Pei Yubai stood at the entrance, in no hurry to go inside. He glanced in.
Inside was a courtyard. It was probably the outer courtyard of the residence.
Compared with the residence itself, it was not particularly large, but it was kept very clean.
Gray bricks paved the ground, with fine moss growing in the gaps. It had clearly been carefully tended, neither too tall nor too short, forming just a thin layer of green.
An old elm stood in the middle of the courtyard. Its trunk was so thick that it would take two people to encircle it with their arms. Its spreading crown occupied almost a third of the courtyard.
But it was not the tree's size that made it impossible to look away. It was what hung on it.
Red cords.
Dense masses of red cords. From the thickest limbs to the slenderest twigs, red threads hung everywhere.
Some had faded to a pale pink, while others were still new, their red strikingly vivid.
When the wind blew, the red threads all over the tree swayed gently, as though the tree were raining red.
Shen Yuzhou followed Pei Yubai inside, looked up, and froze.
"Is... is this the Tree of Fate?"
Cheng Yanqiu came in too. She said nothing, gazing up at the tree with her mouth slightly open.
Ji Shiyu stood beside her, watching quietly, the tree's red reflected in their eyes.
Lin Yanru stepped very lightly as she entered, as though afraid of disturbing something.
Jiang Wantang came in last. Standing at the courtyard entrance, she looked at the old elm covered in red threads, her eyes full of fondness. So beautiful!
After a brief silence, the bullet comments exploded.
[Holy shit, what kind of tree is that]
[The Tree of Fate??? That's the Tree of Fate, right!!!]
[In all my twenty-five years, I've never seen a Tree of Fate this big]
[Yue Lao, bless me with a partner, Yue Lao, bless me with a partner, Yue Lao, bless me with a partner]
[Please grant me romance, please grant me romance, please grant me romance]
[How many people's romantic fates must be on there!]
[I took a screenshot. I'm going to pray to this picture]
Pei Yubai stood beneath the tree and glanced up. Red cords swayed overhead, some hanging so low they almost brushed his hair.
He reached out to move one aside and continued inward.
Past the outer courtyard, the inside was much larger than it had appeared from outside.
Around the old elm stood a circular moon gate, with a few vines climbing over it, dotted with tiny white flowers.
Beyond the moon gate was a wooden covered walkway. It was so narrow that only one person could walk along it at a time. The wooden railings on either side were entirely unadorned, retaining the wood's natural color, polished to a shine by the years.
A few paper lanterns hung from the walkway's roof, white and unpatterned, swaying gently when the wind blew through.
Pei Yubai led the way at an unhurried pace. Shen Yuzhou followed, looking around and muttering, "This place is huge... Why did someone build a residence like this in the forest?"
After two turns in the walkway, the view suddenly opened up.
There was a pond.
It was not large, and the water was so clear that the stones and fallen leaves on the bottom were visible.
A half-roofed pavilion stood in the middle of the pond. It was hexagonal, with a roof over only one half and the other half open to the sky.
The pavilion had no walls, only a few supporting pillars. Its reflection lay in the pond, with a few bamboo leaves floating beside it, rocking gently.
A folding screen stood directly facing the walkway.
It had a wooden frame with silk stretched across the middle, painted with a landscape. The screen was not tall, but it blocked the view inside the pavilion just enough that only a vague human silhouette was visible behind it.
The group stood at the end of the walkway, yet to speak.
A voice came from behind the screen.
"Disturbing someone's peace seems a little rude."
The voice was quiet, reaching them through the screen as though through a layer of gauze.
It was hard to describe the feeling-light and clear, with a slight upward lilt at the end. It sounded neither reproachful nor angry, as though it had simply been a passing remark.
But that voice... it was almost excessively pleasant. Not in a deliberate way, but in a way that...
It seemed refined and clear, yet carried a touch of languor, a voice that made the listeners' ears tingle.
Shen Yuzhou went rigid. Listening to that voice, his whole body went numb.
Literally numb.
Cheng Yanqiu abruptly looked up at the screen, her eyes widening.
She seemed to want a clear look at the voice's owner.
The others reacted much the same. Even Pei Yubai could not help looking over.
The bullet comments scrolled rapidly.
[That voice????]
[My ears are pregnant]
[Is that a voice a human being can have]
[Who's talking, who's talking, who's talking!!!]
[Please, let me see his face]
Pei Yubai tilted his head slightly and glanced toward the screen. Then he spoke, his tone sounding quite normal. "We got lost. We saw a house here and came to ask for directions. Sorry to disturb you. Our apologies."
Shen Yuzhou came to his senses and hurriedly added, "Yes, exactly, we didn't mean to barge in! We were picking mushrooms in the forest, but the fog was so thick that we couldn't find our way back. We saw a house here and thought we'd come ask how to get out. We really didn't mean to!"
He spoke very quickly, pouring it all out in one breath as though afraid the other person would not believe him.
If one ignored his bright red ears, that was.
There was silence behind the screen for a few seconds.
Then the voice sounded again, with something more in it than before, though it was hard to say whether it was amusement or something else.
"Come in."
Shen Yuzhou paused, then looked back at Cheng Yanqiu. Cheng Yanqiu ignored him, watching Pei Yubai.
Without hesitation, Pei Yubai was the first to walk around the screen and enter.
Shen Yuzhou hurried after him. The others followed too.
Xiao Chen, the cameraman following them, carried his camera on his shoulder and instinctively aimed it behind the screen.
The pavilion was not large, with six pillars supporting a roof. Bamboo mats covered the floor, yellowed with age but very clean. A low couch stood in the middle,
covered with a plain cotton cushion. A small, low square table stood before it, painted black, its surface wiped to a shine.
Someone reclined on the couch.
Red clothes. Not a pure, bright red, but a darker cinnabar red, draped loosely over his body, the collar slightly open to reveal a stretch of collarbone.
Silver hair fell loose to his waist. He leaned against a soft cushion, his head tilted slightly to one side, his eyes on the small square table before him.
A game of Go lay on the table. Black and white stones intermingled, the game already well underway.
He held a black stone in his right hand, suspended above the board, as though considering where to place it.
His left hand rested on his raised leg, his fingers long and their joints well defined. A red thread wound loosely around his ring and index fingers, the stark contrast between white and red holding the eye fast for no apparent reason.
Then he raised his head.
His features came straight into everyone's view.
A beautifully shaped brow ridge, a straight nose, eyes that tilted slightly upward at the outer corners and seemed veiled in a thin mist. His gaze was not quite focused when he looked at someone, yet it felt as though he could see through everything.
His skin was impossibly pale, not the pallor of powder and cosmetics, but the kind that came from years without sunlight, a whiteness that seemed to seep from his very bones.
His lips were not particularly vivid, just a faint pink, their corners turned slightly downward, carrying an aloofness that defied description.
In white, an immortal; in red, a demon.
He wore red, as though he had draped himself in the mountain mist and the sunset glow, yet also as though he were the only warmth in this mountain.
His silver hair lay scattered over his red clothes, like snow falling on cinnabar.
He simply reclined there on the couch, looking at the group who had barged in, his gaze languid and his face largely expressionless.
The bullet comments fell silent for several seconds.
Then they went completely out of control.
[??????]
[!!!!!]
[I stopped breathing!!!]
[What kind of immortal is this!]
[Mom, I saw an immortal!]
[I... my hands have gone weak...]