The doctor had known the shop owner for two years, but he didn’t know the owner’s name, and the owner didn’t know his name either. Heaven knew how the owner had managed to call him out to save a dog just as he emerged from the operating room! Did he have a phone? And how did he know his phone number? When he checked his phone, it showed an empty number.

At this moment, the dog he had newly named “Apache” had somehow, when he wasn’t paying attention, run into the inner rooms of the antique shop.

The owner was concentrating on putting away the Fragrant Concubine chain in a cabinet and showed no reaction to this at all. The doctor chased after the dog and encountered a jade screen.

This jade-carved screen was as tall as a person. It depicted a garden landscape scene carved on it. The craftsmanship was extremely realistic, skillfully utilizing the natural colors of the jade stone. As he moved, the mountains and waters could be distinguished by their sense of distance, and the pavilions showed a profound depth. Even the expressions of the carved figures were rich with emotion – joy, anger, sorrow, and happiness could be discerned. The flowers, birds, fish, and insects were vividly visible, making one almost able to imagine the sounds of birds singing among flowers and fish leaping from water.

The doctor was immediately captivated, watching how the jade stone presented different lustrous colors with changes in light, and even wanted to reach out and touch the jade. “Woof woof!” Apache’s voice came from behind the screen. The doctor was about to call for the owner’s help, but when he turned around, the person who had just been standing at the counter had somehow disappeared.

Forget it, he’d better catch the dog first. If it damaged something in the inner rooms, he really couldn’t afford to compensate. According to the owner, all the antiques here were priceless.

Behind the jade screen was an extremely deep corridor with small rooms on both sides. There were no signs above them, and the dim lighting made it even more eerie and terrifying.

The antique shop seemed to have no electrical appliances at all – even the lighting in the outer room used those two Changxin Palace Lamps. The doctor took out his phone for illumination, softly calling Apache’s name while walking forward along the corridor. Not far ahead, one of the doors was slightly open, with weak light coming from within. The doctor walked over and tentatively pushed the door.

The wooden door opened with a “creak.” Because the atmosphere along the way had been too oppressive, the doctor’s heart involuntarily rose to his throat. But when he saw clearly what was in the room, he immediately breathed a sigh of relief.

In a small room of only a few square meters, filled with exotic fragrance, there was nothing except a lit red candle. Seeing no trace of the dog, the doctor planned to continue searching. When he turned around, he found the owner standing behind him at some unknown time, gazing at him eerily in the darkness.

“Are you trying to scare me to death?” It took the doctor a long time to recover. He held his chest, feeling his heartbeat racing toward 120 – this was simply tremendous damage to his healthy heart. The owner’s pale face looked even paler in the darkness. He glanced indifferently at the doctor and said: “Who told you to come in here casually?”

“I was looking for Apache,” the doctor said apologetically with a guilty smile.

The owner raised his phoenix eyes: “That dog? It just jumped onto my counter and is eating the breakfast you bought.”

“That little rascal!” The doctor feigned anger, defending himself: “I didn’t touch anything! Besides, there’s nothing in this room anyway!”

Hearing this, the owner’s expression softened somewhat, and he smiled: “Antiques are all precious, so naturally they need to be stored separately by category. Some need dry environments, some must avoid light, some must be isolated from air. This fragrant candle produces temperature, light, and dust when burning, so naturally it cannot share a room with other antiques.”

The doctor couldn’t believe it: “You’re saying this candle is an antique? I thought it was for lighting!” This candle was completely red, only about a foot long, no different from ordinary candles. Looking closely, there was even a piece missing from the bottom.

The owner nodded: “This candle is made from the oil of deep-sea mermaids and can burn for over a thousand years. Now, it has been burning for over seven hundred years.”

The doctor’s mouth formed an “O” shape, thinking even children wouldn’t believe this, right? The owner glanced at him and smiled slightly: “Would you like to know the story of this fragrant candle?”

“Go ahead, I’d like to know,” the doctor said with the mentality of listening to a story. He wasn’t on duty today anyway, so there was no harm in listening.

