Chapter 202: A Mother’s Decision

"Take a look at the painting on my wall," Wu Ningli said, gesturing to the expansive painting of a tranquil stream that Wu Ling had painted for her so many years ago. "Ling'er painted that for me." 

"I remember that one," Hyacinth said with a wistful smile. "He spent days studying the different gardens of the sect to try to create a landscape that felt natural enough to satisfy your request for a landscape untouched by the city. He even asked the gardeners for help understanding how things grew naturally when they weren't in tended gardens." 

"His childhood was far too cloistered," Wu Ningli said bitterly. In so many ways, she and Yun Kong had failed their child utterly as parents and this painting was both a joy and a reminder of those failures. "If his father had lived, I'm sure he'd have been on any number of adventures in the wilderness by the time he was that age."