Chapter 84 Why doesn't the wandering spirit recognize me?

No wonder, seven years later, Meng Cizhang's voice was different from what she remembered.

Le Jin immediately started counting their ages on her fingers, a sudden realization washing over her like an autumn breeze. All of these former enemies were nearing thirty, parents themselves; even Meng Cizhang, who had started out the youngest, was now several years older than her.

She stayed on Mount Chenji as if she had entered a magical fairy cave, oblivious to the passing of the sun and moon. When she came out again, the world had changed color.

The two children clung tightly to each other, unaware of their connection to the older sister before them. Their similar eyes looked anxiously at Le Jin, awaiting her acceptance or rejection.

Le Jin looked back at them, her gentle gaze flowing like destiny, intertwining between the three of them.

"Since you are of such high status, why are you hiding here? Have you been doing something bad?"

Le Jin led a child to the table, holding one hand in each, and picked out two pastries for them.

She loved the two children, but given their social status, being close to them would mean being close to her past. Le Jin quickly decided to let the children leave after they finished their snacks, then continue to stay hidden behind closed doors, refusing to see anyone.

When the little boy heard her ask with a smile, he shuddered, and the pastry he was holding crumbled into pieces without him eating it.

"No, we didn't do anything wrong...we didn't know it was lying there..."

He stammered, and the little girl's tears started falling again, the pastry in her mouth getting stuck in her throat as she cried.

"Ouch! Throw it out!"

Le Jin took a handkerchief and went over to catch it, patting the girl's back until she vomited. She then wrapped the handkerchief in two and placed them on the table.

The little girl's round, almond-shaped eyes were red and glistening with tears as she looked at Le Jin, looking utterly pitiful. Le Jin suddenly thought of San Niu, and her heart ached. She took the little girl's hand, knelt down, and gently comforted her:

"Have you suffered some injustice? Has someone hit or verbally abused you?"

The little girl sobbed and shook her head. "There was a woman... lying in Uncle's house. We went in and saw her."

A woman?! Le Jin was completely taken aback, this... this...

After her death, Meng Shutai's room was empty. Seven years have passed in the blink of an eye. How could a noble young man like him, in the prime of his life, be willing to become a widower? It is highly likely that he took another girl.

The two children were panicked and scared. What if they saw a naked woman in the adults' room?!

Le Jin laughed awkwardly twice, then patted and coaxed the little girl, "That's an adult's business, children don't need to worry about it. As long as you didn't do it on purpose, that's fine."

The little boy nodded and said earnestly, "Daddy brought us to visit Uncle, and then after a while we were told to go play by ourselves. Uncle never lets anyone into his room, but my uncle said it wasn't good for Uncle's health to stay there, so he moved him to another place. We thought the room was empty, so we went to take a look, but..."

He explained the whole story in one breath, but suddenly stopped at the end, a pale look of horror appearing on his childish face.

Le Jin recalled that when she lived in the countryside, every household valued their land highly. If someone hurriedly stepped on someone else's land and damaged their seedlings, they would definitely be scolded. She often had that same expression back then.

She guessed the two children had been scolded by someone in Meng Shutai's room. She chuckled and rubbed the little boy's arm, "A little man like you can't be scared out of his wits? Shame on you!"

At his age, he was at the peak of his competitive spirit, and Le Jin pinched him right between the eyebrows. The little boy immediately straightened up, his face resolute.

"I'm not afraid! My father took me to the military camp. There were dead people everywhere during the war. What's there to be afraid of!"

"dead?"

Le Jin's upturned lips suddenly froze. She wasn't sure if the child was expressing their bravery by saying they had "seen dead people," or...

She hesitated, but the little girl burst into tears, her mouth agape and she babbled almost incoherently: "The dead person is lying there... We didn't mean to... She's in Uncle's house..."

Le Jin's heart skipped a beat, and she grabbed her shoulders with both hands. "There's a dead woman in your uncle's room?!"

