Chapter 137 If you dare to try and fool me like Monk Mingcun, then I might…
But the fur seemed to have shrunk considerably; it would just slip in at the front and then spill out at the back.
Some pieces of meat fell to the ground and got covered in dust, but she stubbornly picked them up and put them back.
Even if it were put back in, it would never come back to life.
Once someone is dead, they are dead. No matter what you do, there is no way to bring a dead life back to life.
She stared blankly at the mess before her for a moment before finally giving up on her initial plan.
She looked at the fur in front of her and sighed softly, but not a single tear fell from her eyes. It was unclear whether she was sad or not.
She laid the bloodstained pelt flat on the ground, and then poured all the remaining pieces of meat from the basin into the pelt.
After emptying it, she rolled up the fur, ignoring the pieces of meat that had spilled out and fallen to the ground, covered in dust. She lay down on the ground and hugged the fur, along with the pieces of meat inside, into her arms.
She lay calmly on her side on the ground covered in blood and chunks of flesh, clutching the cold, slippery fur in her arms, and murmured, "Sweet Rice Balls, I'm so sorry, I broke my promise."
"I clearly said before that I would do it before you died..."
"I'll take you to live a good life..."
As she finished speaking, the only response she received was the sound of the wind blowing and the chirping of birds around her.
But the wind will not grieve for her, the birds will not be sad for her, and the people will not mourn for her.
Everything around her seemed to have nothing to do with her. She was as if she were completely isolated from this world. No one knew or cared about her joys and sorrows. Similarly, she could not know or care about the joys and sorrows of others.
It seems that we are born alone.
She lay quietly for a while, ignoring the blood that kept flowing from her lips, and then suddenly murmured softly, "Never mind, never mind."
"This life... there's really nothing worth living. So what if I die? It's good to be dead, it's clean. I've wanted to die for a long time, I've had enough of living..."
"In the next life... sweet fermented rice balls, in the next life... in the next life, I will definitely take you to live a good life."
"Remember to come find me, sweet fermented rice balls."
"You must remember... to come find me..."
………………
Li Chen suddenly opened his eyes, staring blankly at the bed curtains above him, as if he had woken up, or as if he was still trapped in a nightmare.
After a while, her eyes gradually regained some light, and her gaze shifted to the side, landing on the person sitting quietly by the bed, seemingly lost in thought.
The man seemed unaware that she had woken up until she tried to sit up, at which point he suddenly spoke, "Monk Mingcun told me a lot."
Li Chen stared at his profile for a moment before asking, "What did you say?"
Upon hearing her voice, Shen Zhengyuan slowly turned his head and his gaze fell on her face.
His gaze moved from her eyebrows to the bridge of her nose, then from her nose to her lips, scrutinizing her repeatedly, as if trying to etch her image into his heart, or perhaps trying to discern some difference in her face from the past.
He just stared at her quietly, but Li Chenjin didn't take it easy and let him look at her openly. She just sat up on her own.
A long time passed, until she couldn't help but speak, when Shen Zhengyuan suddenly said out of the blue, "I'm sorry."
Li Chen asked calmly, "Apologize for what?"
Shen Zhengyuan said hoarsely, "I'm sorry."
Li Chen chuckled, crossed his legs, scratched his inexplicably itchy cheek, and said, "If Sect Leader Shen apologizes for scaring me in the past and trying to force himself on me, then I will accept it. But if it's for something else, then Sect Leader Shen should save his breath."
Shen Zhengyuan remained silent for a long time. Just when Li Chen thought he had run out of topics and was about to give him a way out, he heard Shen Zhengyuan say somewhat abruptly, "I can set you free."
Li Chenjin: "..."
As Shen Zhengyuan finished speaking, the room fell into silence.
Li Chen lifted his eyelids, looked at the person sitting by the bed, and silently reached out and touched his forehead.
After confirming that the person in front of her had a normal temperature, she said with certainty, "The old monk hit you on the head."
Shen Zhengyuan: "..."
Shen Zhengyuan: "Do I look as stupid as I did hundreds of years ago?"
Li Chenjin slowly withdrew his hand and said, "I think you were much smarter in some ways when you were younger than you are now."
Shen Zhengyuan: "..."
Shen Zhengyuan: "I'm not that old right now."
Li Chenjin: "..."
Li Chenjin: "No, is this the important thing?"
Shen Zhengyuan said, "Isn't that important? Are you implying that I'm too old?"
“Well…” Li Chen paused for a moment, “You are indeed not young, I can’t just lie through my teeth, can I? But I really don’t mind that you are not young.”
Shen Zhengyuan: "..."
Shen Zhengyuan: "So you still think I'm too old."
Li Chen looked at him strangely and said, "Aren't you very old?"
