7. It must be a hallucination!

You must die today!

Sima Hong saw that the woman looked dazed and walked past him with her eyes closed, about to crash into the tree in front of her.

He got up and stepped forward, taking her arm.

Qi Gu immediately felt the man's large hand grasp her arm, and she could feel the heat of his palm through her clothes onto her arm.

She was closer to this illusion, and could even smell the fresh scent of bamboo on him!

She felt her heart pounding wildly again, clutching her chest. How could this illusion feel so real?

He cursed himself inwardly, thinking, "What a useless thing! It's just an illusion, a little smell, and you can't even control yourself. What a piece of trash!"

Qi Gu lightly slapped herself, "Wake up!"

This inexplicable behavior puzzled Sima Hong. Could it be that this woman was mentally ill?

"Leave immediately." Sima Hong did not intend to kill innocent people indiscriminately.

Qi Gu couldn't help but open her eyes; the voice was so real, it didn't seem like a hallucination at all.

Opening his eyes, he saw a person dressed in a plain white robe, with an ink-colored gauze outer garment embroidered with bamboo leaf patterns, and a long sword at his side.

His sharply defined jawline resembled a cascading waterfall in the mountains, his high, straight nose was as steep as the Fan Yue Mountains, and his eyes, gleaming with a cold light, were like the sun, moon, and stars.

He looked at her calmly, but there was a slight displeasure in his eyes at being disturbed. Although it was a very subtle expression, she could still detect it.

In this dense jungle, like a crescent moon, deep and mysterious, carrying her familiar chill and danger.

Qi Gu's hands moved faster than her brain. Before her brain could even process it, her hand was already raised, wanting to touch his face to see if it was an illusion or a real person.

But before he could even touch anyone, he felt a sharp pain in his wrist.

"Who are you? Why are you here? What are your intentions?" Si Hong gripped the woman's hand tightly!

He initially thought the woman was just a villager from the neighborhood, but her strange behavior just now aroused suspicion, and now she seemed to know him and wanted to get closer to him.

He grabbed the woman's wrist, staring at her intently. The woman froze for a moment, then let out a sharp scream, "Ah!!!"

The person before me is not an illusion! He is truly standing here!

Qi Gu broke free from his hand and took several steps back. Suddenly, a stone tripped her from behind, and she felt as if she had returned to her past life. A surge of resentment, grievance, and fear welled up inside her.

His dark hands trembled, and his voice was shrill, "You, how could you be here?!"

The woman suddenly shouted, her voice piercing through the dense forest and startling the birds in the woods into flight.

Qi Gu cursed herself inwardly, "How pathetic! You keep telling yourself you want to forget him, but when you see him, you can't even speak. Your heart races, your hands tremble, and your legs go weak!"

She thought that in this second life, she no longer cared about or had let go of the things that happened in her previous life.

However, when he actually stood in front of her, she still felt immense anger and resentment. It wasn't that she had let go, but rather that she hadn't had the chance to question him.

She wanted to ask why? Why did they treat me like that? Why didn't they save me? Why did they lie to me? These questions stuck in her throat, making her throat tighten and her eyes sting.

Sima Hong drew his sword. "Who sent you! And who is the Prince of Yan to you!"

Qi Gu lowered her eyes and saw the sword gleaming coldly against her neck. Why did all these people like to point their swords at her neck? She disliked it very, very much!

Looking at this person who should be far away in the capital Chang'an, they realized that they had never met in Lijia Village in their previous life.

She first met Sima Hong on her way back to the capital by guards sent by the palace. Since they were traveling together, they returned to Chang'an together.

She was on that journey together, and from then on, she kept the bright moon hanging high in the sky in her heart. Later, she didn't care how many jokes she made.

Qi Gu sat on the ground, her hands supporting her weight. Even though she harbored a lot of resentment towards the person in front of her, she could only beg for mercy at this moment, "Don't kill me, I'm just a villager from nearby, I came to the mountain to pick mushrooms, please let me go."

All the grievances and anger were things of the past life. She had decided never to get involved in these whirlpools again in this life, and could only pretend not to know the person in front of her.

"Staying alive is the most important thing, staying alive is the most important thing," Qi Gu muttered with her eyes closed.

Sima Hong looked at the woman, whose eyes were red, filled with anger, fear, and resentment that he couldn't understand.

He put down his sword, but his suspicions about the woman remained. These next few days were the time to close the net, and he couldn't afford any mistakes.

Just then, Qi Gu's hand, which was supporting her on the ground, tightly gripped a handful of sand.

As soon as Sima Hong put down his sword, she threw the sand in her hand into his eyes.

Hmph, Sima Hong, who loves cleanliness, and the Grand Minister who only wears white robes, is just a handful of mud. Consider it a gift for the first and last time we meet.

After Qi Gu finished sprinkling the lacquer, she saw Sima Hongyang raise his hand to block his eyes, so she got up and ran away.

But after running a few steps, an untimely voice came from behind, "Aunt Qi, look what I caught?"

In the midst of this tense atmosphere, Gouwa, completely out of place, ran up to her with a plump rabbit in his arms, his face covered in sweat, eager to show off. "Hmph, call me brother now, and I'll give you half."

