Chapter 50 What's the Relationship? (Bonus Chapter for 1100 Nutrient Solution Reads) (Nutrient Solution...)
"I wonder what kind of ancient books are in the secret chamber of Sect Leader Shen's sleeping quarters that would make him want to go in and check them so often. Sect Leader Shen is very knowledgeable; logically speaking, he should have read all the ancient books in the cultivation world..."
Wen Riwan said dejectedly, "Perhaps it's about learning something new by reviewing the old..."
Xiao Qiu said, "That makes sense. Otherwise, how could Sect Leader Shen have created so many techniques and formations? He must have had a flash of inspiration while reviewing ancient texts and gained some insights. Just like Miss, don't you often review the ancient texts on weapon cultivation that you've read before?"
Wen Riwan sighed again, clearly showing no interest in reviewing the old to learn the new or in ancient books.
She sat on the railing, gazing at the lake for a long time, when she happened to see a butterfly land on a blooming lotus flower. She immediately pointed at the lotus flower and said, "Xiao Qiu, I want that flower. Hold my hand!"
Xiao Qiu followed Wen Riwan's gaze and saw that the lotus flower didn't seem too far away, but reaching it would be difficult. "Miss, that lotus flower is a bit far from us. Should I go back and get a magic artifact?"
Wen Riwan said, "It's just a flower, why bother going all the way to get a magical artifact? Just drag me along!"
Seeing Wen Riwan's resolute attitude, Xiao Qiu could only say, "Alright then, Miss, you must be careful and hold on tight to me!"
"Don't worry, it's just a flower. How could it possibly eat me?" Wen Riwan said.
Wen Riwan climbed over the fence, while Xiao Qiu stood inside, tightly holding Wen Riwan's hand, watching her bend down to reach for the lotus flower in full bloom.
Even so, the distance was still insufficient, so Xiao Qiu had no choice but to follow Wen Riwan's instructions and bend down, trying to get Wen Riwan closer to the lotus flower on the water.
Xiao Qiu held Wen Riwan's hand tightly, but soon felt the strain. Her hand began to tremble uncontrollably. She quickly said, "Miss, I can't hold on any longer. Please come up first!"
Seeing that she was still a little short of the lotus flower, Wen Riwan gritted her teeth and said, "I'll be able to pick it soon, move forward a little more!"
Since Wen Riwan had already said that, Xiao Qiu had no choice but to grit her teeth and move forward a little further.
Xiao Qiu breathed a sigh of relief and was overjoyed when she heard Wen Riwan's delighted voice from below, as if he had picked the lotus flower.
Just as they were about to pull the person up, their hand slipped, followed by a brief gasp and the sound of a heavy object falling into the water.
"Miss! Miss!!"
Xiao Qiu instinctively wanted to jump down, and had already climbed over the fence, ready to jump, when she suddenly remembered that she couldn't swim. She quickly poked her head out and said, "Miss! This servant... this servant can't swim!!"
As she spoke, Wen Riwan struggled to peek out, the lotus flower that had been in her hand just moments before now nowhere to be seen. "I...I also, glug...I don't either, glug...I can't!"
Seeing Wen Riwan sinking below, Xiao Qiu hurriedly looked around, hoping to find someone to save her.
But when she looked around, she couldn't see a single person. Just as she was about to shout, a white afterimage suddenly flashed before her eyes.
The white blur swept past her and headed straight for the lotus pond. When she looked closely, she saw a figure land on the water, bend down, and grab Wen Riwan's wrist that was sticking out of the water.
With just a little effort, a splash was heard, and the person who was almost sinking into the lake was easily pulled out by her.
After pulling the person out of the lake, she put her arm around Wen Riwan's waist, lightly touched the water with her toes, and flew up from the lotus pond, her figure light and graceful, like a bird.
After Wen Riwan landed on the ground, she couldn't stop coughing, and the people around her quickly patted her back.
