Chapter 35 The End of the Song

The next day, Cracker finished his official duties on Biscuit Island and arrived at Cheng Xi's villa at three o'clock in the afternoon.

This time is just right for him to have afternoon tea with Cheng Xi. The delicate and refreshing hot black tea is paired with biscuits wrapped in rich and sweet chocolate sauce or dense cream. It will be a cozy and warm evening

no matter how you think about it. Passing by the rose field carefully trimmed by the servants on the road, it is in full bloom, with rich colors. He took off his biscuit armor at the door and knocked on the door of the villa. After opening the door, what came into view was not the girl he expected in his heart, but a maid in uniform who was cleaning.

"Master Cracker, you are here." The maid's expression was obviously panicked and surprised. In this country where force is respected and class is obvious, if you are not careful, if you fail to satisfy the superiors, your soul and life will be taken away.

Cracker looked at the furnishings in the living room. The transparent glass windows made the whole house warm with sunshine. It was simple and tidy, but some decorative ornaments with personal style still revealed a clear breath of life. An idea popped into his mind. Anyway, they were going to get married in less than half a month, so he might as

well let her move in with him so that she could get familiar with married life in advance. Thinking of this, he was in a good mood and asked, "Where's Cheng Xi?" "Miss Cheng Xi this morning..." Noticing the subtle change in the man's expression, the maid who was very observant changed her address, "Madam went out this morning with a sword on her back. She didn't say where she was going. She just said she would be back soon." "

Oh, I see." Cracker walked into the house and sat on the sofa casually, "Then I'll wait for her."

Thinking of yesterday's farce, he asked again, "What did she do after she came back yesterday afternoon? How did she react?"

The maid carefully recalled the memories of Cheng Xi in her mind, not daring to forget anything, and replied, "Madam didn't show any abnormal behavior after she came back yesterday afternoon. She was still reading in the room or sitting on the sofa in a daze and basking in the sun as before, until she went to the kitchen at half past five..."

She told Cracker about Cheng Xi's daily routine for the past two days in great detail.

It was nothing more than eating, reading, and daydreaming. It sounded boring and tedious, but Cracker listened with great interest. He sat on the sofa and waited for a long time. When the sun set, he began to get impatient and became restless. Until the sun disappeared and the sky became dim, he inexplicably thought of the nonsense that the pirate hunter had said yesterday.

After being cruelly punished, his body and those minions were thrown into the deep sea at the border of the Kingdom of Totland. Now it is estimated that he has been killed and turned into bait for fish, but his words are still ringing in his ears and lingering.

"She will run away."

"She will betray you."

This sentence took root in Cracker's heart like a spell, making him irritable.

This country, this pirate group, and himself will never allow betrayal. No matter what the reason is, no matter what Cheng Xi's original purpose was, now that things have come to this, she can only wait here obediently for the wedding to take place, abandon everything in the past, and become a member of the Charlotte family.

Thinking of this, he could no longer suppress his uneasiness, so he stood up from the sofa and planned to go out to look for Cheng Xi. When he walked to the door, he was extremely irritable. Just as he was about to kick it open, the door actually opened.

As soon as Cheng Xi entered the room, he looked up and saw the man in front of him with an angry expression, and even the small sparks on both sides of his hair became more intense.

"What's wrong? You look so irritable. Did you lose the fight or the quarrel? You're almost burnt into a biscuit."

Cracker grabbed Cheng Xi's arm, and the huge size difference clamped her so that she couldn't move: "Where did you go?"

Cheng Xi answered truthfully: "The Temptation Forest, practicing swordsmanship."

The man opened his mouth and wanted to ask something else, but Cheng Xi saw through his question: "Because I suddenly had some insights in swordsmanship, I came back a little late."

Then he continued to answer: "Don't worry, there are so many chess soldiers and Homies guarding me around, I will definitely not run away."

"Is it because there are soldiers guarding me that I won't run away?"

Cheng Xi:...

I couldn't help but swear in my heart. Men's hearts are like needles in the sea. It's really hard to understand.

Resisting the urge to roll his eyes, Cheng Xi began to deceive: "No, I didn't think about running away, not even a little bit. I'm looking forward to getting married."

Although Cracker was a little irritable, she was not stupid. It can be seen that although she did not resist on the surface, she definitely did not look forward to it: "Did you believe it when you said you were looking forward to getting married?"

