Chapter 21
Liang Siqing liked Ai Yi's pretty face.
She wakes up every morning to the chirping of birds, gets up, leans against the headboard, and stares at the mirror on the table by the window. Although she can't see her own face, she can imagine that the ugly scars on her face are completely different from the flawless face of Ai.
How wonderful it would be if I had a beautiful face like Ai.
As she fell off the cliff, she was cut on the face by sharp rocks while trying to grab onto the branches of a pine tree, but luckily she managed to stay on the tree.
At least we're still alive; we can get anything else back later.
Ai Yi would deliver the medicine every day as usual. Ever since Liang Siqing first met Xiao Qing and Xiao Huang, she had toned down her temper and stopped complaining about how bad the environment was. She obediently took her medicine and rested every day, just like no one was wrong.
Sometimes, staring at Ai's face, she would unconsciously laugh out loud while taking her medicine.
Hehe... It would be so much better if that face were on my own body.
After Alena first treated the girl, she never came back. When she went to help Elder Ellis with her work, she always avoided meeting Ellie.
No one can predict this little girl's temper, but once she's determined to do something well, she insists on completing it from start to finish herself, without letting anyone else interfere.
Ai Yi borrowed all her medicine from other disciples. She didn't raise the life-saving Gu worms, nor did she know how to formulate the medicine. She could only secretly tell her fellow disciples that she had been running a fever at night for the past two days and wanted to ask for a couple of medicinal herbs to try.
But the medicine that ended up in Liang Siqing's mouth was secretly switched by Alena. She knew that Ai Yi wouldn't bow down to her, so she had to secretly ask her junior sister to distract her while the medicine was being prepared, so that Tang Yu could secretly switch the medicine.
"Ah... Alena, why didn't you tell Ai that you got the herbs for her?"
Alena, who was gathering herbs, paused. She stood up and looked at Tang Yu tenderly.
"Given her personality, she'd be furious if she knew she couldn't succeed. If we just quietly handle it for her, at least it'll give her some sense of accomplishment."
Tang Yu nodded, turned around, hugged the Creation Orbiter in his arms, and looked around.
Alena shook her head, looking at the person dressed in a snowy white outfit with a small braid, her ears turning so red they looked like they were about to bleed.
Why are you so shy when you just said one sentence to yourself?
Tang Yu is very cautious and never causes any trouble. The only exception is probably his secret crush on Alena.
Although it was only a brief encounter, this young man, who had only been a novice for a few days, visibly grew into an assassin capable of going on missions alone.
But he would always sneak out of Tangjiabao, wrap the newly made jewelry and silverware in a handkerchief sewn by his senior sister, and give it to Alena.
He rarely had the chance to come out; even during holidays, he might not have time. So he always tried his best to complete the mission, then secretly ran to the entrance of the Five Poisons Sect, hiding himself and waiting for her to pass by.
When he returned and told Tang Xiaoye, she almost spat out her tea upon hearing it.
"Are you going to deliver a gift, or to scout the terrain and commit murder?"
He didn't dodge the second time.
But when he actually arrived at the Five Poisons Sect, and saw a group of people dressed in Five Poisons Sect attire passing by, Tang Yu didn't have the courage to go out and find her. The stares from others made his legs tremble. Unable to bear the psychological hurdle, he used his lightness skill to run back to Tang Family Fortress.
Upon seeing the disheveled man return, Tang Xiaoye rolled her eyes, snatched the items from his arms, and went back to her room.
“If you really don’t dare to go in the future, don’t ask me to cover for you. Otherwise, if the higher-ups come looking for you, I’ll have to go through all that trouble and come up with an excuse.”
Tang Yu sat in the chair, his hands on his knees, clenched into fists. He lowered his head like a child who had made a mistake.
"That's because... Senior Brother and Zha Nu just... I was afraid she would be sad and wouldn't want to see me..." He realized that what he said had offended Tang Xiaoye, and immediately covered his mouth with his hand, almost getting his face cut by the short blade on his glove.
Tang Xiaoye lowered her head and remained silent for a moment before placing the silver ornament in his arms.
Seeing this, Tang Yu assumed Tang Xiaoye was angry and quickly stood up to explain, "No, no, Senior Sister! I... I misspoke! I didn't mean to mention Senior Brother... Ah! I... Oh dear..."
Tang Xiaoye sighed and reached out to pat his shoulder.
"If you really like her, go and deliver it yourself. Don't wait until she's gone to regret it."
Tang Yu pondered these words carefully, and in the end, he hid in the treehouse of the Five Poisons and waited for ten days to half a month before he could remember what Ai Yi, who was eating candied hawthorn, looked like. In order to call her back, he jumped down and broke his leg several times.
"Excuse me... could you please give this to Alena?"
He was wincing in pain, his ankle was dislocated, and his face was covered in dust, but he protected the cloth bundle very well, without getting a drop of dew on it.
Ai looked him up and down a few times, then took the cloth bag. She quickly helped him up.
