Half an hour later, the formation within the courtyard quietly dissolved.
Xiao Mo walked Daoist Master Yun Xi to the gate of the bamboo courtyard.
Seeing her master emerge, Gui Junmeng stepped forward and took her place quietly at her master's side.
She was holding the small three-colored cat in her arms. The cat had its eyes half-closed, its tail resting lightly over her arm, looking thoroughly content and at ease.
"No need to see us further, Daoist Friend Xiao Mo. Please stop here." Daoist Master Yun Xi turned and said to him in a warm voice.
"Safe travels to Daoist Master Yun Xi and Miss Gui." Xiao Mo gave a bow, then paused, his tone carrying a note of apology. "I have made Daoist Master Yun Xi come all this way for nothing."
"Even if Junmeng says nothing, she has always wanted to meet the young man named in the marriage contract." Daoist Master Yun Xi smiled faintly, a gentle warmth in her eyes. "The two of you have at least met today. That is not nothing."
She drew a jade pendant from inside her robe and held it out toward Xiao Mo. "If there comes a day when you have thought things through, or if you encounter anything you cannot resolve in your cultivation of the Daoist arts, you may come to our Seeking Immortals Temple at any time by means of this pendant."
Xiao Mo looked at the jade pendant in Daoist Master Yun Xi's palm, hesitated for a moment, then reached out and accepted it, placing it inside his robe. "Many thanks to Daoist Master Yun Xi."
"Safe travels to you both."
Xiao Mo watched as Daoist Master Yun Xi and Gui Junmeng made their way out of the bamboo grove.
In the moonlight, the two figures, master and student, grew smaller in the distance, their robes drifting softly in the night wind.
Another breeze moved through the bamboo grove, and the leaves rustled. By the time Xiao Mo raised his eyes again, both had vanished into the depth of the grove, as though they had never been there at all.
Xiao Mo returned to the courtyard and sat down slowly on the stone steps.
His gaze settled on the character for "one" that had been traced on the stone table and split in two.
The tea water had long since dried, leaving only two faint traces.
"A thousand years. Divided into two."
Xiao Mo murmured quietly to himself.
He sat there on the steps without moving, like someone who had passed on in meditation.
The moonlight fell quietly over him, and the bamboo shadows swayed gently at his side.
No one could have said what was turning over in his mind.
After leaving the Hanshan Academy, Yun Xi and Gui Junmeng stepped from wind-tip to wind-tip as they walked away into the distance.
The three-colored cat in the young woman's arms gripped her arm tightly, its round eyes wide open, looking very much as though it was afraid it might fall.
"What is your impression of Xiao Mo?" Yun Xi asked her disciple, her tone easy and conversational.
Gui Junmeng considered for a moment, then replied word by word, "He is quite good-looking."
"He is quite good-looking. And then?"
"He is quite tall." Gui Junmeng continued in the same composed tone.
"Anything else?"
"That is all." Gui Junmeng shook her head, but then thought more carefully and said slowly, "He seems more like a scholar than a Daoist."
"That is true." Yun Xi gave a nod, a flicker of appreciation in her eyes. "Clearly cultivating Daoist arts, and yet giving the impression of a man of letters. That is indeed uncommon."
She turned her head and looked at her disciple's breathtaking profile, reached out, and stroked her hair gently with a tender, loving hand. "Well then? Do you not want to ask me how he answered in the end?"
"There is no need to ask." Gui Junmeng's eyes were still as water, carrying neither sorrow nor joy, as though she had anticipated everything already. "Since Xiao Mo did not leave with you, Master, he refused."
"He did refuse."
Yun Xi's gaze traveled to a small village at the foot of the mountain in the distance, her eyes reaching somewhere far away.
"He said that matters of the heart should not be governed only by a marriage contract, nor should they be constrained by the great path. Otherwise, it would not be a partnership on the Dao, but a transaction."
"I see." Gui Junmeng lowered her head slightly, her eyes blinking slowly, the long lashes casting faint shadows in the moonlight.
"But he also said one more thing."
Daoist Master Yun Xi walked at an unhurried pace toward the small village, her voice drifting back clearly, each word settling into Gui Junmeng's ears one by one.
"Whether it is Jingci or Miss Gui, I will not let either of them die."
At those words, Gui Junmeng's steps stopped of their own accord. She stood rooted to the spot, as though the sentence had fixed her in place.
A long while passed.
Slowly, Gui Junmeng turned her head and looked toward the direction where the bamboo grove lay.
The moonlight spilled like water across her shoulders and through her hair.
In those clear, still eyes, the whole river of stars overhead was reflected.
…
Liu Family Village.
The night had grown deep. Most households in the village had already closed their doors and shuttered their windows, at rest in heavy sleep.
Even the stray dogs of the village were mostly lying in front of doorways, dozing, their ears twitching now and then at the sounds of the night.
Occasional barking came from somewhere in the distance and then quickly faded into the quiet.
A few stray dogs sensed someone passing, raised their heads lazily, glanced at the two women going by, and then slowly lowered their eyes and went back to sleep.
Inside a small separate courtyard in Liu Family Village, Liu Shui's mother sat on a wooden stool in the yard, letting out quiet sighs from time to time, her eyes drifting again and again toward her daughter's room, full of worry.
That day, after Liu Shui and her mother had only just returned to Liu Family Village and finished setting the house in order, her mother had seen her daughter go out in high spirits with eager eyes, heading in the direction of the Hanshan Academy.
Her mother understood what that meant.
Her daughter was going to see the young man called Xiao Mo, the Tushan household's servant.
She was perfectly happy about her daughter having someone she cared for.
After all, even a cultivator needed someone at her side but come evening, her daughter had come running back into the courtyard with red-rimmed eyes, gone straight to her room, and would not come out no matter what, not even touching her evening meal.
Her mother knew then that something must have happened between her daughter and this young man called Xiao Mo.
She had gone to ask her daughter about it, but her daughter would not say a word, just shut herself in her room in silence.
All a mother could do was fret helplessly in the courtyard, a gnawing feeling in her chest that would not settle.
"I really should go and have another word with this girl."
Her mother rose to her feet, just about to go to her daughter's room and talk things through with her but at that moment, there came a knock at the courtyard gate.
"At this hour, who could it be?" She murmured to herself, her steps slowing slightly. A thought suddenly came to her, that it might be the young man called Xiao Mo, who had made her daughter cry and was now regretting it and coming to find her.
With that in mind, her mother grabbed the rolling pin that happened to be nearby, walked over, and opened the gate but what she found was not the young man she had imagined.
Standing outside were two young women of incomparable beauty.
In particular, the younger one who was holding a cat in her arms had a face that went beyond anything one might call celestial beauty, the kind that made it impossible to look away.
"We apologize for coming so late at night. We ask the lady of the house to forgive us."
Daoist Master Yun Xi gave a bow, her tone gentle and courteous.
"Two immortal ladies, what brings you..." Her mother came back to herself, and the hand holding the rolling pin slowly lowered. She asked in a somewhat dazed voice.
"We have come to find Miss Liu Shui."
Daoist Master Yun Xi smiled softly, her voice gentle as the wind.
"Would Miss Liu Shui happen to be at home?"