Nanyu followed beside him. Her feet stepped on the stone slabs, and the dry leaves made a soft crunching sound under her feet.
The mountain path was rugged. Nanyu was tightly held by his hand. The warmth from his palm spread across the back of her hand, but she had no idea where he was taking her.
Undoubtedly, she felt safe at this moment.
Even on this sparsely populated mountain, she had full trust in Tan Linyuan.
She always subconsciously trusted and relied on him.
Nanyu's ankle had almost recovered, but it still ached after walking for a while, so she would stop from time to time.
This was her first time walking on a mountain path at night. The novelty outweighed her fear of the unknown.
After walking a short distance, they stopped in front of a temple.
The temple gate was tightly closed. It didn't seem to be a place with strong incense offerings, and the atmosphere was a bit desolate.
Nanyu asked, "Is this the temple you went to last time?"
Tan Linyuan didn't answer. Instead, he handed her the bag of sandwiches and said, "Which one do you want?"
Nanyu randomly picked one out and peeled off the plastic bag.
She took a bite. The sandwich was still warm.
"Sit down and eat," Tan Linyuan said. Then he bent down and sat on the steps in front of the temple.
Nanyu sat down beside him and took the milk he handed her.
The temperature in the mountains was low, so Tan Linyuan took off his coat and covered her legs with it.
Nanyu lowered her head and stared blankly at the coat on her knees. Then she turned to Tan Linyuan and said stupidly, "It feels like we're having a picnic."
"Who has a picnic in the middle of the night?" Tan Linyuan said calmly, shattering her unrealistic fantasy.
Nanyu was too lazy to complain about his lack of romance.
It was extremely quiet in the mountains.
Occasionally, there was a rustling sound, which was just the evidence left by the gentle night wind.
The moon looked brighter in the mountains than in the city.
Nanyu propped her chin with one hand and stuffed the sandwich into her mouth with the other. "The moon is really beautiful tonight," she said.
Tan Linyuan turned his head and stared at Nanyu.
He wasn't sure if this was just a simple compliment about the moon or if there was something more to it.
The milk in his hand gradually turned cold from warm.
After admiring the moon for a while, Nanyu started counting the stars and trying to connect them into constellations.
As she was doing this, she suddenly felt sleepy and yawned.
Just as she was about to fall asleep, she heard Tan Linyuan say, "Before I turned fifteen, I was in seclusion here with Master Wenjing."
Tan Linyuan's sudden recollection of the past woke Nanyu up. She immediately became alert.
"Compared to Chan Guang Temple, this place is more peaceful," he said in a calm tone, showing no particular emotion. "It was just me and my master."
"Later, he passed away here."
Nanyu looked back at the plaque on the temple. It was too dark to see the words clearly. "What's the name of this temple?" she asked.
Tan Linyuan replied, "Jing An Temple."
Nanyu had checked the information before. Master Wenjing's Dharma name was Wenjing, and his original name was Lin Jing'an.
That meant this was Master Wenjing's temple.
It was like a leaf returning to its root.
This was the first time Nanyu had heard Tan Linyuan talk about his past. Curiously, she asked, "What did you do here?"
"Reciting scriptures, meditating, copying scriptures, and attending morning classes."
Nanyu asked again, "What else?"
Tan Linyuan said, "Chopping wood, carrying water, making a fire, and cooking for my master."
Imagining young Tan Linyuan doing all these things alone, Nanyu couldn't help laughing. "Uncle Tan is the second young master of the Tan family. Does he have to do all these things himself?" she asked.
At least there should have been a young monk to help him.
Tan Linyuan didn't answer her.
After what seemed like several more minutes, Tan Linyuan calmly replied, "The Tan family never regarded me as a member of the family."
Nanyu was stunned.
She was a bit sleepy and tried hard to understand the meaning of his words.
The Tan family didn't accept him as their son...?
She suppressed the shock in her heart.
Tan Linyuan spoke again. His tone was as calm as if he were telling a story that had nothing to do with him.
Tan Linyuan was the late - born son of the Tan family. His mother, He Yunqiu, was forty - five years old when she became pregnant with him, and she was determined to keep the child.
So on the day of delivery, He Yunqiu had a difficult labor as expected. His father, who loved his mother deeply, strongly demanded that the mother be saved at all costs.
"But as fate would have it, He Yunqiu still died of massive bleeding during the rescue. Instead, I was born without anyone's expectation," Tan Linyuan said.
Nanyu listened silently.
No one knew how he had calmly accepted the fact that he was not expected since birth.
His tone was extremely calm. "Because of my birth, He Yunqiu lost her life. So my father hated me for the rest of his life."
Nanyu couldn't say a word.
Her hand was still held by his big hand, but she felt his palm gradually getting cold.
Nanyu thought of something and asked with a trembling voice, "What about your eldest brother...?"
She remembered that Tan Linyuan's eldest brother had had a car accident on his way to Tan Linyuan's birthday party. The car had flipped off a cliff.
"That's another story," Tan Linyuan said calmly. His voice was like a long - lasting bell in the valley, deep and steady.
Because of his father's hatred for him, he was sent to the temple to cultivate himself with Master Wenjing when he was five years old. During this period, the people of the Tan family were forbidden to visit him.
Except for his eldest brother, Tan Qingtong.
Tan Qingtong had a different attitude from his father. He thought it was wrong to blame a child who didn't understand anything.
He loved his younger brother very much and would visit him in the temple from time to time, giving him the care and love that an elder brother should have.
He was also the only source of family affection that young Tan Linyuan could feel.
Tan Linyuan devoted himself to his cultivation in the temple. At a young age, he showed signs of Buddha - nature and was deeply respected by all the people in Jiangcheng.
Everyone said that he was a reincarnated Buddha with a Buddha's heart and appearance, which brought honor to the entire Tan family.
Finally, when he was seventeen years old, Grandpa Tan said that he couldn't bear to see the blood of the Tan family wandering outside and asked Tan Linyuan to return to the family.
Not long after, Tan Linyuan's eighteenth birthday came.
The coming - of - age ceremony of this young living Buddha had to be grandly celebrated.
"Stop talking," Nanyu suddenly interrupted him. "I'm so sleepy. Let's go back now..."
She didn't want him to continue to expose his wounds.
Tan Linyuan ignored her and continued, "On my eighteenth birthday, my most respected eldest brother fell off a cliff, my sister - in - law fell into a coma, and my niece lost her legs."
"Grandpa fainted and was sent to the intensive care unit because of the sudden bad news. He died a few days later without being rescued."
Nanyu felt her whole body trembling. "Tan Linyuan, stop talking..."
"My father immediately shouted that he wanted to kill me. He took the cake - cutting knife and stabbed it into my heart."
When Tan Linyuan said this, his voice sounded extremely calm.
Nanyu felt breathless.
She had never heard such a sad and desperate story.
It was as if all the disasters in the world had fallen on him.
But.
He was clearly the most innocent one.