"Th...thank you!"
From then on, Tang Yu would often come to Ai Yi to help deliver things to Alena, in exchange for using himself as a target to train her Xiao Qing and Xiao Huang.
"Ai...Aiyi." Tang Yu scooped up a handful of water from the pool and washed the bleeding wound on his forehead from Aiyi's punch.
Tang Yu was a mediocre practitioner. He had been practicing the Jingyu Technique with Tang Xiaoye for a year, and while his attacks were quite fierce, he never knew how to adapt. Tang Xiaoye's single, deadly strike left him completely disoriented.
Ai Yi, who was repairing the Gu flute, heard the shout and mumbled a confused "hmm".
"Why...why is Alena protecting you so much?" He took out a handkerchief from his pocket, covered his forehead, and walked to Ai's side.
Ai continued wiping her 'Ten Thousand Ghosts' without stopping, even as she listened to Tang Yu's question.
"Alena, Zhanu, and I are from the same village. My mother and Alena's mother were childhood friends. She once told Alena that I would be her good sister and that she should take good care of me like family."
"Later, a rebellion broke out within the sect, and my village was inevitably seized by the Tianyi Sect. Alena led me and Zha Nu to escape. The rest of us did not survive."
Ai sighed deeply, staring blankly at the towering, leafy tree.
"Actually, I really, really hate the people of the Tang Clan."
Tang Yu shivered.
"You caused chaos in my sect, leading to the disintegration of the Five Poisons Sect; you even forced Brother Zha Nu to sacrifice the Life and Death Gu for Tang Feng."
Ai stood up and patted the dust off her skirt.
"Actually, I hate you all."
She turned around, looked at the bewildered Tang Yu, and then looked past him toward the headquarters of the Five Immortals Sect.
"But you're good to Alena, and when I asked you to spar with me, you immediately agreed. I wonder how someone as stupid as you got into the Tang Clan, a place that requires brains."
Tang Yu felt ashamed after being spoken to, and slowly lowered his head, clutching the handkerchief in his hand.
"If you stay this weak in the future, how will you protect my older sister?"
Tang Yu was startled and abruptly raised his head.
“Come on,” she said, raising the Gu flute in her hand and holding it horizontally in front of her chest. “If you truly love Alena, you must protect her. Otherwise, once you leave Nanzhao, do you expect me, Xiaoqing, and Xiaohuang to come and rescue you?”
Tang Yu paused for a few seconds, then immediately nodded, took the Creation Orb from his waist, and rushed forward.
In the distance, on a tall tree, Alena turned around, wiped away her tears, and left with a smile.
Alena snapped out of her thoughts, changed the medicine, and hid behind a door in the distance from the kitchen with Tang Yu, watching Ai Yi go in and take the freshly brewed medicine to Liang Siqing.
“Ah… Alena,” Tang Yu stood behind Alena, took out a handkerchief from his pocket, took a deep breath for a while, and then held it in his hand, saying to Alena, “I… can I…”
Alena didn't notice that Tang Yu was still behind her. When she saw that Ai Yi had walked far away, she turned around suddenly and Tang Yu's big face was right in front of her. She kissed him on the cheek.
The two of them stood there, looking at each other.
The butterflies that had been hovering around all fluttered their wings and hid in the flower bushes.
Alena was the first to come to her senses. She immediately took a few steps back, her eyes widened, and her face flushed instantly. She covered her face and ran away in a panic.
Still immersed in Alena's rich fragrance and the honey-sweet kiss, he comfortably squinted his eyes and blankly uttered the words he had just wanted to say.
"I...I just got a new bracelet made, and I wanted to ask you how I can propose marriage..."
Liang Siqing's injury healed very quickly.
Even Ai Yi was surprised by how quickly the medicine her senior brothers and sisters brought had such a powerful effect.
But when he thought of the senior sisters in the sect who were all highly experienced in the Heaven-Mending Technique, and how he had only been practicing for a few years, he gave up the idea.
But Liang Siqing, who had recovered from his injuries, would inexplicably ask her every day:
"How can I have a face as beautiful as yours?"
Ai didn't take it seriously at first.
Today, as usual, she went to help the clan, exchanged ideas with Tang Yu for a while, brewed medicine, brought it to her, watched her drink it, and as usual, stood up, took the porcelain bowl and went out.
Liang Siqing suddenly grabbed her arm, her long nails digging into her flesh, holding her tightly so she couldn't move.
She stared into Ai's eyes and spoke each word carefully.
"How can I have a face like yours?"
Ai used her restrained hand to hold the bowl, and with her other hand she held Ai's thumb and forefinger together, easily prying her apart.
"If you want it, come and take it."
Ai looked down at Liang Siqing on the bed, noticing her eyes bulging out of their sockets, and said to her casually.
Ai Yi had no idea that Liang Siqing would take those words to heart; nor did she know that those simple five words would cause her to regret it for the rest of her life.
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