Luo Jiujiang was stunned for a moment by this question, and in this moment, the flower seeds scattered with a rustling sound as if they had seized the opportunity to catch their breath.
After that, no matter how Luo Jiujiang called the owner of the underground palace, the other party did not give any response.
Luo Jiujiang laid Xie Chuncan flat on the ground again, not even bothering to glance at the pearl gifted to him by the master of the underground palace. His premonition had almost become reality, but he still held on to hope and called out one last time, "Xie Chuncan?"
Xie Chuncan closed his eyes tightly, tears streaming down his face. He was not moved at all by the name.
At this point, the matter has become clear.
Everyone in the death zone calls Brother Xie "Xie Chuncan", and even the wanted poster for the two of them has the three words "Xie Chuncan" printed in black and white.
This was certainly not Xie Chuncan's intention to deceive Luo Jiujiang... He just, as the only survivor after the entire Xie family was massacred, as a child who had once weakly begged for mercy from the enemy, as a young son who had stepped on his father's cold body under the threat of death, he no longer had the face to use the name that carried the good wishes of his elders.
Luo Jiujiang sighed: He should have thought of it earlier. Unless normal parents have a deep hatred, they all hope that their children will get better and better. How could they fill in the word "can" in their children's names?
"Brother Xie, you've really let yourself go this time..." Luo Jiujiang frowned, his fingers rustling with impatience. The universe was vast, and the number of words and phrases that could be used to name something was countless, not to mention the countless permutations and combinations. Asking him to find Xie Chuncan's name in such a short time was simply wishful thinking.
"Brother Xie has always loved gambling. Why didn't you remember to leave me a trump card?" Luo Jiujiang closed his eyes and quickly went through every detail of his encounter with Xie Chuncan in his mind - no, Xie Chuncan didn't reveal to him any information about his original life.
The method to awaken Xie Chuncan was right before his eyes, but how to open the door became the problem. Luo Jiujiang took a deep breath, his urgency almost overflowing between his eyebrows. Perhaps people always have some quick wits in critical moments. Luo Jiujiang suddenly had a flash of inspiration and muttered to himself, "...Wait, a nickname also counts as a name, right?"
There are only a few nicknames that people commonly use. It is much easier to guess using a nickname than to fill in a real name randomly.
Luo Jiujiang grabbed this straw and blurted out without thinking: "Big spring, Abai, Ugly, Gouzi, Tiger cub, double happiness, Amei, Nunu, Xiaoxie, Silkworm, baby, son, Beginning of Spring, Rain Water, Waking of Insects, Spring Equinox, Qingming, Grain Rain, Kangkang, Niu Niu, healthy, strong, happy..."
He stared at Xie Chuncan's face, afraid to miss any expression on his face. However, Xie Chuncan's eyelashes did not even tremble, which made Luo Jiujiang's heart tense.
"...Huanhuan." Luo Jiujiang repeated the reduplicated word again. He couldn't explain why he stopped at this nickname. It was as if something in his consciousness was jumping up and down desperately, constantly beating against his brain, repeatedly emphasizing "Huanhuan! Huanhuan! Huan!" at the top of his lungs.
"Xie Huan? Xie Huanhuan?" Luo Jiujiang hurriedly repeated it tentatively.
Xie Chuncan didn't move at all.
I think he was too nervous. What's the meaning of the word "Huan"? Or maybe he thought of it from somewhere else, like the poem that Brother Xie often recited...
Luo Jiujiang suddenly froze as if struck by lightning.
The flowers in the forest faded their spring red, so quickly… A joyous reunion… In a bet during a thousand-mile chase, he had once lost to Xie Chuncan in a single stroke of writing. What was that Xie Chuncan had written on the snow?!
Xie Chuncan had left a silver hook and iron painting on the snow. When he handed over the dice, Luo Jiujiang turned his head and glanced at the trace left on the snow, which was deliberately wiped by someone's foot...
"Xie Jianhuan!" Luo Jiujiang's voice suddenly rose in pitch. "Wake up, Brother Xie! Xie Jianhuan!"
The young man who had been sleeping for a long time finally moved.
He groaned softly in his throat and opened his eyes, almost dazed. Tears were trickling down his cheeks, and they were reddened by the salty tears. Yet, his dark eyes were innocent and clear, as if his soul remained in that dreamland, as if his beloved family had never left him.
As he opened his eyes, Xie Chuncan slowly exhaled a black gas from his mouth and nose. Looking closely, it was a bunch of black particles as small as dust, each of which was a seed of the palm flower.
As the black energy left Xie Chuncan's body, his expression gradually cleared. From grief and guilt to harshness and coldness, and then from sarcasm and mockery to playfulness and amusement, in just a short moment, he seemed to have gone through more than ten years of his life again.
He grew back into the Xie Chuncan that Luo Jiujiang was familiar with.
But he was different from the Xie Chuncan that Luo Jiujiang knew. The Xie Chuncan in front of him had holes in his eyes as if old scars had been torn and split. His voice was hollow, and his expression was numb and dazed as if he had relived the deep pain that was enough to kill him.
"Jiujiang," Xie Chuncan sighed to himself, his eyelashes trembling, they were stuck together by tears, and at this moment they looked particularly black, "I just now, you just knew everything..."
"Hush." Luo Jiujiang pressed his finger against his lips and didn't mention the past that Xie Chuncan had cried and revealed in his nightmare. He raised his head and looked at the flower seeds in his palm that were slowly dispersing as the "purity" disappeared. "Brother Xie, look, it's dawn."
The flower seeds in the palm of the hand that covered the sky like dark clouds and tides spread out, and then in this underground palace several feet deep underground, a ray of heavenly light flowed through the cracks between the stone bricks.
The light was still dim, but it was enough to illuminate the spiral stone stairs not far away, which was the way back to the ground from the underground palace.
Xie Chuncan stretched out his hand in astonishment, and the thin, pale golden ray of sunlight shone straight down, silently enveloping his fingertips.
"I've got the foundation-building pill. You and I will leave the underground palace first. Once Miss Xiaoren advances, none of us four will have to stay in this damn place anymore." Luo Jiujiang reached out his hand, pulled Xie Chuncan up from the ground, and repeated, "Brother Xie, don't cry. It's daybreak."
The author has something to say: Okay, the countdown for this volume can start~
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