TDFM Chapter 104
Meteor Shower
The courtyard gate was still open, but Shi Qingshang was no longer at the entrance. Yun Qing ran into the room in one breath and pushed Fu Xue. “Junior sister, wake up, there’s a meteor shower!”
Fu Xue suddenly sat up from the bed, “Ah? Where? Where?”
“In the sky, of course. Come, let’s go to the rooftop.”
“Good! Wait, let’s call Suiyan, otherwise if he finds out tomorrow that I didn’t call him to watch the meteor shower, he’ll definitely complain!”
Fu Xue ran to knock on Cheng Suiyan’s door, while Yun Qing went to the flower hall, jumped up suddenly, reached behind the roof beam, and pulled out the sleeping Ci Li in her hand, carrying it outside.
Ci Li said impatiently, “When will this end? Not letting people sleep in the middle of the night? Tomorrow I’ll buy each of you a cat so you can pet them to your heart’s content, okay? A bunch of—” The words stopped abruptly here.
Yun Qing was smiling as she held it under its armpits, lifting it high up toward the sky.
It opened its mouth wide, eyes round as saucers, with points of light flowing across its gem-like eyeballs.
The four people and one cat finally sat on the rooftop.
The meteors had become more numerous, one after another streaking white light across the black sky, like fireworks being released downward from the ninth heaven, beginning in brilliance and returning to silence.
This scene was too beautiful. Fu Xue stared blankly, actually forgetting to make a wish. After a while, her eyes became teary, and looking at that passionately blooming sky, a melancholy emotion suddenly welled up in her heart.
“Sigh.” She let out a sigh.
“What’s wrong?” Yun Qing asked.
“Senior sister, I just suddenly felt a bit sad. Sister Muyu and the others can’t see such beautiful meteors.”
Speaking of this, Cheng Suiyan also sighed, then said, “Why must the Shenle clan blind their eyes?”
Ci Li speculated, “Could it be related to deities? For instance, deities cannot be looked at directly, so only blind people are qualified to play music for deities?”
“So that Way of Silence must require blinding the eyes to cultivate?”
“That’s not necessarily so.” Yun Qing said. She suddenly thought of how Shi Qingshang had kept his eyes closed during their sword match that day.
“However, from what we’ve seen, the Shenle clan’s hearing and sense of smell are both more acute than ordinary people’s. Presumably, blindness does indeed help in cultivating the Way of Silence. Qingshang himself said that the Shenle clan actively abandons worldly appearances for the sake of cultivation. He probably wasn’t wrong.”
“But the price is never being able to see anything for a lifetime. Don’t they feel regret?”
Jiang Baiyu said, “Since their hearing and smell are more acute, perhaps they can experience wonders that ordinary people cannot.”
Cheng Suiyan carefully pondered these words, then suddenly laughed in realization. “Baiyu is right. We were too arrogant, always treating them as disabled people, fixated on superficial completeness, seeing only their loss but not their gain.”
Ci Li sprawled on the rooftop and said in an old-fashioned manner. “Now that sounds like human speech.”
Cheng Suiyan was used to its barbs and didn’t mind, reaching out to pet the cat’s head, only to be cursed at as it rolled away to avoid him.
Jiang Baiyu looked sideways at Yun Qing. She was resting her chin on her hand, watching the stars, her face rarely showing the innocence of a young girl. The starlight was so gentle yet so brilliant, making one’s heart feel like the rising tide.
Thinking of how they had just kissed under the starlight, Jiang Baiyu couldn’t help but smile, his palm slowly moving to grope for her hand, then gently hooking her finger.
Her fingers were much softer than his, though her fingertips, like his, bore thin calluses from long-term sword use.
Yun Qing continued talking with Fu Xue as if nothing had happened, her expression unchanged. But only she knew how chaotic her heartbeat was at that moment.
Fu Xue finally began making wishes.
“Meteor, meteor, my first wish is for Master’s safety, that we can rescue Master soon!” Fu Xue clasped her hands together with closed eyes, speaking very loudly.
Cheng Suiyan laughed. “Since when do you say wishes out loud?”
“You don’t understand. Only by saying them out loud can the stars hear them.”
She spoke with complete confidence, leaving Cheng Suiyan stunned and self-doubting. “Ah, is that so?”
“Meteor, meteor, my second wish is for senior sister’s safety and early ascension to immortality!” Another extremely loud wish.
“Meteor, meteor, my third wish is for Ci Li to find his good friend Bie Li soon!”
Sigh, this wish was originally meant for herself, but she only liked eating and drinking. If she wished to eat and drink well every day, it would be somewhat wasteful, so better to wish for more important things.
Ci Li had been boredly licking its paws, but hearing this wish, it was stunned for a moment. It glanced at her, then turned its head away, saying quietly, “Mind your own business.”
Cheng Suiyan asked Fu Xue, “Any more?”
