Lies Come Full Circle in Fengling City; the Temple Holds Frozen Bones

"..."

It took Su Yueli two days and one night to travel from the village to Fengling City.

She did not use a martial artist's speed. Sometimes she rode in a carriage; other times, like an ordinary person, she stepped over fallen leaves and mud, walking one step at a time to her destination.

Having not set foot in the mortal world for twenty years, when Fengling City's walls appeared at the end of her sight, a long-lost scent of worldly life spread through the air.

The city gates stood wide open, traffic flowing in an endless stream.

Street peddlers carrying shoulder poles, rough-clothed porters driving carts, wealthy merchants attended by servants—people of every sort and every kind of sound interwove together.

After passing through the gates, Su Yueli arrived on the long street.

Though she wore only coarse hemp clothes and not a single ornament, she still stood out among the crowd like a crane among chickens.

Her cool, lovely face and skin bore not the slightest trace of travel dust.

"Miss."

At that moment, a man in a blue long robe, looking like a scholar, stopped and stepped forward with clasped hands. "You look unfamiliar, Miss. Is this your first time in Fengling City?"

Su Yueli looked him over, then nodded.

The man immediately lifted his head and puffed out his chest. "The city roads are complicated, but I know them quite well. If you do not mind, I would be willing to guide you. There is also a restaurant not far ahead. I could play host and invite you for a cup of tea, while introducing you to Fengling City's customs and local ways."

As he spoke, his eyes brimmed with amazement and longing.

Su Yueli stopped, her voice light. She gave a faint smile. "Thank you, but there is no need for you to spend money, sir. I only wish to ask for directions. How do I get to Fuyuan Trading Company?"

Under the gaze of those clear eyes, the man inexplicably felt his heart tighten. The romantic thoughts that had just surfaced were instantly doused clean away.

He subconsciously took half a step back and pointed toward the end of the street. "J-just follow this street all the way to the end, then turn left."

"Thank you."

Su Yueli nodded, passed him by, and headed toward her destination.

Twenty years had passed. She wondered what that fellow looked like now. Perhaps he had become a chief manager, fat and round-bellied, his face shining with oil.

At the thought, the corners of her lips could not help but curl upward.

No matter what he had become, as long as he was alive, there would at least be one more old acquaintance in this world she could speak with.

Half an incense stick later, Su Yueli arrived before Fuyuan Trading Company. It truly was impressive.

The doors stood open wide, merchants coming and going without cease. More than a dozen attendants bustled about, sweating profusely, while abacuses clattered nonstop.

Su Yueli walked to the main counter. Behind it, a plump shopkeeper with an eight-shaped mustache was flipping through account books. Hearing movement, he did not even look up. "What would you like, customer? Our Fuyuan Trading Company has everything, so long as you can afford the price."

"I'm not buying anything."

Su Yueli asked, "I'm looking for someone. He should be your chief manager—Shen Qing'an."

The fat shopkeeper's hand paused. He raised his head and examined Su Yueli's coarse clothing, his brow furrowing.

The smile on his face vanished, and a trace of displeasure entered his tone. "What Shen Qing'an? Our trading company has only one chief manager, and that's me. Miss, go beg somewhere else. Don't delay my business."

Su Yueli froze. Had Shen Qing'an not said in his letters that he was already the chief manager here...?

Just then, an old accountant with graying hair hurried over from the next counter, his voice trembling slightly. "Miss, are you truly here to find Shen Qing'an?"

"Elder, you know him?" Su Yueli turned toward him.

The old accountant let out a long sigh and lowered his voice. "Miss, let us speak elsewhere."

The two went to a secluded alley. Only then did the old accountant remove his spectacles and rub his clouded eyes.

Then he looked at Su Yueli and gave a bitter laugh. "How could I not know him? Many years ago, I worked under him."

A bad premonition crept into Su Yueli's heart, and she hurriedly asked, "Then where is he? Why isn't he at the trading company?"

"Alas, Manager Shen was once radiant beyond compare. You came too late. He left many years ago."

Su Yueli simply listened in silence.

"Manager Shen was a born business genius, and his heart was ruthless. After the master died, he managed the trading company with perfect order. Back then, who in Fengling City would not call him Master Shen?"

