---

Extra 2 • My beloved, My soulmate

---

Everyone in jianghu caused a huge ruckus over it, but who among them had really seen the key to the Liuli Armor?

Wen Kexing had seen it.

He remembered clearly how he had held this “key” to so much conflict and bloodshed. In reality, it was only about 10 centimetres long, as thin as a cicada’s wing, and was almost weightless in his hands, as if it were just another strange-looking flower ornament decorating the temple of a young girl.

A deadly flower ornament.

On Fengyai mountain, the fierce winds blew at Wen Kexing’s clothes, his palm still glowing green. The Hanged Ghost had just died under a blow from this hand, his corpse falling down the mountain not to be found again. Afterwards, many more would take their rest here.

A ghost-infested place that a normal human cannot enter?

Good! Then let me, this normal human, wreak havoc upon this place for you to see.

His hand pushed forward with force, and that thin key within his hold turned to ashes, scattering down the thousand-meter depth of the mountain.

“A-Xiang, let us depart.”

Wen Kexing placed himself in the shoes of a cool-eyed bystander, brought his little girl to tour this jianghu for about three months, waiting for all the interested parties to prepare their makeup for the stage. In those three months, he got to experience the lush forests where bamboos grow high, venture through the sea of sand of the great desert, drink the melted snow of first spring, hold the soft pale hands of the beauty from Goulan theatre, feast on his share of perfume-and-powder-laden wine made from pear flowers.

Then in Jiangnan, he met a beggar who was sunbathing in a corner of the street.

It was not rare to see beggars, what was rare was the pale light he saw concentrated in that person’s eyes, coalesced on that person’s eyelashes, making him feel like something has poked him in the chest. It was as if within that light he could see peace and ruins, and the multigenerational hatred and love, debts and favours that originally laid heavy on his chest could not help but be lightened up.

Wen Kexing suddenly cited aloud: “All sufferings in life pour into this wine jar…⭐”

➖⭐
Origin: 平生落魄溷区寰 = the Lifetime slumped and left the area.
➖

A-Xiang: “What?”

She was a foolish girl who did not understand shit, who could not even speak like a person, let alone understand these tragic works about grieve and regrets, so Wen Kexing could only smile dismissively.

He did not expect A-Xiang to lean over the window, look down then spoke clear and loud: “Young master, would you look at that man! If he’s a beggar, why doesn’t he own a mere broken bowl? If he isn’t, then why does he keep sitting there the whole morning doing nothing and smiling foolishly? He must be an idiot, don’t you think?”

At that moment, Wen Kexing felt rather miffed, as if a secret corner of his heart had been peeked at without permission, or as if the pebble from that foolish girl had caused ripples on the surface of a lake originally as still as a mirror.

However, he collected himself, then calmly said: “He is sunbathing.”

From the corner of his eye, he saw how upon hearing his comment, the beggar lifted his head to glance at him. On this wide road with them sitting so high above, among the hustle of passerby, to have such a hearing capability…

Wen Kexing stroked the top of his chopsticks, his earlier lazed mood evaporated without a trace. To have decent martial arts, to make his way down to Jiangnan where undercurrents flowed strongly, in these turbulent times and among the gathering sects and clans, many with widely known figures, who is this person?

Once night fell, Wen Kexing took the opportunity to take A-Xiang to chase after that beggar, but unexpectedly, he turned out to witness an interesting play in that dilapidated temple.

In the current jianghu, the number of people with that knowledge and those martial arts could only be counted on one hand, so which of them was he? To be honest, even Wen Kexing could not tell if the decision to follow after him at that moment stemmed from his cautiousness, or simply because he was too curious.

For the few who has self-claimed themselves to be elites for a long time, once they have encountered someone who could hold their interest, they could not help but chase after them to look even more closely.

He just never thought this one decision to give chase was one that would be tied inseparably to the rest of his life.

From the run-down temple in the middle of nowhere, they started escorting that child who only knew how to cry to Tai Hu, while the Swordman of Qiushan Zhao Jing in Tai Hu was the biggest enemy in his life.

On the journey filled with jokes and indignant swearing, spending nights and days along with that person who sold himself for two silvers, occasionally Wen Kexing would think: if it were not for me stirring up this dirty pond, could it be that child Zhang Chengling can remain a nobody and keep depending on his elders’ protection to live out the rest of his life?

Even though people on jianghu tended to feel it was such a waste when tiger fathers have dog sons⭐, but as long as his tiger father was still there, his parents were healthy, his household well off, if he decided to just close the doors and live his own life, so what?

➖⭐
A saying to describe when talented/powerful fathers have useless sons
➖

In his chest there were both responsibility and shame⭐, plus an incredibly cold heart, so he could only bottle all feelings inside, reveal nothing outwardly, and stubbornly stick to that beggar A-Xu.

➖⭐
(*) wordplay: he has both 鬼 (gui), meaning he was the one responsible for the Zhang massacre, and 愧 (gui), meaning shame for causing it
➖

Regarding that person’s true identity, Wen Kexing already had his own guess, but he could simply not imagine how a person of such high position and great responsibility could know exactly when to engage and retreat? Having experienced so much bloodshed it felt like a long dream, how could he still keep his heart unchanged?

That time the two of them descended to the path of the Yellow Springs, Wen Kexing could not resist but use the piece of Liuli Armor on that little ghost to test him, and yet he was met with tactful refusal.

A talented cultured person like that person, a majestic martial artist like him, how could he be involved in those heretical things?

