He lightly tugged at Yun Huizhou’s sleeve.
Yun Huizhou turned his head slightly. His pupils were terrifyingly dark, still harboring a trace of killing intent that had yet to fade, though his expression softened a few degrees upon seeing Lian Li.
Lian Li took a step forward, positioning himself slightly in front of Yun Huizhou. Using his body as a shield, he gently brushed his fingers against the back of Yun Huizhou’s hand to soothe him.
Sensing that Yun Huizhou’s aura had calmed further, Lian Li looked toward the eight people opposite them. He ignored Young Master Hou and his companion, staring instead at Zhang Ning.
He held up two fingers and spoke in a cold tone.
“Twice. The last time, the South Island Lord saved your life. This time, it was Young Master Hou who saved you. But there will not be a third time. If you continue to harass us, or lead your junior brothers to harass me, it won’t just be Yun Huizhou who refuses to let you go—I won’t hold back either. When that time comes, no one’s pleas for mercy will matter.”
“If you call upon the elders of Maple Leaf Valley to block us, then it shall be a duel to the death.”
“Do not seek your own death, and certainly do not bring your junior brothers and sisters along to die with you.”
After saying this, Lian Li patted Yun Huizhou’s shoulder and leaped back onto his horse.
He and Yun Huizhou stared at the group blocking the path. Their meaning was clear: get out of the way.
Young Master Hou maintained a smile on his face and stepped aside slightly.
Zhang Ning also forced her body to move, ordering her junior brothers and sisters to clear the path so that Yun Huizhou and Lian Li could pass.
It wasn’t until the two had traveled a significant distance that she turned to thank Young Master Hou and his companion.
***
After Yun Huizhou and Lian Li had traveled quite far, Yun Huizhou suddenly asked, “I could feel your killing intent earlier. Why did you suddenly take the initiative to let them off? I thought you were like me and wanted to just wipe them all out. I was actually thinking about the fastest way to bypass those two nuisances so I could kill them.”
Lian Li blanked for a moment, then said, “I saw you suddenly stop and look conflicted, so I thought you wanted to change your mind but felt embarrassed to say it. I figured since you were radiating such intense killing intent and then suddenly decided not to kill them, it would be quite embarrassing for you to speak up yourself. Or, if we just left, they might think you were unable to strike. That’s why I came up with a reason and threw in some threats while I was at it.”
The two looked at each other, both seeing utter confusion in the other’s eyes.
Lian Li: “So, we both misread each other’s intentions?”
Yun Huizhou: “It appears so.”
Lian Li hesitated for a moment, trying his best not to look too bloodthirsty. “Then… should we turn back? Maybe that guy surnamed Hou has left by now?”
“Uh… that’s not necessary,” Yun Huizhou said. “It feels like it would be a bit strange to turn back now.”
Lian Li nodded. It really would be.
If they turned back now, it would be like a trope he had seen before.
When someone is exterminating a whole family and finds a hidden child, they say, “I’ll kill you the next time we meet,” then walk two steps, whip around, and say, “Oh look, we’ve met again.”
Amused by his own thought, Lian Li shared the joke with Yun Huizhou.
Yun Huizhou: “Hiss—though that sounds a bit shameless, it actually seems quite effective.”
“That’s not the only one. There’s also the one where you say to the child who appeared, ‘Since you showed yourself, you must have younger siblings hidden away too, right?'” Lian Li added.
Yun Huizhou: “Ha? You can even do that?”
When they reached the next town, Yun Huizhou wrote another letter and sent it off.
Lian Li was curious, so after the letter was sent, he asked, “What did you write this time?”
Yun Huizhou: “Nothing much. I just wrote to Master to tell him about Zhang Ning bringing people to block us and wanting Zhou Yu to be your opponent.”
Thinking back to the incident on the grasslands, Lian Li asked, “How will Master react?”
Yun Huizhou pondered for a moment and said, “He’ll probably write a letter to negotiate with the Valley Master of Maple Leaf Valley, telling him that if he doesn’t know how to teach disciples, he shouldn’t take them in. He should stop thinking about freeloading off us by using us as sparring partners to raise his disciples.”
He paused, then added, “Next time you meet Zhou Yu, if he harasses you, don’t worry about anything. If you want to kill him, just kill him.”
Lian Li: “Mm, alright.”
They only rested in the small town for one night before continuing their journey the next day.
When they had first come this way, they were in a great rush and had galloped the whole way.
Consequently, Lian Li hadn’t paid much attention to the road. Now that they weren’t in a hurry, Lian Li realized that this road from Linjiu City back to Drunken Dream Island felt somewhat familiar.
He found it strange. They hadn’t taken this road when they arrived, so why did it look familiar?
“Yun Huizhou, why does this road feel familiar to me?” Unable to figure it out, Lian Li didn’t bother thinking further and asked Yun Huizhou directly.
He didn’t expect Yun Huizhou to give him a real answer; he was just bored from traveling and brought up a random topic.
To his surprise, Yun Huizhou answered quite seriously, “You don’t remember? This is the very road where I picked you up last year.”
As he spoke, he pointed to a tree behind them. “That tree right there is the one you climbed to hide from the wolves.”
Lian Li was stunned. It was one thing for Yun Huizhou to remember the road, but how did he even remember which specific tree he had hidden in?
Seeing Lian Li’s surprise, Yun Huizhou smiled with a hint of pride. “I’m very good at remembering paths.”
Lian Li gave a soft “Hmph.” After walking a bit further, he suddenly remembered that the original host had walked out on his own and died by the roadside.
Calculating based on that, the original host’s home wasn’t far from here.
Lian Li lowered his head and began to sift through the original host’s memories, which he hadn’t touched in a long time. Although the original host’s older brother and sister-in-law were unkind to him, his parents had doted on him.
The original host had deep feelings for his parents. When they passed away, he hadn’t yet moved past the grief when he was targeted by his sister-in-law, ignored by his brother, and bullied by his nephew.
While the original host’s death was largely due to his own circumstances, a part of it was certainly the result of the melancholy that had settled in his heart after enduring those events.
Now that he had taken over this body and gained a second life, he didn’t plan to bother with the brother and sister-in-law. However, he felt he should visit the parents who had treated the original host so well.
He remembered that after the parents died, the brother and sister-in-law took over most of the family estate but were quite negligent regarding the funeral arrangements and the parents’ affairs.
Later, the original host had even overheard his sister-in-law complaining to his elder brother behind his back, saying that the parents had been biased toward the original host while they were alive. Now that they were dead and no one was left to protect him, the original host still had to rely on them for a living.
