Chapter 93
The city gates were wide open, and the soldiers guarding the gates gathered together lazily to play cards, cheering for the winners without hesitation, turning this place, which should have been solemn, into a casino.
Sui Sui's eyes lightly swept across the soldiers, then withdrew without any reluctance, her delicate and beautiful eyebrows revealing indifference.
In stark contrast to his aloof expression, the little fellow obediently held his brother's hand as he walked towards the city. Every move he made revealed his trust and reliance on the young swordsman beside him. He was like a clingy and well-behaved fluffy little animal, adorable and endearing.
Suddenly, Sui Sui noticed that when his brother turned his head to look in the direction where the soldiers were gathered, his eyes paused and his steps also stopped for a moment.
The little guy was confused and alert, with his invisible furry ears erected, looking in the direction his brother was looking.
He was an ordinary man who seemed no different from the surrounding soldiers.
He was wearing leather armor and sitting at a table supported by shields. His spear was leaning crookedly against the wall. He was frowning and looking at the cards in his hand with an ugly and angry look, cursing.
Sui Sui tilted his head in confusion.
Is there anything special about this person?
The little guy looked up at his brother.
But my brother had already withdrawn his gaze and continued walking towards Wu'an City.
Suisui followed his brother's footsteps and cast another glance over there.
This time, the changing angle as he walked made the outline of the soldier clearer and inadvertently touched a corner of Sui Sui's memory.
It's him.
Suisui lowered her long, thick eyelashes and thought quietly. It was the soldier who recognized Suisui and her brother when they left Wu'an City but did not say anything.
Year after year I search for scattered afterimages, vaguely remembering that he was a sleepy outsider leaning against the wall while playing cards.
Time flies, and the outsiders at that time have already joined the game.
An accidental encounter many years later, which neither of them noticed, slowly fell behind them in the cool night breeze. The brother never mentioned it, and Sui Sui never made it public.
As the figure gradually moved away, the soldier seemed to sense something. He looked up and saw nothing unusual, so he immersed himself in playing cards again.
The young swordsman and his little tail continued to walk along the long street.
But after just a few steps, they realized something was wrong.
There was no curfew in Wu'an City. In Jiang Mingyan's memory, the city was ablaze with lights at night, the long streets were crowded with people, and there was a thriving atmosphere.
Jiang Mingyan hated the Jiang family and the hypocritical Jiang Zhenyu, but he also admitted that Jiang Zhenyu did one thing very well.
The Jiang family prospered for only a hundred years. It was only after Jiang Zhenyu became a Jindan cultivator that the Jiang family became the most powerful family in Wu'an City.
However, Jiang Zhenyu did not interfere with the replacement of the city lord. Apart from guarding the city gate, he hardly intervened in the affairs of the city.
The Jiang family's children were tyrannical and overbearing, and everyone in Wu'an City complained about it, and many even hoped for the Jiang family's downfall. However, it was precisely because of Jiang Zhenyu's discretion that the Jiang family was not attacked by everyone.
The mortal world has its own laws. Jiang Mingyan admitted that Jiang Zhenyu was a smart man.
But this smart man is not a tolerant person after all, and is narrow-minded and jealous.
Jiang Mingyan thought indifferently, his eyes slightly fixed as he looked at the empty street.
Wu'an City is still brightly lit, but the bustling atmosphere of the past has long disappeared.
"Did something happen in Wu'an City?" Suisui, like her brother, surveyed the deserted long street, her eyebrows knitted in confusion. "It should be bustling here. Am I remembering it wrong?"
"Sui Sui remembers correctly." Jiang Mingyan held Sui Sui's hand, walking without stopping, his tone gentle and nostalgic: "Dad and Mom brought us here once at night and bought Sui Sui a cute cat mask and a beautiful sugar figurine."
"But Sui Sui was still too young at that time, and my father and mother only brought Sui Sui here once." He said softly.
Sui Sui actually had no recollection of what her brother said, but she loved hearing him talk about those gentle and peaceful times. She couldn't help but ask, "You bought me a cat mask and a sugar figurine, but what about me? What did Daddy and Mommy buy for me?"
"A white tiger mask and a sugar figurine." Jiang Mingyan's features were handsome and gentle. "My sugar figurine is in the shape of a rabbit, and Sui Sui's is in the shape of a gray wolf."
"Wow!" The little guy opened his eyes wide. "Why? The mask and the sugar man don't fit in with the forest evening style at all."
"Maybe it's because the mask was bought by my mother, and the sugar figure was chosen by my father." Jiang Mingyan seemed to remember something, and the smile in his phoenix eyes deepened.
Sui Sui couldn't help but be curious, shaking her brother's arm and looking over eagerly: "Brother, what did you think of? I want to hear it too! Tell me quickly~"
The little guy is like a kitten that is anxiously circling around people's feet and can't wait to jump up and down. His anxious look makes people feel soft-hearted.
