The girl was wearing a simple coarse cloth shirt, and her white calves were stepping up and down on the cobblestones by the river. Xiao Yu kissed her instep, and a silver bell-like laughter came into Chen Ruo's ears. The boy sighed helplessly, and tightened his grip.
Tightly wearing bamboo baskets, I kept following my instructions while not forgetting -
"Be careful, don't fall!"
The girl jumped up and down on the bluestone by the river with her bare feet, not paying any attention to Chen Ruo's nagging.
In the years that followed, he had grown a lot taller, and the days when he and she were dependent on each other lasted for a long time. It took him a lot of effort to change the girl's attitude from resistance and disgust at the beginning to intimacy and dependence now.
.
Yaoyao gradually let down his guard as he got along with Chen Ruo day by day, and gradually adapted to the poor life and abandoned his past delicate identity. Now he has completely adapted to the days of collecting herbs, fishing and hunting in the mountains with Chen Ruo.
.
He also noticed some abnormalities. For example, he had grown a head taller over the years, but the girl's appearance had not changed at all.
Logically speaking, it is impossible for a child of this age to stop growing, and using delayed development as an explanation would be too forced. However, Yao Yao has never mentioned a word about his identity, and Chen Ruo knows that everyone has a past that he does not want to mention—
—But what if...she is not a human at all?
Chen Ruo asked himself this more than once. He seemed to vaguely know the answer to the question, but he did not dare to face it.
But every time he saw the girl's figure and heard her sweet laughter, he felt that in fact these were not important at all.
So what if she is not a human being? Before that, she was his family! No matter what the fact is, this fact cannot be changed!
The young man was sitting on the bank, deep in thought. Dongfang Yaoyao quietly walked up to him with cat steps, stood up suddenly, and sprinkled a handful of cold water on his face without any warning.
It's midsummer now, and even though the temperature is scorching, the cold water still gives Chen Ruo a jolt.
"What are you doing? Come over and play with me!!"
Dongfang Yaoyao took his hand and dragged Chen Ruo into the water by the river.
"But my medicine..." Dongfang Yaoyao obediently put Chen Ruo's medicine basket aside, and wiped the cold sweat on his face, "I see you are also very hot, let's get into the water together! Like this
It’s much cooler!”
Chen Ruo was in a daze. He thought that when he was a child, his sister would pull him into the water like this on a hot day, with a bright and innocent smile.
A smile spread across his lips. Although it didn't look good on a face covered with scars, Dongfang Yaoyao never cared about it.
Yes, it wasn't because of habit, but because she never paid attention to Chen Ruo's terrifying face covered with scars from the beginning to the end.
He is a very good person. Dongfang Yaoyao is young and doesn't know many adjectives, but she knows one thing -
Chen Ruo is different from those people. He is a very gentle and kind person. He accepted her with unknown origins and taught her how to survive alone.
She felt that there were not many people like Chen Ruo in the world, so meeting him was the greatest luck among her misfortunes.
The two started quarreling by the river. The river was extremely calm under the scorching sun in midsummer. No one could connect the scenery in front of them with the heavy rain that nearly destroyed the downstream dam many years ago.
But that rain existed and brought Dongfang Yaoyao to him.
She once thought that this kind of life would last forever, and she really did.
But dreams will eventually fall apart, no matter how beautiful things are, they will end sooner or later, and no matter how strong the bond is, it cannot last forever.
What's more, between a face-stealing demon and a mortal?
In the small town, a group of dusty men in black rode into the street. The noise was not loud, but it had a bit of arrogance. They rested in an inn, and the leader was sitting in the front hall of the inn.
Inside, he took out a piece of red paper with a small amount of black hair wrapped in it.
"Sir, there have never been rumors of monsters appearing here. So, does the last Face-stealing Demon really live here?"
"The position shown by the compass is here. I also made a divination when I set out. I can't be wrong."
"But we have no way of knowing the specific location of the Face-stealing Demon. What should we do now..."
The man confidently took out a straw man, and then stuffed the hair into the straw man——
"This is the fetal hair of the Face-stealing Demon that was found from Dongfang's house. Put this into the witchcraft doll... and do some small tricks..."
There was a turbulent light in the man's eyes, and greed and conspiracy were quietly brewing inside.
"It's so hot...why do you have a fever again?"
Dongfang Yaoyao was seriously ill this time. Chen Ruo, who was always careful, could not find the cause of this unprovoked illness, but he could not cure the girl with his own methods, so he planned to take her down the mountain.
"Yao Yao... you are too sick. We have to go down the mountain to see the doctor!"
"I won't go! Even if I die!!"
The girl's resistance was obviously stronger than ever before, but Chen Ruo didn't know what to do at this time. Her body was getting hotter and hotter. Chen Ruo tried to pick her up several times and take her down the mountain by force, but the result was that the girl fought to her death.
