Chapter 149: Red Dress, White Hair

Hearing this, Jiang An froze in place.

He had just arrived with Song Wanshang, Dao Mo, and the others when this piece of bad news reached his ears. Looking at the young man hugging his thighs and weeping bitterly, a vortex of emotions churned within him.

"Pass the word down. Mobilize all our personnel immediately, use every single connection we have, and find her!"

Jiang An let out a soft sigh and delivered the order in a resolute tone.

"Understood!"

The senior members of the Yu Sect acknowledged the command and immediately dispersed to make arrangements.

At that moment, Jiang An turned back to Song Wanshang and said, "Xiaoshuang, I..."

"Go, find that girl! Isn't that why we came here in the first place? I know your abilities; if you go yourself, things will move much faster. Don't leave yourself with any regrets!"

Before Jiang An could finish, Song Wanshang said with utmost understanding.

Jiang An smiled, gently squeezed Song Wanshang's slender hand, and then helped Tong Hao up, speaking in a warm voice, "Don't worry, your sister will be fine, I promise! You don't need to blame yourself either. Thanks to you, we learned about your sister's situation. If anything, we should be thanking you."

"Sister... Teacher Jiang," Tong Hao said, his tear-streaked face flushing with embarrassment. He knew about the relationship between Jiang An and Song Wanshang, and had he accidentally blurted out "brother-in-law" in his panic just now, things would have been quite awkward to explain. Fortunately, neither of them minded. "Thank you so much. You must find my sister! She has aged so terribly, I'm truly terrified."

"Don't worry," Jiang An comforted him once more before asking, "Tell me first where your sister might have gone."

***

"Look, look, that old woman is so strange!"

"She's just dressed a bit brightly, don't you know anything about fashion?"

"Mom, that old granny is wearing such a red dress."

"Don't run your mouth."

"There's an old lady over there who refuses to dress her age at all."

In West Lake Park, passing crowds pointed and whispered at a figure sitting on a bench by the water.

The person sitting on the bench was an elderly woman. Her hair was sparse and snow-white, the wrinkles on her face were etched in deep, overlapping folds, and her back was hunched. She looked to be at least seventy or eighty years old. With hands as withered as dry twigs, she stubbornly held up a small white parasol. A vibrant, bright red dress looked dazzlingly stark in the morning light, while the beige women's leather shoes on her feet were playful and cute, clashing utterly with her frail, candle-in-the-wind physique. Yet, after lingering on her for a while, one could discern a peculiar, alternative elegance—truly bizarre.

Red dress, white hair, standing aloof from the mortal world.

The old woman uttered not a single word, staring blankly like a statue at the tranquil surface of the West Lake before her. She paid no attention whatsoever to the discussions around her. Even when well-meaning people approached to ask if she was alright, she gave no response at all.

An old woman with a story, many whispered inwardly. Wearing her most beloved dress, she was perhaps mourning her lost youth.

Time ticked away second by second. The crowds eventually grew accustomed to the old woman sitting there, and no one disturbed her anymore. Who would ever disrupt an elderly person's quiet reflections and cherished memories?

Until a young man gently seated himself on the bench beside her.

"The West Lake is very beautiful, isn't it?"

Jiang An looked straight ahead, speaking without blinking.

The old woman beside him trembled, lowered her head, and made to gather her things and leave. Suddenly, however, a warm, strong hand caught her claw-like fingers.

"Tong Yi, this time, I won't let you leave."

Jiang An turned and smiled, his smile as warm as the morning sun.

Yet the old woman dared not meet his eyes. She turned away, desperately trying to shield her face, and said with a trembling voice, "Young man, you've mistaken me for someone else. This old woman must be heading home now, let go of me quickly!"

Hearing this, Jiang An tightened his grip on her hand instead. "You know very well that I don't care about your appearance. The only reason you left before I arrived was because you didn't want me to see you looking like this with white hair and aged features. But in my eyes, you will always be that young and beautiful Tong Yi."

The old woman suddenly fell silent. After a long while, she spoke in a faint, ethereal voice:

"Let what is gone be gone. You have your wonderful family; why bother wasting words on an old crone? It's not worth it."

"Indeed," Jiang An sighed softly. He looked forward again and murmured, "Granny, let me tell you a story."

"Once upon a time, a very, very pretty young girl told a man that she loved him. Naturally, the man, who already had a family, gently rejected her. What she didn't know, however, was that the man's heart had also stirred at that moment. But he could only let her down, thinking that as an innocent girl untouched by the world, she would soon forget all about romance and love, and go on to have a bright future."

"The man was wrong. What he didn't know was that the girl loved too deeply and ended up hurting herself. She became unable to even attend school, sitting at home day after day in silence, staring blankly like a soul had been ripped from her body, living in a daze. Then, a greater nightmare struck. An evil sorcerer, harboring a grudge against the man, found her and cast a vicious curse upon her. For every single day she lived, she aged a whole year compared to others. Thus, day by day, she aged rapidly—her teeth loosened, her hair turned snow-white, and her body was plagued by illness. Her family rushed her to the hospital, but the doctors were completely helpless. Yet she remained mute, not even revealing the cause of her illness to her family, willing to age away into nothingness."

