After Shen Gun left, Jiang Lian went to sleep.

This time, he truly sank into sweet darkness, without worries. He didn’t think about what the result of Shen Gun’s notification would be, nor did he dream, until daybreak.

The next day, he was awakened by the chaotic sounds of tent frames being dismantled. Poking his head out, he saw the campsite had changed its appearance: many tents had already been taken down, and even more had only their covers removed with supports still standing, giving the place a desolate look.

It seemed that with matters concluded here, preparations for breaking camp were underway. The Mountain Ghosts were truly efficient in handling affairs.

Shen Gun was still sleeping, his heavy snores penetrating through the tent. This widespread commotion surprisingly hadn’t woken him.

Jiang Lian rubbed his eyes, just about to retreat into the tent to pack his things, when a middle-aged woman’s voice suddenly sounded behind him: “This is Jiang Lian, right?”

Damn, what was this situation? Jiang Lian froze for a moment, quickly turning his head. He hadn’t misheard—a woman was standing there, Fifth Aunt Qiu Beiying, with Liu Guanguo standing beside her.

Liu Guanguo had brought her to find him.

Qiu Beiying’s gaze flickered, looking down at him appraisingly.

He couldn’t just hide back in the tent, so Jiang Lian hurriedly got up. Having just awakened from a deep sleep, he didn’t need a mirror to know his appearance wasn’t very presentable: wrinkled pants, messy hair, and his shirt askew with the collar facing his shoulder—he awkwardly straightened it.

He greeted Qiu Beiying: “Fifth Aunt.”

Liu Guanguo tactfully walked away.

After a night of light rain, the cliff-top wind was fresh and moist. Perhaps out of consideration for Fifth Aunt’s presence, the dismantling sounds nearby had quieted considerably. In the adjacent tent, Shen Gun was turning over; it was unclear whether he was awake or not.

Qiu Beiying said, “I heard from our Little Qian that you’ve helped her quite a bit?”

Jiang Lian noticed his pant leg—terrible, they were uneven lengths. One pant leg had somehow rolled up at the edge, exposing his ankle.

He said: “It was my duty.”

Qiu Beiying’s second question was: “I hear you came for the mirage pearl?”

Jiang Lian was startled.

It seemed this “mother-daughter” pair had talked quite a bit last night. Jiang Lian’s inexplicable nervousness suddenly disappeared. He looked up at Qiu Beiying, his signature smile returning—gentle, neither aggressive nor submissive: “Yes.”

Qiu Beiying smiled: “To the Mountain Ghosts, mirage pearls are very precious things, not usually lent out.”

Her words should probably be followed by a “but,” so Jiang Lian didn’t interrupt, just quietly listening to her.

“But, you’re different. You’re very smart, knowing the rules of doing things. In this world, to gain something, one must first give. I appreciate how well you understand this—you’ve risked yourself several times, helped Little Qian so much, any request from you is reasonable.”

There was nothing wrong with these words, but somehow they sounded off.

Before Jiang Lian could think more deeply, Qiu Beiying had already changed the subject: “I also heard that down at the cliff bottom, because of the dangerous situation, Little Qian forced you to accept the Three-Layered Lotus Petal?”

It wasn’t forcing, Jiang Lian wanted to explain, but Qiu Beiying didn’t give him the chance, sighing lightly: “This child is always like this, acting on impulse. How can the Three-Layered Lotus Petal be casually given to anyone? Besides, you couldn’t bear this pressure either.”

“However, the Mountain Ghosts value rules. Since the oath was solemnly sworn, dissolution must also follow the rules. I’ve spoken with Little Qian about it. Find her later, resolve this matter quickly, and spare yourself the constant worry of a stone hanging over your heart.”

After saying this, she smiled at Jiang Lian again before turning to leave.

Jiang Lian stood motionless, his mind revolving around their just-concluded conversation, from word to sentence.

With a “zip” sound, Shen Gun, squinting with small eyes, poked his head out from the tent, yawning while placing his glasses on the bridge of his nose.

Jiang Lian lowered his gaze, looking at Shen Gun’s messy curly hair, a thought suddenly occurring to him: if Shen Gun’s head had emerged two minutes earlier, Qiu Beiying’s impression of himself might have improved by several points.

