Chapter 103: A Century-Long Appointment

At this moment, in a dimension only Shen Mingyue could perceive, a voice only she could hear sounded by her ear, the tone lazy:

"Tsk tsk, little vixen. Your acting skills... are truly becoming increasingly perfected, and increasingly 'green tea' in such a natural way."

"Tears come as soon as you call them, retracting and releasing freely, the sense of propriety handled just right. The lines poke at the heart one after another, both showing deep affection and secretly emphasizing the advantages of age and childbearing."

"The acting in your eyes is even more on point, carrying strength amidst grievance, revealing persistence in humbleness, rich emotional layers, natural and smooth transitions..."

That voice chuckled lightly:

"It seems you really aren't far from your goal of winning the Best Actress award. Do you want to consider going back tonight and writing an acceptance speech to prepare? 'I thank my Master; his exquisite complaints and shameless spirit are the never-drying source of inspiration on my path of acting'?"

Deep in her consciousness, Shen Mingyue almost instantly switched into a wronged, crying "ying ying ying" mode, seamlessly switching:

(TL: "Ying ying ying" is an onomatopoeia for cute, pitiful crying, often used mockingly or playfully online.)

"Master! You're still scolding me for being green tea! Watching you hold Song Jiaru on the left and hug Lin Ruoxuan on the right, my heart is so sour it's about to drip blood, I'm so sad I'm dying, I don't even want to live anymore, ying ying ying!"

Her conscious voice was both coquettish and charming, carrying an alluring cloying sweetness:

"I need Master to kiss, hug, and lift me high to get better, ying ying ying! I need Master to hold me on your lap, slowly coax me, forcefully coax me, coax me until I stop crying for it to work... mhm, or until I cry even louder..."

Her conscious voice was both coquettish and soft, carrying a jealousy so thick it couldn't be dissolved:

"On what basis! On what basis could they know you so early, accompany by your side, walk such a long road, carve such deep marks in your life... sharing so much past that I don't know, time that I didn't participate in..."

"And me, I can only wait until now, looking at everything they've enjoyed, so hungry my eyes are turning green... Wuwu, it's not fair! It's too unfair! Master, this piece of Tang Monk meat of yours, it clearly should be me who takes the first bite!"

(TL: "Tang Monk meat" refers to the monk from "Journey to the West" whose flesh grants immortality, meaning a highly desirable prize.)

"However... Master, you are mine! From head to toe, from inside to out, from soul to body, I am clearly the one whose shape fits you the most most most, and the one who understands all your... mhm-hm, those little fetishes and bad thoughts hidden under your serious exterior..."

"Hmph... I'll let them be smug for a while now. Let's see if tonight... I don't thoroughly conquer Master's physical body. Front and back, up and down, standing and sitting... every angle must be branded with my, Shen Mingyue's, unique mark, dyed with my scent!"

"Making your legs go weak whenever you smell this scent in the future, your heartbeat accelerate whenever you think of this night, and whenever you see me... you can't help but..."

"Master, I know... in your heart, the one you dote on the most, indulge the most, are most helpless against yet endure gladly... is still me, right?"

She gave a "hee hee" laugh:

"You, you're just stubborn and not willing to admit it..."

She paused, the teasing in her tone thicker:

"That's not right oh, Master... it's not just your mouth that's hard~"

While this "inside discussion" was happening, outwardly...

Tears were still slowly sliding down her beautiful cheeks.

Teardrops hung on her eyelashes.

She slightly raised her face. The gaze looking at Yang Wenhui and Xu Zhongshan was clear, sorrowful, and carried a trace of stubborn expectation.

Acting out the image of an infatuated, aggrieved, yet incomparably resilient woman...

A woman who deeply loves her sweetheart, yet due to destiny's tricks became a "latecomer," having to "share" her lover with equally excellent or even more dazzling women who appeared earlier, her heart full of sourness, unease, and humbleness, able only to pin all her hopes on the understanding and support of her sweetheart's elders.

Such performance...

Even the harshest director wouldn't have been able to pick out a single flaw.

...

Inner room.

Unaware that his "physical body" had already been thoroughly targeted by a certain little vixen secretly grinding her teeth and sucking her claws, determined to win, Xu Yunzhou, accompanied by Lin Ruoxuan and Song Jiaru, passed through a heavy carved red sandalwood moon gate and stepped into the inner room.

