Chapter 4
Returning to the inn with a heavy heart, Yin Qiu felt dizzy and exhausted. She was about to go to bed when Man Jiangxue said, "I'm not going to sleep. Let's go."
Yin Qiu asked in surprise, "Where are we going?"
I didn't bring much luggage, only two sets of new clothes I bought for Yin Qiu. As Man Jiangxue packed, she said, "I didn't expect the news to spread so quickly. Many people already know that the Ziwei Sect is looking for you. Jin Huai City is not far from here. We've already stayed here for a few days, and we can't stay any longer."
Perhaps having obtained a clue, the Ziwei Church will first track down the peasant woman's family, but Ji Wanshu alone should not be able to hold them off for long. Once they discover that Yin Qiu is not in her hands, the Ziwei Church will definitely launch a search in the surrounding cities.
The seriously ill girl, only ten years old, was a newcomer. By asking around at the inn and pharmacy, it was easy to find out that they had been here before.
“Get back to Yunhua Palace as soon as possible,” Man Jiangxue said. “It’s a half-month journey, and you’re still not well, so you’ll just have to bear with it. The sooner you get there, the sooner you can rest easy.”
Yin Qiu naturally followed her instructions. After the two finished packing, Man Jiangxue carried Yin Qiu and jumped down from the window. They found the horse in the backyard and immediately galloped towards the city gate.
Shortly after the two left, a woman dressed in dark blue coarse cloth clothes and wearing a straw hat entered the inn.
"Oh, are you here for a quick bite or to stay the night, sir?"
"I have a question," the woman said, leaning against the counter with a large knife at her waist. "Has a little girl of about ten years old come by in the last couple of days?"
The servant thought for a moment, then gestured in front of him: "Is he this tall, dressed in rags, and sick?"
The woman straightened up, raised her eyes from under her straw hat, and asked, "Where is he?"
The servant pointed to the second floor: "The room at the far left, they just came back."
The woman made a move to go upstairs, but then stopped: "Who is she with?"
The servant smiled and said, "That's a beauty, wearing a white dress, unbelievably gorgeous! I'll show you the way right away..."
Before she could finish speaking, the woman had already leaped up the tables and chairs to the second floor. She pushed open the door and found the room deserted, without a single person in sight.
Glancing at a porcelain bowl on the table still containing traces of medicine, the woman pressed her straw hat down, walked to the wide-open window, and jumped out.
At the same time, two more guests, one tall and one short, arrived at the entrance of the inn.
The taller one was a young woman in green, holding a long sword in one hand and leading a black horse in the other. Behind her followed a shivering boy in gray, his lips pale from the cold. The two looked travel-worn, as if they had been on a long journey.
Just as the servant was about to go upstairs to check on the situation, he saw the people approaching and called out again, "Oh, are you two here for a meal or to stay the night?"
Ji Wanshu gestured for the boy to wait, then went inside by herself, saying, "I'm not here for a meal or a hotel, I just have something to ask."
The servant looked her up and down suspiciously: "What is it?"
Ji Wanshu scanned the customers in the lobby and said, "In the past few days, has a woman in white brought a seriously ill little girl to your store?"
"Yes, of course we have them!" The servant scratched his head, looking surprised. "You're here to see them too? That's strange, a woman came by earlier and asked the exact same question as you."
Ji Wanshu frowned: "Where is he?"
"Go upstairs, the room at the far left is it."
Ji Wanshu glanced at the boy outside the door, then used a wooden table as leverage to step on it and instantly climbed up to the second floor.
The servant stared in disbelief and couldn't help but exclaim, "Hey! You people, are you afraid people won't know you can do kung fu or something!"
Before he could finish speaking, Ji Wanshu returned the way she came, landing lightly in front of him and asking, "What does the woman you were talking about look like?"
The servant originally wanted to reprimand her, but seeing her solemn expression and the inexplicable pressure emanating from her, he felt a little intimidated and honestly described the woman's attire to her.
Dressed in dark blue coarse clothes, wearing a bamboo hat, and with a large knife at her waist... it was her!
Ji Wanshu immediately turned around, grabbed the boy by the back of his collar, and was about to mount the horse. Just as the two were settled, the boy suddenly whimpered and spat a mouthful of blood onto the horse's back.
"Are you injured?" Ji Wanshu quickly reached out to support him.
