Chapter 64: Cutting Flesh and Scraping Bones
Feng Yanyuan flung open the carved wooden door of Xuanhe Hall. The old medical sage, dozing on the couch, sat up with a start, his white beard still stained with lingering tea stains.
Feng Yanyuan carefully laid the unconscious Yun Yuan flat on the couch, his movements as gentle as if he was placing a fragile piece of porcelain.
The old medical sage took Yun Yuan's pulse and said, "The drug testing damaged my Qi and blood, but it's nothing serious."
The word "no problem" split the clouds like thunder, and Feng Yanyuan's tense expression suddenly relaxed. He was about to perform the formal ceremony when his legs suddenly gave way. In a trance, he knocked over the medicine grinder on the table and fell straight down into the pile of broken porcelain.
Song Hezi shook his head and tapped Yun Yuan's Tanzhong and Baihui points with his withered fingers.
"Cough——" The girl suddenly sat up with her body bent, and her pale lips gradually turned bloody.
"Thank you, senior."
Song Hezi stroked his beard and looked at her: "Gu Yue said that you have the Butterfly Feather Order in your hand."
Yun Yuan took out a brocade bag from a secret pocket next to her body.
In the moonlight, the butterfly-wing patterns on the white jade token glowed faintly, as if alive. Song Hezi's bony fingers slowly stroked the delicate patterns on the jade token, pausing slightly at the intersection of bird feathers and butterfly wings.
"I've seen at least eight, if not ten, Owl Lords." He chuckled and handed the jade token back. "I've been wrong. You, a yellow-haired girl, are the first one."
"I am just a temporary replacement who happened to have the opportunity. In fact, I am not even a Youxiao." Yun Yuan put away the brocade bag. "Did Gu Yue leave any message?"
Song Hezi pulled out a boxwood waist badge from his sleeve. "The Dianqian Pavilion in the southeast corner of the Huainan Palace is recruiting scholars from poor families to copy scriptures."
Yun Yuan took the badge and saw the four words "Guiwei Night Duty" engraved on the wooden texture.
Song Hezi continued, "Take this and enter through the south side gate. Copy the scriptures and exchange them for some money to pay for passage." He stroked his beard and looked at Yun Yuan's crimson skirt. "The clothes are ready at the corner gate of the medicine hall."
"Thank you, senior."
She stood up to leave, but stopped when she passed Feng Yanyuan.
The blinding incense had been smeared on his clothes along the way. But as he galloped, his whole body was filled with true energy, and even the drug couldn't get close to him. Only just now, perhaps because he relaxed, did the drug take advantage of the opportunity to enter and knock him unconscious.
He has always hated deception, let alone being drugged... He will definitely hate her when he wakes up.
As the candlelight flickered, a tear fell on the boy's clothes.
Yun Yuan leaned over and gently straightened the sachet around his waist. Then she stood up and left.
Song Hezi's old voice sounded behind him: "Girl..."
Yun Yuan paused.
The old man took out a birch bark letter box with a green glow from the secret compartment of the desk.
"It was delivered at three o'clock in the afternoon. It should be for you." He flicked the barrel with his fingertips, and it echoed hollowly. "Yuanfengwei left first and didn't have time to take it with him."
Yun Yuan took the mailbox and pulled out a roll of yellow paper. When she unfolded it, the moonlight swept across the girl's pale face, illuminating the trembling in her pupils and the tears that instantly filled her eyes.
With a soft snap, the birch-bark tung slipped from the girl's fingers. She stumbled back, her back slamming heavily against the doorpost.
Song Hezi said, "Girl, it's not a bad thing to have scars on old wounds, but some people insist on cutting away the scars and scraping the bones..." He looked out the window, where dark clouds half-hid the crescent moon. "If you keep doing this over and over again, even the new flesh will eventually rot away."
Yun Yuan's tears trickled down her cheeks, and she suddenly chuckled, "If there's a poisonous barb buried beneath that scar, if I don't remove the thorn by cutting out the flesh and scraping the bone to expel the poison, do I have to wait for it to flow through my bloodstream and shred my heart and liver?"
Song Hezi remained silent. The tearful girl carefully tucked away the yellow paper and left resolutely. The moonlight stretched her shadow far out, eventually dissolving into the shadow of the courtyard wall.
Song Hezi shook his head and was about to turn around when he heard a "bang" sound.
"Ouch!" The little medicine boy rubbed his forehead and fell to the ground with sleepy eyes. When he saw the person who tripped him, he was suddenly frightened: "Master, Master! This, this, this..."
