Chapter 119
Yin Qiu stood in the alley.
The sky was overcast, the rain was drizzling, and the weeping willows in spring were bright green. Yin Qiu was wearing tattered clothes and shivering in the cold wind. Someone handed her a white steamed bun. She held the bun in her hands, squatted down under the willow tree, and took big bites. The bun was quickly dirtied by her hands.
"Do you see that house over there?" the girl standing beside him asked.
Yin Qiu wolfed down her food, then, upon hearing this, timidly glanced at the girl, turned her head, and said, "I saw it..."
"That's the famous Su family in Jinhuai City."
The girl was wearing a plain-colored long robe, with a large black cloak over it. The brim of the cloak covered the upper half of her face, making it impossible to see her features.
“I know,” Yin Qiu said between swallows. “The Su family is very wealthy. When I was working odd jobs at Xunchun Courtyard, many girls said they wanted to become maids in the Su family because Master Su and Madam Su don’t beat their servants. Many people know that.”
The girl asked, "Do you want to go?"
Yin Qiu looked at her cautiously, somewhat surprised to hear this.
A few days ago, she was still at the Xunchun Brothel in Yanghua City. One night, government officials came and sealed off the brothel. She and the other girls who were also handymen were left stranded on the streets. They were taken in by this young girl and then brought to Jinhuai City.
"Are you going to sell me into this?" Yin Qiu asked.
“It wasn’t you, it was all of you. You went in with those girls,” the girl said. “How old were you?”
"Ten years old...?" Yin Qiu counted on her fingers.
“No, you are nine years old this year,” the girl said. “You will be ten years old after this winter, and next year you will go back to where you belong.”
Yin Qiu said blankly, "So I'm only nine years old...?" She was still too young and only noticed the first half of the girl's sentence, not the second half.
“The Su couple certainly don’t beat or scold their servants. You’ll have a good life in the Su family for a year or two,” the girl said. “Next year, you’ll go somewhere else.”
Where to?
The girl didn't answer, but only said, "Remember, your name is Yin Qiu."
Yin Qiu stared blankly: "Oh..."
“Go inside,” the girl said. “We will meet again in the future.”
Yin Qiu finished the last bite of her steamed bun, stood up, and said, "You are a good person. I will repay you in the future. What is your name?"
The girl was silent for a moment, then seemed to smile softly: "You're wrong, I'm not a good person." She paused, then added, "Although I did save you from being alive today, I'm not a good person."
Yin Qiu looked at her, puzzled.
"Anyway, you don't need to know my name. You won't recognize me if we meet again in the future," the girl said, turning around. "Wait a little longer, until you're a little older, someone will come looking for you."
After she finished speaking, she walked into the depths of the alley under Yin Qiu's questioning gaze.
As Yin Qiu watched her retreating figure, a sudden urge to chase after her arose within her for some reason. She seemed to have many questions to ask, but being so young, she didn't know what to ask. She could only subconsciously run towards the receding figure, but she fell to the ground after only a few steps, her thin palms scraped and bleeding slightly.
How could you be so careless?
Soon, a pair of hands reached out and helped her up from behind. A cheerful voice said, "If our martial uncle sees this, he'll scold us again for not taking good care of you."
Yin Qiu was startled, raised her head, turned her face to the side, and saw a handsome, smiling face.
In an instant, the gloomy alleyway transformed into a babbling brook, and the Jin Huai City in early spring became the Jingyue Peak in the depths of winter.
Yin Qiu steadied herself somewhat slowly. She looked down at her palms, which had no wounds or bloodstains, only a little mud on them.
“Such a grown man, still falling down,” the young man in black stood by the bridge, a blade of grass dangling from his mouth. “How embarrassing, Xiao Qiu.”
The impulse to chase in her heart instantly turned into an unspeakable sorrow. Yin Qiu wanted to ask him, "What are you doing here?" but she couldn't help but laugh and said, "It's almost time to practice swordsmanship. If I don't run fast, the sect leader will complain to my uncle again. I don't believe that my senior brother didn't fall down when he was a child."
The young man looked at her and burst into laughter. Sunlight rarely shines on Jingyue Peak in winter, but at this moment, the young man was bathed in warm sunlight. He laughed heartily, but then suddenly stopped. He sighed inexplicably and asked Yin Qiu, "What will you do if all my senior brothers are gone in the future?"
Yin Qiu wanted to say, "Aren't you all gone?" but she couldn't bring herself to say it. She asked again, her words betraying her true feelings, "Where are you going? You promised to stay on Jingyue Peak. Are you leaving?"
The young man looked at her and nodded: "Those who are meant to leave will all leave someday."
