“I, Li Er, will never betray the trust of Mr. Chu and Madam Chu.”
“I will do my utmost to shelter Mr. Chu’s son and grow up to be a man.”
“I, Li Er, will protect my master to the death!” Li Er grabbed the ground with his head and bowed heavily.
“I will do the same!” Lei Lao San also bowed.
Chen Ao’s old eyes were red and he also said that he would do his utmost to die.
Thus, after a long conversation, the curtain came down on this meeting of the old friends in Jiangbei, the reunion of the rulers and subjects.
“Madam Chu, are you really not coming back with us?”
“Yunzhou, it’s much safer than Jiangbei.”
“We are really worried that, on the Chu Sect’s part, it will be detrimental to you.”
Before leaving, Li Er and the others were still persuading Qiu Mu Orange.
However, Qiu Mu Orange smiled blandly, “Second Master, you guys are worrying too much.”
“I’m just a city dweller.”
“If the Chu Clan is a global power, it must be one of the top powers in the world.”
“How could such a big power go to the trouble of looking for me in Jiangbei for a small person?”
“What’s more, there are not many people who know about my Jiangbei. And they are all the closest people.”
“So, even if the Chu Sect wanted to find me, it would be a needle in a haystack in a long sea of people.”
Qiu Mu Orange once again refused Li Er and the others’ good intentions.
In this way, during their trip to Jiangbei, Li Er only brought Xiao Xiao Fan back to Yunzhou.
Qiu Mu Orange, on the other hand, remained here.
“Mother, I will visit you often…”
Before leaving, the little one knelt on the ground and kowtowed three times to his mother.
Then, holding Li Er’s hand, he set off on the return journey to Jiangdong.
Outside the long pavilion, by the ancient road, the fragrant gra*s is blue in the sky.
The scene of parting under the sky is, by and large, the same.
Each time they part, they promise to meet each other again.
But in this world, how many separations are really goodbyes forever?
A thousand years of dreams, in a snap of the fingers, the past is like water and light as smoke.
The song is over, the people have scattered, the old dream has been awakened for a thousand years!
—-
—-
On the highway to Jiangdong, luxury cars sped by.
The dark body of the road, as if breaking the sword, forcefully cleave to the endless darkness.
The little one in the car, looking out of the window in fear at the hurried light, asked in a small but frightened voice: “Righteous Father, where are we going?”
Li Er said, “To take you home.”
“But I’ve just left home?” The little one was puzzled.
Li Er shook his head, “This is not your home. Jiangdong is, that’s your real home, the one your father left you, your real home!”
“Papa?” The little one repeated the unfamiliar word.
For as long as he could remember, a creature like a daddy had always been a legendary existence.
“My daddy, what’s his name?” The little one asked curiously.
Li Er looked to him, “His name is, Chu Tian Fan.”
“Son, remember this name.”
“When you grow up, when you start to make your mark in Jiangdong, in Yanxia, and even in the whole world, you will hear this name again and again.”
“Your father, will be the peak you will be chasing for many years.”
“But we believe in you, and one day you will surpa*s your dad, and you must.”
“Because, the great work your father has left unfinished needs to be done by you and only by you!”
Li Er’s gaze was like a torch, and there was an inexplicable determination in his old eyes.
As he said these words, Li Er recalled that bloody twilight again.
Those cold and hateful faces!
“The Chu Sect!”
“You will not know that although you forced Mr. Chu to die, he still left behind his son.”
“You will not be arrogant for long.”
“Ten years, twenty years…”
“One day, Mr. Chu’s son, with the trust of the people of the Dragon God Temple and the people of Jiangdong, will retrace the path that Mr. Chu walked back then, and will finish what Mr. Chu had not finished back then!”
Li Er clenched his palm, his fingertips embedded in flesh and blood.
The revenge of killing his master was a deep hatred.
Li Er had made up his mind that no matter what happened in the future, he would protect his son for Mr. Chu.
For this would be the last spark that could start a prairie fire in Mr. Chu’s beacon fire plan!