In that moment, Wen Kexing felt this sickly man with his yellowish, ugly face, had just firmly imprinted upon the soft flesh of his heart.

After that, even Scorpion got involved, and all kinds of “heroes” rushed to squeeze on the stage, crowding out the tiny little space. A-Xu and he escorted Zhang Chengling back to these righteous sects who always kept “duty” and “morals” by their mouths. Along the way, seeing the other man teach martial arts to that stupid kid, he could stop his itch and decided to show off for once.

Unexpectedly, from the sword techniques that he had altered to be almost unrecognizable, that person pointed out the origins of Qiuming Sword in just a sentence.

Under the bright sky, in this large jianghu, who could still remember the guests in jianghu who pass by like shooting stars?

Only that person could.

Suddenly, with the sky and earth as his shelter, Wen Kexing had found a small piece of land where he could amicably sit beside someone to reminisce about an old married couple who, to the rest of the world, were not important at all.

With the wind and the chirping cicadas as background, he heard that person evenly said: “Think about it, isn’t it too miserable of a life if all you have is yourself and you treat everyone else with wariness? It’s too painful, being a bad person!”

At that moment, Wen Kexing was spurred on to confess all the sufferings he had endured in this life, to expose all the injustice he had felt for that not-explicitly-stated soulmate to see, yet he just could not do it, instead resorting to a tale made of fragmented pieces crudely stitched together to express some parts of his story.

Painful! He silently thought: being a bad person, it’s too painful!

A-Xu, why could we both not meet each other ten years earlier? When we met, I have already turned into this thing that is neither human nor ghost, while you are severely injured and at death’s door? Why do all harmonious, perfect families in this world have to be torn apart, why do all soulmates have to lament about meeting too late?

Heroes will be at road’s end one day, beauties will eventually grow old, to be able to live according to one’s wishes, how difficult is it?

It must have been from that moment onwards that a thought started to fester in Wen Kexing’s heart like an obsession. He thought: “Why can’t I act as I like for once? Why can’t I keep him?”

In the puppet manor, as that person laid severely injured, at that instance Wen Kexing must have been possessed. He wanted to press his hand to that person’s acupuncture point, he thought: a little more, even if it’s a little painful, but a little more and he can have A-Xu in the palm of his hand for a very, very long time.

This ruthlessness that he had accumulated bit by bit along the way was eventually no match to that person’s sad uttering “Others don’t understand, but do you not as well?”.

How can I not understand?

Of countless people he had met in this life, there was only one A-Xu who weighed heavily upon his heart. He relented to this beggar again and again, relented until it scooped into his heart and carved into his bones, and he would still not be willing to go against him even slightly.

This must be what it felt like to be human.

This…

In this world, there were countless cowards who went with the flow, but there was some who would rise above the currents like Long Que. That new year spent in puppet manor was the happiest and most peaceful new year of his thirty years of life.

He, A-Xu, and that rascal Zhang Chengling, they killed chickens for stew, killed goats, killed cows, then shared with each other a cup of country rice wine.

He tucked A-Xu’s hand that could easily get cold from his injuries into his chest for warmth, and felt like his heart had also melted, then Wen Kexing felt like he had also become drunk.

A-Xu had a harsh tongue, but his heart was very soft.

A-Xu had already grown so big but he still did not dare to eat walnut.

A-Xu was someone who poured alcohol, regardless of good or bad, down his throat like an ox.

A-Xu was…

Someone that he only met by chance, but also his soulmate, his best friend…his beloved.

Yet all good dreams eventually came to an end, there were still matters to resolve in jianghu, and the bloodstained storm he stirred up had yet to cease. In the middle of it all was the ghost valley, where many factions had gathered, except for its anchor star who had yet to return to his original position.

The ghost valley master.

He was both the smooth-talking Lao Wen and the ghost master in blood-soaked crimson clothes. These two should be entirely separate persons, yet were bound by a bone-deep hatred in one body, was this not a strange thing?

Eventually, during the final battle, he used his own hands to stab his enemies but also lost his little girl in purple.

A-Xiang…

A-Xiang, brother will get revenge for you, so if there is a next life, please be born in a good family, with parents to protect you, brothers to love you, so when the time comes for ten miles of marriage dowry, you can continue your destiny with your foolish rascal Cao Weining, and your families would be matching this time, so there would be no more of this desperate star-crossed love torn between good and evil.

When he faced the scorpion leader alone, Wen Kexing’s body was already soaked with sweat and blood. He stared blankly ahead, thinking his great revenge had already been carried out, while feeling an unspeakable weariness in his heart.

He silently thought: my bone-deep hatred has been resolved, this should be a meaningful death, if it has to end like that…so be it?

But that person would stubbornly not let him be.

When A-Xu appeared and brought with him the noble light from his Baiyi sword, Wen Kexing could never express what his feelings were then.

What ten years of hatred, what endure in silence to carry out his mission, what Liuli Armor, what greater picture, in a flash they all disappeared, leaving him with nothing but the beggar right in front of his eyes.

At that moment, Wen Kexing dazedly thought: if only he can grant me just a tiny bit of his pity, from this moment onwards, as long as he lives one day, I’ll live that day with him; if he departs from this world, I’ll bring grass and oil to cremate myself along with his body, so that even as we turn to ashes, we will still be together.

As long as you are willing, as long as you still want me.

Am I allowed to make an extravagant wish, to live with you until we are old and grey?

↩↪

---