Xie Lian asked, "Blood Rain Tanhua?"
Hua Cheng replied, "Your Highness the Crown Prince."
Xie Lian turned around and smiled.
"This is the first time I've heard you call me that."
That red-clothed youth sat on the mat.
He propped up one leg and smiled back, "How do you feel?"
Xie Lian thought for a moment and honestly said, "It seems … … different from when others call me that."
Hua Cheng asked, "En, what's different?"
Xie Lian tilted his head,
Slightly narrowing his eyes, he said, "It's hard for me to say.
It's just … … "
Others called him Your Highness,
Or they called him without emotion and in a business-like manner.
For example, Ling Wen. And even more people called him Your Highness,
But it carried a sense of squeezing, as if they were calling an ugly beauty,
It was done on purpose,
Slightly sarcastic.
But when Hua Cheng called him "Your Highness," this word was extremely precious. Thus,
Although he couldn't describe it, Xie Lian felt that
When Hua Cheng called him "Your Highness," and other people called him "Your Highness,"
The feeling was different.
Xie Lian said, "On Mount Yu Jun,
The groom who took me away was you, right? "
The smile on Hua Cheng's lips deepened. Only then did Xie Lian realize that this sentence seemed to have an ambiguous meaning.
He hurriedly changed it, "I mean, the one who pretended to be a groom and took me away was you, right?"
Hua Cheng said, "I didn't pretend to be a groom."
If he really said it like that, then it was true. At that time, that youth didn't lie to him and say he was a groom. He didn't say a single word and only stopped in front of the sedan and extended his hand. Xie Lian was the one who left with him!
Xie Lian said, "Alright. Then, why did you appear on Mount Yu Jun at that time? "
Hua Cheng said, "There are only two answers to this question. First, I specifically went for you, Your Highness. Second, I was just passing by and had a lot of free time. Which do you think is more believable? "
Calculating the number of days Hua Cheng had spent by his side, Xie Lian said, "I don't dare say which is more believable … … but you really do seem to have a lot of free time."
His entire person and gaze circled Hua Cheng back and forth. After a long time, he nodded and said, "You … … are a bit different from the rumors."
Hua Cheng changed his posture, but he was still supporting his chin with his hand. He looked at him and said, "Oh? Then how did Your Highness know that I was the Blood Rain Tanhua? "
Xie Lian's mind was filled with that umbrella under the rain of blood, that clanking silver chain, and that ice-cold silver wrist guard. He thought to himself, 'It's not like you're hiding it very seriously.' He said, "No matter how I probe, you're watertight. You're definitely in a 'desperate' state. Your red robes are as red as maple leaves and blood, as if you are omniscient, omnipotent, and fearless. With such a bearing, I can't think of anyone else other than the 'Blood Rain Tanhua', who causes all the immortals and gods to turn pale at the mention of his name. "
Hua Cheng smiled and said, "If that's the case, can I take that as a compliment?"
Xie Lian thought, "Don't tell me you didn't hear it?"
Hua Cheng's smile faded and he continued, "After saying so much, why didn't Your Highness ask me why I approached you?"
Xie Lian replied, "If you don't want to tell me, then even if I asked you, you wouldn't tell me, right? Or perhaps what you tell me isn't the truth."
However, Hua Cheng said, "That's not necessarily true. Furthermore, you could have just driven me away. "
Xie Lian said, "You're so resourceful. Even if I drove you away now, if you really wanted to do something bad, can't you just change your skin and come back?"
The two of them looked at each other and laughed. Suddenly, a rolling sound broke the brief silence in Pu Qi Monastery. The two of them looked in the direction of the sound. There was no one there, only a small black clay pot rolling on the ground.
That was the small clay pot that Xie Lian had kept for Half-moon. It had originally been placed by Xie Lian on the mat, but at some point, it had fallen down on its own and rolled to the door. It was blocked by the wooden door that Hua Cheng had made, so it kept bumping against the door. Xie Lian was worried that it would smash itself into pieces, so he went up to open the door. That small clay pot rolled all the way to the grass outside the door.
Xie Lian followed behind it. The small clay pot rolled onto a patch of grass and stood upright. It was clearly just a pot, but it gave people the illusion that it was looking up at the starry sky.
Hua Cheng also walked out of Pu Qi Monastery. Xie Lian faced the clay pot and said, "Half-moon, are you awake?"
Fortunately, it was already late at night when they returned from the desert. Otherwise, if people saw Xie Lian standing outside in the middle of the night asking a pot what happened, they would most likely make a fuss over nothing.
After a while, that small pot let out a muffled voice, "General Hua."
Xie Lian sat down next to it and said, "Half-moon, did you come out to look at the stars? Do you want to come out and see? "
Hua Cheng stood to the side and leaned against a tree. He said, "She just left Half-moon City. It's better for her to stay here for a while."
