His robe sleeves danced wildly in the pouring rain, and the corpse of the Poisonous Scorpion Old Ghost exploded with a deafening roar, turning into blood that was then washed away by the downpour. The Green-Clad Young Master's most profound killing technique had been witnessed by no more than three people in the world, yet today, it was being used on this lowly Evil Star, repeatedly, repeatedly.
"Young Master in green?" Yin Wuxiao heard his own voice, weak and ethereal.
Those eyes slowly turned to her, to her disheveled hair, to her wearing only a few strands of clothing, to her covered in blood, to her unfocused gaze.
The usually gentle and refined young master in blue suddenly punched the stone wall, his face contorted with grief and pain.
"Why?" The voice was hoarse and suppressed. "Why didn't you call for help? Why didn't you call for help!"
"Why?" Yin Wuxiao looked up and suddenly grinned foolishly. "The young master in blue is actually just an ordinary person. But he already knew that the one disguised as a little beggar was actually a woman, that she was actually poisoned with an incurable toxin, and that she was actually living like a walking corpse..."
"Xiao'er!" Baili Qingyi suddenly hugged her tightly, his usually resolute body trembling slightly. "Don't say anymore! I won't allow you to despair, I won't!"
"Sigh, you people," she sighed, seemingly perplexed, "always wanting people to live, to live, don't you know how unreasonable that is?"
"..." Baili Qingyi was heartbroken. Her tone was one of compromise.
All the unbearable memories flooded her mind like a torrent. She leaned forward and vomited, as if trying to peel everything that had happened out of her memory.
Chapter Twelve: Sharing a Pillow, Listening to the Autumn Rain in a Single Boat (Part Eight)
The heavy rain continued all night.
Baili Qingyi wrapped Yin Wuxiao's battered body in her own outer garment and found a cave to shelter them for the night.
He dried her injured body and carefully let her rest in his arms.
Her eyelids were lightly closed, as if she were asleep, or as if she were an empty shell without any thoughts or feelings.
Like a wounded little animal, she huddled in his arms, her fur tucked in, trembling heartbreakingly. Yet, she did not cry.
But her not crying was more heart-wrenching than any act of crying.
He couldn't imagine what would have happened if he hadn't arrived in time. He held her hand tightly, feeling her slightly trembling fingertips, and after a long while, he realized that it wasn't just her who was trembling, but himself as well.
He trembled with fear.
This once spirited woman is now as fleeting as a passing breeze. And from the very first moment he saw her, he was filled with fear—fear that if he couldn't hold onto her, she would truly vanish like the wind.
Inside the Peerless Pavilion, the little beggar who was with Bai Can didn't utter a word, but Bai Can felt that he had seen him before.
Despite his suspicions about the marital breakdown at Chuxiu Manor, he still let her leave. She was so different from how she was years ago that even he, who was usually good at judging people, dared not recognize her.
When they met again in the capital, he remained outwardly calm but was actually overjoyed. However, she was shrouded in too many doubts, and he dared not easily touch her closed heart.
When he learned that she had been poisoned, he finally understood what had made her who she was today. He was heartbroken and became even more cautious in his interactions with her, fearing that if he were to break the thin veil between them and stir up her feelings, they would be separated forever.
Baili Qingyi was nothing more than a coward.
The beautiful woman was aloof from the world, living independently of external things. He could only quietly shoulder the burden for her. What she could not obtain, he would obtain for her.
Whether she was Yin Wuxiao or Shui Wu'er, she was ultimately the woman who had been buried in his heart for six years.
Baili Qingyi recalled the argument from last night, as if it were a distant past life.
With that lowered gaze, he saw her pursed red lips as she asked him: Does it hurt?
She proudly puffed out her small chest, raised her chin, and mocked him for not understanding what love was, and for thinking that his feelings for her were nothing more than a stubborn sense of responsibility.
With what she considered a noble sense of morality, she told him not to waste his time on her.
She didn't realize that her act of shouldering all the pain was anything but endearing.
I woke up from a nap.
Yin Wuxiao, dressed in Baili Qingyi's robes, stared blankly at the flickering flames before him, his expression unfathomable.
Baili Qingyi, shirtless, was adding firewood to the fire. He had actually managed to find some dry wood in such heavy rain, and he had even caught two rabbits, skinned them bloodily, and put them on the fire.
Baili Qingyi did all this with great skill. If it weren't for his slightly thin upper body and handsome face, he would be mistaken for a hunter.
He felt her gaze, looked at her gently, walked over and pulled her coat tighter, wrapping her up even more tightly.
"Did you rest well?"
Yin Wuxiao nodded.
He then lifted her clothes slightly to examine her injuries. He had some wound medicine with him, which he applied to her wounds and fed her some herbal dew, but it only relieved her abrasions. As for the stab wound on her chest and the leg wound, he could only wait until the rain stopped to leave the valley and seek medical treatment.
Fortunately, although her injuries were serious, her life was not in danger; she just needed to find a quiet place to recuperate slowly.
However, physical wounds are easy to heal, but emotional wounds are difficult to heal.
"Does it hurt?" he asked worriedly, looking at her purplish-red calves.
Yin Wuxiao shook his head.
Baili Qingyi frowned. He carefully pulled her back into his arms and secretly channeled his inner energy into her body.
