Chapter 706: Chapter 238 Farewell_3
The bright and cheerful girl opened her heart to her in the night rain that soaked everything, the plum wine sour and biting under the solitary lamp, and she, with boisterous drunken bravado, clapped her on the shoulder and shouted.
"One day, you’ll be Chief Court Envoy, and I’ll be Vice Director, with our paired swords, we’ll rise above them all!"
"To us becoming Court Envoys!"
She stood in a daze, her gaze falling into the distance.
The mist gradually dissipated, revealing a clearer past.
There was a woman with a sallow face amidst the red beauty of flowers, a warm and upright scholar in a fishmonger’s stench-filled grass hut, a long-bearded man babbling on and on, a brash woman who, wishing a good Imperial City husband for her daughter, secretly handed over a basket of plums...
They laughed and talked, passing by her side, their commonplaces and old sayings slowly solidifying into delicate, intricate threads, which entangled her, weaving a soft and expansive net over her.
It turned out that, without realizing it, she had made connections with so many people.
It turned out she had been here for so long.
She suddenly felt a faint sense of reluctance to leave.
A voice came from behind: "Stay, Little Shiqi."
She started in fright.
All the worldly tumult and dust scattered in an instant as everything around her abruptly vanished. Lu Tong turned around, and Lady Yun stood before her.
The woman was still as charming and captivating as ever, wrapped in a Golden Red Feather Satin Cloak, in the icy world around her; she looked like a rich red plum in full bloom, watching her with a smirk.
"Do you want to leave this place?" she asked.
Luomei Peak was a blanket of white, the towering peaks endlessly out of sight. Lu Tong took a step back.
"Stay," she said gently, her tone seductive as she gestured to Lu Tong from afar. "Stay by my side."
"In this world, hearts are unfathomable, circumstances treacherous. What’s so good about Shengjing?" She smiled as she spoke persuasively, "Ke Chengxing, for personal desire, killed his bedfellow by his own hands. Fan Zhenglian sought a career, disregarding the innocent. Your uncle Liu Kun, for a hundred taels of silver, sent his nephew to the execution ground. The Grand Preceptor’s Mansion’s power overflowed, to quell disturbances; they exterminated the entire Lu Family."
She walked toward Lu Tong.
"You did well," Lady Yun praised, "You didn’t hesitate or spare anyone. Many have come to Luomei Peak, but you’re the first one who knows how to kill. A good child indeed."
"Little Shiqi, you and I are the same kind of person."
Lu Tong shuddered, instinctively retorted, "I’m not."
"Of course, you are." Lady Yun approached her, smiling as she tucked a stray hair behind her ear, her fingers icy cold—colder yet were her words.
"You’ve killed so many people already, your great vengeance is fulfilled, with nothing left to bind you." She looked at Lu Tong fondly, "You’re so tired, my good child, why not stay here and be free from now on?"
She took Lu Tong’s hand.
"After all, you’ve never left, have you?"
Lu Tong was momentarily bewildered.
She knew Lady Yun was right.
All this time, she felt that everything and everyone was moving forward except for her. There was no Lu Family courtyard to look back to, and no end in sight ahead. She seemed to be left alone in the thatched cottage on Luomei Peak, unsure of how to leave.
That’s why she was always reluctant to think about the future.
"You and I are the same kind of person. So, stay," Lady Yun urged.
Lady Yun took her hand and walked toward the thatched hut by the plum tree.
"You’ve lost everything."
Lu Tong let herself be led, as if surrendering her unknowable destiny into her hands, like the first time she climbed the mountain, moving towards the hidden spot she knew so well and where she had spent many years.
Her father, her brothers, her sisters were all gone.
Her enemies were gone too.
She couldn’t return to the old Lu Family house; looking back, aside from this Luomei Peak, she had nowhere else to go.
With all the people of her past dispersed, she was left with nothing.
She walked on in confusion, led by the woman, when suddenly she smelled a fragrant and bracing scent.
The fragrance was faint and cool, awakening her mind for a moment, as if someone was speaking in her ear.
He said, "Do you really have no regret for leaving all this behind, not a shred of sentiment for these people and things?"
He said, "Learn to cherish yourself."
He said, "Lu Tong, I favor you more."
As if something heavier gradually became clear in her mind, dispelling fear and hesitation.
Lu Tong paused in her steps.
"What you said is wrong," she said.
Lady Yun was taken aback.
She looked at Lady Yun: "I’m different from you."
"Oh? How so?"
"I am a healer."
"A healer?"
Lady Yun’s expression changed, and with a scornful laugh, she said, "What kind of healer are you? Who have you saved? You can’t even save yourself, Little Shiqi."