LRAB Page 131
Page 131
He was about to speak again when he saw Mu Yunzhou turn around and look back into the depths of the village, his eyes filled with a sense of remoteness.
"do you know?"
"A long, long, long time ago, this was my home."
Mu Yunzhou softened his voice even more, as if afraid of disturbing something.
“My family all live here. There’s my grandfather who can brew wine, my mother who can sew dolls, and my younger brother who always pesters me to learn swordsmanship.”
"Later, they even had someone build a statue for me, which is placed in the most conspicuous place at the entrance of the village."
As he spoke, he suddenly reached out and gently pulled Mu Qinghan's arm.
The touch was slightly cool, but not cold, carrying a strange temperature.
Mu Yunzhou pulled him a few steps into the village, stopping in front of a clearing overgrown with weeds, and pointed to the ground.
“Look, this is it. My statue was even bigger than yours back then, and my name is engraved on the sword hilt.”
He sighed softly, a hint of melancholy in his voice.
"Sigh, I don't know when it was pushed over, and only a few broken stones are buried in the grass."
"It's possible that it's been too long and was blown away by strong winds and heavy rains... After all, the people in this village no longer have any bloodline from those people from back then."
He paused, a hint of confusion flashing in his eyes.
"Sometimes I wonder if the tradition from back then has been broken off long ago?"
"Those people I miss, those days we practiced swords together, am I the only one who still remembers them?"
Mu Qinghan stood quietly to the side, without saying a word.
At this moment, Mu Yunzhou shed his initial composure and, like a child who had been holding back his feelings for thousands of years, poured out the emotions that had been accumulating in his heart little by little.
His tone was sometimes light and cheerful, sometimes melancholy, and every word he spoke carried an unyielding longing.
It was as if they wanted to use this brief encounter to tell all the loneliness they had endured for thousands of years to the person in front of them who shared the same surname.
Mu Yunzhou suddenly turned around, his gaze falling on Mu Qinghan's face, a gentle smile on his lips, his tone tinged with a hint of teasing.
"What's your lover's name? You must have someone you love, right?"
Mu Qinghan was taken aback, and subconsciously wanted to deny it, but when she met the other person's eyes, she nodded slightly: "Yes, I do."
"I'll just say it!"
As if he had received confirmation, Mu Yunzhou suddenly burst out laughing, his laughter carrying a fresher warmth than before.
"That place in your heart is wrapped up tightly in something warm—there are family members who care about you, friends who stand by your side, and a lover hidden deep in your heart."
"These things are like a layer of soft armor, protecting your heart so well that even a sword can't pierce it, hahaha."
As he spoke, a hint of envy flashed in his eyes: "To be honest, I'm actually a little envious of you."
Mu Qinghan subconsciously raised her hand to cover her chest, her fingertips able to feel the steady beating of her heart, as if she could truly touch those cherished emotions.
Before he could speak, Mu Yunzhou continued, his tone softening as if he were gently touching a fragile old object.
"Oh dear, actually, I also had a very precious love back then."
His voice was very soft, and his gaze drifted into the depths of the village, as if he were looking through layers of time to see a scene from long ago.
"She is lovely and kind. Her eyes crinkle into crescents when she smiles, and even her voice has a soft, gentle tone."
"For example, she always likes to add 'ah' or 'oh' at the end of her sentences, which is just cute."
At this point, he suddenly chuckled softly, a gentle ripple spreading across his eyes.
"But at first, because of some misunderstandings, she always thought I was a super bad guy. She even wanted to kill me, saying I was the worst person in the world."
"But what happened next?" Mu Qinghan asked subconsciously, without even realizing that his tone was filled with curiosity.
A bright recollection flashed in Mu Yunzhou's eyes, a light even brighter than when he had looked at the statue before, as if the sunlight of that time had fallen into his eyes.
"Later, she still fell in love with me. But even after we got together, she always called me 'big bad guy' because I was always teasing her. She said I would never be able to change my habit of bullying her."
As he spoke, the smile on his lips grew even gentler, and even the aura around him was tinged with a sweet warmth. It seemed that simply recalling these small, trivial things made him feel incredibly content.
After a moment of silence, Mu Qinghan suddenly spoke, his voice softer than before: "What's her name?"
Mu Yunzhou paused for a moment, as if he hadn't expected him to ask that question. Then, he slowly put away his smile, and his eyes became more tender, as if he were reciting a secret that had been treasured for thousands of years.
"Her name is Rose, the Rose of the rose flower."
He paused, then added, his tone full of certainty.
"Like the most beautiful rose in the yard, she was so beautiful that you couldn't take your eyes off her."
"So beautiful... I'll never forget it..."
Chapter 155 The clouds of the past
"Come here, Qinghan, look here quickly—"
Mu Yunzhou paused, pointed to the simple chicken coop ahead, and said with a hint of melancholy.
"Yes, this is where the chicken coop is located. It used to be my brother's place."
"Back then, this place didn't look like this at all. It was a delicate little bamboo house with bamboo as the frame and thatched roof, which would rustle when the wind blew through it."
He bent down and parted the waist-high weeds beside the chicken coop, his gaze gradually drifting into the distance.
“Back then, my younger brother would stay in that bamboo house every day, focusing all his attention on tinkering with all sorts of new and interesting gadgets.”
