Wei WuXian took the flute. Remembering that Jiang Cheng was the one who brought it, he turned over there and commented casually, “Thanks.” He waved Chenqing, “I’ll… be keeping this?”
Jiang Cheng glanced at him, “It was yours in the first place.”
After a moment of hesitation, his lips moved slightly, as though he wanted to say something else. However, Wei WuXian had already turned to Lan WangJi. Seeing this, Jiang Cheng remained silent.
Of the people here, some were cleaning up the scene, some were solidifying the seal on the coffin, some were thinking about how to move it safely, and some were feeling angry. Lan QiRen raged, “XiChen, what in the world is wrong with you?!”
As his hand pressed the corner of his forehead, Lan XiChen’s face was full of an unspeakable grief. He seemed tired, “… Uncle, I am begging you. Ask no further. Really. Right now, I really wish to say nothing.”
Lan QiRen had never seen Lan XiChen, a child he single-handedly brought up, look so agitated and discomposed. He looked at him, then looked at Lan WangJi, surrounded by disciples alongside Wei WuXian, and felt more irritated the more he looked. He felt that of these two of his proudest disciples who had been absolutely perfect, neither listened to him anymore and both gave him much worry.
The coffin that sealed away Nie MingJue and Jin GuangYao was not only abnormally heavy, but also required careful treatment. Thus, a few sect leaders were the ones who volunteered to handle it. As one sect leader saw the features of the Guanyin statue, he first paused in surprise, then pointed at it for others to see as though he found something new and interesting, “Look at its face! Doesn’t it look like Jin GuangYao?”
Everyone mused after they looked, “It’s his face indeed! Why would Jin GuangYao make such a thing?”
Sect Leader Yao, “To declare himself a god with wild arrogance, of course.”
“Arrogant indeed, then, hahaha.”
Wei WuXian thought to himself, No, not necessarily.
Jin GuangYao’s mother was seen as the lowest prostitutes, so he decided to carve a Guanyin statue with his mother’s appearance, receiving the worship of tens of thousands.
But there was no use in saying all that. Nobody knew with more clarity than Wei WuXian that nobody would care and nobody would believe him. Anything related to Jin GuangYao would be given the most malicious conjectures and passed through the mouths of the crowd. Soon, this coffin would be sealed within a larger, firmer coffin. It’d be secured with seventy-two mahogany nails and buried deep underground, sealed under some mountain with stone tablets of warning.
And the things sealed inside would never see light again, under heavy barriers and endless scorn.
Nie HuaiSang leaned against the wall beside the door, watching a few sect leaders carry the coffin across the Guanyin Temple’s threshold. He looked down and dusted the dirty mud at the lower hem of his clothes. As if he saw something, he paused. Wei WuXian looked over as well. What had fallen to the ground was Jin GuangYao’s cap.
Nie HuaiSang bent down and picked it up. Only afterwards did he begin to saunter outside.
Fairy was waiting anxiously outside for his master, barking a couple of times. Hearing the barks, Jin Ling suddenly remembered that when Fairy was still a clumsy little puppy that couldn’t even reach his knees, Jin GuangYao was the one who brought it over.
Back then, he was only a few years old. He fought with the other children of Koi Tower, and didn’t feel satisfied even after he won, smashing everything in his room as he bawled his eyes out. None of the maids and servants dared approach him, afraid to be hit.
Grinning, the younger uncle of his snuck inside to ask, “A-Ling, what’s wrong?” He immediately smashed half a dozen vases beside Jin GuangYao’s feet. Jin GuangYao, “Uh-oh, how fierce. I’m so scared.” He shook his head as he left, pretending to be scared.
The second day, Jin Ling refused to go outside or eat anything as he sulked. Jin GuangYao walked around right outside his room. With his back against the door, Jin Ling shouted to be left alone, and suddenly the bark of a puppy came from outside the door.
He opened the door. Half-squatting, Jin GuangYao had in his arms a glistening-black puppy with round, wide eyes. He looked up and smiled, “I found this little thing but I don’t know what to call it. A-Ling, do you want to give it a name?”
The smile was so kind, so genuine that Jin Ling couldn’t believe Jin GuangYao faked it. All of a sudden, tears fell from his eyes again.
Jin Ling had always thought crying was a sign of weakness, treating such an act with contempt. Yet, apart from a flood of tears, there was no other way to release the pain and anger in his heart.
He didn’t know why, but he felt like he couldn’t hate or blame anyone. Wei WuXian, Jin GuangYao, Wen Ning—every one of them should be responsible to some extent for the deaths of his parents, every one of them gave him a reason to loathe them with all he had. But it also seemed like every one of them gave him a reason that made him unable to do so. But if he didn’t hate him, whom could he hate? Did he deserve to lose both his parents when he was young? Was he not only able to seek revenge, but also unable to hate someone purely and entirely?
He somehow didn’t want to let go. He felt wronged. He’d rather die together with them and end everything.
Watching him cry soundlessly as he stared at the coffin, Sect Leader Yao asked, “Young Master Jin, why are you crying? For Jin GuangYao?”
Seeing that Jin Ling said nothing, Sect Leader Yao spoke in a tone with which seniors often scolded juniors of their sect, “What are you crying for? Hold back your tears. Someone like your uncle doesn’t deserve anyone’s tears. Young Master, I mean no offense, but you can’t be so weak! This is the kindness of the fairer sex. You should know what’s right and what’s wrong, and straighten up your…”
If this were at the time the leader of LanlingJin Sect was still the Chief Cultivator who led the entire world of cultivation, the sect leaders of other sects would never have had the guts to patronize the Jin Sect’s disciples no matter what. Right now, Jin GuangYao had died already. Nobody was able to uphold the LanlingJin Sect. Its name had also been pretty much ruined, and likely it wouldn’t be able to rise again in the future, thus some people dared.
Jin Ling had thousands of thoughts and feelings whirling around in his heart in the beginning. Hearing Sect Leader Yao’s comments, a fire surged into his heart. He roared, “So what if I want to cry?! Who are you? What are you? Won’t leave me alone even for crying?!”
Sect Leader Yao didn’t expect to be shouted at either. He was a sect leader that had some fame as well. At once, his face darkened. Some others comforted him in low voices, “Let it go. Don’t bother with children.”
He finally retracted the embarrassed anger, snorting coldly, “Of course. Hah, why bother with young brats who know nothing about what’s right and what’s wrong?”
Lan QiRen watched as the coffin was hauled onto the cart. He turned around and was surprised, “Where is WangJi?”
He’d just been planning to abduct Lan WangJi back to the Cloud Recesses and talk to him for a hundred and twenty days, and perhaps ground him again if it still didn’t work. Who knew he disappeared in the blink of an eye. He walked around a bit, raising his voice, “Where is WangJi?!”