Chapter 489

Liu Yumei searched along the sound; she seemed to see a young figure running happily in the living room.

As it ran, another figure appeared beside that figure; two small figures were laughing and having fun together.

The crisp and pleasant laughter was like bone-piercing ice crystals, densely penetrating the softest depths of Liu Yumei's heart.

The deliberately sealed memory finally broke through the shackles and burst its banks at this moment. She covered her chest with her left hand and slowly squatted down.

Holding on, suppressing, enduring, and suffering through it, this heart-rending wail had arrived decades late.

For a mother, the greatest pain is the pain of losing a child.

But just as hell is not just eighteen layers, under the same pain, there is also greater cruelty.

That is watching one's own child, at the healthiest and most lively age, early on have everything squeezed and overdrawn, while the remaining life is short, and even more so, being tortured by endless illness and suffering.

It was she who gave him life, but he performed a complete withering in front of her.

Compared to the long, cold dampness, the withering that catches one off guard is, on the contrary, a kind of mercy.

"I, the Qin family disciples, obey the order! Today the mountains and rivers are broken, evil spirits are rampant, only blood-blooded children can hold up the sky..."

"I, the Liu family disciples, obey the order. Heaven and earth as witness, ancestral temple as proof, our generation shall turn our bodies into blades to break open this chaos of heaven and earth..."

When the Qin family Long Wang led the Qin family disciples and Liu family clansmen to swear an alliance in blood, one after another, Long Wang spirits flew out from the Qin and Liu family ancestral temple and went to the battlefield.

The whole clan went to die, but they left mercy for the incense; it wasn't that they didn't make arrangements, for example, deliberately hiding it from Liu Yumei and leaving Liu Yumei behind... Actually, the ones left behind were not just Liu Yumei alone, but also the seeds representing the future of the two families.

A girl surnamed Liu, from a collateral branch of the Liu family, could summon moonlight to shroud her when she was born, and was regarded as a treasure by the Liu family elders, soothing the wounded heart of the previous Liu family eldest miss who had been taken advantage of by the Qin family.

A boy surnamed Qin, the son of the Liu family eldest miss and the Qin family young master.

These two children were the private selfishness left behind by the two Long Wang gates.

However, despite all calculations, I don't know if they couldn't calculate God's will, or if people played a joke on this heaven.

They left behind these two most excellent children, but because these two children were truly too excellent, their arrangements completely fell through.

When Liu Yumei woke up from her slumber and discovered that the courtyard she lived in was covered by the double formation of the Qin and Liu families, realizing that she had been kept in the dark and something extremely serious had happened, she pushed open the room door. Liu Yumei saw the two children in the courtyard who, like her, had been deliberately left behind.

They only cared about "settling" her and leaving her behind, but gave those two children freedom, thinking that as long as they were left by her side, everything would be fine.

Who knew, the two children had amazing talents.

When the sound of the alliance oath rang out, they heard it; when one after another, Long Wang spirits carrying the luck of the two Long Wang gates rushed away, they also felt it.

The boy cut his own palm, using blood as a guide; the girl pinched seals with both hands, leading Feng Shui as a ferry.

The two children worked together and successfully set up a grand sacrifice in this courtyard that they couldn't leave.

Liu Yumei, who pushed open the room door and faced the courtyard, happened to witness the opening of the grand sacrifice, the scene where the two children held their hands high and offered sacrifices for the clansmen going on the expedition.

They might not understand why they were left behind, of course, they might also understand, but under the atmosphere and sense of mission at that time, what the two children thought was also to contribute to the clansmen.

Liu Yumei watched helplessly as the two children, who should have been full of vitality, had most of their talent and vitality drained away, their young bodies showing gray decay, and when they saw her, they still showed her proud smiles.

When Qin Shu and Liu Yi accompanied Liu Yumei to stay at Li Sanjiang's house, the roles they played were A-Li's parents.

Qin Shu was Liu Yumei's "son," and Liu Ting, who played the "daughter-in-law," changed her name to Liu Manting to avoid having the same surname as the "mother-in-law."

Li Zhuiyuan had long ago noticed that Qin Shu and Liu Yi were not a real couple, and A-Li was not their daughter; everyone had long seen the clues from the two beds in the west room.

The only ones who didn't see it were the rarely confused Li Sanjiang and the always confused Lin Shu You.

But even though they knew their identities had been exposed long ago, Qin Shu and Liu Yi never mentioned A-Li's parents.

Because they knew clearly that they themselves had replaced the positions of the "young master" and "young lady."

If the young master and young lady hadn't had an accident, the mistress wouldn't have needed to pick them two out from the family-born children.

In the depths of their memories, there was a deep courtyard in the ancestral residence. The mistress never clearly stated who lived inside, but in their hearts, they actually already knew gradually.

Liu Yi didn't dare to approach that courtyard, because every time she returned from there, for many days, she felt that any smile appearing on her face was a kind of original sin, and even more so, a cruelty to the mistress.

