Счастье совсем рядом, за следующим поворотом

Глава 41

She looked at me through the candlelight, lowered her eyes and smiled, "Sister really understands me. Actually, I didn't do anything. I just used a little bit of medicine on your beauty leader."

"medicine?"

Just as I was about to ask another question, Gu Biyun interrupted from the side, "What did you do to my cousin? Didn't you say you would rescue us?"

Ye Baizhi looked at Gu Biyun with great amusement, "I love Miss Gu's naiveté the most. I did save you, otherwise do you think you would still be alive?"

Gu Biyun was so angry that her face turned pale and she couldn't say a word.

I looked down at Ruan Bicheng, and Ye Baizhi suddenly said, "Sister, don't waste your time. The medicine I used can't be cured by Pharmacist Shen."

She leaned down and clung to my shoulders, whispering in my ear with a soft laugh, "Sister, you'd better not tell the High Priest, or I'll die with your beautiful leader..." She rested her chin on my shoulder and chuckled softly, "Sister, do you still remember the miraculous healer of Licheng?"

The legendary healer who needs to give Baoze a heart transplant? Shen Qing's senior brother.

“When I was saving Alliance Leader Ruan, I also saved him by chance, and I got one of his medicines…” She pulled a small white pill from her sleeve and showed it to me in her palm. “Here, this is it.”

I noticed a small white pill in her palm, seemingly coated with a thin layer of white wax, containing a tiny black pill inside. It wasn't unusual.

"Sister, take a closer look." She took the candle and lit the small pill.

Suddenly, I noticed the tiny black bean inside the white wax of the pill move slightly, its body throbbing restlessly within the wax. I was horrified. "This is..."

"A centipede gu." Ye Baizhi carefully put the pill back into the bottle in her sleeve, her eyes sparkling. "Once inside the body, the wax coating melts automatically. Sister, don't underestimate this tiny centipede. If it stays in the human body for half a day, it will empty and devour the heart, liver, lungs, and even the brain. The centipede will then become stiff. There are two in this world, one with me, and the other..."

She smiled confidently, and I thought that one must have already entered Ruan Bicheng's body.

I didn't speak, and she tilted her head to look at me. "Sister must be thinking that Shen Qing will definitely have a way, right?" She paused and then said, "Pharmacist Shen is indeed highly skilled in medicine, and he might be able to come up with a solution. But sister, you must remember that the centipede will first affect Alliance Leader Ruan's brain. How many days will it take Pharmacist Shen to remove the poison? I can't guarantee that Alliance Leader Ruan won't become an idiot by the time the poison is removed, and..."

She tapped her slender fingers on the wall, looking at me with pitiful eyes, "If you want to use force, I'll have no choice but to destroy the secret chamber and bury Alliance Leader Ruan and the others. You'd better not force me."

I frowned at her and said, "Now that you've told me so much, shouldn't you tell me your purpose? What do you want?"

She said all this simply to dissuade me from telling Yan Shu, to stop me from even thinking about saving Ruan Bicheng, otherwise she would perish along with everyone else. She was overthinking it. Telling Yan Shu would at most kill her, but it would do me and Ruan Bicheng no good whatsoever.

"Actually, I don't ask for much." She frowned slightly and sighed softly. "Only Sister Su Xie can help me..." She leaned closer and whispered in my ear, "I just want..."

She placed something in my palm—a cool, icy bottle. I looked down at my palm and listened as she finished speaking the second half of her sentence very quickly and softly, my brow furrowing slightly.

"That's all I want. As long as Sister Su Xie does it, I'll immediately release Alliance Leader Ruan and the Gu siblings. I'll never go back on my word!" She spoke with absolute certainty, and fearing I wouldn't believe her, she reached out to grasp my hand. "Sister, are you willing...?"

I avoided putting my hand in, tucked it behind my back, and clutched the small bottle, saying, "Is it enough to just put this in?"

"Sister agreed?" Ye Baizhi nodded with delight. "As long as you put it in, I will immediately remove the curse and release the person."

I glanced at Ruan Bicheng in the flickering candlelight and said, "Okay."

Her brow relaxed and she smiled immediately, "Sister is indeed loyal and righteous."

I didn't want to talk to her, so I lowered the bed curtains, turned around, and left. Suddenly, she said, "Since you're here, sister, won't you stay a little longer with Alliance Leader Ruan?"