"Until one day, her younger brother woke up in the middle of the night and found her crying in her sleep, muttering in her dreams, and thus he discovered the truth of what had happened. The reason she refused to speak of it was simply because she feared that sorcerer, and feared that the man she loved would come to harm. Tell me, Granny, wasn't that girl foolish?"

The old woman trembled uncontrollably, her tears breaking like a shattered dam, streaming down drop by drop onto her red dress and quickly blooming into irregular, dark stains.

Jiang An paused for a moment, then continued: "Her younger brother moved heaven and earth to find the man and explained everything. Soon enough, the man received the news as well. Heh, I imagine the man's very first reaction at that moment was heartache. If such a wonderful girl were to perish because of him, he would surely regret it for the rest of his life. Therefore, he rushed here without a moment's rest, wanting to cure this girl, and then..."

"And then ask the girl, do you still like me?"

With this final sentence, Jiang An turned his head once more to look at the old woman, his dark pupils seemingly overflowing with tenderness.

"Sob!"

The old woman completely broke down. Borrowing strength from who knows where, she suddenly threw her arms around Jiang An, clutching him tightly as she wailed aloud.

Jiang An gently patted the old woman's back and said, "You can hit me, you can scold me, but please believe me—I will cure you. When you wake up, you'll be that one-of-a-kind Tong Yi once again."

Hearing this, the old woman actually landed a few heavy punches on Jiang An's chest, though she asked through her tears, "After the girl turns back into her old self, how will that man treat her?"

***

"That man will ask the girl if she is willing to stay by his side, because he has discovered that he is clearly in love with her as well."

"How can the man be certain that he wants her to stay because he loves her, and not simply because he pities her?"

"The man is certain! Affection is something one can never deceive oneself about."

Upon hearing this answer, the old woman suddenly grabbed Jiang An's hand and made as if to bite it. Jiang An hurriedly pulled back, warning, "Careful, you'll chip your teeth!"

"Hmph!"

The old woman locked eyes with Jiang An, looking quite displeased, but immediately covered her face with her hands. "You're not allowed to look! I'm hideously ugly right now. Just remember what I looked like at my most beautiful."

Jiang An chuckled softly, then gently pried her hands away, smiling as he said, "I insist on looking, because once this passes, I won't ever get to see you like this again."

He traced her face with his fingertips, still able to discern the remnants of her youthful beauty beneath the weathered features. He found it hard to imagine how she had endured these past few months.

The old woman struggled continuously, but she was no match for Jiang An. In the end, she simply buried herself in his arms, too embarrassed to lift her head and face the world. This intimate display caused passing pedestrians to stare in sheer astonishment.

"Alright, we should get going. Didn't you see the looks people were giving us? They must be thinking an old cow is eating tender grass."

"I *am* the tender grass, thank you very much!" Tong Yi retorted indignantly, then used her parasol to shield her face as she muttered, "Teacher Jiang—no, wait, you were just an external lecturer who taught me a few classes, I can't call you teacher anymore. What should I call you then? Big brother? Or husband?"

Jiang An's mouth twitched slightly at her eccentric train of thought.

"Uh, let's focus on curing you first."

***

In the Yu Sect's special care ward, Tong Yi, adorned in her red dress and snow-white hair, lay peacefully flat on the bed, a faint smile still lingering at the corners of her lips.

Using both his spiritual sense and inner power, Jiang An probed her body thoroughly from inside and out before finally opening his eyes. A fierce, heavy murderous intent flashed across his gaze.

This dark sorcery was indeed vicious beyond compare!

Ordinary蛊craft or curses usually acted directly upon the physical body, but the dark art inflicted upon Tong Yi corrupted her soul and spirit. The aging of her physical body was merely a superficial symptom, because her polluted soul was constantly draining the vital essence of her physical form. The notion that one day equaled a full year was no exaggeration. Had it been his previous level of cultivation when he could not project his spiritual sense outward, he truly would have been somewhat helpless against a sorcery so deeply entwined with a human soul. After all, a mortal's soul was exceedingly fragile, and his Night Lamp technique was fundamentally an art of slaughter and control—it could project sealed spiritual sense to wreak havoc, but healing was a different story altogether.

The enemy's objective had been crystal clear: to ensure he could do nothing to save her, forcing him to obediently seek them out. What a brilliant trap of inviting the opponent into the urn!

Yet the enemy could never have anticipated that his strength would leap forward in bounds. Now that the seal had loosened slightly, allowing his spiritual sense to project outward, he was capable of wielding far greater spiritual power to accomplish much more complex feats.

No sooner thought than done. Jiang An sat cross-legged beside the bed, pressed his sword-finger against the center of his brow, and drew forth his spiritual sense.