Chapter 4: The Path of Cultivators

“Young Miss, you’re overthinking it,” Elder Mingfeng dismissed Su Yanwei’s words lightly, thinking them merely childish stubbornness. “Don’t say such things in anger.”

Su Yanwei glared at him, feeling there was no hope, no one could change the deep-rooted prejudice in his mind. She secretly muttered to herself, Stubborn old man.

“I still hope you’ll reconsider the engagement with the Xie family,” Elder Mingfeng said. “I shall take my leave for now.”

After he left, Su Yanwei stood there silently for a long while before continuing forward.

---

The next day, in the pear garden.

Su Yanwei and Ye Qingmeng were trimming flower branches together. The freshly cut peonies, still dewy, layered in delicate, vibrant petals, looked exquisite. Peonies were Ye Qingmeng’s favorite flower. She had cultivated a whole section of them in the pear garden, and now they were in full bloom, breathtakingly beautiful.

“I heard Elder Mingfeng came to see you yesterday?” Ye Qingmeng asked, trimming the peonies’ branches and leaves as she spoke.

Su Yanwei, carefully arranging the trimmed peonies in a vase, paused, then replied, “Mm.”

“Don’t take what he said to heart,” Ye Qingmeng said. “Mingfeng is just an old stubborn fool, narrow-minded and set in his ways.”

Su Yanwei lifted her gaze, her dark eyes meeting Ye Qingmeng’s.

“The elder said I should devote myself to the family.”

“Nonsense!” Ye Qingmeng, usually so graceful and composed, actually cursed.

“……”

Su Yanwei stared, stunned.

She had never heard her mother swear! Her mother had always been an elegant, ethereal figure, untouched by the mundane world.

Ye Qingmeng looked at her daughter, her eyes reflecting the small girl before her.

“You don’t need to listen to those absurd words. You are my daughter. I didn’t bring you into this world so you could sacrifice yourself for anyone. I will never allow those old men to use or harm you!”

A fierce anger burned in her gaze; the serene beauty of her face now carried a sharp, cold edge.

“How dare he speak to you like that!”

“Wei’er, remember this,” Ye Qingmeng continued, each word clear and firm.
“You are free. You can do anything you wish, refuse anyone you wish. No one can force you. You do not need to sacrifice yourself for anyone, not even for your father and me.”

Su Yanwei stared up at her, her dark eyes reflecting her mother’s determined and beautiful face.

“To cultivate the Dao is to seek longevity, to escape the suffering of reincarnation, to roam freely,” Ye Qingmeng explained.
“That is what it means to be a cultivator: to spend our lives seeking and comprehending the Dao, to travel across the world and universe in freedom.”

“A bird in the sky once bound, can never soar to the highest heavens.”

Su Yanwei listened, dazed. Staring at this side of her mother, she felt as if she were seeing someone completely different. In that instant, the aura Ye Qingmeng radiated revealed to Su Yanwei a different world, a different way to live.

Freedom, fearlessness, wildness, defiance.

“Mother,” Su Yanwei asked without thinking, “what about you? Have you been bound?”

She had never seen this side of Ye Qingmeng before. At that moment, she glimpsed what her mother must have once been someone free, unrestrained, with a vast world before her.

“Yes, I’ve been bound,” Ye Qingmeng admitted calmly. “I willingly let myself be bound by your father.”

“……”

Su Yanwei looked at her mother for a long moment before asking softly, “Mother, do you regret it?”

She thought that Ye Qingmeng’s life must once have been so different like a bird soaring through the sky, free and carefree. Her world had been wide, the heavens vast. But now, her mother had hidden her brilliance, living quietly within these courtyard walls, a life once unimaginable to her: ordinary, even mundane.

“If I regretted it, there wouldn’t be you,” Ye Qingmeng said gently. “This was my choice. From the moment I made that choice, I accepted everything that came with it.”

She smiled at Su Yanwei.

“That’s love. I love you, and I love your father.”

Su Yanwei’s large dark eyes were filled with confusion. Love?

She didn’t really understand.

Having never experienced love herself, never having loved anyone, she couldn’t fully comprehend her mother’s choice.

