Chapter 67
The night was dark and all the stars hid behind the clouds. Fortunately, the dim candlelights of the houses in the city were lit, adding some warmth to the late autumn night.
On the city wall, the bearded Jin army commander looked coldly at everything in the city.
Windows, tightly shut for days, finally opened a tiny sliver, like young shoots tentatively breaking through the earth. The city, once as dead as a tomb, finally felt a hint of life, as people eagerly awaited the arrival of carts laden with drinking water. Regardless of how the city changed hands, they had at least survived. As long as they were alive, there was always some glimmer of hope.
The Jin army commander sneered, as if he was amused by the scene.
The poor ants struggled and ran, not knowing that a bucket of boiling water could easily take their lives.
"Are you ready?" The night wind blew up the Jin army commander's wide black robe, like a ghost with bared fangs and claws, ready to swallow the city into its belly.
Li Bawang narrowed his rat eyes, nodded, and said, "I've already prepared everything. Are you still unsure of my work? Tiehe!"
The summoned young man leaped down from the battlement, a cold gleam flashing across his iron mask. He bowed to the Jin army commander, then stood up straight, raised two fingers above his forehead, and waved forward.
"ignition."
As the command was given, countless tongues of fire lit up along the city walls, illuminating the long-placed artillery fuses. Everything unfolded in silence, like the hand of death quietly pressing against the back of the neck.
The Jin army commander threw his head back and laughed loudly, his arrogant laughter echoing throughout the city.
A frightened baby burst into tears. The autumn wind whimpered, and the dim candlelight in the city suddenly closed, as if extinguished by the wind. The city began to tremble again in the darkness.
The flames swallowed the fuse bit by bit, belching out turbid air.
A beam of fire suddenly shot out from the barrel, singing as it rushed towards the infinitely high sky. One, two - countless gorgeous sparks bloomed, and in an instant, a vibrant field of fireworks and flowers was planted, and the sky was as bright as day.
A curious child, despite being stopped by an adult, stuck his head out of the window and shouted in surprise, "Look, it's fireworks!"
"What's going on!" The Jin army commander was furious, but his voice was drowned out by the sound of fireworks.
Li Bawang's face turned pale, and he argued hoarsely amid the clamor: "My lord, please listen to my explanation——!"
The sharp blade cut the throat, and as if responding to the fireworks, it broke away from the fat body and blood splattered freely.
With a loud thud, Li Bawang fell to the ground, twitching on his back. His eyes widened in fear and confusion, imprinting the image of the iron figure. Until the last moment of his life, he still did not understand why Tiehe suddenly betrayed him after falling to the ground.
A cold light struck his forehead, and Tiehe suddenly stepped back to avoid it.
The Jin leader was furious, his eyes bloodshot, clearly driven to kill: "Kill him!"
A group of soldiers responded by charging towards Tiehe. Their swords gleamed coldly in the darkness, and one could faintly smell the stench of blood and rust. Tiehe turned without hesitation and leaped towards the city wall.
The several-meter-high city wall seemed like an insurmountable mountain, but Tiehe knew that there would be someone at the bottom of the abyss who would firmly catch him.
Outside the city walls, a powerful roar echoed, like the sound of a charge. As if by pre-arranged agreement, the city's inhabitants rushed out of their homes, unarmed but filled with unbreakable resolve.
The fireworks continued to bloom tirelessly, but the situation had already changed. On the city wall, the Jin army commander's knees weakened and he fell to his knees with a thud.
The overall situation has been decided.
——
As the morning light faded, carts loaded with food slowly drove into the city gate, and the city became bustling again.
On the city wall, the three of them stared at each other.
"Ahem, so," Lian Yu touched the bridge of his nose awkwardly and looked at Tie He beside Gu Lang: "This person should be... my real sister-in-law, right?"
Gu Lang said nothing, only tilting his head to look at Tie He. Realizing that he had become the center of attention, Tie He snorted with disdain, glared at Gu Lang without much momentum, and pressed his slender fingertips on the iron mask, raising his wrist to flip it up.
Lian Yu widened his eyes.
The face that had been hidden under the mask for years was exactly the same as Qin Yi's, with the same delicate and fair complexion. Only the slight difference in the eyes showed that the two were not the same person.
Suddenly, hurried footsteps sounded behind him, "Xiaoyu!"
After searching for Lian Yu for an unknown amount of time, Qin Yi's face flushed red, with beads of sweat forming on his lips. The moment he saw Lian Yu, Qin Yi's tense shoulders relaxed, and he bit his lips tightly, as if trying to hold back tears. "Where have you been? I thought you were dead!"
But the next second, Qin Yi stopped talking. He stared at Tie He blankly, like a child caught watching TV, his face gradually getting redder.
Seeing Qin Yi so embarrassed, Lian Yu curled his lips. But the curve of his lips soon fell, replaced by seriousness.
"How could it be..." He heard Qin Yi mutter in a low voice: "He should be replaced, just like me back then."
"Let's talk." Lian Yu grabbed Qin Yi's wrist.
Perhaps their departure was too sudden, as the remaining two watched Lian Yu leave in silence before exchanging a glance. Tie He glared, snapping his mask back on and starting to run, but the next second, someone grabbed his wrist. He was forced to spin around and land in Gu Lang's arms, where a strong arm clamped around his neck and the mask was pulled down.
Meeting Gu Lang's smiling eyes, Tie He's momentum gradually weakened.
"Let's chat too?"
——
Under the city wall.
Lian Yu leaned against the wall, arms folded. The city was unusually bustling tonight, yet even that bustle was shielded from view by a wide wall. In the night, Lian Yu's figure, framed by the soft glow of the lanterns, felt strangely lonely.
