To the east of the capital, Biyun Mountain.
Last night, there was heavy snowfall in the capital. The originally verdant and green Biyun mountain has become a vast white.
“Your Majesty, I can’t move,” Qiu Yutong really couldn’t move anymore. He sat his butt down on a large piece of stone and breathed out mist into his cupped hands, “The weather is too cold.”
Xiao Xizi quickly passed him the brass hand warmer, “Young, Young Master, handwarmer.”
Qiu Yutong took the handwarmer and hissed out softly, “So hot.”
Xiao Xizi shyly scratched his head, “It, it might be that they added too much coal, this one’s skin is coarse and thick, I can’t feel the heat.”
“Here, you should take it first.” Qiu Yutong took the handwarmer and gave it to Xiao Xizi. Looking upwards, there was only a steep, narrow path of limestone stairs snaking up with no end in sight.
He hesitantly took a glance at Lu Xiao. “You really want to go up? I heard the Song temple was at the top of the mountain which is still a long way to go, which will take around two hours of walking.”
Lu Xiao softly asked, ”How do you know?”
Qiu Yutong choked for a bit, mumbling, “I heard it from others.”
“So it seems,” Lu Xiao nodded, seemingly accepting the answer, not chasing it any further.
He hesitated for a bit, half-kneeling in front of Qiu Yutong, one hand softly pinching Qiu Yutong’s sole, and another hand pushing his silky white socks further down, exposing a slight red inflammation on his ankle, and couldn’t help knitting his eyebrows, ”It’s already swollen……you can’t walk any further. I told you not to be so hard-headed just now, yet you still wanted to walk on your own.”
Qiu Yutong happily said,”Should we head back?”
Lu Xiao didn’t utter a word, turning around and carrying Qiu Yutong on his back.
“Your, Your Majesty…” Xiao Xizi was astonished and opened his eyes wide.
“Could you shut it!” Zhang Defu hurriedly pulled Xiao Xizi along, following at a distance behind.
Qiu Yutong feebly laid on Lu Xiao’s back, his mind empty, unable to react.
Lu Xiao pulled his hand, tucking those freezing hands into his collar, ”Are you still cold?”
Qiu Yutong stammered, “No, no it’s not cold anymore.”
The mountain path was made with large pieces of limestone. After the top layer of snow melted, a new coating of ice would be formed, making it very slippery. Lu Xiao carried Qiu Yutong step by step upwards, his pace was very steady.
Qiu Yutong lay on the broad, strong back, feeling that it was stable, yet also warm, unknowingly becoming a bit drowsy.
Lu Xiao softly said “ This road on Biyun mountain, I walked through it once… no, I should say, someone carried me and walked through it once.
Qiu Yutong dazedly let out an, “En.”
“That happened a long time ago… I was only eight that year, and had frostbite with no way to continue the long trek. At that time, the entire capital was hunting me down, the Jinwu guards searched from house to house. With no options, he could only bring me to Biyun mountain to treat my wounds. Master Huikong of the Yinsong temple on Biyun mountain was that person’s friend, despite the difference in age. That place was extremely remote, no one would be able to find it.
On that day it was snowing heavily, much more than today. I held onto his sleeves, forcing myself to walk for a while, but I couldn’t move anymore after that, even tripping and causing my knee to bleed. He thought for a bit, and promptly let me climb on his back, carrying me up the mountain… but how could I dare, my whole body was very dirty, and his clothes were as white as the snow with not a speck of dust, almost like an immortal.
Lu Xiao spoke up till this point and was unable to resist laughing, ”I was unwilling for a while, and so he lost his patience, scolding me for being overly sensitive at such a young age and manhandled me onto his back. Then he said, why are your hands so cold?”
“He took my hand and warmed it in his collar, even saying that he was a cultivator so he didn’t fear the cold. What do you think, are cultivators really unaffected by the cold?” Lu Xiao’s voice started becoming a bit hoarse.
Qiu Yutong didn’t answer.
Lu Xiao looked back, Qiu Yutong lay on his shoulder, already deep asleep.
……
Qiu Yutong slept very soundly this time, even dreaming.
Inside the dream, he was carrying a young child, stepping and slipping along the mountain path of this world of ice and snow, surrounded by tall pine trees on either side, with a layer of snowy covering beautiful trees, boundless.
It was silent, other than the occasional clean crack of a pine branch breaking under the pressure of the snow, nothing else was heard.
The boy’s hand was frozen like ice cubes, shivering intensely on his back ,yet he refused to let out a sound. He (QYT) thought for a bit then took the small frozen pair of hands, pulling them inside his own collar.
The boy shrunk back ”Immortal Master, will be cold…”
This little guy is surprisingly thoughtful.
