Chapter 73 - 65: No One Can Stay With You Forever, After All, Even Shadows... Will Be Absent on Cloudy Days

Chapter 73: Chapter 65: No One Can Stay With You Forever, After All, Even Shadows... Will Be Absent on Cloudy Days

Shortly after Yu Tianqi left Happiness District, in a hospital somewhere in Luocheng, a male doctor sleeping in his dorm suddenly opened his eyes and sat up in bed.

He rubbed his chin and muttered to himself, "Tianqi Daoist is also in Luocheng? That makes things a bit tricky. If he finds my location, I’ll be skinned alive even if I survive.

"But the plan is already halfway complete. If I dare to give up halfway, the Vice Sect Leader definitely won’t let me off easily. It seems I must speed up the search for the Holy Seed. After all, the Holy Seed, which our sect refined by sacrificing half of Luocheng back then, absolutely cannot be left in Luocheng just like that; it must be retrieved.

"The Holy Seed blooms every ten years and bears fruit every ten years. Calculating the time, the day it blooms and bears fruit isn’t far off. In at most a year, the fragrance of the Black Lotus will waft through Luocheng, and it will have nowhere to hide.

"Before then, I must find a way to give those old fogeys in the city something to do to divert their attention. Otherwise, safely bringing the Holy Seed back to the sect really won’t be an easy task."

With that said, the male doctor returned to bed and slipped under the covers.

A moment later, he woke up again.

He touched his groggy head and looked around in confusion, thinking, "Strange... Why do I feel like I already got up once? Do I really have a sleepwalking problem? Forget it, I’ll ask Teacher to take another look at me later. Maybe the work pressure is too great, so my mind is playing tricks on me."

With that, the male doctor got up, got dressed, and walked out of the dorm.

...

At 8:00 PM in Luocheng, within a dilapidated residential block in the southern part of the city.

Mrs. Zhao had taken the day off from the housekeeping company early because it was her son Zhao Lu’s eighteenth birthday. She wanted to properly celebrate for him.

After placing the specially bought birthday cake into the refrigerator, Mrs. Zhao carefully took out the phone from her pocket and nervously checked the text message that still hadn’t received a reply.

She thought, "Strange, why hasn’t my son replied to me yet? Today is his eighteenth birthday, and didn’t he say he would come back? But it’s already 8:00 PM. He should have been home a long time ago. Could something have happened on the way?"

Thinking of this, Mrs. Zhao hesitated for a long time before deciding to call her son. However, hearing the persistent busy tone from the other end of the line, she began to feel inexplicably uneasy. She tried calling a few more times, but it still went unanswered. This made her even more anxious.

She thought, "No, my son is so sensible. He should be fine. He was probably just delayed by something at school and happened to not have his phone on him, so he couldn’t call me back. Yes, that must be it..."

Despite comforting herself like this, Mrs. Zhao’s expression inevitably betrayed her panic. After thinking it over, she first called Zhao Lu’s homeroom teacher. Upon learning that Zhao Lu had left school early that day, Mrs. Zhao’s face instantly turned pale. She then immediately called Bian Shouyi. After all, at this time, the only person she could think of who might know where her son was, was Young Master Bian, who had grown up with him.

"What’s wrong, Mrs. Zhao? Did something happen?" Bian Shouyi, who had been practicing with his sword, put down his Wooden Sword and picked up his phone to ask.

"Young Master Bian, did Lu go look for you today?"

"Zhao Lu? I haven’t seen him today. Why?"

Hearing that Bian Shouyi hadn’t seen Zhao Lu today either, Mrs. Zhao completely panicked, becoming somewhat incoherent. "Y-Young Master Bian, it’s—it’s just that Lu seems to have gone missing. I asked his homeroom teacher, and they said he left school during the day. He clearly said he was coming back for dinner today, b-but he still isn’t back yet."

Listening to Mrs. Zhao’s frantic tone, Bian Shouyi comforted her while putting on his jacket hanging nearby, walking out of the Cultivation Chamber. "Don’t worry, Mrs. Zhao. I’m guessing Zhao Lu just got busy with something, so he hasn’t returned yet. I’ll go out right now and contact people we know. We should be able to find him, so don’t worry too much."

