Chapter : 14
Universe/ nature is not cruel!!!
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"Then this is my last question to you?"
"Can I ask?" Qing Tian raised his head and met those calm eyes of Brother Lan.
"Yeah, why one, you can ask me infinite questions, as long as it emerges from the pain of your heart." Brother Lan responded quietly, like a teacher, waiting for his student to ask the question.
"Then as a supreme deity, you have the power to change everything, without you, not even the will of the person, a star, or anything can take action, but still, happiness and sorrow happen."
"Like what wrong those children did, those who are in the orphanage, what was their fault so that they are like now. What did I do, that I was born as a prince, and why are people born as slaves, but both of them are almost same now?"
Brother Lan closed his eyes for a moment, as though listening to something beyond the world. Then, when he opened them, with his gaze carried both the tenderness and question that a mortal can never understand.
" Qing Tian," he began softly, "when you look at sorrow and happiness as though they are punishments and the gifts in the life of human or any living beings. But, actually they are not. They are the teachers of the journey of life."
Qing Tian's brows furrowed, not understanding, what it means .
However, brother Lan continued, his voice was calm, unshaken:
"The children in the orphanage… their laughter amidst of the hunger is a lesson that no palace can teach. And you, born as a prince, will learn what it means to have, the weight pressing on your shoulders that others may never carry. One knows the depth of emptiness, the other knows the burden of expectation."
"Both suffer, yes, but both are shown different doors, they both are at the different phase of the life at different mindset. What matters is not which door you were given… but how you choose to walk through it and live your life, and which type of the mentality you have."
Qing Tian's chest tightened, in confusion. "But why should they suffer at all? If everything is under your power, why not give all children the same love, the same fortune, so everything can be equal?"
Brother Lan smiled faintly, a smile that was both gentle and profound, that cannot even understand by the greatest power of the universe.
"If all days of the year, were spring season, Qing Tian, would you ever know the joy of the blossoms? If no one have tasted hunger, would you understand the sweetness of even one grain of rice? If no one ever wept, could the laughter of children ring with such strength?"
He leaned closer to tree behind, lowering his voice as if sharing a secret of the universe itself.
"The universe is not cruel, Tian. It is like a song. Every note cannot be the same, or the music will dies. Some are high, some are low, some are soft, some loud… together they form a melody that the soul must dance to it."
"Happiness and sorrow, fortune and loss, they are the part, they are the rhythm of the eexistence. And the soul, through countless lives, learns to dance until it becomes the music itself."
Qing Tian's lips trembled, his fists tightening. "So the orphan, those slaves, the prince of the kingdoms… all are just notes in the same song, that form chord together?"
Brother Lan's eyes softened then, and his hand rested lightly on Qing Tian's shoulder and patting him.
"Yes. And do you know the wonder of it?"
Qing Tian shook his head.
Brother Lan's smile grew, carrying that playful mystery that always made the world feel less heavy.
"Every note thinks it is bound to the song. But one day, if you, Qing Tian, it realizes… the song itself was born inside it. That is day, when sorrow no longer binds, and happiness no longer blinds. That is when one becomes free."
"Do not think of the orphan as a cursed people, nor the prince are the blessed. Think only of what you will do with what has been given to you. That choice, that color you paint on the canvas, is yours alone. And perhaps… when you laugh in the face of sorrow, you will teach the heavens their own song."
Qing Tian fell into silent after hearing Brother Lan's words about the meaning (song) of life.
His eyes remained fixed on the moon, as he was struggling with something.
After a long silence, Qing Tian asked again in confusion.
"Brother Lan, your words sound too beautiful. But beauty does not stop the hunger. Music does not heal the wounds. If the sorrow is only a teacher of the life, then why must children suffer before they can even, the understand the lesson of life? Why, you cannot, give the lesson in joy? Why make the path so cruel?"
