Chapter 4: Shadows Beneath the Morning Sun (18+)
Shadows Beneath the Morning Sun
At dawn, the sun slowly rose, warm sunlight spilling down as the dew on the tips of grass blades turned to transparent vapor, vanishing into the ever-warming world.
I rested for a while in the training ground, drenched in sweat, my clothes soaked and clinging to my back. At that moment, hurried footsteps approached it was Second Senior Brother rushing over.
Second Senior Brother steadily carried a food box, came up to me with a caring look, and said, "Junior Brother, you’ve been practicing so long, you must be hungry. Eat something." He gently set the box on a stone bench nearby and opened the lid.
I leaned over to look just a few simple vegetarian dishes and some coarse-grain cakes, the food still steaming.
After setting down the meal, Second Senior Brother pursed his lips slightly, as if he’d finished an important task, and turned to leave.
I quickly called out, "Second Senior Brother, wait!" He stopped abruptly, his body freezing.
After a while, he slowly turned around, the caring look gone, replaced by nervousness and discomfort. His eyes darted everywhere, sometimes at the ground, sometimes into the distance, but never at me like a kid who’d broken a precious vase, feeling guilty and afraid of being scolded, or as if he were hiding something that was about to be discovered.
Trying to ease the mood, I casually asked,
"Second Senior Brother, what’s it like down the mountain?"
He lifted his head slightly, a look of reminiscence in his eyes, and slowly said,
"A few years ago, some refugees came to the outer gate at the foot of the mountain, just ordinary folks. Because of war and disasters, they lost their land and fled to our outer gate area, starting to clear land and farm to survive. At first, the sect pitied their hardship and let them farm for free, but later, the sect wasn’t doing well either, with fewer people and less income, so we started charging a token rent. That’s how they settled there. Now there are a dozen or so families, forming a small village, living pretty well. If you walk five li east from the village, there’s a bustling town, with shops selling cloth, herbal pharmacies, and stalls full of fresh vegetables and fruit, with crowds and carriages everywhere."