The eldest brother gave him an annoyed look, "Go away, can’t you see you’re scaring Baobao?"
Liang Yuening was stunned for a moment, and then belatedly turned to look at Dong Huiying, only to see Dong Huiying’s face deathly pale, her entire body stiff.
"Baobao? I was just trying to help her undress?" he sniffled, looking utterly aggrieved and pitiful.
Dong Huiying let out a gentle sigh, "It’s nothing... it’s getting late, let’s...let’s all turn in!"
Afterward, she quickly burrowed into her quilt, her heart pounding wildly, for the night had been too thrilling.
Yixuan emptied the footbath water, only to see the fourth brother standing wooden-faced in the courtyard.
Liang Haoming glanced at Yixuan blankly, then, feeling guilty like a thief, his tall figure ducked into the kitchen.
Yixuan paused, his expression becoming quite subtle.
In the dead of night, all was silent.
Dong Huiying thought she wouldn’t be able to sleep, but perhaps because Liang Zhichen was lying next to her, his familiar presence surprisingly comforting, she gradually drifted into slumber after the lights were out.
It was probably around midnight when Liang Zhichen, who had been sleeping next to Dong Huiying, suddenly opened his eyes. He gently lifted the quilt and, under the dim moonlight, gazed at the girl’s sleeping face. Suddenly, he leaned down gently next to her cheek, close to her lips, and tenderly pressed a kiss, then quietly and swiftly sat up.
He glanced at his second brother Shu Yu, who was sleeping at the head of the kang, then at the fourth and fifth brothers and Little Liu, who were sleeping on the ground next to the kang. He donned an overcoat and, barefoot, walked towards the outside of the house.
Outside the Liang family courtyard.
The autumn night was chilly with the late breeze bringing a coldness.
Dressed all in white, Yun Ge stood under an ancient Chinese parasol tree, like a specter of the deep night, lingering unwillingly to leave.
Zhang Yu stood behind Yun Ge, bracing against the evening wind, staring eagerly at the Liang family’s courtyard gate.
Suddenly, a man came out of the house, and Zhang Yu immediately perked up.
Was it the man they had seen earlier at the tavern? It was also because of this man that they had learned some clues and followed him to this sparsely populated village in the mountains.
The man was barefoot, not wearing shoes, his brows furrowed in displeasure.
After he pushed open the courtyard gate, he headed straight for Yun Ge and her companion.
"What are your intentions for lurking outside my Liang family’s gate?"
The man, as if guarding against thieves, and Zhang Yu quickly noticed that he was even clutching a kitchen knife—could it be he mistook them for villains?
"No, no, no, that, this... sir? We mean no harm!"
Zhang Yu hastened to explain, but the man’s face remained guarded.
Clearly a handsome and elegant man, yet he made himself appear fiercely threatening as if he were bad-tempered.
But only Liang Zhichen himself knew, premonition dreams, how terrifying it would be for a person to foresee the future?
If targeted by someone with intent, it could be disadvantageous to him.
Yet now, he was merely imitating his fifth brother’s temperament, using a reckless and irritable demeanor to confuse the two people in front of him.
In his dream, he knew that Yun Ge, Divine Doctor Yun, this woman who had a deep emotional bond with Baobao. Baobao had once buried a blood letter in the mountains, hoping this woman could look after their brothers. This woman, indeed noble-hearted, had traveled with him to The Outside after learning that his third brother Shujun had been persecuted to death by Pei Yu. And it was unknown where she had gathered an army of eighty thousand, all elite soldiers who were brave and not afraid of death.