Chapter 107 His sleeve was tugged again; it was Li Nian who pulled him.
"You cried."
Lan Yunzhi ignored the tear stains on her face and instead reached out to wipe away the tear tracks on Pipa's face.
He looked at the boy with a mixture of confusion and pity.
"Can you tell me why you're crying?"
Pipa shook his head. Even he himself didn't know, so how could he tell the other person?
"actually……"
After thinking for a moment, he finally spoke up: "Rather than looking at what's behind the wall, I'd rather leave this place."
The room fell silent instantly upon hearing this.
Only the flickering candlelight crackled softly.
Lan Yunzhi suddenly tightened her grip on the boy's hand, so hard that the latter couldn't help but frown and instinctively tried to break free.
Sensing the loquat's resistance, Lan Yunzhi seemed to suddenly come to her senses, and carefully examined the boy's palm, as if afraid of hurting him.
Seeing the other person's cautious and timid demeanor, Pipa couldn't quite describe how she felt.
Although he did dislike Lan Yunzhi's actions and felt they were unnecessary, he couldn't truly hate Lan Yunzhi.
Whether it was the former Young Master Lan or the boy named Li Nian.
He felt both gratitude and respect for the former loquat, but he was not familiar with the latter, and he refrained from commenting on someone he didn't know.
"Don't look anymore, it's nothing," Pipa said, looking down at the silent young man.
Lan Yunzhi remained silent for a moment, then murmured softly, "Then why leave?"
Pipa didn't quite understand the connection between the two sentences.
Lan Yunzhi continued, seemingly oblivious to his surroundings, "Those who hurt you will receive their due punishment. From now on, here, by my side, no one will be able to do anything to you again. Why—"
At this point, Lan Yunzhi's tone suddenly turned somber: "Can't you just stay here obediently?"
Pipa could tell that something was definitely wrong with the other person's attitude. Reason told him that now was not the time to argue with the young man.
Pipa then gently called out to Lan Yunzhi, attempting to end the current topic.
But Lan Yunzhi was clearly out of sorts, muttering something like, "Isn't it good to live happily with me...?" which made Pipa feel very uncomfortable.
"That's not the issue."
Pipa softened her tone and patiently persuaded, "I'm not leaving now. So, let's not talk about this anymore, okay?"
"What's the problem?"
Lan Yunzhi suddenly raised his head and stared intently into the boy's eyes as he asked. He seemed to have suddenly gotten stuck in a rut, unable to extricate himself from some kind of entanglement.
Pipa was taken aback by the question. It was just a casual remark to ease the atmosphere, and it couldn't withstand such probing.
Even someone as good-natured as Pipa couldn't help but feel a bit of a headache facing Lan Yunzhi like this.
For a moment, I didn't know what to say.
Lan Yunzhi seemed to have deciphered some possibility from the boy's silence, or rather, what he thought was the truth.
The young man's eyes suddenly darkened, but the corners of his mouth turned up in a wide smile.
He stepped back as he stood up, widening the distance between them.
"Who is it for this time?"
Lan Yunzhi slowly uttered these words, and then began to announce the names: "Is it Li Xiao, Shen Yun, Lu Qingyao... or someone I don't know?"
Pipa was completely confused.
His decision to leave was his own; what does it have to do with these people?
But the young man in front of him seemed convinced that this was the truth.
Her expression turned angry: "Why?! Why are you so lenient with everyone else, but so cruel to me—"
In his excitement, the young man swept his hand and knocked over an oil lamp beside the bed.
The bronze candlestick crashed to the ground with a thud, spilling lamp oil that snaked orange flames across the floor.
The room was filled with flammable books.
Pipa was completely unsure whether to put out the fire first or check the other person's hand injury.
The young man, however, seemed completely oblivious, shaking his head as if in great pain.
“I had already… I had already convinced myself not to pursue those things anymore. If you like Li Xiao, I will have someone rescue him. If you like Shen Yun, I will keep the entire Shen family alive. Even that girl Lu Qingyao, I will let her live a good life as a young lady.”
"..."
"But why...why do you still want to leave even after all this? You still can't accept me, even though I promise I'll never do anything you don't want to do...you still...you still won't agree to me. Why! Why! Why!"
The young man seemed to be extremely angry, his chest heaving and his eyes red. Suddenly, he turned around and swept everything upside down, throwing all the writing brushes, ink, paper, inkstones, and decorative trinkets on the table and shelf onto the ground.
After doing all this, the young man seemed to have all his strength suddenly drained away, and he slumped back against the chair and slumped down.
The sound of scattered footsteps could be heard outside.
Pipa saw several shadows reflected on the door, and guessed that they must have been attracted by the commotion inside the house.
But no one dared to enter without the permission of the people inside.
A series of rapid knocks sounded on the door, followed by a deep, low male voice.
—That's Mr. Ajiu's voice.
Pipa was initially surprised, but then she realized what was happening.
