Naturally, Lu Zhiyao heard her footsteps. He turned his head toward Li Ruoshui, his expression relaxed, a smile gracing his lips.
“You’re back?”
The young woman looked up and saw Li Ruoshui, her feelings complicated. She had, of course, seen Lu Zhiyao and Li Ruoshui arrive together, but a small part of her was still unwilling to accept it.
Seeing the look in the young woman’s eyes, Li Ruoshui instantly understood. “No, I was just passing by.”
No sooner had the words left her mouth, Li Ruoshui turned and walked away. It was cut and clear. She didn’t spare a second glance. Faced with a young woman so deeply deceived by that pretty face, she could understand and felt a strong sense of comradery. After all, she herself had been dazzled initially at first.
She’ll probably be scared off by his true nature soon enough.
Watching Li Ruoshui’s decisive turn, the young woman found all the biting words she had mentally prepared herself to use stuck in her throat, leaving her feeling frustrated and stifled.
She had brewed the tea, set the table, and was ready to perform the play, but Li Ruoshui wouldn’t even engage in small talk?
The young woman took a breath and redirected her words to Lu Zhiyao. “Sir, my family is in Yun City, and we have some means. If you don’t mind…”
“You haven’t answered me. If I marry you, would I have to marry the others too?”
Listening to the sound of Li Ruoshui’s retreating footsteps, Lu Zhiyao smiled and began playing with a throwing knife in his hand. The knife was about the length of a hand . It looked exceptionally sharp with the cold gleam on its polished surface.
“That… that wouldn’t do.” The young woman glanced at the others still lying nearby and bit her lip. “I saw you first. I was the one praying in my heart. By all rights, it should be me who stays by your side.”
Lu Zhiyao nodded, as if understanding something. “So it was you who saw us.”
The knife in his hand reflected the sunlight. The young woman squinted and quickly nodded. “Yes, it was the light from that small knife in your hand.”
Lu Zhiyao sighed with a hint of regret, a troubled look on his gentle face. “Since you saw it early, why didn’t you call out sooner? I thought no one had seen.”
His demeanor shifted. He was no longer as mild as before. Without the smile, he seemed more distant.
This sense of distance didn’t last long before it was replaced by a smile again. His smile was like an apricot blossom—light and delicate, yet carrying a peculiar hue. “But it’s a good thing you kept quiet. Otherwise, how could I have witnessed Li Ruoshui trembling from sourness?”
He turned his head to face her. His slight, peculiar smile seemed to morph into something slightly strange. The young woman started feeling somewhat uncomfortable. “Have you ever seen Li Ruoshui tremble from sourness? Like a sparrow shivering from the cold, except she was shuddering from pure tartness. Isn’t that amusing?” (●’◡’●)
“I… I haven’t seen it…”
The young woman withdrew her hand from his sleeve. His smile was still as gentle and warm as ever, but she was beginning to feel uneasy.
Lu Zhiyao nodded and stood up to leave, but suddenly paused. He tilted his head toward her, his long eyelashes dusted with speckled gold, his smile mild. “Do you still want to take care of me for the rest of my life?”
Dappled tree shadows played across his face. The smile remained, but it seemed obscured by a haze, carrying a chill.
She shook her head, stammering, “Since the young master is unwilling, I… I won’t insist…”
“How dull.” Lu Zhiyao let out a low laugh. The knife spun a few times around his fingertip as he stepped toward her. “You said you wanted to take care of me, so why retreat now? Li Ruoshui always stands right in front of me.”
Sitting on the ground, she trembled, wanting to scramble backward, but her body, having not yet recovered from the drug, could only manage a weak shuffle.
The cold gleam on the knife’s tip was no longer the hope she saw in her despair, but a death warrant seeking her life.
The blade drew closer and closer. She wanted to say something, but only managed to open her mouth, unable to make a sound.
Suddenly, a figure dressed in goose-yellow stepped between them.
