Chapter 1824 — Farewell in the Snow Valley
The Blossom Guardian · Page 1 of 2
"So that is how it is!" Tang Zhi nodded. "Then the herbs written on that prescription..."
"They are all ordinary herbs. You can buy every one of them at any pharmacy," said Elder Zhang.
Gu Mengyao nodded at that. It seemed this task could only fall to her. She took the prescription Elder Zhang held out, and solemnly tucked it into the front of her robe. This was the very thing that would save Wei Zhao's life; she could not be careless with it in the slightest.
"Miss Gu, Miss Shen, you may leave the valley now." Having finished all of this, Elder Zhang turned to Gu Mengyao and Shen Yushu. "The Snow Valley's sacrificial rite and the ceremony of taking a disciple are about to begin, and you are not of the Snow Valley. You cannot stay here!"
"But..." Gu Mengyao looked at Tang Zhi with reluctant eyes, then at the unconscious Wei Zhao, and for a moment did not know what to say.
"Elder Zhang, may I... see them off?" Tang Zhi knew that the decision was made and could not be undone; there was nothing for it but to accept. Still, she could fight for one thing: to walk the last stretch of the road with Yao Yao, Little Shu, and Wei Zhao — and after that, never see them again.
"Well... very well!" Elder Zhang was a kindhearted man. So long as Tang Zhi's requests were not too unreasonable, he would grant them.
Gu Mengyao and Shen Yushu packed their belongings. It was Shen Yushu who had carried Wei Zhao here in the first place, but now Snow Valley disciples were already waiting at the gate with a stretcher. There was no need for Shen Yushu to bear him on her back any longer; they would carry Wei Zhao out of the valley and lift him into the car.
From the guest rooms to the car outside the valley was no great distance, yet beneath Tang Zhi's feet it seemed miserably short.
"However far one escorts a friend, parting comes in the end..." Tang Zhi's gaze fixed blankly upon Wei Zhao's face, and a flicker of unwillingness cut across her clear eyes.
Let me look at you clearly. Perhaps this parting will be forever.
And yet, at this moment, I am proud. I am happy.
At last I am no longer that useless ornament of a girl who cannot so much as truss a chicken. Never again will I be a burden to you...
When we meet again, I can tell you proudly that I am finally able to help you. But by then, perhaps you will no longer remember me...
A smile lingered on Tang Zhi's face, yet tears welled up in her eyes in spite of herself, and everything before her blurred into mist. It was as if she had suddenly gone back to her third year of high school, to the little path where she had first met Wei Zhao, to the shade of the tree where they had their first date, to that romantic night in Xixing Mountain Village...
All of it would become eternal memory, buried deep in her heart — a memory that belonged to her and to no one else!
And the man in that memory would no longer recall this sweet, unclaimed chapter of the past...
Tang Zhi turned the diamond ring on her finger ever so gently, and a trace of hard resolve crossed her face. "Yao Yao, Little Shu, I am leaving Wei Zhao to you. Take good care of him for me... From now on, there will be no Tang Zhi in his life..."
Gu Mengyao pressed her lips together and listened to Tang Zhi in silence, tears running down her face before she could stop them. Once she had pushed Tang Zhi away and set herself against her, but now she truly could not bear to part from her — truly, she did not want to!
"Sister Yun Yun... I am so moved..." Shen Yushu was crying her eyes out at this moment too. She had found that Tang Zhi now held a place in her heart no smaller than Gu Mengyao's, and she understood very well that this parting might well be forever. Tang Zhi was not like Xiaoxiao: the Heartless Art she practiced meant that she was fated never to return to Wei Zhao's side...