Chapter 23: A blunt excuse, silent care
A bowl of pitch-black medicinal juice, so bitter that it seems to penetrate the soul.
Su Qinghan frowned as she downed the last drop of the medicine in the bowl. The intense bitterness spread from the back of her tongue all the way to her stomach, nearly making her nauseous. But at the same time, a gentle warmth slowly spread through her limbs, dispelling some of the chill that had penetrated her bones, and finally bringing a sense of peace to her chaotic and weakened body.
She handed the empty bowl back.
Chen Ye took it silently, not saying a word from beginning to end. He turned around and placed the bowl on the table, his movements still a little stiff.
The silence in the hut was broken by the occasional crackling sound of firewood in the stove.
Su Qinghan leaned against the headboard. This was the first time since waking that she had the strength to sit up straight. She looked at Chen Ye's back, the one who had blocked the flash of swords and sabers for her, but now looked a little lonely. Although the vigilance and alertness in her heart had not completely disappeared, the cold murderous intent had receded like the tide.
She needed answers. True or false, she needed a reason to support her understanding of the current situation.
"Why did you save me?"
Her voice was still hoarse, but much clearer than before, with a hint of sharpness that brooked no argument. This was a detective interrogating a suspect, and also a woman questioning a man.
Chen Ye's body stiffened slightly.
He didn't turn around immediately, as if this question was more difficult than the siege of hundreds of assassins in the valley. He turned his back to her and remained silent for a long time, so long that Su Qinghan thought he would not answer.
His brain, which was used to calculating, analyzing, and executing, was now running chaotically at an unprecedented speed.
Are you telling the truth?
He told her that the moment he saw her surrounded, his heart, nearly stagnant due to the suppression of the Lightless Heart Sutra, began to beat wildly. He told her that he disobeyed the orders of the Heavenly Secret Pavilion and abandoned the assassin's code simply because he couldn't bear to watch her die. He told her that he didn't know why, it was just instinct.
No, it can't.
These weak, illogically inexplicable emotions were his "flaws" as a top assassin, his greatest weakness. Exposing his flaws to another assassin was like offering his throat to the other's blade.
He had to give a reasonable explanation that matched his identity as the "Tianji Pavilion Assassin." A cold, calculated explanation.
So, he turned around and met Su Qinghan's clear and inquiring eyes. He deliberately restored his gaze to its usual coldness, turned his head away, avoiding her gaze, and answered in a stiff, almost rigid tone:
"You are more useful alive than dead."
Su Qinghan's frown deepened. This answer was both unexpected and reasonable to her.
"What do you mean?" she demanded.
"'Dark Spring' has been destroyed, but the forces that were besieging you remain." Chen Ye's voice was flat and emotionless. "You are the only survivor of 'Dark Spring', and the only one who has seen and fought those people. Your survival is just bait, a pawn to lure out the bigger fish behind the scenes."
He paused and added, "The Tianji Pavilion is very interested in the force that can mobilize hundreds of elite troops at will."
These words are clear and logically consistent.
For a mercenary assassin organization, eliminating competitors and uncovering potential threats is a perfectly reasonable motive. Saving her, a survivor, and observing and exploiting her as a pawn is also entirely consistent with the Tianji Pavilion's ruthless style.
This is a perfect, flawless excuse.
However, who is Su Qinghan?
She was the Six Gates' master detective and Tie Wuqing's most prized disciple. She had interrogated as many criminals and questioned as many witnesses as Chen Ye had killed. Her greatest skill was finding the slightest flaw in even the most perfect lie.
She stared at Chen Ye quietly, her gaze like the sharpest scalpel, dissecting him inch by inch. "A chess piece?" She repeated the word softly, a barely perceptible, cold arc curling up at the corner of her mouth. "To save a chess piece, you've almost killed yourself? Chen Ye, do you think I'm a three-year-old child?"
She pointed at his arm wrapped in thick cloth, and then at the dark red bloodstains on his right trouser leg that had not yet completely dried.
"If I remember correctly, you took a knife and an arrow in order to get me out of that valley. Is this the price you have to pay for the mission of Tianji Pavilion?"
Every word she said hit the nail on the head.
Shen Ye's pupils suddenly shrank.
He hadn't expected that she would observe so carefully at such a critical moment, and he hadn't expected that she would so sharply expose the excuses he used to paralyze himself.
The logical barrier he carefully constructed collapsed in an instant in the face of her few words.
He fell silent again. This time, he was truly speechless. His poor mouth could not come up with a more plausible lie.
Seeing his slightly embarrassed expression after being exposed, Su Qinghan suddenly felt a strange feeling in her heart. She found that this cold-blooded assassin who had killed countless people was actually clumsy and somewhat endearing when it came to lying.
She stopped asking questions.
