"Our relationship cannot be made public for the time being." Wan'er's words were extremely gentle, yet brooked no argument.
"That's easy. Once you accept me, I'm yours. If you say east, I'll never go west..."
Whispering sweet nothings has already escalated the ambiguity.
"Alright, close your eyes now, we'll turn off the lights..." At the woman's request, Chang'an closed his eyes tightly, and darkness enveloped him. Liu Chang'an began to indulge himself, recklessly enjoying the pleasure the woman brought him.
At this moment, however, he seemed oblivious to the faint smell of blood wafting through the strong perfume...
At this time, both cities and mountain villages have quieted down, and all living things have begun to fall asleep.
However, in the main room of Third Uncle's house, a dim yellow light still shone. Third Uncle was smoking a golden brass pipe, his eyes solemnly fixed on the brazier in front of him. Under the wooden frame of the brazier hung a pot of sizzling, glistening cured meat.
The pot sizzled and emitted an enticing aroma. "Plop!" Uncle took a few puffs on his pipe, his gaze growing increasingly deep amidst the swirling smoke.
"Old man, it's so late, they won't be coming, will they?" Auntie squatted in front of the charcoal brazier, poking at the flames with a fire poker, glancing occasionally at the half-open door...
"After tonight, we'll move to our son's house." Without giving his aunt a direct answer, he took another puff of his pipe, blew a smoke ring in front of his eyes, and his face began to blur in the swirling smoke.
"Why? This is where we've lived our whole lives." The aunt put down the fire tongs and turned to look at the old man in surprise. "Didn't you say that with you here, we weren't afraid of anything?"
"But this time is different. On the eve of a storm, everything is uncertain."
"Old woman, I'm talking about you moving to our son's house. I can't let you stay with me your whole life, only to end up with a tragic end." Although the tone of these words was calm, they were more jarring to the aunt than thunderclaps during a lightning strike.
"Old man, tell me the truth, do you know something?" Auntie stood up, her back slightly hunched, and stood in front of Uncle. Under the lamplight, her eyes shone brighter than usual.
“Old woman, you know I’m not human. I was caught by a group of fishermen, and you bought me with the only money you had. At first, I was grateful for your kindness and stayed on the shore just to repay your kindness. But later, I was moved by your kindness and beauty, which led to a happy marriage. You can’t have children, so we raised a son. Although he was adopted, we treated him as our own and raised him to be successful. In recent years, our son has asked us to come to the city with him, but we have always been reluctant to leave here.”
I have all the happiness I could ever want. I feel so lucky to have met you in this lifetime. I really want to stay with you and live these simple, happy days together forever.
But now, my people and my dearest relatives are about to face an immense challenge that I did not want to participate in.
But I can't turn a blind eye. Although you are the person I care about most in my life, I have my mission, I can't..." At this point, Uncle choked up.
He lifted one foot and placed it on the edge of the charcoal brazier, bent down and tapped his pipe against the side of his foot, causing a pile of ash to fall into the brazier and mix with the ash.
As the smoke dissipated, the flickering flames illuminated his wrinkled face, revealing clear and bright old eyes.
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