Chapter 4: The Choice Beneath the Willow
The Rui estate was never quiet; even when the wind slept, there were still whispers within the walls.
By dawn, gossip had already bloomed across the inner courtyards like mold on old rice: servants spoke to each other while scrubbing tile, kitchen girls whispered behind steaming pots, and every tale, no matter how minuscule, somehow traced its way back to the same person
The useless third miss who had suddenly stopped going to the Forest Pavilion.
"Third Miss Rui hasn't been seen going out in days," one maid said wringing out a cloth. "Do you think the man she kept there no longer wants to see her again?"
"Maybe she ran away from him," another replied. "You remember how pale she looked last week? Like she'd seen a ghost."
"Please," snorted an older servant, "that man is no ghost. They say he is a high level cultivator who lost his strength"
They didn't notice the figure that stood behind the camellia bushes and listened.
Rui Mian slowly folded her fan and a dangerous smile spread across her lips. The early sun caught the silver embroidery on her robe and flashed like a blade.
"So," she murmured, "little Wei has lost her nerve."
It was almost disappointing. She had planned an entire "accidental" meeting at the Pavilion with her, radiant in silk, surrounded by young male cultivators; Rui Wei, clumsy and alone, mocked for daring to call the begger Long Shen A friend of hers. A perfect humiliation, polished and ready.
And now, Rui Wei had ruined it by simply… vanishing.
Rui Mian's fan tapped against her palm as she paced the corridor. "She used to scurry off every morning, pretending to train. What stopped her?
Her maid, Fei'er, slightly inclined her head. "Perhaps it like they said, the begger doesn't want to see her, Young Miss."
"Doesn't want to see her?" Rui Mian chuckled quietly. "You think that's all? No. That girl is too stubborn to give up without a reason. Something happened on that mountain."
Fei'er hesitated. "Should we, investigate?"
"Oh, we will." Rui Mian flicked her fan open again, painted cranes gliding across it. "But we're going to do it right. Bring me five of the household's Foundation cultivators—those with more brawn than brains. Tell them we're going for a stroll."
Fei'er looked uneasy. "Should we inform the Madam?"
"Tell her I'm going to the Pavilion to pray for the family's good fortune." Her voice was dripping with false righteousness. "Heaven knows we'll need it if Rui Wei keeps embarrassing us."
While Fei'er hastened away, Rui Mian remained standing underneath the lanterns hanging from the eaves of the corridor. Beyond the courtyard wall, the wind carried faint whispers of servants talking, pitying Rui Wei for being so weak.
It irritated her more than she expected.
Rui Mian was accustomed to comparisons in her favor: her talent praised, her beauty acknowledged, and her cultivation guided by the best tutors. Yet, somewhere beneath those compliments lurked a name people whispered about with a peculiar fondness,Rui Wei.
Not because she was strong, but because she smiled through every insult, every slap, every failure and she always lost to her in comparison of beauty.
That just ground Rui Mian's teeth.
"She's a fool," she said to herself. "And fools don't deserve miracles."
Turning toward the inner courtyard, she let her robe sweep softly across the tiles.
"Prepare the horses," she told the returning Fei'er. "We leave at dawn in three days." "For the pavilion, Young Miss?" Rui Mian smiled, her fan snapping shut with a sharp click. "No," she said lightly. "For the truth and if she happens to be in the way, we don't mind teaching her a few lessons but either way we must find out who that begger is".
For the first time in weeks, the Rui estate felt suffocating to Rui Wei.
The same courtyards, the same walls painted with old glory, the same gossip crawling like insects beneath silk, pressed against her skin until she wanted to scream.
She sat under the old willow tree in her courtyard, tucked her legs under her, and watched the pond reflect a sky that couldn't make up its mind: rain or sun?
Long Shen's voice still echoed in her mind.
"I'm going to give you two options," he had said calmly, sitting cross-legged by the pavilion pond. "The first, I rebuild your body and I carve new meridians within you, then you may walk the world as any other cultivator. If it fails, you die. If it succeeds, you live differently. Entirely."
