Originated from mountains and seas, life never ends

Chapter 140 Will it happen again?

Meng Liyun chatted with them for a while but didn't get any useful information.

Although Li Heng told her that the escort and the mysterious man in black would keep watch all night, Meng Liyun just smiled and nodded and still stayed up all night.

The next morning, the sky was slightly white and the surroundings were quiet. The man in black who had been silent all night suddenly stood up and turned away.

Meng Liyun looked at him, but before she could ask, the escort next to her explained, "He went to wash up."

Meng Liyun nodded thoughtfully. She felt a little haggard after staying up all night, but after all, all the work she had done before was done through the night. She changed her mind and decided that she needed to sober up, so she followed the man in black to the river.

Meng Liyun squatted down and scooped up a handful of cold stream water, rubbing her face vigorously. She woke up, took a deep breath, turned her head and saw the silent man in black taking off his hood and revealing his face.

For a moment, Meng Liyun thought she was dreaming.

The strange yet familiar face appeared in front of her again. She thought that this face had long been blurred in her distant memory, but now it suddenly appeared in front of her, and she still recognized it at a glance.

The man scooped up another handful of water, splashed it on his face, rubbed his eyes, felt her gaze, and turned to look at her.

Meng Liyun stared at him blankly, her eyes felt hot and for some reason, her nose felt a little sore.

After not seeing each other for many years, the man looked more mature and handsome, with a face like a peach, complexion like spring snow, red lips and white teeth, sword-like eyebrows and star-like eyes. There was a cold light in his eyes, and his deep black pupils flashed a cold light.

Still a little different...

Meng Liyun thought.

The man exuded a cold aura. Unlike his previous sharpness, he was now restrained and steady. He no longer had the violent aura that he exuded from time to time before. He looked like an ancient sword that had been sheathed.

The man seemed a little displeased when he saw that she was still looking at him like this, and his brows furrowed slightly.

"...Xiao?" Meng Yun called him softly. Although there was a slight raise in her voice, one could tell from her tone that she was quite sure.

"Are you Owl?"

When the man heard the name, his eyes changed slightly. He didn't answer, but his eyes moved across her face, narrowing his eyes slightly, as if confirming something.

"You, you may not recognize me... I—"

Meng Liyun wanted to say something, but suddenly stopped and looked behind her. The bushes moved slightly, and the woman who had invited her first appeared with a child in her arms. She seemed a little surprised to see them and greeted her with a smile.

Meng Liyun responded with a smile and glanced at the man, only to find that he had already stood up and was ready to leave.

Seeing this, Meng Liyun waved to the woman and hurriedly followed her, wanting to say something to him.

But just as he walked away from the woman, Li Heng and his wife came towards him. The woman named Ranran must have heard what Li Heng said, but had some opinions about it, so she didn't look good to her. She just glanced at her and walked away.

Meng Liyun didn't react to this. She saw that Xiao didn't recognize her, so she wanted to go up and ask, but because she didn't want others to hear, she hesitated. In the end, she didn't have a chance to talk to him until they set off.

The three horses belonged to the escort and the couple respectively. Xiao was obviously going to walk, and Meng Liyun saw this and invited him to get in her car. Although the space inside the car was not large, they could still fit two people in the front.

"Don't waste your time, little girl." The woman with the child said to her, "He is very withdrawn and never communicates with us. He said he wanted to join because of Mr. Li's enthusiastic invitation..."

After hearing this, Meng Liyun paused, thinking about his character, and agreed, but she didn't say anything. She smiled at her in gratitude and turned around to ask him again.

"I see the journey is quite long. It would be troublesome for you to walk all the way. Why don't you come with us?"

Xiao turned his head to look at her, his eyes moved slightly, but he still didn't speak.

This reaction was not unexpected for the woman. Just as she was about to say something else to her, she saw him nod.

"can."

The man's voice was completely different from his appearance, deep and magnetic, as steady as a pool of stagnant water, without causing the slightest ripple.

Xiao's choice obviously surprised everyone, and they all looked at them with surprise.

The woman looked at Xiao, then at her. Her eyes changed a little, becoming more teasing. She smiled and patted her shoulder, raised her eyebrows interestingly, said nothing, and turned back to her carriage.

In fact, Meng Liyun was also a little surprised by Xiao's decision, but she didn't say much. She turned around and got on the car. When Xiao sat next to her, she whipped the horse and caught up with the team.

Meng Liyun thought of something, took out the cake she bought yesterday, lifted the curtain and asked the old lady in the car: "Do you want to eat it?"

The old lady was startled, then nodded and took it: "Eat...Thank you, my daughter. You didn't eat in the morning, did you? Anything else?"

