This would also give the grandfather and grandson some space. They hadn't seen each other for so long, and Gou Dan'er must have a lot to say to his grandma.
I followed Er Shuai out of the small earthen house and walked to the opposite riverbank. It was already spring, and the willow trees on both sides of the river had sprouted new buds.
Er Shuai and I just stood there chatting for a while when suddenly a gust of strange wind blew over. Instantly, dust flew everywhere. The dust hit my face, making it ache.
I quickly waved my hand to sweep the dust off my face, but still got dust in my eyes.
I couldn't open my eyes at all.
Er Shuai quickly asked, "Lan Lan, did you get dust in your eyes?"
I put both hands over my eyes and nodded. Just as I was about to rub them, Er Shuai grabbed my hand.
"Don't move. Rubbing like this will hurt your eyes. Let me blow it out for you."
I stood still and forced my eyes open. As Er Shuai's face slowly got closer to mine, Gu Yuan's words suddenly flashed through my mind.
He said he was jealous. I quickly pushed Er Shuai away and took a step back, saying, "It's okay. I can do it myself."
I raised my hand to rub my eyes.
"Don't move." A cold voice came from behind me. Immediately afterwards, I felt a slight coolness on my eyes.
Gu Yuan's hand gently swept over my eyes, and the foreign - body sensation disappeared. I slowly opened my eyes. When I saw Gu Yuan, my eyes were filled with starlight.
I took a sharp breath. My heart was pounding like crazy. I quickly lowered my head and didn't look at him anymore.
"Er Shuai, thank you for taking care of Lan Lan. The matter is resolved. We won't bother you anymore."
Saying that, Gu Yuan took my hand and got into the car.
Er Shuai stood there, looking at me from afar until the car drove away.
Er Shuai shouted loudly behind the car, "Don't you remember me, Lan Lan? We met on the Yellow Spring Road. Lan Lan, thank you."
After Er Shuai finished speaking, I quickly turned my head and looked at him outside the car window.
He was smiling faintly at me. I still remembered that smiling face. Wasn't he the person whose Meng Po Soup I spilled?
After all these years, had he still not drunk the Meng Po Soup?
I turned back and gave him a hearty smile, softly replying, "You're welcome."
"You're not very old, but you have quite a few friends in both the underworld and the mortal world." Gu Yuan was driving the car and teasing me.
I gave him a sidelong glance and asked, "Weren't you going after Dan Zhu? Why did you come back alone? Where is she?"
When Gu Yuan heard me ask about Dan Zhu, his eyebrows twitched slightly and he said, "I sent Jun He to look for her."
"You didn't catch her? You wouldn't have deliberately let her go, would you?" I looked at Gu Yuan in surprise. He was Lord Liu San, after all, with boundless magical power. A mere Dan Zhu should have been easy for him to catch with just a flick of his finger, yet he let her slip away right under his nose.
Seeing my expression, Gu Yuan gave me a helpless sidelong glance and said, "I've already said that I sent Jun He to look for her."
I shrugged. Since he didn't want to talk about it, I was too lazy to ask.
The car drove into the area of the Ghost Domain again. To be honest, I still had lingering fears.
My hand was on my leg, unconsciously grabbing my pants, afraid that something would crawl out from behind me.
Seeing me like this, Gu Yuan pursed his lips slightly and said, "Don't worry. We won't enter the Ghost Domain again. We'll be home soon."
Saying that, Gu Yuan stepped on the accelerator hard, and soon they were out of the Ghost Domain.
Before entering the Ghost Domain, I thought I would be scared, but when I went in and knew Gu Yuan was by my side, I felt extremely at ease. All the fear was gone.
On this journey, I didn't encounter any more ghosts. We returned to the guild hall safely. It was already completely dark.
The guild hall was empty at the moment. He Bi and the others should have already gone back to their rooms to sleep.
I raised my hand and looked at the wall clock. It was only around ten o'clock. Now, some people in the guild hall were dead and some had left. It was extremely deserted.
I walked to the shrine, took a few incense sticks, and lit three incense sticks in front of each memorial tablet.
Then I bowed deeply three times to them.
Gu Yuan also took three incense sticks, lit them, and inserted them in front of Bai Qi's shrine.
I didn't know when it started, but apart from the matters in the guild hall, there was nothing much left for us to talk about.
"I'm going back to my room to rest. You should also go to bed early. Good night." I turned around and walked towards the bedroom without looking at Gu Yuan.
"Lan Lan..." Gu Yuan called out to me.
I didn't turn around but stopped in my tracks, waiting for him to continue.
"Can I have a good talk with you?" His voice was very humble, completely different from the high - and - mighty attitude of Lord Liu San before.
"It seems there's nothing left for us to talk about." My voice was very flat, so flat that it gave him the feeling that our relationship had become as dull as still water, without any ripples.
But only I knew that when I said these words to him, my heart had already been stirred up countless times.
I was afraid that if I didn't leave right away, I would faint on the spot.
Without waiting for him to say anything else, I stepped towards the bedroom. By the time I closed the door, my whole body was weak.
I propped myself up against the wall with one hand, looked back at the door to make sure he hadn't followed, then let out a sigh of relief and locked myself in the bathroom.
When I lay in bed and looked at the other half of the bed out of the corner of my eye, I suddenly felt so cold. Love was such a delicate thing. Those two people who had promised to be together for a lifetime had now truly become the most familiar strangers.
I shook my head hard and pulled the quilt over my head, not allowing myself to think wildly.
In a daze, I seemed to feel someone enter my room. I wanted to open my eyes to see who it was, but my body wouldn't move.
My mind was extremely clear, but my body was like being ghost - pressed. I just couldn't wake up.
Until I felt a pair of cold hands slowly wrap around me from behind. His chest pressed against my back. An indescribable sense of loneliness slowly spread from my back to my whole body. My body trembled slightly. At this moment, I seemed to understand the sadness in his heart.
Just a second ago, I was thinking of waking up right away, but at this moment, I really wanted to immerse myself in this feeling and merge with him.
"Lan Lan, I know you hate me." This voice seemed to come from my mind.
It was very empty. A drop of something cold fell on my face, and then I slowly opened my eyes.
This place... This was Gu Yuan's inner world. Before, the big tree there had been lush and leafy, but now it was covered in frost again.
The tree was frozen again. Why was this happening? I looked up at the tree and really wanted to reach out and touch the trunk.
The tree, like a crumbling building, suddenly collapsed.
I was startled and instinctively stepped back. Suddenly, I bumped into someone's chest.
My nose was instantly filled with a faint sandalwood smell. This person was none other than Gu Yuan.