When this question left his lips, Xue Chenjing already knew the answer in his heart.
She would.
He could no longer sit still here, forcefully bending his frozen, creaking joints as he struggled to his feet.
The System called out in his mind: "Master, I don't think the female lead will run away. She'll definitely come back to find you. Please slow down, rest a bit more. Don't break your bones."
Xue Chenjing wasn't comforted at all. "What do you know?"
Useless System, completely worthless.
Xue Chenjing shook off the ice crystals covering his body, forcing his stiff legs to move. His face was frozen pale blue, and white mist emerged from his mouth when he spoke. The swirling cold air blurred his features and concealed the unease deep in his eyes.
He knew what normal people would choose; in fact, he knew it all too well. Given the choice, they would only choose to stay away from him, not return for him.
Yu Yi wasn't stupid; on the contrary, she was very clever, always trying to seize every opportunity to escape from him. If he didn't hold onto her tightly, she would definitely run away, she would definitely abandon him.
Xue Chenjing raised his sleeve to rub his eyes hard, struggling to hold back the tears welling up. The lingering cold energy in his body would freeze even a single teardrop into ice crystals, stinging his eyes.
He really hated how sensitive this body was.
Xue Chenjing hissed in pain, irritably rubbing at the ice crystals in the corners of his eyes. He turned his stiff neck and struggled to open one eye to look around, spotting his outer robe on a nearby tree branch.
She had even thrown down his clothes.
Xue Chenjing walked over and pulled down the robe, wrapping it around himself. A faint fragrance still lingered in the fabric, not yet completely dissipated. He grabbed the collar and took a deep breath, finally feeling his agitated emotions slightly soothed.
As he was about to walk away, something suddenly fell from beneath the robe with a "pat" sound.
Xue Chenjing stepped back half a pace and looked down in confusion. A wooden tablet lay face-down on the ground beneath the hem of his robe, with a red string tied at the top and golden silk tassels at the bottom—it was a wish tablet.
"She left me a wish tablet?" Xue Chenjing blinked in surprise, shaking off the frost from his eyelashes as his heart began to race wildly. He was eager to see what Yu Yi had written on this wish tablet—was it a prayer for his safe return, or something else?
Xue Chenjing crouched down, took a deep breath, and slowly reached out to pick up the wooden tablet, turning it over.
To his disappointment, the handwriting on the tablet wasn't Yu Yi's. He had seen her wish tablet before and recognized her handwriting.
However, this handwriting on the wooden tablet was also very familiar to him.
Memories surged in Xue Chenjing's mind of when he was young, when Xue Xingzhi would hold his hand from behind, teaching him how to write stroke by stroke.
So he recognized this handwriting. Even though he had left home for so long and hadn't seen his father's writing in years, he recognized it immediately.
The ink characters on the wooden tablet were written in an elegant, powerful style:
"May my son Mingyuan be safe and prosperous. Awaiting your return."
"My son Mingyuan... awaiting return." Xue Chenjing's fingers traced these words, sliding down to the silk tassels below. The knots in the tassels were tied in a beautiful peach blossom pattern, his mother's signature style.
Xue Chenjing's lips curved into a slight smile as he violently tore off the tassel. His fingers gradually tightened around the wooden tablet, listening to it make a "cracking" sound as it broke, splintered, and was crushed into sawdust in his palm.
His eyes began to hurt again, and he roughly rubbed at their corners.
Wind blew through the forest, stirring the tree canopy and creating tinkling sounds.
Xue Chenjing looked up to see the dense canopy now hung with countless wish tablets. They swayed in the wind, clicking against each other, their golden tassels below dazzling to the eye, with various flower patterns woven into the knots.
He knew in his heart that he shouldn't look at them. But Xue Chenjing couldn't resist. He stood up and began pulling down the wish tablets one by one, opening them to read the writing.
"May my son Mingyuan be free from illness and harm. Awaiting your return."
"May my son Mingyuan have clothes in cold weather and food for every meal. Awaiting your return."
"May my son Mingyuan have a smooth path ahead, unbowed by hardship. Awaiting your return."
"May my son Mingyuan find companionship and never be lonely in the long nights. Awaiting your return."
"May my son Mingyuan..."
"May my son Mingyuan..."
"Awaiting your return."
"Awaiting your return."
"Awaiting your return."
...
Like a man possessed, Xue Chenjing tore down every wish tablet hanging from the tree canopy, opening each one to read. Every single tablet bore Xue Mingyuan's name.
Thirty-five wish tablets in total—so he had been away from home for thirty-five years.
After thirty-five years, they had never forgotten him. They only remembered him, writing only Xue Mingyuan's name on every tablet.
"Awaiting return, awaiting return, awaiting return..." Xue Chenjing murmured these words, looking at the wish tablets scattered everywhere. He began laughing uncontrollably, until finally covering his stinging eyes, saying bitterly, "Why? Am I not your child too?"
Even just one tablet would have been enough. If just one tablet had his name on it, he wouldn't feel so heartbroken.
But why, why couldn't they spare even one tablet for him?
Xue Chenjing's eyes stung terribly, as if filled with coarse sand, grinding painfully, yet he couldn't control his tears. He hated this body of his.
Blood seeped through his fingers, freezing into crystals as they fell to the ground.
No one would comfort him like they did when he was young anymore. They had long forgotten him.
Xue Chenjing crawled on the ground, trembling, whimpering softly.
The scattered wish tablets began to glow, their writing transforming into thread-like strands that shot toward him, wrapping around his body and limbs, binding him tightly.
Xue Chenjing suddenly looked up, blood tears frozen at the corners of his eyes, fearfully looking around. He struggled frantically, trying to tear off the threads binding his body, but these threads were filled with his parents' intense yearning, year after year, weighing heavily upon him, forming a cocoon that imprisoned him.
