Chapter 263 Family, She Was Different From Everyone Else

His vision cut off, darkness flooded Ying You’s eyes. After a moment, he heard a soft rustling, the sound of fabric sliding against skin.

He realized what she was doing. Although his eyes were covered, he very consciously turned his back to her and waited for her to finish.

Lian Mu said nothing, carefully peeling off her blood-soaked clothes. The pain tugging at her wounds was smoothed over by the Water Spiritual Power still lingering in her body, so her movements were much more efficient. Once she had stripped off the bloody robes, the reflection in the bronze mirror was so wretched it was hard to look at.

Lian Mu swallowed two Healing Pills, applied medicine to the injuries on the front of her body, then shoved the remaining ointment into Ying You’s hand. She lifted her hair, turning her back to him.

She held the bronze mirror in her hand. Through the mirror, she could see every movement of the person behind her.

She had too many wounds. The ones in front she could manage herself, but the ones on her back could only be handled by someone else. It could not be helped. If there were anyone else available, she would not have come to him.

She had just finished absorbing the Red Lotus Fire Seed and her whole body was extremely weak. On top of that, her wounds had been left open this whole time and urgently needed treatment. Dragging it out any further would do her no good. With medicine right in front of her, she had to make use of it.

To be honest, Lian Mu herself did not care about exposing her back in front of others. It was just applying medicine. The reason she covered his eyes was because she was afraid he would care, and then not dare to move his hands.

After all, she had always heard that Azure Profound Sect was a very conservative, old-fashioned sect. Just now, even when she still had clothes on, Ying You had only dared stand outside the room. If she took her clothes off, he would probably be so scared he would bolt.

“You were the one who said there’s no one else here. I shouldn’t be ruining your innocence, right?” Lian Mu said. “You can move now.”

With his eyes covered, he did, in fact, accept it more easily. His face was expressionless as he said, “…I can’t see. If I hurt you, you have to tell me.”

He tentatively reached out. His fingertips brushed against a stretch of uneven skin and he flinched slightly.

“…Sorry.”

Lian Mu said, “It doesn’t hurt. Keep going.”

Compared to having her shoulder pierced through by the Horned Lion Beast’s arrow, Ying You’s touch was like petals drifting onto the surface of water.

Once he had confirmed the locations of her wounds, Ying You dipped a silver scraper into the ointment and spread it over her injuries. His movements were very light, almost as if he was not using any strength at all.

“Don’t be so nervous,” Lian Mu said.

As soon as she said that, even she could not hold back a laugh. By any normal logic, the one who should be nervous was her, was it not?

How had it turned into the injured one comforting the one who was perfectly fine?

In the bronze mirror, Lian Mu saw his slightly furrowed brows. For some reason, once his eyes were covered, that beautiful face took on an added air of mystery.

She parted her lips, but in the end, since he was easy on the eyes, she decided not to needle him.

While he was applying medicine for her, Lian Mu was secretly observing him as well. She was looking at the mark on his wrist.

When he rolled up his sleeve, the bright red mark on his pale wrist was particularly striking.

Lian Mu feigned nonchalance as she asked, “The thing on your wrist, is it a birthmark?”

Ying You’s fingertips paused for a moment. Then he replied without a change in expression, “You really don’t know what this is?”

Lian Mu gave a dry laugh. “How would I know…”

“Didn’t you enter my Heart Realm Trial? You should have seen it all,” Ying You said.

“Actually, it wasn’t really all of it. I only saw part of it,” Lian Mu said.

“Which part?”

The pad of his finger brushed her skin by accident. It was icy cold, yet very comfortable. His Water Spiritual Power was just like him, seeming a bit cold on the surface, but actually very gentle.

“Your childhood, and after you entered the sect.” This was the first time Lian Mu had really calmed down and talked with him like this. There was no one staring at them, just the two of them alone.

“You can stop channeling your spiritual power. I’m not in pain,” Lian Mu reminded him.

Ever since she had given him that sword strike, he got thinner every time she saw him. Lian Mu was honestly worried he would work himself to death.

Ying You was always very obedient, but on some things he was stubborn. “It’s not that you don’t feel pain. You are just used to it.”

“If you end up with a weak body later, don’t you dare tell your elders it was my fault,” Lian Mu said.

“Something like this, I won’t tell anyone,” Ying You replied.

Right after saying that, Lian Mu suddenly realized his words were a bit ambiguous. She stopped for a heartbeat and subconsciously glanced at Ying You. His expression was extremely proper and serious.

He was much more straightforward than she was and had not realized anything at all, fortunately.

“What you saw is everything about me,” Ying You said softly. “Do you think my life is very boring?”

“Not really…” Lian Mu started.

“It is very boring.” Ying You suddenly put more weight into his voice, without even realizing it himself. “As you saw, I was born different from everyone else. Because of that difference, I had nothing.”

“My birth mother despised me. Everyone around me treated me like a monster. No matter how hard I tried to please them, no one ever looked at me with normal eyes. When I was very young, I did not know what I was living for. Do you know what it feels like to be a monster? It’s like a puppet carved from wood. No matter how much it resembles a person, no one will ever treat it as a real human being.”

“Then one day, I had a dream. I dreamed of someone. That person would smile at me, stay with me, pour all her joys and sorrows out to me, and treat me as real family. In that dream, it was as if I lived an entire lifetime. The older I got, the clearer some of those memories became.”

