Chapter 13
Chapter Thirteen
When Meng Yingying rushed out, her mind was still full of confusion. She walked aimlessly down the street with a food box in her hand, her mind a complete mess. The breeze dispelled the irritation on her face. Since that day, she had not actually seen him, and naturally, Meng Yingying had no way to contact him.
Suddenly, someone tugged at the hem of my clothes.
Meng Yingying looked down and saw a very small girl carrying a basket.
The little girl raised a hand and smiled, "Sister, buy a mountain spirit coin and give it to the person you love to ensure their safety."
Meng Yingying looked down at the two coins lying in her basket, squatted down and asked, "Mountain spirit coins?"
The little girl said, "Sister, you must be from out of town. In our Liuzhou city, we give 'mountain spirit money' to the person we love during the Spring Festival. One mountain spirit money will protect him completely."
Meng Yingying smiled and patted her head: "I'll take both of them. Hurry home for the New Year."
"Thank you, sister."
The little girl walked away with the flow of people. Meng Yingying held the two mountain spirit coins in her hand, sighed, and suddenly a clear bell sound rang out in the endless stream of people.
Meng Yingying subconsciously turned around to look.
Amidst the bustling crowd, a person slowly walked towards her. In the festive firelight, he stood out, but his bright red robes were no different. A red rope was tied around his forehead, and two gold leaves fell on either side. His fox-like eyes reflected the crowd, tinged with vitality. His boots tightly hugged his calves, and his whole being exuded a vibrant and alluring charm.
It couldn't be more normal.
Shang Mang walked step by step to her, and only then did the gold ornaments on his body stop clinking.
Meng Yingying hesitated for a moment before speaking first: "Shang Mang, reach out your hand."
Shang Mang stretched out his hand as she instructed; it was long and neatly shaped. Meng Yingying thought to herself, "Does he always kill people with such beautiful hands?"
Meng Yingying placed a string of the mountain spirit coins she was holding into his hand, then looked at him and gave him a gentle smile: "Shang Mang, Happy New Year."
Shang Mang's pupils contracted, but he quickly concealed it, forcing a smile through his eyes and saying leisurely, "This won't kill me."
Seeing that he was starting to make malicious speculations again, Meng Yingying pulled his hand over, tied it for him, and said, "A mountain spirit coin will protect you completely."
"Shang Mang, it's not meant to kill you, it's meant to protect you."
Shang Mang swayed slightly, and to cover it up, he frowned impatiently and raised his hand to observe.
Meng Yingying picked up the food box in her hand: "Of course we have to eat dumplings on New Year's Day."
After saying that, she stuffed the dumplings into his arms as well.
Shang Mang lowered his head, looking at the dumplings in his arms. Meng Yingying glanced at the sky: "Today is a good day. May you have a good year next year... no, I should say in the future..."
Behind them, fireworks exploded, making a crackling sound. Meng Yingying raised her voice and smiled at Shang Mang. In the bright light, Shang Mang saw a glimpse of him.
"Shang Mang will live to be a hundred years old."
Shang Mang's eyes and ears were filled with thoughts of the person in front of him.
And he couldn't look away.
——
After the grand fireworks display ended, in the haystack, half-naked, a spider lily on her chest seemed to grow and struggle out of her flesh. In the half-open food box beside her, another dumpling fell onto the grass.
The pain in his chest felt as if every bone in his body was being broken; he gritted his teeth and tried to control himself.
Opening my eyes, I saw one black and one red, but only in the black pupils could I clearly see the dumplings on the ground.
His hands trembled as he picked up the dumplings, stuffed them into his mouth, and tasted something strange. He spat them onto his hand, and felt a surge of heat in his chest that he couldn't suppress.
It was a slip of paper and a copper coin.
The note read: "Lucky dumpling, only one available. If you eat the lucky dumpling, you will be the luckiest person in the world!"
crooked.
The pain in his heart hadn't subsided, but his gaze remained fixed on the dumplings.
Shang Mang clenched his fist, grabbed a dumpling, and put it in his mouth. After eating each dumpling, he found a slip of paper and a copper coin inside.
The moon was bright and the stars were few. The night breeze was cool. Meng Yingying, unable to sleep, leaned against the window and lost in thought when she heard a familiar voice downstairs at the inn.
"Miss... young lady."
On the empty street, the two walked one after the other. The woman in front quickened her pace, afraid that the person behind her would catch up with her.
The man behind her seemed unable to hold back any longer and grabbed the woman's wrist: "Wait!"