The two children nodded at the same time, and Le Jin immediately understood that they had encountered a dead person in Meng Shutai's room and were so frightened that they had fled from Zhenyuan next door to Qiliyuan, and happened to hide in her room.

Her body felt as if it had fallen into an ice cellar, frozen solid, while her mind was boiling like oil on a raging fire.

He's still killing people!

Le Jin was so angry that she swayed precariously, barely managing to stay upright by supporting herself.

A madman is always a madman...

Le Jin's mind raced, and she immediately decided that she had to tell Yuan Fangsui the news and ask him if he had any way to either kill Meng Shutai or lock him up for life. In short, she had to get rid of this scourge completely.

She composed herself, smiled gently again, and took the two children's hands, saying, "In order for the sake of your sister giving you snacks, can you promise me that you won't tell anyone that you've seen me?"

The two children exchanged a glance, wondering why the older sister was making such a strange request, but they also felt a sense of warmth towards her, so they nodded.

——

Yuanfang followed Meng Cizhang through countless courtyards and pavilions. Just when he felt that his legs would break if he crossed another bridge, they finally arrived at a small house surrounded by green bamboo.

"This is my elder brother's residence. He didn't originally live here, but recently I saw that he was really sick, so I decided to send him here to recuperate. Although the location is remote, it is quiet."

"Why bother with all that trouble when you can just close your own gate and enjoy peace and quiet?"

Yuanfang had a quirk: when his body was tired, his mind was tired too, and when his mind was tired, his words became sharp. Without thinking, he snapped at Meng Cizhang, and by the time he tried to shut up, he had already said everything.

Just as he was racking his brains to figure out how to make amends, Meng Cizhang's expression shifted between ups and downs before suddenly becoming calm. He assumed that Yuanfang hadn't said those words and went straight forward to open the door for him.

"What a coincidence, your cousin is here today too. Everyone has gathered together. It's a joyous occasion that hasn't been seen in many years. If my cousin recovers after Xuan Shengzi performs a ritual to pray for his well-being and dispel any calamities, that would be even more wonderful."

He smiled and waited by the door for Yuan Fang to go in, but the next second Yuan Jingming rushed out from inside.

"Shutai is gone!"

Meng Cizhang's aloofness and politeness in front of outsiders were shattered by these words.

"Aren't you guarding him?"

"I went to check on the medicine I was preparing for him, and who knew he'd vanished the moment I turned around! I've searched the whole place, but he's nowhere to be found."

After they finished speaking, they both stood still, a sense of awkwardness and helplessness hanging in the air.

"Then go find someone! What are you waiting for?"

Yuanfang couldn't understand why, if the two of them valued that young master so much, they didn't go looking for him when he disappeared.

Meng Cizhang smiled coldly and explained somewhat awkwardly to Yuan Fang, "That's not necessary. We know where my brother went."

Yuanfang was even more confused, his eyes darting left and right, almost turning himself into a cross-eyed person.

Yuan Jingming's gaze fell on him, and he said with a half-smile and a half-surprise, "You've grown taller, stronger, and more handsome." He pulled Yuan Fang along and they walked back the way they had come.

"Let's go find it together. Shutai is in Zhenyuan."

——

When Le Jin saw the two children off, she didn't even dare to step out of the door, and watched them leave from behind the half-closed door.

She closed the door, sat back down at the table, and saw the winter travel list she had written earlier. Suddenly, she felt as if a heavy stone was pressing on her chest.

Wouldn't it be too much to involve Yuan Fang? He's naive, innocent, and indifferent. She just laid bare Meng Shutai's inhuman ferocity in front of him. Isn't that a form of torture?

She had witnessed that row of hanging corpses firsthand, and afterwards, she couldn't sleep peacefully for months.

Now, should we make Yuanfang also suffer from insomnia?

Le Jin belatedly realized what was happening and struggled with her thoughts. She kicked something and suddenly heard a clanging sound, clearly having kicked something.