Watching the candle smoke slowly rising from the burning fragrant candle, the owner said eerily: “This story begins over seven hundred years ago…”

Once upon a time, there was a mountain with a temple, and in the temple lived a monk. In this story, there was no mountain, but there was a temple, and in the temple lived more than one little monk. At that time, wars raged continuously and famine was everywhere – many people starved to death. The temple housed several little monks, all from poor families who really couldn’t afford to feed them, so they were sent to the temple to seek Buddha’s mercy and barely survive.

The protagonist of the story was a little monk. What the little monk’s name was, he himself couldn’t remember, and even the temple’s abbot called him “little monk.” His duty was to guard the incense and candles in the Qielan Hall. No matter what time it was, he must ensure that the incense in the great hall never went out and the candles never extinguished.

During the day, many devout men and women came to burn incense, so he would hide under the incense table to sleep. At night, he would get up and guard the great hall all night, adding incense and replacing candles.

No one ever talked to him, and he was always taciturn. Even when chanting sutras, he rarely made a sound, so the abbot deemed him a person without Buddha affinity and assigned him to guard the great hall at night. In the little monk’s world, there were only the pungent smell of incense and the dancing candle flames.

As the political situation became turbulent and chaotic, fewer and fewer people came to the temple to burn incense, and the offerings of incense and candles became increasingly scarce. To maintain the continuous incense, the little monk had to reduce the number of incense sticks and candles placed. Finally, each night he could only offer a single incense stick and candle.

Until one night, the little monk took out the last candle from the box and sighed deeply. Tomorrow he would have to tell the abbot that the temple needed more candles, but would the temple still have money to buy incense and candles? While worrying, the little monk lit the last candle and respectfully placed it to the right of the Qielan deity statue.

Then, as usual, he slowly watched the flame dance, thinking of nothing, emptying his mind, truly spacing out.

“Hey! Little monk!” This voice came from above. The little monk looked up sluggishly. Above his head was a translucent person floating in the air. The little monk blinked and discovered this transparent person was a woman. She narrowed a pair of charming and slender eyes, lowering her eyelids as she looked down at him from high above. “Little monk, how long is human life?” Her voice was ethereal and elusive, like the candle smoke swirling around her.

“Human life is perhaps only a few decades,” the little monk replied in a daze after being stunned. He rarely spoke, so his voice was hoarse and rough, tinged with awkwardness and nervousness. The woman raised her willow-leaf eyebrows slightly, opened her eyes a little more, and looked at him with interest: “Did you wake me up?”

“Wake up?” the little monk hesitated: “Female benefactor, how did you get to such a high place?”

“You think I’m human? I’m not human! Aren’t you afraid I’m a ghost?” She blinked, and her already devastatingly beautiful face became even more breathtakingly gorgeous.

The little monk honestly shook his head: “This is the Qielan Hall. Demons and ghosts cannot enter here.”

“How devout indeed!” She raised her eyebrows, glanced sideways at the unmovable Qielan statue, and curled her lips in contempt.

Although the little monk was slow, he wasn’t blind. He saw that this woman had no feet, and below that was the candle he had just lit. The candle smoke rose gracefully, forming the figure of a woman.

“You… you are that candle?” The little monk blinked hard again, thinking he was dreaming.

“That’s right, I am that candle. You can call me Zhu,” the little monk stared blankly at Zhu floating in mid-air. The smoke rising from the candle grew thicker, and her image became clearer. On skin as white and tender as jade, a pair of deep and charmingly long eyes seemed capable of stealing the souls of admirers. She had a graceful figure and absolutely beautiful appearance, wearing luxurious clothes he had never seen before. Her hair, like silk brocade, seemed to have life of its own, floating and surrounding her entire body.

“Hehe, little monk, do you like what you see?” Zhu gracefully spun in the air, gently floating down to stop at a place slightly higher than the little monk, looking down at him and saying with infinite charm as she lightly curved her lips: “As long as you blow out this candle, I’ll become real and come down to accompany you!”

