On the Seven Towers

Li Jia was walking in a small forest not far from the school. The autumn sunshine was not exactly warm, but his forehead was still sweating slightly. He was a little nervous, but also a little expectant.

Because at this time, he was not alone, Selinda was walking beside him. She was still carrying the basket, with some bread and fruits vaguely visible in it. She was still wearing the same coarse clothes on her upper body, but she had changed into a red skirt that was a bit old in color. Li Jia knew that for a poor farm girl, this might be her best skirt. Her long fiery red hair was tied up with a piece of white cloth, exposing her swan-like head and neck, making Li Jia keep peeking at her from the corner of his eye.

It seemed like this was a well-prepared date, Li Jia thought excitedly. This is the fourth time they have met. Every time before, they met quietly in school. Today, as soon as Selinda met at the secret stronghold, she pulled him out. Li Jia's heart kept beating when she thought that the girl would take the initiative to invite him for an outing.

The two of them walked slowly and quietly. Li Jia enjoyed the silence, but was afraid that it would become evidence of his boredom. He felt the need to say something to break the silence.

"It's so nice here." Li Jia pushed up his glasses, looked up at the sky, and said seriously.

"Okay!" Selinda looked back at him and smiled.

Li Jia knew that she was just repeating her words in her own voice, just like a child learning to talk. But he always felt that she could understand everything, and this feeling gave him the desire to talk.

"In the past, there was a forest like this in the park not far from my house. Every time I did not do well in the exam, I would comfort myself and buy some KFC and eat it while walking in the forest. Every time I did well in the exam, Sometimes, I will reward myself, or buy some KFC and eat while walking in the woods. But no matter what the situation, there is only one person. I will think, damn the exam, I am still the same. People eat KFC.”

Selinda tilted her head to listen to what he said, with a confused look on her face, and repeated it again: "KFC?"

Li Jia chuckled and said, "KFC is really nostalgic. If I could go back now, I would definitely be able to finish a whole family bucket. I will buy two, one for you and one for me, and eat them until I die."

"Family bucket?"

Li Jia raised his head and glanced at the other person's confused look, and laughed happily. He gestured like he was taking rice into his mouth, "Well, it's just some delicious junk food that I've eaten before. But then again , now that you are here, it doesn’t matter if you don’t go back. Well, actually, I want to say that who you eat with is much more important than what you eat.”

Selinda seemed to have misunderstood what he meant. Seeing him acting like he wanted to eat, she thought he was hungry, so she quickly pulled him to sit on a stone, put down the basket, took out the bread and handed it to him.

The bread was very hard and dark, but Li Jia knew that it was already very good food for people in the surrounding villages and towns. He broke off a very small piece and stuffed it in his mouth, then pushed most of the rest back into Selinda's hand. Unexpectedly, Selinda followed suit and broke off a small piece to eat, then handed the rest back to him. The two people went back and forth, the bread became smaller and smaller, but a strange tacit understanding began to flow between them.

If things continue like this, it will be a perfect afternoon.

However, before the bread was finished, Li Jia suddenly heard the sound of dead branches being trampled off behind him. He looked back and was so frightened that he dropped the bread to the ground. More than ten meters away, two sturdy men in black, with their faces covered and holding sharp knives, appeared out of nowhere. The two of them approached quietly, but when Li Jia noticed them, they quickened their pace and rushed towards them.

Li Jia was horrified, picked up Selinda and ran away. Selinda, who was confused, looked back and quickly followed Li Jia to escape.

Li Jia hurriedly glanced at the school roof in the distance, where the treetops were exposed, and secretly regretted that she had walked so far without knowing it, at least two or three kilometers away from the school. He believed that as long as he got close to the school, he would encounter a patrol team. No matter how fierce the bandits behind them were, they would not be a match for "five or six and a half".

However, they were too close, only seven or eight meters away from Li Jia at most. And Li Jia was running with a girl... Li Jia's heart sank when he heard Selinda's heavy breathing next to him.

Sure enough, before running fifty meters, Selinda seemed to trip over something and fell to the ground with a scream. Li Jia's palm slipped and Selinda lost her hand. He turned around and saw that Selinda was being held in front of her by a man in black, and a long sword was pressed against her neck.

Li Jia pulled out a dagger from his waist and shouted: "Let her go!" His voice was full of nervousness.

When the other man in black saw that Li Jia was no longer running away, he did not press forward. Instead, he pointed his sword at Li Jia from a distance and yelled at him.

Li Jia couldn't understand what the other party was saying at all. He could only watch Selinda being held hostage with a pale face, then waved the small dagger vigorously and shouted over and over again: "Let her go!".