If it were her… she felt she could never go that far.

Seeing the puzzled, uncertain look on her daughter’s face, Ye Qingmeng simply smiled.

“You’re still young, you’ll understand one day. But remember this: no matter what, you belong to yourself. You are free. All choices must come from your own heart.”

“As for Elder Mingfeng, leave that to me. And the marriage with the Xie family since you don’t want it, I’ve already refused it for you.”

“Thank you, Mother,” Su Yanwei blinked, then said.

Love might be too complicated to understand now. But the rest she understood clearly: My fate belongs to me, not to heaven or anyone else!

To be a cultivator was to live freely.

It truly was amazing, she thought. Her mother and father were completely different: raised in different worlds, educated by opposing values. Her mother, raised in a great sect, pursued the supreme Dao, valuing freedom and personal emotion. Her father, born into an old noble family, grew up believing in duty to family, inheritance, and glory. Complete opposites and yet, somehow, they’d ended up together.

Love really is strange!

Su Yanwei thought to herself that she still preferred her mother’s philosophy. Noble families suppressed personal will too harshly. Those born into such families could rarely escape their influence and chains. Elder Mingfeng’s righteous insistence that Su Yanwei should sacrifice herself for the family came exactly from that mindset.

The family raised and nurtured you, so when needed, you should sacrifice everything for it.

How was that any different from raising a pig, fattening it up, and then slaughtering it?

---

That night, Su Yanwei couldn’t sleep.

Lying on her bed, staring up at the canopy, she thought deeply about the relationship between an individual and the family, and imagined her future.

Then she realized:

If she never left the Su family, if she always stayed here, she would never truly be free. She could never live as her mother described: “roam the world, travel the universe, and live freely.”

If she stayed, her whole life whether success or failure, would always bear the mark of the Su family.

---

A few days later.

It was a sunny day, warm and bright.

Su Yanwei sat in a pavilion under the trees, reading.

“Wei’er!”

A voice called from ahead. Su Yanwei looked up and saw a young boy standing in the distance, smiling at her.

He wore a peacock-blue robe, tall and slender, strikingly handsome. His smile sparkled like a jewel.

He’s almost dazzling, Su Yanwei thought.

“Seventh Brother Xie,” she greeted curiously. “Why are you here?”

It was Xie Yurong.

“I came with my father,” he said, sitting down across from her.

“Oh,” Su Yanwei responded, saying nothing more.

She could guess why the Xie family had come.

Su Yanwei looked at the boy before her, as beautiful as a jade figurine, like a celestial child and thought. How ruthless must the Xie family be to arrange a marriage between two children like us? We’re both just kids!

Thankfully, the engagement had been canceled.

“Wei’er,” Xie Yurong said, hesitating.

“Seventh Brother Xie, just speak freely,” Su Yanwei said.

He lifted his gaze.

“Why did you refuse the engagement between the Su and Xie families?”

Su Yanwei thought, then asked, “Is that all you want to ask?”

Xie Yurong looked surprised and confused but still nodded.

“Please, help me understand.”

“If you’re asking about the engagement between the two families, you should ask the Su family,” Su Yanwei replied. “But if you’re asking why I refused to marry you, then I can answer.”

“Please tell me, why did you refuse to marry me?” he asked, meeting her eyes.

“Before I answer, let me ask you something,” Su Yanwei said. “Why would you marry me?”

Xie Yurong paused, then answered, “Because I want to take care of you.”

“Liar,” Su Yanwei said bluntly. “It’s because your father told you to marry me, so you agreed, isn’t that right?”

“……”

Xie Yurong was silent for a moment. Then he asked, “Does it matter?”

His clear dark eyes showed confusion.

“I would marry you, why is the reason so important?”

“Of course it matters!” Su Yanwei answered immediately. “You don’t actually like me. You don’t want to marry me. It’s your family’s wish, not yours, so I couldn’t possibly marry you.”

Xie Yurong looked even more puzzled.

“Why?”

Su Yanwei didn’t answer his question. Instead, she looked him in the eye and asked seriously:

“Xie Yurong, don’t you have even a single thought of your own?”