Chapter 27: The Old Mansion (3)

  When Ao Yuan finished drinking his third cup of tea and seemed to be going on indefinitely with the old man on the main seat, exchanging blows in Tai Chi, Xia Yu Fei walked into the room again.

  Ao Yuan just wanted to speak up, but found Xia Yu Fei's face was a bit pale.

  He could only stand half a step behind her, frowning slightly, as she bid farewell to the old man.

  From behind, Xiaoyan Fei was still standing upright as always, like a sharp blade that had just been unsheathed. However, Ao Yuan clearly noticed that her hands placed by her sides were trembling slightly.

  "Right, I almost forgot if Chen Yan didn't remind me just now." As Xiaoyan was about to turn and leave, Old Master Xia suddenly added another sentence, "Your knife is still here."

  Xia Yifei seemed to be stunned and stood still for a moment, but fortunately she recovered after half a minute: "I think... now please take out the knife."

  These few words were so simple they couldn't be simpler, yet she spoke them with utmost solemnity, as if her very life depended on it.

  Then Ao Yuan was politely asked out by Chen Yan, and the taciturn man closed the door and stood outside with him, silently watching ants move house.

  Ao Yuan really wanted to flip a table to express his inner discontent.

  But there was no table for him to overturn.

  Just as Ao Yuan was about to go crazy with frustration, Chen Yan suddenly spoke up: "If you really want to treat Yanzhi well, don't let her set foot on the ground again."

  Ao Yuan gave him a strange look, but Chen Yan seemed to have not noticed Ao Yuan's gaze and continued to stare at the door he had closed with an expressionless face: "If she must go down, then let her take down the dragon jade that Old Master gave her to ward off disasters. Whether it's taken off or thrown away is fine."

  At this time, his expression finally relaxed, revealing an almost sad expression.

  It may be sadness, who knows.

  As soon as he heard the two words "Long Yu", Ao Yuan immediately thought of Xia Yunfei's explanation at that time.

  It's a family heirloom, passed down from my ancestors a few years ago. They said I'm always either pretending to be someone else or hiding underground, so they gave it to me, saying it might ward off disasters.

  And Xia Yifei also said that Chen Yan is equivalent to the existence of Xia Lao's confidant, in this case, even if he and she can be considered as growing up together, they still have to guard against each other, but what does Chen Yan mean by this sentence...

  Ao Yuan's eyebrows were almost furrowed into a "river" character: "You..."

  But before he could finish speaking, the sound of Xia Yifei pushing open the door interrupted him. At the same time that Xia Yifei walked out, Chen Yan immediately regained his usual expressionless face, as if what had just been said was completely an illusion.

  Then Chen Yan walked straight back into the house, brushing past Xia Yifei.

  Not saying a word.

  He could only shift his gaze to Xia Yifei, who had just walked out, holding a long, black-cloth-wrapped object in her arms, standing under the somewhat sinking sunlight, and gave him a slightly forced smile: "Ao Yuan."

  That voice was unnaturally calm and completely unlike her usual confident tone.

  Even when they were fleeing in the snake mound at that time, Ao Yuan had never heard Xia Yu Fei's voice so pale and weak.

  But he said nothing because he didn't know how to start in this situation.

  Xia Yifei drove out of the Xia family's old mansion and didn't drive for long before she stepped on the brakes. Ao Yuan, sitting in the passenger seat, saw that her hands gripping the steering wheel had turned white with force.

  "What did you see?"

  Half a moment later, Ao Yuan spoke up.

  Xia Yanzhi suddenly came back to her senses after hearing the sentence, she released the steering wheel and trembled with both hands as she fumbled for a cigarette from her pocket and lit it up.

  Ao Yuan looked at her using her right hand's index finger and thumb to hold the cigarette and take a fierce drag, that posture inexplicably made him feel that she was extremely down on her luck.

  As she slowly exhaled the smoke, she laughed self-deprecatingly at first, but her laughter grew louder and louder, like the mournful cry of a night owl.

  However, Ao Yuan didn't move or say anything, letting her vent with a loud laugh.

  Because he knew that something similar to faith in her heart had really collapsed.

  "Do you know, Ao Yuan?" After laughing enough, Xia Yu Fei took another heavy drag on his cigarette and leaned back against the car seat, saying in a slightly trembling voice, "Do you know what I found in the book pavilion?"

  "It turned out that the four Long families... were actually representing the yin and yang of the dragon jade, all of this was never a coincidence."

  "Four families take turns holding the Yang Jade... every five years it cycles around... if a girl with an eight-character and four-pillar all-yin birth chart appears, let her wear it."

  She had smoked her cigarette down to the butt by the time she got this far, and Xiaoyan didn't even think of lighting another one, just leaning back against the chair as he continued: "The soul of the living deceives heaven and earth, opens up the six paths of reincarnation... it turns out that from the very beginning, it was all a setup targeting me."

  "How can they bear it?"

  "What I believed in, what I relied on... was all a scam."

  "After all, I was the only one who could believe in it..."

  In the end, Xiaoyan burst into tears while laughing.

  Before seeing that book, Xia Yifei still thought Long Wu and Long Yu were just a coincidence, or at least she thought the Xia family had nothing to do with it, subconsciously excluding her own family.

  But the fact is in front of her, she can no longer deceive herself.

  Xia Yifei felt like she was already deeply mired, being pulled down slowly by the filthy mud. But she didn't want to struggle anymore, why bother struggling anyway, she thought, it's already like this.

  Those muddy waters transmitted a strange, eerie laughter, an icy feeling that seemed to be the vengeful spirit's arm, but Xia Yu Fei had no strength left to struggle, to shake them off. Everything she had believed in had collapsed with a loud crash, shattered into nothingness.

  "I'm still here."

  Someone reached out and grabbed her arm as she was sinking down.

  Ao Yuan pinched her chin with his hand, making her look straight at him. His peach blossom eyes, always filled with a hint of smile, were now full of seriousness and determination: "Even if all the creatures in this world are false, even if everything you see is covered in lies, I, Ao Yuan, can still tell you with a clear conscience..."

  He paused for a moment and told the girl with tears still in her eyes in a tone that seemed to be a sigh: "At least I am true."

  It was just one sentence, and Xiaoyanfei's disguise was easily broken.

  That evening, Xiaoyan leaned her forehead against Ao Yuan's shoulder and cried uncontrollably, while Ao Yuan gently stroked her long hair, telling her "I'm here" one sentence at a time.

  At that time, Xiaoyan suddenly felt that in this vast world, she finally had an anchor, which made her no longer worry about losing herself in the midst of chaos.

  She suddenly had an illusion of dependence on each other for survival.

  It wasn't until much later that Xiaoyan realized she had inexplicably trusted Ao Yuan from the very beginning, and after all they'd been through, her trust hadn't been misplaced.

  Even if everything in the world is false, it's good that you are still by my side.

  If you don't cheat me, I won't cheat you.