Volume 12
Chapter 21: The Two Prices
The wooden door closed with a creak, and the world suddenly fell silent, as if the barrage of gunfire from just now had been an illusion. Inside and outside the ancestral hall, it was as if they were two different worlds. The courtyard was swept clean, and the air was filled with a faint, lingering scent of incense. Lu Li carried Zhu Qiao on his back into the main hall and saw an old woman with her back to them, offering incense to the spirit tablets. At a glance, the names carved on the spirit tablets were all “Zhu Ying,” “Zhu Yue,” “Zhu Qianqiu,” “Zhu Xuan”…
“Please, please save Little Qiao!” A voice told him that this old woman could save Zhu Qiao. There was no rationality, no logic, just a throbbing in his heart that was no different from before—like when he had touched the Reincarnation Crystal. His heart pounded violently, as if it were about to explode into a red firework at any moment.
“The frantic willow catkins go with the wind, the frivolous peach blossoms chase the flowing water.” Grandma Zhu calmly turned around. “Lu Li, do you now know who this verse is alluding to?”
Lu Li was struck as if by lightning. He felt as if he were the end of a rope that, after many twists and turns, had finally returned to its starting point. He stared blankly at Grandma Zhu. Even by the standards of the elderly, Grandma Zhu was too old, like a century-old tree, standing quietly in place, never having moved.
He suddenly understood many things. He didn’t ask her why she knew his name, but simply knelt before the ancestral hall with the cold Zhu Qiao on his back. “Please save Zhu Qiao. Everything is my Price. It should not be borne by another.”
Grandma Zhu silently walked to Lu Li’s side. She didn’t have the usual old-person smell, but a scent of grass and trees. She checked Zhu Qiao’s breathing and sighed slightly. “You silly girl. When you left so happily back then, did you ever think you would have such a day?”
She looked at Lu Li again. “Put her in front of the spirit tablets.”
Lu Li did as he was told, placing the nearly lifeless Zhu Qiao on the ground in front of the spirit tablets. Afraid she would get cold, Lu Li even took off his jacket to use as a mat for her. Grandma Zhu said from the side, “Lu Li, Little Qiao is not bearing the Price for you. This is her own Price. Jealousy is born from love, greed is born from love, and sorrow is born from love.”
The moment Grandma Zhu’s words fell, Zhu Qiao suddenly began to gasp for breath. The girl’s face turned from a sickly bluish-white to a slightly healthier pale. Lu Li was overjoyed. “Is Zhu Qiao alright?!”
“This is just a final burst of life before death.” Grandma Zhu’s one sentence sent him back to hell. “In the ancestral hall, the Miko of the Zhu family can take one last breath before paying the Price. This can be considered the mercy of fate.”
She held up three fingers. “Three hours. Zhu Qiao only has three hours of life left.”
Only then did Lu Li notice that when Grandma Zhu spoke, her supposedly cloudy eyes were shining brightly, just like Zhu Qiao’s own sparkling eyes.
“Have a seat, Lu Li. You now have the chance to ask all your questions. I will do my best to answer them for you.”
Of course, Lu Li was in no mood to sit down and chat. “I just want to know if there’s any way to save Little Qiao. Why is she like this? What is this Price? How can it be broken?”
Grandma Zhu glanced at the ancestors’ spirit tablets and sighed slightly. “Lu Li, do you know that this conversation of ours may have been destined hundreds of years ago?”
This ordinary sentence, however, bound Lu Li’s heart like a magic spell. He couldn’t help but feel his hair stand on end, and countless thoughts of rebirth, afterlife, and crystals flashed through his mind.
“I know you’ve used the Colored Stone to be reborn,” Grandma Zhu said again, her words shocking. “I also know everything about you: your past life, your future, your Price. All of this is just through these eyes of a Zhu family Miko.” She pointed to her own temple.
“Little Qiao is like me, carrying a mission from hundreds of years ago. Not just us, but all the ancestors of the Zhu family have had the same power, the same fate, the same life. You want to know how to save Little Qiao? From the future I can see… there is no way to save her. This is Little Qiao’s fate, Lu Li. Just as you were destined to be reborn, destined to be entangled with many women, destined to have your family fall apart in the future, and destined to be alone in your old age. This is all an unchangeable fate.”
Goosebumps rose on Lu Li’s skin, one after another. In front of Grandma Zhu’s almost glowing eyes, he felt he had nowhere to hide. He hated fate, hated the grand trend of the times. He hated all predetermined cause and effect. A person’s life should not be like a program whose nature is already determined when the first line of code is written.
“However, the life I cannot see for Little Qiao does not mean you cannot see it,” Grandma Zhu said vaguely. “But we have to wait for Xi’er to come in before I can tell you. Before that, you have about ten minutes to ask me questions.”
Lu Li took a deep breath. He looked at Zhu Qiao, who was lying on the ground, struggling to breathe, and knew that no matter how anxious he was, it was useless. “Grandma Zhu, I heard from Zhu Xi that I can call you that?”
“Of course you can.” Grandma Zhu smiled. “You are the husband Xi’er has chosen. You can also be considered my grandchild.”
“Do you know my Price?” Lu Li asked the question that had been weighing on his mind for years.
“Lu Li, your Price has two parts, and both are already being paid.” Grandma Zhu held up two withered fingers. “One is your own Price: the frantic willow catkins go with the wind, the frivolous peach blossoms chase the flowing water. You are destined to be troubled by peach blossoms, to love many, to hate many, but in the end, to gain nothing. The ones you love will all leave you. The deeper the love was, the sharper the hatred will be in the future. Chu Jingyi is the beginning. You must have already experienced it deeply. This hell of loving but not being able to have is probably worse than death for you.”
Lu Li remained silent. What Grandma Zhu said was true. The days after he broke up with Jingyi were his most dispirited and darkest times. He couldn’t imagine the scene of Baili, his sister, Hupo, and Jianing leaving him one by one. Just touching this thought made his heart ache.
If this was his Price, then he might as well just die, die in the most beautiful place in their hearts, rather than being betrayed by everyone, with no one to turn to.
“The second Price comes from An Baili. You will forever be walking on thin ice, living in danger. These dangers will not easily take your life, but will only exhaust you, making you watch as the people around you are covered in wounds for your sake, only making you feel your own powerlessness. Throughout your life, you will have no fixed place to live, always drifting from Chuanhai to Mulan, from Mulan to America, from America to South Africa… You will forever live on the edge, on the line between life and death, forever surviving by exploiting the ones you love, becoming a parasite on their backs, exhausting their love, energy, and even their dignity. This Price, in order to make you suffer more, will even make you live longer and be healthier than an ordinary person.”
Lu Li’s lips moved. If things really developed to that point, it would be better if this person, Lu Li, were dead.
“Lu Li, this is your Price. Do you have anything you want to say?” Grandma Zhu asked.
Lu Li showed a self-deprecating smile. “This person, Lu Li, is truly entangled in sin, with monstrous karma.”
