Peach Blossom.

Before nightfall, they returned to the ground from mid-air to find food and shelter.

Tao Ye was already starving. She found out that today was the Lantern Festival. The streets were full of stalls selling Lantern Festival dumplings and lanterns of various styles.

But these beautiful lanterns... are all white!

Although Tao Ye was a little puzzled by the scene, she had no time to ask in detail. She had to find a stall selling Yuanxiao to sit down and fill her stomach first.

As soon as the Yuanxiao was served, she devoured it ravenously, and even talked to Wang Jing with something in her mouth: "This is so delicious!"

Her saliva sprayed all over Wang Jing's face.

"It's not that it's too delicious, it's that you're too hungry." Wang Jing smiled, he sat opposite Tao Ye, picked up a small spoon, scooped a glutinous rice ball, blew it gently at his lips, and wiped the saliva off his face.

Tao Ye smiled embarrassedly and burped accidentally.

"When we set off again tomorrow, you still have to stop and eat lunch. You don't have to force yourself to go hungry just because I'm in a hurry to get on the road. This way is much faster than riding a horse, and it doesn't cost you much to have a meal." Wang Jing looked at Tao Ye and spoke in a gentle tone.

Tao Ye nodded. Her mouth and heart felt sweet.

After eating Yuanxiao, Tao Ye couldn't help wanting to appreciate the lanterns, but she knew that Wang Jing had difficulty walking and it was not suitable for him to walk much, so she could only take a look on the way to the hotel.

Wang Jing followed Tao Ye, leaning on a crutch in one hand and carrying a wooden box in the other.

Tao Ye looked at this lamp to the left, then looked at that lamp to the right, and felt that they were all very unique. She admired them silently in her heart. Although the ancients did not have advanced machines, their pure handmade craftsmanship should not be underestimated.

She looked at the paper lanterns in front of her, thinking of the modern lanterns made of various materials. She couldn't help but turn back to tell Wang Jing about the Lantern Festival: "We also had the Lantern Festival in our time, and we also ate Lanterns and watched lanterns. The only difference is that your lanterns are lit by candles, while ours are equipped with light bulbs. As long as there is electricity, they will light up. There is no risk of fire. They are much safer than your lanterns!"

"Electricity?" Wang Jing repeated the word and smiled softly, as if he could not imagine the meaning of the word.

Tao Ye found it funny, so she laughed and mocked him: "You are so ignorant, aren't you? You are such a talented person, but you don't even know what electricity is!"

Wang Jing looked up at the sky, and after careful consideration, he had a vague idea: "Is it the lightning that occurs during thunder and lightning?"

"Wow! You are so awesome! This 'electricity' and that 'electricity' are indeed of the same nature!" Tao Ye was suddenly extremely excited and couldn't explain why.

Perhaps it was because they gained the same concepts from things in different time and space, which made her feel particularly connected.

She continued to run and jump forward, always a little faster than Wang Jing, but because she had to stop to look at the lights, Wang Jing always caught up with her.

"I used to go to the street to see the lanterns every Lantern Festival! And, I like red lanterns the best!" Tao Ye walked through the long street where the lights were as bright as day, walking and stopping, and shouting to Wang Jing from time to time.

She stood in front of a stall selling flower lanterns, talking to herself in front of a lotus-shaped lantern: "White lotus is nice, but there should be a few red lotuses! Why are they all white?"

The stall owner selling flower lanterns heard this and responded with a smile: "Don't you know, young lady, that during the period of national mourning, no red objects are allowed on the streets?"

"Ah?" Tao Ye suddenly realized that she had been so immersed in love these past two days that she had forgotten about the death of Emperor Xiaozong Si Yu.

Si Yu was a very good person, a very good emperor, and he was extremely good to her, but he died suddenly and inexplicably... Unconsciously, she could no longer be happy, and a feeling of guilt surged in her heart.

She walked slower and slower and landed next to Wang Jing. She saw that Wang Jing seemed to be in deep thought just like her.

