Er kämpft in allen Himmeln und unzähligen Welten

Kapitel 9

At this critical juncture, I suddenly remembered Xiaojin. It was in this stone chamber that she touched my head and told me not to be fierce, to be good, saying that's how men would like me.

The moment I thought of this, I felt a deep sadness even before I opened my mouth. It turns out that I have fallen to this level, and I have to act like an ordinary woman, showing weakness to gain other people's sympathy.

It doesn't matter, I'm willing to show weakness as long as he answers my questions.

I softened my voice, looked at him, and slowly asked again.

"What about the monsoon?"

He lowered his head, leaned closer to me, and slowly replied with three words.

"have no idea."

Chapter 26

If this were in the palace, I would order someone to drag this man away and cut him into a thousand pieces; if my elder brother were by my side, I would make him chop this man into dumpling filling for me; if Ji Feng were by my side…

If Ji Feng were here with me… My face flushed, and tears suddenly welled up in my eyes. If Ji Feng were here with me, I wouldn’t have to suffer these grievances. He has always made arrangements for me. It’s my fault.

Cheng Wei stood up again, and I glared at him while crying, "Don't stab me again, do you hear me? Don't."

He said, "You're not going to ask anymore? You're leaving without asking me."

I shouted again, "Don't go! Stop right there! Do you hear me? No!"

He stopped, lowered his head slightly, and looked at me in the shadows, which made his features appear even more striking. He simply said...

"I thought you'd learned your lesson."

I was stunned for a moment, then immediately understood, but the words had already been spoken and couldn't be taken back. Besides, I'm not a chameleon; no matter how flexible I am, I can't change my face like the weather. The sadness in my heart was still there, and thinking about the despair, I couldn't help but close my eyes and fall silent.

I smelled herbs coming from Cheng Wei. I stopped talking, but he didn't leave. I felt a slight stinging sensation on my body. I opened my eyes in surprise and saw him picking out the gold needles one by one and storing them on a long black cloth belt. His movements were fluid.

"That's right. You need to learn to cultivate your character and temperament. Your body can't withstand such a fiery temper."

Exhausted, I stared at him in silence, while he, however, became interested and continued talking with great enthusiasm.

“I didn’t believe Chengping when he told me about your pulse. Someone with such an extremely cold constitution is one in a million. It’s really foolish of those quack doctors in the palace to keep you alive with extremely hot tonics for so many years. If it were me, I would first use acupuncture to open up your acupoints, and then cut open the places where your blood vessels are blocked to disperse the cold. Only then can the root of the problem be cured.”

He spoke with great enthusiasm, but I had absolutely no interest in him. He glanced at me and added wickedly.

"Do you know where your blood is blocked? Are you scared?" He said, pointing to my heart with his finger.

I glanced at him silently and shook my head.

He sighed. "Aren't you afraid?"

What is there to fear? Overnight, my life has been turned upside down. It seems impossible to return to my former life. Ji Feng's fate is unknown, and the place I belonged to has been usurped by a fake princess. The Taoist priest and Cheng Wei both said I wouldn't live past sixteen, so what? I'm already past thirteen this year, and I've always lived a life of mere existence. Now that I've fallen to this state, what's the point of dying?

Seeing that I didn't care about my own life or death, he broke out in a sweat, then sat down and started talking again.

"What are you thinking about? You can't think about dying. This treatment is very dangerous. You have to focus on living, otherwise I won't be able to make the right decision when I make the incision."

I noticed a hint of worry in his voice, as if this blow was a major event for him. I felt a strange unease. Although I was saddened, I couldn't help but glance at him again. Cheng Wei looked exactly like Cheng Ping, but upon closer inspection, the two were completely different. His expression was outward, and his eyes were very clear. Now, looking at me with eyes full of trouble, it was clear that he wasn't faking it.

It seems he really values this one cut he made on me...

Just as dragons have nine sons, each different, so too are the children of monsters. Some are cold-hearted, while others are inexplicably crazy about their hobbies. There's nothing strange about that.