Qin Li often sat outside that courtyard for half the night in the nights after practicing martial arts.

The night before the mistress chose him to light the lamp and walk the river, Qin Li brought a long-burning lamp and lit it outside the courtyard.

Qin Li, who failed to walk the river and admitted defeat after lighting the lamp for the second time, dragged his seriously injured body, crawled outside the courtyard, and used his fingers to pinch out the lamp he had lit there.

Li Zhuiyuan had heard Grandma Liu speak impolitely to the ancestral tablets more than once at home, and even when A-Li took the ancestral tablets to scrape wood shavings, Liu Yumei didn't mind.

Grandma Liu complained to the ancestral tablets again and again for A-Li's situation, and now, she even started questioning the ancestral tablets for Xiaoyuan's situation.

But she never mentioned those two children, because she couldn't mention them. That day, the children of the collateral branch died in such vast numbers; could your, Liu Yumei's, son be special and precious?

Unable to mention, untouchable, this memory was not sealed by magic, but was sealed by the most firm self-sealing.

Today, Liu Yumei came to personally uncover this old scar, because new flesh had already grown.

"You can rest in peace now."

Outside the Qin family ancestral residence.

Qin Shu stood on the corner platform at the entrance of the ancestral residence. This was a very long extended protruding part; looking down was a sea of clouds, and one could also look far into the vastness of the Qinling Mountains, as if riding a flood dragon.

In fact, the platform Qin Shu stood on was made from the single horn of a flood dragon.

Zhao Wuyang was a grassroots Long Wang. Although he did not fail the name of Long Wang in his generation, when his lifespan was about to end, after defeating the evil dragon, he had to make long-term arrangements behind him if he wanted to grind it to death completely.

This was the limitation of being a grassroots Long Wang.

It was much simpler for Long Wang Qin here. After the Qin family Long Wang killed the evil dragon that caused chaos in his generation, he directly brought the dragon corpse home.

Anyway, for the family, one more wasn't much, and one less wasn't little.

A flood dragon could cause chaos outside, but here, it couldn't even be brought to the table.

There was no need to spend effort on posthumous arrangements. The Qin family even had the leisure to turn the dragon horn into a viewing platform at the entrance of their home.

This could also be considered to fulfill the original intention of the Qin family's flood dragon observation method. When family disciples entered and exited the ancestral residence, standing here was truly standing on the dragon head to observe.

Liu Yi walked slowly behind Qin Shu and said:

"I've always had a question, have you ever spoken to the one in that courtyard?"

Qin Shu: "Never spoken, but it seems like we've said a lot."

Liu Yi put her hand on Qin Shu's shoulder: "A-Li, the mistress came this time because she has let go, and you should also let go."

Qin Shu reached out, grabbed the hand on his shoulder, and looked into Liu Yi's eyes: "Wait until Xiaoyuan becomes a Long Wang."

Qin Shu had said similar words before.

Liu Yi seemed to see the year when young Qin Li went out to walk the river for the first time, also holding her hand like this:

"A-Ting, wait until I become a Long Wang."

With the exact same response as that year, Liu Yi smiled and nodded at Qin Shu.

In a family, the reason why some people can choose to escape is because some people take the initiative to shoulder the burden.

Just like Tan Wenbin, who clearly ate at his father-in-law and mother-in-law's house more often than he returned to his own home, yet still insisted on waiting until after university graduation to get married.

The high-sounding reason was that studies were paramount, but in reality, what he was waiting for was to accompany Xiaoyuan to finish walking the river, because before that, he could die suddenly at any time.

There was no formation set up in Xiaoyuan's room. With Tan Wenbin's current sharp ears and eyes, could he really have no awareness of that painting that had always been placed in Xiaoyuan's room?

He was already shouldering very heavy things, so he was powerless and didn't dare to shoulder others. This was a kind of selfishness, and also a kind of responsibility.

Liu Yi spread her palm, and a few gu insects that had eaten their fill outside the Listening Wind Gorge were spinning around. Watching the playfulness between them made Liu Yi seem to see her former self and A-Li, and watching the gu insects play, she was also like Liu Yumei who watched them back then.

"The mistress's life is so hard."

Qin Shu's Adam's apple bobbed slightly as he looked at the "little girl" beside him, who still loved playing with bugs just as she had when they were children.

It was precisely because he had witnessed from a young age just how difficult things were for the Mistress that he did not want the people around him to become another Mistress.

At this moment, Liu Yi turned her head to look at the ancestral residence behind her, which seemed to stretch on endlessly; above it, dark clouds began to gather.

Liu Yi said coldly:

"They are starting to act presumptuously again."

Qin Shu turned back; what he saw was merely the cloud layer above the ancestral residence growing slightly thicker.

Liu Yi: "The Mistress's mental defenses have crumbled, and they believe they have finally waited for their chance."

Qin Shu: "Mm, it's nothing."

An expectant expression appeared on Liu Yi's face: