Chapter 735 Second Senior Sister, He's Different From Others [Seeking Monthly Tickets!]
After Yu Nianyuan said those words, the surrounding air became somewhat quiet.
Faint sounds could be heard coming from the courtyard outside, as the Fang sisters moved about keeping watch.
Two women stood facing each other by the door of the lobby.
The woman in white pursed her lips and tilted her head, waving a faint wave at the pretty, blindfolded girl:
"Go, Seventh Junior Sister, go back and ask him properly. Convey my message and let him or his elders choose together."
Yu Nianyuan thought Zhao Qingxiu would hesitate, but to his surprise, she shook her head directly and wrote down earnestly:
"No need, I trust Tanlang, he will choose me too. Second Senior Sister, you don't understand Tanlang, he's different from others."
Yu Nianyuan paused slightly, turned around, and couldn't help but scrutinize Zhao Qingxiu's expression.
This time, the sky-blue ribbon she used to protect her eyes no longer showed any signs of dampness. The morning light outside the door shone on her beautiful, upturned face. Even though her once clear, spring-like eyes were no longer there to meet her gaze, Yu Nianyuan could still see a steadfast and determined look in her eyes.
Yu Nianyuan was slightly surprised.
Seventh Junior Sister... seems to have really grown up.
She just didn't know whether to be happy or sad.
Growing up can be described as becoming more stubborn and obstinate, with a mind that is hard to sway.
Yu Nianyuan frowned, feeling a bit of a headache. The main problem was that she couldn't figure out what her seventh junior sister had gone through in just one night, attending a birthday ceremony, to suddenly show such a resolute attitude. Could it be that Ouyang Lianghan had bewitched her?
A silence fell between the two of them.
Zhao Qingxiu grabbed Yu Nianyuan's hand, preparing to write, but Yu Nianyuan suddenly clenched his fist, preventing her from writing.
The two were locked in a tense standoff.
Zhao Qingxiu walked to the table, dipped her brush in water, and began to write.
Yu Nianyuan suddenly said:
"I don't understand the man you're talking about, but I understand people's hearts and the ways of the world."
"From the moment you left Luling and Nanlong, you two were no longer on the same path. You are a virgin of Yue, a future emperor, living far from the court, while he is a scholar, a top scholar of the Great Zhou Dynasty, a scholar of the Xiuwen Academy, and the governor of Jiangzhou, holding a high position in the imperial court. You each have your own responsibilities, your own paths, and in the end, you will be in the south and the north respectively. How can you possibly stay together for long?"
"Let's not even talk about whether he will go with you. Even if he does, if you two want to be together, you both have to make sacrifices, and one of you will have to sacrifice more. That person is probably you, because you are more willing to give and you love him more. But if you don't complain for a day, don't complain for three days, don't complain for three years, what about thirty years? How can you two last like this?"
"Seventh Junior Sister, I'm so worried that you'll regret it. If you go your own way, one day you'll return to Jianze covered in wounds... If that really happens, I'll be very sad, and the Eldest Senior Sister and the others will be very sad too. They'll wish they could kill that brat as soon as possible and end it all. They'll hate themselves for not being tougher back then."
"It is precisely because I do not want to see that scene that I have been so long-winded and repeatedly advising him yesterday and today. I do not have any particular prejudice against him."
"It's because we've seen far too many examples like this, Seventh Sister. You say Ouyang Lianghan is different, and you also think you're different, that your relationship is special and different. But have you ever thought about whether those men and women in the past who experienced life-and-death separations and love-turned-hate tragedies had the same thoughts as you?"
"With so many failed predecessors, why do you still insist on thinking you are special, thinking Ouyang Lianghan is special? Little do you know that most of the tragedies in the world are due to wishful thinking, because of not accepting one's own fate, and always thinking oneself extraordinary."
"Senior sister, I'm not pessimistic. On the contrary, I take it very normally. I don't think you and that guy are a bad match, nor do I think you two are special."
"Seeing your attitude, I've become more optimistic. I even think that Ouyang Lianghan might really make the same choice as you and go together with you right now."
Yu Nianyuan nodded slightly, his eyes somewhat indifferent, and said softly:
"Perhaps, perhaps if you two continue like this, you might stumble along together and be able to roughly balance each other's paths and responsibilities without too much conflict. From that perspective, he's already quite a good man."
"But have you ever thought about what if you two didn't force yourselves to be together, didn't force yourselves to sacrifice? Wouldn't two people who were already good together be able to go further and have a smoother journey on their respective paths? Seventh Junior Sister, have you thought about these things?"
