The Year of Lihua: She Was Reborn

When Ye Hua opened his bright eyes again, three days had passed.

Li Li wore a plain Taoist robe with cotton lining and stayed by Ye Hua's bedside without leaving for a moment.

The long hair that was hanging outside has been tied up high with a wooden hairpin.

His long hair was tied up meticulously, not even a single strand was left out.

His delicate facial features and full forehead were all exposed to the air without any reservation, making his beautiful face less charming.

Ye Hua was actually a little angry when he saw that he had returned to his usual dull appearance.

"I'm annoyed when I see you wearing this. Where are all the clothes I bought for you?"

"Such a beautiful person has to mess herself up like this, making people not want to look at her a second time."

When Li Li saw her wake up, he couldn't help but resent her own fierceness and rolled his eyes towards the sky.

"Yehua, are you taking out all your anger on me? I've already returned to Qingcheng Mountain, so why should I dress so extravagantly all day? You may not be afraid of Master's blame, but I'm not you. Master won't let me off easily..."

When Ye Hua heard the word "Master", he chose to be deaf and pretended not to hear it.

"I'm hungry and I need to eat. Hurry up and bring the food you cooked over here. I can smell it from far away!"

"With your dog nose, you really can't even do anything. I'll get it for you right away."

Li Li looked at the awkward expression on her face lovingly and wanted to reach out to ruffle her hair, but when he got close to her face, he pinched her nose hard instead.

This caused Ye Hua to slap his hand away mercilessly, and the white hand turned red in an instant.

"You were really ruthless when you hit me this time. Look, your hand is swollen."

Li Li stood up and walked towards the small kitchen, touching his red hand with a playful smile on his face.

"You've been comatose for a few days now. I thought you had some residual effects, but now seeing how energetic you are, it seems nothing serious is wrong."

"I'm fine. I can eat and drink a lot, so most problems can't defeat me."

Ye Hua turned over nimbly and got out of bed lightly.

Then, she gracefully waved her hands over herself.

The tattered inner garment that could barely cover the body disappeared in an instant, replaced by a brand new pink and purple fairy-like puff-sleeved tube top dress.

This skirt seems to be woven from the most gorgeous clouds in the sky, sparkling with dreamy light.

Looking at Ye Hua's originally messy hair, it was now cleverly interwoven with a light purple braided rope and carefully braided into two fluffy pigtails.

The braids fell on her shoulders like nimble little snakes, making her look even more playful and cute.

There were a few sparse yet fluffy bangs on her forehead. They seemed to have life, flying freely on her fair and delicate face as Ye Hua spun around happily.

Just then, the door was gently pushed open, and Li Li walked in carefully carrying a few baskets of steaming dumplings.

However, when his eyes fell on Ye Hua's cool outfit, he was so shocked that his hands trembled and he almost let the baskets of dumplings fall to the ground.

Fortunately, Li Li reacted quickly and stabilized the tray with his quick hands and eyes, thus avoiding a "food disaster".

Otherwise, they might miss out on these delicious dumplings.

"It's almost winter, are you sure you only need to wear this much?"

"I just want to ask you if you look good?"

"It looks good, but aren't you afraid of the cold?"

"Slow down, no one is competing with you..."

Ye Hua took the dumplings from Li Li's hand and ate two without saying a word before replying to Li Li.

"It's cold, but it won't stop me from wearing pretty clothes. I can just put on a coat later."

Li Li sat aside and watched quietly. He saw through the fake smile on Ye Hua's face at a glance.

After all, those swollen and scarlet eyes would not deceive him, there was not a trace of smile in them.

He suddenly thought of something, so he pulled the chair under his crotch and moved it towards Ye Hua's position, and put his head close to Ye Hua's ear to ask.

"Are you planning on running down the mountain again?"

Ye Hua smiled and shook his head, indicating that he didn't know how to do it.

But Li Li didn't believe it and stared at her with his twinkling peach blossom eyes.

"Heh...what are you trying to do? Didn't Master say that you can't leave Qingcheng Mountain without his permission?"

"You understand me. I, Yehua, have never been able to stop you when you wanted to leave."

"Well... no one can stop you... if Master hadn't been soft-hearted last time, do you think you could have gotten away..."

Li Li muttered for a long time, glancing at her several times with a hint of contempt in his eyes.

"What are you saying, speak louder? What are you mumbling to yourself?"

Ye Hua noticed the meaning in his eyes, so he dropped his chopsticks and dumplings and hit him several times.

