Compared with the mansion just now, Sun Dejun’s old residence seemed dilapidated and shabby, but Mu Xue felt that this house seemed to have more life in it, and many places seemed to have traces of women living there.
The kitchen was neatly arranged with a set of kitchen utensils that had not been touched for a long time, as well as a pink plaid apron and gloves. On the windowsill were several pots of daisies growing freely, with a few white buds of daisies blooming, swaying gently in front of the window.
Mu Xue was sitting on the workbench in front of the window, carefully examining the puppets that were left in the house. Through the mottled glass, she could hear the conversation in the courtyard between Cen Qianshan, Lei Liang, and some people who were called in from outside.
"This is Mr. Cen, the most powerful puppeteer in Fuwang City. With his help, we will definitely be able to find out the real reason behind this incident. Please repeat to him in detail what you said to me before."
"Yes, okay. I... I have always lived next door to their house. The Sun family has lived here for more than 20 years and just moved out a few months ago."
"Mr. Sun and his wife actually have a very good relationship. Their family used to be poor and often had no food to eat. His wife never looked down on him, worked hard to earn money for the family, and always encouraged him, saying that her husband was a genius."
"At that time, we neighbors were actually a little envious of him."
"Sun Quezi, no no, I mean Mr. Sun has been working very hard. We also know that he is holding his breath and wants to make a name for himself, to earn some face for his wife, so that his wife can hold her head up in front of her family."
"So later, when I heard that his wife had run away with someone else, I didn't quite believe it."
There was constant conversation outside the house.
Mu Xue looked down at the disassembled puppet in her hand. As a puppeteer, she could feel the painstaking efforts put into these works. Even the cheap parts of these puppets had been carefully polished and spliced.
Mu Xue seemed to see a man sitting in such a dim and dilapidated little house, madly obsessed with puppetry.
He was just like himself back then, in this room, forgetting all the people and affairs around him, and fanatically indulging in the art of refining weapons. He might have had the same ideal as himself, wanting to make a puppet that was closest to a masterpiece.
Unfortunately, for some things in this world, diligence alone is far from enough. This puppeteer is still lacking in talent. At present, the puppets he makes seem stiff and dull, and are far from being considered fine products.
There is only one special thing, that is, when the chests of a few of the puppets are opened, a strange magic circle is found in a hidden corner.
"Such a position, such an array symbol. What is the purpose of it?" Mu Xue touched his chin, frowned and thought, trying hard to understand the meaning of this mysterious array in front of him.
The weather in Fuwang City always changes very quickly. The sky, which was clear just now, was filled with thunderclouds and became dark without knowing when.
Some children's voices were heard from the courtyard across the window.
"Ah, we are all children bought by our father. Our stepfather let us all live in the big house."
"Abuse? No, our foster father treated us very well. He fed us well, clothed us warmly, and didn't ask us to do anything. All we had to do was live quietly in the courtyard and not make any noise."
"Did anything strange happen? No, it's just..."
"It's just that every once in a while, the godfather would come to us and pick out an outstanding child, saying that he or she has been adopted by another family."
"Yes, those brothers and sisters, I never saw them again."
When the child was talking, a flash of lightning suddenly appeared in the dark sky, and the sudden light of the lightning cast the silhouette of the child talking outside the window on the window. Mu Xue suddenly had an epiphany in her heart, and a terrible idea flashed through her mind.
Lightning shone into the house through the window. Every corner of the house was filled with the torsos of various puppets. Those half-broken and dull faces showed clear black and white outlines in the flickering light of the lightning.
Mu Xue suddenly saw that among the countless pale faces, the eyes on one face moved.
There was thunder outside the house and heavy rain poured down.
…
At the entrance of an alley in Fuwang City, Zhuo Yu, Cheng Yan, and Xiao Changge were huddled under a roof on the street to take shelter from the rain.
The weather in Fuwang City is very cold. This wet and cold season is very uncomfortable.
"My benefactor, my benefactor, why are you standing here?" The little boy who was saved by Zhuo Yu passed by holding an oil-paper umbrella. He was surprised and happy to see Zhuo Yu. "My name is Bingzi, and my home is nearby. If you don't mind, please go to my home to avoid the rain."
Cheng Yan and Xiao Changge turned to look at Zhuo Yu.
