Chapter 71: Transitional Chapter, Optional Read [Chapter order adjusted, please re-read]

That day, Yang Siguang and Li Bo were chewed out and scolded by Aunt Qiao practically the entire night.

Yet in the end, the woman pressed her temples, her face turning livid, and told Yang Siguang and Li Bo to go home and think about it for three more days.

"...Three days from now, if you two still insist on courting death, you can come looking for me again."

With that, Aunt Qiao slammed the door shut and left.

*

Yang Siguang did indeed spend three full days pondering at home.

Only, it wasn't at his own home.

He didn't return during those three days; instead, Li Bo practically dragged him back to the latter's luxury apartment in the city center—though, in truth, Yang Siguang couldn't possibly have returned to that so-called "home" of his anyway.

Throughout those three days, his phone was flooded with his parents' interrogation and abuse, missed call after missed call.

It was precisely at this time that Yang Siguang learned that extracting that ancient copper coin from Ding Xiaolong's body had been done without his parents' consent. And Li Bo might even face a lawsuit over the matter...

"It was just a simple endoscopic procedure."

Broaching the subject while having breakfast with Yang Siguang, the man wore a calm expression, save for a trace of uncontainable disgust lingering at the depths of his eyes.

"And they weren't willing?"

Before Li Bo could finish, Yang Siguang spoke up, instantly understanding.

Li Bo nodded, a hint of perplexity even flashing across his eyes.

"Such a strange and bizarre foreign object existing inside his body would inevitably pose a serious threat to his health. I simply cannot understand why they were so resistant."

As he spoke, the flushed, angry faces of Yang Siguang's parents resurfaced in his mind, along with the spittle flying from their distorted lips as they shrieked.

["A surgery? What surgery?! My child is so young, what if the surgery damages his fundamental health?!"]

["The child has already suffered enough, kicked by you like that, and now he's still lying in bed muddle-headed. Who knows if what you said about something being in his stomach is even true? What if you're just lying to gloss this over? Who am I supposed to reason with—"]

["What does surgery have to do with my eldest son? Enough, shut up, I don't want to hear it! Where on earth did that guy Yang Siguang go?! His younger brother is hurt this badly and he doesn't even know to come take care of him?! Fine, if an ungrateful wretch like that dies, he dies! He's just someone who wastes his days anyway..."]

...

Yang Siguang let out a soft, dismissive snort, though the amusement didn't reach the young man's eyes.

He picked up the fried egg from his plate, put it into his mouth, chewed slowly, and swallowed.

Breakfast had been made by Li Bo. Considering the man's status, his culinary skills were astonishingly good. Whether it was the casually boiled plain noodles or the soft-boiled egg served alongside them, everything was exceptionally delicious—at least, Yang Siguang had indeed felt his appetite piqued upon taking his first bite.

Only now, he found himself inexplicably unable to taste the food at all.

"They've always been like this," he said softly to Li Bo.

They seemed as though they truly loved their child—at least, they doted excessively on Ding Xiaolong—yet the moment a real problem arose, they would reveal an astonishing coldness, stupidity, and selfishness.

"Besides, you shouldn't have mentioned me to them..."

In the end, Yang Siguang lowered his eyelashes and added in a low voice.

If that couple had previously agreed to a minor procedure to remove a foreign object from the stomach out of a sliver of concern for Ding Xiaolong's health, discovering that the matter involved him—especially since he was connected to their precious son—would immediately plunge them into an unreasonable state of resistance.

"I'm sorry."

Then Yang Siguang heard Li Bo say to him.

"What's there to be sorry about? Strictly speaking, your actions saved my life..."

Before he could finish, Li Bo interrupted him. "That's not what I want to apologize for."

The man sat at the other end of the dining table, gazing deeply at Yang Siguang.

"I should have punched those two."

"Huh?"

"Actually, I had that urge at the time, but I forcefully suppressed it in the end. Now that I think about it, I should have given them a taste of hard fists, let them know that not everyone in this world has the right to feel so self-righteous while cyberbullying or domestic-bullying one of their own family members..." Li Bo's voice gradually grew urgent. "In fact, I want to say, I wish I had met you sooner."

...

"If that were the case, at least when those things happened, I would have been able to protect you—truly protect you."

Li Bo smiled with self-derision, then lowered his eyelids with a hint of melancholy.

"Instead, I just sat in my own office and let Li Chen, under the control of the Mirror Fairy, do so many... so many terrible things to you."

"Um. Your actions were indeed... terrible."

Yang Siguang said dryly.

"So I hope you can give me a chance."

"A chance?"

"If everything goes smoothly, and you really manage to destroy the Mirror Fairy and return, would you give me a chance to make up for the harm caused in the past?"

Sunlight poured through the window into the bright and cozy dining table, casting a brilliant golden halo over the solemn man sitting before it.

Under such radiant sunlight, the color of Li Bo's irises seemed even lighter than before.

It turned into a subtle, golden-brown hue that stirred a sense of nostalgia and heartache in Yang Siguang.

"..."

Yang Siguang sat frozen in place. He vaguely sensed the burning intensity hidden within Li Bo's voice, but he couldn't for the life of him figure out what kind of expression he should use to respond to Li Bo right now.

