He glanced one last time at the frozen boy beneath the ice, a fleeting sigh crossing his ever-smiling face. He slowly bent down, raised his palm, and made a slicing motion on the ice. It was as if flames burned in his hand; the chop easily sliced through the thick layer of ice.
With a "click," the person underwater surfaced.
Miao Feng took off his cloak and wrapped it around the lifelike-looking boy beneath the ice.
The next day, they left Medicine Master Valley as scheduled.
Greenie and Frost Red were both nervous about the Valley Master leaving the valley for the first time in many years, and they eagerly offered to go with her, but Xue Ziye refused without hesitation—what kind of place was the Great Bright Palace, and how could she let these girls go on an adventure with her?
The maids had no other choice but to do their best to prepare her luggage.
When Xue Ziye stepped out of the valley, she was astonished to see the luxurious carriage pulled by eight horses and filled with all sorts of goods: coats, shawls, hand warmers, charcoal, flint, food, medicine pouches... everything imaginable, a dazzling array.
"Do you think I'm going to open a general store?" Xue Ziye said, laughing and crying at the same time, as she picked up the various coats and a string of jingling hand warmers from the carriage. "You even put five hand warmers in there! You silly girl, you might as well have packed the entire Medicine Master Valley in there!"
The maids hesitated, then looked at each other and made faces.
“These things are useless—you all just listen to Aunt Ning and do what you’re supposed to do,” Xue Ziye said as she came out of the carriage carrying a pile of odds and ends, tossing them back to Lü’er. Looking back at Miaofeng, her voice suddenly lowered, “Help me bring Xuehuai out.”
"I will obey the Valley Master's orders." Miao Feng bowed, then disappeared with a flick of her toes.
Before the surrounding maids could react, he returned from the lakeside in an instant, carrying something wrapped in a cloak in his arms. He swiftly reached the carriage, nodded slightly to Xue Ziye, and bent down to place the cloak inside.
“Xue Huai…” Xue Ziye murmured with a sigh, lifting a corner of her cloak to look at that cold face. “We’re going home.”
The maids stared in astonishment at the corpse wrapped in the cloak, almost unable to believe their eyes—wasn't this the boy who had been frozen beneath the lake? How many years had it been? And now, the Valley Master had actually dug him out from under the ice?
"Oh, right, Greenie, don't forget what I told you!" Before jumping onto the carriage, Xue Ziye turned back to give the order, a smile playing on her lips. Before the maids could even reply, Miaofeng had already leaped onto the carriage, gave a low shout, and cracked her whip, urging the carriage forward at breakneck speed.
It swept over the snow in an instant and disappeared into the swirling snow at the valley entrance.
Thousands of miles away, a snow-white bird is flying over the capital, flapping its wings vigorously in the wind and snow of the Forbidden City, heading north.
The wind was strong, the snow was heavy. That piece of cloth fluttered in the wind, like a gray handkerchief destined for fate.
8fzhi8fyin8fwen8fwang8f
Chapter 8, The Seventh Night of Snow (Part 2)
As the sun set on the second day, they walked out of the snowfield along the Mohe River and onto the snow-covered official road.
Beside a dilapidated post station, Xue Ziye signaled Miaofeng to stop the carriage.
"Right here." She lifted the heavy curtain, coughed slightly, and struggled to carry out the person wrapped in a cloak.
"I'll take it." Miao Feng jumped out of the car, stretched out his arms to take it, and glanced at the deserted village by the roadside—a village that had been abandoned for many years, uninhabited for a long time, with most of the wooden houses collapsed by the heavy snow. The wind howled through the empty village, making a sharp sound.
He turned around, holding the corpse, and as he looked at the dilapidated village, a glimmer of light suddenly appeared in the depths of his eyes.
—So, this is the place?!
Xue Ziye helped him off the carriage, stood under the withered fir tree next to the post station, gazed at it for a moment, and silently trudged through the knee-deep snow toward the village.
Miao Feng followed her silently to an open space on the north side of the village.
There, mounds of earth are faintly visible, forming the village's cemetery.
After the great calamity twelve years ago, her master brought her back here and carefully collected the remains of every villager. Everyone returned to this ancestral cemetery, reunited in the soil of their homeland—except for Xuehuai, who remained asleep beneath the ice. He must be very lonely.
"Bury it here." She stared silently for a moment, then covered her mouth and coughed violently. She took out a dagger from her sleeve and began to dig.
However, the soil, frozen for years, was as hard as iron. She dug with all her might, but only managed to poke a pale white dot on the frozen ground.
"Let me do it." Not wanting to waste time, Miao Feng bent down beside her and stretched out his hand—he didn't use any tools, yet the hard frozen soil cracked like tofu under his palm, and with just one palm strike, it split a foot deep.
"Get out of my way! Let me do it myself!" But she became angry, pushed him away, and stabbed the soil with the dagger even harder.
Miao Feng glanced at her silently, then pressed her hands to the ground without saying anything more.
The inner energy surged from his palm, silently seeping into the earth, melting the ancient frozen soil inch by inch.
Xue Ziye poked at the soil with all her might, coughing. At first, the frozen soil was as hard as iron, but with each cut, the ground beneath the dagger began to soften, and it became easier and easier as she dug. An hour later, a pit eight feet long and three feet wide had been dug.
If you like Seven Nights of Snow, log in now and vote!
She knelt on the snow, panting heavily, and carefully moved Xuehuai's body into the pit.
With trembling hands, she scattered the loose soil. The soil, mixed with snow, gradually covered her pale face—she gritted her teeth, her gaze fixed on that familiar face. If she scattered this soil again, she would never see it again… No one would take her to see the Northern Lights, no one would catch her as she plunged into the dark glacier.
That dream, which she had clung to for over a decade, was about to come to a complete end at this moment. From then on, she had no more reason to run away.
The wind and snow were like knives. Exhausted, she stood up in a daze, and suddenly everything went black.
"careful!"
When I woke up, I was already inside a carriage, which was slowly swaying and rolling over the snow as it continued to move forward.
Miao Feng didn't waste a moment and led her on her journey. It seemed that the demon on Kunlun Mountain was in dire need of treatment. The wind howled outside. She opened her eyes and stared blankly at the ceiling for a long time. The glass lamp was also swaying slightly. She felt cold all over, as if icy needles were piercing her bones.
So... is my body really that weak?
In a daze, I suddenly heard faint music coming from the snow outside—
"...The kudzu vines grow thick with thorns, and the brambles spread wildly. My beloved is gone. Who will be with me now? Only I remain!"
"In the days of summer and the nights of winter, after a hundred years, one returns to one's dwelling."
"Winter nights, summer days. After a hundred years, return to one's room."