Chapter 201 Encoffining
"orchid……"
As I softly repeated that name, an indescribable sadness welled up from somewhere in my heart.
At that moment, tears welled up in his eyes.
Pipa finally remembered why she had returned here.
It turns out it was for Lan, to fulfill the promise made to the other party.
However, even though it was I who had agreed on the meeting voucher, I still completely forgot about it in the end.
—What about Nalan?
Does the other person still remember the previous agreement? Is that why they came to appear in my dream and in front of me?
If that's the case... if that's the case...
"Why can't you just tell me directly?" Pipa muttered to herself, unable to contain herself.
—If Lan could tell him directly, he would definitely believe it.
No matter how unbelievable or incredible something may be, as long as Lan says it herself, Pipa can understand and accept it unconditionally.
It was like the trust that arose from the bottom of one's heart when one clearly heard the other's voice in the darkness after death for the first time... Perhaps, as Ran said, their encounter had already happened in a previous life.
In the distant, endless past, there lies their beginning—and also their end.
This cycle repeats endlessly, a never-ending cycle of life and death...
According to this view, every separation becomes the beginning of a reunion. Just as every encounter contains the potential for separation.
In that case, love, hate, obsession, or separation by death are all just brief stops in the long river of time, life's scripts with a beginning, process, and ending that can be seen at a glance.
This could have been easily dismissed with a laugh.
However, Pipa thought that she could never completely break free from it.
Perhaps it still comes down to that phrase, 'foolish arrogance'.
Even knowing that they had met countless times in the past, they would meet again countless times in the future.
But those countless loquats are ultimately not oneself; joy or regret are things that cannot be passed on or accumulated.
Ultimately, they are just unrelated, independent entities.
The thought that he had given up the opportunity to spend more time with Lan in order to pursue the so-called 'truth' made him feel uneasy.
The loquat felt extremely uncomfortable.
It was as if, in the darkness, he suddenly remembered that he hadn't asked the other person's name yet, and his heart sank uncontrollably...
Unlike then, it seems that I have already unknowingly lost the opportunity to make amends.
Although Pipa's life so far has not been smooth sailing, she has rarely felt regret.
It could be said that he repays every grievance and every grudge. He had already avenged his mother's wrongdoing and all the times he had been bullied.
In comparison, it is the debt of gratitude that is harder to repay.
Lan Gongzi's kindness in recognizing talent, Li Xiao's lifelong commitment, and Shen Yun's timely help.
And then there's Lan...
Pipa thought of this name. When Lan said she didn't have a name, was she hoping that children could recognize her by her name as promised?
Fortunately, the loquat actually gave the correct answer by accident.
To my shame, the reason Pipa said that was simply because her heart was filled with thoughts of the long-lost Young Master Lan, and their voices were quite similar.
—The word "orchid" that came out at that time was not orchid itself, but the orchid in "orchid clouds stop".
Looking back now, Pipa only hopes that Lan, like herself, didn't have such distant memories. Or perhaps, his true feelings at that time, as he thought, weren't fully heard by the other person.
otherwise……
Otherwise, Pipa simply couldn't imagine what would happen if the other person knew that keeping the agreement would only fulfill one person's longing for another.
And this treacherous person who has completely forgotten the past is the same one who shamelessly insisted on making the promise in the first place.
How can one bear this situation?
How could he... how could he...
Thinking of this, Pipa took a deep breath and looked pleadingly at the only two people in the room besides himself.
"Is there any way I can go back now?"
The latter did not answer the loquat's question directly, but calmly gazed at his younger self.
Even Pipa himself didn't realize that from the moment he left his childhood self, which was like a light boat floating in mid-air, he had already reverted to the way he was when he was outside.
"Why?" Pipa heard her hear what seemed to be her past self asking.
A rare emotion flickered in the young man's eyes as he looked at the loquat, a mixture of curiosity and confusion.
The scrutinizing gaze did not make Pipa uncomfortable at all, perhaps because the sincerity in those eyes was genuine.
Meeting that gaze, Pipa felt her previous tension ease.
"Because I want to see him at least once more."
The boy looked ahead earnestly and spoke, his gaze seeming to see something else beyond the humble room before him.
"I want to tell him that I am very grateful for his patient companionship all this time, and if possible, next time... next reincarnation, it will be my turn to go find him."
As she spoke, Pipa seemed to see the bamboo hut in the woods at the end of the path again.
On a sunny day, snow accumulates on the eaves, and the steps are covered in a white blanket.
It is obvious at a glance that it is a secluded place. Just from the outside, you might even think it is an abandoned bamboo house.