More than once, Yang Siguang had felt those ambiguous hints from Li Bo.

Yet, whenever he struggled and agonized over how to respond, he would recall that "friendly" assistance in the pitch-black bathroom at Aunt Qiao's place. Judging by Li Bo's subsequent behavior, it truly felt like nothing more than a normal instance of mutual aid...

He was growing increasingly unable to figure out what was going on in Li Bo's head.

Fortunately, seeing that Yang Siguang didn't immediately reply to those words, Li Bo smoothly changed the subject, smoothing over the faint, imperceptible awkwardness that had just arisen.

"Actually, I've always felt that the reason the Mirror Fairy took a fancy to you is probably because there are no dark corners in your heart."

Mentioning the Mirror Fairy made Yang Siguang lose his appetite completely. He put down his chopsticks and cast a strange look at Li Bo.

"What do you mean?"

"Ever since I came back, I've been thinking about the things Aunt Qiao mentioned before," Li Bo said in a deep voice. "She said that the Mirror Fairy's methods of dealing with others were quite brutal—to be honest, I later sent people to check the archives myself, which made me suspect that Aunt Qiao probably glossed over a lot of the terrifying details back then just to keep you from getting scared."

There was the Grass Sacrifice from the southern mountains, renowned for a hundred miles around, where someone had taken a massive bribe from one of Li Bo's business rivals, intending to engage in some sort of sorcery duel with the Mirror Fairy.

Yet before they even finished writing the curse slip, the next day they were found lying naked in a pigsty, most of their body already gnawed away.

When their family went to collect the corpse, they found the old man had gouged out his own eyeballs and stuffed them into his mouth to bite on.

Then there was the Flower Auntie from the coastal region. Because her niece had married into a distant branch of the Li family, a newborn child was snatched away to sacrifice to the Mirror Fairy. She had stormed over to the Li family with several household deities she worshipped, ready to cause a scene.

Her fate wasn't much different from the previous one.

The disciples she left behind packed up their belongings and came to wake Flower Auntie up to catch the train, only to find her hugging a shattered mirror, muttering incantations and weeping bitterly.

When they checked closer, they found her mouth stuffed with broken glass, her tongue minced into bits and held inside her mouth.

...

"And my mother..."

The central air conditioning seemed to be malfunctioning. The previously comfortable temperature suddenly made Yang Siguang feel a faint chill.

Yet Li Bo acted as if he noticed nothing, his tone remaining flat as he brought up the past.

"You probably heard yesterday, my mother died because of the Li family too... But I've never mentioned this to anyone. After she died, because I had already been adopted out, those two didn't allow me to go back and see her even once. It wasn't until the seventh day after her death, the *qiqi*, that I was woken up in the middle of the night by a rustling, scratching sound."

Li Bo's hand still rested on the coffee cup beside him, but his knuckles had turned slightly white.

Yang Siguang's pupils contracted. Instinctively, he didn't want to hear anymore, yet he remained rooted to the spot, completely unable to move.

"I crawled out of bed and went to the bathroom. And I found my mother curled up behind the mirror of the sink. She had been frantically scratching at the mirror until her hands were covered in blood... When she saw me, her eyes almost popped out of her sockets..."

Li Bo's voice grew deeper and deeper.

"Then I heard her say she regretted it so much."

The man twitched the corner of his mouth. It looked as though he wanted to smile, but the expression that finally formed sent an uncontrollable, aching sourness through Yang Siguang's chest...

"She said she regretted it, asking why the one who died wasn't me."

"Li Bo..."

Yang Siguang instinctively called out Li Bo's name, but the moment he spoke, he found his mind blank, utterly clueless as to how to comfort the other person.

Until Li Bo proactively reached out and placed his hand over the back of Yang Siguang's hand.

"It's fine, it's all in the past anyway," he said to Yang Siguang. "...Though I suppose I did stray a bit off topic. What I wanted to say is that everyone has an extremely dark side hidden deep within their heart. But you're different. The aura about you has always been so clean..."

So clean that it made people unable to help themselves, wanting to cup it in their palms and ruthlessly taint it.

"Even the Mirror Fairy had to resort to countless illusions and nightmares to terrify you, trying to make you weak, trying to make you... dark."

"If it were anyone else, I don't think the Mirror Fairy would go to such exhausting lengths just to crave and capture another person's soul."

"Your heart has no dark corners, so naturally, he could never truly seize the opportunity to invade..."

Hearing this, Yang Siguang let out a dismissive, mocking snort.

"What kind of nonsense are you talking about?"

The young man sighed helplessly.

"You have such a deep misunderstanding of me, Li Bo. Of course I have plenty of dark secrets—"

Saying this, Yang Siguang paused unnaturally.

Because of the three days he had been staying here, Li Bo had directly sent people to his house to bring over almost everything in his room. And among those things were naturally... certain items he had hidden at the very bottom of his suitcase.

Yang Siguang involuntarily fixed his gaze on Li Bo.

"Actually, I—"

At that moment, Li Bo abruptly raised his arm, extending his little finger and giving it a slight wag toward Yang Siguang.