"Hey!"
"careful!"
A gasp and a warning rang out simultaneously, from a man and a woman. The woman's voice was naturally hers, but the man's voice seemed to have appeared out of nowhere, belonging to Zhao Linwei.
Nie Qingyue stopped and looked in front of her. It wasn't Zhao Linwei who had bumped into her. His pale skin was covered in freckles, and his features were gentle and ordinary. Nie Qingyue laughed, "How many times has this happened? What do you get out of bumping into me, girl?"
The woman who bumped into her had just regained her balance and was still disoriented when she heard this. She hurriedly explained, "Last time it was Qiao'er..." Her voice trailed off, then she paused abruptly, before continuing, "Qiao'er doesn't remember ever offending Miss Nie in the past. Please forgive me this time, Miss Nie." A hint of annoyance flashed across her delicate brows.
"Really? Then I remembered it wrong."
Nie Qingyue raised an eyebrow, remaining noncommittal, his gaze falling on Zhao Linwei's hand, which was tightly gripping Qiao'er's arm. Qiao'er reacted, pulling her hand away and taking a step back from Zhao Linwei. "Thank you for your help, young master." Zhao Shuyue frowned, then shrugged and said indifferently, "It's nothing."
Before Nie Qingyue could ask anything, Qiao'er glanced at Zhao Linwei, then lowered her head, said goodbye, and hurriedly left.
On the street in front of the ancient temple, only Nie Qingyue and Zhao Linwei stood facing each other.
After a long pause, Zhao Linwei finally smiled and asked, "Want a drink?"
"The usual." Nie Qingyue nodded.
A pot of wine and a cup of tea.
The two sat quietly outside the tavern facing the street, watching the bustling pedestrians.
As Nie Qingyue put down her teacup, her arm accidentally knocked over an empty food box next to her seat. The food box rolled to the ground, its exquisitely carved mahogany lid flipped open, and several bowls and plates with leftover food spilled out.
Nie Qingyue sighed and squatted down to slowly tidy up. Only then did Zhao Linwei's voice slowly emerge from above: "I'm sorry."
"It wasn't you who knocked it over."
"You know that's not what I meant."
Nie Qingyue looked up at him, her gaze direct and calm: "My imagination isn't that rich." Various signs seemed intricately connected, yet she couldn't come up with a reasonable explanation to link everything together.
Outside Mo Yue's room, when she first bumped into Qiao'er, she was dressed as a man, disguised as Doctor Li's closed-door disciple. Logically, Qiao'er shouldn't have known that the person she bumped into was actually her. However, when she deliberately said it happened multiple times and questioned Qiao'er's intentions, Qiao'er panicked, trying to explain before hastily changing her story.
In other words, Qiao'er knew her identity that day.
Nie Qingyue tidied up her things, then sat back down on the long wooden bench to drink tea. She saw Zhao Linwei lower his eyes to pour wine, his dark, sword-like eyebrows softening, making his whole face look much gentler. Suddenly, for some reason, she thought of the pages and pages of the character "Lin" that she had flipped through when she was locked in Mo Yue's room.
"You know Miss Mo, don't you?" The vague yet bold guess slipped out unconsciously as soon as it occurred to him. If one had to make that connection, the character that should have appeared on the paper was "尉" (Wei), but it was precisely this ambiguous concealment that made people more suspicious.
Zhao Linwei put down the wine glass that had just touched his lips, stared at her for a long time before saying, "It's more than just knowing each other."
This is tantamount to tacitly agreeing with her assumption.
"It was unexpected to involve Yan Shu," Zhao Linwei added, "It was the Prince's doing. But Mo Yue doesn't want things to fall apart halfway."
Nie Qingyue ran her fingers along the rim of the cup: "I only care about when Yan Shu can get out of that hellhole."
The next morning, when Nie Qingyue got up to prepare meals, she remembered that Yan Shu had told her to rest for a day. Yu Che had gone to help at Sanritang, leaving her alone in the large courtyard.
It seemed like she had never felt this courtyard so empty before. Nie Qingyue was so bored that she felt restless. She stayed in her room, waking up and falling asleep repeatedly, and found that it was getting dark. She glanced at the blue robe that had been taken out and placed by the bed, and the bloodstains looked dark after they dried.
Feeling uneasy, she crawled out of bed, grabbed her clothes, and went to the kitchen. She boiled some water, threw the clothes in, and resignedly began washing. Her fingers were raw and chapped from soaking, and even after wringing the clothes dry, faint dark stains were still visible under the lamplight.
Actually, it should have been discovered much earlier. One night after returning from the Thirteenth Prince's residence, he suddenly changed into a dark-colored autumn robe that he rarely wore, presumably when he changed out of the blood-stained blue robe. However, I was too busy bickering with Yu Che at the time to ask any questions.
Just thinking about it makes me feel restless, irritable, and anxious.
