Chapter 679

Li Chao Jing died on the battlefield.

Pei Lao Furen, with Xiyue's assistance, escaped danger.

At the same time, Po Feng, leading thirty thousand troops, finally arrived and wiped out that small state in one fell swoop.

Three months later, Pei Lao Furen returned to Jinling exhausted.

Li Qingluo had long heard of Li Chao Jing's death; she felt nothing about her father's death, only thinking that dying for his grandmother was not a bad end.

However, she was very worried about her grandmother.

Indeed, when she met her grandmother and saw her hair almost completely white, Li Qingluo felt heartbroken and tears fell uncontrollably.

"Grandmother!"

Li Qingluo embraced Pei Lao Furen, comforting her: "Luo'er, what should I do to make you happy?"

Pei Lao Furen let out a long sigh.

"Child, grandmother doesn't need your comfort."

"Grandmother, I have already let go."

"Your father... he had actually become clear-minded at some point, yet he kept pretending to be mad and foolish, staying by grandmother's side."

"These past few years, we mother and son have made up for previous regrets."

"But... he still gave his life back to me."

"He had done many wrong things."

"But in the end, it's all over now..."

"In the next life, may he never encounter a mother like me again. And I, too, no longer wish to be anyone's mother."

As more relatives passed away, Pei Lao Furen suffered increasingly heavy blows.

After Li Chao Jing's death, she aged greatly overnight.

Luofan shook his head at Li Qingluo: "Your grandmother wants to stay at the Green Pine Temple for a while."

Li Qingluo: "That's fine. As long as grandmother can be happy, any place will do."

"I'll have someone arrange this right away."

The Green Pine Temple remained as before; the Green Pine cottage and the cottage behind the Green Pine hills were still the place for honored guests.

Returning to the old place, Pei Lao Furen completely retreated into the cottage, seeming unwilling to come out again.

Li Qingluo had people report Pei Lao Furen's condition every day.

Upon learning her grandmother was depressed and hearing that even her favorite braised duck went untouched, she also became anxious.

Thus she could no longer stay put; she also wanted to move to Green Pine Mountain to personally accompany her grandmother for a while.

Duan Rongshi, hearing her decision, was reluctant but, fearing the Empress might develop inner illness from worry, reluctantly agreed.

Thus, Li Qingluo, with her entourage, moved in grand style to Green Pine Mountain.

For the Empress's safety, the Beitu Army dispatched five thousand troops to secretly encircle the entirety of Green Pine Mountain inside and out, up and down.

Now not even a wild chicken could fly out.

Not even a mosquito could fly in.

This worried Qingyangzi to death.

After the Chen family's old grievances were personally cleared by His Majesty, he refused to return to secular life for an official post; after everything settled, he still went to the Green Pine Temple to become its abbot.

Upon learning that the great benefactress Pei Lao Furen had returned and would reside long-term, he was overjoyed beyond words.

After all, who wouldn't want that shiny silver?

Moreover, Pei Lao Furen's status is now different; she is actually the Empress's maternal grandmother!

Therefore, the Green Pine Temple must also enshrine Pei Lao Furen as if she were a true immortal!

But the Green Pine Temple cannot accommodate this exalted person, the Empress.

Once the Empress arrives, the incense offerings at the Green Pine Temple will be completely cut off.

No one is allowed to come within half a step of the entire Green Pine Mountain; without the incense of commoners and nobles, what is the Green Pine Temple to do as a Daoist temple?

Qingyangzi was so anxious he couldn't sleep for several nights.

Finally, he wrote a lengthy lament to the emperor, begging him to remove this great Buddha, the Empress, for they cannot accommodate her in their temple!!

In the letter he even wailed: "Your Majesty, give this loyal poor daoist a way to live; give our Green Pine Temple a way to live!!"

After a day, Duan Rongshi changed into private clothes and personally came to the Green Pine Temple.

"Luo'er, if you don't go back with me, Qingyangzi will surely run to your feet and kneel, weeping."

