: Songs and Songs

The hour of You (5-7 PM).

The blood in the yamen had dried, and the Liu residence had collapsed into ruins.

Three people walked out of the city gate.

Once you leave the county town, the road narrows.

Xu Yanqing didn't take the official road, but instead took the small path that peddlers used to take. That path went around two fields and through a low slope, allowing him to avoid the people running around at the town entrance.

The cart bounced along, and A-Yue sat on it, her hands gripping the edge of the wooden planks the whole time.

As they left the city, A-Yue asked Xu Yanqing, "Are you going out too?"

Xu Yanqing's Adam's apple bobbed, and he nodded: "Get out. I've had enough of this place."

Then the three of them stopped talking. Shen Gui walked in front, and Xu Yanqing followed behind, pushing the cart.

As the sun set, A-Yue looked at Shen Gui's retreating figure and finally asked the question that had been lingering in her mind for so long: "Are you a deity?"

"No." Shen Gui didn't turn around.

Upon hearing this, Xu Yanqing paused in pushing the cart, and A-Yue also quieted down.

After a long pause, she asked again, "Aren't you going to take a test through me?"

"No need, the results are already in."

"Where are you headed, sir?"

"I don't know, just keep moving forward."

"My question is, if I wish to repay your kindness, where should I find you, sir?"

"No need to look."

Shen Gui answered very decisively.

A-Yue pursed her lips.

"There's no need to be grateful," Shen Gui said, turning back. "Cause and effect are just a burden."

A-Yue didn't quite understand. She looked down at her hands, which used to touch silk, manipulate abacus beads, and pick out thread colors for her mother. Later, these hands dug in the soil, grabbed tree bark, and clapped and sang all sorts of nonsense nursery rhymes.

These hands are now gripping the edge of the cart, with dust from the Liu family's residence still under their fingernails.

She knew exactly what she was thinking, so she said, "But I still remember, I will never forget. I will build a shrine for my husband and worship him for all eternity."

"what ever."

Shen Gui paused for a moment and then said, "Just don't put up any longevity plaques."

Why?

"..."

After the conversation ended, none of the three spoke again.

At the end of the path, we arrived at Guhuai Village. The ancient locust tree was still at the village entrance, its large canopy casting a shadow that covered half the road.

A-Yue sat on the cart, looking at the shadows of the trees, her hands slowly clenching.

She was trapped here for three years. The people here watched her pretend to be a ghost, watched her get beaten, watched her run away again and again, and were dragged back again and again.

They may not have all wielded knives, but every closed door is a knife.

Xu Yanqing slowed down the pace of pushing the cart.

Shen Gui stopped at the village entrance. He didn't go into the village, but only glanced at A Yue: "Go do whatever you want."

A-Yue looked up at the gray-clad figure, as if trying to etch that face into her mind forever. Finally, after confirming that she had memorized it, she replied with a resounding "Okay."

The wind blew down from the ancient locust tree, the leaves rustling softly, and Xu Yanqing stopped the cart.

Ah Yue held onto the side of the car and slowly stood up.

Her leg still hurt, and when she put one foot on the ground, her body swayed. Xu Yanqing reached out to help her, but she shook her head.

The village was quiet. The doors of each household were closed, but not tightly. People were hiding in the cracks of doors, behind window paper, and beside stacks of firewood.

They watched Ah Yue, this woman who was tied to a tree, called Zhou's wife, and treated like a madwoman, return on a cart.

No one dared to speak.

A-Yue stood up, holding onto the cart.

Xu Yanqing quickly said, "You still have an injury on your foot."

"Just stop for a moment."

She got out of the car, and her body swayed when her feet touched the ground.

Xu Yanqing held onto the handlebars, but didn't help her.

A-Yue limped toward the village entrance. The village gates were widened, and some people tried to back away but were blocked by those behind them.

A-Yue walked to the old locust tree, stopped, picked up the blood-stained straw mat, carefully wiped away the bloodstains with her hands, and then held it in her arms with great care.

The wind blew, the leaves rustled softly, but she did not sing a nursery rhyme.

She turned to look at the doors, the windows, and the hidden faces.

"My name is Chen Ayue."

The sound wasn't loud, but the village entrance was so quiet that everyone heard it.

A-Yue took a breath.

"Chen Ayue of the Chen family in Jiangping Prefecture."

"I am not a member of the Zhou family!"

A dog barked once, but no one in the village spoke.

A-Yue stared at the faces hidden in the shadows: "I am not the goods you sent back, nor am I a name on the Liu family's list."

She paused for a moment.

"My name is Chen Ayue."

This time it was even clearer, and no one refuted it.

Ah Yue slowly turned around and walked back to the cart.

Xu Yanqing's eyes reddened, and he said in a low voice, "Mr. Shen is gone, let's go too."

A Yue bent down at the gray figure at the end of the country road.

It bends very low.

The old straw mat slipped slightly off her shoulder, but she pressed it back down.

Shen Gui had already gone far away, and the setting sun cast a long shadow on the country road.

He seemed to notice, raised his hand, and waved it casually.

There was no turning back.

Let's consider this goodbye.

Perhaps we will never see each other again.

A-Yue watched his retreating figure until Xu Yanqing pushed the cart around the corner, leaving the ancient locust tree behind, and they parted ways.

...

Shen Gui walked up the slope and stopped.

The heat from the stone weight on my chest finally subsided; there were no sparks, no stinging sensation, just like a drop of warm water falling on ice.

He bent down and took out the stone pendant.

The first crack on the surface of the stone pendant is silently closing, and tiny rays of light travel along the crack, as if someone is smoothing out an old wound with their fingers.

Shen Guizai looked at it carefully and attentively.

When A-Yue cried earlier, the stone pendant was still not healed.

She was afraid when the stone fell.

Murderous intent and rampant greed filled the Liu residence, and resentment nearly crushed the entire house. The stone pendant had not yet truly healed.

He used to think that the stronger one's emotions and desires, the better, but now he knows that's not true.

Stonefall doesn't care about other people's emotions.

Fear is not his, the gambler's greed is not his, and Ah Yue's pleasure is not his.

Those are all water.

He was on the shore, and no matter how cold or hot the water was, it was not his body temperature.

When someone else's pain falls on that person, if he stands at a distance, he can only see the shape of the pain, but he can't touch the bone that hurts.

No matter how strong the hatred, how deep the fear, or how heavy the desire, if separated by a layer of the heart, it is just a passing breeze.

For the stone to heal, that emotion must shine into the heart.

It wasn't about making him pity or shed tears for someone, but rather that at a certain moment, he too was moved by that step, and he could empathize with it.

When A-Yue walked out of the Liu residence, his chest felt hot.

As A-Yue walked under the ancient locust tree and called out her name, the heat finally subsided.

"Perhaps after I escape the constraints of this world, I will also cry out..."

Shen Gui held the stone pendant and suddenly smiled, a very faint smile.

He put the stone pendant back into his clothes, and the wind blew across the country road, stirring up a little dust.

Shen Gui continued walking forward, behind him lay the collapsed Liu residence, the chaotic Changluo County, and the Twenty-Six Villages, whose fates were uncertain.

The first crack has healed.

It wasn't hatred, resentment, or fear.

It was as if someone had finally taken a step outside.

The path to immortality is still long.

The last rays of sunset on the horizon were swallowed by the night.

There's still a road ahead.

It's very far.

But this time, he walked a little faster than he had on the way here.