Spring light meets water
Before she could think any further, she held her breath and chased after him, stepping out of the kitchen door. The blinding sunlight rushed into her vision, and for a moment, she was blinded by a white light. Before she could adjust, she heard the sound of the garage door rolling up. The nameless anger and the embarrassment of being ignored surged into her heart again.
Without a second thought, Jin Xilu swayed slightly, gritted her teeth, turned around decisively, and ran towards the garage door. Once she was steady, she immediately spread her arms to block the car. She stared at Jiang Yilin, who was frowning in the car window, and spoke firmly and earnestly before he could say anything.
"You're going there again? You know what that sound is, right?"
Jin Xilu was still half a meter away from the front of the car, but she gritted her teeth because she was still unsure. With one thing after another piling up, she could no longer figure out Jiang Yilin's thoughts.
When she saw the person inside the car, she rolled down the window and placed a hand with distinct, gray knuckles on the side of the window, giving an somewhat incongruous OK sign. Then she heard him move his lips and raise an eyebrow, looking very relaxed.
"Stand on the right. I'm not a good driver. Let me reverse and change direction before you get in." He said this without batting an eye, his lips slightly upturned, his phoenix eyes staring straight at you with a gentle light in them. He even spread his hand on the car window to feign innocence, then gestured to the right to signal her to stand aside.
Jin Xilu believed him because it was indeed difficult to carve out a plot of land in the corner of the yard, next to a flower stand and a stone bench. She was still worried, but she kept saying, "I'll stand right next to you. After you carve it out, you have to stop."
"You'll wait for me, right?"
"Of course." Hearing his unwavering words, Jin Xilu finally stepped aside. She had only taken two steps when she heard Jiang Yilin's panicked voice again.
"Sanhua, be careful!" Jin Xilu quickly turned around to look for the calico cat. Sanhua was standing on the wall, pacing back and forth, pretending to tremble. Jin Xilu was afraid something might happen to it, so she stayed by the wall. But in those few seconds of turning around, Sanhua was in danger.
Jiang Yilin turned the car around decisively and smoothly, turning the tires to the left and driving out of the garage in one go without a moment's hesitation. You couldn't tell at all that he said he wasn't good at driving.
"Jiang Yilin, you bastard!" Jin Xilu couldn't catch up with his car at all; she only managed to inhale more of his exhaust fumes after running a few steps.
Jiang Yilin just doesn't want her to get close to the sacred mountain; he must have something to hide. Jin Xilu is furious, but she has legs to stand on, and today she's determined to tear off his mask no matter what.
They grew up together, and Kim Hee-ro didn't want to believe he would hurt anyone else.
Walking there wasn't practical, so Kim Hee-ro went to find the steamed bun shop owner. But the tricycle had been borrowed, leaving only a bicycle. Kim Hee-ro pushed the bicycle, thinking that a bicycle was better than nothing.
After pedaling for an hour, Jin Xilu finally arrived at the foot of the mountain. She put her bicycle aside and began to climb.
The strange sound only appeared once, and then it never came again.
Jin Xilu planned to intercept Jiang Yilin at the mine entrance, but she didn't expect to run into Xin Xuan on the way. She greeted Xin Xuan, who was fully armed and carrying a basket, and was about to leave when Xin Xuan called her back.
"Xi Lu, don't run away." Xin Xuan put down her basket, stood on the ground, and called out to her, then took out a handkerchief to wipe her sweat.
As Jin Xilu stopped, she couldn't help but peek into the basket on Xin's back. Seeing only some mugwort, she didn't understand and asked directly, "Teacher Xin, what's wrong? Did you call me to ask what's wrong?"
Xin Xuan stared lifelessly into Jin Xilu's dark eyes, as if trying to read her heart as well, like a cluster of black fungus in the deep mountains, which started as a small black dot, but continued to spread and squeeze, and was finally forced to bloom into a withered and lonely "flower".
"Why did you come up the mountain? What are you looking for?" Xin Xuan wiped the sweat from her chin, leaving a grayish-green stain on her white handkerchief.
