Il arrive souvent des choses désagréables

Chapitre 45

I rolled my eyes. "No wonder you're hiding here. You're too in debt and afraid people will find you all the time. You don't want to get treatment anymore, do you?"

He Nan was taken aback by my words and immediately looked embarrassed, coughed twice, and blushed.

I was about to say something when I felt a warmth on the back of my head. Mo Li reached out and pressed me down, his palm lingering on my hair for a moment. The warmth seeped through my hair, making me suddenly speechless.

"I heard that Mr. He once saved the daughter of the Prince of Nanjun in Loulan, but in the end he only took one of her hairpins."

He Nanyuan gazed into the distance, "That was a hairpin that Princess Lan personally plucked from her temple and gave to me. It still retains a faint fragrance; it is truly precious..."

I cursed inwardly, "Pervert."

"I also heard that Mr. He saved the only son of the White Tiger Stronghold chief, but in the end he took away his father's eyes."

“He did it voluntarily. I was asked to help a friend by giving him a pair of eyes. He wanted his son to live, so he gave them to me voluntarily.”

The sound of blood filled me with a chill, and I grabbed Mo Li's hand. "We won't give it to you, we won't give you anything."

Mo Li didn't let me grab his hand. He moved swiftly, leaving me behind where He Nan was standing, and walked towards him. "Mr. He, your medical skills are divine. You must have already seen through my origins. Since things have come to this, I will not hide it from you. I am Mo Li, the current Right Envoy of the Holy Fire Sect. The Soul-Locking Insect is black and white, and the other half of the black insect is currently inside my body. This thing is a treasure of the world, especially for someone as knowledgeable in medicine as Mr. He, is that right?"

Before he could finish speaking, I was so shocked that I froze on the spot.

Mo Li knew! He actually knew that the black worm was inside his body!

He Nan's reaction was even stronger. He completely forgot about Mo Li's whip, stopped resting his chin on his hand, and rushed to him in two steps. He reached out to grab Mo Li's collar and shouted, "You!"

5

Mo Li lashed out with his whip, deftly pushing He Nan back into the distance, forcing him to stand obediently in the corner. He Nan, still reeling from his earlier erratic behavior, stared blankly at him, his eyes practically brimming with tears. He stammered, "No, no, even if I know it's inside you, I can't take it out, I can't..."

"Mr. He, please don't be in a hurry. What you want from me, let me explain the whole story before we reach a conclusion, shall we?"

Upon hearing this, He Nan's eyes shone with intense excitement, almost burning the wooden house down. I was stunned, sitting there staring at him, while his hoarse voice continued to echo from inside the house.

"Twenty years ago, a few months after the leader of the Dingtian Sect ascended the throne, our priest Chengfeng suddenly disappeared with sacred objects. The former Right Envoy Dangui was judged to have deliberately betrayed the sect and was expelled. Has Mr. He heard of this?"

Mo Li actually brought up old stories. He Nan looked at him with a struggle, unsure whether to say "get to the point" like we did, but he didn't dare. He could only sincerely shake his head, "Your sect has always been mysterious, and I don't know anything about this matter."

"Our priesthood has always been passed down through bloodlines. With the disappearance of Chengfeng, the position of priest has been vacant ever since. The leader has been managing the situation single-handedly for many years."

I gradually recovered from my shock. Hearing Mo Li say this, and recalling what he said to me on the top of Yunshan Mountain on the border between the two countries, I felt that his feelings for that cult leader were extraordinary.

“Actually, it’s quite enjoyable for him to be in charge of everything,” He Nan interjected. Mo Li’s expression immediately darkened, clearly displeased with his comment.

I actually agreed to some extent, but at this moment I just glanced at He Nan silently, admiring his indomitable spirit despite his recklessness.

Who says a miracle doctor is necessarily smart? From my observation of the gentleman in front of me, it turns out that whether a person is born to be beaten has absolutely nothing to do with his extraordinary talent or supernatural skills.

“But three years ago, there was internal strife within our sect, and countless people died at the headquarters. I was not at the headquarters at that time. On my way back to the sect, I was ambushed by my closest brothers in the sect, and my heart meridians were severed. I should have died then.” Mo Li recounted the story in a calm voice. As soon as he started speaking, I was brought back to my senses. Hearing this, I felt an unbearable pain in my heart.

