Chapter 46
Chapter Summary: [Xiao Xingchen said, "It's possible, but I can't help you determine if it's suitable."]
Xue Yang interjected again, "I..."
-------------------------------------
Xiao Xingchen said, "It's possible, but I can't tell you whether it's suitable or not."
Xue Yang interjected again, "I'll help her take a look."
A-Qing jumped up and almost bumped into Xiao Xingchen's chin: "I don't care! I don't care! I just want you to be with me, I don't want him to come along. He only says I'm ugly! He calls me a little blind girl!"
She's been throwing tantrums every now and then for a while now, and the two of them are used to it. Xue Yang gave her a funny face, and Xiao Xingchen said, "Alright, how about tomorrow?"
Ah Qing said, "I want tonight!"
Xue Yang said, "If we go out tonight, the market will all be closed. Where will you buy anything?"
Having no other choice, A-Qing said, "Alright! Tomorrow then! It's a promise!"
Having failed in her first attempt, and knowing that insisting on leaving again would only arouse Xue Yang's suspicion, A-Qing had no choice but to give up and sit down to eat. Although her performance had been exactly as natural as usual, her lower abdomen had remained tense throughout, and even now, her hand holding the bowl was trembling slightly. Xue Yang sat to her left, glancing at her sideways. A-Qing's calves tensed again; she was afraid she couldn't eat, but she pretended to be too angry to eat, taking a bite and spitting it out, forcefully stabbing the bowl, muttering underhanded curses: "You wretched bitch, you brat, I bet you're no better off. You slut!"
The other two listened as she kept cursing that non-existent "brat." Xue Yang rolled his eyes, while Xiao Xingchen said, "Don't waste food."
As everyone watched Ah Qing's rapidly working mind and excellent acting skills, they couldn't help but marvel at how this young girl was constantly changing their perception of her.
Xue Yang glanced at A-Qing: "You little blind girl, you're wasting my sympathy."
Aqing glared at him: "Who cares about your sympathy? You were the first one to insult me!"
Xue Yang: ...
Xue Yang's gaze shifted from A-Qing to Xiao Xingchen's face opposite him. Wei Wuxian thought to himself, "It's not without reason that this little rascal can imitate Xiao Xingchen so perfectly. After all, we sit facing each other every day, so he has plenty of opportunities to study him carefully."
Xiao Xingchen, however, was completely unaware of the two gazes fixed on his face. In the end, he was the only one in this room who was truly blind.
After they finished eating, Xiao Xingchen cleared the dishes and went inside. Xue Yang suddenly called out to her, "A-Qing."
A-Qing's heart skipped a beat, and even Wei Wuxian could feel her scalp tingling.
She asked, "Why did you call me?"
Xue Yang smiled and said, "Nothing much, just teaching you what to do next time you get scolded."
Aqing said, "Oh, tell me, what should we do?"
Xue Yang said, "If anyone calls you ugly, make them even uglier. Slash their face seventeen or eighteen times, making them even uglier than you, so they'll never dare to go out and see anyone again. If anyone calls you blind, sharpen one end of a bamboo pole and poke it into each of their eyes, making them blind too. Let's see if they still dare to be so foul-mouthed then!"
Ah-Qing was terrified, but pretended to think he was just trying to scare her, and said, "You're trying to scare me again!"
Xue Yang snorted, "Just take it as a joke." Then he pushed the plate of rabbit and apple in front of her and said, "Eat it."
Looking at the plate of adorable, red-skinned, golden-fleshed rabbit-shaped apples, a chill ran through A-Qing and Wei Wuxian.
Xue Yang: "Thank you so much, Senior Wei, for praising my professional skills."
Wei Wuxian rolled his eyes at him, annoyed.
However, the others couldn't help but shudder when they heard Xue Yang utter such shocking words in such a calm tone.
Lan Qiren's beard trembled three times: "This is utterly putting the cart before the horse and disregarding all human ethics!"
Wei Wuxian: ...Why does this sound so familiar?
No one could have imagined that a boy who loved sweets, loved to laugh, loved to joke, and could even carve such adorable rabbit apples would turn into a ruthless killer.
The next day, A-Qing started nagging Xiao Xingchen early in the morning, wanting him to take her out to buy pretty clothes and cosmetics. Xue Yang complained, "If you leave, am I supposed to buy the groceries again today?"
Aqing said, "What's wrong with you buying some? The Taoist priest has bought so many times already!"
Xue Yang said, "Yes, yes, yes. I'll go buy it. I'll go right now."
After he left, Xiao Xingchen said, "A-Qing, aren't you ready yet? Can we go now?"
After confirming that Xue Yang had gone far away, A-Qing came in, closed the door, and asked in a trembling voice, "Daoist Master, do you know someone named Xue Yang?"
Xiao Xingchen's smile froze.
