Chapter 10: Star and Lotus (Ten) Her fleeting smile just now, he...

When she woke up that day, Lian Qiang began to daydream as usual.

Chi Xingji went out early and came back late as usual. She could not practice, had no two or three good friends, and had no desire to go out. All she could do every day was to pass the time in her mind.

Lian Qiang suddenly recalled the day when Chi Xingji accompanied her on her first and only trip back to Ninghe City to visit relatives.

That was after their wedding, when Xi Wenji rarely granted them leave. They had originally agreed to return to their respective homes to share their marriage news with their families, giving them time to reconnect, but somehow, in the end, Chi Xingji ended up accompanying her back to the Lian family.

He always acted cautiously, and Lian Qiang only promised secretly that she would accompany Chi Xingji back to visit as his wife.

The two stood in front of the Lian family's house and knocked for a long time before the door was opened. A child's voice was heard: "Who is it?"

When they opened the door, they saw a little girl, not even as tall as Lian Qiang's waist. She was as delicate as a piece of jade and very cute, but now she was looking at them with a wary look. Lian Qiang apologized repeatedly, thinking she had entered the wrong house. She took two steps back and exchanged a glance with Chi Xingji.

"It's definitely here." He confirmed her thoughts. Lian Qiangfu turned his gaze to the five or six-year-old kid in front of him, and a bold idea came to his mind.

She leaned down slightly, pretending to be amiable: "Little baby, where are your parents?"

"What do you want to see my master for?" The little boy didn't like her sudden closeness and cautiously closed the door. "What do you want to do?"

Lian Qiang smiled slightly, then opened the door crack and shouted, "Lian Bai! Come out quickly!" She acted decisively, and before Naituanzi could even cry out, Chi Xingji grabbed him and cleaned up the mess for her.

"Dad! Dad! Dad!" The little boy was also anxious. He was afraid that he had no idea what a bad guy was like since he was a child, and had never actually encountered a bad guy. He just flapped his arms and legs hard.

"Who? Who? Who touched my son?" Someone came hurriedly, saw Lian Qiang, rubbed his eyes, pointed at Lian Qiang with his index finger, and was speechless for a long time.

Lian Qiang approached with a smile, not forgetting to scold: "Asking your son to open the door alone, you are really worthy of it - ah!"

Lian Bai hit her hard on the back of the head.

This time it was Lian Bai who shouted loudly: "Dad! Mom! Your unfilial daughter is back!"

Thanks to Lian Bo's loud voice, the whole family sat together in a lively atmosphere. Lian Wei lived not far away, and when she heard the news that her sister had returned, she hurried back to her parents' home with her husband, and almost sprained her ankle on the way.

At first, although the Lian family was surprised why Chi Xingji didn't come back to their home, they treated him politely. Until Chi Xingji said that they were married, the atmosphere on the scene changed immediately.

Lian's father, who had been full of admiration and praise for Chi Xingji, suddenly became unhappy. Lian Bai's expression was even more obvious. He looked around for a broom with a gloomy face. On the contrary, the female members of the family were still quite kind.

Lian Qiang saw that the situation was not good, so she hurriedly used the excuse that Chi Xingji had not returned home yet, and sent him out of the house in a blatant way.

"Have a good meal with them," Lian Qiang said, holding Chi Xingji's hand and repeatedly instructing him, "I'll come to you tomorrow morning, or you can come to me."

Chi Xingji nodded in agreement and wanted to say something to her, but Lian Qiang just waved her hand nonchalantly. These were her family, so they wouldn't embarrass her. In her opinion, Chi Xingji should care more about her.

After bidding him farewell, Lian Qiang turned around and met the eager gazes of the father and son. However, Lian's mother just happened to ask them to have a private conversation for a while.

Lian Qiang proudly held her mother's arm with one hand, made faces at the two of them with the other, and walked away, whispering, "Mom is the best!"

While showing off, she did not forget to greet her elder sister and sister-in-law. The little dumpling she met at the door refused to leave his mother and insisted on coming along. Her sister-in-law was very apologetic, but Lian Qiang was very excited and called him to come along.

