At noon, Peter finished his meditation and went to the main hall. He heard the monks whispering and discussing something. When he asked, he learned that a strange man had come to the temple that day. He was over two meters tall and dressed in comical clothes. The king had led him to see the monks, and they had just finished asking him questions and were still puzzled.
From afar, you could see a large man in a greyish-white monk's robe and slippers leaning against the railing outside the stone hall, holding a cup of tea in his hand, his eyes half-closed, as if he were basking in the sun.
Peter paused for a moment, then, upon recognizing the man, a look of surprise and delight appeared on his face. He then took off running towards Lin Xiao.
" Uncle Lin, I'm here, I'm here..."
He had just run up to Lin Xiao's side and hadn't even finished speaking when Lin Xiao, without turning his head, reached out and flicked him on the forehead as if he had eyes. The force wasn't strong, just enough to shut him up.
"What are you yelling about?" Lin Xiao turned his head, glanced at him, and a slight smile appeared on his lips. "Come here."
Peter, clutching his forehead, jogged over and whispered, his smile barely concealed, " Uncle Lin, what brings you here? Weren't you in New York? What are you wearing? Did you see the Ancient One?"
"Ask questions one at a time, look how impatient you are." Lin Xiao put his teacup on the railing. "It was that Ned who wanted to sneak back to New York, so he opened a portal and dragged me here. I did meet with the Ancient One just now."
Peter opened his mouth, took two seconds to process it, and his expression changed from surprise to shock and finally to complexity. He hadn't expected Ned to actually run away. He was about to say something when Lin Xiao spoke up.
Where's your phone?
"Charging it indoors. What's wrong?"
"Can I borrow it for a moment?"
Peter took Lin Xiao to his residence, retrieved his phone, and handed it to him. Lin Xiao took the phone, looked down at his contacts, found Mei's number, paused, and turned to look at Peter.
"Go take a walk outside first."
"Why?"
"Because I need to make a phone call." Lin Xiao waved his phone. "You can listen to how I talk to your Aunt May, but you have to make sure you don't laugh afterwards."
Before Peter could react, Lin Xiao had already dialed the number.
Peter shrank his neck, turned and walked towards the bamboo grove. After taking a dozen steps, he stopped and secretly looked back from behind the wall. He saw Lin Xiao put his phone to his ear, his body, which had been leaning against the railing, suddenly straighten up, one hand in his pocket, and the lazy expression on his face seemed to have been switched to a soft and gentle look.
"Mei, it's me."
Lin Xiao's voice came over, Peter could recognize the tone even from more than ten steps away. It was deep, gentle, like he was coaxing someone, or admitting his mistake, and it was also a bit like the tone of the male lead in those melodramatic romance dramas he had seen when he was a child, when he was trying to coax the female lead.
"I'm in the Himalayas right now. Don't worry, and don't doubt me. Remember, I'm calling from Peter's phone. Listen to me first."
The voice on the other end of the phone was too loud for Peter to hear what Mei was saying, but he saw Lin Xiao move the phone away from his ear a little, frown, and then put it back.
"Yes, the Himalayas. Kamar-Taj. That magical place. I know, I know, I didn't wander off. Ned drew a circle and dragged me here. Yes, right here in our living room. I came over wearing my pajama bottoms and slippers. My phone is still on the living room carpet."
Peter covered his mouth behind the wall, his shoulders shaking with each tremor.
"How about Betty? Is she alright? Let her drink some red date, ginger, and brown sugar water to replenish her energy and blood."
Lin Xiao paused here, turned his back to Peter, glanced at the bamboo forest to make sure Peter wasn't listening, and then lowered his voice to continue, "About last night, I know my request was a bit excessive, um, yes, I apologize. I won't do it again next time. Not that I won't dare, I just need to tell her in advance. Okay, okay, let her answer the phone."
Peter had never seen Lin Xiao like this before; he looked like a primary school student who had done something wrong and was being punished by his homeroom teacher, admitting his mistake while still feeling quite justified.
" Betty, it's me. Yeah, I'm okay. Don't cry. I'm really okay. What happened last night was my fault. I'll definitely talk to you about it beforehand next time. Okay, okay, okay. I'll be back in a couple of days. Tell Mei not to worry. Okay, okay, I'm dressed warmly, I have a robe. A monk's robe. No, I'm not a monk. It's just... never mind, it's hard to explain over the phone. I'll explain to you in person when I get back."
