Reunion
Chapter Twenty-One
I naturally lost consciousness.
But I persevered until I rolled down the slope. Blood loss and pain clouded my vision, my ears were ringing, and my head felt so heavy that I wished I could cut it off and throw it behind me.
Until I climbed back into the lush forest, I leaned against a tree as thick as a man's waist, tore two strips from the half-ruined front of Prince Amuyue's shirt, and painstakingly bandaged the wound on my right shoulder with my left hand and mouth before finally losing consciousness.
The raindrops woke me up. I opened my eyes and stared blankly at the rain in front of me, listening to the pattering rain. My whole body ached as if I had already been half-executed in the torture of being torn apart by five horses. I was so cold that it felt like I had been in an ice cellar for a day and a night. My strength and soul had been drained, leaving me with almost nothing. I didn't even have the ability to raise my hand to wipe away the increasing amount of water on my face.
However, I do have the strength to cry.
It's not quite right to say I used force; tears just flowed from my eyes spontaneously, endlessly, soothing my face, which was cold from the rain.
I shouldn't cry at this moment. I know that crying, like laughing, will greatly deplete my already meager energy. But I have no choice but to cry, as an unprecedented sense of despair and fear wells up in my heart.
No matter how much I told myself not to let my mind wander, it was no use. The thought that "I might die here" clung to me like a ghostly snake. I imagined myself dying silently in some unknown, desolate forest, my body exposed for days until wild beasts gnawed me down to a pile of bones...
However, "the pitiful bones by the Wuding River are still the dream of the woman in her boudoir," my mother, aunt, uncle, and several older brothers and sisters did not know that I had already passed away, and were still waiting for my return.
At this moment, I hate my own wild fantasies and restlessness. Why can't I be like millions of ordinary girls, obediently follow the arrangements of my elders when I reach marriageable age, marry a man of equal social standing, and then live a peaceful and uneventful life?
The more I think about it, the sadder I become. I feel more and more sorry for my many loving elders and siblings. I have only been able to live peacefully for sixteen years because of their tolerance and even indulgence. Once I leave home, like a fledgling swallow taking flight, a storm will break my wings and I will fall, and I may even lose my life.
I don't know how long I cried, until I went from feeling ice-cold all over to gradually feeling hot all over, and my head became increasingly dizzy. Suddenly, I realized that I couldn't stay here any longer, otherwise I might not make it to the next day. I had to find a place to shelter from the rain and keep warm.
I can't just die like this.
My uncle named me "Xi" so that I would become the sunshine for my mother. He said that my mother had a difficult life, and finally, with me, she was able to settle down and have precious people and things to do. He also said that no matter what terrible hardships my mother encountered back then, she never had the thought of giving up on life. She endured the hardships until now, and the sun has finally come out after the storm.
If I were to leave my mother behind and go to the underworld alone to have tea with the King of Hell, how heartbroken she would be!
You can't be so unfilial!
I turned to the side and used the strength of my left hand to sit up. My entire right arm, from my shoulder to my fingers, was completely powerless. Not only that, but my chest and abdomen ached terribly with the slightest movement. Even breathing was excruciatingly painful. I dared not be careless and carefully held onto the tree trunk, slowly straightening up.
Thank God, the rain lessened considerably as I struggled to get up, leaving only a few scattered raindrops drifting in the wind.
The surroundings were as black as ink.
I originally planned to stay until Iris took me to the hunter's hut, where there was firewood and dry food, which was the best temporary refuge. But when I looked around, I realized how naive I was. Now I was in the forest, in the dark of the rain, and I couldn't even tell which way was which. How could I find the place I had only been to once and where someone else had led me?
I looked up at the sky, which was covered with dark clouds. There was no sign of the Ice Toad, nor was there a single star to light up the sky. I was stunned for a moment, anxious in vain, but I didn't have a single clue.
I looked back at the slope and thought to myself, no matter what, I rolled down this slope, and no matter which direction I came from, I have to climb back up. Rather than sitting here helplessly waiting to die, I should take action first.
I tried to take a few steps, but the pain forced me to stop. I squatted down, gritted my teeth, and endured the pain until it subsided. I then groped around on the ground and found a branch that was below my waist. Although it was very difficult to use, I used it to stand up again. I hunched over and slowly moved my feet.
The unprecedented pain made every step forward incredibly difficult. I could only go a few feet before I was exhausted and drenched in sweat. I had to kneel down on the wet ground again to rest for a while before getting up and continuing forward.
