096 Reunion and Tearful Farewell

Du Fu froze. Chen Yage took the chance to break free of him. At that very moment, the woman turned her head, and Chen Yage stood rooted to the spot. That woman was none other than Jujuan, the very person she had lived with day and night in Peach Blossom Land.

Chen Yage could no longer stand by and do nothing, but she could not act rashly either. Seeing a tent nearby, she had an idea. She ran to the fire, grabbed a blazing branch, and, while the soldiers were not paying attention, set the tent alight. The soldiers rushed off in panic to put out the flames, and Chen Yage seized the opportunity to carry Jujuan away. By then, Du Fu had no choice but to help her support Jujuan.

The three of them hurried along at a brisk run. Before long, Jujuan could no longer hold on and collapsed to the ground. Chen Yage anxiously helped her up. Jujuan said with difficulty, “Sister Yage, I really can’t go on. You must run. Don’t worry about me anymore. If you meet You Huan, tell him to take care of himself.”

Chen Yage did not know when Jujuan and You Huan had become so familiar with each other, but she could never leave Jujuan behind and flee alone. She pulled Jujuan up from the ground. “I’m not leaving you alone. Absolutely not. Come on, keep going. Hold on a little longer. We’ll be out soon. Jujuan, do you hear me? No sleeping. Hold on.”

Seeing Jujuan grow more and more faint, Chen Yage became even more anxious. Du Fu hurriedly said, “Quick, let me carry her. Don’t hesitate any longer. We don’t have time.”

Du Fu carried Jujuan and ran downhill. Chen Yage stopped him. “They’ll definitely think we went down the mountain. We should head up now and find a hidden place to stay for a couple of days. Once things quiet down, we can go back down.”

Du Fu felt that Chen Yage made sense, so he carried Jujuan up the mountain instead. Chen Yage led the way ahead.

By then, night had fallen. The evening wind rushed through the darkness, waking the silence of the night. The hurried pace, the quickened breathing—both Chen Yage and Du Fu grew tense.

They did not know whether they could escape this ordeal, but no matter what happened, Chen Yage did not regret it. If she had not acted in time, she would probably have been tormented by guilt for the rest of her life.

In that moment, Chen Yage silently vowed that if she ever gained power one day, she would set the soldiers to rights. She would never allow such a thing to happen again. Soldiers were meant to serve the people, not bully them.

“Brother Du, why don’t I carry her for a while?” Chen Yage suggested when she saw Du Fu beginning to breathe heavily. Carrying someone while climbing a mountain was no easy task.

“No need. Just keep leading the way,” Du Fu refused. How could a man let a woman bear the burden?

Chen Yage suddenly stopped. Du Fu hurriedly crouched as well. “There’s a sound,” she said warily.

Both of them held their breath. “Footsteps,” Chen Yage whispered.

As the footsteps receded, Chen Yage and Du Fu stood up and continued up the mountain. No one knew how long they had walked when they suddenly saw a light in the distance. They headed toward it and, as they drew closer, found that it was a house. A nun came out from inside, and Chen Yage and Du Fu guessed that it must be a nunnery. Since nuns also followed the Buddha, and the Buddha saved all living beings, Chen Yage decided to seek shelter with them and go back down the mountain after a few days.

“Wait,” Du Fu called out to her. “That place is certainly no ordinary nunnery or temple. They are building palaces on Zhongnan Mountain, yet this spot is so secluded and peaceful, untouched by the soldiers. It may be home to some great person. Princess Yuzhen might be living there.”

“Wouldn’t that be even better? If a princess lives there, those soldiers surely would not dare search it so easily.” For some reason, Chen Yage had a very favorable impression of Princess Yuzhen, and she felt a strong urge to go inside the nunnery, as though something were calling to her.

Du Fu hesitated, but Chen Yage urged him on. “Stop hesitating. Let’s go in. If we wait until the soldiers come, we’ll only have a harder time finding a place to hide. Let’s go in first. After everything we’ve been through tonight, what is there still to fear?”

“Who goes there?” Chen Yage and Du Fu had barely approached the nunnery when they were discovered. Thinking quickly, Chen Yage burst into tears and said, “Mistress, please take us in. My younger sister is ill, very seriously ill. Please save her.”

Du Fu stood there stunned, doing his utmost to suppress the laughter that threatened to burst out.

The nun was none other than Princess Yuzhen. However, she was living in seclusion with her hair still unshorn, and she wore only plain clothes. She quickly helped Chen Yage up and looked at Jujuan on Du Fu’s back. Seeing that Jujuan was indeed badly injured, she could not help feeling compassion. “Come in with me at once.”

Chen Yage thanked her repeatedly. The place was the Nunnery of Emptiness. It was not large, but it was still enough for more than a dozen people to cultivate there. Yuzhen led Chen Yage into a room, and Du Fu hurriedly set Jujuan down. Seeing Jujuan covered in wounds, Chen Yage felt both heartbroken and distressed.

If not for her, Jujuan would still be the innocent and happy girl she had once been in Peach Blossom Land. It was all because of her that Jujuan’s fate had been altered. What Chen Yage could not understand was how Jujuan and You Huan had ended up on Zhongnan Mountain, how Xu Yushi had allowed Jujuan to leave Xiangyang, and what had happened during the time she had been away.

Jujuan was covered in bruises and had also caught a chill. Yuzhen applied medicine for bruises, but for the cold they would have to go down the mountain and fetch a physician.

In the middle of the night, Jujuan began to burn with fever. Chen Yage paced anxiously beside her, while Du Fu, too, was terribly worried.

“What should we do? Jujuan’s forehead is burning hot. The physician can only come tomorrow. I don’t know whether Jujuan can hold out until then. What are we going to do?” Chen Yage walked back and forth in agitation. Then she thought of a method that was by no means scientific. She laid a damp cloth on Jujuan’s forehead. After the time it takes to burn one stick of incense, the fever lessened somewhat, but before long it rose even higher.

Chen Yage decided she could no longer sit and wait helplessly. She told Du Fu to watch over Jujuan while she went to find Yuzhen. But she did not know where Yuzhen’s room was, so she searched blindly.

Night was quiet and deep. The lights in the nunnery were growing dimmer and dimmer, until only one room still had light: one was the room where Jujuan slept, and the other was the room before Chen Yage now.

Following the light, Chen Yage drew nearer. Outside the room, she heard voices coming from within. Listening carefully, she realized it was Yuzhen. Of course, she did not know this was Princess Yuzhen; she only thought it was a kind-hearted nun from the nunnery.

She carefully pierced the thin white paper covering the window and looked inside. Yuzhen was feeding medicine to someone in the bed. The person wore a white robe, and the moment Chen Yage saw that white clothing, she immediately thought of Li Bai.

Seeing how attentively Yuzhen cared for the person in bed, Chen Yage silently guessed that the person must be very important to her.