Chapter 92: Very Cherish
The Holy Witch had been staying in the mansion for some time. After Jiaoran had stirred things up, the Governor wanted to draw blood from him again, but found that the blood spiritual power in Mu Jin's body was pitifully little, although it was not completely gone.
When Mu Jin arrived at Yuping Pavilion, the sun was rising.
The morning glow was brilliant, shining on Mu Jin's face, making him look even more noble and handsome.
He walked very fast, as if he had walked this path many times. There was a lot of wasteland outside Yuping Pavilion, but she chose to stay here for a while.
Looking up, the chilly glow of the sunset illuminated the entire Yuping Pavilion. The shadow of the pavilion was overgrown with weeds and ghostly figures.
When the Nanzhao maid outside Yuping Pavilion saw that someone wanted to see her so early, she walked over quickly.
As he got closer, he couldn't help but curl up the corners of his lips. It turned out that the person he wanted to see was the most handsome young man in the Chai family.
"Why is Master Mu Jin here?" The maid bowed.
The door of Yuping Pavilion was wide open so early in the morning, as if to welcome guests.
Mu Jin asked, "Has the Holy Witch awakened?"
The maid shook her head. "Not yet. I drank too much last night and am still asleep. The young master came too early."
"It's okay, I'll just wait for her."
The maid led him up the stone steps. The courtyard was deep and the morning light was just beginning to appear. No one was walking around in the courtyard yet.
"You get up early." Mu Jin said unintentionally.
She immediately took over the conversation and said, "Master Saint Wu said that a distinguished guest would come to see her early this morning, so she asked me to wait again."
Mu Jin was stunned. He didn't expect that the Holy Witch could predict his coming today.
The sky was dimly lit. Mu Jin walked across the courtyard and into the hall. Hot tea was already placed on the table.
The maid laughed, "I didn't expect them to be up and have made tea."
Mu Jin sat down, but unexpectedly, a spider as big as a teacup fell from the sky above her head and landed on the square table.
The maid reached out to touch the teapot and was bitten hard by the spider.
Her face suddenly showed pain, but she didn't dare to scream.
After a moment, the Holy Witch walked out from behind the screen. The maid performed the Nanzhao salute and retreated, not daring to say another word.
She sat down on a chair next to Mu Jin and said, "You know that with your face, you can get a lot of things out of me that others can't."
Mu Jin stood up and saluted, saying, "I dare not." He lost his balance and almost fell to the ground.
The Holy Witch laughed.
He tried to stand up by holding onto the table, but unexpectedly, wherever his hands touched, they seemed to be trapped by sticky spider webs.
His whole body seemed to be stuck in a spider web. He was so frightened that he looked down and saw that the spider that had fallen from him seemed to be waving its tentacles towards him. He was horrified.
The Saint Witch's smile faded, and a white mist was released from his sleeves. When Mu Jin smelled it, his vision gradually became clear.
Then he realized that he was poisoned by her.
But he didn't taste the tea, nor did he even touch the cup.
The Holy Witch reached out, picked up the tea, and drank it. "Are you afraid the tea is poisonous?"
Mu Jin said, "I don't think so."
"Forget it. You didn't come here today just to drink my Five Poison Tea. Tell me, what do you want from me?"
Mu Jin no longer concealed it, "Junior has a favor to ask of you."
Although he is young, he knows that everything has a price to pay.
The Holy Witch gently shook the tea in the cup and said, "I knew you would come today, and I also knew that the little girl had returned from outside."
"Outside? Lord Saint Witch knows where she went?"
The Holy Witch smiled and said, "Of course I know, but you can't know."
"I'm not trying to figure out where she went after she disappeared. I came here today to ask for something else."
She pondered for a while, then took out a dried flower and a tinderbox.
He blew up the fire stick and lit the flower. The petals burned and gave off a special burnt fragrance, and a few broken petals fell on the table.
She pinched the petals and looked at them on the table, muttering something.
"Disaster."
Mu Jin was worried that she wouldn't help. "Master Saint Wu, please tell me what you want. Mu Jin will definitely find a way to provide it."
The Holy Witch frowned and pondered for a moment before saying, "Are you asking me how to restore the spiritual power of your blood?"
Mu Jin said, "That's not the case."
