Attacked
Chapter 40
It wasn't until a pool of steaming water actually appeared before my eyes that I believed Yuanzi wasn't joking.
This pool of water is, of course, in the wild, surrounded by mountains and forests, with only a shallow dirt path leading out. That dirt path is also hidden among the lush weeds, and I would not have noticed it at all if I hadn't come up close and looked closely.
The monkey, Zhizha, still led the way, perched high on the horse's back, taking my place as the driver.
I talked to it the whole way, even though the only response I got was a chirping sound of varying pitches and lengths. The kite beside me was also riding a horse alone, but her face was as cold as the dead of winter. I really didn't want to get too close, lest I freeze to death.
With the kite nearby, I certainly couldn't openly peek around, so I could only observe my surroundings by pretending to chat with the chatterbox—
I didn't find anything unusual, and there was no one else on this road besides Chuwo and Yuanzi. I was getting more and more confused. What exactly did Yuanzi want to do?
“The kite soars to the heavens,” I finally couldn’t help but turn to the kite and say, “Do you know what that means? Why do you, a woman, take the name ‘kite’?”
Iris glanced at me and calmly replied, "I know."
I paused for a moment, then cautiously asked again, "So, can you tell me now what your background is?"
“Zhao Xi,” I thought I wouldn’t get an answer, but to my surprise, Yuanzi spoke up and said a whole bunch of things, though none of them were in response to my question, “We are different from you Han people. We don’t like beating around the bush. We just express what we want directly. If we can’t get it, we think of something else. A bird that can soar to the sky, would it care what the ants on the ground think of it?”
Her tone was neither hurried nor inflectious, leaving me speechless and unsure how to respond. After a moment, I pondered her words and realized there was some truth to them. I could only smile wryly and mutter, "You're right, I won't care. It's just that I probably wouldn't like someone like that."
This time, Yuanzi kept her mouth shut and didn't say anything immediately, but I guessed from her suddenly cold expression that she had heard what I said.
Sure enough, a short while later, as I was chatting animatedly with the monkey, the kite suddenly scoffed, "Do you think the person next to you isn't like that?"
I wanted to answer "no," but then I thought, why should I hold a grudge against her?
This time, we didn't ride at full speed. It took us half a cup of tea to walk from the village to that path, and then another incense stick's time to stroll along. When all seemed lost, a bright new path appeared: a hot spring.
At first glance, white steam billowed out. I strained my eyes to make out that this was not a huge hot spring pool, but rather a collection of a dozen or so pools of varying sizes. Yuanzi pulled on the reins and dismounted, and I naturally followed suit, while only Monkey Chirping remained firmly seated on the horse.
She took a cloth bundle from the saddle, threw it to me, and said, "Find a place, and soak your clothes in that pool with a large round stone at the edge. Only go there. Don't go anywhere else. Some pools can dissolve corpses and bones."
Clutching my bag, I hesitated for a moment, but couldn't help asking, "Why did you bring me to the hot springs? I...don't you have more important things to do?"
"The most important thing right now is you," Yuanzi replied calmly. "You need to get better quickly so we can continue our journey north to Sichuan."
"Entering Sichuan?"
Wait a minute, didn't Lan Feiyu tell me we were going to Baili? How did it become Sichuan with Yuanzi?
I pressed her for details, but Yuanzi remained tight-lipped about the topic. She only urged me to go soak in the hot spring, saying—in order to change the subject—that the hot spring was remarkably effective in healing external injuries. She had previously examined me by pressing and massaging my wounds, and my internal organs were still in relatively good condition. She said that once I could move freely again, I could leave the village.
But I wasn't so easily fooled. After listening, I pressed on, asking, "Why Sichuan?"
Yuanzi frowned, stared at me for a while, and finally made a concession: "We were going to enter Shu anyway. Baili is just a weathervane. As long as the situation changes, their stance will naturally change as well. There is no need to make a big fuss."
My heart skipped a beat. Could it be that my wild thoughts last night had inadvertently come true?
“Zhao Xi, I don’t care what you think,” Yuanzi said, taking the reins of her two mounts with one hand and heading outside. Clearly, she didn’t intend to soak in the hot spring with me. “But if you don’t heal your injuries quickly, you can’t do anything, even if…”
Then, she left me alone beside a steaming hot spring in the wild and disappeared at the other end of the path.
I stood there dumbfounded for a while, wondering whether I should chase after them or simply go for a soak in the hot spring as Yuanzi had instructed. Just as I was struggling to decide, the monkey chirped twice ahead of me. I squinted and looked closer, speechless: the monkey had jumped into the pool before me and was now waving at me from the rocks beside it.
After all, it's a monkey...
Hmm, is the chirping bird male or female?
