Chapter 43 I'm lending you this hand. Hurry up, young master, I'll take you home.
Who is that person to you?
"..."
As if struck by a sudden inspiration, the young man from the Shen family asked a question in a calm and unhurried manner.
I was speechless for a moment upon hearing this, and did not know how to respond.
—Yes, what exactly is my relationship with Li Xiao?
He is the eldest son of the Li family, an old friend of Young Master Lan, and a distinguished guest of Huayue Tower. As for me... I am a servant personally selected by Young Master Lan. It was only because of Young Master Lan's kindness that I was able to escape the life of being bullied in the past and even have my own place in the tower.
Li Xiao and I met because of Young Master Lan.
Li Xiao should have looked down on someone like me, but for the sake of Young Master Lan, he gradually seemed less resistant. We chatted and ate at the same table, slept in the same bed on the coldest winter nights, and even when we fell down the steps together, it was Li Xiao who used his arm to protect me...
All of this naturally originated from Young Master Lan, but it seems that it was not only because of Young Master Lan.
otherwise……
A voice timidly whispered in her heart: Otherwise, Li Xiao probably wouldn't have shown up tonight, right?
I know I shouldn't have any improper thoughts, but I just can't seem to stop thinking about it. Because actually...
Seeing my dull and silent demeanor, the other person didn't seem to find it disappointing at all.
"Can't figure it out? Let me guess: a family member, a friend, or perhaps... a lover?"
I don't know if it was just my imagination, but when the young man from the Shen family mentioned the last word, he seemed to emphasize it slightly and paused for a moment.
My heart seemed to skip a beat.
I unconsciously raised my eyes, and the boy's silhouette was illuminated by the lights behind him, as if plated with a layer of soft pink gold. I saw his dark and calm eyes, which were clearly a few degrees deeper than the night.
Her eyes were very beautiful, and because of the dim light, they looked almost identical to the senior sister in my dream.
I quickly looked away and finally found my voice again.
"...No."
Once the first sentence is uttered, the rest seems to fall into place naturally.
"It's not what you think. The person who gave me the gift was neither a relative nor my lover, but a guest."
"Guest?" The young man from the Shen family repeated the word, looking at me with some curiosity.
"yes."
Meeting that gaze, I suddenly smiled. I didn't really know why I was smiling, but the smile was like a mask that had suddenly appeared on my face, and I couldn't suppress it no matter what I did.
I just laughed nonsensically and pointed to a tall building in the flickering lights.
“Look, that’s where I came from.”
At the same time, my tone inexplicably rose, even becoming somewhat obsequious.
"Huayue Tower, I'm sure you know about it. Everyone who lives here knows that place. You might even have patronized it. By the way, you do look somewhat familiar. Perhaps we've actually crossed paths there before, though you've forgotten, I still remember—"
"We've met before."
A casual remark from the young master of the Shen family froze me in place.
My smile finally crumbled. A night breeze blew by, and I felt my blood run cold.
My cheek stung for a moment.
"Really?" I managed to squeeze out the words.
"Yeah, on the day of the first snow last year, I felt like someone was watching me when I was at the door. When I got on my horse, I took another look and saw someone standing behind the window. It must have been you, right?"
The young man from the Shen family spoke nonchalantly, as if I were the only one kept in the dark from the beginning.
"Another time, in the courtyard, you were being held, and you were huddled behind a cloak, which almost completely covered your face. But I remember your eyes; they weren't the look a person should have when meeting a stranger. So I remembered what I saw on horseback before. Although it was a bit far away, the body shape and outline matched."
I listened intently to the other person's calm voice, unsure whether to panic or be surprised. How could someone have such good observation and memory?
"When I recognized you just now, I kept wondering if it was a coincidence or..."
At this point, the young man from the Shen family suddenly stopped talking, his gaze lingering on my face for a long time, as if he were judging something.
Holding the lantern in my arms, I felt a chill run down my spine, and my clenched palms were sweating profusely.
I knew what his unspoken guess was. I could also tell that the sword at the other man's waist was not just for show.
