Alma Espejo Antigua

Capítulo 25

Last login: 2008-06-10

Section 47: Chapter Eight, Part One of the Calamities (7)

Xu Haicheng pressed his advantage, saying, "Have you ever thought about avenging your daughter?" Without waiting for a calm reply, he said, "How could someone as wealthy and powerful as you let your daughter die in vain? Mr. Yu, what is the purpose of your cultural festival?"

Yu Congrong said with a cold face, "You can go and read my interview; I've already made myself very clear."

"These high-sounding words are fine to say on television."

"I don't think there's any difference between seeing you in person and on television."

"Of course there's a difference." Xu Haicheng raised an eyebrow. "The audience only sees you as a business elite, but I also know that you almost strangled Fang Li a year ago."

Yu Congrong looked enlightened and said, "So Captain Xu was causing me trouble today to settle a personal score."

"I just want to know the truth—the truth about Yu Yan's death, the truth about your wanting to strangle Fang Li."

"Unfortunately, I have no comment."

"Yu Yan suffered the Mansi Five Tortures of skinning, so I want to ask you, how did you provoke the Mansi tribe?"

A hint of malice flashed in Yu Congrong's eyes as he said, "The Mansi tribe has long since disappeared. Does anyone besides the captain not know this?"

Xu Haicheng chuckled and said, "Mr. Yu, there's no need to pretend. We all know it hasn't disappeared; it still exists in this place called Wuyu."

Upon hearing the words "Witch Domain," Yu Congrong's eyes flickered slightly, and he seemed to drift off for a moment, but his gaze quickly returned to calm. "I heard that Captain Xu visited the Witch Domain earlier this year and suffered a brain injury; it seems that was indeed the case."

Xu Haicheng cursed inwardly; this old fox was indeed a master of beating around the bush, but he didn't have time to waste with him. "Mr. Yu, I hope you can tell me, is Fang Li from that place?"

Yu Congrong's face was icy cold as she said, "Isn't Fang Li an orphan from the Nanpu City Orphanage? You should know better than I do. I heard you grew up together, and I have a deep connection to that."

"You brought her out of the Witch Domain, didn't you?" Xu Haicheng stared intently at Yu Congrong, not missing the fleeting surprise in his eyes, nor the inexplicable expression on his face that followed—a mixture of regret, reminiscence, and longing. It was all too complicated to discern.

After a moment, Yu calmed down, picked up her teacup, took a sip, and said, "I heard she's missing?"

"Yes."

"My wife likes her very much."

"I know, she treats your wife like her mother."

A sarcastic smile crept onto Yu Congrong's lips again: "I don't like her. Her eyes are too calm; I can't see into her heart." He paused, then sighed softly, "But Shuxian really likes her." He turned to look at the wisteria tree outside the window. When he was young, he had promised Guan Shuxian that he would give her a house filled with wisteria blossoms.

The atmosphere became somewhat strange, making Xu Haicheng uneasy. The tense standoff just moments ago had almost angered Yu Congrong, which he had intentionally created. People like Yu Congrong only lost their composure and broke through his psychological defenses when they were enraged. His current calmness, even with a hint of gentleness, felt strangely unfamiliar.

"You asked why we started the cultural festival? What I said on TV was true." Yu Congrong's gaze suddenly became unfocused, as if piercing through the night to see into the far distance. "The Mansi people are truly an amazing people."

Xu Haicheng held his breath, not daring to interrupt him, but unexpectedly, things took a turn for the better and he actually managed to get him to talk.

"I heard that all of you who went to the Witch Domain stopped at the Gathering Dragon Cave and failed to reach it." Yu Congrong's eyes brightened, revealing a look of longing.

Xu Haicheng really wanted to ask him what "there" meant, but he was afraid that if he interrupted him, he would lose interest in continuing the conversation.

"That was truly a paradise. The moonlight shone on the tall temple, and in front of the temple was a square lake, shimmering with silver light. A python was turning over in the water, revealing a section of its silvery-white body. I thought it was the legendary dragon..." Yu Congrong seemed to see that fairyland-like scenery again. A joyful smile appeared on her lips, her eyebrows relaxed, and her whole person became gentle, faintly revealing a youthful charm.

Xu Haicheng was stunned, staring blankly at him.

After a long silence, Yu Congrong remained silent. The smile slowly faded from his lips, and his expression turned cold again. He turned to look at Xu Haicheng and said, "Don't think I'm saying this because I'm afraid of you. In fact, you are nothing to me."

