As dawn broke, leaves outside the treehouse still dripped with water. There had been a light rain late last night, gentle enough to wet the leaves and soil.
Inside the treehouse, Qi Buyan had been pushed to the edge at some point, with He Sui’an pinning him against the wooden wall. Their clothes were slightly disheveled, and their long hair tangled together indistinguishably.
A bird landed on a branch, chirping.
Half-asleep, He Sui’an kicked out, her foot landing on the indigo hem of Qi Buyan’s robe, which was draped at his side. As she moved, she placed her foot back, finding a comfortable position to continue sleeping.
Their lips were somewhat red, as if they had been rubbed against something for too long, giving the appearance of being stained with rouge. This had lasted from last night until now, and it would take some time to fade.
Below the treehouse, a man softly called out to them, hoping to take them away from Hongye Village.
It was still early, making it less likely to encounter others.
If the villagers discovered that he had brought outsiders into Hongye Village, the man himself would be fine, but he worried the villagers might take issue with the outsiders.
Upon hearing the man’s voice, He Sui’an woke up, sat up, and then lay back down.
Her hair was tangled with Qi Buyan’s.
More precisely, the silver ornament tied at the end of Qi Buyan’s hair had caught her hair, forming a knot. As He Sui’an sat up, she realized this and was forced to lie back down.
Qi Buyan woke up naturally when his hair was inadvertently pulled by He Sui’an. Opening his eyes, he saw her lying there, her slender fingers working to untangle their intertwined hair.
But the hair was too tangled.
The more He Sui’an tried to untangle it, the worse it got.
Her palms started to sweat as she worked, thinking it was hopeless—the tangle was only getting tighter.
The man, receiving no response, wanted to climb up to call them. However, the rope ladder had been pulled up and needed to be let down from above, so he could only stand at the base of the tree and call out again.
He Sui’an hurriedly responded, telling the man to wait a moment, as they needed to deal with something.
“Okay…” The man, thinking of something, silently moved a bit further away, standing under another large tree to wait for them without urging.
He Sui’an hastened her efforts to untangle their hair.
Qi Buyan calmly took the tangled hair from her hands and, with a knife, swiftly cut his own section of hair, separating them decisively, reflecting his resolute character.
Seeing the hair separated in this manner, He Sui’an hesitated to speak. The silver ornament originally tied at the end of Qi Buyan’s hair fell into her own.
The knot was still not undone.
His hair and the silver ornament remained intertwined with hers.
Qi Buyan cut off a strand of his hair merely to make it easier for them to move.
If they wanted to remove the silver ornament and his hair, it would take quite a bit of time. But He Sui’an didn’t have that much time. She couldn’t let the man wait too long under the tree. They were already troubling him enough.
As soon as He Sui’an regained her mobility, she immediately pushed open the treehouse door, which was only covered by a piece of wood, lowered the hanging ladder, and climbed down.
Her hair jingled softly.
Qi Buyan followed her down.
The man watched them descend from the treehouse one after another. He walked over, touched his forehead a bit awkwardly, and told them to take their belongings and follow him out of the village.
He Sui’an thanked him again. After all, he had taken them in last night. Otherwise, she would have had to walk back to Qingzhou to find an inn to rest, or sleep under the sky with the earth as her bed.
Qi Buyan glanced at the silver ornament in her hair.
Not long ago, it had been on his hair tip.
Qi Buyan’s cut hair, which was similar in color to He Sui’an’s, was tied together with the silver ornament, looking seamless and integrated.
“No need to thank me,” the man, who rarely interacted with outsiders, blushed at his neck and earlobes.
“I should be thanking you.”
He said sincerely, “If it weren’t for you, I wouldn’t have known what to do on the mountain last night. I might have died like the others. You saved my life by bringing me down the mountain.”
The man turned and walked towards the village entrance.
He hadn’t gone far when someone called out to him.
“Zhong Liang?” Two villagers from Hongye Village called Zhong Liang’s name, but their eyes were on He Sui’an and Qi Buyan, their expressions far from friendly.
Zhong Liang, hearing the villagers call him, hurriedly shielded them behind him and said to the villagers, “Uncle Zhong, Aunt Li, they mean no harm.”
Normally, the villagers wouldn’t be out this early, but today, unfortunately, they ran into an unexpected situation.
He looked troubled.
He Sui’an looked at the villagers.
Uncle Zhong’s cheeks were sunken, his skin clinging to his bones like a withering tree. His ears were abnormally large, almost drooping to his shoulders, and he revealed decaying black and yellow teeth as he spoke.
Aunt Li’s hair was entirely white, coarse like wild grass. Her nose was low, her eyes few, her eyebrows gone, her back severely hunched, and the hand gripping the cane was as thin and long as an animal’s claw.
They scrutinized He Sui’an and Qi Buyan sharply.
He Sui’an stared back at them.
Uncle Zhong and Aunt Li, who had been isolated from the outside world for many years, felt uncomfortable being stared at by a young girl. Embarrassed and angry, they took the initiative and asked, “Who are you?”
They walked over, aggressively, “Why did you come to Hongye Village?”
Their tone was unpleasant, laced with hostility towards outsiders.
Zhong Liang hurriedly said, “Uncle Zhong, Aunt Li, it wasn’t them who wanted to come to Hongye Village. I brought them in. Please don’t misunderstand. They really mean no harm, and they are leaving now.”
Uncle Zhong glared at him, as if his cloudy eyes might pop out.
