Fang Bie's logic made Xue Ling feel it was impeccable.
Although it was very shameless, it was impeccable, Xue Ling admitted.
This in itself was a flaw.
Had she ever thought about intentionally answering one question wrong?
Perhaps she had, but she didn't dare.
Fang Bie's attitude and expression earlier made Xue Ling almost certain that if she answered one question wrong, she would die here, or rather, be eliminated.
Therefore, she walked on thin ice with every question, striving to answer as best as she could.
The professionalism instilled by the Imperial Guard training and her own calm and cautious nature helped her a great deal, to the point where she could perfectly play the role of Lin Xue, including the resume of the period when Lin Xue was trained by the Beehive.
But—she did it too perfectly; whether Lin Xue could have been that perfect, Xue Ling did not know.
She only believed—if she were Lin Xue, then her current answers would still not change in the slightest.
At this moment, the young girl only felt her lips go dry; it was the look of someone who had completely lost hope.
She opened her mouth, but at that instant, she could not make a sound.
"And then?" Xue Ling made another effort, and only then did she faintly hear her own voice.
It was so ethereal and dry, as if it did not belong to her.
"Go back," Fang Bie said quietly. "I do not accept you as my Bee Wing."
"Go back where?" This time it was Xue Ling's turn to ask.
"Back to where you came from," Fang Bie said.
He took a string of copper coins from his bosom, looking like about one hundred wen: "If you don't have travel expenses, this is a gift from me."
Back to where I came from? Xue Ling repeated this sentence to herself.
Where did she come from? Back to where Lin Xue came from? Lin Xue came from a Beehive training base, but that base had been completely destroyed by the Imperial Guard. Going further back, Lin Xue's Master was killed, her parents were killed, and her home was gone.
Where else could she go back to?
Back to where Xue Ling came from?
She came from Yanjing, from the Imperial Guard, from the Northern Commandery Directorate.
But her father was dead, her mother was dead, the Emperor was no longer close to her, and all her colleagues wanted her dead. She should have hung herself under that large poplar tree at home instead of gathering the courage to travel eight hundred li alone with a sword to the Xiao Hun Inn in Luocheng, attempting to complete this mission that was essentially sending her to her death.
"I." Xue Ling bit her lips, and at that moment her throat choked up, but she held it back, not wanting to cry in front of this guy.
That would be too shameful and too cowardly.
"I can't go back."
Xue Ling said this with a choked voice, then turned around and walked toward the outside of the inn.
Of course, she did not take the copper coins Fang Bie handed her.
The world was vast, yet there was no place for her.
She had once thought this was her place.
But Fang Bie told her it was not.
Xue Ling took a step, then another; her footsteps were unsteady, but she still walked in a straight line.
When she reached the third step, someone grabbed her hand from behind.
A cold, firm hand; this was the first time she had touched his palm.
The only previous contact was the blade edge he had held coldly against her neck.
Xue Ling looked back and saw Fang Bie, the Fang Bie covered in a black cloth, tilting his head and smiling at her.
He held her hand with one hand, and with the other, he pulled off the black cloth over his eyes.
Beneath the black cloth was a pair of black eyes as bright as stars, yet filled with melancholy and mist.
"I can't go back either."
Fang Bie said this softly.
"So, I will be the Bee Sting, and you will be the Bee Wing."
"You will fly me to all the places I need to go."
"I will help you kill all the people who need to be killed."
"Is that okay?"
……
……
It took Xue Ling a long time to accept this dramatic turn of events.
At that moment, she even finally felt that this eccentric assassin was not so detestable after all.
And, when he said those words to her at the end, if this wasn't just professional jargon from one assassin to another, it was simply too charming.
Would I like an assassin?
Xue Ling really wanted to ask herself.
If it were before, Xue Ling would definitely have said firmly that she absolutely would not.
After all, she was an Imperial Guard, her father was the Commander of the Imperial Guard; even if she wouldn't marry a high official or noble of equal status, she would at least marry a world-renowned young hero, right?
When her father was still alive, he had asked her if she wanted to marry a top scholar when she grew up.
When he said this, they were standing in front of the Meridian Gate, watching the new Jinshi scholars of the current imperial examination file in, preparing to accept the palace examination from His Majesty. She felt it was fun and interesting, so her father asked her that.
With her father's ability, if she liked any top scholar, her father could probably tie him up and force him to marry her, right?
Her father certainly wouldn't watch her run into the Beehive to die, to meet such an eccentric assassin, and even become his partner to go kill people together.
To kill many people.
Among them, there must be bad people, but there must also be good people.
Even if she didn't have to kill anyone herself, she was still an accomplice to evil.
But her father was dead.
Completely dead.
There was no way to ask her again if she liked any top scholar, nor could he come out and make Lü Yuan slap himself in the face when she was forced to kneel before that Lü Yuan.
She only had that last Flying Fish Robe left as her capital for stubbornness, and then she used this stubbornness to come here and be this accomplice to an assassin.
"I don't want to." Xue Ling remembered her answer to her father back then.
"I will only marry someone I like. Even if he is a top scholar, if I don't like him, why would I marry him?"
That was how Xue Ling had answered at the time.
It was the same now.
She chose to do what she liked.
Even if it meant being an assassin, but—at least she was an undercover assassin.
Thinking this, Xue Ling couldn't help but smile.
"What are you laughing at?" Fang Bie asked from the side.
Fang Bie was giving her the basic intelligence on the Xiao Hun Inn so she would have an idea of what to expect.
After all, he had already admitted that she was his Bee Wing, his partner.
"I'm laughing at how you're clearly not blind, yet you insist on wearing a black cloth every day," Xue Ling said.
This was true, because it was really quite funny.
For example, right now, Fang Bie still chose to cover his eyes.
"Because Saga closes his eyes to make himself look a bit weaker," Fang Bie said.
Xue Ling didn't understand at all.
"What?"
"Because covering my eyes makes others think I'm blind, so they will underestimate me a little, or at least try to take advantage of my blindness," Fang Bie corrected his statement.
It seemed to be an explanation of his previous remark.
"Alright, then the second question." Xue Ling looked at him.
At least Fang Bie didn't look bad at all, and he was her peer, which was still quite comfortable.
"Why is the Xiao Hun Inn called the Xiao Hun Inn?" This name was really strange!
"It was originally called the Soul-Shattering Inn," Fang Bie smiled: "Later, the Innkeeper realized that the Six Doors were coming over to inspect every day, and even raiding in the middle of the night, so she realized the severity of the problem."
"So it became the Xiao Hun Inn."
Fang Bie wrote the two characters for "Soul-Shattering" on a piece of paper.
"But why is it called the Soul-Shattering Inn?" Xue Ling continued to ask.
"My name was given by the Innkeeper," Fang Bie looked at her: "But when you see her, don't call her Innkeeper; call her Sister Ping."
Fang Bie did not answer Xue Ling's question.
He just lifted his brush and continued writing on the paper that had the two characters for "Soul-Shattering" on it.
The only thing that truly shatters the soul is parting.
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