Chapter Twenty: Deep Autumn Cold Rain

  In the afternoon, dark clouds filled the sky and thunder rumbled in our ears.

  Outside the small town, on a desolate hillside, there is a new grave, which belongs to Li Jian. In front of the tomb, sheet after sheet of bright red renminbi was thrown into the fire basin by Li Jing, while Guo Liang knelt beside it, stirring the fire basin, both of them have been silent since Li Jian's death.

  "Li Jian is a very silly person, he's the posthumous son of my younger brother's comrade-in-arms and was adopted by my younger brother. A few years ago, he found out about his origins and was very grateful to our family. He said he would protect me for life and not let me suffer any harm." Li Jing's hoarse voice made Guo Liang feel heartbroken, Li Jing continued to say lightly: "I still remember that at the time he even wanted to cut off his finger as a vow, but was beaten up by my younger brother. He's just an eternal child who never grew up and is now lying in the ground."

  "You said, when will we lie down in the soil?" Li Jing looked at Guo Liang, and Guo Liang didn't know how to answer. Li Jing smiled and shook her head, saying: "Who knows? It's known that death is a kind of relief for him now. If there's an afterlife, I hope he finds a good girl who will love him with all her heart."

  The two of them finally knocked their heads against the tombstone three times, then left hand in hand. The lightning in the sky was still spreading wildly, and the thunder rumbled on. A strong gust of wind blew over, blowing away layer after layer of new earth from the grave. A group of crows circled around the hillside, flying back and forth, always hovering around the mound, unwilling to leave.

  Before long, the mound of earth on the grave began to stir, and a pitch-black arm suddenly stretched out from the soft earth. In the blink of an eye, Li Jian had crawled out, his attire having undergone a transformation - the casual clothes he wore in life had turned into a green robe with black lining. His hair was also lengthened, reaching as long as two feet, scattered and draped behind his back.

  A bronze mask materialized in mid-air and was placed over his face, leaving only two dark eye holes exposed. In the pupils, two silver flames seemed to be burning, which looked extremely eerie under the dim sky. Then a bamboo umbrella appeared in his hand, he opened it with one stroke, just covering the sudden raindrops.

  Li Jian leaned on the bamboo umbrella, gazing at the new grave. On the tombstone was a line of bloody characters, which were Guo Liang's. A short flute and a four-foot-long sword reappeared, which he tucked into his waist. After a long time, Li Jian sighed: "Jing Er is right, for me, death is indeed liberation. I am not as clear-sighted as her, I am indeed a fool."

  "I have been freed, the one lying in the soil is Li Jian, Li Jian has always lain in the soil. And I am Qing Shan"

  "There is still someone who needs to protect you." The original Li Jian, now Qing Shan, said this and blinked his eyes, took a deep breath, turned around, and not far down the mountain slope was the town newly occupied by Gong Sun Ce. Under the shining lights, he could still see the patrolling Qin army.

  "Jealousy is the original sin, and all sins should be eliminated. Gong Sun Ce, you may have killed Li Jian, but you also helped me complete my Green Shirt." The Green Shirt's muttering was blown away by the strong wind, his long hair fluttering in the wind, bypassing the Qin army camp, heading northwest along the highway, holding a bamboo umbrella, disappearing into the increasingly heavy autumn rain.

  The torrential autumn rain after the thunderstorm made Gong Sun Ce's extraordinary body also feel a chill. He and his men, the Yu soldiers, were stationed in a school in the town, without dormitories, clearing out a classroom turned it into an instant barracks. The one he was in was originally the principal's office, a small three-story building.

  Lying on the sofa, wrapped in a quilt, he twisted open a bottle of Maotai hidden in the corner and took a small sip. Today, Gong Sun Ce had killed someone for the first time. Before, he had killed countless demonic spirits, but he didn't feel any burden in his heart; it felt very natural to him. But killing a person... even now, his mood was still hard to calm down.

  "I envy that kid, he's really lucky. As for her, I don't know what will happen to her. In this chaotic world, I hope she'll be fine. Otherwise, I'd kill everyone in that city!" Under the flickering candlelight, Gong Sun Ce's eyes were cold and piercing, shining with a sharp glint like a blade. After taking another swig of wine, he shook his head and sighed: "The taste of killing is really intoxicating, it's hard to hold onto one's convictions. Am I a devil? Maybe..."

  Xianyang was also a big rain. The Xianyang side rewarded the military achievements of Gong Sun Ce, a successor to the tradition, in a very timely manner. Gong Sun Ce's title was promoted to the sixth-grade official Daifu, with a monthly salary of 30 stones, and one stone is equal to 30 kilograms of rice. Not only were they paid on time, but also sent six sets of Qin-style clothes and various living supplies to Xue Ling.

  These were all unimportant to Xue Ling, although the six sets of clothes were finely made and beautifully styled, she liked them but hadn't reached the point of being delighted. What delighted her was the small wooden box sent back by Gong Sun Ce, especially the letter inside.

  Although the autumn rain is cold, Xue Ling reads Gong Sun Ce's letter under the candlelight, feeling warm in both body and mind. Several female classmates beside her are eating various dried fruits, whispering about Gong Sun Ce's goodness. They have suffered a lot these two days. On the first day, they only ate dry cakes because there was no oil, salt or seasonings. The food improved on the second day but was still very plain. Now Gong Sun Ce has sent them various dried fruits, which are like timely rain to them, no less than mountain delicacies and seafood.