Jin Xilu almost instinctively wanted to hide her search for Jiang Yilin. She subconsciously felt that Xin Xuan disliked anyone in the Jiang family. But before she could find a suitable reason to leave, she heard Xin Xuan's dry, itchy cough.
"Teacher Xin, please take a rest. Why did you pick so much mugwort?" Jin Xilu said worriedly, helping Xin Xuan to lean against the large banyan tree behind her to rest.
This action did not move Xin Xuan at all. Instead, she gripped Jin Xilu's arm even tighter, as if she wanted to tear off the outer fabric and let all the cotton fall off. It was as if she wanted to twist her bones.
"You're going to find someone, aren't you?"
Xin Xuan's eyes were red-rimmed, and the dark circles under her eyes looked like a mark of pain. She stared at Jin Xilu, her lips slightly parted, and she spoke. The next sticky pain was transferred to Jin Xilu.
"You're looking for Jiang Yilin, right?" Xin Xuan suddenly let go, her withered lips parted slightly as she breathed out, but her eyes were still sharp, carrying a hint of disdain that was hard to tell. After speaking, she didn't look at Jin Xilu but sat under the tree, holding her mugwort basket, half-heartedly concealing her injured leg.
Jin Xilu bit her lip, a hint of hesitation flashing in her eyes. She knew that Xin Xuan was deliberately waiting for her here and must know a lot about her, but she didn't want to ask. There was too much information, too much confusion, and she couldn't tell what Xin Xuan really wanted to get from her behind all this goodwill.
So she only stayed in front of Xin Xuan for a moment before running away.
Ignoring her gloomy eyes, a mysterious power surged within Jin Xilu. She took a step forward, amidst the endless chirping of birds in the forest and the flattened winter grass that made way for her. She thought she would still leave without hesitation.
Having learned her lesson from Jiang Yilin, she no longer wanted to learn the truth from others. She wanted to pry open Jiang Yilin's mouth and make him voluntarily pay for it.
As the sunlight that had been blocked from Xin Xuan's eyes moved away, she was genuinely surprised that Jin Xilu, who clearly saw that she needed help, still ran away without stopping, which was not what she had planned.
A fire of anger ignited in Xin Xuan's heart, followed by a chilling fear. Jin Xilu had grown up and no longer relied on the people around her; in other words, Jin Xilu had begun to doubt her.
No! Absolutely not!
So Xin Xuan staggered as she tried to stand up and chase after Jin Xilu. Her knee knocked over the basket of mugwort, and the spilled mugwort wilted and stained with her footprints. She staggered forward two steps but still brushed past the hem of Jin Xilu's clothes.
"Jin Xilu, you'll regret trusting Jiang Yilin so much now! The men of the Jiang family are devils." Xin Xuan lay on the ground, her black ponytail stained with grass, her voice sharp and piercing, a mix of crying and laughing.
Jin Xilu closed her eyes and sighed, clenched her fists and stopped walking. Then she simply turned around, squatted down and helped Xin Xuan up again. Her voice was very faint and calm, but she still did not want to look into Xin Xuan's eyes.
Because Kim Hee-ro was also afraid that Shin-hyun was right, and seeing that Shin-hyun had only fallen and was not sprained, Kim Hee-ro stood up again and looked down at Shin-hyun's head. If she could, she would not want to hurt her, but now all she could do was to pull her away when she left.
“Teacher Xin, that letter was written to me by you, wasn’t it? I don’t know what you want to do, but if you want to hurt Jiang Yilin, I won’t do it.” After saying that, Jin Xilu didn’t forget to help Xin Xuan pick up the overturned basket of mugwort before leaving.
"What letter!"
Upon hearing her words, Xin Xuan suddenly looked up, her tears ceasing, leaving only a sorrowful smile. Her thin, pale hands resembled a piece of rotten wood that had been struggling and floating in a flood for days. This time, her strength was so weak that Jin Xilu even wondered if Xin Xuan was ill.
"Heh, I can tell you that I never sent that letter, and I know you want to help that Jiang family kid break the curse."
Xin Xuan held onto Jin Xilu's sleeve tightly. Knowing that Jin Xilu was avoiding her, her voice remained calm, and she no longer insisted that Jin Xilu look at her.