After all, people are enhanced by comparison.

Shen Gun yawned again, his big mouth pointing in the direction Qiu Beiying had left: “That was the Fifth Aunt, huh?”

Jiang Lian made an affirmative sound, paused, then added: “This Fifth Aunt doesn’t like me.”

Shen Gun asked incredulously: “Really? I think I heard her say she appreciates you. Little Lian Lian, are you overthinking?”

Jiang Lian smiled without responding.

He wasn’t overthinking or feeling that he had made a mistake.

As someone who had grown up reading too many facial expressions, he knew all too well how to read people’s faces and was too skilled at sensing warmth or coldness from even the slightest glance or small gesture.

This Fifth Aunt didn’t like him.

Meng Qianzi’s tent hadn’t been dismantled yet.

She had eye masks on, holding a red pen, drawing lotus petals on her palm, loose, falling lotus petals.

The little white monkey crouched nearby, watching intently. Meng Qianzi, feeling mischievous, used the red pen to draw a red dot in the center of its forehead, then praised it: “Beautiful, so beautiful!”

The little white monkey, perhaps truly believing it was beautiful, suddenly acted like a well-bred young lady, neither jumping nor darting around, looking all around in an affected manner.

Meng Qianzi removed one of her eye masks: “Come, come, high-quality stuff, you’ve never used it before.”

The little white monkey, surprisingly trusting her, eagerly moved forward.

Meng Qianzi applied it to the monkey.

The monkey’s face was too small and wrinkled. With the eye mask on, it looked like a drooping plastic bag. Meng Qianzi doubled over with laughter, but the little white monkey still thought itself beautiful, becoming even more reserved, even trying to straighten the eye mask with its paw. Unfortunately, after several attempts at smoothing it, the mask was reduced to a strip.

From outside came an announcement: “Miss Meng, Jiang Lian is here.”

Meng Qianzi quickly straightened up, removing the other eye mask with one motion, hurriedly smoothing her hair: “Come in.”

Jiang Lian entered quickly. Seeing only her, he found it strange: “Where’s Xin Ci?”

At this time, Xin Ci should be helping her with her makeup, right?

Meng Qianzi said, “He’s lucky not to have been scared to death. His hands are trembling no matter what he holds now. I sent him to rest.”

Thinking of it made her angry again: “I scolded Jinsong. Of all the people to use as an undercover agent, why Xin Ci? With his little courage, Five Mother might not know, but how could Jinsong not know?”

Jiang Lian smiled, then asked her: “And what about you? Didn’t you get scolded for the mountain gall matter?”

Meng Qianzi answered lightly: “Of course not.”

“Fifth Aunt seems to know about my intention to borrow the Mirage pearl. She… has no objections?”

Meng Qianzi smiled, her eyes and the corners of her lips curving beautifully: “No, why would there be any objections?”

There were objections.

She had been scolded, too.

Last night, Meng Qianzi had barely slept, which is why she was using eye masks so early in the morning to alleviate her dark circles.

First, she was scolded for taking the mountain gall. Qiu Beiying had shown considerable anger, saying: “We agreed you would just look at it, yet you actually took it out. Is this something to be taken casually?”

However, Meng Qianzi had a peculiar nature: when doing something she wasn’t confident about, if you didn’t criticize her, she would feel guilty and blame herself; but the more you criticized her, the more she would argue back.

This time was no different. At first, she hung her head, accepting the rebuke, but later her face lifted, eyes gazing at her nose, nose gazing at her heart, with an indifferent air. Finally, she said coolly: “Five Mother, we agreed, yes, but don’t plans change with circumstances? It fell on its own, wanting to come out.”

“Besides, what’s done is done. Nothing bad happened, right? Once a child is born, can it be stuffed back? Just raise it.”

Qiu Beiying was choked speechless.

Meng Jinsong, listening from the side, wanted to laugh but didn’t dare, maintaining a poker face, desperately holding back.

Later, discussing the matter of getting the mirage pearl for Jiang Lian, they argued again.

Meng Qianzi wanted to get the best pearl from Guizhou’s Fanjing Mountain pearl-nurturing area.

