Chapter 57: Bodhicitta (VI) He never allowed the tide to recede, the island...
Zhu Ciying has experienced firsthand the feeling of being forgotten.
In her previous life, she and the eldest senior brother already knew each other before her master took her up the mountain.
That night, she and her brother were trapped in a blazing fire. She was young and frail, and after she passed out, she kept muttering about being thirsty and wanting water. Her brother slit his wrists to let the blood escape, saving her life.
At daybreak, a timely rain put out the fire. Zhu Ciying, who had regained some willpower, just opened his eyes a little and was caught off guard by a gorgeous and handsome face and the unique red mole under his eye.
"Don't be afraid, I'm here to save you."
His voice was incredibly gentle.
Zhu Ciying heard it once and never forgot it.
When she woke up again, her brother was no longer by her side. She immediately realized that her brother had died in the fire. The heavy blow made her seriously ill and she became quiet for a while.
Xie Rangchen settled her in the home of a blind old lady who sold sugar for a living at the foot of Huaijiang Mountain, and came to treat the remaining burns on her body every three days.
"Where is the little girl?" Xie Rangchen didn't see anyone, so he asked the old lady.
Grandma: "I haven't heard any noise today. I guess he's hiding."
Zhu Ciying hid behind the door and secretly watched Xie Rangchen talking to the old lady through the crack in the door, and watched him go out to look for her.
"Are you shy?"
The young man's gentle voice suddenly came from above his head. Zhu Ciying shuddered and turned around stiffly.
Seventeen-year-old Xie Rangchen is not as mature as he was at twenty-one. He has a youthful spirit but is still gentle.
"Are you still afraid of me?" he asked softly.
Zhu Ciying was speechless and could only shake her head.
"You have a long life ahead of you, and many wonderful things you haven't experienced yet. Little girl, be careful not to let your good fortune slip away if you look so bitter and resentful all the time."
"But I have no family anymore." Zhu Ciying shed tears and spoke with difficulty.
"You're still young, you'll have it in the future." Xie Rangchen paused and added, "Maybe it will be a lively and bustling home."
Zhu Ciying lowered her head and stopped talking.
The young man stood there with a distressed look on his face. After thinking for a moment, he took out a glass jar filled with sugar and gently touched her forehead.
Zhu Ciying looked up, confused, and heard him ask, "Do you think life is hard?"
She nodded.
Xie Rangchen sighed and said, "I don't know your past. Perhaps you've suffered a lot in your short life. I want to urge you to live well, but when I think about it, I've never experienced your suffering, so how can I help you escape from this sea of suffering?"
"There's little I can do for you."
But your life-saving grace is far better than a salvation... Zhu Ciying wanted to say it, but found that she couldn't say it.
"If you feel like life is too hard to bear, eat a piece of candy." Xie Rangchen put the candy jar into her palm. "I've cast a spell on it. It can bring good luck to anyone who eats it."
"But it loses its original sweetness, so it tastes bland. When you can taste sweetness in sugar, congratulations, you've found your reason for living."
That night, Zhu Ciying peeled a candy, held it in her mouth and savored it carefully for a moment, and came to the conclusion that what Xie Rangchen gave her was just ordinary colorless and tasteless candy.
She folded the candy wrapper into a five-pointed star, put it back into the candy jar, and slept with it in her arms all night.
Later, on the way to Qingwei Sect, she imagined the scene of meeting Xie Rangchen again countless times. She thought that he would be a little surprised, and then say "What a coincidence" with a smile.
But he didn't.
After not seeing her for four years, he had already forgotten her.
His words "first meeting" hurt her heart. For several nights she slept with a glass jar full of candy wrappers in her arms. The next morning she woke up to find her pillow had been wet all night.
She didn't understand why someone she had been with for several months would forget her?
After that, Zhu Ciying turned all her grievances into motivation, practiced hard in Qingwei Sect, and tried every means to attract Xie Rangchen's attention, telling him that he would never forget her, his junior sister, for the rest of his life.
