Inside the mindscape of the person, there was a thick fog clouding the area completely blocking her vision. After scanning the area for a while, Ling Lan couldn't determine where the main consciousness was. However, Ling Lan wasn't worried as she had another way around it. She controlled her spiritual power to encase her whole body and slowly walk deeper into the fog. This seemingly easy series of action actually made Ling Lan release many droplets of sweat from her body, showing how strained and how much pressure her body was withstanding. It seemed these series of action was not as easy as one would assume.
After searching for more than ten minutes, she finally found a silhouette of a person huddled in a corner near her. Ling Lan was overjoyed and immediately controlled her spiritual power to move herself closer to the silhouette.
The silhouette seemed to have felt something and raised his head towards Ling Lan's direction. Usually, Ling Lan would see a masked Li Lanfeng. However, what she saw was a beautiful face similar to Li Yinfei.
After realizing that Ling Lan was coming towards him, Li Lanfeng's face instantly became pale. His knee-jerk reaction was to actually run away from Ling Lan.
"Li Lanfeng, if you dare to even move a single step away from me, I will destroy you." Li Lanfeng trying to escape from her completely angered Ling Lan, causing her to immediately threaten him.Li Lanfeng, of course, didn't dare to move again. Knowing Ling Lan, he knew that her threat was not a joke. Although he was shy and unwilling to meet Ling Lan in his current state, he didn't want to upset her too much.
"Heh, why so obedient now." Ling Lan looked at Li Lanfeng coldly. She then took out her hand and took advantage of Li Lanfeng's beautiful face. No, she was actually pinching it to see how it felt…. Ling Lan was definitely a pervert. She forcefully pinched his face, wanting to use pain to tell Li Lanfeng that running away was not a choice.
"Ling, Ling, Ling Lan…" Li Lanfeng who was always joking and confident, was now actually nervous and stuttering.
"Huh?" Ling Lan looked directly at his face with a cold stare. The meaning behind her attitude and expression was that as his regiment commander, she was very angry with the decision he had made. Hence, she took away his liberty to call her by her name.
It was no surprise that Li Lanfeng understood Ling Lan best and knew what her attitude and expression implied. He instantly shouted in sad tone, "Regiment commander!"
"Tell me, why are you hiding here?" Ling Lan looked at the main consciousness that was fully awake and asked irritably.
"Because you were coming, regiment commander." Every since Li Lanfeng heard the news from Li Shiyu in the afternoon, he began to panic. He was filled with anxiety until it was deep into the night, after tossing and turning in his bed for a couple of hours, he forced himself to sleep so he could escape from reality for a while, but couldn't even escape it in his dreams. He didn't want to tell Ling Lan that in his dream, after Ling Lan knew he had lied to her, she used a merciless tone to tell him that their friendship was over. Obviously, he could never accept such an outcome. Thus, he continuously tried to change the outcome of the dream. Unfortunately, he had not succeeded and thus was trapped in his mindscape."It seems that you know that your lie isn't forgivable." Ling Lan laughed coldly. "But, will running away solve it Li Lanfeng!?"
Ling Lan's right hand suddenly pinched Li Lanfeng's lowered chin as she looked straight into Li Lanfeng's eyes. The immense pressure made Li Lanfeng weak in his knees. Ling Lan then said in a sharp tone, "I really don't care if my companions have secrets. This is your own personal issue and I'm not interested in knowing. But, I hate it when in the face of problems, people don't actively try to figure out a solution to the problem, but instead run away. I DON'T WANT YOU TO BE THAT TYPE OF PERSON!"
Li Lanfeng closed his eyes in shame and resisted. He shook Ling Lan's right hand off of him. He held his face and said, "I didn't want to either, but I was scared. I was scared that you wouldn't forgive me. I was afraid you would abandon me, afraid it would break our bond…"
"But, I really didn't want to lie to you. Ling Lan, please forgive me, please…"
Li Lanfeng's tears fell down uncontrollably. As a person who had the Phoenix Thrall Fate, life was not easy. He hated his own face and didn't want people to look at him differently just by the virtue of his face. If it was possible, he wanted to completely destroy his face. However he had once made a promise that before he succeeded in changing his fate, he would definitely not do anything about his face. Otherwise, he would lose every resource the Li family gave him…
In the end, he still wasn't decisive enough to make a decision. If he had half of Ling Lan's firmness, perhaps he wouldn't have lived such a humiliating life, so lonely and exhausting.
"Forgive you? What should I forgive you for?" Ling Lan's cold voice rang beside Li Lanfeng's ears. Li Lanfeng immediately opened his eyes. He didn't when, but he actually woke up and his entire body was leaning against Ling Lan's chest.
Although Ling Lan still had coldness in her expression, Li Lanfeng didn't know why he felt a warm feeling instead when he touched his arms and his strong but powerless chest.
"What did you lie to me about? Li Lanfeng, tell me, what do you want me to forgive you for?" Ling Lan leaned on Li Lanfeng's head and spoke softly. The breath coming out of her mouth brush against Li Lanfeng's ears. This made Li Lanfeng feel a sort of electricity that he couldn't describe. He suddenly curled up his body while his face blushed.