However, as long as you step across the rustling snow and climb the steps...
Walking through the porch under the eaves, gently push open the half-closed door, and you will see a faint orange candlelight.
In the firelight, wisps of smoke rose.
Through the hazy smoke and a clean low table, one could see the young man hidden in the shadows.
Her face was covered by a black veil, and her long hair swayed like water plants, rising and falling with her movements and breaths. Her smiling eyes were just like those of Young Master Lan.
But the loquat knew it was an orchid.
It's just orchids...
If that day ever comes, he will approach the young man, stand before the low table, and call out his name firmly, without the slightest hesitation or wishful thinking.
He would say, "Hello, I've been looking for you for so long, and we're finally meeting again."
What kind of expression would Lan have at that time? Surprise, confusion, or knowing all along?
Or perhaps they would frown in displeasure at the stranger's impetuous behavior and then get up to ask him to leave?
Pipa didn't know, but neither situation would dampen his courage.
After all, being alone for too long can make you feel lonely. Whenever Lan wants to talk, he can be the most patient listener—just like Lan has been doing in her dreams for the past few years.
Conversely, if Lan has that need, Pipa will try to tell her the story of a boy who made a promise to an unseen voice about a future life after his death...
"So, this is your life's wish?" The young man gently interrupted Pipa's chaotic thoughts with his gentle voice.
"……desire?"
The loquat chewed on this familiar word.
Lan once made three wishes, and he was able to come here because of that last wish.
It's an ordinary word, but for some reason, when the other person says it, it seems to carry a special meaning.
The moment the young man finished speaking, the atmosphere in the room suddenly became a little strange... The furnishings were still the same, but a sense of unfamiliarity suddenly arose.
Pipa subconsciously looked around before realizing it was light.
The sun had disappeared without anyone noticing, and what fell through the holes in the roof was no longer the glaring sunlight carrying the scorching heat, but rather a flowing, thick darkness.
It rolled around, peeking out from the edge of the breach, but seemed to be wary of something, and didn't actually go inside.
The room did not become completely dark despite the loss of sunlight.
On the contrary, Pipa could clearly see the young man opposite her, but the temperature around her seemed to be gradually fading away along with the disappearing sunlight.
Pipa couldn't help but shiver. Although he looked like a wandering ghost at the moment, he clearly felt a strange and familiar sense of fear.
That was the tangible, stinging sensation one feels when being watched from afar by the statues in a Buddhist shrine during a worship ceremony. It was also somewhat like the feeling of being stared at from above by countless eyes when standing on the giant tree made of vines.
However, none of them have been as intense and intimate as this one.
It felt as if it were already within reach.
A sudden, intense pain surged in her eyes, spreading to the back of her brain; the overwhelming pain blurred Pipa's vision...
This feeling is clearly the pain of being on the verge of death.
Similar images flashed and overlapped before my eyes like snowflakes.
From cliffs, from high platforms, from the top floors of residential buildings... young people or teenagers with similar faces leap off from various places, either passively or actively.
Time and again it was shattered to pieces, time and again it fell apart, time and again it went on and on...
The world before my eyes was painted with colors as brilliant as if burned by karmic fire, the colors of the blood flowing from his body, one after another.
In those fragments of death, some seeming like yesterday, others like a lifetime ago, only one thing remains the same—
That is, every person on the verge of death will make a wish, about the next life, about the past... Before long, due to the rapid loss of life, they will close their eyes forever in resentment and pain, and fall into darkness.
So naturally he didn't see it—
In fact, after each wish was made, a phantom image would appear beside him. Depending on the scene, the phantom image would appear in varying shades, but it could still be vaguely discerned as a human figure.
Each time, the shadow would whisper in the ear of the deceased, in a gentle yet compassionate voice, "As you wish..."
Then the surrounding scenery began to move forward or backward at an incredible speed, like—to use the first metaphor that came to mind, it was probably like a video recorder fast-forwarding and rewinding.
Before the loquat could even register what was happening, she was surprised that she had unconsciously used such a metaphor.
Those who died, one by one, reappeared vividly in the same scenes.
They appeared unharmed, their faces bearing a similar look of confusion, but then seemed drawn away by the people and things around them, leaving the place where their 'previous self' had died.
One of them was the young Yu Qingzhou who had just left with Shen Yun.
Pipa saw children jumping off the mountain to escape, just as she had experienced before.
He also saw it: thunderbolts struck down, like divine punishment, hitting the villages that worshipped the gods in this era and igniting towering flames.
It turns out that those hellish wails and howls really did happen.
It wasn't just his dying delusions.
