Although he didn't like studying, as the son of a teacher, Zhang Wenzhang felt that he should be able to speak eloquently. However, he felt that it would be difficult for him to do so, so he listened to the advice of the beautiful woman who had grown up with him, the daughter of his boss, whom he liked very much ….
He began to pretend to be deep in thought. Whether it was when he was sleeping, eating, or walking, no matter what he was doing, he would pretend to be deep in thought. This was the method that the woman he had liked since he was young had taught him. She wanted him to think often, so that others would think that he was knowledgeable.
Zhang Wenzhang used this method to its fullest extent. Gradually, as he grew up, he changed from pretending to be deep in thought to actually thinking.
In fact, on the day he married the woman he liked, he began to think about life under the envious gazes of the people around him. Even when he bowed to the heavens and earth, the woman angrily dragged him away, and he reluctantly bowed to the heavens and earth.
He was very lucky, because the woman he liked had a father who didn't like her. Therefore, this marriage, which was clearly a mismatch between their statuses, was completely ignored by the woman's father. In fact, he didn't even show up.
This luck seemed to be with him. As he thought about life, he slowly seemed to understand something, but when he thought about it carefully, he realized that he didn't understand anything.
Time passed slowly. In the summer of the second year after they got married, on a rainy night, his wife was about to give birth.
That night, his father-in-law, the woman's father, threw his head back and laughed as if he had gone mad. He didn't care that the rain was drenching him, and his laughter echoed in the air, filled with sorrow.
Zhang Wenzhang looked at his father-in-law in the rain, at the crazed look on his face. He sank into thought, but this time, his thoughts only lasted for a brief moment before they were interrupted by his distraught mind. That was because … his wife's shrill scream could be heard coming from inside the room. It was the sound of the pain of a difficult labor.
The sound caused his heart to tremble, and he couldn't think about life anymore. In fact, he even felt fear. He was afraid that this day would be the day they parted forever. He was afraid that after this day passed, he would become as crazy as his father-in-law.
As his wife's screams continued to ring out and his father-in-law's laughter grew louder in the rain, Zhang Wen Zhang's body trembled. At that moment, the door to the room where his wife was about to give birth was pushed open. The midwife who had come to deliver the baby ran out with a terrified expression.
"Monster … monster!!"
Zhang Wenzhang's heart trembled. He rushed out of the house and looked into the room where his wife was giving birth. After seeing her pained expression, he called for the people around him to lift the sedan chair and rush out of the courtyard with him.
He wanted to hire a doctor, not a midwife. He had a strong premonition that this labor might be a matter of life and death. This was no longer something that a midwife could help with. Only a doctor could save a life!
Braving the rain, Zhang Wenzhang walked past the noodle stall that still existed even in the heavy rain. He didn't notice that the old man sitting on the big rock in the noodle stall was looking at him. Zhang Wenzhang quickly led his men past the stall.
When he arrived at the city, he found a doctor who seemed to be about the same level as Doctor Mo. Once the doctor brought him back to the courtyard, Zhang Wenzhang looked anxiously at the room where his wife was about to give birth. He suddenly gritted his teeth, pushed open the door, and stepped inside. He didn't want to wait outside. He wanted to go inside, hold his wife's hand, and get through this difficult situation with her.
But at the instant he was about to push the door open, it was also opened from the inside. As lightning roared, he saw the baby in the doctor's arms, and he also saw his wife's motionless body lying on the bed. It was as if she had stopped breathing.
His mind roared, and he could still hear his father-in-law's shrill laughter. His body trembled, and he walked over to his wife. When he saw her pale face, she looked like a corpse, but there was still a motherly smile on her lips. His heart felt as if it was being torn apart. At that moment, he could no longer think about life. Instead, he turned around and glared at the doctor.
His body turned illusory without him realizing it. It was as if another figure was slowly condensing in front of him. The doctor who was looking at him had an expression of disbelief, but he also seemed to have gained some sort of understanding.
Zhang Wenzhang did not know that this scene was practically the same as what his father-in-law had experienced in the past. However, the difference was that in the past, an illusion had appeared behind his father-in-law, and right then, Zhang Wenzhang himself had turned into an illusion, and the one in front of him was a body that had manifested itself.
It was also at that moment that a loud bang suddenly rang out in Zhang Wenzhang's mind. It was as if some memory that had been sealed away had suddenly been unlocked. At the instant it was activated, he felt as if he had woken up from the cycles of reincarnation and opened his eyes from deep sleep. Gradually, there was no longer any madness in his eyes, but they became clear. He looked no different from before, but he seemed to have gained some form of intelligence.
He closed his eyes. As his memories were activated and he woke up from the cycles of reincarnation, he remembered everything. He was not Zhang Wenzhang, but … Su Ming!
