Chapter 854: Follow Fate
The cold wind blows and the trees rustle.
The candles in Longcui Temple had been extinguished long ago, blending into the surrounding night. However, on the rugged path in front of the temple gate, there was a lonely figure walking closer with a lantern.
As he got closer, the man handed the lantern to his left hand and was about to knock on the gate, but his white fingers just couldn't reach the door.
At this moment, crying suddenly broke out from the Zen room on the left. The heart-wrenching sound made the visitor completely give up the idea of knocking on the door.
He slowly lowered his right hand, sighed silently, and was about to turn around and leave.
Just at this moment, a candlelight suddenly floated out from the Zen room, and then Miaoyu's voice was heard asking: "Is that Sister Xiuyan outside?"
Xing Xiuyan paused and looked back subconsciously, only to see the wooden door split open to the left and right, revealing a green, round object.
Just as he was puzzled, the edge of the green thing trembled, and then a pink arm like a jade sculpture grew out. It opened the wooden door and called out, "What are you doing outside? Come in quickly."
Xing Xiuyun recognized it as Miaoyu's voice and took a few steps forward with the lantern in hand. Only then did she see clearly that the green object was actually the brocade quilt wrapped around Miaoyu.
As for why it looks round, it is because Miaoyu is holding a two-year-old girl in her arms.
Perhaps feeling Xing Xiuyan's gaze, the little girl raised her head from Miaoyu's shoulder and looked at Xing Xiuyan with sleepy eyes. However, she seemed to be dazzled by the light of the lantern, so she stretched out a chubby little hand from under the quilt and rubbed her eyes.
"Guo'er, be careful not to catch a cold."
Miaoyu hurriedly stuffed her arms back into the quilt.
The girl did not struggle, but rested her head on Miaoyu's shoulder again. Her small hand groped downwards, and she grasped a towering mass with ease, humming with satisfaction.
Miaoyu and Xing Xiuyun couldn't help but smile at each other when they saw this.
Xing Xiuyan then helped Miaoyu tuck in the corner of the quilt, complaining in a low voice: "Sister, why did you come out wearing a coat?"
"If I come out fully dressed, how can I stop you?"
Miaoyu said as she retreated back into the temple, her pointed chin pointing towards the wooden door: "Close the door, let's go back inside and talk."
Xing Xiuyan was afraid that the master and disciple would be cold, so she quickly stepped over the threshold, lowered the bolt with her backhand, and walked back to the meditation room with her side by side.
Xing Xiuyun extinguished the lantern, and Miaoyu put the candlestick back on the lamp stand. As there was no proper chair in the Zen room, they both sat on the bed.
Xing Xiuyan took a closer look and confirmed that Miaoyu and the little girl Guo'er were both wrapped tightly in a brocade quilt. Only then did she feel relieved and asked the question in her heart: "Did sister know that I was coming here?"
Miaoyu smiled slightly, rubbed her cheek against the hair on the back of Guoer's neck, and said softly, "Yesterday, when I heard you criticize the fourth lady, I knew that sooner or later you would not be able to hold back and would have a fight with her."
After a pause, she added, "Besides, it's so late, and you're probably the only one who comes to my place with a lantern but is too embarrassed to knock on the door."
Xing Xiuyan blushed when she heard this, and then she remembered the previous argument with Jia Xichun, but she couldn't help but sigh.
Jia Jing died suddenly. As a daughter, Jia Tanchun not only did not stay by the coffin, she even refused to wear mourning clothes at home.
Such a rebellious behavior naturally made Xing Xiuyan, who lived with him, look at him with surprise.
After returning to Nuanxiangwu from Yihongyuan tonight, Xing Xiuyan couldn't help but give Jia Xichun some advice in a roundabout way.
Unexpectedly, the fourth girl got so angry about this that she kept yelling and making everyone in the yard panic.
In this case, how can Xing Xiuyan stay in Nuanxiangwu?
He had no choice but to carry a lantern and come to his good friend Miaoyu at night.
At this moment, thinking back to Jia Xichun's unkind face, he felt indignant and couldn't help but make some unbearable guesses.
"elder sister."
She hesitated and asked, "Is there something in this..."
Miaoyu didn't wait for her to finish her question, and shook her head and said, "What does her family's affairs have to do with you and me?"
Then he sighed and said, "Although this fourth girl is in the secular world, she is a person who forgets about emotions. When I first came to this mansion, she and I hit it off at first sight. But later, this Longcui Temple gradually became tainted with the atmosphere of fireworks, and we gradually became estranged."
After making a few excuses for Jia Xichun, Miaoyu changed the subject and said, "In fact, in my opinion, you are not trying to persuade the fourth girl, but your own obsession. If not, with your usually steady personality, you would never be so reckless."
"The obsession in your heart?"
Xing Xiuyan chewed over these words over and over again, and after a while she suddenly smiled bitterly.
Miaoyu was right. The reason why she was so upset about Jia Xichun's unethical behavior was because she herself had been disobeying her parents' orders recently.
Although Xing Xiuyan did not think that her choice was wrong, she still felt a lot of guilt based on the mainstream value of "parents' orders and matchmaker's words".
Jia Xichun's behavior further triggered this emotion.
