Chapter 134 Brother? Xie Chengjin’s previous life (3)…
Xie Chengjin is usually very busy handling official business.
Xie Yanyu usually stayed in the back house and had no interaction with him.
For several years, the two did not speak a word to each other.
They didn't even meet often, and most of the time it was like the first time they met. He would walk by surrounded by the crowd, and she would stop to greet him.
However, Xie Chengjin could always accurately capture her figure from the crowd.
It's really inexplicable.
Even he himself didn't understand why.
But after doing it so many times, he no longer thought about these insignificant things.
But sometimes when they passed by, he would feel her gaze.
He knew she was looking at him, but he never looked back, as if he didn't know she was looking at him.
But he felt that this stepsister seemed different from what the elders described.
The elders of the tribe said that she was very gentle, like a reed, always keeping her head down and looking docile.
But he always sensed a hidden malice in her eyes——
It's jealousy.
Xie Yanyu was jealous of him.
She felt jealous when she saw him. Why was he born with everything? No matter where he went, he was surrounded by crowds. Love and power seemed to flow to him endlessly as if they were free. She couldn't imagine what kind of pain such a person would have in his life.
She was very jealous of him.
But she also likes to hide in the dark and spy on him.
She knew that there was also some envy in this jealousy. She always thought that if she had such a noble status, or the same powerful strength as him, she would live a much better life.
Even with the life she has now, she doesn't like it.
Like livestock, she always had to slit her wrists to bleed. She had earned the status of a young lady from an aristocratic family, but in reality, the people here didn't really treat her as a master. This kind of life was exchanged for something, much better than her previous life. She knew it in her heart and didn't resent it too much, but that didn't mean she liked it, nor did it mean she was satisfied with it. She wanted to live a better life.
Her jealousy and desire were written in her eyes.
Xie Chengjin could feel it without looking back.
Finally, when he passed her again, he paused.
Then he suddenly turned around.
Across the crowd, he met her gaze and saw her eyes clearly.
She seemed to be startled, not expecting him to look at her, so she quickly lowered her eyes, revealing a submissive look with lowered brows.
It's so weird.
But when he saw her eyes, the willow-shaped eyes with three white spots on the lower sclera, he suddenly felt that they were very similar to a pair of blurry children's eyes in his memory.
Dirty and pitiful.
…
This year.
The resentful ghost imprisoned in Shangqing Palace escaped and caused chaos in Tiandu.
Helan Wei was ordered to come to Tiandu to capture him and stayed at Xie's house for a while.
Not long after.
A rumor spread in the palace.
It is said that the relationship between Xie Yanyu and Helan Wei is unclear.
This rumor spread more and more widely among the lower class, and Xie Chengjin also heard about it.
On this day, Xie Chengjin discussed matters with the elders of the clan. After the meeting, they mentioned the recent rumors and summoned Xie Yanyu and Helan Wei to inquire about them.
Xie Chengjin doesn't like to meddle in other people's affairs.
He should have left, but for some reason, he stayed.
The elder next to him asked, "Xiao Jin, why aren't you leaving yet? Is there anything else?"
Xie Chengjin remained silent.
The elder said, "Oh, you stayed here because you wanted to hear about your stepsister and Helan Wei? That's strange. Aren't you usually the least bothered to care about such trivial matters? How did your stepsister, who is usually a very docile girl, get involved with Helan Wei?"
Xie Chengjin thought.
He stayed, perhaps because he felt that she might not be as docile as she appeared, so he wanted to hear the whole story.
But after calling people over.
Helan Wei and Xie Yanyu denied the incident.
The elders did not ask any more questions, but Xie Chengjin looked at her and suddenly said, "Really?"
Xie Yanyu: "What?"
Xie Chengjin: "You have nothing to do with him, is that true?"
Xie Yanyu nodded.
Xie Chengjin didn't ask any more questions. He usually didn't like to meddle in such trivial matters. Even if this matter involved the rules of the mansion, it was not his responsibility. Other elders would take care of it. He never asked too many questions about matters that were not his responsibility.
But he didn't like rumors.
He hated all rumors and anything that brought shame upon his family.
After Xie Yanyu left, he was quiet for a moment, then glanced at the elder in charge of internal affairs and said, "Deal with the person who spread the rumor. I don't want to hear about it again."
…
Not long after that.
Xie Yanyu is going to Shangqing Immortal Palace.
She didn't know what means she used, but she snatched the letter of recommendation left by Helan Wei from the hands of the younger generation of the Xie family.
Strange.