Zhu’s voice was like the cotton pillow he had used as a child – soft and comfortable. Her hair formed by candle smoke surrounded him hazily. Strands of fragrant smoke faintly entered his nostrils, making his whole being feel light and airy, not knowing where he was. The little monk was dazed for a long while before understanding her request, and immediately shook his head like a rattle drum.

“No…” He only said half a sentence before quickly closing his mouth, because he discovered that when he spoke, his exhaled breath almost moved her several degrees.

He held his breath, afraid of blowing her away. Zhu pouted, glared at the little monk, and floated back up into the air with her back to him.

The little monk tried hard to look up. He couldn’t see Zhu’s facial expression clearly, but he could imagine she must be very disappointed. He wanted to comfort her but was too tongue-tied to know how to speak. Actually, she shouldn’t be disappointed for too long – this candle would burn out by noon tomorrow, and then she would get her wish.

For the entire night, for the first time, the little monk didn’t watch the dancing flames but kept looking up, gazing at Zhu’s back without moving his eyes away for even a moment.

The next morning, when the little monk opened his eyes, he found that the candle he had lit last night was still burning. But the strange thing was, it was still as long as when he had first taken it out – it hadn’t shortened even an inch!

How was this possible? The little monk rubbed his eyes, but the scene before him hadn’t changed.

“Strange little monk, you weren’t surprised when you saw me, but now you’re so excited,” Zhu said disdainfully, lying on a beam at the top of the hall.

The little monk looked up: “This candle doesn’t burn down?”

Zhu generously nodded: “This candle is made from mermaid oil and should have burned for ten thousand years in Emperor Qin Shihuang’s tomb. I was left outside and somehow ended up here.”

“Mermaid?” Although the little monk wasn’t very knowledgeable, he knew mermaids were extremely beautiful legendary creatures living in the sea, with human upper bodies and fish tails as lower bodies… The little monk looked at Zhu before him. Her upper body formed by candle smoke was human, while her lower body was formed by the winding candle smoke.

“Zhu, were you originally a mermaid?”

Zhu neither confirmed nor denied, only smiled beautifully and charmingly: “Little monk, extinguish this candle so I can be forever liberated! I want to destroy Qin Shihuang’s tomb. Qin Shihuang wanted immortality, but human life is only a few decades – why did he need so many people to be buried with him?” The little monk’s neck was getting sore from looking up. He was almost bewitched by her smile when he caught sight of the Qielan statue beside her.

“Little monk, it’s very simple – just blow on this candle,” Zhu impatiently floated down, her entire illusory body circling around the little monk, floating from his left ear to his right ear, repeatedly whispering seductively.

Seeing her breathtakingly beautiful face floating back and forth before his eyes, the little monk quickly closed his eyes. To prevent her pleasant voice from swaying his heart, the little monk began muttering the Diamond Sutra.

“If one sees me through form, or seeks me through sound, this person walks the wrong path and cannot see the Tathagata…” Zhu’s floating figure paused: “Little monk, what do you mean by that?”

“Form and sound all have appearances. Having form and shape are all demons. If a person uses appearances to seduce me and begs me with a low voice, this person has taken the wrong path and cannot see the true Buddha.”

Zhu burst into laughter, her laughter clear and pleasant: “Silly monk, who usually teaches you to recite sutras? This sentence means: it tells you not to cling to seeking Buddha through appearance and sound, otherwise you’ll enter the wrong path and cannot see the Tathagata.”

The little monk listened with half-belief. He was just a night-watching little monk. The abbot said his wisdom roots weren’t high, so he didn’t bother teaching him scriptures. He only knew some superficial sutra passages from hearing his senior brothers recite them often, understanding only partially.

Zhu circled to the front of the little monk, seeing his eyeballs moving randomly under his closed eyelids, and couldn’t help but laugh: “The Diamond Sutra also says: ‘All conditioned phenomena are like dreams, illusions, bubbles, shadows; like dew drops and lightning flashes – contemplate them thus.’ Everything in the world is subject to birth and death, all are illusory appearances. Everyone has Tathagata wisdom and virtue, which is their original nature. So cultivating back to one’s original nature is the right path.”

