Tao Zang Xuan Zhi

The night wind is miserable, and the silver frost outside the window flickers in and out with the drifting clouds.

The person leaning on the table in front of the window has fallen asleep, and the lamp beside the table has been turned off.

Zhong Wanling suddenly woke up. Once again, she fell asleep just looking at it. This was really not a good habit. She patted her cheeks, stood up, wanted to freshen up a little, and then went to sleep.

Suddenly, Zhong Wanling felt a breath behind him and turned around warily. She saw a person sitting under the silver light by the window. He had silver hair and was dressed in plain silver silk. He was a person she was very familiar with. He was the old lady.

The old lady smiled and waved to Zhong Wanling, still kind and kind. Zhong Wanling walked to the old lady, sat down, and asked,"Why are you here? Why didn't anyone call me?"

The old lady took Zhong Wanling's hand and stroked her hair distressedly as she was sleeping. , shook his head."Seeing that you are working so hard, I just want you to sleep a little longer."

Zhong Wanling was a little embarrassed that he was so relaxed and the old lady saw him.

The old lady smiled and patted Zhong Wanling's hand."You, this habit is too bad. I have told you many times that you will easily catch a cold if you sleep like this. You are not in good health, and you are inevitably disturbed by the wind and cold every time the seasons change. Now that you are out alone, you If you don't know how to take care of yourself, can you not make me worry?"

Zhong Wanling whispered in shame:"Wan Lan knows that she was wrong."

The old lady nodded with satisfaction, looking leisurely into the darkness in the room, as if through Looking through the darkness in the room towards the uncertain distance

"Wan Lan, I am here this time because I have something I want to tell you no matter what."

Zhong Wanling nodded, nodded, lowered his eyes, and listened humbly."Grandma, please speak. The old lady was silent for a while and said with a hint of sadness:"I have never dared to ask, Wan Lan, do you hate me?""

Zhong Wanling raised her head in surprise and looked at the old lady without knowing why. For the first time, she saw hesitation and timidity on the face of this resolute and decisive old man.

The old lady said hesitantly:"I mean, I will You were taken away from your parents and forced to change your name."Zhong Wanling didn't understand why he suddenly mentioned this matter after so many years. But the old lady's expression was extremely solemn.

The old lady's eyes suddenly drifted away again, as if she was tracing the past that had faded away. Many old people are like this. The longer time passes, the more precious and beautiful things sparkle. Even though I know I can't change them no matter how much I think about them, I can't help but think about them over and over again.

"I have so many children and grandchildren... but none of those children look like me, or like that person."

Zhong Wanling guessed that"that person" should refer to her great-grandfather, Yao Guangzi, the head of the Zhong family who died in the last battle between immortals and demons. The old lady would rather give up her royal status to marry someone. The old lady set her sights again. Turning back to Zhong Wanling, he smiled:"Do you know? They all say you look like me when I was young."

Indeed, many people have said this.

Zhong Wanling never thought that it was just a deliberate compliment from a thoughtful person. He never expected that these words would come out of the old lady's mouth.

"But I don’t think so. The old lady looked at Zhong Wanling with emotion,"I think you are more like him than me.""

Zhong Wanling was a little surprised. There was very little information about the head of the family. The last war between immortals and demons was so brutal that almost all the Zhongs of that generation died, and only a few women and very young children survived. After the war, first Almost all people's bodies were left in the Demon Realm, and no one was willing to mention that history full of pain and hardship.

The old lady stroked Zhong Wanling's head affectionately and gently confided her thoughts over the years."I once I think you are the reincarnation of that person. Although he died in another world, he finally came back to me in this way."Tears flashed across the old lady's eyes.

"But, later I discovered that you are not entirely like him. You are like a mirror, reflecting him in my heart and me. Like me and him. Of all the children, you are the only one……"

The old lady's expression became painful."Only you, I don't want to be hated by you"

"I know that my tough approach will make you feel embarrassed and painful, but I still hope to get your forgiveness. I hope you don't hate me."The old lady paused and sighed,"I know, you may not understand."

"People are so different. Like him, you are not someone who sticks to the love between children. I am not saying this to ask for your forgiveness. It's just that some people only live for one person their whole life."

The old lady looked at Zhong Wanling apologetically and held her hand,"I once only wanted to stay with him for the rest of my life. Later, he left before me. I just thought that I could at least protect his family and one day return it to glory. There's only so much I can do for him. I need to do this no matter what……"

"Wan Lan, can you forgive me?"

Zhong Wanling held the old lady's hand, lifted her upper body up, and quickly advised:"Grandma, don't say that, and don't think that. She smiled slightly playfully."The name change was also the decision of my father and mother. Even if this matter requires resentment, I can't just resent you.""

Zhong Wanling's tone became soft and solemn again."As my great-grandmother said, I am like a mirror. I just want to smile to those who smile to me, cry to those who cry to me, and to those who are good to me. Good, evil to those who treat me badly. The person who treats me best in this world is you, my great-grandmother. I don’t know what kind of person I am, but I feel that if it is for you, my great-grandmother, I will do anything, so why should I be afraid of this grievance?"