I didn't stop walking, but stopped at the top of the stairs. I looked at the Gu siblings, who looked like they wanted to tear me apart, and said, "By the way, I only saved Ruan Bicheng... The others are none of my business."

Gu Shaoting, his face pale, gritted his teeth and said, "I'd rather die than be saved by a vixen like you!"

“Excellent.” I turned to Ye Baizhi and said, “May I borrow Miss Gu for a moment?”

Ye Baizhi gestured for me to proceed. I walked slowly to Gu Biyun and, before Gu Shaoting could speak, slapped her across the face with all my might, making my palm ache. Before she could react, I slapped her again, saying, "You bitch."

She staggered a few steps before Gu Shaoting caught her, her pale face flushed, and she glared at me with a mixture of shock and grievance, "You..."

I shook my hand, squinted at Gu Biyun, and said, "I've wanted to return this slap to you for a long time. Now, with interest, we're even." I turned to Ye Baizhi and said, "Their lives and deaths are none of my business. Do as you please."

===============================================================================

I rushed back to Yan Shu's garden before he returned. Chang Huan was still waiting for me. When she saw me come back, we went into the house together. She closed the door and asked me in a low voice, "How did it go, Miss?"

I nodded to him and said, "Bring Shen Qing here, I have something urgent to discuss."

"Are you injured, young lady?" He looked me over carefully.

Before I could explain, the door was pushed open, and the cold wind and rain outside rushed in. I couldn't help but shiver. I turned around and saw Yan Shu standing on the threshold, staring blankly at me. After a long while, I heard him finally move his Adam's apple and say, "Su Xie..."

He came in, went to the bedside, looked at me, and called out again, "Su Xie..."

He crouched down beside me, his temples slightly damp, and reached out to take my hand, calling my name again in a hoarse voice, "Su Xie..."

I almost instinctively flinched away, but he suddenly grabbed my hand, holding it tightly in his palm, and called my name again in a low, short voice, "Su Xie..."

He kept repeating those two words, as if they were the only words he could say. He stared at me intently, his eyes tired, seemingly smiling yet also frowning, looking at me awkwardly. "Su Xie... I'm hungry. I'm waiting for you to have dinner with me."

I wanted to pull my hand away, but after thinking about it, I didn't move. I let him hold it and nodded.

He immediately beamed and called out to me, "Su Xie..."

Chang Huan glanced at my expression and bowed, saying, "High Priest, shall we ask Pharmacist Shen to examine the young lady?"

“Yes, yes, we need to find Shen Qing to take a look.” Yan Shu stood up and instructed Chang Huan, “Go and call Shen Qing, and have someone prepare some wine and dishes.” He then quickly added, “Wine is unnecessary. Su Xie wants to eat something light now. Ask Shen Qing what he can eat and prepare that.”

Chang Huan nodded and withdrew.

The moment I closed the door, I felt an eerie silence in the room.

Yan Shu sat down next to me, and I hurriedly got up to avoid him, looking out at the heavy rain and saying, "Oh, it's raining..."

Yan Shu remained frozen on the couch for a long time, frowning as he looked at me. After a moment, he relaxed his brow and said wearily, "Yes, it's raining..."

I said "Oh" and then said nothing more.

In this small room with its flickering candlelight, apart from the sounds of rain and wind, there was no other sound. The silence was so profound that one felt as if walking on thin ice, and dared not even make a sound.

I was inexplicably afraid of him. My heart pounded when he called my name, as if a knife was hanging over my heart, ready to fall at any moment.

Su Xie, kill him...

Su Xie, you are mine, and I will not tolerate the slightest betrayal...

The words are still in my ears; as soon as he opens his mouth, no matter what he says, I can hear those words over and over again.

Outside the window, a pomegranate tree had fallen its blossoms, the ground a dark red from the rain. Suddenly, he called my name again, "Su Xie..."

My heart skipped a beat, and I hurriedly took a step back towards the window to look at him.

He frowned slightly in the dim light, looking at my fingers resting on the window frame, and asked, "Are you that afraid of me?"

I will not speak.

He added, "It's okay, I have plenty of time to wait for you. You don't need to fall in love with me. You just need to accept my love for you quietly."

The rain outside the window grew louder, tapping on the window frame and splashing onto my fingers, icy cold and making them feel a little stiff. My voice was a little hoarse as I said, "Yan Shu, I used to think that my feelings for Ruan Bicheng were something from a long, long time ago, but you've made me realize again that my feelings for him have never stopped from the beginning until now."

