“I’m looking for someone,” she said. “My beloved. If you see him, please pass a message along for me. In this life… if he lives, then I live. If he dies, then I die!”
Bitterly, she turned and began to walk off into the downpour. Surrounded by the rainfall, wearing her white robes, she looked like a white lotus, beautiful, unsurpassed, and yet also poignant and sad.
Meng Hao looked at her walking away, and a gentleness appeared in his eyes. He could see her exhaustion and anxiety, and it made him sigh.
“Some people,” he thought, “chose not to let anything encumber their cultivation, and are thus able to do so with minds and hearts free of obstruction. Others have hearts filled with obsession, which enables them to achieve great Daos of Heaven and Earth.
“She… started out incorruptible. It was me showing up that changed everything…”
Finally, he spoke up, his voice soft. “Hold on.”
Xu Qing stopped in her tracks, surrounded by rain. She turned back to look at him sitting there in the shadows of the wooden eaves, ancient, old, decaying.
He continued, “Is the person you’re looking for a twenty-something scholar, wearing a long green robe…?”
Xu Qing trembled, and after a moment of silence, she nodded.
“I saw someone who looked like that many years ago,” he said, his voice hoarse. “He lived here for about a year, after which… he died and was buried. He said this place was his home.
“Before he died, he gave me a bag. He said that if anyone came looking for him, then I should give them the bag.” With that, he pulled a bag of holding out of his robe and placed it off to the side.
As Xu Qing stood there in the rain, the water began to seep past the invisible barrier and soak her clothes. She stared deeply at Meng Hao, then walked back and looked blankly at the bag of holding. As she picked it up, tears filled her eyes.
Of course, it was impossible to tell how much of the water flowing down her face was rain, and how much was tears.
A bitter smile appeared on her face, and she looked back at Meng Hao. Finally, she turned and headed once again out into the rain, taking the bag of holding with her.
As he watched her leaving, his expression was complex, but he said nothing.
Xu Qing walked about seven steps before she stopped. She didn’t look back, but when she spoke, her voice echoed out in all directions.
“I might be not be very smart, but… I’m not an idiot.”
Meng Hao didn’t say anything for a moment. He knew that his words couldn’t fool Xu Qing. However, sometimes it doesn’t matter what is true and what is false. Sometimes… the result is all that matters.
Meng Hao had hoped that instead of tormenting herself by searching for him through all eternity, she could at least cut him off. After that, she could return to her incorruptible self, simple and pure.
It is better to forget….
He closed his eyes, and his heart filled with pain.
Xu Qing was quiet for a while, but finally, she smiled. It was a smile of determination and resolve that contained no regret….
She lifted her hand, and the glow of a sword flew out. It stabbed into the ground, sharp and powerful, rapidly carving out a deep, rectangular pit.
At the same time, mountain crag flew out from the nearby mountainous forest. When it arrived in front of her, she waved her hand, causing it to spin in the air. The sides were then shaved away until the crag turned into a stela.
She then rubbed her hand gently across the surface, causing words to appear.
Grave of Meng Hao and Xu Qing.