The little monk pondered for a long while and couldn’t help opening his eyes. Zhu sat opposite him, her whole body emanating wisps of candle smoke that gave off a faint fragrance, winding upward, spiraling and circling, lingering endlessly. The morning rays of light passed through her figure and shone directly on the floor tiles.

What were illusory appearances? This was an illusory appearance. Seeing the little monk just staring at her blankly, Zhu pouted displeasedly: “Are you indeed someone who clings to appearances? As you wish!” With that, she transformed into a mass of blue-white candle smoke and reformed into another appearance.

Ornate tassels hanging from her hair, black beard and red face, round collar and wide dark green robe – exactly like the Qielan statue in the great hall. “How about it, little monk? I am Qielan Bodhisattva. I don’t need your offering of that one candle – go blow it out!” The Qielan Bodhisattva that Zhu had transformed into even spoke in a rough voice that echoed slightly in the great hall.

The little monk looked directly at the Qielan illusion before him. After a long while, he blinked, put his palms together in front of his chest, and slowly recited: “If one sees me through form, or seeks me through sound, this person walks the wrong path and cannot see the Tathagata…”

A long, long time later, an angry delicate shout exploded in the hall: “Wooden fish brain!”

From then on, the little monk’s life began to become colorful. He was actually still an ordinary little monk, his living space was still the Qielan Hall, and his daily routine remained the same as before.

It’s just that beside him, there was now a woman formed from candle smoke. Although what she sought was merely for him to blow out the candle he had lit, he couldn’t agree. He told himself this was because it was the temple’s last candle.

This last candle quietly burned in the sacred hall. No one paid attention to why this candle never shortened, why it was always the same length.

What they focused on was the Qielan statue, the Buddhist sutras, or whether they could still beg for alms tomorrow to fill their stomachs.

“Little monk, how long is human life?” This was Zhu’s favorite question and one she asked every time she appeared.

“Probably a few decades,” the little monk always answered her thus.

After hearing this, Zhu would close her mouth. But she could only maintain silence for half a day before starting to pester him to blow out the candle.

The little monk was once truly moved by her words. But just as he was about to tell the abbot, he discovered the abbot was worrying about what to eat.

He couldn’t bring himself to speak. What unfortunate timing! Rebel armies everywhere were increasing, everyone had stopped farming, and there was no grain. Without grain, people rebelled even more.

“Hmph! All dynastic changes require war, but wars need to be borne by the common people,” Zhu complained thus.

The little monk listened quietly, silently reciting it twice in his heart, understanding only partially.

He indeed didn’t understand. But several senior brothers couldn’t stay any longer – they threw down their sutras, returned to secular life, and joined the rebel army.

“Little monk, why don’t you go with them?” Zhu asked.

The little monk looked up. He was used to always looking up at her. At first, his neck would be sore, but unconsciously, his neck had gotten used to this movement. “I’m not going. My duty is to not let the incense before the Qielan statue go out,” the little monk replied.

“Wooden fish brain, even if you went, I wouldn’t extinguish. Sigh, no, no – if you, this silly monk, died on the battlefield, wouldn’t I never be able to escape? You’d better stay here.” Zhu complained back and forth, both annoyed that the little monk had no grand ambitions and afraid he would really join the rebel army.

The little monk silently chewed the hard steamed bun in his hand, thinking she was so noisy.

And so cute.

“Little monk, how long is human life?” Zhu still asked this question every day.

“Perhaps, between meals,” the little monk said with feeling, looking at the diminishing food in his bowl.

After hearing this, Zhu remained silent much longer than before.

Many people left the temple, but even more people were ordained. Many people with nowhere to go became monks. The compassionate abbot took them all in. Although they still couldn’t eat their fill, the fields the temple cultivated began to yield harvests, barely enough to sustain them.

