Chapter 154 — The Old Abode
The Sword Questions the Heavens · Page 4 of 6
Ming Li's face, wooden at first, gradually changed; the expression that had once cloaked him like ice quietly receded. So those days past had been so stirring after all; even after all these years, he still could not forget them.
If—if only... if only nothing had ever changed...
He stood in the corridor bathed in that pale sunlight, and slowly sat down on the low railing. The mild, warm sunshine of the Great Zhu Peak fell upon his face, as though it were just as it had been ten years ago.
...
Footsteps and the sound of voices came from far behind him, drawing nearer, and there emerged the fourth disciple of the Great Zhu Peak, He Dachuan, and the sixth, Du Biyan, walking side by side toward this place. And at the very moment their figures appeared, Ming Li had already vanished like a ghost; the mountain wind blew past, stirring the branches and grass, and no one could tell where he had hidden himself.
He Da Chuan and Du Biyan had clearly noticed nothing. The two of them spoke in low voices as they walked slowly past, and Du Biyan was carrying a wooden bucket half full of water, with a rag draped over its edge, so that they looked as though they were on their way to clean something up. Watching the two of them walk on, it was not long before they reached the doorway of a room; Du Biyan shrugged at He Da Chuan, He Da Chuan gave a little laugh, and the two of them went in together.
A moment later, Ming Li's figure emerged from a corner beyond the corridor, his gaze complicated as he looked ahead. The room into which those two former senior brothers had gone was, astonishingly enough, the very room in which he had lived when he had still been Zhang Qingyue, a humble disciple of Dazhu Peak. But ought that room not to have lain deserted for many years? Why should his two senior brothers still go inside?
Ming Li drifted over without a sound.
As though he had suddenly fallen into a dream of the past, he stood frozen in the doorway. This little courtyard was exactly as it had been in those years—there was still the gravel path, still the green grass, and even that one little pine still grew there, though after all these years it had grown considerably thicker.
The sound of water came from within the room, and then the voices of Du Biyan and He Da Chuan carried out: "Fourth Senior Brother, tell me, it's been all these years—why does Master still make us clean this room? Isn't he just deliberately making me suffer!"
He Da Chuan laughed and scolded him: "You brat, you're trying to slack off again, aren't you? Let me tell you, Master's been in a foul temper lately over Eldest Senior Brother's business, so don't you go provoking the old man, or he'll flay you alive."
Du Biyan gave a dry little laugh. "Senior Brother, you're teasing me again. How would I dare provoke Master? It's just that Junior Brother has been gone more than ten years now, and Master still tells us to keep this place exactly as it was and clean it every day. I really don't know what the old man's thinking."
The figure standing outside the room stood woodenly, then slowly lowered his head.
Inside the room, He Da Chuan was silent for a moment, then sighed and said in a low voice: "Master has never once spoken of Junior Brother all these years, but every one of us knows in his heart that the old man doted on Junior Brother Xiaofan most of all."
Du Biyan's voice came: "That's right, I can see that too. To be honest, sometimes I miss Junior Brother a great deal as well. But what good is that? Junior Brother has long since become another person. Would he really come back to Dazhu Peak, turn back into Zhang Qingyue, and be our Seventh Junior Brother again?..."
Outside the window, Ming Li's expression grew ever more indifferent, and his body straightened, until only his two hands remained, clenched into fists, tighter and tighter.
Can one turn back?