The two met
Without delay, Sui Zhixu grabbed Jiang Li's hand, "Let's go find Ana and Zirong."
"Fan Lingzhang?" Jiang Li's tone was slightly subtle, but she quickly masked it.
Unaware that Xu hadn't noticed, she took Jiang Li's hand and walked along the path, muttering, "A-Niang has to stand up for me. They tried to take my little house and now I can't go home."
"While you were away, Jiang Yun got married, along with the Shan and Yue tribes..."
Along the way, Sui Zhixu kept telling Jiang Li about many recent events. Jiang Li frowned slightly, because she didn't really want to hear about things that had nothing to do with her.
"And you? Xi Yushao drugged you, how are you feeling? How did you manage to escape after staying with him for so long?"
Jiang Li tucked the stray hairs in front of her head behind her ear, her eyes filled with tenderness; she must have suffered a lot.
Su Zhi felt as if she had been bitten, a throbbing, aching pain.
A faint smile appeared on her face. "I'm fine. Not only have I lost internal energy, but it's also improved compared to before."
Fearing that Jiang Li wouldn't believe him, he pouted and said, "I'm always the one who bullies others, never the other way around."
Sui Zhixu pushed Jiang Li to leave quickly. Jiang Li didn't have time to speak as she was pushed forward all the way back to her old house.
Upon seeing two men and a woman, she peeked out from behind Jiang Li and complained, "It's them! They've been eyeing my little building all day and talking badly about me behind my back."
Jiang Li patted Sui Zhixu's head and waved for Xiao Qing to go up.
Actually, Sui Zhixu could have solved the problem herself, but she took the initiative to approach Jiang Li, which made Jiang Li happy. Since childhood, Sui Zhixu had never been stingy with this method to win Jiang Li's heart.
Xiao Qing flicked its tail; whenever its owner was too lazy to do anything, it would do it. Xiao Qing twisted its body, flicking its bright red tongue, and charged towards them. The various poisonous creatures at the entrance of the small building seemed to awaken, becoming unusually active, and following Xiao Qing's steps, they attacked the three of them.
A swarm of poisonous insects pressed in, forcing the three to retreat. They looked up and saw Jiang Li.
"What is the Holy Maiden doing!"
"What are you doing?" Jiang Li sneered. "I'm still alive, and you dare to openly steal my territory? You're really tired of living."
"Who's stealing your territory?! The three of us just came out to take a look." The woman shouted anxiously, brandishing her sword, as the gushing red and black liquid splattered and bubbled on the ground.
If the person behind her hadn't pulled her over, she could hardly imagine what it would have been like if this had happened to her.
“The Holy Maiden must consider the King’s safety; we are ordered to protect him.”
"Oh?" Jiang Li waved his hand to stop them and looked at them seriously. "What use are you if you can't even beat the insects I raise? Rather than wasting resources on you, I'd rather you feed my insects. At least you'll have some value before you die."
Jiang Li was too lazy to waste words with them, so she waved for Xiao Qing to handle it and turned around to rub Sui Zhixu's fluffy head.
So cute.
"I haven't been eating properly lately, and I've lost weight."
Sui Zhixu touched his cheek, as if it was a little... "His food is awful, even worse than mine."
Jiang Li disagreed, saying, "What place requires cooking? Let others do these things; they're not paid for nothing."
"Mmm." Sui Zhixu was just saying it casually. The food at Xi Yushao's place was really bad. If she wasn't afraid of starving to death, she would never have eaten a bite. She didn't know where he got the chef.
She glanced at the two men and one woman. Their martial arts skills were even inferior to those of Thirteen Sister back then. Their skills hadn't improved over the years. It seemed that she had really killed everyone in Tianque Tower.
"Ah Ling!"
Upon hearing the familiar voice, Sui Zhixu immediately turned around, "Little Hibiscus."
She lifted her skirt and ran towards Fan Lingzhang, her soft blue dress fluttering in the air. She wrapped her arms around Fan Lingzhang's neck, and the two pressed close together, feeling each other's tenderness.