Qiu Yutong chuckled inside his heart but he couldn’t be soft now, gently coaxing, ”I am a cultivator; cultivators don’t fear the cold.”
The boy didn’t really understand.
Qiu Yutong was too lazy to explain, so continued on carrying him, climbing up the levels of the mountain road. The mountain road was long, also very precipitous, almost like there was no end, so he just kept walking like this, walking…
……
“Ding—— Dong——” The melodious sound of the temple bells resounded in Biyun mountain, rousing a flock of jackdaws, cawing around the land, “Wa—— Wa——”
“Wu…” Qiu Yutong dazedly opened his eyes.
The end of the mountain path was a tiny temple, the wall of Qinghui Palaces’ Xinghuang courtyard was faintly visible behind the forest of cedar trees.
Qiu Yutong rubbed his eyes, “We’re here?”
Lu Xiao said gently, “We’re here.”
“My leg doesn’t hurt anymore, I can walk by myself.”
It’s fine since there was no one on the mountain path, but later if he let the monks of Yinsong temple or his old friend Kong Hui see that such an old person needed to be carried by someone else, it would be so humiliating.
Lu Xiao didn’t force it and let him down, “Careful.”
The two of them entered the temple with Zhang Defu and Xiao Xizi following them at a distance.
The temple was dark. The Buddha statue was looking down with a slight smile, its golden body covered in dust. On the fluttering cloth banner were dust and spiderwebs.
A thirteen to fourteen-year-old novice monk sat upright in the corner with his eyes closed, rhythmically hitting the muyu*, letting out soft thumping sounds.
[T/N: It’s a percussion instrument. The name literally translates to wooden fish.
]
“This place is in ruins, so much dust,” Lu Xiao said softly.
Qiu Yutong looked at the dusty golden-plated buddha figure and suddenly whispered, “Originally there are no creatures, how did it provoke the dust?”
The novice monk heard voices and opened his eyes, putting down the muyu in his hands, then stood up and walked over. He put his palms together and greeted, “Do the two benefactors wish to burn incense?”
Qiu Yutong replied, “Where’s Master Kong Hui?
The novice monk pursed his lips and said lowly, “Master has passed away three years ago, now I’m the only one left.”
Qiu Yutong was slightly stunned, unable to speak for a while. Life and death were normal things in the mortal world and cultivators would understand that even better, but he was still slightly melancholic.
Lu Xiao was also silent for a moment, before taking out a golden ingot and passing it to the novice monk, “Little Master, we would like to stay here for one night.”
The novice monk was shocked and hesitantly accepted the golden ingot. “But, there are only coarse grains and not enough quilts…”
Lu Xiao said, “It’s fine.”
The novice monk held that heavy gold ingot and said hesitantly, “Even if Benefactor doesn’t mind, it won’t cost this much. Ten copper coins would suffice.”
Qiu Yutong softened his voice, “Take it.”
It wasn’t easy to convince the novice monk to take the gold. Qiu Yutong and Lu Xiao both lit three incense sticks, and paid their respects. After that, Lu Xiao looked at the bamboo stick tube* on the incense burner table and slightly hesitated, before taking one bamboo stick out.
[T/N: This holds a ton of bamboo sticks and is kind of like a lottery; picking one is like fortune telling and you have to give it to the monk to explain the meaning.]
Qiu Yutong was somewhat surprised, “You actually believe in this?”
“Try, there’s no harm in trying it.” Lu Xiao passed the bamboo stick to the novice monk beside him, “Little Master, do you know how to explain this?”
“Just a bit,” the novice monk nodded his head and accepted the stick. “What does Benefactor want to ask?”
Lu Xiao choked.
Qiu Yutong rarely saw such an expression and couldn’t help making fun, “What, embarrassed? Don’t tell me Your… don’t tell me that Young Master Lu wants to ask for marriage?”
Lu Xiao looked down and didn’t say a word.
Just as Qiu Yutong thought he was going to be angry, Lu Xiao suddenly said, “Yes, asking for marriage.”
Qiu Yutong was stunned and astonished. Lu Xiao, this youngster, had always had a pure heart with little desire, not being enlightened even at over twenty years of age. How did his amorous feelings suddenly get stirred up? Did he miss out on something?
“Let me look,” The novice monk nodded then scrutinised the bamboo stick, lightly frowning, “This…”
“What is it?” Lu Xiao anxiously asked.
The novice monk was somewhat uncertain, “It doesn’t seem good.”
Lu Xiao frowned. “What does that mean?”
“It’s an unlucky stick*. Destined to meet, but not fated to be together, unable to be solved and… Benefactor does not need to be so attached.” The novice monk seemed to be a little apologetic.
[T/N: when you pick this stick it just means you’d probably be unlucky in love/career etc.]
