48 Ancient City (Part 3)
◎Waiting for you◎
"I'm sure you're all curious about who could produce the Millennium Elixir?" The storyteller smiled slightly, keeping the question in suspense. "Yes, the two young men in the story are the commander and his wife. As for why they stopped to save a child they didn't know, half of the reason is naturally their kindness, and the other half—"
The fan in his hand suddenly unfolded, and he let out a long breath. Under the watchful eyes of the crowd, he slowly spoke: "As far as I know, the two commanders recently had a son. When they saw the child, they naturally thought of their own beloved sons of the same age."
Two people on the field suddenly changed color.
Nangong Xiu's pupils constricted, his hand holding the teacup tightened, veins popped, and some of the wine in the cup splashed out.
That day, the commander smiled and told him that when they returned, he would have a younger brother.
And in that cellar, there is indeed a thousand-year-old elixir.
It was all his fault. After the two superiors left, he couldn't even protect their only child and had to watch him die at the hands of the demons.
While he was lost in thought, the chair beside him suddenly fell down, the door frame made a bang, and a figure flashed by. The rest of the people in the teahouse all looked at them.
"Want to run?!"
The man who had just rushed out stumbled a few steps at the doorway before quickly disappearing into the crowd. Nangong Xiu was furious. He unsheathed his sword a few inches before someone suddenly pulled it back.
"Brother Nangong, stop chasing me," Qu Lingfei sighed and gestured for him to sit down. "We're all ordinary people here. If we start fighting, we're afraid we'll hurt innocent people."
"Just now...he..." Qiu Yan hesitated to speak. The name that the storyteller had clearly said just now was Tian Heng's name. Looking at the reactions of these two people, it should not be false.
Nangong Xiu glanced at her, threw the teacup in his hand heavily, and his face was heavy - he had been wondering how Lu Chengfeng knew about the existence of the elixir, and now it seemed that everything was clear.
"So many lives were sacrificed for a magic pill?" Li Jintang frowned slightly, and without thinking twice, he lowered his voice and asked, "Is this magic pill really that good..."
Before she could finish, a burst of laughter suddenly rang out from the next table. A man leaned back in his chair, looking up at the sky and laughing so hard that he fell backwards. Li Jintang looked at him in confusion - was there anything she had just said that was funny?
The man laughed and said sarcastically, "How could someone not even know about the magic pill? You're quite ignorant..."
He stopped talking abruptly, and before he could utter the word "short-sighted", the young man raised his hand without looking away, and a pot of hot tea flew straight at the man, splashing him and making him scream.
"Sorry," Xie Changyan said, his lips curled up, but there was no smile in his eyes. He threw something from his hand, "My hand slipped. Is this enough as compensation?"
The shiny silver was placed on the table. The man covered his face and groaned, but he just glared at him secretly, then put away the silver and shut up.
"Atang, ignore him," Qiuyan glared at the man and then pulled her to her feet. "There's nothing interesting about this play. Let's go back."
"Junior sister, wait for me." Qu Lingfei hurriedly stood up and caught up with her in a few steps.
Seeing the two of them like this, Li Jintang didn't want to get in the way anymore, so he let go of their hand, "Sister Qiuyan, you and Brother Qu should go back first. I'll go for a walk."
Qu Lingfei was still muttering in her ears, and Qiu Yan didn't try to persuade her much. She just told her to be careful and then was dragged away.
Nangong Xiuze continued to search around with his sword in hand, not giving up. For a while, she was left alone walking on the street.
Li Jintang paced aimlessly and finally stopped in front of an alley. She raised her hand to adjust the silver hairpin in her hair.
It’s really troublesome to do your hair by yourself... Her eyes became lonely, it would be better if her sister was here.
The setting sun crept down from the horizon, leaving a faint trace of red at the end of the eaves. People were coming and going around her, and the air was as quiet as usual, but she suddenly thought of her relatives outside of the book, so abrupt, yet so reasonable.
A groan from deep in the alley ended her reverie, and a figure kneeling on the ground appeared in her sight.
The man's back was twitching, seemingly in extreme pain. Li Jintang hesitated for a moment, then finally moved to the entrance of the alley and asked cautiously, "Are you okay?"
She didn't get a response, and she wasn't ready to ask again. Just as she was about to leave, the man suddenly said, "Help, help me..."
Li Jintang paused for a moment, then heard another intermittent voice: "I was harmed by someone and my appearance was accidentally disfigured. I heard you are a medical practitioner, could you come and treat me?"
She immediately sensed something was wrong: "How do you know I'm a medical practitioner? Do you...know me?"
The other party didn't answer. She frowned, wondering whether to go forward or not, when she suddenly heard a voice behind her say, "Miss Li, why don't you go back first? I'll go see what's wrong with him."
When Li Jintang looked back, the young man in white had already swayed to her side. He stared at the people in the alley without blinking, but her figure was reflected in his peripheral vision.
"Can you heal illnesses?"
"What do you think?"
She didn't understand what these three words meant, but seeing that he looked confident, she could only say, "Okay, then you better be careful."
