Five Miles of Fog (Part 7)
Chapter Seventeen
“A-Ling doesn’t like her master talking to other people.”
Xie Yuan swallowed hard. No way, she guessed wrong again? Was it because of her? But she was just asking for directions normally!
Song Ling rested her chin on her hand, gazing at her with a faint smile, "But it always seems like there are so many people around Master..."
Song Ling's words had a hidden meaning, which Xie Yuan could easily understand.
Even though she considered herself a "well-informed" master, she was always caught off guard by his dangerous remarks. She had just taken a sip of her freshly poured tea when she turned around and spat it out, "Pfft, cough cough cough..."
Song Ling had expected this, and calmly got up and sat down next to her, patting her back to help her catch her breath, asking with concern, "Master, are you alright?"
Xie Yuan smiled wryly: Now she finally understood why being a master was such a high-risk profession...
Even if she were a fool, she couldn't possibly not realize that her little apprentice was testing her ability to handle that matter.
She'd read quite a few master-disciple novels, mostly those with forced love, often featuring a morally upright master and a disciple driven mad by unrequited love. The basic plot usually involved either her running away while he chased, or vice versa...
As a transmigrator, she didn't have many rules, nor was it that she couldn't accept being with her disciple.
But my feelings were extremely complicated, and I couldn't quite put my finger on it.
From Xie Yuan's perspective, she adopted Song Ling when he was three years old at the age of seventeen and raised him from such a tiny little baby to nine years old. Everything she experienced during that time is still vivid in her mind, as if it were yesterday.
She really liked this disciple, otherwise she wouldn't have resolutely sacrificed her lifespan to alter the plot back then.
She died and was seamlessly reborn ten years later, in the blink of an eye. Her disciple was already nineteen, while she, as the master, remained only seventeen. Who could she complain to about this...?
He was only nine years old when she died!
He likes her?!
She still can't figure out which step went wrong.
Xie Yuan wouldn't say she understood her apprentice 100%, but she understood at least 50% or 60%.
Why?
Because Song Ling had genuinely wanted to kill her.
Only through personal experience will you realize that redemption is not as simple as it's portrayed in novels or books, nor is it merely about completing tasks with the help of a system; it's a matter of life and death in an instant...
Xie Yuan's expectations of Song Ling in the past were quite low. He was willing to restrain his original nature, stay by her side obediently, and listen to her. In her opinion, that was already very good. Anyway, she couldn't care less about what happened after her death, and she never thought that she would be reborn.
She knew that her affection for Song Ling always far exceeded her rationality, and now she was being pestered by him every day.
She seemed to be starting to lose sight of whether her feelings for him were those of a teacher and student, or something else entirely...
Wait, why can't she tell the difference? They're just a simple master and disciple! Why would she have doubts?
No way, no way!
Xie Yuan suddenly realized this, sat up abruptly, covered her face with her hands in despair, and forced out two words through gritted teeth, "It's nothing..."
On the surface, she maintained a calm and composed demeanor, but inside she was screaming like a desperate groundhog!
How could this be!
If things continue like this, it's only a matter of time before she falls for him!
"Master, are you feeling unwell? Let me see."
Xie Yuan's left wrist was loosely held by the boy, who moved closer to her with an extremely natural air. Her breath was filled with his pleasant, unidentified cool fragrance. She hadn't felt anything was wrong when he had held her hand, hugged her, and snuggled into her arms like a child, but now she felt as if she had been electrocuted in the spot where he was holding her. It was so strange! What was wrong with her?
Xie Yuan felt a little desperate. Waaaaah, she regretted it. This kind of thing really wasn't suitable to think about too much. It would have been better not to have realized it at all.
The girl's snowy cheeks flushed a light pink, and she forced herself to fan her face with her other hand. "No, I just feel a little hot."
"oh."
"Master, it hurts!"
Song Ling clutched her forehead in pain as she was flicked on the head, looking at her with a pitiful expression.
"What do you mean, 'oh'?!" Xie Yuan was exasperated. If he really understood, he wouldn't be spouting such outrageous remarks every day! "Anyway, these words..."
"These are things you can never say again, and you don't want to hear me mention them, do you? As expected, even Master hates me like this..."
Xie Yuan's eyes widened in disbelief. How could he steal her lines?!
He's already said everything, so what else is there for her to say?!
"No, I didn't..." Xie Yuan stammered, feeling guilty.
The way his eyes curled upwards when he cried was beautiful, and his eyes would become misty, with a beautiful and intoxicating blush around his eyes. She had never seen anyone cry so beautifully, like something out of a TV drama, both beautiful and heartbreaking.