He looked at me for a long time before finally saying, "He's dead. I don't believe I'll lose to a dead man." He rubbed his temples, his weariness barely concealed. "Su Xie, I won't let you go, so you'll have to learn to get used to me."

I stared down at the small bottle in my sleeve without answering.

Not long after, I heard Shen Qing rush in anxiously. When she saw me, she smiled and said, "I knew it! A scourge lives on forever. How could such a troublemaker like Su Xie die so young!"

Yan Shu was a little tired and said without looking up, "Enough with the nonsense, get out of here after you've made the diagnosis."

Shen Qing glanced at him sideways, pulled me to a stool in the outer room, put down her medicine box, rolled up her sleeves to take my pulse, and asked me, "How are you feeling now?"

"Very good." I winked at him intently, poured a cup of tea, wet my finger, and wrote on the table: Centipede Gu.

He frowned at me, and lowered his voice in confusion, saying, "What is that? I've never heard of it."

I wrote again: How many days will it take you to decipher this?

He thought for a moment and wrote on the table: About ten days to half a month.

I withdrew my hand and said to him, "I'm fine, nothing's wrong."

He gave me a strange look and wrote: What's going on?

I smiled and said, "It's nothing."

Forty-nine

The food was prepared very quickly. Yan Shu and I ate at the same table, but neither of us spoke. I buried my head in my food, while he sat beside me watching me, occasionally putting food on my plate, but he didn't say a word.

It's as if everyone has something weighing on their mind, and once they open their mouths, it all spills out uncontrollably.

The rain outside hadn't stopped. I finished the last bite of my meal and put the bowl down.

"Are you full?" Yan Shu asked, resting his chin on his hand as he looked at me.

I nodded and said, "I'll go back first." As I got up to leave, Yan Shu raised an eyebrow and looked at me.

"Sit down," he said in a low voice. "I have something to say."

I sat down without resistance and listened to him say in a casual tone, "I'm going to Licheng tomorrow."

Licheng? Why would I suddenly go back to Licheng?

His slender, delicate fingertips traced the intricate carvings on the table. He rested his chin on his hand, looked up at me, and said, "Come with me."

I looked at him without saying anything.

He chuckled, "Ask away if you want. There's nothing I can't tell you about me." He paused, and seeing that I didn't speak, he tapped his fingers together, looking at me with a beaming smile. "Don't you want to know what I went to Licheng for?"

I roughly know that Yan Shu is the kind of person who will seek revenge. What could be the reason he would return to Licheng again?

He waited for me, and I asked in a calm tone, "Why?"

He chuckled, reached down and removed the gauze from his forehead, revealing a dark red scar that stretched from his forehead to his eyebrow. He said, "Naturally, it was to fulfill my wish."

His wish probably wasn't just for the Queen, but also for Baoze, King Licheng, and even Jinglian... I'm just wondering why the old leader agreed to let him go? Wasn't he afraid of alienating the Saluo Sect from Licheng?

I sat down in front of him, looked at him quietly, and said, "You shouldn't have taken me with you."

"Oh?" He still looked at me with a smile. "I know you have a good relationship with that princess and the prince of Licheng..." He raised an eyebrow and asked me, "Are you also going to risk your life to save them?"

I didn't answer. Yan Shu rested his chin on one hand and tapped the edge of the table with the other, narrowing his eyes slightly, and said, "Why don't you try asking me to release them?"

I rose and knelt down without hesitation, looking calmly at Yan Shu, and said, "Is it alright to ask like this?"

Yan Shu paused, looking at me with some surprise in the quiet room, his brows furrowing slightly, clearly not expecting me to be so spineless.

I couldn't help but laugh, looking at Yan Shu and saying self-deprecatingly, "What? Isn't this what you wanted to see me like? Obedient and docile, like a cat or a dog, letting you do whatever you want."

He frowned even more as he looked at me.

I laughed heartily, "Those who know when to yield are the wise ones, are you satisfied, High Priest?"

"Su Xie." He frowned as he looked at me. "Are you angry with me?"

I found it utterly ridiculous and said, "After spending so much time together in Licheng, you still think I'm the same Su Xie I used to be? Haven't I always been a coward and a useless coward who loved to play the good guy? Otherwise, why would I have saved you?"

He narrowed his eyes slightly.