Brother Lan chuckled softly, while shaking his head, and lying back on the grass, hands supporting his head from the back, and staring at the heavens as though they were art that was drawn personally by him
"Xiao Tian, you think the cruelty and kindness are opposites ones. But in reality they are only masks worn by the same truth. The world appears cruel only because you measure it with your own eyes or with your own perspective. When you see it the, with a different sight… it only becomes play, that is my perspective."
"Play?" Qing Tian's voice sharpened, almost angry. "Do you call an orphan's empty stomach a play? Do you call my suffering a game?"
Brother Lan tilted his head, his eyes still calm, serene. "Yes. And no. To the child, hunger is pain. To the soul, hunger is remembrance. To the eternal, it is only another color of the dance. You look at the page and see only a few lines. I see the entire book, that is already written and the laughter that waits at its end of the journey."
Qing Tian knitted his brows in frown. "But if the book is already written, then how much choice do we even have? You said the choice is ours, but you also said the song is written. Which is it, Brother Lan? Do we traverse the path, or do we creatively crave our own path?"
Brother Lan finally turned his head to look at Qing Tian directly. The eyes were deep, unfathomable, and yet possessed a mischievous look.
"Both," he simply responded.
Qing Tian crinkled his brows. "How can it be both?"
Brother Lan sat up again, plucking another blade of grass, rolling between his fingers.
"Think of a flute. The flute's holes are fixed. That is fate. But the way you blow the wind inside the flute, the song you create, the joy or sadness in the sound, that has to do with choice. There would be no flute without the holes. There would be no song without the breath. Fate builds the vessel for your life. This then is choice."
Qing Tian became quiet, chewing on the words. He wanted to reject them, but something inside of him would not let go.
"…But why me, Brother Lan?" His voice cracked slightly. "Why must my vessel be carved in this shape? Why was my bloodline stolen? Why was my destiny broken before it even began? Why me?"
The inquiry had a lingering presence, akin to an injury that would not heal.
This was the first time Brother Lan failed to smile straight away. His eyes softened, an expression of compassion that seemed limitless.
"Tian, do you remember the boy from the orphanage, the one who laughed with the loudest guffaw when he was with you?"
Qing Tian blinked, remembering the thin child with bright eyes who was laughing even while they were splitting a half-eaten stale bun. "…Yes."
"Do you know why he laughed so unrestrained, without sequence?"
Qing Tian shook his head and was at a loss for words.
"Because he had nothing to lose, at least for now." Brother Lan's tone was quiet but sharp, cutting through the silence.
"A prince worries about his crown, a warrior about his victory, a mother about her child. But the boy who has already lost everything… he is free. You see chains, but he feels wings, added to his."
Qing Tian's lips trembled. "And me?"
Brother Lan's smile returned, gentle and mischievous all at once. "You are walking toward the same freedom. The heavens stripped you bare not to punish you, but to unchain you. One day, when you realize you have nothing left that can be taken…, then you will be the most dangerous being under the nature. Because then, Tian, you will not just play the song."
He tapped Qing Tian's chest lightly with the blade of grass.
"You will write it."
Qing Tian froze for a moment, his breath was caught in his throat.
The words struck something, deep inside his heart, the pain, hope, anger, and a strange, terrifying courage.
Yet still, he could not surrender so easily. "And if I fail, Brother Lan? If I can't rise… if my sorrow swallows me instead of freeing me?"
Brother Lan laughed, the sound bright and light, yet echoing with a mystery that seemed older than the stars.
"Then you will rise again. And again. And again. Because you are not bound to one lifetime, Tian. You are eternal. You may stumble today, you may fall tomorrow, but the song will call you back until you learn to dance without fear. That is why sorrow exists in world: this is not to chain you, but to make you remember, what you truly are and why exist."
The boy's heart pounded in disbelief, his eyes trembling with emotions that he could not name or express.
Slowly, he whispered slowly, "What… what am I then, Brother Lan?"
Brother Lan leaned back, gazing at the moon with a serene smile. His voice was calm, playful, yet carried the resonance of infinity.
"You are the not the heavens....!!!"
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[End of the chapter, 13!!]
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