My Enemy Became My Cultivation Companion
Chapter 178 - 157: Like a Fleeting Flower

Chapter 178: Chapter 157: Like a Fleeting Flower

The cold wind swept through, brushing against the small courtyard. The delicate snowflakes vanished in an instant. In her hand, there was only a smooth shard of pottery, reflecting the slightly heartbroken face of the young girl.

Chen Yi didn’t know what to say for a moment. He slowly approached her side, crouched halfway down, and wrapped her, along with the pottery shard, in his arms.

For a while, there was silence, with no words exchanged.

A trace of nostalgia flickered in Zhou Yitang’s eyes.

Not long after, Chen Yi let go of Yin Tingxue. She wiped away her tears, carefully wrapped the pottery shard in a piece of cloth, and tied it securely.

"Let’s keep going," Yin Tingxue said.

Chen Yi suddenly noticed her face was slightly red and asked,

"Are you feeling feverish?"

As he spoke, he placed his hand on her forehead and found it indeed somewhat hot.

"A little... but only a little. It’s not a problem."

She said this, closed her eyes for a moment, then reopened them, perking herself up.

Chen Yi glanced at her, gently wiped the sweat from her forehead, brushed away the residual tears at the corners of her eyes, and smoothed out the strands of hair by her cheek, as if he were tucking her in bed the way he did every day.

Yin Tingxue touched the trace where he had wiped away her sweat.

For the first time, she felt his tenderness so vividly.

Stepping out of the courtyard, Yin Tingxue turned back to look once more. The intertwined green bamboo seemed to conceal the faint echoes of a guzheng melody from the past. A group of children of similar age huddled together, seizing the chance when the nanny wasn’t around to secretly flip through the *Peony Pavilion*. They reenacted the play’s script, and at that time, Yin Tingxue always played Du Liniang, while Hong Ling acted as the close maidservant. The other girls took turns playing the scholar, mimicking adult tones to recite, "For you, my lovely beauty, as time flows like water."

On wintry nights, the coldest of the season, a group of seven- or eight-year-old children snuggled together under the covers, talking softly about their past, babbling, "When I was little, I did this and that..." When the nanny arrived, the maidservants bolted out of bed, jumping and dodging, standing in fear and trembling. After the nanny left, it was nothing but a shared glance before bursting into laughter.

Step by step, the girlish courtyard gradually faded from view.

Chen Yi had taken the effort to bring her back once more, so Yin Tingxue didn’t want to dwell too much on melancholy. She tilted her head upward. The sky seemed lower under the snow, and even the blue-tiled roofs of distant buildings turned white. The Prince Mansion, at this moment, was serene and ethereal. Fine snow fell gently. Observing such a scene, the daughter of Xiang Wang who used to find it dull now felt differently than she did back then.

The long, red-painted corridor had intricate cloud-shaped carvings scattered everywhere. Midway through the walk, the railings on either side opened up, revealing stone bricks extending outward, forming a sightseeing platform. Below was a tranquil lotus pond, once vibrant in purples and reds, now left with half-wilted drooping lotus leaves. The water was calm and mirror-like.

"My mother said this is called the Blessing Pool. That’s why there are no fish in the lake, only lotuses."

"The word ’fish’ is phonetically linked with ’excess,’ so no fish means no excess?" Chen Yi asked.

"Mm-hmm, and the word ’lotus’ is linked with ’remembrance.’ Because of remembering blessings, we cherish blessings."

Yin Tingxue softly explained the origin of the lotus pond’s name. Then, as if recalling something, she grinned and said,

"When I was little, I pestered my mother to pick a lotus for me. She personally went to pluck the closest flower but accidentally fell into the water. She crawled out eventually, only managing to grab a lotus leaf."

As she spoke, her cheeks turned red and her voice grew sticky, as if her head was growing increasingly dizzy.

Standing at the edge of the sightseeing platform, Chen Yi smiled faintly as he listened to her. Then, leaning forward, he stretched out a hand and gently plucked off a lotus leaf.

He was just about to turn around and hand her the lotus leaf.

Suddenly, a leg struck out, sending Chen Yi tumbling into the water. The splash burst forth, the pool’s water icy to the bone.

On the shore, there was only the cold, expressionless face of the one-armed woman.

Yin Tingxue was momentarily stunned upon seeing this, then couldn’t help but cover her mouth and laugh. When the drenched Chen Yi climbed back up, she hurriedly suppressed her amusement.

Zhou Yitang merely uttered two words:

"Retribution."

She was, of course, referring to the deserved payback for his presumptuousness.

Chen Yi wiped the water off his face and snarled,

"I won’t cook for you tonight!"

The one-armed woman didn’t even respond.

