MOF Chapter 99
by VolareFrom a very young age, she watched the group of people trying to smash open the Yu family’s door, not understanding why they were reacting so strongly. Wasn’t it just a lack of food? She had been accustomed to not having enough to eat for years.
But watching the group’s faces gradually twist intozhengning – hideous, listening to their self-righteous commands, Buyu slowly clenched her fists, her fingernails digging deep into her palms. A sense of frustration rose within her, accumulating into resentment and disgust.
From the very beginning, she had disliked that group of people.
When accepting Yu Shengxiang’s help, their every word and action was extremely hypocritical. She coldly watched Yu Shengxiang, feeding a pack of ingrates in sheep’s clothing because of a little compassion.
But Yu Shengxiang discovered her in the corner.
The foolish kindness she most disdained offered her a bowl of hot porridge and a cotton coat in the winter.
So Buyu had been guarding her doorstep, watching her and that familiar maid awkwardly join the ranks of the refugees. Until now, she had exposed her presence.
Golden branches and jade leaves encircled the beams like a phoenix, but once fallen, they were rootless duckweed.
Yet Yu Shengxiang didn’t show a trace of embarrassment on her face, only a somewhat stunned expression as she said, “I didn’t know you were…”
Buyu remained silent. She had been silently following them since Nuan Yu was still around. But if she mentioned it now, Yu Shengxiang would probably think of Nuan Yu and feel sad again, so she just shook her head.
Yu Shengxiang didn’t investigate further. She naturally had a little more trust in Buyu than in others. When two acquaintances meet in the current perilous situation, a sense of warmth naturally arises, and they tacitly rely on each other.
The drought worsened day by day, and Yu Shengxiang and Buyu’s hearts were tightly tied to one rope. The other refugees also unconsciously banded together, gathering in small groups of two or three.
But the two of them were ultimately weak. No matter what they found, it was impossible to get their hands on it.
Yu Shengxiang’s lips were chapped like mud. When they cracked, they bled bright red, which she licked clean, which could still quench her thirst. After scabbing over, ridges of dark brown scabs stood out, like valleys formed by splitting full, tall mountains.
Buyu was also so hungry that her vision was blurred, and she could barely stand. She leaned on Yu Shengxiang, almost starved into a thin sheet of paper.
“Buyu,” Yu Shengxiang noticed her absent-minded state, reached out to touch her forehead to check her temperature, and then slid down to touch her face. “How are you? Can’t you hold on any longer?”
“I…” Buyu opened her mouth, her upper and lower lips tightly stuck together due to severe dehydration, making it difficult to open and close them. “So hungry…”
Yu Shengxiang was stunned for a moment, and subconsciously brushed her arm against a slightly bulging spot on her waist. Before she could struggle with her decision, Buyu said, “Let’s separate from them and see if we can find something.”
“Okay.” Yu Shengxiang lowered her eyelashes and nodded.
They parted ways with the refugees, who saw them off with their eyes.
“So scary.” Yu Shengxiang supported Buyu, with lingering fear. “How do those people’s eyes feel so strange?”
Buyu looked back, keeping a close eye on them: “We must be careful that they don’t follow us.”
Yu Shengxiang agreed. She took Buyu to a remote place and took out half a dry, hard steamed bun from her waistband: “Here, eat it quickly.”
“This is…” The moment Buyu saw the bun, all the blood in her body seemed to freeze. She raised her eyes, her expression indescribable, with more complexity and shock than any other emotion.
“Nuan Yu gave it to me.” A trace of tenderness flashed in Yu Shengxiang’s eyes. “That silly girl would rather go hungry herself to give it to me.”
Then aren’t you just as silly to give it to me now?
Buyu looked at her, but couldn’t say those words. She saw sadness about the current situation in Yu Shengxiang’s eyes, and nostalgia for past relatives and friends, but not the slightest reluctance to part with the only remaining food in her hand.
“Eat it.” She stuffed the bun into Buyu’s hand. “Don’t think too much, I’m willing to give it to you.”
Both eyes and heart were shocked. The former was soaked with hot tears, and the latter was scorched by hot blood.
Buyu clenched the bun and tore it in half.
“Half for each of us.”
Both of them had been hungry for too long, and their stomachs had long lost their sense of awareness. What long-term lack of food produced was not hunger, but pain.
When the pain started, the entire internal organs churned. They couldn’t eat, but their hearts understood that they had to eat, and their bodies and minds were both uncomfortable.
Yu Shengxiang took a bite of a bun the size of half a palm, chewing it dozens of times before swallowing it.
Buyu took a hard bite and smiled at her.
Yu Shengxiang swallowed with difficulty. Just as she was about to take a second bite, a sharp pain suddenly shot through her fingers, and the bun fell to the ground, rolling forward.
She frowned in pain, her facial features wrinkled inward, and her bent fingers trembled slightly.
Buyu quickly grabbed her hand and looked around: “Who?”
This sentence was a bit redundant, because without her asking, the next moment, a group of refugees rushed towards them, or rather, towards the bun that Yu Shengxiang had dropped on the ground. In an instant, the ground shook. What had attacked Yu Shengxiang just now was probably something like a slingshot.
The power of a group of people rushing over was no less than that of a group of wild horses. Buyu’s heart tightened. Just as she was about to pull Yu Shengxiang away from the crowd, the speed of the refugees was too fast. Instead of helping Yu Shengxiang, she was dragged into the crowd herself.
From all sides, Buyu’s internal organs were in chaos. She didn’t know who tripped her feet, and she staggered backward. Before her body lost its balance, Yu Shengxiang grabbed her arm with all her strength and pushed her out.