"What are you panicking about?" Song Hezi stroked his beard slowly. "It's just some incense to calm the nerves." He kicked Feng Yanyuan's boots. "Go call two guards. My old bones can't move this sleeping donkey."
The little medicine boy blinked his eyes: "Then...then does Master have an antidote..."
The old man, his hands behind his back, had already walked into the inner room. Hearing this, he waved his hand without even turning back. "I don't have an antidote for this new thing." He sighed softly, "Let him sleep. These days, a good dream is the best antidote."
The night wind blew through the hall, making the porcelain bottles on the medicine cabinet jingle. The little medicine boy stood there in a daze, watching his master's back disappear behind the gauze curtain, then glanced down at Feng Yanyuan, who was sleeping soundly on the ground.
The inky black clouds swallowed up the last ray of moonlight, and a sudden rain came, piercing the silence of the night like a silver needle.
The sound of the midnight watch was shrouded in the night rain, intermittent, as if shattered by raindrops. A thin figure scurried along the dark shadows beneath the high wall, his clothes soaked by the rain and clinging to his body, making him look even thinner.
The scholar walked hurriedly until he stopped in front of the side door in the southeast corner that was emitting warm light, and breathed slightly.
The guard took the badge, squinted his eyes and looked at it for a moment, frowning. "You look unfamiliar, is this your first time here?" Before he could reply, he snorted coldly, "We almost missed the deadline! It's so wet, don't ruin the paper and ink—if you ruin one sheet, I'm afraid you won't even earn enough tonight to make up for it!"
The scholar bowed repeatedly and apologized cautiously: "Yes, yes, I will be careful."
The guard then stepped aside and let him pass. A mute servant led the way, holding a lantern. The dim light flickered beneath the corridor, illuminating the scholar's wet shoe prints. When they reached the Pawnshop, the mute servant suddenly stopped, his gaze fixed on the scholar's dripping hem and shoes, his brow furrowed.
The scholar immediately understood and hurriedly took off his outer robe and wet shoes, revealing a relatively dry coarse linen jacket underneath. The mute servant stared at him for a moment, finally nodded slightly, and pushed open the door.
Inside the pavilion, candlelight flickered dimly, the scent of ink wafting through the air. Across from him, someone was already writing furiously at the desk, their pen rustling. The scholar, not wanting to delay, hurriedly found an empty seat and sat down. He grabbed his pen, dipped it in ink, and began to write, his strokes flowing freely.
The mute servant stopped at the door for a moment, and seeing that nothing was unusual, he retreated quietly. When the wooden door closed, there was only a very light "click" sound.
The scholar heard the footsteps fading away, paused his writing, and slowly raised his head.
As the candlelight flickered, the woman dressed as a scholar across from me suddenly smiled, her charm so enchanting that even her coarse linen clothes looked exquisite. "Your disguise is quite clever! I thought I wouldn't see anyone tonight, but it's the same poor scholar from before."
"Song Hezi has made thorough preparations." Yun Yuan's fingertips gently stroked the wrinkles of the coarse linen clothes around his waist, and his eyes swept towards the curtain of rain outside the door.
"Don't worry," Wu Yi lowered her voice. "This place is a place for poor students to earn a living. There's nothing important here, and it's actually quieter than those teahouses and guesthouses outside."
"Have you gotten rid of Feng Dian?" Yun Yuan asked in a low voice.
Wu Yi sighed softly, "Not only did I fail to shake it off, I was even captured by Feng Yanhao. I spent several days in his Nuanxiang Pavilion..." She paused, "Thanks to you for sending You Xiao to investigate and devise a plan to rescue me."
Yun Yuan was about to respond when she suddenly saw a faint red mark on the collar of her black and coarse linen clothes in the candlelight, which was particularly glaring against her pale skin.
"Did he torture you?!" Yun Yuan leaned forward suddenly.
Wu Yi followed her gaze and looked down. Her ears immediately turned red, and she frantically tugged at her collar. "No..." Her voice suddenly dropped to a whisper. "He didn't torture me. This is..."
He stopped talking mid-sentence. A certain image suddenly flashed through Yun Yuan's mind, and her cheeks immediately became hot, and she quickly sat up straight.
The sound of raindrops was dripping, hitting the wooden window.