It helps to reduce the number of variables about which inferences can be drawn, hence reducing enumeration.
"The second," his eyes had softened then, "is to reject what heaven denied you, to cultivate without meridians, with your will alone. The path is cruel, the progress is slow, but I will accept you as my student and train you well."
Now, days later, the weight of those words sat heavy on her chest.
"How does one choose between dying and… dying slower?" she muttered, prodding the pond with a stick. "He makes it sound poetic, but it's all pain."
Her maid, Shu Lin, came quietly forward with a tray bearing jasmine tea and buns. "Third Miss, you haven't eaten since morning again."
"I'm cultivating my appetite," Rui Wei said dryly.
"Miss, that is not how cultivation works.
"Neither is having no meridians," muttered Rui Wei.
Shu Lin winced. She'd overheard enough servant gossip to know how often that word followed her mistress, meridianless, hopeless, useless.
"Miss," Shu Lin said softly, "Madam said the Patriarch wants to have everyone present in dinner tonight.
"Of course he does," Rui Wei sighed. "He wants to remind me that rice is wasted on me."
"Should I tell him you're unwell again?"
Rui Wei waved a hand. "Tell him I'm meditating. That always sounds important."
Shu Lin hesitated a moment before bowing and leaving.
She was gone, and the stillness fell.
Rui Wei leaned her back against the tree, looking up through the dangling willow leaves. The wind blew a gentle fragrance of plum blossoms and wet soil, a smell that reminded her instantly of her mother's garden.
And for some reason she felt smaller than she had in years.
"Rebuild my body." she whispered, tracing her forehead where Long Shen had pressed his fingers, where she'd felt that faint warmth of his qi seep into her. "Would I still be me if he rubuilt me? Or just a pretty corpse that breathes differently?"
The idea scared her more than she'd care to admit.
The other option, to cultivate without meridians sounded impossible.
Even the manuals called such people "crippled by heaven."
Defying that was the same as defying heaven itself.
And yet, thinking of ine Long Shen saying, "The Dao is merciless and has no feelings," she couldn't help but feel that he hadn't been teasing her at all.
Another week passed.
The servants kept making guesses continuously about her not being at the Forest Pavilion.
Rui Mian's laughter often floated from the training yard, bright and sharp like clashing swords.
But Rui Wei didn't leave her courtyard, not until the morning it rained.
The path to her mother's grave was slippery with mud; the drizzle blurred the sky into a silver haze. Rui Wei carried a small basket of flowers, her robe soaked at the hem, hair sticking to her cheeks.
The tomb stood at the far end of the ancestral garden, half-hidden behind creeping vines. Her mother's name, Rui Wenhua, was carved deep into the stone. Rui Wei knelt before it, hands shaking as she lit the incense or at least she tried to.
"Mother," she whispered, "I've been offered a chance to cultivate and get stronger"
Her voice cracked with a small laugh. "Both sound like bad jokes. One might kill me; the other might take forever and still kill me later."
The smoke curled upwards, pale and uncertain.
"I don't know which to choose," she said softly. "But if you were here, you'd tell me not to choose the easy path. You'd say, I didn't teach my child how to survive just for her to take the easy path"
"I'm scared" Rui Wei said as tears rolled down her face "For the past 19 years I have been insulted, embarrassed, plotted against and I've been given false hope about my ability to cultivate always" she said dragging her knees to her chest under the cold rain
"I do not know anything about this man in particular except his name" she murmured, staring at the incense, which refused to light. "And yet… when he speaks, I want to believe him. Maybe that's what makes it dangerous."
She set the unlit stick to the wet ground and laughed weakly. It was not a laugh of joy, just that particular laugh people use when they have run out of tears.
"I suppose I've always been stupid, Mother. But this time, maybe I'll be stupid on purpose."
Wind began to tousle the treetops, and a few petals from the peach tree next door had been scattered. They drifted onto her shoulder and into her hair.
Rui Wei closed her eyes and took a slow breath. The drizzle slowed down to a faint mist, and for a moment, she imagined that her mother was standing beside her, the faint outline of her smile, the warmth emanating from her hand, the gentle tone in which she spoke: "If you can't trust heaven, then trust yourself."
