"Let Shen Xu go?" Xia Zhaoyi chuckled. She turned her head. The moonlight parted the gauze-like dark clouds and shone on her face. Her bright eyes were as penetrating as autumn water, "Who has been there all these years?" Who won’t be spared?”
After saying that, Xia Zhaoyi turned around and walked towards the river.
Shi Guoxin raised his heels and walked away. Xia Zhaoyi did not look back and said calmly: "Don't even come."
On a midsummer night, the water is still cold, and the wind blowing over the water is also chilly.
Xia Zhaoyi stopped quietly and looked at the tall figure standing by the river in the distance.
The river wind blew, and the surrounding vegetation swayed gently in the dim light. He stood there, motionless.
Amidst the sound of the wind, Xia Zhaoyi seemed to hear many voices talking in her ears.
The chatter of passers-by, the gossip of the servants and women in the backyard, and the ridicule of people from all walks of life finally turned into one sentence after another of Shen Shuangcheng's rude insults.
These sounds are scattered and mixed, and listening to these sounds, it is like being able to see the expression of the speaker at that time.
He shook his head and clicked his tongue, with a look of disdain on his face. He was using it as a conversation starter to get closer...
Every word was filled with the purest malice, like a knife or a spear, all pointed at the figure in front of her.
Before she got to know him, these words had painted a vague outline of a young man in her impression.
Just a passing word, a smile, a glance, a bystander, an idler, insignificant.
Another gust of wind blew up, blowing between heaven and earth. The grass and trees by the river swayed wildly. Shen Lie lowered his head, and the wind brought a stone to his feet, which stopped when he stood on it.
"Does your hand hurt?" The girl's soft voice suddenly sounded.
Shen Lie looked sideways.
She didn't know when she came, and he was too distracted to notice.
Shen Lie's dark eyes were deep and he shook his head.
"Lie." Xia Zhaoyi said softly.
Shen Lie suddenly felt embarrassed. He withdrew his gaze and looked back at the river, not daring to look into her clear and flawless eyes.
Hearing her approaching, he frowned and raised his feet to leave.
The injured hand was suddenly held by the girl: "Shen Lie."
Shen Lie turned his back to her and was silent for a while. His voice was hoarse in the night wind and said, "Ah Li, I want to be alone."
"Do you hate me?" Xia Zhaoyi asked.
"No."
of course not.
"Then, if I persist and stalk you, will you hate me?"
Shen Lie turned around and looked at her.
Her eyes were bright and stubborn under the moonlight, and her dark eyes seemed to be looking into his eyes.
"Ah Li, I'm fine," Shen Lie said.
"I asked Zhan Ning to arrest Shen Shuangcheng," Xia Zhaoyi looked at him, "The scar on your back was caused by him, wasn't it?"
"...How did you know I have scars on my back?"
"I'm going to call back." Her tone was like an angry and willful child.
"No," Shen Lie laughed at himself, "None of the wounds on my back were left by Shen Shuangcheng. He didn't like me since he was a child. He didn't like me even if he looked at me even more, so he never touched me. "
"Then these injuries..."
"It was my mother who beat me."
Xia Zhaoyi was stunned: "Guo Hanyue? Why did she hit you?"
Shen Lie smiled faintly: "Most of them were beaten by my mother, and a few were beaten by others when I first went to Zuilu and arrived at Guo's house."
His tone was as light as a feather, he spoke casually, it didn't hurt or itch, but Xia Zhaoyi's lips turned completely white in the night.
"Ah Li," Shen Lie raised his hand and took her hand off, "I'm going to go for a walk, you come back first."
"I don't!" Xia Zhaoyi went to hold his hand again, "I don't!"
"How did you..." Even when she was in her teens, she had never been so childish.
Xia Zhaoyi raised his hand, and several of his finger bones were swollen. The skin on the outermost edge of the redness and swelling was black and blue, with a lot of congestion.
Xia Zhaoyi rubbed her thumb gently, knowing that it would be very painful to press it at this time, even if she put down her strength.
But he didn't react at all, as if the hand didn't belong to him.
"Be patient." Xia Zhaoyi said, taking out a small box of ointment from his arms.
Shen Lie watched as she opened the box, lightly touched it with her fingers, and then applied it to his wound.
With slender onion-like fingers, he smoothed the light green ointment on his finger bones in circles.
Throughout the whole process, she didn't let go of him.
Whether taking ointment or opening the medicine box, she held his hand persistently.
As dexterous as she is, it is difficult to open a tightly screwed medicine box with one hand.
The ointment feels moisturizing and cooling, but after it is completely absorbed by the wound, there is a burning pain under the skin.