Cheng Yan put his hand on Zhuo Yu's shoulder, with a proud look on his face, "So Junior Brother did such a good thing secretly. Junior Brother is really a gentle person."
Zhuo Yu inexplicably felt a little ashamed. Although he often saw his fellow disciples hugging each other like this, he was not used to it.
Xiao Changge cast a rain-avoidance spell, and the three older boys huddled together, arm in arm, and followed the boy into an old stone house in the alley in the rain.
The house looked dark and shabby on the outside, but surprisingly it was clean inside. There was a stove burning inside, making it warm. It instantly isolated me from the cold and damp outside, and I felt like I was at home.
In addition to Bingzi, there were two younger children living in the room in the corner.
Seeing the guests coming, the older girl quickly washed three cups, tiptoed to take the kettle off the stove, and poured three cups of hot water for the guests.
Hearing that he was the benefactor who saved his brother, he opened the locked cabinet, took out a few black scones, and offered them to the guest. He then pulled his drooling brother behind him.
"In the past, it was common for children like us to be sold to others as apprentices." The little girl greeted the guests and chatted enthusiastically.
"But I don't know why, there have been a lot of forced buying and selling recently. In neighborhoods like ours, people even snatch children from our neighborhoods."
"Luckily I met a benefactor, otherwise my mother would have passed away and my brother would have been kidnapped by someone. I'm afraid it would have been difficult for me to survive with Xiaobao."
His mature and sophisticated appearance was totally inconsistent with his thin and small body. Even when he talked about the sad past of his mother's death, he only showed a little restrained sadness.
Zhuo Yu took the cake in his hand. It was hard and rough, and he didn't know how long it had been there. Although he lived a repressed life in the sect, he had never lacked material things, so naturally he couldn't eat such things.
But he saw Xiao Changge, who was sitting next to him, casually broke off half a piece of black cake and gave it to the youngest boy, and ate it with him with a smile.
After eating, he clapped his hands, took out some dry food from his storage bag, and shared it with the three children. Zhuo Yu also saw him calmly stuff a few spirit stones into the bowl of black cakes.
This is what a truly gentle person should be like. Zhuo Yu thought so, took a bite of the cake in his hand, and felt that he could not eat it anyway.
The rain gradually subsided, and Xiao Changge and his group said goodbye and left. When they walked a long way and looked back, Bingzi was still holding her sister's hand, standing at the entrance of the alley and waving at them.
"It's not easy for the kids here." Cheng Yan shook his head and sighed as he walked. "It's a pity that I have run out of spirit stones. I only secretly left a few spirit stones for them under the chair."
He put his arm around Xiao Changge's shoulder and said, "I'll have dinner with you, Junior Brother."
Xiao Changge: "I will host you two tonight and invite you two brothers to drink."
The three of them walked on the wet street, talking as they went along. A sealed flying magic weapon flew silently past them.
A short scream was heard in the street after the rain.
The three of them looked back and found that the two little figures at the entrance of the alley had disappeared. On the wet street, a little girl's shoe fell.
The silent aircraft had just closed its dark door and flew quickly into the distance.
"Fuck!" Xiao Changge, who always had a good temper, threw away the umbrella in his hand, cursed, took out the flying magic weapon he carried with him, and chased after him at full speed.
…
In Sun Dejun's courtyard, Cen Qianshan, who was talking to his adopted sons and daughters, saw the lightning suddenly appear in the sky.
He looked up at the sky covered with thunderclouds. A loud noise was heard from the dilapidated house, and a dark shadow broke through the door and fled outside.
Mu Xue's Ying Tianyun rushed out and chased closely.
Cen Qianshan did not rush to chase him, but just called out softly, "Qianji."
Qianji appeared, and his torso flipped and reorganized in the air, transforming into a strong black iron bow in an instant.
Cen Qianshan moved his center of gravity backward, drew his bow like the moon, the string snapped with thunder, and the arrow shot like a meteor, chasing far away towards the black shadow that was about to disappear in the sky.
The arrow broke through the air and hit the target. The hastily fleeing black shadow fell from the sky and landed into a dense forest. Mu Xue pressed down the clouds and followed in.
In the dense forest, the shadows of the trees are huge, casting long shadows under the light of lightning.