"But one year, Manager Shen seemed to have gone mad..."

The old accountant lowered his voice. "The cash in his hands, his shares in the trading company, even the courtyard and properties—he sold them all."

"What did he sell them all for?" Su Yueli frowned.

Could it be that he had encountered something requiring a great deal of money?

"To seek immortality."

The next moment, the old accountant uttered those two words.

Su Yueli's pupils contracted.

For mortals to cultivate immortality was itself an act of defying heaven.

It suddenly reminded her of what Shen Qing'an had said when he left twenty years ago.

That fellow... could he really have gone searching for some method of cultivation?

But that was indeed the truth. After the old accountant explained, Su Yueli learned that Shen Qing'an had not only lost all his money, but had also borrowed usurious loans. He had even taken the funds the trading company had set aside for purchasing goods.

Later, his legs were broken by the owners, and he was thrown outside the city. They declared that anyone who dared give him even a mouthful of food would be making an enemy of the trading company.

After hearing all this, Su Yueli could not speak. She merely watched as the old accountant's figure vanished into the alley.

The wind wailed endlessly past her ears.

At some point, several cracks had split open in the ground beside Su Yueli.

She said nothing more, nor did she know how she walked out of that alley.

Fengling City in the afternoon was blinding under the sun. The long street remained noisy and prosperous, steam rising from the bun shop's bamboo baskets, while the racket of drinking games and wine cups drifted from the taverns.

Su Yueli stood alone amid the bustling street. People continuously brushed past her, yet not one of them left a reflection in her eyes.

Slowly, she raised a hand and reached into her robe, taking out the last letter. She looked at the crooked, ink-blurred handwriting inside.

It spoke of enjoying life until his bones had grown delicate, eating meat every meal, and gaining a whole circle of fat...

Su Yueli's fingers trembled. Lies. They were all lies...

Those letters were written so crookedly—he must have been sitting in a wind-leaking hovel, frozen so badly he could barely hold a brush.

And those legs that had been broken must have hurt so much that his entire body shook.

"What were you doing this for..."

Su Yueli murmured softly, her voice swallowed by the uproar of the long street.

What for? To buy a vague, intangible hope that could give a mortal spiritual roots.

In the eyes of cultivators, mortals were nothing but ants.

And in the eyes of mortals, immortals were heaven.

Shen Qing'an, a mere mortal, had exhausted everything and crawled through the mud on broken legs for ten years, all to buy a ladder.

A ladder that could send her to heaven and spare her from suffering.

"Idiot."

Su Yueli clenched the letter tightly in her palm and tore the wooden hairpin from her head.

Her full head of dark hair spilled loose upon Fengling City's long street as she headed toward the slums.

West of the city, the poor district.

Open sewage ditches lay everywhere, with garbage covering the ground and men staggering along on unsteady feet.

Su Yueli looked at those men hiding in dark corners, their expressions numb. She shook her head, and her heart tightened all the more.

Following the old accountant's directions, she crossed more than half the muddy roads before finally arriving before a half-collapsed ruined temple.

The temple doors had long rotted into several pieces of decayed wood, barely bound together by a few frayed straw ropes.

The cold wind poured through the holes, wailing without end.

At that moment, in the muddy ground beside the ruined temple squatted an old beggar covered in frostbite. Holding a broken bowl, he was picking lice from himself.

Seeing Su Yueli stop before the temple, the old beggar slanted a glance at her with clouded eyes and spoke in a hoarse voice. "Miss, looking for someone?"

Su Yueli nodded. "Yes. I'm looking for Shen Qing'an."

"Looking for Blind Shen?"

The old beggar grinned, revealing a mouthful of yellow teeth. With blackened fingers, he pointed into the ruined temple. "He's in there. He froze stiff three nights ago. There isn't even anyone to collect his corpse. He's still lying inside."

"?"

Su Yueli only felt her mind go blank. The surroundings were terribly quiet, save for the rustling sound of the old beggar scratching at his frostbite.

She lifted her hand. Those hands that threw ten thousand punches each day, that could smash enormous boulders to pieces with raw force, now halted in midair.

In the end, they pressed against the ruined temple door, bristling with splinters from decayed wood.

She gently pushed it open.