After she had coughed up all the water she had choked on and her breathing had calmed down, she looked up to thank him, only to see a face that looked somewhat familiar.
Wen Riwan: "..."
three times……
She thought to herself, the first time she saw this person, she bumped into his arms; the second time she saw him, she was sitting by the roadside crying loudly; the third time she saw him, she was being forced to drink water in a lake…
Three times, a full three times, and each time we met, it was such a painful and humiliating scene!
Wen Riwan curled her lip, wishing she could just drown and become fertilizer for those lotus flowers...
Thinking this, she suddenly covered her face and began to sob, startling Li Chen, who was momentarily at a loss for how to comfort her, after all...
They were really not familiar with each other...
Li Chen looked around somewhat awkwardly, and finally his gaze fell on Xiao Qiu, who was still in a daze. He quickly waved to her.
Xiao Qiu immediately snapped out of her daze and ran over. Li Chen then handed Wen Riwan over to her.
Xiao Qiu helped Wen Riwan up, but before she could even open her mouth to comfort her, she started sobbing along with Wen Riwan. Hearing the two sobs rising and falling, Li Chen picked at his ear with a troubled expression.
Fortunately, Xiao Qiu didn't cry for long. She wiped away her tears and sobbed, "Waaah... Miss, I'm sorry, waaah... It's all my fault, I couldn't hold you back, I deserve to die, waaah..."
Wen Riwan also couldn't stop crying. She hugged Xiao Qiu, and the two of them cried together, "Waaah... Why am I so unlucky? Waaah..."
"Waaaaah... Miss... Waaaaah..."
"I want to go home, waaaaah... It's so embarrassing, waaaah... I want to go home, I want to go back to the world of weapon cultivators, I want to find my parents, waaaah..."
"Waaaaah... This servant also wants to return to the world of weapon cultivators, and this servant also misses this servant's parents, waaaaah..."
"Waaaaah... Daddy and Mommy, waaaah..."
Just as the two were crying their hearts out, Wen Riwan suddenly felt a soft touch on her face.
As soon as she opened her eyes, she saw Li Chenjin squatting in front of her, holding a brocade handkerchief in his hand, wiping the water and tears from her face.
She was taken aback at first, and for a moment she forgot to continue crying and missing her parents. Then she heard Li Chen say, "Are you homesick? If you really miss home, you can ask Old Ancestor Shen. I think he will agree."
Just as Wen Riwan came to her senses and was about to speak, Li Chenjin suddenly raised his other hand, which had been behind his back.
The instant Li Chenjin raised his hand, a lotus flower, still wet with water, appeared before her eyes. It was the very lotus flower she had picked earlier, which had fallen into the lake with her.
Li Chen smiled and said, "Is this the flower you just picked? It's very beautiful, it would be a real shame to throw it away."
Wen Riwan: "..."
When Wen Riwan accepted the flowers from Li Chenjin, she felt as if she were in a fog, her mind a complete mess. She couldn't think of anything or say anything, and just stared blankly at the person in front of her.
He didn't even know when Xiao Qiu helped him up and when he followed Li Chen into the Linshui Palace.
All she knew was that when she came to her senses, she had already changed into clean clothes, and Li Chenjin was sitting opposite her, elegantly making tea for them.
As Li Chen poured tea for the two people opposite him, he subtly glanced at them before smiling and saying, "I am a few years older than Cultivator Wen. If Cultivator Wen has something on his mind, he may wish to tell me. Perhaps I can offer some guidance."
Before Li Chen could finish speaking, Wen Riwan immediately said, "I'm fine!"
Li Chen nodded. "Since Cultivator Wen is alright, I will go to Pinglan Hall first to inquire about Sect Leader Shen's whereabouts."
"etc!"
Just as Li Chenjin stood up, Wen Riwan immediately called out to her.
She was about to speak, but seemed to be holding back something and hesitated for a moment before turning to the person beside her and saying, "Xiao Qiu, go back and get me some clean clothes."
