劍問蒼天 - 第114章 脫困 - 清風書屋

Through her tears, Bilu watched him fumble and flush, and shook her head, clenching her jaw tight. But the grief was beyond all bearing—tears held back for more than ten years poured out all at once on this day.

"It was me—it was I who killed my mother!" the girl, sunk deep in the anguish of the past, said mournfully, her voice full of desolation.

Zhang Qingyue shook his head at once. Looking at her fragile, helpless figure, his heart wavered, as though he were seeing himself from years ago—that same helpless shadow. "That's not true," he stepped forward and said in a low, gentle voice. "Your mother loved you most in all the world. You were so young then, you understood nothing—how could you have harmed anyone?"

Bilu sobbed, "But—but Father has always hated me. I know he wishes I were dead. He blames me for killing Mother!"

Zhang Qingyue said softly, "He doesn't. Don't let your thoughts run wild. Hasn't your father forgiven you? Didn't he come to rescue you? In all these years, has he ever treated you badly?"

Bilu's body gave a shudder, and her face seemed to pale. From where he stood, Zhang Qingyue saw that her once-lovely features, now streaked with tears, wore a sorrow so poignant it was heartbreaking.

But when she raised her head, Zhang Qingyue dared not meet the gaze that lay behind the tears; he turned his eyes away.

A long while later.

"You're a good person," she said suddenly, softly, faintly.

Something in the depths of Zhang Qingyue's heart gave a sudden leap, but he quickly steadied himself and said with a smile, "Not at all. It's just that we're about to die together—a few words of comfort before the end, that's nothing."

Bilu slowly stopped crying and wiped the tears from the corners of her eyes. With a low sigh she said, "Yes. We're going to die together." At this, as though something had occurred to her, she said to Zhang Qingyue, "Dying here with me—have you ever regretted it?"

Zhang Qingyue was taken aback. In an instant countless images flashed through his mind, as though at this very moment he had returned to Canglan Mountain, to Dazhu Peak. "Of course I regret it."

He said it in a low voice.

At these words Bilu's face fell at once. "Hmph. In the Holy Cult, I don't know how many would give anything to die at my side—and you're the only one who doesn't know his own fortune!"

Zhang Qingyue's anger flared, but one look at Bilu and it subsided again. He merely sighed and shook his head. "Perhaps. But if I could be buried on Dazhu Peak, then truly I could die without regret."

Bilu's face darkened. She stared at him and was silent a long while, then suddenly said, "It's for that Senior Sister Ling'er of yours, isn't it?"

Zhang Qingyue leapt up and pointed at her in astonishment. "You—how do you know?"

Bilu turned her head away. "You said so yourself when you were raving in your fever a while back."

Zhang Qingyue was stunned. He was about to say something to reproach her, but on second thought—they were about to die here, and from now on he would never see his senior sister again; and even after death, even if he became a ghost, he would never again see the scenery of Dazhu Peak!

He only wondered—would Senior Sister remember him?

At this thought, his heart suddenly turned to ashes. With a long sigh, sunk in a misery he could not pull himself out of, he turned and walked out. Gazing at his retreating back, Bilu stood lost in a daze.

After a long while, she slowly turned her head, looked up at the two statues, and bowed down before them: "Holy Mother, may you take pity on the people of this world, protect him and watch over him. Ming King, may you wield your power of creation and save..."