Xu Haicheng didn't pay much attention to Yu Congrong's last words. Although he understood what "not worth mentioning" meant the next day, at the time, all he could think about was the paradise Yu Congrong described. He even forgot how to say goodbye and how to leave the Yu family home.

Xu Haicheng was startled awake when the iron gate slammed shut, and he looked back at the deep courtyard of the Yu family villa. His gaze inadvertently fell on a person standing under the wisteria tree, staring intently at him. He vaguely recognized him as He Aijun's younger brother, the one who had attacked him. But the person was too far away to see clearly, and his mind wasn't on that. From Yu Congrong's words, Fang Li was indeed someone he had brought from the Witch Domain, and beyond the Gathering Dragon Cave lay another world, a place like paradise, something to yearn for.

Section 48: Chapter Eight, Part One of the Calamities (8)

As Xu Haicheng drove away, he was still savoring Yu Congrong's words, "That was truly a paradise. The moonlight shone on the towering temple, and in front of the temple was a square lake, shimmering with silver light. A python was turning over in the water, revealing a section of its silvery-white body. I thought it was a dragon from legend..."

Unbeknownst to him, in the Yu family villa receding behind him, Yu Congrong was being escorted to his study by two bodyguards. The bodyguards glanced out the window a few times, then closed it tightly and drew the curtains. Yu Congrong then waved for them to leave, turned off the lights, and sat quietly in the darkness. His soul seemed to leave his body, returning to a night more than twenty years ago…

He stepped onto the natural bridge over the deep pool in Julong Cave, and when he saw the unfathomable depths below, a sense of unease washed over him.

Guo Chunfeng urged him in a low voice from ahead, "Hurry up, hurry up."

After crossing the natural bridge, we entered a long, damp cave. The flashlight illuminated the various ancient murals on the cave walls, making us feel as if we had stepped into a time tunnel, leading us into a mysterious and exotic land. The tunnel was long, but the surface was smooth, making it easy to walk through. After about half an hour, we saw a patch of silvery moonlight at the cave entrance, the moonlight flowing like water.

Standing at the cave entrance, the first thing that catches the eye is the towering temple, bathed in the silvery moonlight, exuding an indescribable solemnity and ancient magnificence. Yu Congrong clearly felt how her heart pounded at that moment.

In front of the temple stand two large natural stone pillars, on which is coiled the image of the god Amansi, with a snake's body and a human head, the human head raised towards the moon, and the snake's tail curling around clouds.

Guo Chunfeng said that the temple and the Ascension of Amansi were both carved out of the mountain, taking two hundred years to complete. Before seeing them, Yu Congrong thought it was extremely foolish to spend two hundred years carving stones, but after seeing them, she felt that even a thousand years would have been worthwhile.

After a moment, he realized that he was inside the mountainside of Shuangbi Peak, so how could there be moonlight?

Looking up, a long, natural crevice stretched across the high place, beyond which lay the clear, cold sky, with a bright moon casting its gentle light. It turned out that there was a long, natural crevice where the two peaks met, and the moonlight leaked through the crevice, then refracted through the mirror-like mountain walls, covering the middle part of the mountain's belly.

In the very center is a square lake. Guo Chunfeng said that the original lake was irregularly shaped, and it took fifty years to carve it into a perfect square. This is their sacred lake. There is a spring in the lake, which connects to an underground river outside.

Sifang Lake was as smooth as a mirror, almost blending into the moonlight, making it impossible to distinguish between the moonlight and the shimmering water. Yu Congrong followed Guo Chunfeng through the circular, dark corridor inside the mountain. The corridor was centered around Sifang Lake and the temple, cleverly hidden from the moonlight. The corridor branched off frequently, supposedly connecting to the residential areas of various noble families.

Yu Congrong walked along, marveling at the sight. "This is truly a masterpiece of nature," he exclaimed. Who would have thought that such a massive cave existed within the Shuangbi Peak, a large cave containing smaller ones, perfectly suited to be the home of the Manxi people?

Suddenly, he heard a rushing sound. Looking down, he saw the calm surface of the lake broken, and a silvery-white body flipped over the surface. Although he knew that the Mansi tribe regarded pythons as sacred and kept pythons in the lake, at that moment, he felt that he was seeing a dragon, the legendary dragon.

The water surface gradually calmed down, the water shimmered gently, and the moonlight melted into one.

There was no sound of anyone around.

Yu Congrong knew why they were on this journey, but strangely, she felt no tension whatsoever. Her steps felt weak, as if she were walking in a dream, and she longed to walk like this forever. But every road has an end, and their journey led to the temple.