Notes on Longevity

Chapter 148 Spring has just begun to depart, and now you too are leaving.
As Green Robe listened to Dao Yisheng recount some of his past experiences with Taihua, she was deeply moved.

There is no fixed rule in this world; you and I are the rule.

But she was a little confused by this statement. If there is no morality in the world, then why say that there is morality in the world? Isn't that a contradiction?

"Taihua is indeed a strange person. He gives people the feeling that he is hard to understand and can't figure out. But he is a good person."

Dao Yisheng lay on the bed, murmuring to himself.

"A good person."

She had already sensed this when Taihua promised to visit her grandmother if she passed through Jiangnan, but Taihua gave off an unapproachable feeling.

"Sigh, let's not talk about him anymore. How about we talk about you?" Dao Yisheng sat up from the bed, looking at the woman in green with a smile through his dark eyes.

"I have nothing to say." Upon hearing this, the woman in green lowered her head in sorrow and rejected Dao Yisheng's idea.

"Alright. Let me tell you about myself then." Dao Yisheng lay back down, somewhat dejected. "Actually, I've lost a lot of my memories."

Green-clad didn't really want to listen, but seeing that Yi Sheng had already spoken, she didn't have the heart to interrupt.

"I am a phoenix tree that inexplicably appeared near the Chuyun Temple in Taihua more than a hundred years ago."

Sycamore tree?
Upon hearing this, the woman in green looked up at Dao Yisheng lying on the bed, and a thought popped into her mind: Could it be him?

So she interrupted Dao Yisheng and asked him, "Are you a phoenix tree?"

"Yes. Exactly the real thing." Dao Yisheng was puzzled.

"How old are you this year?" The woman in green stood up, biting her lip, and slowly walked towards him.

Dao Yisheng felt somewhat confused, but still answered her question: "I just said, a thousand years old."

A thousand years old?

He must have been almost three hundred years old when he passed away, so he should be a thousand years old now.
Green-clad was somewhat unsure. She approached the bedside and looked at Dao Yisheng, who appeared both melancholy and serene, yet she remained uncertain.

"Do you remember where you were born?" The woman in green bit her lip lightly, perhaps out of anticipation, and before she knew it, her lip was bleeding.

"I remember, I was born in Jiangnan."

"Jiangnan." The woman in green's voice was choked with emotion, her breathing was slightly blocked, tears silently streamed down her face, and she sobbed softly.

It really was him.
Green Robe never imagined that the person she had been searching for for hundreds of years would appear before her.

Looking back over the past few hundred years, every place she had been, every corner she had searched, all her emotions completely spiraled out of control at this moment.

She cried and sobbed, trying to speak but finding that no matter how she opened her mouth, she couldn't get the words out; everything piled up back into her heart.

Dao Yisheng heard the green-clad woman crying and suddenly felt a pang of panic. He sat up, looking at the unseen green-clad woman in front of him with a sense of helplessness.

He scratched his head, his hands gripping the hem or cuff of his clothes uncontrollably.

Seeing his anxious expression, Green Robe looked up and cried silently, tears streaming down her face. Finally, she turned her head away, took a deep breath, and looked at Dao Yisheng again.

"Girl, what's wrong?" Dao Yisheng's voice was very soft. He heard Green Robe crying and thought he had said something wrong, but no matter how he thought about it, he hadn't said anything. She had only asked, and he had only answered. Green Robe raised her hands and slowly reached towards Dao Yisheng's face, but just as she was about to get close, no matter how hard she tried, her hands could not get any closer.

Dao Yisheng also felt the hands reaching out from the green-clad figure. He was slightly startled, and his mind went completely blank.

"Do you remember there was a mountain in Jiangnan, and on the mountain was a deserted courtyard, and in the courtyard was a very tall, strong, and lush tree?"

The green-clad woman's choked voice made Dao Yisheng feel extremely distressed. As she spoke, a lush, vibrant green mountain appeared in his blank mind.

But as the memory drew closer, the green hills withered and autumn leaves fluttered in the air, and then a little girl appeared in the courtyard.

The little girl sat on the branch of the only sycamore tree that was still lush in autumn, gazing into the distance.

"Can not remember."

Dao Yisheng's words shattered Green Robe's hope. Just moments ago, she had been hoping he would say he remembered, but the truth was different. He hadn't just lost some memories; he had lost all memories of her. Yet she clearly remembered.

His outstretched hands slowly withdrew, and the tears that fell were like the dewdrops that fell from him under the sycamore tree that morning, only this time they didn't fall on her. Instead, they drifted away into the distance with time and the river of memory.

"It's alright, I remember it," the woman in green said softly, so softly that even she could barely hear it herself.

All those years of longing have vanished in the silence of time, with the arrival of today's spring breeze and the falling autumn leaves of yesteryear.

"What?" Dao Yisheng didn't hear what she said and asked her softly.

"It's nothing." The woman in green turned around and looked at the night outside the window, wiping away her tears.

But all she could think of was herself sitting on its branches, listening to him talk about the misty Jiangnan region, like a landscape painting in ink wash.

Her search was like a painter with an ink brush, meticulously depicting the serene sky and the boats sailing on the water.

But in the painting, it started to rain in Jiangnan. On the roof of a pavilion outside the mountains, a green rose stood, watching the small boat on the river, its destination unknown.

“Young lady, I have lost many memories. I only remember someone telling me that Jiangnan is very beautiful.” Dao Yisheng, faced with the current scene, didn’t know what to say, and could only slowly speak from his fragmented memories: “I also remember someone saying: ‘Water is like the horizontal waves of eyes, mountains are like the gathering of brows. If you want to ask a traveler where they are going, it’s where the eyes and brows are brimming with affection. Spring has just been sent away, and now you are sent away as well. If you go to Jiangnan and catch up with spring, stay with spring forever.’”

The woman in green stood with her hands clasped tightly to her chest, tears streaming down her face: "I just saw spring off, and now I'm seeing you off too. If you reach Jiangnan and catch up with spring, please stay with it forever."

The woman in green first heard this from a tourist, but at the time she didn't understand the deeper meaning. She simply thought that Jiangnan was infinitely beautiful.

But when he embarked on this journey of discovery, he realized that the poem was actually about love.

If you go to Jiangnan, you'll arrive in spring.
"Girl, are you alright?" Dao Yisheng felt a strange sadness in his heart as he listened to Green Robe's murmurs. He didn't know what was wrong with Green Robe and wanted to comfort her. But he found that no matter how hard he tried, he could never come up with any words of comfort.

All I could do was helplessly inquire about her condition.

"You really don't remember?" the woman in green asked again, crying.

"Although I don't know why the girl asked me these questions, I've really forgotten a lot. I only remember that I was born in Jiangnan."

"Then it's alright." The woman in green looked up and sobbed, her voice tinged with despair. "Young master, it's getting late. You should get some rest."

(End of this chapter)