After all, Half-moon had stayed in Half-moon Country for two hundred years. Suddenly changing places would probably be difficult for her to adapt. Xie Lian said, "Then you should stay here for a while and recuperate. This is where I cultivate, you don't have to worry about anything else. "
That pot swayed a few times. It was unknown what it was trying to express. After considering for a moment, Xie Lian said, "Half-moon, actually, this time it had nothing to do with you. Your scorpion was … … "
Half-moon said, "General Hua, at that time I couldn't move, but I heard everything."
Hearing this, Xie Lian froze. Only now did he know that Pei Su had only sealed Half-moon's mobility, not her senses. He said, "That's fine."
She heard everything, that's fine.
That pot said, "General Hua, what will happen to Little General Pei?"
Xie Lian folded his hands in his sleeves and said, "I don't know. However … … if you do something wrong, you will have to accept punishment. "
After a moment of silence, that pot swayed a few more times. This time, Xie Lian finally understood. Originally, this kind of swaying was a nod.
Half-moon said, "Actually, Little General Pei isn't that bad."
"Is that so?"
"Yeah." Half-moon said, "He helped me before."
For some reason, Xie Lian's mind suddenly remembered more things.
Half-moon often got beaten up. Using the words of the other Yong An children, she 'has a face that deserves to be beaten'.
Xie Lian only found out about this after knowing her for a long time. Because no matter how many times Half-moon got beaten, she wouldn't tell anyone. Until one day, Xie Lian saw a group of children pressing her face into the mud. Only then did he know how the bruises on her face came about.
But after a while, when he asked her again, she actually only remembered to wash the handkerchief that the youth who pulled her out of the mud lent her to wipe her face with. She didn't remember anything else.
She didn't remember the person who beat her, but as long as he saved her once, she would remember it for a lifetime.
Half-moon said again, "Although Ji Mo always scolds me for being bewitched by him, and that I was used by him. But regardless of whether he used me or not, I know that opening the city gates was something I had to do. "
Xie Lian didn't know what to say, but a part of his heart suddenly softened.
In a flash, he patted that pot and said, "Alright, it's over. Oh right, Half-moon, Hua Xie is a fake name. I have long since stopped being a general, so you don't have to call me General Hua. "
Half-moon said, "Then how should I call you?"
That was a problem. If Half-moon also seriously called him Your Highness the Crown Prince, he would always feel that something was a bit strange. Xie Lian originally didn't care about how he was addressed, but he thought of something else to say, so he said, "Then it's up to you. You can continue to call me General Hua." However, there really was someone with the surname Hua here, so calling him General Hua might be a bit confusing. But when he thought about it again, he remembered that "Hua Xie" was admittedly a fake name. He took the first character of the "Corolla Martial God" as his surname. But wasn't "Hua Cheng" also a fake name? It was also quite interesting that they chose the same surname as their surname.
At this time, he heard Half-moon say, "I'm sorry, General Hua."
Xie Lian turned his head around and said a bit gloomily, "Half-moon, why do you always apologize to me?" It couldn't be that his appearance made people feel sorry for him, right?
Half-moon said, "I, want to save the common people."
Xie Lian: "… … … …"
Half-moon said, "General Hua, that's what you said in the beginning."
Xie Lian: "???"
He hurriedly pressed down on the pot and said, "Wait. Wait! "
Half-moon said, "Wait for what?"
Xie Lian glanced at Hua Cheng who was standing under a nearby tree with his arms crossed. In a low voice, he said, "Did I really say those words in the beginning?"
These words were clearly what he loved to say the most when he was a teenager. In the next few hundred years, he shouldn't have even mentioned it. Hearing it for the first time, Xie Lian felt the impact was too great. It was a bit hard to accept. However, Half-moon said, "General, you said it before."
Xie Lian still wanted to struggle and said, "I didn't … …"
Half-moon seriously and coldly said, "Oh, no, I said it before. Once, you asked me what I wanted to do when I grew up. I said I didn't know. You said how could you not know what you wanted to do when you grew up. I asked General Hua, what about you? You said, 'When I was young, my dream was to save the common people!' "
"… …"
So it was like that. Xie Lian said, "This! Half-moon, this kind of casual words, why do you remember it so clearly?! "
Half-moon said, "Was it just a casual word? But, General Hua, I feel like you were very serious when you said it. "
Xie Lian helplessly looked up at the sky and said, "Haha … … is that so? Maybe. What else did I say, I don't remember. "
Half-moon said, "You also said, 'Do what you think is right!', 'Nothing can stop your footsteps!', 'Even if you fall in the mud a hundred times, you still have to be strong and climb back up!'. There are a lot of things like that. "
"Pfft … …"
He didn't need to turn his head to know that Hua Cheng, who was under the tree, had definitely heard it and laughed.
