Chapter 75: Night Rain in Bashan, Departure (V) He was like an obedient...

The young man slowly raised his lowered head, his dim eyes suddenly brightening, like a firework exploding in his eyes. He turned, met Hu Tangqing's watery gaze, and asked uncertainly, "C-can I stay?" He glanced at the bloodstains in the courtyard and lowered his head again. "A-aren't you afraid of me?"

Willow catkins blew in the wind, landing on his disheveled hair.

It was the height of spring, and the young man in shorts lowered his head, his body chilled, like a criminal awaiting his sentence on the execution ground.

A moment ago, he was as brutal as a ferocious beast, now he was submissive like a lamb that had done something wrong. Ye Qingzhan had never seen the exiled immortal like this, and his eyes widened.

Hu Tangqing waved to Lady Wang. Lady Wang helped her walk to Li Zhixing's side, brushing away the catkins from his hair.

"I won't live long. In my final days, I just hope to live in peace." Hu Tangqing looked at the fluff in her hands, a wave of sadness filling her heart. She gently blew them away. "But you can see, these people won't let me have an easy time."

As the catkins fluttered, she spoke slowly in the spring light. "My mother had a difficult birth. After she passed away, I was raised by my aunt. My father and aunt longed for me to grow up quickly. My upbringing has been a testament to their years of expectations."

It wasn't so much expectations as their own greedy desires. Ye Qingzhan only realized today that such a father existed.

Hu Tangqing started school at the age of three, but she wasn't taught the Four Books and Five Classics. Instead, she was taught the stoic rules and regulations that urge women to follow the Three Obediences and Four Virtues. They were all about the strictures favored by the wealthy and powerful.

She disliked them, and often ran away from home, only to be locked up and beaten again and again.

Her teacher cherished her, knowing she was a refined and intelligent person who learned quickly and applied what she had learned to other situations. She kept it a secret from her father and aunt, revealing what was happening outside the inner courtyard. She taught her arithmetic and the art of self-preservation, and told her to remain calm and establish herself within the family.

While the other little girls were still flirting in her mother's arms, Hu Tangqing was forced to learn piano, painting, wine-making, and tea-making. She learned all this for no other reason than to earn the reputation of a "talented woman" and attract the attention of noble families.

With her beautiful face and carefully cultivated talent, such a "Hu Tangqing" was indeed a favorite of countless celebrities.

"It's really ridiculous," Hu Tangqing smiled, but her eyes were devoid of any light, as if she were a puppet being carried dancing. "They took so much trouble to create a model for me that I admire, only to have me become a concubine for those good-for-nothings."

Ye Qingzhan remembered Du Meixian's words: Liudunling is full of comparison, and prejudice against family background is deeply rooted. Hearing Hu Sanniang's words, he felt a chill in his heart.

"It's a shame. All this learning has left me with a serious illness. It started last year, and by the end of the year, I was seriously ill. Doctors and medics alike said I wasn't going to live long. Bedridden for a year, they'd lost their patience."

They say a son is unfilial to a patient's bedside. And that's even more true of the family who sees their daughter as a tool for fame and money!

Hu Tangqing was abandoned and driven out of the mansion.

"I won't live long. In these last days, will you protect me, watch over me, and let me die peacefully?" Hu Tangqing stared at the figure in front of her, a mist forming in her eyes. "I'm sorry, but I'm asking you to stay for a reason."

What was that reason?

Being able to watch over her, watch over her, and stay with her was the ultimate blessing he'd dreamed of for three lifetimes.

Li Zhixing looked at her with a soft, sincere gaze. "Thank you for taking me in."

From then on, he would personally slay every bluebottle, bedbug, jackal, tiger, or leopard. He

would never let anyone get close to her or bother her.

"I believe you." Hu Tangqing smiled. "By the way, can you tell me your name now?"

"Li Zhixing." His words were his due.

"Okay. My name is Hu Tangqing," she said, pulling Madam Wang in her arms, smiling at Madam Wang's gloomy expression. "From now on, the three of us will depend on each other."

Madam Wang glared at him. "I don't care what you did in the past, but from today on, you must stop it completely!"

Li Zhixing nodded, sincere and solemn: "I will."

The moment he finished speaking, Hu Tangqing's body, like a floating duckweed leaf, could no longer support itself and fell into Li Zhixing's arms. His expression suddenly became panicked. He bent down, picked her up horizontally, and hurried back to the room.

Madam Wang followed quickly behind him.