She seemed to understand the pain very well, so she kept circling her fingers in circles, as if to soothe the pain.
Either because of the ointment or because of friction, her fingertips were hotter than before, burning everywhere they touched, gradually burning from the back of his hand all the way to the ventricles of his heart.
Shen Lie looked at her attentive eyebrows, paused, and looked away.
"Are you hiding from me?" the girl suddenly said.
Shen Lie closed his dark eyebrows lightly and looked back at her again, staring deeply, with an undercurrent stirring silently in his eyes.
Xia Zhaoyi tightened her grip on him, feeling frightened for no reason, fearing that if she let go, she would never see him again.
Yes, that's what it feels like.
Shen Lie has always given her a strange and contradictory feeling. With an endless sense of stability, she is sure that he will always be with her, no matter where the sword is, he will be her most steadfast comrade-in-arms.
But besides this sense of security, there was also the fear that he would disappear from her at any time.
Xia Zhaoyi couldn't see through him, so he sent people to recruit troops. For Hengxiang alone, a hundred thousand troops came, not to mention the long queue of new soldiers who branched off to Tanzhou and the increasing number of recruits.
However, even Zhao Ning can see that Shen Lie actually has no ambitions. He is a person who likes peace and quiet and has always wanted to live in seclusion. His character is almost indifferent, a gentleman is cautious and independent, and he has no competition.
Thinking of the conversation with Zhao Ning in Ning'an Building, Xia Zhaoyi's fear suddenly became heavier.
"Don't pay attention to Shen Shuangcheng," Xia Zhaoyi looked at him, "He is nothing. I only heard every word he said was ridiculous. The Guo family is the Guo family, the Shen family is the Shen family, you Shen Lie is the unique Shen Lie in the world."
Shen Lie's throat moved slightly and he said hoarsely: "Ali..."
Xia Zhaoyi took a step forward and got closer to him: "You may not like what my master does. He is a person who never recognizes human relations. My master used to scold those things about filial piety, monarchy and ministers, and respect and inferiority. Since I was a child, he has taught me not to kneel, not to the emperor, not to my parents, not to any authority. He said not to satisfy and conform to others, and not to be easily controlled by others, even your parents. Shen Lie, you have lived a good life since you were young. No, now Shen Shuangcheng is trying to drag you back into the quagmire, we ignore him, we won't let him get his wish, okay?"
The expectation and desire in her eyes made her eyes glow like water. Shen Lie had never seen her eyes like this before.
"Shen Lie, speak." Xia Zhaoyi said.
"It's not Shen Shuangcheng," Shen Lie said tiredly, "and, my grandfather."
Xia Zhaoyi frowned slightly and clenched his fingers tighter.
The reason why she warned Shen Shuangcheng with her eyes in the Qu Mansion, not to let him ask about Guo Yunzhe, was because she didn't want Shen Shuangcheng to reveal the old story in front of Shen Lie.
It's not that she found anything, she just connected the statue of Guo Shu and the letters found under Zisu Dyeing House with Guo Yunzhe, and she felt that it was unusual.
She didn't say this in front of Shen Lie because she understood how important Guo Shu was to Shen Lie.
Those letters had made him lose his mind. If he continued...
No, there is no if, because, it has already happened.
Xia Zhaoyi looked deeply at the young man under the moonlight. He was as tall and straight as a towering mountain. The hurt he suffered when he was young was determined not to happen to him again.
However, to build such a piece of armor, he had to endure many forgings along the way.
Although she grew up in Liling, when she returns to Beijing during the holidays, what awaits her is a warm, happy and harmonious home.
He was the complete opposite. He was born in the Shen family and grew up in the Guo family. However, no one from both families treated him sincerely.
Xia Zhaoyi's eyes seemed to have passed through him, and he saw that little Shen Lie kneeling on the ground numbly and being beaten. He was disliked by his mother, rejected by his father, used by his grandfather, and bullied by his uncle and cousins.
Step by step, he grew up alone, struggling and working hard, so hard.
However, how good he is, he has not become bad or evil, he is upright, chivalrous, upright, and can treat his friends with the utmost sincerity without asking for anything in return.
Xia Zhaoyi's eyes turned red, and she felt intense reluctance and sadness in her heart.
Suddenly, she let go of his hand, took another step forward, reached out and hugged his thin waist tightly, and pressed herself into his arms.
Shen Lie was stunned, looking down at her, breathing erratically: "...Ali."
The girl's soft body was leaning against him, and her breathing was equally chaotic. Even more chaotic than her breathing was her uncontrolled heartbeat.
