The weather was clear, the clouds distant. The green tiles of the Far Mountain Sect’s roofs shone magnificently under the sunlight, yet the corner eaves were all tied with white cloth, plain muslin hanging down, and the white lanterns swayed incessantly in the wind.

Nearly a month had passed since the Six Sects’ siege, and all disputes had been settled. A sacrificial altar was organized to mourn the deceased of this conflict, located in the Far Mountain Sect.

Currently, everyone in the Far Mountain Sect wore plain white, their clothes as white as snow, the scene desolate. People and horses moved along the post road, simultaneously accompanied by the figures of disciples from the Six Sects, all draped in plain white outer robes, their heads tied with snow-white mourning fabric.

Not far from the post road, in a pavilion, a resigned sigh sounded, “Son-in-law, just put it on!”

Inside the pavilion, Yue Lin held a wine cup in one hand, wearing a black outer robe, lazily placing one leg on a stone stool, beside him an exasperated Chu Tong, “I’ve said it before, I won’t wear it. You can nag me for another hour, and I still won’t wear it.”

Chu Tong nearly stamped his foot, “Why?!”

Yue Lin smiled, “Don’t you understand such a simple reason? I was born of the demon clan, I have no reason to mourn for the righteous path. If I did, people would say it’s like a cat crying over a mouse—a hypocritical kindness.”

Chu Tong disagreed, “But you are now Lord Yue Zhao’s husband, and you’re already part of the Far Mountain Sect. They’ve set up the altar in the Far Mountain Sect to honor Lord Yue Zhao’s contributions. If you, as Lord Yue Zhao’s spouse, don’t cooperate by wearing mourning clothes, wouldn’t that make him very embarrassed?”

Yue Lin clicked his tongue, “You’re right, I’ll go hide now, so Lord Yue Zhao won’t be embarrassed.”

Chu Tong, “…………”

He had just stood up when a breeze came, rustling the wind chimes at the eaves, accompanied by steady, unhurried footsteps.

“Hide where?” Chu Hanjin’s voice was cool.

Yue Lin turned around and saw Chu Hanjin approaching from under the bodhi tree. He wore a plain white mourning outfit, his black hair firmly tied with a wooden hairpin, his forehead matched with a segment of snow-white mourning fabric, his attire extremely plain and solemn. His eyes were slightly downcast, his nose and lips exuding an unchanged handsome allure.

Yue Lin suddenly stopped, “Uh.”

Following behind Chu Hanjin was a crowd of servants, all in uniform plain white mourning clothes, standing quietly on both sides.

Yue Lin hadn’t thought of what to say when Chu Tong stepped forward with a gloomy face to complain, “Lord Yue Zhao, the son-in-law refuses to wear the school uniform.”

Yue Lin interrupted him, “I—”

Chu Tong aggrievedly, “I’ve been persuading him for half a day now, really annoying! He said he’d hide and still not wear it! Humph!”

Yue Lin, “…”

Chu Hanjin’s gaze fell on him, his ink-stained pupils silently watching, took the mourning clothes that Chu Tong had been holding out, and walked over to Yue Lin.

Seeing he couldn’t escape, Yue Lin smiled, “Didn’t think about hiding anywhere, just wanted to find another place to drink.”

Chu Hanjin looked at the mourning clothes on the table, “Wearing mourning clothes is to mourn the innocent people who died in this Six Sects’ dispute. Don’t you want to?”

Yue Lin said, “Ah Chu, you know I’m not without sympathy, but I’m not within the five degrees of mourning, and righteous cultivators also have prejudices against me. It would be very awkward to appear at the solemn altar.”

Chu Hanjin, “But you played a significant role in stopping this dispute—”

Yue Lin laughed lightly, gently holding his hand. The servants behind Chu Hanjin saw this and immediately lowered their heads even more, pretending to see nothing. Yue Lin said, “The credit is all yours. If it weren’t for you, I’d still be lying in a grave in the mountains, too lazy to care about these matters. Don’t say I contributed—”

He spoke in a carefree manner, smiling as he leaned in to kiss him.

