Chapter 38: Chapter 38: Is it Heaven Opening a Window?_1
On the small path back to the bus after leaving class, the constant smile on Liu Qianqian's face reverted to sorrow once again.
In less than a month, she would be forced to return to her family and marry a man she had never met. They always liked to tell her that all of this was for the sake of the family, but she couldn't understand, shouldn't the purpose of strengthening the family be to make its members happier?
Now why did it seem like they had to sacrifice their happiness for strength?
The more Liu Qianqian thought about it, the less she felt like doing what was in front of her, like a convict waiting for execution, filled with panic and confusion in her heart.
Just as she was a couple of hundred meters away from the bus, Liu Qianqian became more and more irritable. Suddenly, she turned and ran towards the small, sparsely populated cliff nearby; she didn't want to return to class with a forced smile. She truly couldn't smile anymore.
Once she stopped smiling, the girls around her would immediately ask what was wrong, then say various words to comfort her. They all thought they understood her very well, but she just felt they were noisy.
Because human emotions are not always shared, she now just wanted to be alone and quiet for a while.
Fang Ren, who had been following behind her, saw Liu Qianqian suddenly turn and run, and immediately chased after her.
In the end, when he saw Liu Qianqian arrive at the edge of the small cliff, his heart panicked.
She had actually reached the point of despair where she wanted to commit suicide!
Fang Ren quickly took out a set of white clothes he had previously bought at the mall from his backpack, draped it over himself, put on a mask, stuck on a cap, and without time to fuss over the details, charged out.
Liu Qianqian looked down at the small river below the small cliff, and the oppressive feeling in her heart made her want to scream out loud.
However, just as she took a few steps towards the cliff edge and prepared to loudly vent the melancholy in her heart, she suddenly heard a voice from behind yelling.
"Miss! Don't do anything rash!"
She was slightly stunned and turned around, only to see a man in a white coat, his face tightly wrapped with a hat and a mask, rushing towards her.
"What are you doing..."
Liu Qianqian was startled, her steps involuntarily moving backward, but with that retreat, one of her feet found emptiness, and she felt her body lose balance, about to fall down the cliff.
Slap—
Fang Ren immediately grabbed her arm and pulled her back from the edge of the cliff, and due to the excessive force, Liu Qianqian fell to the ground. She lay there, one hand on her waist, a face full of pain.
"Miss, even if you're going through something, it's not serious enough for suicide, right?" Fang Ren deliberately made his voice deeper and raspier, trying to sound like a man in his thirties.
"Living in this world, who doesn't face some troubles? Let me tell you, suicide is the most cowardly act in the world.
If you have the courage to die, why don't you have the courage to face what's coming?" Imitating some dialogue from soap operas, Fang Ren entered Oscar Actor Mode again, relentlessly speaking, "Listen, when I was young, I went through crap a lot worse than what you're dealing with.
If I talked about even one or two of those things, it'd be depressing enough to stop a bull in its tracks..."
Liu Qianqian looked at the man in front of her, who hadn't understood the situation, kept going on and on, and had a "saving one life is better than building a seven-floor pagoda" expression, and she was utterly dumbfounded.
Was she trying to commit suicide?
This person was really full of himself!
Liu Qianqian frowned and stood up seriously, saying, "Don't talk! Let me tell you, first of all, I wasn't planning on committing suicide. I only came to this small cliff to calm my heart.
Secondly, although it's nice that you want to save people, could you at least understand the situation before acting? Right now, it seems like you saved my life, but in fact, you scared me and nearly made me fall, and after that, you made me fall over!"
"Ah?" Fang Ren was taken aback: "Really? You weren't thinking about suicide?"
"Not at all!" Liu Qianqian turned away with an annoyed face, her mood already at its worst, naturally leaving little room for good temper.
But her values were still upright, this person did run over with good intentions, after all, so she felt she should not speak too harshly, lest she discourage a good person's kind heart.
Taking a few steps back, Liu Qianqian spoke again: "Although you are very impulsive, I still want to thank you. Next time, observe a little before you try to rescue someone."
Fang Ren was still confused, but seeing her about to leave, he immediately chased after her, "Hey hey hey, if you've got something troubling you, you can tell me about it."
"..."
When Liu Qianqian saw him chasing her, her temper flared up again. She stopped in her tracks, furrowing her brow and said, "Are we familiar with each other? Why should I tell you? Or are you just looking for an excuse to talk to me?"
"I..."
Fang Ren looked conflicted, it made sense for her to think this; after all, as far as she was concerned, they were strangers meeting for the first time. A stranger offering to listen to her troubles did indeed seem inappropriate.
"Alright then, in that case, let's say I'm apologizing for my rash behavior just now." Fang Ren said as he took out a notebook from his backpack, "Take it as accepting my apology. I'll leave immediately if you don't show up, otherwise I'll have to pester you until you take it."
