After cleaning up the ruins of the Royal Holy Temple’s Crown Prince Summit, Xie Lian erected a simple cottage to use as a temporary residence. It was farther away from the conference hall, more remote. When they needed him, he’d go over to help; when they didn’t, he’d stay quietly in the cottage by himself.
Several days passed, and Mu Qing finally finished repairing Ruoye and came to deliver it. The moment Xie Lian opened the door, something pounced at him, and his vision was filled with white. He raised his hand to yank the thing off. Ruoye began to wind and swivel again, like it was showing off its beautiful body after being reborn.
“Don’t twist around like that right after you were repaired. Be careful, or you’ll tear yourself again,” Xie Lian admonished.
The moment Mu Qing heard, he had to interject. “How is that possible? What robes of yours have ever torn after I patched them up for you?”
“That’s true,” Xie Lian said.
He caught Ruoye, which was twisted like seaweed, and carefully checked it over. It had been stitched up extremely well; there was practically no trace it had ever been torn. “Your craftsmanship is still amazing,” he praised.
“A compliment for something like this won’t make me happy,” Mu Qing said. “I’m only doing it once; there won’t be a next time. Never again.”
You’re clearly super proud of your work… Xie Lian thought.
After grumbling a while more, Mu Qing said, “All right, I’ve done my job. I’m out of here. I’m in the middle of getting some personnel and other stuff taken care of at the Palace of Xuan Zhen.”
“You’re leaving too?” Xie Lian asked. “All right, I’ll go over to help in a bit. Remember to give me a shout when you leave so I can see you off.”
After capturing Ling Wen and forcibly enlisting her to organize all the missing and messed-up accounts, the heavenly officials finally decided to rebuild the Heavenly Capital. That meant the temporary conference hall at Mount Taicang could now be left behind.
Neither dismissing nor agreeing to anything, Mu Qing waved and made to leave. After only a few steps, he stopped and looked back.
“Are you…going to stay on Mount Taicang?”
Xie Lian nodded. “Yes.”
After a moment of hesitation, Mu Qing asked, “Why don’t you come with us instead?”
“Nah. I’m waiting for someone,” said Xie Lian, smiling.
“You can wait in the Upper Court of the new Heavenly Capital,” Mu Qing reasoned.
Xie Lian shook his head. “I think he’ll come here first when he returns, so I’ll be able to meet him the moment he arrives. If not, he might go to Thousand Lights Temple in Ghost City, and it’s not far from here. It’s much more convenient to get there from here than from the new Heavenly Capital.”
Mu Qing had held his tongue for a long while now. Wearing a complicated expression, he finally asked, “…You really believe he’ll come back?”
Like it was an absolute certainty, Xie Lian replied, “Of course.”
✦ ✦ ✦
People came like the tide and then left like the tide. Lonesome Mount Taicang was quiet and deserted once more.
There used to be an enormous forest of maple trees there. The forest had been razed by countless fires back in the day, but after nearly a thousand years, it had been reborn. Although they were no longer the same trees Xie Lian had leapt through to train once upon a time, the landscape was the same.
Xie Lian often strolled the maple forest by himself. There was an entire mountain’s worth of red maples, consuming the world around him like a passionate wildfire. It made him feel as if he were in a giant, warm embrace.
He had whiled away the days of his life on his own for over eight hundred years, so he was used to it. If there was work to be done, he’d go down the mountain to answer some prayers and collect some junk. If there wasn’t, he’d plant some vegetables and do some cooking.
Days spent on his own, just like this, used to be the most normal thing in the world for Xie Lian. But strangely, passing the days in solitude had somehow become very difficult. It was a long time before he got acclimated to it again.
Perhaps when a person has only ever eaten bitter fruit, they become used to the taste. But if given a taste of sweetness, it’d bring a frown to their face to return to their original fare with the memory of something better, however fleeting it was.
Back when Xie Lian passed his endless days in simplicity and quietude, he often secretly hoped someone would come looking for him—to seek him out to chat or for assistance. Whatever the reason, at least it would’ve been a sign of life.
But he didn’t like the idea as much anymore. Every time he heard a knock upon his door, his heart would jolt in happiness and fill with hope—but when he dashed over to open it, the person standing outside was never the one he was waiting for.
Sometimes it was Feng Xin, sometimes it was Mu Qing, and other times it was Shi Qingxuan. Sometimes it was some of the many ghosts from Ghost City, there to “offer respects to His Elderliness.”
Everyone was welcome. It was simply that none of them were the one he was waiting for.
✦ ✦ ✦
During the first month, Xie Lian hauled over several flowering trees to plant by the cottage’s entrance, in hopes of beautifying the surroundings a little and hiding the crudeness of the dilapidated building. He thought they might be in bloom when Hua Cheng returned.
During the second month, Xie Lian tore down the cottage and rebuilt it from scratch. He also weeded the entirety of Mount Taicang. Otherwise, Hua Cheng would surely send people over to help him clean when he came back and saw this mess.
During the third month, the flowering trees blossomed. Cherry red blanketed the branches. Xie Lian stood beneath their canopy, gazing upward. As he enjoyed the sight, he thought, The flowers are in full bloom—he should be home soon.
During the fourth month, he fixed up all the paths. That way, Hua Cheng could hike the mountain and find him faster when he returned.
During the fifth month, Feng Xin and Mu Qing came to visit again. They asked if he wanted to leave the cottage for a bit to take a walk outside. Xie Lian invited them for a meal, and they ran off.
During the sixth month, the flowering period ended.
…
He waited and waited, waited and waited. Xie Lian wasn’t anxious. He didn’t break down, nor did he weep in agony. Instead, he only became more and more composed, more and more patient.
And as he thought, he realized, who hadn’t experienced long years of being alone?
Hua Cheng had waited for him for over eight hundred years. What did it matter if he waited for Hua Cheng for eight hundred more?
It could be a thousand years, ten thousand years, and he would still wait. He would still keep waiting.
It was fine…it had only been a year, after all.