"Oh?" She didn't expect that she could be wrong.
"I would like to ask you to help me transfer the spiritual power from Jiaoran to me."
Hearing him say this, the Holy Witch couldn't help but become curious and looked sideways. The young man in front of her was not afraid of her.
She is infatuated, beautiful, and smart. Such a person is a perfect match for her silly apprentice. What a pity.
"What does your Excellency wish to ask me?"
The Holy Witch looked at him in a trance. "If you do this and die, are you willing to do it?"
Mu Jin said yes.
"Why not leave with her and never get involved in anything here again."
He laughed dryly, "As long as this strange blood still flows in her body, she will be the prey of those people. One day, she will be hunted down like her mother and meet a miserable end. I just want her to live an ordinary life, free from the constant flash of swords and guns."
"Do you know you shouldn't have come to me? If I had helped you, you might have fallen off a bottomless cliff. Honestly, you shouldn't have come back after you left, because your mission has been completed. Coming back would only bring you more suffering. If you take another step forward, you'll be shattered to pieces."
Mu Jin said, "I'm already at the bottom of the cliff, and I'm not afraid of falling down again."
She looked at him for a long time, feeling reluctant. "Don't do anything for her anymore, because you don't owe her anything. From the beginning to the end, she owed you."
Mu Jin didn't understand what she meant, but still said, "I only ask this one thing of you. I want her to no longer be stained by conspiracy and blood, and to walk a smooth path in the future."
She sighed secretly, "There is a way, but I'm afraid you can't bear it."
Mu Jin was delighted, "Junior is willing."
She raised her hand and said, "Listen to me first, then make a decision. Maybe you will change your mind then."
"On a rainy night many years ago, there was a pregnant woman." She coughed, as if it had been too long and she couldn't remember it clearly, so she wanted to use a cough to slowly recall it.
"These are some old things, but I think they are very important to you. Even though everyone has kept it from you, it is really unfair to you. You have already paid too much."
"It happened more than 20 years ago?"
"Exactly. When they came to find me, I knew it was a big problem."
"Who is the big trouble?"
"Jiaoran's biological mother, Chai Ying."
"Lord Saint Witch has known this for a long time..." Mu Jin intuitively felt that she must have a close connection with what happened back then, and even Chai Yu was involved.
"Of course, she looks so much like her mother. There was only an hour left, and in just half an hour, they would arrive and take away Jiaoran and Chai Ying, also known as Jiaoyue. She was too weak, and the childbirth had exhausted her strength. She kept crying, saying that she could be taken back, but her child could not, and that her child must never grow up in the Chai family. I didn't know who the child's father was, so I asked. The woman with the scar on her face in the inn pointed at a man and said that his surname was Mu, and the child's surname was Mu. She said that Chai Ying and Mu Feng were in love, but their families didn't allow it, and she asked me to help them. Chai Ying and I had known each other for a long time in Nanzhao. I have known her for many years, but I have never seen Chai Ying cry like that. She begged me to find a way, and the woman with the scar on her face also begged me, saying that she would be willing to do it even if it meant exchanging her life. Her expression was exactly the same as when you begged just now."
Mu Jin's throat was dry. "What did they ask you for?"
The Holy Witch said, "Just like you asked me just now, to hide the child's magical blood. When she was born, the sky above that dilapidated border town was filled with boundless purple light. To hide the miraculous light, the entire inn lit all the eternal lamps."
"Have you never wondered why Chai Yu asked you to call him uncle instead of uncle? Logically, you should call him uncle. I think you have guessed that the man surnamed Mu was just pushed forward to save face for everyone, and he is not Jiaoran's father at all. Later I learned that Chai Ying is not of the Chai family bloodline, but was just an adopted daughter who was accidentally discovered by the Chai family, and she gave birth to Chai Yu's child."
Mu Jin was unable to utter a word. He realized that his nails were digging into his palms.
"I've strayed off topic. You want to know how I helped her, right? Actually, that wasn't easy. It was incredibly difficult to make that girl hide the talent and bloodline she inherited from her mother in just half an hour. If it were just a matter of swapping the children, that would be easy."
"You exchanged me for Jiaoran?"
