The Glory

Тhе littlе girl was somеwhаt рuzzlеd, but gigglеd, "You're reаllу prettу."

Fu Yunxi's immediаtе thоught wаs: Whоsе unruly child is this, sо lacking in manners. After а рausе, he sаid, "Ве quiеt."

Thе littlе girl lооkеd at him, рouted, and burst intо lоud wails аgain.

Fu Yunxi was stаrtled by hеr sudden crуing аnd аskеd, "Whу аrе you сrуing?"

Thе littlе girl stаred аt him: "When уоu're sad, уоu crу. Auntie and Fаther said we'rе nоt аllowеd to cry in thе mаnsiоn, so I'm сrуing аll thе tеаrs for tоmоrrow, thе daу after, аnd the dау аfter thаt аt оnсe."

Fu Yunxi was initiаlly baffled by her wоrds, but upon seсond thought, hе understооd somеwhat. This little girl was likely an unloved young miss from some household, bullied by a concubine and hiding here to vent her grievances. Seeing her cry so sorrowfully, he asked, "How much longer do you plan to cry?"

The little girl counted on her fingers: "One, two, three... I've saved up half a month's worth of tears, plus future tears, probably about an hour."

An hour. Fu Yunxi couldn't help but rub his temples. Was he supposed to listen to this ugly little girl cry for an hour?

The little girl looked at him thoughtfully: "Immortal, do you want to cry too?" After a moment's thought, she patted her own shoulder, putting on a heroic air: "Yan'er's shoulder is here for you to lean on."

Fu Yunxi was both amused and exasperated. Where had she heard such a thing? Seeing her indeed puff out her chest and offer her frail shoulder toward him with an "I'm very generous" expression, his face stiffened slightly: "Thank you for your kindness, but I don't want to cry."

"Don't want to cry?" The little girl looked suspicious: "But Immortal, you look like you really want to cry. Don't be afraid, holding back tears will make you sick. Yan'er won't laugh at you."

Fu Yunxi looked down at the tiny girl and, reminded of the secret he had heard today, couldn't help but feel a pang of sorrow. As if speaking to the little girl, yet also murmuring to himself, he said, "Does crying help?"

His words were rather profound for a little girl. She tilted her head and thought for a long time before replying, "At least it makes you feel better."

Fu Yunxi simply sat down beside her: "Do you feel better now?"

This seemed to remind the little girl, as she exclaimed, "Oh! I was so busy talking to you, Immortal, that I forgot to cry. I still have to cry Mother's tears, Ji Lan's, Shu Hong's, and Mama Chen's all at once." With that, she pouted again. Fu Yunxi was practically afraid of her tears and instinctively reached out to cover her mouth: "Don't cry."

The little girl puffed out her cheeks and looked at him. Perhaps her foolish appearance was somewhat amusing, as Fu Yunxi couldn't resist reaching out to pinch her cheek.

"I can't play with you anymore. If I don't hurry, I won't have enough time to finish crying," she said.

Fu Yunxi looked at her earnest expression: "Why not replace crying with laughing?"

"Laugh?" The little girl tilted her head and thought for a moment: "I can't laugh."

His heart stirred. Such a young child, yet unable to laugh—she must have suffered greatly. And yet, she couldn't even cry openly, having to hide on this deserted mountain to shed tears. His tone softened: "Why are you crying?"

The little girl then launched into a torrent of words, describing how the concubines in the mansion bullied her and her mother, how her father treated them coldly, and how the servants looked down on them. As she spoke, tears streamed down uncontrollably. Fu Yunxi sighed, suddenly feeling a sense of shared suffering.Life is not easy, and who can truly say they fare better than others. The young child before him, with hair still worn in childish braids, also had her own unspoken sorrows and griefs. Seeing her cry incessantly, he comforted her: "I'll catch a little fish for you, so please stop crying, alright?"

High in these deep mountains, a clear spring gurgled melodiously, its waters so transparent that one could faintly see the colorful fish frolicking beneath the surface. It was only because the little girl's tears had given him a bit of a headache that he, for once, attempted to soothe her.

Seeing the little girl staring blankly at him, Fu Yunxi stood up and left, returning shortly with a fishing rod. The young master, who had been pampered and sheltered since childhood, sat by the spring for the first time, fishing for the sake of a little girl. Seeing him like this, the little girl probably found it amusing and, surprisingly, stopped crying. She obediently sat beside him, watching the float on the water.

"Immortal, why are you crying?" Fu Yunxi was lost in thought when he heard the little girl beside him ask.

He was taken aback: "I haven't been crying."

"Your eyes aren't crying," she pointed at Fu Yunxi's chest. "But here is crying."

Fu Yunxi froze, staring at the little girl before him for a long while without speaking. She had actually seen through his vulnerability.

But Fu Yunxi only said indifferently, "I am not." Seeing his cold expression, the little girl shrank back fearfully. "Crying here is sadder than crying with your eyes. Mother said that people who cry here are very pitiful."

He said nothing, a faint, cold smile appearing at the corner of his lips.

"Immortal, will you come here to fish again in the future?" she asked.

The young man's expression remained indifferent. "Not necessarily. I am going off to war tomorrow and may not return alive. Meeting you like this can be considered fate." He regarded life and death with detachment, even thinking that it would be better to die on the battlefield and never return.

The little girl looked at him, not quite understanding his words. "You won't come again?"

The young man glanced at her. "That's right, so this colorful fish will be a parting gift for you."

But in the end, the little girl never saw the moment he caught the colorful fish.

Not long after, two anxious maidservants arrived, calling the little girl beside him "young miss" while eyeing him warily. As the little girl was led away by the maidservants, she waved carelessly at him. "Immortal, see you again!"

Again? Where would there be an "again"? After this parting, life and death were uncertain. Perhaps they would meet in the next life, or perhaps they would never see each other again. He lowered his head, flicked his wrist upward, and a beautiful, shimmering blue fish broke through the water, glimmering with a radiant halo in the air.

This fish, he never got to give it away.

He smiled, removed the fish from the hook, and gently released it back into the water. The blue fish flicked its tail, splashing a spray of water, and quickly vanished into the depths.

"If I return alive, I'll come see you again," he whispered to the water. He glanced once more at the path where the little girl had disappeared. The face in his memory, after just a moment, had already blurred.

Well, at the time, she had been a tearful, snot-nosed mess, and Fu Yunxi hadn't paid much attention to her appearance. He only remembered those eyes, freshly washed by tears—so clear that it seemed everything in the world reflected in them would be a desecration.The next day, Fu Yunxi set out with the army. The young man sat tall on his horse, lifting his head to gaze at the vast azure sky in the distance, his expression profoundly deep.

In the battles that followed, amid clashing weapons and treacherous dangers, the youth matured rapidly over just a few years—aloof, detached, profound, and composed. He had transformed from a solitary, proud boy into a handsome young man, unflinching even before thousands of troops, his elegance unmatched, now fully grown.