WJ Chapter 92

Eastern Sun (3)

How could Yun Guyan know that the one rare time Yun Changliu proactively asked him for something, it wasn’t for himself.

Starting the next day, Ah Ku’s peach forest wooden hut welcomed an uninvited guest.

The Young Sect Leader didn’t say much either. He would just enter and stuff a few candies into the hands of the blue-clad little medicine person inside, then obediently find a corner to sit cross-legged and practice his cultivation and breathing exercises.

At first, Ah Ku was both annoyed and amused, trying to drive him away several times, but to no avail.

Yun Changliu’s patience was extraordinarily good. Even when shut outside, he neither hurried nor fretted, simply sitting in the flower shade by the door for half a day. When it was time, he’d return to the city on his own, only to come back next time with candies to knock on the door again.

Later, Ah Ku couldn’t be bothered to manage it anymore. After all, Yun Changliu was always so quiet it was as if he didn’t exist. So Ah Ku continued reading books, practicing martial arts, brewing medicine and drinking it as usual. When occasionally bored, he’d go tease the Young Sect Leader with a few words, and on days when he was in good spirits, he’d make some pastries and share half with Yun Changliu.

Ah Ku had also secretly tested him a few times and discovered that the Young Sect Leader truly didn’t know about the medicine people. At most, he knew that the Medicine Gate raised such a group of people, but didn’t know it was so he could drink their blood.

After that… for some unknown reason, he didn’t let Yun Changliu know that he himself was the “good medicine” that suppressed the Fengchun Sheng poison in his body.

And so, every morning Yun Changliu would finish drinking his medicine, take his candies, and dismiss his servants outside. Then he’d use his lightness skill to flip out through the window of Changsheng Pavilion, avoiding the patrolling Zhuhuo Guards and Yin Ghosts, following the marks he’d carved along the way down the mountain.

Finding Ah Ku’s peach forest wooden hut, he’d quietly go in and sit for several hours. When it was time for meals and medicine, he’d return. After the servants withdrew, he’d go out again…

Despite all this trouble, he didn’t find it bothersome at all. Rather, he seemed to take considerable pleasure in it.

For many consecutive days, miraculously no one discovered it.

After all, in the eyes of everyone from Sect Leader Yun Guyan down to the servants in Changsheng Pavilion… there was no child in the world more obedient than Young Sect Leader Changliu.

He didn’t cry or make trouble, spoke little, and could sit alone in his room for an entire day. He’d been like this for several years. His only small quirk was liking quiet and not wanting people following him closely—

Who could imagine that such a child would suddenly learn to silently slip out through the window every day?

They didn’t know that seemingly obedient children in the world actually came in two types.

One type wanted to rebel but didn’t have the courage to do so. The other had never had rebellious thoughts… or simply couldn’t be bothered to rebel.

Yun Changliu wasn’t the former, but the latter.

His nature was truly too indifferent, and this indifference already carried a hint of world-weariness and even life-weariness that was extremely difficult to detect.

The endless tedious days and the excruciating torment of Fengchun Sheng poison had unknowingly worn away almost all of this child’s vitality.

Yet the Young Sect Leader also had a mind clear as a mirror. He knew very soberly that no one could save him.

Yun Guyan loved him dearly. Even confining him to Changsheng Pavilion and forcing him to drink medicine and practice cultivation day and night was only so he could survive. He couldn’t bear to make things difficult for his father again. Uncle Huan cared for and looked after him, but Uncle Huan had to accompany his father. Chanjuan and Danjing were willing to regard him as their elder brother and keep him in their hearts, but these young siblings were after all lively children who loved to play. They had their mother, each other, and the outside world. He had no intention of forcing his younger siblings to accompany him.

These people were all the brightness he cherished and the warmth he envied.

…But they were not his belonging.

However, it was Ah Ku—this blue-clad young boy he’d never met before, whose name he didn’t even know—who first made Yun Changliu feel a desire to draw near.

This sounds strange, but actually it wasn’t.

—Knowing he was the Young Sect Leader, yet neither fearing him nor flattering him; knowing he was poisoned with deadly toxins, yet neither deliberately pitying him nor monitoring him under the name of protection.

—Daring to jest and play with him yet not being overly intimate, mostly leaving him alone; but occasionally making him snacks, counting how many days remained until the peach blossoms bloomed, and blinking at him to beg for today’s candies.

—And smiling so beautifully it made his heart burn, liking quiet and solitude just as he did, suffering from illness just as he did, yet possessing the sharpness, radiance, and freedom that had long been ground away in him.

Searching through all of the Zhuyin Sect, aside from the little master of this peach forest wooden hut, there would never be a second person who matched the Zhuyin Sect’s Young Sect Leader like jade and pearl, complementing each other like yin and yang.