The old lady moved Zhong Wanling into her arms and murmured softly."Thank you...Thank you.……"

The frost of the silver moon fell on the two of them, like little fluorescent lights, but very dazzling. The refreshing camphor wood fragrance floated in the air, lingering around the two of them.

The old lady loosened her arms around Zhong Wanling and looked at her great-grandson with a smile, who made her very proud. She sighed and said:"I don't have any talent for cultivating immortals. He took pity on me and loved me, so he taught me the method of cultivation. I want to be with him." I am a dual practitioner. However, I achieved nothing in the end. But today, I seem to be able to see"

"Wan Lan, tell my great-grandma, are you hiding something from me? Were you not cursed or sealed?"

Zhong Wanling was a little surprised. Seeing that the aura on others must be a monk in the realm of Shangming. Moreover, in order to prevent others from seeing through the demonic aura of the snake fruit, she also set up a concealment spell for herself. She even had the confidence to be an ordinary person. Even monk Zhou Tian couldn't see through her cover.

However, she really didn't want to lie to the old man.

Zhong Wanling nodded."I was not cursed. Master Sun misunderstood the meaning of that layer of demonic energy."

The old lady nodded happily."I knew it, I knew it. If you tell your great-grandmother that you can form elixirs, you will definitely become a golden elixir monk, right?"

Zhong Wanling nodded again."Although I don't know how long it will take, but it will definitely be possible in the near future."

The old lady breathed a sigh of relief, and suddenly she seemed to have made some great determination. She raised her head, looked at Zhong Wanling steadily, and said with great solemnity:"Wan Lan, there is one thing that my great-grandmother has to do no matter what. I want to ask you a favor."

Zhong Wanling felt that the old lady today was very strange, as if she had shouldered too much and finally couldn't bear it anymore."Please tell me, my great-grandmother, Wan Lan will do her best."

The old lady hesitated, as if she was making a difficult decision, and as if she found it difficult to speak, but she finally spoke.

"Wan Lan, please help Grandma, help me. Help me protect this family, protect this clan, don't let it fall apart, let it continue. Okay?"

Zhong Wanling was a little surprised. She didn't understand what made the old lady, who had experienced ups and downs and was as strong as a towering tree, say such words. She thought and thought. Could it be that she had been unable to break through to the upper realm and let Is the turmoil in the family bothering the old lady? Is it possible that the recent ridiculous things caused by that good-for-nothing Zhong Jianan have caused the Lao Xian Sect to be questioned and controversial? These things are neither small nor big.. She didn’t think these things could overwhelm this strong and wise woman.

Is there anything else?

Zhong Wanling didn’t reply for a long time. The old lady lowered her hands a little dejectedly, like an old tree that had endured too much frost and snow, vicissitudes of life. The ground struggled to support herself from falling.

Zhong Wanling quickly took her hand, held it on her chest, and said solemnly:"I promise, I will try my best."

Two lines of tears finally shed from the old lady's vicissitudes of life, which looked like two lines of silver under the frost outside the window.

Zhong Wanling was shocked and confused, and quickly wanted to wipe away the old lady's tears, but was held tightly by the old lady again. Hug her tightly. The old lady's voice was choked with sobs, and she kept repeating:"Good boy, good boy... I am lucky to have you, and the Zhong family is lucky to have you."……"

Zhong Wanling could only gently caress the old lady's back to prevent her from being overly excited and having trouble breathing.

I don't know how much time passed, but Zhong Wanling felt that the fragrance of camphor wood had become stronger. The calm aroma is soothing, relaxing, and inexplicably drowsy. The old lady patted her back gently, as if she were coaxing her to sleep when she was a child, and whispered in her ear:

"Wan Lan, I know you will be unwilling and will be very angry, but just think of it as me begging you...don't pursue it...don't hate it, don't complain...my...isn't important...let everything be Just leave with me. I'm not important, and neither is the truth... As long as the Zhong family and Lao Xianmen are safe... I have no regrets……"

The old lady's voice gradually faded away and became indistinct.

Zhong Wanling woke up suddenly and found that she was lying on the bed.

The old lady has left...

No, today is the end of the month, a moonless night. Even if the sky is full of stars outside, there can't be such a bright moonlight.

No, even if it is a full moon, there will not be such bright frost, as soft light as a fairy's coronet.

Is it a dream?

But everything just now was so real, as if it really happened, but it was not a memory.

For no reason, Zhong Wanling felt a little uneasy in her heart, as if something important was being lost. And this uneasy feeling swelled up quickly, filling her chest quickly, making her unable to think.

Zhong Wanling opened the quilt, jumped out of bed, took out a set of clothes from the closet, and simply washed and tidied it up.

Opening the door, it was dark outside, except for the scattered lights on the corridor outside, which cast dim yellow light in this quiet night.

Zhong Wanling thought for a while, then returned to the house, lit a candle, took out a piece of paper at random, hurriedly wrote a note of leave, nailed it to the table with wax oil, blew out the candle, closed the door, and devoted himself to this work without hesitation. Go in the middle of the night in early spring.

At this time, the sky was filled with stars. The stars are like bright crystal fragments. In this black night, they converge into a wide silver river, which curves but calmly extends to the sky.

However, the hurried night passers-by had no time or intention to raise their heads. They only focused on driving their horses through the heavy night dew with frost and cold, and galloped in the dark night.