A thought crossed my mind, and I spoke again, "This Empress..." Then I thought it was wrong and changed my mind, "I didn't want you to heal me, but who knew you weren't here to harm me."

He frowned, and finally began to explain.

"I wouldn't harm you. Someone entrusted you to Chengjiazhuang. Otherwise, why would I have traveled all the way from the border to come here?"

"Who entrusted me to you?" I asked slowly and cautiously.

"Naturally, it's Ji Feng. Who else could it be?" He didn't hide anything and shrugged. "General Ji has done a favor for the leader of the Three Villages and Nine Sects. Since the Ji family has asked, how could we refuse?"

Although I had a vague idea of the answer, hearing him say Ji Feng's name so clearly still stirred my heart and brought tears to my eyes. Afraid that I would cry again, I had to grit my teeth and hold on, and ask again.

Why did he entrust me to you?

“Miss.” He shrugged, then changed his words, “No, Your Highness, you know how monstrous your family is, don’t you? Hundreds of members of the Ji family are in the Heavenly Prison. How else could they get out? Actually, it wouldn’t have been difficult. We could have just broken them out of prison. But the Alliance Leader has already gone down there, and General Ji refuses to leave, saying it’s treason. His poor son has to be both a loyal subject and a filial son, and he also has to take care of you. So we had no choice but to resort to this tactic.”

I took a breath, wanting to yell at him for being so disrespectful, but then I realized it was true and held back. When I spoke again, my voice became shrill as I got to the most painful part.

“Then you just watch him, he…” I wanted to say, then you just watch him die? But the word trembled on my lips, and before I could say it, my heart ached so much that I couldn’t say it at all, so I had to stop.

He actually understood, and then he really sighed, "So that's not how it is. Who knew someone hated you so much, suddenly appearing out of nowhere, not letting go of anything, real or fake."

He looked troubled, and I knew he wasn't lying to me. In fact, with so much chaos and everything happening so suddenly, it was impossible for them to have arranged it all.

I thought for a moment and then spoke again, trying to soften my voice and plead slightly.

"You're telling me he's not dead, right?"

He frowned. "If he dies, will you die?"

I gasped, my lips trembling.

Cheng Wei was at his wit's end. He stood up and paced back and forth, finally saying, "Let's wait for Xiao Jin to come back. She should know the result."

~~ ...

Hai: Everyone's been asking about Ping An and Ji Feng's ages. Here's the update: Ping An is thirteen, not young anymore. She's not very tall, but not too short either. She climbs up and down because her legs aren't very strong, not because she can't reach the chair surface… As for Ji Feng squatting down to talk to her, it's probably because bending over is tiring… sigh.

Ji Feng, well, the handsome young man is eighteen years old. He went to war with his father and brothers when he was fifteen. Three years have passed, and he has fallen to such a miserable state. As for the relationship between Ji Feng's father and the leader of the alliance, we'll talk about it later. As for those assassins who inexplicably came to join the fun, we'll explain them later too. In short... if you don't understand, don't beat up Hai...

Narrator: You've been talking for so long, but the most important thing is probably the last sentence...

Chapter 27

The next day I stayed in the stone chamber. Besides Cheng Wei, there was someone else taking care of my meals and such. It was a little girl, about my age, but she always had a stern face. She would bring in the food, walk straight to the bedside and slam it down, and glare at me. Her attitude was so bad that it was as if I were her father's killer.

I'm caught up in the world of martial arts, and I can't help but ask her questions. I didn't argue with her on the first day, but I couldn't hold back on the second day.

What grudge do I have against you?

She rolled her eyes at me and didn't answer.

It dawned on me, "Is someone in your family in jail?"

"Pah, it's your family member who's in jail."

...

This brainless idiot! The imperial prison is practically my family's property; who dares to imprison members of the royal family? Fine, when you're under someone's roof, you have to bow your head. These past two days have made me acutely aware of this. I'll hold back and ask again, "So, someone in your family was executed by the court?"

She jumped up and almost reached out to pinch me.

"How dare you curse my sister Ozu?"

Upon hearing this, I widened my eyes and, without caring whether she had really pinched me or not, leaned closer to her face and asked.