"Of course." Meng Liyun smiled and waved her hand, took another one from the bag and put it in her mouth, then turned around and asked Xiao, "Do you want one? I see you haven't eaten either."

Xiao shook his head and refused. Meng Liyun did not force it, wrapped the rest and put it in the bag, then took the one in her mouth and started to eat.

The carriage gradually got on track. The team was moving much faster than before, and the bumps in the carriage were much stronger. If you wanted to take a nap, you would be woken up by the bumps.

Meng Liyun finished a whole pancake and closed her eyes for a long time. Finally, she remembered something and turned to look at Xiao: "By the way, what were you doing in Xiong'er?"

"I'm not going there." Xiao replied.

"Huh?" Meng Liyun was surprised, "Then why are you in this team?"

"Li Heng." Xiao looked at Li Heng who was riding a horse alongside his wife not far in front of him and said softly, "He asked me to escort him there, and he would tell me...something."

Meng Liyun thought about what the woman said, that it was Li Heng who invited him, and she understood something. She said "oh" twice, glanced at Li Heng, feeling something was not right, and then looked at the luggage on his horse, feeling a little strange.

"Did he tell you what he was going there for?" Meng Liyun asked.

Xiao shook his head and glanced at her: "Do you know me?"

Meng Liyun paused and laughed dryly: "Yeah...you didn't recognize it?"

Xiao frowned slightly and shook his head.

Meng Liyun pursed her lips. Thinking of what she was about to say, she became a little nervous. Her fingers unconsciously clenched. She looked into his cold eyes and opened her mouth:

"I--"

"There's a town ahead, let's go in and buy some things?" Li Heng's voice suddenly came, and they turned their heads sharply to see him smiling at them. His wife was beside him, staring at them with an unclear expression.

"We started early in the morning and have been running around all morning. It's a good time to go into the city to rest and have lunch before continuing on our journey. How about that?" The woman in the carriage in front also agreed, "Let's meet at the city gate at 3 p.m., how about that?"

Meng Liyun wanted to leave directly, but seeing that the three people and Li Heng had already nodded, she said nothing more and agreed.

After entering the city, Meng Liyun thought of the old lady in the carriage, and quickly pulled up the curtain to look. She found that she had her eyes closed, and she didn't know whether she was fainted or asleep.

"Wake up." Meng Liyun handed the reins to Xiao, got into the car, and woke up after shaking for a long time. The old lady opened her eyes in confusion and asked tremblingly.

“Here…here?”

"No." Meng Liyun was a little surprised to see her like this, and explained to her, "We plan to rest here, have lunch, and then meet outside the city gate."

The old lady paused and nodded to indicate that she understood.

"Did you not sleep well last night?" Meng Liyun asked.

"Ah... the road was too bumpy. I wanted to call you... but you fell asleep before I could call you." The old lady said with an embarrassed smile.

Meng Liyun: ...

You were dizzy, weren't you?

"Do you want to buy anything?" Meng Liyun asked.

"Ah..." The old lady thought for a moment and lifted the curtain, "They have already entered the city... You want me, an old woman, to go out for a walk? My old bones are about to fall apart."

When Meng Liyun heard this, she nodded repeatedly, went out and talked to Xiao, then helped the old lady get out of the car.

"You guys go, I'll follow you slowly." The old lady's legs went weak as soon as she got off the car, and she almost fell to the ground. She let go of her hand and said this. Meng Liyun didn't dare to let her go, so she waved her hand and said, "It's okay, let's go slowly, there's no rush."

As he spoke, he thought of Xiao who was sitting next to him and turned to ask him what he meant.

Xiao didn't say anything, but nodded to show his agreement.

At lunch, thinking that the old lady might not have good teeth as she was getting older, we chose a noodle shop that was doing good business, and the three of us sat at a table and waited.

Meng Liyun looked at the noisy atmosphere around her, then looked at Xiao, and became thoughtful again. She pursed her lips and opened her mouth to speak.

"You are going to Xiong'er Mountain, too." The old lady looked at Xiao across from her and said to him, "I heard that the bandits on that mountain are causing a lot of trouble. Why are you young people running there?"

"Keeping away will not make the bandits disappear." Xiao said, picking up the tea on the table, taking a sip, and perhaps because it felt too hot, he put it back, "I followed Li Heng and the others to Lishan, I was just passing by."

"Oh..." The old lady nodded thoughtfully. Just then, the noodles came and they picked up their chopsticks and started eating.

Meng Liyun took two chopsticks and saw that the old lady and Xiao had no inclination to talk, so she asked him, "What do you want to ask?"