She knew that if she continued to ask, she would only receive more silence or even more outrageous lies. This man had a secret in his heart, a secret he was unwilling, or perhaps, afraid, to reveal.
The answer may not be in his words, but in his actions.
"Where's my sword?" she changed the subject.
Chen Ye, as if granted amnesty, immediately turned around, picked up a sheathed longsword from the corner, and handed it to her. It was her "Han Jiang Xue." The blade had been polished spotlessly, even cleaner than she herself.
Su Qinghan took the sword and placed it across her knees. With the sword in hand, the familiar feeling of security brought a sense of peace of mind. She closed her eyes, began to regulate her breathing, and ignored Chen Ye.
This brief and tense confrontation ended with a strange tacit understanding.
In the following days, the two of them fell into a strange state of coexistence in this small hut.
Words have become the most redundant thing.
Every morning, before daybreak, Su Qinghan would be awakened by the rhythmic, dull sound of axes chopping. Shen Ye would prepare the day's firewood, fetch water from the mountain stream, and then boil medicine.
His knowledge seemed limited to healing wounds with medicinal herbs and some rudimentary hemostasis techniques. He was clearly helpless against internal injuries like Su Qinghan's, which had depleted her internal energy and damaged her meridians. All he could do was clean her wounds and replace the herbal dressings three times a day, without fail.
His movements were professional, yet also...cold.
Each time he changed the dressing, he handled it as if it were an inanimate object. His gaze was focused and calm, his fingers steady without a tremor, precisely avoiding her sore spots and swiftly completing the bandage. His calm and efficient nature, typical of an assassin, was fully on display at this moment.
It was this ultimate "professionalism" that slowly eased Su Qinghan's anxious heart. She could feel his fingers inevitably touching her skin, the cool, calloused touch causing his body to stiffen for a moment, but he always managed to regain his composure immediately.
He is restraining something.
That afternoon, the weather suddenly changed.
The once clear sky had been enveloped by thick, dark clouds. A fierce wind howled, picking up fallen leaves from the ground and slamming them against the fragile doors and windows of the hut, making muffled thuds.
Su Qinghan's injuries had recurred due to the changing weather. A chilling aura seeped into her body from the wound, causing her to shiver uncontrollably.
Shen Ye noticed something was wrong with her. He glanced at the dark sky outside the window, then at Su Qinghan, whose face was pale and lips were purple, lying on the bed, and his brows furrowed.
This hut was just his temporary hiding place. It was too simple and could not withstand such wind and rain.
The raindrops, as big as beans, soon began to pour down. Rainwater seeped through the cracks in the roof, forming puddles on the ground. One of the leaks was right above the bed.
The cold raindrops fell on the bedding, quickly soaking it.
Su Qinghan instinctively tried to move her body to avoid it, but it affected her wound, causing her to gasp in pain.
At this moment, Shen Ye moved. Without saying a word, he walked directly to the bed, bent down, and without saying anything, picked her up, including the blanket.
"you!"
Su Qinghan was horrified and subconsciously wanted to struggle. But her frail body seemed so insignificant in Shen Ye's strong arms.
He gently placed her in the driest corner on the other side of the house, which was covered with thick hay that he had found at some point. After doing all this, he turned around and picked up the only oilcloth on the table, and used his murderous dagger "Setsuna" to cut out a few wooden wedges. In a few seconds, he climbed up the beam and blocked the most serious leaking area.
Rain still seeped in from other places, but he was doing the best he could.
He jumped off the beam, walked to the corner, sat down beside her, took off the coarse cloth coat that carried his body temperature, and covered her quilt with it.
“Boom!”
A flash of lightning streaked across the sky, illuminating his pale profile. The thunder that followed shook the entire hut.
Su Qinghan curled up in the quilt, feeling the warm scent coming from the coat, mixed with the faint smell of sweat and herbs, his heart in chaos.
She looked at the silent man beside her. He just held his sword and sat there quietly, like a statue, blocking out most of the cold wind that came in from the door.
She suddenly remembered that her adoptive father, Tie Wuqing, had once taught her that to judge a person, one should not listen to what they say but look at what they do. Especially in critical moments, subconscious actions can best reflect a person's true heart.
Chen Ye's excuses were full of holes, but his act of saving her was real. His protection at this moment was real. His clumsy, selfless dedication was even more real.
A man is willing to risk his life for a woman, willing to lower himself for her, silently repairing the roof and protecting her from the cold. The reason behind this cannot be explained by a cold "you are more useful alive than dead".
The wind and rain were still raging outside the house, but Su Qinghan's heart felt an unprecedented peace in this small, dilapidated hut.
She looked at him silently, accepting it all silently.
The indestructible layer of ice in my heart, built of hatred and vigilance, is quietly melting and forming a tiny crack under this silent care and silent protection.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
