Chapter 299 – If Life Could Be Like the Moment When We First Met (Part Twelve) (2/2)

Suddenly, he thought of something, and said rather embarrassedly, ”I'm so sorry that it took me so long to ask you. May I ask what your name is?”

Xu Yourong smiled, ”And you?”

Truly interesting. These two had up to this point not even known each other's names, nor who they were.

The rain continued to fall with no indication of stopping anytime soon, and the stars could not be seen in the Garden of Zhou. Yet when he looked into her eyes, it was as if he saw the night sky in Xining Village after rain. There was not a single strand of fog or speck of dust, but because of the countless stars in the night sky, they were very bright, so bright as to cause one to be flustered, to the extent that it was simply impossible to tell lies under their watch.

Xu Yourong gazed into his eyes. The eyes were so clean and bright as to let one clearly make out their own reflection in them. Confronted by these eyes, one felt obligated to give only truthful answers.

The eyes were a window to the soul. These famous words, because they had appeared in the human world far too many times, were rarely spoken except by children just starting out on their lessons. In the vast majority of cases, people would not think of these words either, but now as they looked into each other's eyes, they both thought of this phrase.

In Wenshui City, he had not found the gazes of the encircling crowd to be enjoyable. If she knew that he was Chen Changsheng, she most likely would not have acted so indifferently and casually to him.

Since she was small, she had lived out days of attracting constant attention. Whether it was in the capital or in the south, she was the focus of everyone's gaze, the target of their admiration. She did not enjoy this lifestyle, so she also did not hope that once he knew she was Xu Yourong, he would be like the other young men, where his eyes would burn with passion and his words would become cautious and tasteless.

But when they looked into each other's eyes, they decided to give away their true identities, because this was their way of showing respect to each other.

Yet just as their mouths began to move, the moment their names were about to leave their lips, they once more… changed their minds.

Because they had an engagement that the whole world knew of. If this elven, white-clothed girl was to know that he was Chen Changsheng, she would know that he had a fiancée called Xu Yourong. On the other hand, if this disciple of Snow Mountain Sect's Secret Sect knew that she was Xu Yourong, he would know that she had a fiancé called Chen Changsheng.

They both disliked the engagement, and they both wanted to end it, but neither one wanted the other to know of it.

These emotions were very complicated. These thoughts were very simple. No matter how extraordinary they were, when all was said and done, he was a young man, and she a young woman.

So they both made an identical decision. Even after many years had passed, there was still no solution for this matter that occurred on this rain-soaked night in this run-down temple. No one knew the reasons for why they made such a decision, and they never even spoke to each other about what they were thinking that night.

Xu Yourong's smiling expression gradually dwindled, making her turn extremely placid.

Chen Changsheng's smiling expression gradually grew calm, he too not desiring to give anything away.

Their voices simultaneously rang out.

”Snow Mountain Sect, Xu Sheng.”

”Elf race, Chen Chujian.”

The night was quiet, with only the sound of rain falling. This sound did not vex the heart, but added to the tranquility.

In the cave when he was still not fully conscious, Chen Changsheng had faintly heard the old freak's voice and knew that he had been mistakenly identified as a secret disciple of Snow Mountain Sect. He also knew that this girl was an elf. He did not want to reveal his identity, so he decided to hide behind this veil of subterfuge. How could he have known that Xu Yourong would think of the same thing?

Her voice was very soft, and her tongue slightly curled as that final syllable dragged off her tongue. Even if she was saying her own name, it still seemed rather awkward. When it reached his ears, his impression was that it sounded beautiful. Her voice was beautiful, her name was beautiful, that her last name was Chen was beautiful and that her name was Chujian(初见) was also beautiful. What was that phrase? If life(人生) could be like the moment we first met(初见)? When he gazed at her somewhat swollen yet still elegant face and thought about that time a few days ago where she cutely covered her cheeks with her hands, he thought to himself that if life really was just like this girl called Chujian, it would truly be good.

(TN: 初见means ”the moment we first met”. The original line 人生若只如初见 means ”If life could be like the moment we first met”, but it is also used here to play on Xu Yourong's fake name.)

Xu Yourong's thoughts were somewhat simpler. When she first looked at this unconscious boy, she had found him to be somewhat familiar and wanted to bring his identity to light. Now that she knew his last name was Xu, she decided that it was because of this reason.

Now that they had finished exchanging names, what would they do next? The temple once again grew quiet.

”Play a round?” Xu Yourong had taken out a chessboard from somewhere and invited him to play.

As he gazed at the chessboard, he understood that she was just like him, still hiding many secrets, so he could not help but smile.

Xu Yourong also gave a wordless smile. They knew that neither of them were ordinary. Only, what need was there to discuss such uninteresting and tasteless things? If they were unable to leave this garden, what meaning did those worldly matters have? Yes, outside of life and death, besides enjoying life, nothing else was important, but what was important was...

”I don't know how to play chess,” he said rather abashedly. Seeing her disappointed expression, he added, ”Maybe we can play something else?”

Xu Yourong thought to herself, if we want to play dominoes, we're still lacking two people. If we want to play Yangzhou cards, we're missing even more. With just two people, other than chess, what else can we do?

In the endless night and the cold and dreary rain, it was not a good time to fall asleep, not to mention that she had gotten more than enough sleep on their way here.

Then they could only idly chat, which would let them not use up their strength and spirit.

Only right now, they were in the midst of an escape, nor were they close. Naturally, they could not talk about anything too deep, such as ‘How many people are in your family?’ ‘Are your father and mother doing well?’ ‘This year, how old are you?’ ‘How can your eyes look so beautiful?’ ‘Does your body hold the remnants of the Black Frost Dragon's bloodline?’ ‘Have you ever been married?’

This was the first time they had truly held a meaningful conversation. They were cultivators and were not too familiar with each other, so they could naturally only discuss cultivation.

The cultivation here was true cultivation, it had nothing to do with that old saying, ”Life is just cultivation”.

The bonfire in the temple illuminated their young faces. Right now, neither of them knew what significance the other person would play in their life.