The sky over the rivers and lakes is very clear - Chapter 271
The dragon boat was spacious and lavishly furnished. With Steward Qin out of the way, Zhu Huihui sat on a thick Persian carpet, surrounded by dozens of jade platters, holding a basket. The platters contained all sorts of dried and fresh fruits, pastries, and candied fruits from all over the world, many of which she had never seen before.
Zhu Huihui looked left and right, her face beaming with joy. "Hehe, is this melon from the Western Regions? It looks so beautiful! Is that fruit from overseas? It's so fuzzy! This carpet is so soft... Ah! It's so comfortable hanging out with Brother Liu Yue!"
Compared to all these delicious foods, the steamed buns in her arms seemed insignificant. Zhu Huihui wanted to put the buns aside, but in this weather, they would soon go bad—they were given to her by the hero, and she couldn't bear to waste them. After holding back for a while, she finally decided to finish the buns first, and then go eat the food given to her by Brother Liuyue.
She reached out and grabbed a steamed bun, about to eat it, when she suddenly remembered something. She looked up at Zhu Liuyue and asked, "Brother Liuyue, would you like some steamed buns?" He had treated her to so many good things; it would be too much of a fuss if she were stingy!
Liu Yue moved to sit next to her, took the bun, and slowly ate a bite, seemingly oblivious to the little black paw. Her peach-blossom eyes were full of smiles.
Zhu Huihui took a bite of the bun himself and said, "Brother Liuyue, I've traveled all over the world and eaten many kinds of buns. Your buns are the best, and then the ones from the hero's family are the best!"
Hehe, she was actually using a "strategy"! She had eaten quite a few steamed buns, but usually from roadside stalls or street vendors. She would buy them when she had money in her pocket and steal them when she didn't. She hadn't even eaten steamed buns made by a proper restaurant's pastry chef many times, let alone those made by the family chefs of You Liuyue and Feng Xuese.
Liu Yue smiled gently and said, "Grey Grey, you've traveled to many places?"
“Yes! So many!” Zhu Huihui tilted her head and thought for a moment, “There are so many that I can’t even remember them all.”
A hint of pity flashed in Liu Yue's eyes: "Would you be willing to follow me from now on?"
"Follow you?" Zhu Huihui's eyes sparkled. That was a very tempting offer!
She spent years wandering the streets and often heard thugs say, "Follow the boss and you'll have meat to eat." She used to look down on these people, thinking they only knew how to eat meat and had no ambition. Following a boss meant they were still poor and had nothing to do but eat meat. The boss's underlings had no future.
But Liu Yue is different from those poor gang leaders. He's a prince, rich and powerful. If you follow him, you can eat whatever you want and bully whoever you want...
Liu Yue smiled and said, "Yes. How about joining me?"
Looking into those shimmering black eyes, Zhu Huihui felt as if she were drowning in them. She struggled in vain for a moment, and then blurted out a "good".
Liu Yue's smile was like a summer flower, her cheeks and brows radiating gentle tenderness.
But as soon as Zhu Huihui agreed, she immediately regretted it. While following him would be beneficial, she still had many things to do! For example, she needed to find her mother, and she had promised to be the hero's eyes in case the great hero's eyes couldn't be healed. Moreover, if she followed Brother Liu Yue as his follower, she would often see that effeminate Steward Qin, not only being bossed around by him but also having to serve him tea and water like him…
Pshaw! Being a lackey is too much trouble, XX quits!
It was too embarrassed to back out immediately, so it said, "However, I have to go find my mother first before I can follow you." Let Brother Liu Yue wait. Who knows where his mother is hiding? Finding her is uncertain!
Zhu Liuyue was incredibly clever; the moment she stopped, she knew what the other woman was up to. She smiled, pretended not to know, and said, "I'll help you find your mother."
"Huh?" Zhu Huihui touched her nose and looked away. "Um, well, it's not necessary! You're busy, I can find it myself..."
