Extra 10: Strange Child
Five years later, spring goes and autumn comes.
The night is quiet, with occasional howling of cats and barking of dogs in the distance, like a stone falling into the water, splashing and rippling. In just a few moments, the small circle of ripples in the corner of the lake returns to calm, and the night grows darker and darker, like thick ink, peaceful.
The ink was extremely black, and then suddenly it dissolved as if it was dropped into clear water, fading bit by bit, becoming dim and gray, and then, bit by bit, it turned into a light gray...
The bird on the branch rubbed its beak, and murmured something that was clearly uncertain. After a few or three murmurs, as if it had finally confirmed something, the bird suddenly stretched its neck and opened its mouth wide.
Screaming and screaming.
The sky quickly brightened to a light gray, almost white.
"Tap, tap, tap—" A rapid yet gentle knock suddenly sounded outside the door. The person knocking was sweating profusely. He bent over the crack of the door and called out in a panic, "Master, Master, Master, Yun..."
The door to the white room suddenly opened, and the panicked man stumbled unexpectedly. He quickly reached out to grab the door frame, stood firm, and suddenly straightened up. He looked up and saw the figure in front of him. He was instantly moved to tears and shouted, "Miss Yunshu is crying again!!!"
Inside the door, Jiang Yuetan opened his dull eyes: "???"
He was disheveled and had obviously just gotten up with difficulty. He looked dazed when he heard the words, and his eyes were so confused that it seemed as if he would cry in the next moment, showing his sadness.
"What happened..." Jiang Yuetan paused his slow and difficult words, then said with tears in his eyes, "I'll go and take a look." He raised his hand and slammed the door shut. He tidied up, showed a determined look in his eyes, opened the door, and walked out with firm steps.
The person outside the door also calmed himself down, raised his head, closed his eyes, held back his tears, showed a determined look that said "I must be strong", and followed.
…………
"Wait! Calm down, don't move..." someone advised fearfully.
"Get out! Get out--" A hoarse, sharp, suppressed and somewhat unfamiliar familiar voice suddenly sounded.
Immediately afterwards, there was a loud "bang!"
The two people far away outside the room hurriedly quickened their pace and rushed over.
"Yun Shu!"
After turning the corner, people retreated little by little in a panic in the suddenly open and bright sky.
A familiar child figure lay on the floor beside the bed, curled up on the ground with disheveled hair. He grabbed his hair with both hands, rested his forehead on the floor, and kept knocking his head. He buried his face under his hair and cried.
"Yun Shu, Xiao Shu!" Jiang Yuetan screamed, and he and the people behind him suddenly rushed over. They fell to the ground in a panic. He grabbed her hands in panic, pried open her fingers, pushed her hair aside, and pulled her up with force, "Get up first, calm down first."
"What happened..." Jiang Yuetan just opened his mouth to ask, and the two men were caught off guard and their hands loosened.
The child suddenly retracted his hand, and instantly rolled back onto the bed and crawled under the quilt, grabbing the quilt to cover himself, crying and retching, crying and retching...
Both of them were covered in cold sweat, their hearts pounding wildly. It took them a while to recover and slowly stand up. They looked at the group in front of them, stunned and at a loss.
"Xiao Shu..."
Jiang Yuetan called out tentatively, whispering, "Let's go out and talk..."
"Get out! Get out—"
The person in the quilt suppressed a scream, and then the whole quilt began to tremble wildly, and a low cry was heard.
Jiang Yuetan was quiet for a moment, then said, "Okay, let's go out." He turned around and quietly walked out. Everyone was startled and hurriedly followed him out, turning back and slowly closing the door.
Letting others go first, Jiang Yuetan and the people around him stood outside the door, looking at each other in silence.
However, within five minutes, the crying in the room gradually became quieter and then quickly disappeared, leaving the room completely silent.
The two of them waited for a while, but there was no movement inside, so they tiptoed out.
As they walked further away, Jiang Yuetan raised his eyes. The man in front of him wiped the sweat from his forehead and replied, "There was no sign at all. He started crying suddenly at dawn."
"Didn't you calm down after crying in the middle of the night yesterday?" Jiang Yuetan asked with a frown, but didn't expect him to answer.
The man in front shook his head and said, "Looks like he didn't sleep last night either." He paused, looked at him carefully and asked, "Do you want to let..."
