Luoyang City's Love Story

"Father and Wu Tian and the others will accompany me through the last stretch of the road, from Luoyang City all the way to a faraway place. It's called the Yellow Springs, and it's also called Naihe."

"I know what those old people from outside the city want, but unfortunately, Li Shiyi left nothing behind when he died."

A fish-belly dawn glimmered on the distant horizon,

The Linen-Clad Girl pushed open every window in the room, letting the cool rain and morning light drive away the gloom inside.

She gazed beyond the distant city. Amid the rain filling the sky, Willow Catkins floated gently upward on the spring breeze.

Day was almost breaking. It was time for her to set out, too.

In truth, every life was something deeply uncertain. Luo Ziwei had lived for a very long time, but she felt as if she had only lived for three days.

On her first day, she had not yet come to Luoyang City. She was merely a bewildered little beggar, knowing nothing about anything and curious about everything.

On her second day, she met a very handsome young man in an Abandoned Temple. He took her by the hand and led her into Luoyang City.

Luoyang City was a very big city, but it was warm, too.

When Willow Catkins drifted through the air, everything was very, very good.

But when the third day came, she discovered that A-Xu was dead, and that the young man named Li Shiyi was dead, too.

Luoyang City became empty, and it became strange to her.

She left Luoyang City and wandered outside for a long time. In those days, she often dreamed of a young man and woman beneath a willow tree by the lake, and of the people in Luoyang City.

She had never liked taking revenge on anyone, because she did not know where that person had come from.

Beyond the stars?

Or another world?

How could someone so easily occupy that young man's body, silently take everything from him, and destroy it all?

Transmigrators... What annoying, helpless wretches.

Luo Ziwei knew very well that even if they killed countless more Transmigrators, the young man in Luoyang City would never come back.

After the young man named Li Shiyi died, the little beggar from Xunyang merely busied herself with living out the rest of her life.

But even now, she still couldn't figure out whether she had ever left Luoyang City.

She couldn't make heads or tails of it. Everything was a muddle.

The Linen-Clad Girl left, leaving Gu Baishui a small, square box.

She said the box contained everything Gu Baishui wanted to know, and she had left him a little gift, too.

The Old Ye Residence in the west of the city had grown empty. Only Gu Baishui remained.

Ox-Head and Horse-Face, Black and White Impermanence, and the Red-Robed Judge had all left Luoyang City. With them was a travel-worn little girl, and they were headed for a faraway place.

They might never return.

Some people's stories had come to an end, but some people's stories might only just be beginning.

In the faint lamplight and the dawn glowing by the window, the Green-Robed Youth opened the box in his hands and saw what had been neatly placed inside.

It was a letter and a very clean Bronze Dagger.

The rain outside the window was still falling hard.

Gu Baishui took the letter out of the box, then quietly unfolded it.

This was the last story in Luoyang City, and also the story of the Ye Clan Young Miss and Li Shiyi.

--

There was a childhood-sweethearts romance in Luoyang City.

The story's protagonists were the young master of the Li Residence and the young miss of the Ye Residence.

According to reliable information from a girl named A-Xu, Li Shiyi and the Ye Clan Young Miss had known each other for a very long time-longer than she had known her father.

Many people in Luoyang City knew that the head of Ye Residence had been a live-in Scholar, and that he and his wife had been deeply in love and treated each other with respect. But until the Ye Clan head's wife passed away, they had never had a child.

The Ye Clan Young Miss was the Old Scholar's only daughter, but at the time, even the Old Scholar himself didn't know it.

After leaving his hometown, the Old Scholar had never returned to it-the remote little town-and so he didn't know that he had a daughter wandering outside.

The Ye Clan Young Miss had been adopted and raised by an old woman when she was little. Only after the old woman passed away did she come to Luoyang City by herself to seek her family.

The journey from Xunyang to Luoyang was exceptionally long and far. That little girl had made it here one step at a time, on her own two feet.

Dusty and travel-worn, she looked for all the world like a little beggar.

But the first person she met from Luoyang City looked hardly any better than she did. He was even more wretched.

That bruised and battered unlucky fellow was none other than Li Shiyi, who had run away from home in Luoyang City.

He and she had met in an Abandoned Temple outside Luoyang City.

The little beggar had come to Luoyang to seek her family, while Li Shiyi had planned to go to Qingting alone, for the first "long journey" of his life.

It hadn't been a whim. At the time, Li Shiyi had made a bet with A-Xu.

A-Xu thought Li Shiyi didn't have what it took to reach Qingting. At most, he'd make it halfway before begging and pleading for someone to come rescue him.

Li Shiyi was rather annoyed. He thought it was humiliating that A-Xu looked down on him, so he packed up his bags and supplies and set off alone.

The runaway youth wanted to prove himself, but the result was still awkward.

Li Shiyi hadn't even left Luoyang territory when a passing band of mountain bandits and highwaymen robbed him of everything. Then Quan'er, who played by no rules, kicked him around.

But the bandits weren't really to blame. They'd originally had a strong sense of professional ethics and planned to take his things and leave.

But Li Shiyi couldn't keep his mouth shut. He had to taunt them, mocking them for being so unprofessional that they didn't even ask what gang he belonged to after robbing him. So the bandits turned around, pinned him to the ground, and beat him up.

After the beating, Li Shiyi behaved himself. He was penniless and bruised, and even filling his stomach had become a problem.

He remembered that he seemed to have passed an Abandoned Temple earlier. Though the temple had little incense, there were still offerings. So he ran all the way to the temple in the mountains to find something to eat.

Under the altar, he locked eyes with a little beggar.

The little beggar was dusty and disheveled, her delicate little face scrunched up, but she had a pair of very clean, bright eyes.

Only after asking did Li Shiyi learn that the little beggar was also there to find food in the old temple.

The little beggar generously shared half her food with Li Shiyi, but he wasn't full, so he shamelessly asked for a few more peaches.

After they had eaten their fill, the two children of about the same age leaned against a stone pillar and laughed nonstop at each other's miserable appearance.

Li Shiyi asked where she was from.

The little beggar said she had come from Xunyang to Luoyang to seek her family.

Li Shiyi fell silent for a long time when he heard that. He felt awkward, because the journey the little beggar had made was more than ten times farther than the one he had planned. He really couldn't bring himself to tell her what had happened to him.