I, the transmigrated villain, please wait, gentle master.

Chapter 176 Dream of a Millet Dream and the Sound of Rain (5)

"But I believe we will meet again."

"By then, I won't be as dirty and disheveled as I am now. Just think of that as our 'first meeting'."

"As long as I am the only one who remembers, it is actually a 'reunion' and that's enough."

This is what Li Tingyun said to Mei Shiyu.

He wants face.

He looked terrible, covered in dust and dirt.

His background is something he is reluctant to talk about.

His experiences are beyond words.

He simply cannot stand openly in front of people.

It's even less likely that they would expose their truest self to others without reservation.

He didn't want to humiliate himself, so he preferred that Mei Shiyu not remember him.

Li Tingyun ran away as soon as he finished speaking, without the slightest hesitation. He believed that they would eventually meet again, not just in the morning or evening.

At that time, Li Tingyun could never have imagined that their "reunion" would actually come not as late as she had thought.

He thought he would have to wait until he grew up to travel thousands of miles to find the plum blossom fragrance that had seeped into his bones when he was young. But he never expected that only four years later, he would ascend Cangyou Mountain and rank first in the Immortal Sect Trials.

He thought his path would be smooth sailing from then on, but to his surprise, despite achieving the top honor, he was turned away and driven down the mountain. Unwilling and resentful, he was determined to get an explanation. He sneaked back into the mountain gate, wandered around for a while, and unexpectedly ran into Mei Shiyu.

What bad luck.

He thought that when they "reunited," his situation would be better and more respectable, but he didn't expect to still be so disheveled and in such a terrible state.

He recognized Mei Shiyu at a glance. She was seventeen or eighteen years old and was stunningly beautiful. Although he no longer wanted to bury his face in the ground when he saw Mei Shiyu, just like when he was a child, his heart was still pounding and his body was trembling uncontrollably.

When I was little, I didn't understand what "love at first sight" meant. I only realized it when I grew up. It's a feeling of being suddenly moved. Only when you're facing someone you like will your heart act so uncontrollably. Every time you see them, you get excited, and they feel terrible too, and you're bound to embarrass themselves!

When they met again at the age of twelve, Li Tingyun didn't mention the past at all. He told Mei Shiyu that he had no parents, no family, no proper name, and no surname. He only had a simple nickname, "Yuanbao".

He lied not only to Mei Shiyu, but to everyone.

No matter who stands before him, he cannot be completely honest with them.

He used this excuse to perfectly cover up his past. If anyone asked, he would say that everyone was dead, he didn't know, he didn't remember, and that the world was in chaos with too many pitiful people. No one would doubt that there could be such a miserable person in the world.

Mei Shiyu believed "Yuanbao" without hesitation.

It was also because he saw something incredibly precious in the boy's eyes.

It's called "sincerity".

Every look Yuanbao gave him, every word he spoke, was filled with fervent sincerity.

This sincerity is filled with trust and reliance, and also hides an extreme, intense, and heavy emotion, like "a scholar will die for one who understands him," with a tendency toward self-destruction, willing to disregard life and death for him, and valuing him more than himself.

Who would doubt such a person?

Anyway, Mei Shiyu had no doubts.

He believed everything Yuanbao said.

It's actually quite easy to tell whether someone is sincere or not. What kind of emotion can be faked so convincingly?

Mei Shiyu was deceived not because he was too stupid, but because the "sincerity" he saw was not fake at all. Li Tingyun's feelings for him were genuine and unconditional, and his heart was more real than gold!

This is very difficult.

Even the King of Heaven himself couldn't tell which of his words were true and which were false.

Therefore, whether facing Yuanbao, the sword spirit, or the Undying Bone, Mei Shiyu chose to believe unconditionally.

On a stormy evening, Mei Shiyu brought the indignant Xiao Yuanbao back to the main peak of Cangyou Mountain.

They wanted to "uphold justice" for him and even more so, to "seek redress" for him.

What seemed like a turning point had actually led to a dead end.

The cycle of karma will come, and Li Tingyun will have to pay the price for the sins he has committed. He must pay a heavy price for the karma he bears.

So that night, he lost his footing and fell from a towering peak, paying for his debt with his death and bearing the consequences of his actions.

The world has lost one nameless, damned person.

The Bodhi Precepts now contain an unseen, concealed corpse.

Mei Shiyu had no idea that the "Yuanbao" who had stayed by his side ever since was the same chubby little boy who had refused to tell him his name, refused to be his friend, and kept saying "You have to forget me." That dirty-faced child had actually come to find him as promised, reunited with him in a hurry, and then died tragically. His body and flesh remained "forever" by his side.

