nashuaworldcup Chapter 539
Chapter 539
The cave walls, seeping with years of chill, pierced Dongfang Wan'er's flesh like countless tiny ice needles. Ye Jiuchen's hand gripped her wrist tightly, his fingertips brushing against the scar on her wrist from climbing a tree as a child—back then, he always laughed at her for not being a proper young lady, yet he was the first to rush to catch her when she fell. Now, that same hand was guiding her through the waterweed maze, the dark green ribbons wrapping around her arm, much like the sticky, desperate grip her mother had on her sleeve before her death.
After turning an unknown bend, a tiny flame suddenly flickered ahead. As they emerged from the water, droplets of water still clung to Dongfang Wan'er's eyelashes, salty streaks mixed with cold sweat sliding down her lips. Stalactites hung from the stone chamber's dome, and amidst the dripping water, dozens of mermaid-shaped candles flickered in the niches, casting the shadows of the ancient books and maps filling the room onto the walls like countless outstretched, clawing hands.
A thin layer of dust covered the stone table in the center. On the open page of the "Map of the Nine Provinces of Yu Gong," the Yellow River, outlined in vermilion, meandered like a blood-red line. Dongfang Wan'er's gaze fell on the two characters "Tongguan," and she suddenly remembered her father's letters, in which he always said, "Tongguan is a strategic pass, capable of controlling the throat of the world." Now, under the candlelight, the characters appeared dark red, as if they had been drawn with blood from fingertips. Ye Jiuchen gently placed the double-fish mirror on the edge of the scroll. The watermarks on the mirror's surface meandered along the bronze patterns, suddenly converging into a line of characters, each one as if just carved from blood, carrying a warm, metallic scent.
"The key to breaking the deadlock lies in people's hearts." Her voice struck the stone wall, shattering into a few trembling echoes. Her fingertips traced the scratches on the stone table, and she found half a blurred "nine," identical to the engraving under the paperweight in Ye Jiuchen's study. It turned out that long ago, unbeknownst to her, this place had been their chessboard for manipulating events, and every stirring of her heart was nothing more than a soft sigh amidst the sound of a piece being placed.
Ye Jiuchen's fingertips hovered on the mirror's surface for a moment, the candlelight casting his shadow on the stone wall behind him, the dark patterns on his robes coinciding with the mountain ranges on the map. "Twenty years ago, Father knelt outside the Qianqing Palace for three days and three nights, pleading with the late Emperor to temporarily halt his oppressive policies." His voice was like silk soaked in ice water. "The day I was selected for the Dark Guard, I knew there was no turning back. But you..." He suddenly turned, the candlelight shattering into gold leaf in his pupils, "You found that injured sparrow by the Taiye Pond, and your eyes shone like stars when you fed it millet. At that moment, I thought... perhaps there really is light in this seemingly hopeless situation."
The roar of the stone gate closing was like a thunderclap. Dongfang Wan'er hadn't even seen the mechanism activate before countless arrows pierced the air with a sharp, whistling sound. Ye Jiuchen's sword formed an impenetrable net before him; the first arrow grazed his ear, the resulting drop of blood splattering onto her clothes, leaving a red plum blossom-like mark. She smelled the rust mingled with the scent of agarwood on his clothes, and suddenly remembered that Lantern Festival, when he squeezed through the crowd to buy her a sugar painting; the warm yellow syrup congealed in the night breeze, and he said, "Wan'er, from now on, I'll protect you."
The seventh arrow pierced his sleeve, and as it grazed his upper arm, she saw his old wounds layered upon new ones—so those nights when he claimed to be "busy with official duties," he was in such a dark room, watering others' ambitions with his own blood. When the last arrow pierced the stone wall with a hum, he suddenly staggered and knelt on one knee, warm blood dripping onto the back of her hand, like the last peach blossom rain of a spring night.
