“In the courtyard of your home, I ran into someone who told me that the Hui Village elder had returned to Di Guo, and that you intended to travel through Xin Guo before going abroad to study.” Zheng Yun’s voice was very soft, soft as a spring breeze drifting past her ear.
“Then how did you know I would come here?”
Zheng Yun said, “If you wanted to travel, the most convenient means of transport would be the train, so I went to the train station. I checked every train that had departed from Shun Cheng early that morning, then looked among those routes for a stop that could reach Peach Blossom Village.”
“Were you that certain I would go to Peach Blossom Village?”
Zheng Yun shook his head. “I wasn’t certain, but you once said that if you ever had the chance, you would come and see my hometown. And as it happened, there was indeed a train that day that could reach this area. Given the circumstances, all I could do was place a bet among more than a hundred possible stops.”
He tightened his hold on her slightly. “As it turns out, I bet correctly.”
Ling’ai felt her nose sting.
After regaining her freedom from the Shi Mansion, the very first thing she had wanted to do was come and see his hometown. It had been a promise they’d made when they were together.
She had wanted to fulfill this promise, then seal away both him and the memories—and afterward hide herself in a foreign land, somewhere she would never see him again or hear news of him.
“The train to this area only departs once every two days, and no matter how anxious I was, I had to wait for the next departure.” Zheng Yun’s voice sounded very calm, but listening carefully, there was a thread of urgency and tension running through it. “Xin Guo is so vast. All I could do was let go and gamble. Those two days were like an eternity to me.”
He pressed his cheek lightly against her shoulder. “I didn’t dare waste even a single second, because I knew—if I let you leave this time, I would never find you again for the rest of my life.”
Hearing that last sentence, Ling’ai’s tears fell once more.
More than once she had imagined: if she truly never saw him again in this life, what would become of her? Would the second half of her life pass like a walking corpse, utterly without feeling?
Those days in the Shi Mansion—she had lived in a way that was completely unlike herself. Each day she buried herself in books, doing her best not to think of anything connected to him. Yet without realizing it, everything she thought about and everything she did was bound up with him.
A man named Zheng Yun had long since been carved into her soul, occupying her entire being. For the rest of her days, she could never forget him.
“After I arrived in Peach Blossom Village, I went home first. I had meant to ask around for information, but as it turned out, everyone already knew you.” Zheng Yun recalled the rush of surprise he had felt in that instant—as though this was the luckiest moment of his entire life.
“Little Xing told me you had gone up the mountain to gather herbs, so I came up the mountain to find you.” Zheng Yun looked around at the surroundings. “This is called Spirit Confusion Mountain. There’s a place inside it called the Bewildered Valley—which is exactly where we are now. If you’re careless and wander into it, you’ll experience the spirit wall phenomenon.”
“I left markers on the way in.”
Zheng Yun shook his head. “There are monkeys here. They seem to have grown uncanny—the moment anyone leaves a marker, they’ll quietly take it away.”
Ling’ai’s eyes went wide. “Something like that actually happens? Then I was terribly unlucky.”
The mountain was so vast, yet she had walked not to the left and not to the right—straight into the Bewildered Valley.
“It isn’t your fault. The Bewildered Valley has an abundant water source and good light, so the herbs that grow here are both plentiful and of exceptional quality. If you went up the mountain to gather herbs, you would easily be drawn in by those plants.”
Zheng Yun pointed toward the trees ahead. “On this mountain, only this place has mist. Everywhere else is clear. The reason you couldn’t find your way out was entirely due to the fog. Beyond that, there are certain elements in this fog that are difficult to explain—breathe enough of it in, and you lose your sense of direction.”
“That’s remarkable,” Ling’ai exclaimed, then couldn’t help but ask, “What about you? Can you find your way out?”
Zheng Yun said, “To find the way out, we’ll have to wait until the mist has cleared. When the sun comes out tomorrow morning, it will disperse the fog, and getting out after that will be much easier.”
“So we’ll have to spend the entire night here?” Ling’ai thought of the wolf and felt a lingering dread.
Zheng Yun seemed to read her thoughts and said reassuringly, “I have fire with me—I can build a campfire. Wolves fear fire and won’t come near. And this wolf was likely a lone wolf that had wandered off and gotten separated from its pack. Wolf packs live deep in the old-growth forests and would rarely appear on a mountain like this. If there were wild beasts here, Doctor Sun wouldn’t have allowed you to come up alone.”
“Then I really was unlucky.” Ling’ai couldn’t help but smile ruefully. There were no wild beasts here, and the only one she encountered was also, like her, lost and wandering.
“Then why did it run away just now?” Ling’ai asked, puzzled. “When it saw me, it was ready to eat me alive. But the moment it saw you, it didn’t even attack—it just left.”
Zheng Yun looked at her with a faint smile. “It isn’t foolish. It knows how to pick on the weak and avoid the strong. When it saw you had little ability to resist, it naturally moved to attack. But it sensed that it might not be a match for me—so to protect its own life, it chose to retreat without engaging.”
“Could you have beaten it?”
Zheng Yun said, “Seventh Brother and I once faced down an entire wolf pack.”
“And who won?”
“We did.”
Ling’ai’s eyes shone with admiration, gazing at the man before her like a devoted admirer.
He had always been so powerful in her eyes. Being with him gave her an overwhelming sense of safety.