shi Qing said through tears, gently stroking the cracked "peace charm".
Yuanxi: "I don't remember many of my memories of Wuxin Valley. But I remember that when I was in the most pain, I really wanted to come back to find you and Shuangshuang... and Zhizhi."
"Shi Qing, I'm not a saint, but I won't force you. If you can still accept me as I am now—"
Before he could finish speaking, his shoulder suddenly felt heavy. Shi Qing's forehead pressed against Yuan Xi's shoulder; he wanted to cry, yet he also wanted to laugh.
"You're lying, you clearly forced me. Didn't you want me to leave before?" Though she said this, there was no hint of blame in her voice. Shi Qing sniffed, then continued, "Yuan Xi, don't leave me again..."
*
"So, that's why you two came back together?" This was a long time later, when Shi Qing and Yuan Xi returned to the north to visit relatives. Before setting off, Shi Qing had the foresight to write a letter to Jing Xi, which more or less hinted at his current relationship with Yuan Xi. Otherwise, he was really afraid that Jing Xi and the others would not be able to accept it and would faint on the spot.
As it turns out, "fainting" was still too serious, although the current situation isn't much better.
For example, at this moment, Jingxi was blocking the doorway with a broom, and when he saw the two people's intertwined hands, he almost couldn't catch his breath.
Although she was smiling, a few strands of hair on the top of her head were already standing on end.
“Yuanxi, we haven’t been in touch for years. I’ve been thinking of you as a fellow villager and a friend, and you’ve taken advantage of me like this?” It’s no wonder Jingxi is angry, after all, she has always treated Shiqing like her own younger brother for the past seven years.
She barely suppressed the urge to hit someone with a broom, gritted her teeth and pulled Yuanxi aside, her molars grinding together as she spoke.
“Xiaoqing has told me about your situation. Considering your injuries, I can forgive you for not being able to speak a word for the past few years. Your relationship is between the two of you, and I don’t want to get involved. But—” Thinking of something else, Jingxi lowered his voice and asked, “I’m asking you, what stage have you and he reached?”
“Uh…” Won Seok, who had breathed a sigh of relief after hearing “I don’t blame you,” tensed up instantly at the question, and an indescribable embarrassment flashed across his face.
Jingxi: "..." He understands everything now.
...
As Shi Qing was helping Shuangshuang put away their luggage, he suddenly heard a curse coming from the courtyard.
"Do you even know how old he is?!" Seventeen! Shi Qing is only seventeen!
Jing Xi was so angry that she trembled all over and could barely hold the broom. "You old beast, how could you be so heartless?"
It's over.
Shi Qing thought to himself.
He quickly ran over and hugged Jingxi's arm, "Sister, sister, don't blame him! It was...it was me who forced him..."
Jingxi: ? ? ?
She froze on the spot, dumbfounded.
"What did you say?" Jingxi had no doubt that she could be driven to madness by this ordeal. Her obedient and innocent younger brother, whom she had known for seven years, shrank back and whispered, repeating, "I forced Yuanxi..."
"..."
That's true; it happened when Shi Qing thought they had settled down.
That evening, Shi Qing returned home excitedly, carrying some southern pastries that Yuan Xi had mentioned before. He opened the door, only to find Yuan Xi hurriedly putting a small wooden box into a hidden compartment in the wall.
"What are you hiding?" Shi Qing leaned closer and asked with a grin.
Yuanxi quickly regained his composure, subtly shielding the hidden compartment with his body, and said in a casual tone, "Nothing, just some old things."
Shi Qing, unsuspecting, held up the pastry like a treasure: "Look! It's from Fu Ji. We've been queuing for ages. Come and try it and see if it's still crispy."
Yuanxi took it, broke off a small piece and put it in his mouth—he still couldn't taste much, but he nodded: "Mmm, delicious." Looking at Shi Qing's bright eyes waiting for praise, he habitually raised his hand and ruffled his hair.
His movements were no different from usual, but Shi Qing keenly sensed something amiss. Recalling Yuan Xi's actions of hiding things earlier, a vague thought flashed through his mind, making him feel somewhat uneasy.
A few days later, Shi Qing was tidying up Yuan Xi's room when he accidentally found a familiar money pouch in an old box under the bed—the one he had forced on Yuan Xi a long time ago. The money inside was untouched, and there even seemed to be more. Underneath the pouch were several copies of land deeds and banknotes, the beneficiary names blank, but clearly intended for outsiders.
Shi Qing held the papers in his hands, his fingertips growing cold. He remembered Yuan Xi never letting him bear any large expenses, and he remembered the complex, unspoken look in Yuan Xi's eyes when he occasionally glanced at him, a look that seemed to be counting down...