Ye Qingzhan, who was perched on the windowsill, clung tightly to the corner of Wen Gu's sleeve, his brows full of worry.

After carrying her to bed, Li Zhixing said goodbye to Madam Wang and ran to fetch a doctor.

Time flows through the sea of consciousness at the same speed as in an illusion, influenced by its master. With a turn, it was already dark. Li Zhixing had arrived and departed in a hurry, leading the doctor into the house.

The doctor felt Hu Sanniang's pulse, shook his head, and said helplessly, "The third young lady of the Hu family has always been kind, but unfortunately, she has suffered from a deep-seated illness since childhood. Now, there is no hope for recovery. I am powerless."

Before he had finished speaking, Li Zhixing collapsed to his knees, as if he had lost his soul. The doctor patted his shoulder, pulled a bottle of medicine from the medicine chest, and handed it to him. "This medicine won't save Miss Hu's life, but it will ease her pain." Glancing at the woman on the couch, he continued, "Take good care of her for the rest of her life."

Madam Wang wiped her tears and pulled silver from her sleeve. The doctor waved it away, saying, "I just arrived in Liudunling. If it weren't for the young lady's private support, I wouldn't be here today."

Tears welled in the eyes of everyone in the room. The doctor bowed and took his leave.

The candlelight flickered, and the room was silent.

After a while, Madam Wang wiped away her tears, took the porcelain bottle tightly clutched in Li Zhixing's hand, poured out a pill, and fed it to Hu Tangqing. Li Zhixing stood up from the ground, looking like a walking corpse, and poured a glass of water.

After the two watched Hu Tangqing swallow the pill, Madam Wang sobbed and said, "I'll go boil water for the young lady to boil the medicine. You stay here and watch."

Li Zhixing knelt down beside the bed again, tucked Hu Sanniang's back, answered softly, and looked at her absent-mindedly.

The exiled immortal's back looked extremely lonely. Ye Qingzhan pulled Wen Gu and asked, "Can we go to the exiled immortal's sea of consciousness to take a look? We must understand our past."

Wen Gu nodded, forcing the Yin Sha in his body to send the two of them flying in the form of willow catkins to Li Zhixing's head.

Li Zhixing stared at Hu Sanniang in a trance, thinking of the day he met her -

Liudunling is located between Changluo and Chiyao. There was a famine year with drought and starvation. People gathered here, eating each other and selling their children.

Li Zhixing was ten years old at that time. His parents left him the last rations. They starved to death on the road of exile and were eaten by others. He went crazy and beat up those people, but they united and threw him into a mass grave.

He was the only one who crawled out of the pile of corpses. Although he was alive, he was dead, living like a waste in the world. He wanted to die, but every time he wanted to commit suicide, he would think of his parents. He always felt that he would let them down if he died like this.

So, he dragged his broken body and became a beggar wandering the streets.

After the natural disaster, the world became better again.

When he was twelve years old, he stole a steamed bun on the street and was chased and beaten all the way until a little girl stood in front of him.

It was ten-year-old Hu Tangqing.

Like the knight-errant descending from the sky so often mentioned in storybooks, the moment she appeared, Li Zhixing felt as if he had seen a god who had strayed into the human world.

Hu Tangqing, with her hands on her hips, blocked the aggressive approach of the bun shop owner and paid for him. She gave him another bowl of porridge and then, earnestly, said to him, "You're so young, why do you have to do such sneaky things when you can do something else?" She patted his shoulder. The pressure was neither light nor heavy, but it stirred his heart again and again.

"You're too thin. No one would want you to work as a servant like you." She glanced towards her home, tiptoed to his ear and whispered, "If you trust me, go to the river god temple at dawn every day and wait for me."

With that, Hu Tangqing ran back home, skirt in hand.

Watching her retreating figure, Li Zhixing touched his burning earlobe, the lingering fragrance of her breath captivating him. From then on, he kept his appointments every day like an obedient stray dog. People who have never seen her can always find food and clothes in the temple. Later, he learned that he was not the only one she saved.

The third daughter of the Hu family, hid the news from her family and helped countless displaced people. Some people knew her name and were grateful, but never bothered her. Some people got rid of their difficulties with her help and repaid her. More people came to ask for marriage after her reputation spread.

The Hu family also knew what she did. They enjoyed it on the surface, but scolded her behind her back for showing off and meddling in other people's affairs.

Li Zhixing hoped to be the first type of person, but in his daily observation, he wanted to kill the last type of people the most.