Qi Gu looked at the person in white behind her, who was as white as snow, who walked out of the dust with a sword in hand and looked at her coldly.

Gritting her teeth, she said, "Stop talking. Don't you even know what the situation is?"

Gouwa, clutching the rabbit, exclaimed, "Aunt Qi, aren't I amazing? This rabbit can't escape my grasp. Hey, Aunt Qi, what happened to your eyes?"

Gouwa noticed that Qi Gu was about to burst into flames, so he looked back and was stunned by what he saw. "This, this is a male deity from heaven!"

"Pfft!" Qi Gu couldn't help but laugh out loud at the inopportune moment. Seeing that the man's expression was getting colder, she immediately stopped laughing, grabbed Gouwa, and shouted, "Run!"

Doggy was confused. Qi Gu pulled Doggy along, and after running a few steps, they heard a noise behind them. Doggy turned around curiously, "Oh! Qi Gu, that fairy has fainted!"

Gouwa stopped and was about to turn back when Qi Gu grabbed him. "Don't worry about it, let's hurry down the mountain." Sima Hong's appearance here was definitely not without reason.

What did he just mention about Prince Chen? Wasn't Prince Chen defeated by his father and mother long ago?

Even in her past life, no matter how ignorant she was, she knew what the King of Chen represented: the victor is king and the vanquished is villain. Now, to have any connection with the defeated King of Chen meant one word: death.

Gouwa was completely unaware of the seriousness of the problem. He shoved the rabbit into Qi Gu's hands, saying, "Hold this for me, I'll go check on it."

Qi Gu couldn't stop him, so she stomped her foot and said, "You brat, I'm never going to come up the mountain with him again."

If he hadn't gone to catch some rabbits, she wouldn't have accidentally wandered into the back mountain while looking for him, and wouldn't have met this person. What bad luck!

Gouwa squatted down and saw this god-like person with a face as white as jade and eyes closed, just like the statue of a deity his mother had taken him to worship at the temple. He turned around and called to Aunt Qi, "Aunt Qi, come quickly, he seems to be dying."

Are you kidding me? He was just pointing a sword at her, and now he's going to die?

Qi Gu stepped forward and saw that he was indeed handsome with his eyes closed, looking half-dead, yet still holy and solemn, and not to be profaned.

"Aunt Qi, we can't just stand by and watch someone die."

"No!" Seeing that Gouwa was about to help the person up, Qi Gu pointed at the unconscious person with the rabbit in her hand, "He just pointed a sword at me, and I almost died by his sword. If you can't save him, what if he wakes up and tries to kill someone?"

Gouwa scratched his head. "This, this..." He really wanted to save the person, but he hesitated if the person was harmful to Qi Gu.

Qi Gu helped Gouwa up from the ground. "Let's get out of here quickly."

...

Half an hour later, Qi Gu returned with Gouwa.

They weren't there to rescue people; they had to retreat.

Before me stood four burly men, dressed in black, masked, and holding kitchen knives—yes, kitchen knives!

"No, don't move! We're here to take your lives!" one of the men in black said.

This was the first time Gouwa had encountered something so thrilling and exciting, but he wasn't scared. He felt it was time for him to protect Qi Gu.

That boy didn't dream of becoming a knight-errant when he was little, but fourteen-year-old Gouwa also has a dream!

Qi Gu saw a figure half a head shorter than herself blocking her way, and she laughed, though she was angry.

"Hey, look at this young lady, she can still laugh."

One of the men holding a kitchen knife looked at them and muttered, "Isn't this... isn't this Qi Gu from Li Family Village?"

Upon hearing this man's words, Qi Gu immediately asked, "Do you know me?"

"Who knows you? We're paid to do things for people!"

Qi Gu was puzzled. She was no longer a princess in this life, and she had not hindered anyone's future or interests. Why would anyone want to kill a commoner girl like her?

Suddenly, she thought of someone who now most wanted to take her life!

The thin, short Gouwa stepped forward and said, "Aunt Qi, you run! I'll hold them off."

Qi Gu sighed, "Even if you're going to be a hero, you should consider the timing."

"Gentlemen, are you here to kill me because of Li Qiaoshou?" Qi Gu tried to stall for time.

"I think it's a misunderstanding. I have no grudge against Li Qiao or the princess. Wait for me to go back and talk to her. I promise she will never let you kill me again!"

The man in black who had just recognized Qi Gu hesitated upon hearing this, and said to his three accomplices, "Why don't we really take her back and ask her?"

But one of the men in black disagreed, "Fool, you believe everything she says? If people find out what happened today, we're finished!"

"But they're all from the same village, this is really not good."

"Yeah, wouldn't doing this mean we..."

One of them hesitated because he recognized what the person who had spoken to Qi Gu had said.

Hearing the three of them loudly plotting, Qi Gu looked up at the sky and wondered whether to call Li Qiao clever or stupid. She could think of killing someone to cover it up, but couldn't she have been more careful about choosing someone to do it?

"Li Qiao and I are from the same village. There must be some misunderstanding between us. I have no connection with the princess. You want me to see her? If she still wants to kill me, then you can kill me then!"

"No! You must die today!"