Xiao Qiu naturally knew that Wen Riwan was trying to get rid of her. She glanced at Li Chenjin, who had sat down with a smile again, nodded, and turned to walk out of the inner hall.
After Xiao Qiu closed the palace door, Wen Riwan asked, "What...what exactly is your relationship with Sect Leader Shen?"
Li Chen glanced at the person in front of him with a smile in his eyes and said, "Me and Sect Leader Shen..."
She had barely begun speaking when the person opposite her visibly tensed up. Li Chen touched the tip of her nose and said, "I would say that Sect Leader Shen and I are good friends."
Wen Riwan asked, bewildered, "What do you mean by 'should'? Don't you have a good relationship with Sect Leader Shen?"
Li Chen said, "Our relationship wasn't very good before, but after the Sword God died, our relationship improved quite a bit. However, although I consider Sect Leader Shen a friend, I don't know how Sect Leader Shen views me."
Wen Riwan asked curiously, "The Sword God you're talking about, is she the former leader of the Wanshan Sect in the sword cultivation world? Why did your relationship with Leader Shen improve so much after she died?"
“Oh, is that so? It’s because I’m also good friends with the Sword God,” Li Chen said. “The Sword God and Sect Leader Shen don’t get along, so it’s not easy for me to be caught in the middle.”
"However, these things are not very important. I think that since you, Cultivator Wen, have sent your maid away to speak with me alone, it is not to ask me about my past with Sect Leader Shen, is it? If you, Cultivator Wen, have anything you want to say to me, please feel free to speak."
"I...I don't know what to say..." Wen Riwan said, seemingly to herself, "I heard that you were injured when you first arrived at Qingjing Realm and were unconscious for three or four days. Sect Leader Shen watched over you here for three or four days. I thought you two were Daoist couples..."
Li Chen sighed, "Since you've already found out all this, then I'll tell you the truth. I do indeed consider Sect Leader Shen a friend, but this Sect Leader Shen... seems to want to... force me to become his Daoist partner."
Wen Riwan froze, her mind a complete mess. Before her brain could process what was happening, her mouth uttered, "Impossible! Sect Leader Shen wouldn't be that kind of person!!"
Li Chen said, "If you don't believe me, Cultivator Wen, there's nothing I can do. Anyway, I don't need to lie about this. After all, I'm on Sect Leader Shen's territory right now. What benefit would I get from making up stories about him?"
Hearing Li Chenjin's words, Wen Riwan couldn't help but gasp. Before she could fully react, Li Chenjin continued, "Actually... I wasn't brought to the Tranquil Realm by Sect Leader Shen because I was injured."
"I was on my way to visit a friend's house. I was almost at my friend's door when Master Shen happened to come by, knocked me unconscious, and kidnapped me."
Wen Riwan gasped again, covering her mouth with both hands, her eyes filled with disbelief. "Sect Leader Shen... how could Sect Leader Shen be such a person?"
Li Chenjin shook his head with a look of regret and said, "As the saying goes, you can know a person's face but not their heart."
Hearing Li Chenjin's words, Wen Riwan's eyes were vacant, as if something in her heart had suddenly collapsed, leaving her feeling extremely lost.
Seeing this, Li Chen stopped talking and silently poured himself a cup of tea. Then he picked up the storybook on the table, intending to give Wen Riwan some time to digest this information.
Li Chen leisurely flipped through three or four pages of the storybook, just getting into an exciting part and becoming somewhat interested, when he suddenly heard the person opposite him say, "But... how could that be? Sect Leader Shen shouldn't be that kind of person..."
She muttered to herself for a while before finally accepting the half-true, half-false information that Li Chen had casually fabricated. She lowered her head and asked, "Are you from the alchemy world?"
Li Chen shook his head. "I am from the Zen meditation community."
Wen Riwan nodded, somewhat absentmindedly saying, "I've heard... that people in the Zen meditation community are very intelligent and good at explaining principles, often answering questions and resolving doubts for others..."
