Chapter 575: Long Time No See (2/2)
It was as if the only way she could prove that everything that was happening was real… was to hear his heart beating. Perhaps everything around them was a dream, but within that dream, the two of them had each other.
I thought that when I saw you, I would have the world. I didn’t know that within your dreams, you already had me.
It was evening, and soft, orange light shone down onto the Fourth Peak, creating dark shadows on the opposite side of the mountain. Within those dark shadows were two people, embracing each other.
They seemed to wish that time could stop forever. Their longing, their promise, were no longer like sand floating in the wind.
A long time passed. Soon, the sky was dark. Meng Hao looked at the woman in front of him. The features he saw were different from Xu Qing's, but the soul was the same ever.
“You’re awake,” he said.
Because her soul was different, her facial features suddenly seemed to change a bit. She grew colder, less timid and nervous. She grew more simple. Less a stranger.
She was Xu Qing.
She was not intelligent like Han Bei. She was not incredibly beautiful like Chu Yuyan. She was Xu Qing. Simple and cold, like her heart. When she loved someone, she didn’t need a reason. She only needed to know that somehow, that person was part of her.
She wore the robe of an Outer Sect disciple and had long, beautiful hair. Her features were delicate, and although they couldn’t be described as immaculately beautiful, they caused Meng Hao to think of that one person who was always in his heart… Elder Sister Xu.
Xu Qing looked at Meng Hao, and a smile broke out on her face. A warmth could be seen in her pupils, as well as longing, and over a hundred years of memories. She looked at Meng Hao, and recalled their past.
He carried the look of someone who had experienced great changes, and was no longer young and inexperienced.
She gazed at Meng Hao for a long time. She didn’t ask why he was here, nor did she seem surprised to see him here as she woke up.
It was as if to Xu Qing, it didn’t matter where she saw Meng Hao, or when. Any time she encountered him, she felt at ease, calm.
Surrounded by bustling crowds, you look at me, I look at you, and we smile at each other.
It was as if such a meeting had happened a million times for her already. It was as if from beginning to end, even that time in the Violet Sea, she had complete and utter faith that the two of them would in fact meet again one day.
“Not surprised?” said Meng Hao, smiling.
“Why would I be surprised?” she said, shaking her head and smiling. “You made a promise, and we had an agreement... to meet again.”
As Meng Hao looked at her, much of the bitterness in his heart faded away. His smile grew wider. This was Xu Qing. Plain and simple Xu Qing.
She believed that they would meet again. Because of their agreement with each other, it didn’t matter when or where it was, she wouldn’t be surprised. It was all because of her firm belief.
“It’s been many years…. Have you been well?” she asked softly. To her, Meng Hao might be a few years younger than her. However, despite the fact that more than a hundred years had passed, his image never left her heart.
She could never forget that time she watched as he leaned out over the edge of the cliff, holding down a rope to Wang Youcai and the others, and at the same time, making fun of them.
She could never forget what he looked like in the ancient Blessed Land, when he stood protectively in front of her during her moment of helplessness.
Even more unforgettable was the time in the Black Sieve Sect when, after merging with Matriarch Phoenix, she had woken up. Meng Hao had been about to leave the Sect when he turned and smiled at her.
Never in her life would she be capable of forgetting what happened outside the Rebirth Cave.
If secrets could count as accumulated emotions between two people, then she and Meng Hao had many. There were many secrets that only the two of them could understand.
“I went to the Black Lands, and the Western Desert,” Meng Hao said with a smile. As the evening wind blew Xu Qing’s hair into disarray, Meng Hao reached up and grasped her wrist.
She lowered her head, a slight smile tugging at her lips.
“So did I,” she said, looking back up at him.
“I know,” he replied, grinning.
The soft moonlight shone down on the two of them, covering them like a layer of silver sand. The beautiful wind lifted up their long hair.
Xu Qing looked at Meng Hao, then suddenly gaped in astonishment as she realized something. Her eyes filled with a strange look.
“Wait…. Why… why do you look the same as before?”
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This chapter was sponsored by Jefferson Bell