Chapter 109 From this moment on, you are free.
When she saw that face, Pipa was momentarily dazed.
However, he quickly discerned from the other person's eyes that the person in front of him was Young Master Lan, not Li Nian.
This discovery should have been a relief for loquat, but the opposite was true.
Perhaps it's because Li Nian has some of the same childlike qualities as Li Xiao.
Although they may sometimes show a slight aggression, most of the time they are simple and easy to guess, and once the corresponding behavioral patterns are understood, there are strategies to deal with them.
And Young Master Lan...
Pipa never understood what Lan Yunzhi was thinking.
Like a bottomless river, those on the surface can never see the undercurrents at the bottom, and any attempt to explore it is like throwing a small pebble into it.
You watched it disappear into the water without making a ripple.
There was only quiet silence.
Perhaps, at the beginning of their encounter, when Lan Yunzhi chose him from a group of teenagers for some reason—perhaps as Li Xiao said, out of love for the house and its crows.
Their roles were then assigned accordingly.
The chooser and the chosen...
Redeemer and Redeemed...
Without exception, the loquat is always the one looking up at the other from its lowest point.
It wasn't because Lan Yunzhi was particularly high and mighty, but simply because of the perfect timing and circumstances.
As mentioned before, Pipa's admiration for Orchid Prince carries a sense of looking up to him.
Admiration without any blasphemy is like the world's reverence for the Bodhisattva on the lotus throne.
You know that He is beautiful, good, and virtuous, yet you do not feel the slightest contempt for Him, because when you worship Him as a deity, there is always a trace of awe in your heart.
That's how Pipa felt about Lan Yunzhi.
Back in the Flower Moon Pavilion, Young Master Lan was like a clay idol crossing a river. Pipa was a servant under him, and because of Young Master Lan's care, he was spared from hunger and beatings, so naturally he was grateful.
Now that the Bodhisattva has attained true form, washing away the mud and mire, revealing his golden and precious self, the loquat remains the same loquat. However, without the master-servant relationship written into the contract, he suddenly finds himself unsure how to interact with the other.
Especially now, the two of them are lying intimately in the same bed.
The loquat's handprint was still clearly visible on that fair face, bright red and glaring.
His hand was still shamelessly pinching the other person's smooth cheek.
"Young Master Lan...?"
Pipa didn't know what to say. Would saying "good morning" seem too perfunctory? Would apologizing immediately be annoying?
In the end, he could only stammer out "Young Master Lan".
Rather than a result of careful consideration, it seems more like an instinctive reaction after the brain has stopped functioning.
"Yes, good morning." Lan Yunzhi nodded, just like every ordinary morning before.
The young man should have woken up long ago, washed up, and changed into an elegant blue outfit, making him even more like the young master Lan from his memory.
Except for that unsightly handprint.
Pipa thought, "He really deserves to die."
"Let's apply some medicine. Although the skin isn't broken, it's still—"
"Did you have another nightmare?"
Lan Yunzhi interrupted the boy's hurried words, staring at him intently without blinking: "You looked terrible just now, even worse than before."
When they were at Huayue Tower, Lan Yunzhi knew that Pipa often had nightmares.
Although Pipa never told Lan Yunzhi what she had dreamed about, Lan Yunzhi remembered it and still remembers it now.
This surprised and touched Pipa.
"It was nothing, I don't even remember what I dreamt about." He chuckled and touched the tip of his nose.
When I looked up and met those still, calm eyes, I couldn't smile anymore.
Lan Yunzhi realized he was lying.
But what's the point of saying it?
Ultimately, it's nothing more than some unfounded fantasies.
He couldn't very well tell Lan Yunzhi that he dreamt he woke up in a place that felt like hell, and that in that dream, reality here was a long and vivid dream.
And you... are just a character I created in my dream.
Such statements only seem absurd and ridiculous.
Perhaps you'll even be labeled as someone who overthinks.
Then it was glossed over lightly.
But none of this is a reason to stop Pipa from telling the truth.
His real concern...
Or rather, what he truly fears is being taken seriously.
He feared that if he were to reveal the contents of his dream, Lan Yunzhi would not only not laugh it off, but would also nod in agreement and tell him—yes, everything he saw was a dream.
Then, the so-called reality will collapse right before your eyes.
Instead, there was a boundless world made up of dark red, writhing flesh.
And he was caught in it, with nowhere to escape...
—If that happens, he'll definitely go crazy.
"Loquat?"
Pipa forced herself to pull herself out of her terrible thoughts, just in time to hear Lan Yunzhi call her name.
He was calling for loquat.
"If you're not feeling well, why don't you sleep a little longer?" Lan Yunzhi said considerately. "There's nothing else to do anyway."
When he said that, Pipa actually thought of something.
My temples were throbbing, and I could almost feel the nail polished fingertips gently poking at them.
"Oh no... Aunt Xun..."
Pipa almost forgot why she came out of Huayue Tower in the first place.
By the time that day and night had passed, Aunt Xun must have cursed him at least a hundred and eighty times in her heart and mouth.
"I have to go back—"
Putting everything else aside, Pipa also wants to get back her indenture.
But halfway through lifting the blanket, Pipa stopped again. He remembered that to redeem himself, someone outside the building had to negotiate the ransom.
Not long ago, he had assigned the task of withdrawing money to Zhuzhu, but Zhuzhu failed to do so.
She even secretly revealed to the person in front of her that she was going to leave alone...
"If you're worried about the Flower Moon Pavilion, then you can stop here. In fact, I went there myself yesterday for that very reason."
As Lan Yunzhi spoke, she took out a folded piece of paper from her sleeve.
It was then unfolded and handed to the boy.
The paper was slightly yellowed, and it clearly stated the time when the loquat entered the building, the amount of the transaction, the relevant additional conditions, and the signatures and fingerprints of the person in charge and the loquat herself.
This piece of paper is both familiar and unfamiliar to the loquat.
What makes it so familiar is that over the years, Pipa has always thought about bringing it back from time to time.
The strangeness lies in the fact that he has only seen this piece of paper once, and that was when he pressed his fingerprint on it.
Seeing this, Pipa instinctively reached out to take it, but Lan Yunzhi put it directly into the incense burner and lit it.
The paper burned quickly to ashes, which mixed with the incense ash and became an inconspicuous clump.
Pipa stared blankly at the piece of paper she had longed for for so many years, which had burned to ashes before she could even hold it in her hand. It felt utterly unreal.
"From this moment on, you are free."
Lan Yunzhi's voice rang close to my ear, gentle and soft, with a certain bewitching magic... making me want to nod in agreement.
However, when Pipa looked again into those eyes as calm as a lake...
In that instant, he felt as if he had become that small pebble, falling silently and being swallowed up without a sound.
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