CH 23

I am back, beloved [1]

“Boom!!!!!!!”

The huge explosion sounded. The flames and blinding white light suddenly expanded and filled the whole cave. The whole world seems to be crumbling. Huge stones start falling down. The radius of each stone is more than half a metre, which is enough to break Shen Qingjia’s body.

“Zhu Ai!!!”

Shen Qingjia broke away from Xu Kai’s hand and ran towards where the fire was still blazing, in the direction of Zhu Ai. The light of the knife in her hand was extremely bright. Mustering all her strength to the limit, she kept waving her knife to knock away the huge stones that came in front of her, it had been used as a cutting weapon but was now being used like a wooden stick.

With no energy left to burn, the expanding flames contracted and weakened towards the centre, leaving only the residual heat of the flames to brush against Shen Qingjia’s face. It is hot and painful, as if even her blood was about to burst into flames. She dared not imagine what it would be like for Zhu Ai, who was at the centre of the explosion, if the flame at the edge was this hot.

Originally it was a solid cave but now it’s collapsed for more than 20 metres, leaving a huge hole on the ground. The flame slowly dissipates, leaving only smoke and dust all over the sky. At the centre of the explosion is empty space, All that is left is a scorched blackness that melts into a burning mess, where all living existence is incinerated in the heat of nearly thousands of degrees.

“Zhu Ai ……”

Shen Qingjia’s body turns stiff, frozen in place, the knife in her hands falling on the ground, making a loud sound. Her body slowly slides down from the still intact wall which she used to lean on.

“How did it come to this ……Zhu Ai ……”

Xu Kai had already escaped. There is only the sound of stones falling to the ground in the huge and wide cave.

Shen Qingjia tried her best to make herself smile, saying, “Zhu Ai is so powerful and a small fire can’t possibly hurt you, right?”

She says arrogantly, “That is right, whoever or whatever stands in front of you will get crushed by you, right?”

Proudly, “The one who can defeat Zhu Ai hasn’t been born yet, right?”

Trembling, “I see, you want to play hide and seek. Alas, I see your intention.”

She tried her best to keep smiling, “… Alright I get it, come out now, I don’t want to play this game.”

For a long time, there is only silence.

Shen Qingjia still smiled but tears could not stop flowing out of her eyes. She covered her face, her voice was low and she choked back a sobs, “Come out…”

In fact, Shen Qingjia knows better than anyone else. It’s almost impossible for her to survive

The level 4 mutant animal blew itself up with hatred before it died. Burning its life force, the explosion has a power of level 5. Even though Zhu Ai is talented, even someone at peak level 3 can’t stop level 5 self-destruction.

Zhu Ai is gone… As soon as this thought flashed in her mind, she felt that her blood was drained, her strength was dissipated, her eyes were covered with darkness and warmth slowly leaving her body, making her body as cold as a dead person.

How could this happen?! The young girl who smiled at her while she was constantly scowling at others, the girl who is powerful and invincible, the girl who will become the Greatest Villain and the girl who just held her hand to comfort her. She can still feel the residual temperature left by her on her hands and she can still sense her presence. How could she disappear?

That’s why, all this is just a dream…

In a trance, she suddenly seemed to return to the previous life, back when she was weak and humiliated, where everything was out of control and when she was lonely and helpless.

Back to those nightmares!

Only at this time did Shen Qingjia realise how important the word “Zhu Ai” was to her. More important than strength, more than life, more than dreams, more than freedom, more than everything she currently possesses.

This person unreasonably broke into her life, melted into her flesh and blood, carved into her bone marrow and embraced her soul. But now, she left, without saying anything.

“You are being bad, Zhu Ai…”

Such a bad person, I won’t forgive you easily even if I have to go to hell!

Shen Qingjia turned her eyes to the ground. There was a sharp knife on the ground. She reached out her hand.

Come on, let’s end this fucking nightmare!

Suddenly, a drop of water fell on Shen Qingjia’s forehead, she looked forward in bewilderment, only to find that the air had become humid at some point, so humid that the thick water molecules condensed into drops of water that splashed down on the ground, the drops of water became denser and denser eventually turn into a downpour, Shen Qingjia was drenched by the rain, but was so excited that her whole body burned, her heart thumped as if it was about to pop out of her chest!

