75 Breakup (Part 2)
He's been lying to you.
The streets were bustling with people, and not far ahead was the entrance to the ghost market where they fell.
Qu Lingfei shielded the slanting sun with one hand and turned back to ask, "What happened to her?"
The pale girl hung her hands stiffly in front of her, her lips moving as she muttered something to herself.
Qiuyan looked at her with eyes filled with pity and sighed, "Ever since she found out Atang was gone, she's been so distracted... She doesn't remember us, but she still remembers going to look for Atang."
Alan followed closely behind them, but stopped from time to time. Whenever he saw someone dressed similarly to Atang, he would stare in that direction for a long time.
She stopped and started along the way, slowing down her pace. Seeing her like this, several people couldn't bear to urge her.
Suddenly, the sound of crying from not far away interrupted everyone's thoughts.
A few steps away, in front of a small stall, a young girl was squatting on the ground, her hands covering her chest, crying bitterly. The person standing in front of the stall had his hands behind his back, looking extremely impatient.
The girl was tired of crying and stood up to argue with him, but he frowned and pushed her to the ground. "It's just a pair of broken bracelets, right? You still want to cause trouble here? Get out of here right now!"
Seeing her being pushed back repeatedly, unable to fight back, Qiuyan quickly flew forward to support her. She then threw a stone at the vendor as a "return gift," "How dare you bully a woman in broad daylight? Do you have any shame?"
Unexpectedly, the man dodged and easily avoided the flying stones. He also slowly took off the straw hat on his head and fanned himself with it in his hands.
"Thank you for your help, sister," the girl spread out her hands, revealing the broken bracelet on her palm, tears streaming down her face. "This bracelet was left by my mother. It developed some cracks a few days ago. I wanted to bring it here to see if it could be repaired, but who knew... who knew he would break the bracelet into this state? In the end, it's all my fault..."
"Don't you dare say such nonsense just because you have someone helping you?" the vendor said anxiously, pointing his straw hat at her. "This bracelet looks cheap, and yet she's asking me to pay her ten taels of silver. Isn't that extortion?"
"When did I ever ask you to pay so much?" The girl wiped her tears and said intermittently: "You broke my most precious thing, and you didn't even say an apology..."
"you……"
"What do you mean?" Qiu Yan protected the person behind him, his hand instinctively reaching to his side. Suddenly, he remembered that he had lost his sword. He glanced at Qu Lingfei and others rushing over. He pulled out the sword from his waist and pointed it at them, shouting, "Apologize to her!"
"Oh……"
The man's face darkened, and after a cold laugh, the straw hat in his hand suddenly turned like a knife blade and flew straight towards the two of them with a whistling sound.
Qiuyan immediately held her sword to block, but she didn't expect the opponent to come at her with such force that the moment the bamboo strips on the edge of her straw hat hit the sword blade, she was forced to retreat continuously.
"Junior sister, be careful!"
Upon hearing this, Xie Changyan raised his eyes and looked at them calmly. Far from stepping forward to help, he looked as if he was ready to watch the fun. He said regretfully, "Fellow Daoist Qu, your sister-in-law put herself in danger to save others, and you won't go to help her just because you don't have a weapon?"
Qu Lingfei could see that the peddler was no ordinary person, but now that his junior sister was in danger, he naturally could not trouble others, let alone stand idly by. After being provoked, he no longer hesitated, jumped forward and stood in front of Qiu Yan, blocking the attack with one hand.
The straw hat spun a few times in the air before returning to the vendor's hands. He took the hat and put it back on his head, pulling the brim down very low. There was something strange in his eyes as he looked at them.
"Brother, your hand..." Qiu Yan hurried forward and held his hand that was dripping with blood to check the injury.
"It's okay, but..." Qu Lingfei frowned slightly, thinking to himself that he had clearly seen the fierce move when he was watching from the side just now, but why did the force suddenly decrease, as if deliberately letting him block the attack.
But he didn't have time to think about it, as he saw the peddler tiptoeing and quickly approaching again, and this time his moves were not waterproof at all.
Qu Lingfei took the sword and pushed Qiu Yan and the other man behind him. In a flash, the two of them had fought back and forth for several rounds.
