The empty city was destroyed (9)
"Why is that person here?" Ye Yingying asked nervously.
"I don't know... why he's working here as a manager." Yun Yanqiu's voice was muffled, as if he were muttering to himself.
Shopkeeper? Ye Yingying blinked blankly, pushed Yun Yanqiu away, looked into his eyes and asked, "You mean, that shopkeeper with the scar on his face is someone you used to know?"
Seeing Yun Yanqiu nod, Ye Yingying felt quite conflicted. She simply couldn't reconcile the weathered-looking man with Yun Yanqiu. The shock of this news was akin to being told that Zhao Yuxiao was Yun Yanqiu's ancestor.
She was speechless for a moment, a series of questions popping into her mind but she didn't know where to begin.
After a long pause, she spoke blankly, "So he recognized you?"
Yun Yanqiu shook his head, looking somewhat dejected.
No wonder he seemed so preoccupied, Ye Yingying thought to herself. She stroked Yun Yanqiu's back and asked cautiously, "What are you planning to do? Go find him and catch up?"
“I don’t know…” Yun Yanqiu lowered her eyes, as if a layer of gloom had been veiled in them. “I have no right to reminisce with him.”
When he said this, he looked as if he would shatter at the slightest touch.
Ye Yingying suddenly felt that he was very far away from her, and she immediately felt a little flustered: "How could this be? Didn't you two know each other before? What did he do before? Was he also a shopkeeper?"
“He…” Yun Yanqiu opened his mouth, and long-buried memories gradually awakened, along with surging emotions, like a hard thorn stuck in his heart.
He was stunned, completely unprepared that after so many years, he still couldn't bring himself to talk about the past.
Ye Yingying waited quietly for Yun Yanqiu to speak, but she waited and waited, and Yun Yanqiu never uttered another word.
A sense of loss washed over her once more. Looking at Yun Yanqiu like this, she suddenly had many questions: When was he born? Where did he grow up? Has he always been this way?
Ye Yingying had never learned about Yun Yanqiu's past, and she wanted to know, but Yun Yanqiu in front of her was clearly resistant to bringing it up.
"If you don't want to talk about it, that's fine," Ye Yingying said, suppressing her doubts and backing down.
She was curious, but not to the point of pressuring him.
"I'm sorry, I..." Yun Yanqiu came to her senses and wanted to explain something, but she didn't know where to begin.
Seeing his hesitation, Ye Yingying couldn't help but smile and said softly, "It's okay, I'll wait as long as it takes for you to get what you need to do."
As she spoke, she tiptoed and lightly kissed Yun Yanqiu's lips.
The kiss was light and gentle, like a silent comfort.
Yun Yanqiu was stunned by the sudden kiss. Before he could react, Ye Yingying took a few steps back and said, "Get some rest. I'm leaving now."
Before he could think, Yun Yanqiu instinctively grabbed her wrist. Seeing Ye Yingying looking at him with surprise, he belatedly felt a little embarrassed, but he didn't lessen the strength of his grip on her wrist.
Ye Yingying looked at her wrist, then at Yun Yanqiu's face, and suddenly realized something, but she wasn't sure.
Her heart pounded, and the next moment, she heard the words she had imagined in her mind: "Don't go, please stay here..."
Ye Yingying smiled and bumped into Yun Yanqiu's arms.
On the other side, Zhao Yuxiao did not immediately return to his room after saying goodbye to Shaoling. He lingered in front of Wu Yue's door for a while before finally mustering the courage to knock.
"who?"
A question came from inside the house, and Zhao Yuxiao quickly replied, "It's me, Zhao Yuxiao."
Then, after a rustling sound, the door opened. Wu Yue looked at him with a gloomy expression and said impatiently, "What?"
"Let's see if you're alright."
“…” Wu Yue frowned, her eyes narrowing slightly. “It’s fine, you don’t need to worry about it.”
Seeing that she was about to close the door, Zhao Yuxiao stepped in to stop her, saying, "Don't rush, let's talk!"
"I have nothing to talk to you about."
"Yes, yes, it's a matter of fate!"
Wu Yue paused, glanced at Zhao Yuxiao, pondered for a moment, and then stepped aside to let Zhao Yuxiao into the house.
"Who told you that? Yun Yanqiu or Ye Yingying?"
Before setting off, Wu Yue did not tell Zhao Yuxiao her purpose. Of course, he did not ask either. When he saw that Yun Yanqiu was coming, he followed her eagerly.
She originally thought Zhao Yuxiao didn't know, but she didn't expect him to take the initiative to ask her.
"Um, actually I overheard it that day..." Zhao Yuxiao replied somewhat awkwardly.
Wu Yue raised an eyebrow. So, when she was talking to Yun Yanqiu and the others that day, this person was eavesdropping outside?
"I didn't mean to! The door wasn't closed properly when you were chatting, and I just happened to get there..."
Zhao Yuxiao tried hard to explain that he wasn't the kind of person who would do things secretly, but faced with Wu Yue's suspicious look, no amount of explanation seemed to work.
"Never mind, that's not the point!" Zhao Yuxiao scratched his head, then asked the question that had been lingering in his mind, looking very conflicted, "Are you really... about to die?..."
Huh? Wu Yue was speechless. Her brows furrowed even more, and her lips curled down in disgust. "What are you thinking?"