She bent down and looked under the table; it was a jade necklace.

"Oh no, how did this end up here...?"

This necklace belongs to those two children. Le Jin examined it carefully; there was a longevity lock attached to the bottom of the necklace. It must have been something the children wore when they were very young, and it must have been of great value and significance. If it were lost, they would definitely look for it.

When the entire household mobilizes, how can she continue to hide?

Le Jin immediately opened the door with the collar in her hand. It would be best to return it before the two children went far.

However, the children were quick and bouncy, and Le Jin couldn't catch up with them even though they were almost out of Qiliyuan. Ahead was a lush maple forest, a fiery red expanse that looked like the sunset clouds collapsing at the edge of the evening sky, dazzling and radiant.

Beyond that lies Zhenyuan Garden.

Le Jin felt a little uneasy, thinking that if she never saw the two children again, she would ask someone to hand over the collars.

The fallen red maple leaves crunched underfoot. But the louder noise came from the screams of the two children ahead.

Le Jin gasped and ran over to see what was happening. Under a crooked maple tree, a person dressed in white with disheveled hair sat weakly in front of two children, holding their hands and looking up at them pleadingly.

Le Jin was far away and couldn't hear what the children were saying to him, but he could see them stamping their feet anxiously, as if the sky had fallen.

Suddenly, the little boy saw Le Jin hiding behind the tree, waved to her, and ran towards her.

"Sister, please help us!"

Le Jin clicked her tongue, then was led by him toward the weak person. "How can I help?"

“Uncle can’t find his way back to Zhenyuan. We know, but we can’t help him. Sister, please help…”

uncle!

Le Jin flinched, throwing the collar away. It landed on the thick layer of maple leaves with a clinking sound. She pulled back the little boy's hand and ran away.

Good heavens, this is terrifying! She always said we couldn't go out! Going out meant certain bad luck!

"Qingsi!"

As if in a dream, Yuan Fangsui's voice suddenly appeared behind me.

When Le Jin turned around, she saw Meng Cizhang, Yuan Jingming, and Yuan Fangsui. Meng Cizhang helped Meng Shutai up and looked up at Le Jin, who had stopped.

Yuanfang chuckled and asked, "Why did you come here without resting? Aren't you feeling better?"

He walked over and stood next to Le Jin, introducing her generously to the group of nobles and dignitaries, "This is Qing Si, she's one of my people."

Le Jin stood frozen, as if she had lost her soul, her eyes lowered, unable to look at anyone in the direction she was facing. She quietly patted Yuan Fang Sui's robe, grasping at it like a lifeline, and whispered:

"I'm leaving!"

She gritted her teeth, but then a white hem of clothing suddenly appeared in her line of sight. Sweat beaded on Le Jin's forehead, and she dared not look up.

Yuan Fang's Taoist robe was wrinkled from her grip, and every breath felt like a punch to the chest.

But since she couldn't wait for Yuanfang's reaction, Le Jin had no choice but to give up: they had never seen her original face, so they couldn't possibly recognize her!

Only then did she dare to slightly raise her face and bow to the person in front of her.

“The lowly Green Rhinoceros…”

However, before she could finish speaking, a thin, withered face lowered itself to her eyes and stubbornly stared back at her.

Her pair of extremely beautiful phoenix eyes were like a bottomless lake, reflecting two small Le Jins.

That once breathtakingly beautiful face was now as pale as ashes, as if it would vanish with a breath. His tall frame was empty within a simple white robe, as if it contained no flesh and blood, only a skeleton.

Le Jin was so frightened by his appearance that she stared in disbelief and dared not breathe.

But a flicker of his brow and a hint of a smile crossed his eyes, which was then swallowed up by overwhelming sorrow. His voice was suppressed and trembling, but it was just a sigh.

"...Why don't you recognize me?"

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Author's Note: Le Jin: Holy crap!