Chapter 9: The Reborn Yang Luo

Yang Luo sat huddled in a corner with her arms wrapped around her knees. Whenever someone passed by, she would reach out her hand along with the other beggars and call out, "Please, have some pity."

Perhaps because she was thin and frail, her face, though dirty, inexplicably retained a delicate air. An old woman noticed her, hesitated for a moment, then took a cake from her basket and placed it in Yang Luo’s hand.

Yang Luo thanked her repeatedly. She intended to take a big bite, but seeing the young beggar beside her looking on with envy, she sighed inwardly, broke the steamed cake in half, and handed it to him. The young beggar began to eat happily.

Yang Luo took a bite of the steamed cake, finding it somewhat amusing. She never expected she would be reduced to begging, and even more surprisingly, after only three or four days, she had grown accustomed to it. From the initial difficulty of swallowing, she was now skilled at reaching out to beg, and could even put on a pitiful expression...

So, in order to survive, she could endure any hardship.

Besides, everything would be fine once A-Sheng returned.

As the thought crossed her mind, Yang Luo felt a momentary daze. In her heart, this young hunter had truly become her reliance.

Within her line of sight, a youth holding a bamboo pole and carrying a basket on his back came swaying toward her.

"A-Sheng!"

Yang Luo stood up happily, clutching the cake as she rushed over.

Mo Zheng looked at the girl running toward him and gave a grunt of acknowledgment.

Yang Luo handed him the cake in her hand, beaming, "It’s a sesame cake from Mother Wang’s shop. My mother used to buy them for me often; they’re quite delicious."

After she finished speaking, she saw the bite marks she had left on the cake and felt a bit sheepish.

"I ate a little bit."

Mo Zheng didn't seem to expect her first words to be about this. He pressed his thin lips together and said, "Although the work is finished for today, they provided a meal this morning. I ate half a pot by myself, which is enough to last the day. You eat it yourself."

Yang Luo seemed to only then remember what he had been doing. Her eyes filled with anticipation and nervousness as she asked in a low voice, "Did you get it?"

Mo Zheng nodded and whispered, "There was a box buried in the location you mentioned, filled with gold and silver. Over the past three days, I took out a portion each night and hid it in the fields by the roadside outside the town. I managed to bring it all out successfully."

After hearing this, Yang Luo turned and walked away.

Mo Zheng was stunned for a moment, then watched as Yang Luo handed the half-eaten cake to a young beggar huddled in the corner before striding back.

"Let's go. We have money now, why eat steamed cake?" she said. "Let's go to a restaurant and have a proper meal!"

Mo Zheng couldn't help but smile.

However, to eat a good meal at a restaurant, they first needed to spend money elsewhere. Yang Luo led Mo Zheng to buy new clothes first, then found an inn to rent a room so they could each wash up and change.

When Yang Luo walked out after changing, she couldn't help but lift her arm to sniff it. The inn was still too simple and didn't provide fresh flowers, but the clean scent of soap locust was pleasant enough.

Ever since escaping that night, she had only wiped away the blood. Later, when she came to the county town to beg, she had to rely on being dirty to hide her identity. She hadn't looked in a mirror, but she could imagine what kind of mud-covered creature she had been.

Still, with life and death at stake, she couldn't worry about other things. Yang Luo couldn't help but sniff her sleeve again; it shouldn't smell anymore, right?

The door beside her creaked.

"A-Sheng, are you done chang—" Yang Luo started, but she stopped mid-sentence as she looked over, her eyes brightening. "You look so good."

Good? Mo Zheng glanced at the cyan robe he was wearing.

When she said to change into new clothes, he had reminded Yang Luo to buy ordinary ones, as it wasn't wise to be too conspicuous yet. Thus, what he wore now wasn't much different from his original grey hunter's tunic, just with better fabric and a better cut.

Yang Luo also felt the young hunter didn't look much different than before. His face had been washed, but because of the wind and sun in the mountains, it still retained a slight swarthy tone.

But he still looked very good—clean, crisp, and neat.

"You'll look even better when you grow up and your features fill out," Yang Luo said, looking at the youth's face with a hint of nostalgia. "And, you look even better when you smile."

Mo Zheng's eyes flickered slightly. "Can you also foresee what I'll look like in the future?"

Yang Luo's expression stiffened, and she looked left and right. "No, I don't have such great abilities. You don't need to be a prophet to see that; whether someone looks good or not is obvious at a glance. We women are the best at this." With that, she stepped forward. "Let's go eat, I'm starving."

Mo Zheng naturally saw her evasion, but he didn't press the matter. This girl had revealed her secrets once or twice before, but if a person had one or two secrets, they would naturally have three or four...

It didn't matter; he didn't care.

"Miss," he said, stepping past Yang Luo and waving the bamboo pole he was carrying. "Let me clear the way for you."

He was her bodyguard, after all. Yang Luo couldn't help but laugh. She gave a light cough, slowed her pace, and walked with a dignified and quiet grace.

...

...

"What? You saw my mother's coffin, and there was another 'me' inside?"

While eating, Mo Zheng told her about the strange sight he had seen in Baima Town.

Yang Luo clearly didn't know and hadn't expected this; she stood up in surprise.

Mo Zheng signaled for her to sit down. Fortunately, they were sitting in a corner, and there weren't many people in the restaurant. Because they looked young, couldn't drink alcohol, and hadn't ordered many dishes, the waiter couldn't be bothered to serve them.

Yang Luo took a deep breath, sat down, and bit her lower lip. "Was it a ruse created by the officials or the murderers?"

Mo Zheng shook his head. "Judging by the position of the bodies, they were embracing each other before they died." He looked at Yang Luo and asked in a low voice, "Do you know what the situation was at home before you escaped?"

Yang Luo's expression was dazed, her hands clenched in front of her.

"I... Mother pushed me out and told me to go," she murmured. "I thought Mother would follow soon, so I left."

Then the mountain bandits broke in, her mother didn't follow, and the house was set ablaze.

The fire had started from within.

Was it where her mother was? Did her mother set the fire herself?

Firelight flickered before her eyes, and her mother's face appeared and disappeared.

"I knew this day would come..." Her mother's voice from that chaotic night seemed to echo in her ears. "A-Luo, you must live. You must survive."

Amidst her chaotic thoughts, she heard Mo Zheng's voice.

"...You previously said there were spies for the murderers in the government. I think perhaps this was your mother misleading them, creating the illusion that you were already dead."

"You are safe now, at least..."

Yang Luo's expression was blank, but then she thought of something.

So, her mother did this to protect her, to let her escape, by creating the illusion of her death.

That meant her mother had believed her!

The things she had said at the time—such unbelievable things—her mother had believed them!

Tears slid down Yang Luo's cheeks.

Yes, she had actually been lying to this young hunter all along. She wasn't someone who could foresee the future; she was someone who had died and been reborn, living her life once more.

She wasn't actually the fourteen-year-old Yang Luo of the present.

She was the nineteen-year-old Yang Luo.

She was the Yang Luo who, after her mother's death, had been recognized by the Ding'an Duke's mansion and lived in the capital for five years.

The nineteen-year-old Yang Luo had died on the day of her wedding, and when she opened her eyes again, she saw her mother, who had long since passed away, and had returned to the night before her mother's death.