Green Mountain

Zhu Lingyun left Jingguan Hall, walking absent-mindedly step by step into the rear hall. The nuns on the road spoke to her, but she ignored them.

The sun set in the distance.

At the moment when the sunlight abandoned the Forbidden City, she suddenly shivered and came back to her senses.

It was only at this moment that Du Miao's voice entered her ears: "Xuan Yun Steward, what's wrong with you? Why do you look so pale?"

Zhu Lingyun hesitated: "I... I'm fine."

Du Miao leaned closer to sniff: "Xuan Yun Steward, why do you have the smell of burnt ashes on you?"

She instructed the nun beside her, "Go, fetch a handkerchief and brush off Xuan Yun Steward."

Zhu Lingyun looked at Bai Li, and was suddenly startled: Bai Li, who hadn't looked at her directly for several days, actually turned to look at her at this moment.

She suddenly felt guilty and pushed away Du Miao, turning to flee the rear hall: "Nonsense, there's no smell on me."

Leaving the rear hall, Zhu Lingyun arrived at the statue of the Three Pure Ones in the main hall, breathing heavily.

She turned her head again and saw Xuanzhen holding a horsetail whisk, standing in the shadows deep in the hall, smiling, "Looks like you didn't tell the Commandery Princess about this."

Zhu Lingyun rushed to her, angrily whispering, "Are you mad? What good does it do you to do this? What good does it do you to torment her?"

Xuanzhen calmly said, "The Commandery Princess always looks like she emerges unstained from the mud. But in this Jingyang Palace, no one can emerge unstained, not me, not her. The Taoist Scripture says, do not reject or accept, respond without hiding, neither dirt nor pure."

She looked up at the statue of the Three Pure Ones in the main hall: "They say there is no place in the world with mud, that people shouldn't have thoughts of good and evil, beauty and ugliness, cleanliness and dirt. But they are too high above, how do they know the sufferings of mortals? Who can remain unstained in this mud?"

Zhu Lingyun seemed half-understood, only feeling resentment in Xuanzhen's words.

Xuanzhen laughed lightly and walked deeper into the hall: "Xuan Yun, if you don't tell her, she just won't be able to go to the Ancestor Silkworm Altar, she won't lose any flesh. But if you tell her, just think about how Xuan Su is doing now. I'm actually curious about what you'll choose, whether the sisterly bond between you really is that deep?"

She left Zhu Lingyun standing there alone, muttering to herself, "Yes, just can't go to the Ancestor Silkworm Altar... just can't go to the Ancestor Silkworm Altar..."

Zhu Lingyun suddenly raised her head, not daring to meet the gaze of the Three Pure Ones statue, and hurried away.

Back in the rear hall, Bai Li was already asleep.

She crawled into bed, reaching out several times to tap Bai Li, wanting to tell her the truth, but withdrew her hand each time.

Bai Li heard the rustling behind her, suddenly asked softly without turning, "What's wrong?"

Zhu Lingyun's body trembled, panicking, "It's nothing."

"Go to sleep."

"Okay."

...

...

Morning lessons.

Meals.

Writing the green words.

Bai Li still sat on the bunk with her knees up, silently watching the sun set. The orange-red sunset slanted into the rear hall and then gradually moved outward, as if a door was being closed.

Princess Yongchun leaned over to her mysteriously and said, "Bodhisattva, Bodhisattva, what are you looking at?"

Bai Li chuckled, "I'm watching how slowly time passes."

Princess Yongchun giggled foolishly, "How can it be slow? See, I've aged in just a blink."

Bai Li was slightly startled, she gently lifted Princess Yongchun's dry hair from her forehead, looking at the wrinkles on her face, like ripples brought by the breeze of time.

Princess Yongchun grabbed her wrist and seriously said, "Bodhisattva, harming others is a kind of power, whoever you give your feelings to, they have the power to hurt you. To be impartial is to forget attachment, to gain feelings is to forget feelings. Those who gain feelings are burdened, obsession becomes a shackle; those who forget are unimpeded, able to see the primordial state. The Tao births all things, feelings are the root; feelings birth all forms, non-attachment is truth... Bodhisattva, human emotions can all be severed; each severed, a new heaven."

Bai Li's pupils suddenly contracted, she once thought that only she knew this scripture meaning.

Just as she was about to ask something, Princess Yongchun's face fell into stupor again, muttering as she pulled back to the corner, wrapping herself tightly in the blanket: "Not the Heavenly Venerate, that is not the Heavenly Venerate..."

Bai Li's every question was destined not to find answers on Princess Yongchun.

March the first.

Before the morning bell rang, Bai Li got out of bed alone.

She went to the side room, scooped up water from the water tank to wash her face clean, then used a handkerchief to painstakingly rub her hair until it was a cascade of green.

Bai Li raised her hand to tie her hair up, fastening it with her only wooden hairpin. Looking down, she saw dust on the hem of her Daoist robe, and wetted it again to scrub the dust off clean.

After finishing everything, the morning bell at last resonated from afar.

The nuns poured out from the rear hall, each showing joy and delight. Imprisoned here for decades, nothing was happier than leaving this place. Outside Jingyang Palace, there was a bustling sound of footsteps; the Empress was going out of the palace to sacrifice to the Silkworm God, keeping the palace busy with more things.

While the nuns were washing, Bai Li returned to the rear hall to tidy up her bedding and gathered her belongings.

She looked up at Princess Yongchun, seeing her sitting with her hair in disarray, Bai Li kneeled on the bed to help her comb her hair neatly.

Princess Yongchun looked up at her, "Bodhisattva, are you going to see the person in your dreams?"

Bai Li's lips lifted slightly, softly responding, "Yes."

Princess Yongchun giggled foolishly, clapping her hands, "Go, go."

When Bai Li arrived at the gates of Jingyang Palace, the Divine Chief Eunuch Commander was softly reminding Xuanzhen: "Remember, make sure to restrain the nuns in Jingyang Palace, they must not talk with outsiders, must not walk around without permission, if caught by me, they will surely be flogged."

Xuanzhen agreed, turning to look at Bai Li with deep meaning: "The Commandery Princess is rather spirited today."