Chapter 114: The past (Part 2)

The garden under the moonlight, the quiet night, the three people who have grown up together since childhood, and now suddenly meeting in this garden, should have been like a pleasant greeting in the past, and then naturally playing together, but at this time, Sharma’s heart had a subtle change.

He couldn’t explain what the change was, but at that moment, he suddenly had a feeling that he didn’t know how to face Patel.

Patel should know nothing, but for some reason, under the clear moonlight, Sharma always felt that Patel looked at him with a little more distance. Or maybe the distance had always been there, but Sharma had never noticed it before.

The two of them were ten meters apart, silently staring at each other. Everything that was once innocent seemed to have become distant from this moment on. For some reason, in this moment, Sharma always thought of the conversation he had as a child, Patel’s melancholy eyes, and the strange precocity of the words he said, which were different from his own.

“Brother, what are you daydreaming about?” The only one who didn’t feel this subtle change was Diya. At the moment when the two were silent, Diya fluttered over like a butterfly and flew into Sharma’s arms.

“I’m so sad that you’re leaving. I’ll miss you and brother Patel so much. I don’t know what to do.” Dya’s soft voice came from Sharma’s arms, and Sharma’s mood softened along with Dya’s voice.

He gently hugged her, and the happy memories of the three of them together seemed to drift away in that moment, but because of her, they seemed to be a little closer again. He smiled at Patel.

And Patel’s soft voice also entered Sharma’s ears: “Daya is sad. I have been comforting her in the garden. She said she had something to tell us only after you came.”

“Really? Dya?” Dya has always been the softest place in Sharma’s heart. He lowered his head and asked Dya, and Dya happened to look up at Sharma’s eyes at that moment. Her pair of bright eyes with tears in them were so clear and direct that they touched the deepest part of people’s hearts.

At that moment, Sharma felt that even if there was a huge gap between him and Patel, as long as there was Dya, they would not go too far. No matter what the damn caste or damn rules were, their hearts could not be far apart, and the sincere feelings they had grown up together could not change.

Thinking of this, Sharma’s mood brightened a little.

At this moment, Patel had also come over and gently took Yaya’s hand. Yaya then took Sharma’s hand and said seriously, “I want to say that when I grow up, you will come back. At that time, we will never, never be separated, and we will live happily here. I feel sad in my heart, but thinking like this will make me happy again. Brother, brother Patel, will you promise me, okay?”

With the young girl’s innocent voice, the garden was blown by a breeze, and all the flowers swayed in the wind, as if whispering their envy of the beautiful attachment between the three young people, their pure feelings, and the breeze was like blowing moonlight, sprinkling them all over, and casting a layer of eternal memory on their beauty at that moment.

That scene will forever remain in Sharma’s heart, accompanied by that earnest and childish voice, that we will never, ever be apart.

“That night was really beautiful. After my heart had been crushed and everything had been overturned and shattered, Dya unintentionally comforted me and told me what simplicity was. But I forgot how I and Patel had answered Dya that night. After all, that memory was long gone… I thought that with Dya, everything would not be so bad, that it would be good because of Dya. I thought so when I hugged and said goodbye to Patel the next day. This thought did not change when I was practicing in the temple, but that was the last good thing. Uncle Johnny’s voice was tinged with sadness. Was it because everything beautiful had been shattered?

As long as you are a cultivator, you should know that there is no time in cultivation.

Just like the days I spent with my master in the bamboo forest, they passed by in a blink of an eye, like flowing water, and can only be remembered but not pursued… From the time the three of them parted ways, when Sharma set foot on the familiar road to his hometown again, another eight years had passed.

Patel was 28, Sharma was 26, and Dya was 18, the most beautiful age.

“When I saw Patel again, I felt a strange sense of unfamiliarity. Eight years had passed, and his appearance had become more determined. He seemed to have grown a little taller, but that wasn’t the point. The key was that the beard he had deliberately grown made him look much more mature. His bearing seemed to have become more stable and profound. Most importantly… his eyes seemed to have become deep and unfathomable. As for Diya, of course I also saw her. The most beautiful years, the most beautiful girl, that dazzling light must have made many boys act. At that moment, seeing Diya, I could hardly imagine that this was the same little girl who used to follow behind me and Patel, shouting at us, sometimes with a runny nose. But Diya and I didn’t have that sense of distance. Like the habit of many years ago, as soon as she saw me, she couldn’t help but fling herself into my arms like a butterfly. Uncle Johnny’s face broke into a smile, as if at that moment he was still the young Sharma, and his beautiful sister, Diya, was now flinging herself into his arms.