Xie Lian couldn't keep his mouth shut anymore. In his heart, he thought, "… … What kind of nonsense is this … … Why do I always like to say these kinds of things? … … I'm not that kind of person … … Am I that kind of person?? "
Half-moon said, "But, I don't know what's right anymore."
Hearing this, Xie Lian was stunned.
Half-moon said, "I wanted to do what General Hua said, to save the common people. But in the end, I destroyed Half-moon Kingdom. "
She said in a daze, "And it seems like no matter what I do … … the results are always terrible. General Hua, I know what I did wasn't good, but can you tell me, in the end, what did I do wrong? In the end, what should I do in order to truly do what you said … … save the common people? "
"… …"
Xie Lian said, "I'm sorry, Half-moon. How to save the common people … … I didn't know this question before, and I still don't know now."
After a moment of silence, Half-moon said, "General Hua, to tell you the truth, I feel that for these past two hundred years, I simply don't know what I've been doing. I'm such a failure."
Hearing her say this, Xie Lian became even more depressed. In his heart, he thought, 'Doesn't that mean I'm even more of a failure? I've still been around for eight hundred years … … '
After leaving Half-moon's ghost in the jar, staring at the starry sky for a while to calm down, Xie Lian and Hua Cheng returned to Pu Qi Monastery.
After closing the door, Xie Lian suddenly said, "Half-moon voluntarily stayed in Half-moon Pass. It wasn't because she became a murderer that she was trapped there."
She always remembered that she was the one who opened the city gates, and she never gave herself any excuse of 'I did it for the common people'. In order to let the soldiers of Half-moon Kingdom vent their resentment and ascend to the heavens sooner, she let Ke Mo lead them to kill her over and over again.
Xie Lian shook his head and said, "Actually, if Little General Pei really didn't want to keep those Half-moon Kingdom soldiers, and also didn't want to be discovered by the Heavenly Court, you could have quietly sent a clone down to the mortal world to clean up those Half-moon Kingdom soldiers. Why must you use this kind of method? "
Hua Cheng said, "The power of a clone can be weakened. You've also seen Pei Su's clone, Ah Zhao. He couldn't deal with so many Half-moon Kingdom soldiers at once, so it's better to feed him with living people. That way, the resentment will dissipate faster, and it's also the simplest method. "
Xie Lian asked, "Why must it be so fast?"
Hua Cheng said, "Perhaps it's to let your little friend, Half-moon Kingdom, painfully hang to death a few times less."
After a moment of silence, Xie Lian said, "Then what about those mortals?"
Hua Cheng calmly said, "They're Heavenly Officials. The lives of mortals are naturally inferior to ants. Pei Su is a typical high-level Heavenly Official. As long as he isn't discovered, killing a few hundred people is no different to crushing a few hundred bugs to him. "
Xie Lian glanced at him and recalled how San Lang had instantly killed all the Half-moon Kingdom soldiers at the bottom of the sinner's pit. Turning around, he said, "The power of a clone can be weakened? From what I see, your clone is quite powerful. "
Hua Cheng raised an eyebrow at him and said, "Of course. However, this is my main body. "
Xie Lian turned his head and was slightly astonished. "Huh? You're the main body? "
Hua Cheng said, "I'm the real deal."
If he wanted to blame someone, he could only blame the expression on his face after saying that. It seemed as if he was asking Xie Lian to personally test it. Thus, before Xie Lian could even realize what he had done, he had already raised a finger and poked Hua Cheng's cheek.
After poking Hua Cheng, Xie Lian suddenly woke up with a start. In his heart, he repeatedly cursed 'oh no'.
He had only been curious about how the Impassable Ghost King's Ghost Skin felt. He hadn't expected that his body would be faster than his mind. He raised his hand and poked Hua Cheng's cheek. This was truly outrageous.
Having his face suddenly poked, Hua Cheng also seemed to be slightly shocked. However, he had always been calm and his expression quickly calmed down. He didn't say anything, but one of his eyebrows raised even higher, as if he was waiting for Xie Lian's explanation. However, the smile in his eyes was obvious. Of course, Xie Lian couldn't come up with any explanation. Looking at that finger, he hid it without leaving a trace and said, "… Not bad."
Hua Cheng finally laughed out loud. Crossing his arms, he tilted his head and asked, "What's not bad? Do you think this skin of mine is not bad? "
Xie Lian said sincerely, "Yes, it's very not bad. However … "
Hua Cheng said, "However what?"
Xie Lian stared at his face and looked carefully for a while. Finally, he said, "However, can I see your original appearance?"
Since he had said "this skin" just now, it meant that although this was his main body, the appearance was not his original appearance. This appearance of a youth was not his real appearance.
This time, Hua Cheng didn't respond immediately and dropped his arms. Maybe it wasall in Xie Lian's head, but Hua Cheng's eyes darkened slightly, and Xie Lian's hearttightened in spite of himself.