"Why did Zha'er and the others leave?"
Leng Yaozhu asked, clutching her chest. The departure of her two beloved disciples sent a sharp ache through her heart.
"Li Zha said you chose to let Leng Yulai go. Forgiving you would mean betraying himself."
Leng Yaozhu froze for a moment, bitterness crossing her face.
"I understand. Get some rest."
She took Li Zha's storage ring and Na'er's IOU.
Alone, she slowly walked outside and braced both hands on the railing.
Leng Yaozhu rubbed her forehead, her thoughts tangled like a skein of thread.
"So you really did care all along, didn't you, Zha'er... You just held your tongue out of respect for your teacher."
"I should have realized sooner..."
Leng Yaozhu returned to her room, dazed and dejected. She suddenly recalled that day at the Yuanen Ancestral Hall, when Li Zha had chosen to leave Leng Yulai's fate in her hands.
Looking back now, it had actually been Li Zha's test of her.
Leng Yaozhu pulled out a cigarette and lit it.
She had taken up smoking after Yun Ming rejected her and her younger sister left without explanation. Later, she had made peace with things and quit for many years. Yet now, Leng Yaozhu lit up again.
She had not chosen to look for Li Zha right away. Even if she found him, what could she say?
Leng Yaozhu knew Li Zha's temperament.
Once he decided on something, he would see it through.
Leng Yaozhu also understood perfectly well that the pain she was suffering now was something Li Zha had already endured when she took Leng Yulai away.
He was a child whose parents and entire village had been slaughtered by Evil Soul Masters, yet she, his teacher, had insisted on protecting an Evil Soul Master right before his