Yang Ruoning avoided the main road, walking on a less crowded path towards the city. Her clothes were still not completely dry, her outer robe was gone, leaving only the inner camisole. Blake had disappeared too, and Yang Ruoning vowed to starve the damned black horse for days. Her master was in trouble, and instead of helping, it had bolted. "Achoo." A gust of wind chased after her, and Yang Ruoning sneezed heartily. Having just choked on water, after the sneeze, her throat, even her trachea and lungs, began to feel like they were tearing apart.
The path was about to merge with the main road into the city from this intersection. Yang Ruoning draped a piece of tattered cloth she had found on the roadside over herself, preparing to walk onto the main road. After only a few steps, a black horse whizzed past like a black lightning bolt from ahead. She looked back at the black horse and the tall man in a flowing black robe on it, finding him extremely familiar.
A few seconds later, she realized that the black horse was actually Blake, and the man in black must be Ah Jing! She shouted their names loudly, but only a hoarse, weak voice came out. Watching their hurried retreating figures, she figured they must be heading towards her. Yang Ruoning dropped the tattered cloth and desperately chased after them.
When Yang Ruoning ran to the lake, panting, she saw Blake pacing anxiously by the water's edge, kicking his hooves. Ah Jing was nowhere to be seen.
She first soothed the restless Blake, telling it she was fine. She spotted a black object not far away, picked it up, and found it was Ah Jing's mask.
Where was Ah Jing? Had he really gone to the bottom of the lake to find her? Yang Ruoning looked anxiously at the lake surface, wanting to call out Ah Jing's name, but she couldn't. She hesitated about diving in again. After the recent ordeal, her strength was completely depleted, and she wasn't sure if she could rashly enter the water again…
One, two, three… she counted in her mind, deciding that if she reached sixty and Ah Jing still hadn't appeared, she would dive in to find him.
When she reached forty, a head suddenly emerged from the distant lake surface. It was Ah Jing! Yang Ruoning's anxious heart settled, and she immediately ran towards Ah Jing.
Ah Jing stumbled out of the lake, seemingly exhausted. He took only a few steps before collapsing weakly onto the shallow bank, his head bowed, his shoulders trembling slightly.
Yang Ruoning stopped a few steps away from him.
Without his mask, Ah Jing's face was breathtakingly beautiful. At this moment, Ah Jing's face overlapped with Luo Yuan's, and with the little boy's. And the person with these three different faces was now staring at the outer robe Yang Ruoning had lost in his hand, as if his soul had departed.
Ah Jing, or Luo Yuan, or… Yang Ruoning wanted to call out to him, but didn't know how to address him anymore.
She gently walked over and knelt before him.
But he seemed oblivious to her presence, still bowing his head, staring blankly at Yang Ruoning's clothes in his hand.
Yang Ruoning gently cupped his face, making him look at her. She tenderly brushed aside the wet hair covering his eyes and forehead, and then said in her hoarse voice, "It's me, Yang Ruoning, I'm not dead."
His eyes searched her face, as if he couldn't believe this person who had suddenly appeared was her. After a while, he asked in a trembling voice, "...Is it really Ruoning? I saw… so many bodies wrapped in white cloth at the bottom of the lake, I wanted to open them one by one, but there were too many… I was so afraid I would find you among them…"
"It's really me, I'm still alive, don't you believe me?"
He didn't answer, still looking at her in disbelief.
So she pinched his arm, "Does it hurt?" she asked.
He actually shook his head. Yang Ruoning found it both amusing and irritating, then reached out and pinched his waist hard. He finally cried out in pain.
"Now?"
"It hurts a lot."
"Exactly, you're not dreaming. I'm still alive in this damn world, and so are you. Get up, don't kneel in this water."
But before she could stand up, he pulled her down with force, holding her tightly as if she would vanish if he didn't hold her close. "Ruoning, I thought I was too late…"
Yang Ruoning was struggling to breathe from his embrace. She tried to push him away slightly, but he only held her tighter. Helplessly, she said, "I won't die, because I still have so many things to ask you, for example, I'm holding Ah Jing's mask right now…"
*********************************
Under the starry sky, the two of them walked up the long stone steps leading to the small mountain temple and knocked on the temple door. The temple was empty; the master must have gone down the mountain and not yet returned. So, they sat on the bluestone steps at the temple entrance and waited.
"So, it was always you…"
"Yes, it was always me. I always wanted to find a chance to tell you, but…"
"But I'm telling you, I want to leave you," Yang Ruoning turned to look at Luo Yuan beside her.
"Yes."
Yang Ruoning sighed. She took off the small wooden horse from her neck and placed it in his palm. "I think this belongs to you."
Luo Yuan looked at the object in his palm and was stunned. "You know?"
"Yes, thanks to your fiancée, I know you are that little boy. The monks here told me you died in a fire. But why did you hide it from me?"
"If you knew I was that boy, would you still like me and marry me?"
Yang Ruoning shook her head, "I wouldn't. But you can't blame me for not recognizing you… You were dark and dirty as a child, but now…"
Luo Yuan smiled, "Now what?"
"Now you're so… handsome."
The smile in Luo Yuan's eyes deepened, "You know this is the first time you've complimented me."
"You've probably heard that line so many times your ears are calloused."
"I only need to hear you say it. I worked hard to become handsome so that when we met again, you would fall in love with me at first sight."
"Ha, you're really cunning. However, you really did it. I liked you from the first glance. Oh, and," Yang Ruoning said, taking off another chain from her neck, "my necklace is also back."
Luo Yuan looked at the diamond necklace in her palm with surprise, his face full of disbelief. "I searched for so many years and couldn't find it, how did you find it?"
"You can thank your cousin," she said, drawing out the last two words. Then she said, "Say hello to my parents, will you?"
Luo Yuan was shocked. "You mean… these are… your parents?"
Yang Ruoning burst into laughter. "Yes and no. Firstly, my parents are not stones; secondly, in our place, there's a technology that can cultivate human ashes into various gemstones in a laboratory. So this diamond was cultivated from my parents' ashes, which is why it is also my parents."
Luo Yuan still looked incredulous. "I think your parents must have disliked me very much, right?"
"Why?"
"Because I lost them…"
"No, my mother likes handsome guys even more than I do. And, you know, at the bottom of the lake today, for a moment, I felt like I really died. I saw my mother. It was she who told me not to give up, because…" She reached out and caressed his cheek, "there is still someone here who loves me. Luo Yuan, I heard you calling me, so I desperately swam out…"
Yang Ruoning saw the sorrow in Luo Yuan's eyes and couldn't help but murmur, "So Luo Yuan… what should we do…"
But he smiled gently, as if it were a very foolish question. "Idiot, don't you know yet?" As he spoke, he picked up the small wooden horse, tugged its tail, and twisted its head a few times. With a slight click, the wooden horse split into two halves from its belly, revealing a pale purple jade seal inside.
Luo Yuan took out the jade seal. "This is the jade seal that marks identity since ancient times in Da Song, and purple jade can only be used by the Son of Heaven. Do you see the two characters engraved on it, 'Zhao Yu'? This is my imperial jade seal as crown prince."
"So… you are really that missing young prince?"
He put the jade seal back into the wooden horse, then placed the necklace back around her neck. "Yang Ruoning, my answer was already told to you the moment I gave you this jade seal."
He gently lifted her chin and bestowed a soft, watery kiss upon her lips. "I choose you, Yang Ruoning."