She then pulled Wang Jing's arm: "What are you thinking about?"

"I was thinking about the past. Gillian would ask me to accompany her to watch the lanterns every year. She liked the red lanterns the best. She was always running, jumping, walking and stopping, so that I could sometimes catch up with her and sometimes couldn't catch up with her..." Whenever Wang Jing recounted the past events related to Mantangjiao, his speech was always slow, and his lips would always smile slightly at the end.

Tao Ye knew that he was immersed in memories and couldn't extricate himself.

Tao Ye felt even more sad and lost all interest in watching the lanterns. She followed Wang Jing's steps and gradually walked from the main street to the alley and into an inn.

Wang Jing said to the shopkeeper, "I want two rooms."

Tao Ye's face was tense, and she hummed incoherently: "I don't dare live alone in such a remote and unfamiliar place."

Wang Jing looked back at Tao Ye and said to the shopkeeper, "Then let's have a room!"

The store owner led them to the guest room to rest and then brought them two pots of hot water.

Tao Ye was feeling depressed and sat under the window looking at the moon. She heard the shopkeeper delivering something and Wang Jing answering a question, but she just looked back without saying a word.

Wang Jing knew what Tao Ye was sad about, but he didn't say much. He borrowed a quilt from the shop owner and spread it on a table in the room.

When Tao Ye looked back again, she saw Wang Jing pouring water to wash his feet. There was blood on the soles of his feet. When he put them in the basin, the water in the basin instantly turned red.

At this moment, she seemed to have forgotten her previous loss and just stared at his feet, her heart aching slightly, imagining the pain in his feet with every step he took day and night.

After washing his feet, Wang Jing took out a box of ointment and a roll of gauze from the wooden box.

Tao Ye stood up involuntarily: "It's inconvenient for you to do it yourself, let me help you!"

"Okay..." Wang Jing's reply was weak and reluctant.

Tao Ye didn't know whether he was unwilling or felt that this way of getting along was awkward.

She slowly squatted down, gently rubbed the ointment on the soles of Wang Jing's feet, and then wrapped it with gauze.

While wrapping the gauze, she looked up at Wang Jing's face and said, "Will this wound... never heal?"

"The injury was too severe to recover from in the first place. I didn't take care of it at the beginning, so it kept coming back. Now that it's been a long time, it's impossible for me to get better. I'll just have to make do with being able to walk."

Tao Ye was silently sad, and then applied ointment and bandaged the other foot...

After finishing, Wang Jing put on his shoes and socks. Because his feet were often wrapped in gauze, his shoes were much larger than those of ordinary people.

Tao Ye was just about to put away the remaining gauze when he saw Wang Jing take off his shirt, revealing two gauze bandages on the wounds on his back. He was about to reach out to peel them off.

Tao Ye hurriedly stopped him: "It will be even more inconvenient for you to do it in this position, let me do it!"

This time, without waiting for Wang Jing's consent, she walked behind Wang Jing and gently removed the gauze.

The old gauze was wrapped very thickly, with cotton wool wrapped inside. When the inner layer was peeled off, more and more blood stains appeared on the gauze, and the cotton wool was completely soaked and turned red.

Seeing these bloodstains and the two wounds on Wang Jing's back, Tao Ye's memory was instantly pulled back to the day when she escaped from the palace, and Wang Jing used his flesh and blood to block her...

She seemed to want to say something, but didn't know what to say. A tear fell uncontrollably and landed on the gauze in her hand.

Wang Jing turned his head, not knowing whether it was by accident or because he sensed something was wrong with Tao Ye, but he happened to see that tear: "I'm sorry."

"Why should I apologize?" Tao Ye wiped away her tears, but her face was still full of grievance.

"I made you sad." Wang Jing lowered his eyes and his gaze was dim.

"That day... why did you save me?" Tao Ye had always wanted to ask this question, but she had never wanted to ask it. She was afraid that Wang Jing would tell her that he saved her only because she was the only witness to Mantang Jiao's murder case.