Unlike the faint low-voiced discussions in the outer courtyard, here there was only the occasional electronic ticking sound of instruments, and the old woman's slow and difficult breathing sound.

There weren't many people.

Besides two medical staff wearing white clothes waiting quietly in the corner, there were several of Wu Xiuyun's direct great-grandchildren accompanying beside.

Xu Yunzhou saw Wu Xiuyun face-to-face for the first time.

The old woman leaned back on the elevated bed, covered with a soft brocade quilt.

She was thin, her cheeks deeply sunken, her silver-white hair sparsely yet neatly combed back, fixed with a plain ebony hairpin.

She closed her eyes, her chest rising and falling weakly with her breathing, as if it would stop at any time.

However, the instant Xu Yunzhou stepped over the threshold of the inner room—

Wu Xiuyun's eyelids trembled imperceptibly.

Immediately after, she slowly, extremely slowly, opened her eyes.

The murky, bloodshot pupils were somewhat unfocused due to age.

But the moment she saw Xu Yunzhou, an indescribable light abruptly burst out in those eyes!

That was the starlight of persistent waiting for over eighty years, finally glimpsed at the end of surviving a long dark night.

"Mis... ter..."

Her lips moved, spitting out two airy sounds. Her withered hand abruptly raised from under the brocade quilt, tremblingly extending toward Xu Yunzhou's direction.

Old tears surged out almost instantly, rolling crazily down her cheeks covered in ravines.

She actually struggled, attempting to sit up from the bed!

"Great-grandmother!"

"Old Ancestor! Don't move!"

Xu Xinyi, who was closest to the bed, and another older female elder hurriedly stepped forward.

Gently supporting her violently trembling shoulders and arms from left and right, their voices carried a crying tone and anxiety:

"Don't be too agitated... the doctor said, you cannot be agitated..."

Lin Ruoxuan and Song Jiaru also followed into the inner room, standing a bit further away.

They both knew Wu Xiuyun, and both had intersections with her.

At this moment, seeing the her reaction that was excited almost to the point of losing control, and seeing those rolling tears, both of their hearts also shook.

But they didn't step forward, because they knew that the main character at this moment was only Xu Yunzhou.

Xu Yunzhou took a deep breath, walked quickly to the bedside, leaned over slightly, and made his voice as smooth and gentle as possible:

"Elder Wu, you mustn't, lie down quickly."

He paused. Looking at the old person's eyes that stared fixedly at him as if wanting to carve his appearance deep into her soul, he said softly:

"I came to see you."

Hearing this address, Wu Xiuyun's body stiffened imperceptibly for a moment.

She looked at Xu Yunzhou blankly, an emotion of confusion and disappointment rapidly spreading in her eyes:

"You... what did you call me?"

Xu Yunzhou saw the disappointment in her eyes.

He sighed in his heart.

It seems the address "Elder Wu," which was too respectful and too distant, was not what she wanted to hear.

The hesitation lasted only the flash of lightning and sparks of flint.

When Xu Yunzhou spoke again, his voice was lowered a bit. His tone contained an additional gentleness and sigh of having experienced the vicissitudes of life and seen all the mortal dust, as if truly traversing the dust of over seventy years of time:

"Xiao Yun."

He paused. Looking at the old person's abruptly widened, disbelieving eyes, he gently added the second half of the sentence:

"...I'm back."

Fortunately... in Song Jiaru's "instance," his voice and emotional control had unknowingly been honed to perfection.

These words falling into Wu Xiuyun's ears were like thunder.

Her body abruptly trembled, tears surging even more fiercely, yet she parted her lips, attempting to reveal a smile.

Looking into her eyes, Xu Yunzhou continued to use that calm and certain tone to say:

"Over these years, you have done very well. Everything you experienced, everything you achieved, everything you protected... I know it all."

He paused, his gaze sweeping over those juniors with red eye rims by the bed, then landing back on the old person's face, his voice carrying clear pride:

"I, have always felt proud to have a student like you."

Wu Xiuyun's lips trembled violently, tears blurring her vision, yet she still stared firmly at Xu Yunzhou, as if wanting to confirm this was not a dream.

Xu Yunzhou reached out and gently held her hand, which was as thin and withered as firewood, cold and trembling.

From the palm came a rough touch covered in calluses and wrinkles, as well as a weak temperature of life.

"Also,"

He looked at her, word by word, and said seriously:

"Thank you."

"Thank you for always remembering the things you promised me."

"And, completing them so outstandingly."