Night Rain
"What?"
This sound was lost in a sigh, and Liu Xu did not hear it clearly.
He lowered his head, only to see Xie Lingxi suddenly turn around, a drop of rain hitting his face.
It's raining.
Liu Xu hid the pastries in his sleeve, tightened his grip on Xie Lingxi's hand, and urged, "Lingxi, it's going to rain. We didn't bring any umbrellas. Let's go home quickly."
“To inherit.”
He noticed that the girl's hands suddenly became icy cold, as if she were holding a piece of cold jade.
Liu Xu looked up and stared intently, seeing Xie Lingxi's beautiful willow-leaf eyebrows furrow and her long eyelashes tremble. "I'm afraid we can't leave."
Behind him was like a dark room, its unfathomable depths exuding a chilling aura of killing intent.
The place was secluded, with few pedestrians in the alley. The grass and moss grew tall on the stone road, and the gleaming blades reflected the imposing figures of a few people running at night.
On the road, intestines and liver were scattered everywhere, and bright red blood flowed down.
Suddenly, a whole bunch of pastries fell from her sleeve.
Before Liu Xuren could react, his feet moved first. Breathing rapidly, he grabbed Xie Lingxi's hand, trying several times to lift her up—
"Run!"
The true nature of the assassins was revealed as several assassins from the rooftops attacked, tearing Liu Xu's clothes to shreds. The moment their blades touched blood, they laughed loudly, growing more ferocious with each setback, as if determined to devour the flesh and blood.
Xie Lingxi was completely unharmed while dodging, realizing that the assassin was after Liu Xu.
Who wants to kill him?
Xie Lingxi's mind raced. Could it be that the Chen family's revenge had already reached this place?
No, the leader didn't care about her at all and attacked her with deadly force.
A sharp palm strike came, and before she could think, a blade came down on their clasped hands. She endured the pain, took the blow, skillfully twisted her body, and kicked the long sword to the ground.
The assassin was clearly taken aback.
Taking advantage of the moment, Xie Lingxi poured out a "beacon fire bomb" from her sachet and threw it hard on the ground. Immediately, smoke billowed up all around, and the two took the opportunity to escape.
During her escape, her already weak body nearly collapsed several times. To make matters worse, the weather turned against her. When she reached the outskirts of the city, a torrential downpour began, and Xie Lingxi staggered a few steps, almost falling to the ground.
Liu Xu was covered in blood, from the stab wound he had just suffered. He covered Xie Lingxi and hid her among the bushes.
The rain quickly soaked the soil, and dirty mud and water piled up on her face, mixed with a few dead insects. Xie Lingxi couldn't see clearly, so she touched it haphazardly, not knowing whether it was blood or mud.
Are you alright?
Liu Xu had little strength left, but he smiled and said, "I've only just come of age, and I don't want to die here tonight."
Xie Lingxi breathed softly, afraid of disturbing others, "I didn't want to either, what's your opinion?"
"That smoke just now..."
"there is none left."
Xie Lingxi's eyes darkened. "The rain is so heavy, it's useless."
In the darkness, the shadows of the trees swayed, and through the rain, a group of ghostly figures slowly approached, wreaking havoc.
The wailing of ghosts seemed to come from all around. Xie Lingxi suddenly realized that red and white banners were fluttering in the darkness, and several skeletons below stared dead with their eyes wide open. In her panic, she ended up in a mass grave.
Liu Xu beside him said, "Let's play dead."
A bolt of lightning struck the sky, instantly illuminating the surroundings as if it were daytime.
Xie Lingxi finally saw clearly that there was a coffin behind them.
It wasn't quite a coffin; it was just a one-meter-wide box of rotten wood, hastily nailed together, barely enough to cover the body.
Xie Lingxi: "How do I pretend?"
Before she could finish speaking, a warm body covered her, wrapped around her, and rolled into the dead man's coffin.
Xie Lingxi suddenly felt the ghost's wailing grow louder.
She was pinned down by Liu Xu, her head buried in his still-not-too-tattered clothes, carefully smelling the faint scent of bamboo, like pear blossoms veiling the moon.