I didn't know much about the young man from the Shen family, but I had a gut feeling that he exuded a strange and dangerous aura. Although they both seemed to be young masters from prestigious families, this person was fundamentally different from Li Xiao.
Li Xiao's almost childlike arrogance makes him look like a tiger from afar, but only when you get closer can you see that he is a cat with its teeth bared. Cats can be temperamental and bite, and they can scratch you until you bleed if you disagree with them, but even the fiercest cats have never been known to eat people.
If you coax them well, they might even roll over lazily in front of you.
The young man before him was the complete opposite. He was gentle and calm, speaking slowly and deliberately, much like the sword at his waist—long, beautiful, and even adorned with vibrant ornaments. It made one almost forget that swords, though silent, are born to draw blood.
My heart was pounding, this time with nervousness and worry. I wondered what would happen if the other person thought I was approaching them with ill intentions.
Just as I was about to turn around and run away in unease, the boy spoke again, this time with a slightly casual smile.
"But judging from your expression just now, it seems you don't want me to recognize you. Why?" the boy suddenly asked.
"...Why what?" I asked, forcing myself to answer.
"You seem to care a lot, yet you always hide in the shadows, not wanting to be discovered. Is it because I'm not the person you truly want to see?"
Upon hearing this, I almost cried out.
How could he?!
Could it be that this young man truly has some hidden connection with the woman in my dream? Could it be that this person actually knows something?
My mind was churning with a storm of thoughts, but I just stared at the other person, unsure of where to begin.
"Don't look at me like that." The young man from the Shen family suddenly curled his lips, revealing a slightly troubled expression. "As if I'm some rare monster."
"No, no, I... I just don't understand how you could..."
"Looks like we guessed right," the young master of the Shen family said softly.
—You guessed right.
Was he just guessing?
I was somewhat surprised and disappointed, but looking back, this is a more reasonable explanation.
"Speaking of which, the person who hugged you that day was probably the one who gave you the gift, right? Did he know the person you saw in me?"
Listening to the boy's casual tone, I had a strange feeling that we had known each other for a long time.
“No, he won’t know,” I shook my head. “It was just a dream of mine after all.”
"Is that so?" The young man from the Shen family smiled noncommittally upon hearing this, not pressing the matter of the dream, but simply saying, "Then you'd better hide it well, after all—"
His voice softened, and I instinctively leaned closer. Then I heard him whisper in my ear, word by word, "Some people can't stand hearing this."
I was stunned, and before I could react to what the other person meant, I heard a familiar voice.
—It's Li Xiao.
He appeared out of nowhere. His hair and clothes were somewhat disheveled. Only his pair of emerald green eyes seemed brighter than usual, almost as if they were about to burst forth with flames of hatred.
"What are you doing?!" Li Xiao shouted through gritted teeth, then glared fiercely at me, who was standing there dumbfounded, looking at me with a look of utter disappointment. "What are you standing there for? Get over here right now!"
Upon hearing this, I belatedly recalled the grudges between Li Xiao and the young man from the Shen family that I had heard before.
I instinctively wanted to walk that way, but the person next to me gently tugged at my sleeve and whispered in my ear, "If you miss this face, you're welcome to come see me anytime. In some ways, I'm much better than my petty cousin."
Before I could answer, my arm was yanked hard, and I stumbled and bumped into someone.
Instantly, I was enveloped in the sweet fragrance of pears.
I rubbed my sore nose as I climbed off Li Xiao. I didn't have a nosebleed, but I was still badly hurt. Also, the spot where my arm was pulled was probably bruised.
"What's wrong? Does it hurt a lot?"
Li Xiao asked instinctively, then suddenly slammed on the brakes as if he had just remembered something, lowered his voice and changed his tone somewhat stiffly: "But you deserve it, who told you to get so close to that kind of guy? Do you even know who he is? You'd better be careful you don't even know how you died."
Despite his words, Li Xiao loosened his grip and tentatively touched the spot he had been holding.
"It's...it's alright," I replied softly, gasping for breath.
Li Xiao rolled his eyes: "Do you think I'm deaf or blind to be lying through my teeth like this?"