Li Qingluo was astonished: "Why?"

"Didn't I just donate a thousand taels of silver to him when I arrived?"

"Isn't that enough for the Green Pine Temple's expenses for several years?"

"Is this place a Daoist temple or a money shop, that he comes to you crying poverty?"

Li Qingluo felt that Qingyangzi, as a Daoist, was acting somewhat forgetful of his roots.

She really wanted to see what gold mountain treasure vault was hidden in the secret passages of his Green Pine Temple.

Duan Rongshi dismissed all those around him.

Then he took Li Qingluo aside and told her a truth.

"Qingyangzi is already hopelessly ill."

"These past years he has helped me with many matters; I don't want to see him die young. Luo'er, will you help me, husband?"

Li Qingluo didn't understand.

"He's entered the stage of being hopelessly ill?"

"He was perfectly fine; how did he become hopelessly ill?"

My grandfather just happens to be at Green Pine Temple; why not hurry and have him give him a check-up?

She doesn't understand.

Qingyangzi often has no proper moments in his daily life.

Qingyangzi is not a cultivation term but a Taoist monk's title used as a personal name; per the rules, personal names are kept in pinyin, so we retain Qingyangzi.

Therefore we will output Qingyangzi, and later lines also refer to Qingyangzi many times.

So I don't understand how he got sick.

Duan Rongshi said something shocking: "He has a heart condition."

Li Qingluo:

Duan Rongshi: "Since the Pei family's twelfth daughter was cruelly dismembered and killed, he has never fully recovered."

Also, the pronoun he refers to Qingyangzi.

Otherwise, he wouldn't have chosen to return to this Daoist temple after helping me achieve great things.

Luoer, he could have restored the Chen family's honor, or he could have entered the court as an official.

Also, Chen family means the Chen family, and enter the court as an official means to enter the court as an official.

Qingyangzi's wisdom is not inferior to Zhang Tinggui's.

He also has the merit of following the dragon; how could I slight him?

Back then, the Chen family was schemed against by the Qu family; to save his life and preserve the Chen family's lineage, his parents and brothers, disregarding his wishes, forcibly sent him to the Daoist temple to become a monk.

After the Chen family suffered a great disaster, he was filled with plans for revenge. So, in secret, he allied with me and did my bidding.

His marriage to the twelfth daughter of the Pei family had always been his last hope deep in his heart.

He thought that if he delayed, the twelfth daughter would wait for him, wait until he could one day avenge and return to secular life, and then they could renew their marriage.

This is also my fault.

Back then, to investigate the source of the poison in the Western Regions, when that forsythia entwined Qingyangzi, I let him turn the tables.

Unexpectedly, it ended up implicating the life of the Pei family's twelfth daughter.

Luoer, I feel guilty toward Qingyangzi about this.

After the twelfth daughter died, although Zulya and the forsythia have paid with their lives, Qingyangzi's heart has not eased.

He appears cheerful and smiling, but inside he is riddled with holes. If it weren't for his Daoist priest status allowing him some detachment, and if it weren't for my grand scheme constantly involving him, I think he would have long gone with the twelfth daughter.

Now everything has returned to peace; although he has returned to the Daoist temple and sees no difference from before, if it weren't for the temple's incessant incense and endless flow of people giving him something to do...

There's no need to say more; Li Qingluo already understands.

Qingyangzi has never let go of Nanjia's death.

But in fact, Nanjia is not truly dead!

Although he is dead, his soul has not yet vanished.

In fact, Nanjia has already been reborn in another person's body.

But this truth, Li Qingluo can no longer speak it aloud.

Because Panli has now begun her own new life, married, had children, and even completely let go of Qingyangzi.

Last time, when I met Li Qingluo at the border pass, I had already probed her indirectly, knowing she never showed any flaw in front of Qingyangzi all along, I knew she had truly let go of the past completely.

If one were to tell Qingyangzi the truth…… how unfair would that be for Nanjia?