Chapter 494: She doesn’t dare to consider the truth (2/2)
“What, you were so reluctant to see him leave? It looks like your lordship came at the wrong time,” he laughed coldly.
Han Yunxi’s eyes stung before she finally lost it and provoked him. “Yes!”
“Han Yunxi!” Long Feiye flew into a rage. He grabbed her shoulder, nearly crushing her beneath the force. Lady Helian arrived just then and cried out in alarm.
“Your Highness Duke of Qin, have mercy! Your Highness Duke of Qin, esteemed wangfei has a shoulder injury, you cannot be so fierce! You cannot!”
Long Feiye finally remembered the wound he’s seen on her shoulder back at the brothel and abruptly released her, but it was already too late. Fresh blood seeped through the fabric on her shoulders and dyed his fingers red. He looked dazedly at the blood on his hands, then at Han Yunxi’s ashen, stubborn little face. It felt like a knife had sliced through his heart. He was about to apologize when Han Yunxi burst into a brilliant smile as lovely as a flower, beautiful and dazzling to the eye.
Long Feiye, everyone saw my injury but you! You were the only one who saw nothing, from last night until now!
“Your Highness Duke of Qin,” she said, “If there’s nothing else, please leave at your convenience. I’m still searching for Qi gege rather urgently.”
‘Qi gege?’ A frightening aura of killing intent enveloped Long Feiye. His bloodied fingers slowly clenched into a fist, his knuckles cracking under the strain. It seemed like he could punch the air at any moment, leaving Lady Helian to gape silently at the sight. The pain in Han Yunxi’s shoulder was almost killing her, but it couldn’t compare with the agony in her heart.
She didn’t say anything more, much less ask him about the Broomcorn Millet Poison. She simply bowed slightly and turned to leave. Long Feiye watched her go with narrowed eyes, but he didn’t move even after she was out of sight. It was only after Chu Xifeng finally caught up that he regained his senses.
“Your Highness, this subordinate…this subordinate…” Chu Xifeng didn’t know what to say. He had gone back to make his report, but didn’t find His Highness anywhere in the Duke of Qin’s estate. He could only double back to the Han Estate, only to see His Highness right here.
Before Chu Xifeng could figure out what had happened, Long Feiye simply turned and left. The other hand hidden behind his back had been holding a medical pouch the entire time. Who else could it belong to but Han Yunxi?
“Guard Chu, did you go back to tattle? A subordinate should wish his masters well. It’s fine if you don’t want to play mediator, but why did you stir things up instead? What kind of motives are you harboring in that heart?! Yunxi definitely isn’t that type of girl, she must have found Sir Gu to discuss serious matters! I’m telling you now, that pair will never let you off after they make up!” Lady Helian warned him indignantly.
Chu Xifeng felt grossly wronged. “I didn’t say a thing! I only found His Highness just now!”
“Then why did the two of them end up arguing again?!” Lady Helian huffed in her rage.
“Go ask your family’s married daughter!” Chu Xifeng was both aggrieved and angry. He couldn’t be bothered with so many details and decided to chase after His Highness instead.
Who cares about that woman who can’t even tell good from bad! His Highness’s health is more important! He needs two to three days of seclusion to properly treat such a serious internal injury, or else his body won’t be able to take it.
Once everyone was gone, the Han Estate resumed its previous peace. Han Yunxi hid herself in the medical storehouse and took care of her injury herself. It was a deep wound to begin with, and Long Feiye’s aggravation only wasted all of the previous care and treatment. Now blood was pouring out of it continuously. She used the medicine left for her by the white-robed man and combined it with the Han Estate’s blood-staunching medicine; fortunately, it yielded good results. After carelessly binding it up, she was left tired and listless. She lay back in a pile of medicinal materials, loathe to move a muscle. Her head ached fiercely, making her reluctant to think about anything, But Mute Nanny’s case and Gu Qishao’s reminder, along with Mu Linger’s roadside accusations, all repeated themselves in her head. She thought and thought until she inexplicably fell asleep in the medical storehouse.
Lil Thing poked its head out from a corner and saw the state of Mama Yunxi’s wound before scampering about anxiously. Just then, it’d been ready to bite that Duke of Qin to death, but refrained because it knew that would just make Mama Yunxi sad. It could only huddle up docilely next to Mama Yunxi’s body. How it wished its gentleman could take Mama Yunxi away! The gentleman was the only person in the world who would never hurt its Mama Yunxi.
As night fell, the entire capital city was still ablaze with lights. Soldiers searched through all the houses for traces of the assassins, making it hard for anyone to get a good night’s sleep. Near the Han Estate, Gu Qishao was lying on a roof with both arms behind his head, staring at the starry skies. Eventually he started muttering to himself.
“Qi’er, be good…Qi’er, good, good…”
When he was young, his father used to coax him to sleep that way. It had already been ages since he thought of his childhood. Today, Poison lass’s words had stirred his memories of the past. He didn’t recall how old he was, only that he had once been a child, but his favorite thing to do was roll up his sleeves and trousers before running barefoot through the mountainous woods behind the medical academy. Every time father found him, he’d pick him up high and place him on his shoulders for a ride back to their house concealed in the woods. Back then, he always had trouble sleeping. No matter how hard he played during the daytime, he still needed someone to coax him to sleep at night.
Father used to hold him and say, “Qi’er, be good…Qi’er, good good…Qi’er, be good…Qi’er, good, good…”
But one day, father had suddenly handed him over to the head elder of the medical academy and told him, “Qi’er’s been afflicted with a strange disease, so the head elder will adopt you. In the future, you have to eat all the medicine he gives you.”
Father had explained many things to him, but he hadn’t understood any of it. In the end, he discovered that his father was an elder of the medical academy with both name and repute. Because of that, he wasn’t allowed to have any children of his own, much less allowed to expose the whereabouts of his secret house in the woods. After all, those lands belonged to the Poison Sect. Ever since that day, he became the foster son of medical academy’s head elder. He never saw his father again, but began to eat medicine day after day, taking it as his three meals.
Whenever he ate to the point of throwing up, his foster father would tell him that he’d only get to see his father if he was good, stayed alive, and ate all of his medicine. All he ever wanted to do was see father again, because he didn’t have any mother. His earliest memories only had a single papa…
Suddenly, a loud boom sent the entire capital city quaking. Gu Qishao immediately recovered his senses and bolted to his feet!
Where did that explosion come from? What’s going on now?!
1. I was not…you were old… (君生我未生, 我生君已老) – junshengwoweilao, woshengjunyilao, lines from a classic Tang Dynasty poem, author unknown, in which the speaker laments having fallen in love with a much older lover. You can read the full text here under Poem #8 and listen to the lines here.