Don't be afraid, I'll take you home
Time passed minute by minute, and the only sounds in the pharmacy were the subtle sounds of Shen Yunzhou pounding the medicine, blending it, and controlling the heat. Everyone's eyes were focused on him and the gradually taking shape of the medicinal mud in his hands.
Finally, several round pills with strange colors but emitting a faint fragrance appeared in Shen Yunzhou's palm.
He didn't have time to give instructions on taking the medicine or express any concerns.
A slender but pale hand reached out first. Without any hesitation, it picked up a pill and put it into its mouth. Its Adam's apple rolled as it swallowed.
It’s Wen Ciyuan.
"Ahe!" Ruan Yunsheng called out in surprise.
Shen Yunzhou's outstretched hand froze in mid-air, his fingertips slightly curled up, and his heart instantly rose to his throat.
Everyone held their breath.
Time seemed to be stretched out.
After Wen Ciyuan took the pill, he closed his eyes and concentrated. At first, there was nothing unusual, but soon, his body began to tremble slightly, his brows furrowed, and he seemed to be enduring great pain. Ruan Yunsheng nervously grabbed his arm.
However, immediately afterwards, an unbelievable scene took place. Those hideous black lines that covered his chest, as if a living creature had met its nemesis, began to fade and disappear at a speed visible to the naked eye. Like a receding tide, they quickly retreated and finally completely disappeared under his skin!
Wen Ciyuan suddenly opened his eyes and exhaled a long breath filled with foul air. The suffocating dullness and cold pain that had been lingering in his chest since he was poisoned were rapidly dissipating, replaced by a long-lost feeling of relaxation and vitality.
He slowly raised his hand, looked at his chest which had returned to normal, then looked up at the stunned Shen Yunzhou, and with difficulty, he pulled up a weak, yet genuine smile:
“…It worked.”
Wen Ciyuan's recovery brought hope. Everyone took the antidote, the black lines on their bodies faded away one after another, and the suffocating feeling of dullness gradually dissipated.
Qi Xiuming's eyes also lit up with blazing hope. He carefully fed the round pill into Gu Nanzhi's mouth, his fingertips even trembling slightly with excitement.
He held his breath and stared at her without blinking, expecting a miracle to happen to her.
Time flows slowly in silence.
One second, two seconds...
One breath, two breaths...
However, the hideous black lines on Gu Nanzhi's body did not fade away like those on other people. Instead, they were like solidified ink, imprinted deeper under her skin, and even faintly revealed a dead black light.
What came out of her throat was no longer a roar of pain, but a fainter and more heartbreaking hoarse sound.
"How could...how could this happen?"
The light in Qi Xiuming's eyes gradually faded, replaced by great panic. He shook his head in a trance, unable to believe the facts before him.
"Nanzhi, Nanzhi, wake up, look at me..." He held her cold hand tremblingly. The hand was lifeless and even began to stiffen slightly.
Shen Yunzhou quickly stepped forward and placed his finger on Gu Nanzhi's wrist. His brow furrowed deeper and deeper, his face paler and paler. After a long pause, he withdrew his hand heavily, his voice dry as sandpaper. "She's been poisoned too deeply, far more than any of us. The poison has penetrated her bone marrow and heart. There's no way to save her..."
"No, impossible!"
Qi Xiuming shook his head violently and buried his face deep in Gu Nanzhi's gradually cold neck. Uncontrollable, broken sobs came out intermittently, filled with endless despair and pain, "Nanzhi, my Nanzhi..."
Despair was like the coldest tide, completely flooding this small corner.
However, amidst this heartbreaking wail, an extremely faint, inarticulate call was heard, almost inaudibly:
"Xiu...Ming..."
Qi Xiuming's crying stopped abruptly. He raised his head suddenly, almost thinking that he was hallucinating.
He saw that Gu Nanzhi had opened her eyes slightly at some point. Her eyes, once bright and moving, were now dull and dim, but she was trying hard to focus on his face. Her lips moved with difficulty, and her breath was weak:
“Don’t… cry…”
A trembling, cold hand was raised extremely slowly, using the last bit of strength, as if wanting to touch his tear-stained cheek and wipe away the hot tears for him.
Qi Xiuming suddenly woke up, and was hit by huge, unbelievable ecstasy and deeper sorrow at the same time!
He hurriedly stretched out his hand, wanting to hold the raised hand tightly, wanting to hold the faint warmth firmly in his palm.
Just when his fingertips were about to touch her.
The little light that Gu Nanzhi had managed to gather with great difficulty flickered for a moment like a candle in the wind, and then quickly and completely dimmed, returning to eternal silence.
The hand that had been trying to be raised lost all support and fell down weakly and softly, falling heavily back to the side without a sound.
Qi Xiuming's hand froze in mid-air.
His fingertips were only millimeters away from her cold skin.
But it seemed to separate life and death.
He froze, his pupils dilated, and looked at the completely lifeless face of the person in his arms. The sounds of the whole world seemed to drift away from him in an instant.
ah……
He opened his mouth, but no sound came out.
At the last moment, at the last moment, he couldn't even hold her hand, couldn't say goodbye to her properly...
"...Nanzhi?" He called out very softly and tentatively, his voice as vague as a dream talk, with a childlike helplessness and disbelief.
There was no response. Only dead silence.
As if scalded, he abruptly withdrew his frozen hand, and instead carefully, almost reverently, lifted Gu Nanzhi's dangling hand with both hands, trying to warm it, trying to transfer his warmth. But the hand was limp and ice-cold, and no matter how he rubbed it or breathed on it, it could no longer respond in the slightest.
"Nanzhi..."
