A notification that the live stream was off flashed on the screen, and then the screen went black.
The photographer put down his equipment, the camera assistant leaned the reflector against the wall, and the director closed the script folder.
The last police car drove away from the courtyard, the pilgrims dispersed, and the police tape outside the mountain gate pattered against the iron fence in the wind.
After the abbot and the other monks in charge were taken away, Cidu Temple suddenly became quiet, so quiet that you could hear the sound of locust leaves falling on the blue bricks.
Shen Yuzhou stood at the very front of the guests, his eyes the brightest, staring intently at Qiguan Yuan without blinking.
Cheng Yanqiu leaned against the locust tree next to him, her lips moving several times before she pursed them back.
Jiang Wantang and Ji Shiyu sat on the stone bench opposite each other, their hands clasped on their knees. Jiang Wantang looked at Qiguan Yuan with great care.
Jiang Wantang's maternal grandmother lived in Cloud-Hidden Town. Influenced by her grandmother since childhood, she had a strong belief in the Yue Lao.
When I first met Qiguan Yuan, I was initially attracted by his good looks, as someone Qiguan Yuan.
Later, he was attracted by the compatibility between Qiguan Yuan Guanyuan and the Yue Lao Temple.
In short, from the very beginning, Jiang Wantang felt that Qiguan Yuan possessed a strong sense of divinity.
Now that she knows he really is the Yue Lao of Yue Lao, even if he's retired, she's still incredibly excited.
Jiang Wantang suddenly remembered that she had once sought out Qiguan Yuan at Village Above the Clouds and told him about her relationship problems with Ji Shiyu.
Jiang Wantang then realized that Qiguan Yuan must have helped her reconcile with Ji Shiyu back then.
After all, apart from the Yue Lao, no one else could resolve their relationship issues so easily.
Lin Yanru and Su He'an stood outside the pavilion. Lin Yanru kept scratching Su He'an's palm, Su He'an squeezed her hand back.
The staff hadn't left either. The photographer turned off his camera but didn't pack up the equipment. The lighting technician forgot to put down the light pole. The production assistant stood on the steps with a folder in his hand. Even Meng Xu was squatting next to the incense burner, pretending to look at his phone, glancing over at us out of the corner of his eye through the screen.
Qiguan Yuan sat on a stone bench in the pavilion, one hand supporting his head, the other resting on Pei Yubai's knee as he rubbed his wrist.
Her silver hair fell loose over her shoulders, and the hem of her red dress draped down to the stone bench, stained with a bit of dust she had picked up while walking past the broken clay statues.
He felt those gazes and glanced to the side.
Dozens of eyes were fixed on him. Some hesitated, some had bright eyes, and some leaned forward, almost as if they were about to step over.
"Why are you looking at me?" Qiguan Yuan tilted his head slightly, his voice carrying the languor of someone who had just finished dealing with something.
A rustling sound arose from the crowd. People looked at each other, gesturing for someone to speak first.
The photographer shoved the lighting technician, who shoved him back, and the production assistant took a half-step back and hid behind a folder.
Shen Yuzhou opened his mouth and then closed it again. Cheng Yanqiu nudged him with her elbow, and he pushed Cheng Yanqiu forward with his other hand.
It's like a scene where students have to recite their lessons one by one, with each student deferring to the next.
Lin Yanru was the last one to emerge.
She released Su He'an's hand, took two steps forward, and stood in front of Qiguan Yuan.
Her face was a little red, she looked a little nervous, and her fingers were twisting the hem of her clothes at her sides.
Su He'an followed and stood half a body length behind her.
Lin Yanru a deep breath, raised her head, and looked into Qiguan Yuan's eyes.
" Teacher Qiguan," her voice was a little crisper than usual, with a hint of tentative hesitation, "Could I ask you for two red strings? Or... I can buy them with my own money."
Qiguan Yuan looked up at her, his gaze moving from her face to Su He'an's face behind her, and then back again.
He naturally remembered the relationship between Lin Yanru and Su He'an.
The two were inseparable in Cloud-Hidden Town. During the filming of the show, Su He'an always stood by Lin Yanru's Lin Yanru, taking meticulous care of her.
If it's not a destined match, Qiguan Yuan won't make a fuss about it.
However, their Thread of Fate has not yet been sealed.
"Your marriage is a match made in heaven," he said, "You don't need a red string."
Qiguan Yuan thought the two wanted to ask for a marriage.
Lin Yanru shook her head. Her eyes were bright, but unlike the awe one felt when seeing a deity, they seemed more down-to-earth. She seemed to want to ask for something very ordinary.
"Our destined partner is someone we choose ourselves. But receiving the red thread from the Old Man of the Yue Lao... perhaps explains the nature of our relationship."