—-
—-
Lin’an, the edge of West Lake.
The spring dawn at Suti, the wind and lotus in the courtyard, the autumn moon at Pinghu, the broken bridge and the snow…
It’s a lake full of romance and legends.
And now, too, will come its last legacy.
After Little Fan was picked up, all thoughts of Qiu Mu Orange were completely gone.
She did not go back to work, nor did she think about cooking, nor did she run her life with the same care as before.
She was like a woman who had lost her soul, walking in the street in a daze.
Her eyes were blank, and her once radiant face was nothing but sadness and desolation.
It was as if the prosperity had fallen away and only a place of desolation remained.
Why does Qiu Mu Orange not want to go back to Jiangdong?
It was because of the guilt in her heart.
There is one thing that Qiu Mu Orange has said that is true.
She really had no face to see her father and mother in Jiangdong again.
She was even more ashamed to meet Ye Fan’s parents and relatives.
When she was talking to Li Er and the others, Qiu Mu Orange did not mention anything about her and Ye Fan.
All the talk was about the future.
She did not mention anything about the past.
In particular, it was her relationship with Ye Fan, her marriage to Ye Fan.
Over the past few years, towards Ye Fan, Qiu Mu Orange was indeed disheartened.
She even felt, at one point, that what Ye Fan loved, was not herself.
He did not like her at all.
That was why he had gone to Chu Mun in such a dashing manner, why he had ventured out without discussing with her, why he had gone to Chu Mun Mountain alone without even giving himself a goodbye.
The bigger reason for her disillusionment back then, apart from her disappointment in Ye Fan, was still the feeling that, Ye Fan did not care about her.
But the arrival of Li Er and the others, and which some of Chen Nan’s words, was a scolding that woke her up.
It turned out that that silly fellow, silently, had done so much for her.
Yes, it was like what Chen Nan had said.
A man who sheltered himself when he was alive and was sheltering himself after his death.
Wasn’t a man like that, not devoted enough to himself?
Chen Nan was right.
She, Qiu Mu Orange, was a selfish, self-interested woman.
Never up to understanding her man, let alone offering Ye Fan the slightest help in his career, she hadn’t even managed to support him behind the scenes.
After Ye Fan’s death, she even left Jiangdong straight away.
She did not guard Ye Fan’s Jiangdong base for him, nor did she take care of his loved ones’ mothers for him.
She was not a good wife, nor was she a good daughter-in-law.
She was a failure.
An utter failure.
Ye Fan still thought of her even to his death.
But she, however, had resented Ye Fan for so many years.
“Ye Fan, I’m sorry…”
On the shores of West Lake, the sun was setting in the west.
Qiu Mu Orange, dressed in a plain white dress, stood at the edge of the West Lake, tears flowing long.
The blue waves rippled and the fiery red sun wheel burned the earth.
Another dusk, another sunset.
Qiu Mu Orange wondered again if it was the same twilight sunset when Ye Fan killed himself with his sword that year.
Qiu Mu Orange lifted her head and gazed straight into the burning sunset.
At that moment, she saw a lot.
She saw that year at her cousin’s engagement party, Ye Fan promising himself in a firm tone that from now on, no one in this world would ever make you feel any aggravation.
Saw the rainy night that year when she knelt outside the Shen family’s door in order to ask the young master’s forgiveness, but Ye Fan angrily scolded her for her stupidity.
……
A calendar, a scene, like a slideshow, rolled past her eyes.
There is suffering, there is scenery.
There was despondency, there was prosperity.
There were laughs and there were tears.
But all the sweet and sour hardships are in the end a thing of the past.
That man, no longer.
Tears fell like rain.
Qiu Mu Orange looked into the distance, the corners of her lips trembled lightly, murmuring softly.
“Ye Fan, I miss you…”
This call was like a piercing through a thousand years.
After saying it, Qiu Mu Orange slowly closed her eyes.
Then, with one foot, she stepped into the West Lake.
…..
Hoo~
Suddenly, there was a wind rising.