Horse-head Wall Reflects the Qing Dynasty

Chapter 21: Who sent the old document?

Looking closely, it was Cheng Heng again.

"I did as you said, and now they are lecturing me!" The thing Cheng Heng feared most since he was a child was that others would lecture him.

After all, people are like this. Most of the time, they know what is right, but they can't do it just by thinking about it.

"The old teacher who taught me said that she learned more from her students than from books throughout her life." Guan Yin once thought that the old teacher was just saying this for show, but in just a few months, the completely different personalities and behaviors of each student had opened his eyes - Cheng Heng still hadn't let go of his prejudice against "identity".

After all, it is difficult for ordinary people to adapt to being educated by people who are younger and of lower status than themselves.

"A disciple need not be inferior to his teacher, and a teacher need not be better than his disciple. I think you have learned this in class... Or, in other words, will you write an image of an all-knowing and all-powerful teacher in your script?"

Cheng Heng hesitated and did not respond immediately.

"Dong dong dong."

There was another knock on the door.

"Actually..." The knock on the door usually meant that Guan Yin was going back. Cheng Heng took this last chance to make the matter clear.

"Knock, knock, knock!" There were more urgent knocks on the door. After a rustling sound from outside the door, everything returned to silence.

It looked like the parents of a certain student had come to visit again. Cheng Heng was already exhausted from dealing with that incident alone, so he could only be thankful that the parent had not come again.

Guan Yin remembered that the boy he saw on the arch bridge in Hongcun was not so cautious. He looked in the direction where the knocking sound came from and urged Cheng Heng: "Don't you want to go and see what's going on?"

"Oh, yes... I'll be back soon. Please wait for me here for a moment." Having performed so many operas, Cheng Heng usually spoke in an elegant manner, but he himself had never noticed it.

It was also thanks to this "elegance" that Guan Yin thought that Cheng Heng was not so easily exposed.

There was no response for a long while. Guan Yin took three or two steps over the threshold and walked in the direction Cheng Heng had just left.

As soon as he went out, Guan Yin saw Cheng Heng bending over, staring blankly at something. He hurried to his side, and Guan Yin's wooden pipe was also attracted by the object on the ground.

"From a dear friend." As Guan Yin read out the words on the letter one by one, he realized that something was wrong. "This letter looks old. Why did it arrive just now?"

The withered yellow paper looked like fallen leaves in winter, with the words inside vaguely visible. As Guan Yin asked in confusion, Cheng Heng picked up the letter on the ground, turned it over in his hands, and stared at it intently as if his soul had been sucked out of him.

One corner of the letter was a little damaged. If it had been well preserved by the owner, it should at least be as clean and tidy as the letter sandwiched in "The West Chamber".

But there were traces of water stains on the yellowed old rice paper, layer upon layer, as if it had been soaked in water on a rainy day - more than once!
The original person would never treat a letter from a "close friend" in this way. Cheng Heng trusted this teacher even more than he trusted himself.

The letter was clearly sent just now, but it seemed to have been through a lot of hardships. If the sender had been delayed on the way and had not seen a reply, he should have included an extra letter...

Cheng Heng quickly took out the paper and read the contents of the letter. As he read, his eyes widened and he pulled Guan Yin beside him into the study without any hesitation.

"what are you doing?"

"This letter?" Before Guan Yin had the time to ask what happened, the letter that was originally in Cheng Heng's hand magically appeared in his own hand. The latter was pacing in the room uncomfortably, looking at him eagerly from time to time.

"you……"

Guan Yin wanted an explanation, not to have such a strange thing stuffed into his hands without any reason. This was clearly a hot potato, but he couldn't throw it back. Seeing Guan Yin open his mouth, Cheng Heng immediately turned his eyes away, avoiding all of the former's questions about the letter.

Could it be a way to return to the real world? Or some system task? Guan Yin's imagination ran wild for a moment, and he subconsciously lowered his eyes and set his gaze on the letter.

"It's been a while since we last met. Is Brother Cheng Zhan doing well?"

It was clearly just a few simple greetings, but why did Cheng Heng react so strongly? Guan Yin continued to read the letter: "Now many people in the court are also mentioning the 'industrial salvation of the country' that Brother Cheng Zhan and I have repeatedly mentioned in the past. It seems that the higher-ups are also interested in taking action."

"That fellow countryman of ours..."

There were a few words blackened in the middle. Combining this with the previous text, Guan Yin roughly guessed who the sender was referring to.

These words alone were not enough to make Guan Yin accept the low pressure that Cheng Heng had created in the study after reading the letter.

"You keep reading." Cheng Heng was worried that he might wake up from the dream at any time, and he would not know how to face those students, so he urged Guan Yin to continue reading.

He nodded hesitantly, and those words expressing hope for the country passed before Guan Yin's eyes, moving even a man who had seen the rise and fall of history.

It took several generations of ancient people and heroes to create the real world they live in? Guan Yin couldn't help crying in front of the paper, and his eyes suddenly widened.

At this moment, Cheng Heng turned around and looked at Guan Yin. He knew that she had finally read the key point that made him dazed.

"what?"

"Several years? Died of depression?"

"Not yet?"

His usually clear and coherent statements have now turned into a series of words that pop up from time to time and cannot be connected to the previous and next sentences. Guan Yin stretched out his hand to block Cheng Heng who was still "spinning", staring at the latter with his eyes, trying to make the latter respond to his shock through eye contact.

"Yes, a few years. Since the original body has been dead for a few years... when I was away, could there be another person?"

"But he died of depression before he even built the school. Where did all these students come from? Ghosts?"

Cheng Heng asked all the questions in Guan Yin's mind at once. At this moment, neither of them was less shocked than the other.

"Yeah, we all traveled through time, so what's so scary about ghosts?" Cheng Heng was too frightened. "But if the original body has been dead for so long, what about us? Can we go back?"

Suddenly, Cheng Heng had a deeper understanding of the words that just now made him feel ashamed for his students preaching to him. The resonance from the bottom of his heart could make his soul tremble.

"Two years ago, I visited your old house. There was no dust anywhere, and even the brush was still filled with thick ink. Everything seemed to have stopped when you passed away. I walked around and seemed to hear voices, as if you were still here."

"Still there?" Cheng Heng shuddered.

"Master, it's raining outside, should we close the window?"

"Still here?" Cheng Heng murmured as he raised his head. What he saw was no longer Guan Yin, but the tall and thin student in front of him. A gust of cool wind lifted a corner of his head, and Cheng Heng trembled again.

(End of this chapter)