劍問蒼天 - 第114章 脫困 - 翰墨軒

Through her blur of tears, Bili watched Zhang Qingyue's floundering and shook her head, clenching her jaw. But the grief was beyond all bearing. Tears of sorrow pent up for more than ten years poured out in a single flood that day.

"It was me—it was I who killed my mother!" the woman, sunk deep in the painful past, said mournfully, with a note of desolation.

Zhang Qingyue shook his head at once. Looking at her frail, helpless figure, he felt a sudden pang of bewilderment, as though he were seeing himself from years ago—just as lost and alone. "No," he said, stepping forward, his voice low and gentle. "Your mother loved you more than anyone. You were only a child then, you knew nothing—how could you have harmed anyone?"

Bili sobbed, "But—but Father has always hated me. I know he wishes I were dead. He blames me for killing Mother!"

Zhang Qingyue said softly, "He doesn't. Don't let your thoughts run wild. Your father never blamed you, did he? Didn't he come to rescue you? Has he ever treated you badly all these years?"

Bili's body gave a shudder, and her face seemed to pale. From where he stood, Zhang Qingyue saw that her once-lovely features, streaked with tears like pear blossoms in the rain, bore a sorrowful beauty that was positively stirring.

But when she raised her head, Zhang Qingyue did not dare meet the gaze that shone from behind those tears, and he turned his eyes away.

A long while later.

"You're a good man," she said suddenly, softly, faintly.

Somewhere deep in Zhang Qingyue's heart, something gave a sudden leap. He at once forced himself to be calm and smiled. "Not at all. It's only that we'll be dead together any moment now—a few comforting words before the end, that's nothing."

Bili slowly stopped crying and wiped the tears from the corners of her eyes. With a low sigh, she said, "Yes. We're going to die together." At this she seemed to recall something, and said to Zhang Qingyue, "Dying here with me—have you ever regretted it in your heart?"

Zhang Qingyue was taken aback. In an instant countless images flashed through his mind, as though in that moment he had returned to Mount Canglan, to Great Zhu Peak. "Of course I regret it."

He said it in a low, subdued voice.

Hearing this, Bili's face fell at once. "Hmph. In the Holy Sect, I don't know how many men would give anything to die at my side—yet it falls to you, of all people, to be so presumptuous!"

Zhang Qingyue's anger flared, but one look at Bili and it died away again. He only sighed and shook his head. "Perhaps. But if I could be buried on Great Zhu Peak, then truly I would die without complaint."

Bili's face darkened. She stared at him, silent a long while, then said abruptly, "It's for that senior sister of yours, Ling'er, isn't it?"

Zhang Qingyue leapt up and pointed at her in astonishment. "You—how do you know?"

Bili turned her head away. "You said so yourself, raving in your fever a while back."

Zhang Qingyue was stunned. He was about to say something to reproach her, but on second thought—here he and she were about to die, and from now on he would never see his senior sister again; even after death, even as a ghost, he would never behold the sights of Great Zhu Peak again!

Only—would his senior sister remember him?

At this thought, his heart suddenly went cold and ashen. He gave a long sigh, and the bitterness of it sank deep and would not be shaken off. He turned and walked out. Watching his receding back, Bili sat staring blankly, lost in a daze.

After a long while, she slowly turned her head, gazed at the two idols, and bowed down before them. "Holy Mother, please look with compassion upon the people of this world. Protect him, watch over him. Ming King above, I beg you, wield your power that split heaven and earth, and save—"