65 Mirage Mirror (V)
◎ "I came for you"◎
The sky after the rain seemed to be covered with a layer of mist. The cat curled up in the corner was hit on the tail and ran away with a "whoosh".
Several people stood by the river, their feet bending the newly sprouted green shoots. One of them, with a black cloth covering one eye, waved to the young man not far away with a sly smile. "Second Young Master, the Sect Master has something for us to bring you."
The young man tilted his head slightly and looked at them silently. His eyes were dark, as if they could dig out the secrets in people's hearts.
"Are you still not coming?" The one-eyed man grew impatient and said with a tsk, "Are you even going to disobey the Sect Master's orders?"
"Hey, what are you talking about?" A person wearing a scarf beside him laughed, "This is a gift that the Sect Master specially prepared for you. Isn't the Second Young Master curious?"
He deliberately emphasized the word "gift" and turned sideways to let the boy's eyes see through the gap.
Behind him was a thick layer of fallen leaves, and hanging above the branches was a long sword shining with a sharp light.
The young man's eyes lit up slightly, and then his gaze fell on the layer of leaves on the ground. No matter how strong the attraction of the sword was, he did not take a single step forward.
"Second Young Master, you're so hesitant to come forward. Are you afraid we've set a trap?" The scarf-wearing woman chuckled and stomped hard on the fallen leaves. With a crisp "crack," her foot landed firmly on the ground. "Second Young Master, the Sect Master has insisted on giving you this sword. How dare we tease you again?"
He frowned and spoke so earnestly that it was hard not to believe him.
The young man's eyebrows twitched, and he took a small step forward. His gaze lingered on the faces of those people. If they even showed the slightest hint of triumph, he would immediately run away. But after taking several steps forward, the expressions of those people remained unchanged.
Suddenly, a sharp cry rang out from behind the wall: "You have broken the young master's sword, so expect to be punished!"
The sound came so suddenly that the faces of those people changed. They all looked behind the wall in panic, wanting to see who was the person who saw through their trick.
The young woman, veiled, emerged from behind the wall, her steps light as a shadow. She stopped in front of the group and said, "The young master is aware that you have broken his sword. If you do not wish to be severely punished, you'd better apologize quickly."
"Who are you?" The one-eyed man looked her up and down, and asked suspiciously, "I've never seen you before. Could you be this guy's helper who suddenly appeared from somewhere?"
"I'm the young master's personal advisor. How can you possibly be so worthy of seeing him?" Li Jintang replied calmly, "You dare look at me like that? Aren't you afraid of committing a more serious crime?"
Those people looked at each other, obviously not knowing whether they should believe her or not.
"What are you doing?" A cold voice sounded behind him, and a young man in blue clothes walked over with his hands behind his back. Seeing his uneasy expression, those people knelt down hurriedly and begged for mercy.
"Young Master, please spare us. We..." The three of them knelt for a long time, not daring to even raise their heads. "We will take your sword away right now. Please calm down..."
Li Jintang stretched out her hand and touched the newcomer, who immediately turned into a cloud of mist and dispersed. She turned around and, under the boy's surprised gaze, took the corner of his clothes and said, "Hurry up."
Perhaps out of curiosity about the other person, or perhaps because she was the only one he could rely on for a short time, the boy let her lead the way, and the two of them turned into a bamboo forest, where the lush green bamboo leaves obscured their path.
Sensing his wary gaze, Li Jintang hurriedly explained, "You can't believe what they said just now. If you really take the sword down, you'll be the one to bear the blame for damaging the Young Master's precious sword."
"How do you know?" He stared at her straight, his eyes full of vigilance, as if only by digging out her heart and showing it to him could she truly trust him.
"I..." Li Jintang was speechless.
Before she came, she indeed forgot to think of a perfect excuse.
"Let me take a look at your wound first..." She raised her hand to pull his arm, trying to evade the topic, but the moment she touched his sleeve, he suddenly retracted his hand.
"How do you know I have a wound on my hand?" He lowered his eyes and glanced at her, asking coldly.
This question did not stump her. Li Jintang clapped her hands and stood up, her eyes curved. "I'm a medical practitioner. No injury can be hidden from me."
The young man frowned slightly when he heard this, as if he was thinking about the credibility of this statement.
"I'm not hurt." After a long moment, he walked out and said lightly, "You guessed wrong."
This man was just as stubborn in the past as he is now. Li Jintang followed him in small steps and pressed a medicine bottle into his hand.
This time he didn't refuse, but stopped and turned his head, his dark eyes seemed to see through her, "Who are you?"
Before she could speak, he looked away again and said coldly, "Don't lie to me. You are not Xie Wangshan's man."
"You know so much, but do you know that I'm here to save you?" Li Jintang chased after him.
"Save me?"
The young man glanced at her sideways, a hint of confusion flashing in his eyes, and then he sneered, "You don't know your own limitations."
Soft sunlight filtered through the leaves, casting a dappled shadow between them. He suddenly turned, bamboo leaves rustling against his sleeves. "You probably can't even protect yourself. Your illusion just now was very poor, you know that?"
"But you still followed me." She wasn't annoyed at all. Instead, she suddenly smiled, the sunlight illuminating her pale eyes. "So, since I helped you just now, do you have some trust in me?"