“Here’s a diary. Take it home and read it. If you have any questions after you’ve finished reading it, come back to me.” Xin Xuan picked up the basket next to her, dug out the leather notebook that was being pressed down by the mugwort from the bottom of the basket, and handed it to Jin Xilu.
Kim Hee-ro simply took the notebook without opening it on the spot, but couldn't help asking before leaving.
Why did you do this? Why did you help me?
Xin Xuan sat on the mossy ground, letting the sap from the grass and trees stain her trouser legs, her hand stroking the cracked bark of the banyan tree behind her. She sensed Jin Xilu's softening heart, and listening to Jin Xilu's innocent yet cautious questions, Xin Xuan seemed to rediscover the joy she once had in teasing little girls.
“You are Meiling’s granddaughter, the little girl she cares about most. I will not hurt you.”
Jin Xilu put away her diary and remained silent. She still believed what Xin Xuan said, but she didn't want to get too close to Xin Xuan because she always felt that she saw Jiang Lianyin's shadow in her. Both of them had a kind of rotten plant smell about them.
The two looked away for a moment, and then Xin Xuan suddenly pounced on her without any warning. Just when Jin Xilu thought she was about to get into a fight, Xin Xuan sneered and, looking rather disheveled, used her elbow to push Jin Xilu away against the earthen slope.
Kim Hee-ro was confused until she took a few steps before she woke up and turned around, only to see a large red spider lying where she had just been standing.
"Thanks."
"Don't worry about me, you're the kind of person who won't give up until you hit a brick wall, go find him!"
Kim Hee-ro did not refute. Her heart was hanging high, ready to crash down at any moment. Meanwhile, the red ants that had only existed in her imagination were still gnawing at her numb toes, and her feet were imprisoned.
She suddenly didn't want to rush to find Jiang Yilin anymore, because she had a premonition that this trip would be fruitless, and the reality might not be one she could accept.
She left Xin Xuan, then stopped halfway.
The forest was bathed in bright sunlight, the golden rays blending with a layer of natural green cellophane. Kim Hee-ro wondered if she was hallucinating; she could hear the sound of a candy wrapper being torn.
Before she could escape, the leaves above her head rustled, the fresh leaves were so intense they had already soaked her. She bent over and sneezed several times in a row. The next second, when she reached out to hold onto the tree, her arm sank, and she slipped on the moss. She was knocked unconscious by a fat cat that fell from the sky.
"Damn, I've really been fattened up by the gods; I can't even climb trees steadily anymore." The calico cat got up again, bounced its heavy belly, and wondered if it had just bumped into something. It flicked its tail and looked down, "Oh my god! I killed the zookeeper!"
Kim Hee-ro experienced only a brief moment of darkness before regaining control of her body. Upon hearing human voices, she instinctively looked to the side, only to find no one there. Then, as she looked up, a flat, large cat face appeared right in front of her.
Oh, ever since she overheard the orange cat talking last time, she wasn't too surprised to hear the calico cat's voice now. She even thought of saying, "It's not dead, don't worry."
"Ahhh, you can understand me!" The calico cat bristled, her reaction was much stronger than the orange cat's before.
“Sometimes I can understand, sometimes I can’t. The same thing happened with the orange cat last time.” Jin Xilu sat up again, picked the leaves stuck to her hair, and noticed that the calico cat seemed very nervous and anxious.
"How did you end up on this mountain?" Jin Xilu grabbed the calico cat's front paws, preventing her from running away.
"You don't know! You actually don't know?" Sanhua paced back and forth, its sizable paws drawing figure eights in the air in a flustered manner. It mumbled and mumbled for a long time without being able to form a complete sentence, as if it also had its own concerns.
"That's right, oh, it's the god, him!"
"Who is this deity you speak of?" Kim Hee-ro squinted, and finally tentatively uttered the name she wasn't entirely sure about, "Jiang Yilin?"
Taking advantage of Jin Xilu's distraction and speculation, Sanhua, with an unknown amount of strength, flicked her tail and broke free from Jin Xilu, leaving behind a trembling voice saying, "Oh dear, I can't explain it! You, you, you don't follow me, I'm going to save the gods!"
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