"I don't think it's ugly at all." Sheng Xuanyuan blurted out without thinking.
Qiong Yi took a deep breath and met his gaze: "When Uncle Chen bought me from the cattle and sheep dealer, a large piece of meat was missing from my shoulders. I chopped them neatly without hurting the shoulder bones and bones. Arm. It was just not treated in time, and the wound was repeatedly infected, leaving a deep scar."
"I don't remember what happened when I was too young. A Luo told me these."
"When Uncle Chen rescued me, there was a piece of jade hidden in the package, so he named me 'Qiong Yi', but later, the piece of jade was lost." Qiong Yi said in a deep voice: "The jade was stolen by someone It was thrown into the deep lake behind Baiya Mountain, and there is no chance of it being found again.”
"Apart from the jade, the only clue I have is this scar, which connects me to the location of Dorna's tattoo. I guess the scar may actually be a tattoo that was cut off. Maybe it's too eye-catching or for some other reason. People cut it off. Most cattle and sheep traders come from the west, maybe I am really from Xirong."
"Qiong Yi, your eyes are also very special." Sheng Xuanyuan looked at her eyes and said lightly, "Purple eyes are rare."
"Yeah?"
"Well, some tribes have unique appearance features that are easy to distinguish."
"But I look like a Middle-earth person."
Looking at her upright and gentle appearance, Sheng Xuanyuan was unconvinced and thought to herself, she looked like she was from Jiangnan.
"There has been a faint riot in the Western Desert since the beginning of autumn. If you know that you have a relationship there, you don't have to rush. You can wait for a while and then investigate." He said.
"Yes." Qiong Yi nodded, thinking: Even the investigation in the Western Desert is not a small area, but it is better than searching aimlessly in this vast land of China.
"They... why did they abandon me?" She said suddenly, looking into the distance.
"Sheng Kyung, do you know? Ever since I was a child, I have envied those children who have parents." She sat on the edge of the boat and said calmly: "When I was a child, I fought with the children who bullied A Luo. If we fought hard, they would all He said, 'I asked my father to go,' but I was beaten and couldn't cry, and I didn't have a father or a mother."
"Qiong Yi..."
"I really want to find them and ask them."
"But I'm afraid. Rather than them throwing me away because they don't like me or dislike me, I'm actually...more afraid that they are no longer here."
Sheng Xuanyuan sat down next to her: "Don't think about it, it won't happen." He raised his head, trying to see the stars in the dark night sky, "Maybe some accident happened that separated your blood, maybe after so many years, They’ve been looking for you too.”
Qiong Yi also raised her head. She couldn't see the stars, but when she turned her head, she saw them in Sheng Xuanyuan's eyes.
He asked: "Will you go to Guma Rock to find Dorna?"
"Well, I hope it won't trouble him too much." Qiong Yi moved his lips, "Sheng Jing, actually I..."
"What?"
"We have to take exams when we get back to school. What should I do about math? There are also articles to memorize and memorize. How do I review...?"
Sheng Xuanyuan was startled. Thinking of her requirement to take the "Full Armor" test, a sense of panic came over him: "...It is indeed a big problem."
"When we change trains tomorrow, let's buy some paper and pens. We have a lot of free time on the road, so we should make up for it." He thought deeply: "We will think about it together. As for articles and poems, I have to ask Brother Yan for advice..."
Qiong Yi clasped his hands together: "...Arithmetic is the greatest metaphysics."
*
The noisy passenger ship was supposed to be a place for rest and relaxation, but unexpectedly there were three people reviewing their homework. Su Ye watched the three of them immersed in studying, blowing in the wind and eating meat on the bow of the boat, living happily and leisurely.
"It's so nice not to have to go back to school! It's so nice not to have to take exams!" He stretched out and clasped his hands behind his head, looking leisurely.
It didn't matter that Su Ye didn't take the exam, but he wanted to show off in front of them, so he was turned away by the three of them. They said he liked the wind and let him go to the bow of the boat to drink the northwest wind.
In the past few days, the thing Qiong Yi heard Sheng Xuanyuan say the most was, is the tail okay? Nothing will happen, right?
He subconsciously muttered to himself, wishing he could return to school as soon as possible.
