Xia Lan: From Meeting a Martial Arts Girl

Chapter 62 The Name of the Guardian

Su Nian stayed in this house deep in the Gobi Desert for two days.

For two days, she did not ask Jiang Yiyou any questions about her identity.

Jiang Yiyou didn't say anything more.

The two seemed to have reached a tacit understanding.

If you don't ask, I won't say; let's each do our own thing.

During the day, Su Nian sat on a rock outside the house, basking in the sun and moving her right leg to slowly recover her vital energy.

The sun in the Gobi Desert was intense, and it burned her skin slightly, but she didn't go inside.

She needs sunshine, she needs warmth, she needs anything that can help her body recover faster.

Jiang Yiyou rarely appears during the day.

Sometimes he would go out and walk very far, so far that Su Nian's detection technique could not sense his presence.

Sometimes he would just stay in the house with the door closed, doing who-knows-what.

Su Nian neither asked nor looked.

The two only met in the evening.

We sat facing each other by the fire pit, eating roasted meat.

Hare, gerbil, and occasionally a bird that seems to fly in from nowhere.

Jiang Yiyou is very good at grilling. She controls the heat perfectly, making the food crispy on the outside and tender on the inside. Even without any seasoning, you can taste the original flavor of the meat itself.

Su Nian ate quietly, and Jiang Yiyou ate quietly as well.

The firelight illuminated their faces, but neither looked at the other.

By the morning of the third day, Su Nian's wound had scabbed over.

She unwrapped the bandage and took a look; the wound was healing incredibly fast.

Normally, such a penetrating wound would take at least one or two weeks to begin to heal, but she only took less than three days.

Besides the effects of Jiang Yiyou's medicinal soup, the Four Symbols Warriors' constitution also played a role.

Although my vital energy has only recovered to less than 50%, it should be enough for traveling and dealing with ordinary threats.

Su Nian rewrapped the bandage, stood up, and walked a few steps around the room.

My right leg is still a little stiff, but it doesn't affect my walking. I can't use the monthly massage function, but I can run normally without any problems.

It's time to go.

She bent down, picked up her backpack, slung it over her shoulder, and turned to walk towards the door.

His hand had just touched the latch when he suddenly stopped.

An idea popped into her head.

She should have asked earlier.

Something was off from the start.

A man in black robes blocked her way, and someone fired a shot from the darkness. She was injured and fled, but was rescued by Jiang Yiyou.

Everything is reasonable.

Injured, rescued, recovering, preparing to leave.

It was so reasonable that it seemed deliberate.

But what if being "rescued" is part of the plan itself?

Su Nian turned around and looked at the room where she had stayed for two days.

The table, chairs, cabinets, stove—everything was spotless, without a trace of superfluous information.

She had never seen Jiang Yiyou cook, but he always managed to produce grilled meat.

She had never seen Jiang Yiyou go out shopping, but the things in this room seemed to never run out.

It's already strange that this person is here.

How could someone who lives deep in the Gobi Desert, someone who can become completely invisible under detection techniques, someone who can ask her those kinds of philosophical questions, possibly just happen to pass by and just happen to save her?

And the person who fired the shot.

Su Nian didn't see who fired the shot clearly at the time, but she remembered the direction from which the gunshot came.

Behind the man in black robes, in the darkness on the left side of the road.

After she was injured, Jiang Yiyou said he found her on the highway to the north.

North.

However, the left side of the road is to the west.

If Jiang Yiyou really came from the north, he would probably approach her from another direction.

Unless he was already in that direction.

Su Nian's fingers slowly tightened.

She looked at the closed door; outside the crack was the Gobi Desert, its gray-brown earth gleaming with a somber light under the sun.

Her detection abilities spread.

Fifty meters, one hundred meters, two hundred meters.

There was nothing there.

It's not that there weren't any, but rather that the life signals stopped at a safe distance, like a pack of trained hunting dogs, quietly crouching at the end of the rope, waiting for commands.

They are not wild.

They were left there by someone.

Su Nian took a deep breath and then slowly exhaled.