A jumble of emotions surged up inside Nie Qingyue, who threw her clothes back into the water and got up to walk outside. Her hands, still dripping wet, were quickly dried by the biting wind outside, leaving them stiff and icy cold. Her face seemed frozen, unable to make any expression.
With curfew approaching, there were few pedestrians on the streets.
Nie Qingyue snapped out of her daze and found herself standing unknowingly at the back door of the dungeon.
There were no patrolling guards at the door. A cold, sharp clanging sound came from the crack in the door, accompanied by a heavy, muffled cry of pain. Nie Qingyue tried to push the door open, and a strong stench of blood rushed in from the west wind; the scene was chaotic.
Uniformed soldiers were fighting with men in black, while on the other side, men also dressed in black were killing each other. Several people had already fallen to the ground, their deep red blood staining the ground. She stood by the door, unsure of what to do. No one had noticed her yet, and it seemed she should run away for her own safety, but her feet seemed rooted to the spot, unwilling to move an inch.
The masked man in black on the far left is pulling a person dressed in a single layer of clothing as they break through the encirclement, their path marked by the sharp glint of blades.
She suddenly caught her breath.
Although his facial features were obscured, there was no doubt that the figure was Yan Shu. The man in black protected Yan Shu while dealing with the entanglements of the two groups of people around them. His movements were no longer as sharp and swift as before, and several times he barely dodged the blades or was narrowly saved by his companions who were busy dealing with the situation.
Two long swords were about to swiftly press down on their backs.
Watch out behind you!
The man in black glanced at her, then reflexively swung his sword backhand with tremendous force, parrying the blow. With his other hand, he tossed something towards her. The object bounced off the wall and landed on the ground. Nie Qingyue stared at the approximate location, crouched down, and groped for it, pulling it into her palm—a wooden whistle.
A gust of cold wind blew past her ears, and when she looked up, she saw Yan Shu had somehow picked up a knife from the ground to block an attacking sword for her.
The man in black who had come towards her was quickly entangled by another man in black. "Run!" The urgent and powerful shout was clear and melodious; it was Shu Song.
Nie Qingyue had no time to think and seized the opportunity to pull Yan Shu away. A sharp, clear whistle rang out, and a tall, fine horse galloped swiftly from the street corner. Just as Yan Shu mounted the horse and reached out his hand to her, the door behind them was smashed open, and a man in black, wielding a long knife, swung it down at Yan Shu.
Without thinking, she yanked the reins hard, and the horse turned and ran away, narrowly avoiding her, but it rammed her two steps closer to the blade.
"Back!" Shu Song stepped to the door, her urgent shout ringing out, and her long sword flashed. The man in black fell, but the knife, propelled by gravity and inertia, slipped from his hand and struck her leg.
Nie Qingyue retreated, but it was too late.
All sensations in my body seemed to disappear, except for the overwhelming, intense pain in my legs, which brought a brief moment of dizziness.
The scenery before her eyes spun, and a gentle voice called her name, tinged with an unusual anxiety. She opened her eyes and realized that Yan Shu had returned and lifted her onto the horse. Amidst the jolting, the sounds of clashing weapons grew fainter, while the rapid hoofbeats of the horse became increasingly clear in the silent night.
The night wind was cool, carrying a chilling and desolate feel that made one uneasy.
The horse galloped along but turned into a nearby long street and ran towards its end.
"Where are we going?" she asked, enduring the pain.
"Go get it bandaged first."
"I don't want to go to the clinic!" She snatched the reins from his hand and tried to turn the horse around, her body swaying as she nearly fell off.
"Listen to me!" Yan Shu's face turned cold, and he tightened his left arm around her waist, his voice louder than ever before. They were about to stop in front of the Li Family Medical Clinic.
"I don't want to go!" she shouted back, only realizing afterward that her face was warm with tears. Her chest ached, and even the pain in her feet seemed to have become numb.
The pursuers could arrive at any moment, and going to the clinic now would be extremely risky. Even if Yan Shu simply helped her inside before mounting his horse and escaping, no one knew what would happen during that wasted time.
Besides, she didn't want to go. She didn't know when he was injured in the past, and she didn't know what he and Shu Song were investigating that made the Thirteenth Prince so ruthless. But she didn't want to stay by his side in this confused state, without knowing anything, and let him encounter and experience things she didn't know about, things that weren't as peaceful and comfortable as the life he gave her.
If I go this time, how long will we be apart again? And how much will happen? I don't know.
"Nie Qingyue".
"I'm sorry. You can think it's foolish or willful, but if my stubbornness causes any trouble for you in the future, I'm very sorry."
"But for me now, even if this leg is crippled or broken, compared to separating from you, it is something I have absolutely no regrets about."
She spoke with utmost seriousness, her eyes still glistening with tears. Yet, her hands gripped the reins firmly and stubbornly, turning the horse to the right, her knees clenching tightly around its flanks. The horse neighed, raised its front legs, and galloped towards the mountains east of the city.