Upon hearing Wu Yue's words, Zhao Yuxiao's eyes lit up instantly: "So, they won't die?"
"No," Wu Yue said, crossing her arms. "Is there anyone in this world who is immortal?"
"So what's wrong with you?" Zhao Yuxiao was confused and extremely anxious.
But Wu Yue remained calm and composed. She didn't answer, but instead asked Zhao Yuxiao, "Why do you care about these things? Aren't you afraid of me?"
"How did you know?!" Zhao Yuxiao was terrified; he didn't remember showing it so obviously.
"Everyone in the Lingyun Alliance knows that not only you, but they are also afraid of me."
"hiss……"
Zhao Yuxiao had no way to refute this; everything Wu Yue said was true.
Seeing that Zhao Yuxiao remained silent, Wu Yue understood and didn't take it to heart: "It's normal for people to be afraid of me. Not only outside the valley, but even inside the valley, there are people who are afraid of me."
"Huh? Why?" Zhao Yuxiao was hearing about this for the first time and was quite confused.
“Because I’m crazy, I’m uncontrollable,” Wu Yue explained calmly. “I also know witchcraft, and they’re afraid that if I do something wrong, I’ll curse them.”
She said this with a calm and unconcerned expression. But then again, what normal person would bother to divine their own fate?
But Zhao Yuxiao wasn't afraid of her because of that. He knew Wu Yue wouldn't curse people, and he also knew Wu Yue wasn't crazy.
"You haven't answered my question yet. If you're afraid of me, why ask these questions in the first place?"
"Or do you want to know when I'm going to die so you won't have to worry about me suddenly popping up and ordering you around, making you lose face?"
"No! I didn't think that way!" Zhao Yuxiao hurriedly defended himself, afraid that Wu Yue would misunderstand him even more. "I'm just worried about you, but being worried about you doesn't mean I hate you."
It wasn't so much fear as it was not knowing how to face her. Every time Zhao Yuxiao thought about seeing Wu Yue, his mind became complicated, so complicated that he couldn't sort it out no matter how hard he tried, so he always wanted to avoid it.
But when I actually heard the news that she was in critical condition, the desire to see her and find out what happened took over again.
Zhao Yuxiao is the kind of person who doesn't hide his thoughts. He is simple-minded and his thoughts are easily written on his face.
Wu Yue could tell at a glance, and sighed helplessly: "You haven't given up yet? I've clearly rejected you, both verbally and in my actions. You should have realized it by now."
These words struck a nerve with Zhao Yuxiao, who was trying to hide his true feelings, making him feel quite embarrassed.
But when he thought of Wu Yue's fate, he mustered up his courage and retorted, "I'm not trying to pester you, I just came because I was really worried about you!"
"Then you shouldn't have come along." Wu Yue reprimanded him without any politeness. "You gave up being the young leader of the alliance to come to a place like this and risk your life. There's no one here to protect you."
"Why are you talking like my dad? You're clearly younger than me!"
"Then you need to reflect on how naive you are."
"You!" Zhao Yuxiao was furious when he heard this. "I was just trying to care about you, why do you always talk back to me like that!"
"The main reason I came here was for you, but that doesn't mean I only came here for you! It's so dangerous here, I was worried about Senior Yun and Miss Ying'er's safety too!"
"They're both better than you, why do you still have time to care about them?" Wu Yue seemed to have heard the biggest joke in the world. "You should take care of yourself."
Zhao Yuxiao is bad at arguing; he has never won an argument against Wu Yue.
But he was still furious, so he retorted, "And what about you? You can't do anything but divination. If something happens, Senior Yun will definitely protect Miss Ying'er first. What will you do if no one protects you then?"
He looked at Wu Yue and noticed that her expression had clearly softened, so he continued, "Besides, if you really didn't want me to come, you should have stopped me in Yuancheng, but you didn't..."
She didn't scold him for not following, so wasn't that tacitly allowing him to come along?
After Zhao Yuxiao's words, Wu Yue was speechless for a moment. She remained silent for a while before finally relenting: "It was my oversight, but I can't say more about the matter of my fate."
"Okay, I won't ask if you don't want to tell me." Zhao Yuxiao nodded. "But please don't keep criticizing me, okay..."
"...I'll try my best."
"And, at least here, don't refuse me..."
"impossible."
I haven't finished speaking yet!
"That's impossible." Wu Yue's attitude was firm. Who knew what Zhao Yuxiao would do if she agreed?
Although she knew he was just simple-minded and didn't mean any harm when he said it, Wu Yue would never agree to it no matter who said it.
"Alright, if there's nothing else, hurry up and get out of here. I need to rest."
Wu Yue shoved Zhao Yuxiao towards the door, but Zhao Yuxiao struggled and grabbed the doorframe, saying, "I will protect you! I will even risk my life!"
"Disgusting, get out of here."
Wu Yue showed no respect to Zhao Yuxiao, slamming the door shut with a bang. The room finally quieted down; she leaned against the door, closed her eyes, and let out a sigh of relief.
Zhao Yuxiao's blunt words still echoed in her ears. Wu Yue calmed herself down, turned around, and went back to bed to rest.
She closed her eyes, banishing the earlier interlude, and once again immersed herself in the scenes she had witnessed in the illusion earlier that day.
Zhan Yan... Wu Yan... If he really is a member of the Wu clan, then I might have some unexpected gains on this trip.
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