The coffin lid slammed shut the next second, extinguishing the last ray of light in front of Xie Lingxi. She couldn't help but move because of the heat, but Liu Xu suddenly pressed her down and whispered in her ear, "Don't move."
Xie Lingxi had no choice but to turn her face away, meeting the skull's eyes without any defense.
The coffin wasn't nailed shut properly. Through the narrow gaps, you could see several assassins wielding knives, their blades flashing as they struck, startling the birds and stabbing the white-clad corpse.
She suddenly gasped for breath and couldn't help but clutch Liu Xu's clothes tightly.
It's so hot, so dark...
It felt like falling into a furnace.
"I……"
Xie Lingxi was about to speak when Liu Xu slightly propped himself up and placed his large hand over her head.
The heat from their breath filled the coffin, and a dryness rose within. As their clothes rubbed against each other and their skin pressed together, Xie Lingxi felt as if fresh blood was seeping into her clothes beneath Liu Xu's muscular chest.
With his mouth and throat parched, Liu Xu felt the blood flowing to his heart, almost burning him.
She had never been so close to a man before.
Even if they were married in a previous life, there could never be such sibling rivalry.
It was still a rainy night outside. As I walked on the concrete, a strange red banner fluttered, and a sharp knife stabbed down.
Xie Lingxi placed her hand on top of it.
There was no sound.
The assassin was about to stab again when Xie Lingxi took a deep breath. Just as her face flushed slightly, she saw that the space above her suddenly became empty. Liu Xu lifted the lid and rose up, holding a skull of an unknown person in his hand amidst the rustling grass and trees.
Another thunderclap and lightning flashed, and the world seemed to lose its color.
Liu Xu moved and smashed a skull into the back of the coffin digger's head, instantly knocking him to the ground, speechless.
Inside the coffin, Xie Lingxi covered her bleeding hand and fell silent for a moment.
Is this... like lifting someone's skull?
The assassins hesitated for a moment, then rushed up like lightning in the pouring rain.
Liu Xu turned around expressionlessly, his eyes half-closed, coldly staring at the villain in the rain.
When the sharp knife stabbed down, he clearly felt Xie Lingxi's arm around him tremble for a moment, and the blade pierced through his palm, cutting a small hole in his clothes.
Above the exposed back, Xie Lingxi's blood flowed.
Those hands were white and flawless, soft when playing the zither, yet powerful when writing; they were Xie Lingxi's hands for reading and writing.
An assassin leaped into the air and slashed down at him, but Liu Xu moved nimbly, leaping up with lightning speed and sharp movements, using the skull as a blade to instantly bring the men to a stop, lifeless.
Seeing this, an assassin behind him turned and ran, but accidentally stepped on a skeleton and fell backward.
In an instant, a silver needle as thin as a cow's hair pierced through the rain curtain, entered his crown chakra from his hair, and drew out a few strands of blood.
The assassin collapsed to the ground, defeated.
Exhausted, Xie Lingxi deactivated the mechanism and looked at the person beside her.
Zheng asked softly, "Chengzhi, do you know martial arts?"
But then the blood-soaked young man casually tossed aside the skull in his hand, slowly bent down, and embraced Xie Lingxi face to face. His voice, which trembled slightly, came from his chest: "Lingxi, I'm so scared."
Xie Lingxi touched the bloodstains on her clothes in a daze and hugged him back.
A faint fragrance of orchids spreads in the rain, comforting both warriors and the spirits of the dead.
"It's alright, Ah Xu, it's alright."
Now that they had survived the ordeal, and the storm was still raging, Xie Lingxi didn't have time to ask Liu Xu how he knew martial arts. Her last bit of doubt was also thrown to the back of her mind when Liu Xu hugged her. She gently patted Liu Xu's back, just like her older sister had done for her when they were children.
Liu Xu buried his head in her shoulder, seemingly exhausted.
The two huddled together for warmth in the rain. Xie Lingxi stiffly turned over her injured hand, closed her eyes briefly in pain, and examined Liu Xu's injuries.