"We wanted to use this red string as a symbol. Like a marriage certificate, well... for us, the red string is more meaningful than a marriage certificate. A marriage certificate is a person's signature, while the red string is you holding it; the meaning is different."
Qiguan Yuan doesn't interact with them much, even when filming variety shows together, he usually doesn't pay much attention to them.
Everyone could see that Qiguan Yuan only cared about Pei Yubai.
Once this variety show ends, it will be difficult to see Qiguan Yuan again.
They wanted to take advantage of their continued contact with Qiguan Yuan to ask him for a red thread of fate.
A red thread given to them by the Yue Lao.
Qiguan Yuan leaned back on the stone bench and looked at her for a moment, then chuckled softly.
Then he sat up straight, took his hands off Pei Yubai's knees, and took out the Marriage Register from his sleeve, placing it on his lap.
The notebook was spread out, and the sound of pages turning was particularly clear in the quiet courtyard.
With a flick of his finger, a red thread fell into his palm. It was neither cotton nor silk, but a thin thread formed from flowing red light, gleaming with a warm red hue in the afternoon sunlight.
Before Lin Yanru could react, she felt her finger being tugged. Looking down, she saw a red thread wrapped around her ring finger, with the end of the thread extending from the base of her finger towards Su He'an.
Su He'an also lowered his head at the same moment.
A similar crimson ring, with the same subtle sheen, was also wrapped around her ring finger.
The ends of the two red threads met in the air between the two people. Qiguan Yuan raised his hand, gathered the two threads together, and tied a perfect three-loop knot with his fingers.
The moment they were joined, the two red strings glowed slightly before sinking into the skin, leaving only a faint red mark, like the mark left by a ring worn for a long time.
Lin Yanru stared at her ring finger, her mouth opening and closing repeatedly, then she turned around and hugged Su He'an tightly.
Su He'an was knocked back half a step by her, reached out and put her arm around her back, then lowered her head and buried her face in her hair.
Her ears were bright red, even redder than Lin Yanru's.
The relationship between the two was something everyone knew, but they never openly discussed it.
With Lin Yanru and Su He'an starting things off, this has stirred up a hornet's nest.
Shen Yuzhou rushed forward, placed the bottle of water he was holding on the stone bench, and clasped his hands together above his head.
Cheng Yanqiu kicked his shin from behind, and he squeezed forward half a step.
Jiang Wantang pulled Ji Shiyu up from the opposite stone bench, forgetting to even take her silk scarf.
The photographer shoved the equipment into the lighting technician's arms. Before the technician could even react, he was being pushed forward several steps by the people behind him.
The stagehand jumped down the steps carrying a folder. Meng Xu stopped pretending to look at his phone, stood up, and stuffed it into his pocket. A red thread! He wanted one too! He'd heard it could bring good luck. He wanted to get one for his Chenchen.
Oh, and his parents too.
Little did Meng Xu know that Chenchen had already obtained Qiguan Yuan's red thread and was still trying to squeeze in to the front.
Qiguan Yuan glanced at the group of people in front of him, then looked down at the Marriage Register on his lap.
He turned the book to a blank page and pulled a red thread out of his sleeve again.
The red thread cascaded down his fingers like a waterfall, hanging down to his knees.
He looked up and glanced at the expectant crowd, a slight smile playing on his lips.
"Take them yourselves. One tube is effective per person. Take as much as you think you can."
The red thread is the least valuable thing to Qiguan Yuan.
As long as it's not Thread of Fate, giving some away won't have any impact.
Besides, these people can't change their Thread of Fate.
Meng Xu was the last among these people, and he couldn't get in.
Qiguan Yuan stood up and stepped out of the circle of people, just in time to see Meng Xu trying to squeeze in.
Qiguan Yuan glanced at him, then looked at Meng Xu with some curiosity.
Meng Xu felt a gaze on him, and when he turned his head, he met Qiguan Yuan's eyes.
Meng Xu glanced at Qiguan Yuan, then at Pei Yubai, feeling a little embarrassed, and silently took a step back.
"Haha, I was just curious, so I wanted to take a look."
Qiguan Yuan nodded. "That's not surprising then. I thought you wanted the red string too. Logically speaking, this marriage red string shouldn't be of any use to you."
Meng Xu was stunned. "Why?"
Qiguan Yuan said, "You don't have Thread of Fate, you're destined to have no marriage, so there's no use in getting a marriage red string."
Meng Xu felt as if the sky had fallen.
What does it mean that he has no Thread of Fate? Does it mean he'll be a bachelor for life?
As Meng Xu thought about it, sadness welled up inside him. He also remembered that Pei Yubai had mocked him for being single more than once since he Yuanyuan.
Holy crap, that bastard talks about him all the time, even saying his Thread of Fate is gone.
Meng Xu promptly shifted the blame to Pei Yubai.