Upon hearing these words, an overwhelming sadness welled up inside Yin Qiu. She wanted to cry, but she couldn't bring herself to show her true feelings. As if bewitched, she smiled foolishly and said, "Then remember to take me with you, don't forget me." She added, "And Uncle-Master, let's go together."
The sunlight suddenly dimmed, and large raindrops pierced through the rapidly gathering dark clouds, soaking the two people's hair and clothes.
“We’re not taking you,” the young man laughed merrily, a hint of mockery in his eyes. “You’d better live well and don’t come with us.”
Yin Qiu said, "It's raining, senior brother, let's quickly find shelter."
The young man responded with a "okay," but when Yin Qiu ran to the eaves, he was still standing there.
Yin Qiu shouted, "You'll catch a cold if you get wet in the rain, come here quickly!"
“No, I have to go,” the young man shook his head in the rain. “I have to leave soon.”
Yin Qiu hurriedly said, "Then wait a moment, I'll go get an umbrella and see you off!"
She hurriedly ran into Chenxing Palace, lifting her skirt. The room was deserted and there wasn't a soul in sight. Yin Qiu looked around blankly, and after a moment, she grabbed an oil-paper umbrella and ran out of the palace. But the young man was no longer on the bridge.
"Senior brother?" Yin Qiu ran back to the bridge through the rain. "Senior brother!"
The rain fell harder and harder, as if it were trying to pierce through the heavens and earth. Yin Qiu suddenly felt a deep loneliness in the rain. She held up her umbrella and took a few unsteady steps. Suddenly, she heard the sound of swords clashing and fighting behind her.
Looking back, the Chenxing Palace and Jingyue Peak are no more, but the red maples remain. The maple leaves covering the mountains and fields are like a raging fire, which cannot be extinguished by rain.
Her vision blurred as the dense rain blocked her view, obscuring the figures in the distance into an indistinct halo.
The shadows fled through the sea of fire and fell in the heavy rain. The water flowing at their feet gradually changed color, becoming a diluted red.
The oil-paper umbrella fell from her hand. Yin Qiu raised her hand and rubbed her eyes, but she still couldn't see clearly. She was so anxious that she almost cried. Those people were clearly there, but they were so far away from her. A vague thought lingered in her mind. After a long pause, Yin Qiu finally got up and ran towards the sea of fire, panting and calling out, "Mother... Mother!"
She cried and ran, but no one paid any attention to her. People passed by her one after another, and no one was willing to stay.
"mother!"
Where are you?
Are you still alive...?
Yin Qiu called out with all her might, but gradually lost her strength. She didn't know why she was so tired, even though she hadn't done anything.
She stopped, panting heavily, amidst the psychedelic figures and the rain of fire, but soon someone held an umbrella over her head.
At the same time, that unfamiliar yet gentle voice rang in her ears: "The rain is too heavy, you need to take shelter."
Yin Qiu was soaked through, her heart pounding wildly in her chest. She thought she saw a figure in flowing blue robes in the wind, but she didn't dare turn around.
She didn't even dare to ask who this person was.
“It’s time,” the man said. “Here’s the umbrella, I’m leaving.”
Yin Qiu's limbs stiffened, her hands trembling as she gripped the umbrella ribs. Finally, she mustered the courage to ask, "Where to?"
"Go to a very far place," the man said.
Can I go?
You can't.
"Why?"
"Because you don't belong here."
Yin Qiu's knuckles turned white as she gripped the umbrella ribs, pinching herself until it hurt. She asked, "Then where do I belong?"
“That’s a question for you to answer,” the man said. “If you stay here, you won’t see the person you want to see. Where is the person you want to see?”
Tears welled up instantly, soaking her clothes. Yin Qiu said blankly, "The person I want to see... isn't it you..."
"Now that you've seen it, you can leave."
Walk?
"Can't I be with you?" Yin Qiu wanted to turn back, but she couldn't. "Why won't you want me?"
“No one is abandoning you,” the person said, gently stepping back. “And the person you most want to see is not me.”
The blue shadow suddenly disappeared from her peripheral vision. Yin Qiu finally turned around sharply at that moment, but she saw nothing and no one.
Overwhelmed by grief, Yin Qiu, holding an umbrella, cried like a child: "No...don't go..."
The rain was still falling, and the fire was still burning, but all those figures suddenly vanished.
She was all alone again.
"Don't go...don't go!"
Yin Qiu burst into tears, threw away the umbrella in her hand again, and rushed headlong into the sea of fire.
However, it was as if someone had embraced her, holding her tightly and refusing to let her get even a step closer to the sea of fire.
"Let me go..." Yin Qiu struggled violently, tears streaming down her face. "Let me go...let me go!"
"Don't go," someone's voice said again, "Xiao Qiu, come back quickly."
Suddenly, two hands wrapped around her waist and hugged her even tighter.