The little monk suddenly had many junior brothers. But his duty was still to keep night watch in the Qielan Hall. He was inherently someone easily forgotten, but all the junior brothers knew him. Because when he wasn’t sleeping during the day, he would always sit before the incense table, devoutly looking at the Qielan statue for long periods. No one knew that what he was actually looking at was her, above the Qielan statue.

The temple often had worshippers praying for Qielan’s protection, but rarely did anyone come to worship late at night. One night, while the little monk was staring at Zhu in a daze, someone suddenly appeared beside him.

This person wore all black, his appearance seemed shrouded in illusion, impossible to see clearly. What was memorable was the deep red dragon embroidered on his black clothes. The dragon head was embroidered on the right sleeve cuff, the dragon body wound and coiled around his right arm, and the dragon tail was embroidered precisely on his right shoulder.

The little monk shouldn’t have stared at people rudely, but this dragon was indeed embroidered so lifelike that he couldn’t help but take another look. With just that one glance, the little monk discovered that this worshipper wasn’t staring at the Qielan statue, but had been looking at the fragrant candle placed on the incense table.

“This fragrant candle is quite good,” a low voice suddenly came.

The little monk’s eyelids twitched, not knowing how to respond. Zhu wasn’t out now, and this fragrant candle just looked like an ordinary candle. Why would he praise such an ordinary candle?

“Little monk, if you don’t want it anymore, you can transfer it to me,” the man said to himself. “Don’t worry about how to find me – when you no longer want her, I will naturally appear.” Then he walked away, repeatedly saying the fragrant candle was very good. The little monk chased after him, but outside the open temple gate, there was no one. The man came and went without a trace – the little monk almost thought he had seen a ghost or deity. He couldn’t sleep well for many consecutive nights, watching the fragrant candle on the incense table every day, afraid she would disappear.

The little monk suddenly became an idol worshipped by all his junior brothers. He didn’t know what the Buddhist sutras they asked about meant, but the junior brothers took his responses as profound Zen sayings. He didn’t know how to explain – he still only liked talking to Zhu.

Although when he talked to Zhu, every three sentences of hers were inseparable from persuading him to blow out the candle, he still liked it.

One night, he was pestered by several junior brothers to discuss Buddhist sutras, continuing well into the night with no sign of ending. The junior brothers knew his duty was to guard the sacred hall, so a junior brother called Zhongba volunteered to go in his place.

The little monk wanted to stop him but couldn’t find a reason. He was afraid others would see Zhu, and also afraid Zhu was something he had imagined – he feared all of this was just a dream. His complex psychology made him unable to speak at all. He was entangled by enthusiastic junior brothers discussing Buddhist sutras all night. Actually, they were the ones talking while he listened.

To be precise, he wasn’t listening either – all his mind was no longer here.

When dawn was breaking, he immediately ran to the Qielan Hall, only to discover the abbot sternly scolding Junior Brother Zhongba who had kept watch for him last night.

The little monk was startled, thinking the abbot had discovered his Zhu. But the situation was more serious than he had imagined. Last night, Junior Brother Zhongba had fallen asleep while keeping watch.

A mouse had gnawed a gap in the fragrant candle, at the bottom.

The little monk’s heart ached as if he were about to die. Junior Brother Zhongba was being publicly scolded by the abbot, but the little monk wished he was the one being scolded instead. Junior Brother Zhongba secretly hit the Qielan statue with a broom at night, saying that if Qielan couldn’t even manage the things in front of him, how could he manage the temple or the world? Junior Brother Zhongba found a brush somewhere and wrote “Exiled Three Thousand Li” on the back of the Qielan statue.

The little monk saw it all. But he didn’t speak out to stop it. Because from that day on, Zhu never appeared again.

Although the little monk never saw Zhu again, this candle continued to burn as usual, not diminishing at all.

The little monk turned the mouse-bitten gap toward the back and filled it with wax tears from previously burned candles, making it look like a brand new candle. No one discovered this candle was still the original one. Zhu didn’t appear, but the little monk still guarded the sacred hall every night, watching the fragrant candle every night.