Xie Yuan felt guilty because, to be honest, she quite enjoyed watching him cry, although she usually couldn't hold back for long before she couldn't help but comfort him.
To describe the feeling specifically, it's like a little white puppy about to be abandoned by its owner, whimpering and refusing to leave, stubbornly clinging to its owner's trouser leg...
Who could possibly be so heartless?
Even the most hard-hearted person couldn't do that!
The idea that she had made up her mind to cut off his relationship with him vanished in an instant.
Whenever Song Ling cries, she feels an inexplicable surge of guilt; she's made him cry countless times lately...
What kind of person is she, as the master, who always makes her apprentice cry?
Song Ling once again managed to hug the girl's slender waist tightly, resting her head on her shoulder and sobbing softly.
“A-Ling loves Master the most…” A subtle smile flashed across the boy’s lips.
"Mmm, I like it, I like it too! Are you satisfied now!"
Xie Yuan shook her head helplessly, completely at a loss with him. Ah Ling was too good at acting cute; she had never thought she would fall for it before...
Now you've been proven wrong by how delicious it is, isn't that amazing?
——
Song Ling said his mission was to find a kind of evil magic that a traitor had stolen from the organization's secret chamber.
This evil art allows even those who don't know how to use Gu to easily manipulate people's minds. Its most sinister aspect is that it can steal the lifespan of the person being parasitized to prolong the host's life, thus achieving the goal of immortality.
Xie Yuan's expression grew more and more solemn as she listened. Wasn't this the art of controlling Gu poison?
In her past life, she had spent a lot of time and effort on this thing, after all, it was one of the reasons for Song Ling's descent into darkness.
In the original story, the art of controlling Gu was tailor-made for Song Ling and is the most suitable technique for people born with Gu bodies to cultivate. However, the side effect is that it is very easy to generate inner demons and amplify all the malice he has encountered in his heart, causing him to lose his mind in countless hardships, completely fall into demonic ways, and become a madman who only knows how to kill.
Song Ling was originally created as a stepping stone to highlight the protagonist's glory in order to save the world. The author who wrote him deliberately ruined his character to match his suffering, thus paving the way for his later descent into darkness. He was as miserable as could be.
Even though Xie Yuan had forgotten most of the plot, she still vividly remembered the anger and rage she felt at the time.
She couldn't understand this insane setting and the idiotic system that, in order to maintain the operation of this so-called world in the book, made her kill a three-year-old child who had done nothing, just because he was the villain and wouldn't actually die. This was just to advance the plot and increase his "darkening value".
That was why the system told her to do that at the time.
Xie Yuan, having transmigrated to this world seventeen years ago, has met her mentor and made many like-minded friends. In her eyes, this is no longer just a world from a book; everyone here is a living, breathing individual who can cry, laugh, shed tears, and even die...
For the past seventeen years, she has lived a carefree and happy life, fulfilling all the unattainable dreams she had in modern times.
For her, those seventeen years were like stolen time...
Because she only put on the book before she died.
The system said that as long as she completes the mission, it can give her a healthy body in the modern world and bring her back to life.
But she didn't want to leave...
Everything here made her feel an unprecedented sense of joy, and since she was all alone, home was wherever she was.
It doesn't matter whether I go back or not.
But the system got impatient and insisted that she complete the task, even threatening to annihilate her soul.
Little did they know that Xie Yuan was not afraid of death; as the saying goes, a young man who is not reckless is not a true youth.
She really liked that quote she had seen in modern times.
In this life, one should always do one's best for something that one believes is worthwhile, even if there is no result, one should only seek to have no regrets.
Unfortunately, in modern times, she can't even step out of that small hospital room...
His short life ended just before he turned eighteen and came of age.
After transmigrating into the book, she was given a brand new life. She became one of the characters in the martial arts novel she had always loved, and lived happily and freely for seventeen years.
Her master once told her fortune.
She was said to be all alone, with no ties to her family.
Xie Yuan smiled dismissively after hearing this. The divination was correct; this was indeed her former self.
The mission led her to meet Song.
A villain destined to be evil, a major antagonist deeply hated by the world, he was only three years old at the time, yet countless iron chains pierced through his small body.
He was like her, once bound to a sickbed by the shackles of fate, finally left all alone to await the inevitable end.
At that moment, Xie Yuan made a bold decision.
For herself, who had no ties to the world, and for him, who was destined to die a horrible death.
They are all waiting for an unpredictable variable in the future.
Now the opportunity has arrived.
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