He Nan's eyes, which had been shining brightly, finally blinked at this moment. He opened his mouth as if to speak, but then closed it again, seemingly wanting to say something, but stopping halfway through.

Mo Li continued, "When I woke up, the internal strife in the sect had been quelled. The sect leader led me into a secret room to see a person. The room was dark, and the person had a black veil covering his face and was dressed in black clothes with gold trim. He was actually dressed as a priest of our sect."

As he spoke, his voice grew somber, and I felt as if I had witnessed the eerie scene firsthand. I couldn't help but shudder and hug myself tightly. I looked at He Nan, and he did the same; he was terrified by what I heard.

"This person claimed to be the daughter of the wind, Zhu Yue, and brought back sacred objects of our religion. Although I had my doubts, I never expected that the leader would recognize her as his daughter. The next day, he opened an altar and announced to the whole religion that she had been appointed as the new priestess."

"Recognize her as your daughter?" I asked in surprise.

He Nan clicked his tongue, "I understand. All the priests of the Holy Fire Sect have been daughters of the previous priest and the sect leader. By doing this, your sect leader is acknowledging that she is indeed Chengfeng's daughter, regardless of who Chengfeng was born to."

"After that, the leader doted on this woman, letting her make all the decisions. She unjustly killed many loyal brothers in the sect. Our sect had just quelled the internal strife and was in a time when everything needed to be rebuilt. How could we allow her to waste so much time? I wanted to see the leader, but unexpectedly, the leader handed over all sect affairs to the priest and went into seclusion alone. She ordered that I be imprisoned at the foot of the holy mountain while the leader was in seclusion." Mo Li said this, gritting her teeth slightly, her eyes turning cold.

I gasped. He Nan muttered, "You hate her so much, yet this woman only locked you up instead of killing you? She's got her eye on you, isn't she?"

Four cold beams swept across his face at once. Naturally, I wanted to slap him to death. Mo Li's eyes were as cold as ten-thousand-year-old ice, which made He Nan immediately shrink back and fall silent.

“I originally intended to kill her in front of the cult leader, but the cult leader went into seclusion and did not respond at all, even though I knelt for several days. In the end, he only sent a message, telling me not to harm her in the slightest, lest I harm my own life.”

I was filled with righteous indignation, yet also felt it was absurd. Just as I was about to speak, He Nan interrupted, "Why would hurting her cause you to hurt yourself? Did she use some kind of evil magic to control you?"

Mo Li did not answer his question, but only snorted coldly, "Zhu Yue then ordered people to send me to the prison. That night, Qingyi and Hongyi led people to break into the prison. This is a serious crime of betraying the sect. My life is not worth cherishing, but my brothers cannot die in vain at the hands of that demoness. So I took them away from the Holy Mountain and fled to the Central Plains."

I was bewildered. "But now you want to go back..."

"After I came down the mountain, I thought that Zhu Yue would definitely accuse me of betraying the sect and use the entire sect's strength to hunt me down. I never expected that Wen Su would send me an order, saying that the sect leader ordered me to stay at Fei Li Manor and not to return to the sect before he came out of seclusion. I guessed that the sect leader was being controlled by her for some reason, but I have never been able to find an opportunity to confirm this."

I finally understood that Wen Su really didn't want him to return to the church, which was why he took me to the elders. He was probably afraid that if he rashly returned to the Holy Mountain, he would be harmed by Zhu Yue again.

Although Wen Su was an ambiguous and strange man, he was indeed very devoted to Mo Li.

Mo Li's gaze fell on my face. "The sacred artifact of my sect, the Soul-Locking Insect, originally consisted of two pairs. When Priest Chengfeng disappeared, he took them with him. Zhu Yue only brought back one pair. The other pair is half in my body and half in hers. But I found you in Dinghai and discovered that you manifested cloud patterns..."

"So you know that there's no Soul-Locking Worm in that Zhu Yue's body at all, that she's an imposter, right? So you want to take me back to the sect and expose her in front of everyone, right..." I heard my own voice, dry and hoarse.