Li Chen said apologetically, "Although I come from the Zen cultivation world, I am not a true disciple of the Zen cultivation world, and I am afraid I am not as powerful as the cultivator Wen said."
"However, I have seen a lot of things with Zen Master Mingcun in the Zen meditation community. Although I do not have the great wisdom of Zen Master Mingcun, I may be able to help the monk resolve his worries."
Wen Riwan glanced at the person opposite her, then quickly lowered her head, as if worried that Li Chenjin's eyes would see through her thoughts. She stammered, "I...I don't have any worries, it's just a friend of mine..."
Li Chen smiled slightly and asked, "May I ask what troubles your friend, the cultivator, has encountered that he cannot resolve?"
“My… my friend really likes someone…” Wen Riwan said slowly, “but the person she likes doesn’t like her back. She’s tried everything to make the person she likes like her back, and she even tried to drive away the person that person likes…”
"She also wanted to do that, but when she was young, her elders told her that one should be upright and honest, a righteous person. Otherwise, on the path of cultivation, it is easy to go astray and suffer from demonic possession, making it difficult to make progress in cultivation, and it would be difficult to shoulder great responsibilities in the cultivation world, let alone gain the respect of the masses..."
"But she just can't do it. She just wants the person she likes to like her back. If they don't... she feels very painful, angry, and sad... If you... if you met someone like that in the meditation community, what would you say?"
Li Chen smiled gently. "Cultivator Wen, if you were that friend of yours, what would you think?"
Wen Riwan was taken aback, staring at Li Chenjin, speechless for a long time.
After a long silence, she whispered, "I...I don't know either...I advised her to restrain herself, but you can't control yourself when you like someone. Just thinking about it...thinking about the person you like liking someone else makes me feel so painful, so incredibly painful..."
Li Chenjin slowly said, "Cultivator Wen, you see so many lovers in the world becoming husband and wife. So I would say that those lovers must have truly loved each other before becoming husband and wife. Do you agree?"
Wen Riwan hesitated for a moment, then nodded.
Li Chen continued, "But look again, even if lovers become a couple, it doesn't change the fact that in this world, when some people get married, others will separate. Even couples who seemed like the most loving couples in the eyes of their neighbors may eventually become strangers. So, should that be considered painful or not painful?"
Wen Riwan: "..."
She stared at Li Chenjin, speechless for a long while, before finally saying, "...I don't know..."
Li Chen smiled slightly, “Actually, if you, Cultivator Wen, had walked through the mortal world and seen more, you would naturally be able to see through these things. Putting aside your friend, Cultivator Wen, who is in pain because the person he loves does not love him, even those who have become lovers will feel pain because of loving too much or not loving at all.”
Wen Riwan was silent for a while, then slowly said, "But why? You've already become a couple, why are you still suffering because of those things?"
Li Chen said, "Because liking and loving are very ethereal things. Even you, the cultivator, probably find it difficult to like only one thing for a lifetime, so naturally there are people who cannot love only one person for a lifetime."
"A person can love you today more than themselves; but tomorrow they may not love you, or even want your life. So love and hate, like and dislike, are things that we humans cannot control. This applies not only to lovers, but also to parents, relatives, friends, and children. In this world, there are parents who regard their children as their own lives, and there are parents who regard their children as a burden."
"By the same token, we can see that love and not love are both elusive and difficult to control. So it doesn't matter whether the person you love loves you back. If you crave affection from others, you are giving your heart and soul away completely, and from then on, your joys and sorrows will depend on them."
"When you entrust everything to someone else, you will naturally suffer day after day about whether the person you love will love you back, how long they will love you, whether they can love you forever, and whether they can love only you. You will naturally become more thoughtful, anxious, and suspicious. I think Master Wen is very insightful, and the friends he makes must be the same. They probably don't want to live that kind of life."
Wen Riwan asked, "Then... what should she do?"