This time, Sharma had already achieved great success in his spiritual practice, and the temple had specially asked him to come back for one more thing. Of course, there was also an important thing, and that was to summon Patel to come along and complete a certain ritual, which could also be said to be a spell. At that time, Patel would officially become Sharma’s divine protector.

Sharma didn’t know how to tell Patel about this. After studying in the top academy in the circle of practitioners for so many years, Patel must have known very well what this was about. This was not a fair and reciprocal ritual. In fact, it was a secret technique that allowed one party to completely control the other.

“Just as Li once said, the Miao tribe’s witchcraft can generally control people. The secret art of the Divine Guardian, as the highest secret art in the Indian practitioner circle, is even more powerful than witchcraft. This is something that Li has personally verified. But this is indeed unfair. Li is so evaluating… But he also said that this is the cause and effect.” When he said this, Johnny’s voice became low and he began to tell the story again.

The three of them met again in the back garden. Sharma, who was full of worries, felt that only Dya could bring him the greatest comfort. At the moment Dya threw herself into his arms, he seemed to forget all his troubles and recalled his feelings for Patel.

He didn’t know when it was that his relationship with Patel needed the presence of Dia to have even the slightest warmth, to make people feel warm from the bottom of their hearts.

He looked up and tried to smile sincerely at Patel, but all he saw was Patel bowing slightly, a polite distance. His smile froze on his face for a moment, then turned into a polite smile.

“Welcome back, Sharma.” Patel came over. Sharma thought there would be a hug, but Patel just smiled at him, keeping a distance of one meter, and then said, “The master is waiting for us in the room. He has arranged a dinner.”

At this time, Diya finally let go of Sharma, and very naturally took Sharma’s hand, and then hesitantly took Patel’s hand, and at that moment, her face turned red.

Patel’s body was a little stiff at that moment, but then it returned to its natural state, and he looked at Dya with a slight smile.

Sharma saw this detail in his eyes, but the three of them had been like this since they were young, and in his life, apart from friendship and family affection, he had not had time to experience anything else. He did not think much about it, but this detail became the root cause of everything that would ‘explode’ later!

“Father knows you are coming back, and he is so happy. Brother, you don’t know how delicious the food is tonight… Mom is so excited that she cried.” Dya was like a happy little bird, chattering non-stop. At times like this, Sharma and Patel were always in complete agreement, that is, they both listened to Dya’s happy talk with a loving smile.

“You’re not like brother Patel, who can come back once a year. The place where you study is too far away from us. Brother, I have to complain to you. Is your study so important? So important that you don’t even want to come back to see your poor sister.” At this point, Diya looked at Sharma with her beautiful and innocent eyes, slightly curled hair, and pouting lips, which made Sharma laugh. He also forgot to pay attention to one detail: Patel came back once a year.

The beginning of a tragedy is always because of the details that begin to peel away its true appearance.

Sharma never paid attention to those details, so when tragedy struck, he was so unprepared, so angry, and so out of control!

“But what’s the use of knowing in advance? What’s supposed to happen will happen, won’t it? And at that time, whether I knew it a little earlier or a little later, it wouldn’t have changed anything! When I talked about this before, I was always in pain, but Li was so calm. He said that because it comes from the heart, you can’t overcome your own heart. You have to face the reality. You can’t overcome your own heart, just like trying to change the fate of the heavens? Hahaha…” At this point, Uncle Johnny smiled bitterly, then reached out and touched the red flower on the edge of the rock, asking in a low voice, “At that time, you were very infatuated with him, weren’t you? Or, to be fair, he was a man worth being infatuated with. He was handsome, tall, mature, and talented. The important thing is that the only person he truly reciprocated was you, right?”

When Mr. Johnny finished speaking, the red flower began to sway violently, and a gust of wind blew past Mr. Johnny. It was just the wind, but I could feel a different kind of anger, an indescribable anger.

But Uncle Johnny was very calm. He stood up and looked at the empty pool and said, “Patel, later on, I knew I was wrong. I didn’t want to escape. No matter what kind of opposition you and I have become today, I should give you this late apology, and of course to my beloved Zhenya. It turns out that I, Zhenya, forgive me, Patel.”