Ning Jinchen didn’t move. The snow slid down into his robe from his collar, and he suddenly felt a slight chill. Monk Xuwu had told him that if he was devoted to the task at hand when he recited scriptures, then he wouldn’t notice anything else. It seemed that he wasn’t devoted today.

  Sighing, he raised his head to look at Yan Shengqian and said, “Miss Yen, you’re a person that belongs to the secular world. Please follow your secular world’s etiquette rules and keep your distance from this one.

  Qian-

  sneered. “Are you a person from the secular world?”


  “No.”


  “Why are you following the secular world’s rules then?” Qian-

  raised her eyebrows. Standing in the distance, she had her hands on her hips. She found his logic ridiculous. “If you uphold the rules of the secular world, doesn’t that make you a person from the secular world?”


  Ning Jinchen froze in surprise. He lowered his head to contemplate.

  Qian-

  , who was standing more than three steps away from him, smiled and said, “In the secular world, men and women have to keep a distance of three steps from each other. If I take the initiative to keep a three-steps distance from you, could you stop hiding from me?”


  Ning Jinchen slightly furrowed his brow. “Miss Yan, why must you be so persistent?”


  “Why does that have anything to do with you?” Qian-

  ‘s eyes slightly reddened. “Go read your Buddhist scriptures!”


  —


  Seeing that she really did adhere to keeping a distance of three steps between them, he didn’t have anything left to say. The two of them went back to their previous routine. While he sat there in meditation, she would stand by his side to keep him company. It was only that she was standing a little farther away now.

  —


  During the Chinese Valentine Festival, Qian-

  insistently pulled him out to see festivities. The streets were lively, and the stalls lining the streets were doing exceptionally good business in selling jewelry and jade ornaments. Many young men easily brought an item to give to the girl in their heart for a smile.

  When Qian-

  and Ning Jinchen passed by, there was only one item left, a wooden hairpin. It was probably because the material was too cheap, so no one was interested in it. However, the carved plum blossom on it looked pretty good and paired well with a certain someone’s facial features.

  After looking at it for a while, Qian-

  took out a small bag and brought the hairpin.

  “Oh, Miss is quite special. Are you buying it for that young man?” The old grandmother was in an especially good mood as she packed up her stall. “It’s usually young men that come here to buy something to give to a girl. You’re the last one to come here today, and you’re doing things in reverse.”


  Qian-

  blew out her cheeks. “Why? Am I not allowed?”


  “Haha, there’s nothing that’s not allowed. If you like someone, you should go ask him how he feels. This hairpin is simple yet elegant. Men can wear this too. It’s quite suitable for the young man over there. May you achieve your heart’s desire.” The old grandmother put her bag over her shoulder and smiled as she left.

  Qian-

  blushed. Clutching the hairpin, she stopped three steps away from Ning Jinchen and called out, “Hey!”


  Illuminated by the colored lanterns on the riverside, Ning Jinchen turned to look at her. There was an endless stream of people walking between them.

  Qian-

  , who was three steps away from, held her hand out. “This is for you……”


  A passing person bumped into her hand, and the unremarkable wooden plum blossom hairpin fell into the crowd. Greatly alarmed, Qian-

  lowered her head and was about to crouch down to look for it, but Ning Jinchen frowned.

  “Stand up straight. There’s a lot of people here. You’re going to get stepped on.”


  Qian-

  froze in surprise. She regrettably looked at the crowd. She was so unlucky, ah. She liked a person that was devoted to Buddha, and she couldn’t even succeed in giving him a hairpin.

  “What was that?” asked Ning Jinchen.

  “It’s nothing, just a trinket” Qian-

  waved her hand. “Let’s go somewhere else to look around.”


  Ning Jinchen nodded. He quietly walked through the crowd, but after a few steps, he turned to look at the place they had been standing for a moment.

  As they released colored lanterns, guessed lantern riddles, and tried their luck in picking fortune sticks at the temple, the three step distance was maintained the entire time. When they were done, Ning Jinchen escorted her back to the rice shop.

  In a calm voice, he said, “Don’t stay up too late.”


  When Qian-

  had gotten a fortune stick that foretold poor fortune earlier, her face had crumpled, so she had dejectedly agreed to cut their outing short.

  Ning Jinchen watched as she went inside, then he turned around and retraced their path to the spot they had been standing before. He found the wooden hairpin that had already been trodden.

  “Is it this?” He picked it up to look, then washed it in the nearby river and looked at it again before tucking it inside his clothes.

  He was still holding the fortune stick he had chosen earlier. Qian-

  had really wanted to see it, but he hadn’t let her.

  While her fortune stick had the words, “Unobtainable wishes, incompatibilite companion”, his fortune stick was blank.

  The possibility of a relationship between them had been hopeless from the start.

  —


  He knew that there would be one more great calamity in Ji Man’s future. It would happen in three more years. She would fall gravely sick and almost die. Ning Jinchen had coming here to wait for that day. After he helped her get through that calamity, it would be time for him to go back to the mountain.

  Would his cultivation really improve to the level that Monk Xuwu had spoken of by staying in the mortal world for six years? Ning Jinchen didn’t believe his

  , but he continued to stay focused on reciting Buddhist scriptures the rest of his time here.

  Qian-

  continued to stay by his side.

  —


  A large tree in courtyard went from green to yellow to white. After three cycles of this, three more years had passed. Standing in front of him, the little girl of the past had finally grown up into a lovely young woman. The sorrow between her brow had also increased.

  “Dad has arranged a marriage for me. The other party is the son of an official. I heard that he doesn’t have a main wife yet. I’ll be marrying him as a wife.” Qian-

  was sitting three steps away from him. She hollowly laughed and said, “Doesn’t that sound pretty good?”


  He stopped moving the prayer beads in his hand and opened his eyes to look at her. “That is pretty good.”


  Smiling, Qian-

  nodded. “Yeah. I heard that young master has a good temperament too. I’ll only need to be a good housewife.”


  Ning Jinchen nodded.