Chapter 14: The Arrival of the Sword

"Xiaofan, is your sister beautiful? Many people want to possess me. Are you among them too?"

Li Xiu'e suddenly seized on Zhang Xiaofan's words and asked a rhetorical question. Her beautiful eyes were fixed on Zhang Xiaofan. Zhang Xiaofan felt a bit embarrassed, and fortunately, the light of the torch wasn't very bright.

"Beautiful! Sister-in-law, you are very beautiful. You were like this when you were young, and you are even more beautiful now that you've grown up."

Zhang Xiaofan felt a bit shy and changed his address back to sister-in-law.

"I don't care. Anyway, you're back. You also said yesterday that you would protect me. With you protecting me, I'm not afraid in the village."

Hearing this little brother admit that she was beautiful, Li Xiu'e was extremely happy in her heart. At the same time, she was also acting a bit coquettishly and made a joke.

"Yeah! I will protect you."

Zhang Xiaofan agreed and took out a pine tree trunk and lit it as a light source. They had already arrived beside Qingshui Lake. Qingshui Lake was quite large in area, and it couldn't be seen across at night. However, the lake water looked black. It wasn't polluted; on the contrary, it was very clear. Otherwise, it wouldn't be called Qingshui Lake.

Qingshui Lake was just like this. It was also called Jiulong Lake. During the day, it was clear and bluish-green, but at night, it would turn grayish-black. It should be caused by some minerals at the bottom of the lake.

When they arrived beside the lake, instead of rushing into the water, Zhang Xiaofan sat by the lake to take a rest. Li Xiu'e was obviously a bit scared and sat close to Zhang Xiaofan.

When they were close to each other, in the grass, they could hear each other's breathing and smell each other's body odor. For a moment, they didn't say anything.

"Xiaofan, do you know that your sister was originally waiting for you to come back and marry me, but you never came back..."

Li Xiu'e suddenly said something sad, and her face looked a bit unpleasant as she said this.

"Then why did you marry my cousin?"

Such a good woman had married someone else as a wife. How could he not feel regret in his heart? Zhang Xiaofan no longer hid his feelings and asked directly. Was it because she couldn't bear the loneliness?

"Two years ago, young people all yearned for the life outside and went out to work. I was no exception.

Your Brother Zhang Liang always seemed like a gentleman in front of us. He said he would take me out to work, so I followed him.

We didn't have much money outside, and the two of us rented a small room. Who knew that he revealed his true colors that night. He said he had liked me for a long time and then forcefully molested me. You don't know how scared I was at that time.

Outside, I didn't know anyone, and the way those men looked at me was as if they wanted to eat me up. I could only stay with your cousin. He molested me every night, and I just got used to it. Later, I had no choice but to marry him."

Saying this, Li Xiu'e began to cry softly. She was a bit regretful, yet not entirely regretful. Her expression was complicated. After all, a man had sacrificed his life for her, and when she thought about it, there was still a trace of gratitude.

At this moment, Li Xiu'e suddenly reached out and grabbed Zhang Xiaofan's hand. Zhang Xiaofan trembled all over. By the faint light of the torch, he looked at his delicate and beautiful sister-in-law but didn't say anything.

"Xiaofan, you won't blame me, will you? I had no choice. I also know that my current situation is very dangerous, and I need a man's protection! Otherwise, I will sooner or later become someone else's plaything..."

Before Li Xiu'e could finish speaking, Zhang Xiaofan called her sister-in-law, and the two of them immediately let go of their hands.

"Sister-in-law, I don't dislike you. If we have to blame something, we can only blame our place for being too backward and lacking in cultural knowledge, which is why you were deceived."

"Xiaofan, I know I'm not good enough for you. If you want a woman at night, you can come to your sister-in-law secretly, and I will be with you. To be honest, at my age, I also think of men at night.

Rather than being targeted by those other men and eventually becoming someone else's plaything, your sister-in-law is willing to be with you and be your woman. I don't ask for you to marry me and give me a proper status. As long as you have me in your heart, that's enough."

Zhang Xiaofan stood up and wanted to take off his clothes and go into the lake. He was left wearing only a pair of underpants. Hearing his sister-in-law's words and seeing her plump figure by the faint light, his underpants suddenly seemed as if they were about to burst. His "golden cudgel" instantly became erect!

