It was the same question, asked of the same person.
But this question could not be brushed aside the way the previous one had been. The feelings Ren Yijue experienced over matters connected to himself were naturally very different from the feelings stirred in him by things that had nothing to do with him.
In the end, he would still have to be cut open and have his true heart taken out for examination.
How… unpleasant.
A mischievous thought suddenly arose in Ren Yijue’s mind. “If I answer the Jade Beauty’s question, then what will the Jade Beauty give me in return?”
Sure enough, Qian Xuelang frowned slightly. “Why are you calling me that?”
“Well.” Ren Yijue rose and paced beneath the veranda. He did not go far before turning back to look at Qian Xuelang. “There are three reasons.”
“Please explain.”
Qian Xuelang remained seated, quietly bathed in sunlight. His brows and eyes were as they always were, neither embarrassed nor angry. Instead, the light made his eyes look even clearer and his skin even more translucent, as though he were a jade statue shaped by nature itself.
Ren Yijue said leisurely, “First, Your Excellency is beautiful, a handsome man rarely seen in this world. Calling you a Jade Beauty is hardly excessive.”
Qian Xuelang said calmly, “Whether I am beautiful or ugly, I do not know. Since you think I am beautiful, then let it be so. What is the second reason?”
“Second, Your Excellency’s mind is exquisitely clear. A gentleman is like jade, his brilliance revealing itself without effort. A man like jade may naturally be called a Jade Beauty.”
“Is that so?” Qian Xuelang said. “You are remarkably good-natured. I have angered you this much, and you still praise me. What is the third?”
The smile on Ren Yijue’s face stiffened, then quickly returned to normal. “As for the third, one must remember that jade requires a craftsman to carve it. Since Your Excellency has questions for me, I suppose I am the one carving you. And if you are jade being carved by my hand, why should I not call you a Jade Beauty?”
Hearing this, Qian Xuelang thought there was indeed nothing particularly wrong with the logic and nodded.
The first two reasons could still be passed off as jokes. The third, however, had become openly presumptuous.
Ren Yijue had deliberately tried to take advantage of him. He knew Qian Xuelang would not care, but when he saw that the man’s heart truly remained like ice and snow, without so much as a ripple, the whole thing became strangely flavorless. A trace of guilt arose in him, yet for a moment he did not know what else to say.
Qian Xuelang suddenly said, “Actually, my master once said something similar, though he did not call me that.”
“Oh?” Ren Yijue’s interest always came and went quickly. “Then what did Dao Lord He call the Jade Beauty?”
Qian Xuelang gave him a calm look and no longer objected to the form of address. “He called me Little Stone Man. But that was when I was a child.”
Ren Yijue could not help smiling and thought, Dao Lord He must have been a rather cutting sort of aesthete. A pity I can never meet him.
Then he reconsidered. Master and disciple shared much the same temperament. Both were emotionless men who did exactly as they pleased. If he had met He Tianjun, he would probably only have ended up angry. Suddenly, it did not feel like quite such a pity.
Now that Qian Xuelang’s question had been answered, he stopped dwelling on it and asked, “As for repayment… what do you want?”
At present, Qian Xuelang was sheltering Ren Yijue. How could Ren Yijue seriously demand payment merely for answering a few questions? It was only that Qian Xuelang so often infuriated him until his head spun. If he answered honestly, he would feel resentful, so he had merely intended to make things difficult.
Looking at Qian Xuelang’s calm composure, Ren Yijue wanted both to sigh and to smile.
“I don’t know either. Why doesn’t the Jade Beauty try to guess?”
Qian Xuelang said, “I have never guessed another person’s wishes in my life. I imagine I would guess poorly.”
He said this without the slightest sense of superiority, but to anyone else it would inevitably make him sound exceptionally proud and aloof.
Even after knowing Qian Xuelang for many days, Ren Yijue still could not stop himself from giving an inward sneer.
“If you guess wrong, guess again,” Ren Yijue said. “What does it matter?”
Qian Xuelang thought for a moment. “Since you do not know either, then what you want is probably something you have never possessed.”
Ren Yijue said, “That is not wrong. Human nature is greedy and does not know how to cherish things. Once something is in our hands, most of us no longer want it as much, nor think it as good as we did before.”
