novelIm promised to you and you alone
| ← Ch.064 | Ch.066 → |
Translator: reiyu; Editor: GlitteryPanda
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Gu Kaifeng couldn't hold back a curse. He held on tightly to Lin Feiran and swiftly shut his eyes.
It was also Lin Feiran's first time seeing so many ghosts at once. He was so scared he shuddered in Gu Kaifeng's arms and hurriedly nestled his head in Gu Kaifeng's shoulders with his eyes shut, not looking.
Several seconds later, the link broke and the Yin-Yang Eyes lost their power.
Gu Kaifeng had turned even paler. He exhaled a long breath and said, "They're everywhere. Damn."
Lin Feiran hadn't expected his plan to have the opposite effect than intended. He hurriedly consoled, "They definitely didn't all die from falling."
Gu Kaifeng, not consoled at all: "......"
"What are they flying up for?" Gu Kaifeng asked with some interest.
"I don't know, either." Self-taught Yin-Yang Master Lin Feiran indicated this was new to him, too."I've heard that there are more ghosts than usual around temples. They're drawn in by the temple's qi, and go towards reincarnation... I just remembered, too."
Before, Lin Feiran didn't believe in the supernatural, so he forgot about these occult things almost immediately upon hearing them. He never imagined they could be real.
The ghosts amassing from all directions might have had the effect of fighting poison with poison. Gu Kaifeng was now distracted, and no longer paid as much attention to the glass bridge under his feet. Lin Feiran took the chance to snatch the hiking bag, slinging it diagonally on his own shoulder. With one hand he held Gu Kaifeng's arm, his other arm encircling Gu Kaifeng's slender waist, urging him to walk forward. At the same time, he said gently, "Close your eyes. I'm here, and you don't have to be afraid of... heatstroke."
Gu Kaifeng swallowed. He closed his eyes with resignation and pressed one hand against the rock wall. As he moved forward, he gripped every single protrusion along the way. In order to distract Gu Kaifeng, Lin Feiran chatted about everything he could think of. They stumbled onward for more than a minute like this until Gu Kaifeng finally painstakingly reached the end of the glass bridge.
"We're here. Open your eyes." Lin Feiran let go.
Gu Kaifeng looked as if he had just survived a great calamity. He opened his eyes, and seeing that his feet were on solid mountain ground and he had left the glass bridge behind, his face quickly rearranged itself back into the wicked-with-a-hint-of-rascal expression he usually wore.
Lin Feiran silently watched Gu Kaifeng's expression change."......"
But it was of no use.
"I'm checking your heart rate." Worried you'll faint on the mountain path! Lin Feiran compared it to his own heartbeat and said worriedly, "Your heart is beating too fast."
"My heart's beating fast because you're touching me, right?" Gu Kaifeng leaned close to Lin Feiran's ear and whispered sweet words. His voice was deep and magnetic, dispersing testosterone in all directions as if it didn't cost anything. He seemed to be a completely different person from the scaredy-cat just now!
He can still flirt. Looks like he's fine... Lin Feiran's worried dispersed. Now he recalled that he had carried the bag for Gu Kaifeng, cajoled him gently and patiently, and helped Gu Kaifeng cross the bridge - an entire string of max-level boyfriend acts. The more he thought, the more he believed he was very worthy of the name Man of Steel, Lin Feiran!
"You keep resting, and eat something." Lin Feiran pushed the hiking bag into Gu Kaifeng's arms. With his little tail quirked, he puffed up his chest and walked toward the glass bridge.
On the bridge, a big man who had to be at least 100 kilos had collapsed into a pile. His girlfriend, who couldn't be more than 50kg, was hugging one of his legs and standing to one side, her expression desperate."Come on, get up, I can't move you!"
The man sobbed, "I can't stand up!"
Lin Feiran walked over and put his arms around the man's other leg and shot the girl a radiant smile worthy of a superhero."Come on, let's do it together."
Certainly, Lin Feiran was a Bridge Hero.
Like this, Lin Feiran saved several more tourists who, like Gu Kaifeng, were terrified out of their wits on the glass bridge.
He felt that the strawberries in front of his chest... no, his red neckerchief looked even more vibrant!
After Lin Feiran saved one more person, Gu Kaifeng, who had regained all his strength, stood up and caught hold of him."RanRan, let's keep climbing up."
"All right, " Lin Feiran replied. Both their phones chimed with a message notification in unison. Lin Feiran pulled out his phone and looked; it was the group chat. Wang Zhuo was reporting their movements: he had successfully exited the hotel's front door.
Lin Feiran refreshed his group messages. The last notification was from Wang Zhuo, and featured a selfie of him lying on the red heart-shaped bed. A tray lay on the bedside table and He Hao sat by the bed, holding a bowl of congee which he was feeding to Wang Zhuo.
Wang Zhuo's caption was: "My life is like that of a king. Even my meals are fed to me."
And below that, He Hao's assessment: "A wife so lazy that he lay in bed for 17 years. Husband kept vigil by his side and held up the sky for him."