What was rather unfortunate was… Ah Ku had never deeply contemplated these details.

Having seen too much calculation of interest in his youth, coupled with years of neglect in his family, had instead made him dull and insensitive to this most pure kind of sentiment.

Yun Changliu liked him, and he simply took it as the Young Sect Leader having a pure and kind nature, being accustomed to solitude and lacking playmates.

Even later when Young Sect Leader Changliu showed him his whole heart, he only felt fortunate that his status as a medicine person allowed him to form a connection with the Young Sect Leader.

…This led to the fact that later, even unto death, Guan Wujue couldn’t understand why the Sect Leader would fall for him again, because he simply didn’t dare believe there was anything about himself worthy of someone like Yun Changliu’s devotion.

The twists and turns in the Protector’s heart that ordinary people found hard to understand, the extreme contradictions in his bones—the coexistence of pride and inferiority—Yun Changliu only figured out much, much later.

By that time all hardships had passed. It was just some leisurely afternoon, with one person furiously scolding, and the other bitterly smiling while repeatedly begging forgiveness and admitting fault.

But these are all later matters. Time slipped away beside the two young boys. The peach blossoms gradually faded, dense green replaced the pale pink before the wooden hut, and spring had only a tail end remaining.

On this day, when Yun Changliu pushed open that door of the wooden hut, Ah Ku was uncharacteristically not reading medical books, nor tending to his medicinal herbs.

Seeing Yun Changliu approach, he turned around and beckoned, calling with a smile. “Young Sect Leader, come here.”

Although Young Sect Leader Changliu had now become a regular visitor to this wooden hut, the times Ah Ku was willing to actively greet him could be counted on one hand.

Naturally, Yun Changliu immediately walked over quickly. Ah Ku seemed to have been waiting specifically for this, holding up the small booklet in his hand before his eyes, indicating he should look.

What Ah Ku held was the kind of storybook commonly seen among common folk. Yun Changliu had never encountered such things before and wasn’t particularly interested either. But this time it was the little master of the wooden hut showing it to him, so the Young Sect Leader rarely felt a bit of interest.

Yun Changliu sat down beside Ah Ku, handing over the customary candies while taking the booklet to read.

This storybook told a story called “The Ill-Fated Love of Jin and Jade.” What Ah Ku held was the first volume.

It told of a young master from a wealthy Jin family in Jiangnan who fell in love at first sight with the neighboring maiden, but sadly his affection was unrequited. Young Master Jin thus became lovesick. Unable to bear seeing his son waste away, Old Master Jin secretly framed the neighboring maiden, causing her to be driven from her family. She eventually fell so low as to enter a brothel to make a living through performing arts. The madam gave her a stage name, calling her Miss Jade.

Young Master Jin knew nothing of his father’s underhanded methods. One day, through Old Master Jin’s deliberate guidance, he happened to learn his beloved had fallen to such dire straits. Naturally he was both heartbroken and full of pity. His admiration for Miss Jade was genuine, so he immediately wanted to raise money to redeem her.

However, when Young Master Jin finally worked up the courage to visit his beloved at the brothel, the usually gentle Miss Jade treated him coldly and refused him at her door. Only then did Young Master Jin learn that he was actually the root cause of his beloved’s tragedy. His heart naturally felt as if it were being cut by a knife…

The first volume ended there, leaving only the line “To know what happens next, listen to the next volume’s explanation.”

The story’s plot wasn’t particularly complex, and the writing was only mediocre. But Young Sect Leader Changliu was encountering these words describing love, hate, and emotions for the first time. After reading through it once, he was actually immersed in it.

In truth, there were still many parts he didn’t understand, such as what kind of illness “lovesickness” was, and what kind of building a “brothel” was… But before he could think carefully, Ah Ku suddenly called to him:

“Young Sect Leader, what do you think of… the saying ‘ignorance is no crime’?”

Yun Changliu put down the booklet and looked up, only to see that Ah Ku beside him seemed somewhat unusual. He held the small packet of candies Yun Changliu had given him, staring fixedly this way, seeming to vaguely expect something. “Young Master Jin is devoted in his love. Could Miss Jade set aside her resentment and fall for him?”

Yun Changliu thought about it seriously for a while, then shook his head and said, “Since this Young Master Jin is the origin of the disaster Miss Jade suffered, not hating him would already be difficult. How could she fall in love?”

Ah Ku pressed his lips tight, not knowing whether he was displeased or dejected. After a long while, he quietly asked again, “…Then what does the Young Sect Leader think the ending for Jin and Jade will be?”

Yun Changliu was still recalling the story’s plot and didn’t think much before saying, “Since it’s an ill-fated love, presumably it won’t end well.”

