Running Away

"Because..."

What would be better to say?

Xi Cui racked her brains.

"Because I like you very much." After thinking back and forth, Xi Cui simply spoke directly.

Wei Dan Sheng was stunned.

The dazed look of the young boy appeared somewhat amusing.

Was he shy?

Wei Dan Sheng shook his head and said softly, "I don't believe you."

"You don't believe me?" Xi Cui said in surprise. "From the very beginning, you've been very likable."

These words came from the bottom of her heart. If her cousin back home could be even half as sensible as Wei Dan Sheng, she wouldn't want to lock her bedroom door the moment she saw him.

Wei Dan Sheng fell silent again.

Xi Cui was not good at getting along with children, so she had a bit of a headache.

Children were not like adults; they cried when they wanted to cry and laughed when they wanted to laugh. Others had absolutely no idea what they were actually thinking in their heads.

"Alright then." Xi Cui adjusted her posture slightly and began to make up a story: "Actually, it's because you look very much like my younger sister."

Wei Dan Sheng's attention was indeed drawn by her story, and he involuntarily looked up.

Xi Cui's story was truly cliché.

"When I was your age, a severe drought happened to strike, and my younger sister died during that time."

She made up the story casually, yet Wei Dan Sheng actually believed it to be true.

"Was she... very much like me?" he asked.

"Not exactly. After all, you are a boy, and she was a girl. But her temperament was very similar to yours."

"So the moment I saw you, I thought of my younger sister. Back then, as her older brother, I couldn't take good care of her, and my heart is filled with regret." Xi Cui sighed. "She used to love eating these things too, but our family was poor, so she couldn't eat them often. My younger sister was very pitiful."

It was strange; when she directly told him she liked him, he didn't believe her. But after she made up a non-existent person, Wei Dan Sheng believed it, and moreover, he didn't seem to doubt it at all.

His easy belief caught Xi Cui by surprise.

Xi Cui glanced at him and continued, "She liked to cling to her brother, often saying she liked me."

"The moment I see you, I think of my younger sister. I miss her, and I always see her in my dreams. I dream of her still crying, complaining that I didn't deserve to be her brother, that she didn't like a big brother like me."

Xi Cui thought Wei Dan Sheng would comfort her, but he did not comfort her at all.

He just listened, silent as a stone.

Having no choice, Xi Cui had to continue: "Tell me, do you think my sister truly disliked me and always blamed me? You don't have to comfort me; I know my own flaws, not many people would want to see me."

Thinking of the question she was about to ask, Xi Cui silently spat at her own shamelessness.

"Tell me, do you like me?" she still asked. Moreover, she waited anxiously for Wei Dan Sheng's answer. If only he answered "yes," perhaps she could complete the mission and return home. If not, she could still build on his situation and keep trying.

But the young boy before her only blinked his eyelashes.

He did not answer, saying neither that he liked her nor that he didn't.

He just silently bathed in the moonlight, pursing his lips and choosing to remain silent.

Xi Cui's first attempt had failed.

To say she wasn't disappointed would be a lie. She had thought that after several days of getting along, she and Wei Dan Sheng had built a significant revolutionary friendship.

Failure was fine; don't be afraid of failure. Success is built on the experience accumulated from failure.

After pouring herself a bowl of mental chicken soup, Xi Cui gathered her spirits once more, continuing to change her tactics and thinking of ways to please the young boy.

As long as one was persistent, an iron pestle could be ground into a needle. Xi Cui firmly believed this.

One day, she wanted to hear the word "love" or "like" uttered from Wei Dan Sheng's mouth.

But before that, she needed to adapt to the lifestyle on Biao Er Mountain.

For example, the killings.

To the bandits on Biao Er Mountain, killing was as common as eating. As she observed more, she seemed to gradually adapt to the various corpses with painful, bloody deaths and mangled flesh. She could even act unbothered under Lu Shen's watchful gaze and step forward to plunder valuable gold and silver from the corpses. However, she had always fished in troubled waters when it came to killing, never personally taking action.

This was her principle and bottom line.

When Wei Dan Sheng first saw her foul-smelling body, he said nothing, neither hiding from her nor avoiding her.

He was used to the people on the mountain returning with the scent of blood.

Just because Wei Dan Sheng didn't care didn't mean Xi Cui didn't. She tried her best to avoid him when she was dirty, bathing clean before meeting him to avoid leaving too bad an impression.

Unfortunately, Xi Cui ultimately underestimated the level of perversion of these bandits.

The mountain patrol captured two people. Judging by their attire, they looked like passing merchants, but after torture, they were revealed to be sent by the government.

When Xi Cui had accidentally overheard at the foot of the mountain, indeed, the government could no longer restrain itself and wanted to find a suitable opportunity to strike them.

Lu Shen's expression remained calm. He ordered men to drag these two down and behead them, throwing their heads down the mountain, while the other parts were chopped into meat chunks to be shared and eaten.

Xi Cui swore she had truly tried her best to endure it, but when Lu Jin Chuan handed her a piece of cooked meat as if nothing had happened, she still made an excuse to rush outside and vomit.

She had thought she was already adapted to all kinds of fresh blood and brain matter, but unexpectedly, she still lost.

In ancient China, there indeed existed the custom of cannibalism.

Whether they had to survive due to famine, or ate their enemies out of superstition, such things were very common in historical records. Not a few famous figures had done this. Lu Shen and his men were bandits, so in truth, there was no major issue with them doing these things.

But this did not mean Xi Cui could calmly watch others eat human flesh in front of her.

It was disgusting. Too disgusting.

This damn life.

Xi Cui vomited.

On this mountain, only she and Wei Dan Sheng were normal people. She didn't dare to imagine what Wei Dan Sheng had gone through before she arrived.

Not only to complete the capture mission, but also to prevent herself from being assimilated by these people sooner or later, Xi Cui drew even closer to him.

Wei Dan Sheng was a mirror; only by looking at him could she remind herself, lest one day she turned into a member of this pack of wild beasts without even realizing it.

Although Wei Dan Sheng had no obvious expression, Xi Cui could clearly feel that her relationship with him was much closer than before.

The task of taking care of Wei Dan Sheng was originally rotated among her and several bandits on Biao Er Mountain. But Lu Shen treated Lu Fei (Xi Cui) very well; seeing that she liked it, he simply handed full authority of caring for Wei Dan Sheng over to Xi Cui.

He only thought she was young and would feel bored staying in the mountain all day. What he didn't expect was that his decision brought great convenience to Xi Cui and Wei Dan Sheng.

Under Xi Cui's deliberate care, Wei Dan Sheng grew healthier day by day, looking a bit more cheerful than before, and occasionally smiling in front of Xi Cui.

Originally, he had huddled alone in the thatched hut, with no one caring whether he ate or not, nor caring that his leg wound was festering and his body was too weak to walk. Now, although he limped, at least he could walk on his own.

And just when Xi Cui felt she could work even harder, Wei Dan Sheng played a trick on her.

He ran away, for the second time.