Jiang Yuetan waved his hand casually, "What does the child understand? Don't let him go crazy again." He couldn't help but sigh, "It seems to be getting worse recently." There was a hint of annoyance in his eyes.
The person in front pursed his lips, as if trying to calm him down, and then brought up something else: "Also, Patriarch, there was a phone call just now. I also called once last night. They said..."
When Jiang Yuetan heard this, he suddenly opened his eyes wide and looked at him in disbelief. The man who saw him was also confused, "What, what happened?"
Jiang Yuetan was stunned and silent for a long time. Then, coming back to his senses, he said slowly with a serious expression, "I had a dream and was suddenly awakened by you, Yunshu." He paused, squinting his eyes and said slowly in thought, "If I hadn't been awakened by Yunshu, I wouldn't remember this dream. But it was because of Yunshu that I woke up that I still remember it clearly..."
The person in front was stunned when he heard this. To be honest, if he had not been involved in this matter and had not answered the phone and passed on the message, he would never have believed such a rumor.
In the aisle, the two people looked at each other again and were silent for a long time.
The person in front hesitated and said, "So this means that we..."
"Let's go!" Jiang Yuetan frowned and turned around abruptly, quickly heading in one direction. He paused and hurriedly chased after him.
…………
In the ancient teahouse.
Beside the elegant carved tea table, everyone glanced at each other with a smile, saying, "Yuetan is here!" Then they lowered their heads and continued with their work. They casually said, "Yuetan, come for tea?" "Come on, pour Yuetan a cup of tea." "How does Yuetan have time to accompany us?"
Jiang Yuetan closed his eyes lightly, took a deep breath silently to calm his mind, walked over, found a seat and sat down.
Everyone immediately smiled and glanced at him, without asking any questions, they made him a cup of tea and said, "Try it."
Jiang Yuetan lowered his eyes, picked up the small teacup in front of him, brought it to his lips, took a sip slowly, and gently put it down. With a "tap", he said calmly, "Not bad."
"That's good." Everyone nodded gently, then looked at him directly, curved their eyes, and asked, "What's going on at Yuetan?"
Jiang Yuetan remained silent.
I really don't know where to start or how to talk about this matter. No matter how I say it, it seems funny and not taken seriously.
Everyone was in no hurry. They were embroidering on cloth and turning small ornaments in their hands, drinking tea from time to time, and waiting quietly.
For a long time, Jiang Yuetan's mind was confused and he couldn't think of anything good to say, so he just said it straight out and threw the matter out. What he didn't understand, these old guys should understand something after living for so long.
He said slowly and hesitantly, "Yun Shu, something hasn't been right these past few years..."
Everyone kept moving their hands. "Oh?" He raised his eyes, then lowered them to focus on the things in his hands, and said casually, "Is Yunshu unhappy?"
Unhappy. He looked unhappy, but... Jiang Yuetan was silent again, raised his teacup and took a sip.
He put down his teacup, glanced at everyone, and said, "She's been acting so strangely these past few years, and she's been acting like a madman for the past six or two months. Contact the people from her past, and I'll take her there."
Everyone was stunned, and their movements stopped for a second before they looked down at their hands again, as if they were amused by him. They said with amusement, "Yuetan, what are you thinking about?" "It's normal for children to cry a few times, don't be too nervous." "Yunshu has grown up too, let her go out and play more, enjoy the scenery and relax."
Jiang Yuetan said calmly, "You guys don't watch her every day, but I watch her every day. I know better than you whether she's unhappy or going crazy."
He tightened his grip on the cup and said, "I'm not insisting on this. I never thought about it before, but now that things have come to this, even if I'm wrong, let's eliminate them one by one. You guys act as matchmakers, and I'll take Yun Shu through..."
"Yuetan." The person at the head of the tea table suddenly interrupted him, paused, and said with a smile, "Does she still have the gift I gave Yunshu before? That one was the best, and she can't get it back even if she wants. Let her keep it, and tell her not to have any extra thoughts."
The others also had a half-smile on their faces, shook their heads and said, "Yuetan, you too, you're the one who's nervous, and the child is just in a bad mood."
Jiang Yuetan frowned and opened his mouth.
"Yuetan," someone said, looking sideways at him, "You're just too nervous. Just let the child go if she bumps into things and cries. She can get hurt if she wants. As long as she's happy, that's all that matters. You're not letting her do this or that. I think Yunshu is just being too strict with you, and she's feeling down."