"You have to help me this time, otherwise I won't be able to escape by myself. This time I really pissed off my master."

"Your ability to stir up trouble is growing stronger and stronger, and you're not afraid of getting yourself into trouble. You won't lose anything if you just listen to your master."

Li Li grabbed her wrists that were slapping her hands to stop her, and this action forced them to look into each other's eyes.

In just a second, Li Li lowered his head guiltily. The traces of crying on Ye Hua's face were too obvious to ignore.

Ye Hua looked at her senior brother who didn't dare to look her in the eye and immediately let go of her hand. All the questions flooded into her mind.

"Are you hiding something from me?"

······

"What did you hide from me?"

Ye Hua broke free from Li Li's hand, slammed her hands on the table, and stood up excitedly. She pushed Li Li, who was running away, back into his chair, forcing him to look at her with guilty eyes.

"Junior Sister, how dare I hide anything from you."

"If you really have something wrong, you won't dare look me in the eye when you lie. Look into my eyes and tell me again."

“I really… really don’t…”

Li Li mustered up the courage to raise his head and look directly at her, but he lowered his head again without saying a word.

Seeing that he was unwilling to say anything, Ye Hua pushed his face away, and the disappointment in his eyes was revealed.

"Did Master never let Zhu Jiuyin and the others go?"

"You tell me...you tell me...Li Li, the four of us are sworn brothers. Every time we were in danger, they always protected us. That's true. You know, Master hates those monsters the most. Maybe they have already been tortured to death by Master..."

Li Li looked at Ye Hua who was questioning him hysterically, and his heart was beating like a drum, feeling uneasy.

His face gradually turned pale, and emotions of guilt, worry, fear and insecurity were intertwined on his face.

“They… uh…”

Li Li, who had been silent for a long time, just opened his mouth and was about to tell Ye Hua about Zhu Jiuyin and Bai Ze.

His mouth closed automatically, as if it was sewn shut and couldn't be opened.

Seeing him like this, Ye Hua stopped questioning him.

"Master is truly meticulous in his work. He even cast a silence spell on his most prized disciple. It seems I was wrong about him."

She took Li Li's hand, spread out his palm, stretched out a finger and wrote on his palm: Write down everything you know and tell me.

Li Li did not answer, but nodded vigorously, slumped in the chair as if he had lost his soul, and the loss in his peach blossom eyes could not be hidden.

"Master, have you been practicing in seclusion again?"

Ye Hua asked casually, muttering to himself.

Qingyou must have returned to that shameful secret room. Who knows what he's been fiddling with in there...

I have to go in a few times a year, sometimes for a few days, sometimes for a month, and sometimes even for several months.

"Yes, Master's condition is not good this time. I'm afraid he won't be able to come out of seclusion for at least a year or two."

After answering Ye Hua's question, Li Li finally breathed a sigh of relief, and the tense string in his head finally relaxed.

Ye Hua tapped his head thoughtfully and said, "Just look at you, why are you so afraid of the master? Could he possibly eat you?"

"They won't eat me, but they can peel off a layer of my skin. You haven't seen what kind of punishment those brothers and sisters suffered after you sneaked down the mountain. Do you think they are as fearless as you?"

Li Li stood up quickly and pointed at Ye Hua angrily to blame him.

"I told you that you envy, hate, and hate me, but you still don't believe me. Look at how you look now, you're clearly jealous to death. Your most respected master only favors me..."

"Just shut up. I know you can't come up with anything nice."

Li Li grabbed Ye Hua's hand and turned sideways to cover her entire body. From behind him, he could not see Ye Hua at all.

"You were the one who was mean to me first. It's not my fault that Master loves me..."

"If it weren't for you, Junior Sister and I would be Master's two most beloved disciples. Ever since you showed up, Master has put all his energy into you, leaving us abandoned among all the other senior brothers and sisters. Let alone how much we hate you..."

"What nonsense are you talking about? Master treats everyone equally and has never treated you unfairly. I'm just taking advantage of my mother's influence."

······

They talked intentionally or unintentionally, but their minds were not on their topic, but on the few key words written by Li Li's hand on Ye Hua's palm: They are in the dungeon.

Ye Hua understood the words written on his palm, his expression changed slightly but the next second he returned to the look of bickering with Li Li.

Li Li also agreed: "Master left all the precious treasures to you, and you still clamor to go down the mountain. Aren't you too ungrateful?"

"I'm just so ungrateful. You want me to take all these away?"