It was bustling inside the wall, but outside the wall the two people were speechless.
"You" and "I"
They both spoke at the same time, then fell silent. After a moment's silence, Lian Yu unconsciously clenched his fist, his knuckles cracking softly. "You're just like me, not from this world, right?"
Qin Yi pursed his lips and nodded.
"In the last world, it was also you."
Another nod.
Lian Yu was annoyed by the relentless questioning. He scratched his hair angrily, the ponytail tangled between his knuckles. He wanted Qin Yi to say more, but before he could, Qin Yi spoke first.
"It's not just the last world." Qin Yiyi stared at him, the shadow of the lantern swaying in his pupils like the moon in the water. "And the one before that, and the one before that, and the one before that..."
"Wait, wait!" Lian Yu stuttered, grabbing Qin Yi's fingers as he counted with a look of horror.
Even though their skin was touching and the temperature was real, the night wind still hurt Qin Yi's bones. He lowered his eyes and said softly, "You forgot everything."
Lian Yu lowered his arms and slowly stood up. He had seen Qin Yi in many ways. Cunning, serious, worried, but he had never seen Qin Yi like this. The thin young man stood in the wind, as if he would disappear in the next second. Lian Yu couldn't help but reach out and grab Qin Yi's wrist: "Don't..."
The young man trembled like a kite and smiled weakly: "But it's not your fault."
"We are originally just like General Gu, people in the same world, but..." Qin Yi lowered his eyes, his long eyelashes covering the turbulent emotions in his eyes: "I am the protagonist, and you are not."
Back in time, their encounter was a familiar story. Lian Yu was crouching in the last row, pursuing his football dreams. On stage, the Chinese teacher, an elderly woman wearing reading glasses, was lecturing on Fan Chengda's "Happy Sunshine," her voice drowsy and lulling.
“When it rains continuously, you don’t realize that spring has gone away. When it clears up, you realize that summer is deep.”
Before the poem was finished, the head teacher led a young boy with white hair and red eyes and knocked on the classroom door.
In his dream, Lian Yu had just scored a goal when he was woken up by the person in front of him. The person in front of him pointed at the podium with excitement and said, "Look!"
Lian Yu focused his eyes and saw the name scribbled on the blackboard.
Qin Yi.
With the final stroke, a click sounded, and the boy turned around, his pupils gleaming like rubies. The moment their gazes met, his slender fingertips shrank.
The head teacher coughed loudly and glared warningly at the student sitting in front of him, who was clearly overly excited. Then, with a kind expression, he patted Qin Yi on the back and pointed to the empty seat next to Lian Yu. "Stay there for a few days. We'll change your seat later."
Lian Yu watched the thin and fair boy slowly walking towards him, gradually becoming clearer from a mist.
He looked at his long, fine, snow-white eyelashes, his pupils that were trembling slightly due to illness, and the boy's eyes that were slightly narrowed in the sunlight.
Lian Yu unconsciously straightened up to shield Qin Yi from the raging sunlight outside the window. The young man sat down beside him.
"Hey, Qin Yi, do you know his name?" As the head teacher left, the student at the front desk revealed his true form, half twisting his neck and chattering non-stop, "His name is... Ouch!"
Lian Yu was so anxious that he kicked the bench at the table in front of him under the table.
The boy didn't answer, but just looked at Lian Yu quietly.
Lian Yu rubbed the back of his head, hesitant. It seemed awkward not to introduce himself under such scrutiny, but he also felt a bit embarrassed after being interrupted by the brat in front of him. After a brief moment of hesitation, Lian Yu flipped open the cover of the Chinese textbook he'd slept on for half the class and pushed it towards Qin Yi.
"Lian Yu." The name rolled around Qin Yi's lips, like a continuous rain.
This was the first time Lian Yu had heard the other person's voice. He stared back at the young man in front of him in a daze. His long eyelashes drooped like pure white dove feathers, folding their wings to protect the ruby beneath them.
A familiar feeling came over him, and Lian Yu slapped his head suddenly: "Have we met somewhere before?"
The young man in front of him twitched his eyelashes, suddenly raised his eyes to look at him, and his lips and teeth moved -
"I've seen this girl before~" the person sitting in front of me tried to imitate her in a pinched voice, but was slapped back by Lian Yu.
"Are you two done yet?" the Chinese teacher on the podium threw a piece of chalk at them, but it failed mid-sentence. A pair of old eyes behind her reading glasses blazed with anger, "Get out of here and stand!"
Qin Yi's eyes followed Lian Yu, watching the tall young man walk into the vibrant summer cicadas, into the lush green shade outside the building. Perhaps it had rained that morning, leaving water marks on the windowpanes. Lian Yu met his gaze through the water marks and smiled a brilliant, white smile.
His heart skipped a beat and Qin Yi quickly turned his head towards the blackboard.
The writing on the blackboard became distorted and blurred, gradually drowned out by the loud heartbeat. Qin Yi suppressed his peripheral vision, but could not get rid of the figure in his head.
Suddenly a ball of paper was thrown onto his desk.
[You can use my Chinese textbook] The handwriting was neat but a little distorted, obviously written while lying on the tile wall. There was a big smiley face at the end of the sentence.
Qin Yi couldn't help but look out the window, as if she had been waiting for this look from him for a long time. Lian Yu smiled brightly and gave him a thumbs up through the window.
The prologue was a familiar story: they confessed their love on the pitch, exchanged their first kiss in an empty classroom, and pledged their lifelong love as they held the trophy high. Back then, they had made promises about their future, believing they could stay together forever, just as Qin Yi had hoped.
Until someone comes.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