  Little Lori enthusiastically stuffed dried fruits into her small pouch, filling both hands and then ran to Xuelin with the dried fruits. Xuelin pinched Little Lori's tender face, accepting her kindness, and Little Lori ran over again to grab some for her. On the other side, several women held up wooden boxes, teasing Little Lori and not letting her take the dried fruits, creating a joyful atmosphere.

  Li Qingxuan was also reading a book under the candlelight, his eyebrows furrowing from time to time. This was the "Qin Code" sent by Li Si, which although simple in its various laws and regulations, was extremely strict in its management, leaving no room for leeway. In the future, this "Qin Code" would be implemented throughout the territory of Great Qin, and giving it to them now was a way of letting them take preventive measures early on, so as not to run into trouble later.

  According to this "Qin Code", although we don't have to work in the fields, we still need to labor at home. For example, planting some vegetables and fruits, or raising silkworms and weaving cloth. Although there is no mandatory regulation, we more or less have to do it. Li Qingxuan expressed her thoughts from the book again, which made them a bit hard to accept.

  Circumstances are stronger than people, and no matter how unwilling they are, they have to do it. Occasionally when they went out for a walk, they saw many figures who used to appear on local TV channels, working hard under Qin Jun's whip like oxen. Compared to these people, the few of them following Xue Ling could be considered lucky in misfortune.

  Xue Ling put down Gong Sun Ce's letter, Li Qing Xuan glanced at it and found that she couldn't understand what was written on it. Every word seemed to be dancing on the paper, making Li Qing Xuan dizzy. Xue Ling saw this and smiled, saying: "When he was a student, he wrote his homework very quickly. But not many people would borrow his homework as a reference, because the time it took to read and understand what he wrote was enough for them to work out the answers themselves!"

  "How can you understand it then? It's not like our genius Xue Ling often copies his homework, right? That doesn't add up either, if you copied his homework, how did you get into Xianyang University while he didn't even attend university?" Li Qingxuan put down the "Qin Code" and started eating the dried fruit that Miao Miao had brought over.

  Xue Ling didn't have anything to hide either, and after putting away the letter, she said: "He's a person who pursues spiritual freedom and comfort, and views material things very lightly. For him, the most important thing is his own enjoyment in doing something, including learning. He's very smart, when he's interested in class, he'll work with the teacher to make the classroom atmosphere very lively."

  "I remember once when the city leaders came to our school for a lecture, they randomly selected three classes, except ours, and the other two classes pulled him in, changed clothes and pretended to be students from another class. This guy didn't take those leaders seriously at all, spoke freely without any restraint, and created a great atmosphere."

  "To know that in the multi-functional hall, there were a large number of dark and oppressive people sitting behind him, including school leaders, various messy leaders, parents, TV station staff... just sitting there made one feel extremely nervous. And yet this guy dared to make jokes about the teacher..." Xue Ling seemed to be lost in thought, talking about Gong Sun Ce's various good qualities.

  Finally, he mentioned the reason for Gong Sun Ce's withdrawal from school, with a tone of envy and regret: "In high school, a girl in our junior high class moved to another place and didn't show up at that highly coveted high school. He stayed for only one semester before dropping out directly. He never liked the education system at that time, especially the evening self-study sessions."

  "For a girl? And not wanting to attend late self-study? That handsome guy is quite unique!" Li Qingxuan started showing off her infatuated expression again, while Xue Ling directly ignored her and continued: "He also has a good friend who tore up his admission ticket during the college entrance exams, and it even made the news in our area. As one of our teachers said at the time, he's always been different from others."

  "You haven't said how you can read his words yet?" Li Qingxuan asked, and the other girls also gathered around, curious and expectant, looking at Xue Ling.

  "At that time, I had to write a diary as homework and hand it over to the teacher. I was the representative of Chinese class, specifically responsible for collecting Chinese homework. So... " Xue Ling blinked her bright big eyes at everyone mischievously. Li Qingxuan was not satisfied with this answer, and kept asking: "Do you read everyone's diary? Or is there... another secret?"

  A group of girls seemed to have discovered a new continent, staring at Xue Ling with clenched fists. It was as if they would interrogate her severely if she couldn't come up with a reasonable answer. Xue Ling suddenly found that the atmosphere was similar to the one in the dormitory a few days ago.

  "He's a weirdo, our diaries were just for show to the teacher. He wrote emotional diaries, recording every detail of his daily life and various feelings. Unlike others, it had a special feeling when reading. Moreover, he would inexplicably write all sorts of messy short poems, carefully reading them gave a deep impression." Xue Ling seemed to have returned to that carefree period, saying as she gave her various impressions.

  "Xue Ling, I hate you!" A girl suddenly pounced on Xue Ling, pinning her to the bed and straddling her. "You're telling us about this great resource now? Are you planning to keep it all to yourself?! Why didn't you say anything before?! You wasted half a year of my time with Gong Sun... Waaahhh, I hate you!" The other girls chimed in, pouncing on the bed and starting a ruckus.

  The whole room was in an uproar. Miao Miao stood on a chair, eating dried fruit and occasionally turning her head to look at the group of girls who were fighting. Li Qingxuan sat down on another chair and also started eating dried fruit. Miao Miao glared at her fiercely, as if saying "Don't snatch food from me!" Li Qingxuan pinched Miao Miao's tender face, and Miao Miao furrowed her delicate eyebrows.

  Miao Miao opened her mouth, revealing two rows of white teeth, as if she was about to bite Li Qingxuan. Li Qingxuan pointed at the girl still wrestling on the bed and then at the dried fruit. Miao Miao nodded, and despite their 20-year age difference, they silently started eating the dried fruit with great tacit understanding, filling their pockets...