It's not easy being a Master

31

There were only four figures in the dim candlelight.

No one answered the man's question, leaving only silence to fill the space around them. The youth's face grew tense. He dropped the rag, ready to kick out these people.

But he was stopped by the man.

"Big Brother Chang?" the youth said hesitantly. "They lied to you. Shall I kick them out?"

The man slowly shook his head. In the candlelight, deep grief and sadness were clearly written on his face. After taking a few steps back, one leg directly pressed into the stool, where it flickered for a moment, and then re-solidified after it'd passed through completely.

Everyone saw this. The youth's pupils dilated, and his voice became high-pitched. "Big Brother Chang!"

Big Brother Chang probably felt that something was wrong because he looked down for a moment and exhaled loudly. He asked, "Am I dead?"

"You've already died." Shen Zhixian pulled back his sleeves a little and sat down on the wooden stool. "After you died, you refused to reincarnate and became a ghost instead. But, your soul will soon scatter."

The man didn't respond but the youth looked nervously at Shen Zhixian. "What does that mean?"

"Literally," Shen Zhixian calmly said. "He had an obsession in his heart and won't enter the cycle of reincarnation. It's already been a long time, but he still couldn't pass on. His soul is on the verge of scattering. You'd better try to find a new elder brother soon."

The youth suddenly recoiled and tripped over the stool, causing him to stagger. The man tried to catch him, but his hand passed through the youth's body.

The man's open fingers curled before he dropped them back down to his sides. After a moment of silence, he sighed. Ignoring the youth's insistence that he stop, he began to talk about all the old affairs that had long lingered at the bottom of his heart.

The man's story was not full of excitement; it was merely the separation of life and death, one of the most common partings in the world.

"My house was next to A'Lian's. We grew up together as children so our relationship was very good..."

It just so happened that they both lived near a lotus pond. Every summer, the pond would be full of green jade lotus heads that would open and bloom into the most beautiful lotus flowers.

At ten years old, they loved nothing more than to go out and make a ruckus. Whenever they meet, they would pay close attention to this beautiful scene. For A'Chang, playing boisterously by the water and eating lotus seeds were the best things.

Because the weather was hot during the summer, and because his body was strong and healthy, he would often take off his shirt and soak in the water for a whole day.

"A'Lian wasn't actually named A'Lian at first. It came about because he loved to eat lotus seeds. I always laughed that he was born as a lotus demon. But he couldn't go in the water so when the lotus flowers became ripe, I would often pick lotus seeds for him..."

Unlike A'Cheng, A'Lian was a premature baby. He was very thin and could easily get sick from the cold wind. At first, A'Chang was not sensible, and encouraged him to play in the water. As a result, A'Lian got a high fever that night and almost didn't survive.

A'Chang felt guilty for having almost killed him. Since then, he obeyed A'Lian's words, took care of him, and coaxed him. He would often pick the largest and sweetest lotus seeds for him.

In the evening, even after sunset, the weather was still hot and humid. The thin boy was sitting on the embankment, holding many large lotus seed heads in his arms, and called out in a low voice, "A'Chang gege, it's getting dark. Come up quickly. The water is getting cold."