Honglin Temple, as the name suggests, is planted with large areas of redwood.
Although the species vary, they provide a thick canopy of shade, casting a cool expanse within the temple.
After walking out of the Buddha Hall, Tan Linyuan held Nan Yu's hand, and his arm would occasionally brush against the string of Buddhist beads.
Nan Yu suddenly remembered something. She raised her hand and asked him, "Did you really not want this string of Buddhist beads back then?"
She still remembered the origin of these beads.
The beads were now in her hand, showing a smooth, translucent dark red color under the sunlight.
They were uniform in size and had a certain weight when worn on the hand. They were high - quality sandalwood Buddhist beads.
She still remembered when she asked the abbot to bless them again. The abbot told Nan Yu that these beads were personally polished and strung by Master Wenjing and were specially given to Tan Linyuan as a magical artifact.
It could ward off evil and turn bad luck into good fortune.
But back then, he had casually given this string of beads to her, which made her feel uneasy for a long time.
Especially after learning about Tan Linyuan's background.
She would often touch the beads and wonder if by taking away the magical artifact that protected him, he would be more likely to encounter disasters in the future.
Today, she finally had the opportunity to tell him what was on her mind.
Tan Linyuan smiled and said, "It's really hard for you to think so much."
"Isn't it?" Nan Yu looked up at him. "The old abbot said that this was a magical artifact specially made for you by Master Wenjing."
"What he said is true."
"Then by giving it to me, aren't you going against Master Wenjing's intention?"
Tan Linyuan turned around to face her. "Do you know the origin of these beads?"
Nan Yu shook her head.
Before Master Wenjing became a monk, he had planted a sandalwood tree.
He told Nan Yu that the sandalwood tree was given to him by his mother.
She said that she was going to get married and was afraid that Master Wenjing would be lonely living alone, so she gave him a sandalwood tree to accompany him.
"She gave a tree?" Nan Yu was surprised.
Tan Linyuan nodded. "Yes, a tree."
Later, Master Wenjing became a monk. He transplanted the tree to the front of Jing'an Temple and watched it grow tall and strong.
When Tan Linyuan was eighteen years old, he personally cut down the tree and made it into a string of Buddhist beads and gave it to him.
From that whole tree, Master Wenjing only made this one string of beads.
"He cut down that tree, which was also cutting off his last longing for my mother," Tan Linyuan said.
When he was young, he didn't understand Master Wenjing's intention. But now, after meeting Nan Yu, he could almost empathize.
However, he would never cut down the elm tree planted in the yard in his lifetime.
He was willing to let his infatuation entangle him for a lifetime.
A silence fell between them.
The bell of Honglin Temple rang, gradually spreading to more distant places.
Nan Yu suddenly whispered, "Actually, this string of Buddhist beads can also be regarded as a token of love you gave me."
Tan Linyuan curved his lips. "Your comprehension is not bad."
It had taken so long for her to finally understand his intention of deliberately giving her the beads back then.
Although she was a bit slow, the truth was finally revealed.
Those long - standing, long - buried feelings of love that he had never dared to speak out had actually left traces a long time ago.
Nan Yu stared blankly at the Buddhist beads in her palm. After a while, she burst into laughter.
She just realized how childish her behavior of asking him to say "I love you" had been.
Because he had said "I love you" countless times in places she didn't know.
She just hadn't heard it.
When they walked out of Honglin Temple, they happened to see a mother and daughter about to enter.
The daughter was sitting in a wheelchair, and it was very inconvenient for her to get in and out. Nan Yu quickly walked over to give them a hand.
The mother immediately bowed to thank her. Nan Yu waved her hand and took an extra look at the girl in the wheelchair.
There was no other reason. It just reminded her of Niannian.
Pity drove her to ask one more question: "Are you bringing your child here to pray to the Buddha?"
The mother looked at her daughter and smiled helplessly. "Her father died early in a car accident. We're here to perform a memorial service for him."
Another car accident.
Nan Yu felt even more sorry for this girl with the same background as Niannian, so she couldn't help but ask a few more questions.
The more she listened, the more something seemed off.
The mother said that her husband had passed away a few months ago. He was driving a freight truck on the highway on a snowy day, and the brakes of the car malfunctioned.
"At that time, he also hit a young couple. The girl was pregnant. It's really a sin..."
Saying this, the mother sighed remorsefully. "We're here today to also perform a memorial service for the unborn child in her belly. May it be reincarnated soon and come back to this world."
Nan Yu turned to look at Tan Linyuan.
Tan Linyuan also understood what she was thinking and nodded slightly.
The two didn't leave Honglin Temple immediately.
Instead, after the mother and daughter came out of the temple, they walked up to them again and said they would drive them home.
At first, the mother was a bit resistant and said warily that they didn't need it.
Nan Yu had no choice but to confess that she and Tan Linyuan were the young couple who had been in the car accident back then.
The mother was about to kneel down immediately. Nan Yu was quick to hold her up and said that her child was still alive and that they didn't blame their family.
Finally, the mother and daughter got into their car.
On the way, Nan Yu kept comforting them and even said with a smile that she would take the child to visit them if there was a chance.
Only then did the mother relax and said a bit shyly, "Thank you two for the trouble of driving us home."
The mother and daughter lived in a small house in the countryside.
After sending her daughter into the room, the mother bustled around, pouring water for Tan Linyuan and Nan Yu and cutting fruits.
Nan Yu quickly stopped her. "Please take a rest. We'll leave after sitting for a while."
Only then did the mother sit down and start chatting with them.
She said that her daughter had suffered from polio when she was young and had been in a wheelchair ever since. In order to raise the medical expenses, her husband, Wang Gang, had been working outside all year round.
Driving a freight truck was the quickest way to make money, but it was also the most accident - prone.
But for the sake of his daughter, he had to take the risk.
When talking about this, the woman felt sad. "I always told him to pay attention to safety, not to drive when tired, and not to risk his life for Azhi."
Nan Yu had no choice but to comfort her softly, saying that Tan Linyuan's elder brother had also died in a car accident back then, and now his daughter was living a healthy life. She encouraged the mother and daughter to face life positively.
When she heard that Tan Linyuan also had the surname "Tan", her eyes lit up. "So you also have the surname Tan."
Tan Linyuan's sensitive nerves picked up on the word "also". He asked casually, "Was there another gentleman with the surname Tan before?"
The woman nodded with a smile. "There was a gentleman with the surname Tan. He's a great benefactor. He said he would help our Azhi treat her leg disease."
Azhi was her daughter with her late husband.
"What's his name?"
He asked another question.
Being asked this, the woman frowned and thought for a while. It took her a long time to say, "... I don't really remember. He also sent someone. He said that he thought our Azhi was very intelligent and wanted to reach out to do charity and sponsor her."
"Can you still contact the person he sent?" Nan Yu took over the conversation and asked gently. "Maybe we know him."
The woman patted her clothes. "I'll go to the room to get the remittance slip. Please wait a moment."
Tan Linyuan and Nan Yu looked at each other, and their expressions were equally serious.
A moment later, the woman came out with the remittance slip and handed it to Nan Yu.
Nan Yu looked at the strange name on it and was a bit at a loss.
Tan Linyuan, sitting beside her, had an increasingly gloomy face, and a thin layer of frost gradually covered his eyes.