There were wounds on his upper arms and lower limbs, and his bare back had several large holes torn open, and it felt a little cold to the touch.
Xie Lingxi gently lifted his head and sighed with relief, "Thank goodness you're not disfigured."
Upon hearing this, the two exchanged a glance and couldn't help but laugh.
The rain gradually subsided, leaving the ground muddy and intertwined with the stark white bones and flesh, a sight that was truly horrifying.
Xie Lingxi squatted down and checked each of the assassins to see if they were still alive. Liu Xu then squatted down as well and reached out, saying, "They're all dead."
Xie Lingxi pulled out her hairpin and plunged it into the heart of the assassin on the ground.
She calmly said, "I have heard of a miraculous skill in the world called the Turtle Breathing Technique. If someone were to learn it, it would be bad if we went back to report after we left."
Liu Xu: "This hairpin?"
Isn't this the one from the cave? Why is it still being worn after being stained with blood?
“This is not a hairpin,” Xie Lingxi glanced at him, then pressed her hand against a protrusion on the butterfly wing, revealing a delicate mechanism with five silver needles securely hidden inside.
"hidden weapon?"
Liu Xu exclaimed in surprise, "How could you have—"
He remembered the small ball that had burst out with smoke earlier. How could his wife, a refined lady who spent her days reading and appreciating flowers, have such a thing?
Xie Lingxi seemed to sense what he was thinking, wiped the bloodstains off the hairpin with a handkerchief, and slowly stood up.
"How did you acquire that martial arts skill just now?"
Liu Xu smiled apologetically: "A gentleman keeps things to himself."
Xie Lingxi: "My wife is the same."
She took Liu Xu's arm, but heard him cry out in pain, so she loosened her grip. "Oh, I forgot, that 'Beacon Thunder' was filled with poisonous smoke. You probably didn't inhale too much."
No wonder he was feeling dizzy and his whole body was in pain.
The rain stopped, and a bat flew up from the forest, flew past the two men's foreheads, let out a cry, and then turned and fluttered into the low bushes.
Liu Xu shamelessly leaned most of his body against Xie Lingxi, saying, "Wife, let's go home quickly. I won't go to the yamen tomorrow."
Xie Lingxi carefully helped him up and retorted, "I am not your wife."
After thinking for a moment, he added, "Let's spread the news of our attack first thing tomorrow morning."
Liu Xu's voice grew even weaker, "Why bother with these titles?"
This person was deaf in one ear and could only hear what he wanted to hear.
Xie Lingxi was amused and then saw Liu Xu gently stroking her right hand, "Does it hurt?"
The blood had already congealed, coiling like a dragon in the palm and back of the hand. Fortunately, the assassin's knife was not poisoned, but how could it not hurt when it broke through the skin and injured the tendons and bones?
"It hurts."
Liu Xu fell silent, gently holding the hand, "If we walk like this, we'll leave bloodstains on the road."
Xie Lingxi smiled slyly: "It's raining tonight."
"It seems like we first met in weather similar to this."
Has he lost his mind from being hit? It was clearly a sunny day, though the wind was quite strong.
Xie Lingxi felt the man she was supporting getting hotter and hotter, so she quickly reached out to touch his forehead, which was burning hot to the touch.
Liu Xu has a fever.
He himself was unaware of it, his eyes half-closed, still holding a faint smile, "That day I thought, who would be lucky enough to marry such a beautiful woman?"
Xie Lingxi paused for a moment.
"...So it was me."
There were only the two of them in the countryside.
The wind howled even more, tossing Xie Lingxi's hair into a mess. It was clearly summer, yet a chilling coldness emanated from it. She tightened her grip on Liu Xu's bloodied hand and trembled as she asked, "Are you...asleep?"
Liu Xu did not answer.
Xie Lingxi asked again, "Just now, did you say you loved me?"
There was still no response.
Just as Xie Lingxi, embracing the man, collapsed into the mud, her hands trembling as she reached to check his breath, a deep, resonant voice, tinged with the weariness of the drizzling rain, rang out from behind her—
"Hey! What are you doing?!"
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