Enduring the Winter

The Crown Prince of Chen

Five.

When Gui Yan woke up, he found that he was in an extremely familiar place- The Hundred Li Slope.

The only thing about it was that it was extremely different from what he had been familiar with in the past. There were weeds covering up the entire area that were so thick that people would practically drown in it.

He rubbed his shoulders and sat up. When he surveyed his surroundings, he found that someone else was even sleeping beside him. He seized that person up and excitedly shook her awake. “Little flowery flower wifey! How coincidental, how coincidental! You’re also sleeping here!”

Ren Dong immediately opened her eyes when Gui Yan touched her. Subconsciously, she grabbed onto Gui Yan’s arm and flipped in front of him, one hand on his throat, controlling all of his movements. Gui Yan began to incessantly wail in grief. “It’s me! Wifey, it’s your hubby, your hubby!”

When she heard this sound, Ren Dong loosened her grip and let go of him, only indifferently saying, “Sorry.” If this had happened in the past, she probably wouldn’t even be saying a word of apology.

Gui Yan rubbed his arm as he muttered about this and that. Ren Dong glanced at him a few times and asked, “Who are you really?”

“I’m your hubby,” He glowered.

Ren Dong looked at him for a while. “Did you know you were shot by an arrow just a little while ago?”

Gui Yan’s hands paused. “I didn’t know.” His voice was just as lively as in the past, “Because I can’t even feel any pain.”

Ren Dong didn’t speak further as she carefully appraised Gui Yan. When she jumped into the river with him the water had been spraying down on them the entire way. She originally thought that Gui Yan’s wound would become inflamed and fester, and even make him die, but after she climbed ashore, when she pulled the arrow out, no blood spewed out. She had seen his skin fuse together at a speed that no average human could possibly replicate.

“Who are you?” She asked again.

Gui Yan laughed and pulled up a few long strands of grass from beside him, beginning to toy with them in his hands. “This place used to be my home. A thousand years ago it was called ‘The Palace of the Chen Nation’.”

The ancient… Chen Nation.

Ren Dong was shocked.

“I am the emperor’s son. After I died, I was put in a coffin made of frigid jade. No one would have thought that the coffin had the power to resurrect someone, but it transformed me into a gyonshi.” He cut his fingers with the silvergrass in his hands, but no blood seeped out. The wound also immediately healed. He laughed as he said, “I can’t bleed, I heal at an astonishing rate, I can’t live, and I can’t die. It must be extremely disgusting to you.”

He looked up at Ren Dong, thinking that she would turn pale with fright and walk away in panic. To his surprise, she continued to watch him coldly, as she asked, “You still look about 20 years old now, so you must have died when you were 20 years old. How did you die as a nation’s crown prince?”

“I was poisoned.” He calmly replied, “While I was alive I stuttered. Some people felt I couldn’t become the emperor and gave me the Reborn Turtledoves poison.”

Ren Dong was startled.

“Yep, it’s the exact same poison that your Sect Leader has. But my luck wasn’t as good. I couldn’t live as long and eventually died. Everything happened so quickly, I didn’t even have any time to heal myself. I guess I consider coming with you on this trip a part of fulfilling my own desires.”

Ren Dong’s lips twitched. Gui Yan managed to see it, as he began to smile again, “But now, I want to ask your Sect Leader if I can have you for my wife.”

“Why… me?”

Gui Yan slowly folded the grass in his hand into a grasshopper. He gave it to Ren Dong and said, “Because even though I’ve died, I still act like someone who’s alive, while even though you are alive, you are even quieter than someone dead. My intentions are good. I want to help more people before I am reborn.”

“If I don’t do anything, it will be hard for me to while away a thousand years.” He stood up and stood next to a dead tree. As he touched it, he said, “This is a peach tree that I planted a thousand years ago. Later, it built up its own spirit and everyday it would mock me for being a stammering son of a local tyrant. I didn’t think that after so many years have passed, I no longer stammer but the original form of this demon has also died.”

In this moment, Ren Dong felt that the loneliness that she glimpsed in the figure of Gui Yan, who was standing under the sunlight, made her heart clench in an indescribable way.

He had passed a thousand years all by himself. Anyone could be a passing traveler of his life, but he could only be a passing traveler in someone else’s life.

How difficult must it be to dispel a thousand years of loneliness?

For some reason, Ren Dong stretched her hand out to grasp Gui Yan’s two fingers.

A warmth seemed to pass into his fingers, and GUi Yan was stunned, turning to look at Ren Dong. Ren Dong had also been shocked by her own actions. After a very long silence, she lifted the grasshopper in her hand and said, “The… weaving is pretty nice.”

Gui Yan laughed, “Without a doubt.”