Compared to the dissatisfaction of the father and son, all the female members of the family congratulated Lian Qiang on getting what she wished for.

"Who said I got what I wanted? You don't really think I like him, do you?" Lian Qiang's face turned red at that time, and she refused to admit it, as if doing so would make her look inferior. She thought, no matter what, she had to wait until Chi Xingji confessed, and she would never admit it even if she was beaten to death.

Lian's mother shook her head and sighed that her daughter had grown up; Lian Wei said that she had long seen that Lian Qiang had bad intentions towards Chi Xingji; her sister-in-law asked her what plans she had for the future.

Lian Qiang, who had just been making them laugh with her witty remarks, fell silent. She was so happy now that she just wanted to live in the present and had no time to think about the distant future.

The three of them changed the subject and started chatting about family matters. At this time, Xiaotuanzi tugged at Lian Qiang's skirt. Lian Qiang understood what he meant and bent down to listen to him.

"Are you my aunt?" he asked in a low voice. The conversation between the three people stopped and then continued quickly. Lian Qiang was sure that they had heard it, but did not point it out.

"Yes, I am your little aunt." The little boy no longer resisted her. Lian Qiang took the opportunity to pinch his face. "What's your name?"

"My name is Lian-Qing-Ling--" As if a little dissatisfied with Lian Qiang's attitude, the milk ball recited in a serious manner, "Mother and grandmother call me Aling, grandfather calls me Qingling, only father calls me by these three characters!"

Lian Qiang pretended to be suddenly enlightened: "Oh? Sister-in-law calls you A Ling, so I'll call you that too."

Naituanzi wanted to get close to her, but didn't want to acknowledge her. She just pouted to hide her true feelings. Lian Qiang said, "Why don't you look happy? Don't you like me calling you that? Then I'll just call you Lian Qingling!"

"No!" Lian Qingling retorted subconsciously, but then realized something was wrong and frowned, thinking for a moment. Seeing him like this, everyone in the room burst into laughter.

"Let's go," Lian Qiang stood up with a smile and held out her hand to him, "Auntie, take A Ling to the street to eat some cakes!"

As a result, the aunt and niece went out to play wildly on the street, and did not return home until dinner with a lot of bags. The big and the small were severely scolded. Because Lian Qingling was younger, most of the scolding fell on Lian Qiang.

"Wow, you forgot about me when you had the little one..." Lian Qiang pretended to cry and asked someone to comfort her. After a while, the whole family sat down and had a reunion dinner.

At nightfall, Lian Qiang slept in her own maiden room. She had a vague premonition in her heart, so she politely declined her mother's suggestion to sleep with her.

After dozing off for most of the night, Lian Qiang suddenly heard someone climbing over the wall. She quickly stood up and listened, only to bump into Chi Xingji who was climbing over the wall.

"Oh, how did you climb over the wall? Isn't the gate there?" She hurriedly welcomed him in, saying this while secretly helping him close the window with her hands.

She brushed off the night dew and dust that had accidentally stained him from his night walk and smiled, "You used to say it was unruly of me to climb over the wall, but you climbed over the wall and through the window, isn't that even more unruly?"

Under the dim light, Chi Xingji looked inexplicably aggrieved. "I didn't expect that before the next day, your elder brother would already be waiting at the gate, and he even brought some handy items with him."

When Lian Bai thought of carrying a broom, Lian Qiang burst out laughing, and took Chi Xingji, who had just arrived, to visit her room.

As he watched, Chi Xingji was moved: "So you grew up here."

"Yes!" Lian Qiang was very proud, and then she remembered something, "By the way, did you have dinner with your family?"

Chi Xingji had been fasting for a long time and was not hungry, but Lian Qiang still excitedly took out the cakes she had bought during the day and poured him tea.

"Try this, Aling likes it too!" "I'm not a child..." "So what if you're not a child? You're a human, and so is Aling. We all have something in common!"

Lian Qiang argued convincingly, and Chi Xingji couldn't resist his offer. He ate seven or eight pieces at her recommendation, sighing silently as he finished. Lian Qiang wanted him to eat more, but she sneezed loudly, not noticing that she was only wearing her underwear and barefoot. Seeing this, Chi Xingji hurriedly asked her to get on the bed, and he took off his frosted clothes and got in too.

