“So… you’re leaving?”
“Yes, the story is over. Let’s go eat.”
“I want to sit at the kids’ table.”
“Have you no shame?”
“Then you sit at the kids’ table.”
“Fine.”
“All these years, does it snow wherever you go?”
Behind them, a roar echoed, followed by the neighing of a horse that had stopped.
“I think we can eat later.”
“I think so too.”
The horse’s head turned. The young Taoist nun’s face was frosty, her eyes filled with confusion and shock.
“How did you know?”
“I told you I wanted to show you the most beautiful snow. But I didn’t know where you were, so I could only make it snow where you were. I already owe you, but the snow scenery I owe you, I must… give it to you.”
The young Taoist nun kicked off the saddle and flew over, landing beside Tian Suanzi.
“The snow… it was you? How is that possible?”
“Nothing is impossible. Daoist arts, mind power. Where the heart is sincere, it is effective. Think what I think, desire what I desire.”
The young Taoist nun looked into Tian Suanzi’s eyes for a long time, searching for any hint of a lie. But all she saw was sincerity and longing.
“Let’s go. This isn’t a place to talk. I don’t like eavesdroppers.”
After speaking, a magic circle appeared beneath the young Taoist nun’s feet, and then both she and Tian Suanzi vanished.
“…” Wan Lei, Fang Xiaoyu.
“Let’s go back and eat.”
“Okay.”
“We’ll both sit at the kids’ table.”
“Okay.”
Helan Kingdom,
Outside the capital,
On the mountaintop,
In front of the Taoist temple.
Everything was as it used to be, unchanged.
After a century away, Tian Suanzi looked at the bamboo house of the Taoist temple before him, his eyes instantly welling up with tears.
“I think it’s more appropriate to listen to your stories here.”
The young Taoist nun walked onto the veranda outside the temple door, one hand on the railing, the other holding a wine gourd. She took a long drink.
A faint smile played on Tian Suanzi’s lips.
“I wasn’t making up stories. Everything I said is true. That day, after I returned from here, I argued with my father. That night, I snuck out. And then, I met my fiancée. She said…”
Tian Suanzi recounted the past, all the way until he returned here again, only to find she was no longer there.
“Let’s assume for a moment you’re telling the truth. Then why did you fall for that woman’s trick when you were so clever at deceiving me?”
“You’re very clever too. You fell for it not because I was a good deceiver, but because you were willing to be deceived.”
“Well said.”
“Later, I found a Taoist robe and put it on. From then on, we were a suitable match. After that, I went to Lanling Kingdom… I collapsed in the snow and met an old man with a white beard. He gave me a mind power seed and said some things I didn’t understand. But from then on, I knew that wherever you were, I could make it snow there… Later, I met Master Mingji and learned more profound ways to use mind power. I met Wan Lei… I went to the Central Region…”
“That was the Grand Competition of the Wan Jiao Rankings. I lied about my age and participated…”
“You were on the Wan Jiao Rankings then? I passed through there.”
“After the competition, my master and I returned to the Tianji Pavilion…”
“My master found me, and I said I didn’t want to go.”
“In the Wood Immortal Secret Realm, I watched Wan Lei and Fang Xiaoyu…”
“My friend asked me to go then, but I didn’t.”
“In the Golden Immortal Secret Realm, as soon as I arrived, I had to set up a stall and make a living by fortune-telling…”
“And I advised those people not to believe such fraudulent things.”
“…So, it turns out Heaven has been playing with us all along. We passed each other so many times, and if it had made even the slightest mistake, we could have met.”
“That’s the logic.”
“…”
At this moment, Tian Suanzi’s heart felt as if it had been stabbed by a knife. He believed in the Heavenly Dao, but at this moment, he wanted to fight against it. The Heavenly Dao is impermanent, and life is like a play.
“Then, there is one more thing now.”
“What thing?”
The young Taoist nun’s eyes flashed, and she looked coldly at Tian Suanzi.
“How do you prove that everything you’ve said is true, and that you didn’t make it up to deceive me?”
“This… In this world, are there so many coincidences for me to make up?”
“What if your Taoist magic is supreme, you explored my memories, and then made it up based on those memories? I don’t believe a single word you say now.”
Tian Suanzi looked into the young Taoist nun’s eyes. The two of them seemed like statues, frozen in that moment. Memories, bit by bit, surfaced in Tian Suanzi’s heart. The mind power he had used countless times over the past century reappeared. Suddenly, the previously clear sky became overcast, and snowflakes began to fall. The snow fluttered down, carried by the wind, landing on the mountaintop, in front of the Taoist temple, and on them. In less than fifteen minutes, they both had become snowmen.
“I said I wanted to show you the most beautiful snow. The most beautiful snow is actually… right here. On this mountain, outside the Taoist temple, in my heart. Wherever you are, it is there.”
Tian Suanzi’s voice was hoarse, the snow was cold, and his tears were hot.
“Now, do you believe me?”
Tears welled up in the young Taoist nun’s eyes, but the corners of her mouth involuntarily curved upwards.
“So all these years, you’ve been making it snow. Are you trying to freeze me to death, you bastard? I thought I was cursed!”
The snowman statue suddenly moved. The young Taoist nun threw her arms around Tian Suanzi, weeping.
“You scoundrel, I’ve been waiting for you all this time too. I’ve been looking for you, why didn’t you come looking for me, boo hoo…”
She cried sorrowfully, and she cried joyfully.
Like a sudden spring breeze arriving overnight,
A thousand trees and ten thousand trees bloom with pear blossoms.
“Actually, you know what? The moment I saw you, I was more flustered than you were.”
“Really? You seemed very calm.”
“That was all an act. I knew you were watching me. From your eyes, I saw anxiety, panic, longing, and sincerity. At that moment, I knew you were looking for me. When you recited the wedding vows, you were more nervous than at your own wedding. I knew you still thought of me. After you came out, you chased after me, and I knew you had been looking for me all along.”
“Then why didn’t you believe me and toy with me for fun?”
“This wasn’t to toy with you, it was because I hated you. I hated your broken promise, your abandonment, your cowardice, and your failure to grab me the first time and tell me you missed me. How could you be so cowardly? The first time I met you, you dared to carry me to bed, but look at you now…”
“It’s not too late!”
“Ah! Let me go, I didn’t mean right now…”
Tian Suanzi picked up the young Taoist nun and stepped onto the accumulated snow, walking step by step towards the small bamboo house. The snow crunched beneath their feet, a sound exceptionally pleasing to the ear.