After thinking for a long while, Nie Qianyu still could not make up her mind to visit Zhang Xiaohua and see his injured lips. Though she knew that every meeting meant one meeting fewer, faced with his somewhat heartless indifference and her own feelings cast like a bright pearl into darkness, she could never summon the courage.
After all, she was only at the age when the first buds of love had begun to bloom.
As she thought, Nie Qianyu's eyes suddenly lit up. She flung the comb in her hand far away and shouted, "Xiao Juzi, Xiao Juzi!"
When Xiao Juzi hurried anxiously upstairs, she heard Nie Qianyu continue, "Go, quickly! Bring out my needlework!"
Xiao Juzi was puzzled, unable to understand why her young mistress had suddenly taken up embroidery. But seeing Nie Qianyu so excited, she silently prayed to Buddha and hurried off to find everything she needed.
In the pill room, Zhang Xiaohua ultimately did not receive Nie Qianyu's visit. Night had fallen.
At dusk, dark clouds unexpectedly gathered thickly over Hui Chun Valley. Before long, thunder rolled and rain began to fall. Sitting cross-legged in the pill room and listening to the familiar thunder outside, Zhang Xiaohua felt eager to give it a try. It had been a long time since he had drawn down lightning. But when he thought of Lord Kong in the outer valley, he immediately extinguished that notion. Tomorrow, he would set out for the Incense-Passing Cult. He could not sever his path toward finding his second brother merely for the sake of a moment's cultivation. The loss would outweigh the gain.
Zhang Xiaohua continued studying the incantation until midnight, only then setting up a restriction and beginning to cultivate the Carefree Heart Sutra.
On that rainy night, the fine drops