Finally, one night, Zhu reappeared before him, as beautiful as ever, stunningly gorgeous. However, her left sleeve seemed to have been bitten off halfway by something, and replacing her sleeve was an extremely ugly layer of red wax cloth.

“Wooden fish brain! Tell me! How will you compensate for my dress?” Zhu said resentfully. The little monk smiled foolishly… She was still here – how wonderful.

“Wooden fish brain, didn’t you say you had no money to buy incense as replacement? If I teach you how to make money, couldn’t you earn a great deal and add incense to the temple?” Perhaps this incident had frightened Zhu, so she became even more persuasive toward the little monk.

But that incense wouldn’t be you, the little monk thought silently in his heart, slowly shaking his head.

Zhu angrily floated around the great hall, then stopped in front of the little monk and asked seriously: “Little monk, what do you want then? I can give you anything!”

What did he want? The little monk stared blankly at her delicate, beautiful eyebrows and eyes. His lips moved but made no sound.

The next day, Junior Brother Zhongba came over and asked quietly: “Senior brother, why didn’t you agree to her? Gold, silver, jewels, power and status – don’t you want any of them?”

The little monk was startled, knowing Junior Brother Zhongba must have heard his conversation with Zhu. He replied calmly: “Money and wealth are external things. If they’re not offered sincerely before Buddha’s altar, what use would they be?”

Junior Brother Zhongba walked away silently.

Zhu didn’t give up her work of persuading the little monk: “Little monk, many people want to be emperor. If you want to be emperor, I can tell you how!”

The little monk remained unmoved. Thinking he didn’t believe her, Zhu hurriedly explained in detail the entire process of how to become emperor. Although she was in an isolated temple amid the current chaos, she could clearly explain all the forces – how to join one of them, how to proceed with the next steps, covering every detail.

After Zhu finished speaking, seeing the completely unresponsive little monk, she immediately lost her enthusiasm: “Little monk, the junior brother who just damaged my sleeve is eavesdropping outside the door. He’s probably already packed his belongings and set off. Are you willing to let him become emperor?” Zhu said lazily, sitting on the incense table.

“When Qin lost its deer, the whole world chased it, so those with great talent and swift feet got it first,” the little monk thought for a long time before squeezing out this ancient phrase he had heard. Zhu burst into laughter, feeling for the first time that this little monk was quite impressive.

“Zhongba comes from a poor common background. If he really became emperor, it would be a blessing for the people,” the little monk said seriously. Although he didn’t believe that following Zhu’s few words could make one emperor, he sincerely hoped someone could save this chaotic world.

Zhu Zhongba indeed became the leader of the rebel army, overthrew the Yuan Dynasty, established the Ming Dynasty, changed his name to Zhu Yuanzhang, and became emperor. The temple where the little monk lived was the famous Huangjue Temple. From then on, the Qielan Hall had prosperous incense and constant worshippers, no longer needing that inexhaustible fragrant candle – hundreds of candles replaced it.

Soon after the new emperor ascended the throne, he visited Huangjue Temple and ordered a search among these hundreds of candles for one that had been gnawed by a mouse.

When the little monk was brought before his former Junior Brother Zhongba, he saw that fragrant candle, taken by soldiers, burning quietly. The disguise at the base of the candlestick was discovered and removed, revealing the ugly gap there.

“Can you make that woman appear again?” The former junior brother, now emperor, asked urgently. The little monk honestly shook his head. Whether Zhu appeared or not was entirely her own will – he couldn’t control it.

The emperor frowned. Monks don’t lie, so he didn’t pursue whether this was true: “What’s with this candle? Doesn’t she want freedom, want liberation, and can be freed just by blowing out the candle? Why can’t I blow it out? Even splashing water doesn’t work!”

The little monk suddenly understood why Zhu had always pestered him. Only the person who lit this fragrant candle could blow it out.