Of course not.

"Believe... right?" Cheng Xi changed his strategy, "But you are really handsome." It would be better if you didn't have that weird hairstyle.

Cracker felt unhappy: "Ha, you didn't really marry me because of your looks?"

Cheng Xi turned her wrist slightly when he grabbed it: "You hurt me."

"Sorry." Cracker, who had been fierce just now, immediately released her hand. Cheng Xi rubbed the skin that he had just grabbed, turned around to close the door, and then sat on the sofa. Cracker also sat down beside her.

She seemed calm on the surface, but in fact, she quickly recalled the experience she had summed up from reading romance novels for so many years.

Cheng Xi said to Cracker earnestly: "Look, there are so many good-looking boys on this sea, but I finally chose you. In my heart, you are different from other men."

"Appearance is your advantage. Why do you speak to me in such a fierce tone just because I said you are good-looking?"

"In that case, then let me ask you, why did you go to Big Mom and say you wanted to marry me? I have no power, no money, little intelligence, and a bad temper. Is it because you saw an interesting soul?"

Cracker thought carefully, and his first impression of her at that time seemed to be "a beautiful beauty." Apart from that, there was nothing else. It was only when they met later that they slowly developed feelings for her. 

"Why are you so sensitive? I didn't mean anything wrong at all. You thought too much, but now you come to question me. This is typical emotional blackmail and wild imagination." 

"..." 

Cheng Xi thought that her PUA level still needed to be improved, but Cracker had begun to doubt her life. 

According to the maid, her daily life was very regular, and there was nothing suspicious about it. The soldiers in charge of guarding her did not find any accidents. She looked obedient and quiet, which made her look suspicious. 

"If you suspect me because of what happened yesterday, there is nothing I can do about it, Cracker. Although it sounds hypocritical, I don't like being ordered to kill people. If you hate me for this, I will go to Big Mom tomorrow to ask her to cancel our engagement." 

She seemed very sincere when she said this, and Cracker's heart softened all of a sudden, and it was not easy to question or blame her. 

"No, the wedding will go on as usual." 

After the conversation, the maid came over and offered Cheng Xi a hot towel to wipe her hands, took off her dirty coat to rinse and iron, and asked if the two of them would start dinner. 

Cheng Xi nodded. She had consumed too much energy today and needed food to replenish her energy.

Obviously, the chef here is very dedicated. He will prepare their own dinner according to their different taste preferences, as well as candles and decorations that look elegant. At the table, Cracker asked Cheng Xi why she suddenly thought of going to Temptation Forest to practice swordsmanship.

"Yesterday afternoon, I suddenly felt something about the way of swordsmanship, and I was very excited for a while, so I went to Temptation Forest to practice swordsmanship today, hoping to have a bigger breakthrough."

Before, she always thought that no matter what purity, as long as she was wearing sea floor stone handcuffs and was weak all over, she would not be able to fight. But yesterday, when Dafu's sword was used, Cheng Xi jumped to the side after sensing the danger. It was the potential that the body instinctively burst out at the moment of life and death, so the speed was very fast, almost half of her fighting speed.

So after returning to the villa, she was thinking whether speed, burst and strength could be taken to a higher level through sea floor stone training. Today, she put it into practice and proved that her guess was correct. After a day of training, all indicators have been slowly improved, but there has been no breakthrough progress. She has entered the bottleneck period of swordsmanship and physical training.

Cracker glanced at the seastone handcuffs on Cheng Xi's hands. She was already at this point but she was still thinking about getting stronger. What a stubborn woman.

"Have you made any breakthroughs?"

"A little bit, not much progress." Cheng Xi drank the tea in the cup and comforted herself, "Maybe it's because the chess pieces I practiced with were too weak, but it doesn't matter. Quantitative change leads to qualitative change. More practice will always lead to greater progress."

There have been few things happening in Cookie Town, where Cracker is stationed, recently, and Auntie didn't assign him any extra tasks, so he would have more time this week. After thinking about it, he pretended to be nonchalant and said, "How about I go with you tomorrow and be your sparring partner?"

Cheng Xi asked him half-doubtfully, "Really?"

"Won't it delay your work tomorrow?" She remembered that Cracker was a relatively high-ranking cadre in the BIG MOM Pirates. Logically, he should be very busy. Where would he find the time to practice swords with her?