She didn’t dare to turn around for fear that she would still be disappointed.

The dense raindrops were suddenly obscured overhead, shading a dry space for Shen Qingjia. Shen Qingjia looked up and saw that above her head was an umbrella made of water. The raindrops were blending in as they fell onto the transparent water umbrella, and then slowly dripped down from the edge. The hand holding the umbrella was slender, delicate and white, each finger looked like it was carved from white jade and it was the most beautiful and also the most powerful palm Shen Qingjia had ever seen.

The owner of the hand gently put her other hand around Shen Qingjia’s waist and leaned on her.

The heavy rain in the sky still did not stop but her voice was like a clear sky after rain, with rainbows showing up in the sky.

She said, “Qingjia, I’m back.”

Qingjia, I’m back.

Just one sentence made Shen Qingjia’s eyes burn and her nose sore, pulling her back from the edge of her fall into darkness. She turned around and rubbed her eyes to look at the appearance of the person in front of her, as if she could not tell whether this was a dream or reality.

Her hair was waist-length and raven-coloured, yet soft and fragrant, a fragrance that she always envied. Her eyebrows are long and slender, and when they are slightly furrowed, the crest of her brow drops down with them, making her majestic and solemn, making people look at her with awe and feel submissive. Her eyes are filled with ice but when she looks at herself it always turn to soft water. The bridge of her nose is very straight, and her face, already exquisitely beautiful, has deeper features as a result, making her look completely proud and divine. Her lips were vermillion and moist, but the shape of her lips were shallow and thin, and a gentle pursing of her lips made her look extraordinarily stern, but now she was smiling softly at herself ……

Shen Qingjia blankly grabbed this person’s sleeve, “Zhu Ai ……?”

“I am.”

Shen Qingjia still looked at her blankly, “Zhu Ai ……”

“I am here.”

Shen Qingjia hugged Zhu Ai fiercely, her head buried in her arms, and after a moment, her shoulders began to tremble continuously. She tried to hold it back, telling herself that this was just too humiliating, yet there was still a faint, inaudible sob leaking out of her nose.

“I thought… I thought I couldn’t find you…”

“How come?” Zhu Ai smiled. She put her hand around Shen Qingjia and looked into the sky as the rain gradually stopped. “Even if one day you can’t find me when you turn around, Qingjia, you never need to worry. Just like today, look up at the sky and wait for a moment.”

How can I describe this person, the bright moon in the sky beyond the reach of mortals? Or is it the untouched white snow on the top of Kunlun? The moon hanging in the sky should be cold and lonely, the snow standing on top of the mountain should be frozen for a thousand miles. Yet she smiled so happily at this moment, a radiant beauty that is indescribable even when the light of the moon shines through the darkness and awakens the earth, when millions of miles of rivers and mountains are melted by the frost.

“Qingjia, wherever you are, even if there is wind and rain, I will be there.” [2]

Translator’s notes :

[1] 风雨送卿归; originally I wording it ‘Going through hardship to come back to you, my love’ because well, despite the fact that this is only 5 words, the meaning is deep! Deep! Deep! Alright, so 风雨 means hardship, 送 is send, 卿 a dear address between husband and wife or good friends in ancient time and 归 is return/go back. And when I saw the 卿 I really want to use ‘dear/honey’ and so on so but eventually I used ‘my love’ but then I think the title is too long so yeah, final edit ‘I am back, beloved’

[2]  “清嘉，九州大地，有风雨的地方，我就会归来。”; So yeah, the end of this chapter is connected to the title. I just want to take this chance to say that sometimes I took liberty to wording/arranging sentences so they fit the English better. So like this one, 九州大地 means the land of Kyushu which is ancient way to call China so I think ‘the place where you are’ and for this 有风雨的地方 yes 风雨 means hardship but somehow I feels that leaving it as ‘wind and rain’ sounds more poetic so yeah, I wording it ‘the place where you are, even if there is wind and rain, I will be there’ to ‘wherever you are, even if there is wind and rain, I will be there’

2/5 Extra chapters. Unfortunately the next one will be posted next week since my spare time this week has been used. But I will make sure I get all promised chapters done this month don’t worry.