"Xiao'er," he brushed a stray hair from her forehead and tucked it behind her ear. "Don't be afraid. It's all over now."
Yin Wuxiao stared blankly at the rain curtain outside the cave, ignoring Baili Qingyi's words. Waves of heat penetrated the fabric, soothing her skin, and she curled up slightly.
Baili Qingyi felt a pang of heartache; her pain had plunged him into extreme anguish as well. Yet, he didn't know how to comfort her.
He was an extremely cautious man; he wouldn't speak unless he had thought it through. So, he just held her like that. Her breathing, her heartbeat, nestled in his arms made him feel incredibly safe.
I never want to let go.
Yin Wuxiao suddenly opened his mouth, his voice hoarse and as light as the sigh of the wind.
"The young man in blue."
"Well?"
"If I die, will the murderers who killed my family never be caught?"
Baili Qingyi was stunned. Of course, he had to answer no. Even without Yin Wuxiao, he was still confident that he could find the real culprit.
But he didn't dare answer no. He thought that if he made her feel that she was indispensable in solving the case, perhaps she wouldn't be so indifferent to him.
He felt a little despicable.
Yin Wuxiao did not wait for his reply.
"for you."
She raised her hand, opened her palm, and there it was—the blood jade hanging around her neck.
"This is what you all want. You don't need to worry about me anymore."
Yin Wuxiao felt the person she was leaning against tremble violently.
With a "smack," the blood jade was knocked to the ground. Baili Qingyi asked coldly in her ear:
What do you mean by that?
Yin Wuxiao panicked. She struggled to get up to check if the jade was intact.
"What are you doing?" Her voice was filled with extreme vulnerability.
Baili Qingyi, her face stiff, picked up the blood jade and placed it back in her palm. The cave floor was covered in loose soil, so the blood jade remained intact.
Yin Wuxiao took a breath, tightly gripped the blood jade in his palm, and placed it against his chest, but Baili Qingyi grabbed his wrist.
"Explain yourself clearly, what did you mean by what you just said?"
Baili Qingyi had a cold face.
"You think everything I've done is for this worthless piece of jade? What do you take me for?" He had never felt so deeply insulted as he did at this moment.
“You… even if it’s not for the Blood Jade, it must be for… something else…” Yin Wuxiao said haltingly. Seeing Baili Qingyi’s expression, she slowly stopped talking.
Baili Qingyi stared at her in shock, his eyes dimming. He released his arms from hers, creating distance between them, stood up, turned away, and said nothing more.
His heart was as cold as the coldest days of winter.
Chapter Twelve: Sharing a Pillow, Listening to the Autumn Rain in a Single Boat (Part Nine)
Yin Wuxiao stared blankly at Baili Qingyi's retreating figure, tears suddenly streaming down her face. What was wrong with her? Why did she go to such lengths to stab someone in the most hidden place? Why did she want everyone to resent her, hate her, and think she was a heartless person?
Is it because she's in pain that she wants others to share her pain?
She treated Cen Lu this way, she treated Shi Mansi this way, she treated Yin Bitong this way, and she treated Baili Qingyi this way. Did she wish she were a venomous snake that everyone would avoid at all costs?
She fabricated those tragic and pitiful backstories to tell others, implying to herself that she wasn't so pathetic after all. But in the end, it turned out that she did care, that she was afraid, and so she transformed herself into a complete monster.
She wept silently, tears streaming down her pale cheeks.
After an unknown amount of time, a pair of warm hands gently stroked her face and wiped away her tears.
"Don't cry. I shouldn't have raised my voice at you like that. Please stop crying."
Through her tear-blurred vision, she saw Baili Qingyi's helpless face.
He sighed and pulled her into his arms, gently stroking her long hair with his large hand.
"I know you're sad. If you're going through something tough, just tell me. Wouldn't it be nice if I took care of you?"
Yin Wuxiao trembled slightly.
"I'm sorry," she finally said.
“I will never say such a thing again.” She sniffed.
Baili Qingyi smiled faintly. He knew that, given her current state of mind, saying such a thing was already the limit of her subservience.
What surprised him even more was how quickly she calmed down. An ordinary girl might have struggled for months, or even a lifetime, to escape such a shadow. But she, with just a little tantrum, had already moved on.
Perhaps he truly didn't understand Yin Wuxiao enough. Although he had known for a long time that she was different from others, this was the first time he had realized so closely that the woman in his heart was actually so strong-willed.
He suddenly felt a little scared. She seemed to have pulled herself out of the pain, but was the place in her heart, which no outsider could touch, still bleeding profusely?
Yin Wuxiao was lost in her own thoughts and did not notice that Baili Qingyi was looking at her with a new kind of gaze.
Or perhaps now is the time to emerge from the shadows. She had thought she would be forever mired in those shadows.
Can she truly cast aside those ugly, sorrowful, and terrifying memories? Can she also yearn for a future, for a peaceful and warm life? Looking at Baili Qingyi's composed face, Yin Wuxiao felt a surge of warmth in his heart. Though her body was weak, a powerful force seemed to be slowly returning to her.
A moment later, the rabbit on the fire was cooked, emitting a rich aroma of meat. Baili Qingyi then took the roasted rabbit meat, broke it into small pieces, and fed it to her.