Wang Zhuo replied to He Hao, "Get lost, bastard."
Lin Feiran passed his phone to Gu Kaifeng to read and the two laughed wildly.
The awkward atmosphere created by Gu Kaifeng's nervousness was swept clean away!
After another hour or so, the two reached the mountain peak.
In the ancient temple at the mountain peak, tourists milled about everywhere, extremely noisy. At a distance from the temple door were many incense sellers hawking their goods to tourists. Lin Feiran's father was an atheist, and by his influence, Lin Feiran was immune to these things; when he entered temples on vacation he only looked around. But by now he had become a believer from the bottom of his heart. He bought a large bundle of incense and pulled Gu Kaifeng into the temple. With a stoic face, he prayed everywhere he could pray, his expression impossibly grave!
Gu Kaifeng followed Lin Feiran the whole way. When Lin Feiran knelt, Gu Kaifeng knelt; when Lin Feiran put his hands together in prayer, so did Gu Kaifeng. When Lin Feiran offered incense, Gu Kaifeng followed.
After completing all the prayers, Gu Kaifeng asked Lin Feiran, "What did you wish for?"
Lin Feiran walked slowly toward the back garden. He scratched the tip of his nose and said with some embarrassment, "Nothing much. Just wished for everyone to be safe."
"Who is 'everyone'?" Gu Kaifeng knocked him lightly with a shoulder.
Lin Feiran looked up and smiled at Gu Kaifeng. His beautiful eyes reflected the clear sky and white clouds above their heads, and looked especially gentle and clear."Everyone."
Before, if one had asked Lin Feiran to make a wish, he might have wished for his grades to be better, or to strike gold and make a lot of money, or to become even more outstanding and more radiant...
"I wish that everyone will be well. Fewer deaths and departures, and world peace." Lin Feiran patted his chest and said half-jokingly, "How about that, I'm commendable, am I not?"
"It's impressive, yes." Gu Kaifeng nodded."The problem is that there are 6 billion people in the world. Can my ancestors manage them all? If they could, they already would have."
Lin Feiran: "......"
Gu Kaifeng smiled and said gently, "I'm promised to you and you alone. Surely he can manage it."
As they talked, they arrived at the temple's back garden. Here was a Bodhi tree that was said to have grown here for three hundred years. In the legend, this tree was the incarnation of a woman who had loved Monk Cheng Guan. But these legends were everywhere, especially from the mouths of tour guides at tourist destinations: they'd say this was also an incarnation of a human, and that was also an incarnation of a human... it was common, vulgar knowledge.
Fewer visitors came to the back garden. The Bodhi tree had grown big and wide, and many prayer ribbons hung from it. The bright red ribbons lined the dense green leaves, and alongside the azure sky, the light shone through gaps between the leaves and scattered in fragments over the ground. The sound of deeply spiritual chanting came from not far away...
It was a very beautiful scene.
The two made a circle around the tree and Lin Feiran suddenly voiced his curiosity."Ai, do you think the ghosts from the foot of the mountain were flying towards this temple?"
Gu Kaifeng looked at Lin Feiran from the side and smiled."You want to go and see, or what?"
Before sharing Yin, Lin Feiran certainly wouldn't have done such a reckless thing. But now that he had Gu Kaifeng at his side supporting him, Lin Feiran suddenly felt very competent...
Lin Feiran puffed up his chest and said, "I do want to. Aren't you curious? I want to see what the ghosts do in the temple. Let's go and see."
He wasn't afraid at all!
Gu Kaifeng tilted his head, thinking. He said indulgently, "All right."
Gu Kaifeng shut his eyes. As he had done before before, he mentally constructed a link with the Yin energy in Lin Feiran's body.
Very quickly a chilly feeling overcame him. Lin Feiran nestled into Gu Kaifeng's embrace and looked around, both nervous and curious.
This time, after opening the Yin-Yang Eyes, Lin Feiran's first impression was that it was bright. The afternoon sun seemed to have instantly gotten several notches brighter, and the whole temple backyard seemed to have had a warm-colored filter applied over it. Every blade of grass, every tree, every rock and every brick seemed to radiate pale, warm, gentle light. This was not the reflection of a different light source. Everything in the temple, every small object, every tiny grain, seemed to be shining...
"Heavens..." Lin Feiran had initially thought he would see a shocking or thrilling scene, but the scene before him now was quite unexpectedly very gentle. He was stunned.
Very soon, he saw the ghosts flying up from below. The back garden of this temple seemed covered by an enchantment. The ghosts who had died of old age in their sleep, or peacefully, weren't very eye-catching, but there were several scary-looking, missing-limbed spirits whom Lin Feiran could tell at a glance still held grudges. But when they moved into this glowing back garden, their pained, horrific appearances all returned to normal.
Lin Feiran looked toward the place where the ghosts were amassing. He saw that under the three-hundred-year-old Bodhi tree sat a monk.
More accurately, it was the ghost of a monk.
The monk's face was fine-featured and handsome. His eyes were clear and bright, like stars suspended in the infinitely distant sky at dawn.
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