Peter squatted behind the wall, his arms resting on his knees. The more he listened, the more he wanted to laugh, but he felt it wouldn't be right to laugh at this moment, so he held it in until his face turned red.
"Let him answer the phone."
Lin Xiao paused again, this time for real. Peter noticed that his fingers tightened around his phone, and his back tensed slightly.
"Okay. I know. You said yes, I'm listening. Okay. No, don't worry. Okay, I'm hanging up."
After hanging up the phone, Lin Xiao stood there, looking down at his phone screen. It took him several seconds to take the phone away from his ear. But Peter felt that the gentleness he had shown during the call had been wiped away, and he had returned to the lazy demeanor Peter knew.
"Have you heard enough?" Lin Xiao asked without turning his head.
Peter shuffled out from behind the wall, a forced smile still on his face, " Uncle Lin, why are you talking to Aunt May and Aunt Betty so differently than usual?"
How are they different?
"He's... especially gentle."
"Nonsense." Lin Xiao threw his phone at him. "Coming here today was an accident. If I don't appease them, I'm afraid I'll be skinned alive when I get back. Women are like tigers; you can't let them get away with this without explaining yourself."
Peter took the phone, put it in his pocket, and kept replaying Lin Xiao's expression when he called. He thought of Lin Xiao's interactions with Gwen Stacy in New York, the unspoken understanding between Lin Xiao and Natasha, and the way Lin Xiao addressed May and Betty as "baby" all the time. Suddenly, he felt that his own love life was too simple, so simple that all he needed was Michelle.
He shook his head vigorously, as if trying to shake off something he shouldn't have learned.
"What are you thinking about?" Lin Xiao glanced at him.
"It's nothing," Peter replied very quickly.
Lin Xiao didn't press the matter. He turned around, leaned against the railing, and looked at the stone path on the distant ridge, its surface bathed in the twilight, and remained silent for a while. Peter, standing beside him, felt that Lin Xiao at this moment was different from the Lin Xiao who had been on the phone earlier. It was as if something had been turned inside out in his heart, then pushed back down, taken away before he could even fully appreciate it.
Peter.
"Um?"
"Let me use my phone a little longer, I need to call Tony."
Peter handed the phone back. This time, Lin Xiao dialed quickly, answering after two rings.
" Tony."
The voice on the other end of the phone exploded, audible to Peter even from a meter away. "You finally called, you fucking idiot! How many times have I called you? I thought you'd been kidnapped. JARVIS said you were on the phone one second and then gone the next. I almost called the police."
"Calm down." Lin Xiao held the phone a little further away. "I wasn't kidnapped; that kid Ned dragged me away. I'll tell you the details when I get back."
How can you expect me to calm down?
"Postpone the advertising matter for a week."
There was a moment of silence on the other end of the phone.
"What did you say?"
"That ad will run for a week. I'm currently in Kamar-Taj."
Tony was silent for a few seconds, then his voice came through the receiver, slightly softer than before, but each word sounded sharp and strained, "Do you think I'm stupid? You were just in New York a moment ago, and now you're telling me you're in Kamar-Taj? Do you think I'm stupid? And do you know how long I've been preparing for that ad? I even bought you a pig-head costume, cough cough... Do you know I even booked the filming location? And you just postpone it with one sentence... Wait, what did you say? Kamar-Taj?"
There was silence on the other end of the phone. The silence lasted for a long time, so long that Lin Xiao thought the call had been disconnected.
" The Ancient One?"
"Yes, Tony. It's Kamar-Taj, the place with the Ancient One. Check your phone; whose number is calling? Have JARVIS locate it, and you'll see. I was teleported here by magic."
Tony took a deep breath, letting JARVIS pinpoint Lin Xiao's location. He felt terrible; his voice was hoarse.
"I thought it was all just legend, but I never imagined... it's real! Time travel? A magical world..."
There was another pause on Tony's end. Then he said something Lin Xiao couldn't hear before hanging up.
Lin Xiao sighed softly. It seemed Tony's values needed to be reshaped. He returned the phone to Peter without saying anything more. Peter took the phone and looked at the call log fading from the screen.
" Uncle Lin."
"Um."
Is there something you haven't told me?
Lin Xiao glanced at him briefly, then looked away.
"There's no use knowing some things. Just focus on practicing your skills; Wang said you've made significant progress."