Seeing that his senior brother showed no signs of defeat, Qiu Yan turned around and gently patted the girl's shoulder as a comforting gesture. Then, his eyes fell on the broken bracelet and said, "Don't be sad, young lady. If you are willing, can you let me see the bracelet? The immortal arts I cultivate may not be inferior to his."
She had good intentions, but unexpectedly, when the other party heard this, he stopped crying, raised his head in a daze, and looked in one direction with empty eyes.
That look was truly strange, a stark contrast to the tearful girl just now. Qiu Yan turned her head suspiciously, following her gaze. The young man in white seemed unaware of her gaze, his brows furrowed slightly, perhaps also worried about his brother, but unable to outnumber him, he hesitated to offer any assistance.
When she came to her senses, the girl had returned to her original state.
"No need, no need..." She held the broken bracelet tighter and even wanted to hide it in her clothes so that no one would see it.
Qiuyan didn't suspect anything, but she secretly found it funny - she was kind enough to vent the anger of the other party, but did the other party think she was a thief who wanted to steal the bracelet?
Never mind, she wouldn't bother with the little girl. She turned her attention back to the two men, and after watching them fight for a few rounds, she suddenly felt that this man's movements were familiar, but she couldn't remember where she had seen him before.
Before she could recall clearly, the vendor suddenly stood still, covering his arm with one hand, with a look of great pain on his face.
"I don't want to hurt anyone. If you know you're wrong, just apologize to this girl as soon as possible."
After Qu Lingfei finished speaking, he turned around and was about to leave, but before he could sheath his sword, he suddenly heard several strong gusts of wind coming from behind him. He had no time to look back, so he drew his sword and blocked a few times. With a few "clang" sounds, several flying hidden weapons were all bounced away.
"you……"
“Senior Brother!”
Qu Lingfei was shocked and angry. He had not expected this man to be so cunning. Just as he was about to say, "You actually attacked me from behind when I was not paying attention," he suddenly heard his junior sister shouting. He stopped talking immediately, his heart beating anxiously.
"Junior sister, how could you..."
Before he could finish his sentence, he suddenly froze, his pupils constricted, and the sudden sight that caught his eyes made him gasp. He kept backing away, backing away... until his back hit the hard cylinder.
A dark red bloodstain meandered down and spread to his feet.
He saw several corpses lying in a chaotic manner, each with a hidden weapon stuck straight out of their body. In such a critical situation, he had forgotten that he was in the market, disregarding the safety of those around him, just to save his own life, he actually...
So many innocent people were killed...
Qu Lingfei could no longer think deeply. He only felt a buzzing in his head, his whole body was cold, and his feet were almost unstable.
"Hahaha..." The vendor seemed to have forgotten the pain in his arm and suddenly laughed out loud. After laughing, he pointed at him and said, "You wanted to be a hero and show off. Who did you think you could save? In the end, so many people died at your hands. How do you feel? Haha..."
"Shut up!"
Qiu Yan picked up a hidden weapon that had fallen on the ground and threw it at him. The other party flashed and jumped onto the roof, disappearing in the blink of an eye.
She had no time to chase after him, nor did she bother to comfort the girl. She quickly grasped Qu Lingfei's arm to support him, lowering her head to observe his expression, "Senior Brother..."
She opened her mouth, but no words of comfort came out.
"Why are you crying? These people's deaths have nothing to do with you," Nangong Xiu frowned and said, "If it weren't for this, you would be lying on the ground right now."
"Fellow Daoist Nangong is right," Xie Changyan said nonchalantly, folding his arms in front of him. "Fellow Daoist Qu, don't be sad. Even if you're responsible for all these people's deaths, so what? You were only trying to protect yourself, and you did nothing wrong."
Qiu Yan's breathing slowed slightly upon hearing this: "Thank you, fellow Daoist, you..."
Nangong Xiu also frowned even deeper, "That's not what I meant..."
The young man paid no attention to what they said. His eyes dropped down and stayed on the heaving chest of the dazed man.
The final step for the golden elixir to work successfully is to make the host feel extremely strong emotions, until he loses all hope and is even willing to die.
