Chapter Thirty: You Should Hate Me Instead

  PS: A new week has begun, I hope to continue receiving everyone's support. I've found that my face is getting thicker and thicker, and I'm even thinking of asking for red tickets in addition to collecting them...

  "You still haven't told me what we're doing here at Qingniu Lake?"

  The candle in the room was extinguished, and two people, like a golden boy and a jade girl, sat at the head and foot of the bed, speaking in hushed tones. The moonlight was tightly shut out by the window, and no one could disturb their tranquility. The two people were very close, but neither could see the other's face clearly.

  "If I told you to come see me, would you believe it?"

  "I would have believed it if I had just seen you suddenly, but now I definitely don't believe it."

  Ou Si Qing subtly curled her lip in the dark night, knowing that Li Xian would definitely not see this small movement.

  "I'm no fool, now that I think about it, you're definitely not here to see me."

  "Alright, you're definitely not a fool."

  "Of course, when we parted ways, you didn't ask me where I came from or where I was going. I live in Qingniu Lake, it's YeYe who arranged for me to stay here, and apart from YeYe, Niang, DaLang GeGe and a few others, not many people know that I'm living here. Our tribe is at war with the Xi people, YeYe was worried something would happen to me, originally she wanted both me and Niang to move here to live, but Niang refused, insisting on staying with YeYe, and I also didn't want to leave them, but YeYe had DaLang GeGe grab me and take me away, I couldn't fight back against DaLang GeGe."

  Ou Si said in a soft and gentle voice, with some confusing and disjointed words.

  But Li Xian understood her meaning.

  "You think I'm a god or something? I just calculated with my fingers and knew you moved to Qingniu Lake."

  Ou Si Qing Qing smiled lightly, but suddenly fell silent.

  "What's wrong?"

  "It would be great if you were really an immortal."

  She raised her head and looked at the shadow opposite: "If you are a fairy, you can use magic to help us drive away the Xian people and send them all back home. My Ye Ye won't have to go and fight with the Xian people, and my mother won't have to brave the rain of arrows on the battlefield to beat the war drum for Ye Ye's assistance. I'm worried about them... I'm afraid that if they get hurt, what can we do?"

  A hand pierced through the darkness from the opposite side and found Ousiqing's hand, grasping it tightly.

  The warmth in the palm of his hand made Ousai feel very comfortable, although that hand was not warm. The quilt only covered the feet of two people, sitting quietly in the house, and although the brazier was still lit, hands would inevitably become icy cold. But the two icy hands clasped together were like a warm sun shining on their hearts on a summer day.

  "Don't worry, they'll be fine."

  Ou Si Qing couldn't see Li Xian's smiling face in the darkness, but every word he said warmed her heart: "You also saw that the Xi people can't help but fight, and I alone have already defeated several hundred Xi cavalrymen. Your father is a great hero, your mother is a heroine among women, those Xi people are probably being beaten by them until they're crying and peeing their pants."

  Li Xian thought for a moment and added: "The Xian people are all paper tigers!"

  Ou Si's hand covered Li Xian's hand, and her other hand covered the back of Li Xian's hand.

  "Why is your hand so cold?"

  She asked.

  Li Xian smiled: "Maybe it's a habit left from childhood, playing in the snow. My hands and feet are always cold no matter what season it is. But that's okay, maybe because of this I won't end up running wildly in the snowy fields and freezing my feet."

  "Why have you been staying in the snowy place since childhood?"

  "Uh... never mind."

  "Please, tell me."

  Perhaps it was because she worried about her parents on the battlefield, or perhaps it was because she lived alone for the first time without her parents by her side. Ou Si's voice carried a hint of pleading, as if she feared the cold and quiet night, yet also seemed to fear being left all alone. Or maybe, by talking more, the terror in her heart would fade away.

  "How many quilts are there in this house?"

  Li Xian suddenly asked.

  "What's wrong with having another bed in the wardrobe?"

  "First give that big brother Dang a quilt to keep warm, it's cold in the house and even colder outside, I'll tell you stories when you come back."

  Ou Si's eyes widened slightly, as if something had struck a chord in her heart.

  She got down from bed, grabbed a quilt and ran downstairs: "You can't go! Wait for me to come back!"

  The voice is still very low, but it can't hide the faint dependence in it.

  Li Xian smiled and nodded.

  Ou Si Qing was running downstairs when she suddenly realized that she had neglected many things, such as An Lang Chang Hong's care for her. Li Xian told her to go down and send a quilt to An Lang Chang Hong, her first reaction was whether Li Xian wanted to take the opportunity to leave? When she went down the second floor of the stairs, she suddenly thought that she had been very inconsiderate. She had always taken An Lang Chang Hong's care for granted, but completely ignored his efforts.

  Li Xian watched as the small figure disappeared into the darkness, smiling to himself: "Be good to the people around you and they will be doubly good to you. In case... in case your tribe loses the war, you won't be left with no one to rely on."

  Ou Si's return was swift, she ran to the window and lifted up the quilt, her bare feet cold, touching Li Xian's toes, both of them involuntarily trembling. For an instant, one face turned red, for an instant, eyes widened, they parted at once, but the feeling on their toes lingered for a long time.

  "I thought you were going to take advantage of me when I went downstairs."

  "Why should I leave? There's a fragrant quilt wrapping around my stinky feet."

  Li Xian smiled: "Besides, if your brother Da Lang doesn't leave, how can I possibly get away?"

  "I also... I don't know either, it's just that I'm afraid you'll suddenly appear and then suddenly disappear."