The name "Xue Yang" was a devastating blow to him. His face, already pale, drained completely upon hearing the name, his lips turning almost pinkish-white.
Unsure, Xiao Xingchen whispered, "...Xue Yang?"
Xue Yang was always sensitive, and every change in Xiao Xingchen's expression was deeply imprinted in his mind.
At this moment, he didn't know whether he should feel sad that Xiao Xingchen avoided his name so much, or be glad that he hadn't told Xiao Xingchen who he was all these years.
He suddenly woke up with a start: "A-Qing, how do you know this name?"
Aqing said, "This Xue Yang is the person right next to us! He's that bad guy!"
Xiao Xingchen asked in a daze, "Those around us?...Those around us..."
He shook his head, as if he were a little dizzy, and said, "How did you know?"
Ah Qing said, "I heard him kill someone!"
Xiao Xingchen asked, "He killed someone? Who did he kill?"
Aqing said, "A woman! Her voice was very young, and she was probably carrying a sword. Then Xue Yang was also hiding a sword, because I heard them fighting, the fighting was very loud. The woman called him 'Xue Yang,' and said he was a 'slaughterer,' a 'murderer,' and 'everyone should kill him.' Good heavens, this man is a murderous maniac! He's been hiding among us, we don't know what he's up to!"
A-Qing hadn't slept all night, her mind a jumble of lies. First and foremost, she couldn't let the Taoist priest know she'd killed a living person mistaking them for a walking corpse, and even more importantly, she couldn't let him know she'd personally killed Song Lan. So, despite feeling guilty towards Song Lan, she absolutely couldn't implicate him. Ideally, she'd get Xiao Xingchen to discover Xue Yang's true identity so she could escape as quickly as possible, far, far away!
But this news was too hard to accept; it sounded utterly absurd at first glance. Xiao Xingchen said, "But the voice is wrong. And..."
Aqing was so anxious that she kept poking at the bamboo pole: "His voice is wrong, he's pretending on purpose! He's afraid you'll recognize him!" Suddenly, she had a flash of inspiration and jumped up, saying, "Oh right! Right, right! He has nine fingers! Daoist, do you know? Does Xue Yang have nine fingers?"
Xiao Xingchen lost his balance.
Hearing these words again, Xiao Xingchen's mood had calmed down considerably. He just hadn't expected that A-Qing would witness Song Lan's tragic death, fight wits with Xue Yang, and even fabricate such a white lie to protect his heart.
Xiao Xingchen raised his hand and patted A-Qing's head: "Thank you, A-Qing, you've worked hard."
A-Qing raised her little head and rubbed against Xiao Xingchen's hand. The Daoist was so good to her, she had no way to repay him, and what she had done was just a drop in the ocean, it hadn't changed anything.
A-Qing quickly helped him to the table and sat him down. After a while, Xiao Xingchen said, "How do you know he has nine fingers? Have you touched his hand? If he really is Xue Yang, why would he let you touch his left hand?"
Ah Qing gritted her teeth and said, "...Taoist Master! Let me tell you the truth! I'm not blind, I can see! I didn't just bump into it. I saw it!"
Xiao Xingchen asked, slightly bewildered, "What did you say? You can see it?"
Ah Qing was frightened, but she couldn't keep quiet, so she apologized repeatedly: "I'm sorry, Taoist priest, I didn't mean to lie to you! I was afraid you'd kick me out once you found out I wasn't blind! But please don't blame me now, let's run away together. He'll be back after he finishes buying groceries!"
Suddenly, she shut her mouth.
The bandages binding Xiao Xingchen's eyes were originally snow-white, but now, two wisps of blood were seeping from them, gradually increasing until they seeped through the cloth and flowed down from his eye sockets. A-Qing screamed, "Daozhang, you're bleeding!"
Xiao Xingchen seemed to only then realize what was happening, letting out a soft "Ah," and raising his hand to touch his face, only to find his hand covered in blood. A-Qing's hand trembled as she wiped it away, but the more she wiped, the more blood flowed. Xiao Xingchen raised his hand and said, "I'm fine... I'm fine."
Previously, his eye wound would bleed whenever he overthought or became emotionally overwhelmed. But it hadn't recurred for a long time, and Wei Wuxian thought it had healed. Who knew it would bleed again today.
Seeing this, Song Lan looked at Xiao Xingchen's now clear eyes and asked anxiously, "Xingchen, are your eyes... completely healed now?"
Xiao Xingchen: "It should be so."
Xiao Niangui's figure appeared: "Master Song, please rest assured, Master Xiao's eyes are fine."
Song Lan nodded gratefully.
At this moment, Xue Yang realized that he was such a big trouble in Xiao Xingchen's heart.
At this moment, he was not happy at all because Xiao Xingchen's face was covered in blood.
