Heavy Sweetness Ash-Like Frost

11

Chapter 11: Where does the Origin of Water Lie?

  In the midst of Peng Lai God Mountain, the fabled abode of immortals, the floating clouds, the water, the small boat.

  In the midst of the seeming and seeming-less cloud mist, a person stepped up from a wooden raft, he gave me a warm smile, "I rashly brought Jin Mi Immortal into this realm of illusion, I hope Jin Mi Immortal will not mind."

  I obediently answered, "The Heavenly Emperor is too polite."

  Actually what I thought was, whoever who was sleeping sweetly in a dream, if the person's soul was summoned out when they were dreaming, they would all be a little angry, but if the person who made this request was the Heavenly Emperor, ah then that is a different story. I bowed towards him, "I wonder why the Heavenly Emperor summoned Jin Mi deep in the night?"

  After a long while, besides the sounds of nature that softly flowed by, I did not hear the Heavenly Emperor answer me. I lifted up my head, and only saw his pair of eyes concentrating on me, yet it seemed like he did not look at me, but was looking at someone else through me. Seeing me look confusedly at him, he seemed to regain awareness and smiled, in his smile was a few sense of sadness, a few sense of regret and a few sense of anticipation, he answered without fitting the question, "This is an illusionary realm, in the middle of the valley of Peng Lai God Mountain, gods will occasionally roam here with their souls, sometimes the illusionary realm will occasionally appear in the moral realms, the mortals call it 'the mirage of a city by the sea', thinking it's the mirage created by the gas that is spat out from the sky toad in the ocean. When I first heard of it, I couldn't help laughing, thinking that the mortals speak interestingly. However ninety thousand years ago, when I was travelling in the night, I saw a girl walk on water, with each step a water lily is born, with each step she went farther, faintly moving ahead,  in the midst of the fog her distinguished elegant composure unintentionally glanced back. I finally realised what was the meaning of an illusion, what the mortals meant by 'the mirage of a city by the sea'......."

  The Heavenly Emperor appeared deeply entranced as he gazed at the mist above the water, lightly breathing out a long sigh.

  When one is old they definitely like to reminisce, naturally the Heavenly Emperor is no different from the usual old people, they like to think about the distant past in the middle of the night. Although I was not familiar with the Heavenly Emperor, I may have some relations with him, so I made some effort to chase away the sleepy bug and pretended to be listening attentively with full on interest. But, this "ninety years ago" really made me want to break down, as such a story could not be told finished in just a while.

  As I was feeling helpless in my heart, the Heavenly Emperor stopped and did not continue to speak. I pondered over it for a while, this seemed like the opera singers in the mortal world, when they sang an exciting part they would make a pose to solidify the impression, only when the audience cried "great" do they continue on. The Heavenly Emperor's pause definitely was waiting for me to respond before he continued, so I casually smiled at him, "Very good, very good."

   The Heavenly Emperor's eyes had a sudden flash, he was dazed for a moment then smiled mockingly to himself, "So alike. In this shrouding mist, you looked exactly like her, but with careful examination the two of you are nothing alike. To say the aura is the same is also a bit pushing it, but this smile is completely different. She didn't like to smile, in the ninety thousand years in which I knew her, she did not smile more than ten times, even if she smiled it was like the morning dew rapidly vanishing, not like yours which is vivacious and young, sweeter than honey."

  He suddenly paused, his voice contained sadness and disappointment, "Actually that may not be true.... in the last fifty thousand years I did not see her smile at all. If I.... if she didn't only have a hint of a smile in the ninety thousand years, perhaps she will not have finished her life in such solitary loneliness...."