This person always seems to think that speaking the truth is shameful and insists that others point it out directly.
The young man lowered his eyes and remained silent for a while. Suddenly, he raised his eyes and looked at her. His tone was much calmer than before, "What else do you know?"
Of course, she would not tell him about the past. Even in the illusion, she did not want to see the poor boy suffer again.
"I'm afraid you wouldn't believe me even if I told you anything else," Li Jintang quietly met his gaze. "I'm here for you. Do you believe me?"
Looking at his expression, the word "disbelief" is almost written on his face.
A gust of wind blew by, and the light and shadow that had just fallen on her moved to him.
"Really?" The young man raised his lips and laughed self-deprecatingly, but a sinister look fell in his eyes. "They all make fun of me, why are you different?"
He didn't believe that the person who suddenly appeared in front of him would be any different from the others. No matter where she came from, the farther away from him the better.
Li Jintang suddenly stood on tiptoe, raised her hand to cover his lips, and said softly, "Shh, don't talk, someone is coming."
She was lying, she just didn't like him talking like that.
The boy's eyes dimmed slightly. He grabbed her wrist and moved his hand away, a mocking arc appearing at the corner of his lips. "Okay, you said you came for me, so what can you do for me?"
Li Jintang looked at him and asked instead of answering, "What do you want to do in the future?"
"I?"
He paused briefly, then smiled casually, "My only lifelong wish is to help my brother ascend to the position of Sect Leader and spread the power of our demon clan."
This answer startled her slightly and left her speechless for a moment.
He answered so skillfully, this idea had been instilled into his mind countless times.
He is unwilling to let his guard down no matter who he faces. After decades of silence, the only person he can trust is himself.
Li Jintang felt an inexplicable bitterness in her heart. She knew that she had no way to save him. Even if she just wanted to make him feel a little warmth in the illusion, she would be pushed away by the boy's strong vigilance.
She hung her head and turned to look at the fragment that had brought her here. "Can you please take me somewhere else?"
There was at least one thing she could change.
*
The snowflakes were like cotton wool torn by the wind, brushing against the branches and fluttering like moths.
The young man in white stood with his hands behind his back, holding a sword, almost blending into the white snow, like a statue that no one cared about.
Thick smoke billowed in the distance. He gazed at it calmly, his eyes devoid of any emotion. White snow, like grains of salt, fell on his long eyelashes, leaving a wet mark on his eyelids.
A long mark was left on the snow. Suddenly, a patch of snow collapsed and a scream came from the cave.
He paused for a moment and looked intently. After a moment, a hand climbed up from the cave entrance.
The girl coughed to clear the snow water from her mouth, her eyelashes trembling slightly with snow. "What are you doing? Pull me up quickly."
The others standing in the snow remained indifferent, instead bursting into laughter. "You are a lowly being, so if you die, what's the big deal? Will anyone come to punish us?"
"Look, she's still trying to climb back up!" One of the women in red pointed at the scarred hands at the cave entrance and said with a smile, "Sisters, knock her down quickly! Otherwise, if others see us, they'll laugh at us for traveling with such a beggar."
Several people started laughing and made a few snowballs with their hands, throwing them mercilessly at the girl's hands, face and body.
"What are you doing?"
The young man stared for a long time, and finally when he heard the words "You are a lowly person, so you should die", his expression changed slightly. His knuckles turning white as he gripped the hilt of the sword, he walked towards them.
"Why are you meddling in other people's business?" The girl in red looked at him arrogantly and said angrily, "We're teaching our own family a lesson. What does this have to do with you?"
"That's certainly not my business," the young man smiled faintly, his long eyelashes trembling as the light, snowy water seeped into his porcelain-white skin. "But if you don't want to die, you'd better get away from here within half an hour."
"What if I don't leave? How can I die?"
The girl in red was about to argue, but someone behind her held her back and whispered, "Sister, we've been out long enough. Mother must be worried."
At this time, there were bursts of horse hoof sounds all around, and they looked at the rows of deep and shallow footprints in the snow, and they couldn't help but believe this statement a little.
"Sister, are we going to ignore her?"
"Why bother with her? No one will care if she dies anyway..."
The noise gradually faded into the heaving snowdrifts not far away. The girl's legs were hanging off the ground in the cave, and the blood oozing from her palms added a few spots of bright red to the pure white.
Suddenly, there was a layer of warmth on her wrist, and she was pulled up into the air.
The girl pressed her palms on the soft snow, shook off the snow beads on her hair in a somewhat embarrassed manner, and looked up at the person who rescued her.
A trace of joy quietly crept into my heart.
Seeing people in the same predicament as him really aroused his sympathy.
This time it must be successful, right? No matter what, she would stop him from going on stage.
At least... the deaths of those tribesmen have nothing to do with him anymore.
Before she could utter the word "thank you", the girl's smile froze on her lips.
I saw an arc of light cut out, and the young man raised his hand without blinking, looking at her with a forced smile.
The girls who had not yet run far were hit by the arc of light and instantly turned into smoke and disappeared.
The cold wind blew through the forest, and each blow seemed to crush the spark of hope in the girl's heart.
He leaned forward slightly, the murderous intent in his eyes grew stronger, and there was a hint of excitement in his icy voice.
"That's a very clever idea. Who sent you?"
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