distinct
When did people start gathering outside the village?
Qing doesn’t know.
But at that time, they had already seen blood outside the house oozing out through the crack of the door.
It seemed that their father was not the only one who died.
Those villagers are gossipy, cold-blooded, talkative, and can't keep secrets.
When the dazzling light outside the window dimmed, there was no longer any light that could illuminate their pupils.
The children slowly relaxed their tense bodies and tried to poke their eyes out from under the table to see what color the outside world was.
—
The smell of blood and rust seeped in from the crack in the door that was blown open by the wind and permeated the child's nose.
The night was deep, dark clouds gathered over the moonlight, and they could see nothing except each other.
Until the door was quietly pushed open by someone, and a color different from the black and white in the room reflected in the pupils' pupils, a sense of confusion emerged in their stunned expressions.
The bright red illuminates their black and white world.
Looking towards the end of the river, their brother who was staying at their house was chatting and laughing with others in the distance, and a sticky and thick liquid was dripping down the edge of the sword.
The child's sight shifted again, ignoring the lifeless villagers, and fell into the hands of someone who was talking to his brother.
The adult, stripped of his flesh and bones, hung limply in the man's arms. The traces of his existence were still there, a brilliant red, beneath the feet of the children surrounding the ants.
Qing thought that at that moment, they seemed to be unable to perceive anything around them.
They were dazed and at a loss. They could no longer smell the sharp smell in their noses, and their ears were buzzing. It seemed as if everything around them was a black and white drama being played in reverse. They could only feel the touch of each other's hands as they ran forward.
Qing didn't know where to go, but she vaguely felt that they couldn't be caught by her brother at the moment, so she changed her route, bypassed the two men who were standing at the entrance of the village and talking, and ran in the opposite direction.
It seemed like it was raining, and bits of cold air penetrated their thin clothes, giving them goose bumps. The muddy road beneath their feet kept receding, and all they could see was the strong evening breeze blowing in from below.
......
There is an umbrella in the distance.
Qing looked down and saw that the umbrella exuded a sense of security, as if it was gently enticing them to go there.
A vast expanse of white grass.
The umbrella seemed to have become an unspoken target between them. The two children held hands and ran straight down.
They couldn't feel their own breathing or the pounding of their own hearts.
It was so quiet all around that it felt like I had lost my hearing.
Only the eyes were still usable - it was the will to survive during the escape that gave them sight.
Qing has always thought so.
That's why he could see Yu, who was related to him by blood, and Xiao Yingzhu, who adopted them. And then...
Many years later, the man in front of him has become a man of a different identity.
Meng Jian.
—
The cicadas chirped tirelessly again in the surrounding treetops.
Qing stood there silently, watching Meng Jian walk up step by step, and finally stopped in front of him.
The right hands that had taken the lives of the surrounding villagers were so warm, and they gently fell on his head and ruffled his hair.
Meng Jian, the brother who once protected them, bent down slightly and looked at him levelly.
"It's been a while since we last met. You've grown taller, Qing."
"Do you still use that name?"
Meng Jian smiled and looked at him softly, as if he was looking at his only relative in the world.
After a while, Meng Jian didn't say anything. She just looked up at him with a pale expression. Then he smiled slightly and said, "Since you don't say anything, then this is what I think."
“When we met, it was a sunny day, but it started raining halfway to your house, so I call you the weather of that day.
"You and the rain saved my life, so I left a way for you to survive."
Feeling the young man tense up subconsciously, Meng Jian smiled gently, "Don't be nervous. Even a tiger won't eat its own cubs. I've also said before that I can be your brother forever."
"Some bloodlines shouldn't exist in the first place, while some fates gained by chance are more precious than bloodlines."
"Since you have already joined Xiao Yingzhu, I will not try to persuade you any further."
“…”
Qing's eyes followed Meng Jian's movements closely, then he watched him withdraw his hand and stand up again. He looked at him as if he were examining a sharp weapon. Noticing Qing's gaze towards him, he gently raised the corners of his lips again.
"But it's still a pity. If we could help each other... this bond would deepen, until it's engraved into our blood."
"But now we can only say goodbye."
The collision of the white jade made a tinkling sound. Meng Jian looked at him deeply again, but did not make any move. He just turned around and carried the mist that seemed like a black shadow around him, and went to Pingzhou at the foot of the mountain again.
—
The woods are very fresh after the rain.
Qing looked down at her empty hands for a moment, then shifted her gaze slightly and stared at the place where Meng Jian had just stood.
Meng Jian had already left. He could not sense any other people's presence here, only the sounds of small animals moving in the bushes.
Mangran and Yu had been together for a long time and had experienced many things together. But the person who tied the bell must be the one to untie it. After seeing Meng Jian like this, he seemed to have regained the emotions that had been torn apart in his heart.
That emotion called "fear".
Even though Meng Jian made a promise to him and made those seemingly intimate actions, he was still oppressed and afraid by the oppressive feeling that Meng Jian exuded.
As soon as he saw him, the past scenes that were buried deep in his mind resurfaced, intertwined in his nerves, stinging his brain that was trying to stop the memories, making him feel like dying.