Instead of opening the door, she turned around, walked back to the middle of the room, and sat down in a chair.

Since we're here, let's make the best of it. Since we can't leave, let's make things clear.

The door was pushed open.

Jiang Yiyou walked in, carrying a wild rabbit in her hand, just like the previous two days.

He saw Su Nian sitting in a chair with her backpack at her feet. He paused slightly, but said nothing. He walked straight to the stove and began to process the rabbit.

"I won't leave."

Su Nian spoke.

Jiang Yiyou paused for a moment with the knife in her hand, then continued peeling the skin.

"Oh?"

"You won't let me leave either." Su Nian looked at him. "Those stray dogs, you're the one controlling them, aren't you?"

Jiang Yiyou did not answer, but placed the peeled rabbit on the cutting board and began to cut it into pieces.

Su Nian continued.

"You were the one who attacked me."

"The man in black robes, and the one who fired the gun... it was you, or you were all in cahoots."

"I don't know what your purpose is, but you didn't save me out of kindness."

"What are you waiting for?"

She paused.

"Or rather, you're waiting for me to ask that question."

Jiang Yiyou put the chopped rabbit meat into the pot, put the lid on, turned around, leaned against the stove, and crossed her arms.

He looked at Su Nian, and finally there was something different in his eyes.

"You're smarter than I thought," he said.

"You're much more boring than I thought," Su Nian said.

Jiang Yiyou's lips twitched slightly.

"boring?"

"Just to tease Xia Lan, they've caused so much trouble."

"I don't care who that man in black is."

"I don't care what your identity is."

"I just want to know, what do you want?"

Jiang Yiyou looked at her, remained silent for a few seconds, and then smiled.

"You guessed it."

"It's not hard to guess."

"Then guess what I want?"

Su Nian didn't guess.

She simply looked at Jiang Yiyou and waited.

Jiang Yiyou walked over from the stove and sat down in the chair opposite Su Nian.

The two people faced each other across a table with four legs of different heights.

Sunlight streamed in through the window, falling on the center of the table and slicing each person's face in half.

"You Xia Lan," Jiang Yiyou said softly, "always have 'protection' on your lips."

"Protect our companions, protect ordinary people, protect this world."

He looked into Su Nian's eyes.

"But have you ever considered that protecting comes at a price?"

Su Nian did not speak.

"It's not your price to pay, it's someone else's price to pay."

Jiang Yiyou tapped her fingers lightly on the table.

"It's not difficult to be willing to give your life to protect something."

"The difficult question is, are you willing to pay someone else's life to protect something?"

Su Nian's brows twitched slightly.

"What you're looking for in the Southern Wilderness, the people who came with you, your companions."

Jiang Yiyou's voice was neither hurried nor slow.

"If one day you face a choice... either give up what you're looking for."

"Would you choose to let your comrade die?"

Su Nian's fingers tightened.

"Would you sacrifice them?" Jiang Yiyou asked, "For your so-called protection?"

silence.

She suddenly thought of a question.

This question made her more uneasy than who Jiang Yiyou was or what his purpose was.

"You've asked me so many questions," Su Nian said, "What about yourself?"

Jiang Yiyou looked at her.

"Is there anything you want to protect?"

Jiang Yiyou's expression remained unchanged.

"No," he said.

Su Nian was silent for a moment, then stood up.

She picked up her backpack from beside her feet, slung it over her shoulder, walked around the table, and headed for the door.

This time she didn't stop.

Her hand was on the latch.

"Su Nian".

Jiang Yiyou's voice came from behind.

Su Nian did not turn around.

"Don't you want to know what my conditions are?"

Su Nian's hand paused on the door latch for a moment.

"you say."

"Since you believe the name Xia Lan signifies protection..."

"Then let me see just how far your protection can go."

Su Nian turned around.

Jiang Yiyou remained seated in the chair, her posture unchanged.

That smile still held no warmth.

Su Nian looked at him for two seconds, then turned her head, unlatched the door, pushed the door open, and walked out.

The sunlight on the Gobi Desert was blinding, so she squinted and took a few steps forward.

Then she stopped.