"Looking for me?" Hua Cai was taken aback. What friend of hers would need someone else to bring them to her?
She got up, full of doubt, and opened the door to see a handsome man dressed in black, looking at her with a grin.
Oh my god, isn't this the Little God of Wealth?
"Xinran?!" Hua Cai looked at the person leaning casually against her door frame in surprise.
"And me too." A rough voice followed, and Fa Deng emerged from behind Xin Ran, his face covered in a thick beard, so much so that Hua Cai almost didn't recognize him.
Seeing that the two sides had met, Granny Wang took Xinran's money and left without hesitation.
These two actually showed up here. Shouldn't the chaos at Bright Peak have just ended, leaving a huge mess to clean up?
Judging from the way the two of them looked, she really wondered if they were on a spring outing.
"Hmm." A soft cough came from behind. Hua Cai turned her head and saw that Zhao Qiang had been standing silently behind her at some point.
Zhao Qiang stared intently at the man at the door.
Knowing that they were on the run, the fact that Hua Cai found their place so quickly and didn't seem surprised at all made Zhao Qiang feel a sense of crisis.
Their relationship is unusual!
"Xiao Xiang, who are these two?" Zhao Qiang's gentle face was tense. He glanced at Fa Deng, then ignored him and stared straight at Xin Ran, scrutinizing her from head to toe.
Dressed entirely in black, he looked so somber.
He's too strong and savage.
His frivolous and flippant manner is too much.
He has shifty eyes and a shifty look; in short, he doesn't look like a good person at all.
"Hmph." Zhao Qiang snorted, finding the person in front of him extremely annoying no matter how he looked at him.
"Brother, this is the person I told you about, the one who helped me a lot back in Ganliang. He's also the one who helped us leave Guangming Peak safely. He's our benefactor." Hua Cai's eyes shone with joy as she solemnly introduced Xin Ran, who was standing at the door, to Zhao Qiang.
Seeing Hua Cai's smiling face, Zhao Qiang's face darkened even more, and the words "benefactor" sounded particularly jarring.
There's a saying, what's it again? "A life-saving grace can never be repaid, so one can only—Pah, pah, pah, this kid's got a dream."
"This—your brother?" Xin Ran asked, looking puzzled.
He was a little confused. He looked closely at the person in front of him with a dark face and began to wonder if he had mistaken him for someone else.
Even though this face was exactly the same as the one in his memory, he still found it difficult to reconcile it with the person he remembered.
"Not blood siblings!" Before Hua Cai could speak, Zhao Qiang stepped in front of her, staring at Xin Ran with an unfriendly expression, and uttered five big words with murderous intent.
Xin Ran stared in astonishment at the half-head peeking out from behind Zhao Qiang: "This—"
"Let's come in first." Hua Cai noticed that some villagers were returning from work at the intersection, so she quickly pulled Zhao Qiang aside and made way for Xin Ran and the other person to come in.
The herbs that were purchased in the past month have all been made into pills by Hua Cai. The area in the yard where the herbs used to be dried is now mostly empty, so the little world of Pillow filled with herbs is particularly eye-catching.
"Oh, the pillow is here too." Xinran spotted the pillow lying happily in the haystack at a glance.
The pillow, which was lying on its back basking in the sun, was suddenly interrupted and began to toss and turn in dissatisfaction.
A sudden look of joy appeared on Zhao Qiang's dark face.
Hey, it's time to teach this stubborn horse a lesson to these two uninvited guests.
"Hey, Pillow, you're living a more comfortable life than I am now." Fa Deng rushed forward, grabbed Pillow's horse mane, and gave it a couple of hard tugs.
To Zhao Qiang's astonishment, the pillow let out a cheerful hiss and rubbed its big head against the lamp.
A moment later, Pillow, having had its fill of rubbing against the horse, poked its head out, looked around behind him, and suddenly kicked Fadeng away with one hoof. It then buried its head in its haystack, turning its rear end towards the group, ignoring Fadeng's calls.
"This guy, still so realistic." Fa Deng looked at Hua Cai with a mixture of sadness and tears in his eyes.
A month ago, when Fadeng escorted Hua Cai and her companion away from Bright Peak, they brought a lot of good herbs, which somehow suited Pillow's taste.
Before Hua Cai took the pillow, it was the most powerful horse in Dadu. Once it set its sights on something, it was bound to run away.
As a result, eighty percent of the team's mount reserves ended up in Pillow's mouth. The other horses could only manage to gnaw a few pieces from their owners' hands when Pillow wasn't looking. The rest had to forage for food by the roadside, which was quite pitiful.
In contrast, the pillow's favorability towards the fodder controller, the Dharma Lamp, is increasing day by day. If it weren't for the presence of the Flower Gardener, it probably would have already followed the Dharma Lamp away.
But only a little over a month has passed, and reality, like a pillow, has already become indifferent to the Dharma lamp that has no fodder.
"That's just how this kid is, you all know that. Come in and sit for a while, I have some freshly dried flower tea, I'll brew some for you to try." Hua Cai was already used to Pillow's arrogant demeanor, and listening to Fa Deng's complaints about the declining morals of the world, she invited the two of them into the house.
Hua Cai went to the kitchen to boil water and make tea, leaving the three grown men sitting around the table, staring at each other.
"Ahem, I didn't expect Xiao Xiang to be living quite comfortably here." Fa Deng, whose scalp tingled from Zhao Qiang's sinister gaze, broke the silence with a stiff voice.
"Of course, as long as I'm around, she'll always be happy." Despite his refined and gentle demeanor, a forced smile appeared on his face.
Xin Ran was much more at ease than Fa Deng, ignoring Zhao Qiang's extremely unfriendly gaze. He even leisurely poured tea for each of the three of them, as if he were the master of the house, which made Zhao Qiang feel even more uncomfortable.
"Huh? This painting is quite nice?" Xin Ran took a casual sip of tea, her gaze sweeping around the room. When she turned to Zhao Qiang's side, she suddenly stopped.
On the wall behind Zhao Qiang hung a tattered painting.
Xin Ran approached with interest, holding her teacup. After just one glance, she couldn't help but sigh, "It's a good painting, but I wonder who had the heart to ruin it. Hmm, the glue was applied with great care, but no matter how fine the paste is made, the painting will still be broken after all."
Zhao Qiang held back for a moment, then picked up the tea in his hand and drank it all in one gulp without saying a word.
"Tsk tsk, if it weren't for the inscription on this painting, I would have mistaken this person for you. It's so lifelike!" Xin Ran exclaimed in amazement as she looked at the portrait. "I heard that the person in the painting died before Wen Xiang became your maid. No wonder she called you 'brother,' it turns out—"
"Shut up!" Zhao Qiang suddenly stood up and slammed the teacup he was holding onto the table.
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