“Senior brother! Quickly find a way to make her come out – I want to see her!” The emperor still called him senior brother, which was already rare treatment. But the little monk still honestly shook his head – he truly couldn’t do it. The emperor had once eavesdropped outside the Qielan Hall when Zhu tried to tempt the little monk with money, so using monetary inducement naturally wouldn’t work.

But the emperor could think of other methods. In the secret chamber of Huangjue Temple, the little monk was whipped until covered in wounds. The emperor thought this would force Zhu out, but on the table in the secret chamber, the fragrant candle just burned quietly.

The little monk gritted his teeth and tried hard not to make a sound. He didn’t know if Zhu could see this, but he didn’t want her to hear. Junior Brother Zhongba had changed – not just that his hair had grown out, not just that he had changed his former name. His entire person had changed, becoming cruel and unscrupulous.

The emperor locked the little monk alone in the secret chamber. Just before he was about to faint, a wisp of candle smoke floated before him, forming Zhu’s concerned face: “Little monk, how long is human life?” He heard her ask as usual.

Why did she like asking this question so much? The little monk thought hazily, barely managing to say: “Life… is… between breaths.”

Zhu was startled, her gaze becoming complex. But the little monk had no strength to examine her expression carefully and helplessly closed his eyes.

In his unconsciousness, he vaguely smelled a familiar sandalwood fragrance. The little monk struggled to open his eyes and found himself surrounded by thick candle smoke.

He still lay in the secret chamber, his body torn and bleeding, unbearably painful, but he still smiled because burning on the table was still that fragrant candle that belonged to him.

He didn’t see Zhu’s figure – surrounding him was only this mass of candle smoke. But the fragrant candle seemed to sense he had awakened, the flame flickered twice, and the candle smoke became thin and long, winding through the door crack – Zhu was indicating his escape route. The little monk understood and stood up. Although he spent every day in the Qielan Hall, he had grown up in this temple since childhood and knew the secret passages well.

Perhaps heaven protected him, or perhaps no one took him seriously – the little monk actually managed to carry Zhu out of the heavily guarded temple despite his severe injuries. “For my sake, you left the temple you served for many years. Do you regret it?” Zhu floated beside him, asking ethereally.

“No regrets.” In the pitch-black night, the little monk held the fragrant candle, running through the deep mountains. That temple had changed its flavor because of his junior brother. He thought of the Qielan statue that had been regilded, feeling sad. No matter how splendid the exterior, beneath the gold paint was still a dilapidated statue.

“Blow me out, otherwise they’ll eventually follow the firelight to find you,” Zhu urged by the little monk’s ear. For the first time, not for herself, but for this fool.

The little monk looked deeply at her and finally raised his hand. Complex emotions of relief and reluctance crossed Zhu’s face as she slowly closed her eyes.

It was finally ending. This was the moment she had been longing for – why was there still reluctance in her heart? Images of first meeting the little monk flashed before Zhu’s eyes – then, he was still just a youth… After a long while, Zhu felt no change. She opened her eyes in confusion. Before her was complete darkness without any firelight, yet she could see everything clearly by moonlight.

The wisps of blue smoke that constituted her rose from above the little monk’s palm – he had actually covered the candle flame with his entire palm! The merciless flame was licking his palm, and raging fire could be seen even between his fingers.

“Why?” Zhu frantically floated around him, trying to move his palm away. But she helplessly discovered that when her hand touched him, it turned into ethereal blue smoke. The little monk was sweating profusely, his face twisted in pain, yet he maintained a gentle smile. Zhu was stunned – only now did she notice that the little monk in her memory had grown up.

Unknowingly, he had grown into a magnificent man. His originally naive and confused expression had been replaced by determination. Sweat flowed down his upright face – one could imagine the indescribable pain he was enduring.

But his eyes kept smiling at her. Zhu suddenly remembered that all these years, the little monk had always been like this. In the temple, he was the most devout one, his face always indifferent, especially those eyes – unfocused and empty. As if he saw nothing, yet as if he saw everything. Only when she appeared before him would his gaze instantly change, becoming gentle as water.

