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Chapter Thirteen, The Journey

<><A><>The promotional function is now open! What are you waiting for? Join us now!!!</A><> Because it was a natural movement, my body and hands were falling backward. I accidentally stepped back and the palm of my right hand, which was in front of my face, came into contact with the blinding white light. The pain was excruciating. The sharp, cold touch of the weapon was very clear in my flesh.

The metacarpal bones in my palm are hurting!

Su Chen felt as if he had fallen into an icy pool, his mind turning cold. Before he could even check the injury on his hand, the man in black, seeing that his attack had missed, lunged forward again. A flash of white light, and Su Chen could clearly see that it was a two-foot-long, thin-bladed sword with a wide blade.

She realized what had happened and immediately remembered being slashed on the hand. The suppressed consciousness immediately resurfaced, and her palm was almost numb with pain. However, there was no time to think about that. She quickly turned her head to dodge and narrowly avoided the blow, but half a strand of her hair was chopped off along with the bookshelf behind her.

As if seeing a ghost, she pulled the chair in front of her and ran towards the door. However, the man blocked her way. As she was about to step over a vase blocking her path, he flung the chair aside, pointed his sword, and prepared to strike again. Su Chen raised the chair she was holding and slammed it down on his head. It was initially off-target, but a sharp pain in her right palm made her lose her grip. The chair tilted to the left, barely catching the tip of the man's sword and twisting it against his skull.

The man was quite patient, letting out a muffled groan and shaking his head. The sword still slashed down diagonally. Su Chen felt that his right hand was completely powerless. He endured the pain and used all his strength to knock down a large bookcase on the right. The books crashed down, and the huge bookcase slammed onto the desk, blocking the man's path.

The blocking, dodging, twisting, and running all happened in an instant, yet the enormous sound could probably be heard from three rooms away.

He Su Shi's room wasn't far from here; she just hoped he would hear her and come to check soon. She had already screamed for help several times; she just hoped someone would hear her.

Taking advantage of the moment, Su Chen rushed towards the door. He had only taken two steps when the man jumped out and swung his sword at him again, this time aiming for his throat!

He Su Chen was terrified. He grabbed whatever was on the cabinet to his right—the snacks, teacups, and the like—and threw them at the man. The man didn't even dodge; he leaned in and thrust his sword towards Su Chen's throat. Just as he was in a state of extreme panic, he heard someone shouting in the distance.

"The west wing is on fire! Please, Dragon King, save the water!! Help! Get up and put out the fire!!!" Sure enough, smoke billowed into the sky from the direction of the west wing. The firelight was dazzling.

The man couldn't help but turn his head to look. Taking advantage of this opportunity, Su Chen scrambled and struggled to run a few steps. Outside, the sounds of footsteps and conversations could already be heard.

“I clearly heard someone calling. It sounded like your sister’s voice.”

"Ziran, you heard that again? I didn't feel anything. There's a fire over there. Let's go check it out first."

Su Chen heard the voice. Before he could even think, he cried out urgently, "He Su Shi! Help!!!"

A moment of silence fell over the outside. Suddenly, the window shattered with a loud crash. He Su Shi leaped in through the window. The man immediately turned and ran to the other window, yanked it open, and jumped out.

Seeing someone arrive, Su Chen relaxed a little and burst into tears. He Su Shi was startled. Seeing her disheveled hair, rumpled clothes, and bloodstains on her body, she almost blurted out a national treasure. Her face was as cold as frost. Just as she was about to step forward to check on her injuries, Cui Shi Ran jumped in through the window and shouted, "Why aren't you chasing after them? What are you doing here?!"

He Su Shi ignored him and was about to grab Su Chen's hand when Cui Shiran stepped forward and pulled him back. "Give me this place, you go and catch him. Don't let him get away!" Seeing that He Su Shi was still undecided, he said angrily, "Are you going to be stupid? Hurry up and go! I can take care of someone, but you don't even trust me?!"

He Su Shi gritted his teeth, kicked off his feet, and finally followed, but it was already a moment too late.

Cui Shiran took a few quick breaths, stepped forward and grabbed He Suchen's hand. The palm of his hand was a bloody mess, looking extremely gruesome, as if it had been severed.

He knew panicking would be useless at this point, and hearing Su Chen crying so hard, he cursed fiercely!

Stop talking nonsense!

The fear in He Suchen's heart almost swallowed her up completely, and she no longer had the strength to argue with him. Despite her terror, she brought her hand closer to her face. The disgusting and horrifying sight of the mixed flesh and blood made her want to vomit. She was so scared that she couldn't move. All she could think about was whether it would break or whether she would be crippled.