These younger generations of the Xie family all had better roots and higher cultivation than her, but in the end, she was the one who got the letter of recommendation.
But it seems to be expected.
Xie Chengjin inexplicably felt that this was how she should be. He handed her the letter of recommendation without saying a word. He nodded slightly and passed by her again.
…
After she left, life was no different.
When Xie Chengjin was about to forget this person, another piece of news came.
It was said that she was getting engaged to Li Xun.
The Sword Master Li Xun had a very bad reputation and was known for his cruelty, brutality, and unpredictable mood.
It is said that she and Li Xun knew each other when they were young.
This matter was not Xie Chengjin's business. After listening to the attendant's report, he did not ask any more questions and his expression did not even change.
But for some reason, that night he thought of the words about our childhood acquaintance.
Puzzled, he asked the attendant, "How did she meet Li Xun when she was young?"
The attendant didn't know either.
The attendant immediately investigated the matter and collected some of her activities before she entered the Xie family. He compiled a file and presented it to him: "Sir, it is said that she was an orphan who wandered around in her youth and saved the Sword Master. I have written down all the information I can find in the file."
Xie Chengjin nodded.
It was a trivial matter, and he inexplicably wanted to ask it at the time, but it was not worth his attention.
He took the file, didn't look at it, and threw it aside.
…
Later.
Xie Yanyu was broken off from engagement because she had an affair with Helan Wei.
Rumors were flying everywhere, saying how could someone as unruly as her appear under the rules of the Xie family? Were the rules of the Xie family displayed for outsiders to see, just like the treasures that were damaged back then? Who knew what the Xie family was like inside?
Xie Chengjin hates rumors the most.
He brought Xie Yanyu back to the Xie family and placed him under house arrest according to the rules. He also spent some time and effort to silence the gossips outside.
Just as the rumors were quelled, another guard reported, "Master, Miss Xie is trying to escape. She's piled up ladders in the yard and is trying to climb over the wall."
Xie Chengjin paused.
For the first time in a long time, he laughed out of anger, and then his emotions were aroused, and the remaining poison in his body broke out. He slumped over the table, coughing and spitting blood.
Every day after that, the servants came to report on Xie Yanyu's escape progress.
The fourth day of Xie Yanyu's house arrest.
She successfully climbed over the outer wall of the courtyard.
When she jumped down, she saw Xie Chengjin standing quietly outside the wall, looking at her coldly.
Xie Yanyu: "..."
Xie Yanyu wanted to climb over the wall and go back again.
It was Xie Chengjin who spoke first: "Where do you want to go?"
Xie Yanyu didn't dare to speak.
She stood before him with her head bowed, her brows lowered. Soon, she heard the man's cold voice again, succinctly instructing the servants, "Change the courtyard. Make the walls higher and seal the roof."
Finish speaking.
Xie Chengjin was about to leave.
Xie Yanyu couldn't help but chase after him: "How did you know I was going to escape by climbing over the wall?"
Xie Chengjin just knew it.
Even without his servant telling him, he had a vague feeling that she would do so.
She behaved obediently, but in fact she did not seem to be such a peaceful person and did many unruly things secretly.
Xie Chengjin usually doesn't like to answer irrelevant questions from others.
But this time.
He looked into her eyes and answered her, which was rare: "Your eyes tell me."
She told him this every time she spied on him.
She is a restless and unruly person.
An ambitious and unscrupulous person.
…
After locking Xie Yanyu up in another house, Xie Chengjin never visited her again.
But there was one more item on his daily schedule. After reading the files, he would listen to the attendant's report on what she had done that day.
She seems to be night blind and cannot see in the dark.
But in the first few days, I still tried to escape.
Then the love thread Gu broke out. She took the medicine he gave her, but she didn't die and survived the whole night.
Then Li Xun came to find her.
The two had a quarrel.
Li Xun suggested that they continue the marriage, but she refused. Then Li Xun threw the Taiyin Sword to her.
Then, she seemed to be a little annoyed by being locked up.
Started trying to leave again.
Xie Chengjin listened to the attendant's report, wanting to see how she would run this time, but unexpectedly, she came directly to him.
She asked her servant to bring her to him.
Standing in his study, Xie Chengjin found her a little haggard——
His face was paler than usual, his eyes darker.
Without looking away, he asked, "What's wrong?"
Xie Yanyu nodded.
She said, "I'm here to make a deal with you."
Xie Chengjin said calmly, "How unruly."
He had only spoken to her a few times, and every time she spoke, she went straight to the point and didn't even address him by name.