“At the end of that dream, I watched her physical body turn to ash. Before she left, she smiled at me and said, ‘We can only travel together in our next life.’ I believed she was someone who truly existed in my life. So I kept living, waiting for the day I could meet her again. I wanted to have a family member.”

Lian Mu pressed her lips together, her expression stiff. She had only tested the waters with a casual question, and he had revealed his bottom card.

She was grateful she had covered his eyes. If he could see her right now, she would definitely give herself away.

“You already found it, didn’t you? The people of Azure Profound Sect are your family,” Lian Mu said. “Even if you haven’t found her, along the way you have gained new friends and new family. Maybe that dream was Heaven’s way of guiding you to live on, so that you could have everything you have now.”

“The number one sect in the world as your backing, a powerful master, friends with illustrious family backgrounds, and a famous sword every sword cultivator in the world dreams of…” She paused. “If it were me, I would have no regrets in this life.”

“It’s not the same.” Ying You’s hand stilled. “She is different from everyone else. But after all this time, she has never thought of coming to find me. Do you think she would abandon me?”

When he finished speaking, a long while passed with no response.

Ying You set the ointment aside. The flush on his face faded, leaving his complexion pale again. There was no expression on his features.

His brows and eyes were naturally clear and cold, but because he so often smiled gently at people, others tended to overlook the sharpness in him.

“…I already know your answer. Just like everyone before you, you also think that all of this is just my imagination,” Ying You said. “It’s all right. I will keep waiting, until the day she finally turns back to look at me.”

“…”

Lian Mu had never known she was that important in his heart.

“See you in the next life”… When had she ever said something like that?

She herself had forgotten.

Maybe it was in the instant she failed her tribulation. At that time, she already knew she would not pass that barrier. She was not holding onto any hope, so she casually said those words to Longevity Sword.

Back then, she had not expected she would have the chance to start over, that Longevity Sword would reincarnate as a person. Those few words of self-mockery on the brink of death had actually become his only reason to keep living.

Lian Mu stayed silent for a long time. It was only when he fumbled for the outer robe beside him and draped it over her shoulders that she came back to herself.

“Lie down and rest first. You will be fine in two hours.”

“Thank you.”

As Lian Mu spoke, seeing that he was about to leave, she turned and stretched out on her stomach on the bed.

The ointment worked quickly. Not long after it was applied, she felt an itch at the wounded areas, the sign that they were beginning to heal.

Lian Mu lay there quietly. The faint lotus fragrance in the bedding wrapped around her and calmed her mood a great deal.

She thought for a long time, then let out a sigh. “…”

Unlucky.

How did she open her eyes only to end up on his bed?

This was bad. She had thought she could drag things out a while longer, but he had gone straight for the big move and caught her completely off guard, leaving her at a loss for words.

If she had known Shang Liu loved to gossip this much, she never would have run her mouth in front of him.

She still had no idea how to face Ying You as his “master,” and she did not want to come clean this soon. After all, there were still too many unknowns between them, like the Sword Contract, and Azure Profound Sect’s attitude.

All these uncertainties made everything related to Ying You feel extremely tricky to handle.

Any step taken wrong would affect the road ahead for her.

She had originally planned to take advantage of his convalescence in the Azure Profound Sect to set his matter aside for the time being, and give herself more time to weigh the pros and cons.

Now he suddenly made his stance clear, using those words to probe her, which gave her a sense of urgency.

It was not only about the Sword Contract. More troublesome was how she was supposed to handle those unnecessary feelings he had for her.

There was no doubt that Ying You’s feelings for her were genuine, even to the point of being a little pathological. He was suppressing them very well at the moment, but once she acknowledged him, that layer of restraint would likely shatter and everything would be set loose.

Why had her Longevity Sword reincarnated as a human, while the Sword Spirit of the Flying Swan Sword looked so cute? If Changsheng had reincarnated as some bird or beast, she would have found it easier to accept.

A living, breathing person, no matter how she looked at it, just felt strange.

Her thoughts were in a tangle. In matters of emotion, she had very little experience to draw on.

It was not as if Ying You was being delusional in his affection. She was indeed the one who had first asked to meet him again in the next life. It was she who had gone back on her word, clearly having already recognized him, yet refusing to acknowledge him, even going so far as to forget that promise.

Lian Mu closed her eyes for a moment. She could not think of any way to deal with this. She turned over, and happened to meet a pair of Green Bean eyes.

At some point, Black Scorpion had crawled onto the bed as well and was lying beside her pillow.

Lian Mu pinched up its tail barb and said, “Look at the trouble you’ve gotten me into.”

Black Scorpion’s gaze went blank: “……”

“He isn’t even twenty this year. How did you decide he was ‘very old’?”

Black Scorpion continued to stare blankly: “……”

Lian Mu gave its tail barb a squeeze, then could only let it drop back down.

“All right, I’ll give you a chance to make up for your mistake. I can’t go out conveniently right now. Go back to our sect’s camp, go to my quarters, and bring me a set of clothes.” Lian Mu flicked it off the bed with a snap of her fingers.

Green Bean rolled once on the floor. It seemed to know it had really messed up this time, and obediently crawled out.