Martial Arts Secret Realm: Only I Can Know the Plot?

From the corner of his left eye all the way to his chin, the scar stretched across his face like a centipede. It was old; the red had faded, replaced by a whitish color that would never disappear.

Ding Dian gripped the pillar tightly.

He recalled what Sun Fan had said—"She ruined her face and locked herself in her room because she didn't want to get married."

For him.

For a useless person locked up in jail.

After offering incense, Ling Shuanghua stood up and turned around.

Her gaze inadvertently swept across the outside of the hall and stopped.

The two people stood a dozen steps apart, staring at each other.

The wind blew, and the osmanthus tree in the yard rustled.

Ling Shuanghua's hands began to tremble. The incense in her hand fell to the ground and broke in two.

"Dian... Brother Dian?" Her voice was as soft as the wind, as soft as a dream.

He walked very slowly, each step as if measuring something—measuring the time lost in the past three years, measuring the distance from the prison to here, measuring the path from one dream to another.

"Shuangmei," he said, his voice hoarse.

Suddenly, Ling Shuanghua seemed to remember something, and abruptly turned her face away, covering it with her sleeve.

"Brother Dian, I... I can't see you."

"I promised my father that if he didn't take your life, I would never see you again. He made me swear an oath, a solemn oath, that if I ever saw you again, my mother would be tormented by evil spirits in the underworld every day." Her voice choked with emotion as she said this. She had lost her mother at a young age and loved her dearly.

Even though Ding Dian had heard about this kid from Sun Fan before, he still couldn't help but clench his fists tightly.

The two leaned against each other, saying nothing more.

Lin Shuanghua dared not look at Ding Dian, and Ding Dian dared not look at her again.

Of course, it's not because she's ugly. When a woman is willing to give up her stunning beauty for you, then at that moment, she will always be the most beautiful in your heart.

A long, long time later, a rooster crowed in the distance.

Lin Shuanghua said, "Brother Dian, I can't hurt my dead mother. You...you must never come to see me again."

Ding Dian said somewhat unwillingly, "We'll never see each other again?"

Lin Shuanghua cried, "I will never see him again! I only hope that after we die, we can be buried together. I only hope that some kind-hearted person can help us fulfill this wish, and I will pray for him every day in the underworld."

Ding Dian's hands clenched tightly, his knuckles turning white.

He wanted to say something, but his throat felt like it was blocked by something, and he couldn't utter a single word.

He had promised her he wouldn't put her in a difficult position.

He promised her that he wouldn't let her break her vow.

He promised her—

But he never promised to watch her live like that.

Just then, a clear voice came from outside the courtyard gate.

"Gentlemen, may I say a few words?"

Ding Dian and Ling Shuanghua turned their heads at the same time.

Sun Fan walked in from outside the courtyard gate, dressed in a blue scholar's robe, with an ordinary longsword hanging at his waist, and a faint smile on his face.

The setting sun fell on his shoulders, like a thin layer of golden gauze draped over them.

Ling Shuanghua subconsciously took a step back.

"Who are you?" her voice became wary. "How did you get in?"

"I walked in," Sun Fan said, his tone casual as if he were chatting with someone. "The back wall of Qingxu Temple isn't high; it doesn't take much effort to climb over it."

Ding Dian frowned: "Sun Fan, what are you doing here?"

Then he whispered to Ling Shuanghua, "He helped me a lot in prison before, and he even brought me your handkerchief."

"Let's resolve our differences." Sun Fan walked up to the two of them, looking at Ling Shuanghua. "Miss Ling, when you made that vow, did you consider this question?"

When Ling Shuanghua learned that the person in front of her was the one who had sent the message through the maid earlier, she was no longer so wary.

But she still didn't say anything, she just looked at him through her sleeve.

"If your mother were still alive, would she want you to do this?"

Ling Shuanghua was taken aback.

But then she added, "What goes around comes around."

"Alright, since Heaven is watching, let's ask Heaven to bear witness."

Ding Dian and Ling Shuanghua were both stunned.

They had no idea what kind of trouble Sun Fan was up to this time.

"What...what do you mean?" Her voice began to tremble.

Sun Fan did not answer directly, but instead took out a small copper box from his pocket and placed it on the stone table in the courtyard.

"Miss Ling, do you believe in ghosts and gods?"

Ling Shuanghua was stunned for a moment: "I...I don't know."

"I believe," Sun Fan said, "because I am a member of the Celestial Masters sect."

Ding Dian frowned even more deeply.

Sun Fan is a member of the Celestial Masters Sect? How come he didn't know?

Sun Fan ignored his expression and continued, "The Celestial Masters sect has a secret technique that allows them to communicate with spirits. As long as the objects left behind by the deceased still exist, they can summon the deceased's soul to speak with people in the mortal world."

He opened the copper box, and inside was a lock of hair.

Ling Shuanghua's pupils suddenly contracted.

That was her mother's hair.

She recognized the color and the texture—she used to comb her mother's hair every day before she died, and she saw this strand of hair every day.

"You...how could you have...?"

"The night your mother died, she put this lock of hair under her pillow," Sun Fan said. "She's been waiting for an opportunity to tell you some things."

Ling Shuanghua's tears welled up instantly.

Sun Fan placed the bronze box on the stone table, took a few steps back, made a strange hand seal with his hands, and muttered some incantations.

Ding Dian noticed that his lips were moving, but the sound was very soft, and it was impossible to hear what he was saying.

A gust of wind suddenly rose in the courtyard.

It wasn't an ordinary wind—it was blowing from all directions at the same time, making the osmanthus trees rustle and the copper box on the stone table vibrate gently.

Ling Shuanghua held her breath.

Then, she saw it.

Above the bronze box, a wisp of mist slowly condensed and gradually transformed into a human figure.

The human figure was blurry; the facial features and clothing were indistinct, but Ling Shuanghua recognized the outline at a glance.

"mother……"

She knelt down on the ground with a thud.

The humanoid figure didn't move; it simply watched her silently.

Then, a voice rang out in the courtyard.

It was very light and gentle, as if it came from a very, very far place.

"Shuang'er".

Ling Shuanghua's tears fell like beads from a broken string.

"Mother! Mother! Are you...are you doing well down there? Have you been bullied by evil spirits? Your unfilial daughter accidentally saw Brother Dian, but Buddha, Buddha said it was an unintentional mistake, and it is not a big deal."

"Shuang'er." The voice interrupted her, "Mother is alright."

Ling Shuanghua was stunned.

"The reason your father made you swear that oath is because he has a guilty conscience."

"You don't need to worry about that vow."

She suddenly remembered something.

Her father wasn't home the night her mother died.

The servants said that the master had gone out on business and would not be back for a few days.

But that afternoon, she clearly saw her father come in through the back door, his face ashen and his clothes covered in mud.

She asked her father what was wrong, and he said nothing was wrong and told her to go back to her room.

The next morning, my mother passed away.

The doctor said it was an emergency and there was no time to save him.

She was too young then and didn't think about anything.

Later, when I grew up, I would occasionally think about this incident and always felt that something was wrong, but I couldn't quite put my finger on it.

Now that Sun Fan said this, all the doubts that she had suppressed in her heart for many years suddenly surged up.

"Mother didn't die of illness." The voice was very calm, as if it were talking about something that had nothing to do with her.