Chapter 51 - 48: Do You Like Your Fiancée?
"Sir, there’s no one in the room."
Before she knew it, Xia Lianxue was at the door. She opened it naturally. CREEEAK... The wooden door sounded as ancient as if it had stood for ages.
The room was swept clean. Next to a wooden table were two simple benches, the kind commonly seen in a farmer’s home.
Not far from the benches, she was surprised to see a large mahogany chest. Xia Lianxue subconsciously walked over and opened it. Inside, to her astonishment, was a bright red wedding dress.
A tremor ran through Xia Lianxue. With practiced ease, she opened a hidden compartment in the chest. Inside lay some gold and silver jewelry and several bolts of fine fabric.
It was a woman’s dowry and wedding dress.
A woman’s voice seemed to sing softly in her ear: "A single parting left us worlds apart. You said it would be three or four months... Who knew it would turn into five or six years?"
Listening closely, she realized it was her own voice.
Xia Lianxue wiped away the tears that had welled in her eyes without her realizing and called out the door, "Sir, come and take a look inside."
Lu Changyuan left the grave mound and stepped into the thatched hut.
"What painting? Where on earth did the Miao Yu Palace Master go..."
Before he could finish his thought, Lu Changyuan saw the painting.
It was hanging squarely above the head of the hut owner’s bed. Xia Lianxue was staring at it, her shoulders trembling slightly, her thoughts unreadable.
So, Lu Changyuan walked up to the painting as well.
The young man in the painting wore a white robe and a warm smile. He looked to be about twenty years old.
He was in the prime of his youth, the kind of young man who could make the hearts of countless maidens flutter.
The strangest part was that the young man was the spitting image of Lu Changyuan.
Lu Changyuan couldn’t quite read Xia Lianxue’s expression. Her voice seemed devoid of any emotion as she asked, "Sir... is our Palace Master your fiancée?"
Lu Changyuan had always found it strange that he couldn’t remember his fiancée’s face or name.
Now, he understood.
His fiancée had already ascended to the Seventh Realm. To break through to the realm beyond, she had used Yao Guang’s Power to remove herself from the flow of time.
That was why he couldn’t remember his fiancée’s name, and why the people of Miao Yu Palace couldn’t remember their own Palace Master’s name or face.
This was precisely what Yao Guang’s Power was capable of.
"It seems that’s how it is. My fiancée apparently didn’t die. She even became the Miao Yu Palace Master. I just don’t know where she’s gone now."
Xia Lianxue’s voice was gentle. "In that case, Sir... do you love your fiancée?"
Lu Changyuan stared intently at Xia Lianxue, realizing this gentle, obedient Little Fairy had suddenly become an enigma to him. "Why the sudden question?"
He reached out, grasping the Fairy’s delicate hand as he circulated the Supreme Pure Spirit Forget Immortal Technique.
He found nothing.
Her Spirit Platform was stable, with no Desire Demon in sight. Xia Lianxue’s state of mind was as tranquil as a calm lake.
She reached out, wrapping her arms around Lu Changyuan’s waist and nuzzling her cute face against his chest. "You still haven’t answered me, Sir. Do you love your fiancée?"
Lu Changyuan didn’t stop probing Xia Lianxue’s condition, but he still answered, "I don’t remember. There are many things about her that I’ve forgotten."
The top of the Fairy’s head brushed against his chin, and her subtle, maidenly scent wafted into his nose.
"You must be lying to me, Sir. The one thing you should remember clearly is whether you loved your fiancée."
Lu Changyuan felt his chest grow damp with the Fairy’s tears.
He was at a loss.
The Chang’an Daoist, who had single-handedly maintained a thousand years of peace in the world, was utterly helpless against the Fairy in his arms.
"Why are you crying? You..."
Lu Changyuan paused.
It was as if a veil had been gently lifted in his mind. The face of his fiancée—a face as beautiful as a flower—slowly emerged, eventually overlapping perfectly with Xia Lianxue’s.
The first time Lu Changyuan saw Xia Lianxue’s face, he’d felt a familiarity, as if she were the girl next door.
He never imagined she literally was the girl next door.
The past, erased by time, began to surface. Lu Changyuan thought he heard a voice say, "Brother Lu, wait for me for three years. Master said I can come back and marry you in three years."
Xia Lianxue’s voice was as gentle as a clear breeze under the bright moon. "Let me tell you a story too, Sir."
The Fairy’s steps were light, her voice soft. "A long, long time ago, there was a little girl. Her father was a merchant of some means in their town. But the merchant had a dilemma, because his daughter was very beautiful and had come of age. It was time to find her a husband."
Lu Changyuan hummed in acknowledgment and tried to pull away from the Fairy’s grasp, only to find that her strength was incredible.
’This Miao Yu Fairy is taking advantage of my old, feeble body!’
"The merchant’s daughter had a gentle disposition. If he married her into a powerful, high-ranking family, she would be looked down upon as a merchant’s daughter and would surely be mistreated. But if he married her to a poor scholar, who knew if the scholar would abandon his wife after he passed the examinations and became an official?"
Lu Changyuan smiled and picked up the thread of the story. "So, who did the merchant decide to marry his daughter to in the end?"
Xia Lianxue reached out a slender, pale hand, lovingly caressing Lu Changyuan’s cheek. "And wouldn’t you know it, living right next door to the merchant was a Young Physician. His family had been physicians for three generations. His parents had both died, and he’d fled a famine, arriving in the city when he was only eight. By now, he had opened his own medicine shop and, at twenty, had reached the age to take a wife."
"He couldn’t have married his daughter to a poor physician who had nothing to his name, could he?"
Xia Lianxue’s delicate brows furrowed. "And why not?! The merchant’s daughter was very fond of that Young Physician. She wished for nothing more than to visit his medicine shop every day."
"From the way you tell it, it sounds like a pretty good match, then?"
Lu Changyuan’s expression was complicated, but he played along with her story.
"Yes, it should have been a wonderful marriage. But the girl knew... the Young Physician didn’t love her."
"How could he not love her? They grew up together, childhood sweethearts. You must be misremembering."
The emotions of the past slowly crept back into his mind.
The Fairy lowered her gaze, a hint of sadness in her eyes. "It wasn’t that he disliked her... it just wasn’t the love between a man and a woman. The Young Physician only saw her as a little sister. But he still agreed to the marriage. He didn’t love anyone else that year, and he didn’t want to see the little girl heartbroken."
That was the year the Chang’an Daoist had first ventured into the world, still unaware of how precious emotions were. It was from here that the ’Forget Immortal’ aspect of his Supreme technique truly began to take hold.
"Mutual love is a difficult thing to find in this world. The Young Physician marrying the merchant’s daughter wasn’t such a bad outcome. Besides, how many truly passionate couples are there in the Mortal World? In the end, it all becomes familial affection and habit. In my opinion, the Young Physician and the merchant’s daughter simply skipped the passionate romance and went straight to a life of peaceful routine."
Xia Lianxue clutched her chest. "Yes... so the little girl was content with that. But a few days before the wedding, people from an Immortal Palace arrived. They saw the little girl had exceptional talent and wanted to take her away to cultivate."
The Young Physician, thinking that if one person attains the Dao, even their chickens and dogs ascend to heaven, persuaded the little girl to go cultivate and become an Immortal.
The little girl was reluctant, but then she heard the Young Physician say, "If you become an Immortal, then I can just ride your coattails!"