Chapter 88
Chapter 88
Someone said, “Madam, they say this temple was built many years ago by the local people to honor a venerable master who killed all the bandits and brought peace to the region. But lately, there have been some sinister rumors about it, and the temple gradually fell into ruin. We should hurry on.”
Madam Ding, however, remembered the string of Prayer Beads her daughter had chosen on her first birthday and smiled. “If this is a place blessed by a master who protected the peace of an entire region, how could we pass without paying our respects?”
She led her people inside and ordered them to tidy the disordered temple.
At last, the dust-covered Buddha statue was revealed in its true form.
Madam Ding knelt on a prayer cushion and said with utmost sincerity, “This believer asks for neither wealth nor power. I ask only that the venerable master protect my son Yanyu and my daughter Lingling, and grant them lifelong health and peace, free from calamity and misfortune.”
Madam Ding then lit a stick of incense. It was the final offering the temple would receive for decades.
Qiao Ying recalled Yan Yanchi’s words. “Daoist Master Yan said that although your soul was trapped in Guang’en Temple, the temple also protected you and prevented your soul from scattering. Could it be because of the incense your mother offered back then? Perhaps the venerable master who sacrificed himself to save others was secretly watching over you.”
The more she considered it, the more likely it seemed. She took Shen Qingyu’s hand and shook it. “Doesn’t that make sense?”
Shen Qingyu chuckled. “Perhaps it does.”
Ding Ling had never considered such a possibility. She had thought herself unloved, yet her mother, dead these many years, had used that single, devout offering to tie a bond of protection around her, one that crossed the bounds of time, life, and death.
She turned away and struggled to restrain herself, repeatedly raising her hands to wipe her eyes. Her voice choked with sobs. “I’ll… I’ll go check on the Daoist Master.”
Ding Ling vanished. Qiao Ying pretended not to notice that she had cried again.
Propping her chin in both hands, Qiao Ying sighed with feeling. “Sometimes, what one person casts aside as worthless is a Precious Treasure in the heart of another.”
A tiny grasshopper suddenly dangled in front of her face, startling her.
Shen Qingyu laughed in delight. Deliberately waving the grasshopper close to her face, he said, “Yingying is such a coward.”
Qiao Ying angrily snatched the grasshopper away. It was too delicately made for her to throw aside, so she complained, “Yes, I am a coward. You’re not allowed to scare me on purpose again!”
Shen Qingyu tilted his head. The ends of his white hair and the white silk blindfold over his eyes traced the arc of the wind. His lips curved in a tender smile as he poked her cheek, refusing to stop until he felt the soft flesh dimple beneath his fingertip.
“Yingying was brave enough to marry me. What could you possibly be afraid of?”
“I don’t think marrying you is something to fear.”
The malicious amusement faded from Shen Qingyu’s smile, leaving a pale emptiness in his expression.
Qiao Ying moved closer and nestled against his chest. “Did it never occur to you that marrying you might also have been what I wanted?”
She simply had more to consider. She did intend to marry him, but only after she found her way home. Instead, Shen Qingyu had forcibly moved the wedding ahead of schedule.
Qiao Ying looked at the grasshopper in her palm and idly prodded it as she murmured, “In Phoenix Town, what did it matter that Mu Yunshu’s thread of fate had snapped? Bai Xue cared for her. Even if no one else did, she mattered to Bai Xue.”
“In Fangcun City, Ah Yuan and Aunt Wang might have been nothing more than tiny ants in the eyes of the powerful. But Ah Yuan had her brother, and Aunt Wang had Xiao Shao. To each other, they meant the entire world.”
“In Yunling Prefecture, Ding Lingling isn’t as lovable as Ding Fufu. But her mother saw her as the perfect blessing she wished to protect above all else. Then there is Daoist Master Yan. For all the venom in his mouth, he was willing to sacrifice his life to protect her when danger came.”
Qiao Ying raised her eyes and gazed at the silent young man.
Under the moonlight, his skin and hair were both white as snow, giving him the translucent beauty of jade and crystal. His azure robes took on a faint hue beneath the luminous moon, like a distant mountain traced in blue-green ink. Against the pure white of his hair and skin, the color only made him appear more untouched by the mortal world, an immortal who had never tasted earthly fare.
But when Qiao Ying caught the end of one lock of his hair, it was as if she had seized a kite string. He instinctively clasped her hand, enclosing her small fingers in his palm. Only then did he finally have a tether to this world.
Qiao Ying could not help laughing softly. “Some people fear you, and some despise you. How can you not understand that there will naturally be people in this world who like you too?”
Shen Qingyu’s lips moved, but even after a long time, he could find no voice with which to answer.
Qiao Ying said, “Shen Qingyu, I’m cold.”
Before his thoughts had returned to normal, his body responded by instinct. He bent down and wrapped both arms completely around her, his tall frame shielding her from the cold wind attacking on every side.
After a long while, Shen Qingyu asked very softly, “I am not an Evil Ghost?”
He felt the person in his arms shake her head against his chest.
“No.”
“I am not a monster?” he asked again.
Her breath stirred against his chest, and he felt as though tiny claws were scratching relentlessly inside it.
“No.”
His Adam’s apple bobbed before he asked once more, “Then I am… a jewel? A treasure?”
This time, the vexing rhythm of her breathing threw his heartbeat into complete disarray.
“Yes.” Qiao Ying raised her face, her eyes curving with a smile. Now it was her turn to mischievously poke several little dents into his cheeks. “To me, Shen Qingyu is a jewel, a Precious Treasure, the most unique existence in the whole world!”
The young man had always possessed a terrible disposition, and only recently gained the additional identity of her husband. Now, however, he was remarkably good-tempered, obediently allowing her to do whatever she wished to him.
His dazed look was so amusing that Qiao Ying burst out laughing.
Nestled in his arms, she was like a ball of flame, little by little igniting his cold flesh and bones, sending delicate ripples through the silent moonlight.
Before long, he seemed to imitate her. Life entered his empty expression, warming the icy jade and crystal. Light laughter spilled from his lips and wove a dense net, ensnaring the springlike tenderness that had no place in a winter night.
Qiao Ying eventually succumbed to exhaustion and fell asleep in his arms. At last, Shen Qingyu stopped acting deranged and making her bask in the moonlight with him. Carrying her, he descended from the roof. Even after his feet touched the ground, he neither woke her nor set her down, but walked slowly toward their inn.
A passerby caught sight of a figure in azure robes with white hair moving through the wind late at night. The ghostly figure was even carrying a young woman. Terrified, the man fell to the ground and began trembling uncontrollably.
“A ghost! An Evil Ghost has come to seize someone!”
The handsome young man turned his face toward him. Beneath his white silk blindfold, a smile spread across his lips, gentler even than the moonlight.
He patiently explained, “I am not an Evil Ghost. I am a Precious Treasure.”
The passerby was only more afraid. Watching the uncanny figure walk away, he shakily tried to stand and flee, only for the figure to retrace two steps.
The passerby collapsed to the ground again.
The young man added with a faint smile, “A unique Precious Treasure.”
The passerby had nothing to say.
After the young man walked away again, the passerby braced his palms against the ground and got halfway up. Then the terrifying figure came back once more, and he landed hard on his backside again.
“I am a unique Precious Treasure. My wife said so.”
The young man’s voice was clear, pleasing, and light with delight.
Still carrying the sleeping girl, he turned and disappeared into the clear breeze and bright moonlight.
The poor passerby remained sprawled on the ground, clutching the backside he had landed on three times. Afraid that the Evil Ghost might return yet again, he did not dare get up for a very long time.
Dammit, that Evil Ghost had to be out of his mind!