“Congratulations, Host! Your investment in ‘Lu Fuying’ has saved her life!”
“Investment Return: One Peace Charm.”
“Peace Charm: A plain normal charm carrying humble dreams.”
Mooncake Brother? What on earth?
Looks like the South Border folks don’t have a habit of munching on mooncakes…
Li Mo was just about to ask.
Suddenly, he heard the cry of a woman. The frail lady dashed to Fuying, tightly wrapping the little girl in her arms.
She had witnessed the young man save her daughter.
But she also saw him smash a military formation with one punch.
“Gentlemen, I can’t repay such kindness…”
“Just a home-cooked meal will do.”
Li Mo smiled warmly.
The woman paused for a few seconds, then nodded, pulling her daughter closer.
Li Mo glanced at Murong Xiao and Huang Donglai, and the two followed him.
Entering the town, they walked through the narrow paths between bamboo houses. Fuying’s family lived far off, requiring a river crossing and a mountain trek.
This must be what Dad meant by “the journey to school.”
“Brother Li, how did this case suddenly become clear? It’s obvious from the start that someone’s been wronged!”
Murong Xiao was boiling with frustration but didn’t know how to express it.
He was that hot-blooded youth who couldn’t stand such things.
Though Li Mo had memories of unknown origins, he found all this ridiculous.
He thought Murong Xiao was spot on.
Huang Donglai fell silent for a few seconds and sighed, “Yeah, the ones wronging you know better than anyone how wronged you are.”
“Who knows, after we leave, this little girl’s family might suffer retribution…”
“Since the military is genuinely a bunch of crooks, we might as well eliminate the harm for the people!” Murong Xiao clenched his fists.
Li Mo pondered, “In that case, we should act secretly. Let’s sneak some laxatives into their poison. That’ll surely do the trick.”
Huang Donglai: “…”
Sneaking laxatives into poison?
He had never concocted something so outrageous.
After a moment of silence, he sighed, “What if the town is attacked by disaster beasts after the troops leave?”
Li Mo asked, “Then… clean up the beasts around the town?”
“Beasts have their territories. If the leader in this area dies, another will take its place.” Huang Donglai shook his head.
Murong Xiao stopped talking.
He scratched his bald head, his CPU was practically smoking.
Li Mo gazed ahead at the frail pair of mother and daughter, and at the dilapidated bamboo house they were heading towards.
Among all the talents in the Nine Heavens and Ten Earths, he could be considered a rarity.
Yet his powers couldn’t even change the fate of a small town.
This was just the “trend” of the South Border, a tide that could hardly be resisted.
One day, if the Qingyuan Sect were to be swept up in this current…
How would he fare with this mother and daughter longing for peace and joy?
Little Li couldn’t help but feel overwhelmed, fiddling with the red cloth peace charm, lost in a sea of thoughts.
They entered the bamboo house, where there wasn’t even a stool to sit on. Li Mo and the others had to sit on the ground.
“Mooncake Brother, here you go,” Fuying said, bringing over three half-filled bowls of a mushy substance.
“Thanks for the hospitality.”
Li Mo took a bite; it seemed to be some kind of starchy plant root ground into a paste, and the taste wasn’t exactly gourmet.
“Why do you call me Mooncake Brother?”
“Because Mooncake Brother is just Mooncake Brother!”
Fuying tilted her head, scampering to the side, carefully opening a box.
Inside was half a mooncake decorated with a chibi character.
“Missing lotus seed mooncake?”
Li Mo blurted out, momentarily dazed.
A scene flashed in his mind.
On a moonlit night, a certain Ice Chunk, seeing no one around, sneakily sneaked into the kitchen, grabbing all the mooncakes with the drawing of him on them and stuffing them into a big-headed doll, joy dancing in her eyes…
Little Li was struck dumb, trying to make sense of it.
Who would’ve thought the mooncake thief was Ice Chunk!