She shook her head, answering her own question:
"No, you didn't think of these things. Seventh Junior Sister, you just feel right now that you and him are one of the very rare and special ones. But your senior sister and I, and the eldest senior sister, can't think like that. We can't comfort ourselves like this. The advice we give you is based on normal circumstances and is for your own good."
"This is definitely the most accurate and suitable option for most women, rather than gambling on that one in ten thousand chance of something special that you imagine in your mind."
"If we don't gamble, even if we miscalculate, it won't cause you any future losses; it'll just be a short-term pain. But if we're right, it will actually save you from taking many detours. Seventh Junior Sister, do you understand?"
As Yu Nianyuan spoke, his eyes softened. He walked to the table, patted Zhao Qingxiu's head, and spoke with a hint of hope:
"So, Xiao Qi, listen to your senior sister. If you're still not convinced, you can go and tell Ouyang Lianghan what your senior sister said. Let him choose between the two paths, especially the first one, the one where you give him credit and a top-level Yunmeng Token. Make sure you explain it clearly. It's also okay to reveal some information about the situation in Xunyang today. It's fine if he knows in advance, it's all the same."
She possessed a gentle and graceful demeanor, and then, as if remembering something, added:
“Well, doesn’t he have an elder in his family? The aunt who had her birthday celebration yesterday seems to be his only close relative. You could talk to her and let her choose with Ouyang Lianghan. After you’ve asked, you can come back and give me an answer, Senior Sister. How about that? Or I can come to your place and wait for you. Either way, it’ll save you the trouble of running back and forth.”
Zhao Qingxiu fell silent for a moment. The water stains on her fingers had dried when she heard Yu Nianyuan say those words.
Zhao Qingxiu dipped her finger in water again and wrote words on the table:
[Does Second Senior Sister know something? Why is she mentioning Aunt Zhen?]
Yu Nianyuan first turned his head and looked at the rising sun outside.
"Red sky at morning, sailors take warning; red sky at night, sailors' delight." Today is a fine day, but the area around Shuangfengjian Xunyang Grottoes is shrouded in a gloomy, hazy white mist.
The white-clad woman chuckled softly, thinking of this for no apparent reason.
Turning back, she composed herself and spoke calmly:
"I heard some things about what happened to my seventh junior sister back then from my master."
"That was a misunderstanding caused by Senior Ape. It is restless and mischievous. To test whether you are a true Yue maiden, it used an embroidery needle to prick the things you care about, in order to arouse your innate swordsmanship. This is also the usual practice for the selection of Yue maidens for each generation, and it has been the same for thousands of years."
“But Ouyang Lianghan’s elders mistakenly believed that you were murdering Tongfu, and sold you to the master who had found you here. The price was one string of cash, which was not even as expensive as rice.”
Zhao Qingxiu's body trembled slightly.
Yu Nianyuan leaned forward and gently embraced the girl whose face was filled with sadness and reminiscence, and asked:
"Seventh Junior Sister, have you harbored any hatred all these years?"
Zhao Qingxiu choked up and did not answer.
Yu Nianyuan said earnestly:
“You can hate anyone, but you can’t hate your master. Your master didn’t take advantage of you. On the day she came to buy you, she frankly told Ouyang Lianghan’s family that you were wronged and made a scapegoat, and that you were not a bad person. But his family didn’t seem to believe it and insisted on selling you. They even urged your master to take you away from Nanlong that day and never come back.”
“My master never carried any money. In order to raise that small amount of money, he pawned his personal sword, which had been with him for many years, in that poor and remote place.”
Zhao Qingxiu lowered her head.
Yu Nianyuan continued:
"You can't rely entirely on Senior Strange Ape. It has a connection with the first generation of Yue Chuzi. It has lived in Yunmeng Ancient Marsh for countless years. It is like a beast and a human, with a strange temperament. We in Jianze cannot command it, and we have long lost communication with it. It does whatever it wants, and no one dares to interfere. Its only connection is Yue Chuzi. Only Yue Chuzi can make it get close to you."
"The only tacit understanding that remains between Senior Ape and Jianze is that we must travel down the mountain to the Wu and Yue regions to find the new Yue maiden of each generation. Jianze will send people to follow and bring the new Yue maiden back... Perhaps this is the instruction left by the first Yue maiden before she died."
She sighed with some emotion:
"However, if Senior Ape hadn't approached you and hadn't used the embroidery needle to provoke you, you wouldn't have mastered the world's number one swordsmanship, nor become the revered Yue Maiden. You might still be trapped in that small rural village of Nanlong, a child bride who wasn't even qualified to sit at the table for a meal."
"Gain and loss are fate."
At this point, Yu Nianyuan fell silent.
When Zhao Qingxiu heard Yu Nianyuan talk about her master, she was stunned for a long time.
