Made by an acquaintance
With a loud bang, the mechanical umbrella crashed to the ground upside down. Yue Lang slapped the umbrella handle with his palm, then nimbly stepped back. With a soft click, the umbrella burst open, falling over.
In Li Li's eyes, in just half an hour, he witnessed Yue Lang touching the umbrella twice in extremely strange postures. Either he hugged it and hung it by the bedside and refused to let go, or he arched his body far away and still held onto the umbrella with his hand, not knowing whether he was afraid that the umbrella would tilt or worried that he would fall.
Regardless, it has at least been opened up, in a way that has never been explored before.
Yue Lang gracefully withdrew from the limelight, leaving the reins to his senior brother, and sat back down to watch the two of them "talk".
"By the way, senior brother, it's strange, yesterday it was raining so hard, and I was so confused when I dragged it back that I threw it on the bed with it. Guess what, this morning when I lifted the blanket I found that the area was dry, without a single water stain."
As he spoke, he gestured with his hands in front of him, as if he could bring the quilt over to show Senior Brother Li if he didn't believe him at all.
To everyone's surprise, Li Li and the mechanical umbrella exchanged a few words in silence for a while before Li Li spared a bit of attention to reply to him: "No wonder."
Yue Lang: "?" Isn't that surprising?
Li Li squatted down and fiddled with it for a while, then stood up with a smile that was hard to understand, and patted Yue Lang on the shoulder twice.
Yue Lang: "??"
"A cleverly crafted mechanism made by an acquaintance." The man wanted to keep him in suspense, so he picked up his tea and sipped it leisurely, pretending to be mysterious and waiting for him to ask more questions.
Yue Lang raised his teacup to clink with his, mimicking his enlightened expression as he took a sip, and slowly uttered half a sentence: "Indeed, an acquaintance."
Li Li: "???"
He choked, and the water in his cup splashed out, not a drop spilling onto the umbrella.
"I've ordered goods from them before, so we have some dealings. Why are you getting involved?"
Yue Lang smiled but didn't answer. His gaze was fixed on the umbrella. He silently counted a few numbers in his mind, tapped the umbrella twice, and pointed to it, saying, "The water is gone."
The two exchanged a glance, and a wicked thought popped into their heads. Li Li picked up the teapot to pour it out, but Yue Lang grabbed the umbrella on the ground and ran outside.
Li Li chased after him with the teapot, shouting, "Why are you running? I'm just watering the teapot, not you!"
Without turning his head, Yue Lang shouted, "Look at the floor again. This umbrella drains water quickly, it doesn't suck it in. If you want to pour water in your room, go ahead and do it."
.
The chase, which was supposed to be about protection, ended under the sun. It was really difficult to walk briskly while carrying a heavy, jagged iron frame weighing dozens of kilograms. Now that they were outside, Yue Lang didn't care about the moldy floor. He found a tree to lean his umbrella against and sat down on it, letting Senior Brother Li water the umbrella while circling around them like a magician.
The water droplets quickly rolled down the curved surface of the umbrella, and Senior Brother Li exclaimed "Oh!"
The water was poured onto the umbrella handle, and the droplets slid quickly along the frame. Senior Brother Li exclaimed "Yo!"
He splashed the water on Yue Lang, who was watching, and Yue Lang kicked him back. Senior Brother Li exclaimed "Yo!"
"Hey, hey, hey, are you feeding chickens and pigs? Do you even understand?" Yue Lang said disdainfully, patting the water that had been splashed on his clothes.
Li Li twirled the teapot handle as he walked away, then sat down in the shade of a tree opposite him in the same posture, nodding at him: "If I could see clearly with my own eyes, I wouldn't be sitting here; I'd be climbing up and down all day long."
Thinking of the black figure on the wooden bird yesterday, steadily hovering in the air amidst the howling wind and looking at him, Yue Lang was somewhat lost in thought, thinking to himself that it really was in the sky.
"It's not like we didn't find anything at all. I found a mechanism inside, but I can't determine its function yet. Don't press it yet..."
With a whoosh, Yue Lang, who was half-lying on the ground, suddenly rolled to his side, got up, brushed the dirt off his hands, and glanced at him.
Upon hearing the commotion, Li Li rushed over and saw a glaring red streak of blood seeping from the back of Yue Lang's hand. He quickly pulled out a stack of talismans from his sleeve and slapped them onto the wound.
Yue Lang's initial pain was only at the moment he was scratched. Due to the interference of his kind senior brother, he was forced to cover his hand and gasp for breath.
Seeing the horrific state of his wound, Li Li clenched his fist, his gaze sweeping aimlessly across the air before settling back on the umbrella. "Bear with it. The newly drawn hemostatic talisman is so effective that it's easy to end up like this."
"Now we've confirmed its effectiveness." Yue Lang shook his blood-soaked hand and pointed to the extra ring of sharp blades along the edge of the iron umbrella.
Sunlight shone through the gaps in the leaves, falling on them. Although each one gleamed, the chilling aura unique to sharp weapons still lingered around them. Coupled with the bloody gash on Yue Lang's hand, it sent shivers down one's spine.
They were all triggered by mechanisms; they weren't seen inside the house or while watering the plants.
Seeing that the blood had stopped flowing, Yue Lang tore off the talisman attached to his hand, crumpled it into a ball, and since he couldn't find a place to throw it away, he simply stuffed it back into Senior Brother Li's hand. At the same time, he spoke to divert Li's attention, "I never thought that a casual touch would almost lead to my death."
"It's not that amazing. But luckily, you're not the kind of person with special hobbies who likes to sleep with a big iron frame at night." Li Li continued, then suddenly remembered what Yue Lang had told him in the room: he had shared a bed with this mechanical umbrella last night.