That same Cold Fairy who was treated like a celestial being, cold as the moon, and ranking high on the Qianlong List…
Why did she take all the lotus seed mooncakes?
It surely couldn’t be because she loved eating them so much…
Warm reminder: If you like this book and don’t want to lose it next time, please remember to add it to your bookshelf!
“Mooncake Brother?”
Fuying waved her little hand.
Mooncake Brother’s expression looked a bit like the fairy sister!
Li Mo snapped out of it and took out a red bean mooncake with ice skin from his system space.
“Nothing much, if you like mooncakes, here’s one for you.”
“Wow, it’s the fairy sister!” Fuying was thrilled, then dashed to show her mom the mooncake.
Seeing the three big boys squatting on the ground, nonchalantly eating their mush, the woman finally relaxed a bit from her previous caution.
“Did you come here to ask about the woman on the charm?” she asked.
“Exactly.”
“I haven’t had much contact with her, so I don’t know where she went. But if I know anything, I’ll say it all.”
The woman was cooperative, her gaze hardly leaving her daughter.
So she detailed everything she witnessed.
Li Mo nodded, “So they flew on the back of a Peng Yao? This Peng Yao doesn’t seem too vicious.”
“Hiss… they lost the feathers on its head? If it were me, I’d probably behave too…”
Murong Xiao empathized in a very strange way.
“Ying Bing is truly clever; she didn’t venture into the South Border alone. Peng Yao is fast and knows its way around,” Huang Donglai praised.
“…”
Li Mo recalled how he let Ice Chunk look at the map, and she pointed to his house.
The route-challenged Ice Chunk probably did that to avoid getting lost…
However, the mother and daughter didn’t know where Ying Bing went.
Not knowing her exact whereabouts made Little Li uneasy.
Before heading to Brother Murong’s house, he wanted to clear this up.
The only way to do that was to ask the Peng Yao.
The four exchanged glances.
Li Mo stood and said, “Thanks for the information, we won’t bother you any longer.”
Just as they were about to leave, the woman hesitated for a moment but ultimately didn’t voice her concerns, simply saying,
“May you gentlemen have a smooth journey.”
“Yeah.”
Before Li Mo left, his eyes flickered slightly.
At the door, Fuying, noticing her mom’s distraction, dashed out.
“Mooncake Brother! I… I want to ask you for a favor.”
“What favor?”
“Mom misses Dad, just like the fairy sister misses you. She wrote a letter to Dad but doesn’t know how to send it.”
Fuying pulled out a few sheets of paper filled with scribbles, her voice becoming quieter.
“I miss Dad too…”
Li Mo took a look; the letter was to be sent to the military camp, since Fuying’s father was also in service.
He smiled gently, “Mooncake Express, your wish is my command!”
“Thank you, Mooncake Brother!”
Fuying beamed with joy.
Holding the letter filled with longing, Li Mo couldn’t help but glance back at the dilapidated bamboo house.
He saw the woman scraping out the leftover mush from the three boys’ bowls and putting it into a small bowl for her daughter, standing beside her, her weary face reflecting a sense of relief after surviving.
“Peace and happiness…”
Li Mo exhaled softly, momentarily lost in thought.
Those four ordinary words seemed much heavier than he had imagined.
A moment later.
“Foolish child, why did you give a letter to a stranger?”
“Because Mooncake Brother looks like a good person…”
The woman anxiously grabbed Fuying and chased after her but saw only the empty space where Li Mo and the others had been.
Only a few bags of dry rations remained piled up by the fence.
And a bright red Peace Charm hung there, gently swaying in the wind.
“There are hard little beans inside this,” Fuying curiously squeezed the Peace Charm.
The woman opened the charm’s pouch and stared blankly for a long time.
“Mom, do you think Dad will see your letter?”
“Mm, he will.”
…
PS: One more chapter coming later. Viewers who turn in early can check it out in the morning! Muah!