If only there were something in this world that would remain unchanged forever, but the only thing that will never change is the word "change." As time goes by, things change, and people change. Mei Shiyu defied the world to hide the Undying Bone, and the spirit that was attached to the Green Frost Sword and infused with blood, were eventually driven away by him. He had given them a way to live, and he also personally sent them on their way home.

Many years later, Mei Shiyu met a young man she didn't know at the Gates of Hell, which separates Yin and Yang.

He mistook an old acquaintance for a new face, mistakenly believing it to be their "first meeting".

Little did they know, this was yet another "reunion".

"Life is like the first time we met," Li Tingyun thought. "The show he put on when we were on the verge of death... cough, the first impression he left on Mei Shiyu should be acceptable, right?" In front of the person he liked, he wanted to be an all-powerful hero, not a bullied little dog.

After that, every time he saw Mei Shiyu, he made sure he looked presentable. He even tidied up the Taiji Hall, but it still wasn't enough. He knew that Mei Shiyu would never judge a book by its cover, nor would he be greedy for wealth and glory. But for some reason, Li Tingyun was afraid that Mei Shiyu would find him repulsive.

If he were single, he would do whatever he wanted, even living in complete poverty and wanting nothing. But if Mei Shiyu stayed with him, he felt that even bringing down the Jade Palace from heaven wouldn't be enough to satisfy him. He always felt he was losing out, and he wanted to pile all the rare treasures in front of him and ask him one by one if he liked them. When he found out that Mei Shiyu didn't like them at all, he stopped.

So, what does Mei Shiyu like? Li Tingyun guessed: He probably likes me to stay away from him.

As he thought about it, he laughed, a cold laugh that was also a kind of speechless laugh at himself—I'm not far from him at all!

He was already deeply in love, but when it was time to let go, he couldn't. He knew that their love was deep but their fate was shallow, yet he remained clear-headed and wasted his time.

He admitted that he didn't know how to cherish someone because he had rarely had anything.

But when he realizes that he is likely to hurt this person, he will naturally learn to behave and become obedient.

Because he has lost a lot.

He had no parents, no friends, had lost his life, suffered divine punishment, endured eight hundred miles of the Yellow Springs Road, and suffered one hundred and thirty years of calamities. He was the most laughable lonely ghost in the world, who else could it be but him?

Even so, he was not entirely abandoned by the world. Fortunately, he received kindness from several people during his tumultuous life. Unfortunately, there was only one such person.

Fortunately, one person was enough to save him; unfortunately, that person knew nothing about it.

Fortunately, they were unaware of it.

Li Tingyun didn't consider himself a good person. He had gone astray from the very beginning, or rather, all that was in front of him was a winding, narrow path. The so-called smooth road to heaven was completely out of his reach.

He and Mei Shiyu walked different paths, one on the main road and the other on a narrow bridge. Their paths were different, so they could not work together. If Mei Shiyu knew that he had once taken in his remains and that this had led to his current position as the Master of Taiji Hall, he would probably feel extremely regretful or even resentful.

Therefore, just as Yuanbao concealed his unforgivable past of patricide and matricide from Mei Shiyu, Li Tingyun also kept quiet about the origin and destination of the Undying Bone. Between them, there was nothing but lies and deception.

They had met so many times, yet they had never truly "known" each other.

We spent a long time together, but we could never be considered "close friends".

Mei Shiyu felt completely unfamiliar with Li Tingyun from beginning to end.

This feeling of "estrangement" was indescribable; he clearly recognized him, and kept calling his name...

But it also seemed as if he had never met this person before, and never knew who this person was.

"I'm not telling you my name!"

"I don't need you to remember me."

You absolutely, positively, must forget me!

"But I believe we will meet again."

"When the time comes... just treat that as our 'first meeting'."

"As long as I am the only one who remembers, it is actually a 'reunion' and that's enough."

Every word is a prophecy.

Eight-year-old Yuanbao ran off as soon as he finished speaking, outrunning even the wind. But the loop of fate had already ensnared him, looping around and around.

His own destiny was never in his own hands. What seemed like a series of tragic mishaps were in fact his predetermined fate. A lost soul, caught in the middle of the situation, can never imagine how many more "mishaps" and "destinies" await him in the future. He can only keep running and running, and even the direction he runs in is predetermined, with no room for deviation.

After saying goodbye to Mei Shiyu, Yuanbao walked through the streets and alleys. He heard the night watchman striking the gong and crows cawing on the branches. When he looked up, he saw the moon shining brightly on the street. He couldn't see anyone in front of him or any ghosts behind him. As he walked, he suddenly heard a noise.

He darted faster than a cat, climbing up the corner of the wall and onto the roof in no time.