"O-Okay. Thank you, Young Master Bian."

"Rest assured, Mrs. Zhao. It’ll be fine. Zhao Lu isn’t a child anymore; nothing will happen to him."

"Mhm..."

Mrs. Zhao hung up the phone. After standing in the dim, old living room for a long time, she grabbed her bicycle keys hanging by the door and hurriedly left the house.

Although Bian Shouyi had been comforting her, she couldn’t shake off an inexplicable sense of dread. Zhao Lu’s father had died in the great turmoil ten years ago, leaving her to raise Zhao Lu all by herself. It could be said that Zhao Lu was her everything; she didn’t dare to imagine if she could continue on if something were to happen to him.

Thus, Mrs. Zhao decided to go out and look for him herself. The first place she planned to check was Luocheng Third High School, where Zhao Lu studied.

BOOM!

Just as Mrs. Zhao pedaled her bicycle out of the residential complex, a violent crack of thunder echoed through the sky. Before long, bean-sized raindrops began to fall, enveloping all of Luocheng in a hazy curtain of rain.

Because she had left in such a rush, Mrs. Zhao hadn’t had time to check the weather, much less bring any rain gear. She rode her bike, letting the freezing rain batter her face. The downpour was so heavy that she could hardly keep her eyes open, forcing her to squint as she hurried along.

Just as she turned out of a Pedestrian Street on her bike, a bright light suddenly flared up next to her.

The next second, she heard the piercing screech of tires rubbing against the asphalt right beside her. After a dizzying spin, her body was sent flying backward. In her daze, she could only vaguely see a large crowd of people suddenly gathering around her. They surrounded her, expressions full of panic as they continuously shouted something.

But what they were panicking about, and what they were shouting, Mrs. Zhao... couldn’t hear a single thing anymore.

...

Two days later, Bian Shouyi and his parents attended a funeral.

Bian Shouyi stared at the photo of Zhao Lu’s mother on the tombstone, his face bearing the same stoic, emotionless expression it always had. After an indeterminate amount of time, Bian Shouyi suddenly turned his head to look at his father.

"Father, have Uncle Mu and the others still not found Zhao Lu?"

Father Bian shook his head. "No. They checked the surveillance cameras near the school and noticed that Zhao Lu seemed to be intentionally avoiding them. After running alone to the southern suburbs of the city, he hid and disappeared."

Hearing this, Bian Shouyi seemed to think of something. "Alright, I understand," he said softly. With that, he turned and walked out of the cemetery.

Seeing him like this, his mother, standing nearby, seemed to want to say something. But before she could speak, Father Bian grabbed her arm and shook his head, signaling her not to interfere.

Only after Bian Shouyi had walked far away did Father Bian speak, "Our son has grown up. He knows right from wrong in certain matters; let him do what he needs to do."

"But Captain Mu said that Zhao Lu..."

"Don’t worry, I’ll have someone follow him secretly. Besides, Captain Mu said that the big shots from the Mountain and Sea Bureau have also rushed to the southern part of the city. Shouyi will be fine."

Watching Bian Shouyi’s retreating back, Father Bian said slowly, "Shouyi’s life has been too smooth-sailing. I hope that after experiencing this, he will gain some enlightenment... Lest he continue down the path of Cultivation only to suddenly realize... he is the only one left."

Even though Father Bian had said this much, his mother still looked as if she wanted to say something but held back. Seeing this, Father Bian immediately raised his remaining left arm and patted her shoulder, comforting her. "Alright, let’s go back. Our son won’t let us down."

"Alright..."

In this world, there is no one who can stay by your side forever. Even your shadow... will be absent on cloudy days. Therefore, some things, and some people, once missed... it will be too late to ever get them back.

...

PS: Because I promised three updates today, Pang Hu hurried to write as soon as I got off work. However, writing three Chapters is still a bit slow, so the update is a little late. My apologies.