Free Web NovelLu Yibei finally changed her posture, carrying Nanling Yaohua on her back.
This was likely a compromise she had to make after noticing Nanling Yaohua's resentful gaze, which felt like a small knife scraping at her.
Although Lu Yibei's somewhat slender and petite figure carrying the tall and well-developed Nanling Yaohua inexplicably brought to mind negative terms like "child labor," "exploitation," and "a small horse pulling a large cart," the posture did look much more normal than before.
Lying on Lu Yibei's back, Nanling Yaohua, who had somewhat caught her breath, remained silent for a long time before finally asking in a low voice, "I remember you weren't beside me before I fainted. How did you find me?"
Lu Yibei glanced at Nanling Yaohua out of the corner of her eye, her face expressionless, and said, "It was just a coincidence."
"I was just scouting the surrounding area and found that small courtyard was much more intact than the other buildings nearby, so I thought I'd go in and take a look, and then I found you unconscious on the ground."
She knew that if "Lu Yibei" had told Nanling Yaohua, "I've been looking for you ever since I woke up inside Yumen Pass," Nanling Yaohua might have been very happy.
But if "Lu Qingyi" had said such words, it wouldn't have made Nanling Yaohua happy; instead, it would have made the atmosphere thick with an 'orange' scent, so she simply told the truth.
Of course, not the entire truth. Lu Yibei didn't mention that she went to that small courtyard to search for clues about Xia Lianqing and the Longxiang Army Armored Soldier who had hidden there.
Most people, other than Chatterbox Girl, wouldn't believe the things she experienced last night and would probably think she was being deluded by some urban legend within Yumen Pass.
It was just like when she told the Doctors in various eye departments in Hua City that she could see urban legend all over the streets.
"Oh..." Nanling Yaohua's eyes clearly showed disappointment upon hearing this, but she quickly cheered up and asked again, "Then, my injuries... did you help treat them?"
"Uh, that's a long story," Lu Yibei explained somewhat awkwardly, "but actually, my Coat helped you treat them."
"Is that so?" Nanling Yaohua frowned slightly, instinctively thinking Lu Yibei was avoiding the truth and lying.
But then, the enthusiastic little Coat, as if wanting to vouch for its beloved Devil Woman, extended its limbs, forming a small hand, and gently wiggled it in front of Nanling Yaohua.
Coat: Hello, nice to meet you! (^_−)☆
Nanling Yaohua, "..."
She had known for a long time that Lu Yibei's Coat was a special existence, somewhere between a Strange Tale and a Spiritual Energy item. She had even left a special mark on the Coat when she first detected its Spiritual Energy fluctuations, but she didn't know why that mark later disappeared...
Perhaps Lu Yibei discovered the mark's existence and quietly erased it?
After a brief silence, the disappointment in her eyes quickly faded, replaced by a sharp surge of anger.
"Speaking of which, how have you been since I left?" fɾeeweɓnѳveɭ.com
After failing to perfectly dodge two normal attacks, she had accumulated enough energy to unleash her ultimate skill.
"I've been pretty good, I..." Lu Yibei instinctively replied.
However, before she could finish her sentence, Nanling Yaohua's next question entered her ears, and she immediately fell silent.
It was as if someone had pressed a mute button on her.
Nanling Yaohua told her, "I smelled pomegranate blossoms earlier, when the city gates opened... That old tree must have bloomed, right? I really want to go back and see it!"
"What pomegranate..." The words caught in her throat, Lu Yibei's body stiffened slightly, her eyes widened, and her pupils trembled.
Wait! She just said she smelled pomegranate blossoms?
The scent of most pomegranate blossoms is so faint it can be ignored, and usually, you can't smell them. In Lu Yibei's memory, the only pomegranate blossoms with a strong fragrance were the two in the Lu Family Old House's courtyard.
At the same time, those were also the two pomegranate trees where she found the Wind Chime left by Nanling Yaohua...
Those two pomegranate trees were planted many years ago by Qingji himself for his little Yanzhi, who loved pomegranates.
Lu Yibei still remembered the first time she brought Qingji to the Lu Family Old House in the God Kingdom Prototype, and how sad he looked when he saw those two pomegranate trees.
He lingered alone under the pomegranate trees for a long time, carefully stroking their rough trunks, as if stroking the aged, wrinkled face of a loved one.
Lu Yibei didn't quite understand at first why Qingji was so deeply moved by those two pomegranate trees. Given Qingji's temperament, he wasn't easily saddened; after all, when he saw other old items related to Lu Yanzhi preserved in the old house, he only sighed softly.
It couldn't possibly be because having two trees at home always made people feel melancholic, could it?
Lu Yibei only learned the story of those two ➤ NоvеⅠight ➤ (Read more on our source) pomegranate trees later, when she was pestering Zhang Huainan on one occasion and casually mentioned the pomegranate blossoms outside the courtyard. Zhang Huainan told her...
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"Your great-great-grandmother seemed to love eating all kinds of fruits since she was a child, especially pomegranates. But in those chaotic times, when it was hard for ordinary people to even get enough to eat, it was even more difficult to get fresh fruit in season..."
"After Senior Brother Qingji learned of her preference, he somehow acquired two high-quality pomegranate trees and secretly planted them in the backyard of the Lu Family Old House under the cover of night."
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When she woke up in the morning and opened the window, she saw the pomegranate trees that had suddenly appeared in the courtyard. She was so happy that her mouth didn't close all day, and in the days that followed, she meticulously cared for them like children. The next year, both pomegranate trees bloomed and bore fruit.
