Chapter 6 Chapter 6 He calls me "Ayu"
In the dark cave, only his increasingly rapid breathing could be heard. He did not answer, nor did he make any other movements. He just leaned motionless against the uneven cave wall.
The light was too dim, Hanyu couldn't see the expression on his face, and couldn't even tell whether he was still awake.
"Why aren't you saying anything? Are you going to stop arguing because I've exposed you?"
The other party was still silent as death, and only the heavy breathing proved that he was still alive. Maybe it was too cold and he was frozen unable to speak?
Hanyu had wanted to leave him alone, but since she had the Jade Seal, how could she really just sit there and watch him die? Furthermore, she had to go back to the Central Plains with Yin Jinglong to save her husband, so she couldn't let him die in this hellish place.
Although she was extremely reluctant, she couldn't help but go forward to check on his condition.
As she approached him, Yin Jinglong's body, which was leaning against the wall of the cave, suddenly tilted and slid down, falling to the ground. He still had his eyes closed and was breathing heavily, as if he had lost consciousness.
"What’s wrong with you?"
Hanyu patted his face, but found that his whole body was hot, his hair was soaked with cold sweat, and his heavy breathing echoed in the cave.
When she realized something was wrong, she immediately helped him up, tried to let him lean against the wall of the cave, and fastened the belt for him, but it was too cold and the clothes were not enough to keep him warm. Although his whole body was burning, he still shivered.
Hanyu wondered why, in this life, he wasn't wearing silver-gray armor and a sword like in his previous life, looking like a majestic commander. Instead, he wore an ordinary official uniform, covered with a blue-brown fox fur coat. He didn't even carry a weapon for self-defense. How could this be the posture of leading an army to slaughter a clan?
She tried to help him up and let him lean against the wall of the cave steadily, but he was no longer in consciousness and had no strength to support himself. As soon as he was helped up, he fell back on her.
At this moment, she heard Yin Jinglong suddenly call out the word "Ayu" softly, and she was stunned for a moment.
This familiar voice called her name gently and tenderly, and she seemed to hear her former husband calling her; this familiar face that she had admired for a long time and thought about day and night was leaning against her quietly, and every bit of the loving relationship with her husband in the past was still vivid in her mind.
Ajiang, is that you?
Yin Jinglong squirmed his body and snuggled in her arms, craving the warmth from her body, like a wounded beast relying on the instinct of survival to seek a shelter that could protect itself.
She saw the faint scar on Yin Jinglong's right arm. She curiously lifted his sleeve and found that the scar was one she had never seen before.
It looked like a winding centipede, extending from the wrist all the way up to the elbow, and it looked even more hideous in the darkness. In addition, if you look closely at his entire right hand, there seems to be a slight bend below the elbow, which is not as straight as that of an ordinary person. It looks like the armless person I have seen before.
And she had never seen such a horrible and hideous scar on her husband Ajiang's hand.
However, he had just held her with this uninjured hand. If his arm was broken, how could he hold her?
Hanyu tentatively touched his right hand, but perhaps she didn't control the strength well, and the intense pain woke him up.
Like a frightened beast, Yin Jinglong suddenly stretched out his other hand and grabbed her throat, his voice hoarse: "What are you going to do to me?"
"You...didn't you ask me to save you? I just wanted to see how badly you were injured."
His strength was not great, and it seemed that he did not really want to kill her, but was just trying to scare her.
Hearing her say this, he immediately let go of her neck and pretended to casually pull up his sleeves to cover the scar.
Seeing that the back of his left hand was no longer bleeding and that he could still use the cut hand, Hanyu regretted that he had not stabbed deep enough with his dagger. Although the wound looked to be torn apart, it actually did not hurt any bones or muscles, and only caused some blood loss.
She took out the silk handkerchief she carried with her and bandaged it simply so that no one could see the wound covered with blood scabs.
"Thank you for your concern, sister-in-law. I wonder if you have found a way to escape?"
Yin Jinglong's long-lost call of "sister-in-law" sent chills down her spine. In her previous life, he gently called her "sister-in-law" while holding the sharpest knife in front of her to hurt the person she loved most.
He was a beast in human form. He did the cruelest things without batting an eyelid and told the most sweet lies, torturing her and her husband to death step by step.
In this life, she never wanted to hear him call her "sister-in-law" again.
"Your Highness is mistaken. I am not your sister-in-law."
"Oh? You don't like it? Then how about I call you 'Ayu' like your brother?"
Yin Jinglong moved closer to her and stared at her with interest, which made her scalp tingle and her whole body feel uncomfortable. She involuntarily stepped back.
However, the more she retreated, the closer he got, forcing her into a corner, with their noses only a finger's distance apart.
"Or do you actually not want to be my sister-in-law? Do you want to get closer to me?"
He lifted her chin and smiled maliciously.