“Zhu, I know you want liberation. I don’t know what you are, but to me, you are truly alive. How could I take a life?” The little monk’s gentle voice continued, he smiled: “I cannot protect you. So I can only entrust you to someone who can protect you… don’t be angry…”

What? What was he saying? The usually taciturn little monk suddenly said so much, leaving Zhu unable to accept it. She didn’t understand… Then a deep red dragon appeared in her vision.

“Please take good care of her,” the little monk looked up, saying solemnly to someone. No one spoke, the red dragon moved forward and took the fragrant candle from his hands. Firelight flowed from the little monk’s palm. Only then did Zhu realize this deep red dragon wasn’t real, but embroidered on someone’s right sleeve cuff. Black background with red thread – due to exquisite embroidery, at first glance it looked real.

This lifelike dragon, with its head facing the sleeve cuff, looked as if it could emerge riding clouds and mist at any moment.

Zhu didn’t know why this man could break through heavy encirclement and appear here. But when she saw him take the fragrant candle, she couldn’t help trembling.

In the dark night, this fragrant candle looked as if it were held in the red dragon’s mouth.

“Little monk!” Zhu desperately clung to the little monk, but as the fragrant candle gradually moved away, the candle smoke gradually thinned, and she became more and more transparent. She was unwilling! What right did he have to make decisions for her? He was just a little monk!

“Life… how long… is it really?” The little monk spat out blood, asking intermittently. Zhu was stunned – this question she had always asked him, but now being asked in return, she suddenly couldn’t answer.

The little monk smiled gently at her: “Life… is… between you and me.” Zhu was startled, the candle smoke could no longer support her human form and suddenly fled toward that point of firelight in the darkness.

This was the last time Zhu saw the little monk.

“The story is finished?” The doctor leaned against the wall, discovering the owner had no intention of continuing, and asked in amazement.

“Finished,” the owner nodded.

“What about the ending?” The doctor gritted his teeth: “Shouldn’t this kind of story have a happy ending to comfort the audience?”

“The ending? This is the ending.”

“So the little monk died?”

“The little monk wasn’t an immortal, of course he would die, but at that time he only fainted. Zhu Yuanzhang couldn’t find the fragrant candle’s whereabouts and had to give up. The little monk returned to Huangjue Temple, continuing to guard the incense before the Qielan statue. Every day he lit countless candles, watching these countless candles quietly burn and extinguish, but uniquely missing his one.” The owner narrated calmly.

“What about the end? What happened in the end?” The doctor asked urgently.

“In the end, the little monk became an old monk, and the old monk died.”

The doctor looked at him speechlessly, suddenly feeling that standing in this eerie place listening to stories was simply idiotic. “Too fake – something from hundreds of years ago, even involving Zhu Yuanzhang? How do you know so clearly? Also, that person wearing the red dragon clothes – wasn’t that you?” The doctor stared at the owner. He still remembered the red dragon should be embroidered on his back, while the person in the story had the dragon head embroidered on his sleeve cuff.

The doctor tried hard to recall – it seemed that no matter how the dragon’s posture changed, the dragon head always faced the owner’s neck, as if it wanted to devour him.

The owner smiled mysteriously without answering. He gazed deeply at that candle, not knowing to whom he said: “Sometimes, wealth and glory, supreme power in the world, cannot compare to one person truly loved.”

The flame on the fragrant candle suddenly jumped, and the owner turned: “Let’s go see if your breakfast has been eaten up. How about we go out to eat something? Of course, you’re treating.”

The doctor helplessly pursed his lips – this owner never forgot to take advantage of him! Before leaving, he couldn’t help looking back at the candle still burning in the dark room – no matter how he looked, it was just an ordinary candle.

He shrugged, muttering to himself: “Really don’t know what that little monk was thinking. Obviously liked her but didn’t say it – sigh! I’m crazy, actually believing this story. Hey! Where are you going to eat? I can’t afford anywhere too expensive!”

The door closed.

The flame of the fragrant candle flickered once.

A crystal clear tear of wax slowly flowed down the candle body.