Before Cheng Lixue stood a towering mountain peak, its slopes wreathed in clouds and mist that lent it an otherworldly air. A stone stairway stretched up before her, and following it all the way would lead straight to the summit. She knew this place better than anywhere else. It was Mount Taixu.
(The little tune of Mount Taixu began to play.)
She walked up the stone steps one footprint at a time, savoring the fresh mountain air. A cool breeze drifted past, gently stirring her hair. Paired with the bright yet gentle sunlight, it made her feel utterly at ease.
Cheng Lixue did not slow her pace because of the pleasant surroundings. As she walked, she reminisced about the past. She remembered how, when she was five, her teacher, Fu Hua, had held her hand and led her up Mount Taixu along this very path.
After walking for several hours, she saw the quaint little cottage. This was where she had lived for so many years. Her teacher had taught her to read and write here. She looked toward the desk in the west, and two figures—one large and one small—seemed to reappear before her eyes.
"People are born good by nature; their natures are similar, but their habits make them different..."
"Heaven is dark and earth is yellow; the universe is vast and primordial; the sun sets and the moon waxes and wanes; the stars are arrayed across the sky."
From the Three Character Classic to the Thousand Character Classic, and many other books from Shenzhou, her teacher would sit in the chair behind this desk and recite them to her over and over. She would sit on her teacher's lap, listening to one line and repeating it after her.
Cheng Lixue remembered that she had been just as curious as all the other children her age. Whenever she learned a new character, she would pester her teacher to ask what it meant, and her teacher was always patient enough to satisfy her curiosity.
"Big Sis, Big Sis, what does this 'xia' mean?" She remembered that her teacher had not answered her at the time, merely saying that learning had to proceed step by step, and that she should ask again once she knew more.
Three years later, they went down the mountain for the first time, only to encounter a band of robbers. Yet those dozens of robbers failed to realize that the moment they appeared, Fu Hua had already surrounded them alone.
Fu Hua told eight-year-old Cheng Lixue to close her eyes. After dealing with them in a few swift moves, only the two of them were still standing. That was when Cheng Lixue first developed an admiration for strength.
"Big Sis, will you teach me such amazing techniques someday? I want to become as strong as you."
"And what do you plan to do after you become strong?"
"If I become stronger, then even if I'm alone, those people from before won't be able to bully me."
Fu Hua casually picked up a branch and motioned for Cheng Lixue to follow her. They came to a patch of soft earth, where Fu Hua crouched down and wrote the character for "hero" in the dirt.
Cheng Lixue stared at it. It looked like the character for "hero," but seemed a little different.
"Lixue, do you remember asking me three years ago what 'hero' meant? This character is the old form of the character for 'hero.'"
Fu Hua pointed the branch at the character. "The person radical on the left represents a person's actions. On the right is a large person leading two smaller people. Someone with strength helping the weak—that is what it means to be a hero."
Fu Hua looked at Cheng Lixue, who appeared deep in thought.
"Lixue, there is nothing wrong with wanting to become stronger. But it is more important to think about what you will do once you are strong. Your talent is far greater than an ordinary person's. I will not force you to do anything, but if one day you become stronger than many others, I hope you will use your strength to protect those weaker than yourself. Don't become like these robbers and hurt others for your own selfish desires."
Protecting those weaker than herself was precisely why Cheng Lixue would later join Schicksal of her own accord and become a Valkyrie. She understood that her teacher had taught her more than how to read and write—she had taught her how to conduct herself as a person.
"Even when I asked questions without thinking, you remembered them and guided me patiently when the time was right. But why did you... leave me back then?"
The day after the two of them formally established their teacher-student relationship, Fu Hua disappeared. Cheng Lixue did not see her again until she became a Valkyrie of Schicksal. Fu Hua, who patiently explained every question Cheng Lixue had, grew sorrowful and refused to speak only about this matter.
Cheng Lixue understood that this was the knot in Fu Hua's heart, and also the reason her Taixu Sword Qi had never been able to break through the Dustless Realm. Yet the harder she tried not to think about it, the more fiercely it burrowed into her mind. When it grew severe, even maintaining the state of mind required for the Tranquil Water Realm was affected.
With complicated feelings, Cheng Lixue left the room and entered the one behind it. She remembered that this place had served as something like a kitchen. Every year on her birthday, her teacher would make her a steaming bowl of wonton noodles here.
Seeing the familiar objects brought back memories, and Cheng Lixue sank into the past once more. She recalled the first time she had made wonton noodles after her teacher left her.
She put flour into a basin, cracked in a raw egg, then slowly added water and kneaded it together.
She kneaded with meticulous care. She understood that doing this well was no easier than mastering a martial art.
The flour scattered and gathered in her hands... Through repeated binding and adjustment, it seemed to develop a will of its own, coming together into a smooth, elastic ball of dough.
Next came rolling, cutting, and stretching the noodles, setting some aside to make wontons. She dropped them into a broth simmered from dried flounder and river shrimp, then scooped them out once they were cooked. Two bowls of fragrant wonton noodles were ready.
She carefully lifted a small portion, blew on it to cool it, and ate it with a wonton. Her dancing taste buds told her that her first attempt had succeeded.
She carried the two bowls of wonton noodles to her residence, ate one bowl, cleaned everything up, and left.
But when she returned that evening, the wonton noodles, long since gone cold, were still where she had left them.
Standing in the snow outside Cheng's gate—this was the origin of her name. Although she disliked waiting, she had been forced to grow accustomed to it.
But this time, as she looked at the bowl of noodles that had already gone cold, she understood that the person she was waiting for would never return.
"Time flies. I never imagined that even my teacher's first departure from me happened so long ago." Cheng Lixue walked out of the house and stood atop Mount Taixu, gazing at the beautiful scenery below with a bitter smile.
If only time could remain forever in those days. Now, even in this dreamscape, all I can do is see things and think of people, letting the scenery stir my emotions.
"I didn't expect you wanted to see an object rather than a person." A crack opened in the space beside Cheng Lixue, and Enoshia stepped out. Perhaps because of their unique natures, she and Old Yang could watch other people's dreams from the gap between reality and dreams as though watching a livestream, and even interfere to a certain extent.
She had originally wanted to save herself the trouble and simply replicate what she had done before, but the results had been negligible. It seemed to have noticed her. So she decisively changed tactics, abandoning her attempt to erode the entire world and instead concentrating her power in one place. She bored a hole into Cheng Lixue's dream and pulled her out.
"Who did you think I would dream of?"
"Your teacher, Fu Hua. Through my authority, I can learn not only the information recorded by Schicksal, but also some of the memories you and she share. So I'm not completely ignorant of what troubles you."
Cheng Lixue smiled at that. "Is that so? Then it's easy to explain. What I most want to do isn't see my teacher. It's return to Mount Taixu and reminisce about the past I shared with her."
"Why?"
"After joining Schicksal, I discovered that my teacher may have a very complicated past. She doesn't want to answer my questions, probably because she has difficulties she can't speak of. Not troubling my teacher is what a disciple should do. Unless she is willing to tell me herself, I won't ask her about that question even if I see her. I'm not the same little girl who used to ask a hundred thousand questions."
Enoshia sighed softly and thought, So, to keep Fu Hua from recalling painful memories, she would rather leave the knot in her heart forever. For now, she is undoubtedly the person in this era who treats Fu Hua best. May you live until the day Fu Hua is willing to tell you everything herself.
Enoshia watched Cheng Lixue gradually fade away and offered her heartfelt blessing.
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