It seemed as if the long-repressed emotions were flooding back.
Qing wanted to walk down the mountain, but then he remembered that this was the road Meng Jian had just taken. He wanted to see Yu, but when his mind retreated from those memories, Yu's figure reappeared.
The emotions of fear and escape intertwined with each other, forming a spiral shape, like vines growing from the ground, piercing his skin and fixing him in place, making him unable to take a step. His body was fixed by an unknown object, and he could only freeze in his movements, motionless.
Until the clouds covering the top of the head were dispersed, revealing the white moonlight again.
The cool moonlight soothed his dark clothes. Qing raised his head in a daze and looked up at the starry sky with his eyes open.
...He suddenly had the urge to escape from everyone and not see anyone for the time being.
These belated emotions piled up in his chest, making him somewhat reluctant to meet people in this miserable state.
He should learn to communicate with others.
—
When Jiang Nian returned to the mansion from the pharmacy, he happened to see Qing standing at the door of her bedroom, hesitating whether to go in and wait for her.
The slight sound of embroidered shoes stepping on the floor caught his attention and he turned to look to the side.
Walking through the long corridor, Jiang Nian was thinking about whether he should write a letter and ask Yu to deliver it to Xiao Yingzhu to ask about Qing's whereabouts if he didn't see Qing again tonight. But he was also worried about what Yu would think if he knew that she asked him to deliver the letter with such a question.
Her thoughts were tangled in her mind. Jiang Nian walked past the screen wall, looking over the rockery toward the wing rooms. Suddenly, she saw Qing standing on the corridor. She paused, then walked lightly in that direction, smiling from afar, "You're finally here! I've been waiting for you all morning."
Hearing the familiar voice, Qing turned around and subconsciously wanted to say something, but she was afraid that such a sudden change in herself would scare Jiang Nian, so she had to silently step back and make room for her to open the door.
Not noticing Qing's unusual behavior, Jiang Nian turned around and stretched out his hand to push open the door. He turned around and smiled at him, "You go in first. I still need to ask Fuling some questions."
Qing paused for a moment, remembering that Xiao Yingzhu hadn't told him much. After a moment's thought, he tried to formulate his words, "My master has told me to tell you that Qin Lan has already delivered the minerals to the sect, and they will arrive in Pingzhou in two days. Please rest assured, young lady."
Jiang Nian paused as he was about to leave, turned around, and looked back at Qing who suddenly spoke: "You..."
Being looked at by Jiang Nian with a slightly questioning and shocked look, Qing subconsciously felt a sharp pain in her heart for a moment. She suddenly felt as if she had been seen through to the point where she had nowhere to hide. She turned her eyes away uncomfortably and fell silent again.
Fortunately, Jiang Nian only noticed something was wrong at that moment, and then because he was in a hurry to explain something, he raised his hand and told him to leave for the time being: "It's okay, I know, don't be nervous, go back first."
"I feel like Yu has been feeling a little uneasy after not seeing you all night."
Qing was silent for a while, then nodded.
Then, as if it was not appropriate to stay here for long, he disappeared from Jiang Nian's sight the next moment.
—
There was no rain tonight. Jiang Nian carefully closed the doors and windows, and while waiting for Fuling to come back from the warehouse, he put aside his plan to attract Sun Dun tomorrow, and first picked up the pen to write down in detail on the letter paper the matters that needed to be arranged in the pharmacy during the five days of the competition.
Apart from the instructions given to Uncle Xu, he also had to worry about blocking traffic on Baima Street when moving the goods, so he had to move them there in batches according to a certain amount of cargo.
Jiang Nian still remembered that there was a distribution map of Baima Street in the study, but it was in Jiang's father's room.
The time she returned to Pingzhou happened to coincide with the time when Jiang's father was out on business, so she hadn't seen Jiang's father these days. She didn't know whether his attitude would be as lukewarm as Jiang's mother's when he came back.
However, both she and Jiang's mother seemed to consider that it would be difficult to tear each other apart under the current circumstances, so they left the matter hanging in the air for the time being, leaving it untouched. When Jiang's father returned, would his reaction to her be the same as Jiang's mother's?
When she traveled through time, the person she saw most often at first was Jiang's father, but as time went by, Jiang's father went out more frequently, and now it was Jiang's mother she saw.
I don’t know whether Jiang’s mother will tell Jiang’s father about her suspicions about me.
Jiang Nian held up his pen and wanted to write something on the paper, but he stopped himself from writing because of his complicated thoughts.
Everything was hidden, like looking at flowers through the fog, not real. She couldn't think of everything as thoroughly as Xiao Yingzhu did.
If something went wrong along the way that was beyond her plan, she would be caught off guard.
Once his thoughts calmed down, Jiang Nian was silent for a moment, closed his eyes for a moment, then lit the candlelight and picked up the pen to continue writing on the paper.
The sound of the wind outside the house seemed to be mixed with her thoughts, and it carried her far away.
Several mechanical birds that had not been sent out by the sect for a long time were released into the sky. They were now flying from the mountain towards Pingzhou. It would not be long before the minerals in their beaks would fall on the houses of those in need.
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