I was less than 14 years old and you were 17.

After years of separation, we don't recognize each other at all.

That day, we walked the same path for the same purpose.

Once a year, I go to the family cemetery to pay respects to my deceased parents, and on behalf of my father, who was unable to take a break from the expedited military affairs of the Huaizhou Jiedu Embassy, I go to pay respects to your deceased mother. A steward, and a number of maids, and a valet of soldiers, and a coachman followed me. Originally, Tianjingyun would also go with him, just like all Qingming in the past. But he had something to do that day and stayed at home. It's that you're coming back.

Because of the frequent military raids of the Beji people, the defensive situation in the entire Lingnan region was quite severe at that time, and his father was getting older, and he felt that he was quite incapable of commanding the military defense of the fiefdom of the ten towns of Lingnan, and he urgently needed an energetic helper. The first person that came to his mind was undoubtedly you. When your father thinks of you, he starts to think about your future. At that time, you were almost at the age of coming-of-age ceremony, and my father felt that it was time to consider making meritorious contributions and inheriting the title for you, and he hoped that you could go home to participate in the military affairs of the Lingnan fiefdom and experience your practical talents, and then, he was ready to take you to meet Liu Yan, the king of the Southern Han Dynasty, who had just ascended the throne, so as to start the prelude to your life's career.

In the more than 10 years that you have been studying Taoism in the Qingliu Sect, your father has visited you many times in Qingchuan and had many deep conversations with your master Daoji. Dao Ji has full confidence in the fighting skills, military talents, and command skills you have learned in the Qingliu Sect over the years. He even asserted that in today's world, there is no one in these fields who can compare to your talent and edge. You, who are not yet known to the world, are as radiant as an unsheathed sword, and hum with the roar of a dragon and a tiger.

My father's letter arrived in Kiyokawa early in the spring. But you've been hesitating.

It is clear to you after reading the letter that this is not a holiday trip, this is a long-term invitation. If you go home, you're in a different fate. At that time, you did hesitate: whether to stay in Qingchuan, ignore the world, devote yourself to learning the Tao, inherit the mantle of the Qingliu Sect, and help the master and Daoji, and carry it forward, or leave Qingchuan from now on, return to your original life trajectory, inherit the title of the Cui family, enter the court or the army, and serve the country. For this reason, you have had many long talks with Shizu and Daoji. Shizu and Daoji's opinion still hope that you can follow your father's wish and go home. Of course, Dao Ji is also very reluctant for you to leave the Qingliu Sect, after all, you are the most proud disciple of the sect in his life, and the most suitable successor of the future sect, but he believes that in today's troubled times, people like you are more needed to affect the development of the situation, and the people's livelihood in the war is painful, and you need your talent to save it.

You have finally decided to leave Cheongcheon and go home. But you didn't leave immediately, and you lingered in Qingchuan for more than ten days. After all, you spent your entire childhood and adolescence in Cheongcheon, which is more like your hometown, and the Taoist temple of the Cheongryu sect is more like your family than the Cui family's mansion.

When the Qingming Festival is approaching, you finally decide to set off. After bidding farewell to your master and Daoji, you rode on horseback with your attendant Wu Shun on the way home.

Before you left, the letter you wrote home only said that you would be back in the near future, but did not say a specific date for your return. You also walked as you wanted along the way, and you weren't in a hurry. As you walk, you think about the chaotic battle situation between the northern front and the Lingnan fiefdom for many years, and investigate the geography of the mountains and rivers in this area along the way. As you and Wu Shun walked, you perfected the map information in your hand, and mentally combined various resource factors that could be used to stop the war. In this way, you stopped and walked all the way to the Beitou Mountain near Zhuang Town, the southernmost part of your father's fiefdom.

When you see the lush, freshly green ridges of Beitou Mountain from afar, you think of your mother. Your mother's grave is on this mountain, near my parents' grave. The thought that you have been in Qingchuan for so many years and have not come to the grave to pay respects to your mother for so long makes your heart churn. So, you took control of your itinerary and set foot on the mountain road on the west slope of Beitou Mountain on the morning of Qingming. You wish you could be alone with your mother for a while before you re-enter your mother's home.

After the news came that you were going home, there was a real commotion at home. My father's excitement was palpable. My father repeatedly commanded that this matter should be treated with solemnity. He wants you to be authoritative and dignified from the first moment you walk through the door. This is a clear warning from my father to my aunt and Jingyun. Now the one who is back is the future parent, the inheritor of the Cui family's title, and the new owner of everyone.

Based on this consideration, his father gave Jing Yun a task that made him extremely painful: to ask Jing Yun to urge his subordinates to help you clean up the courtyard where you want to live at home, make it new, buy all the daily things you want to use, and arrange servants for you.

Jing Yun had already come out to help his father at that time, and there were already a lot of things in the mansion, in the accounts, and in the village, and this new task made his mood drop all of a sudden. When he landed, he felt that all his strength had been deflated, and the world suddenly turned gray. In his frustration, he felt less and less like the son of the Cui family, and more and more like the hard labor of the Cui family.

In this state of extreme frustration, he felt that everything was bothering him, and he was not even interested in accompanying me on a trip. - In particular, he doesn't want to go to a nearby cemetery to pay homage to your mother because he wants to travel with me. If he could endure such superficial rituals in the past, now he does not want to see your mother's grave for a moment, let alone fall on his knees in public, and bow down to this woman who has made his own mother suffer humiliation, showing disguised respect. It was with such moods and thoughts that Jingyun found a lot of excuses and refused to accompany me to worship. And his excuse is still valid because he is really busy.

So, that year's Qingming was very special. Only the old housekeeper with his servants and servants accompanied me to visit the grave.

Before we set off, Jingyun remembered something, stepped on clogs, held an umbrella, braved the non-stop rain, and hurried to the door.

He remembered an incident that happened last year. Last year, when I was sweeping the grave, a young man from the town (I later learned that his name was Wen Gao) was beaten and punished by Jingyun for ramming my carriage and "looking rude" at me. Jingyun repeatedly told the housekeeper and the coachman not to take the road where there were many idle people and so on last year, so as not to make a mistake on the road when the disciples saw me again, and would rather go farther away, detour to the direction of Yunyan, pass through Guanxia, and take another road with few people to the cemetery. Before the carriage started, he repeatedly told me and the old butler who was with him by the window to get back quickly, to put on a cloak and pull down the veil when we got out of the carriage, and not to talk to any stranger on the way, and not to wander or linger in any other place.

As the car left, I saw through the back window that Jing Yun followed the carriage for a few steps, and then his figure disappeared into the vast rain and fog.

Later, Jing Yun must have regretted his unbearable jealousy that day. Because, since that year, Jingyun has never accompanied me to visit the grave. In the second year, the person who accompanied me to visit the grave was you.

The path that Tianjingyun chose for me is the same path you chose. As brothers, you have always been brothers. You have chosen the same path.

It was your common choice that determined that you and I would meet in that way.

If something is not yours, it must not be yours.

The path Jingyun chose directly sent me into your life.

When he saw us come back that day and understood this, I felt like he hated to kill himself on the spot.