Her small bed was a little crowded for two people, but it wasn't cramped for them to squeeze together. Lian Qiang asked Chi Xingji how his visit home was today, but he didn't answer and instead asked her about it.

Recalling Chi Xingji's slightly expectant eyes before leaving, Lian Qiang sighed silently. Guessing a little bit, she groped to hug Chi Xingji's shoulders: "Don't be sad, my family is your family. If they don't cherish you, I will."

She had no other intentions, but Chi Xingji listened and asked leisurely, "How are you going to cherish me? You're not just saying it casually, are you?"

This stumped Lian Qiang. She was always good at bragging, but when it came to practice, she always encountered a lot of problems. She thought about it over and over again but couldn't come up with a solution, and she couldn't see through the trap that Chi Xingji deliberately set for her.

"I brought you some pastries, doesn't that count?"

"Isn't this just a side thing?"

"I asked you to go home and visit your family first!"

"It was forced by the situation."

After thinking hard but to no avail, she could only continue to tighten her arms: "Do you feel warmer when I cherish you like this?"

After she finished speaking, she felt a hand climbing up her waist. Chi Xingji still said calmly: "Well, it's much warmer."

In the end, Lian Qiang surrendered breathlessly, with tears in her eyes, trying to influence the enemy, but failed. She could only threaten Chi Xingji with "it's almost dawn" before he gave up.

The next morning, Lian Bai discovered that there was a living person hiding in his sister's room, and he became even angrier. Of course, the matter was done and no one cared about his opinion.

They stayed at the Lian family for five full days, but after receiving two letters urging them to leave, Xi Wenji had no choice but to go back.

"Each of you will receive one of these pills. Remember to take them, but don't take too many!" Lian Qiang held their hands and bid them farewell reluctantly. Her family members didn't have much fate with immortals, but with her ability, she could at least bring them some pills that could prolong their lives and strengthen their bodies.

"Don't worry." Before leaving, it was as if a young girl who had just come of age had suddenly become a family. The whole family felt a lot of emotion, but they were hesitant to speak, not wanting to make Lian Qiang sad.

Lian Qiang looked at her father and mother's increasingly white hair and the first fine lines on her brother and sister-in-law's faces. She then looked through the puddles on the ground after the rain at her own face, which had not changed in years. She wanted to cry, but she restrained herself.

Lian Bai pulled Chi Xingji aside. He could no longer hear their whispers, but only saw Chi Xingji bowing to him. Lian Bai punched him again before stopping.

"It's getting late, let's go." Lian's father made up his mind and told the two to get going. Lian Qiang was dragged by Chi Xingji for a long distance, but Lian Qingling, who had been well-behaved just now, suddenly shouted, "Aunt, come back soon!"

Lian Qiang quickly turned around and responded, "Okay! Wait until I come back!"

After saying that, she quickly turned around and pretended not to see her mother and sister who were already wiping their tears.

Her grief flew high up, and after making sure that her family could no longer see her back, Lian Qiang suddenly collapsed, resting her head on Chi Xingji's shoulder, without saying a word.

The two of them sat cross-legged on the same sword. Chi Xingji had to drive carefully to prevent them from falling off. At this moment, he even had the heart to comfort her in a gentle voice: "We will be back soon."

Lian Qiang sniffed and nodded heavily: "Yeah!"

She must continue to be happy so as not to let her family down!

Glancing at herself in the mirror on the dressing table, Lian Qiang realized that she had a smile on her lips when she recalled the past. It was the kind of smile that was not false at all, and it was the kind of smile that could be seen to be from the heart, and even her heavy heart felt a little lighter.

She decided to find another time to talk to Chi Xingji about going home. If he didn't agree, she would find a way to go back alone.

...She really missed home.

Lian Qiang was lost in thought when the door opened. It was Chi Xingji who had returned early. Although she was surprised, she composed herself, trying not to show too much surprise. "Why are you back so soon today?"

Chi Xingji looked at the mirror with her back to her, seeming to be lost in thought.

He saw her fleeting smile just now.