A cold and clear realization crashed into his mind: Yuan Xi had been preparing an "escape route" for him all along.
Won-seok never truly believed that he would stay forever.
Overwhelmed by immense resentment, anger, and the sting of betrayal, he was instantly engulfed. Had all his wholehearted dedication and selfless devotion these past few days been merely seen by Won-seok as a momentary impulse, a rash decision that might be changed at any moment? He had tried so hard to prove his sincerity, to dispel Won-seok's unease, only to find that the other was secretly and calmly planning his "life after leaving"?
With a "bang," Shi Qing threw the things in her hand back into the box, turned around, and rushed out.
He wandered aimlessly through the streets of Kaifeng for a long time, until dusk fell, before returning to the Tianquan camp with red eyes. His senior brother noticed his pale face and asked him what was wrong, but Shi Qing bit his lip and didn't speak, only shaking his head.
But he couldn't hold back. That night, he knocked on Hongyue's door.
Hongyue sighed after listening to his incoherent, angry, and aggrieved speech.
She looked into Shi Qing's red eyes, her tone calm but every word piercing, "He left you a way out, not because he doesn't love you, but because he thinks you're still young. If you regret it one day, he can't be a stumbling block for you. He has to let you... 'escape unscathed'."
"What he left you wasn't money, but the freedom and future he felt you 'should have'." He excluded himself from that future.
However, these words did not extinguish Shi Qing's anger; instead, they fueled it even more.
After returning from Hongyue's place that day, Shi Qing sat alone in the training ground outside the camp until late at night. His senior sister came to find him and was startled to see the tear stains on his face and his fingers clenched so tightly they turned white.
"Senior sister," Shi Qing suddenly spoke, her voice hoarse, "What if... what if no matter what you do, the other person still doesn't believe you'll really stay by his side forever?"
"I've never experienced anything like this before." The senior sister was silent for a moment: "Then let's do something... that will leave him no room for doubt."
"What's up?"
"Something... ruthless enough to burn away all escape routes."
Shi Qing stared blankly at the night sky, where countless stars twinkled.
Three days later, Gui Shizi.
When Yuanxi returned from outside, he found Shiqing hunched over the table, writing and drawing.
He approached curiously, but the smile froze on his lips before it could even form.
—Shi Qing was writing Yuan Xi's name next to the two characters "Shi Qing" on those land deeds—it's unclear when it was filled in—.
Yuan Xi stood there, not daring to stop him or say a word.
After a long while, Shi Qing finally finished writing what was like a "criminal sentence" to Yuan Xi. He tidied up the land deeds and banknotes, pressed them down at the bottom of the wooden box with a money bag, then turned around and chuckled, looking at the bewildered man with a leisurely air, his tone light as if teasing, "Yuan Xi, your 'little treasury' looks much bigger than my 'God of Wealth'."
"Shi Qing," Yuan Xi finally couldn't hold back any longer and grabbed his wrist, "Are you angry with me?"
Shi Qing paused, not withdrawing her hand, but simply looking up at him. Her gaze was calm, so calm that it made Yuan Xi's heart race.
"No," Shi Qing said. "I was just thinking about how I could make you believe I was serious."
Yuan Xi's Adam's apple bobbed, and he released his grip: "I believe you."
"You don't believe me." Shi Qing interrupted him, her tone suddenly turning cold, and said decisively, "If you believed me, you wouldn't have hidden these things in the secret compartment."
The air froze instantly.
Yuan Xi's face paled slightly, his lips parted slightly as if he wanted to explain something, but he found himself speechless. Those land deeds, silver notes, and even the Tianquan Sect rules he had secretly inquired about—regarding the compensation and resettlement allowances that disciples could receive if they married outsiders—every single one of these items was proof of his disbelief.
"Shi Qing, I—" he began with difficulty.
"No need to explain." Shi Qing interrupted him again. "Sister Hongyue already told me. You're leaving me a way out because you're afraid I'll regret it. You think I'm still young, that I might just be acting on impulse, and that the 'forever' I'm talking about now will change in a few years, right?"
Every word felt like a dense barrage of needles piercing Yuan Xi's heart. He couldn't deny it.
“I didn’t think that way…” he weakly defended himself.
“That’s what you think.” Shi Qing took a step forward, and the distance between them suddenly shortened. “Yuan Xi, I spent seven years finding you, waiting for you, and forcing you to admit that you also wanted me—do you think this was just a momentary impulse?”
His voice began to tremble, not from grievance, but from a long-suppressed, burning passion about to erupt.
The moment he finished speaking, Shi Qing suddenly raised his hand and grabbed Yuan Xi's collar.
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