Li Xiu'e was secretly shocked when she saw the bulge in his underpants. Goodness! It was so prominent. One could imagine how terrifying "that thing" was.

She then thought about when she and Zhang Xiaofan took a bath in the small stream when they were young. When Zhang Xiaofan was seven or eight years old, "that thing" of his could already compare to that of an adult man, and it was even not inferior at all. After all these years, it had become even more astonishing. She secretly guessed that it must be two or three times the size of her deceased husband's. Just thinking about it made her heart pound.

"Sister-in-law, you've drunk too much. You are my sister-in-law! Let's talk about the future later. I'm going into the water now.

Do you still remember that when we were young, the two of us discovered that the fish or other animals here grew extremely fast? There might even be stone frogs weighing more than ten jin in here."

Zhang Xiaofan neither refused nor agreed. If he let things go, this woman would end up being taken advantage of by other men. But after all, she was his sister-in-law, and he couldn't get over that psychological hurdle. He was in a dilemma.

With a splash, he dived into the bottom of the lake, creating a high splash of water that broke the calm surface of the lake.

Li Xiu'e didn't have time to be sentimental. She quickly picked up the torch and added more pine tree trunks to make the fire brighter so that Zhang Xiaofan could see underwater.

"Xiaofan, be careful. Come up if you encounter anything unusual."

When Zhang Xiaofan and Li Xiu'e were young, they discovered the secret of Jiulong Lake, that is, the animals in it grew extremely fast. Some animals that took one or two years to grow up elsewhere, the fish or stone frogs growing here only needed five or six months.

Of course, this was a secret, and they didn't tell anyone. Even if they did, no one would believe it.

After Zhang Xiaofan jumped into the bottom of the lake, everything became calm again. Only Li Xiu'e was holding the torch beside the lake. The torch was crackling as it burned, and she was pacing back and forth in a hurry.

After a long time, a splash of water rose on the surface of the lake, and Zhang Xiaofan emerged from the water. He was holding a big, dark thing in his hand and threw it onto the shore.

"Sister-in-law, this stone frog is huge, isn't it? Put it in the bag. There are a lot of things at the bottom of this lake. No wonder the villagers can't catch them. The things in here are all spiritual."

Zhang Xiaofan said something and then plunged into the bottom of the lake again. Soon after, he came out and threw a big tortoise onto the shore. It actually weighed more than ten jin. The things in here were indeed extraordinary. Li Xiu'e was on the shore, putting them into a snake skin bag. She was both scared and happy. These things were very valuable, and they seemed to have struck it rich.

At the same time, she was also a bit puzzled. The childhood sweetheart she hadn't seen for eight years actually dared to go into the lake alone and catch these spiritual creatures. One could imagine how capable he was. What had he learned outside?

A layer of mystery unconsciously shrouded Zhang Xiaofan in her heart. He was somewhat unfathomable and difficult to figure out.

In less than a moment, the two big snake skin bags were already filled.

Just then, the lake water suddenly churned violently, making a huge noise, and the waves crashed towards the grass on the shore.

Li Xiu'e was so startled that she slumped down on the ground and shouted in panic:

"Xiaofan, what's going on! Come back quickly. Where are you!"

At the same time, in the darkness of the night, Zhang Xiaofan's figure shot up from the bottom of the lake like a cannonball and flew into the air. At the same time, he roared loudly:

"Sword, come!"

A cyan-yellow sword qi flew out from his body, descending from the sky and stabbing straight into the depths of the lake bottom.

The lake water churned even more violently. Then, red blood actually emerged from the lake water, dyeing the surface of the lake red, but it couldn't be seen in the darkness of the night.

"Damn it! Sister-in-law, let's get out of here quickly! There are things that have become spirits at the bottom of this lake, and there's more than one!"

After sending out the sword strike, Zhang Xiaofan came to the shore of the lake, grabbed the two big snake skin bags filled with big tortoises and stone frogs, and then started running back.

Nothing happened on the way back. Zhang Xiaofan didn't explain what was at the bottom of the lake either. Li Xiu'e was so frightened by the churning of the lake water just now that she was stunned and didn't see Zhang Xiaofan's heroic posture.