The two of them tacitly stopped talking, secretly marveling at the beauty of life.
By the time Li Li realized what he was holding, Yue Lang had already squatted back down next to the iron umbrella.
"Senior brothers, why don't you go inside to enjoy the cool breeze on this hot day, but instead come to the woods to bask in the sun?" The junior brother, carrying books he had retrieved from the Sutra Repository, came over to greet them.
He turned aside to shield his injured hand and replied warmly, "What a coincidence, you're here to sunbathe too?"
Li Li slipped a little after hearing his greeting, but then saw his junior brother opposite him earnestly showing them the books in his arms and patiently explaining, "No, I just came out of the Scripture Pavilion and am on my way back to my residence. Why are you squatting on the ground to sunbathe? Do you need me to bring you two chairs?"
Li Li immediately replied, "No need, you go ahead with your work."
Yue Lang, however, extended the invitation with the same enthusiasm as always: "We've found something interesting, would you like to come and see for yourself?"
My senior brother is older and still constantly seeking knowledge; how can I, as his disciple, simply wave goodbye and leave?
On a sweltering summer day, under an ordinary tree, three people squatted together, heads touching.
"We need Senior Brother Li to explain this to us; I can't figure it out myself." Even Yue Lang's nonsense sounded very convincing.
Li Li thought to himself, "Do I understand?" but still tried to teach the younger generation something useful.
He would nod twice with each sentence he spoke. Despite the harsh environment and strange posture, he remembered everything he was supposed to.
He had just begun the most crucial sentence: "When facing government agencies, you must control your hands..."
Then the junior brother pressed a rather hidden mechanism on the iron umbrella.
Li Li: "..." Haha.
Yue Lang: "..." That's it.
The sudden force knocked Li Li and his junior brother to the ground. Several whooshing sounds shot out in all directions. After confirming that no more mechanisms would be activated, Li Li pushed himself up, walked to the side, and turned his junior brother, who was lying on the ground, over.
"Senior brother, didn't Master say that peace is the most important thing? Why are there still people attacking our sect?" He held his head, his eyes were closed, and his brows were furrowed. He was clearly terrified.
Li Li comforted him like a child, saying, "It's not a big problem. We're not outsiders. You were the one who launched those hidden weapons. It was your senior brother Yue who knocked us down. Open your eyes and look, we're both alive and well."
While they were still exchanging "Open your eyes" and "I dare not," Yue Lang had already pulled out a talisman from his waist.
A sharp blade was stuck in the ground, and there was no doubt where it had come from. Before conducting a detailed study, Yue Lang thought it was necessary to test whether it had been poisoned.
The talisman touched the sharp blade, but after a moment it neither changed color nor caught fire. The designer of this mechanical umbrella had a rare moment of human intervention.
Pulling it out of the soil was not difficult, perhaps because of the rain.
There was no further tampering with the blade; like other concealed weapons, it aimed to injure people quickly by appearing suddenly.
But it was designed to be placed on an iron umbrella for rain protection.
“Perhaps it wasn’t designed with rain protection in mind.” Li Li toyed with the sharp blade in his hand.
Yue Lang nodded thoughtfully, "That's true, what girl carries a heavy umbrella every day to avoid the rain?"
Li Li glanced at him, and Yue Lang covered his mouth and coughed, saying, "I'm not a girl."
"The person who designed it is."
Li Li turned the umbrella around, pushing a corner of the pattern on the central frame in front of him.
A bird that can be described simply entered Yue Lang's eyes. It was only a few strokes, and the lines were sometimes straight and sometimes curved without any logic. But when put together, it looked rather cute.
"Isn't this the logo designed by Sister Meng Yan of Ping'an Valley? I saw it in the corner of the ice furnace inside the door." The resurrected junior brother mustered up his courage to join the conversation.
“Meng Yan…Sister?” Yue Lang frowned slightly, searching his memory for relevant information.
Not at all.
He stared at the mechanical umbrella for a long time without moving, his brows furrowing and relaxing. After a while, he finally smiled and came back to his senses, his eyes crinkling with laughter. "So her name is Meng Yan!"
Li Li flicked his forehead to wake him up: "Didn't you say you were an acquaintance? So familiar that you don't even know your name?"
Yue Lang, wincing in pain, hurriedly dodged away, and said matter-of-factly, "We are indeed quite familiar with each other, but I am almost always the one doing the talking. If she doesn't tell me, how am I supposed to know her name?"
The junior brother imitated Senior Brother Li's actions and also raised his hand to tap him on the forehead. "Senior Brother Yue, Sister Meng Yan was born mute. How do you expect her to tell you? Can you understand sign language?"
Time seemed to stand still, at least for Yue Lang.
Many unanswered questions found their answers at this moment. Anger, shyness, and taciturnity were all her own imaginations. She was never unwilling to speak, she just couldn't.
But I always find myself chattering away in front of her.
She can't even express herself if she thinks she's too noisy.
Is what you're doing humanely, Yue Lang?
In the eyes of Senior Brother Li and Junior Brother Li, Yue Lang remained silent for a while, then suddenly closed his umbrella and walked away, seemingly heading towards the Sutra Repository.
"Senior Brother Li, what's wrong with Senior Brother Yue?"
"He's turned over a new leaf, hasn't he?"
Watching his two junior brothers go off in different directions, Li Li withdrew his gaze and planned to go back to rest. After taking a few steps, he seemed to remember something and turned back. He huddled in the bushes for a while, then came out again with his head covered in messy leaves and dirt, holding two clanging blades in his hands.
Yue Lang is such a worry.
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