Himmlischer König - Kapitel 67
His eyes were dark as he gazed at her bloodless face, a frosty smile appearing on his thin lips.
You've been scammed!
Lotus closed her eyes, biting her lip tightly, unable to listen any longer.
Ye Chuhan's hand touched the cold stone chair. Looking at the lotus flower locked to the chair, his eyes focused, revealing a terrifying coldness, and his pupils shrank to the tip of a needle.
“I’ve always wondered… why you haven’t made a move against me yet?! It wasn’t until yesterday, when you risked everything to save Murong Yin, that I realized you had no idea that the massacre of the Bai family was the work of the Tianshan Snow Sect. You thought that killing the Four Blood Shadows would avenge your family’s blood feud, otherwise you wouldn’t have been so naive as to abandon your years of forbearance to save a complete stranger!”
"..."
"But this makes it even harder for me to let you go. You actually dared to defy me for Murong Yin... You actually risked your life to fight me for him..."
Ye Chuhan moved closer to her cheek, his eyes sharp and clear, his pale fingers gliding through Lianhua's black hair. "Lianhua, you betrayed me. You made me realize that the years I spent with you are not as valuable as the few months with Murong Yin. How can I bear this?"
The lotus's tears are like the sea.
She was locked to a stone chair, sitting stiffly and unable to move. Her face, pale and tear-streaked, was as white as a jade statue!
Ye Chuhan's fingers slowly slid down her hair and stopped at her neck. The girl's slender neck was as fragile as a flower branch in his hands. With just a little force, he could break her neck and end her life.
His fingers remained there silently.
He couldn't bring himself to do it!
My heart started to ache slightly.
The warmth of the girl's skin seeped into his fingertips. He gazed at her tightly closed eyes, and the light in her narrow eyes slowly dimmed...
“Lotus…” His dark eyes were deeply reflected in her fair face. He murmured in her ear, which was as smooth as a seashell, “If you stayed in the Tianshan Snow Gate for the past three years not for revenge, then what…why did you come here?”
A tear slowly rolled down Lotus's cheek.
revenge……
Three years ago, when she arrived at the Tianshan Snow Gate, he actually thought she had come for revenge...
Inside the stone house. The candlelight flickered dimly.
The girl, chained to the stone bench, had her eyes tightly closed, and two lines of tears silently slid down her cheeks, landing at the corners of her mouth, a picture of bitterness and pain.
"Ten years ago, in Liantang, Jiangnan..." She closed her eyes tightly, her voice trembling with tears, "that eight-year-old girl you saved, you named her Lianhua... Have you... forgotten?"
Ten years ago!
She and her mother were being hunted by the Four Blood Shadows. At the critical moment of life and death by the lotus pond in Jiangnan, Ye Chuhan, dressed in white, appeared. He saved her life, buried her mother, and named her Lotus.
Ten years ago!!
After two years on the run, an eight-year-old girl finally met a good man. Her precocious maturity, honed by hardship, made her remember his voice, his smile, and his presence at the Snow Gate of Tianshan.
Ye Chuhan's fingers froze in her hair.
For a fleeting moment, his eyes widened in disbelief and confusion, as if he hadn't understood what she was saying. "...Lotus pond in Jiangnan...lotus flowers...ten years ago..."
Lotus slowly opened her eyes.
Tears of sorrow filled her clear eyes, blood from her wounds soaked through her snow-white clothes, her face was as white as snow, and her voice was filled with a bitter, strained tone.
"...Do you still remember the lotus from ten years ago...?"
Lotus blossoms are in full bloom by the pond.
The young man in white, with his beautiful, narrow eyes, smiled warmly at her, his smile as gentle as the sunshine of Jiangnan.
He laughed and said, "You don't have a name? How could you not have a name?"
The little girl bit her lip, refusing to say a word. Her mother had told her before she died that she should never tell anyone her name in her entire life!
The young man in white still smiled slightly.
He pointed to the lotus pond, his snow-white sleeves swaying gently in the soft Jiangnan breeze, and smiled warmly, "From this moment on, you shall be called Lotus. Your life will surely be like the lotus in this pond, blooming under the sun, pure and flawless."
Eight-year-old Lianhua looked up at the older brother with a warm smile and asked, "And what about my brother? What's his name?"
The young man in white hesitated for a moment, as if he had thought of something, then bent down and gently patted the little girl's head. "From now on, you have to call me Brother Ye."
She called him Brother Ye.
She followed him back to his villa in Jiangnan and lived with him. He took meticulous care of her, just like her beloved Bai Rong brother had once.
He taught her to read, guided her in copying calligraphy, and taught her classical poems word by word. He would read a line, and she would repeat after him. She memorized so many poems, but there was one she could never forget:
Lotus blossoms bloom in Jiangnan, red flowers covering green waters. Their colors are the same, their hearts are the same; though the lotus roots are different, their hearts are not.
Outside the Xiaozhu Pavilion, flowers and trees flourish.
Nine-year-old Lianhua sat on the lap of nineteen-year-old Ye, holding fragrant lotus seeds in her hands. She combed her small sideburns, tilted her pink face up, and blinked her big eyes as she listened to him speak.
He smiled and explained the meaning of the poem to her: "On the green waters of summer, lotus flowers bloom brightly in Jiangnan. Women picking lotus flowers come by boat, their songs drifting among the reeds, and they pledge their love to each other forever."
Puzzled, she innocently asked him, "Is loving each other forever a blessing?"
He nodded, his narrow eyes shining with a clear light. "If Lotus can find someone who can love her forever and stay with her until they grow old together, then Lotus will be a blessed person."