Although I had thought about this question, I was ultimately too bored to actually investigate. I was just touched by the monkey's thoughtfulness and felt I couldn't let it down. After thinking it over, I went forward, carefully squatted down and bent over, and splashed some water with my hand. The temperature was just right, neither too hot nor too cold. No wonder Zhizhi looked so intoxicated while soaking, and even closed its eyes.
After looking around to make sure there was no one there, I took off my clothes and stepped into the pool, immersing my entire body except my head in the hot spring.
As the warm water washed over my body, I finally understood why Zhizha had that blissful expression. Ah, it felt so good!
Especially for a young woman who could be considered pampered, but who hadn't even been able to wash her face for several days due to a series of troubles, I felt the pain and fatigue all over my body gradually disappear with the waves of the hot spring water.
The monkey, Zhizha, had somehow come over and was quietly soaking in the hot spring next to me. As I looked at it resting with its eyes closed, I couldn't help but marvel at the wonders of life. Back in Beijing, how could I have imagined that one day I would be soaking in a hot spring with a monkey?
Because it was so comfortable, I stayed in the warm water for a little too long. In addition, since Yuanzi didn't come to call me to leave, I became greedy and didn't leave until Monkey Chirp, soaking wet, left the pool. He first called out to me from the shore, and when I didn't react, he jumped around in front of me. Only then did I slowly get out of the pool, open the bundle that Yuanzi had given me, wipe myself clean, and change into clean clothes.
The kite prepared a well-fitting riding outfit for me. It was indistinguishable between men's and women's, but it was quite different from the style of the Eastern Chu Kingdom. Its colors and patterns were intricate and varied, colorful and vibrant. Even when I went horseback riding, I would be like a servant of Lady Guo, going on a leisurely stroll, rather than rushing around in dust or galloping across the battlefield.
I had just finished dressing when I saw the faint outline of a figure emerge from the depths of the pool. Having soaked in the hot spring for so long, I was momentarily dizzy and didn't immediately realize that the dark figure was appearing in the opposite direction from where we had come from. Thinking it was Yuanzi, I even went to greet her with gratitude, saying, "Yuanzi, you..."
The monkey let out a shrill scream, which sent chills down my spine and snapped me back to my senses. But it was too late. The dark figure nimbly pounced on me. I was standing on the edge of the pool, and the force of the attack pushed me back into the water.
The dark figure forcefully pushed me underwater. I was already unconsciously holding my breath due to the sudden change, and now that I was underwater, I felt like I was about to run out of breath in the blink of an eye, and my chest ached. I struggled desperately, but the strength of the dark figure was extraordinary. I was like a hare caught by a hawk. No matter how cunning and treacherous I was, I was helpless at this point.
The pain in my chest grew stronger and stronger, until it felt as if someone was stabbing me indiscriminately with a sharp knife. The pain made my vision blur and dizzy. I tried to move, but I could not escape my inevitable fate. I was just like a fish that had been thrown ashore, struggling in despair.
Just before my soul departed for the Western Paradise, I arrived at the Yellow Springs Ferry. The force that had been pressing down on me suddenly loosened. Although it was still pressing down on me, my survival instincts quickly picked up on this change. With my last remaining strength, I kicked with all my might and actually managed to break free from the grip of that force. I was overjoyed. The burning pain in my chest forced me to scramble to the surface of the water, letting my mouth and nose breathe in the moist, hot air.
A pair of hands reached into the pool and grabbed me tightly, pulling me up. I tried my best to cooperate, but my feet kept slipping. I realized that at that moment I didn't even have the strength to stand up.
"Xi'er! Keep it up!"
The voice suddenly entered my ears, and I was shocked. I looked up in disbelief, and it really was Lan Feiyu in front of me!
She was kneeling on the edge of the pool, her upper body leaning towards me, gritting her teeth as she pulled me up. Seeing her desperate, almost ferocious expression, a surge of strength rose from the soles of my feet. I grabbed her arm with one hand and gripped a sharp, angular rock with the other, using every ounce of strength to pull my heavy, leaden body upwards.
At Lan Feiyu's shout, I collapsed onto the edge of the pool like a dead fish, completely unable to move an inch.
Lan Feiyu hurriedly bent down and kissed my forehead, then ran away. I turned my eyes and looked in her direction. I saw that Yuanzi was holding a sharp sword, but she was at a disadvantage and had to rely on her agile figure to move and jump. Her opponent was the "medicine person" that Mu Qing had transformed into. "She" was actually almost a foot taller than the former Mu Qing!
Not only that, her limbs, especially her arms, seemed to have no bones or joints, as supple as willow branches. With these whip-like arms, she swept and slashed, forcing the kite to retreat repeatedly, unable to get close to her at all.
Now is clearly not the time to ponder trivial matters like "why did Lan Feiyu also come?"
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
