Reborn To Be The Imperial Consort [BL]-Chapter 108: Buds of A Marigold — III

As soon as Hu Lijing’s words fell, a silence followed them as it settled between the like a sheer blanket that was rather flimsy.

Suddenly, Li Xinyuan had lost some of his glum mood, the clouds of gloom that floated around him dispersed as he slowly covered his eyes with one hand and tipped his head back, a smile on his face. A slow and deep chuckle bubbled up his throat as his shoulders shook, long curtains of raven locks flowed down his back, pooling around his waist as he let out a laughter.

The sound of it resonated in the wild, the reverberation of it spreading through as the surgeon laughed and laughed and laughed...

Until he collapsed on the forest floor once more, shaking as he pressed his hand on his eyes, his throat bobbing up and down as he swallowed thickly.

"I... I forgot you’re an old man," he stuttered out, voice cracking and drenched in laughter as he sniffed. "Of course, you wouldn’t know what a gun is. It is not as if firearms have been invented yet." He giggled, turning his head away so that he was no longer facing the fox spirit of divine flames.

"Hey!" Hu Lijing let out a noise of offence. "I take offence to that, you brat! Who are you calling an old man??"

Li Xinyuan took a deep breath and discreetly wiped his eyes as he removed his hand and turned his head to the side to look up at him. "If I can’t call you an old man, than who am I supposed to call that?" He retorted with a trembling grin, his eyes glittering under the moonlight with a thin sheen of water. "You’re probably the oldest person alive in the entirety of this realm, Lijing."

Hu Lijing opened his mouth, his lips parting as the words of protest rose to this throat and rested upon the bow of his tongue, reprimand taut on his lips ready to be released not even a second later.

But then his eyes fell on the teenager who was staring up at him. The moment he noticed the wet sheen in his golden eyes, the fox spirit forced himself to swallow the scathing answer and took a deep breath, turning to look at nothing in particular in front of himself instead.

"... Whatever, brat." He scoffed, arms crossed on his chest as he snorted. "Just don’t call me that in future."

"You bet." Li Xinyuan grinned slightly, licking his lips as he breathed deeply. "Back to your question, Guns, well..."

After going into a lengthy tangent while giving his explanation about guns, what they were and how they worked, Li Xinyuan fell silent, taking yet another deep breath to calm his racing heart.

"... Now you know what they are." He smirked, propping himself up on his elbows as he tilted his head back and broke into a grin. "What do you think of this invention?"

Hu Lijing canted his head to the side, cocking an eyebrow as mulled over the question. He glanced at Li Xinyuan from the corner of his eyes and pursed his lips.

He could see that the surgeon was clearly trying to avoid the original topic of the conversation, he was trying to leave it behind.

He was not sure if he should let him bury the topic or if he should hold onto it. So, he nodded slowly.

"What I think of this ’gun’ thing, you ask?" He mused, smiling to himself slightly as he shifted towards Li Xinyuan and bumped his shoulder against the latter’s. "Ingenious and as dangerous as it is amazing." He paused. "In my opinion... It’s rather similar to martial arts techniques and Qi manipulation techniques. If in wrong hands it could lead to very adverse consequences."

Li Xinyuan stilled, tilted his head slightly as he bowed, looking down at the rushing stream, memories of his best friend’s death, as well as the ever so frequent news headlines of shootings, mass shootings all flashed through his mind in a matter of seconds as he let out a soft noise, closer to a hum than anything.

"You’re not wrong. In fact," he paused, slowly blinking his eyes. "You’re a touch too correct. As unfortunate as it is, guns and firearms, the prevalence of them as well as easy availability of them, the lack of laws restricting the range of people who can possess them in some countries was... Concerning to say that least. It caused a lot of unfortunate events. So no, none of your concerns are unfounded, Lijing."

Hu Lijing opened and closed his mouth several times, in the end maybe because he didn’t know what he was supposed to say or wanted to say, he didn’t end up saying anything.

The freezing trail of words that Li Xinyuan left behind was promptly heeled by the thick blanket of tense silence.

By now, both of the had lost the depressed and glum air around themselves as they based on the silence, revelling in the gratifying quietness that was filled with the chortle of nature that surrounded them.

After a long time, finally Hu Lijing replied, his voice rather flat. "Well, if this isn’t unfortunate." He paused. "I surmise no matter how much time passes, humanity never does change, huh?"

Li Xinyuan’s lips pulled into a smile as he chuckled, his voice deep as it rolled in his throat whilst he shook his head slowly. "I suppose you can say that."

"That said, why do you know so much about these gun things?" Hu Lijing snapped his head to look at Li Xinyuan with suspicion in his eyes as his gaze narrowed. "For a doctor, that’s a rather suspiciously huge amount of information on something that has virtually no connection to your profession whatsoever. If the same thing was to happen with swords, I would not have so much as blinked for I know, I have witnessed you grow up with a sword in one hand and books in another. Hmm..." He trailed off after a few moments.

Li Xinyuan froze, the observation making the alarms in his head blare loudly and viciously as his mind raced.

... Then again, did he really need to hide every single thing so tightly and keep them close to his heart? It was not as if he was living the same life as he had in his last.

The surgeon’s fists clenched and unclenched on the grass as thousands of thoughts ran through his mind, thousands of scenerios playing in his head as he weighed his options.

Then, he let out a long suffering sigh.

"Lijing..." He began, keeping his eyes trained on the sky as he faced heavenward and licked his lips, voice dropping a few octaves. "You know why I know so much about these firearms? And why I picked up my clan’s martial arts so quickly inspite of the occasional bumps that I still encounter?" He asked, calm gaze fleeting to the nine-tailed fox before settling on the flat expression that rested on Hu Lijing’s face. "How come you don’t seem too keen? If you don’t want to know then let us forget it."

"No," Hu Lijing shook his head, his voice firm as he squinted at Li Xinyuan. "I want to know. So, tell me, Xinyuan. What was your actual background in that life?"

Li Xinyuan ducked his head slightly, a smirk twisting on his lips as he let out a snort. "My background?" He paused, letting the anticipatory silence stretch thin. "It was the darkest thing in the entire country. One of the worst in the world. Killing, stealing, drugs, kidnapping, prostitution, assassination, gambling; name anything bad except for perhaps high treason, my family was dabbling in it all."

Hu Lijing drew in a sharp breath at the long yet incomplete list of crimes. "Oh?"

Li Xinyuan tipped his head back even more, a chuckle on his lips as he pursed them, teeth gritted together as his trembling hands clenched tightly behind him.

"Yes," he breathed out. "Mafia and crime organisations were never a good thing. No matter how much romanticises them. It is a deep rooted and bottomlessly dark abyss. One without an escape even in death.

Hu Lijing felt his spine turn cold at the tone of Li Xinyuan’s voice.