Qiong Yi also thought: I have disappeared for so long, will my junior brothers and sisters look for me? The disappearance of four people is not a trivial matter, and two of them are young masters of a wealthy family. If the matter becomes serious and the news reaches Master, A Luo will know about it, and she will probably be worried about me to death.
Even if they were ready to return home, the four of them couldn't fly back immediately. The carriage and horses were rushing, which took a long time.
The journey from Yeling Pass to Yichuan took twelve days. When they arrived in Yize, the three of them said goodbye to Su Ye and then rushed to Qingfeng Town, returning to the school a day and a half later.
When they returned to the academy, they were immediately taken to the elders to be scolded and punished. Sheng Xuanyuan, who remained silent during the training, immediately went to his dormitory to look for Tails after walking out of the room. But when he walked into the small courtyard where he had not returned for a long time, Tails was no longer there.
"Tail?"
He shouted in the yard, then rummaged around in the corners, looking inside and outside the house, but he still couldn't find the brown-haired puppy.
Sheng Xuanyuan finally had to accept the fact that the tail was gone.
If it doesn't leave, it will starve to death if it stays here without food. Sheng Xuanyuan comforted himself and thought on the bright side: Tails could hunt on his own before and nothing would happen to him. I didn't take good care of him, so it was natural for him to go away.
After Qiong also found out about this, she sat with him in the verandah for a long time.
I thought the elders' punishment was all punishment, but I didn't expect the teachers in each subject to miss them for more than ten days without any reason. They not only reprimanded them in class, but also made them stay in class after class to punish them for copying.
It’s really a wave of ups and downs. Qiong also said secretly, despite the scolding: "It's miserable."
So after class ended, all the other disciples had left, and only two of them stayed in the classroom to copy scriptures. Lu Li hadn't seen his senior sister for a long time, so he came to make up the numbers. He asked what happened in the past ten days and helped Qiong Yi write.
After seeing Qiong Yi's perfunctory copying and extremely strange handwriting, Lu Li shouted that something was wrong and hurriedly stopped writing and let her finish it by herself.
"This is simply a word written by two people!"
"It was originally written by two people!" Qiong Yi was not embarrassed at all and held his hand down, "Good junior brother, please help me copy a few more pages!"
Lu Li clasped his hands together and lowered his head: "Senior sister! I hope you are blessed! If Master knows that I am writing for you, I will probably have to sit down and be punished."
Qiong Yi let out a long sigh and continued to write: "We were just visiting a lantern festival originally. I didn't want to go to that weird place, but something strange happened, and we ended up so far away inexplicably."
"What happened? Tell me."
She dipped in ink and flattened the tip of the pen on the edge of the grinding table. "The rough process is... accidentally broke into the legendary ghost land, Mingfu, and then rescued a very good-looking man. In order to save him and A fox demon started fighting. That's all." In order not to worry her junior brother, she specially omitted Su Changming, who was causing the most trouble.
Lu Li was surprised and couldn't help but ask about the details of the matter. Qiong Yi just wanted to talk about it in a few words. When he asked again, he forcibly interrupted him: "Okay, I still have to concentrate on writing, and you won't help me. Stay here." It's still disturbing, so why don't you go back earlier." When Lu Li heard that Qiong Yi was asking him to leave, he looked pitiful and said, "Sister, I haven't seen you for so many days, and I don't miss my brothers and sisters. It's so heartless."
"Hey!" Qiong Yi rolled his eyes at him and went to copy the book.
It was late at night before she had finished copying half of the scriptures. She shook her sore arm and looked over to see the thick pile that Sheng Xuanyuan had copied. Ink was almost flying out of the paper, and there were not even a few scriptures visible on the page. When I broke my pen, I couldn't help but think to myself: This word is really not something that ordinary people can write... Uh, wild?
"No more copying." Sheng Xuanyuan put down his pen and sighed.
Seeing that his sigh was a little funny, Qiong Yi laughed softly, "Let's write it tomorrow." After that, she went to pat Lu Li, who was sleeping on the table.
Sheng Xuanyuan put away the table and turned his wrist, admiring Su Ye's unique skill of copying books in his heart.
After waking up Lu Li, the three of them left the school together and went back to their dormitories.
*
During the days when Qiong Yi was away, Zhu Yunluo wrote many letters to her.
Originally, as soon as she received A Luo's letter, she would reply immediately. Perhaps she did not reply during the half month she was away from the school, which made Zhu Yunluo worried, so she wrote more letters asking about the current situation.
