Li Yuchen's Love

Li Yuchen's Love

The moon hung high overhead; the night was already deep.

Lin Wen had finally seen off the day's clamor and bustle. Exhausted, he was on his way back to his original little shack when he ran into a girl.

She had long, fiery-red hair, bold and unrestrained eyes, and a cute, somewhat childish round face. She was exceptionally warm toward Lin Wen in conversation, her admiration written all over her face.

After talking with her through the Seven Apertures Exquisite Heart for quite a while, he discovered that she was Ji Fuxiao, the civil affairs officer who had disappeared while promoting him.

This girl seemed to have been completely brainwashed by his exploits in the Imperial Daily. Every other word out of her mouth was "Imperial hero" or "saint of the age," praising him so extravagantly Lin Wen's balls were about to crack.

She had worked with the same fanaticism yesterday, which was why she had not returned all night or made any report. She had desperately spread Lin Wen's glorious deeds among the disaster victims, making it seem as though she had vanished—and leaving Lin Wen unable to find her when he arrived today.

At first, Lin Wen had been worried that her publicity work had not been up to par, but the facts later proved that his worries had been unnecessary.

The results of her work had far exceeded Lin Wen's expectations.

After Lin Wen slew the monster and revealed his identity, the disaster victims quickly connected the identities of guardian of the great dike, Great Immortal, Imperial hero, and county governor. That was why his subsequent work had progressed so smoothly.

Thinking back on it, the disaster victims had accepted him so quickly; clearly, her contribution could not be erased.

Thus, Lin Wen did not immediately chase her away. He merely deactivated the Seven Apertures Exquisite Heart and responded halfheartedly to her behavior as an idol-chasing fan.

But this girl was clearly far too enthusiastic. Lin Wen had already returned to that bare-walled shack of his, with nothing but a bed, yet she still refused to leave. Instead, she eagerly helped him make the bed, fold the blankets, and dust away the dirt.

"Hey."

Lin Wen felt vaguely violated. This was one of the rare times in his day when he could cultivate immortality, and he did not want this brief little stretch of happiness disturbed.

"Aren't you going back?"

"Huh?" Ji Fuxiao looked startled. "It's still early. I can see a few specks of dust on the blanket. I absolutely can't let dust disturb Lord County Governor's sleep. Heave-ho, heave-ho..."

Lin Wen said unhappily, "Staying here this late... are you trying to warm my bed?"

Ji Fuxiao sprang up as though startled, but she did not display the frightened expression Lin Wen had hoped to see.

"Wow! Is that true? Can I really, Lord County Governor? Wow, that's wonderful."

In the end, Lin Wen still forcibly drove her away. What a joke—a mere mortal of the physical world dared dream of laying hands on the future supreme ruler of the Great Dao in the immortal cultivation world? That was simply a fool's dream in broad daylight.

After studying spells for a little while, Lin Wen drifted off to sleep.

Meanwhile, on a hill not far away, seven furtive figures lay hidden in the darkness.

They were none other than the pretty-boy Li Yuchen and the six governor's guards.

Ever since leaving the county governor's office that day, Li Yuchen had been forced, under Uncle Jie's lead, to obey Lin Wen's orders and come assist with the work of the temporary command center.

Director Huang Mingxiao did not give them preferential treatment just because they belonged to the governor's guard unit. He only assigned them a ramshackle room barely fit to shelter in and sent them to the nineteenth resettlement site to assist the staff in settling disaster victims and maintaining order.

All of this left Li Yuchen, who had always been pampered and privileged, the center of attention wherever he went, deeply dissatisfied. After he threw a tantrum in the crude yet fairly clean room, Uncle Jie pinned him to the bed and forcibly put him "to sleep."

The next day, Li Yuchen behaved himself a little more, but he still refused to come into contact with the filthy disaster victims. This time, Uncle Jie did not make things difficult for him. He simply had Li Yuchen sit to one side while he led the five guards in helping the victims settle the camp, carry supplies, pitch tents, fill depressions with dry earth, and tend to the injured.

Later, bored from sitting around by himself, Li Yuchen joined in as well.

"I was just too bored."

Li Yuchen repeated those words over and over. Uncle Jie said nothing, merely taking over the heavy work for him.

After that came the civil unrest, which they witnessed almost from start to finish.

Unlike ordinary disaster victims, or Fang Dashan, who had seen only part of it, their far-superior experience and understanding allowed them to clearly recognize what an astonishing miracle this was—and how astonishing the courage, ability, boldness, and indispensable luck required to accomplish such a miracle had been.

Since dinner, the six of them had replayed the events in their minds countless times. Each time, they noticed more overlooked details, and each time, all that remained in the end was awe and disbelief.

Only the pretty-boy Li Yuchen remained dismissive. "Tch, what's so amazing about it? It was just luck, that's all."

Uncle Jie and the others tried to teach him otherwise, but Li Yuchen refused to listen.

"It was obviously just good luck!"

"Fake! He staged the whole thing himself!"

"That light around him was obviously some trick he pulled himself. He probably found a plant and used some method to shine it from far away."

"He only fooled a bunch of ignorant commoners. What's so impressive about that?"

"How could he possibly be that noble? He was definitely putting on an act."

"Pah! Hypocrite! I'll definitely expose him!"

That was also the original reason they had come here.

"Look! Look! He lured that little girl inside to deceive her, didn't he?"

"I told you he was a hypocrite, but you wouldn't believe me!"

"Wow, look at what a pure, innocent little girl she is—falling right into his demonic claws like this!"

"That bastard must have planned this for ages. He was just waiting until today to put on a show and trick some innocent girl who'd never seen the world into bed."

"No!"

Li Yuchen was suddenly filled with righteous indignation. "I absolutely cannot stand by and watch a respectable young girl fall into that bastard's hands. I'm going to save her."

He sprang to his feet, the words "hero saving a beauty" practically written all over his face.

For the first time, Uncle Jie strongly felt that the Governor had made the wrong decision in sending the young master here. "Young Master, look, she's come out!"

"Hm?"

Li Yuchen focused his eyes and happened to see Lin Wen push Ji Fuxiao out. Then, with a bang, the front door shut right in front of the girl's nose.

"This?"

Li Yuchen was utterly thrown into chaos. Watching the girl pound on the door for a while before leaving in disappointment, wiping away tears, he felt his long-held worldview shatter into pieces.

To repair his worldview, Li Yuchen quickly found an excuse. "It must be that they've already finished. That devil's cold and cruel nature showed itself—ignoring the little girl's desperate pleas and forcibly shutting her out!"

Uncle Jie felt his Qilin Arm twitch. If this had been his own child, he would have slapped him flying—sent him as far away as possible.

He still held onto a last thread of hope and tried to reason with him.

"Her clothes are perfectly neat. Even at light speed, I'm afraid there wouldn't have been enough time. Besides, when an ignorant girl falls into a devil's claws, she'd naturally want to leave as early as possible. Who would beg to stay?"

Li Yuchen was struck dumb. He racked his brains, yet could not patch the story back together; there were simply too many parts that made no sense.

In the end, he could only snort coldly. "Hmph. Just a shameless gold-digger and a brazen hypocrite. They're not worth looking into."