Qian Xuelang asked, “Then what do you lack?”
“Well…” Ren Yijue’s gaze deepened. He said in a low voice, “I fear it may be something the Jade Beauty cannot give.”
Qian Xuelang did not take offense. He owned practically nothing, so there were far too many things he could not give. He continued, “In that case, I should not guess what you want. What you want may not be something I possess. What I should guess is what I possess that might move you.”
“Then… has the Jade Beauty thought of anything?” Ren Yijue asked.
Qian Xuelang said, “I have only understood that much. As for what I possess that could move you, I have not thought of it yet.”
Ren Yijue walked back and sat beside Qian Xuelang, studying his face.
Qian Xuelang seemed not to notice. He remained quietly seated, speaking unhurriedly. His expression never changed, and he showed not the slightest impatience or annoyance.
Detestable though he was, Ren Yijue had to admit that this bearing was not something an ordinary conceited person could possess.
Precisely because of that, all Ren Yijue’s little tricks were useless. No matter how he tried to tease this man into laughter, anger, or embarrassment, the only person who ended up helpless was himself.
After another while, Qian Xuelang finally shook his head. “I cannot think of anything.”
Ren Yijue immediately said, “Does the Jade Beauty understand now?”
“Understand what?” Qian Xuelang looked at him in confusion.
“If you spend your entire life unable to move me, then naturally this question will never have an answer,” Ren Yijue said. “But what does my willingness have to do with the Jade Beauty?”
Qian Xuelang was far too intelligent not to understand at once. He shook his head. “I am confused now, so I think, search, and try to infer what is in your heart because I am asking something of you. Since I am asking something of you, how can it have nothing to do with me?”
Ren Yijue laughed. “Exactly. I thought the Jade Beauty might not even understand that, and I was preparing to carve you from the beginning.”
Qian Xuelang frowned. “Rude.”
“Then Ren will apologize at once.” Ren Yijue did not look especially sincere, but fortunately no one intended to hold it against him. “When we discussed the Dao before, I already sensed something. I suspect the Jade Beauty has never opened his eyes and truly looked at anyone beyond himself.”
Qian Xuelang did not understand. “What do you mean?”
“When others offend you, you do not become angry. When they try to please you, you are not necessarily happy,” Ren Yijue said. “I have never existed in your eyes. Neither has Mister Feng. To put it more harshly, perhaps even your honored master was never truly in your eyes. You are free of worry, neither delighted nor afraid, unaware of honor or humiliation. That is why the only person you can see is yourself.”
Qian Xuelang fell silent for a long moment.
Ren Yijue sighed softly. “The answer is actually easy enough to state. But even if I tell you, you will not understand, because your heart contains only yourself. If you cannot see other people, then no matter who tells you the answer, they cannot make you understand it. All you can do is ask questions. But if you feel nothing after asking, what use is knowing the answer?”
During all these days, Ren Yijue had had only Qian Xuelang to speak with. His words were usually either needles hidden in cotton or wrapped in a smiling face. This was the first time he had spoken with such seriousness and clarity.
That face, usually smiling or angered, had rarely been so still. In its calmness, it became faintly intimidating.
After hearing these words, Qian Xuelang felt an enormous shock within his heart.
Yet he had always been extraordinarily detached. He had never truly known joy, worry, grief, or anger, and therefore had no way to identify what was now surging through his chest. He wanted to say to Ren Yijue, “I was born this way.”
But faintly, his chest suddenly began to ache. A bloody taste rose into his throat, and the words would not come.
The seven emotions and six desires were inherently powerful. Even ordinary people, who freely experienced joy and anger, could faint or cough blood if their emotions became too violent. For a cultivator like Qian Xuelang, who had spent his life keeping his heart clear and his emotions under strict restraint, the effect was naturally even greater.
Qian Xuelang suddenly felt alternately cold and hot. One moment he remembered the honey-sweet smile on his master’s face at death, the next Feng Yinming’s worried expression, then Ren Yijue’s solemn face. Everything felt half illusion and half reality, as though none of it had ever happened.
His body went limp, and he fainted outright.