Ye Hua poured out many rare things from her Qiankun bag, including the immortal rope, flying carpet, disguise mirror and other treasures whose names she didn't know, and stuffed them all into Li Li's arms.

The master who was watching them through the air in the secret room, seeing their playful nature, felt relieved and erased the perspective image. He calmly opened the crystal coffin at the bottom of the secret room and lay down in it.

"You really gave birth to a good daughter. Not only does she look exactly like you, but she also shares your character of daring to love and hate, treating everyone equally, and being righteous. What do you think..."

"You told me why you didn't like me back then, and now your daughter likes me. If you were still alive, would you let us be together?"

The master asked as he looked lovingly at the cold body lying beside him.

He also reached out his hand and stroked the cheek of the corpse from time to time. From the tightly closed facial features of the corpse, he could tell that she was Ye Hua's mother: Qing Ye.

"Come on, Junior Sister, do you agree or not?"

"You definitely won't agree, right? Even if you agree, I won't agree. After all, I've only loved you from the beginning to the end. Even if she is your daughter, she is not even one ten-thousandth of you..."

Master finished his story with tears in his eyes and in a troubled and painful manner.

He leaned sideways without hesitation, kissed the body's cheek and even lips, wishing to leave his mark on every corner of the body's face.

But the body showed no reaction to the cold touch, which made the master lose interest instantly.

He fell down beside the corpse, raised his fingers and rubbed his lips.

His eyes, as deep and cold as a cold pond, seemed to be burning with raging fire at this moment.

The flames burned more and more fiercely, as if to devour everything around them.

The reason was that he kept recalling in his mind the little things that happened between him and Ye Hua in the past few days.

Especially the unique taste he tasted from Ye Hua was like a drug that made him unable to stop and couldn't extricate himself.

This feeling was like an invisible hand, gently plucking the strings of desire in the deepest part of his heart, causing ripples in the originally calm lake of his heart, and gradually turning into surging waves.

In this way, for several days, this master, who had always been cold, self-restrained and otherworldly, was immersed in such a hot and irrepressible desire.

However, due to his adherence to his own identity and moral standards, he could only try his best to suppress the emotional impulse that was about to burst out, and force himself to regain his former calmness and rationality.

These past few days were a torture for him, but he still relied on his strong willpower to persevere and struggled through this long period of time.

At the same time, Ye Hua on the other side was not idle either.

She knew very well that Zhu Jiuyin and the others were in danger. If she wanted to successfully rescue them, she must first understand the internal structure of the dungeon and find a way to break the many barriers set up by her master.

So, she began to act quietly, taking advantage of every opportunity to explore around and not missing any tiny clues.

Not only that, in order to enhance his own strength to deal with possible crises, Ye Hua also took the rare opportunity to calm down and practice martial arts.

She closed her eyes tightly, clasped her hands together, and her energy was flowing continuously. Rays of spiritual light flickered around her, like bright stars in the night sky.

A large area of ​​trees on Mount Qingcheng has turned yellow, and the golden fallen leaves make the entire Mount Qingcheng look solemn and a little desolate.

The task of going down the mountain to catch monsters became more and more arduous for the senior brothers and sisters, and groups of people were arranged to go down the mountain.

In the end, there were only a handful of people left guarding Qingcheng Mountain.

No one could control Ye Hua's whereabouts anymore. She searched the entire Qingcheng Mountain but couldn't find the dungeon where Zhu Jiuyin and Bai Ze were imprisoned.

She couldn't help feeling a little flustered, and her whole body was in a state of dejection.

"Brother, where did Master keep them? Do you think Master will beat them to ashes..."

"But Master clearly promised me not to harm their lives. He didn't really kill them, did he?"

As she spoke, Ye Hua started to walk around uncontrollably. She felt so scared that she almost suffocated and her heart felt like there was a hole in it.

She kept repeating Zhu Jiuyin's name in her heart, calling him over and over again.

Zhu Jiuyin, Zhu Jiuyin, you have always been the most powerful one among us in terms of magic and sorcery. How come you can't escape from my master's clutches?

Zhu Jiuyin, Zhu Jiuyin, where are you?

Can you tell me?

I'm afraid that when I find you, you'll be a cold corpse...

Ye Hua sat slumped on the top of the back mountain of Qingcheng Mountain, looking up at the red crescent moon, lost in endless thinking and pursuit, the panic and fear in his eyes only increasing.

I don’t know if it was because the cry in her heart was answered, or for some other reason.

At this moment, in her chest, where her heart connected to the blood vessels of her brain, a tiny, weak flame was burning, growing stronger and stronger...