One Qi Chaoyang

Chapter 320 Chapter 321: Zhao Rang

I don't know when it started to drizzle again.

Zhao Yan returned to Chengze Mansion in the drizzle. She told Liu Kun not to tell anyone what he saw. Liu Kun returned home. He thought about it and felt that something might have happened. However, Chengze Zhao Mansion was already the main home of the Zhao family, so who could touch it?

Has the missing child come back?

Liu Kun thought and felt that even if he came back, what would happen?

Paying respect quietly was the limit of what he could do. If he attracted the attention of the head of the Zhao family, he would probably be in trouble.

Liu Kun could not judge who was right or wrong in the family feud, but he knew where he stood and whose food his family was eating.

However, since the eldest lady had given the order, he could just pretend he didn't know.

Only old people like him or close people call her "the eldest lady" now, and other people usually call her "the princess".

It was getting dark, the long street was gloomy, and a slanting wind blew the drizzle onto the eaves.

Zhao Yan was holding a green umbrella in her hand and wearing a blue skirt. She walked in the slanting wind and drizzle. The wind lifted the hem of her skirt and lifted her hair to stroke her still pretty face.

She returned to Chengze Mansion and put away her umbrella. A maid immediately took her umbrella and asked, "Miss, someone from the Huang family just said they sent an invitation, saying that their second daughter came back three days ago and they want to invite you to come over for a gathering."

The Huang family is an outsider family that has been here forty or fifty years, but she is not sure exactly how many years.

When the Huang family came, they were just a foundation-building family, but this Huang family had a good daughter named Huang Miaohua, who became a disciple of Gusheshan Miaotou Cave and had also opened a purple mansion. This could be said to be the face and confidence of the Huang family.

She had known Huang Miaohua for a long time. When the Huang family just moved in, she brought Huang Miaohua to visit them. They were almost the same age, so they knew each other at that time.

Over the years, whenever Huang Miaohua came back, he would definitely meet her, either by visiting her in person or by sending an invitation.

Moreover, I heard that she has a cousin who also became a disciple of Miaotou Cave in Gushan Mountain and has also reached the Purple Mansion.

Miaotou Cave in Gushan Mountain is about 400 miles away from the State of Zhao. Although it is not a big sect, the master of the cave actually broke through to the Golden Elixir realm more than ten years ago, and his status in the area immediately improved a lot.

"When does it start?" Zhao Yan asked.

"Tomorrow at noon." The maid replied as she put away her umbrella and took out a handkerchief to wipe away the moisture that had drifted onto Zhao Yan's hair on his back.

But Zhao Yan stopped her and said, "Chunmei, go get a lantern."

The sky was getting dark and it was almost night.

A maid named Chunmei brought a lantern and lit it. The orange light dispelled the darkness around.

She followed Zhao Yan all the way to a remote corner of the mansion.

She knew the place. She had only been there a few times in all the years she had been in the mansion, and she went there to pick bamboo shoots because the eldest lady sometimes wanted to eat pickled fresh bamboo shoots. There was a small bamboo forest there.

But there was a small courtyard there that was closed all year round, and the area around it was overgrown with weeds, and no one had repaired it. She had asked about it, but the young people didn't know, and the older people were very secretive and didn't want to say more, just saying, "Don't ask."

When working in the mansion, she also knew that there were some things she could not ask.

As she thought about this, she realized that the eldest lady was really heading all the way to that corner. She met some people along the way, but they all moved aside. However, they went further and further away until there was no one left.

The sky seemed to have darkened here, and the only light source was her hand. She was a little scared, but when she saw the young lady in front of her, she thought that the young lady was a great monk, so she became a little braver.

Finally, after passing through a small bamboo forest and walking along a corridor covered with fallen bamboo leaves, they arrived in front of a small courtyard.

The weeds in front of the courtyard were wet, and the walls were covered with vines, small white flowers, and moss.

She looked at the courtyard, imagined the horrible things that had happened here, and felt that the courtyard was very scary.

Zhao Yan walked to the gate of the courtyard, and the copper lock on it had rusted.

She stretched out her fair hand, grasped the copper lock tightly, and twisted it, and the lock broke. She pushed it gently, but it didn't open, because no one had opened it for a long time, and there was mud on the ground, and the doorposts were rotten.