Meng Yingying looked intently, but it was too dark to see clearly; she could only make out the person, not their face.
"What happened tonight..." the man asked, his voice trembling with unease.
The woman interrupted first, her voice cold and hard: "You don't need to take tonight's events to heart, and I didn't care either."
The man was slightly surprised, and his voice rose a little: "But...but...I..."
The woman, impatient with arguing with him, took a step back and turned around: "Let's end it here."
Without looking back, the man walked into the inn. When he reached the bottom of the inn, his face appeared. He had sword-like eyebrows and bright eyes, and his eyes, which were usually bright and piercing, were filled with struggle and conflict.
Meng Yingying was startled and exclaimed in shock, "Holy crap, Kong Fusheng? Who did Kong Fusheng go out with tonight? And he was rejected so ruthlessly, holy crap."
Meng Yingying, having recovered her senses, peeked out again. Two more figures approached from the distance, one tall and one short, walking in unison.
Meng Yingying clearly recognized both of them. Even if she couldn't see them clearly, she would still recognize them as Xiao Zheyu and Zhou Xiuqi.
Meng Yingying cursed inwardly, "Oh, so when I asked, they all said they had something to do or didn't want to go. Turns out they wanted to go secretly."
Xiao Zheyu straightened his back slightly stiffly and said, "Daoist, tonight you asked me about my doubts."
Zhou Xiuqi glanced sideways and said, "Don't worry about it, I was just asking casually."
Xiao Zheyu's topic was abruptly cut off, and he choked on his words, falling silent as the two walked in front of the inn in silence.
Zhou Xiuqi straightened up, then took the purse from his waist and handed it to her, saying, "Tonight you mentioned that you haven't been sleeping well. There are some sleeping pills in this purse. Put them under your pillow; they should help."
Xiao Zheyu took it, surprised that he had said so much in one breath, and said, "Thank you."
Zhou Xiuqi turned his back: "No need to thank me, consider it a thank you gift for helping my junior sister."
Xiao Zheyu looked at him for a long time before finally asking, "Have we met before?"
Zhou Xiuqi's fingers twitched almost imperceptibly, and then he asked, "No."
Xiao Zheyu was not a talkative person. After the two said their goodbyes, they both left.
Meng Yingying watched the whole thing from the window. Judging from the current progress, Zhou Xiuqi didn't have any feelings for Xiao Zheyu, and Xiao Zheyu didn't have any feelings for him either. Zhou Xiuqi had always been a cold person on the outside and even colder on the inside. He was burdened with responsibilities, and it was impossible for him to abandon them.
Xiao Zheyu, on the surface, seems to be the same as Zhou Xiuqi, but in reality, he is very warm-hearted and always puts himself first.
Although they seem to be two different people, they always give people the feeling that they were born to be together, so Meng Yingying is not worried about their progress, nor is it something she should worry about.
Meng Yingying yawned, feeling sleepy, and lay down on the bed to rest with her eyes closed.
On the other side, back in her room, Xiao Zheyu held a purse in her hand, embroidered with a lifelike lotus flower. She subconsciously placed the jade sword and the purse together, finding them remarkably similar. Then she suddenly remembered the question Zhou Xiuqi had asked her that night.
Bathed in the yellow light, Zhou Xiuqi's expression remained unchanged, his voice cold and steady: "I have another question I'd like to ask Miss Xiao."
Xiao Zheyu nodded naturally after hearing his words.
Zhou Xiuqi's gaze lingered on her profile: "If, in the future, you meet someone you know will abandon you for the sake of the world, would you be ruthless?"
Xiao Zheyu frowned, then suddenly relaxed.
"Does the Taoist priest have romantic entanglements?"
"No, it was just a casual question."
Xiao Zheyu's lips, stained red, curved slightly, her eyes holding a faint chill: "To abandon me and forsake me for the sake of the world's people, I naturally hate it." She said without hesitation, and Zhou Xiuqi nodded slightly, as if it were an expected answer.
"But I won't stop loving him, because a person who can make sacrifices for the common people is a peerless hero, isn't he?" Xiao Zheyu turned his head to the side, a faint smile on his face.
Zhou Xiuqi's breath hitched, and he suddenly said in a cold voice, "My opinion differs from yours. I think such a person is utterly pathetic."
"If you can't protect the people you love, you can't protect all the people in the world."
His tone was so flat that Xiao Zheyu had no idea where his sharp words came from.
All night long, some people couldn't sleep, some had trouble falling asleep, and some tossed and turned.
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