Opening the letter, the content was the same as before, asking her about her well-being and chatting with her about daily matters.
Qiong Yi always reported good things but not bad things. She made friends in school, got all A's in the exam, and won the competition. She wrote the same things in letters, but she met the Hanged Ghost and was framed by villains. She said nothing.
When it came to Mingfu this time, of course she wouldn't write it in the letter.
*
The tail was found three days later.
To be precise, it was Taiwei who took the initiative to find Sheng Xuanyuan.
Early in the morning that day, Sheng Xuanyuan, who came to the foot of Nanshan Mountain to practice swordsmanship as usual, only heard a burst of excited barking, and then saw the tail running desperately towards him amidst the rapid footsteps of fallen leaves scratching the soil. .
Half a moon is gone, the tail has grown again, and is obviously thinner, but the body is much stronger and slender.
"Tail!"
Sheng Xuanyuan put away his sword and ran towards it, but was met by its tail as it jumped up high and threw itself to the ground. It licked Sheng Xuanyuan's face enthusiastically, clawed at his chest, and its furry tail waggled rapidly.
Sheng Xuanyuan covered his face with his hands, sat up and said with a smile: "Tail, don't lick it!" He pressed the dog's head with his hand, and said to himself, not caring whether Taili could understand or not: "It's really great to see you jumping around. Okay...how did you survive so many days? You lost more than a pound of weight."
Tails didn't fully understand, so he only barked at him twice, and when his head was touched, he narrowed his big black eyes with enjoyment.
How could it know that humans were in trouble? I just haven’t seen him for a long time and miss him very much.
Only when Sheng Xuanyuan looked away from Tai did he notice that there were several dogs sneaking around in the woods not far away.
He stood up and howled loudly into the forest with his tail. After a while, four or five dogs of all sizes ran out and lined up neatly in front of him. The picture was so impactful that Sheng The corners of Xuan Yuan's mouth twitched unconsciously: these days when he was away, Tai Wei actually became the boss.
He suddenly felt that keeping the tail he had raised in the yard was really a sign of humiliation.
Qiong Yi was yawning and came to practice sword practice when she saw this bizarre scene in front of her: Sheng Xuanyuan, who was surrounded by many dogs, looked hard and looked at her as if asking for help.
"Pfft -" Qiong Yi choked on her own, and didn't understand what happened, but she smiled in respect first: "Hahahahaha Sheng Kyung, why are you surrounded?"
She walked closer and looked at the dogs carefully. In addition to the tails that ran back, there were three dogs about the same size as the tails, and there was also a dirty colorful female dog with a puppy. If Qiong Yi guessed correctly, this was most likely a dog. Tails' siblings who were separated, and his mother.
Tails ran to Qiong Yi's feet and watched eagerly, begging to be touched and hugged. Qiong Yi rubbed its head and said, "Sheng Kyung, Tails seems to have found its family."
Sheng Xuanyuan was a little silent: "...Really?"
He paused for a long time: "So, it came back to say goodbye to me?"
Tails tilted his head, and some of the puppies behind him started barking. The others barked after him. Tails turned around and barked twice, but they stopped barking. Then Tails rubbed his body under his legs out of habit.
"Aren't you taking it in temporarily, do you really want to raise it?" Qiong Yi asked in surprise: "During the annual vacation, are you going to take it back to Luoyao? It's a long way."
"Yeah." Sheng Xuanyuan had been determined to raise the fierce puppy since he picked it up: "From then on, I had thought about taking it back."
"But it's a long journey, it's a lot of trouble, and there are still its companions here." No matter what he thought, Qiong Yi thought it was better to leave the tail behind. It has been away from Sheng Xuanyuan for so long and has nothing to do. Logically speaking, it has basically become independent. .
Sheng Xuanyuan shook his head: "Since I have raised him, he will always be mine. It is only natural that he should be taken away by me."
Qiong Yi said softly, "Ah". He thought she didn't agree with his words, so he added, "If I leave it alone, it will wander."
"That's right." Qiong Yi shrugged and looked down at those big eyes, "Tail, what's your decision?"
Taili put his paws on Sheng Xuanyuan's legs and raised his head.
Qiong also laughed: "I will miss you when you go to Luoyao."
