Chapter 30: The Hope Named "Life"

"I see your hands are empty. It’s still a few hours’ walk to the foot of the mountain, and without water, it will be a difficult journey."

The person spoke in a low voice, yet a note of genuine concern lingered in their tone.

Su Changling turned, startled by the sound, and immediately caught sight of a middle-aged farm woman carrying a bamboo basket.

She looked as though she were traveling to the other side of the mountain to visit relatives. The top of her bamboo basket was sealed with two layers of red cloth, and she wore a set of embroidered garments that farm folk rarely donned for daily wear. In her calloused, thick-fingered hands, she held up a gourd filled with clear water.

"Oh... miss, you are truly beautiful!" The farm woman seemed struck by Su Changling’s appearance, her eyes instantly brimming with unmasked admiration and wonder. "You look just like the immortals in paintings."

"Here, take some water." As she spoke, the woman held the gourd out further, a clean, rustic smile blooming on her face—the kind Su Changling had never seen before, one that seemed to carry the very essence of the earth.

In truth, a woman past her prime who had spent years toiling in the fields would not naturally possess refined beauty; her skin was not smooth or delicate, and her hair lacked the oily, raven sheen of young girls.

Yet, there was a strange magic in her smile—it inexplicably called to mind the earth after a spring rain, redolent with dampness and soil: substantial, vast, and teeming with vitality.

"...Thank you, ma'am." Su Changling was dazzled by the smile, taking a long moment to collect herself. "But I don't need the water—I’m not thirsty yet. Thank you for your kindness."

"Don't say that. You might not be thirsty now, but you’ll have a hard time finding water once you are." A flicker of anxiety crossed the woman's eyes.

She bowed her head in thought for a moment before suddenly tapping her forehead in realization. "Oh—I understand. Miss, don't be afraid. I just made this gourd before I came up the mountain."

"I haven't used it to drink—it's clean. Please, just take it."

"No, no, you misunderstand, ma'am. It’s not that..." Su Changling waved her hands, intending to explain that she was a cultivator, but not knowing how to begin, she simply sighed and accepted it, offering another word of thanks. "Very well, thank you."

"But, ma'am, if you give this water to me, will you still have enough for yourself?"

"I do, I do." The woman nodded repeatedly, shrugging her shoulders to shake another, older-looking water gourd hanging from the side of her basket. "Look, I have another one."

"Besides, I walk this path all the time; I know exactly where the drinkable spring water is."

"Miss, don't you worry about me." As she spoke, the woman’s eyes crinkled into happy crescents, the lines at their corners curling upward like the blades of grass just peeking through the ridges of a field in springtime.

"Very well." Su Changling nodded, feeling uncharacteristically awkward and at a loss for words, having rarely engaged in such a long conversation with a chance acquaintance.

She started to offer to carry the woman's basket, but the woman only laughed, saying she was long accustomed to the weight.

The steepest part of the Hundred-Step Cloud Ladder was so precipitous it felt as if it were hanging vertically against the sheer rock face. Ordinary people usually had to use both hands and feet to navigate such a perilous path. Su Changling, who had stepped lightly onto the stone stairs, glanced back at the woman, who was now using both hands to climb. After a moment's thought, she pivoted, pushed off the rock wall, and in a few swift motions, circled behind the farm woman.

She reached out and caught the weight of the heavy bamboo basket from beneath.

"Ho! Miss, with the skills to leap over walls like that, why bother climbing the Hundred-Step Cloud Ladder!" The woman was astonished, taken by surprise by the young girl’s move. Su Changling offered a faint smile at the corners of her lips: "I’ve never climbed it before, so I wanted to try."

"Ma'am, please continue upward. I will support the basket for you."

"Good, good, thank you." The woman thanked her repeatedly. With someone supporting the basket from behind, she climbed the latter half of the stone stairs even faster than the first.

By the time they reached the top of the Hundred-Step Cloud Ladder, the two had grown much more familiar. Su Changling learned that the woman was traveling over the mountains to visit the daughter who had married into the other side.

"My daughter just gave birth to a little one last month." When she spoke of her daughter, the woman's eyes were filled with love and longing. "I'm bringing them homemade scallion pancakes... eggs, brown sugar, cured meat, and new clothes I sewed for them."

"I'm going over the mountain to see my daughter and my grandchild."

"I don't know if the baby looks like my daughter or like her father."

"Miss, thank you for holding the basket for me. I must head that way now—you take care on the mountain road!"

At the fork in the path, the woman, who was heading down the mountain, waved goodbye to Su Changling. The girl watched her—a woman no longer young, yet still so full of life—and her heart, already stirred, trembled even more.

She remembered the look of love in the woman’s eyes when she spoke of her daughter, and the way those eyes, aged by hard labor, still shone so brightly.

Most of all, she remembered the strange, luminous glow that had appeared in the woman's eyes when she mentioned her grandchild—a light she had never noticed before. It was the most instinctive human longing for new life, a hope called "existence."

"Ma'am, you travel safely as well." Su Changling’s lips parted slightly. As the woman turned to leave, Su Changling traced two small runes in the air behind her—one to lighten the burden on her back, and the other to ensure she would remain undisturbed by the mountain's natural baleful spirits.

...And so, what else is there in the human world?

Su Changling wandered aimlessly through the mountains, occasionally plucking a blade of yellowing grass.

The five-hundred-year-old pine tree by the Green Lion Rock had already gained a sliver of sentience, looking for all the world like a waiter standing with arms akimbo to welcome guests.

The maple leaves in the valley had only just begun to turn, a scattered mosaic of gold, green, orange, and red that was quite pleasing to the eye.

On the cliffside of the Shixin Peak, a small, eighty-year-old tree leaned out, its trunk thin, yet already showing faint signs of wanting to reach out and overturn the sea...

And so, what exactly is there in the human world?

Having descended the mountain, Su Changling pondered this as she walked into a nearby town. Though it looked no larger than any valley she had passed in the mountains, the streets were unexpectedly bustling.

She stood still, watching children running and playing in the alleys and old men basking in the sun, listening to the high-pitched calls of peddlers ringing in her ears.

She watched women sitting in groups before their doors, chatting as they mended clothes, and watched the men passing by, their yokes burdened with firewood or grain...

The setting sun slowly plated the entire town in a gilded glow. She looked at the tangible, no longer illusory, hearth fires of the common people—

And suddenly, she understood.