"Is the Ozu you're talking about the one who pretended to be the princess? Where is she? Has she come back?"

Our eyes were almost locked. She probably hadn't expected me to be so excited, and was instead intimidated by my aura. She unconsciously leaned back, probably feeling embarrassed. When she looked at me again, she was furious and her face turned red.

"What do you mean by pretending to be a princess? Our Yi Family Manor's disguise skills are unparalleled in the world. If it weren't for the Alliance Leader's order, we wouldn't have bothered with your messy affairs."

I snorted coldly, disagreeing. "I didn't ask you to interfere. Your sister dragged me around like that, it was really awful, I remember it all."

She flew into a rage upon hearing this, jumping up and down like a bean.

"If it weren't for you, Sister Xiaojin wouldn't have gone to the palace for no reason. Now we can't contact her and we don't know what happened to her. If anything happens to my sister, I, and our Yi Family Village, will never let you off the hook."

"Why can't I get in touch with her?" I was shocked. I grabbed her clothes, and she got angry too. Ignoring the fact that I was still half on the bed, she almost pounced on me. Someone walked in, coughed, and pushed us apart with one hand each, like pushing aside a pair of puppies.

"Xiao Bei, stop fooling around, Ping An, do you still want your bones?"

I knew it was Cheng Wei's voice without even looking up. This man is extremely hateful. Not only did he prick me with needles, but he also wrapped one of my hands tightly, making it inconvenient for me to fight.

Although I am not a martial arts master, I do know a little bit of the Five Animal Frolics. If we really fought, I might not lose to this strange little girl.

“Brother Cheng, why should we save this annoying princess? What does the Emperor’s family’s business have to do with our Three Villages and Nine Schools? Half of the capital is burning down, and the palace is in chaos. My sister is nowhere to be found. Take me into the palace, and I’ll go find her myself.”

Cheng Wei was too lazy to answer her. He simply picked up the chattering little girl and sent her out, closing the door in one swift motion. Then he returned to the bedside, frowning as he looked at my hand.

"Your joint has been dislocated before. If you move it around too much, it will be difficult to put it back in place. Be careful that you won't be able to exert any force in the future."

I was startled by the little girl's words, and I reached out and grabbed his clothes, asking urgently.

"What did she just say? What heavenly fire? What happened in the palace? Chengwei, I want to go back to the palace!"

His face no longer held the composure of yesterday. He didn't answer, but stood in front of the bed looking at me as if I were the most troublesome problem in the world. There was a commotion outside, which could be faintly heard through the heavy stone door. Suddenly, he moved, his upper body reaching over my body, and one hand pressed against the stone wall behind the bed.

The stone door was suddenly pushed open, and the noise rushed in like a tidal wave. Someone walked in; it was Cheng Ping, disheveled, with burn marks on the hem of his clothes. His eyes were sinister, and he was completely different from the person I had seen before.

He spoke, but not to me; his voice was cold.

He said, "Cheng Wei, what do you want to do? Give her to me."

...

Hai: The Cheng brothers are both very handsome, drooling...

Narrator: Do you really have to be so obsessed with the characters you created? Watching them every day is so disheartening...

Hai: Oh dear, narrator, someone's hooking up with you! Someone said loving you doesn't need a reason. Who is it? So blind...

Narrator: Guards! Bring in the assassin!

Chapter 28

It was a very strange scene: two people who looked exactly alike stood face to face, as if the best bronze mirror in the world had been moved into this dark stone chamber.

Behind Cheng Ping were many people, the same group of different-looking martial arts figures I had seen when I first arrived here. I thought they looked ferocious back then, and now, through the dim outdoor lights, their faces in the shadows looked even more gruesome.

I breathed a sigh of relief. This is how people from the martial arts world should look. If everyone looked like those two brothers from the monster family, the morals of the people would be ruined.

Too lazy to look at them any longer, I groped my way out of bed and continued talking while glaring at the two people in the stone chamber.

"Make way, I'm going back."

“Excellent, that’s exactly what I was thinking too.” It was Chengping who spoke, and with a swift movement, he reached out and grabbed me.