282: Chapter 278 Contradictions 282: Chapter 278 Contradictions Half a year had been enough time for a lot to happen.
Chen Hai and Tian Mingjian chatted as they walked.
Tian Mingjian directly ignored the less important stuff and only roughly recounted the slightly more significant matters to Chen Hai.
Initially, Chen Hai had been hesitant about whether to go back to school to continue his studies.
However, during his period of seclusion, a semester had unwittingly passed.
Students of his cohort had already started their second year and had been back at school for quite some time.
The only slightly good news was that regarding school, Ye Qingqing had helped him pull some strings and arranged a leave of absence for him; he had not been directly expelled.
In theory, as long as Chen Hai was willing, he could still return to school and continue his education.
Of course, his classmates would be in their second year, while he would have to start over from the first.
Regrettably, Chen Hai just couldn’t muster any interest in studying anymore.
After about fifteen minutes, the two arrived at the farmhouse where Tian Mingjian’s motorcycle was parked.
The motorcycle, stored in someone’s yard, seemed to be part of an arrangement Tian Mingjian had made with the owners, and he must have paid them some storage fee!
Chen Hai didn’t enter the yard; he stood outside and merely waited for less than a few minutes.
Tian Mingjian, riding an old and grubby-looking men’s motorcycle, slowly emerged from the yard.
From this rural suburb to the city of Capital City, it wasn’t very far, yet there were still about ten to twenty kilometers to cover.
Though the motorcycle was old, it made traveling much more convenient than walking.
If he really wanted to, Chen Hai could have taken a military vehicle from Ye Cheng directly back to Capital City.
Unfortunately, he was still upset and dissatisfied with that guy.
Catching a free ride with them back to Capital City was, naturally, out of the question.
After dropping Chen Hai off at the gate of West Mountain Villa, Tian Mingjian rode away quickly on his old motorcycle with a series of ‘putt-putt-putt’ sounds.
His wife was more than nine months pregnant and not far from her due date.
If it weren’t for Chen Hai’s matters, he would have returned home long ago to stay by his wife’s side and wait for the birth.
Finally, Chen Hai came out of seclusion with his strength seemingly having entered an inconceivable realm, which put Tian Mingjian at ease.
Knowing that Chen Hai was alright and had no further instructions for him, Tian Mingjian was eager to return home.
Standing before the open gate, Chen Hai let out a sigh.
The gate being open meant that no one other than his girlfriend Ye Qingqing would have ventured inside.
He lifted his wrist to check the time; it was already past two in the afternoon.
Logically speaking, Ye Qingqing, who should now be a third-year student, ought to have been at school at this time.
Her presence here meant that Ye Cheng, who had left earlier, must have contacted her and told her that he had shown up.
“Chen Hai, you’re back?
I specially learned to cook so I could make you lunch before you got home!”
“Come, try my cooking, how is it?”
Just as he stepped into the villa, Ye Qingqing, wearing an apron and with sweat on her forehead, immediately came out to greet him.
Perhaps it was because of the noise from Tian Mingjian’s motorcycle that had just arrived; its loud sound probably prompted Ye Qingqing’s reaction.
Seeing Chen Hai made her exceedingly happy.
The frustration and gloom she felt earlier, she made no mention of it; it was as if it had all truly been swept away.
Taking Chen Hai’s wrist, she led him toward the dining area.
Three meat and two vegetable dishes, still steaming as if they had just been taken off the stove, were already set on the dining table.
Setting aside the taste for a moment, the dishes Ye Qingqing had prepared looked pretty good from appearance and aroma alone, enough to whet one’s appetite.
“Come, have a taste…” Picking up the communal chopsticks on the table, Ye Qingqing picked up a piece of braised fish and brought it towards Chen Hai’s mouth.
“Not bad, Qingqing, your cooking skills have improved drastically compared to before!”
Hesitating for a moment, Chen Hai finally opened his mouth, allowing his girlfriend to smoothly place the piece of fish into it.
Previously, after trying Ye Qingqing’s cooking once, he had been too scared to try it a second time.
But now, his praise was, in fact, without any exaggeration.
The braised fish that Ye Qingqing made tasted genuinely very good.
“If you like it, eat more!” Picking up her chopsticks, Ye Qingqing seemed ready to serve more dishes for Chen Hai to taste.
However, this time, Chen Hai did not open his mouth but instead stepped back a few paces.