Otherwise, with Xing Xiuyan's usually steady and cautious character, how could she take the initiative to criticize Jia Xichun when she was living under someone else's roof?
After figuring this out, most of the annoyance in her heart disappeared, and was replaced by indescribable dejection and fatigue.
At this moment, Miaoyu suddenly made a gesture for silence, then carefully put the girl in her arms on the bed, and covered the girl with her brocade quilt.
Seeing her reaching for the patchwork quilt on the bedside table again, Xing Xiuyan hurriedly said, "Just lie down. I'm going to sleep here tonight anyway. Do you want to be polite to me?"
After hearing what she said, Miaoyu stopped being pretentious, kicked off her cloth shoes, and lay down on the bed side by side with the girl.
At this time, the little girl who was called Guo'er suddenly closed her eyes and hummed: "Meat, meat, meat..."
Miaoyu's cheeks turned red, but seeing her stretching out her little hands and constantly groping in the quilt, she still turned her body sideways and welcomed the two towering breasts.
"ah!"
The next second, Miaoyu couldn't help but cry out in pain. She frowned and glared at the girl, then sighed helplessly.
Phew~
Xing Xiuyan couldn't help laughing when she saw her like this, and then she sighed in a low voice, "Before I came to Beijing, I never thought that my sister would be in such a situation."
Miaoyu smiled bitterly and said, "Don't mention you. Sometimes when I think back on it, I feel like I was dreaming."
As she spoke, she patted the empty space behind her and said, "You should lie down too. It will be more convenient for us to talk."
Xing Xiuyan has been familiar with her since childhood, so she has no taboos.
He undressed and took off his outer robe, revealing his graceful figure wrapped in a plain white undergarment. He then carefully lifted the quilt and lay down behind Miaoyu, but deliberately kept some distance from her to avoid passing the cold air from his body to her.
They said it would be easier to talk if they lay together, but the two of them were lying on the bed in a "X" shape, and for a moment, they lost the mood to talk.
I don't know how long it took, but the candle on the lampstand flickered and the whole Zen room suddenly became dim.
Xing Xiuyan was thinking that this sleepover would end in vain, when Miaoyu's sigh came from the darkness: "Thinking carefully, it has been two and a half years since she was born."
"Speaking of which, the nickname 'Guo'er' was given by Lord Sun himself."
Hearing the three words "Lord Sun", Xing Xiuyan's originally calm mood suddenly became a mess again.
So I just listened silently and didn't respond.
Miaoyu didn't seem to expect a response from her either, and continued to talk to herself: "It is said that one does not know the kindness of parents until he has children, but when I think of my childhood, there always seems to be a layer of demonic barrier in my heart."
"It's like... it's like my parents are not actually my parents, but someone else..."
Hearing this, Xing Xiuyan felt Miaoyu's body tremble slightly. She sighed inwardly, stretched out her hand to hold her shoulders, and said softly: "Sister, don't think too much. You were born with wisdom and devoted yourself to Buddhism. Your uncle and aunt probably feared that it would delay your practice, so they seemed a little distant."
"Innate wisdom?"
Miaoyu repeated these four words, laughing, whether in self-mockery or accusation: "What is the so-called innate wisdom? When I was young, I was ignorant and thought it was true. Later, when I raised Guoer, I realized that it was just a child imitating the adults around him."
At this point, she put her arm around Xing Xiuyan's waist and said quietly, "Actually, sometimes, I envy you. At least someone cares about you all the time, unlike me who has wasted four or five years in the capital and never even received a letter from my family."
Xing Xiuyan heard her desolate words and hugged her tightly, whispering in her ear: "Sister, if you really don't like this life of meditation, just tell your worries to the second brother of the Sun family..."
"Alas~"
Before Xing Xiuyan could finish her words, Miaoyu sighed again: "If it were possible, why would I have waited until today? It is true that Lord Sun not only has no interest in me, but is also wary of me."
"how so?!"
Xing Xiuyun found it a little hard to believe. Although Sun Shaozong had many good qualities, she was also well-known for her illness. How could she be indifferent to Miaoyu's beauty?
Before she could ask again, Miaoyu had already changed the subject: "Okay, let's not talk about me anymore, let's talk about you. What do you think? Are you determined to keep going on like this?"
Xing Xiuyan's heart full of pity suddenly turned into distress. She buried her face in Miaoyu's black hair and said in a muffled voice: "I am also made of flesh and blood. How can I have a heart of stone? Now I can only delay it for one day at a time, hoping that Daddy can change his mind."
After a pause, she suddenly added, "If one day I really can't hold on any longer, I'll just drag my sister into this pit with me!"
Miaoyu was silent for a while after hearing this, and then she said faintly: "When you put it this way, I don't know whether I should hope that you can hold on or not."
"Then let it be."
"Well, whatever happens."
…
the next day.
"The girl is really here!"
Jia Xichun's maid Ruhua found the Rongcui Temple early in the morning. Xing Xiuyun and Miaoyu originally thought that Jia Xichun had regretted her decision and ordered Ruhua to find Xing Xiuyun and bring her back.
Unexpectedly, Ruhua opened her mouth and said, "My uncle is here again. The eldest lady wants you to come over and talk to her!"
This fate...
It seems to have come too quickly.