And she did this very successfully.
…
When the rice porridge was almost finished, Zhu Ciying put down the bowl. Then, Xie Rangchen held a white handkerchief and pressed it to the corner of her lips to wipe off the rice grains stuck on them.
Hiding behind the handkerchief, she curved her lips into a smile, raised her hand and gently placed it on the back of the young man's hand, leaning her cheek against his warm palm: "I believe that Senior Brother will not forget me."
The young man was stunned for a moment, then he caressed the girl's fair and smooth cheeks with his thumbs very lovingly.
Forgetting and not being able to forget are two completely different meanings.
He savored it carefully in his heart.
Forgetting is forgetting, it’s just not a deep enough love.
The inability to forget is often due to deep obsession.
"Yes, I can't forget it."
He admitted that she had become his obsession.
Just as he had this thought, "Ding-ling." The ringtone sounded like a sudden thunder.
At the same time, in the deepest part of the Spiritual Abode, the calm seawater suddenly found the courage to cross the forbidden pool and soak the mud on the edge of the island. Even so, it was not satisfied, greedily deepening inward bit by bit, striving to soak more land.
He seemed to be trapped on this island.
*
On the third day, at the agreed time, Chang Xi failed to set off for Japan.
A plague suddenly broke out in the capital of Lingyue Kingdom.
The streets were full of people vomiting non-stop, and the doctors in the clinic were so busy that they kept running around. They searched through all the medical books and ancient texts, but they still couldn't find out what kind of disease this plague was or how to treat it.
A pale-faced patient walked in, and soon after, a corpse, eyes open, was carried out. This cycle repeated itself, and the people of the city were in a state of panic.
Some people packed their luggage and wanted to take advantage of the chaos to escape from the capital with their families, but they were dumbfounded when they arrived at the city gate.
Fang Heyu stood on the city wall, holding a golden order: "Your Majesty has ordered the city to be sealed off to fight the epidemic. Anyone who escapes privately and causes the disease to spread will be executed without mercy!"
"General! My family and I haven't been infected with the disease. If we leave the city now, we might be able to save our lives. But if we stay in the city, we'll die sooner or later!"
"Yes, General. The disease came from an unknown source. Even the palace doctors are helpless. How can anyone conquer it?! General, please have mercy on us and give us common people a chance to live!"
There was a huge crowd of people kneeling at the city gate, including elderly people over 60 years old, young boys and girls in their prime, women holding babies, middle-aged men trying to make a living for their families, and homeless beggars.
"General!"
"General, please have mercy!"
"General, please open the city gate for the sake of my family!"
"General." The guard looked shaken.
"Stop them." Fang Heyu clenched his fists, a trace of pain flashing in his eyes. "Anyone who disobeys my order will be killed without mercy!"
Mortals may not be able to defeat the epidemic, but God bless his Lingyue Kingdom. With the two masters Zhu Ciying and Xie Rangchen, there must be a way to prevent this disaster.
He needed to return home as soon as possible to see their research progress, so he walked quickly down the city wall.
"Bah! Cruel and cold-hearted demon! Without winning a few battles, you abandoned us common people at the critical moment! We honor you as the Great Protector of the Nation!"
"With a general like you, Lingyue will soon be destroyed!"
"What a lousy general! If you don't open the city gate for me, I'll smash you to death!"
"General, be careful!"
Although the guards surrounded Fang Heyu in time to protect him, a lot of vegetable leaves and broken eggs were still thrown at him, and his forehead was hit by a scholar with an inkstone, and half of his face was covered with blood.
"There is no time to worry about these things. You just guard the city gate." He gave the order, jumped on his horse, whipped the horse and rushed straight to his mansion.
The housekeeper was waiting at the door early in the morning and saw Fang Heyu galloping back on the imperial horse from afar.
"General." He greeted with a smile, but his expression changed when he saw Fang Heyu's dirty clothes and blood on his face. "General, go back to the house and change your clothes."