“Qingqing, this time, when I disappeared, it was for a good half a year.
Do you truly not mind at all?”
With a complex expression, he looked a few steps away at his girlfriend Ye Qingqing and sighed.
“Chen Hai, I know that you disappeared because you were in closed-door Cultivation!”
“When I first got together with you, you told me you were a Tao Cultivator and you needed to spend a lot of time on Cultivation.”
“Knowing you were in seclusion, I tried to learn your exact location from Tian Mingjian, but he kept your secret, refusing even to tell me.”
“During that time, I truly felt lost and downhearted.”
“But then, I suddenly felt that maybe I was being too greedy.”
“The ancients have said, ‘If love endures through time, is it then not beyond the everyday?'”
“You have your pursuits, your own things to accomplish, and you can’t be with me all the time.
As for me, as long as you have me in your heart, that’s enough!”
It was unclear whether Ye Qingqing had truly come to terms with it or if she was just pretending.
At this moment, a smile blossomed on her face, and she spoke sincerely and softly.
“Qingqing, I do feel somewhat guilty about what happened this time.
If you harbor any dissatisfaction or criticism toward me, you can speak frankly.”
“Honestly, with someone like you, there’s really no need to be so humble in love!”
“Just like your brother said, if someone seriously wanted to pursue you and become a son-in-law of the Ye Family, they could easily line up from one end of the street to the other…”
Chen Hai looked at Ye Qingqing with a complex expression and heaved a long sigh.
However, his words were just half-spoken when he could no longer continue.
Because at that moment, Ye Qingqing stepped forward and sealed his lips with hers, preventing any more words from escaping his heart.
After several long minutes, their lips finally parted.
“Chen Hai, promise me, can you not disappear for such long periods so casually in the future?”
Her beautiful eyes overflowed with tenderness, as if they could melt him entirely, she looked intently at Chen Hai and pleaded.
If it had been any other request, Chen Hai would have nodded without hesitation at this moment.
But now, for the request from his girlfriend Ye Qingqing, unless he lied and gave a perfunctory response, he simply could not give any promise.
After all, at his level of strength, if he wanted to continue advancing and breaking through, merely accumulating power was no longer adequate.
The Flame Power he wielded could only deepen his control over fire through enlightenment.
To understand the True Meaning of Fire and truly grasp Fire’s Mysterious Meaning?
Enduring seclusion was definitely unavoidable.
The stronger one’s strength, the higher the Realm, the longer the time he would need to spend in seclusion each time.
Unless Chen Hai was willing to give up Tao Cultivation and lead a simple life with his girlfriend Ye Qingqing.
Otherwise, asking him not to disappear again was simply unrealistic; he genuinely could not do it.
Chen Hai’s hesitation was evident to Ye Qingqing.
Although she didn’t express any dissatisfaction, a few threads of disappointment clearly flickered in her eyes.
“Alright, Chen Hai, I’ve asked too much of you!” she said, her expression turning somber as she sighed.
After a short pause, she tentatively spoke again, “If you still have to go into long periods of seclusion, could you at least inform me of your exact location beforehand, so I can have some peace of mind?”
From her perspective, as a young woman, making such a modest request to her fiancé was not excessive at all.
But from Chen Hai’s perspective, his views were distinctly different from Ye Qingqing’s.
Like his seclusion this time, if he hadn’t sternly instructed Tian Mingjian not to disclose his location to Ye Qingqing.
She might have been able to endure ten days or half a month.
But if Chen Hai was to remain absent for three or five months, she undoubtedly would have gone looking for him!
Moreover, under the questioning of her parents and her older brother Ye Cheng, she would have been unable to bear the pressure and would have revealed Chen Hai’s place of seclusion!
Should such a scenario occur, Chen Hai’s seclusion and breakthrough would undoubtedly have to be abandoned halfway.
As the saying goes, one cannot have both the fish and the bear’s paw.
To put it bluntly, given his current situation, there seemed to be some irreconcilable inherent contradictions between Cultivation and love.
“For me, to see what lies at the end of Tao Cultivation is my life’s longstanding wish,” he said.
“I can promise nothing, nor can I guarantee anything!”
“All I can say to you is, if you do not leave, I will not abandon.”
“If one day, you truly cannot accept my long periods of seclusion and do not wish to continue with me, I can understand and accept it…”
After a long silence, Chen Hai let out a wistful sigh and spoke.