After saying this, Jian Xiao looked at her, thought for a moment and added: "You said Li Heng told you... Did he recognize you?"

Xiao looked puzzled, nodded, and did not answer the first half of her sentence.

Seeing this, Meng Liyun knew that he didn't want to talk, so she didn't force him and lowered her head to continue eating her noodles.

Speaking of which...if Li Heng was able to recognize him based on the wanted poster, he would be considered a god.

Meng Liyun thought. These two don't look alike at all. If you have to force it, it's just that their aura is somewhat similar.

Meng Liyun looked up at Xiao, hesitating about something. She came to her senses only after the noodles had turned into a paste in her mouth, and drank some soup.

Finally, she took a deep breath, straightened her expression, and looked at Xiao.

"Do you still remember the little girl from more than ten years ago?"

As soon as the words fell, the surrounding noises seemed to be blocked out. Meng Liyun stared at him, her voice dry, but she couldn't bring her eyes to focus on his face.

"That's the one you rescued from the bandits..." Meng Liyun swallowed and blinked, with some expectation in her eyes, "Then he gave me to a couple to adopt... Do you still remember?"

Meng Liyun spoke for a long time but didn't hear any response. Thinking that he had forgotten, she lowered her eyes, pursed her lips sadly, and turned her gaze to her slightly trembling hands holding the chopsticks.

Just when Meng Liyun thought she would not get a response and tried to smile and ignore the topic, Xiao spoke.

"what……"

Hearing the voice, Meng Liyun looked up at him and saw that he was slightly stunned, his starry eyes trembling slightly, his gaze focused on her, and his expression relaxed a little.

"It's you." Xiao's brows relaxed, and he looked her up and down several times, revealing a look of sudden enlightenment, "Why are you here?"

"..." Meng Liyun didn't know what to say for a moment. She had never thought about what to say or do after meeting him again. When she parted with him that year, she did think about following him forever, but now more than ten years have passed, and after they recognized each other so smoothly, she found that her heart, which she thought would be beating violently, was actually very calm. She just felt a little overwhelmed.

She met him as she wished and recognized him, but what next?

Meng Liyun didn't know, but after hearing Xiao's question, she realized that it would be bad if she didn't answer for a long time, so she spoke without thinking too much: "I heard that there were bandits over there, so I wanted to go take a look."

"See? Then what?" Xiao frowned when he heard her say this.

For some reason, the old lady next to me seemed not to hear anything and just kept eating the noodles in her bowl.

"I...wanted to send the old lady to her daughter's home first, and then go and see her..." Meng Liyun's smile was a little stiff, as if she was afraid that Xiao would show opposition, and she explained, "It's mainly because of the rampant bandits. What if someone is hurt by them like I was before..."

For some reason, although she could tell lies without blinking when communicating with her colleagues before, she had no intention of lying to Xiao's cold and deep eyes.

When Xiao heard this, she was obviously stunned for a moment, as if she was thinking of her experience in the past. She did not object, but just nodded to show that she understood.

"Before? My dear, what happened to you before?" After hearing this, the old lady put down her chopsticks and turned to ask her.

Meng Liyun glanced at her and found that her bowl was empty. She was a little surprised at how fast she ate. She smiled and replied, "Nothing, I just encountered a robbery."

"Really...then give them the money?" The old lady nodded thoughtfully and asked.

"...Yes." Thinking of those things, Meng Liyun clenched her fists calmly, still smiling.

"So you can protect yourself now?" Xiao asked suddenly, glancing at her clenched hands.

Meng Liyun clasped her hands behind her back to cover the calluses on her palms, and replied with a smile, "Yes, a little bit."

Xiao looked at her deeply, said nothing, and lowered his head to continue eating.

He didn't speak again until Meng Liyun finished the soup in the bowl.

"Then have you ever thought that if you are not strong enough, will what happened back then happen again?"

Meng Liyun suddenly stopped and looked up at him. Xiao's face was calm, and he didn't dodge or evade.

"What will happen if you fail?" Xiao's voice was very soft, but it penetrated the noisy environment and reached her ears clearly. "Have you thought about the consequences?"

"Yes, my girl, this is too risky, so let's forget it." The old lady also advised.

"..."

Meng Liyun was silent for a moment and closed her eyes.

"When you broke into the bandit's lair earlier, did you ever think about the consequences if you failed to defeat them?" Meng Liyun looked at Xiao and asked.

Xiao was stunned and said nothing.

"...and I'm just going to take a look over there. If I don't meet him, then forget it. I can't turn the mountain upside down to look for him." Meng Liyun moved her lips slightly and avoided his gaze.