When Rui Wei opened her eyes, there was no fear left in them. Only resolve.
She wiped her tears away with her sleeve, stood, and whispered, "Then the second path
By the time she reached the outer gates, the rain had stopped, and the world seemed washed and quiet. The guards barely noticed her slip past, anyway, as few cared enough to stop the useless third miss.
It stretched before her, narrow and winding, the road to the forest, speckled with drops that glittered like silver threads in the weak sun. Each step felt heavier than the last, not from fatigue but from the weight of her own decision.
Rui Wei clutched at her cloak more tightly and muttered under her breath, "If I die, I'm haunting that man."
She didn't know why the thought made her smile.
The path to the Forest Pavilion was familiar: moss-covered stones, chirping of hidden birds, and the faint hum of the waterfall in the distance.
Her heart skipped a beat as she finally caught sight of it again, half-veiled among the trees and mist.
Long Shen was there, of course. He was always there.
He sat on the weathered wooden steps, half-leaning against a pillar, eyes closed as though asleep. His robes were plain, but somehow they looked cleaner than they should have any right to, after weeks of idleness. A thin wisp of steam rose from the teacup beside him.
He didn't open his eyes while talking.
"So," he said lazily, "you've finally decided."
Rui Wei froze mid-step. "How did you—? You weren't even looking."
"I don't need to look to feel your hesitation," Long Shen said, his voice carrying the kind of calm that bordered on mocking. "Your body qi is trembling like a startled rabbit.
"I don't evenhave qi," Rui Wei shot back.
"Exactly." His lips curved slightly. "Which makes your trembling impressive, I could sense it without even needing to sense any Qi in you."
She scowled. "You—!"
"—took too long to decide," he interrupted, finally opening his eyes. They were calm, cold-but something in them softened as they met hers. "So? Which path?
Rui Wei took a deep breath and, straightening her back, she said, "The second one. I'll cultivate without meridians."
For the first time, Long Shen's expression shifted, a flicker of surprise, then faint amusement. "You do realize what you're choosing, right? Endless pain and humiliation. "
She spoke quickly: "I'm used to all that," and then added, "Besides, if I die, I'll make sure to haunt you."
He regarded her for a long moment before he uttered a quiet laugh, short and real. "You? Haunt me? You'd get lost halfway between realms."
Rui Wei's jaw dropped. "I—! That—!"
Her anger dissipated, however, when he motioned for her to take a seat.
"Good," he said simply. "Then from today onward, you are my disciple."
Her breath caught. The words sounded almost too big for her ears. "Disciple…?"
"Don't get too excited," he said, and then he stood and dusted off his robe. "Disciples wake before dawn, run until their legs cry for mercy, and meditate until they forget what warmth feels like."
Rui Wei frowned. "That doesn't sound very—"
"—and they fetch tea for their master."
"That part I believe," she mumbled.
Long Shen turned toward her, one brow raised. "You talk too much."
She said, "You brood too much."
A faint ghost of a smirk touched his lips. "Then we're even. Remember we need to perform the official master and disciple ceremony until then you are not yet officially my discipline"
She didn't know why, but something about the exchange made her chest feel lighter, as if the world for once wasn't laughing at her.
You're never going to solve that one, you hear the voice of tradition saying; you're not smart enough, resourceful enough, enlightened enough.
Meanwhile, back at the Rui estate, Rui Mian tightened the straps of her riding gloves as she mounted her horse.
Five Foundation cultivators waited behind her - broad-shouldered men armed with blades and dull obedience.
Fei'er handed her a folded umbrella. "The paths are slippery, Young Miss. Should we take the servants too?" "No," Rui Mian said smoothly, his eyes narrowing toward the mist-shrouded silhouette of the mountain in the distance. "We have no need of witnesses." The rain had stopped, though the rumbles of thunder growled faintly in the clouds, as if even heaven wasn't sure what was going to happen. "Let's see," Rui Mian murmured, tapping her fan lightly against her thigh. "If that beggar really is something more than he appears."