"Every year thereafter, your great-great-grandmother would have two entire trees of pomegranates all to herself—yes, all to herself. No one else was allowed to touch them. I once secretly ate one and was almost tormented to death by Senior Brother Qingji... Even now, I feel like it was a loss; those two pomegranates were still..."
"Still what?" Lu Yibei interrupted, "Unripe, right?"
"..." Perhaps remembering the experience of eating unripe fruit, Zhang Huainan fell silent for a moment, then subtly skipped over that part of the content.
"Oh, by the way, I heard from Senior Brother Qingji that he and your great-great-grandmother got married when those two pomegranate trees first bloomed. He said the house was filled with lanterns and colorful decorations, and coupled with the fiery red pomegranate blossoms, it was especially festive."
Upon hearing this, Lu Yibei thought she understood why Qingji was so moved by those two pomegranate trees. In a sense, those two pomegranate trees, like the embroidered shoes of Lu Yanzhi that Qingji had taken, were tokens of their love.
However, what Zhang Huainan said next made her realize that she hadn't actually understood.
"Speaking of which, do you know why the flowers of those two pomegranate trees are so fragrant?" Zhang Huainan asked.
"I heard it's the result of time accumulation?" Lu Yibei said, "The neighbors on Peony Street all say that. Isn't that why?"
"Of course not!" Zhang Huainan denied without hesitation. "That's all Senior Brother Qingji's masterpiece."
"Ancestor?" Lu Yibei asked, puzzled.
"Yes," Zhang Huainan explained. "You might not know, but your great-great-grandmother passed away in winter, and one of her dying wishes was to see the pomegranate trees in the courtyard bloom again. I guess, perhaps in her final moments, she remembered the day they got married?"
"The season for pomegranate blossoms is late spring to early autumn; there are no pomegranate blossoms in winter!" Lu Yibei suddenly realized. "So, in order to let great-great-grandmother see the pomegranate blossoms, Ancestor used some means to force those two pomegranate trees to bloom in winter, is that right?"
If special means were used to make the pomegranate trees bloom, then it would explain why the flowers of those two pomegranate trees were so fragrant.
With Qingji's abilities, it was already quite impressive that he managed to force the flowers to bloom using Spiritual Energy or Alchemy potions without turning the two pomegranate trees into urban legend.
"Then..." After learning the story of those two pomegranate trees, Lu Yibei suddenly thought of a very serious question, "Did great-great-grandmother see the pomegranate blossoms?"
"..." Zhang Huainan was silent for a long time, not directly answering her question, only responding faintly, "I don't know about that. I only know that after your great-great-grandmother passed away, Senior Brother Qingji never let those two pomegranate trees bloom again."
Hearing this, Lu Yibei's mood suddenly became heavy.
In her opinion, Lu Yanzhi most likely did not see the pomegranate blossoms in the end.
She could even imagine Qingji, after forcing the two pomegranate trees to bloom, rushing back to Lu Yanzhi's side, ready to take Lu Yanzhi to the courtyard to see the flowers, while Lu Yanzhi used her last strength to say her final words to Qingji, and then fell asleep forever before she could even make it out of the courtyard.
Otherwise, Qingji wouldn't have prevented those two pomegranate trees from blooming again.
You don't bloom at the crucial moment, do you?
Then never bloom again!
The fact that Qingji didn't chop down those two pomegranate trees in a fit of rage was probably because seeing them would uncontrollably remind him of Lu Yanzhi in her wedding dress, making him unable to bring himself to do it.
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Pulling her thoughts back from the story of those two pomegranate trees, Lu Yibei realized something terrifying.
In the Dream City built by Ms. Wang Meili, the location of those two pomegranate trees was originally near the faculty and staff dormitory building. In the memories that appeared out of thin air, she had once plucked pomegranate blossoms and personally placed them in Nanling Yaohua's hair, and also said some strange things...
When Nanling Yaohua left Hua City, she hung that string of Wind Chimes on the branches of the pomegranate tree, indicating that she hadn't forgotten the words she heard in the Dream City and cared about them very much...
And when she previously opened the passage to the God Kingdom Prototype and sent the fake Disaster in, the destination was precisely the Lu Family Old House, which is why Nanling Yaohua said she smelled the floral fragrance shortly before the city gates opened...
When all the details connected, forming a complete closed loop, Lu Yibei felt that, if nothing unexpected happened, she probably wouldn't be able to walk back to Daimu Courtyard completely today.
The desire to kill someone cannot be hidden, even if the person expressing that desire is behind you, you can still feel it.
Seemingly sensing Lu Yibei's abnormality, Nanling Yaohua reached out and gently wiped the sweat from her forehead, softly saying, "What's wrong, Qingyi? Why are you sweating? Is it very hot?"
"I..." Lu Yibei opened her mouth, wanting to say something, but before she could organize her words to argue, a cry for help suddenly came from ahead.
"Help, help... help me!"
Following the sound, they saw a girl with round-rimmed glasses and ear-length short hair speeding towards them, looking disheveled and panicked.
Lu Yibei and Nanling Yaohua were both familiar with the girl's appearance; she was Dai Lin's accomplice, whom they had recently tracked together.
The moment she saw the girl, Lu Yibei's eyes lit up.
Although the desire to kill someone cannot be hidden, it can be redirected.
The moment the girl appeared, Lu Yibei distinctly felt Nanling Yaohua's desire to kill her quickly shift to the girl...