"No need." Fang Heyu raised his hand to refuse and strode into the front hall.
Two hours ago, Zhu Ciying reported the outbreak of an unknown epidemic in Lingyue Kingdom back to Shaoyang Sect. The Sect Master immediately united with other sects in the cultivation world and urgently mobilized the medical practitioners closest to the capital to come and help.
In the front hall, Zhu Ciying and five or six doctors in white coats were studying the blood of the infected.
Fang Heyu took the wet towel handed to him by the housekeeper and wiped the blood off his face while asking, "What's the situation?"
Zhu Ciying said in a deep voice: "It's not an epidemic, it's a poison."
"This poison is ineffective against cultivators, only mortals." Her throat was dry after not drinking a drop of water all morning. "According to current research results, it's 80% likely a newly developed poison. There's currently no antidote in the cultivation world."
"Ordinary herbs are completely ineffective for infected people. They need to take pills to slow down the toxicity. There is no other way."
The housekeeper was horrified. "There are a hundred thousand people in the capital of our Lingyue Nation! How can we have so many pills to give to them..."
Zhu Ciying: "In the next few days, the cultivation world will send someone to deliver a batch of elixirs, and my senior brother and I will also help to refine the elixirs. As for preparing the antidote, it will take at least fifteen days."
She glanced at Fang Heyu and asked, "Has the riot started outside?"
He was ordered to guard the city gate to prevent the spread of the epidemic, but in the face of people's strong desire to survive, it was bound to cause dissatisfaction among some people and riots were inevitable.
"I can handle the outside matters." Fang Heyu's eyes were solemn. "If you need any materials, just let me know."
Zhu Ciying believed in his ability.
She was just about to study the poison for a while when the Soul Contract suddenly sent her a message:
[Junior sister, there are unusual movements in the palace.]
【Do you need to go over and take a look? 】
Go now.
*
Zhu Ciying used several wind-controlling techniques and arrived at the palace in just a quarter of an hour.
Xie Rangchen was waiting for her at the palace gate.
"Brother, your current task is to refine the elixir."
Xie Tiantian can produce a thousand pills in one furnace. If the alchemists in the Dan Sect knew about this, they would definitely make him a genius in the alchemy world.
Zhu Ciying said helplessly: "You don't have to come out with me."
"I'm not at ease." Xie Rangchen said.
"What?" She didn't understand.
"If I don't look at you, my heart will never be at peace."
He never allowed the tide to recede and the island to become lonely.
"How can you expect someone who can't calm down to concentrate on refining the elixir?"
Zhu Ciying looked at him seriously, and inexplicably read a hint of resentment in his eyes?
She raised an eyebrow.
Was he blaming her for saying she didn't need to come along? Was he blaming her for abandoning him and going it alone? If that was the case, then Senior Brother was being too clingy with her.
Now refining medicine and saving lives is more important.
How to persuade someone to go back? Give them some candy? But this trick has been used many times. Will Xie Tiantian get tired of it?
Zhu Ciying looked at him with a headache, and then she realized something was wrong: "Brother, are you out of your mind?!"
Xie Rangchen's resentment intensified: "My main body is refining the elixir."
This tone... was clearly blaming her for abandoning him.
It was only a quarter of an hour apart.
Wasn't he so worried that he could leave his body and come to find her?
Zhu Ciying's heart skipped a beat.
"Brother, a cultivator's spirit is very fragile. It's not worth it if you get hurt in danger later." She warned him first, then pretended to be embarrassed for a moment and said, "I protect you?"
"No one can hurt my soul." Xie Rangchen said.
"Except you."
Those who have signed a soul contract have their souls exposed to the other party's spiritual palace without reservation. If the other party is determined, it is easy to hurt their souls.
But so what?
He insisted on giving her his heart and life.
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Author's note: The candy glass bottle first appears in Chapter 40.
After this copy is completed, the next copy will focus on writing about the two people's past lives.
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