Never to Find Her Again - Chapter 2

Chapter 2

I had liked Xie Shenzhi for many years.

The first time I met him, I was only six or seven.

Back then, I went with my mother to Jinshan Temple to burn incense. My mother was in the front courtyard listening to a master lecture on the scriptures, but I couldn’t sit still, so I slipped away to play in the back courtyard.

Greedy as I was, I reached for a lotus in the pond and accidentally fell in. A young novice monk pulled me out.

I was soaked from head to toe, my socks were caked in mud, and I had even lost one shoe. I was badly frightened.

How strange. He was clearly dressed like a novice monk, yet his hair was tied up-he was actually a lay disciple. His clothes were wet too, clinging tightly to him, leaving him in quite a sorry state.

The young novice monk slipped the Buddhist prayer-bead bracelet from his wrist onto mine, wiped the mud from my face with a handkerchief, and softly told me not to be afraid.

One of the matrons by my mother’s side came looking for me. Alarmed, she scooped me into her arms, thanked him, and hurried away.

Later, after asking around through several channels, my mother learned that the person who had saved me was Third Young Master Xie.

When Third Young Master Xie was born, strange phenomena appeared in the sky. A passing cultivator said that when he turned nineteen, he would face a destined calamity.

The Xie family had not taken it seriously at first, but several things that cultivator predicted later came true one after another.

The Old Madam of the Xie family panicked and sent the young Xie Shenzhi to a temple, begging an eminent monk to raise him in her stead. She also invited experts to guide him and teach him martial arts, hoping only that he might turn misfortune into blessing.

I had never believed in such things.

At six or seven years old, how could I possibly understand Buddhist scriptures?

But this concerned Third Young Master Xie.

How could the gentle older brother who had kindly saved me be destroyed by some great calamity at nineteen?

At an age when other young ladies were flying kites and chasing butterflies, I spent every day in the Buddhist hall. I kowtowed three thousand times before the Buddha, praying only that Third Young Master Xie would live a smooth and peaceful life.

Xie Shenzhi was not brought back by the Xie family until he was twelve. It was also on that day that the Empress Dowager issued an imperial decree, bestowing a marriage between the Su and Xie families.

My mother was displeased. Her own daughter’s entire life had been tied down so early.

Little did she know, I was overjoyed.

How many women in this world could marry whomever they wished?

And yet I was so lucky.

Xie Shenzhi practiced martial arts. He once said that after he realized the ambitions in his heart and brought peace to the realm, he would ride across the mountains and rivers with the woman he loved.

He hoped his wife would know how to ride.

In truth, the girls of the Su Family had no need to learn such things.

Even in Shangjing City, few noble young ladies would study riding.

The calluses on my hands were worn there by reins; the bloody marks on my legs were chafed by a horse’s belly.

To learn to ride, I even broke my leg in a fall.

When I heard that he liked girls with a strong and unyielding nature, I forced myself to endure it without shedding a single tear. The matron taking care of me, on the other hand, cried buckets.

The Buddhist prayer-bead bracelet Xie Shenzhi gave me once broke.

It happened at the worst possible time-during a temple fair, where people streamed past like weaving shuttles.

I bent over and groped through the surging crowd. My white dress was rubbed so filthy its original color could no longer be seen, and my hands were stepped on several times, the skin torn open.

Seeing that something was wrong, the matron beside me forcibly picked me up and practically dragged me back to the residence.

Later, I went back to search again, but of the eighteen prayer beads, I only managed to find twelve.

I had lost the only thing my savior had ever given me. Seeing how heartbroken I was, my mother had people search for six other beads that looked similar.

At a glance, they appeared exactly the same. No one else could tell the difference. Only I could distinguish those tiny discrepancies immediately.

I had originally planned to tell Xie Shenzhi all these things on our wedding night.

Unfortunately, that was before.