"Surrender... follow me!" Suddenly, the man in black spoke a very blunt Chinese sentence with a strange tone, but Li Jia understood it.

"You...can actually speak Chinese?" Li Jia said in astonishment.

"Surrender and leave!" The man in black pointed at Selinda, "If you don't surrender, you will die."

Li Jia's mind was racing, and he suddenly understood something and said, "You are definitely not ordinary robbers. You are here specifically to catch me, right?"

"Hmph, that's right! You... can't... escape!" the man in black said forcefully.

Li Jia suddenly put the dagger on his throat and shouted loudly: "If you let her go, I will surrender. If you don't agree, I would rather die here."

This action not only shocked the two men in black, but even Serinda, who was kidnapped, was surprised and looked at Li Jia with a complicated expression.

The two men in black looked at each other, and the one who spoke sneered and said: "If you die... we will catch others!"

"But will there be such an opportunity as today? As long as you promise me to let her go, I will go with you obediently. Not only have you completed the task, but you don't have to take risks anymore. I'm just an ordinary person who can't do magic. If you meet a really powerful warrior or wizard, you may not even be able to save your life!" Li Jia said.

The man in black didn't know if he understood what he said. He hesitated and discussed with another robber in a low voice. Li Jia pointed the dagger at his throat, and his heart was in chaos. He knew it would be difficult for him to escape today. All he could do was to use his own value to save Serinda's life. I hope you can escape, or at least send a message to the people in the school, he looked at her with some despair.

However, what puzzled him was that Serinda was not panicking at this time, but a firm look slowly appeared on her face. While the two robbers were still arguing, she slowly reached into her pocket and secretly took out a knife. The knife was originally used to cut food, and it was only two inches long. Serinda held it in her hand backwards, which was not conspicuous.

She gave him a resolute look, which made Li Jia's heart tremble. Then, she gritted her teeth and stabbed the knife into the thigh of the robber behind her. Then she bent over and bumped back.

The robber's weapon fell to the ground, and he covered his thigh with his hand and fell backward with a scream. The other robber was stunned by the sudden change, but he didn't expect that what followed was the knife thrown by Serinda and the kick from Li Jia.

Li Jia never thought that he would fight desperately with a knife-wielding gangster. Normally, if he encountered such a situation, he would definitely run as far as possible. But when Serinda pulled out the knife, he somehow found enough courage and rushed over without hesitation.

Maybe Serinda's movements were too fast, or maybe the flying knife distracted him, Li Jia's foot actually kicked the man in black in the lower body, and the man groaned and knelt down.

"Run!" Li Jia quickly pulled Serinda up and went into the woods.

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After running for a long time in a panic, the two finally arrived at the secret exit of the school exhausted. Li Jia looked back at the woods behind him with lingering fear. There was no trace of the man in black.

He panted, hugged Serinda, and murmured, "Fortunately, fortunately, you are fine. We escaped. We really escaped. I was scared to death."

Serinda was hugged by him, a little overwhelmed, and her body became stiff, but she relaxed after listening to Li Jia's nagging post-disaster speech, and began to pat his back gently with her hands.

Li Jia talked for a while before slowly coming to his senses. He held Serinda's arms with both hands, looked at her and said, "Thank you. If you hadn't been so brave today, we would have been finished. But I'm also very happy, because I understand one thing, I really like you, and I'm willing to fight for you. I'm really, really happy to understand this."

Looking at Serinda's blushing face and puzzled eyes, Li Jia smiled self-deprecatingly and said, "I didn't expect that others didn't understand my first confession at all. But it doesn't matter, you will understand one day. Now, hurry back to the village. Take the main road, be careful!"

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Not long after Serinda left the main road, several people came out of the woods and came to her side. Nina was the leader, and the two black-clad robbers took off the black cloth on their faces and followed her. The two were agile and didn't look injured at all. It seemed that the previous battle was just acting.

"Your magic words are too bad!" Serinda said to the two robbers unhappily.

"That's ancient language after all. We dare not compete with you." A man in black said with embarrassment.

"But the guy understood. And his reaction was quite brave." Another robber added.

A smile appeared on Serinda's face, but she quickly covered it up, "Let's stop here for today."

"Miss, why did you change your mind?" Nina asked softly.

"I suddenly don't want to capture him and torture him." Serinda said lightly.

"This..., didn't you say that there is not much progress now?"

"I think... maybe if we keep the status quo, we will get more." Serinda waved her hand and walked into the depths of the forest first.