Cracker thought about it again, and it seemed that there was nothing else except a mission to go out to sea the day after tomorrow. However, as for this mission to go out to sea... Brother Katakuri seemed to be free recently, so he could ask him to help him perform the mission.

So he replied: "No, there is no work tomorrow, and there is no work the day after tomorrow."

"That's great." Cheng Xi's eyes lit up a little. The strength of such a high-level cadre is a world apart from those chess pieces. If he can be his sparring partner, his strength will definitely improve by leaps and bounds. The joy in his words is hard to conceal, "Thank you, little cookie."

At this moment, Cracker thought that she must like him very much, otherwise why would she be so happy to hear that he was accompanying her?

At nine o'clock the next morning, in the huge lawn of the Temptation Forest, Cheng Xi held Shi Qing in his hand, with a cold temperament, and stood opposite Cracker in cookie armor, and the atmosphere became tense.

Cracker: "Are you ready?"

Cheng Xi: "The enemies on the battlefield won't have such a thoughtful reminder as you."

After saying that, she raised her sword and quickly attacked Cracker. The sword energy was so strong that it seemed to pierce the air around her. Cracker responded to her attack slowly at first, but as Cheng Xi's attack became more severe, he gradually became serious and used cookies to turn into six pretzels to turn defense into offense. Unfortunately, it was an all-pervasive and unbreakable attack, but it was always dodged flexibly.

Cracker recognized her strength and stretched out his hand to shoot out six cookie soldiers.

"It's not a good habit to hide your weaknesses on the battlefield." Cheng Xi jumped up and used all his strength to chop one of the cookie soldiers with a sword. The purple sword energy with a little thunder roared, and the strong airflow swept in all directions.

However, even with such a powerful sword move, after the smoke cleared, only a tiny crack appeared on the biscuit soldier's body. Compared with its huge body, it was a drop in the bucket and was useless. All Cracker needed to do was clap his hands again and it would be back to normal. 

She used more force to chop the biscuit soldier again. Although the cracks on the soldier's body deepened a little, her strength was basically exhausted, and she was gasping for breath. 

"Cheng Xi, it's amazing. It's amazing that you can chop my biscuit soldier." Cracker raised a nasty smile at the corner of his mouth, and then clapped his hands to restore the scars on the soldier's body. 

Almost, almost, just a little bit to split it. If there were no handcuffs, I would have easily split it. I'm so tired, it feels like eating, I really want to lie down. At that moment, countless negative thoughts emerged in her mind, instigating her to give up becoming stronger, but it was only a moment, and her eyes became firm again. 

Fighting is not a quarrel between elementary school students in the classroom. No one will listen to the reason you failed because the seastone is still simply weak. Cheng Xi, if you are tired now and don't make progress, you will die on the battlefield in the future. 

In her current situation, if she cannot improve her strength and become stronger, she can only give up resistance and dreams and get married directly. Then she will have a very destructive and restless evil mother-in-law, a group of brothers and sisters who want you to kill to show your loyalty, eat food you don't like, and experience the uncanny valley effect every day. Isn't this a life worse than hell! ? 

Thinking of this, she made a shocking decision and rushed directly under the blade of the cookie man. 

Only when you are in a desperate situation of life and death can you feel stronger. 

There must be a way. There have been many cases of people with ordinary physiques becoming strong in the past. They can move mountains and flatten seas, and they definitely don't rely on the brute force in their bodies. 

She hid and thought, but she made Cracker very unhappy: "Hey, Cheng Xi, are you in a daze?" 

"Be careful of my sword, it will pierce your heart." 

Heart. 

By the way, heart, no matter how hard a person has a body as strong as copper skin and iron bones, his heart is fragile and beating. In this case, it is better to introduce domineering into the object, attack it directly by surprise, and break the opponent's most vulnerable place. She remembered that the samurai Oden on Roger's ship knew this trick. 

Its name is... 

"Ryu-Yakura!" 

The aura of the embarrassed girl suddenly changed, and she became more murderous and cold as a knife. 

With a "bang", Cracker's previously confident biscuit soldier suddenly broke into two halves, and then collapsed. 

"This..." Cracker's pupils trembled, and he was shocked. His extremely hard biscuit soldier just broke like this? 