"Putting everything else aside, the throwing knives he personally crafted are as thin as cicada wings, sharp enough to cut through gold, and can accurately take a person's head from ten thousand meters away, appearing and disappearing like a ghost."
"And then there's his ultimate weapon, which looks just like an ordinary stone slab, but if an enemy accidentally steps on it, it will explode with tremendous power."
At this point, Mu Yunzhou's face showed a proud smile, and his tone unconsciously rose a little.
"Anyway, there's no secret art of divination, hidden weapons, or mechanisms that my brother can't do. He's a true genius!"
"Your brother is truly remarkable; he's a prodigy."
Mu Qinghan praised softly, but his gaze suddenly sharpened, and he quickly reached out to pull Mu Yunzhou.
Hey! Let go of me! Stop choking that chicken!
Mu Yunzhou suddenly came to his senses and looked down to see that his right hand was tightly gripping the neck of a large hen.
The hen flapped its wings and kicked wildly in the air. Its comb, which was originally slightly pale, had turned purple, and it looked like it was about to die.
"Oh, oh, oh, I'm so sorry!"
He hurriedly let go, scratched the back of his head somewhat awkwardly, and a hint of embarrassment flashed across his face.
"I was thinking about my brother and got distracted for a moment, so I didn't notice the chicken."
As soon as he finished speaking, he pointed his index finger at the top of the hen's head, and a gentle force was quietly injected into it.
The hen's life force, which had been so weak it was almost gone, suddenly became incredibly vigorous.
The purplish comb has turned bright red again, the drooping wings flapped powerfully a few times, and even the feathers on the tail have become glossy and spread out long, making it look spirited.
With a casual wave of his hand, Mu Yunzhou put the giant hen to sleep once again.
He stared at the dirt road before him, a road that was both strange and familiar, and his Adam's apple bobbed.
The houses on both sides of the dirt road had peeling paint, revealing the dark yellow mud bricks underneath. The thatched roofs were not as neat as I remembered, but drooped haphazardly.
The dog by the roadside, with its messy fur and wary yet bewildered look in its eyes, barked at him in a hoarse voice, completely unlike the powerful bark of the big yellow dog at home back then.
He casually waved his hand, and the big yellow dog, like the villagers, fell into a deep sleep.
And the chicken that he almost choked to death just now, its comb looked sickly and pale.
Unlike the chickens my brother used to raise, which were so proud and majestic, with bright red combs and glossy feathers.
Yet, this very unfamiliar world strangely overlapped with my memories.
He could almost see himself as a young boy, carrying a sword case, walking side by side with his younger brother on this road.
My younger brother always had some strange little parts in his hands, chattering away about how he had improved his newly made "decapitation throwing knife," saying that he would definitely show everyone what he was capable of doing next time.
At the corner of the road, you can still see the figure of Uncle Zhang, the neighbor. He always smiles and takes out sugar cakes wrapped in lotus leaves from his pocket and shares them with the two brothers.
And then there's Old Li from the blacksmith shop. Every time he sees them practicing swordsmanship, he stops what he's doing, points at them with the sparking handle of his hammer, and shouts, "Yunzhou, Qingyan, make the sword heavier, and make the force more penetrating!"
"Brother, look at the blueprints for this underground weapon of mass destruction."
In his mind, Mu Qingyan's voice was so clear it seemed to be right next to his ear.
"If anyone accidentally steps on it, it will explode with a loud bang!"
The dirt road winds its way forward, ending at a simple little thatched hut.
The walls were made of yellow mud, the roof was thatched, and a wisp of pale blue smoke rose from the chimney, mingling with the aroma of food and spreading through the air.
As soon as Mu Yunzhou stopped at the door, the wooden door of the outhouse creaked open.
The girl inside wore a plain-colored cloth apron, with a freshly picked wildflower pinned in her hair.
Seeing him approach, her eyebrows instantly curved into crescent moons, a sweet smile spread across her face, and she quickly stepped out to greet him with light, quick steps.
"You're finally back, you big bad guy!"
The girl's voice was clear and melodious, like the tinkling of a mountain stream, carrying a hint of coquettish complaint, yet unable to hide her joy.
She walked quickly to Mu Yunzhou, gently patted the dust off his clothes, and spoke with concern in her voice.
"Are you hungry? I've prepared your favorite braised pork hock, it's stewed until tender and flavorful, and it smells amazing!"
She pulled Mu Yunzhou's wrist and led him into the house, muttering to herself as they went.
"You're always running around outside, eating all sorts of random things every day, never taking care of your health. Be careful not to get an upset stomach. Come in, wash your hands, we're about to eat."
As she reached the doorway, the girl seemed to remember something, turned back to look at the empty road behind Mu Yunzhou, and asked with some confusion.
"Why didn't you call Kiyohiko over? I cooked a lot of dishes today, enough for you two brothers to eat to your heart's content."
Seeing Mu Yunzhou still standing at the door in a daze, the girl couldn't help but reach out her finger and gently poke his forehead, a sly smile on her face.
"What are you still standing at the door for? Come in quickly, hehe, you're such a fool."
On the square table inside the room, a full table of food was laid out, with a steaming braised pork knuckle in the center, its color bright red and its aroma enticing, clearly indicating that it had been carefully prepared for a long time.