"I was..." Wu Yi cleared her throat, her fingertips rubbing the cuffs of her coarse linen shirt. "I was disguised as Yu Su'e, the leader of Qingmu Valley, to attend the meeting, but I didn't expect to receive a challenge arrow from Hengshan Wei Qianqiu." Her voice trailed off, as if recalling the incident. "Suspicious of a trick, I hid in the shadows and watched, only to see the leaders being ambushed one by one... Just as I was about to withdraw..." She paused, her brows furrowed slightly. "Suddenly, the world spun around, and everything went black... When I woke up, I was already in the wing of Feng Yanhao's Shouchun Villa."
"Jade Su'e, the Crimson Hand?" Yun Yuan's eyes widened. "I heard her martial arts skills are on par with Mei Jiumang. How could you possibly impersonate her?"
Wu Yi raised the corners of his lips slightly, and a hint of pride flashed in his eyes: "She is indeed amazing, and can be ranked among the top three in the current martial arts world. Is that old pervert from Hengshan worthy of challenging her?" He sneered and slammed his pen heavily on the paper.
"Could it be that you...poisoned it?" Yun Yuan asked doubtfully.
"How could I possibly poison her?" Wu Yi suddenly chuckled, "She's my master."
The ink brush in Yun Yuan's hand paused: "Master?!"
"To be precise, it was Senior Sister's master." Wu Yi dipped a little ink in her ink, her tone brightening. "Senior Sister is very talented, and I... was tricked into eating for free by her." She sighed softly, "Later, to investigate Senior Sister's case, I joined Baihua Tower as a spy, but eventually fell into disrepair. It's truly an insult to our master to reveal my mediocre skills. Master didn't want to attend the meeting this time, so she allowed me to go in her place."
"I see. However, she managed to escape. I wonder what happened to those sect leaders at the Crossbow Platform."
"Come to think of it..." Wu Yi suddenly looked up at her. "I originally thought you only wanted revenge, but I didn't expect you to save people in the martial arts world and care about the affairs of the court. That move of 'blooming on the tree' was truly a game-changer. Not only did it save several leaders, but it also pushed the martial arts world directly to the side of the King of Huainan." She smiled slightly. "I finally understand why the lord asked you to take over as the leader of the Xiao family."
Yun Yuan dipped her brush in ink, and the ink spread a deep, dark color across the Duan inkstone. "It's just empty talk. It's You Xiao who's turning the tide, and it's the King of Huainan who's winning the hearts of the people." She glanced at the several empty tables in the Dianqian Pavilion. "The King of Huainan was able to keep a warm light for the poor children even when he was in danger. Even if it wasn't me, there would be others who would help."
Wu Yi sighed softly, "The King of Huainan is indeed a wise ruler, but it's a pity..." Her words trailed off, leaving only a barely audible sigh. She put down her pen and asked, "Have you gotten any information about the venomous snake?"
Yun Yuan's eyes suddenly lit up, and she leaned forward unconsciously. "Have you found out any news about him?"
Wu Yi nodded.
"Two things." She raised her index finger, ink still stained on her nail. "First, Feng Yanhao has contacted Feng Xiaoming and is working together to help King Zhao seize the throne."
Yun Yuan's heart trembled. "This Black Judge is truly unfathomable. At the Shouchun Banquet, he even had Feng Die secretly assist Feng Yanyuan. Now he's colluding with Feng Xiaoming?"
Wu Yi shook her head: "Feng Yanhao has always only wanted to destroy the Third Young Master, to kill him..." She chuckled, "Or to let others kill the Feng family under his nose, of course he would intervene."
Yun Yuan nodded slightly. "It seems that Feng Yanhao has already seen through the situation at Bagong Mountain. Feng Spy has gained quite a lot these days."
Wu Yi sighed softly, "After all, Feng Yanhao had some dealings with King Zhao long ago. It's hard to say how many of the things about Bagong Mountain were his work."
"You just said there was one more thing?" Yun Yuan asked.
Wu Yi nodded, raised her middle finger, and made a sword gesture with her index finger: "Second..." She lowered her voice, "Feng Xiaoming has been lurking in Shouchun. His real target is the King of Huainan..."
Suddenly, the carved wooden door was pushed open with a creaky sound.
The guard who was on duty stood at the door with his sword drawn. He swept his sharp eyes around the room and suddenly pointed at Yun Yuan and shouted, "Hey, unfamiliar person, I have some paperwork to check. Come out with me!"
Yun Yuan's heart skipped a beat. When she looked back at Wu Yi, they both saw suspicion in each other's eyes. This Dianqian Pavilion had always been poorly managed, so why would they suddenly check the documents today? She hesitantly stood up, and the guard was already knocking impatiently on the doorframe.
As soon as she stepped out of the threshold, the heavy wooden door slammed shut behind her.
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