With the first attack, the next one became more familiar and easier. Cheng Xi raised his sword to split another biscuit soldier. Seeing this, Cracker clapped his hands and created more than a dozen biscuit soldiers. He wanted to see whether Cheng Xi had more physical strength or his own soldiers were stronger. 

His guess was right. Cheng Xi was indeed exhausted, so he had to try hard to think of a way to quickly end the battle in his mind. As the saying goes, to capture a thief, you must first capture the king. In this case, let's learn the observation Haki by the way. 

There was a bow decoration folded with a red ribbon on the back of the clothes Cheng Xi wore today. She quickly removed it and covered her eyes. 

The glittering red silk and black hair intertwined, swaying and fluttering in the wind. Such a beautiful scene was accompanied by unstoppable spikes and sharp edges. 

Feel it with your heart, feel the sunshine and warm wind, feel the swords and shadows in the battle, feel the enemy's different breathing and heartbeat. 

Cracker took this competition more and more seriously. In his heart, the person in front of him was not his fiancée, but an opponent who could match him. 

He dared not underestimate Cheng Xi anymore.

This was a hearty, blood-boiling fight. When Cheng Xi split the biscuit soldiers with a sword, the moon was already high in the sky. From nine in the morning to six in the evening, the fight lasted for nine hours.

Cheng Xi sat slumped on the messy grass, lifted the silk ribbon, and gasped. She was sweating all over, soaking her hair into strands, and her hands and legs were shaking, like a newborn deer trying to stand up.

It seemed like eating meat...

Energy, energy, she needed to replenish energy.

However, there were only biscuit crumbs all over the ground. She picked up a relatively intact biscuit without crumbs, brushed off the dust on it, and put it in her mouth.

"Woo, so hard."

Cheng Xi frowned and complained in her heart, my teeth, you have suffered, if only I could fight with that tall guy named Katakuri, he is the ability user of the glutinous glutinous fruit, so that I can eat some glutinous glutinous rice cakes after the fight.

"What are you doing?" Cracker's voice came from above, with a grinning expression. This little girl was really cruel. He was in pain all over his body now. He originally wanted to find her to blame, but seeing that her arms and calves were also injured and bleeding, he softened his heart.

Not only did she not check the wounds, but she was in the mood to eat cookies. It was really infuriating and funny, and the expression on her face when she was hurt by the hard cookies was inexplicably... cute?

Cheng Xi: "Eat cookies."

Cracker said disdainfully: "Don't eat, the ground is full of dust and dirt, it's so dirty."

"But I'm hungry."

"Let's go back and eat."

"I can't walk anymore." Cheng Xi looked at Cracker next to him, who was obviously in a better state than him, "Make me another salt and pepper biscuit that I ate that night. It should be thin and crispy, with more salt and pepper."

Cracker raised his hand and was about to use his ability, but then realized that he was also physically exhausted and could no longer use his fruit ability to make new cookies.

"I'm exhausted and can't make salt and pepper cookies."

"Let me think, um..." Cheng Xi thought for a moment, then picked up two palm-sized pieces of cookie debris from the ground, used her fruit ability to pour liquid on them to soften them, and then handed the larger piece to Cracker, "Here, I still have some strength to use my fruit ability, this is for you."

"You don't have the Makeup Fruit, how can you make water?" The purple-haired man was led astray by her. He didn't rush to treat the wound, nor did he worry about the taste and whether it was dirty. Instead, he took the cookie and threw it into his mouth, "So sweet, isn't this water?" 

Cheng Xi: "There are solvents in cosmetics, too. Mine is deionized water flavored. I made maltitol-flavored cookies for you. They are moisturizing and can promote calcium absorption. How do they taste?" " 

It's a bit too sweet." Cracker didn't quite understand her fruit ability, but didn't show it. He asked, "Are there any other flavors of cookies?" 

"Glycerin, alcohol, butanediol..." Cheng Xi counted them one by one with his fingers, then picked up a new biscuit and handed it to Cracker, "Try this one again." 

He bit the biscuit without any doubt, then his face quickly turned red, revealing an ugly expression, and complained: "Puh, puh, puh, so salty, what is this!?" 

"Ah, it doesn't taste good?" Cheng Xi replied, "It's Cheng Xi's special salt and pepper biscuits with sodium chloride solution added, only salt but no pepper." 