However, he met Chu Hanjin’s cold and narrow eyes, his hand gently held.

Chu Hanjin, now in mourning clothes, had to maintain dignity, solemnity, elegance, and quiet. No laughing, no impatience, no frivolity, otherwise, it would be disrespectful to the deceased.

Holding Yue Lin’s hand, Chu Hanjin looked helpless, “I discussed with the Six Sects to recognize your contributions, just right to dispel everyone’s prejudices against you. If you really don’t want to wear mourning clothes, then tie a black ribbon, stay behind the curtains as my spouse, would that be alright?”

Yue Lin nodded, “That would be good.”

He had always had a laid-back attitude, tired of the struggle for power, and didn’t want to get involved in any chaos anymore. Originally, living a pastoral life with Chu Hanjin wasn’t a bad idea, but since Chu Hanjin had responsibilities, staying in the Far Mountain Sect and accompanying him was also excellent.

Chu Hanjin tugged at his hand, let go, and said, “Let’s go.”

The sacrificial ceremony was set up outside the front hall of the temple, venerating the Taoist ancestors and the ancestors of the Six Sects. As they walked towards the altar, Chu Hanjin at the front, the back filled with low whispers.

“Lord Yue Zhao even looks handsome in mourning clothes! Has a different charm…”

“Who’s that behind him?”

“Don’t you know? That’s his spouse.”

“Spouse? When did that happen!”

“The kids are already there! You just found out? Your news is really outdated!”

The murmuring voices were soft, the young disciples mourning hadn’t directly experienced this Six Sects’ strife, unaware of the perilous process, their attitudes not entirely proper, yet wearing mourning clothes, gathered together chattering.

Chu Hanjin, unswerving, ignored it all, his plain white shoes stepping on the Han white marble path. Yue Lin, however, glanced sideways, the few not only not panicking but giggling.

“Very handsome, matches Lord Yue Zhao well.”

“Indeed, a good match.”

“Ah,” someone sighed, “you really don’t know who he is.”

“Who is he?”

As they talked, the topic shifted, “This Six Sects’ turmoil, the instigator turned out to be the sect leader of Far Mountain Sect, always so hearty and kind, really unexpected… Heard he was buried in a cave, body not intact, such a pity…”

“What’s there to pity? I think Mo Fa Sect and the Lost Path should be wringing their hands, both sect leaders were trapped in schemes, killing each other unknowingly, died confusedly… Speaking of which, the Far Mountain Sect caused so many deaths and injuries in the Six Sects, why aren’t they taking responsibility?”

“Taking responsibility? Which sect hasn’t produced a demon, which time hasn’t there been evildoers? Rather, it was Lord Yue Zhao who stopped it in time, cleaned up the sect. You see, the Demon Realm has been fighting for a long time, corpses everywhere, blood flowing like rivers, who knows when it will stop. Without Lord Yue Zhao, we’d have met the same fate.”

“No wonder Sect Leader Xing had his arm cut off yet still smiles at Lord Yue Zhao. He’s so down and out now, looks like a completely different person, said he’s meditating and repenting behind closed doors, actually, he’s gone mad.”

“Hahaha! Good that he’s mad, good that he’s mad. This is a wake-up call! See if he dares to encroach on other sects again!”

Bright and sunny, under the clear sky.

The weather, spotlessly clean.

Yue Lin walked to a separate tent next to the altar, inside stood the gentlemen of the Six Sects all in white plain clothes, wooden hairpins holding their hair, grass ropes tying their robes, their postures very upright. The emissary from Rongku Sect, the two Lords from Yin-Yang Sect, Sect Leader Lan from Wuji Sect, the two new Lords from Lost Path and Mo Fa Sect, calmly looked at Chu Hanjin and nodded slightly as a greeting.

Chu Hanjin also nodded back and stood inside the tent, listening for the auspicious time to ring the bell and drum, then walked several feet high to the stone-built altar.

Autumn wind soughing, the cool breeze swept through the temple, he stood alone above ten thousand cultivators, his mourning white robe fluttered in the wind, his figure extremely refined.