He struggled but refused to cooperate.
"I won't go! The people at the foot of the mountain are all bad guys! They killed my parents! I absolutely don't want to go! Even if I die from illness!"
"Yao Yao! Don't be willful!" Chen Ruo grabbed the girl's hand, his eyes full of sincerity, "I know you have lost a lot, but I have lost a lot, too. That's why we are together, isn't it? Be obedient!
We’ll come back after seeing the doctor! I can’t lose you again!”
The girl and the boy looked at each other, and she could see his sincerity in his eyes. She opened her mouth, but could not express her thoughts.
The same goes for her, she can't lose him either.
Dongfang Yaoyao also vaguely felt that someone was secretly cursing her for her illness this time, so she was even more afraid to go down the mountain. However, she couldn't tell Chen Ruoming directly about all this - after all, she was still afraid of breaking the window paper. She was afraid of Chen Ruoming.
After knowing his true identity, he left or even abandoned her.
If you really go down the mountain, you will have achieved your goal. Not only will you suffer, but Chen Ruo will also be implicated.
So we can only stand in a stalemate here. Although the curse will make us uncomfortable, since the other party can only do this, it means that their skills are not deep enough to be able to kill with a long-range curse.
As long as she doesn't go down the mountain, everything can still work out!
Having made up her mind, the girl didn't struggle much. She just refused to close her eyes and stared at Chen Ruo——
"If you dare to take me down the mountain, I will never forgive you in this life!"
When the girl reached this point, Chen Ruo had no choice but to give up. He sighed softly, soaked a towel with cold water in the tub, and applied it to her head——
"Okay, I won't take you down the mountain, you have a good rest."
Hearing the young man say such words, Dongfang Yaoyao felt relieved and slowly closed his tired eyes.
After Chen Ruo confirmed that the girl had completely slept, he breathed a sigh of relief, packed up the things at home, filled the bonfire with firewood, and went down the mountain with some money.
Anyway, he first went to the doctor to grab some medicine to treat wind and cold. Although he knew that Yaoyao's illness was unusual this time, he still gave it a try. After all, she refused to go down the mountain, and he couldn't invite the doctor to a steep cave.
Treat Yaoyao.
After rushing all the way down the mountain, it took nearly two hours to reach the town. Chen Ruo walked out of breath to the streets of the town and immediately walked towards the drug store.
The drugstore owner was also his regular customer, so he was very surprised to see Chen Ruo rushing over.
"What happened today? Didn't I just sell a basket of herbs a few days ago?"
He figured out the rules of Chen Ruo's medicine sales. It wasn't the time yet, so why did he come here?
Soon the drug store owner thought of a possibility——
"Is the girl you picked up sick?"
Although Chen Ruo has never taken Yaoyao down the mountain, every time he goes down the mountain, he always mentions the cute girl he picked up on a rainy night. The people in the town are familiar with each other once and twice, and although Chen Ruo usually looks unpleasant, he is a person.
It's not bad. He is all alone in the mountains making a living. It is also a good thing for him to have someone to accompany him.
Chen Ruo swallowed his saliva and nodded, acquiescing to the boss's guess——
"Give me some medicine for the cold. She is very ill."
"You are seriously ill? Then why don't you come down the mountain to see the doctor?" The boss greeted Chen Ruo while picking out the appropriate medicine from the medicine rack - the young man's expression was also a bit complicated.
"You are too sick to bear the wind."
"Is it that serious? Then you can take it on credit and fry it for her to drink first!"
The boss was also kind and gave the best medicine in the store to Chen Ruo without saying a word.
"Thank you...I'll leave first..."
After getting the medicine, Chen Ruo didn't say much nonsense and rushed outside in a daze. However, she directly bumped into the man in black who was coming.
Chen Ruo held the medicine tightly in her arms, bowing her head and apologizing again and again——
"Sorry! I was the one who collided! I'm leaving now!"
As a result, before he could stand up, the man in black grabbed his arm——
"Boy! Stop pretending to be stupid here! Have you provoked something..."
The man immediately stopped his subordinate's rude behavior. He slowly helped Chen Ruo up with a kind face.
"This little brother, my subordinate has a bad temper. I hope you can forgive me..."
Chen Ruo was also very alert when facing the sudden appearance of the man in black, and was about to leave without saying anything more——
"This medicine is just for treating wind and cold... but it can't cure that person's disease!"
Hearing this, the young man stopped -
"Let me think about it - it should have started two days ago, right? My whole body is hot, my body temperature is extremely low, and I often fall into drowsiness..."
Every time the man said something more, the surprise in Chen Ruo's eyes grew bigger——
"It seems I was right!" The man looked down at Chen Ruo, "Why, don't you want to cure that man's disease?"