Everyone nodded, "Yes, yes."
The person in the main seat also smiled and said leisurely: "I see you are too tired. You should rest well when you need to, and stop making trouble with the child. You are so old, why are you still thinking about this..."
"Then what do you do all day?" Jiang Yuetan stared at him coldly, speaking word by word, "If you really had nothing to do with me, I wouldn't have come looking for you. But you just keep covering up—"
"Yuetan!" someone frowned and shouted angrily.
Jiang Yuetan stared straight ahead at the person in the main seat in front of him and said, "Do you want to watch Yun Shu go crazy? If Yun Shu goes crazy, Lin Qing? Me? Go crazy together?"
He became more and more excited as he spoke: "What did they do back then? Why did you say you did it for? Why did you find someone when they had problems back then, but now that you're in Yunshu, you don't know anything?! Why are you just -"
"It has nothing to do with anyone else!" The person in the main seat said sternly, then softened his expression and said firmly, "Yun Shu's problem is her own. It has nothing to do with anyone else. We are all fine. She should solve her problem herself."
Jiang Yuetan also suddenly raised his voice, "She's going crazy. She can't remember anything. What can she solve?!"
"She's never been normal!" someone nearby shouted, frowning. "I've always been puzzled. What child doesn't cry, laugh, or talk? She just sits there motionless all day, reading, staring at the sky, or looking at the ground. I think she's just overthinking it! Just force her out to play every day, watch more cartoons, and act like a normal child!"
Someone also said unhappily: "Look at other children, they are always laughing and joking. They don't like quiet things. They just run around, eat, drink, play, and raise cats and dogs... Go back and pick something for her to play with."
Jiang Yuetan was so angry that he trembled all over. "I don't care what happened in the past. I just want the problem solved now!" He gritted his teeth and said, "You say there is no problem, so what are you afraid of?"
Everyone waved their hands in annoyance, saying, "No one!" "Many years have passed and everyone has everything. This has long since stopped happening." "It's all because of you that Yunshu started to have these wild thoughts."
Jiang Yuetan said nothing, staring at the person in front of him.
The person in front smiled and said, "You're so old, yet you're still so naive. You know that even if they're fine, they can still cause trouble for you. Okay, have Yunshu take the things and take more of the talismans, elixirs, and magical tools that were distributed on a daily basis."
"What are you trying to hide every day?!" Jiang Yuetan slammed the table and stood up, spilling the cold tea all over the table. The teacup rolled off the table and shattered with a crisp sound.
His eyes gradually showed a frank anger, and he shouted in a stern voice, "Isn't that ridiculous? For all these years, until now, I have no idea what you are doing!!!"
The tea room suddenly became quiet.
Everyone shook their heads, "You are too stubborn, we have nothing to say to you." They lowered their heads and continued with what they were doing.
No one paid any attention for a while.
"Yuetan, if this is the only way for you to calm down, then go ahead." The person in the main seat suddenly spoke softly and patiently.
Everyone paused what they were doing, then focused on their own things as if nothing had happened.
"But there's something I need to make clear to you." He smiled and said, "The child is in a bad mood, and no one can help except her. We are just killing time with nothing to do."
Jiang Yuetan said coldly, "You say yes and no, what do you mean?"
"This person has long been gone!" Everyone couldn't help but look up, sighing in frustration, "Thousands of years ago, when the Yuan Kingdom still existed, the cultivation world was teeming with cultivators, and we could even find our own national preceptor. Who do you think is left now?"
Jiang Yuetan said angrily, "What's the point of going there?"
"Happy."
The person in the main seat burst into laughter, leaning back casually on the chair. He reached out and took a sip from the cup on the table, saying, "It was Yunshu's own problem in the first place. You insist on saying it's our problem. How can we find the problem and solve it for you? We can only have fun."
He smiled, glanced up at the young man in front of him, and said slowly, "Also, isn't Yunshu's situation just your own guess? Did Yunshu say anything?"
Jiang Yuetan supported himself on the table with both hands, his heart beating violently with anger.
The next moment, I heard the person in front of me laugh and say, "I can take Yunshu with me, but no matter what—"
"You should also ask Yun Shu to come over first and tell me what happened to her, right?"
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