He was True Morning Dao World's Su Ming. He was the Abyss Builders' Su Ming. He was the Su Ming who had set up the Mortal Refinement Art on a broken planet to refine the white ring!
He remembered everything, but … he could not remember the cycles of reincarnation he had gone through. His memories seemed to have stopped at the moment he stepped into the cycle of reincarnation for the Mortal Refinement Art.
In silence, Su Ming turned his head around and cast a glance at the woman's body on the bed. He saw her face, and at the instant he did so, he shuddered slightly.
The woman's face was that of Bai Feng in his memories, or perhaps it was that of Dark Mountain's Bai Ling …
'This is reincarnation. She is my wife …' In silence, Su Ming lifted his right hand and tapped Bai Ling's body gently. Immediately, a wave of life force surged into her body, causing her life, which was about to fade away, to recover. She slowly opened her eyes.
She stared at Su Ming, and a smile bloomed on her frail face.
"Let me … take a look at the child …"
Su Ming stared at Bai Ling. Now that his memories had awakened, complicated emotions rose in his heart, but he did not show them on his face. Instead, he nodded and took the baby from the doctor's arms before coming to Bai Ling's side. The two of them stared at the baby together, and the smile on Bai Ling's face was filled with motherly love.
"He looks quite like you. Please don't be like you and always be silly," Bai Ling said with a smile, but there was still a hint of weakness in her smile.
Su Ming closed his eyes to hide the complicated emotions in them, and he sighed in his heart.
Time passed, and in the blink of an eye, three years passed.
During the three years, Su Ming stayed by Bai Ling's side. He no longer thought about life, because there was no longer anything for him to think about. It was a cycle of life and death, an illusory life. In it, everyone was asleep, and only Su Ming was awake. He watched the people's emotions, watched Bai Ling's gentleness towards him, watched the child gradually grow up, and his thoughts could not be described with words.
Sometimes … waking up was a form of pain. If Su Ming did not remember everything, he could live happily as he did in the past, but right then, he wanted to do it, but because he knew that all of it was fake, he could not throw himself into it wholeheartedly.
Three years later, Bai Ling's father closed his eyes and left the world.
Another three years passed, and Su Ming's father in this cycle of life and death, the teacher, also reached the end of his life. His life left his body.
Birth, aging, illness, and death were normal occurrences in the world. The noodle stall in the past was no longer around. It was empty, as if it had vanished without a trace during the passage of time.
When the child gradually grew up, wrinkles appeared on Bai Ling's face, and an ancient air appeared on Su Ming's body, the two of them moved further and further away in the cycle of life and death without their knowledge.
Bai Ling was happy. Even if she had grown old, every single time she looked at Su Ming, gentleness would appear in her eyes. When she whispered to him, she would talk about their childhood in the cycle of life and death, and how they had accompanied each other since they were young.
Su Ming gradually stopped himself from thinking about the past and immersed himself in the cycle of life and death. As they counted the white hairs on each other's heads, they slowly grew old.
Then, their daughter married someone else, and time was merciless. Dozens of years passed, and Bai Ling slowly grew old. More wrinkles appeared on her face, and on a certain midnight, she held Su Ming's hand and looked at the starry sky outside the window while mumbling softly …
"I had a dream. I dreamed of a mountain and an ancient tribe. I dreamed that I was a woman from a tribe and dressed in white fur. There were some pretty decorations at the center of my brows, and you … were a member of another tribe. On a blood moon, you carried me on your back … and ran in circles around a mountain during dawn. You did not want to send me back …
"I dreamed of a promise, a promise between you and me …" Bai Ling mumbled with a smile at the corners of her lips. She did not finish her words. When they turned into murmurs, she closed her eyes and never opened them again.
Su Ming held Bai Ling's hand. Nostalgia appeared in his eyes as he watched Bai Ling's life gradually fade away. He watched the entire world go through what seemed to be a cycle of sixty years.
A year later, Su Ming sold the courtyard house, because there was no longer anyone there who was the person in his memories. As time passed, he became the oldest person in the county city. He had witnessed all the changes that had happened in the county city during the sixty years. He had seen far too many people live, grow old, get sick, and die. Hence, he sold his property and built a platform in an empty spot in the county city. Then, he set up a noodle stall there.
He cooked noodles, boiled soup, weaved grass puppets, watched life, and counted the cycles of life and death …
Tomorrow, I will continue with the third chapter! (To be continued. If you like this work, please come to Qidian.Com and vote for me. Your support is my greatest motivation.)
You've already exceeded your reading limit for today. If you want to read more, please log in.
Login
Select text and click 'Report' to let us know about any bad translation.