  Ou Si sat with her knees hugged to her chest, her chin resting on them, her eyes cast down, and her face flushed like fire.

  The boy sitting opposite him, he clearly said that he was two years younger than himself. But why did he appear so constrained and uneasy in front of him? Maybe he was lying, he looked quite tall already, although not as tall as Andalan brother, but almost equivalent to an average adult male, actually he is older than me, it must be like this!

  But what if he is older than me?

  Is there any relationship between heart palpitations and age?

  "You still haven't answered me... why you came to Qingniu Lake."

  Ou Si Qing couldn't help but change the subject, because she increasingly felt the presence of the boy sitting in the darkness opposite her, his eyes shining so brightly.

  "If I said coming to Qingniu Lake has nothing to do with you, would you mind?"

  Finally getting rid of that awkwardness, Ou Si Qing's mouth curled up slightly: "It had nothing to do with me from the start, I said it earlier, not many people know that I live in Qing Niu Lake."

  Li Xian smiled: "I came to find something, something very important to me."

  "What is it?"

  "Can I not tell you?"

  "No!"

  Ou Si Qing Qing waved her small fist: "If you don't tell the truth, hehe..."

  "What's wrong? Do you want to strip me naked?"

  “！”

  "It doesn't matter"

  Li Xian smiled: "It's just something that looks like a piece of black stone."

  "What's with the rock? Why look for rocks?"

  "It's a meteorite."

  "Ah!"

  Ou Si's eyes widened as she covered her mouth and let out a low cry of surprise: "You said..."

  "She gestured with her hand: 'Is it this big, blackish, and can be forged into a curved knife, meteoric iron?'"

  "How did you know?"

  "The people in our clan have been searching too..."

  "After my master found it, he sank into the lake. How did your tribe know about it? Did you guys chase and kill him when he found that meteorite? If so, it's clear why he was in such a hurry to sink the meteorite into the water without even remembering the location."

  "What are you talking about?"

  Ou Si Qing's rough hand interrupted Li Xian's speculation, and he closed his mouth before she withdrew her hand from his mouth. Li Xian's nonsense made her a bit angry, because she found that the young man in front of her had no psychological burden when telling lies.

  "How did your master find out?"

  "More than a year ago, an outsider secretly came to Qingniu Lake and smashed the chunk of ice that we Khitan people considered sacred. I heard Dalang say that the chunk of ice contained a piece of meteorite that was sealed inside, which made the lake water so cold. That's why our tribe forbids anyone, including us Khitans, from approaching the ice without permission. But someone actually snuck in and smashed the ice, then stole the meteorite!"

  "After being discovered by the tribal warriors, the thief ran away with the meteorite."

  She said in one breath, then pouted and pointed at Li Xian: "Is that your master?"

  Li Xian hastily shook his head and said solemnly, "I guarantee with my pure and noble character that the person you mentioned has no relationship with me whatsoever. I swear, we're definitely not from the same piece of meteorite!"

  As he said this, he was secretly asking about the buttocks of Daqiu Zhang Rujun.

  No wonder Master didn't want to explain in detail why he sank the meteorite into Qingniu Lake, and why he was in such a hurry that he didn't even leave a decent mark. Being pursued by hundreds of Khitan elite warriors, even if he was the famous war god Daqie Changru, I'm afraid he must have been in a very precarious situation at the time.

  "Really isn't your master you mentioned just now?"

  "Fake..."

  Li Xian sighed and said, "This is a long story to tell. Why don't I first tell you a sad but beautiful story about the relationship between a master and his apprentice? It starts with the miserable life of the apprentice, and then you'll understand why the master traveled thousands of miles to the grasslands of Qingniu Lake to give him a special gift. The master rode alone for thousands of miles, braving wind, snow, and cold, and even risked being pursued and killed. What a magnificent and moving emotion!"

  Li Xian was startled by himself and thought, "How did this sentence come out so smoothly?"

  Alright, now that we have the outline, it's just a matter of fleshing out the story.

  It took Li Xian a good half an hour to finish telling this story very clumsily.

  Although it was full of loopholes, the girl was still moved to tears.

  "Li Xian, you have such a master, what good fortune!"

  Ou Si said with tears in her eyes.

  Li Xian secretly stuck out his tongue and thought to himself, "Master, for your sake, I've become the Big Bad Wolf deceiving Little Red Riding Hood... It's not easy for me, your disciple, to come up with so many lies just to keep your reputation from being completely ruined."

  "Moved?"

  Li Xian asked.

  Ou Si Qing nodded vigorously: "Your master is really good."

  Li Xian sighed again: "I told you that you're stupid and you still don't believe me. Among the stories I just told you, only two points are true, the rest are false."

  "Two points?"

  "Uh, two points. Firstly, that young man indeed carried hatred and lived cautiously, even to the point of barely surviving, from the moment he was born, people were after his life, and too many family members died protecting him. That young man is me, this point I didn't lie about. Secondly, my master did steal that piece of meteoric iron to forge a weapon for self-defense, but in fact, when he did that, we two hadn't met yet."

  So

  Li Xian shrugged: "As a Khitan, you should have the awareness to hate me."

  "I deceived you so that you would know, in this world there aren't many stories that can move you, even if they exist, behind them may be hidden schemes and ruthless killings. You must learn to distinguish between truth and falsehood, right and wrong, and not blindly believe whatever others say."

  Li Xian said with some emotion: "A fool like you would be a national treasure if placed in the 21st century."