Chapter 112: There Was a Little Red Mark

The embrace wasn't soft, but rather stiff and slightly angry. But the warmth of a living person emanating from behind him instantly suppressed the violent anger that threatened to tear his dreams apart.

It was his young lady. She wore a familiar cyan dress, her long hair tied up with a brass buckle. Her face was pale from exhausting her inner energy. But her eyes, sparkling, stared at him vividly.

He was stunned, and the buzzing sound of the golden blade stopped.

"Young...girl?"

The seventeen-year-old girl in the dream stared in astonishment at the abrupt scene before her. The needle-like boy tilted his head, seemingly unable to understand even him.

Qing Guiyu seemed to be utterly furious. Seeing "herself" being teased by this young man with golden needles was even more infuriating to her than witnessing Chen Juansheng setting up a murder trap.

She released the hand that was holding Young Master Jin Sheng and took a few steps forward. She didn't care how the young man in the dream pretended to be submissive, nor did she care how soft-hearted and embarrassed her seventeen-year-old self was. She just pulled the "young man Chen Juansheng" away from the "young girl Qing Guiyu".

"You!" she shouted angrily, pointing at the boy, but it seemed as if she was talking to the air, "Get out."

The boy was frightened by her sudden anger. The tears that had just begun to build in his eyes seemed to have forgotten how to let them fall. He was interrupted by this sudden change and stared at her blankly.

"Miss Qing..."

"Don't call me!" Qing Guiyu was furious, pacing back and forth in this fragmented dream. "I ask you, is this me? In your heart, this is how I am?"

She pointed at her seventeen-year-old self, now frozen in fear. "You're so easily coaxed into a corner with just a few words? So soft-hearted with just a few tears? You have no opinion of your own, letting others manipulate you. You refuse to move forward and only retreat when you're led. You're a rebellious person, aren't you?"

She was clearly furious, her voice trembling. "I, Qing Guiyu, am soft-hearted, but I'm not stupid! Your trick of retreating to advance was so poorly done, even if I was a fool back then, I couldn't have failed to see through it!"

The needle-like boy was stunned by her retort, and then that familiar fragile and innocent expression appeared on his face again. His eyes turned red and he was about to speak.

"Shut up!" Qing Guiyu interrupted him harshly, "Don't cry! If you keep pretending, I'll pull you out first!"

The burning jealousy and rage that had been burning in Shen Jiansheng's heart were completely shattered by this sudden defense. He could only stare at her in a daze.

"How could you..." his voice was hoarse, "come into my dream?"

"How could I possibly enter your dream?" Qing Guiyu, who had just been holding him, said angrily, "I'm not some mountain spirit or monster. I'm blood. To remove the needles, you need blood as a guide to probe into your heart. I'm just the blood that came in! Outside, I was concentrating on removing the needles for you. How could I know about the mess inside your heart?"

As an adult, Young Master Jin Sheng turned his gaze away from her face and looked at her carefully. It seemed that there was indeed some blood mist surrounding her.

Qing Guiyu didn't have time to pay attention. She crossed her arms and paced back and forth for a few more steps before finally stopping. With a look that was a mixture of disgust, confusion, and extreme speechlessness, she looked Shen Juansheng up and down.

"I really don't understand you," she finally couldn't help but speak. "What's causing chaos is the deepest desires in people's hearts. It's human desires that drive everything in the world."

She was indeed a drop of Qing Guiyu's blood, and the internal force of Huangdi's absolute needle. An ordinary young lady like Qing would never be able to know the inner force of the needle so clearly.

"Ordinary people seek to dominate the world and become the emperor. At the very least, they should be unrivaled in martial arts and unrivaled in the martial arts world."

The girl in green stopped, pointed at him, then pointed at the boy who had begun to become transparent, squatted down, and was extremely distressed.

"Who knows what you're like! You put so much effort into this, made such a big scene, and this needle went all over you, and in the end, this is all you have left... You spend all day thinking about love affairs!"

But the grown-up Young Master Jin Sheng still just lowered his head, staring blankly. His eyebrows raised at these words, his eyes were filled with undisguised irritation, and a thin blood mist lingered around him.

"I thought..." he said lightly, "I thought, if it weren't for this, you would leave."

He thought that if he didn't pretend to be so pitiful, if he didn't wrap himself in those schemes, if he didn't constantly use that dying fragility to tie her down, she would just leave him outside the medicine house without looking back, just like she did seven years ago.

Qing Guiyu sighed, and seemed to finally be unable to hold back. She stood up, took a step forward, stretched out her hand, and held his excessively beautiful face.

Her face was cold and still trembling slightly, with drops of water still hanging on her eyelashes, as if they were seeping out from the cracks in this glass beauty.

"Chen Juansheng," she looked at him with a stern expression, but her voice softened, "If I really hated you so much, why would I come to save you?"

After she finished speaking, without waiting for his answer, she leaned forward and gently kissed his beautiful peach blossom eyes, which were slightly widened in surprise.

Shen Juansheng had no reaction.