However, since Qiguan Yuan was right next to Pei Yubai at that moment, Meng Xu didn't say it aloud. He only said, "When I was on the phone just now, Chenbao asked me why I turned off the live stream. I said you were tearing down a temple, Chenbao even said that his godfather was so amazing."
The topic was changed so smoothly.
Qiguan Yuan smiled, pressed the end of the red thread against the inside of Meng Xu's wrist, and said, "Go back and tell Chenchen that he can come to me for his red thread when he grows up; no one else can claim it for him."
Meng Xu smiled and said, "Okay."
He didn't really care whether he had a partner or not; his energy was only focused on raising Chenbao properly.
He simply couldn't imagine what it would be like to be in a relationship.
If I turned into someone like Pei Yubai, who's obsessed with love...
Meng Xu shuddered. That was really unnecessary; it was too terrifying.
After finishing his conversation with Meng Xu, Qiguan Yuan closed the Marriage Register and put it back in his sleeve, then stood up and straightened his clothes.
Then he turned and extended his hand to Pei Yubai.
Pei Yubai took his hand in his own, and the two walked through the courtyard toward the mountain gate.
No one followed.
After leaving the temple, Qiguan Yuan hadn't walked far when he remembered the marriage certificate Lin Yanru mentioned.
Suddenly, he asked, " Pei Yubai, what do your marriage certificates look like here?"
Pei Yubai thought for a moment, then took out his phone from his pocket and showed him a picture of a marriage certificate.
Qiguan Yuan took the phone and looked at it for a while.
He turned his head to look at Pei Yubai, a mischievous smile in his eyes.
" Pei Yubai," he called, his voice rising at the end, "Don't you want to propose to me?"
Pei Yubai paused for a moment.
He stopped and stared at Qiguan Yuan for a few seconds.
Qiguan Yuan stood there watching him, her clothes fluttering behind her, her eyes carrying their usual alluring charm.
Under Qiguan Yuan's gaze, Pei Yubai reached into his pocket and pulled out a ring.
It was a plain ring that had been prepared beforehand, with an extremely fine three-ring knot pattern engraved on the face of the ring.
He opened the ring box with one hand, knelt down on one knee in Qiguan Yuan, looked up at him, and seemed to have only Qiguan Yuan in his eyes.
"I originally wanted to wait for a better day, after everything was settled, after we returned to Cloud-Hidden Town, after the osmanthus flowers bloomed, so I could brew you osmanthus wine."
"But now I can't wait any longer. Yuanyuan, will you marry me? Not just because of the threads of Thread of Fate connecting us, but because of all the fates we share, here and in the mortal world, in every place, I want to walk with you through every possible destiny."
Qiguan Yuan looked down at Pei Yubai was kneeling on one knee in front of him.
He reached out, took the ring from his palm, and twirled it in the sunlight.
The three-ring knot pattern on the plain ring shimmered with a faint red light under illumination.
"Well done," he said, placing the ring back in Pei Yubai's hand and then extending his own hand. "Put it on my finger."
Pei Yubai slipped the ring onto Qiguan Yuan's ring finger.
Qiguan Yuan looked down at the ring on his hand, then at the other ring that Pei Yubai had immediately put on his previously bare ring finger.
Then he took the Thread of Fate that had been tied between the two of them before.
Back in Cloud-Hidden Town, Qiguan Yuan personally pulled the thin, red Thread of Fate was tied around their little fingers and wrapped it between the red string and the ring on Pei Yubai finger.
The red thread wraps around the ring face, around the red rope, around Pei Yubai's knuckles, and finally circles back to Qiguan Yuan's own ring finger.
The two people's hands were connected by this thread. After the thread wrapped around the ring three times, it automatically ended and tied a tiny knot. The knot flashed slightly for a moment before sinking into the texture of the ring and becoming one with it.
More than a ring, the Thread of Fate is a symbol of the predestined bond that binds two people together.
"I remember at the Yue Lao Temple, someone asked me what my destined partner was. I said that a destined partner isn't something you ask for, it's something you find out."
Qiguan Yuan looked at their hands and said in a low voice, " Pei Yubai, or rather, Xiu Yun Yin, our marriage is a bond you forged with thousands of years of companionship, my eight hundred years of waiting, and the rest of our lives, step by step."
He looked up. "Whether you are Xiu Yun Yin or Pei Yubai, whether you remember me or not, no matter how many years we have to wait, the person next to Qiguan Yuan in the Marriage Register can only be you."
"You are my destined love, the only one my heart has chosen in this life."
Pei Yubai held Qiguan Yuan's hand. "Koj yog kuv txoj hmoo sib yuav, yog kuv lub neej no tib tug uas kuv lub siab xaiv. Yuanyuan, you too."
Qiguan Yuan leaned closer and kissed Pei Yubai: "Looks like my teaching went pretty well, very standard pronunciation."