He called out again, this time with a clear tremor in his voice and a broken cry, "Look at me again, answer me again... please..."
The huge, silent grief finally broke through the dam he had held up like a tsunami. He did not cry loudly, but his shoulders trembled violently. The hot tears rushed out like a flood that broke through the dam, drop by drop, falling on the back of Gu Nanzhi's cold hand, leaving small, desperate water marks.
He leaned over, pressed his forehead against the back of her hand, curled up, and let out a torn, extremely suppressed whimper.
The cry was not loud, but it was filled with despair and annihilating pain that was enough to break the heart of the hearer. He lost the love of his life. Just when hope was within reach, he lost it forever.
The entire pharmacy was filled with a suffocating sadness.
Wen Ciyuan took a deep breath, broke free from Ruan Yunsheng's support, and walked slowly to Qi Xiuming. He did not try to pull him, but just stood there quietly, like a silent mountain, accompanying his best friend to endure this heart-wrenching pain.
After a long time, Wen Ciyuan slowly stretched out his hand and gently pressed it on Qi Xiuming's trembling shoulder.
"Xiu Ming..."
His voice was hoarse and low, "...Let her rest in peace."
Qi Xiuming seemed not to hear and was still immersed in his own world, bidding a hopeless farewell to the gradually cooling body in his arms.
Wen Ciyuan didn't withdraw his hand, but increased his strength a little and repeated, "Xiuming, Nanzhi...she's gone."
This time, Qi Xiuming's body trembled violently. He slowly, extremely slowly raised his head and looked at Wen Ciyuan with tearful eyes. In those eyes that always wore an unruly smile, there was now only a desolate ruin and bottomless pain.
He looked at Wen Ciyuan, then looked down at Gu Nanzhi who seemed to be sleeping in his arms. Finally, he let out a long and suppressed whine like a wounded beast, and finally collapsed completely. He buried his face deeply in Gu Nanzhi's clothes and cried bitterly.
That cry expressed the despair of losing loved ones forever, and also announced that a part of the soul had died with them.
He lowered his head and stared at her pale yet still beautiful face, his eyes more gentle and focused than ever before, as if he wanted to engrave her appearance deeply into the depths of his soul.
He whispered softly in a voice that only the two of them could hear: "Don't be afraid, Nanzhi. I will take you home."
The rain wet his hair and clothes, and dripped down his resolute jaw. It was hard to tell whether it was rain or tears.
Wen Ciyuan, struggling to hold on despite his weakened body after the detoxification, his eyes sharp as an eagle. He wiped the blood from his lips that had once again flowed out from his forced energy and said in a deep voice, "Let's go!"
He was the first to rush out of the broken door of the pharmacy, long sword in hand, the sword light drew a cold arc in the heavy rain.
The trusted guards left behind by Murong Mo tried to stop him, but were forced to retreat by Wen Ciyuan's fearless fighting style, willing to sacrifice his life for his own.
Every step he took was difficult, but every step was taken with determination to open a bloody path for Qi Xiuming who was holding Gu Nanzhi.
Ruan Yunsheng followed closely beside Wen Ciyuan, trying her best to block any attacks from the side for him. Her face was also pale, but her eyes were full of determination.
They broke through layer after layer of obstruction and finally staggered out of the county magistrate's mansion, which had become a den of evil.
However, the scene outside the mansion was even more horrifying than inside, like hell on earth.
Heavy rain washed the bluestone streets, but it could not dispel the thick smell of blood. Wherever the eyes looked, corpses were everywhere.
The once bustling streets were now littered with the bodies of civilians, men, women, young and old, all of whom died in horrible ways. Many of the bodies had strange black lines or lacerations on them.
Obviously, most of the people in the city who failed to escape in time did not escape this disaster. They may have been attacked by their relatives who suddenly turned into monsters, and after they were also transformed, they were ruthlessly purged and silenced by Murong Mo.
He would never allow anyone who could reveal the secret of his "immortality" to leave the city alive.
The rain mixed with blood and formed light red streams on the ground.
The tragic scene before them made the few people who managed to escape feel a suffocating chill and anger.
Ruan Yunsheng suppressed the urge to vomit and the fear in his heart, and noticed a relatively intact carriage at the corner of the street. The horse pulling the carriage seemed to be too frightened and was stamping its hooves nervously.
She rushed over quickly, tried to calm the horses, and drove the carriage over.
"Get in the car!" she shouted to the two people in the rain.
Wen Ciyuan escorted Qi Xiuming to the carriage.
Qi Xiuming seemed to be unaware of the Shura-like scene around him. All his attention was on Gu Nanzhi in his arms. He carried her into the carriage very gently and carefully, as if he was afraid of disturbing her sleep.
He carefully and gently covered her with a dry cloak he found in the car, brushed away the wet hair from her forehead, and gave her a last deep look.
After doing all this, he turned around and sat in the driver's seat, holding the reins.
He didn't even look back at Wen Ciyuan and Ruan Yunsheng, but just said in a hoarse voice: "...Thank you."
Then he gave the reins a jerk.
"drive!"
The carriage sped away in the pouring rain and the streets full of corpses, its wheels rolling over the blood, splashing a turbid water.
Qi Xiuming straightened his back, drove the carriage, broke through the rain, broke through this city of death, and drove towards the distance without hesitation.
He wants to take his beloved girl home.
Wen Ciyuan and Ruan Yunsheng stood there, their bodies soaked by the rain. They watched the carriage disappear into the depths of the rain curtain, their hearts heavy as if filled with lead.
They knew that what Qi Xiuming took away was a cold body and a dead heart.
But they can't leave yet, they have to end this tragedy.
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