That makes sense. Since Ah Liu is working for Lan Yunzhi, it's not surprising that his companion, Mr. Ah Jiu, would be here.
It's just unknown whether Mr. Ajiu knows Aliu's secret, or whether they are actually the same kind of inhuman beings.
Ah-Jiu cautiously inquired from outside the door what had happened and whether she needed to come in to check.
Then I heard a voice that was calm but tinged with deep weariness.
"It's nothing, you may leave," the young man said, his intention to dismiss the guest quite clear.
Ah Jiu respectfully acknowledged, then paused, as if still somewhat uneasy.
But in the end, he said nothing.
Having followed the young man for so many years, he and Ah Liu had long witnessed the madness in his bones.
His companion, Ah Liu, has already lost his life due to his transgression, and it is unknown when he will recover.
Therefore, it's best not to rush in and risk offending them at this moment.
Ajiu knew that the boy named Pipa was also in the house, and she also knew that all of this was most likely caused by the boy.
Many things, Ah Jiu felt, had happened so many years ago—although they had never truly died during that time, it felt as distant as a past life.
However, neither Yun Zhi nor that person could forget it. In fact, as time went by, their obsession deepened to the point that they seemed to be heading towards demonic possession.
Thinking of this, Ajiu secretly felt a pang of worry for Pipa.
He sighed, hoping the boy would get through the rest of the days safely.
I also hope that if we could do it all over again, this group of people wouldn't repeat the same mistakes.
Ah Jiu still left with her people.
Hearing the sounds of the person outside leaving, Pipa got up and got out of bed.
Then, under the silent gaze of the young man, he methodically tidied up the mess in the room.
He was originally a servant, so cleaning rooms was something he was very good at.
In the blink of an eye, the flames on the ground were extinguished, and everything was put back in its original place.
From a tiny paperweight to a heavy ancient book...
Pipa's steps were slow, but her movements were nimble.
Before long, the messy interior was transformed. While it might not be the most pleasing to the eye, it was at least presentable.
Just as Pipa was about to bend down to pick up an item that had rolled into the corner, his arm was suddenly pulled from the side.
"...This is not something you should be doing."
Lan Yunzhi murmured softly in a hoarse voice, seemingly having completely calmed down.
"There's no such thing as 'should' or 'shouldn't'," Pipa replied calmly.
He paused for a moment and then said, "Loquat doesn't have any special skills. Since we're here and eating the local food, we'll do whatever little things we can."
Upon hearing this, the young man leaning against the armrest of his chair paused for a moment, then his previous dejected demeanor vanished.
Her eyes lit up as she looked at the loquat: "You promised me you'd stay?"
He watched the boy anxiously, like a prisoner awaiting a death sentence, until he saw the boy nod.
He finally breathed a huge sigh of relief.
"That's great...that's great..."
Listening to the young man's quiet mutterings, as if he had just survived a disaster, Pipa became even more certain that the person currently in control of the body in front of her was the boy named Li Nian.
For some reason, it seems that two souls reside within the body that originally belonged to Lan Yunzhi.
One was the young master Lan, whom he knew well, and the other was a young monarch he had met once before.
What exactly happened?
Recalling the conditions that needed to bring Ah Liu back to life, which she had learned from the other party, Pipa thought of a possibility.
—Perhaps, the parasitism failed.
Or rather, it was not a complete success. After all, Li Nian, as an outsider, was living well in Lan Yunzhi's body, and even took control of the body in most cases.
As Pipa was thinking this, his sleeve was tugged again; it was Li Nian who pulled him.
After confirming his idea, he was able to distinguish the two people by their expressions and movements in a short time.
After all, there are still significant differences between the two people.
Young Master Lan is calm and reserved, carefully considering every word and action before acting.
As for Li Nian... to use a somewhat inappropriate analogy, she is quite similar to Li Xiao in personality; they both have childish tempers.
However, compared to the real Li Xiao, he is more gloomy and unpredictable.
Thinking of Li Xiao, whom he had met during the day, Pipa felt a mix of emotions. It seemed that the other party had completely forgotten him, and his heart and eyes were filled with that Taoist Master Yu, and he even regarded him directly as the other party.
"……May I?"
Li Nian, wearing Lan Yunzhi's face, asked softly.
Pipa had been a little distracted and therefore hadn't paid attention to what the other person was saying.
"Sorry, I didn't quite catch what you said." Pipa pointed to her deaf ear. "I can't hear this ear."
Upon hearing this, a clear look of heartache crossed the young man's face.
"I'm sorry. It's my fault for not being able to..."
Pipa didn't really want to hear the other person's self-reflection.
What's done is done. Since it's his fate, no one else needs to take responsibility.
“It’s all in the past,” he said, then asked the other person what they were trying to say.
Unexpectedly, the young man who had been acting crazy all over the room suddenly became a little embarrassed after being asked this question.
"I... no, it's me."
The young man paused, then suddenly said somewhat awkwardly, "I mean, I'm not leaving tonight."
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