Jiang Mingyan leaned over and picked up the soft little kid. He didn't keep the secret, "I was taking care of you then. It was my first time handling such a small child. I was so clumsy that I even had to control my strength when holding him. If it weren't for my parents, I'm afraid Sui Sui would have turned into a dirty little kid."
The young swordsman recalled, a gentle smile on his lips. "One time, you cried in the middle of the night. I held you and fed you some spirit beast milk. I finally managed to coax you to sleep. I gently placed you in your crib and even covered you with the quilt carefully, for fear of waking the little crybaby again."
"I just breathed a sigh of relief when I turned around and found that my father and mother had entered the house at some point and were standing at the door looking at us tenderly."
"We were concerned about the little crybaby in the crib, so we went to the yard to talk. Auntie said she was happy that I had gotten over the pain of my broken spiritual roots, and she mentioned something she had encountered by chance."
"A'niang once went to the demon tribe's Xihe City, where she met two little demons who depended on each other for survival."
"A Niang said that she was so impressed by them because the two little demons were very small. One was a white tiger, and the other was a tiny cat."
Jiang Mingyan rubbed Sui Sui's fluffy little head, his phoenix eyes smiling: "A-niang saw me taking care of you, and for some reason she remembered this incident. She smiled and said that the way I held you and coaxed you was like a little white tiger holding a kitten and meowing."
Sui Sui was amused by this description, and after thinking about it carefully, he actually felt that there was some truth to it: "It does look a bit like it."
The little guy nodded to emphasize his agreement with A Niang. However, Sui Sui couldn't help but mention, "But I want to be a majestic and elegant white tiger like my brother."
"Yes, we can also be little tigers." Jiang Mingyan smiled and tapped the white forehead of the little tiger cub with tender claws and fangs. "Then, when we came to the market at night, you babbled at the mask stall, your face full of desire. So, mother picked out a white tiger mask and a cat mask for us."
Suisui carefully put away this forgotten past event, hiding it in the starry sky of memory, and then continued to ask his brother: "What about the sugar man? Brother, what's the story with the sugar man?"
"Father always said that Sui Sui ate and slept, and slept and ate every day, just like a white and tender pig." At this point, Jiang Mingyan couldn't help but complain: "I think Father described me like this when I was a child. The first time Father mentioned this metaphor, his tone was very familiar, and he was very quick to beg for mercy from Mother."
Sui Sui smiled with her black eyes sparkling.
"Dad wanted to buy you a pig-shaped candy figurine, but I stopped him. He then teased me about being more protective of you than Mom. He said that when you grow up, you'll definitely be on top of me and act all bossy. By then, I'll be like the little white rabbit meeting the big bad wolf, not refusing at all."
Sui Sui thought for a moment and retorted dissatisfiedly: "I won't climb on my brother's head. I'm a good child and I won't bully others."
Jiang Mingyan recalled the time when the little guy used his soft belly to kill him, and raised his eyebrows.
I didn’t climb to the top of my head.
Sui Sui didn't notice his brother's expression and continued to complain, "And that metaphor isn't good at all. Brother is not a little white rabbit! In this regard, mother is still more capable. Her metaphors are much better than father's."
Jiang Mingyan agreed with a smile: "Sui Sui is absolutely right."
In the relaxed atmosphere, Jiang Mingyan stopped.
"We're here." He looked at the narrow, closed wooden door at the end of the alley ahead, his smile fading slightly. "Jiang Mansion."
Suisui grabbed the corner of her brother's clothes and looked sideways.
It was as quiet here as the long street, yet seemed cut off from the bright lights all around. In the gloom, only a single lamp flickered gently in a simple shed at the alley entrance.
Next to the bright candlelight, the kind-looking old woman looked up when she heard the voice.
She squinted her eyes and looked carefully for a long time, and finally recognized him: "Is it Mr. Jiang?"
"Grandma." Jiang Mingyan walked over holding Sui Sui: "It's me."
The old woman quickly stood up, wiped the clean stool again and again, and then moved it aside and pushed it towards Jiang Mingyan for him to sit on. She asked with concern, "Where have you been all these years? The young master has grown up so much..."
She looked at Sui Sui, and a flash of nostalgia flashed in her cloudy eyes: "The young master and the fourth lady look alike."
She looked at Jiang Mingyan's handsome features again: "You look like the Fourth Young Master."
But Jiang Qizhuo always had a carefree and smiling expression, like the breeze blowing through the bamboo forest, free and unrestrained, unable to conceal his freedom. Jiang Mingyan, on the other hand, was like snow among the pines, moon among the clouds, indifferent and distant.
"You and the young master are here to visit the Jiang family, right?" Looking at the young swordsman sitting upright on the stool and the adorable child in his arms, the old woman's expression darkened for a moment. "As an old woman, I think the way they are now is just right."
Sui Sui's heart moved.
Jiang Mingyan also looked at the old woman: "Excuse me, what happened to the Jiang family?"
The strangeness of Wu'an City quietly opened up to them in the flickering lights.
"The Jiang family has practically all become a pile of rotten flesh." A flicker of satisfaction flashed across the old woman's eyes. "Now that they're alive, they might as well be dead."
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