“What are you two talking about?”
The young woman looked up to see Li Ruoshui, who had returned. She stood protectively in front of her, a trace of sympathy in her eyes, and reached out to help her up.
The young woman lowered her lashes and slowly moved behind Li Ruoshui. “Nothing much. Just… thanking my benefactor.”
Li Ruoshui laughed heartily, slinging an arm around the girl’s shoulder and leading her away. “Look at you, those two are your real saviors. You need to keep your eyes open in the future.”
Li Ruoshui awkwardly laughed her way through the conversation, steering the young woman toward Lu Feiyue, not daring to look back at Lu Zhiyao.
The young woman bit her lip and glanced back. She saw him standing in the shadowy tree light, his figure appearing slender and lonely.
“Young lady, you and uh-that Sir over there… I think he might not be as he appears on the surface. You should be careful.”
Hearing this, Li Ruoshui was momentarily stunned, then curled her lips into a smile and patted the girl’s shoulder. “You’ll get used to it.”
Li Ruoshui suddenly remembered the system’s reward—the memory fragment she got for accidentally kissing him.
She asked mentally: ‘System, when can I use this reward?’
This was like receiving charcoal in snowy weather—a true act of care from the System.
【The HE System is at your service.】
【Does the Host wish to use it now?】
“Sure?”
【Affirmative. Activating immediately.】
“Wait…!”
That was a question, not a statement! Shouldn’t there be a schedule for a specific time like the other systems she read?! Not right now?!
“Miss Li!”
The young woman beside her was still weak. When Li Ruoshui suddenly fainted and fell onto her, they both tumbled to the ground together.
Lu Feiyue rushed over, she quickly pulled Li Ruoshui up. Jiang Nian helped the young woman who had been used as a cushion, and the two of them brought them to the side to rest.
After checking Li Ruoshui’s pulse, Jiang Nian let out a sigh of relief. He grinned, showing off his pearly white teeth. “She’s fine. Probably just too tired and fell asleep.”
Lu Feiyue exhaled, the furrow between her brows relaxing as she helped Li Ruoshui rest by a table. “If something happened to her because she came here with us. The guilt would eat me alive.”
Jiang Nian sat on a stool, looking up at the warm rising sun. He leaned against the table, and took a large bite out of a flatbread he held in his hand. “When are the reinforcements coming? Your Case Inspection Bureau folks aren’t very efficient.”
Lu Feiyue glanced at him and sighed helplessly, holding Li Ruoshui in her arms as she poured herself a cup of water.
Suddenly, a shadow fell over the table. The hem of a snow-white robe appeared in her peripheral vision.
“Lord Lu.”
He smiled at them and tilted his head slightly. He was simply standing quietly a little bit to the side. Onlookers would only see an air of approachability from him, though this amiability stemmed solely from his appearance.
“What happened to Li Ruoshui?”
“Nothing serious. She was probably just too tired and fell asleep.”
Jiang Nian guided him to sit down beside him, patting his shoulder. The two of them were only one seat away from Li Ruoshui.
“Is that so?”
The sound of various footsteps came from not far away from their location. Soldiers in light armor rushed in. The leaders, like Lu Feiyue, carried gilded sabres.
Lu Feiyue wanted to go forward to explain the situation, but Li Ruoshui was still leaning on her. She could only gently lay Li Ruoshui down to rest her head on the table before striding out with her sabre in hand. Jiang Nian, naturally, followed her.
The small square table was left with only the unconscious Li Ruoshui and the quietly seated Lu Zhiyao, who was pouring tea.
Suddenly, the person slumped over the table muttered a few words, as if saying something.
Intrigued, Lu Zhiyao leaned closer.
He heard her mumble a few phrases. The specific words weren’t very clear, but the name she uttered at the end made him pause for a long time.