Unexpectedly, upon hearing this, Ah Ku immediately turned cold, unceremoniously snatching the storybook back and throwing it on the ground along with that packet of candies, pointing outside to drive him away. “You leave!”

Yun Changliu: “…???”

The Young Sect Leader was completely bewildered by Ah Ku’s sudden temper, having no idea how he’d provoked him again. He didn’t expect Ah Ku to actually be serious, grabbing Yun Changliu’s arm to pull him outside.

Only then did Young Sect Leader Changliu become somewhat panicked, hurriedly saying, “Did I… say something wrong? Don’t be angry, it’s that I don’t understand…”

He was pulled stumbling to the doorway, but the force on his arm suddenly loosened.

He saw that Ah Ku had already collected his emotions and turned serious instead, “I’m not joking, Young Sect Leader. Don’t come here for the next few days.”

“At least…” he thought about it, “five days… no, come back after at least eight days.”

Yun Changliu was puzzled. “Why?”

Ah Ku lowered his eyelids, shifting his gaze away and saying indifferently, “Don’t ask. If you still want… still want to continue coming here every day, then listen to me.”

“…” Yun Changliu was silent for a moment, but didn’t agree. Instead he asked, “Is it related to your illness… to the medicine you drink?”

Ah Ku’s face immediately darkened. He thought… this Young Sect Leader was a bit too perceptive, hitting the nail on the head like this.

For some reason his mood became even worse, and his tone unconsciously grew colder. “Young Sect Leader, don’t ask! Tomorrow you can come if you want, but I have important matters and need to go out. Even if you come, I won’t be here.”

As soon as he finished speaking, he ignored how Yun Changliu would react and simply closed the door.

Yun Changliu stood dazed at the door for a long time, but that door never opened.

Not until the sun was about to set did the Young Sect Leader dejectedly return.

He already felt a certain very bad premonition.

The next day, Yun Changliu didn’t choose to listen to Ah Ku’s words.

Still at that same time, he still brought the new day’s candies, still following the old path down the mountain.

Entering the lush peach forest, walking the winding path, Yun Changliu opened that door of the wooden hut as usual.

But inside the wooden hut was shockingly empty.

Empty of people.

Completely empty.

…

When Ah Ku awoke in the blood extraction room deep within the Medicine Gate, the first sense to recover from the chaos was actually his sense of smell.

A very strong smell of blood, so strong it made his stomach churn with nausea.

Ah Ku thought groggily that this time seemed to have taken more than last time.

Next came his hearing. He heard very noisy, very sharp sounds.

Not knowing what had happened, it was chaotic all around, as if many people were urgently shouting or quietly advising.

After quite a while longer, he gradually began to feel his limbs and could barely open his eyes.

The ceiling of the blood extraction room went from blurry to clear. He lay on the bone-chillingly cold iron bed, hands, feet and neck all locked by iron shackles. His left wrist, which ached in waves, was wrapped in bandages, with dark red blood still seeping out.

Last time they’d taken blood by cutting his right wrist. This time it was the left.

The massive blood loss made his breathing rapid, his whole body cold and trembling uncontrollably. Through a narrow blurred field of vision, Ah Ku saw from afar that familiar snow-white robe blocking in front of him.

He made out Yun Changliu’s voice. His sluggish thinking could no longer tell him what Yun Changliu was saying. Only… he had never heard that cold and reticent Young Sect Leader make such intense and yet such grief-stricken sounds.

Through Yun Changliu’s immature shoulders, he could still see familiar people.

Yun Guyan, Wen Huan, Guan Muyan, as well as the Zhuhuo Guards who guarded the Zhuyin Sect and the medicine people of the Medicine Gate. Every single person’s face showed such alarm—probably they too had never seen Yun Changliu like this.

So Ah Ku knew that Yun Changliu had still come looking for him.

Seeing he wasn’t there, he’d probably gone to interrogate the Yin Ghosts, or someone in the sect, and then learned the identity of that wooden hut’s master:

A medicine person.

And then the Young Sect Leader must have also learned the true meaning of a medicine person’s identity.

A slave, livestock, the most lowly thing in the Zhuyin Sect that couldn’t be freed until their blood ran dry.

…That’s right. This kind of thing was destined to be impossible to hide after all.

For some reason, Ah Ku actually felt very sad.

When his uncle pushed him off the cliff with his own hands, when the Zhuyin Sect’s Yin Ghosts forcibly abducted him, when discussing fate with Yun Guyan by the small stream, when offering himself as repayment for the peach forest wooden hut’s hospitality, when drinking the blood-nourishing medicine in unbearable pain, when his wrist was cut open and he felt his fresh blood continuously flowing away…

He had never felt this sad before.