Liu Yue narrowed her eyes slightly and smiled brightly: "It's alright. You said you wanted to work for me, so taking care of your underlings is only right!"
Zhu's face was ashen, like a bitter gourd.
Liu Yue looked at her with a smile: "Actually, finding your mother is not difficult at all!"
Zhu Huihui's eyes widened, but she didn't say anything. In her heart, she thought, "Would you die if you didn't brag?"
Liu Yue smiled: "It seems you don't quite believe me?"
"Well, it's not that I don't quite believe it, it's that I—" I just don't believe it at all!
Having wandered around for years, even if she's not worldly-wise, she knows how vast the world is and how many people there are. There are plenty of middle-aged women like her own mother—no looks, no figure, and with rather short tempers—on the streets. You could pick any one of them and they'd look just like her mother. She hadn't seen her for so long; what if she'd gained or lost weight? She wasn't even sure she'd recognize her at a glance, let alone Brother Liu Yue!
Seeing her mischievous grin, Liu Yue couldn't help but gently pinch her cheek: "Perhaps, instead of us going to find her, we can have her come to you."
"Huh?" Zhu Huihui blinked, still not understanding what she was saying.
Liu Yue smiled and said, "The key to finding your mother lies in the pattern on your arm."
Zhu Huihui paused for a moment, then reached up and pulled up her right sleeve, tilting her head to look at it: "This?"
Liu Yue pretended not to see the small, dark and gray arm, and her gaze fell directly on the pattern.
The fiery red bird, seemingly growing from the depths of her crimson skin, was impaled on a thorn bush, blood dripping from it. Yet, like a burning flame, she spread her wings, weeping and singing, her eyes filled with tragedy and despair...
Same location, same pattern, only different size—no wonder, fifteen years have passed, and as the baby has grown, the pattern must have grown too.
Images flashed through his mind. Although many years had passed, the events of fifteen years ago seemed to be etched deep in his soul, every detail as complete and clear as it was back then.
A deserted island, a hastily built thatched hut, an extremely beautiful and elegant woman, a little baby girl who never cries or makes a fuss and only sleeps with her eyes closed, and a boy abandoned by his parents.
The boy, only seven years old at the time, saw it on the baby girl's delicate arm. He witnessed the beautiful woman using a thick, blood-like liquid to draw the design stroke by stroke on the infant's arm. The liquid seeped into the baby's skin as soon as it touched her skin, as if it were naturally formed there…
The cold voice echoed in my ears again: This bird lives at the ends of the earth, a place so far away that it's hard to tell if it's hell or heaven. From the moment it's born, it's covered in blood-red feathers, relentlessly searching for a tree covered in thorns. When it finally finds that tree, it will plunge its body into the thorns, bleeding as it desperately sings the only song of its life. Blood exhausted, fame lost, song ended—this is its destiny…
The beautiful woman was the baby girl's mother, but she seemed to dislike the little girl completely. Aside from feeding her strange medicinal liquids every day, she ignored her entirely. He, on the other hand, held the baby more often—though he too had been abandoned by his family, his parents had no choice. What had this well-behaved, rosy-cheeked, and adorable little baby done wrong? Why didn't her mother like her…?
"Brother Liu Yue, come back to your senses!" Zhu Huihui waved her hand in front of him.
Liu Yue turned around, gazed at the pink face, smiled gently, patted her little hand, and said slowly and deliberately, "Grey Grey, I saw the pattern on your arm when I was very young."
Zhu Huihui was taken aback: "Really?"
Liu Yue stood up, walked to the porthole, and gazed into the depths of the night, her voice as calm as still water.
"One day fifteen years ago, it was raining heavily..."
Ancient temples, deserted villages, and inns.
Cold night, thick fog, torrential rain.
The passionate stories of the martial arts world seem to always take place in such places and under such weather.
Puyuan Temple is a very small temple, so small that it only has three dilapidated houses, one monk, and five acres of thin land.