Qiguan Yuan looked down at the two fortune sticks in his hand.
One of them was written by himself Xiu Yun Yin and Pei Yubai.
However, one of them was written by someone else, Qiguan Yuan.
He held up the fortune slip that read " Qiguan Yuan " and looked at the handwriting.
"What about this one? I didn't write it."
"You usually only get one marriage fortune slip, but this time you get two. Something must have happened, and you're reminding yourself to remember it."
"If you can't remember right now, it's most likely because you're still trying to recall memories of Xiu Yun Yin. Slowly, you'll remember this marriage fortune slip. You can place it by your pillow to recall the memories you're trying to remember."
Qiguan Yuan nodded, indicating that he understood.
Then he looked at Jixian.
"Why are you here?" Qiguan Yuan asked.
Jixian remained silent for a while.
He knew that Qiguan Yuan was asking him why he was the guardian of the Yue Lao Temple.
He thought of something from a long time ago, how long ago? Probably several hundred years ago.
At that time, he was still a young monk.
A famine struck, and everyone was struggling to survive. There were no worshippers or food in the temple.
The monks, having run out of food, went down the mountain to find something to eat, and some never returned.
He was so hungry he could barely walk. He leaned against the base of the city wall, his vision blurring intermittently.
He thought he was going to die.
Then someone stopped in front of him.
The person was wearing a red robe, and had silver hair that reached his waist, which shone brightly in the sunlight.
He was so weak that he couldn't even see the man's face.
"Little monk, why were you thrown here?" the man asked.
Jixian looked up and saw a face he couldn't make out.
He opened his mouth, but no sound came out.
The man stared at him for a while, then squatted down, a steamed bun appearing in his hand at some point.
It was a steamed bun made of white flour, still warm.
"Eat," he said.
Jixian took the steamed bun, his fingers touching the other person's fingers; they were cold. He took a bite, but he couldn't quite remember the taste of the bun, only that he ate it very, very slowly.
Recalling that painful memory, Jixian once asked himself, "Do I hate it?"
Whom should he hate?
Do you hate those who cannibalize people, hate those who refuse to give alms, hate those who sit in high places in temples?
But he couldn't bring himself to say it.
Therefore, everyone should hate them.
I hate God for making them suffer hunger.
Why make them suffer like this?
But what's the use? To survive, they eat wild grass, gnaw on tree bark, and eat mud.
Even... cannibalism.
To live, one must abandon humanity.
If we prioritize humanity, the outcome will be starvation.
Jixian could never take that step, so he was truly facing his death at that time.
But luckily, he encountered God.
"What are you doing here?" the man asked suddenly, watching him eat.
Jixian swallowed the steamed bun.
"If we can't get any alms, everyone will starve to death."
He hesitated for a moment. "What are you doing?"
The man glanced at him. "I'm looking for someone."
Jixian finished the rest of the steamed bun. "Can I go with you? I won't be a burden. I can help you find it. You saved my life, and I want to repay you."
The person thought for a moment and said, "I don't need anyone's help."
Jixian opened his mouth, but the other person spoke again.
"You are a monk. You shouldn't be following me. You should go back and chant your scriptures."
Jixian lowered his head.
"Our temple is gone. Everyone has left. The scriptures are no longer chanted. Are you a celestial being? May I beg you to save everyone? I am willing to abandon Buddhism and believe in you for the rest of my life."
Jixian then realized that he was the Yue Lao.
He is the god who governs marriage, and he has already stepped down from that position.
He said he couldn't save these people.
The person didn't speak.
He stood up and looked into the distance. In the distance were mountains, and beyond those mountains were even more mountains.
But Jixian still chose to follow him.
He learned his name.
Qiguan Yuan.
Qiguan Yuan silently watched the despair of everyone amidst the famine.
Only after witnessing cannibalism firsthand did he finally say, "Everyone seeks love and romance. But in chaotic times, even survival is difficult, let alone matters of the heart."
Then Qiguan Yuan disappeared for a few days, and no one knows where he went.
When he returned, he carried a faint scent of rain, and the hem of his robe was wet.
"Come with me to a place," Qiguan Yuan said.
He followed him for a very long time.
They arrived at Cloud-Hidden Town.
The town wasn't called that back then; I can't remember what it was called, Jixian.
He only remembered that the people of this town, even those who were starving to the bone, did not resort to cannibalism.
Those people shared their last bit of food with the older people and the younger children.
They gnawed on tree bark, dug up grass roots, and ate Guanyin.
Many people starved to death, but not a single one of them harmed their fellow human beings.
Qiguan Yuan stood at the entrance of the town, looking at the people who were too hungry to walk, and finally he used magic.
Jixian only found out later.
That was the only time in the past eight hundred years that Qiguan Yuan had retrieved magic before he found Yun Yin.
He used magic to save everyone in the town.
Everyone in the town believed that a deity had saved them.
So later, when Qiguan Yuan helped a hunter's daughter break up her ill-fated relationship, the hunter saw it and everyone believed that it must have been the Yue Lao who saved their entire town.
After that, the god worshipped by all the Cloud-Hidden Town became the Yue Lao.
On the very day Qiguan Yuan brought Jixian to Cloud-Hidden Town, a type of wild vegetable suddenly appeared throughout the entire country overnight.
Meanwhile, the heavy rain finally fell on this land.
The famine was over.
It turns out that Qiguan Yuan returned to the Upper Realm that day, fought with the Rain God, and then bound the God of Agriculture with red threads all over his body, threatening him to make him take action.
This finally resolved the famine.
From then on, Jixian devoted his life to the worship of the Yue Lao Under the Moon, and followed Qiguan Yuan, guarding the temple for him.
Jixian roughly explained why he became the guardian of the Yue Lao Temple.
Qiguan Yuan nodded, indicating that he understood.
Jixian was quite adept at handling Qiguan Yuan's amnesiac episodes.
Because Qiguan Yuan form is Nine-Tailed Fox, he doesn't really like outsiders being present in his territory.
That's why he ran to the Yue Lao Temple today; it's because he would definitely offend Qiguan Yuan if he went inside the Yue Lao Temple.
In addition, Qiguan Yuan has a terrible temper when he wakes up, but when he had his memories, he was still able to control himself.
However, having no memory of it, anyone who sets foot in his territory will wake him from his sleep, making Qiguan Yuan truly a force to be reckoned with at this time.
So every time this time comes, Jixian inevitably gets a beating.
This time was different, though; Qiguan Yuan had returned to the Yue Lao Temple ahead of time.
That's why he asked why it was a few days earlier this time. However, he left for a few more days and didn't return until the very last night.
They also regained their magical powers.
In addition, he received two marriage fortune sticks this time.
Jixian guessed that he had already found Xiu Yun Yin.
So he said, "Eight hundred years have passed, and I have finally found him. Congratulations, your wish has been fulfilled."