Untouchable Lovers-Chapter 258 - 235 Time Enough for Love
Chapter 258: Chapter 235: Time Enough for Love
Chapter 258: Chapter 235: Time Enough for Love
After a lengthy silence, Guan Canghai chuckled and said, “Indeed, I do know, it’s just that I know his whereabouts but not exactly where he is now.”
Chu Yu furrowed her brow, “What does that mean?” What is meant by “knowing his whereabouts but not where he is”?
Guan Canghai slowly recounted the events of the day Rong Zhi had prevented him from leaving. That day, just as they were about to compete in martial arts for the second time, Rong Zhi suddenly collapsed, not as a pretense but because there truly was a problem with his health.
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After being rescued and regaining consciousness, Rong Zhi felt his strength had returned and thought there would be no further complications. However, for reasons unknown, he would occasionally experience sudden bouts of weakness. The first episode occurred after a fierce fight with Hua Cuo; at that time, he didn’t take it seriously, merely checking his own pulse and finding nothing abnormal, assuming it was due to overexertion. Yet, to his surprise, he began to suffer from repeated episodes afterward. The milder symptoms included an inability to exert strength, while the more severe ones could even lead to brief spells of unconsciousness.
Upon hearing Guan Canghai discuss Rong Zhi’s condition, Chu Yu immediately remembered that Tian Rujing had once promised to save the unconscious Rong Zhi by feeding him two pills that were at least three hundred years old… Her initial worries were evidently not unfounded; it looked like the antidote had indeed expired.
Put simply, Rong Zhi had taken the wrong medicine.
Chu Yu hesitantly explained the situation to Guan Canghai, who was stunned for quite a while before a strange smile appeared on his lips. And after a moment, it turned into a loud laughter: “So that’s what happened.”
While laughing, he said, “Rong Zhi thought that Tian Rujing had tampered with something. Now, however, he’s gone to find Tian Rujing. Only, I’ve heard that since the Southern Dynasty changed emperors, Tian Rujing also vanished to parts unknown.”
Naturally, Rong Zhi who went looking for Tian Rujing was nowhere to be found as well.
Perhaps Rong Zhi would find Tian Rujing and obtain a permanent solution to his problem, or, even if he found Tian Rujing, it might not change the situation, or maybe he couldn’t find Tian Rujing at all—though the likelihood of that was very small.
But all that no longer had anything to do with her.
She was Chu Yu, solely her own Chu Yu. Now, whatever Rong Zhi did, as long as it did not interfere with her life, it had nothing to do with her anymore.
Chu Yu smiled slightly, thanked Guan Canghai, and jumped down from the carriage. As soon as she got out, she saw three figures at the entrance to Chu Garden, the smallest of whom rushed over like the wind and crashed into her embrace, hugging her waist tightly with both hands.
Chu Yu bent down to gently stroke Liu Sang’s hair, then looked up again at the entrance where Huan Yuan stood with a lantern in his hand, casting a soft, yellow glow, and Amman, who crouched beside, slowly stood up.
These people, they were all waiting for her.
Holding Liu Sang’s hand, Chu Yu slowly walked towards the entrance, her face gradually breaking into a joyful smile.
After seeing Chu Yu home, the carriage didn’t hurry away. Guan Canghai sat inside with a curious smile on his lips, quietly listening to Chu Yu’s footsteps becoming more and more light-hearted, hearing her enter Chu Garden with the others, closing the big gate behind them.
In the spring night, too, a pleasant breeze blew, and Guan Canghai extended his hand beyond the curtain of the carriage, feeling the spring air kiss his fingertips, “Eh, I rarely lie, but as the saying goes, ‘you are known by the company you keep.’ Having been around Rong Zhi for so many years, I still manage to talk nonsense with quite the air.”
“Don’t you think so?”
The barely audible murmurs echoed in the carriage and were soon dissipated by the breeze that filtered in, leaving only an echo that seemed long and profound in response to Guan Canghai.
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Having confirmed the identity of the person inside the carriage and assured that Guan Canghai was uninvolved, Chu Yu finally let go of the worry in her heart and began to live leisurely within her own residence. Occasionally, on a whim, she would disguise herself as Guan Canghai’s maid and visit the empress dowager Feng Ting’s learning scene—a sight unseen elsewhere.
For Feng Ting, Chu Yu harbored little ill will, since besides having someone knock her unconscious, she hadn’t caused any real harm to her. Besides, it was Chu Yu who had first spied on her identity. With that in mind, things seemed even-stevens. After all, the event was in the past, and harboring resentment was futile.
After eavesdropping for several days, Chu Yu began to gradually understand the cryptic language of flowers and grass that the two communicated in. But she wasn’t interested in such matters, often letting her mind wander after listening for a little while. By contrast, Feng Ting’s focus made Chu Yu feel inferior. When she consulted Guan Canghai, the solemn seriousness on her face seemed to bathe her features in an appealing light.