I don't know how long it took me to get to the bottom of the slope and start climbing. Coming down was easy, but going up was difficult. After struggling for a few steps, I gave up on walking altogether and simply discarded the branch that had been with me for so long. I crawled on all fours, clinging to the soil, like... I would quite like to say that I was a bit like a gecko, but unfortunately there is no gecko in the world that can climb slower or more clumsily than me. I climbed like a person struggling to survive, and could only rely on the coordination of my two legs and one arm.
But I wouldn't allow myself to think about whether I could get out of this predicament. All I knew was that I had to crawl. As long as I could move, as long as I had breath, as long as I was alive, I had to crawl.
I don't know when, but I fainted again.
When I woke up, it was as if I had fallen into a mysterious dream. The scenery around me was the same, but the western sky revealed a silver hook. It was dim and unclear, like a candle in the wind, which could be driven away by dark clouds at any time. But it stubbornly struggled to give off its light. It was weak and pale, cold and desolate, but it made me feel warmer than any time I had ever experienced the scorching sun.
I smiled at the crescent moon and whispered to it, "Thank you. With you, I can get a general sense of direction."
The sudden moonlight infused my courage and strength back into me, and I began climbing the hill again. The excruciating pain in my body seemed to have lessened somewhat. I gritted my teeth and climbed upwards and forwards at an even slower pace than before.
A mind free of distractions.
Just as I could see the top, a sound as beautiful as a celestial "squeak" reached my ears. I could hardly believe it. Despite the pain in my chest that felt like it was about to burst, I took a deep breath and shouted, "Squeak? Kite?"
I shouted with all my might, but the sound I made was weak and pitiful even to myself. The chirping only lasted once, and then there was no more sound. I held my breath and listened intently. Apart from the occasional mournful cry of an owl, there was no other sound around me.
Unwilling to give up, I shouted again, this time putting all the strength in my body into this one shout:
"Squeak?!"
After calling out the monkey's name, I was too weak to call out any more names. I almost collapsed and buried my face in the ground. But heaven was on my side, and soon I heard a clear reply: "Squeak!"
Then there was another sound, followed by a series of overlapping sounds: "Squeak, squeak, squeak squeak!"
I struggled to lift my upper body and face the direction from which the sound came. Through my vision blurred by sweat and tears, I saw the figure of a monkey at the top of the slope!
Squeak, when I return to the capital, I will definitely treat you as my savior monkey, set up a longevity tablet for you, and burn incense and worship you every day.
The monkey came running towards me, chattering urgently. I couldn't help but burst into tears again, murmuring, "Squeak, squeak..."
It jumped to my side, circled around me, chirping and jumping. Although I don't understand monkey language and don't have the ability to read too many expressions from a monkey's face, I believe at this moment it was genuinely worried about me. I mustered my strength and said, "I'm fine, I'm still alive. Chirp, you saved me again."
The chirping stopped and squatted down beside me, pointing upwards on the slope. I looked in the direction it was pointing and saw a person slowly walking towards me. I was instantly struck dumb, as if struck by lightning. My relief at being saved plummeted into despair once again. I thought that I might really not survive this time, so I sighed deeply and closed my eyes.
When the footsteps were right in front of me, I heard the same sigh, followed by a soft question: "Can you still stand up? I don't know if I can carry you."
I didn't want to speak. All my efforts seemed utterly ridiculous at this point. But my mind kept racing. Why did Zhizha bring Lan Feiyu here? Could she and that mysterious kite be acquainted?
After I went missing, Yuanzi told Lan Feiyu about me, and then Lan Feiyu and Zhizha searched for me in the forest.
Such a conjecture is reasonable, but I don't understand what could possibly connect Lan Feiyu, the daughter of the old king, the owner of the medical clinic and the children's school, with the kite that hunts in the mountains.
"Xi'er?"
I grew irritated, looked up at Lan Feiyu's indistinct face in the night, and snapped, "Since you did something to hurt me, can you please stop calling me that? We're not even close!"
She didn't say a word, but squatted down, half-kneeling in the muddy ground. She gently stroked my right shoulder, which was bleeding profusely, with one hand, and then spoke softly: "You're badly injured, please don't be stubborn anymore, okay? Or do you really want to die here?"
I swallowed hard. Being saved by her was the worst of all nightmares, but as she said, I didn't want to die here. If Han Xin could endure the humiliation of crawling between someone's legs, why couldn't I?
“I can’t get up by myself,” I said, swallowing my anger. “Well, someone has to help me.”
Lan Feiyu silently stretched out her hands to me, one under my armpit and the other around my waist, helping me slowly stand up.
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