Chen Wenmian was stunned: "For ?"
Li Guanyi looked at the lake and said, "Don’t underestimate the Qilin. It is, after all, an auspicious beast, different from Elder Red Dragon and the like. Auspicious spirits are born bearing Innate Light Spirit Qi, and they can sense the fluctuations of emotion in living beings’ hearts."
"It regards you as a friend and feels that your mood isn’t very good."
"When it’s in low spirits, it likes to eat sothing tasty, good fruit."
"So it found the best fruit it could find and had bring it to you. As for why it didn’t co in person..."
Li Guanyi smiled and said, "After all, it also knows Chen Baxian. Deep down, it’s always felt itself to be a forebear of your Chen clan. It wants to care about you, yet feels that, as an elder, to have to use good fruit to show concern for a junior is a bit of a loss of face."
"It’s still the sa childish and awkward temperant."
Chen Wenmian smiled. "Ah, that really is just like it."
"Since that’s the case, a ’gift from an elder’ cannot be declined. I’ll accept it, then."
He took a bite of the fruit and said with a smile, "Fragrant to the nose, sweet on the tongue—truly an excellent fruit. As expected of it."
Li Guanyi smiled and said, "The Qilin is a glutton, after all. Back in the Western Regions, Master Xu Tiange of the Farr School tried grafting fruit trees from the Central Plains with varieties unique to the Western Regions, tending them with more care than children."
"He watered them every day, recorded each ti he fertilized them. When he finally got seven fruits, he gave every single one a na, and every day he would chat and pour out his heart to them—he cared that much."
"And precisely because he cared too much about those fruits..."
"That fellow the Qilin sneaked in, took a bite of one fruit and bolted off. Heh... You weren’t there at the ti and didn’t see Master Xu Tiange’s furious expression. Hahaha, he’d always been a very gentle man, whose only love was farming."
"That day, eyes red and hoe in hand, he chased the Qilin for dozens of li."
"He all but wanted to plant the Qilin into the ground, and thus it beca one of the legends of the Anxi Protectorate."
A slight smile appeared on Chen Wenmian’s face. "Master Xu Tiange is mild and honest. I’ve heard he and Mr. Wen Qingyu are rare close friends. I am quite curious what he’s like when he’s angry."
Li Guanyi picked up a stone and casually tossed it into Cold Lake. Though the temperature here was low, it was already spring, after all, and the ice was no longer so thick. Layers of cracks radiated outward. The two of them fell silent for a long ti as the wind swept past.
The killing chill of the troubled tis had ebbed into the distance. Both of them knew what the other was thinking, yet neither spoke, and only the sound of the wind skimming by remained.
After a long while had passed—
Li Guanyi looked into the distance and said, "Fan Qing and the others have already encircled Chen Dingye’s city. Even with the advantage, they won’t attack rashly. By now, with so much ti gone, the provisions and grain for logistics in the city must be running short."
"Ten thousand n against a hundred thousand outside the walls, with supplies lacking and morale beginning to collapse—at this point, it’s ti to storm the city."
"I plan to go in person."
Chen Wenmian nodded.
Li Guanyi said, "For the hatred of one’s parents, one should of course draw the sword. Chen Dingye has his own choices, and I have mine. I acknowledge the boldness and thods he displayed in the end, but that is one matter, and this is another."
"At such a mont, to call it a loyal death for the country and say that he may rest in peace—I do not agree."
"Only, Wenmian..."
Li Guanyi looked at Chen Wenmian beside him—this gentle and llow gentleman in a chaotic age. The latter was puzzled, and Li Guanyi remained silent for a long ti. Then he rose to his feet and finally voiced the question, saying:
"Do you intend to personally kill Chen Dingye?"
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