The Magical Guqin

With interest in her eyes, Bai Shuixian turned towards Zhong Chen and made an expression to ask why the guqin could not be used anymore.

Seeing her expression, it reminded Zhong Chen of another person. That person had just as much curiosity, just as much interest, and just as much intrigue towards life. However, the more he thought about that person, the more nostalgia he felt.

Internally shaking his head, he asked Bai Shuixian, "Do you see the black color of the guqin?"

Hearing his question, she nodded her head.

"Do you see the strings?" he followed up.

She then shook her head to say no.

"This is why it can't be played anymore," Zhong Chen said.

However, this still left her confused. The strings of a guqin could always be replaced or remade. As for the color of a guqin, they could always repaint it or even make carvings for designs since it was made of wood.

Since she was confused, she tilted her head to ask for more information. There were many questions she had for the guqin, but the most important one was why would he place the guqin here if it was useless. Usually, if an item was no longer usable, people would throw it away.

Sighing, he explained, "A long time ago, there was another person here with me. This guqin belongs to her and was originally not black. However, ever since she died… it was as though the guqin has lost its spirit along with the owner."

She continued to stare at him. Though this explained a lot, there were still lots of questions. Not only that, her most wanted question was not answered, yet.

Turning to stare at the guqin, Zhong Chen said, "Before she died… she had burned all of her belongings. There is a saying in the spiritual realm. As long as there is still something belonging to the departed soul, they will never leave the mortal realm."

The last sentence brought some clarity to her. He was telling her that the only item left of that priestess was this black guqin. Another thing that she understood was that he did not want the soul of that priestess to leave the mortal realm.

Again, she had new questions. Why did he not want her to leave the mortal realm? Why did she burn all of her belongings?

Zhong Chen knew that Bai Shuixian would have more questions the more he explained, but he did not want to go into details. His greatest wish was for her to forget about the past, so he was worried that the more he talked she might remember something. Though it was only a small chance, he did not want to take any chances.

Wanting to move onto another topic, Zhong Chen immediately introduced Bai Shuixian to a flower, "You remember those flowers at the front of the house? These are the same ones."

Distracted by the topic about flowers, Bai Shuixian forgot the questions in her head and moved to look at the sweet peas he pointed out. They were indeed the same flowers, but their colors were different. She wondered how he planted the same flowers but got different colors.

Though, since she could not speak she decided to leave the question for another day. Instead, she waited for him to finish telling her all the names of the flowers in the greenhouse. Discovering the varieties of plants in the greenhouse was more important than the details at the moment.

"Those near the lake are stargazer lily. The flowers that we passed by earlier were hydrangeas and the yellow ones below them were daffodils. Next to those, I grew some begonias," Zhong Chen started. "I thought that it would look weird if I didn't plant bushes next to the begonias, so I placed the camellias, plumerias, and dahlias next to them. If in the future, you want to learn about how to put the right mix of flowers in one spot, I'll teach you."

Nodding her head in understandment, she stared at Zhong Chen, wanting him to continue listing the names of all the flowers. When he saw her face that showed expectancy, he decided to not ask her to return to her room, yet. He decided that it was fine for her to be outside since she was still sitting down instead of walking around.

In the end though, he did not want her to be walking around, nor did he want her to stay outside for too long, so he decided to just list off a few of the flowers in the greenhouse for her.

"Even if I spent a day to show you the entire greenhouse, it would not be enough. When you are fully recovered, you can take all the time you need to learn about the plants here. There are also books and scrolls that I wrote down that store all the information for this greenhouse," Zhong Chen told her.

With a happy face, she nodded her head to show that she understood what he was saying.

Seeing her happiness, he listed off some names, "These are not all of the plants here, but I can list a few for you. I didn't plant all of these flowers, but some that I did were the tulips, irises, lotuses, anemone, cherry blossoms, orchids, magnolias, chrysanthemums, passion flowers, peonies, proteas, and roses. Since I've told you a few names, I'll take you back to your room."

She nodded her head and also yawned. Maybe it was because she was still young or too trusting and comfortable with Zhong Chen, but she got tired easily. As soon as she was carried to his arms, she immediately closed her eyes to take a nap.

When she felt a soft surface on her back, she opened her eyes. Looking around in confusement, she saw that she was back in her room. Zhong Chen was still in the room and he was fixing her blanket over her.

"Did I wake you up?" he asked when he noticed that she was staring at him.

She shook her head while wanting to tell him that it was the bed that woke her up and not him. However, since she was banned from talking, she did not tell him. Instead, she grabbed his head.

With no voice to say what she wanted and no paper to write down what she would like, she could only write on the palm of his hand. On his hand, she wrote the character for "paper". After she finished one character, she wrote another character for "brush".

Understanding what she wanted, he opened a door that connected another room to hers. Entering that room for a moment, he returned with paper, a brush, and ink.

Once he handed her the items, she wrote down, "When do my injuries recover?"

"Soon," Zhong Chen answered.

Right after that, she berated herself, 'Why am I so stupid? Why didn't I just ask him for paper and ink earlier on?! Why do I keep on behaving so idiotic these few days?!?'

However, she soon calmed herself down and wrote to ask, "Where are the books and scrolls for the greenhouse?"

"I'll take you there when you get well. For now, just take a rest," Zhong Chen calmly answered though he wanted to lecture her inside.

He really wanted to say, 'Why are you already finding work when you haven't even healed? I did not wrap your wounds just for you to open them up again.'

Seeing that she was about to write another question, he stopped her and said, "Don't worry about anything and stop asking questions. Just go to sleep. Tomorrow, you can continue asking your questions."

He then took away the paper and ink brought for her and covered her with the blanket.

After making sure that her window was closed, he then said, "Don't go walking around in the night either. If you accidentally hurt yourself even more, I won't be there to help until morning."

Though he said it in a kind and calming voice, she could tell that it was a threat. Immediately, she closed her eyes and pretended to go to sleep. Eventually, she actually went to sleep despite Zhong Chen still standing in her room.

As he watched her peacefully sleep, he patted her head. Occasionally when she seemed to wake up, he would remove his hands and stand still vigantly. His facial expression would also change from a soft one to a straight face.

However, when he noticed that she was just moving while asleep, he would go back to patting her head and stroking her cheeks.

On the inside, he would think, 'Stay happy. In this life, I'll protect you until you can protect yourself. Once the guqin becomes white again… Xian Xian… I'll go back… so stay happy when the time comes."

Everything that happened today, was all his plans. Though her getting hurt was not one of them, it was his plan to get her to come to the forest. The only way to do it in a way where she would not be suspicious though was by making her decide to do so.

Though he was not fully sure that she would follow what he had planned because she always went against the norm, it had been fruitful. He did not know what made her decide to come to the temple, but as long as she came, he would have been happy. Seeing her once again after a long time, he could not help but to smile.

"Xian Xian, it's nice to see you again," Zhong Chen muttered quietly.