Cracker: ... 

He had a hunch that his married life with Cheng Xi would be very fun and interesting. 

Thinking of Cheng Xi's courage to fight to the death just now, he asked: "Why are you so persistent in improving your swordsmanship?" 

Cheng Xi: "What about you, don't you also want to become stronger?" 

Cracker said in a serious tone: "For my mother, for my family, for my brothers and sisters." 

Cheng Xi couldn't tell him what he really thought, so he could only answer his question in a completely opposite joking tone. 

"I'm afraid you'll hit me, so we can fight each other in the future." 

"Am I such a rude person?" This kind of thing would be despised even in the brutal world of pirates. 

"But you look really fierce." 

"Ha, how am I fierce?" 

"Look, you're losing your temper now, do you want some original biscuits?" 

"I'm not losing my temper, I'm just a little louder. Yes!" " 

..." 

Cracker lived next to Cheng Xi's room in the villa for three days, but it was not as awkward as Cheng Xi expected. The general process was to practice sword fighting during the day and do their own things at night, such as reading, maintaining swords, and being in a daze. 

What Cheng Xi didn't expect was that Cracker was actually beautiful! After spreading out that strange hairstyle that looked like firecrackers, his soft and slightly curly purple long hair was particularly eye-catching, so what on earth did he go through to have such a peculiar aesthetic! ? It 

's really confusing. 

Seeing that the date of the wedding was getting closer and closer, Cheng Xi's heart became more and more impetuous. Fortunately, he found the historical text stone tablet within the deadline and recorded it on paper in time with visual sharing. 

Cheng Xi originally thought that BIG MOM would put such an important thing as the main text of history in an extremely private place where no one knew about it. Unexpectedly, she put it directly in the treasure house. Wouldn't it be visible to any soldier who came to transport the treasure? 

She didn't understand, but she didn't have time to understand. The next thing was to prepare to run away. 

The wedding invitations were ready. Cheng Xi deliberately picked out a small problem and postponed the distribution time to tomorrow. The servants kept delivering wedding dresses and various jewelry to the living room. Cheng Xi was planning the route in the room when she suddenly heard a knock on the door. 

"Come in." 

The door opened, and it was Cracker. 

He walked up to Cheng Xi and called her name: "Cheng Xi." 

"What's wrong?" 

"I have to go on a mission now. It will take about eight days. When I come back, it will be the day before our wedding." 

"Is that so? I wish you a smooth journey and a safe return." 

Cracker hugged her all of a sudden, and then put a cold thing on Cheng Xi's hand. 

She spread out her palm and observed it carefully. It was a diamond ring. A round-cut diamond was inlaid on the platinum base. It sparkled like a star, gorgeous and splendid, and shone brightly under the sunlight. 

"What is this...?" 

"Wedding ring." His tone was a little reluctant. "Although we will have many years in the future, I can't wait to put the ring on your hand." 

Cheng Xi suddenly wilted. She didn't hear what Cracker said next. Her head was as confused as paste. 

At this time, his Den Den Mushi rang. His subordinates said that the pirate ship had been inspected and asked for her instructions. After giving the next order, he hung up the Den Den Mushi and said to Cheng Xi: "Cheng Xi, do you have any gift for me?" 

Cheng Xi woke up from the confusion: "Yes, yes." 

She handed a yellow talisman folded into a triangle with red characters to Cracker's hand: "This is a peace and blessing talisman I made. It can protect your safety when you encounter a storm at sea." 

"Just think of it as a farewell gift."

This farewell was not the kind of farewell that Cracker had imagined. What he did not expect was that this separation would be forever.

After carefully putting it away and saying goodbye, Cracker went to the port.

As soon as he left, Cheng Xi took off the ring and put it on the table. She sat in the room until late at night and used the key that the chess soldier had stolen for her to open the seastone handcuffs.

She opened the window. Tonight was a full moon day. The moonlight was like a stream, sprinkling on the ground, dimly illuminating everything in the world.

She changed into the T-shirt and trousers she wore when she first came to Cake Island, and a hooded cloak that was as long as her ankles. She jumped out of the window and onto the grass with a light figure.

Even at night, the rose field in front of the door was still beautiful. She counted the number, went over to pick four, and looked up at the moon in the sky.

"It's so beautiful."