Qiu Beiying still adhered to the precept that stillness is better than movement: “The mirage pearls there have been nurtured for at least several hundred years, always entering, never leaving. If you move them, what if something goes wrong?”

Meng Qianzi couldn’t understand Qiu Beiying’s thinking: “Mirage pearls are meant for displaying images and sounds. That’s their only function. If you just keep them without using them, it’s like raising a fine horse but never letting it run for fear of mishaps. Isn’t that ridiculous?”

She became angrier as she continued: “Jiang Lian saved my life. Is my life not worth using a Mirage Pearl for? I sit on this throne—can’t I even use a Mirage pearl?”

Qiu Beiying sighed. This Little Qian, who knew whom she took after, raised by seven mothers in rotation, her temperament combining all seven households, difficult to describe: to say she was obedient? She dared talk back to anyone; to say she was disobedient? That wasn’t quite right either—when she was good, she was endearingly sweet.

Qiu Beiying feared most when she elevated issues to matters of principle, constantly bringing up the throne. She could only speak more tactfully: “Five Mother isn’t being stingy, just feels you’re too emotional. Jiang Lian did these things for the Mirage Pearl; he has a purpose. You need to be careful when judging people.”

Meng Qianzi didn’t want to hear this: “I know what kind of person Jiang Lian is. I’m not incapable of judging people.”

Qiu Beiying blurted out: “You can judge people? If you could judge people, you wouldn’t have…”

She suddenly realized her slip and abruptly stopped. Meng Qianzi’s face darkened to the point of dripping water, her lips slightly moving, her eyes reddening.

Meng Jinsong thought “how terrible” but knew this wasn’t an occasion where he could step in to smooth things over…

Fortunately, an announcement came from outside that someone called Shen Gun had extremely important matters to discuss in person.

…

In short, it wasn’t a very happy experience.

But she didn’t want to mention these trivial matters now. To Jiang Lian, she had only one response.

It’s fine, everything’s manageable, it’s all going smoothly.

After thinking a moment, she added, “Transportation is fast nowadays. From Guizhou, it’s just a one or two-hour flight. By the time we return to Yunmeng Peak, the mirage pearl should be waiting there. Congratulations, Shen Gun’s box doesn’t even have a shadow, but yours is about to reveal its true face. Looking forward to it?”

From Guizhou?

Why not use the one she had fished from Wuling Mountain?

Jiang Lian didn’t think too much about it, only observing her closely. He felt she hadn’t slept well; there was very slight swelling around her eyes, and her lightness seemed somewhat forced.

Not wanting to pry, he said: “I’m looking forward to it.”

Then, remembering Shen Gun’s urgent report last night and those theories, she probably knew about them all now: “Now that the mountain gall has been taken out, will it help the Water Ghosts?”

Meng Qianzi was silent for a moment, then slowly shook her head.

At the time, she truly believed that taking out the mountain gall would cause events to unfold like dominoes, smoothly falling one after another.

But that wasn’t the case; things had stalled again.

She had only obtained a mountain gall. The mountain gall could only destroy ancestral tablets, but after destroying them, what then?

The Water Ghost family sought a truth: why had countless family members died over these decades, and would they face even greater calamities in the future? Otherwise, why would Ding Panling be so fixated, willing to die to convey the message of “seeking help from the Mountain Ghosts”?

She hesitantly said, “The Water Ghost family… has been searching for the Drifting Cave. Perhaps when they find it…”

Here she trailed off, uncertain again: when they found it, would she take the mountain gall to “control” it? Turn all the ancestral tablets in the Drifting Cave into rotten cotton? What would be the meaning of this?

The topic had become heavy. Unless a new angle emerged in the future, the unsolvable remained unsolvable.

Jiang Lian wanted to say something lighter. He looked down, just noticing the scattered lotus petals on Meng Qianzi’s palm: “So I’ve been… dismissed?”

Meng Qianzi burst out laughing. She raised her palm for Jiang Lian to see: it was still a lotus flower, but looking carefully, only two layers of petals remained—the outermost layer had all fallen off.

He suddenly remembered something: “What about Shen Gun?”