Xiao Xingchen murmured, "But... but if it really is Xue Yang, how could this be? Why didn't he kill me from the beginning? Why did he stay by my side for so many years? How could this be Xue Yang?"
Ah Qing said, "At first, he didn't want to kill you! I saw his eyes, they were fierce and terrifying, but he was injured and couldn't move, he needed someone to take care of him! I don't know him. If I did, I would know he's a serial killer, and I would have stabbed him to death with a bamboo pole when he was lying in the grass! Daoist, let's run! Huh?"
Wei Wuxian sighed inwardly, "It's impossible. If we don't tell Xiao Xingchen, he'll continue to associate with Xue Yang like this. But if we do tell Xiao Xingchen, he'll never just run away; he'll confront Xue Yang face to face. There's no solution to this."
Sure enough, Xiao Xingchen managed to calm himself down and said, "A-Qing, you should go."
His voice was slightly hoarse. A-Qing said, "I'm leaving? Daoist, let's go together!"
Xiao Xingchen shook his head and said, "I'm not leaving. I need to find out what he's up to. He definitely has an ulterior motive. And it's very likely that he approached me and stayed by my side to achieve this goal. If I leave him here alone, so many people in Yicheng will fall victim to his evil deeds. Xue Yang has always been like this."
This time, A-Qing's sobs were no longer feigned. She threw the bamboo pole aside, grabbed Xiao Xingchen's leg, and said, "Me, leave? Daoist, how can I leave alone! I want to go with you. If you don't leave, I won't leave either. At worst, we'll both be killed by him. Anyway, I'll die alone out there sooner or later. If you don't want me to suffer like that, let's escape together!"
Unfortunately, once her secret of not being blind was exposed, this tactic of feigning helplessness no longer worked. Xiao Xingchen said, "A-Qing, you can see and you're smart. I believe you can do well. You don't understand how terrifying Xue Yang is. You can't stay here, you can't get any closer to him."
A-Qing's inner scream was even heard by Wei Wuxian: "I know! I know how terrifying he is!"
But she absolutely cannot reveal the whole truth!
Xiao Xingchen chuckled softly, "Nephew, you seem to understand me quite well."
Wei Wuxian: "Junior Uncle is kind-hearted. He will not abandon the injured, nor will he easily doubt the friends around him. This is fate, but also a calamity."
Wei Wuxian understood this feeling of not being able to have it all, because he had also experienced this kind of pain.
There is never anything in this world that goes exactly as one wishes. Having lived two lives, Wei Wuxian has experienced and witnessed far too many such things. Such extraordinary encounters, like the Heavenly Realm at this moment, where everything can be done as one pleases, are rare indeed.
All people can do is accept reality, but how to resolve it is a skill.
Suddenly, a series of light footsteps came from afar.
Xue Yang is back!
Xiao Xingchen looked up with a start, regaining his sharp mind from the night hunt. He pulled A-Qing closer and whispered, "When he comes in, I'll deal with him. You take the opportunity to escape immediately, listen to me!"
A-Qing nodded tearfully. Xue Yang kicked the door and said, "What are you doing? I'm back, haven't you left yet? If you haven't left, open the latch and let me in. I'm exhausted."
Just by listening to that voice and tone, he seemed like a friendly, lively young boy next door. But who would have thought that at this very moment, standing outside the door was a ruthless, inhuman monster, a demon wearing a handsome human skin, walking like a human, and speaking human language!
The door wasn't locked, but it was bolted from the inside. If they didn't open it soon, Xue Yang would definitely become suspicious. Then, when he entered, he would be wary. A-Qing wiped her face, pretending to be nonchalant, and scolded, "Tired my foot! Buying groceries is a little longer, and you're tired after walking a bit?! It'll take you a while to change your clothes, will it cost you a piece of your body?!"
Xue Yang said disdainfully, "How many clothes do you have in total? You always wear the same thing no matter how many times you change. Open the door, open the door."
Ah Qing's legs were trembling, but she said firmly, "Pah! I won't open it for you, go ahead and kick it if you dare!"
Xue Yang laughed and said, "You said it yourself. Daoist, when you go and repair the gate, don't blame me."
Having said that, he kicked the wooden door open, stepped over the high threshold, and entered the house. In one hand he carried a full basket of vegetables, and in the other held a bright red apple. He had just taken a bite when he looked down and saw the Frostflower Sword embedded in his abdomen.
Before Xiao Niangui's empathy was resolved, everyone felt a sudden pain in their abdomen.
Xue Yang felt the pain again, but his mind was replaying what he was thinking at that moment that day.
The first moment must have felt pain, but the next second, it was as if he was shocked or incredulous, as if the sword had been stabbed by a loved one. But he forgot that what he had done was enough for Xiao Xingchen to cut him into a thousand pieces.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