The Xie family has very strict rules, and she acted very obediently when she was at the Xie family. But when she was in front of him, did she not follow any rules at all?
He said, "When you speak to me, you should be more polite. When you address me, you should call me brother according to the rules."
But she didn't call.
"If you hadn't locked me up, I would have called you. After all, it was an equal exchange, and I had freedom of food, clothing, shelter, and transportation. Now that you've locked me up, you've taken back everything I gave you. Oh, and you know that clearly, that's why you haven't taken my blood recently. At this point, the deal between you and me is no longer in existence. Why should I abide by the rules of your Xie family and call you brother?"
Xie Chengjin didn't say anything.
He suddenly wanted to hear what terms she wanted to negotiate with him.
Then he heard her say—
"It's hard to bear the days of being attacked by the remaining poison, right? If you let me out and let me return to the Xie family's main residence to live a normal life, I will remove my spiritual root. My spiritual power was born from a treasure. After the spiritual root is removed, this treasure will also appear and can eradicate your poison. If you let me out, I will give this treasure to you. How about it?"
…
Xie Chengjin didn't believe that she could dissect her spiritual roots.
If she was willing to remove this bone, she would have done it quickly when the love thread Gu attacked, instead of waiting until now.
But he was eager to see what she would do next.
How could such a person, who doesn't follow the rules and is ambitious, stay quiet as she said?
So finally, he agreed to her request.
He ordered his servants to take her back to the Xie family and keep a close eye on her. If she did anything bad again, they would get rid of her.
For some people who are difficult to control.
Xie Chengjin is used to this.
Keep an eye on it first, and if you really can't control it, deal with it quietly.
However, what I didn’t expect was——
A few days after she was brought back to the Xie family's main residence.
She made an excuse to go out shopping, and then escaped when the servants were not paying attention.
She didn't plan to return to the Xie family and no one knew where she had escaped to.
The attendant asked him if he wanted to find the person and deal with him.
Xie Chengjin shook his head: "Forget it."
If Xie Chengjin had acted according to his previous style, she would have escaped and become an even more uncontrollable factor, and he would have definitely hunted her down and killed her. But this time, he himself couldn't explain why he didn't hunt her down and didn't insist on getting rid of her.
Perhaps it was because the demon world and the human world had already gone to war at that time, and there was chaos everywhere, so he felt that she could not survive.
There could be other reasons.
He didn't ask anyone to look for her again.
…
But he regretted it—
Because not long after, she defected to the demon clan, and then revealed some of the Xie family's formations to the Demon Lord.
The Demon Lord came to the Xie family and stole a treasure from the world called the Zheling Ruler.
After that.
The barrier between the demon world and the human world was completely broken.
Xie Chengjin suddenly felt very regretful and wondered why he didn't kill her at the beginning.
This year, the demon world and the human race were at war.
The Xie family lost the Zheling Ruler, which led to the escalation of the war between the two clans.
Xie Chengjin had fought against the Demon Lord before, and also knew some of the demon clan's strategies, which were proposed by Xie Yanyu. She married the Demon Lord and was somewhat like a military advisor.
She is very smart, and some of her strategies directly target the weak points of the aristocratic families.
Xie Chengjin took some effort to deal with her.
There were several times when she nearly killed him with a trick, and he almost killed her. Apart from their former identity as step-siblings, they were now more like enemies. They had never met, had no communication, but every trick they used was forcing the other side to death. There was even a subtle sense of being evenly matched. Because they had clashed too many times and knew each other's tricks too well, in the end no one could really kill the other. There were many times when they were both defeated by a single mistake.
And the human world.
Everyone knows that Xie Yanyu is the adopted daughter of the Xie family and has defected to the demon clan.
The rumor spread again.
However, the aristocratic families united to fight against the demon clan and had no time to attack the Xie family.
Because the Xie family is so powerful, many noble families try to please them.
Xie Chengjin rarely felt a little funny.
It was rare for him to think about what happened back then.
What if he had refused to kneel, refused to fill the seal, and insisted on resisting to the end?
Just like her, she resists everything.
Rebellion against the elders of the family and against the noble families who are joining forces to encircle and suppress the Xie family.
Yes.
The Xie family cannot withstand the combined forces of all the noble families.
But if we really go head-to-head with these aristocratic families and give it a try, will they definitely join forces? Will the Xie family definitely lose? Will the Xie family definitely fall?
But he knelt down anyway.
He is giving in.
After such a long time, he realized that he should really hate himself.
He was a coward who never fought back.