After a long time, a thin layer of red began to spread from the skin on the side of his neck, slowly but resolutely spreading upwards. First it was a light crimson, then it became increasingly darker, eventually dyeing his pale face, including his earlobes and ear tips, into a bright rouge.

The eyes, which were already full of watery light, were now made more vivid by this layer of blush, with ripples and a gorgeous color that was compelling.

"You..." His lips trembled slightly.

"What do you mean by 'you'?" Qing Guiyu seemed a little uncomfortable. She let go of her hand and said, "Do you understand? Don't have those messy thoughts in front of me!"

"Okay," she grabbed him, as if she was holding onto some big trouble, "let's go."

Chen Juansheng was stunned, and almost flattered, he carefully placed his cold hand on her palm again.

"Yes," he replied quickly, almost cheerfully. As long as he was with her, he would go anywhere.

"Well," she smiled brightly, just like that afternoon seven years ago, "Hurry up, I think I'm almost done with my work outside."

Chen Juansheng's face burned intensely, but he couldn't help but smile back at her. He took her hand in his, intertwining his fingers with hers, and then let himself be led by her.

Following her like this, the copper buckle that tied her hair swayed slightly in the wind. I felt like I was walking on clouds, my whole soul was light and floating, and I was being led by a warm hand towards a bright and warm place I had never seen before.

——But he finally fell silent.

Young Master Jin Sheng had the most intelligent and brilliant mind in the world, and even in his dreams, he still retained a bit of cruel clarity.

go out?

etc.

The joy and blush on his face faded away in an instant. He stopped suddenly and grabbed her hand.

"No..." He lowered his head and fumbled around on his chest, saying in a panic, "Pull out the needle... Are you pulling the needle out for me?"

"Yeah," Qing Guiyu was pulled to a stop by him and turned back impatiently, "What else am I?"

Using blood as a guide, he probed into his heart. This was his dream, the worry within his heart. Her presence meant that the perilous acupuncture treatment outside was ongoing.

"The Kanluan Needle is connected to the mind. You're trying to pull it out now... forcibly..." He held her tightly, the joy that had just risen in his eyes was instantly suppressed by overwhelming fear, "...you...she doesn't have the Warming Jade Needle!"

He knew the secret method of Huangdi's acupuncture better than anyone else. Without the warm jade needle, what would be drawn out would not only be the blood connected to the needle, but how much blood, qi and internal energy would she have to pass into it?

No wonder she, who was transformed from blood, looks so real.

"Qing Guiyu!" He stared at her fiercely.

"You don't have the Warming Jade Needle," he repeated, his voice trembling, cold sweat rolling down his forehead, "So, are you... are you going to trade your life for mine?"

But her face, which was illuminated by blood, just looked at him calmly and smiled at him soothingly.

"Let go!" Shen Juansheng's eyes instantly turned red. He frantically tried to break free from her hand and push her out of his heart. "I can't be cured! I don't want you to save me! Stop!"

But the more I struggled, the more I felt the pain of being pulled away. The temperature in my hand was gradually getting colder.

"I don't want you to save me!" He cried to something unknown, tears streaming down his face. "I'd rather wear this needle until I die! It doesn't matter if I die! I don't want you to sacrifice your life for me!"

The cold poison in the bone marrow has never been so calm.

The ice melted and turned into a pool of spring water, flowing backwards and chasing after the shadow.

*

"Miss Qing!"

Young Master Jin Sheng suddenly sat up from the couch.

There were no dreams, no medicine house, and no girl who would hold him in her arms, angry and laughing at him. There was only the cold cabin, the flickering candlelight, and the dark river outside the window.

There was still a lingering smell of blood and medicine in the air.

He gasped for breath, his clean undershirt drenched in sweat. The three golden needles in his chest, which had tortured him for seven years in his imagination and had also kept him alive for seven years, were gone.

The excruciating pain that gnawed at my bones seemed to still linger in my limbs, but the panic of having my heart hollowed out was more real than any torture.

"Miss Qing!" He looked around and called out again.

No response.

Young Master Jin Sheng staggered off the bed and rushed out. The wind from the river blew his clothes up.

The door of the cabin next door was ajar, and there was no one inside. There was a burnt-out candlestick and a few used silver needles scattered on the ground.

Chen Yan and the people from the Northern Dynasty had left at some point.

Lu Guiyan is not here.

Nor her.

Young Master Jin Sheng finally stopped and stood blankly at the bow of the boat. The river surged, and the green mountains on both sides stood silent as monuments in the morning mist.

He could barely stand. He held onto the door frame, his brows flushed as he glanced blankly around the empty cabin.

She left.

I exchanged my life for his, and then I just left.

She is nowhere to be found.

Young Master Jin Sheng slowly raised his hand and tremblingly touched the tip of his left eyebrow.

There had once been a beautiful red needle mark, left by a misplaced needle. It was the source of pain and obsession, evidence of fate's entanglement, a means of disguise and deception.

But at this moment, there was only a piece of cold skin under his fingertips.

The bloodstain that was once as bright as a drop of water was now as smooth as jade and as fresh as before, with nothing left.