A life of two souls traveling through time

After Hong Qing's performance, Li Yunye fulfilled his promise and pulled Mu Liang, who was still staring at the stage, out of the hall. Leaving the warm and fragrant wine, he and An Yun took a deep breath of the fresh air outside, and their hearts and lungs felt much more comfortable. It was already the second half of the night, and after watching the song and dance for so long, Li Yunye felt a little hungry again. At Mu Liang's suggestion, the three of them went to a sweet shop in the downtown area to buy a midnight snack.

"Brother Muliang, are you worried tonight?"

After returning to his residence, Li Yunye sent An Yun to rest and then broke into Mu Liang's room alone and asked directly about the doubts in his heart.

At this time, Mu Liang was sitting in front of the window drinking tea and sighing. Li Yunye's intrusion and questions caught him off guard and he almost choked on the tea.

"What could possibly worry me?" Mu Liang raised his sleeve to wipe the tea from the corner of his mouth and smiled calmly.

"You were clearly panicked just now." Li Yunye didn't believe it. He looked into the other person's eyes and continued to question him.

"You suddenly broke in in the middle of the night and scared me." Although Mu Liang's expression had regained composure and he smiled helplessly, his eyes were always avoiding Li Yunye.

"Is Miss Hongqing your lover?" Looking at the sworn brother in front of him with a sanctimonious and pretentious look, Li Yunye felt contempt in his heart. Why was he pretending in front of his sworn brother?

"Hehe, brother Yunye, stop talking nonsense." Li Yunye's direct attack on the vital point really scared Mu Liang.

Jiang Siyao looked at the other person's face which turned red instantly and couldn't help but complain again: No way, he has a beard and is still blushing, he is so innocent, could it be that he has never been in a relationship?

"Hey, just tell me your story. Don't think I didn't notice that you completely changed as soon as you saw Hong Qing." Mu Liang's procrastination made Jiang Siyao lose her patience. She grabbed his arm and started to act coquettishly, completely forgetting that she was a grown man at this moment.

"Ahem, Yun...Yun Ye, let go first." Mu Liang was not used to the fact that his younger brother, who had grown up, was still acting like a spoiled child to him like he did when he was a child. He coughed twice and sighed.

Jiang Siyao finally reacted after being reminded. She was so embarrassed that she wanted to dig a hole in the ground and crawl into it. In the middle of the night in the room, she was acting like a man and acting coquettishly to another man, even if they were good brothers. The thought of this scene gave her goose bumps all over her body.

“We were neighbors when we were kids.”

Just when Li Yunye was getting so nervous that he didn't know what to do and was about to put away his curiosity and get up and slip out of the room, Mu Liang slowly spoke.

"So you two are childhood sweethearts?" Li Yunye sat back down beside Mu Liang, shocked. He watched his childhood sweetheart trapped in a brothel but was powerless to do anything about it? This was too cruel, wasn't it? What on earth had happened between them?

"She's just the girl next door. It has nothing to do with love between men and women." Just as Li Yunye was imagining the heart-wrenching plot of the two ill-fated couple, Mu Liang once again shook his head helplessly and denied it. Then he got up and walked to the window, looked at the cold moon outside and continued slowly: "Hong Qing is the name she took after she went to the brothel. She originally had a brother who was the same age as me. When we were young, the three of us often played together on the mountain behind the village. Later, a drought occurred in our hometown and many people starved to death, including our parents and her brother..." At this point, Mu Liang's eyes were filled with tears and his voice became a little choked.

Li Yunye felt sad when he heard Mu Liang suddenly choking up. Mu Liang's figure standing in front of the window trembled slightly, and he continued slowly: "I was ten years old that year, and Hong Qing was five years younger than me. There was no grass growing in my hometown, and there was no food, only starving people everywhere. Those who survived had to leave their homes and go all the way south to beg. On the way to beg, Hong Qing and I accidentally got separated. When I was looking for her, I was deceived by human traffickers and sold to a bully's house, where I was beaten all day long. Fortunately, I was rescued by my adoptive father after only a few months of torture. But Hong Qing... I have been looking for her since I grew up, but the world is so big that it is like looking for a needle in a haystack. Until five years ago, my adoptive father sent me to Liangdu, and on a trip to Fengqifang, I found that Hong Qing was a beautiful woman. I was so beautiful that I could not help but look for her in the haystack ... When I was delivering cloth, I met Hong Qing by chance. I recognized her because her eyes and eyebrows were very similar to her brother. At that time, she was already famous in Fengqifang. Most people in the square were very respectful to her. I didn't recognize her because I saw that she lived a decent life even though she lived in a brothel. "At this point, Mu Liang smiled bitterly and said, "Maybe this is just to comfort myself and find an excuse for my cowardice. No matter how glorious a woman lives in a brothel, she is still just a joke. How can she be decent... I feel guilty about her. I really don't have the courage to recognize her, let alone ask about her experience. As a girl, she must have suffered a lot of unimaginable pain since she was a child."

Mu Liang closed his eyes after he finished speaking, and two tears rolled down his pale face. However, he felt a lot more relieved after expressing his long-suppressed thoughts.

"Although that Miss Hongqing is pitiful, Brother Muliang deserves her well. There is no need to blame yourself. You were only ten years old at that time and could not take care of yourself. How could you have had the energy to protect her? You should blame her bad luck and the dark world. No matter what, it cannot be blamed on you." After listening to Mu Liang's story, Li Yunye realized that his brother was also so miserable before he was bullied by the bully. He felt sorry for Brother Muliang, but did not agree with his guilt towards Miss Hongqing.

"But anyway, I was the one who brought her out..."

“If Brother Muliang hadn’t brought her out, she might have starved to death during the famine, or maybe even worse…” Jiang Siyao shuddered when she thought of the records in history books about cannibalism during great disasters.

Mu Liang sighed and said nothing more. He was grateful for his brother's comfort, but his guilt towards Hong Qing was not reduced at all. In the past five years, he had only watched Hong Qing from a distance and dared not appear in front of her. He worked hard to save money and buy property so that he could help Hong Qing one day when she was desperate.

Fengqifang gradually became quiet in the middle of the night. In the elegant wing of the pavilion, Hongqing was drunk again. She leaned against the window weakly, with indescribable sadness in her blurry eyes. She murmured:

"Brother Liang..."

"Oh my ancestor, why did you drink so much again? If my mother sees this, I will be punished again!" At this time, a fat and strong maid entered the side room, looked at the several wine jars lying on the ground, slapped her thighs and shouted.

"Brother Liang, where are you..." Hong Qing seemed not to hear the maid's call and was still immersed in her own sadness.

"Girl, why bother? You call Brother Liang as soon as you get drunk. It's been so many years and you don't even know if your beloved Brother Liang is still alive." The fat maid continued to nag while cleaning up the wine jars scattered on the ground, although she knew that the drunk girl in front of her would not pay attention to her.