"I didn't show you my real face when we formed our friendship. Although I didn't lie on purpose, I still lied to you. I'm really sorry." Li Lanfeng was still a calm individual. Although his current predicament being in Ling Lan's arms was somewhat awkward and uncomfortable, he could still quickly compose himself and return to how he was normally.
"I said it before, I don't care what your secret is. If this face is your secret, I still do not care, so you didn't do me any wrong. So there's no lying or any need for forgiveness. You don't have to apologize to me." Ling Lan told Li Lanfeng her opinion about the matter.
Back then, in the virtual mecha world, the two of them never met face to face. However, Ling Lan knew that this friendship between the two of them was very real. How could she be petty and angry at something like this since they never met with their true face in the very beginning? Furthermore, she also hid a secret that she had never told the public. If she couldn't even tell them her own secrets, she, of course, wouldn't demand her companions to tell their own.
Ling Lan's words made Li Lanfeng's eyes glimmer, "Thank you, Ling Lan."
"Don't thank me. However, I'm curious to know about your relationship between Li Shiyu." If Li Shiyu lived in the Li family's mansion on Planet Azure and Li Lanfeng also lived there, then Li Lanfeng was definitely not just a descendant of a branch family like he had once mentioned.
Li Lanfeng was constantly worried that Ling Lan would break up their friendship because of his fake persona and how he had lied to her. After receiving a decisive answer from her, he no longer had any doubts and was also in a good mood. He told everything to Ling Lan, including his real identity, Li Mulan, the first heir of the Li family. However, as for the Phoenix Thrall Fate, Li Lanfeng didn't say anything about it. It wasn't because he didn't want to tell Ling Lan, but it was because he didn't know how to explain it. He was afraid that Ling Lan would look down on him after he told him… anyone could look down on him, but only Ling Lan couldn't!
Li Lanfeng knew that he was on the urge of drowning. He clung onto his last remaining lifeline and never wanted to let go. Ling Lan was his only friend. He couldn't accept the fact that this person who he acknowledged and trusted would look at him with tinted glasses. This would break him.
Although he knew the possibility of that was low and how Ling Lan was not that type of person, he was still scared and swallowed his words.
Li Lanfeng spoke softly and Ling Lan listened without making a sound. Ling Lan continued to hold Li Lanfeng in her arms. No one wanted to change this and no one was going to change this. It was because Ling Lan was holding Li Lanfeng's hands and was using her Chi to heal his body. Li Lanfeng, on the other hand, was drowning in the warm yet cool aura coming off from Ling Lan. He was enjoying Ling Lan's care and love. This made him feel that he wasn't fighting alone against his own fate where now he had a strong companion supporting him.
After Li Lanfeng finished explaining, the entire room became silent once again.
"Li Mulan! Are you going to be satisfied if I forgive you?" After being silent for a long while, Ling Lan finally spoke, but her tone was even colder and sharper than before.
Is he angry? Li Lanfeng was surprised. His body, that was originally leaning into Ling Lan's arms instantly froze up.
"Then what should I do?" Li Lanfeng didn't know on to respond. What did Rabbit's words mean? Didn't he say that he didn't care? Was he lying?
"What should you do?" Ling Lan's expression was sharp. If it was said that she wasn't angry at the beginning, she was now actually angry. "Li Lanfeng, when you were Li Lanfeng, I never had any complaints with you. But I now have a complaint about Li Mulan."
"Why?" Li Lanfeng asked in shock. Weren't both of these people him?
Ling Lan stood up and pressed Li Lanfeng onto the bed with her eyes with a hint of killing intent, "That's because Li Mulan had forsaken someone."
Li Lanfeng was her most important friend, but Li Shiyu was also a team member who she cared greatly about. Li Lanfeng didn't forsake the others in Lingtian. He only had forsaken his own cousin, Li Shiyu.
Ling Lan's words made Li Lanfeng unable to respond. After a long while, he said, "You're right, I have forsaken Shiyu." Li Lanfeng had pained expression on his face, a face that everyone in the world would adore actually made Ling Lan pity him. However, this couldn't change Ling Lan's opinion about the matter. Ling Lan was someone who was able to endure the allure of beauty.
"But, I don't know how to tell him. Should I just give it to him straight and tell him I am Li Lanfeng, who had lied to him from when he was a child and was not actually as weak as he had thought? I don't know whether or not Shiyu would go insane if he hears that. He had already sacrificed so much because of me…" Li Lanfeng had been thinking about this long and hard about this problem. Now, he was being blamed by Ling Lan and thus felt his defenses around his heart breaking down, so spoke out all he had in his mind in an instant.
"Li Lanfeng, there is only one chance. If you miss this chance, you might actually lose your younger brother if he finds out in the future." Ling Lan warned. She didn't want the Li brothers in her team to break their bonds because of this incident. If it did happen, she would be the one who would have the headaches.
Li Lanfeng's expression froze. After a long while, he replied, "I will consider it…"