Mo Li finally glanced at me, a faint light in his eyes. It wasn't the gentle, calm light of the monsoon I remembered; it was a brighter, more tangible light, burning my eyes with its warmth. I suddenly couldn't meet his gaze and hastily lowered my head.

He spoke, saying, "That's right. After the white worm enters the body, the person who is infected will be immune to all poisons, and cloud patterns will appear on their chest. There are only two pairs of this in the world. If the one in your body is real, then she must be a fake. I found you in Dinghai, hoping to find out where Chengfeng is from you, but I didn't expect you to know nothing."

I kept my head down silently, pretending I hadn't heard anything.

"Or perhaps she is the one who rides the wind," He Nan guessed, his gaze towards me now quite different from before.

“No.” Mo Li said confidently, “My priestess has extraordinary spiritual power. Even Zhu Yue can cut paper horses. She is far inferior.”

Cutting paper into horses? And scattering beans to create soldiers? If my imperial brother were to acquire such a person, wouldn't he save a huge sum of military funds and be so happy he'd wake up laughing in the middle of the night?

Lately, I often think of my elder brother, the Emperor, and the shadow of my father, which makes me feel fearful and sad. I don't know what evil has possessed me.

"So you still want to take her back? She's so useless, if anything happens to her, you'll be dead!" He Nan clicked his tongue.

I glared at him, and Mo Li suddenly smiled, but there was no real smile, only a chill. "I only just found out that these black and white worms are actually inseparable. The sect leader has treated me well and even warned me at the cave entrance to be careful not to harm myself. But he was also deceived. There is no soul-locking white worm in Zhu Yue's body. It was all a deception."

Upon hearing his cold laugh, I immediately lowered my head guiltily, only to hear He Nan clasp his hands together and say, "I understand. You're afraid something will happen to her, so you want me to take out the Soul-Locking White Worm and have you lead the Hui people to expose Zhu Yue's conspiracy. Peace be with you." He turned to look at me, his eyes sparkling, and added another sentence that almost made me fall to the ground.

He Nan said, "See? I wasn't wrong. He really loves you."

With a thud, my vision blurred, and when I looked again, He Nan was already outside, face down with his buttocks on the ground—a very unseemly position.

I covered my face and silently prayed.

See? I told you so. You deserve a beating.

Chapter Five: Utopia

1

For the next few days, I didn't leave this place.

He Nan looked arrogant as he put his hands on his hips and said he would save me, but the preparations he listed next were astonishingly numerous. He had to wait for a certain herb to mature to be used as a medicinal ingredient, find a suitable container to raise the Soul-Suppressing Insects, and finally calculate the time with his fingers, explaining that he could not take action except on the night of the full moon.

I looked down on his eccentricities. In the afternoon, I sat outside the wooden house peeling dried bamboo shoots and glanced at him sideways. "Wait until the full moon? How about we perform a shamanic dance first?"

He looked at me with a resentful expression and said only one sentence: "You have no respect for your elders!"

It's rare to see him not acting crazy. He even calls himself an elder, completely forgetting who was the one who insisted on calling me "big brother" a few days ago. It makes me feel embarrassed.

There were only the two of us in the valley. Mo Li left, saying he had something to do. Before he left, I told him everything I could from the conversation I overheard in the tree hollow that day—except for my princess identity. Although I was already aware that the truth would eventually come out, I decided to put it off until I was mentally prepared to face everything.

In fact, I felt that Mo Li was already very angry about what I had been hiding from him. After all, no one would be indifferent when they suddenly discover that their life and death are connected with another person.

What's more, he hates being deceived the most.

When he left, he only said "Wait" and didn't say another word. I was so scared that my mind went blank. Before I could say anything, I grabbed his sleeve, feeling like a little dog that was about to be abandoned by him. I was anxious and had to stammer an explanation.

"I... I didn't mean to keep it from you, I was just afraid you'd be upset."

I grabbed his sleeve, holding it too tightly. His hand twitched slightly, but he didn't pull away, or perhaps he didn't want to. Clothes are troublesome when you're traveling and don't have many changes of clothes.