Yin Tingxue was clearly full of schadenfreude, but as soon as Chen Yi glanced in her direction, she stopped at once and tried hard to put on a concerned look.

Suddenly, she grew flustered, wondering if she might have upset him. Would he seize the opportunity to pick a quarrel?

But Chen Yi merely chuckled and handed her the lotus leaf.

Yin Tingxue froze momentarily before taking the lotus leaf, just as she had once accepted one from her mother’s hands during childhood.

She suddenly felt even dizzier.

"Do you have any familiar maidservants here in the Prince Mansion? I can redeem one for you from the music bureau."

Chen Yi, still dripping wet, wrung out some of the water and undid his headpiece, letting his hair drape down.

"No. When my mother was still here, yes. After she was gone..."

As they continued walking, Yin Tingxue paused and said somberly,

"When Mother left and Father began interacting with people from the Divine Sect, to avoid exposure, there were no handmaidens left for me. They were all sent away."

For a long, long time, she had been living alone.

Chen Yi, out of nowhere, asked, "Was it very lonely?"

"What?"

"Not lonely?"

Only then did Yin Tingxue realize that he was asking about her. After thinking for a while, she replied, "Me? Actually, not really."

The three fell silent for a moment. The corridor was long, and the stone bricks cold. Water kept dripping from Chen Yi’s hair, yet the instigator Zhou Yitang showed no concern or guilt. This made Yin Tingxue worry incessantly. She feared that the terrifying man might take revenge on the one-armed woman. His methods were endless; even with two hands, she couldn’t fend off his cunning.

A sharp chill brushed past as they walked down the corridor. In the distance, layers of mountains loomed, their snow-covered peaks pressed in like slow, hushed waves.

Faraway peaks lay buried under snow.

"How many steps is it from here to Yintai Temple?" Chen Yi suddenly asked.

"Three hundred seventy-six steps, sometimes three hundred seventy-nine steps."

Yin Tingxue fingered the lotus leaf, unsure of his intention but answered honestly.

Chen Yi chuckled helplessly.

Ah, this lonely girl who isn’t even aware of her loneliness...

Chen Yi gently grasped her hand and spoke softly,

"We’re almost at Yintai Temple. Don’t forget to wish for blessings for our family."

Yin Tingxue nodded, feeling dizzy but managing to muster some spirit.

"I will, I’ll remember."

Watching this, Zhou Yitang’s gaze lowered slightly.

For some reason, despite being someone who usually cared about Chen Yi, Zhou Yitang did not react much to the closeness between Chen Yi and Yin Tingxue.

Perhaps her anger had always been directed at Chen Yi, not at Yin Tingxue.

Yintai Temple grew closer and closer.

"You said you’d willingly climb into my bed two years from now. Was that true? Two years later, would you really?"

"...No, I thought if I obediently served you for two years, you’d let me go..."

"Ha! You lied to me."

"I don’t lie to you anymore. I stopped lying a long time ago."

Yin Tingxue explained hurriedly, fingering the lotus leaf, chuckling, as if lost in memories.

Her face burned fiercely, and her steps had become unsteady.

Chen Yi merely held her hand and continued walking forward.

"Three hundred seventy-one, three hundred seventy-two..."

Chen Yi glanced sideways at her. It seemed like she was muttering something.

Before he could speak, they reached Yintai Temple, and she suddenly turned her head and smiled, saying:

"See, three hundred seventy-six steps—I was right, wasn’t I?"

Chen Yi stared for a moment, then shook his head with a laugh.

Fine snow brushed against their faces. Yin Tingxue distractedly reached out to catch it, only to grasp nothing. Looking at the snowy Yintai Temple, she recalled her mother explaining the origin of its name.

"Snow is like fleeting flowers."

She murmured absentmindedly, understanding that fleeting flowers couldn’t be preserved.

She had once burned three thousand taels of silver here, scattering silver notes like leaves. Now, the drifting snow seemed like the remnants of an unfinished past.

Yin Tingxue pushed open the door and walked inside slowly.

She passed the front hall and reached the central courtyard, where she abruptly froze, staring blankly at the sight before her.

There was only a tree stump left, its rings perfectly round. Fallen maple leaves were scattered all across the ground, as if everything had been confiscated and cut down.

The dim temple was eerily quiet. In a sudden rush, she ran to the shrine, struggling to push the doors open, only to find the lotus pedestal completely empty.

Even the treasure basin that had consumed three thousand silver notes was nowhere to be found.

Shattered clay pots, felled maple trees, the vacant lotus pedestal...

"It’s all gone, everything’s gone!"

The fine snow swirled as tears streamed down the girl’s face.

The Bodhisattva sister who used to speak with her, the strict Maple Aunt who used to scold her... all had disappeared.

She realized that she had long been left with nothing.

"Like fleeting flowers!"