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Bai Huang and I were standing on the main street like young sweethearts breaking up over some matter and this caught the attention of many passerbyers who decided to stand in a circle and watch on. The main reason for this happening is because Bai Huang has a pretty high exposure degree since she patrols the city every day with a group of guards, so basically everyone in the city recognizes her. My exposure degree is slightly lower, but I’m still West-Resisting City’s City Lord in any case, so the majority of the people still remember my face if they give it a bit of recalling.

With this being the case, it was no longer an ordinary young sweetheart’s quarrel but rather the divorce of two celebrities and thus, heads popped out of windows and people stopped to see what was going on in a radius of three floors and three streets surrounding us.

“Sir City Lord, lady Bai Huang is a good child, you need to coax her.”

“See, who hasn’t made mistakes in their lives? Even so, life must go on.”

“Lady Bai Huang, you need to show some more understanding for sir City Lord, it’s not easy to be a man, won’t it be fine if you just tell him what you have to say?”

Yelled out several courageous commoners from the crowd and soon after, the lively discussion arising from it directly surrounded me and Bai Huang. In such a situation, even if Bai Huang’s face was thicker, she still wouldn’t be able to stave off the embarrassment. And so, she grabbed my wrist and dragged me out of the crowd:

“Make way, make way, everyone make waaay!”

After squeezing out of the excited on-looking crowd with great difficulty, Bai Huang gasped for breath with her hands on her knees while I leaned on the wall to take a rest. It was at this moment that a pair of dainty white hands held up a bright red field fruit to Bai Huang. Bai Huang lifted up her head, as did I, and we discovered a little lass carrying a cloth bag standing there with a bashful smile on her face.

After seeing me, she was slightly startled. She probingly asked:

“Sir City Lord……?”

I blinked my eyes and then recalled who she was.

When I had just arrived at West-Resisting City, I once had several karmic ties with this little lady. Her older brother Yama is Felita’s apprentice, West-Resisting City’s very small sorcerer. This girl’s name is Yaqi’an and someone who would always follow by her older brother’s side, as well as hide behind her older brother whenever speaking to strangers.

I rubbed her head and asked:

“Where’s Yama? You’re not with your older brother today?”

Yaqi’an shook her head and replied:

“No.”

After answering me, she did her best to hand over the fruit in her hands over to Bai Huang with these words:

“I just saw big sis Bai Huang over here looking very tired and it just so happened that I picked some fruit today, so I wanted to give the sweetest fruit for big sis Bai Huang to taste.”

In front of this little lady, Bai Huang’s anger obviously dissipated and her face became a smiling one, radiant with happiness. She took the proffered fruit from Yaqi’an and praised her for being wise and kind, that she would definitely make a good wife in the future. Yaqi’an’s entire face flushed red and she lowered her head as both her hands played with the lower hems of her clothes; she was too shy to say anything in response.

I suddenly remembered something and inquired:

“I remember last time when I saw you and your older brother Yama that you told me your family’s circumstances have become much better. You said that as long as you helped out at home a little, that was enough and that you already didn’t need to go sell fruit. What happened?”

Bai Huang wrinkled her brows as she said with concern:

“If there’s someone bullying you and your family, you must definitely tell me.”

Yaqi’an hastily waved her hands and responded:

“No, no. It’s……my older brother’s birthday is coming up.”

Bai Huang and I gave each other a glance, both of us not really understanding for a moment.

A sweet smile appeared on Yaqi’an’s face as she whispered:

“When I had my birthday, sir City Lord and big sis Bai Huang still hadn’t come to West-Resisting City. My family was very very poor, but big brother still ran out and climbed the tallest tree outside the city, risking great danger to scoop out two bird eggs. That night, I had two small poached eggs on my noodles. But when big brother got down from the tree and returned, he was covered all over with cuts and bruises and he also slipped and fell, causing his left arm to break. It took a long time for his arm to recover. Now that it’s almost big brother’s birthday, I also want to buy something good for big brother.”

