My heart sank. “You are not to go!”
“Master,” Qian Ling suddenly interjected, “I know you care about Senior Brother.”
“What nonsense are you spouting now?”
“Back then, I couldn’t bear to burn that painting of the wine pool,” she admitted. “So I showed it to Second Senior Brother. He told me that the man in the painting is Senior Brother. Since you hold Senior Brother so dear, why bother with worldly conventions? Just be with him.”
“Ridiculous! My personal matters are not for you to meddle in!”
“Then I’ll go tell Senior Brother myself.”
“Come back!”
But before I could react, Qian Ling and Qian Zhi had already vanished, their presences slipping out of range. I stood frozen at the gate of the cell, unable to move a muscle, feeling as though a wildfire had ignited in my chest.
I didn’t know how long I stood there frozen, but it was long enough for me to drift into sleep. When I woke up, I felt an oppressive weight of demonic energy surrounding me. Turning my head, I saw someone I hadn’t laid eyes on in decades quietly standing beside me.
Qian Gu’s appearance had not changed in the slightest.
Yet his demeanor was vastly different from before.
“How did you end up being outwitted by Qian Zhi?” he asked, his voice deep and mature, silently testifying to the years that had passed. But the way he posed the question was so casual, so familiar, it was as if he had just been copying scriptures beside me yesterday.
I sighed. “He cut off my retreat and turned my youngest disciple against me.”
At the thought of this, a fresh wave of frustration hit me.
Qian Gu chuckled softly, his low voice like the sound of a guqin, resonating faintly in my chest. Avoiding his gaze, I focused on the jade-iron bars. “The poison came from Yue Lao Hong. Perhaps you can retrieve the antidote for me.”
“I already have the antidote,” he said plainly.
Those four words hung in the air, with no elaboration to follow. I could tell he was deliberately baiting me, waiting for me to plead with him. But at this point, how could I bring myself to ask for his help? In what capacity could I even do so?
Clenching my teeth in frustration, I realized just how cunning my once-naive disciple had become over the years.
“Master.”
That single word, spoken softly, sent a shiver through my heart.
Memories long buried surfaced with his voice—of the terrified child I rescued from a demon’s lair, the boy I taught to wield a sword hand by hand, and the young man who lived alongside me on the summit of Kong Ling Mountain. I thought I had buried those memories well, but with a single word, Qian Gu had unearthed them all, scattering the dust and earth that had kept them hidden.
“Qian Gu,” I said, forcing my tone to be firm, “I am no longer your master.” It was a reminder for both of us.
He acted as though he hadn’t heard me. “I came today to ask you three questions. If you answer them, I will give you the antidote,” he said. “First: back then, when I was cast out and left for dead by the river among the rocks, was it you who came to save me?”
I hadn’t expected such a question.
“Yes,” I answered truthfully. I expected his next question to be why I saved him, and I was ready to respond that even a tiger does not devour its cubs—after all, he was a child I had raised with my own hands.
But instead, he simply smiled and asked, “All these years, have you ever thought of me, even once?”
This question… was far too audacious.
“No,” I replied decisively.
Qian Gu smiled again. “Lastly, Master, do you think I’ve thought of you over the years?”
This… this insolent disciple!
“How should I know what goes on in your mind?” I snapped. “I’ve answered your three questions. Now give me the antidote.”
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