Li Chen smiled slightly, "Love yourself."
Wen Riwan was taken aback. "What?"
Li Chen smiled and continued, "Whether another person loves you or not is a matter of constant change and difficult to control. If someone wants to change their mind, not even nine oxen could pull them back, let alone one person alone. Besides..."
As Li Chen finished speaking, he lowered his head and smiled, seemingly with a hint of self-mockery. "Besides, you can't guarantee that the person you love and who loves you will consider everything for you and value you more than their own life. But you are different. Your body carries your own three souls and seven spirits. Once this body is destroyed, you die."
"The instinct to love life and hate death, to seek benefit and avoid harm, is innate in all living beings. Few people would cherish your life and safety more than you do. So it is more important to love yourself than to seek the illusory love of others."
Wen Riwan: "..."
She stared at Li Chenjin, stunned for a long time, before slowly coming back to her senses.
She opened her mouth, about to say something, when suddenly there was a knock on the door. It was Xiao Qiu, who had been sent away by Wen Riwan to get her clothes, who had returned.
Judging from the sounds coming from outside, the person was still out of breath and must have run there and back. They were in such a hurry that they were probably worried that Wen Riwan would be bullied if she was alone there.
Li Chen picked up his cup, took a small sip, and said, "Cultivator Wen, that Miss Xiao Qiu is truly devoted to you. It's rare to have someone who genuinely cares about you; you must cherish that."
Wen Riwan pursed her lips, slowly stood up, and said, "I...I'll wash these clothes and bring them to you tomorrow!"
Li Chen smiled and said, "Then I will wait here for Cultivator Wen."
When Li Chen smiled sincerely, his eyes would also be filled with a gentle smile, making him look exceptionally warm and kind, which made Wen Riwan subconsciously smile as well.
But she quickly realized something and said somewhat awkwardly, "I was asking about my friend..."
Li Chen nodded. "I know. If there's anything else that Cultivator Wen's friend doesn't understand, Cultivator Wen can talk to me about it and see if I can offer some advice."
Wen Riwan looked at Li Chenjin, hesitated several times before turning around and running away with a slightly flushed face.
Whether she realized her earlier attempt to cover up her mistake or sensed that Li Chen had already seen through her claim of having a friend, she was quite fast on her feet, despite her lack of cultivation, like a nimble wild rabbit in the mountains.
Li Chen finished the rest of the tea in her cup in one gulp, then clapped her hands. Hearing the noise, Jiu Niang Yuanzi immediately ran in and came to her side.
Li Chen patted the head of the sweet fermented rice ball. To reward its nimble legs, he took out a meat bun from his storage bag and stuffed it into the sweet fermented rice ball's mouth, saying, "When I went to the lake to rescue people just now, I saw that the scenery below was quite nice. After we leave this place, I'm afraid it will be difficult to see such beautiful scenery again."
"Besides the beautiful scenery, I see there are quite a few fish in the lake, so fishing must be very easy. Come on, sweet rice balls, I'll take you on a boat trip and go fishing. Let me tell you, when you weren't here, I grilled fish for that old man Shen several times. My skills are pretty good, I'll make some for you to try today."
As if understanding her words, the sweet fermented rice ball immediately raised its head and barked a few times before jumping into her arms. Li Chenjin picked it up and carried it on his shoulder. Under the shocked gaze of Yun Mingyue, who was about to come in, he carried the dog away slowly.
When Wen arrived late that evening, it was already around 5 a.m.
Afterwards, there was the rescue, waiting for Wenriwan to bathe and change, and chatting. After all that busy work, it was only 11:00 AM when they finally sent the person away, which was the perfect time for a lake trip and fishing.
Li Chen and Yun Mingyue obtained a small boat. This boat was different from the small boats in the mortal world that required people to ride. This boat could be driven by spiritual power and moved on its own without wind. If the person using it did not have spiritual power, a spirit stone could be used as a substitute.
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