…
The human world and the demon world finally reached a truce.
The aristocratic family suffered heavy losses.
Xie Chengjin took the opportunity to recapture several aristocratic families. The Helan clan was in fierce internal strife, and the Xie family suddenly became the top aristocratic family.
But at the end of this year.
When it was snowing in winter, Xie Chengjin heard the news of Xie Yanyu's death.
Being pierced through the heart by a sword from the Demon Lord was a simple and ridiculous death.
In fact, it started after she and the Demon Lord got married.
He never saw her again. She fought with him behind the scenes, and he didn't know if she still looked the same as before.
But he felt her sharpness.
The adopted daughter of a noble family, who used to be humble and obedient, was as thin as a reed, but now she showed her claws like a wolf cub.
Sharp, like a knife, a ball of fire.
He had used so many strategies and fought with her for so long, but he had never really killed her. Whenever he tore a piece of flesh from her, she would turn around and bite it back, breaking a bone or tearing a piece of flesh from him.
But she died just like that?
A sword through the heart?
When he got the news, Xie Chengjin was stunned for a long time.
A monk would never die if a sword pierced his heart.
Even if her cultivation might not be high enough, why did she die?
Xie Chengjin didn't know.
Even now, he still doesn't like to meddle in other people's affairs.
But he inexplicably remembered how she negotiated with him in the study many years ago.
He went to her bedroom.
This room had never been touched. After she escaped, no one had opened the door to this room. No one moved or cleaned it, and many things were covered in dust. Xie Chengjin walked in, his hand fell on the table, and wiped off a thick layer of dust.
Time seems to have stopped in this room.
There was a half-open book on her desk, with a few pages turned over. She must have seen this page before she left.
There was a half-burned candle on the candlestick. The light of this candle was very bright. She was night blind, so she would light the candle in the middle of the night. He knew this when he imprisoned her.
Very suddenly.
He found a bloody sword.
The blood had long since dried and turned black, and the sword was covered in a thick layer of dust. It was the sword Li Xun had thrown to her, the famous Taiyin Sword, which she hadn't taken away. Xie Chengjin discovered a box in a drawer not far away. What was in the box?
There is a treasure.
The treasure that appeared after she cut open her spiritual root.
That year she negotiated terms with him, and afterwards she actually cut out her spiritual root without making a sound. Because she had long planned to escape, she was on guard against the servants he sent to keep an eye on her, and she blocked them so that the servants didn't know she was packing up her belongings and preparing to run away, nor did they know she had cut out her spiritual root.
The treasure related to the spiritual root was placed in a box, sealed along with the time in this room, and covered with thick dust.
She is no longer a monk.
She is mortal.
Of course a mortal will die if a sword pierces his heart.
A very strange emotion surged in Xie Chengjin's heart.
The remaining poison in the body was once again involved.
The pain was so intense that he couldn't even think about what kind of emotion it was. Why would someone like that keep their promise? She'd even run away, so why should she just run away? She hadn't kept anything else, so why would she keep such a ridiculous promise?
How could that be?
How could that be?
Xie Chengjin didn't quite understand.
Until he found a piece of letter from under the box.
There are a few lines of words on it——
"I made this offer to you not just to get back to the Xie family. I had other plans, and you figured it out, didn't you?
Otherwise why would you send your servants to keep an eye on me?
But I will keep this promise.
Because you feel like a human being to me.
He saved my life.
"To cure the love thread Gu, I need to dissect my spirit root. Since I've already done it, I'll give you the treasure along the way. You've benefited from him, and this treasure could save your life. So, please help me find him. If you can find him, please take care of him."
Below that, she briefly wrote down the person's characteristics, but she actually couldn't remember them clearly.
But she wrote about the place where she met that person many years ago.
Further down, she wrote about how to use the treasure.
However, Xie Chengjin could no longer see the words clearly.
He watched part of her life.
In the past, they ignored each other, did not interfere, and did not care about each other, but later they even became enemies and fought constantly.
But it seemed as if a certain memory that he had deliberately avoided and forgotten appeared.
He suddenly rushed back to the study and found the file that the servant had presented to her when the news of her engagement with Li Xun came many years ago.
The files have been there for many years.
Covered with dust.
She is an orphan and has been wandering for too long.
After brushing off the dust, the information in the file was also fragmentary.
But he saw her name before she entered the mansion, Qingqing.
…
"Brother, brother, please don't change. I will try my best to remember you and repay you one day."
"At this point, the deal between you and me is no longer valid. Why should I abide by the rules of your Xie family and call you brother?"
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