The laughter on the bank suddenly grew unrestrained. Distorted and muffled by the water, it reached Li Yao's ears as he flailed his limbs in panic. Something poked his body, and the laughter on the bank grew louder still.
"Hey, little Yao, swim this way~"
"...Looks like he's starting to sink. Get him out."
"Don't. Just nudge him up a bit," Lian Lin said. "Don't spoil the fun. We've barely started playing."
"What's there to be afraid of? As long as he doesn't die," Li Heng said. "I'll use true qi to clear up the injuries on his face later. We'll say he fell in himself and got hurt."
"Hahahahaha, that would take quite a few tumbles..."
But the next moment, the person reaching into the pool with a long pole cried out in some alarm, "I-I can't reach him."
Chapter 519: October Weaves the Cord (Part Two)
"What?"
They immediately looked into the pool, only to find that its surface had suddenly gone still.
The next moment, an air bubble abruptly burst through the water, and the boy was pulled to the surface.
Endless cold drilled into his marrow. In his stupor, Li Yao even wanted to curl up-he had no idea whether he would freeze or drown first.
Twelve years of life were still too short to have shown him the real world. The boy had grown up under other people's arrangements. His aunt told him to study hard, so he had always studied earnestly and diligently. His aunt deferred to others with respectful courtesy, so he, too, had no idea how to handle other people's malice. Those distorted, unrestrained laughs were still faintly reaching him, but he could barely hear them anymore...
And just then, the suffering suddenly left him.
It happened so abruptly that he