The boy groaned in pain, clearly unable to speak from the agony.
Ji Wanshu was furious, so she had no choice but to dismount with the boy and rush back into the inn.
·
It was already evening, the sky was dark, and a horse was carrying two people along a muddy path amidst the rolling mountains.
"Do I look like my parents?" Yin Qiu gripped the saddle tightly, leaning against Man Jiangxue's chest. She was so sleepy that she kept yawning, but she was also afraid of falling off, so she could only try to keep herself awake and make conversation.
Once outside the city, it started snowing again. The two rode their horses at full speed for more than an hour before slowing down to travel at a leisurely pace.
Man Jiangxue lowered her eyes to look at Yin Qiu, thought for a moment and said, "Turn around and let me see."
Yin Qiu then turned her head away.
She was still young, with a childlike face. Ignoring her sickly appearance, she was actually quite pretty, especially her eyes, which were exceptionally beautiful. They were clear and bright, with long, thick eyelashes, slightly upturned outer corners, and a slightly narrow shape. The double eyelid creases were deep, rounder than phoenix eyes, and slightly narrower than peach blossom eyes, somewhere in between, making them quite unique.
Having not paid close attention before, Man Jiangxue was surprised to find that her eyes were very similar to Yin Xuan's, but otherwise almost identical to Shen Mandong's. It was a perfect combination of their appearances, making her a face that was unforgettable.
Man Jiangxue frowned slightly.
The similar face evoked several memories of the past. Suddenly, a mountain of fiery red maple leaves appeared before her eyes, the autumn air was lingering, and Liucang Mountain was covered in crimson. Shen Mandong, dressed in a gorgeous wedding dress, stood under the maple tree and smiled at her, asking, "Junior sister, do I look good?"
Man Jiangxue stood in front of her and said in a cold tone, "The wedding ceremony is in half an hour. You can still back out now."
Shen Mandong's eyes and brows were full of joy: "Xuan-ge is a very good person, why do you always dislike him?"
Man Jiangxue said, "He is no good person. No matter how well he pretends, his eyes can't lie."
Shen Mandong said, "But I really like his eyes. I've never seen any man with such clean eyes."
Man Jiangxue remained silent.
Shen Mandong said, "You know, my greatest wish is not to become a famous swordsman, but to get married, have children, and be a good mother. You are hostile to Xuan-ge, and you are also my most beloved junior sister. How are you going to get along in the future?"
Man Jiangxue said, "I disdain talking about people behind their backs, but Yin Xuan is really not a good match for you."
Shen Mandong smiled and shook her head: "I am the only daughter of the Shen family and the successor of the Ruyi Sect. I will eventually get married. Xuan-ge is more suitable than others."
Having said all that, Man Jiangxue could not persuade him any further, so she turned and left.
The scene suddenly changed. Before my eyes was still a glaring red, but it was no longer red maple leaves. Instead, it was a river of blood and a raging fire.
Shen Mandong was no longer wearing her wedding dress; her plain clothes were soaked with blood. Her smile was gone, replaced by numbness and hatred.
She stood amidst the pile of dead bodies, looking at Man Jiangxue with despair in her eyes, but this time, she said nothing.
·
"Why are you spacing out?" Yin Qiu's voice rang out.
Interrupted from her thoughts, Man Jiangxue quickly came back to her senses and said with a smile, "Except for your eyes, which are like your father's, everything else is like your mother's."
Yin Qiu was unaware of her earlier unease. She simply laid out a blank sheet of paper in her mind, using her imagination to depict her parents' appearances. Then, thinking about what happened to them afterward, she asked somewhat heavily, "My father didn't truly love my mother, so did my mother truly love my father?"
Man Jiangxue hummed in agreement: "It should be."
Yin Qiu said, "But she was deceived."
Man Jiangxue gazed ahead, her eyes reflecting the flying snow and the mountains and forests, and said slowly, "I have reminded her countless times, but she will not listen."
Yin Qiu reacted quickly: "You know my father is a bad person?"
Man Jiangxue said, "It was just a gut feeling. By the time I found out, it was too late."
Yin Qiu perked up, her drowsiness vanished, and she asked again, "How did they meet?"
"When my senior sister went down the mountain to travel, she encountered Yin Xuan, who was seriously injured and on the verge of death. She took him back to Ruyi Sect to recuperate, and they developed feelings for each other over time."
