"Ah, so many, there are still so many here!"
The desolate mountaintop was filled with the woman’s bursts of joyful and excited exclamations, making the discomfort of altitude sickness she experienced earlier disappear without a trace.
"Your basket is almost too full," Jin Zijin couldn’t help but remind her.
Gu Youyou looked at the snow lotuses covering the ground and then at the small basket, her beautiful eyebrows knotting in frustration.
What a miscalculation, she thought, expecting the snow lotuses to be rare—so rare she might only pick a few—she brought a small basket, never anticipating that the snow lotuses would be as plentiful as cabbages.
Jin Zijin laughed, "If it comes to it, we’ll just come again. This place is hidden; not many people can find it."
"Snow lotuses are precious, don’t be greedy. You see them everywhere here, but do you know that in the mountains of Lingnan, this is the only spot with so many? They are hard to find elsewhere."
"Ah?" Gu Youyou was stunned. They weren’t cabbages?
"If you pick them all at once, are you not planning to leave some for seeds?"
"Leave some!" Gu Youyou immediately said.
Precious things are most vulnerable to overharvesting. Upon hearing Jin Zijin’s words, she truly shouldn’t pick any more.
She withdrew her hand, still a bit reluctant to leave the remaining snow lotuses behind.
But today’s haul was indeed not bad; she should feel content.
"Let’s go, down the mountain," Jin Zijin said.
They were almost at the peak, and it was still early; Gu Youyou looked up at the mountaintop and said, "Why don’t we go up and take a look? The view from the top of a snow mountain must be breathtakingly beautiful."
Estimating the time, they had enough to get down the mountain. It was a rare outing, so Jin Zijin didn’t refuse.
But as they approached, the person hidden on the other side of the mountain clenched their fists tightly.
The millennium-old Heart-Cooling Snow Lotus was at the summit, and should they go there, they would surely discover it. He had been waiting for over two months–how could he allow his efforts to come to nothing now?
In front of that person, she smiled like a blooming flower, even more dazzling than the snow under the sunlight.
He smashed his clenched fist against the snowy wall, causing a cascade of snow to tumble down.
The man paused, looking at his own fist, then raised his head, only to see that the other man had already caught up.
"Zijin, where are you going?"
Gu Youyou certainly heard the voice, but didn’t know who it was. Meanwhile, Jin Zijin, who had just agreed to go to the mountaintop with her, had already chased after it.
Seeing the person he was chasing through the snow, Jin Zijin unhesitatingly took out the bell he always carried with him.
The bell rang in the vast snow mountain, and the person leaped away swiftly.
Gu Youyou clapped her hand over her mouth in shock, finally getting a clear look at the person.
Jin Ziyuan? What was he doing here?
Could it be that the thing he was seeking was also on this snow mountain?
The relationship between Jin Ziyuan and Jin Zijin was something that Gu Youyou wasn’t sure about, but the wild man, Uncle, had certainly died because of Jin Zijin, and he had been continually searching for Jin Ziyuan. Having formed an enmity over the killing of a father, even if not for the Youying Pearl, she felt that Jin Zijin would eradicate Jin Ziyuan completely.
Remembering their similar eyes, Gu Youyou always felt that these two men with similar names had some different connection, and furthermore, Jin Ziyuan, like her, was a medicine man.
The death of one evokes the sorrow of another of the same kind; Gu Youyou didn’t wish for Jin Ziyuan to just die like that.
Looking at the slippery slope beside her, she made a decision in her moment of urgency.
She ran forward again, calling out as she went, "Jin Zijin... "
The wind carried Gu Youyou’s shouts far into the distance.
They were close to the mountaintop. Before the avalanche, Jin Zijin would come back to save her.
Indeed, she saw the figure ahead pause and look back at her.