"You... "
Liu Qianqian suddenly felt the urge to curse, but she wasn't accustomed to speaking foul language, so she frowned, turned around, and continued to walk away, ignoring the fellow in white.
"Hey, hey, hey, let me tell you, doing this is really not worth your while," Fang Ren quickly followed her and spoke, "Look, you're in a bad mood right now, and me pestering you will only annoy you further. You might as well take this thing from me, and I'll leave immediately.
Once I'm gone, you can throw it away, rip it up—whatever you like, and no one will bother you again."
Liu Qianqian was truly at her wit's end with this person; even the reason he used to give something was so bizarre.
However, she was indeed in a foul mood and didn't want to talk to him anymore, so she just reached out and snatched the notebook from Fang Ren's hand, saying discontentedly, "Can you leave now?"
"Okay, I hope the content inside can be of help to you."
Seeing that she had taken the notebook, Fang Ren turned and walked toward the grove, deliberately taking a path away from where the class was gathered to better conceal himself.
Liu Qianqian, still with a displeased expression, continued toward the bus stop, taking a glance at the notebook in her hand, indifferent to its contents.
Accepting something from a stranger was risky, as no one knew what secrets it might contain.
But Liu Qianqian didn't care; if this person dared to try any tricks, the people hiding in the shadows, protecting her, would naturally come out and teach him a lesson.
By the time she reached the bus and took out the various alchemical ingredients, her mood was no longer as irritated as before. She sighed heavily, composed herself, and buried her emotions deep down.
As the class leader, many tasks awaited her in the classroom, and she couldn't always wear her emotions on her sleeve.
Carrying her luggage bag, Liu Qianqian felt somewhat tired on her way back, and the notebook she was holding in her other hand had not been discarded.
After giving her the notebook, the man did indeed leave without lingering, parting with the hope that the contents would be helpful to her.
Having nothing better to do on her walk back, she carelessly opened the notebook and took a look. However, when she flipped to the first page, she was stunned.
On the first page of white paper were boldly written eight characters—Master Qing'an's Alchemy Experience.
This... the content of these characters was too blunt and ostentatious.
The title referred to the most mysterious Alchemist in the world and claimed to be that master's wisdom, yet the master had never published his Alchemy Experience on any alchemists' forums. What could possibly be in this seemingly brand-new notebook?
Could anyone simply obtain the master's experience? And to give it away so easily? It was preposterous, clearly a deception.
After just seeing the title, Liu Qianqian wanted to throw the thing away immediately. But after some thought, she decided to keep reading.
People driven to despair by life often cling to the smallest hope, and Liu Qianqian's situation was similar. Like someone stricken with a terminal illness who suddenly hears from a charismatic quack that there's a cure, she wasn't willing to miss this chance.
As she continued flipping through the pages, her brow furrowed slightly. To her surprise, the notebook emphasized the flame, specifically how to recognize its shape and the contact area with the bottom of the Pill Furnace.
After reading it, Liu Qianqian was perplexed. Wasn't controlling the heat during alchemy something that could only be mastered through practice, or was there some special technique?
With some doubt, Liu Qianqian stopped and continued reading, and soon, she was somewhat captivated.
The content was coherent, and each theory, which she had never heard before, was supported by many reasons for its validity, leaving no apparent flaws.
It was as if all aspects of Alchemy were interconnected by these theories, which were so comprehensible and fluent.
What surprised her even more was that it mentioned many uses of Cold Fire; in conventional alchemical practice, Cold Fire was an auxiliary flame used for cooling without causing the herbal essence to dissipate, but according to these theories, Cold Fire could take a dominant role.
After reading the theories about flames, Liu Qianqian's brows knit together. If all the theories were true, wouldn't alchemically concocting pills be extremely easy regarding controlling the temperature of the flames?
Feeling a growing excitement inside her, she continued to skim through the notebook, only to find that all the pills recorded were Three-level pills!
Furthermore, the method to concoct each type of pill was thoroughly analyzed, as if dissecting everything, making her feel as if she could successfully create the pills simply by following the instructions.
It was as if... she had found the cheat codes while playing a game.
Liu Qianqian suddenly looked up in the direction where the man in white had left, then back at the eight bold characters on the notebook in her hand.
For a moment, her heart started throbbing uncontrollably with excitement.
"Heavens... have you really opened a window for me?" she murmured to herself.
Yet a moment later, she suddenly recalled the afternoon the day before when school ended, a boy pointing to the sky in the stairwell and saying, "It's just floating there; naturally, someone will take it down."
Heaven didn't always open a window for everyone after closing a door. Sometimes, heaven would close all doors and windows, leaving walls on all sides with no escape.
At times like this, one should be like the confident, smiling boy from the stairwell the day before, saying, "You just keep trying, it's just a fart."
"Is it heaven opening a window... or was it... him taking it down?"