Xiao Lin inherited her father’s cooking skills. The inn was run by her and Zhang Ruochen.
Zhang Ruochen had more work to do.
Boiling water, greeting guests, serving dishes, washing bowls, wiping tables, and so on. Many tasks fell on him.
When there were few guests, every evening at dusk, Xiao Lin would habitually stand under the big locust tree, gazing at the sunset glow. It was unclear if she was waiting for someone or just wanted to see the beautiful clouds.
Finally, on a dusk with bright red sunset glow, bad news came back to the town.
A disciple from the sect of that young man surnamed Yun came to the town and returned his belongings.
Xiao Lin inquired everywhere and finally learned that her former lover had died on the starry battlefield.
After death, no remains were left. It was said he was eaten by some monster.
Xiao Lin did not know what the starry battlefield was, but a strange light appeared in her eyes. She said, “Old man, do you think Brother Yun worked hard in cultivation and did not come to pick me up because he went to the battlefield? He had to do more important things?”
Zhang Ruochen really wanted to say, silly girl, you are deceiving yourself.
If he still had you in his heart, even across thousands of mountains and rivers, he would keep his promise and come back to pick you up.
But, he thought of himself.
Was he not another young man surnamed Yun?
In some place in the starry sky, was there also a silly girl like Xiao Lin waiting for him every day?
Zhang Ruochen sat on a chair at the inn’s entrance, preparing ingredients for tomorrow, using pebbles to grind brown rice. He said, “I heard that once you enter the cultivation world, you are no longer in control of yourself. He must be a great hero, doing truly important things.”
This year, Xiao Lin was already forty-two years old.
But, hearing Zhang Ruochen’s words, she smiled as brightly as when she was sixteen.
For so many years, this was the first time she showed such a smile.
She smiled until she cried.
She cried all night.
Perhaps she also knew that Zhang Ruochen was lying to her.
After that, she never went under the locust tree to wait again and began to manage the inn seriously.
Also this year, she finally got married, to the butcher in the town.
The butcher’s surname was Liu. He was already in his fifties and had a wife before, but she died of a cold last winter. The butcher was good to Xiao Lin. Every time, he personally delivered meat to the inn and would send an extra pound or two, adding a few more bones.
A woman and an old man running an inn were easily bullied.
The family needed such a man.
But, men in the world are all the same. Before marriage and after marriage, they are often two different people.
The butcher loved drinking. Every time he got drunk, he would beat and scold Xiao Lin.
Zhang Ruochen did not interfere in this matter. He just wanted to be an observer in this world, an old man nearing death. Besides, everyone had to take responsibility for their own choices, right?
But, he was ultimately a sentimental person. Seeing Xiao Lin wash her face with tears every day, aging faster day by day, he still went over and asked, “This butcher is no good. Do you need help?”
Xiao Lin shook her head and touched her slightly bulging belly.
After that, Zhang Ruochen no longer asked.
But,不知不觉, Xiao Lin started the habit again, coming to the big locust tree every day, gazing at the sunset glow in a daze. Perhaps the sunset glow held her life’s most beautiful memories.
On the day the child was born, the butcher was overjoyed because it was a boy.
He picked up the butcher knife and went to the backyard to slaughter the old yellow cow.
First, to nourish Xiao Lin’s body.
Second, that old yellow cow had lived too long. People in the town were saying it was about to become a spirit.
But, the butcher failed to kill the old yellow cow. Instead, he was knocked over by it and trampled to death with one hoof.
Nearby, two big white geese made cheerful and loud calls. Their eyes were very arrogant. They circled around the body, as if saying, you useless thing, you can’t even fight a cow, how dare you call yourself a butcher?
Xiao Lin saw this scene from the window on the second floor, but she felt neither sad nor happy, completely indifferent.
But later, she still followed Zhang Ruochen to bury the butcher, right next to old Mu. Old Mu’s grave was already overgrown with weeds.
The weather got colder year by year.
Because the suns in the sky changed from two to one.
Actually, when he learned that the young man surnamed Yun died on the starry battlefield, Zhang Ruochen realised he had not escaped this world at all. Instead, he might be very close to the battlefield.
Pitifully, he thought he had escaped to the end of the world and would no longer get involved in the disputes between Heaven and Hell.
The severe cold weather made winters longer and longer.
Sometimes, snow could fall for a whole half year.
Ordinary people, no matter how much they prepared, still could not fight against the weather.
In ten years, more and more people in the town froze to death. It became desolate and quiet, no longer as lively and noisy as when Zhang Ruochen first arrived.
This year, Liu Shitou was ten years old.
Shitou, this name was given by the butcher and kept.
Xiao Lin had aged terribly. Not yet sixty, her hair was already grey, her face full of wrinkles. She had been lying in bed for half a month. She knew she could not survive this winter.
Zhang Ruochen was by her side with a stove. He helped her sit up, fed her the soup medicine, and suddenly asked, “Your body can’t hold on, but I have a way to help you live longer. Do you want to try?”
Xiao Lin did not speak. Her gaze turned to the big locust tree outside the window.
Zhang Ruochen raised his right hand, revealing a seven-coloured ring. He said, “I have a divine ring. Make a wish to it, and the wish can come true.”
A smile finally appeared on Xiao Lin’s pale face. Weakly, she said, “Old man, I know you are not an ordinary person. Otherwise, how could the yellow cow and white geese in the backyard become spirits?”
Zhang Ruochen smiled.
“How did we… meet back then… why can’t I remember?” Xiao Lin’s voice was even hoarser than Zhang Ruochen’s, faint as a thread.