"No, no, Yi Yi, Master, Master..."
Xue Chenjing's consciousness fell into darkness, completely enveloped by the threads. The light in his eyes faded as he closed them, his body falling backward.
Just before hitting the ground, his body suddenly jerked and his hand shot out to brace against the earth.
When Xue Mingyuan opened his eyes, he immediately felt the stinging pain. He touched the corners of his eyes in confusion, wiping away bloody ice crystals. An unusually intense cold energy coursed through his body, freezing his bones and flesh.
He saw the wish tablets on the ground, picked one up to look at it, and was momentarily stunned.
The space in the forest rippled as two figures appeared out of thin air. Xue Mingyuan immediately looked over, and when his gaze met that of the woman in palace dress at the front, he gained some understanding of the current situation.
Xue Mingyuan stood up and bowed his head toward her, saying, "Elder Sister."
Yi Heng peeked out from behind Lady Lotus, examining the young man before them. After all, he was now an elder of the Carefree Sect, several hundred years old—he really couldn't bring himself to call him "Uncle."
Lady Lotus carefully examined his appearance and expression, her gaze sharp and scrutinizing. After a while, her elegant lips parted as she asked, "Should I address you as Mingyuan, as in this life, or as Lingwei, as in your previous life?"
Xue Mingyuan's gaze lingered on the wish tablets on the ground. "Elder Sister should still call me Mingyuan."
Yi Heng silently let out a breath, thinking to himself that this meant he probably wouldn't have to call him Uncle.
Lady Lotus's brows furrowed slightly, but she didn't say much else, nodding, "Very well, it's just a name after all." She produced a pearl the size of a chicken egg between her fingers, glancing at the bright soul lamp within it, and smiled, "I've been looking for you for a long time."
Xue Mingyuan touched the blood tears on his face and asked, "How did Elder Sister seal him away?"
Lady Lotus gestured to the wish tablets on the ground, "Thanks to your parents in this life. Their yearning for your return created a powerful force."
Xue Mingyuan bent down to pick up the wish tablets one by one, reading each wish and noting the finger marks forcefully pressed into the wooden tablet.
No wonder his eyes hurt so much. Xue Chenjing must have cried terribly.
"When we were little, I remember our parents would prepare everything in pairs according to our preferences - food, clothes, everything," Xue Mingyuan said as he wiped clean the mud-stained wish paper, puzzled. "They couldn't have written just my name. There must be another one with his wishes written on it."
"That was when you were both just ordinary children," Lady Lotus explained. "After your soul awakened, because the soul pearl's glow was so fleeting, it took me a very long time to locate the Xue family."
"But by then, you had already..." she paused, correcting herself, "No, I should say that little demon had already fled from the Xue family. You don't know how your parents begged that little demon to let them see you after you disappeared."
"But no matter how much they pleaded and cried, he refused. They wouldn't remember him fondly - they would only hate him, hate his cold-heartedness, hate him for taking you away from them. That's why he couldn't bear it anymore and ran away from the Xue family, isn't it?"
Xue Mingyuan gathered all the wish papers, carefully cleaning each one and holding them close to his chest, at a loss for words.
Lady Lotus watched his actions and said, "In your previous life, your father sent you to Great Green Mountain to study the Heart Sword under Ming Zhaojun and suppress the heart demon. But you failed because of your soft heart, ending up completely devoured by the heart demon. He assumed your identity, turned against your family and friends, gravely wounded Ming Zhaojun, destroyed Great Green Mountain, and killed indiscriminately."
"This caused the Yi family to be condemned by everyone. When your father and mother were pressured by the three great families - the Jiang, Yao, and Yun families - and finally put on trial to take punishment in your place, they were still defending you. They remembered you until their dying breath."
"In this life, do you want to repeat the same mistakes?"
Xue Mingyuan clutched the wish papers tightly, all his tumultuous thoughts eventually condensing into three heavy words weighing on his shoulders: "I'm sorry."
Lady Lotus sighed softly, "Ah Wei, Mingyuan, I know you're soft-hearted, but not everything deserves your pity."
She walked over and placed her hand on his wrist, intending to use spiritual power to drive out the cold qi in his body. Just then, a sword light pierced through the dense forest, whistling as it struck the pond.
Amidst the splashing water, countless spiritual threads converged in Yi Heng's hand. The surrounding trees rustled as the altered terrain began to restore itself. Yi Heng gripped the returning law disk and said worriedly, "That girl actually tore through my law disk with brute force. It seems I'll have to meet her personally."
"Wait," Xue Mingyuan recognized the familiar sword intent and immediately called out to Yi Heng, withdrawing his hand, "Sister, there's no need to heal me. You should leave for now."
Lady Lotus, unconcerned about the female cultivator about to break in, said, "Thanks to that little demon, two major immortal sects are now hunting you. Are you sure you don't want to come back with me?"
Xue Mingyuan nodded, promising, "I'll come find you later, Sister."
"Very well." Lady Lotus finally agreed, giving him a communication token and an inner disciple token of the Carefree Sect before disappearing into the forest with Yi Heng.
The next moment, a figure parted the branches and rushed in. Seeing the person leaning by the pond, Yu Yi felt slightly relieved. She sheathed her sword and walked to his side, asking, "Ah Qiu, when did you come out? Was someone setting up an array here to deal with you? Are you alright?"
The seated person looked up at her, his wet, cold hair clinging to his forehead, his eyes red and swollen with bloody tears, and his pale face marked with alarming bloodstains.
Yu Yi's heart sank heavily. She crouched down to wipe the blood from his face, her clear eyes showing unconcealed concern, "What happened to your eyes?"
Xue Mingyuan stared at her expression, somewhat surprised.
It seemed their relationship was progressing faster than he had imagined.