Chu Hanjin lifted the wine cup, bowed to heaven and earth.

Behind him, the tablets bearing the Taoist maxims.

Respect heaven.

Revere the ancestors.

Compassionate towards the innocents who perished.

This bow, laden with unspoken myriad emotions.

The altar was adorned with thousands of white lanterns, the Six Sects couldn’t fully tally the dead cultivators and civilians, so they roughly made an equal number of white lanterns, each inscribed with the character “Condolence.” On the left side of the temple ground, coffins were filled, some containing bodies, while some coffins were empty, unable to find the bodies of the cultivators, so yellow papers with the cultivators’ names were placed inside the coffins.

People from the Six Sects stepped forward, hanging the white lanterns in front of the coffins.

Every major battle, the Six Sects would hold a grand ceremony to mourn the heroic spirits.

After commemorating the dead, they would retrieve the disturbed spirits from the Celestial Burial Pit, write their names anew, and re-burn them.

Then, they would list several spells as forbidden, list their forms, and burn them on the spot.

While Yue Lin watched, his sleeve was gently pulled.

Chu Zhaoyang, dressed in mourning clothes, his forehead matched with plain white mourning fabric, looked like a snow-white cloth doll. He had been sitting in the chair for over an hour, really couldn’t sit still anymore, tilting his head said, “Daddy.”

Yue Lin held him in his arms, “Hmm?”

“What is Father doing?” Chu Zhaoyang didn’t understand.

Yue Lin touched his head, his gaze steady, “Your father is mourning the dead.”

“But why so long?”

Yue Lin touched his head again, “Because death is very regrettable.”

“Oh.” Chu Zhaoyang’s eyes twinkled, nodding heavily.

“But, the rites of mourning have distinctions of three days, three months, one year, three years, but will always end, representing that people cannot always be sorrowful, must look forward, keep moving forward.”

Chu Zhaoyang nodded again.

They stood a while longer until Chu Hanjin came down from the altar. He meticulously and flawlessly completed the ceremonial rites, the sky nearing evening, everything was over, he washed his hands in a basin of water.

People from the Six Sects bowed to each other, turned, and left, the temple’s cultivators also gradually dispersed.

Night fell, the temple ground became cool and empty, Yue Lin and Chu Hanjin walked side by side, autumn leaves fluttering, the eaves’ hanging white lanterns all lit up, casting a hazy light.

They walked slowly, Chu Zhaoyang ahead, hopping and skipping, stretching his arms running around.

Suddenly stopping, pointing at a bright white spot in front of a lantern, asked, “Daddy, what’s that?”

Yue Lin chuckled, “It’s late autumn, and there are still fireflies.”

Hearing these three words, Chu Hanjin’s thoughts stirred slightly, also turning his head to look.

Yue Lin said, “Qiuqiu was born in midsummer, when he hatched, the fireflies were already gone.”

Chu Zhaoyang oh-ed, “No wonder I don’t recognize it, it’s so pretty!”

Hearing this sentence, Yue Lin turned towards Chu Hanjin, smiled and said, “He really is your own.”

This sentence stirred ripples in Chu Hanjin’s heart.

He thought of the drunken fish grass field behind the bamboo forest, remembered himself and Yue Lin waiting in the mountains for months without seeing fireflies, but when the fireflies filled the sky, he forgot the person who accompanied him, not even remembering their name.

The fireflies came and went, but Yue Lin was always behind him.

The journey ahead wasn’t long.

Chu Hanjin stopped, called out the name, “Yue Lin.”

“What is it?” Yue Lin turned his face.

Chu Hanjin’s brows and eyes under the lantern light, his dark pupils shining brightly, clean and pure as snow. Just like back then, lost in the forest, entrusting his heart entirely to him, fussing and asking him, “Next year, can you plant a field of flowers for me again?”

Yue Lin was momentarily dazed.

In that moment of distraction, he already said, “That would be, very good.”

End of the Main Text

The author has something to say:

From now on, Yue Lin will be Chu Chu’s family haha, the husbands will grow stronger and create brilliance together!