After Yu Nianyuan finished speaking, she waited a while before writing:
[What does my senior sister mean...? Who should I hate?]
Yu Nianyuan held Zhao Qingxiu in his arms, resting his chin on her small head. He then looked away, glancing at the bronze sword Zhao Qingxiu had placed on the table, his voice becoming somewhat stiff:
"After hearing about this, my senior sister and I actually had some prejudice against your Tongfu family. As for now... we still have some prejudice."
She pursed her lips and continued:
"However, compared to my senior sister, I am a little better off, because I know that there is always something hateful about a pitiful person, and something pitiful about a hateful person."
“But as Senior Sister said, you have lost so much along the way, in your hometown and Tongfu’s house, your fingers, your voice, your eyes, one thing after another. You only gained something after coming to Jianze. Master, we sisters don’t need anything from you. We are more like family.”
Zhao Qingxiu wrote softly:
My second senior sister said that Jianze didn't want anything from me, but I still felt a little uncomfortable.
"What's uncomfortable about it?"
She sniffed:
Jianze wants all of me.
Yu Nianyuan frowned, hesitating to speak: "How could you have such thoughts..."
Zhao Qingxiu wiped her face, smiled faintly, and continued writing:
So, does your senior sister want them to choose again? Is she convinced they'll do the same thing they did back then and sell me out?
Yu Nianyuan neither agreed nor disagreed, and said softly:
"Seventh Junior Sister actually wants to give it a try, doesn't she?"
Zhao Qingxiu answered almost without hesitation:
I don't want to try, and there's no need to try, because I know the outcome. I know my love will choose me. When that incident happened, we were both young. He was bedridden and unconscious, and the family couldn't make decisions. But things are different now.
She wrote firmly on the table with her index finger:
Now that he's here, I'm not afraid.
Yu Nianyuan asked:
"Seventh Junior Sister, you always think too highly of people. What if his aunt hadn't chosen you, but made the same choice as before? Would she have done it without hesitation again for her nephew's future?"
Zhao Qingxiu shook her head and insisted on writing:
Aunt Zhen is Aunt Zhen, and Tan Lang is Tan Lang; they are different, so how can they be the same?
Tanlang said that if anything happens, he will face it with me. Second Senior Sister, don't you understand?
Yu Nianyuan frowned as she read, noticing Zhao Qingxiu smiling as she wrote:
Tanlang said that as long as two people are together, that's home. 'Home' and 'one person' are different. Home is about facing things together. How can it function without one person?
Zhao Qingxiu's pretty face radiated a kind of brilliance that Yu Nianyuan couldn't quite understand:
[No one should be left behind in the family]
After much earnest persuasion, Yu Nianyuan fell silent.
Yu Nianyuan stared straight at Zhao Qingxiu, as if he had finally understood his seventh junior sister's determination.
She suddenly said:
"Then you've chosen the second path."
Zhao Qingxiu shook her head:
Second Senior Sister, I told you, none of you are choosing. Let Eldest Senior Sister handle it; I'll talk to her.
Yu Nianyuan couldn't help but ask again:
"You trust him that much? What exactly did he tell you?"
Zhao Qingxiu smiled faintly and wrote:
[Tanlang said nothing, he only did.]
After staring at her for a while, Yu Nianyuan helplessly looked away.
She glanced to the side, her pretty face tense, a mixture of boredom and cold warning in her eyes, and said:
“You don’t have to come back with me, but in Senior Sister’s eyes, you’ve chosen the second path. I don’t know what she’ll do next, and I can’t stop her. Seventh Junior Sister, you… don’t regret it.”
No regrets
After Zhao Qingxiu finished writing, she suddenly smiled and ran to the back kitchen.
Yu Nianyuan frowned and asked, "What are you doing?"
[As I was eating my bowl of plain noodles, my senior sister's stomach was already rumbling.]
"...?"
The conversation broke down, and Yu Nianyuan, whose face had been cold and indifferent, twitched violently at the corner of her lips upon hearing this.
Don't try that on me.
Yu Nianyuan waved his hand dismissively.
Zhao Qingxiu seemed deaf and went to the kitchen anyway.
Yu Nianyuan stood still and did not go to stop him.
She pursed her lips and glanced sideways at her seventh junior sister's back as she diligently cooked.
About 15 minutes later.
A steaming bowl of plain noodles sprinkled with spring flowers was placed in front of Yu Nianyuan.
Zhao Qingxiu took off her apron, sat across from her at the table, placed her hands on the table, propped her chin up, and her eyes, covered by a ribbon, seemed to be "looking" at her.
Yu Nianyuan did not touch his chopsticks.
(End of this chapter)
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