“…Ah-Chu…”
The sun blazed high, the summer heat oppressive, yet the air still carried a damp, earthy smell. Cicadas outside the courtyard wall screamed relentlessly. She didn’t have a single doubt, this was the full summer experience. You are reading on novelping dot com, the official source.
Li Ruoshui stood in a courtyard with a strange layout. It was rectangular and only three or four meters wide but about ten meters long. The house at the northern end and the gate at the southern end were the maximum distance apart.
The courtyard was filled with potted plants, each about waist-high to Li Ruoshui. A few butterflies fluttered around the flower clusters and they seemingly enjoyed their current dance through the maze of potted plants.
In front of the house was a stone round table. A child dressed in white sat on one of the chairs, his back to her, looking up at the sky. It was unclear what he was watching, but he seemed engrossed.
Li Ruoshui also looked up but was immediately dazzled by the sunlight. It took her a moment to recover.
She looked down at her slightly transparent hands and felt speechless.
She wondered, wasn’t this supposed to be a memory? Why does it feel like she actually time-traveled to a different place?
【Host. Memories are typically accessed through the subject’s own mind, entering a dream state for viewing. However, Lu Zhiyao is blind from birth. He fundamentally cannot dream and sees no images. Therefore, we have transported your soul here before your present time.】
“…”
This System is utterly unreliable. It’s bad enough when it’s usually silent, but the moment it speaks up, it’s to screw me over.
“Why is this courtyard so strange? The way these pots are placed seems like they’re intentionally designed to block the path?”
Dozens of flowerpots were scattered haphazardly around the yard, arranged with no discernible pattern. The profusion of blooms was even more dizzying.
Muttering to herself, her body naturally passed through the flowerpots until she reached the stone table. She wanted to see if this was a young Lu Zhiyao.
Circling to the front of the table, she finally got a clear look at the child’s face. [1]
He was exquisitely beautiful, the very peak of cuteness. His long hair was cut in a straight flat line at the shoulders. A string of white jade prayer beads hung from his wrists and they were clearly much too large for him as they constantly slipped down. The white robes he wore didn’t fit him either, hanging loosely on his small frame like a child who had stolen an adult’s clothes.
His pretty features resembled the grown-up Lu Zhiyao by about 70-80%. It wasn’t the expression that was different, but his eyes.
His eyes were open.
Little Lu Zhiyao’s eyes were large but lacked much vitality. They seemed veiled by a layer of thick mist.
Just as Li Ruoshui leaned in for a closer look, Little Lu Zhiyao suddenly turned his head. His gaze seemed to meet hers directly, startling her into taking several steps back.
“Is someone there?”
He spoke in a milky voice, asking in her direction.
Li Ruoshui patted her chest to calm her nerves, inwardly marveling that he truly was the combat powerhouse from the book—his senses were abnormally sharp even as a child.
Before Li Ruoshui could fully settle her racing heart, a string of prayer beads suddenly flew toward her, passing straight through her forehead and landing in the rose bushes behind her, causing the flowers to bend back significantly.
Little Lu Zhiyao retracted his hand, his tone full of confusion, yet he still “looked” in that direction. (•_•?)
“Was it just my imagination?”
Li Ruoshui: “…”
He was this aggressive even as a child? She shouldn’t have moved ealier.
But with all this clutter placed around, and him being blind, can he even walk properly here?
Li Ruoshui turned and looked around, puzzled. Just as she was wondering, on the opposite side of the stone table, the courtyard gate suddenly opened up. A woman dressed in a simple white dress walked in with a peach twig looking hair pin adorning her hair.
She held a food box. The smile on her face was like that of a naive, carefree young girl who knew nothing of the world and her voice was like a lark in the forest.
“Ah-Chu, Mother brought you something to eat.”
Mother?!
This is Lu Zhiyao’s legendary mother? Bai Qingqin? The one who remarried and then abandoned him?
[1] TN: He was almost as cute as Duds. | EN: This is my lil sis, it was added by my translator, as a joke, and a test. sigh*