Ye Jinwu walked along the slightly damp and narrow stone alley and returned to the small hotel where she rented.
March to May every year is the peak tourist season in Yunnan and Yunnan. Dali, an ancient city rich in ethnic customs, is a popular tourist destination. The 5th World Buddhist Conference was held in Dali, and Buddhist believers from all over the world flocked to Dali in Yunnan and Yunnan, where the Bai people gather.
She spent a lot of effort to book this hotel. Although the hotel is small, it is clean and tidy, and most importantly, it is very quiet.
Ye Jinwu stretched out her hand and slowly pushed open the heavy wooden door of the hotel.
What came into view was the Bai ethnic group's proprietress wearing traditional Bai ethnic costume. The warm and kind proprietress smiled at Ye Jinwu.
Ye Jinwu smiled back, then went upstairs and returned to her room.
The room was small and the facilities were quite simple. She slowly sat down in front of the simple dressing mirror beside the bed. The mirror clearly reflected the roughly carved Bodhi wood hairpin behind her head. She couldn't help but think of the jade-carved jasmine hairpin that was originally inserted in her hair. Now that hairpin belonged to a man named "Si Yuanzhen".
Si Yuanzhen!
Thinking of this name, her heart couldn't help but tremble, and she felt a little complicated.
In the Buddhist temple, the man suddenly appeared in her world with a murderous intent and bloody murder. At a glance, they had an intersection.
He was a denizen of hell, holding a butcher's knife, yet in the quiet Buddhist place, he did a frivolous act that blasphemed the Buddha to her. Until now, she can still feel the irresistible force of his slightly rough fingertips pinching her jaw, and the cool and ambiguous touch of his thin and sharp lips like a knife when he said to her, "Miss, what you ask for will be fulfilled," and gently touched her lips.
All of this made her panic, as she had never been so close to a man since she was a child. Her mind went blank, her eyes lost focus, and the face that was close to her became blurry. She forgot to resist and struggle.
Rather than saying that she forgot, it would be more accurate to say that the man's aura was too strong and crushed her mind.
"Knock knock knock—" There was a knock on the door.
Ye Jinwu suddenly woke up from her dazed mood and felt a little annoyed with the man named Si Yuanzhen. However, it was their first meeting but he had such a great impact on her.
She quickly calmed down, walked to the door and asked vigilantly: "Who is it?"
"It's me, Awu!" A clear and elegant female voice came from outside the door.
Ye Jinwu breathed a sigh of relief and then opened the door: "Awan, come in!"
This time she came to Yunnan with her only good friend Ye Wan, who lived next door to her room.
"Didn't you say you were going to visit an old friend? Why are you back so early?" Ye Wan walked into the room and asked casually.
Ye Jinwu, who was pouring water for Ye Wan, somehow thought of Si Yuanzhen. She paused and the water in the cup overflowed, splashing on the back of her hand, burning her.
"Ah!" Ye Jinwu screamed in pain, and the porcelain cup in her hand suddenly fell to the ground with a clang, with fragments flying everywhere and water splashing everywhere.
Ye Wan was startled by the sudden change. She hurried over and asked, "What happened? Are you burned?"
As he spoke, Ye Wan pulled her hand over and found a red spot on the back of her left hand. Her skin was originally as smooth and crystal clear as pearls and as white as jade, but now the large patch of red looked a little shocking.
Ye Jinwu frowned in pain, bit her pale lips, shook her head and said, "It's okay, probably because of the boiling water last night. It's not too scalding. Rinse with cold water for a while, apply some medicine and it will be fine in two days."
Because she dropped the water cup and burned her hand, she felt even more guilty.
Master Lingji was an eminent monk with profound knowledge of Buddhism. She had originally planned to stay and listen to his Zen teachings, but Si Yuanzhen happened. She was teased and flirted with by that man in such a quiet place of Buddhism that she almost ran away. That's why she reacted so strongly when Ye Wan asked her why she came back early.
Ye Wan gently scolded, "It's already so red, it should be blistered soon, and you said it's okay, how can you be so careless?"
Ye Jinwu hung her head, her face turning pale with pain.
Ye Wan pulled her to the bathroom, turned on the faucet, and let the water flow: "It takes more than five minutes to wash."
After saying that, she couldn't help but look at her friend inconspicuously. Although she lowered her eyebrows and eyes, she still couldn't hide her body's panic reaction.
It seems that something must have happened when she visited her old friend today!
Thinking of this, a trace of worry flashed across Ye Wan's eyes.
Ye Jinwu looked at the back of her hand being washed by the water. Even the cool water could not cover up the burning pain on the back of her hand. She kept reciting the Heart Sutra silently to calm her inner panic.
Ye Wan was about to say something reproachful, but her eyes unexpectedly swept across the hairpin behind her head. She was slightly stunned for a moment: "This wooden hairpin... have you been wearing it all day?"
Her eyes flickered, as if asking casually.
Ye Jinwu subconsciously touched the wooden hairpin behind her head, and in order to hide her inner panic, she said "hmm" softly.
This wooden hairpin... was made by Si Yuanzhen herself. She exchanged it for the jasmine hairpin she had worn for many years without asking, and even forced the winner to use the jasmine hairpin as a token of love.
Ye Wan didn't say anything.
She was obviously hiding something.
She remembered that when she went out today, she wore the jade-carved jasmine hairpin instead of this roughly carved wooden hairpin.
This wooden hairpin still has the dampness and light green color of newly cut wood. When you get close to it, you can smell a faint damp wood fragrance, which shows that it was clearly cut not long ago.
It should be during the time when she was visiting friends.
Ye Jinwu suddenly looked up and looked at Ye Wan, hesitant to speak: "Awan, today..."
Everything that happened today was so inexplicable. The man named Si Yuanzhen always made her panic-stricken every time she thought of him. This feeling could not be calmed down no matter how many times she recited the Heart Sutra.
She wanted to tell Ye Wan what happened today, but she didn't know how to start.
Ye Wan pressed on, "What happened today? You seem distracted and worried!"
Looking at her like this, she has confirmed her inference.
Ye Jinwu opened her mouth, then shook her head gently and whispered, "Nothing, I'm just a little too tired today."
After thinking about it, she felt that there was nothing much to say. However, they met by chance in Lingji Temple, and the man who was full of murderous intent was destined to be just a passer-by in her life. She probably wouldn't see him again in the future!
Thinking of this, her panicked mood inexplicably calmed down.
It’s best if we never meet again!