Heavy rain fell from the sky. Mu Xue walked in the jungle, letting the pouring icy rain hit her face.
Under the shade of the tree, there was a shabby puppet in the shape of a human, with most of the skin on its face peeling off, revealing steel teeth and mechanical eyeballs. It looked as terrifying as a monster.
When Mu Xue slowly approached, he subconsciously raised his arms to protect his face, and said in a stiff tone, "Don't hit me, don't hit me."
Mu Xue stood in the rain and looked down at him for a long time, "Who are you?"
"I don't know, I don't know... I'm scared, I'm scared." The puppet held its head and shook it randomly, and its two rows of teeth with exposed gums collided with each other.
When Mu Xue bent down to pull him, he suddenly jumped up, baring his teeth and claws, and pounced on Mu Xue.
Mu Xue's arms quickly covered with a layer of steel scales, and she pressed the puppet's face with one hand, forcing him to the ground. Shan Xiaojin appeared and turned into liquid, drilling into the puppet's limb joints, easily removing his limbs and stopping his half-crazy attack.
Mu Xue sat beside him, with her hands crossed on her knees, waiting for him to calm down. She lay there, staring blankly at the rainy sky.
"Do you remember who you are?" Mu Xue asked.
"I don't know. When I woke up, I found myself in this cold body." The puppet shook its head dully and spoke slowly in a dull, mechanical voice, "But it's strange. I always feel like I shouldn't be here. It's as if I should have a warmer body and more flexible limbs."
Yes, you were originally a human being, perhaps just a child, with a warm body and flexible limbs.
"Did you kill Sun Dejun?" Mu Xue asked.
"No... I remember. I'm afraid of that man. Very... afraid of him." As the puppet spoke, his chest opened and extended a miniature bright light mirage platform that every puppet was equipped with. The light of the mirage platform lit up and some low-angle images appeared.
In the picture there is a pale altar covered with white daisies, and lying on it is a faceless woman.
There was a man kneeling under the altar, his eyes wide open, his face looking like he was laughing and crying, he looked crazy, he knelt there trembling and repeated a sentence over and over again,
"I offer you my most precious thing. Please fulfill my wish and let me have puppetry skills like a god."
"I offer you my most precious thing to fulfill my wish."
"The most precious thing is offered to you..."
"Oh, then, I'll satisfy you."
Above the altar, a black smoke slowly covered everything in pure white, and a man sneered softly, as if coming from the depths of the underworld.
Mu Xue sat in the cold rain, watching the scene reappear in the light, and felt that her body was soaked from the inside out by the cold rain.
"Are you... still willing to stay in here?" she asked finally.
"I really don't want to. It's too cold and dark in here. I really want to leave here as soon as possible."
"Then I'll take you away." Mu Xue pressed her hand on the cold chest made of black iron. "Next time you wake up, there will be a warm body, a mother's embrace, and dear brothers and sisters."
In the icy rain, the mechanical eyeball seemed to glow slightly.
"Thank you, sister. You are such a gentle person."
The light that lit up in the rain disappeared forever along with the sound of rain.
…
It turns out that death is not the most painful thing in the world.
It turns out that I am so lucky. When I woke up from my deep sleep, I was protected in a warm embrace when I was new and vulnerable. I have a lovely family, a comfortable home, and met respectable teachers and fellow students who helped each other grow up.
Cen Qianshan didn't know how long he had been there. He reached out and pulled up Mu Xue, who was slumped on the ground.
At this moment of thunder and lightning, the two stood in the rain and looked at each other, wondering who was more frightened.
"I seem to be a little scared." Mu Xue said.
The next moment, she was immediately pulled into a hot embrace.
The pair of strong arms held her tightly in his embrace, held up a rain shelter for her, and used spiritual power to dry her clothes and hair.
"I will never let you encounter this kind of thing again. I never want to lose you again." The warm palm stroked the back of her head, and the low voice sounded above her head, saying these words almost word by word.
With such a warm embrace, thunder and lightning, and pouring rain no longer seemed to be something to be afraid of.
Mu Xue hummed softly, wrapped her arms around his waist, and relaxed herself against his chest.
Just allow yourself to be weak once in a while and rely on your companion.
Just until the heavy rain stops.