Fu Xue shook her head. “No more. One shouldn’t be too greedy. Three wishes are already plenty.”
Cheng Suiyan was somewhat dissatisfied. “You made a wish for the little cat, why not for me?”
Fu Xue said strangely, “Can’t you make your own wishes?”
“By that logic, the little cat can make its own wishes too.”
Fu Xue pointed at Ci Li. “Look at it. Does it seem like someone who would make wishes?”
“True.” Cheng Suiyan nodded, then loudly made his own wish to the meteors, “Meteor, meteor, my first wish is for my family’s safety and health!”
Fu Xue smiled and held up two fingers toward Cheng Suiyan. “What about the second one?”
“Meteor, meteor, my second wish is that when the next meteor shower comes, we can still watch it together!”
Hearing him make such a wish, Yun Qing couldn’t help but smile. After smiling, she suddenly wondered if during the last meteor shower, someone had also made such a wish.
Were they still watching this time?
Seeing Yun Qing lost in thought, Jiang Baiyu gently rubbed her fingertip with his finger and asked softly, “Yun Qing, what are you thinking about?”
“I was thinking… Baiyu, why aren’t you making wishes?” Yun Qing turned to look at him.
Jiang Baiyu was also looking at her. Under the deep night, starlight gathered into two small bright points in his pupils, like two translucent glass beads.
Hearing her words, a smile appeared in his eyes. “My wish has already come true.”
Fu Xue held up three fingers toward Cheng Suiyan, urging him, “Why did you stop? What about the third one?”
Cheng Suiyan shook his head. “No more.”
“That’s wasteful. You should say: Meteor, meteor, I hope the five of us will always be good friends!”
Cheng Suiyan smiled and did as she said.
Ci Li crouched on the rooftop, looking up at the brief yet brilliant meteors in the sky, thinking dismissively that there was no such thing as “forever” in life.
But it rarely chose not to contradict them.
Perhaps, even knowing there was no forever, everyone still expected forever.
****
After Shi Qingshang returned, he dragged the sleeping Ding Lisheng to the rooftop and handed him a gourd.
“Keep me company drinking.”
Ding Lisheng opened his sleepy eyes, inexplicably clutching a wine gourd, muttering to himself. “What happened?”
Shi Qingshang didn’t answer. He continued muttering, “Let me think, during the day you were told to confess to someone you like under the meteor shower,” pointing to the meteor shower streaking across the sky, “Wait, Qingshang, what do you mean? You’ve fallen in love with me?”
“Shut up.” Shi Qingshang took a big gulp of wine, then told him what had just happened.
Ding Lisheng shook his head as he listened. “You have no chance. If she had any feelings for you, she wouldn’t have just run away like that.”
Shi Qingshang clicked his tongue. “I asked you to drink with me, not to stab me in the heart.”
“Alright, let’s drink. All this romantic stuff, brother, let me tell you, it’s all fleeting clouds.” Ding Lisheng took a big gulp of wine. It was quite strong, making him gasp several times from the burn.
Shi Qingshang gripped the wine gourd and said, “I’ll give you another chance. Think of a new method for me.”
Ding Lisheng looked at him as if seeing a ghost. “Seriously? She doesn’t like you, so why do you still want to confess?”
“Whether she likes me is her business, but whether I like her is my business, so I must let her know.”
“Fine, I just woke up and my mind is foggy. Let me think.”
“Mm.”
The two continued drinking and watching stars, taking turns with the gourd. After a moment of silence, Ding Lisheng looked up at the rapidly blooming and fading trails in the sky, and his expression suddenly changed.
It became quiet and weathered. He stared fixedly at the sky, light constantly streaming across his eyes. After a while, he muttered to himself, “Seems like nothing has changed.”
Shi Qingshang heard this and felt it was strange, so he asked, “What do you mean? Have you watched meteor showers with others before?”
“Yes, with two friends,” Ding Lisheng seemed to be reminiscing, his expression somewhat dazed, “two very good friends. After that meteor shower, we agreed to watch the next one together. Looking back, it was such a boring promise.”
“What happened later? Why did you break the promise?”
“Later, the two of them got together.”
“…” Shi Qingshang felt that Ding Lisheng seemed even more pitiful than him. He consolingly patted Ding Lisheng’s shoulder and asked again, “Where are they now?”
“Don’t know. They’ve long since reincarnated.”
“Ah?”
Ding Lisheng smiled slightly. “I killed them both.”
“…” Shi Qingshang’s heart jumped, and he turned to look at him sideways.
Under the starlight, Ding Lisheng had wine on his lips, red lips and white teeth, and his smile looked quite sinister. Seeing Shi Qingshang’s ghostly expression, he suddenly curved his lips. “You actually believed that joke?”
Shi Qingshang breathed a sigh of relief and said irritably, “Don’t joke around like that in the future!”