Stand-in
Heng Jin hugged her tightly in his arms, weeping with joy. He choked in her ear and said, "But I also came to the lower world with my memories. Ah Li, without Wen Yici, without Qi Heng. They are all me, and have always been me. Before you said these words, I was so scared, so scared, so scared that you only have Cha Suxun in your heart, and will never want me again."
Heng Jin's words were like the brilliant fireworks in the sky when Wen Yici carried him on his back while walking on the streets of Kyoto and said that the only white phoenix in the six realms and eight wastelands only belongs to you. At this moment, they exploded in her mind, making her unable to recover for a long time.
She was not overjoyed. Instead, a chill ran from her head to the soles of her feet, and a suffocating numbness spread throughout her body.
She would rather never have heard these words.
Noticing her abnormality, Heng Jin loosened his arms and looked at her in silence, tears falling down his face without any joy on his face.
"You don't seem happy."
"How do you want me to be happy?"
"What's wrong, Ari?"
Every word Heng Jin said pierced her heart. She wiped the tears from her face and tried to get up from him, but she couldn't resist the strength he was holding her.
"Heng Jin, you make me feel like a joke. Let me go and don't bother me again. Just like you in heaven, stay away from me and treat me coldly, so that I can completely give up the thoughts in my heart."
Things started to get out of control. Heng Jin was confused and kept thinking about what she had said just now that had upset her.
His intuition told him that if he couldn't resolve the issue immediately, he would never be able to catch her departing sleeve again.
"Ari, I don't understand why. Tell me and I'll solve it."
"Don't call me A'li anymore. Are you calling me A'li with all your heart, or are you calling your beloved Li Wan? Hengjin, although I am humble and insignificant, I cannot ignore your love for Li Wan and your passionate love in the past. I don't want to be a substitute. I thought that Wen Yici's kindness and love, all those things in the past, were for me, Yuanli. I was wondering why A'ci's heart and eyes were filled with me not long after we got married. I thought that after eight lifetimes of bad luck, I would finally have good luck again. I even felt overjoyed that all the bad luck in the first half of my life was to exchange for being picked up by Cha Suxun and brought back to the underworld and... and having Wen Yici."
"Every word I just said was about you."
"Then why didn't you explain to me right away what happened between you and Li Wan? And why didn't you argue with me about who was in your heart, me or Li Wan?"
Yuanli spoke directly, and Hengjin was momentarily stunned by the question. He was hesitant to speak directly, so he couldn't explain to her. Her questioning sobered him up, and he regretted not being able to control himself and explain now.
"Look, you're silent. I don't care if you're worried about something else or if it's really what I think. If you haven't thought it through, don't open your mouth and explain to me. And, besides explaining, don't say anything that would mislead me."
After saying that, Yuanli looked at him quietly for a long time. Seeing that he didn't say a word and had that dead expression on his face, Yuanli stood up disappointed.
"Heng Jin, I still say the same thing, go back to the heavens. I won't repeat how dangerous Yuemang Mountain is."
"I know that saying this now may annoy you, but I truly cannot bear the risk of losing you. I can no longer emphasize how important it is to you whether or not your tribulation ends as destined. Therefore, I must stay and protect you. Even if you try to persuade me, I won't go back."
"It's up to you, but how can you stay here without arousing suspicion?"
"Don't worry, I will make arrangements and won't ruin your business."
Yuanli was still furious and ignored him. After leaving the house, she handed over control of her body to the other Yuanli, as she had agreed with her.
Originally, she wanted to try her best to regain control of her body, but now, she seemed to have suddenly lost her spirit. Without any strong reason to drive her, she might as well help another Yuanli.
Sitting back next to Cha Suxun, Cha Suxun said jealously: "We've been talking for so long, have you made it clear what you wanted to say?"
"No, you stubborn ox, you just won't go back."
"Why aren't you worried about whether your husband will die in Yuemang Mountain, and why have you been trying to persuade me to go home for so long? You only care about that outsider."
Yuanli looked at him with a smile and sat closer to him. As soon as they were close, Cha Suxun sat a little to the side.
She coaxed him, "Of course I'm worried about you. We've discussed this in our room. My husband is incredibly smart and will definitely not let us both die here. Besides, I'd rather die with you."
"Don't stay alone with him for so long next time!"
"Look at you, you're such a jealous person. Okay, okay, next time, come back quickly after saying a few words, and don't let your husband be a jealous wife anymore."
As soon as the words fell, Yuanli looked in the direction of the sound, only to see Heng Jin had sat down in the house without her knowing when, and her expressionless face had returned to its normal state.
Yuanli didn't want to bother with him anymore, so she just said, "If there's nothing else, my husband and I will go back to our room to rest."
Just when everyone else was speechless and Yuan Li and Cha Suxun had already stood up and prepared to leave, Heng Jin suddenly said, "Wait a moment."
