25 A Stubborn Man (2/2)

The handmaiden Sangsang put a basin with hot water beside him. She sank a facecloth in the hot water and twisted it, and then she put the facecloth on his face. She asked curiously, ”Young master, what have you asked tonight?”

”I went to the old man and said to him, 'I have a secret but I won't tell you, but since I have told you I know a secret, should you tell me whether you can guess it or not and then show your admiration to me, a talented cultivator? '”

Sangsang repeated his words silently and was still confused by them. She took off the facecloth from Ning Que's face, washed it in the water, and then turned around to pour the water outside of the carriage. ”Young master, you're the silly one this time.”

He did feel like he was an idiot. Ning Que turned around, looking at the stars above the field outside of the window. His hands touching his face, he tried to find those tiny freckles. He mumbled, ”You think flying on a sword is amazing? I can handle Xuanyuan sword, can you?”

Sangsang heard his strange words and shook her head.

Ning Que sat up and found his old book, the Article on the Response of the Tao. He did not turn the pages, and instead, he stared at the cover for a long time, as if he was trying to figure out what on earth was hidden in it.

He said with a calm voice, ”Bring the basin over.”

He lit the lighter and set it to the book. Soon, the book started burning. He loosened his fingers, letting the book fall into the basin and burn.

Sangsang saw all this with astonishment.

Seeing the book curled up, become black from fire, and turned into ash, Ning Que clenched his hand on the windowsill. It felt as if an old friend had gone forever, and his dream burst like a bubble.

”I'm quite useless, right?”

Sangsang shook her head.

Ning Que said with a smile on his face, ”No one is better at archery than me and no one can kill as ruthlessly as I can. My peers never killed as many people as I did. I'm not useless. I'm a wood-chopper at Shubi Lake. I can't juggle like flying on a sword. But in the future, if I get a chance, I'll kill Grand Cultivators like I killed the Horse Gang.”

Sangsang tightened her mouth into a thin line and broke into a smile. She then nodded.

This was not self-consolation after encountering a failure but Ning Que's belief. At the entrance of Northern Mountain Road, even those bodyguards almost defeated a Great Sword Master, then why couldn't he? In this world, no one was invincible. No matter how powerful those unworldly sublime beings were, they were still humans that could be defeated.

In this world, and in that cultivator's world, many people found themselves untalented and unintelligent. Unable to fulfill their dreams, they were disappointed and sad, even refusing to admit it. Many of them immersed themselves in the illusion of success and confined themselves to their inner cage where they kept struggling and hoping to return to the past.

Some people found themselves lacking the talents necessary to write a new masterpiece, the Dream in the Green Mansion. They hid in a small village for thirty years, trying very hard to write something and bore a miserable life. However, this did not mean that they were as talented as the author of Dream in the Red Mansion, Cao Xueqin.

Ning Que was never such a person. If he could not become as talented as Cao Xueqin, he would try to become as good as Jin Yong, a famous author of swordsman stories. If he could not become an emperor, he would try to become a great calligrapher. If not a general, then a scholar. Therefore, even if he could not be a cultivator, it was not the end of the world.

Continuing to walk on one road was not wrong. Although the people accompanying them might be hard and bitter, it might also lead to success. But, maybe, those who had the determination to give up and turn to a new road were more honorable.

Life is a stubborn man—it would take more courage to persuade him to give up than to convince him to hold on.

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