With tears blurring her vision, Yin Qiu lowered her head and saw two sections of snow-white sleeves. She smelled a faint, delicate fragrance, as if it came from a very distant place, yet it seemed to be floating right at the tip of her nose, neither near nor far.
"Xiao Qiu, did you hear that? Come back quickly."
The voice was very soft and familiar, as if its owner was whispering in her ear: "Where are you going? Are you going to abandon your martial uncle?"
Uncle-Master...
Uncle-Master?
Yin Qiu slightly raised her eyelashes and stopped struggling in the warm embrace that suddenly came close.
"Uncle-Master..."
"I'm here." The hand that had been on her waist moved away from her waist and quickly moved to Yin Qiu's cheek, gently stroking her with a warm touch.
Are you going to leave your martial uncle?
leave?
No, no...
"No..." Yin Qiu's body went limp, surrendering herself entirely to those hands, "I don't want to leave my master..."
"Then why don't you come back?"
"……return?"
Don't you want to come back to me?
The fire seemed to have died down a bit, and the rain had eased. Yin Qiu stood there forlornly. She was clearly all alone in this place, yet the feeling of being held by someone was so real.
She said wearily, "Where am I...?"
"You're in my arms."
Whose arms are they in?
Is he my martial uncle?
But here... where is my martial uncle?
“I’ve always been here,” the voice guided her gently. “Open your eyes and look at me.”
The fire gradually died down, the heavy rain gradually stopped, and all the light disappeared like the receding tide. The world suddenly turned dark and empty, with only the warm embrace and the touch on my face remaining, not gone.
Yin Qiu groped around in the darkness, but could hardly move an inch. She couldn't even see herself, and could only feel the presence of that person, feeling that she was being held firmly in her arms.
The pain and helplessness in her heart were strangely dispelled, and all the noise and clamor also disappeared from her ears. It was as if Yin Qiu had fallen into a pool of water, the surface of which carried her and turned her into a light, floating bird feather.
The water rippled around her, gently and softly protecting her. The deep darkness brightened in the ripples, like the first rays of dawn on the horizon, illuminating the dim world and restoring light.
But the light vanished in an instant.
She couldn't open her eyes.
Then, the voice rang out again: "Xiao Qiu, open your eyes."
Suddenly, something warm and soft touched her forehead, as if someone was gently kissing her, and the voice said, "Look at me."
The soft, warm touch fell like raindrops on her forehead and between her brows, and the pleasant, delicate fragrance surrounded and enveloped her.
Finally, the light slowly reappeared on the horizon once again.
Yin Qiu gasped for breath. Her intuition told her that the light was important and she couldn't let it disappear from her sight, so she stared intently at the light and tried to open her eyes wide in the dim light.
Fortunately, she did not fail or give up this time. The beam of light gradually became clearer at the edge of her vision, growing larger and larger until it swallowed the darkness.
Then she laboriously lifted her eyelids and, through her narrow, blurry vision, saw a pair of red lips kissing her.
Those lips were slightly pursed, rosy and soft, and gently landed on her cheek.
But soon, intense fatigue and drowsiness overwhelmed her. Looking at those lips, she uncontrollably closed her half-open eyes and once again sank into the vast darkness.
Watching those trembling eyes open and close briefly before closing again, Man Jiangxue sighed deeply, feeling a great weight lifted from her shoulders.
It was still raining outside, but lamps were lit all over the house, pushing the darkness out of the courtyard and making the house as bright as day.
"That was close, that was close..." The doctor sat on the wooden stool beside the bed, raising his sleeve to wipe the cold sweat from his brow. "If we hadn't called her back, she would really be dead, and even a miracle couldn't have saved her..."
Man Jiangxue unconsciously tightened her grip on Yin Qiu's arms, her brows furrowed as she looked at the unconscious person in her arms. Her deep voice betrayed her weariness: "Is there any danger to your life going forward?"
The doctor let out a long sigh, still shaken, and said, "Although we've survived the most dangerous hurdle, these injuries all over my body require proper care, both internally and externally. We can't let our guard down; someone must be watching me at all times. The fact that she can't take her medicine right now is also a problem. We need to think of a solution. If there are any vacant rooms in your house, I'll stay here for the time being. Once the young girl's condition improves, I'll return to the pharmacy. What do you think?"
“Then I’ll have to trouble you, sir,” Man Jiangxue nodded in thanks, then called out to the door, “Wan Shu.”
Ji Wanshu and her disciples had been waiting outside for a day and a night. Upon hearing this, they quickly pushed open the door and came in. Man Jiangxue did not want them to disturb Yin Qiu, so she did not send anyone to come and check on her. Ji Wanshu then instructed someone to arrange a guest room for the doctor. The group peeked at Yin Qiu from a distance at the door for a while, and then huddled in the corridor to wait.