Their dirty thoughts were hidden in their covetous eyes.

After tea and dinner, he could always hear their dog-like barking: "What do you think this Third Miss of the Hu family tastes like? A few days ago, she was selling porridge on the street, acting like a living Buddha. I praised her a few times, and she glared at me. That look was truly enchanting."

Amidst the man's infatuated expression, Li Zhixing coldly lifted a cup of tea.

"Look at you! She's so proud, but she's just going to be someone's concubine—ah!"

Between the rising and falling cups, the hot tea was poured onto the man's head. The man's pig-killing wail instantly echoed throughout the teahouse.

"Who is it! Who threw it on me..."

A dagger flew past his ear from nowhere. The man's rants died as blood flowed from his ear, and his body trembled.

Silver was on the table, but the seat was gone.

Deep in the alley, Li Zhixing punched the stone wall again and again.

He seemed determined to kill them all.

He didn't want to spare any of them.

No.

No.

No.

There were endless beasts like that. They

would only make her continue to be criticized.

Blood trickled down his fingertips, and Li Zhixing leaned against the wall, crouching on the ground in agony.

He didn't understand why those beasts kept thinking of humiliating a woman like that, why they had such filthy, evil thoughts.

How could a woman as beautiful and radiant as springtime be trapped in a small house, forced to be their slave and vying for their affections

? He wanted to kill them.

But unfortunately, he couldn't.

He was just a hired thug; he could cripple someone, but not kill them.

What a shame

. How infuriating.

How could he kill them without anyone noticing? Without causing her

any trouble? Li Zhixing agonized over this for countless nights.

He tied them up and beat them half to death.

But at the last moment, he stopped. There's no such thing as a wall that's impenetrable.

If he were caught, he'd never see her again.

That would be more painful than death.

Li Zhixing withdrew his assault, continuing to live in the darkness of the night amidst the bloodshed and fury, watching over her like a lonely soul hiding in the shadows. That

is, until he learned of the Hu family's illness, and that her engagement had been broken off. The family who had broken off the engagement had accused her of bringing bad luck.

How could they say that?

No one was allowed to say that.

Li Zhixing had crippled the man who had broken off the engagement. It was his first time beating someone, and he was hunted by the family for a year in retaliation.

But he couldn't kill him.

If the man died, those fools would say, "The Hu family is a jinx, bringing disaster upon her husband's family before even marrying." Or, "Who would have thought that the Hu family's third daughter, so compassionate and charitable, had actually hired thugs to cripple her fiancé?"

Worse still, Li Zhixing feared that those gossipers, whose only way of spreading rumors and fabricating lies, would accuse her of having an affair with him.

That was absolutely unacceptable.

Her name could never be put together with his own.

He didn't deserve it. He

would never deserve it.

He could die for her, but he wouldn't allow anyone to say anything bad about her, let alone talk about him and her.

So, he could only endure it.

He could only beat those hypocritical beasts like Qin Guan for different reasons.

And these reasons definitely had nothing to do with her.

... Later, during the year when Hu Tangqing was bedridden due to illness, Li Zhixing peeked at her from the roof at night and saw her tossing and turning in bed, and being treated coldly by her family. So he jumped down from the roof and squatted under the window like a shadow to accompany her. Sometimes a nightingale would sing in the yard.

He would watch her from afar on the roof, smiling and falling asleep peacefully to the nightingale's singing. The nightingale had been tamed by him, and after she fell asleep, it would stand on the largest tree in the Hu Mansion, making hoarse, mocking and unpleasant calls, making it difficult for them to fall asleep.

Even so, she was still driven out.

On the day Hu Tangqing left the house, Li Zhixing, who had been patient for a long time, beat up all those who had proposed to him and then disliked and slandered her because of her illness. After being exhausted, he lay in front of a courtyard with scars all over his body.

Li Zhixing, who was deep in the sea of consciousness, was always irritated. His temper was even more irritable, and the identity of Jiyue Qingfeng, a banished immortal who was also at the gate of hell, was completely different from that of a world of difference.

But those eyes, which had been numb and turbid due to years of fighting, softened like falling catkins in spring when they saw Hu Tangqing.

Ye Qingzhan took a long breath, digesting everything he knew in the sea of consciousness bit by bit, and opened his eyes wide to look at the banished immortal lying in the courtyard of the Hu family.

Lying here, was it unintentional or intentional, Ye Qingzhan and Wen Gu didn't want to delve into it, because they saw a familiar face in Li Zhixing's sea of consciousness.