She finally asked the question, but Wang Jing didn't answer.

He turned his head back again, took out a box from the wooden box, opened it, and inside was ground medicine powder. He pushed the powder to Tao Ye, then bent down slightly.

Tao Ye knew that he was avoiding the question, so she took the powder and sprinkled it on his two wounds, but she couldn't help but say something more: "Sometimes I feel that maybe you have let go of her death, but in the blink of an eye, I feel that you are still losing yourself for her..."

Tao Ye wanted to say something but stopped herself. She felt that they were husband and wife and it was not her turn to comment on them.

Wang Jing remained silent, quietly waiting for Tao Ye to apply medicine and bandage him, and finally put on his clothes.

Tao Ye finally finished treating the wounds and put all the items back into Wang Jing's wooden box. She turned around and saw Wang Jing arranging the bedding he had spread on the table.

She couldn't stand the silence in the room any more: "Why don't you speak?"

Wang Jing was still tidying up his bedding, and he turned his back to Tao Ye and answered, "I don't know what it means to let go or to be lost."

"What do you mean?" Tao Ye was confused.

Wang Jing looked back at Tao Ye and smiled slightly: "I remember that a few months after Ah Jiao's father passed away, I also asked her a similar question. At that time, I thought she was very strange. She could take care of Yu'er normally and do many things normally, but she was often absent-minded. In her words, "It's like walking in the clouds and fog every day, light and floating." She was once obsessed with reading scriptures, even to the point of forgetting to eat and sleep. She also asked me, if one day, she left this world before me, what would I do? I said, I don't know. Later, she said, 'If I leave first, you must live on with my share.' I agreed, but I thought it was just a matter of one of us having to leave first when we are old! But..."

"The day I learned that you were not Gillian and that Gillian was no longer with us, my mind was confused. I couldn't even figure out what had happened. Later, I was taken home by my third brother and came to my senses. I finally understood how Gillian felt after losing her father, "like walking in the clouds and fog." I thought about whether I should go with her. But I have parents above me and a daughter below me. How can I choose between life and death? I thought, anyway, this painkiller I'm taking is very harmful to my body, and it won't let me live too long. Why should I be anxious? It also saves me from being accused of being unfilial!" Wang Jing looked down at his feet, still smiling, but with some bitterness in his smile.

Tao Ye felt even more distressed after hearing this. Does this mean that the painkiller is actually a chronic poison? But if he doesn't take the medicine, he might faint from the pain from time to time...

"But as long as people are alive, everything around them will continue, even the trivial things of eating and drinking are indispensable. Then, I also lived like Gillian did back then. I can do everything normally, and when I am busy, I seem to live no different from others. But once I think of her, I will lose myself in the present and fall into the past... Every time I see you, it reminds me of her..." Wang Jing looked at Tao Ye again, his eyes deep and hopeless: "I don't know, am I looking forward to seeing you, or am I afraid of seeing you?"

Tao Ye looked at the distraught Wang Jing, as if she was looking at the Antarctic glaciers that were difficult to melt all year round, so cold and without any grass growing.

Wang Jing smiled again, as if it was a polite smile: "I told you, you might be angry again. I know you are not Gillian, and I don't treat you as her substitute, but I keep seeing her shadow in you, which makes me want to think... You two are really too similar... Although I don't want to treat you as her..."

Tao Ye was not angry, but suddenly she didn't want to talk anymore. A substitute or a shadow, that was not what she wanted.

Even though she had said "don't care about gains and losses, don't ask about the outcome, don't seek to own" before she came to see Wang Jing, it is human nature to want more, how can one control oneself?

She climbed onto the bed, lay down quietly, with her back to Wang Jing, and prepared to sleep, even though she knew she might suffer from insomnia again that night.

Wang Jing lay down, flat on his back, looking at the ceiling. He knew that he was destined to have a sleepless night.

The night was very quiet; they were just sad about their own things.