“Destined to meet, but not fated to be together…” Lu Xiao stared dazedly at the bamboo stick, seeming beside himself.
Qiu Yutong looked at his appearance and couldn’t help it so he cautioned, “These kinds of things, might not necessarily be accurate. Even though feelings cannot be forced, if you’re sincere, I think any noble girl would not remain aloof.”
His disciple was naturally the most outstanding. He didn’t believe that with Lu Xiao’s telent, appearance and identity, any girl would disdain his disciple.
Lu Xiao didn’t utter a word, his face still looking ugly.
Qiu Yutong wracked his brain, doing his best to give his disciple some encouragement, even statements like “I will help you” all came out, until the end, Lu Xiao was only barely able to twitch his lips up and force a smile, ” En.”
The sky gradually turned dark, Zhang Defu and Xiao Xizi helped the novice monk set up a table of vegetarian food. Even though it was all coarse grains and wild plants, everyone was hungry, so the food was still quite fragrant.
After dinner, the novice monk led them to the rearcourt of the temple. This small temple didn’t have many empty rooms, Lu Xiao and Qiu Yutong would stay in one while Zhang Defu and Xiao Xizi took another.
Not long later, the sky became dark, snowflakes slowly fell from the sky.
Qiu Yutong looked at the snowflakes outside the window and inwardly felt a little melancholic, “It’s snowing again.”
The snow in North Snow City was much heavier than in the mortal world. It was as if a pot of salt had spilled, when it hit the face, it hurt terribly.
“The last time I came, the snow was much heavier than now.” Lu Xiao walked to his back, and as if he had made up his mind, said softly, “Do you still rem…”
Qiu Yutong suddenly said, “Today is already the ninth of the first month.”
Lu Xiao was silent for a moment before replying, “En.”
Qiu Yutong turned around and fixed his gaze upon Lu Xiao. “Your Majesty, you promised me before that before we went back, you would bring me to Dragon Gate street to watch the Lantern Festival.”
He needed to rush to Juanlian Alley before the Lantern Festival ended and find San-Shixiong.
Lu Xiao, with difficulty, said hoarsely, “Do you really need to go?”
Qiu Yutong frowned and said, “You promised me.”
Lu Xiao stared at him silently for a long while before saying lightly, “Alright.”
The sky was already dark and QIu Yutong was tired after the day. After saying a few words to Lu Xiao, he started to feel tired so the two of them went to bed early.
The room only had one bed and there was no extra quilt so the two of them could only share one thin quilt. Lu Xiao had placed all the clothes onto the quilt, and hugged him from behind. Qiu Yutong felt a little awkward and couldn’t help resisting a little. Lu Xiao gloomily said, “Imperial Physician Li said before that you cannot get a cold again.”
Qiu Yutong was simply unable to persuade him. Thinking of that time he fainted from the poison, Lu Xiao had also warmed him up like this, since the broken jar was already broken, he just let him do as he wished.
The room was silent and dark. Lu Xiao’s body was extremely warm. Not long later, Qiu Yutong felt the sleepiness take coming like a tide, slowly rushing forth.
“When I was small, I once stayed in this temple for over a month. It was also winter then and the days were especially cold. That person would always gather me up to sleep like this every night…“ Lu Xiao said softly.
Qiu Yutong was only half-awake and dazedly replied, “En.”
Lu Xiao stared at him, his face somewhat bitter.
That night, the north wind screamed outside the window, yet the room was extremely warm. Qiu Yutong was gathered into Lu Xiao’s embrace and had many messy dreams. One moment in an inn, he was giving little Lu Xiao a lesson under the dim light. The next moment, he was in the countryside, personally teaching Lu Xiao how to wield the sword. And the next, he was in the military tent, Lu Xiao had been struck by three arrows yet he kept insisting that he was fine…
A moment he was in the recently completed Qixue Terrace, with the sky a sunset glow, Lu Xiao saying softly, “I know that I am a waste, unable to cultivate in this life, unable to stand by your side. But… if there comes a day that I become strong, I…”
The rest of the words, Qiu Yutong couldn’t hear clearly. Lu Xiao stared at him, his expression extremely anxious, his voice hoarse, “Shizun! I, I…”
Qiu Yutong woke up with a shiver.
When he opened his eyes, the room was already filled with light. He was covered by a thin quilt with quite a few messy clothes so it was still extremely warm.
Lu Xiao was standing by the window, wearing only a pure white robe, silently watching the snow-covered grounds. Under the rising sun, he was shining.
He turned around and said to Qiu Yutong, “I’ll take you to see the Lantern Festival.”
The author has something to say:
Cultivation novel laws: A waste is always the one chosen by the heavens.
