"These things cannot be forced."
Xiao Mo shook his head, his voice calm and steady.
"Elder Sister Liu Shui is truly a wonderful person, and she has always been very kind to me in everyday matters. Only I have no particular feelings toward her in that way. Since we were young, I have always thought of her as an elder sister."
"Only as an elder sister..." Tushan Jingci's long, delicately curved lashes trembled faintly, like the wings of a butterfly brushing through flowers, carrying a meaning that could not quite be put into words.
"Yes." Xiao Mo gave a nod. "And so I told Elder Sister Liu Shui exactly what was in my heart, without holding anything back."
He paused for a moment, a flicker of guilt showing in his expression.
"Watching Elder Sister Liu Shui in such pain, I do feel some regret for my part in it. But some things, when they need to be said clearly, must be said clearly. To be vague and ambiguous would in the end be an even greater unkindness to Elder Sister Liu Shui."
"Xiao Mo..." Tushan Jingci gripped her skirt tightly, her fingertips going pale with the effort, her voice so soft it seemed afraid of disturbing something. "You said that with Elder Sister Liu Shui, you feel the same as you would toward the girl next door..."
She drew a slow breath and raised her head, her gaze going straight to his.
"Do you think of me only as the Young Miss of the Tushan household?"
"Young Miss, what do you mean by..."
Xiao Mo showed a faint surprise, and before he could finish, Tushan Jingci cut him off.
"I..." Her voice trembled slightly, yet each word came out with remarkable clarity. "During the three years you were in seclusion, I thought about many things. Matters of clan relations, what I have studied in books, things about cultivation..."
"Many things I still have not worked out even now."
She lowered her gaze, then raised it again slowly. Those bewitching fox eyes looked at Xiao Mo without wavering, the light in them so full it seemed as though it might overflow.
"But I no longer care about any of those things. Because I worked out one thing, and that is enough."
She pressed her lips together, as though gathering the very last of her courage.
"Xiao Mo! I... I have figured it out!"
The young girl's voice was clear and steady, carrying within it every feeling that three years of time had slowly laid down in her heart, and it rang softly through the bamboo courtyard.
"I have fallen in love with you!"
…
In Hanshan City, two young women in Daoist robes were walking side by side along the street.
One was a composed and beautiful woman who appeared to be around thirty years of age, graceful in manner and unhurried in bearing.
The other was a young woman in the full bloom of youth, her eyes bright and expressive, her every movement poised and refined.
They had actually intended to make their way to Hanshan City two months earlier but matters had delayed them along the road, and they had also stopped to pay visits to a few old friends, and so had arrived later than they had hoped.
The young woman named Gui Junmeng walked at her master's side, her bright, clear eyes taking in the street scenes on either side with quiet curiosity.
Though interest showed in the young woman's expression, she kept her feelings well-contained. Every movement she made was graceful and understated, without the slightest lapse in composure.
"Junmeng, what do you make of this city?" Daoist Master Yun Xi turned her head and asked her disciple in a gentle tone.
"Compared to other cities, this Hanshan City is indeed somewhat different." Gui Junmeng spoke unhurriedly, her voice clear and smooth as fine jade. "The demons here, though they may still look down on humans in their hearts, keep it very well-contained on the surface. There are even some demons who seem to hold genuinely no prejudice against humans at all."
"That is so." Daoist Master Yun Xi gave a small nod, her gaze settling on the side of the street.
She bent down and reached out to help a human child who had tumbled over and was sitting on the ground.
"Thank you, auntie." The human child stood up and thanked her in a small, sweet voice.
"No need to thank me." Daoist Master Yun Xi ruffled the child's head, her tone soft. "Be careful when you play, and do not fall and hurt yourself."
"Mm-hmm."
The human child gave an obedient nod and turned to run back toward the demon playmates waiting not far away. The small figures quickly disappeared around a corner, the sound of laughter fading with them.
Daoist Master Yun Xi straightened and watched the human and demon children laughing as they ran away together, disappearing around the bend in the street. The corners of her lips curved gently, and a quiet warmth settled in her eyes.
"You see," Daoist Master Yun Xi said softly, "humans and demons can play together perfectly well. Who is to say it must always be a matter of life and death between them?"
Gui Junmeng followed her master's gaze, and said in a low voice, with a faint trace of wistfulness in her tone, "Only... there is so little of this."
"Yes. So little."
Daoist Master Yun Xi gave a quiet sigh, turned, and continued walking forward.
"And so we must do what we can to make this kind of thing more common."
She slowed her step and turned her head, giving her disciple a small smile.
"Come then. It is not early. We may still manage to reach the academy before dark and let you meet that young man of yours."
At her master's mention of those words "that young man of yours," even Gui Junmeng, who was by nature composed and unhurried, could not help lowering her head. Two faint roses of color bloomed quietly on her cheeks, and even the tips of her ears took on a soft pink.
The sky was gradually dimming, the last remnants of sunlight having faded from the horizon.
Daoist Master Yun Xi brought her disciple into the academy at an unhurried pace.
The scholars within the Hanshan Academy who caught sight of these two, master and student, each stopped in their tracks without prior arrangement, their eyes drawn to the pair and lingering there without moving away.
They marveled at the beauty of both women, and found something familiar about the face of the younger one.
"Is that not Miss Tushan? And who is the woman beside her? And why has Miss Tushan grown a head of black hair that flows like water?"
A quiet puzzlement stirred in their hearts.
Some considered going forward to greet her, but the cool, untouchable quality of the young woman's bearing gave them pause.
For a time, everyone felt the same uncertainty in their hearts about whether the young woman before them truly was Tushan Jingci.
And by the time they came back to their senses, Yun Xi and Gui Junmeng had already vanished from the spot, as though the whole scene had been nothing more than a shared illusion.
Threading through the layers of bamboo grove, with each step forward Gui Junmeng took, her heartbeat quickened and the nervousness inside her grew more and more pronounced.
She had imagined this betrothed of hers countless times.
She had imagined he might be an ordinary young man, unremarkable in every way.
She had imagined he might be a rough, broad-shouldered man of arms, bold and unrestrained.
She had imagined he might be a glib, smooth-tongued young man of the streets, full of clever words but no matter what he turned out to be, since the marriage contract had been made, in Gui Junmeng's heart he was her destined husband.
She had long since prepared herself for this. Whatever he was like, she would accept it with equanimity.
And yet, now that the moment of truly meeting him had arrived, Gui Junmeng suddenly found that all the preparation she had done in her heart seemed somehow insufficient.
One incense stick's time later, Daoist Master Yun Xi stopped walking.
Gui Junmeng raised her head in turn, and her gaze moved past her master's back to what lay ahead.
In the bamboo courtyard ahead, a figure was moving.