Chapter 229 — Despair
The Sword Questions the Heavens · Page 5 of 6
Ming Li gave a sound of assent and fell silent. Lu Xueling over there seemed at a loss for what to say as well. Between the two of them, as the silence gradually deepened, though they stood motionless, the distance between them seemed to grow greater.
After a long while, Lu Xueling said softly, "The wounds on your body... are they better?"
Ming Li said quietly, "Much better." With that, he raised his head and looked at Lu Xueling, saying, "If not for you saving me that day, I fear I would not be standing here. I ought to thank you."
Lu Xueling was taken aback. Looking at Ming Li, she said, "That day, I—that sword of mine..."
Ming Li suddenly cut in: "Don't say any more."
Lu Xueling's expression dimmed. She stopped speaking and lowered her head in silence.
Ming Li seemed to hesitate, then continued, "Those matters... Master's wife told me everything. She said I wrongly blamed you. I'm sorry."
Lu Xueling's body trembled. She raised her head and saw the sorrow on Ming Li's face; his eyes would not meet hers. Yet even so, he went on slowly, word by word, "Master's wife's words—I naturally believe them. But Master, after all, was the teacher who raised me and taught me. I know perhaps my personal feelings weigh too heavily. I only ask that you give me a little more time, so that I may..."
"I understand. I'll wait for you!" Lu Xueling suddenly interrupted him.
Ming Li was somewhat surprised and raised his head to look at her. The lovely woman was biting her lip with her white teeth, tears glistening in her eyes, yet her body—which had always seemed so tightly wound—seemed to relax all at once. At the corner of her mouth was a faint trace of relief and a smile.
Suddenly, deep in his heart, it was as if something had cracked open.
In this mortal world of red dust, a beauty's kindness weighs heaviest of all. That single word "wait"—how much vicissitude, how much deep feeling did it not encompass?
Gazing at that woman of deep feeling, the corner of his mouth moved. A surge of tenderness suddenly welled in his heart, and he was about to smile and say something to her—when at that very moment, from the bamboo grove on the mountaintop behind them, there came from afar a burst of frenzied barking.
His body suddenly went rigid.
It was Da Huang's barking. Ever since he had brought Master Tian Buhui's remains back to Dazhu Peak, Da Huang had remained silent, following its master's body without ever raising its voice again. But now, though the barking came from far off and sounded somewhat faint, it was almost crazed—utterly despairing—such as he had never heard in more than ten years.
What on earth had happened, to make Da Huang suddenly bark with such hysterical frenzy?
That vague worry buried deep in his heart suddenly surged up all at once. Ming Li's face turned instantly deathly pale, and even his hands began to tremble slightly.
Lu Xueling was greatly startled as well, and seeing Ming Li's expression, she grew even more bewildered. She cried out in alarm, "What's wrong?"
Ming Li did not answer. His body trembling slightly, he suddenly let out a great hoarse cry: "Master's wife!"
Before the words faded, his form had already shot upward, hurtling toward the depths of the bamboo grove on the back mountain like wind and lightning.
Lu Xueling was clever as ice and snow; in an instant she had guessed something of it. Her face too turned deathly pale, her body trembling. If, because of Tian Buhui's death, Su Wan in her extreme grief should meet with some mishap... what would become of Ming Li—she dared not imagine. And how the two of them would face it when the time came—that too she could not begin to imagine!
Watching that figure hurtle away like a madman, she suddenly felt a helplessness such as she had never known, as though a vast shadow had descended around her. She wanted to chase after him, yet her body and feet seemed bound by some invisible force, unable to move in the slightest.