On the way back, Master Kaelen and I once again walked the Three Thousand Steps leading up the mountain.
I noticed my usually composed Master stumbling three times on the steps.
Finally, on the fourth time, I stopped him.
“Master, is something on your mind?”
The man’s back in front of me froze. He stood there for a long time, unable to respond.
Just as I was about to ask again, he suddenly turned and pulled me into his embrace.
“Master?”
“I thought I was going to lose you.”
I was confused by Master’s words, but when I met Kaelen’s eyes, I suddenly understood everything.
Master Kaelen had been reborn too.
In the last life, Master Kaelen arrived too late. I had already been buried in the earth, the jade shattered by the impact.
He dug all night, until dawn,
his hands already raw and bleeding, until he finally pulled me from the earth.
But it was already too late. All that remained for him was a cold corpse.
He could never forget my every expression, but now, I would never open my eyes again.
Master Kaelen, the ‘Worry–Free Master, bore the deepest sorrow – witnessing the one he loved walk away, then losing her forever. The grief consumed him, leading to a quiet death in his courtyard.
He never thought he’d return to a time when nothing was set in stone.
When the jade shattered this time, his heart had plummeted.
He thought he was reliving the same tragedy,