“You brought them into the village? Zhong Liang! Do you remember how these outsiders have treated us over the years? They call us an ugly village, call us monsters!”
Uncle Zhong was so angry he staggered a few steps, his chest heaving violently. “They fear we have some disease that will spread like a plague, and they don’t want us to set foot in Qingzhou.”
Aunt Li quickly supported him.
Zhong Liang also rushed to his side, “Uncle Zhong, please don’t get upset.”
Later, Sanshan Zhenren confirmed that their increasing ugliness and physical deformities wouldn’t spread like a plague, but Qingzhou’s attitude towards them remained the same: rejection and disgust.
The people of Qingzhou didn’t want them to set foot in Qingzhou. Fine, they would stay in Hongye Village forever, and they didn’t welcome the people of Qingzhou into their village either.
Even though the people of Qingzhou had no desire to come to Hongye Village, fearing they might catch something bad.
They understood why the people of Qingzhou were afraid.
Everyone fears death.
But what wrong had they done to deserve such malicious looks and words? The people of Qingzhou knew very well their physical anomalies wouldn’t spread, yet they still treated them this way.
Hongye Village was originally a part of Qingzhou, but gradually, the people of Qingzhou separated Hongye Village, not recognizing them as Qingzhou people anymore.
They stopped calling themselves Qingzhou people, instead referring to the others as Qingzhou people.
Because Xuanmiao Temple was famous far and wide, some outsiders who came to Qingzhou would visit the temple and occasionally run into them at the foot of the mountain. Perhaps they had heard stories from the Qingzhou people, as they too avoided them.
How could Uncle Zhong have a good attitude towards outsiders?
Over time, they became xenophobic, not liking anyone who wasn’t from Hongye Village.
Zhong Liang, being from Hongye Village, naturally understood Uncle Zhong’s feelings. “Uncle Zhong, don’t blame them. It’s my fault. I brought them back to Hongye Village without permission. It has nothing to do with them.”
“They saved my life, which is why I thought of bringing them back to the village and letting them stay for the night.”
Uncle Zhong was stunned, “They saved your life?”
He was somewhat skeptical.
Outsiders considered them monsters and would be more likely to kill them than save them.
Zhong Liang had no choice but to tell Uncle Zhong and Aunt Li what had happened yesterday.
Aunt Li covered her mouth in shock, scolding him for risking his life by staying on Dengyun Mountain at night. If something had happened to him, his elderly mother would be devastated, burying her own child.
Uncle Zhong cut Zhong Liang off, not wanting him to say more.
Fewer people knowing about climbing the mountain at night was better. The villagers of Hongye Village revered Xuanmiao Temple and, seeing the stone monument at the mountain’s base, refrained from climbing the mountain at night out of respect.
If Xuanmiao Temple found out Zhong Liang had climbed the mountain at night, Uncle Zhong worried they might think the villagers of Hongye Village didn’t take the temple’s words seriously, so it was best to keep it quiet.
He Sui’an tried to interject, “Uncle Zhong? Aunt Li?”
They all turned to her.
“I’m sorry for making you uncomfortable, but we truly mean no harm and will leave Hongye Village now,” He Sui’an said. “Brother Zhong was just being kind by letting us stay for a night.”
Hearing her mention Hongye Village, Uncle Zhong and Aunt Li exchanged a glance, starting to believe Zhong Liang. Their urge to scold them and kick them out of the village subsided.
Uncle Zhong was one of the village elders.
He had watched Zhong Liang grow up and, hearing Zhong Liang say they had saved his life, softened a bit, though still somewhat stiff.
Except for the Daoists from Xuanmiao Temple, no one who stayed on Dengyun Mountain at night had ever come down alive. The fact that they survived and brought Zhong Liang down too was essentially a favor.
Uncle Zhong sighed.
He wanted to thank them on Zhong Liang’s behalf, but couldn’t bring himself to say it to these outsiders.
So Uncle Zhong remained silent.
Today he could pretend not to have seen these two. Uncle Zhong started to leave but then saw Zhong Liang’s mother rushing over, calling for Zhong Liang to quickly check on his father.
Aunt Li’s expression changed, “Zhong Liang’s mother, what’s happened to Zhong Liang’s father?”
Mrs. Song wiped her tears, saying he was on the brink of death.
Zhong Liang could no longer stand still and rushed off to find his father.
Upon hearing that Zhong Liang’s father was critically ill, Uncle Zhong and the others followed to check on him. The villagers of Hongye Village were very united.
He Sui’an went along too.
Hongye Village’s terrain was complex, with winding paths like a natural labyrinth. Without a villager to guide them, it might take hours to find their way out of the village on their own.
This is one of the reasons.
Another reason is that He Sui’an couldn’t just leave without a word after staying overnight when Zhong Liang’s father was unwell.
Zhong Liang’s father, with limited mobility, didn’t live in the treehouse but in a simple wooden hut constructed by Zhong Liang. When He Sui’an arrived there, he immediately smelled a strong scent of medicine.
All the villagers were gathered in front of the small wooden hut.
He Sui’an and Qi Buyan’s appearances and clothing were starkly different from those of the villagers of Hongye Village, making it obvious that they were outsiders, which naturally sparked discussions.
Qi Buyan leaned against a tree, watching the dying old man in the small wooden hut.
He had no reverence for life or death.
Life and death.
In Qi Buyan’s eyes, they were just two words he knew. From childhood to adulthood, Qi Buyan had never been moved by anyone’s life or death.
The old man’s physical deformities were more severe than those of the villagers of Hongye Village who could walk normally.