She suppressed her hatred for Bing Han, but all her thoughts boiled down to one question as she looked at Cui Shiran with almost no hope: "My hand is broken?"

"You're sick!" Cui Shiran cursed again. He tore several strips of fabric from the hem of his clothes, lit a lamp, and poured out a small box from his sachet: a two-tone silver box inlaid with enamel. He carried a basin of water from the basin stand by the door and carefully washed his palms with the water from his clothes. He then poured out a small cup of tea and carefully washed his hands again with the remaining water in the teapot.

Su Chen was in so much pain that her eyes were almost invisible. She gasped for breath and couldn't help but cry out, "It hurts! Couldn't you be a little gentler?!"

She no longer cared about keeping a low profile or being a polite Song Dynasty person; the shock of losing her hand made her speak recklessly.

"Shut up!" Cui Shiran shouted. "Serves you right for getting into trouble! What time is it? Is it normal for a young lady to be standing here alone?!"

"You bastard! What right do you have to curse me!" She was about to retort when she felt a cool sensation in her hand. Cui Shiran had softened his grip and was applying ointment from the silver box. Although it still hurt, it was undoubtedly much more comfortable.

Su Chen calmed down a bit, though her palms were still throbbing with pain. However, the panic she felt from fighting for her life had subsided considerably. She was still extremely frightened, and now the fear of losing her life at the slightest carelessness was slowly rising in her mind, making her legs go weak.

Cui Shiran applied the ointment, looked up at Su Chen, paused for a moment, and then asked, "Did he do anything to you?"

Su Chen looked up at him in astonishment. "Of course I am! Didn't you see I'm covered in wounds and blood?! Didn't you see my clothes are all dirty and torn?!"

She hesitated, about to nod, when she saw Cui Shiran's ashen face and terrifying eyes. Suddenly realizing what had happened, she hurriedly said, "He slashed at my hand with his sword and then tripped me." She then asked, "What happened to my hand? Tell me!"

Cui Shiran glared at her with displeasure and said angrily, "What are you doing hiding here in the middle of the night? Don't you want to live?! Didn't my grandma tell you to be careful in the capital?! Where are your ears?!"

Who are you lecturing?!

Su Chen was extremely annoyed. "How was I supposed to know someone would come! They said to be careful in the capital, but who would have thought they'd act like this even at home!" She suppressed the urge to lose her temper, but the pain in her palms was still unbearable, and she almost wanted to curse. "What was that person looking for?! Coming to the study in the middle of the night to steal things? Nobody would believe that!"

Both men were panting, while the commotion grew increasingly louder, flames soared into the sky, and the sounds of voices, drums, and shouts were clearly not something the He family alone could produce. Faintly, someone could be heard yelling, "Go report to the fire station! Quickly report to the fire station, the water is rising too fast, there's no way to save them!!!"

Then came another series of shouts and yells.

Su Chen glanced at Cui Shiran and said, "Let's go over there."

"Go to hell!" Cui Shiran said angrily. "Go back to your room. I'm going to check on things. Your brother should have found a doctor for you by now."

“My room is over there, I have to pass by it to get back!” she retorted angrily.

The night was extremely chaotic. She almost lost her life and was completely unprepared for what she said and did. She was so engrossed in the feeling of wanting to vent her hatred and the fear that she had no time to care whether she was acting irrationally or not.

Starting tomorrow, updates will begin at 8:30 AM.

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Chapter Fourteen, Firefighting

The "Propaganda Officer" function is now open! What are you waiting for? Join now!!! The group exited the door one after the other, only to be stopped near the west wing. Flames were raging before them. The west wing connected to the storeroom of the neighboring Privy Councilor Zhang Liang. Zhang Liang's house had a small back storeroom, which was adjacent to the kitchen of an old nobleman's residence. The old nobleman favored bamboo crafts; everything in his house and household items that could be made of bamboo was made of bamboo. A fire quickly spread, and soon, a whole row of courtyards were engulfed in flames.

Su Chen smelled the pungent tarry odor and knew something was wrong. He saw servants rushing to pour buckets of water onto the fire, and water bags and other supplies were being dumped nearby. Some servants even used pig or cow shanks to hold water and threw them at the fire. The shanks were immediately burned through, and cool water flowed out, but it was completely useless. The fire still wouldn't go out and instead seemed to be getting worse.