Zhang Ruochen said, “You and old Mu picked me up from the wilderness.”
“Your memory is really good. Yes, my dad… my dad… I’m going to see my dad… I remember, that time… it was me and my dad… going to the city to buy goods, on the way back… we found you… at that time, dad was still very… young…”
Xiao Lin’s wrinkled mouth could no longer speak, and she could not open her eyes.
“At that time, you were also very young, very cute.”
Zhang Ruochen laid Xiao Lin back on the bed. Then, from under the bed, he took out the clapper that old Mu used to use. At her bedside, he struck it and sang in his沧桑 tone:
“A hundred years like being drunk, full of spring in the heart.
Lying high on East Mountain under a cloud.
Angry, right and wrong brush the face like dust, wear away, ancient and modern countless people.”
“Wear away, ancient and modern countless people… sigh!”
This was a tune old Mu often sang when alive.
The green mountains remain, how many times the setting sun red, but sadly, no more young people from that year.
After the song, Xiao Lin had completely lost her breath. Tears slid from the corners of her eyes, but a smile appeared at her mouth. She smiled just like when Zhang Ruochen first saw her, also in this room.
Zhang Ruochen thought his heart could no longer have waves.
But at this moment, he clearly felt bitterness, even deep regret, regretting that he had not done something.
It was at this instant that in his body, at the position below the navel, a throb appeared.
The throb turned into a circle, spreading out at a speed faster than light.
Zhang Ruochen noticed this throb, even sensed the fluctuation of Wuji Holy Intent. He was extremely shocked in his heart. How could he still perceive Wuji Holy Intent?
For decades, he had almost forgotten this first-grade Holy Intent that he cultivated at the Taichu singularity after countless hardships.
The Ten Heavens Universe was the result of his cultivation of the Ming Wang Sutra. Mysteries, pale blood soil, divine seals, even rules divine patterns and divine qi, were all obtained from the outside.
Only Wuji Holy Intent was the crystallization of his cultivation, the essence of his own martial arts insights.
It belonged only to him.
The position where the throb came from was the Xuan Tai below the navel.
The so-called Xuan Tai, actually, was the second qi sea opened when Zhang Ruochen cultivated the fifth level of the Ming Wang Sutra, “Xuan Tai Pacifies Demons Heaven”.
Xuan Tai, in Daoism, is also called “Xuan Pin”.
“The valley spirit does not die, it is called Xuan Pin. The gate of Xuan Pin is the root of heaven and earth, continuous as if existing, use it without exhaustion.”
Valley spirit refers to the Dao.
Meaning: The Dao that derives heaven, earth, and all things is eternal, immortal, this is called Xuan Pin. Xuan Pin is the door that gives birth to yin and yang, the root of heaven and earth, continuous, just like this eternal existence, endless.
After Zhang Ruochen probed with mental power, he found the Xuan Tai empty, nothing there.
Wuji Holy Intent could no longer be perceived.
Zhang Ruochen did not become anxious because of this momentary throb. He remained calm. The only thing that worried him was the circular fluctuation that had spread out earlier.
How far would it spread?
He hoped there were no gods in this star domain who could perceive that fluctuation.
After burying Xiao Lin, Zhang Ruochen’s life returned to peace. But now, he had to take care of Shitou, teach him to read, cook, wash clothes, and so on.
Until Shitou was seventeen, he finally gathered courage and said to Zhang Ruochen, “I want to leave this town.”
“Where do you want to go?”
“I want to go to the outside world, I want to venture out. This town now can’t even find twenty living people. It’s too desolate, too remote. This inn has no customers at all. Staying here, my life will be ruined, no future at all.” Shitou’s eyes were full of enthusiasm and endless fighting spirit.
This was the look only a youth could have.
“Good, I support you.”
Zhang Ruochen packed Shitou’s luggage. Under a brilliant sunset, he sent him off, watching him cross the last mountain ridge.
From then on, Zhang Ruochen never saw him again.
Everyone has to make their own choices.
Everyone’s path has to be walked by themselves.
Back at the inn, Zhang Ruochen stood under the big locust tree for a long time. In his mind, he thought of old Mu knocking the clapper and singing here, thought of Xiao Lin and the young man surnamed Yun making vows here, thought of every guest who stayed at the inn.
He turned around and finally saw two blurry names on the inn’s wall.
“Mu Xiao Lin, Yun Fan.”
After so many years, Zhang Ruochen finally knew that the young man surnamed Yun was called this name.
His old fingers gently stroked the wall. He shook his head with a lost smile, then walked into the inn.
In the inn’s hall, a drunkard was lying there.
Zhang Ruochen was not surprised, ignored him, and went to the backyard to feed the geese.
This drunkard was an outsider.
He came to the town the year Xiao Lin died.
For seven years, he came to the inn to drink every day, already the only customer. Although he dressed raggedly, very down and out, when paying for drinks, he was not stingy at all.
Zhang Ruochen once suspected he was a god attracted by the fluctuation back then.
But, after multiple tests and mental power probes, he found he was indeed a mortal. With Zhang Ruochen’s current mental strength, plus direct body contact probe, in this case, to still deceive him, unless it was someone like Qing Zu or Tai Shang in person.
“Old guy, do you still have wine? Or roast these two geese, they look so fat, ah, sizzle… I won’t short you on meat money…”
The drunkard who should have been drunk on the table,不知何时, came to the backyard, appeared behind Zhang Ruochen, staring at the two big white geese, making hehe laughter, tongue licking lips nonstop.
