The girl froze. Her expression shifted, and she looked at me with a mixture of awe and disbelief. “Interesting… So this is what Zijing has been keeping hidden all this time…”
Her words stung me, but I barely registered them. My thoughts spun as I wondered, What exactly has Zijing been protecting me from?
I held my teacher’s gaze as he slowly walked past Zijing. I wanted to ask why but couldn’t bring myself to speak. Seeing Zijing’s blood-soaked figure, I felt only an aching heaviness in my heart.
Hearing Feng Lian’s sharp voice: “The sect leader is willing to risk everything—putting his entire body and soul into protecting someone so insignificant.” She looked at me, then at Zijing. The malice in her eyes was apparent, as if she were testing her resolve against Zijing’s limits, daring him to continue shielding me.
“If you insist on protecting her,” she added coldly, “you’re sealing your own fate alongside hers.”
Feng Lian sneered, flicking her sleeves and stepping back with a dismissive gesture. “Withdraw.”
The assassins hesitated briefly before dispersing. I tried to speak, my lips trembling as I forced out the words, “Shifu…”
“It’s not…” He paused, his voice laced with bitterness, “not because of you.” His words felt like the bite of frost, chilling the air around us. He wouldn’t even meet my eyes, his gaze distant, as if refusing to let emotions take root.
“Why?” My voice cracked. “Why did you protect me like that?”
He sighed, his voice low. “What can I give you?”
I felt the weight of his words, the complexity in them. This was someone who seemed to owe nothing to anyone, who held no obligations. Yet, for reasons I couldn’t understand, he stood by my side. Did I really matter to him? Or was I merely a burden he could not ignore?
“When?” I asked quietly.
“When the horse thieves attacked and you were forced to flee,” he replied.
Ah… That time.
In hindsight, it made sense. Perhaps it was then that Zijing had been poisoned. I realized that my survival had come at the cost of his body, his cultivation, and his strength—things I could never repay.
When we returned to the inn and he finally sat to recover, I knelt beside him, lowering my head as I said softly, “Shifu, I’ll be better from now on. I won’t make you regret it. Three times I’ve made mistakes, three times you’ve saved me. But I didn’t know… I didn’t realize…”
Zijing’s gaze, weary yet piercing, softened slightly. There was an unfathomable depth in his expression as he asked, “What are you saying?”
“I…” I hesitated before speaking firmly, “I’ll help you more. I want to be someone worthy of standing beside you.”
Zijing’s voice carried the faintest trace of warmth as he said, “You’re not there yet. You have a long way to go.”
“…Zijing looked at me and asked, ‘Has anyone ever said this to you?’”
“What?”
“Stay, if you can…” He turned his head, and for some reason, his face seemed faintly flushed under the morning light. “I’m here, but I don’t give medicine to those who regret later.”
Was this… an answer?
I hesitated briefly before leaning forward and gently resting my head against his shoulder.
From that moment on, I had someone to journey with—someone to hold hands with under the heavens, so I would no longer be alone.
[The End]
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