Hanyu pushed away his teasing fingers and scolded him, "Aren't you people from the Central Plains the most particular about etiquette? Although I haven't completed my wedding with Ajiang, he and I are in love. You can't touch me casually, let alone insult me!"
But it was these four words "mutual affection" that completely infuriated this temperamental and irascible beast. He gripped her hand tightly and told her word by word, "According to the rules of the Central Plains, you and your brother have neither accepted the marriage proposal nor received the marriage invitation. You two are not even considered husband and wife. At most, you are secretly engaged. What do you mean by mutual affection? That's just your one-sided statement. How do I know you're not lying? Maybe your brother doesn't love you at all! Otherwise, why would he allow you to be with another man?"
She didn't understand the concept of marriage and didn't care about it. In her opinion, as long as a man and a woman loved each other, they could be together for life. What was important was that she knew that A Jiang loved her.
He wasn't Ah Jiang, so why did he tell her that none of this mattered? Was it because he was Ah Jiang's brother? If Ah Jiang could be given a chance to choose again, he would definitely not want to be brothers with such a sinister and vicious person!
"I don't care what the rules of your Central Plains are. I love him and will not marry anyone else in this life. Even if he's dead, I'll remain single for his whole life! Unless... unless he appears before me right now and tells me in person that he doesn't love me, and tells me in person that the oath I made before the goddess doesn't count, then no one else should think of breaking us up!"
"You're attracted to him? He was just a loyal dog before the Emperor. Now his martial arts skills are completely gone. He's worse than a stray dog. He's just a useless person. And you're still attracted to him?"
Yin Jinglong became more and more excited as he spoke. After learning that she would never marry for the sake of his useless brother, the anger in his heart suddenly erupted like a long-dormant volcano. Sparks of anger burned all over his body. Enraged, he suddenly swung his fist and hit the stone wall behind Hanyu hard.
In an instant, the stone wall behind Hanyu loosened, and a piece of the stone wall, unable to bear the weight, suddenly collapsed, and her body fell backwards uncontrollably.
At this moment, the pair of big hands around her waist once again tightly embraced her body that was about to fall, and a winding passage appeared behind her.
She didn't bother to argue with Yin Jinglong, and stood up to explore the passage. The passage was dark and winding, and the walls on both sides showed traces of digging.
"I know why there's such a secret chamber and passageway beneath the Goddess Temple. Those foreigners who attempted to steal the Goddess statue must have dug out this secret passage to avoid punishment from the statue."
Hanyu stood at the entrance of the secret passage and shouted inside: "Hey! Is anyone there?"
Yin Jinglong mocked her from the side: "Do you think there is an immortal cultivator hiding in here? Do you still expect someone to rescue us? Don't dream!"
He rubbed his left hand which had just hit the wall. Perhaps he had used too much force, and the wound under the white silk handkerchief began to bleed again. After his anger, he now felt the pain on the back of his hand.
"What do you know? I'm using the echo to detect the length of this secret passage, so I can guess where it leads. I think we might be able to escape from this secret passage."
However, the secret passage was too dark and the road ahead could not be seen clearly with the naked eye. If we encountered a collapse like before, we would not be able to escape from this narrow space.
If they could wait until dawn, perhaps they could still see a little, but as the night deepened, the wind and snow outside became stronger and stronger. If they didn't find a way to get back down the mountain as soon as possible to keep warm, they would probably freeze to death here tonight.
There was an unknown and dangerous road ahead, and they had no safe way to retreat. Hanyu knew that at this critical moment of life and death, she had no other choice but to take a gamble.
She returned to the cave, picked up a handful of stones from the ground and hid them on her body. Then she touched both sides of the secret passage with her hands and walked forward step by step. She threw a stone forward every few steps and listened to the sound to determine whether there was any collapse ahead.
Hanyu took more than ten steps but found that the person behind her had not followed. She turned around and shouted, "Aren't you coming with me? Do you still want to wait here for your guards to rescue you? Don't dream. They can't even get close to the temple, let alone come in to rescue you. If you don't want to freeze to death here, come with me."
"Are you so sure that this secret passage leads down the mountain?"
"Of course. If not, then tell me where this person who dug the secret passage came from?"
Hanyu was both relieved and moved. Relieved that they had stumbled upon this secret passage, and moved that it was surprisingly safe. Those people must have risked their lives to carve out such a dangerous path in order to steal the statue.
These people, driven by money and profit, are unafraid of even death! They have no idea of the snowy mountain's topography, yet they dare to dig holes at will? Little do they know that some places are forbidden! At the very least, it could cause a small-scale collapse, like the cave we just fell into; at worst, it could cause a major collapse, even causing an avalanche on the perennially snow-covered Yulong Snow Mountain.
By then, not only will the foreigners who stole the statue die in the mountain, but even their entire tomb-guarding tribe will be buried under the avalanche.
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