Soon after, Sui Zhixu felt his shoulder get wet. He looked up and saw the tear stains on his face, and chuckled as he wiped away his tears.
"Why are you crying again?"
Fan Lingzhang lowered his head and buried it in the side of her neck, "You scared me to death, I thought..."
"You thought I wouldn't come back?" Sui Zhixu reached out and rubbed his cheek. His eyes were wet and red at the corners. His appearance struck Sui Zhixu's heart hard.
it's beautiful.
"I promised you, I will definitely come back."
"Alright, enough already. How old are you? Crying like this, aren't you afraid of being laughed at?" Jiang Li suddenly stood behind them and spoke coldly.
Sui Zhixu grasped Fan Lingzhang's hand tightly, stood next to him, and said, "This is my A-Niang."
Jiang Li smiled, finding Fan Lingzhang somewhat agreeable, but still disliked him. With Sui Zhixu present, she forced a smile, but secretly glared at him fiercely.
Fan Lingzhang touched his nose. It seemed that A Ling's mother didn't like him. He wasn't that bad-looking. He was considered handsome and dashing in Chang'an. His family was also one of the wealthiest in the Great Qi. Why didn't his two mothers-in-law like him?
"Aunt." Jiang Yun and Wu Shanyue slowed down a bit, and he took Wu Shanyue's hand and walked forward.
Wu Shanyue called out "Auntie" to him, and Jiang Li responded. Although she wasn't as gentle and kind as she was to Sui Zhixu, her attitude was much more sincere than when she went to Fan Lingzhang.
"That's fine, as long as you like it."
Jiang Yun loosened his grip on Wu Shanyue's hand slightly. Wu Shanyue glanced at him sideways, and Jiang Li rolled his eyes at his expression.
"It's your wedding, not mine. You've been of marriageable age for five or six years, and you'll be thirty in a couple of years. Do I really need to worry about this kind of thing?"
Jiang Yun: "..." He knew it.
Ignoring his thoughts, Jiang Li took Sui Zhixu's hand and quietly pushed Fan Lingzhang away. Xiao Qing had finished and leisurely crawled back to Jiang Li to boast about her achievement. Jiang Li glanced at the distance; only scattered bloodstains on the ground proved the presence of the three. She calmly withdrew her gaze, smiled, and took Sui Zhixu's hand, leading them into the small building.
"Nothing inside has changed; it's still the same as when you were here."
Under Jiang Li's expectant gaze, she reached out and pushed open the door, a fragrance of flowers and wood wafting out. The small building was dimly lit, with several brand-new bronze lamps hanging from the beams, clearly repaired by Jiang Li. Tassels dangled from the lamps, and Jiang Li lit them, the lamplight casting gentle shadows on the walls.
The atmosphere was heavy as everyone entered the small building. Fan Lingzhang held Sui Zhixu's other hand, and she managed a weak smile. In the inner room on the first floor, there were memorial tablets for Thirteen Sister and Aning. Sui Zhixu picked up the incense sticks next to her, lit them, and put them in the incense burner.
The memorial tablet had accumulated a thin layer of dust even though it hadn't been cleaned for a while.
Sui Zhixu gently wiped their memorial tablets clean with her sleeve, her fingertips tracing their names. After a moment, she knelt on the prayer mat and calmed herself down.
There was no one else in the room except her, and they all understood that Sui Zhixu wanted to be alone at this moment.
“Thirteenth Sister, Aning, I’m back.” Sui Zhixu forced a smile, her voice choked with emotion. “Wait for me a little longer, and I’ll take Aning home.”
It is unknown whether Cao Chunfeng can accept that he and his daughter were destined to be apart, and that their next meeting would be after death.
People always seem to have an inexplicable love and expectation for home and relatives. Cao Ning was abducted as a child, and by chance, he was seen by Xin Yi and taken back to Tianque Tower to learn martial arts.
She barely remembered her home—a small house, gentle parents—such descriptions were like finding a needle in a haystack. The only recognizable thing in her memory was the crooked locust tree in front of her house.