"Yes. However, the governor is very cunning, he is not stupid at all. It is too difficult to deceive him easily. The disfigured woman took out her child and said she wanted to exchange it. You are that child. I used the blood exchange technique to exchange Jiaoran's blood with yours. In this way, your blood will have the same spiritual power beyond mortals as hers. The process was extremely painful. They were worried that the newborn child could not bear it, so I had to transfer all the pain to you. The blood exchange technique is also difficult to perform, unless the two children are born on the same month and day. You are one year older than her. Both were born on October 16th. I didn't expect such a coincidence."
Mu Jin's face twisted, but he tried his best to calm himself down.
"You only had a nickname back then, Jinzi. I remember the woman with the disfigured face kept coaxing you, saying, 'Jinzi, be good and don't cry.' The blood exchange technique is difficult to pull off, and I've only seen it in books left by my clan. I just tried it, and unexpectedly it worked. They then exchanged children and gave you to Chai Ying. Chai Ying promised the woman that she would give you fine clothes and delicious food, and that you would become the future master of the Governor's Mansion. After I performed the blood exchange technique, you cried so hard that you even vomited blood, staining Chai Ying's collar red. Your mother then said, 'From now on, there will be no more Jinzi in the world, only Mu Jin.' As for Chai Ying, she looked at the bright moon and named the child Jiaoran."
Mu Jin murmured these two names.
The Holy Witch said, "To make you look more like a newborn baby, I even used the bone-shrinking technique on you, which was extremely painful. You see, everyone has done their best to ensure that girl has a stable life. Even you, without realizing it, have already paid a lot. Is this fair to you?"
Mu Jin breathed rapidly, "No, you're wrong, it's not..."
"I have no reason to deceive you. Although I have been moving between various forces, I know very well that you were just a baby back then. I am guilty of everything I did to you. You have no ability to fight back and can only let us control you. After all these years, has anyone felt sorry for you? I don't think so. Everyone is taking advantage of you. Mu Jin, live for yourself and stop giving everything."
"You're lying, full of lies!"
"I heard you have an exceptional talent for painting, capable of rendering anything lifelike. Back then, I remember a Northern Border painter in that inn. He was deeply in love with the disfigured woman. From just a few of the paintings in the inn, I could tell he possessed a remarkable talent for painting, with a particular devotion to landscapes. It was a pity, however, that he died in the arms of the disfigured woman, protecting her during the fierce battle that night. That Northern Border painter, who had devoted his energy to painting, embracing the God of Love, died like that."
Mu Jin couldn't help but laugh out loud, with a bitter smile on the corner of her mouth.
He looked at his fingers quietly. These words hurt him more than his blue fingers and the wounds from being sucked blood over the years.
He remembered those tourmaline beads, heavy Buddhist beads, compassionate Buddhist beads, which hit him hard between his fingers. He had never been skinned, but the pain was more unbearable than a knife cut. He remembered that his hands were shaking from being hit, and he remembered that he fell to the ground in pain like a dog.
He was taught to grow up well and become the kind of boy Chai Yu wanted to see.
He remembered waking up in the secret room with fear, sitting blankly on the silver stream with a strange smell. There was no one there, and no sound of any living thing.
Being thrown into darkness countless times, he felt that there were countless ghosts watching him quietly in the darkness, ready to stretch out countless hands to strangle him when he fell asleep.
He had fallen into endless darkness, gradually learning to fight the darkness, pain, loneliness, and fear. Then one day, someone held out a rope to him, asking him to hold it. He looked up and saw a girl with bright eyes. She had burned his hell, pulled him into her arms, and told him she loved him countless times. But now, he had to face it. She was the culprit.
He grew up in cruel abuse and used to treat others cruelly. It was she who came to him and hugged him tightly as he was struggling in the whirlpool. It was a strange feeling to be loved sincerely and without regrets. The strength of her grip on his hand, her breath as she got closer, her scorching gaze.
"She ruined you." said the Holy Witch.
After an unknown amount of time, there was complete silence.
He chuckled.
The Holy Witch couldn't see through his heart. "Why are you laughing? Are you laughing because of your miserable life?"
Mu Jin said no, "I'm just thankful."
"What are you thankful for?"
"I'm so glad that she didn't have to go through everything I went through. I'm so glad that she didn't grow up in darkness, and I'm so glad that so many people cherish her."
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