She pushed harder and finally pushed the door open. The door left a semicircular mark on the ground and scraped off a layer of mud.

She had been to a yard before, but at that time she just stood in the yard and looked inside.

She walked in step by step. The weeds and trees in the yard had grown very tall. Some of the trees were so tall that they blocked out the entire yard. Some had already died, and the grass was withering and growing again, and growing and withering again.

A mouse was startled and quickly hid in the corner.

There was no path under her feet, so Zhao Yan waded through the weeds and lowered her head slightly to avoid a thorn, but her hair was caught by it, but she seemed unaware of it.

Her eyes were only fixed on the room inside, and a look of surprise slowly appeared on her face.

Because she actually saw lights from the room inside.

There can't be any lights here. Is this an illusion?

This thought flashed through her mind. If it was a sunny day, she might even think that it might be the light refracted by the setting sun.

But now it is a rainy day and it is about to get dark, so there is no natural light here.

She narrowed her eyes slightly, trying to see clearly what the light was, but after staring, she found that the light disappeared again and it was still pitch black.

Some wind blew into the room, making strange noises on the windowsill.

That was a draft. In such a wind, how could any lamp not be blown out?

She walked forward again, and after a few steps she had crossed the yard.

The yard is really not big, and the sunlight is blocked by the trees in the yard, making it increasingly darker. The light in Chunmei's hand behind him is the only source of light.

Zhao Yan stepped onto the steps and came to the gate.

The door was still locked. She felt that if it had not been made of excellent wood, it would have rotted and collapsed by now.

Reaching out to turn the door lock, he pushed it gently, and the door slammed with a sound, making the courtyard even quieter, even an eerie silence.

Dust fell and fluttered in the light.

Zhao Yan stepped into the house. There was a layer of loose soil under her feet. It was the soil dug out by mice. Some tables had long since rotted away and were tilted. She could imagine that in the past, two people, one big and one small, sat here to eat.

She looked around and it looked like no one had ever been here before, as everything was in a state of decay.

She felt that she was overthinking, so she let out a breath and went to the bedroom next door. She walked in and saw a bed, a dressing table, a table, and a cabinet.

She walked in step by step, looking at the layout here. From these things, she could imagine what kind of life the mother and son lived here in the past.

Chunmei followed behind with a lantern, and Zhao Yan's eyes were clearly visible in the darkness.

Suddenly, her heart was shocked because she saw a fresh mark on the table, a circular mark, as if something had been placed there and now it was taken away by someone, so a clean mark was left, and the rest of the place was covered with a layer of dust.

"It's a lantern." This thought flashed through Zhao Yan's mind. Chunmei raised the lantern at the right time, and Zhao Yan saw a line of words written on the table.

"We are nothing but nothing in the eyes of others."

She couldn't help but recite it aloud, and the sound seemed to touch something. Suddenly, her eyes were flashed by something, it was light.

In the dim and hazy light, she saw a man in an orange robe standing beside the bed. The robe should be a religious robe, but it looked so thin on him.

His black hair was tied casually behind his head. She couldn't tell whether he was a man or a woman. She could only guess that he was a man based on his tall figure.

Of course, at this moment, she thought of someone in her heart.

He is back.

This man in a thin orange robe held an old oil lamp in his hand, and the light came from the lamp.

Under the dim light, he looked extremely mysterious.

He stood there, staring at the shabby bed motionlessly.

He was like a phantom, unreal, strange, mysterious, and filled with an inexplicable horror.

Zhao Yan reached into his sleeve and hooked his hand, revealing a pearl hairpin. He slowly raised it in front of his chest, while Chunmei stared at the young lady in front of her with wide eyes, because she saw nothing.

The pearl hairpin in Zhao Yan's hand is a magic weapon, which has the magical effects of calming the mind, breaking illusions, and controlling magic.

She slowly said, "Zhao Rang, is that you?"

The word "Zhao Rang" seemed to bring Zhao Fuyun back to the past, making him think more realistically about what his mother said when she gave him this name.

"Remember to give way more often, especially to your brothers and sisters. This way, it will be meaningless for them to bully us. We have nothing to lose anyway, so just pretend we never had it."

Zhao Yan didn't get a response, so he continued, "Zhao Rang, I know it's you. You went to worship your mother this afternoon, right?"