"Does it hurt?" She asked, her voice trembling as she spoke. Dongfang Wan'er pulled off the silk sash from her waist, but as she touched his wound, he grabbed her wrist. His palms were calloused, shaped from holding a sword, yet at this moment, he gently stroked the scar on her wrist, like caressing a frightened sparrow. "Back then, you took that whip mark for me," his Adam's apple bobbed, "and I thought, if one day we were truly doomed, I would protect you and make you stand in the light."
The Pisces Mirror suddenly beeped, and the blood-red characters on its surface gradually faded, casting new light and shadow on the stone table. Dongfang Wan'er turned her head and saw that Tongguan on the map suddenly glowed with golden light, perfectly matching the pattern on the fragment of the jade pendant at Ye Jiuchen's waist. Behind them, dense inscriptions had appeared on the stone wall, the most prominent line reading: "The mirror reflects the human heart, neither real nor unreal; those caught in the game must break free from their attachments."
The sound of gears turning echoed from the depths of the stone chamber, and the mermaid candles suddenly went out. In the instant before plunging into complete darkness, Dongfang Wan'er felt Ye Jiuchen hold her tightly in his arms. His heartbeat vibrated in her ears like war drums, or like the spring tide. In the darkness, something warm fell on her forehead; she didn't know if it was blood or tears. The faint light of the Pisces Mirror continued to flow, as if saying, this game, the final chapter has not yet arrived. The human heart is like a mirror, reflecting not the truth, but... another possibility that they dared not speak of, that had long been intertwined with time.
Dongfang Wan'er's fingertips traced the two characters "Breaking the Attachment" carved on the stone wall. The moss crumbled the moment she touched them, revealing a tiny star pattern carved beneath—the very same pattern she had seen in the hidden compartment of Ye Jiuchen's study. As the candlelight flickered, she suddenly remembered the brocade pouch her father had given her before his death, which also contained the same star pattern. He had said then, "Wan'er, some roads must be walked alone." Now she understood that all the foreshadowing had been laid long ago.
“Broken Pendant…” Ye Jiuchen’s voice brushed past her ear, hoarse from recovering from a long illness. His fingertips traced the vermilion mark of Tongguan on the map, where there was a faint groove, its shape perfectly matching the broken edge of his jade pendant fragment. Dongfang Wan’er saw his Adam’s apple bob, recalling how he had bandaged her wounds in the depths of the dark cave last night, using the light of the mirror, the moonlight falling on his eyelashes like butterflies about to take flight.
The moment the jade pendant touched the bottom, the entire stone chamber trembled like a dragon's roar. The mountains on the map suddenly came to life, the rivers outlined with golden lines began to flow, and golden smoke rose from Tongguan Pass, rushing past them like a stampede of horses. Dongfang Wan'er was protected behind Ye Jiuchen, but she noticed that the silver threads in his hair were particularly striking in the light—it turned out that he had grown gray hair over the years, and she had never noticed.
The creaking sound of the stone door opening was like a dream that hadn't ended in a century. Luminous pearls were embedded in the stone walls on both sides of the passage, and every three steps a phoenix with outstretched wings was carved, the same pattern as the gold hairpin her mother had brought with her as part of her dowry. The further she walked, the stronger the bitter scent of herbs became. When the herbal hut finally came into view, she suddenly remembered when she was twelve years old and had mistakenly entered the Imperial Hospital. It was then, with a similar scent mingled with sandalwood, that an old doctor smiled and gave her a candied fruit, saying, "Little girl, after hardship comes happiness."
The alchemy furnace was forged from the tears of mermaids from the South China Sea. Tiny pearls were embedded in the intertwined floral patterns on its surface, shimmering with iridescent light under the candlelight. Dongfang Wan'er's gaze fell on the "Prescriptions Worth a Thousand Pieces of Gold" on the table. Tucked between the pages was a dried crabapple blossom, the very one she had given to Ye Jiuchen last year during the Qingming Festival.