Shen Zhengyuan: "..."
Shen Zhengyuan fell silent. He simply turned away from her, lost in thought.
Taking this opportunity, Li Chen looked around the place.
This is neither the world of sword cultivators nor the world of magic cultivators, but her meditation room in the world of Zen cultivation. No wonder she felt something was familiar when she first opened her eyes.
She threw back the covers and sat down on the edge of the bed with Shen Zhengyuan. After a moment of silence, she nudged the person next to her with her elbow and asked, just as abruptly, "What did you see?"
Although Shen Zhengyuan was in a bad mood and didn't want to look at her, he still answered, "All."
Li Chenjin: "..."
Now it was Li Chen's turn to be in a bad mood.
The two sat side by side on the edge of the bed, each resting their chin on their hand, and remained silent for a long time before Li Chenjin finally sighed, pinched his brow, and said, "That old monk Mingcun... he's completely disgraced me..."
Shen Zhengyuan remained silent for a while, until Li Chen looked at him, before saying, "I thought you would have something else to say."
Li Chen exclaimed "Ah!" and suddenly realized, "So you've been keeping quiet all this time, waiting for me to speak?"
As she spoke, she smiled, shook her head helplessly, sighed, spread her hands, and said with a rather helpless expression, "But what can I say? Should I point to the sky and denounce God for treating me unfairly, or should I cry my heart out and lament my ill fate? Or... do you want me to hold you and question why you didn't come to help me back then?"
"Sect Leader Shen, what was our relationship back then? Given our past friendship, it would have been good enough if you hadn't kicked me when I was down. Why should you help me? What did I have that would have made you want to help me back then?"
Shen Zhengyuan: "..."
Li Chen supported himself on his knees and slowly stood up. After taking a few steps, he felt that something was wrong with his body.
She pinched her arm, then touched her leg, and exclaimed, "Oh! Sect Leader Chen's skills have improved again? How was this body made? It really feels like flesh and blood!"
Shen Zhengyuan: "..."
Shen Zhengyuan: "Because this is your own body. I just had someone help Mingcun repair it for you. A puppet body is just a temporary measure. Also... I've severed the connection between us. From now on..."
Before Shen Zhengyuan could finish speaking, Li Chenjin said, "Let's continue to travel together from now on. Anyway, we've gotten used to it after all these years."
Shen Zhengyuan was stunned for a moment, and looked up at Li Chenjin with some surprise. He saw her facing him, smiling very gently.
Sunlight streamed through the doors and windows, gently bathing her in a golden glow, making her appear like a goddess descended from a fairy tale. However, she remained oblivious to this, simply smiling gently.
In just a moment, he felt as if he had returned to a long, long time ago, to a time when just one glance at Li Chenjin's smile would bring him peace and tranquility.
It was only at this moment that he realized what Li Chen looked like when he genuinely smiled at him.
That smile, sealed away in his memory for so long, only appearing occasionally in his dreams, but gradually becoming blurred and eventually disappearing completely over time, was what it looked like.
The figure backlit in his eyes gradually walked up to him under his gaze.
Then, a pair of warm, dry hands gently cupped his face.
He was forced to look up, staring at the increasingly larger smile in front of him, feeling the fingertips brushing against his cheek. He was stunned for a long time before slowly raising his hand and grabbing the wrist of the person in front of him.
Just as he grasped Li Chenjin's wrist, he heard the person in front of him say, "Sect Leader Chen is so old now, why does he still cry so easily like before?"
Shen Zhengyuan's hand gradually moved upwards along her wrist and finally grasped her hand.
Although he held Li Chenjin's hand, her other hand remained on his cheek. He felt the hand still wiping away his tears and softly asked, "Can you... not leave again?"
Li Chen looked at him with a gentle smile and said, "I will try my best not to leave."
“A-Yuan, don’t worry about future misfortunes because of the pain of the past. There are still many things we can do, such as rescuing my master and the souls of your relatives. Your family is always here, and I am always here, so don’t worry about losing them.”
“If you are really worried, then I will have no choice but to go to the Buddha every day to pray for you. I believe that the gods and Buddhas will surely protect my loved ones.”
As she spoke, she lowered her head and gently covered his lips with hers. After tasting the salty bitterness of his tears, she slowly withdrew. "Alright, we are in the Zen meditation community now. My actions have already gone too far. If the Venerable Mingcun finds out, he will definitely punish me by making me sweep the Sutra Repository."
She lowered her hands from Shen Zhengyuan's cheeks and pulled them away from his grasp. "Now, tell me everything you don't know."
"If you dare to try to fool me like Monk Mingcun did, then I won't like you anymore."
Author's note: I don't want to write anything with too much background background anymore...
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