Even more bizarrely, while the entire South Village was gripped by panic and disaster due to the sudden thunderbolt, in an inconspicuous corner at the foot of the cliff, a mangled corpse slowly sat up from the ground.
Judging by appearance alone, it's hard to imagine that the owner of this body is actually still alive, and in fact, he couldn't possibly still be alive.
Whether it was the branch piercing the eye socket, the gaping wound in the abdomen, or the bits and pieces flowing out... all of these proved that this person should have been dead beyond any doubt.
However, the child's body still managed to get up from the ground by some supernatural force.
Given the numerous gaps of varying sizes, the body now resembled a tattered fleshy bag, so much so that... the child had to put in considerable effort to keep his eyeballs in their sockets while also stuffing all his internal organs back into his belly.
He finally managed to stand up, swaying unsteadily. He was soaked to the bone by the rain, which made it difficult to see much blood.
However, due to the massive bleeding, he looked extremely pale—in short, deathly pale, not like a living person at all.
He seemed completely oblivious, dragging his already half-limping leg, now with the bone sticking out, and walking in a bizarre, almost miraculous way.
Pipa noticed that the other person seemed to be heading towards the village.
I don't know how much time passed, but gradually the scenery along the way appeared, both unfamiliar and somewhat familiar.
Collapsed houses, charred corpses, twisted and grotesque faces with open eyes...
The child's empty eyes looked around as if searching for something, one hand still covering the pierced eye socket.
Finally, he found his target. In his empty eyes, there seemed to be faint glimmers of light, but upon closer inspection, it was clear that there was nothing there at all, just a lifeless void.
Perhaps due to excessive excitement, the child reached out and pulled at the bamboo pole, which had been charred and then soaked by the heavy rain, completely unaware that his eyeball had fallen out, with only a small section of nerve connecting it.
It's also possible that he had more important things to do and couldn't pay attention to such a small matter.
Finally, the child dug out what he wanted: a battered female corpse with burn marks, but compared to the other charred corpses, she was even considered pretty.
The moment the child dug out the body, he instinctively wanted to get close, forgetting his own situation, and almost popped his eyeballs into the person's face, but thankfully he stopped in time.
This situation clearly frustrated the child.
It took him a while to remember to put his eyeballs back in. This time, he was careful and tore off a piece of the tattered cloth from his body and tied it to his eyes to prevent them from escaping again.
Of course, given the extent of the damage to this body, this simple action took quite a while.
But the child seemed to have enough patience—well, people are dead, so what does it matter how long it takes? There are dead people everywhere here anyway.
And so, the child spent two whole days carefully digging out the woman's body and then using a cart to transport it little by little up the mountain.
The scenery at the summit didn't seem much different from before, except that the area where the village used to be located at the foot of the mountain was now a large, dark patch. Thanks to the weather these past two days, although the child was covered in blood and gore, he didn't rot into a rotting mess on the way to the summit.
While the soil was still relatively soft after the rain, the children spent another day and night digging two connected pits in the ground.
When the weather cleared up, the pit was finally dug. The child went in first to test the size, and then carefully placed the woman's body inside, covering it with some soil to ensure it wouldn't be exposed to the sun.
Then he lay down inside himself, facing the direction of the woman's corpse, his tattered face bearing an expression of satisfaction.
Time passed, and I don't know how much time had gone by.
Another child with a bewildered expression appeared on the mountain path.
He seemed to have just woken up from a long, excessive dream, not knowing where to go or what to do. He simply followed his instincts to the top of the mountain, looked at the raised mound of earth and the unfilled pit beside it, thought for a moment, and then began to fill in the pit.
After doing all this, he seemed to have exhausted all his strength.
After gazing at the two grave mounds, one large and one small, for a moment, I slowly dragged my feet down the mountain. Passing by dilapidated houses, the charred corpses were gone, leaving only ruins and broken tiles on the ground.
The child paid no attention and walked straight towards a dilapidated courtyard. This courtyard was probably the only building in the vicinity that had escaped the lightning strike, but it didn't look very well-maintained.
The child entered the courtyard with practiced ease, crossed the area, and went to a small room on the side, where the bed was covered in dust.
The child didn't pay any attention and went to sleep.
When he woke up again, it was another incredibly hot summer day, the sun blinding him.
The child couldn't stand it any longer and got out of bed. Just then, he heard a faint noise coming from outside the yard. He turned around and saw a girl in black standing by the door.
The girl's skin shimmered with an unusual, luminous white glow in the sunlight, instantly reminding the child of the legendary snow-covered landscape.
As a result, even the depths of his eyes felt slightly cool.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