Even if the future is not filled with flowers and brocade, and the road is not smooth and easy, even if the road ahead is full of steep cliffs and precipices.
She wanted to be with him.
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Chapter 36
Empty mountains and secluded valleys.
The galloping horse's hooves clattered desolately, each thud feeling like a blow to her heart.
Even though Yan Shu chose to walk along secluded and deep paths, he could still faintly hear the chaotic sounds of other horses chasing after him, which grew closer and closer as time went by.
Nie Qingyue couldn't explain what she was thinking at that moment. She didn't care about the consequences of being caught, or her leg, which was so painful it was almost numb. All she wanted was to go faster and move forward. The road ahead seemed endless, and the biting cold wind whipping at her face made even the night feel chaotic and turbulent.
However, in that instant, the horse suddenly let out a short neigh, and a huge feeling of weightlessness came over her. By the time she reacted, she had already fallen onto the uneven muddy ground along with the staggering horse.
It seems the horse stepped into a muddy ditch on the road.
Without a second thought, Yan Shu shielded her, picked up the whip lying nearby, and lashed it hard at the horse that had just regained its footing. The horse neighed in pain and galloped wildly towards the nearby bushes. He then scooped her up and rolled over, the two of them tumbling into the roadside overgrown weeds that were as tall as a person.
Before they could catch their breath, the light of torches pierced through the thin gaps in the grass. The pursuing soldiers stopped before a small mud pit, illuminating the horse's haphazard hoofprints with their torches. Then, the leader waved his hand towards the woods, and half the group charged in. The other half dismounted, brandishing torches and wildly stabbing at the bushes on either side with their longswords. The last soldier was about to reach their hiding place.
"Step back." Yan Shu whispered in her ear, making sure Nie Qingyue had moved to the very back before crouching forward, waiting for his chance to strike. His usually gentle eyes were now filled with focused sharpness, as if he wanted to seize the weapon before the knife could be thrust down.
The distance of three steps gradually closed, yet the expected strike remained elusive. Before the soldier could even extend his torch and raise his blade, the tranquil night was once again shattered by the rapid sound of hooves. The searching soldiers froze, turning to see only what had previously been...
In the dark distance, the flames grew stronger, and a group of men in black rode swiftly towards them.
"Gather together!" At the command, the scattered soldiers quickly regrouped. A fierce battle ensued, the clashing of hard weapons producing a piercing wail.
Could it be one of Shu Song's people? She tugged at Yan Shu's sleeve, asking with her eyes.
Yan Shu patted her shoulder, signaling her to sit still. He squinted at the intense battle, where the man was wielding his long sword with great force. Finally, he retreated to her side.
A low wall formed by dense grass separated the carnage a meter away from the bloody battle involving spears and short blades. The dull thuds of weapons piercing flesh and the painful struggles of those falling to the ground seemed to be carried away by the north wind, faint and indistinct. Yet, the terror of each second hidden in the narrow shadows was clear and etched into one's bones.
Nie Qingyue hugged her knees tightly and looked into the narrow gap in the grass, where a sliver of light could be faintly seen.
Perhaps it was only for a moment, perhaps it was half an hour, but the howling wind that had been echoing far and wide finally stopped.
Half a quarter of an hour ago, the soldier who had been standing not far in front of them had fallen outside the grass in front of them, and the blood that flowed out had seeped into the soil and was indistinguishable in color.
The leader in black sheathed his sword, surveyed the scattered corpses of soldiers along the road and the sparse, messy grass on both sides, ripped apart by his long sword, gave a gesture, and a group of men swiftly mounted their horses and chased after the woods.
When the mountains and fields returned to silence, she loosened her arms that were tightly hugging her knees and leaned weakly against the hard, cold mountain wall behind her.
Yan Shu waited a while longer before carrying her on his back and walking towards the top of the mountain.
The moonlight was dim, and the places reflecting light along the roadside were mostly ponds and springs. He carefully avoided them with steady steps, when suddenly he felt a weight on his neck. Could someone really fall asleep like this? He turned his head slightly and could only see the outline of the person on his back, stretching along the tip of their nose. Their eyes were open, blinking slightly, and half of their face was quietly buried against his neck, seemingly lost in thought.
I had already given a cursory check of the injury on the way here. The blood soaking half of my trouser leg was a shocking sight, but the actual situation was more optimistic than I had expected. I just hadn't had time or resources to treat it. It must have been really painful, right? I glanced at the distance to the summit and realized it wasn't far, so I quickened my pace unconsciously.
"Does it hurt a lot?" He turned his head and pressed his cheek against hers, which was cold from the wind.
His head, which had been buried in his hands, sluggishly moved from side to side for a long while before his voice was weak and feeble: "I ran out without having dinner."