A patrol of soldiers walked along the street corner, carrying lanterns and wearing black boots, passing under the eaves of houses in an orderly fashion.

Li Tingyun lay down and hid, listening to several rounds of discussion, some long and some short:

"Sigh, the city's defenses have been strengthened recently, and the curfew is getting stricter and stricter. A few days ago, the county magistrate personally went to each city gate to conduct a thorough inspection... I heard that fighting has broken out in many places outside. We're far from the emperor's reach here, so there hasn't been any movement yet, but who knows when we'll be in trouble..."

"Hey, why worry about so much? We'll just live one day at a time. No matter how fierce the fighting is outside, we still have to farm and pay our dues. The people of Huangliang City live on millet porridge. If anyone tries to stop us from farming, we'll plant them in the fields!"

"With our county magistrate here, I'm sure we can hold this city! Haven't you heard everyone saying that Lord Yuan has the heart of a literary star and the fate of a martial star? In terms of academics, everyone said he couldn't compare to the young master of the Ji family, but who would have thought that he would be on the list that spring? But if we're talking about martial arts..."

"In terms of martial arts, he is truly convincing. A few years ago, he personally led a group to wipe out the bandit den in Dongshan and also dealt with several roving beggar armies. He is indeed quite capable. No wonder the blind fortune teller on the street always says that he has 'the heart of the God of Literature and the fate of the God of War.' The first half of the saying will harm him, while the second half will allow him to pay off his debts."

"What do you mean? He has the heart of a Wenquxing (a star associated with literature and scholarship), which harmed him, but he also has the fate of a Wuquxing (a star associated with martial arts), which can be used to repay debts? This doesn't make sense. How did he harm himself, and how is he supposed to repay his debts, and what debts are he repaying?"

"How would I know? I'm not a blind fortune teller! All I know is that the county magistrate was furious when he heard this and ordered the blind man to be arrested and thrown into jail. I was there at the time. The blind man was shouting so loudly, cursing Lord Yuan for his evil deeds while also urging him to defend the city, saying things like 'The public good lasts forever, while private interests last only for a moment.' He said that if he still cared about the Yuan family, he should defend the city to the death and save the millions of people, so that his hard-won official position would not have been in vain..."

"What does 'a career path obtained through painstaking scheming' mean? Does it mean that the position of county magistrate was stolen from someone else or usurped from someone else?"

"Ask, ask, ask! Why do you have so many questions! Go ask the blind man in jail!"

"..."

The patrol group gradually moved away into the distance.

Li Tingyun quietly withdrew one head. Actually, he didn't understand much, but he knew that he definitely wouldn't be able to get out of the city gate tonight! The city wall was so high that he couldn't climb over it. He would have to wait until the rooster crowed tomorrow morning to... He suddenly remembered a story, "the rooster crows and the dog steals," and a brilliant idea flashed into his mind.

He leaped, scaling walls and rooftops with the agility of a renowned bandit, traversing corridors and ascending pavilions, seemingly ascending to heaven three times over—damn! Damn, damn, damn! His foot landed on a loose tile! Slippery as if he'd stepped on a banana peel, his lower body moving before his upper body did—

With a "thump," Li Tingyun knelt down in front of the procession, prostrating himself on the ground in full view of everyone.

He scrambled to his feet and ran, cursing as he went: "Which bastard dared to cut corners when repairing this house! Did three generations of the family agree that if they couldn't live together, they could only die together, and when the house collapsed, they'd use the spot as their grave, so the whole family could go down there together and enjoy the happiness of family life?!"

He ran ahead, with a group of people chasing behind him. The leader shouted, "Catch the rat!" "It's a rat spirit!" "A big rat that can talk!" "Evil spirits are out, close the doors and windows!" They chased until they were exhausted and their throats were dry. They watched helplessly as the "big rat" climbed up the tree trunk and into the dense canopy, the leaves rustling.

They surrounded the tree, poking at it with spears and sticks for a long time, until a squirrel, two tabby cats, three sparrows, four... fell down.

Anyway, they didn't get the rat spirit they wanted.

They probably ran away a long time ago.

The leader was about to lead his men to continue the search when a messenger came from the yamen (government office) saying that the neighboring house across the street from the county magistrate's private residence, formerly the Ji family mansion, had somehow collapsed overnight. They urgently needed manpower to clean up the mess, move bricks and tiles, and repair the city wall.

Soon, everyone dispersed.

Li Tingyun was hiding in the tree, still holding a small snake in her hand.

He met the little snake's dark, round eyes.

A female snake, as thick as a bowl, silently appeared behind him, flicking her forked tongue and a glint of light in her eyes.

"Ouch~~"

The bright moon startled the magpies on the branch.