"What do I mean—"
The young man's white sleeves fluttered in the wind, his lips curled up slightly, holding a long sword in his hand. The light reflected from the blade brought a chill to his eyes.
"I believe you will know soon."
*
"Atang, where else do you want to run to?"
The voice behind her sounded slowly. The girl did not dare to stop for a moment, or even look back to see what the person chasing her looked like.
A ravine appeared under her feet at some point, and the strong feeling of weightlessness made her dizzy. She reached out and grabbed something randomly, but she grabbed something soft.
"don't want……"
She murmured softly, then suddenly sat up, breathing rapidly, and crumpled the quilt covering her body into a ball with her fingers.
"Baby, you're finally awake."
A familiar voice was in her ears, and Li Jintang felt her heartbeat slowly subside. She raised her head and felt the warmth coming in from the window.
The scene before her was unfamiliar; she was in a room she had never been to before.
But, it's not completely unfamiliar...
The curtains overhead were a warm beige, with bells of varying sizes tied to the four corners, jingling with the slightest shake. Neatly trimmed plants were neatly placed on the windowsill, swaying in the wind and smiling at her.
This room...why is it so similar to the one before she traveled through time?
"Where am I?"
"You don't remember?" the Book of Destiny shouted, "That brat was the one who captured you! I never thought I'd mistakenly recognized the wrong person after all this time. I don't think he's the main character at all, but he could actually come up with such a despicable method to harm others!"
The girl, who had just regained consciousness, was still not very smart, and after hearing what it said, she felt even more confused. She blinked and tried to recall what happened that day.
"It is true that Xie An brought me here, but he did so for a reason." Li Jintang felt that what he had just said was indeed too extreme. What's more, how could the person whom he had been clinging to for so long just admit his mistake?
She rubbed her dizzy head and asked, "But why do you say he's...that he's a despicable person?"
"I saw him kill Qu Lingfei with my own eyes, how could it be fake?"
"You're talking nonsense! How could Xie An possibly harm Brother Qu?" She retorted without even thinking, "You must have recognized the wrong person—where is Xie An? I'll go find him and ask him and I'll know."
"Still looking for him? Are you desperate and looking for death?!" Mingshu leaped forward a few steps, blocking the doorway and saying, "It was my mistake to mistake such a villain for the protagonist, but now I've recovered my memory. His name isn't even that. From the beginning, he even lied to you about his name. How could you still expect him to be a good person?"
"Kid, what you have to do now is leave here." Mingshu shouted louder and louder, afraid that she would not believe him. "You must listen to me this time. If you don't leave, that kid will take you with him..."
Li Jintang couldn't accept such a big reversal for a while, and she naturally wouldn't believe the words in the fortune book immediately.
"If what you said is true, then how could I run away if Xie An heard you shouting so loudly?"
The Book of Destiny snorted and said, "What are you afraid of? This kid can't see me, and he can't hear me."
Before she could finish her words, the door of the locked room was suddenly opened from the outside. The creaking sound of the wooden board scared the fortune-telling book so much that it rolled and crawled onto the girl's shoulder in response.
"Don't be afraid, kid! Just be nice and keep him calm. It won't be too late to escape once he lets his guard down."
The young man in white was still as plain as usual. When his eyes fell on her, his long eyelashes drooped, casting two gentle shadows in his eyes. But the first thing Li Jintang noticed was the hard-to-disguise smell of blood on him.
No matter how outrageous she thought those words were just now, she couldn't help but feel a little timid at this moment.
"Xie, Xie An," Li Jintang entangled their fingers nervously and took a few steps back to keep some distance from him. "Where did you go just now? Where is this? Why did you bring me here?"
The young man narrowed his eyes slightly and put his hands behind his back. Every time she took a step back, he took a step forward, until he forced her into a corner with no way to retreat.
"Who was Atang talking to just now?"
Li Jintang was slightly stunned. She didn't expect that his ears were so sharp that he had heard what she had just said.
"I……"
The other party didn't give her a chance to answer. He suddenly leaned forward and approached, bringing down a cold pressure.
"Where do you want to go, Atang? Or, who wants to take you away?"
His eyes moved slightly, and his expression changed again when he glanced at the fortune book on his shoulder.
"I will kill anyone who tries to take you away. How about that?"
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