Before long, the brewed medicinal soup was brought over. Ji Wanshu carried it into the house, and Man Jiangxue gestured for her to put it on the table first, then asked, "Has Meng Jing not been found yet?"
Ji Wanshu shook her head: "We've searched everywhere, posted missing person notices, but there's still no news."
Man Jiangxue held Yin Qiu tightly without letting go, and upon hearing this, she said, "We must find her."
Ji Wanshu responded and then said, "Fu Xiang is still waiting in the hall. Should we call her over?"
“Tell her to go back,” Man Jiangxue said. “Xiao Qiu will not see anyone until she has fully recovered.”
Ji Wanshu nodded, looking at Yin Qiu with a complicated expression, and after a moment of silence said, "If only I could have arrived sooner..."
She didn't finish her sentence, and Man Jiangxue didn't respond.
Isn't that exactly what she wanted to say?
If only she could have arrived sooner...
But it was too late; she was still too late.
"It's good that she's still alive," Man Jiangxue said after a long while. "Put everything else aside for now and focus on healing Xiao Qiu first. As for you..." She looked at Ji Wanshu, "When did you come out of seclusion?"
Ji Wanshu paused for a moment, then replied, "A few days ago."
The originally planned five-year period was actually not until next spring, but her training had been going poorly lately, and she was always uneasy, feeling that something was going to happen. So she left the seclusion without saying a word and didn't tell anyone.
She left quietly, without even the disciples guarding outside her secluded room knowing. She left Yunhua Palace overnight, and the first thing she did after emerging from seclusion was to inquire about Wen Chaoyu's recent situation. However, she found out nothing. She only knew that the Ziwei Sect had moved its headquarters to Cang County, and that place had now become Ziwei Sect territory. Later, she heard that the Jiuxian Hall would be holding a conference in Weicheng. The Ziwei Sect would certainly not be absent from such an important event. Ji Wanshu came to Weicheng with a try-it-out mentality. She was lucky enough to see Wen Chaoyu as she wished, but it was not a good time.
She only regretted that she hadn't traveled faster; if she had arrived in time, Yin Qiu wouldn't have been injured like this.
"Where is Wen Chaoyu?" Man Jiangxue picked up the medicine on the table, brought it to her lips, and took a sip.
“She was locked up in the east wing. I tied her up and sent people to help her…” Ji Wanshu was speaking when he suddenly saw Man Jiangxue lower her head and move closer to the unconscious Yin Qiu.
Seeing what Man Jiangxue was doing, Ji Wanshu was taken aback and quickly looked away. She continued, "She even sent people to guard outside. She's injured, so she should..." Caught off guard by Man Jiangxue repeating her earlier actions, Ji Wanshu paused again, turned away, and continued, "She probably can't escape, and no one dares to come to her rescue..."
Man Jiangxue swallowed the remaining medicine in her mouth and patiently fed Yin Qiu spoonful by spoonful, saying, "You did a good job. Keep her under control and watch her closely."
Ji Wanshu, with her back to her, said, "Hmm..."
Man Jiangxue seemed completely oblivious to her awkwardness. She had already fed her half the medicine in the bowl, but most of it she drank herself, or spilled from Yin Qiu's lips. Man Jiangxue frowned, looked up, and said, "Come help me... why are you standing so far away?"
Ji Wanshu didn't turn around and calmly said, "...It's cooler here."
Man Jiangxue glanced at the several charcoal braziers around the bed and said, "Come and help me support her; this medicine is difficult to administer."
Ji Wanshu hesitated for a moment: "Oh..."
She lowered her eyes and looked at the ground nonchalantly. Out of the corner of her eye, she took Yin Qiu from Man Jiangxue's arms. Then, Man Jiangxue took a mouthful of medicine and leaned close to Yin Qiu in front of her.
“How about…” Ji Wanshu said, looking at the roof beam, “How about I let Bai Ling in…”
Man Jiangxue looked up at her with a questioning look in her eyes.
Ji Wanshu hesitated for a moment, but finally said bluntly, "Uncle-Master, one should not look at what is improper..."
Upon hearing her words, Man Jiangxue was unusually taken aback for a moment before finally showing a look of realization.
She hadn't been able to get the medicine out of her mouth yet, and she couldn't speak right now. Man Jiangxue paused for a moment, then reached out and pulled Yin Qiu back into her arms, tucked her in, and finally gave Ji Wanshu a look.
Ji Wanshu stood up nimbly, and as she pushed open the door, she kicked back the disciples who were peeking at Yin Qiu, standing like a guardian deity in front of the door.
Man Jiangxue looked at Yin Qiu, then at the remaining half bowl of medicine, and sighed helplessly.
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