I swallowed hard and admitted, "Actually... there is a little bit."
Li Xiao nodded and gave a soft hum: "That's more like it."
I could tell that his mood had improved somewhat, and feeling a little more at ease, I glanced back and saw that the young man from the Shen family, dressed in black, had already left.
Only the brilliant fireworks in the distance remained, still bursting and exploding wildly in the sky.
"Just now..." I remembered Li Xiao's sudden disappearance, and the emptiness in my heart still seemed to linger, but I didn't know where to start asking.
Li Xiao immediately saw through my thoughts.
"I only turned around for a moment, and you disappeared, making me search for you with bated breath, wondering if something had happened to you. But here you are, chatting and laughing with someone."
Listening to Li Xiao's eloquent explanation, I almost forgot that I was chasing after this young master who had suddenly turned his back on me. That's why I got lost in the crowded throng and almost fell in the shoving, nearly being trampled by the crowd.
"I almost fell in the crowd just now, and that young master helped me out."
I lowered my eyes and softly explained, "Of course I should thank them for helping me. Besides, Young Master Li, you walked so fast earlier, and I tried my best to catch up, but I just couldn't..."
I'm not as tall as him, and I have an old leg injury, so I usually don't have the chance to step out of the building. In tonight's chaotic and crowded environment, how difficult it is to keep up with a healthy, able-bodied person like Li Xiao is something Li Xiao knows to some extent.
But in Li Xiao's eyes, it all seemed to be my fault.
It was my sudden disappearance that made him worry, and when Li Xiao was anxiously looking for me, I acted like nothing had happened and deliberately hid in a corner, chatting idly with unrelated people.
I had already asked Mr. Ajiu to pass on the message, and I was prepared to spend the Lantern Festival alone... but Li Xiao just had to come.
He appeared on his own initiative, offered to give me a gift, and then suddenly turned and disappeared into the crowd without a word... From beginning to end, I was just being led by the nose and following behind him, trying to figure out why the boy had come.
I even began to suspect that Li Xiao's strange behavior before was just a pretext to make things difficult for me at this moment.
When Li Xiao heard me say that, he seemed a little surprised and raised his eyebrows to look me up and down.
After a pause, he suddenly chuckled: "Since when have you learned to talk back?"
I didn't answer, but just listened to the distant fireworks shooting into the sky and bursting open in the night with loud explosions, and felt that the sound was so distant that it seemed to be coming from another world.
Suddenly, for no apparent reason, I wondered if that young man named Yu Qingzhou had also seen similar fireworks on a Lantern Festival one year. Was the person beside him Senior Sister Yingxue, or that boy with heterochromia who looked very similar to Li Xiao, or perhaps, no one at all...
"I was just... stating the facts. I apologize if this offended Young Master Li." I lowered my head as I spoke, so I didn't see Li Xiao's expression at that moment.
It felt like quite a while before I heard the other party's reply: "A verbal apology is hardly sincere."
"..."
"Or perhaps, your apologies are just words, and you don't really mean it in your heart."
As the boy recounted his story, I felt as if my thoughts had been guessed and fell silent.
In situations like this, just leave it at that.
And let's put an end to tonight's events here—I want to go back. After staying in this building for so long, the outside world has become unfamiliar and unpredictable to me.
It's like a pair of eyes accustomed to darkness suddenly encountering light; even if it's not the sun, but just a faint candle flame, it will sting and bring tears to one's eyes.
But Li Xiao wouldn't let me stay silent.
He pinched my chin with his cold fingers, forcing me to look up and take in the expression on my face.
I noticed that Li Xiao's smile paused for a moment.
The boy first raised his eyebrows and clicked his tongue, then let out a soft sigh that seemed to be out of helplessness.
"Look at you, you seem quite aggrieved. Fine, I'm a magnanimous young master, I won't stoop to your level."
As he spoke, Li Xiao stretched out a hand towards me.
I stared at that fair hand with its distinct knuckles for a while, not quite understanding what it was, and then looked up blankly at the boy, who coughed lightly.
"Here, take this hand. Hold on tight, young master, I'll take you home."
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