Xie Changyan did not answer until the yellow spot in the corner of his eye disappeared, then he softly replied "Okay".
"What do you want me to do now?" The man in the alley holding his head turned around very slowly, his eyes dull and lifeless, not even like the eyes of a living person.
The young man looked down at him condescendingly, a cold moon flashing in his bottomless eyes, "Take off the mask and get over here."
"I can't fool you, after all. It's the incompetence of the people here. They have the nerve to sell such a shoddy mask." The mask was crumpled and removed, revealing Tian Heng's face. He sighed regretfully, "I was just a little bit away from getting the antidote."
A ferocious yet cunning smile suddenly appeared on his face: "Master Xie, if I use her as a threat, you will give me the antidote, right?"
Xie Changyan raised his eyelashes slightly, a murderous intent flashing across his eyes before returning to a calm, unruffled lake. He smiled faintly, "I'm afraid you won't have that chance."
He approached Tian Heng, who was looking at him with anger but not daring to lash out, and sneered, "You are truly loyal to Lu Chengfeng. I've seen many fools, but not many like you."
"Him?" Tian Heng smiled bitterly and shook his head. "You heard it just now. Not only did he take what belonged to me, but he also... How can I go back?"
Xie Changyan remained calm and asked, "You believe the words of an actor?"
"You don't understand," Tian Heng's smile grew increasingly bitter. "He was going to drive me away, but I was too foolish to recognize him as my savior and was completely loyal to him. But what happened? I actually listened to a thief and went... went to dig up the grave of my true benefactor..."
"Stop pretending," Tian Heng suddenly raised his head from his arms. A sneer played at the corner of the young man's lips as he bluntly pointed out the truth: "You're just feeling sorry for the elixirs that should have belonged to you, right?"
"You..." Tian Heng was filled with shock, swaying as he tried to stand up. The next moment, something golden caught his eye, and his face twisted in agony. He then sat down with his head lowered, resigned to his fate.
Xie Changyan slowly loosened his hand, and the golden light spread through his fingers and finally dissipated in his palm.
"Let's find a place to stay." He turned his head away, and before leaving, his face cold, he lowered his hand and tossed a pill from his palm. It rolled to his knees. "Eat it, and it will protect you from the torture of the Soul Devouring Pill for seven days."
The words were very clear, he was only given seven days.
Something was shaking around his waist. Xie Changyan glanced at it and calmly pressed his finger on the restless black jade.
This place turned out to be the right one... He raised his eyes, and a goose yellow figure was reflected in his pupils.
"Xie An, you're back?"
Li Jintang stood up from the stone bench and ran towards him in small steps. "That man...didn't do anything to you? Did you cure him?"
Xie Changyan hadn't expected her to stay here at all. His eyelashes trembled slightly, and he automatically ignored the two questions, "Why are you here?"
"I'm waiting for you."
"Wait for me?" His brows furrowed thoughtfully, but a glimmer of light appeared in his eyes.
"That guy just now looked a little strange," Li Jintang suddenly approached, lowering his voice and looking him over. "I'm worried he might plot something bad against you. I'll wait here, maybe I can be of help."
Having walked so far, she couldn't let anything happen to the "thigh" she had to cling to, as she was still counting on him to get home.
"What tricks can he pull?" Xie Changyan walked past her calmly, the slight excitement in his eyes fleeting. "How can you help? Can you defeat him?"
"If you can't win, just run away," Li Jintang replied as a matter of course, "Xie An, there's nothing wrong with showing weakness. As long as you can protect yourself, what's the big deal if you suffer a little..."
As soon as she stepped into the inn, she stopped talking.
I saw a door in the inn that was tied up with iron chains fall down. Dusk was approaching, and the faint moonlight cast a veil on the statue in the yard.
"Sister Qiuyan, what are you doing?"
When the other person turned around after hearing the voice, the first thing Li Jintang saw was her face with a sad look.
"We..." Qiu Yan was about to speak when she was interrupted again.
"If it really doesn't work, how much is your gate worth? We'll compensate you, how about that?" Qu Lingfei looked at the collapsed gate with a guilty look on his face. It seemed that he wanted to kneel down and apologize on the spot.
"No need, it's not your fault," the shopkeeper said with a kind expression. He waved and asked the waiter to bring a few dishes. He then wiped the table and said, "Enjoy yourselves."
After the shopkeeper left, Li Jintang moved his stool closer to her and asked in a low voice, "Sister Qiuyan, what happened just now?"
"Just now..." Qiu Yan paused, her expression a little complicated. "Just now, that fellow Tian Heng hid here, and Fellow Daoist Nangong was anxious and accidentally destroyed his gate. But who would have thought there was a door behind this wall? Since he didn't want the money, he can't blame us."
"Brother Qu, don't blame yourself." Nangong Xiu drank the wine in the glass, wiped the water stains from the corner of his mouth, and sighed heavily: "It was because I was too impulsive..."
statue……
The young man sitting in the corner didn't care what they said. The light emitted by the black jade was dim, making his pupils flicker.
Sure enough... I came to the right place.
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