"Miss, who are you talking to?" Chunmei asked in fear from behind.

But Zhao Yan ignored her.

The person in the thin robe in front of her still didn't say anything, so she decided to show her dignity as the eldest sister.

"Zhao Rang, turn around." Zhao Yan said.

At this moment, the person in front of her slowly turned around.

When she saw the other person's face, she immediately confirmed that the person in front of her was her missing half-brother.

Because his face looks very much like the woman from that year.

It can be said that he is a boy with a feminine appearance. His face shape is feminine, especially his current hairstyle, which is very similar to the woman back then. However, the eyes are not the same.

Back then, the woman's eyes were watery, as if there was mist in them.

And now there seemed to be flames burning in his eyes.

"Zhao Rang, I'm Zhao Yan, do you still remember me?" Zhao Yan asked tentatively. She found that she could not see through the person in front of her.

Just after she asked this question, the person in front of her actually laughed. His laugh was very fake, just like the time when he was bullied and still pretended to laugh indifferently.

"I remember, but you don't remember me, just like I don't exist in this world. I just want to know, if you disappear, will anyone come to find you?"

She looked at the person in front of her and said this with a smile, but her voice was very cold.

Before she could say anything, she heard the frightened voice of her maid Chunmei: "Miss, Miss, where are you? Why are you gone?"

She looked back in surprise, as if bringing up a dim light, the light swayed, as if dividing the world into two layers. One layer was where the hazy light in Zhao Rang's hand illuminated her, where she was, and the other layer was the darkness where Chunmei was.

Even though Chunmei took out a lamp, the lantern seemed unable to dispel the darkness at all.

"Chunmei, Chunmei." Zhao Yan reached out to pull Chunmei, but found that his hand just passed through Chunmei's body.

She found that Chunmei seemed to have become an illusion, rapidly becoming unreal.

Chunmei shouted in fear, then stepped back and ran out of the house as if escaping.

Zhao Yan, on the contrary, calmed down. She was a cultivator from the Purple Mansion, and the pearl hairpin in her hand emitted a bright white light.

She needs to calm down and break the illusion.

After the pearl light shone through the void, she found that the hazy light disappeared, and then the people in the light also disappeared, and there was darkness all around.

She heard someone say, "This house was everything to me back then. It was small, so small that I could tell how many ant nests there were on the wall, but it was also very vast because it was my world."

"Welcome to my world. I used to always hope that someone would come to visit this house, and then see how pitiful we are, and then be kind enough to pity us. So many years have passed, and you are here. Coincidentally, I am back too."

Zhao Yan heard Zhao Rang's voice coming from the darkness. She felt that Zhao Rang's voice was sometimes far away and sometimes near. Suddenly it was beside her, and suddenly it was very far away. Suddenly it was real, and suddenly it seemed like a dream.

"Zhao Rang, are you back for revenge?" Zhao Yan asked coldly.

"hatred?"

As the voice appeared, she saw the light in her eyes again. She saw a man holding a dim old oil lamp, opening the cabinet and looking inside, as if he was flipping through his memories.

"Probably, but I want an answer more."

Zhao Yan stared at him with narrowed eyes. When he closed the cabinet door again, he turned around. The light was blocked by his body and he was instantly hidden in the darkness.

She discovered that her brother Zhao Rang, who had disappeared that year, was now so unfathomable. His magical skills were incredible to her and she herself could not do it at all.

At this time, Chunmei's shouting alarmed Chengze Mansion, but it was quickly suppressed.

Someone called Chunmei over, it was the eldest lady in the mansion.

Although she looked old, she was still very energetic. After hearing what Chunmei said, she pressed on, "Are you sure the young lady called out the name 'Zhao Rang'?"

"Yes, ma'am." Chunmei said tightly.

"Well, the ghost is back again." The eldest lady said with a sneer.

The people around her discovered at this moment that the lady's kind and gentle aura had quickly disappeared, as if she had become a different person.

　This chapter has 4,200 words. If I write 4,000 words a day, plus the 2,600 words from the previous chapter, then I have 6,800 words now, almost 7,000 words, which is considered an extra chapter.

　　Please vote. Please, please vote. There is hope for the tenth place in the monthly vote of Xianxia Ranking. Go, go, go, I will add more chapters if I can get to the top.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)