Peter opened his mouth, wanting to ask, " Ned?", but before he could ask, Lin Xiao had already started walking towards the bamboo grove. He took two steps, then turned his head away.
"You should go back first. You have practice this afternoon. I need to take care of some things first, and I'll come find you tomorrow."
Peter stood on the stone steps, watching Lin Xiao's figure disappear into the bamboo forest entrance. He stood there for a while, suddenly feeling that there were some things he understood, yet also some things he didn't. He looked down at his phone, thinking of Michelle, thinking of Lin Xiao's face when he called earlier, then put his phone in his pocket and turned to walk towards the side hall.
Night fell slowly, and the mountain wind blew down from the depths of the bamboo forest, causing the moonlight on the stone path to sway back and forth. Lin Xiao sat on a blue stone slab on the back mountain, with Ten Rings spread out in front of him.
"What do I really want?" He remembered what the Ancient One had told him: Wenwu saw power, but what did you see?
Lin Xiao looked at the Ten Rings, and many things came to mind. He remembered the first time he met Mei, when she handed him a cup of hot water. He remembered Peter waking up in the summer camp infirmary, the Fool appearing behind him for the first time. He remembered Coulson's pale face in the hospital room, and Tony's gaunt appearance when he was helped out of the cave. He remembered Thaddeus Ross's hand reaching for a fruit knife under his pillow in the hospital bed. He remembered Carol's last look before she disappeared. He remembered Sif's tap on his forehead before she left. He remembered Betty burying her face in the pillow last night, her ears almost bleeding red...
He thought about it all night, looked at it all night, until a sliver of dawn slowly illuminated the earth. He was still looking down at the bracelet when Lin Xiao took a deep breath.
"I thought about it all night. For me, what I want is to protect. I only want to protect the people I love and cherish. Even if it means being trapped in a deadly situation, it doesn't matter."
As soon as he finished speaking, the Ten Rings burst forth with dazzling light. The faint runes deep within the cracks of the shattered bracelet suddenly lit up, and golden light surged out from the fissures, as if pushed from within by something, filling and widening each crack. The broken pieces slowly gathered together, like someone piecing together a shattered mirror piece by piece. The light grew brighter and denser until finally the entire bracelet was enveloped in a layer of golden light.
Lin Xiao watched as the bracelet automatically repaired itself in the golden light, watched the fragments return to their original positions one by one, and watched the cracks heal little by little. A beam of light shone from the bracelet, shining directly on his brow.
An extremely warm energy flowed in from between his eyebrows, like warm water slowly flowing from the top of his head to the soles of his feet. Something new appeared in his mind, as if someone had inserted a memory into it, or as if someone had whispered something in his ear. He couldn't hear the words, but he remembered the meaning.
This bracelet represents "protection".
The golden light of the bracelet slowly faded. Lin Xiao looked down at it; the broken ring was now perfectly intact, its surface gleaming with a very faint golden hue.
The system panel suddenly popped up automatically, congratulating the host on unlocking one of the Ten Rings, "Guardianship." The Ten Rings represent ten different kinds of consciousness: Power, Will, Protection, Domination (Ding, the awakened one in both Wenwu is the Ring of Domination. The ability of Domination is to control the Ten Rings and make rudimentary use of Ten Rings various abilities), and so on...
Three notifications then popped up:
The Ten Rings of "Guardian" power has been automatically unlocked, and new skills have been added:
Energy Protection. Grade A. Creates an energy barrier, granting immunity to most physical and magical damage. Upgradable.
Absolute Domain +. Creates a unique domain that grants immunity to other domains. Increases all attributes within the domain and slowly restores health. Additional effect: Evil-Breaking.
Energy Reflection. A+. Reflects all energy damage on the Energy Protection shield.
Lin Xiao stared at the line of words for a long time, his lips trembling. He thought of Wenwu and felt a chill run down his spine. Back then, what he and Carol had shattered actually represented "protection," significantly reducing his defensive capabilities. He didn't even dare to imagine what it could have been...
"So I was lucky back then," he said in a low voice.
Lin Xiao stared at the restored "Guardian" ring for a long, long time. He put the ring on his arm. The ring was warm and clung to his skin, as if it had always belonged there. He stood up and took a few steps toward the mountainside. The sky was already turning white, and the distant snow-capped peaks shone in the morning light, like they were sprinkled with gold dust.
Lin Xiao's lips curled into a smile as he turned and walked towards the mountain gate.