Bai Huang was deeply moved upon Yaqi’an’s words, so she stroked Yaqi’an’s head as she asked:

“So that’s why you went to pick field fruits?”

As she spoke, she pulled on Yaqi’an’s arm and discovered many scabs and wounds on Yaqi’an’s little hands, appearing as if she had been scratched by twigs and such. Bai Huang’s face expressed heartache for this sight. She felt her pocket and took out a purse before questioning:

“I’ll buy, how much?”

Yaqi’an shook her head and quietly replied:

“I want to depend on myself to earn enough money for my big brother’s present. If I sell to big sis Bai Huang or even sir City Lord, you’ll just take care of me again. Mommy said that our family’s life is becoming better and better because of your efforts and that we should be grateful as people and not inconvenience other people. That’s why I really don’t need it, thank you.”

While she spoke, Yaqi’an ran away like a wisp of smoke with a small package on her back.

“What should I do for my big brothers……”

Bai Huang muttered softly. Then, suddenly remembering that I was still present, she turned her head with a confused face showing how lost she was about staying angry or not. After a long while of thinking, she ultimately pulled a long face and told me dryly:

“Why are you still here.”

I smiled in response:

“I also wanted to eat fruit, but unfortunately nobody gave me any.”

Bai Huang angrily raised the fruit in her hand to her mouth and ate the greater half of the fruit before saying:

“Don’t you see, this is the disparity. Everyone likes me a little more.”

As she spoke, she ate the last piece of fruit pulp and threw the pit to me and then said:

“Here, my treat for you.”

I looked at the fruit pit in my hand and deliberately remarked:

“I guess this can be considered an indirect……”

Bai Huang immediately lost her composed appearance and ran over to press my arm in place. She was blushing as she furiously barked:

“You dare! Quickly throw it away.”

I chuckled, then threw the fruit pit in my hands onto a rooftop with these words:

“Ah, it’s probably better to feed it to the birds in the sky.”

Bai Huang looked upwards. She didn’t take her line of sight back and instead kept gazing at the sky while lost in thought. I stood by her side and heard her quietly soliloquize after a while:

“When I was young, my second brother still wasn’t that Yun Hai’s Bai Feng; he wasn’t as fully fledged as he is now. But regardless of whether it’s the past him or the present him, he was very good to us, his little brother, his little sister, and everyone around him. He would mediate any problems we had against one another and knock a lot of sense into us. If we made trouble outside, he would help us carry this burden all by himself. In my childhood, I once stealthily poured some meat broth into dad’s goldfish pond in an attempt to feed the goldfish, but many of the fish floated up belly-side up. At the time, dad got really angry and called all of us together, then kept asking us who did it. I was terrified, so I was crying the entire time. It was also at that time that my second brother silently stood up and helped me shoulder this burden, thus having to stay in the small black room for three days. Do you know what dad told him at the time?”

Bai Huang smiled with reluctance:

“‘I know you weren’t the one who did it, but I hope that you will understand this one principle. If you want to protect someone, you must be prepared to pay the price. As my son, you must clearly understand that there are no free meals in this world; if there is, there is still a price behind it.’”

Bai Huang lowered her head and murmured:

“Even though I’ve grown so big, we at Yun Hai have never had a case of in-fighting brothers, it’s never happened even once. We may have had many contradictions, but it’s always been a peaceful ending. Because my second brother is present. And even if second brother isn’t present, eldest brother will appear personally to settle the case. Even if the sky has collapsed, they’ll still be able to find a way to fix it. So I’ve always thought that no matter how many cases of siblings having a falling out come from other families, our Yun Hai’s family will definitely have a harmonious resolution. But I didn’t think that the first case of in-fighting would actually be my two big brothers……”

Bai Huang looked towards me with red eyes:

“Li De, do you have a solution?”