Although Feng Ting had come to Luoyang, she wasn’t worried about upheavals occurring back in Northern Wei’s capital, Ping City, because her leap into the fire during the late Emperor’s funeral had significantly consolidated her and the current little emperor’s positions, garnering support from everyone at court. To Chu Yu now, Feng Ting’s performance as the ‘fire butterfly’ was just political posturing, but even if it was an act, the fact that a high-status, young, and beautiful woman dared to put everything at risk and jump into a raging fire bespoke immense courage, decisiveness, and strength.
Chu Yu admitted she didn’t have that kind of daring.
Apart from Feng Ting revealing the truth, through the collection of information from various sources, Chu Yu also came to understand the past events related to Jiran. After Jiran and Wang Yizhi repelled yet another assassination attempt by Rong Zhi’s subordinates, they found refuge in a Buddhist temple in Ping City, the capital of Northern Wei. As fate would have it, it was there that they encountered Feng Ting, who by that time had become the Empress Dowager. She resolved the lingering threat of their pursuit and allowed Jiran to heal from his injuries within the temple.
This period of healing led to an unexpected issue, an inexplicable and subtle romance seemed to have blossomed between an Empress Dowager and a monk. Although nothing truly scandalous occurred, what was shared was enough to leave Jiran filled with shame and wanting to die. As soon as he recovered, Jiran requested to leave Ping City. Feng Ting, aware that their social standings made a relationship impossible and being a person of strong will unwilling to lose her sense of reason over a slight affection, allowed Jiran to move to Luoyang and obtain a significant position at Baima Temple.
Latterly, Feng Ting came to Luoyang to invite Guan Canghai, and stayed to seek his teachings when she could not persuade him to return with her. She remembered Jiran and visited Baima Temple once—the first and last visit, which happened to be witnessed by Chu Yu.
There was no conspiracy or trickery involved; it was simply a fleeting romantic sentiment that arose from nowhere and was abruptly ended.
Having reached this conclusion, Chu Yu felt somewhat wistful and also found it incredible. At that time, Wang Yizhi should have been with Jiran. When Feng Ting encountered Jiran, she should also have met Wang Yizhi. How could it be that someone, in seeing Wang Yizhi, instead fell for a monk?
In the end, she could only attribute it to the fact that people’s aesthetic preferences are indeed diverse.
Without realizing it, Chu Yu and Guan Canghai grew closer and closer. Initially, she only made occasional visits to see the Empress Dowager’s scholarly pursuits, but later, she spent more time running next door than she did in her own estate, simply because she found Guan Canghai very much to her taste. Aside from his blindness, there was hardly anything about him she could critique.
Compared to Rong Zhi, Guan Canghai’s hobbies were more down-to-earth. He enjoyed fishing and sometimes would catch a large basket of fish, cook them up in various styles, and share them with Chu Yu, Huan Yuan, and others.
He had a pair of nimble hands; hands that could hold their own against Amman with strength, or delicately weave through the grass to craft intricate flower crowns, which he would then accurately toss onto Chu Yu’s head.
Of course, more often than not, he would throw them onto Hua Cuo’s head.
Unknowingly, Guan Canghai intruded into the world of Chu Yu and her companions. The wall separating their residences became as if non-existent, and finally, they just made a door through it.
While he could hold his own in a fight with Hua Cuo, Amman, and Liu Sang simultaneously, he also engaged in discussions of the ancient and modern with Huan Yuan and didn’t forget to consult with Chu Yu about where to go out and have fun the next day.
His eyes might have been blind to color, but his heart saw a more vivid landscape than those with sight.
In spring, he sat in the woods listening to the birds sing; in summer, he lay by the pond inhaling the scent of lotuses; autumn, a fine season, was when he accompanied Chu Yu in feasting on all sorts of aquatic food; and in winter, he would sit with Chu Yu under the eaves to listen to the falling snow.
The rustling sounds, quietly heard at night, turned out to be incredibly beautiful.
Both were wrapped in furs from head to toe; from afar, the two figures sitting side by side resembled two large and small fluffy balls huddled close together.
While listening, Chu Yu complained, “Why should I accompany you in doing this, sitting in the cold night when I should be sleeping inside.” But even as she grumbled, she couldn’t help but listen intently, never having thought that one day she would go out of her way to listen to such inconspicuous sounds and actually enjoy it.
Guan Canghai smiled and said, “Of course you’re here to keep me company. I’m full of faults, fond of fun, and lazy, thank you Chu Yu.”
Giving him a sideways glance, Chu Yu said in a tone of sudden realization, “Right, now that you mention it, I discovered you have so many faults, and yet I’ve been tolerating them all along. How broad-minded of me.”
Still smiling, Guan Canghai replied, “With such broad-mindedness as yours, you should keep on accompanying me.”
“What’s the benefit to me if I accompany you? Are you going to support me?”
“That wouldn’t be too difficult.”
Right now, he was almost taking care of her, for she ate all her meals by mooching off his household.
Of course, this was said in jest. After a laugh, no one took it seriously, at least not Chu Yu.
From the waning spring to the summer solstice, through autumn and into winter, and then the spring of the next year, Chu Yu had hardly thought of Rong Zhi. The shadows of the past were gradually fading in her mind, and the occasional fleeting moments no longer stirred any waves.
Time was enough to fall in love, and also enough to… forget love.
