Chapter 90

Chapter 90

What was this man so happy about?

And what was he so smug for?

On second thought, had he shown it to me on purpose?

Childish.

I reached out and deliberately jabbed hard at the wound. “Does it hurt?”

Liu Junyan nodded. “It hurts.”

“Did you put medicine on it?”

“No.”

I snapped, “The wound is this deep and you still didn’t treat it? Serves you right.”

Even as I spoke, I had already gone around the counter and headed into the room to get the medicine kit.

Liu Junyan followed me in and sat by the table to wait.

I’d been getting hurt a lot lately, and Li Qingying had given me plenty of good medicine. I had gotten pretty handy at treating wounds.

Before long, I was done. I packed up the medicine kit and was just about to put it back where it belonged when Liu Junyan’s arm slipped around my waist. With one pull, he drew me back and settled me onto his lap.

I struggled to get up, but Liu Junyan held me tight. Resting his chin on my shoulder, he said, “Don’t move. The wound will split open. Xiao Jiu, let me hold you for a while.”

I had no choice but to quiet down and let him hold me.

These past two days, I really had been in a terrible mood.

The appearance of that girl and my mother had dealt me a double blow, leaving me unsure how to cope for a time.

I was the kind of person who looked strong on the surface, but was actually extremely sensitive.

Whether it was family, love, or friendship, once I had it, I wanted to hold on to it with both hands, terrified I would lose it.

And once I did lose it, it was very hard for me to muster the courage to reach out again.

So when it came to Ah Li, I would rather hide in my shell. If I didn’t ask, then I wouldn’t lose anything.

But Liu Junyan clearly did not think the same way. “Xiao Jiu, are you still angry with me?”

I immediately said, “No.”

“Why aren’t you angry?” Liu Junyan turned the tables on me. “Someone came right up to your face to steal your husband, and you’re actually not angry? Xiao Jiu, do you even care about me at all?”

I was utterly stunned.

This man… was twisting logic!

I instantly got mad. Turning sideways to stare at him, I demanded, “Then how was I supposed to ask? You two even matched the secret code!”

“Why couldn’t you ask?” Liu Junyan said. “I am your man. No matter when it is, when you’re standing in front of me, you can always hold your head high.”

“As for the secret code, how do you know that wasn’t a secret between you and me?”

I froze. “A secret between you and me?”

“That is exactly where the doubt lies,” Liu Junyan said gravely. “The reason I accepted Hu Yulin’s invitation was because I wanted to see for myself where that girl claiming to be Ah Li got the nerve to fool us, and how she managed to fool Hu Yulin.”

So that was it.

“Hu Yulin has nearly a thousand years of cultivation. He doesn’t make mistakes easily, and that was the part I couldn’t figure out no matter how I thought about it. Only by seeing her with my own eyes could I draw a conclusion.”

I quickly asked, “Then did you notice anything suspicious?”

Liu Junyan nodded. “There is a feather mark between her brows. That is the symbol of Ah Li’s identity. And the weapon she uses now looks very much like your Fengwu.”

“It doesn’t. Not one bit,” I said, unconvinced. “Although she also uses a Longbow, and the Longbow is also made of parasol wood, she draws the bow with True Qi, not with flames shot by the Lifebound Artifact itself.”

“Exactly. That is a flaw even you could spot at a glance, yet Hu Yulin is too close to the matter to see it clearly,” Liu Junyan said. “Ah Li has been gone for far, far too long. Long enough for the truth to be covered up with a few words here and there.

“She draws the bow with True Qi and cannot shoot flames. That can be explained as her cultivation being insufficient after rebirth. It can also be explained as damage to her spirit bones after a failed nirvana, requiring time to recover.”
In short, what Hu Yulin needed was a reasonable explanation. He was willing to believe his Ah Li had come back, and that was enough.

That was why Liu Junyan had been so certain at first that she was a fake.

That was why he had said, “You can paint a tiger’s skin, but not its bones.”

“But later, your secret code matched!”

The very fact that it was called a “secret code” meant only Liu Junyan and Ah Li knew it.

When Liu Junyan heard the words “Cangwu Zheliu, Lingshui Tangtang,” he had clearly been shaken.

Even now, as I raised that question, the look in his eyes changed again.

For some reason, fear prickled through me, and I tried once more to escape from his lap.

The next second, he pressed me right back down. “Why are you running? This is exactly the point.”

I blinked. “Huh?”

“Xiao Jiu, when you reincarnated and returned, something was missing from you.” Liu Junyan’s large hand gently stroked the area behind my shoulder blade. “The moment I saw the feather mark between that girl’s brows, I knew for certain that she must have been the one who harmed you back then.

“But it doesn’t matter. Sooner or later, I’ll help you take it back. Yet when she said those… words, I was shocked too.”

Liu Junyan’s eyes were filled with sorrow. “Those words… were Ah Li’s farewell to me.”

As he spoke, he held me even tighter. “The person you admire in your youth is like an immortal in the heavens. You don’t dare touch them, much less allow yourself the slightest blasphemy. We met by chance again and again, parted again and again, always thinking there would be time.

“But one day, I suddenly realized I knew pitifully little about her. I had never even truly seen the face beneath her mask. And just when I wanted to find out more, to get closer, she pushed me away with all her might.”

Liu Junyan was wrapped in grief from head to toe. I couldn’t help but loop my arms around his neck and let him lean against my shoulder.

I didn’t interrupt him. I simply waited for him to slowly steady his emotions.

At last, he spoke again. “Cangwu Zheliu-Cangwu Mountain is filled with Nirvana Fire, so where could there be willows to break? Lingshui Tangtang-the mighty waves of Linghai can never reach Cangwu Mountain, and they can never extinguish the Nirvana Fire within it. When Ah Li said those words, it meant she had completely abandoned me.”

He did not say the rest-“We shall not meet again until we reach the underworld”-but I already understood.

Until the day they both stepped into the underworld, Ah Li and Liu Junyan could never meet again.

How absolute must that decision have been?

What exactly had happened to Ah Li back then to make her say such words to Liu Junyan?

No wonder, more than a hundred years later, Liu Junyan had reacted so strongly when he heard those words again.

“Hiss…”

I suddenly sucked in a cold breath. A swollen pain began to throb in my head again.

It felt as if the sensation from before I fainted at the Teahouse that day was about to come roaring back.

Liu Junyan sensed it instantly. His large hand immediately covered the back of my head, and warm True Qi flowed into me. Only then did I feel much better.

“Don’t think about it, Xiao Jiu,” Liu Junyan said. “Not only did she steal the most important thing from you, she also stole part of your memories. I still haven’t found a way to deal with it for the time being, but you must remember this: if you run into her again, don’t confront her head-on, and don’t be swayed by her words. She is very dangerous.”

I pressed my fingers to my temples and asked, “Is she really that powerful?”

“We only met in a hurry, so I don’t know much about her,” Liu Junyan said. “But judging from the aura surrounding her, she may not necessarily possess such heaven-defying ability herself. Behind her, there should be someone powerful controlling all of this…”