"Master..." Jiang Songyi's exclamation caught in her throat. Xin Yidao's bloodstained hand brushed the corner of her eye, a gesture identical to the one he'd used in his previous life, when he'd blindfolded her to block the rebels' blades. At the end of the slope was a cliff, rubble tumbling into the abyss.
As the footsteps of the pursuers drew closer, Jiang Songyi reached for the dagger at her waist. Just as she was about to fight to the death, she heard a roar from below the cliff—the Black Iron Cavalry of the Yongding Marquisate! She stared blankly at her father, who was charging in the front. The "Jiang" emblem on his armor gleamed brightly in the morning sun.
Xinyi Daoyi suddenly grabbed her by the back of the neck, his breath brushing against her ear: "I won the bet." The blood from his fingertips seeped into her collar, burning out a red plum blossom.
Jiang Songyi watched as his father shot an arrow through the throat of the assassin leader, and vaguely saw the head that had been hanging on the city gate for three days in his previous life finally turning into the triumphal flag of today.
…
The dusk in the woods, wrapped in moisture, drifted up.
Jiang Songyi's hand trembled slightly as she gripped the half-broken arrow, the shaft still stained with Xinyi Daoyi's blood. Just as she was about to turn back to investigate, she felt a sudden tightening around her waist—the prince had actually rolled off his horse, holding her. As the world spun, she heard the dull thud of the arrowhead piercing a tree trunk.
"Cough..." Xinyi Daoyi's back slammed against the rock, a sweet, fishy taste rising in his throat. Jiang Songyi hurriedly pulled herself up, noticing that his black shirt had been stained dark red. She pressed her hand to his chest, feeling his rapid heartbeat through the thin shirt.
Jiang Jinzhao's groaning could be heard from three feet away. He knelt in the mud, his right palm pierced by a barbed arrow. Blood trickled down the shaft, forming an eerie red plum blossom in the stagnant water.
"Don't move!" Jiang Songyi snapped the arrow with swift and fierce movements. The broken end brushed against Jiang Jinzhao's palm, sending a cold sweat down his back—this girl was even more skillful than an assassin.
The rain poured down in torrents. As Jiang Songyi drew her bow and aimed at the treetops, raindrops trickled down her eyelashes. The moment her arrow left the bowstring, another stray arrow streaked through the air, cleaving her own broken arrow in two! Amidst the scattering of splinters, she suddenly spun around and fired again. The remaining arrow pierced through the branches, bringing with it a short, painful scream.
The muffled thud of a body falling to the ground mixed with the roar of thunder. Xin Yidao leaned against a tree trunk and coughed, wiping the blood from her lips with her fingertips. "Miss Jiang's archery skills... cough cough... are even better than mine."
Jiang Songyi's eyes welled up. Her master in her previous life, when teaching her to shoot an arrow through a hundred paces, had often said, "The disciple surpasses the master." She knelt in the muddy water to feel his pulse and noticed he was wearing the familiar giant clam bracelet on his wrist—the one she had hand-cut for his birthday the previous year.
"It's raining heavily, let's find some shelter." Xin Yidao stood up, supporting himself against the rock wall. His dark cloak covered Jiang Songyi's head. He caught a glimpse of Jiang Jinzhao's shaky figure and sighed softly, "Your brother's hand..."
Jiang Jinzhao stumbled half a step at the words. The rain washed away the twitching flesh on his palms, revealing the white bones. He suddenly remembered the Lantern Festival last year, when his sister held up her burned hand and begged him for ointment. At that time, he was choosing a pearl hairpin for Jiang Yuyao and casually tossed her a piece of silver to send her off.
"Brother." Jiang Songyi's voice mingled with the sound of rain. She tore off the hem of her skirt and wrapped it around his wrist roughly, her fingertips trembling uncontrollably. "The poison has entered my bloodstream. If you delay any longer, my hand will be chopped off."
Jiang Jinzhao's vision darkened with pain, and he vaguely heard his sister's inner voice: "In your past life, you blocked an arrow for me and ended up disabled for life. Now, you're my debt in this life." He suddenly grabbed her wrist and said, "If you become disabled..."
"It won't be useless!" Jiang Songyi pried open his fingers and stuffed a pill into his mouth, "Swallow it!" The moment the bitterness exploded on the tip of his tongue, Jiang Jinzhao saw tears in her eyes, he couldn't tell whether it was rain or tears.
As a bonfire lit at the cave entrance, Xinyi Daoyi was tending to his arrow wound. Jiang Songyi stared at his pale profile and suddenly yanked open his shirt. The moment her warm palm touched his cold chest, both of them shuddered.
"Three ribs are broken." Her voice choked. "Your Highness, are you really not afraid of death?"
Xin Yidao grabbed her withdrawing hand and slipped the blood-stained giant clam bracelet onto her wrist. "I'm afraid." The firelight illuminated the cinnabar mole between his eyebrows. "I'm even more afraid that you'll get caught in the rain and catch a cold."
Thunder roared outside the cave. Jiang Jinzhao turned away, staring at the shadows cast by the campfire on the cave wall—the overlapping figures reminiscent of the silhouettes of his sister and the prince at their farewell on the day the city fell in his previous life. He suddenly began to cough violently, and the blood oozing from the wound on his palm was surprisingly black.
"The arrow is poisonous!" Jiang Songyi overturned the medicine box as she rushed over. The porcelain bottle rolled into the fire, emitting a burst of green smoke. She fumbled for the antidote pill with trembling hands, but heard her brother's weak laugh: "If... look after father for me..."
"Take care of yourself!" Jiang Songyi pried open his teeth and stuffed the pill into his mouth, then turned to the prince and shouted, "Your Highness, please light a new fire!" As Xin Yidao was picking up firewood, he caught a glimpse of her using a broken arrow to cut open Jiang Jinzhao's palm. She lowered her head to suck the poisonous blood, looking like a mother wolf protecting her cubs.
Amidst the torrential downpour, the torches of the Black Iron Cavalry finally pierced the veil of rain. Jiang Songyi sat slumped in a pool of blood, watching her father carry her brother onto his horse. Suddenly, she grasped Xinyi Daoyi's sleeve, "Your Highness promised to be a wise ruler..."
"I remember." Xinyi Daoyi put the cloak on her shoulders, "When you reach the age of 15..." The second half of the sentence was swallowed by thunder, and only the giant clam bracelet was shining with warm light in the rainy night.
Raindrops hit the arrowhead, splashing blood. Jiang Jinzhao put his injured hand behind his back. The wound on his palm, where the flesh had been peeling and bleached by the rain, looked exactly like the burn on Jiang Songyi's hand during the Lantern Festival last year.
"Go back to the city and find the imperial physician..." Before he could finish his words, Jiang Songyi suddenly grabbed his wrist. The coolness of her fingertips made Jiang Jinzhao tremble all over, and he seemed to see her grabbing the railing of the prison van at the execution ground in his previous life.
"Who allowed you to hide?" Jiang Songyi said coldly, pulling out his injured hand and applying a mixture of gold wound powder and rainwater to the wound. Jiang Jinzhao gasped in pain, but she deliberately pressed hard with a handkerchief to stop the bleeding. "The Crown Prince will take me out of the way, so why do you need to act like a hero?"
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