After the conversation just now, Yuanli was extremely disgusted with him at this moment, so when she heard him speak, Yuanli was extremely impatient and clicked her tongue several times.
"Tianshu and I have suddenly joined you, so we need a suitable identity, and everyone needs to speak with one voice."
Yuanli glanced at Cha Suxun, and after he nodded, Yuanli followed him and sat down to listen obediently.
Everyone kept discussing until Si Xi and Yan Ye brought the food and set it up in the courtyard. Si Xi then knocked on the door. Seeing that it was Cha Suxun who opened the door, Si Xi took two steps back and said with a restrained excitement, "Godfather, it's time for dinner."
After calling for dinner, Cha Suxun took the first seat at the table and prepared a seat next to Yuanli. Seeing that there was still an empty seat, Cha Suxun said, "Si Xi, sit next to A Li."
Si Xi stood aside, not sitting down. She didn't want to sit so close to her godfather when her godmother wasn't around. She just said, "I can sit down after my godmother comes."
"Then remember this: you must sit in this seat later. You can't let anyone else sit there. Yan Ye will sit next to you."
Seeing his godfather arranging the seats in an unusual way, Si Xi didn't understand but still agreed.
It was not until Si Xi saw his godmother coming out with a strange handsome man following closely beside her, and saw that his godfather's eyes were always fixed on his godmother, as if he was afraid that she would run away, that Si Xi understood.
Therefore, she became more hostile towards the man and regarded him as a mistress who wanted to interfere with other people's marriages.
As expected, just as the godfather said, Xiao San just wanted to sit closer to the godmother. Si Xi hurriedly sat down and pulled Yan Ye to sit down quickly.
Yan Ye approached her and whispered, "Bingbing, didn't you say that we should be polite and wait until the elders sit down before we, the younger generation, can sit down? What's wrong today?"
"Stupid wolf! Can't you see that the man behind your godmother is trying to steal my girlfriend?"
"who is he?"
"I don't know. The idea of wanting to be a mistress is almost written on her face. She looks decent, but acts like a dog."
Seeing him coming, Yan Ye and Sixi tacitly shut up and stopped talking.
At the dinner table, Si Xi asked, "Godmother, where is my uncle? Doesn't he want to eat? I'll leave some for him."
"No need to stay. He has something to deal with and needs to leave for a while to take care of it. I don't know when he will be back."
"All right."
Si Xi felt a little disappointed that he couldn't see He Qi.
"These two are our own people and need an identity. Do you think it would be convenient to integrate them into Yan Ye's group?"
"It's convenient for me, but it depends on whether it's convenient for these two to disguise themselves as wolf demons."
Heng Jin was confused when listening to their conversation. No one mentioned in the room that A'li had a goddaughter in this relationship, and now she called them godfather and godmother. It didn't seem like they were acting.
As he was thinking, Heng Jin became absent-minded. Yuanli called him several times before Heng Jin came back to his senses.
"This is my goddaughter, Si Xi. She's not a fake or mortal. I was close friends with her mother before I transformed. Therefore, I must keep my identity hidden and not cause her any trouble. If it's convenient, please protect her as well. Thank you very much."
"Okay, I guess so."
Heng Jin felt very upset. Si Xi was Yuan Li's goddaughter, but she had already started calling Cha Suxun her godfather. Did even her important people recognize Cha Suxun?
Si Xi tugged at Yuan Li's sleeve, leaned over and whispered with a smile, "My dear friend, you just said that my mother is your best friend. Hehe, you are no longer angry with my mother, right?"
Yuanli feigned disdain and replied, "That was just a temporary solution. I'm still very angry with your mother and I wish I could torture her daughter to death."
Si Xi suppressed a smile and agreed with her, "Okay, okay, whatever Godmother wants is fine." After that, she added, "Godmother is a very good person, I know."
Yuanli didn't answer her, but instead put some food into Sixi's bowl with her chopsticks. "Don't mind your own business, kid. Just eat."
After the meal, they got to know each other and returned to their respective identities.
They waited until Heqi came back before going out to inspect Lanxu's work.
Heqi followed Yuanli closely without saying a word along the way. He looked no different from the usual Heqi, but his drooping shoulders were enough to prove his mood.
After all, he always kept his shoulders straight. He said his sister taught him that as the Lord of the Demon Realm, no matter what major events he encountered, he had to behave like a monarch when he went out.
Everyone was in sync and no one mentioned anything related to Li Wan.
After just a few hours of not going out, Yuemang Mountain had changed again. It was wet everywhere. Even though the firelight was dim and I couldn't see clearly, I could guess that the reason for the wetness was blood.
There were no more body parts or corpses of slain monsters hanging on the Ghost Tree, but the fear of the monsters on Yuemang Mountain increased instead of decreased.
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