279: Implanting Reincarnation Memories (Part 1)

Jiangnan, March.

The grass grew, warblers flew, and the misty rain was hazy.

The bell tolling at Hanshan Temple echoed through the twilight, startling the birds resting in the woods, sending them fluttering toward the orange-red horizon.

"Young Miss! Please slow down! Watch your step!"

The Maidservant, Xiao Cui, lifted her skirt and followed breathlessly behind, her little face flushed from running.

Ahead, the daughter of the Shen family, Shen Ruyan, completely disregarding the decorum of a noble lady, lifted her own skirt and ran toward the brilliant peach blossom grove behind the temple with her bare, snow-white feet.

Pink and white petals fell incessantly, landing on her raven-black hair, her goose-yellow dress, and her delicately sculpted face.

She was running too fast and was too happy, failing to notice a protruding rock beneath her feet.

"Ah!"

Her left ankle twisted, a piercing pain shot through her, and she instantly lost her balance, crying out as she fell forward.

The expected pain of hitting the hard rock did not come.

Instead, a slightly slender arm timely steadied her falling body.

"Female benefactor, be careful."

The voice was clear and gentle, carrying the unique callowness of a youth, along with a trace of imperceptible nervousness.

Still shaken, Shen Ruyan looked up and collided with a pair of exceptionally clear eyes.

It was a young monk wearing an old grey monk's robe, appearing to be sixteen or seventeen years old, with delicate features and a straight nose bridge.

Because he was supporting her, the two were very close, and his delicate face flushed with color at a speed visible to the naked eye, even reaching his earlobes.

The young monk hurriedly averted his gaze, not daring to meet her eyes.

"Th-thank you, Little Master."

Shen Ruyan steadied herself, only then feeling the piercing pain from her left ankle.

She couldn't help but gasp and furrow her brows.

Seeing this, the young monk hesitated for a moment, then lowered his head and said, "If the female benefactor does not mind, this monk knows of a few herbs that can alleviate your pain."

Shen Ruyan looked at her swollen ankle, then at the blushing young monk before her, and nodded, "Then I will trouble you, Little Master."

With the Maidservant's support, she sat on a smooth stone bench nearby.

The young monk turned and left, soon returning with a few unknown herbs, which he washed with his water pouch and crushed in a stone mortar.

He squatted down and gently applied the herbal medicine to her swollen ankle.

"Hiss."

The cold sensation made Shen Ruyan gasp slightly, and her ankle instinctively recoiled.

"Bear with it, it will be better soon."

The young monk looked up at her, then quickly lowered his head again.

The twilight deepened, and the golden light of the setting sun spilled into the peach grove, warm and cozy.

The woods became increasingly quiet, with only the faint sound of the bell from afar, the subtle sounds of the young monk applying the medicine, and their somewhat ragged breathing.

"Little Master, what should I call you?" Shen Ruyan broke the silence.

"This monk is Liaochen." The young monk's voice was very low, "My Master said, the Mortal World is fleeting, all is but dust."

"Liaochen." Shen Ruyan repeated softly, somehow feeling an indescribable sadness in the name.

After applying the medicine, Liaochen carefully bandaged it with a clean strip of cloth, then stood up, pressed his palms together, and looked at the ground, "Female benefactor, you can try to walk a little; it should be much better."

He glanced at the sky again, "It's getting dark, it's not safe in the mountains; the female benefactor should return home early."

Shen Ruyan stood up with the Maidservant's support; the pain in her ankle had greatly diminished, and she could manage to walk.

Watching the young monk before her who didn't even dare to lift his eyelids, she suddenly felt mischievous, tilted her head, and blinked her large eyes, "Little Master, look up at me."

Liaochen's body stiffened, and it took a long time for him to slowly raise his eyes, his gaze daring only to land on her shoulder.

"Am I pretty?" Shen Ruyan asked with a smile, her eyes filled with a mischievous glint.

Liaochen's face instantly flushed from his forehead to the root of his neck, his neck included.

He hurriedly took a step back, pressed his palms together, chanted a Buddhist mantra, his voice trembling slightly, "Amitabha, a sin, a sin."

"I ask the female benefactor to please not joke with this monk."

"It is getting late, this monk, this monk should return now."

After speaking, he turned around in a fluster and quickly disappeared into the depths of the peach grove.

Shen Ruyan watched his flustered back and couldn't help but laugh out loud.

"Young Miss! You really are! How can you tease a man of the cloth!" The Maidservant stamped her feet to the side, amused yet helpless.

"He is really interesting." Shen Ruyan gazed in the direction where Liaochen disappeared, the smile on her lips lingering for a long time.

Since then, the number of times Shen Ruyan went to Hanshan Temple inexplicably increased.

Sometimes she followed her mother to offer incense and pray as a routine, and sometimes she used the excuse of coming to listen to high monks preach to calm her heart.

Her gaze would always subconsciously search for that lean figure among the group of monks bowing their heads to chant scriptures.

She discovered that he would secretly tuck a petal of her favorite begonia into the Buddhist scriptures she returned after borrowing.

Along the edge of the petal, he had carefully pinched a mark with his fingernail, like an unintentional decoration, or perhaps some clumsy mark.

She would also, under the Maidservant's cover, while her mother was talking to the abbot, sneak to the back mountain and stuff a package of vegetarian snacks, still carrying the lingering warmth of her palm, into his hands:

"Master Liaochen, try this. I learned to make it myself. I guarantee it's clean and hasn't touched any meat."

He would always blush, quickly take it, hide it in his wide sleeves, and lower his head, his voice even smaller than hers: "Thank you, female benefactor."

Then he would hurriedly turn and leave, his retreating figure looking like he was fleeing in a panic.

However, at the corner, he couldn't help but steal a glance back at her; their eyes would meet in the air and immediately break apart, both of their hearts pounding.

That unspeakable affection, amidst the flying flowers of spring, in this unknown corner, quietly sprouted.

She knew this wasn't right.

He was a monk, bound by monastic rules and precepts, required to keep his six senses pure.

She was the daughter of the Shen family raised in the deep boudoir, with strict family rules, and the one she would marry in the future should be a wealthy Young Master of equal social standing.

But every time she saw him, heard his clear and gentle voice, saw his clean eyes and flushed ear tips, her heart would beat wildly.

Until that rainy night.

Spring thunder rumbled, and the heavy rain poured down.

Shen Ruyan was soaked to the bone, her thin dress clinging tightly to her body, outlining the beginning of a young girl's exquisite curves.

One could not tell if it was rain or tears on her face as she ran in a disheveled state toward Hanshan Temple.

Her family wanted to betroth her to the dissolute Young Master of the Jiangnan prefect.

Tomorrow they were to exchange birth charts, and the matter was almost set in stone.

She had resisted, cried, and gone on hunger strikes, but none of it was any use.

In the end, she was locked in the deep boudoir by her furious father.

Fortunately, her personal Maidservant, Xiao Cui, had secretly hidden the key and let her out.

"Liaochen! Liaochen! Come out! Come out and see me! I beg you!"