Free Web NovelChapter 164: Chapter 130: The Engraving on the Bluestone Slab
The alleyways of the village were like a palace of childhood memories.
At every turn of the flagstone path, yellowed scrolls of memory would slowly unfurl upon the mottled old walls.
Shen Yuan came to a stop outside an old outhouse.
The outhouse had long been abandoned, but on its faded, yellowed wall, the marks of charcoal remained.
The graceful script transcended time, allowing Shen Yuan to picture a small child from long ago, charcoal in hand, carefully writing on the wall, one stroke at a time.
—Shen Yuan’s Home.
A smiley face was hidden in the bottom right corner of the word "Home." The sunlight slanted onto just the right spot, a dip in the plaster, making the childish doodle shimmer against the mottled wall.
Shen Yuan pursed his lips, tilting his head toward Li Zhi with a soft scoff. He then pointed a finger at her. "Childish."
A few wisps of laughter he couldn’t suppress escaped with the feigned disgust in his tone. The slanting sunlight traced a gentle arc at the corners of his eyes.
"Hmph!"
Li Zhi’s fair chin jutted up abruptly, her dark hair rippling in the spring breeze. "And whose fault was that? You wrote about me first!"
Her long lashes cast fragmented shadows on her eyelids, but they couldn’t hide the mischievous twinkle in her eyes.
"What did I possibly write that was so outrageous it deserved you carving my name on an outhouse door?"
Shen Yuan knocked a knuckle against the mottled old wall, sending a shower of fine dust drifting down. "Damn it, how many years has it been? It still hasn’t faded!" he protested. "This embarrassing moment from my past is still on public display!"
Seeing his reaction, a teasing look crept into Li Zhi’s eyes.
The beautiful girl suddenly took half a step closer, a citrusy fragrance wafting past his ear.
"Don’t you remember?"
Her fingertip traced the smiley face next to the word "Home." Her teasing gaze seemed to pierce through time, as if she could once again see two children squatting amidst the drone of summer cicadas, weaving their innocent bond in charcoal on the green bricks.
Shen Yuan blinked. "What did I write?"
Seeing that Shen Yuan truly seemed to remember nothing, the corner of Li Zhi’s eye quirked upward.
The beautiful girl suddenly shot her right hand forward, her fingertips brushing against a crease in the corner of Shen Yuan’s slightly rumpled shirt.
Her index and middle fingers, warm with her body heat, precisely pinched the indigo cotton-linen fabric. Her grip was as light as a sparrow holding an unripe plum in its beak.
"Let’s go."
Shen Yuan glanced down at the hand tugging the corner of his shirt.
The pale green veins on the inside of Li Zhi’s wrist were faintly visible with every movement, and her nails had the pinkish sheen of a seashell.
At the end of the moss-covered stone steps, Li Zhi led Shen Yuan to an old tree in the village.
The old village tree stood majestically on a circular, flagstone-paved platform. Its rough trunk was so thick it would take two people to encircle it with their arms.
Within the enclosure, its gnarled branches reached for the heavens. Amber-colored resin flowed from fissures in its cracked bark, like solidified time trickling down the deep crevices.
Prayer strips hanging from the branches looked like a tree full of colorful butterflies. Faded vermilion characters and fresh ink marks intertwined in the shadows of the leaves.
A cloth strip, a woman’s prayer for her child’s health, fluttered in the wind, revealing the words "...impervious to all illness."
A copper bell was tied to the end of a faded silk ribbon, on which the wish for "success in the examinations" was still faintly visible.
The old tree was covered in the various wishes of the villagers. freewёbnoνel.com
Whether any of them had ever come true, Shen Yuan had no idea.
Shen Yuan tilted his head back to look at the prayer strips fluttering in the branches. His Adam’s apple bobbed, and his brow arched teasingly. "What, are you going to tell me I hung something up here?"
He couldn’t help but add with a laugh, "Can you even find it? If you can’t, it doesn’t count."
Li Zhi suddenly stepped to the side, blocking the slanting sun. The corners of her eyes curved into crescents. "And what if I do find it?"
Shen Yuan grinned mischievously. "Then I’ll cross it out."
Li Zhi looked at him, her smile widening and her tone growing even more teasing.
"Oh? Really?"
The beautiful girl’s eyes landed on Shen Yuan, as if seeking his confirmation.
Shen Yuan nodded. "Of course."
With that, Shen Yuan picked up a nearby stone. "Just show it to me, and I’ll scratch it out right now!"
Li Zhi watched him for a moment, then with a flicker in her eyes, she suddenly closed the distance between them.
She pivoted lightly on the balls of her feet in the small space to his left, the light catching the ends of her hair like a string of dancing amber beads.
As she spun, the citrus scent from her hair washed over him, and a hand came to rest on his left shoulder.
Li Zhi’s ring finger tapped the spot on his collarbone just visible beneath his collar.
A soft voice, deliberately lowered, sounded in Shen Yuan’s ear.
"Look down and see what you wrote."
At her words, Shen Yuan’s gaze fell upon a flagstone.
Scratched into the flagstone were marks that had remained to this day.
As the carvings, stained by the passage of time, leapt into view, Shen Yuan’s pupils contracted. His Adam’s apple bobbed convulsively on his tensed neck as he swallowed hard.
His knuckles turned white as he gripped the stone, its sharp edges nearly piercing his palm. A fine sheen of sweat beaded at the edges of his nails, glistening faintly in the sun.
The brow he had raised so teasingly now twitched uncontrollably. His rapid blinking cast a chaotic flutter of shadows beneath his eyes.
Back then, Shen Yuan was only seven years old.
He couldn’t reach the branches of the old tree, so he had carved his heart’s desire into the flagstone at its base.
—Shen Yuan ♡ Li Zhi.
A burning sensation bloomed on the shell of his ear where her breath had touched it. The skin on his collarbone, where her fingertip had rested, retained a faint, scalding sting.
As Shen Yuan’s eyes confirmed and reconfirmed the "♡" symbol on the age-weathered stone, an almost inaudible sound escaped his throat.
Just then, the copper bell hanging from a branch was stirred by the wind, letting out a soft chime.
And then, Li Zhi’s voice sounded in his ear once more.
"Hmm, I suppose it ought to be crossed out."
