914 Untitled (1/2)
Ning Que and Mo Shanshan sat on a stone chair facing the lake under the twilight. Grazing not far away, the big black horse didn't swallow the grass but rather to pass the time.
Ning Que talked about what happened in Jingdu. Mo Shanshan flashed her slender eyelashes gently and looked down at the tips revealing from the white skirt silently. Even when she heard that her teacher was seriously injured, the look on her face remained the same. However, she was a little surprised when she learned that Ning Que became the monarch of Great River Kingdom.
Unlike many women in the human world who had been swayed by the novels of talented scholars and beautiful ladies, she didn't ask the man she loved why to meddle in her marriage when he had refused to marry her.
”Back in Chang'an, you said that she ran far away to heaven and could not come back, so there was no way for you to reach her. Now that she has returned to the human world, what do you plan to do?”
Ning Que said, ”I found that what I thought back then was too simple. In fact, she is always there whether she goes to heaven or stays in the human world.”
Mo Shanshan said, ”She is not Sangsang, but Haotian now. Could you still love her?”
Ning Que thought about it and then said, ”I have thought about this problem. She is indeed Haotian, but she possesses all the memories of Sangsang and all the memories with me. How can I believe that she is not Sangsang?”
He went silent for a while and continued to say, ”I know that no one likes her, but I don't care. Actually, I have never cared about it. I guess I truly love her.”
Mo Shanshan looked up and stared at his eyes, ”What about me?”
Ning Que went silent.
Mo Shanshan whispered, ”You are such a heartbreaker.”
Ning Que said, ”From a certain point of view, I certainly am.”
Mo Shanshan said in smile, ”But it's better for you to be a heartbreaker.”
Love was complicated. If Ning Que wanted to be with Shanshan, then he would hurt Sangsang. If he tried to please Shanshan and Sangsang at the same time, then he would hurt them both.
Most men were players. Some may be able to please several girls at the same time, but Ning Que couldn't. Besides, the most crucial problem was that Sangsang and Shanshan wouldn't allow him to do so.
Looking at her beautiful face, Ning Que thought about it for quite a while and said, ”You are so nice.” He felt very stupid the moment he said so.
”I also feel that I'm a very nice girl.”
Looking at the direction of the lake, Mo Shanshan sighed, ”But it's still not enough. I won't win the war after all, but it's not because that I'm a bad fighter. I just have to yield to god.”
The setting sun shone on the quiet lake between the cliffs, covering the lake surface with golden waves. With the darkness fallen, the water was getting dark and drifted with the wind, like the ink in the ink stone.
Sangsang sat on the lakeside. She seemed a bit lonely, but still as high as the sky.
Mo Shanshan looked at the direction of Sangsang and went silent for a long time. Then she took her legs to the chair and clasped her arms around her knees like she was cold, asking, ”Do you still like me?”
Ning Que gave it a thought and then answered honestly, ”Yes.”
She said, ”But not enough.”
The former ”not enough” was meant for herself, but this ”not enough” was meant for him.
What should Ning Que say?
She clasped her arms around her knees and said sadly, ”You like her much more.”
The tears moistened her dress.
People all thought that she was a gentle woman who cared about nothing but talisman books, and that she was out of tune with the common folk. As mentioned before, she was the best of the best.
Who could imagine that she would cry for a man?
It was the first time for Ning Que to see her cry. He was very confused and didn't know what to do or say. Finally he blurted out, ”Would killing me make you happier?”
He wasn't joking this time. He really meant it.
Shanshan's kindness to him was just too much for him to repay. He subconsciously offered her the most valuable thing he had: his life.
”You only have one life. If you give it to me, then what about Sangsang? Or is it just your ruse to fool girls? You are such a…” Mo Shanshan said with tears. It was the first time she shed tears in front of people, and also the first time she wanted to curse. However, she took it back at the last moment.
Ning Que had done a lot of things that wouldn't be tolerated in the human world and he was well aware of his own cold-blooded nature. To normal people's eyes, he was undoubtedly a scumbag, but he never cared how people saw him. Only after seeing Shanshan cry did he discover that it was truly hard to be a scumbag.
It was very quiet and the twilight disappeared little by little. The shadow projected by the tree behind the chair gradually spread until it merged with the night. No one made any sound for a long time.
”Where would you go next?” she asked in a husky voice.
Ning Que said, ”I don't know.”
Mo Shanshan looked up at him and said carefully, ”It's very hard, isn't it?”
Ning Que said, ”I can take it.”
He must continue the journey whether it was for the human world or for himself. Besides, he wouldn't be the only one who had suffered since Sangsang went along with him.
Looking at the sight of Sangsang's back, Mo Shanshan had mixed feelings and said, ”I guess it must be hard for her too.”
…
…
Sangsang sat by the lake the whole time.
She first looked at the few green lotuses floating on the lake and figured out that the young lotuses would be luxuriant and give birth to very beautiful lotus flowers exactly the morning after twenty-eight days.
Then she looked at the lake and figured out that the underground river beneath the Mogan Mountain would be connected to the mountainside in the next three hundred and seventy-four years and by then the lake would disappear.
Cat Girl came over nervously and served Sangsang a cup of tea. She was extraordinarily nervous and wanted to retire, but Sangsang asked her to stay.
Sangsang adored little girls, for she used to be a little girl herself. However, the Cat Girl didn't know what was in Sangsang's mind and was just too nervous to talk to her.
It was difficult to keep the chat going on if one party was too nervous. Sangsang slightly frowned and got bored, waving to excuse Cat Girl.
Sangsang continued to look at the lake, trying to figure out whether the lake would disappear in advance due to the landslide six hundred years later. She was disturbed and suddenly remembered the Yanming Lake in Chang'an.
The lotuses in the lake reminded her of the lotus flowers in Yanming Lake.
It didn't mean anything. The only reason I remembered those lotuses was that I planted them myself. Sangsang thought so in her mind but knew clearly it was just an excuse.
Night fell. She looked up at the stars.
Human beings considered the stars to be incomparably complex, but to Sangsang, they were just pure numbers and much simpler than the matters in the human world. Sangsang thought that humans tended to complicate things, which was because only then can they feel that their existences were meaningful.
The stars watched the earth quietly. The positions of the stars and the distances among them remained exactly the same for millions of years.
She suddenly found that, compared with looking at the stars in the Divine Kingdom, looking up at them on the ground was equally beautiful, but always seemed a bit monotonous.
No, serenity was the real beauty.
Taoism believed that serenity was the real beauty, for the distribution rule of the stars was Haotian.