Buyu squeezed open an opening and desperately drilled outward, finally breaking through the obstacles and getting out. She turned her head, and dark heads were crowded together. She couldn’t see Yu Shengxiang’s figure.
Fear suddenly arose in her heart, and Buyu kept looking for Yu Shengxiang, but only saw the refugees fighting for the bun, the scene was extremely chaotic.
Faint cries of pain came from under the crowd, as if calling for help. Buyu bit her lip tightly, and blood beads rolled down, winding a river of blood on her jaw.
As if making a firm decision, she wiped away the blood stains, raised her arm, and shouted, “I have food here! Come here!”
Countless pairs of eyes suddenly turned to look at her, Buyu shuddered all over, and dense goosebumps climbed all over her body.
With the greatest strength she had, she threw the remaining bun to the other side. The refugees, like hungry dogs seeing meat, ran over, facing upwards.
The crowd receded, and the ground was littered with countless traces of trampling. Yu Shengxiang lay there, facing the loess, motionless.
All the blood in Buyu’s body seemed to freeze. She didn’t know how she ran over. When she came back to her senses, she was already kneeling in front of Yu Shengxiang.
“Yu… Yu Shengxiang?” Buyu wanted to test her breath, but her fingers trembled so badly that she accidentally poked her cheek.
The touch on her hand was warm and soft, but the person on the ground didn’t respond. Realizing that Yu Shengxiang in front of her was already a corpse, Buyu’s pupils almost shrunk into a single point.
The person who was just talking to her a moment ago was now separated from her by death.
“Yu Shengxiang, Yu Shengxiang…”
Buyu repeated her name, not knowing what to do. Since she had memories, she had been wandering the streets, and the feeling of separation was really strange to her.
She learned from similar events she had seen before, opened her mouth and wanted to beg for help, but in this chaotic world, doctors and pharmacies had long disappeared.
Feelings of helplessness filled her mind. Buyu slowed her breathing and gently turned Yu Shengxiang over, seeing a bloody face. The soil underneath, soaked with blood, caught the light, emitting a fishy smell.
Her stomach churned violently, and her throat heaved one after another. Buyu turned her face away, not daring to look at Yu Shengxiang again.
Her eyelashes were wet, and tears seeped out from the seams of her closed eyelids. Her teeth sank into her lip flesh, piercing the surface, and a few drops of blood fell on Yu Shengxiang’s body.
Then a few more tears fell, hitting the same spot, blurring the bloodstains.
Feeling the moment her heart twitched in pain, Buyu opened her eyes in confusion and surprise. She didn’t quite understand what emotions she was feeling now, only that her eye sockets were sore and the taste of a sore throat was not good, even it can be called discomfort.
In addition to grief, another feeling she had never had before was born in her heart.
When one receives kindness, one should repay the kindness. But among those refugees, there were not a few who repaid kindness with hatred. It would have been fine to watch coldly, but they disregarded the life of their benefactor and actually trampled Yu Shengxiang to death.
All of those people were murderers. If it weren’t for them… if it weren’t for them!
Buyu lowered her head, looking at her thin, bamboo-like wrists, knowing how powerless she was now. However, the next second, a trace of ruthlessness that didn’t match her age flashed across her eyes, and her ten fingers closed into fists, clenching tightly.
The baked yellow earth was difficult to dig open. Buyu had to rest for a long time after digging for a while, and then continue digging. It took her all night to dig a pit that could bury someone.
Although Yu Shengxiang was extremely thin and didn’t weigh much, Buyu was about the same as her, even thinner, so it was very difficult to carry her.
After burying Yu Shengxiang, she wandered in the wilderness like a lost soul. Until she met the group of refugees again, she blended into them as if nothing had happened. But she never competed with them for food, nor did she get close, only traveling with them at a distance.
No refugees cared about a weak girl. Until one day, someone discovered that at some point, the girl had suddenly disappeared.
* * *
At the beginning of the drought, something happened at the Wen Residence, but at that time, everyone was fighting tooth and nail for a bite to eat, so who had the leisure to care about others? Later, not many people knew about it, but it spread throughout the immortal sects.
It is said that the eldest son of the Wen Residence, Wen Liangchen, died of illness, and the second son, Wen Rumen, drowned. Both were buried on the same day.
At the same time, Shen Qianqiu, the second son of the Shen family in Cangling Capital, mysteriously disappeared, his whereabouts unknown.
At that time, there were still green mountains covered, and although it hadn’t rained, the rivers still flowed day and night.
Wen Liangchen faked his death to deceive his father, Wen Qingliu, and walked alone in the world. Recently, rumors of natural disasters have been rampant, but he is not interested in the life and death of the masses.
Having finally gotten rid of the old thing at home who put on airs all day long, he was unwilling to think about those disappointing people and things.
However, the person behind him had been following him for three days, and even he, who was so indifferent, couldn’t stand it anymore.
Wen Liangchen’s footsteps turned to a bamboo forest, and he slowly strolled in.
As expected, that person followed him in.
Wen Liangchen hid behind a bamboo grove, coldly staring at the person who walked in.
The person was wearing a purple robe, with a spirit sword hanging from his waist, and delicate patterns embroidered on the arrow sleeves with gold thread. After seeing his face clearly, Wen Liangchen couldn’t help but raise an eyebrow, his expression a half-smile.
He took a step and leaped over the bamboo forest, walking out.
“Following others in silence, is this how Cangling Capital educates its disciples?”
The person’s searching movements stiffened for a second. He quickly put away his embarrassment at being discovered, turned his head to look at him, and said in a relaxed tone: “Brother Wen.”