"And then they got married?"
"Um."
"And then... my father died. Where were you then?"
Man Jiangxue said in a calm tone: "When I arrived at Yunhua Palace, Yin Xuan had already died."
Yin Qiu paused for a moment, then asked, "And how did my mother disappear?"
Man Jiangxue remained silent for a long time.
Yin Qiu turned to look at her, about to ask further, when she saw Man Jiangxue suddenly tighten the reins and stop.
Seeing her eyes darken, Yin Qiu turned around, puzzled, and saw that there was now a person standing silently on the previously empty path.
A woman wearing a straw hat and holding a large knife.
The wind and snow suddenly intensified, startling a flock of birds in the mountains and forests. The woman lifted her straw hat, revealing a handsome face with deep features, and a slight smile appeared on her lips: "It's you."
Man Jiangxue, with Yin Qiu in her arms, sat upright on the horse and said the same thing: "It's you."
The woman laughed: "The beauty in the white dress... I was careless for a moment. I should have realized it was you who came in person."
Man Jiangxue gazed at her from afar.
“Even though you’ve come, I can’t leave empty-handed,” the woman said. “Give me the child, and everything will be fine.”
Man Jiangxue let out a soft sneer: "You have no chance of winning against me."
The woman laughed, "I could never beat you before, but I had to complete my mission so I could go back and report."
Man Jiangxue asked in a moderate voice, "What do you want with her?"
The broadsword dragged on the ground, looking very heavy, but it felt as light as a feather in the woman's hand.
“It’s just as you all think,” the woman said with a wicked smile. “Compared to Yunhua Palace, Ziwei Sect is her true home. Don’t worry, no one will cut off her flesh or drink her blood. Our sect leader said that if we take her back, she will be a pampered young lady, raised like our own daughter, and will enjoy endless blessings.”
After she finished speaking, she raised her eyebrows and smiled at Yin Qiu with an unfriendly expression. When Yin Qiu met her gaze, she felt a chill run down her spine and immediately turned around to hug Man Jiangxue tightly.
A strange woman.
“I will not hand her over to you,” Man Jiangxue said calmly, but her tone turned serious. “If you try to take her by force, I will show no mercy.”
The woman shrugged: "We've known each other for a while, we're old friends, give me some face?"
Man Jiangxue looked at her expressionlessly, then suddenly laughed: "If you want to die in front of Wan Shu, I have no objection."
The woman fell silent.
After a moment, she smiled again, dragging her knife as she stepped aside to make way: "Please."
Man Jiangxue shifted her gaze away from her, tightened the reins, and led Yin Qiu away into the distance.
·
The woman's languid figure gradually disappeared from sight. Yin Qiu kept turning back, curious: "Who is she?"
Man Jiangxue did not relax and quickened her pace, saying, "Wen Chaoyu, one of the four protectors of the Ziwei Sect."
The name is nice to hear, fresh and graceful, but it doesn't quite suit the person.
"What exactly do they want from me?" Yin Qiu asked, still shaken.
“I don’t know yet,” Man Jiangxue said. “She’s just following orders.”
Yin Qiu was immediately grateful that she had met Man Jiangxue. If she hadn't been rescued and taken in by her, she would probably have been captured by the Ziwei Sect long ago.
“She let us go; she was afraid of you.” Yin Qiu’s eyes showed admiration.
“She’s not afraid of me,” Man Jiangxue said. “It’s just that I don’t want to kill her, but I can’t let my guard down. Just because she doesn’t make a move doesn’t mean she’ll keep quiet about our whereabouts.”
Night fell quickly, the mountains were desolate, and the horse galloped across the shallow river to the other side, its hooves splashing up bursts of water as it galloped.
In the desolate mountains and wilderness, far from human habitation, there were no villages along the way, only a dilapidated temple in the mountains, which provided shelter from the wind and snow. Manjiangxue tied up the horse, carried Yinqiu into the temple, and saw some dry firewood scattered inside, which must have been left by previous travelers. So they lit a fire and made a bed of straw on the ground, and the two rested by the fire.
Having traveled all the way here without stopping, and having encountered that woman, Man Jiangxue was even more cautious, changing routes several times and taking detours. Yin Qiu was already shivering from the cold wind, her limbs freezing.
"Take off your coat, warm it up before putting it back on." Man Jiangxue washed her hands in the yard and when she came back, she saw Yin Qiu curled up in a ball.