But he didn't speak, he just stared at me silently for a long time, his eyes filled with a chilling, icy gaze. I gradually loosened my grip on his fingers, one by one, knowing I couldn't keep him, yet afraid he wouldn't come back. So I dared to speak even more softly, "Then you must remember to come back, I'm still here..." Thinking that this sentence was useless, I pointed to my chest, "That, that's still here."

He narrowed his eyes, finally nodded, said "wait" again, and then turned and left.

I watched his figure disappear into that narrow gap, and stood there for a long time until He Nan's voice startled me awake.

"Stop looking, he will definitely come back. He won't come back for you, he'll come back for the Soul-Suppressing Worm."

I turned around and glared at him with unprecedented ferocity, making him take a step back, cross his arms in front of his chest in a defensive posture, and ask in a tight voice, "What are you going to do?"

"What did he promise you?" I asked him fiercely, my eyes looking like I wanted to devour him.

Before Mo Li left, I talked with him outside the wooden house for a while. The two of them had their backs to me. I wanted to lean in and listen, but I knew in my heart that no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't hear what he didn't want me to hear.

That's how the world is. People without power don't even have the right to choose their own circumstances, let alone change them.

It wasn't until he left, until he disappeared from my sight, that I thought I could ask the man in front of me a question. His face was fierce, but his chest was empty, a hollow fear, a hypocritical shell that could be pierced with a single finger.

"You really want to know?" He Nan straightened up, revealing an irritating smile. "I'm not telling you."

I knew the answer wouldn't come so easily, but I was still furious. Seeing the numerous red marks on his neck from being strangled, and the bruise on his chin from being beaten with the blanket, not to mention the twisted leg he twisted when he was thrown out of the cabin and still limps, I couldn't help but admire him, no matter how bad my mood was.

"With such poor martial arts skills, aren't you afraid of getting beaten to death?"

He glanced at me sideways, shrugged, and rummaged through his pockets, pulling out several small bottles. He poured out colorful pills and creams, swallowing and applying them. In the blink of an eye, the wounds miraculously faded in front of me. Then, he raised his hand, held a gold needle, and pricked several acupoints on himself. After straightening up, he could walk without pain.

I was amazed, my mouth slightly agape. After he put his things away, he glanced at me and said, "Those who come to me all have something to ask of me. Who would dare to neglect a divine doctor? In this world, who is not afraid of death? And who really wants to die? There are so many powerful figures in the martial arts world waiting in line for me to save them. If someone really wanted to kill me, then there would be many more people killing him first."

I got the urge to touch him again, forcing myself not to look at him to avoid becoming more violent. I was too lazy to respond to him, so I became even more scathing in my words.

"Not everyone needs your help; there will always be people who don't want anything from you."

He suddenly stopped talking, lowered his head, and didn't move for a long time. I just said something casually, and then turned my head away. When I noticed something was wrong and turned back, he was already crying.

It was already evening, and the valley was dimly lit. He was an old man with gray hair, slumped shoulders, and tears welling up in his eyes. Although he wasn't ugly, he was really frightening.

I froze in fright and asked him, "What's wrong?"

He wiped his face haphazardly and said in a hoarse voice, "You're right. Even if the whole world is chasing after you, if the person you want doesn't want you, there's nothing you can do about it."

He left after saying that.

That night I slept in the cabin. He Nan had disappeared somewhere and hadn't come in. I couldn't sleep. I opened my eyes and saw the white moonlight streaming in through the window. The valley was so deep, yet it felt as cold as water.

I kept thinking about what He Nan said, and the more I thought about it, the more desolate I felt. I felt sorry for him, and then for myself. Finally, I thought of Mo Lilai and the expression on his face when he said, "So you've always known." My nose started to sting.

I don't want to lie to you, I just want you to remember me, even now I'm starting to feel that hope is getting slimmer and slimmer, as slim as the white moonlight outside the window, it feels unreal when I see it, it's right in front of me, but I can't touch it anywhere.

Strangely enough, whenever I was alone, I would always think of many small fragments of my time with Ji Feng. But recently, I have been thinking more and more about some recent events, especially after leaving that inn with Mo Li. The image of that boy in my memory has gradually been replaced by a tall man. Although they have the same face, when they overlap, it makes me feel split.