She still wanted to search, but to no avail. She searched for the place where Xinyi had bought her back then, so she tried her best to find the human trafficker from back then. However, times had changed, and the human trafficker from back then had long since given up his life of crime and now had a son and a daughter and a happy family.
Cao Ning was a young woman. He had just kidnapped her on a whim back then. He only intended to sell her for a couple of copper coins, so he had no idea where she came from.
Cao Ning, who was intelligent all her life, could not accept such an origin. She was unwilling to accept that she had worked so hard for so long and got such a ridiculous result.
She began searching everywhere, while on missions, because she remembered that her hometown had four distinct seasons, so it shouldn't be in the Jiangnan region.
Fate played a cruel trick on the unfortunate. Cao Ning never found her home before she died, and naturally she didn't know that the warm home in her memory had long been shattered.
Her mother died from excessive worry, and her father, without timely treatment, developed a leg ailment. He would always remember her disappearance whenever it rained. Little did he know that Cao Chunfeng nearly caused a disaster by overhearing only a few words about her.
Sui Zhixu closed her eyes and knelt on the prayer mat for a while before getting up. She took one last look at the memorial tablet in the cigarette. The two of them were side by side, as if they were standing together, arm in arm, waving to her.
Her heart was thrown into the sea, washed away, drowned, and drifted up and down, as if it would burst out of her body at any moment.
Her nose stung with tears, but she smiled and exhaled, "I will avenge you."
"anyway."
As soon as Xu opened the door, Fan Lingzhang, who was leaning against the side of the door, immediately got up and took her hand. He seemed about to ask her something, but she shook her head to indicate that she was fine.
"I'll take you upstairs to have a look."
The wooden planks creak softly when stepped on, and the upstairs railings are carved with butterflies and birds. When Sui Zhixu touches them, she notices some scratches that she added when she was a child.
Dried flowers and plants hung on the second-floor corridor. These were hung by her and Thirteen Niang many years ago. When Sui Zhixu reached out to touch them, the flowers and plants, which had been scattered in the wind for many years, instantly crumbled into dust.
Her eyes were indifferent as she turned and went inside.
Fan Lingzhang is now inseparable from her, and is currently being "lectured" by Sui Zhixu.
"You went to see him?"
"I'm worried about you because you haven't come back."
Fan Lingzhang lowered his head, but then felt he had done nothing wrong, and stood tall with his chest out.
Sui Zhixu rubbed her temples. "I didn't blame you."
How did you and Wen Ke meet?
“You haven’t come back, and I suspect it’s related to him. When Xiao Qing came back with a message, I went to find him… Ouch! Ah Ling, don’t hit me!” Fan Lingzhang covered his head and cried out.
"He has so many martial arts masters by his side, and the most famous gold, silver, and agate in the martial arts world are always with him. You are unarmed, how dare you..."
Enraged, Sui Zhixu didn't want to talk to him, but Fan Lingzhang, ignoring the pain in his head from being hit, put his arm around her from behind.
"I was just thinking he needed money..."
"He's short of money? That's exactly why he's short of money. Every year he sends a huge sum of money to Tianque Tower, and who knows if he's secretly continuing to amass troops? Under these circumstances, aren't you really afraid he'll directly blackmail you into demanding money from the Fan family? Fan Lingzhang, have you lost your mind?"
Fan Lingzhang shrank back. Oh no, why are they starting to call him by his full name?
“Ah Ling, listen to me. Sima Xian wants money, and I have money. All I want is for you to be safe and sound. You know your blood relation and Sima An's situation. She idolizes you. I've heard that she confronted Sima Xian many times for your sake, causing chaos in the Xuanping Prince's mansion. Sima Xian only has one woman. Whether it's for her safety or for money, I'm his best choice. I've appealed to her emotions and reason with her…”
Fan Lingzhang looked down and then glanced at her discreetly.
“I’m just a businessman. He knows my identity better than anyone, and he knows my feelings for you even better.” He reached out and took Sui Zhixu’s hand. Seeing that she wasn’t angry, he continued, “All I want is you, and I can bring him greater benefits. Why wouldn’t he want that?”
"As for Madam Wen, it was indeed she who took the initiative to contact me."
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