Yin Qiu obediently did as she was told, took off her coat, and sneezed three times in a row.
She was already ill, and today she had been out in the cold wind for almost the entire day, unable to sleep. Now she has started to have a headache and fever, and feels weak all over.
“Sit over here,” Man Jiangxue put her arm around her shoulder, “I’ll hug you.”
Yin Qiu snuggled into Man Jiangxue's arms, holding her waist with both hands. Feeling the warmth emanating from her body, she couldn't help but let out a long breath and said, "You're so warm. Aren't you cold?"
Man Jiangxue took out some pastries from the bundle beside her, broke them into small pieces and fed them to her, saying, "Those who practice martial arts have true qi protecting their bodies, so they won't feel too cold."
Held in Man Jiangxue's arms and warmed by the fire, Yin Qiu gradually felt better, her breathing became steady, and she said with some envy, "That's great, can I learn martial arts in the future?"
“If you want to learn, of course there’s no problem,” Man Jiangxue said after they finished eating the pastries, then brought a water pouch for Yin Qiu to drink. “Have you ever been to school?”
Yin Qiu shook her head: "No, I don't even know how to write my own name."
The two sat on a pile of straw, leaning against each other. Man Jiangxue said, "Then you must first learn to read and write. When you get to Yunhua Palace, there will be a teacher to teach you."
Yin Qiu was drowsy, but her eyes lit up when she heard this: "Really? When I was in the Su family, I would occasionally pass by the eldest young master's room and I would always hear him reciting his lessons. He read them very well."
Since Yin Qiu was always asleep at the inn and rarely awake, Man Jiangxue never had a chance to ask about her affairs. Upon hearing this, she asked, "How long have you been staying at the Su family?"
Yin Qiu tilted her head and buried it in her chest, calculating, "A year and a half? I can't quite remember."
"Besides the Su family, where else have you stayed?"
"Many of them are sold around, staying here for two days and there for two days."
Man Jiangxue lowered her gaze and looked at Yin Qiu's slightly closed eyes: "You mistook the inn for a brothel before."
Yin Qiu nodded: "I work at Xunchun Courtyard in Yanghua City, helping out in the kitchen and sometimes doing laundry. I can do a little bit of everything."
Unexpectedly, she had actually worked in a brothel. Man Jiangxue remained silent for a moment, her expression revealing a hint of pity: "Who sold you there?"
Yin Qiu shuddered, fear showing on her face: "It was the last person who bought me... He originally wanted a boy, but when he found out I was a girl, he got angry, beat me up, and then sold me into a brothel for ten taels of silver."
Man Jiangxue frowned, recalling the scars and old wounds on her body when she bathed her at the inn: "Do people in brothels beat you too?"
Yin Qiu said, "Taking a taxi means you get beaten whether you make a mistake or not. If you encounter a customer with a bad temper, you'll get kicked if you don't like them. There are many girls like me in the building. We all endured hunger and beatings."
Man Jiangxue hugged her tighter, and after a moment of silence, asked, "Then how did you end up at the Su family's house?"
Yin Qiu said, "One night, government officials came and raided the building, sealing off the Xunchun Courtyard. I and a few girls I knew were left to wander the streets. Later, someone took us in, and a few days later we were sent to the Su family to work as maids."
Man Jiangxue knew everything that happened after that.
The temple had no doors, its walls were dilapidated, and the wind and snow outside kept pouring into the hall, causing the firewood pile to flicker on and off.
“You’ve suffered a lot,” Man Jiangxue said.
“Actually, the Su family treated me very well. I had food to eat and clothes to wear, and I wasn’t often beaten,” Yin Qiu said.
Man Jiangxue held her and lay down, wrapped her in a brocade robe and tucked her into his arms, saying softly, "You'll have food to eat and clothes to wear from now on, and no one will beat you."
Yin Qiu looked up at her and said softly, "If we go to Yunhua Palace, will I still be able to be with you?"
Man Jiangxue gently stroked her back and said, "I will ask the sect leader to accept you as a disciple. Not only me, but you will have a master and many senior brothers and sisters. We will all take care of you."
"Can't you be my master?" Yin Qiu still looked at her.
“Me?” Man Jiangxue smiled. “I don’t take on disciples.”
Yin Qiu suddenly asked again, "Then can you be my mother?"
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