Meng Qianzi said, “He can’t be dismissed for now. He has an unclear relationship with the mountain gall, carries too many mysteries, and he’s traveled far and wide for so long, truly knowing many things others don’t. Five Mother and I discussed it, and both felt it more appropriate to keep him for now.”

Jiang Lian made an “oh” sound.

Good, his heart felt a bit sour.

After a pause, he sighed: “How unpredictable life is. Originally at the cliff bottom, he was the least qualified, barely included because of my influence… and now look, he’s promoted while I’m eliminated.”

Meng Qianzi almost bent over with laughter: “Why are you being sour about this? You never wanted to be a Lotus Petal in the first place.”

Was that true? Perhaps, though he couldn’t say clearly, “want” was hard to express, but “don’t want” was equally reluctant to voice.

He asked: “Do I have to recite texts again?”

Meng Qianzi said, “You don’t need to recite this time. I’ll say it. The ritual is a bit silly, but it’s our tradition. Bear with it… Come, stretch out your hand.”

Jiang Lian extended his hand, palm down, then suddenly remembered: during the oath, it was like this, but for dissolution, it should be reversed, so he turned his hand palm up.

He had done it correctly, as Meng Qianzi directly placed her hand with the drawn lotus petals on top of his.

Against his hand, hers appeared especially delicate. His fingertips were already touching her wrist—with just a slight turn of his hand, he could enclose hers completely in his palm.

Jiang Lian was momentarily dazed, feeling somewhat nervous: would his hand, acting beyond his control, actually do this?

It was possible—children grow beyond their mothers’ control, and this hand had grown for over twenty years. What if it had its ideas?

He stared at his hand.

He heard Meng Qianzi say, “There’s no precedent for dissolving the Lotus Petal, so there’s no specialized wording. I’ll use the common Mountain Ghost phrasing; it’s the same meaning.”

Jiang Lian made an affirmative sound, his attention fully on his hand. He felt that his little finger might have moved slightly.

“You little…” he said to that finger in his heart, “trying to cause trouble…”

Meng Qianzi’s words sounded one by one in his ear.

“Fortunate in this life, meeting midway, fate not lasting until old age, paths diverging, following me accompanying me, leaving me departing from me, vines not forcibly twisted, guests not forcibly detained, heaven round earth square, mountains high waters long, let you ride your steed, allow your high flight, old covenant not renewed, affection and righteousness remaining, guarding one’s mouth, cautious in one’s actions, turning a knife against me, surely suffering retribution, Heaven, Earth, Man, Gods, Mountain Ghosts, bear witness.”

He saw Meng Qianzi withdraw her hand.

He also saw his upturned hand, the way it was before, still the same now, having not moved.

Perhaps the little finger had moved slightly, but it was just his imagination. At that moment, the little finger hadn’t moved—only his heart had stirred a bit.

As he was smiling faintly to himself, Meng Qianzi suddenly giggled, pulling him to look: “Quick, look at that monkey!”

Looking where she indicated, the little white monkey had somehow picked up the eye mask Meng Qianzi had removed earlier, struggled to unfold it, and was imitating her, trying to apply it to its face. It wasn’t applying so much as slapping—and inaccurately at that, with a “pah” sound hitting the corner of its mouth before falling off.

It lowered its head, wanting to pick it up again, but Meng Qianzi had already gone over first, picked it up, and thrown it into the garbage bag, telling it: “You’re beauty-obsessed.”

The little white monkey looked at her expectantly, hoping to enjoy more “high-quality” treatments.

Jiang Lian smiled too. Meng Qianzi didn’t seem to particularly enjoy dealing with people, but when interacting with mountain creatures, she always showed genuine ease and joy, every smile and frown touching.

He said, “You like it so much, are you planning to take it with you?”

Meng Qianzi shook her head, showing some reluctance, but her tone wasn’t hesitant: “It was born and raised in the mountains. The cliff bottom is its home. How could I take it away just because I like it?”

She added: “In this world, we meet so many people and things we like along the way. It’s not easy for you to stay, nor for it to go with you. Just remember… it depends on fate.”

Jiang Lian was silent for a moment, then said softly: “That’s true.”