Chapter 82 Embracing Both
The arrow first pierced Lord Huang's wrist; the moment the tendons and bones broke, his right hand, which was lifting the stool, bent backward.
With his severed hand unable to lift the stool, he slammed it to the ground, but it didn't fall on Sun Fengwan.
The second arrow pierced his heart. The arrows in the crossbow were already incredibly sharp, and the ones Yi Ning gave to Shang Yuji were even more exceptional, each one a weapon worthy of being called a divine weapon.
The protective soft armor was completely defenseless, easily pierced by the arrow, which then irresistibly penetrated deep into the heart.
With two fatal wounds to his throat and heart, even with all of Lord Huang's abilities, he could not escape death.
Upon confirming that he had passed away and there was no possibility of survival, Sun Fengwan felt a sudden loss of energy, her limbs went weak, and she collapsed to the ground.
Tears, which she had held back for many days, blurred her vision. Father and Mother, she had done it. She had personally killed the enemy who had wiped out her entire family.
These days, she keeps having nightmares.
That day, she went out to collect herbs, and when she returned, she saw her father lying on the ground and her mother being pulled up behind him.
The two men died without revealing their daughter's whereabouts, and in a fit of rage, Huang the thief slashed them down with his broadsword.
As she lay dying, her mother saw her figure, her lips twitching, repeatedly uttering a single word:
"Go...go..."
Heads fell to the ground.
She watched helplessly as her mother died.
"Miss Sun?" Shang Yuji walked into the room. The two had just fought, and the room was in chaos.
Soup spilled all over the floor, documents soaked, tables and chairs overturned, and a thief lying dead with his eyes wide open.
She lowered her voice and said, "Are you alright, young lady? The girls in the secret cave are very worried about you."
The secret cave... Yes, she wanted to see them leave unharmed.
"Please, both of you, take me to see them." Sun Fengwan looked up, her unruly hair revealing a pair of resolute eyes.
Shang Yuji pondered, "Are you still able to walk?"
"Can."
After bypassing the yellow-clad thieves blocking their way, Shang Yuji helped the person up.
The dagger was still stuck in the man's neck, and Sun Fengwan had no intention of removing it.
It has completed its mission.
"Girl, your arrow?" she asked, pointing to the arrow on Huang Ze's wrist.
Considering the value of the arrow, Shang Yuji squatted down to pull out the one from her wrist. Unfortunately, the arrow that had pierced her heart was too deep to be pulled out, so she gave up.
After Sun Fengwan repeatedly confirmed that he could leave, Shang Yuji felt relieved: "We didn't encounter any thieves on our way here, so the return trip should be smooth as well."
She was all prepared to try out the crossbow when she arrived, but the journey was smooth sailing, rendering the crossbow useless.
Sun Fengwan paused for a moment, then smiled and said, "Xiao Mo only dismissed the guards outside the door. There was no one else around. They probably heard the commotion outside and were afraid of getting burned, so they went to hide somewhere."
A bunch of opportunistic, cowardly fools.
At this moment, A-Cuo approached and opened his arms to the two of them: "One person in each hand, I can."
"..." Shang Yuji gave her a strange look, but A-Cuo's eyes only showed her eagerness to lead one person at a time.
Shang Yuji, who had just benefited from A-Cuo's version of "Flying Wind Lightness Skill," silently turned her head and asked Sun Fengwan:
"Miss Sun... are you dizzy from using light-body techniques?"
While the light-footed skill was fast, the immersive first-person experience of flying and diving almost made her dizzy.
That was so exciting!
Before A-Cuo took her next step, she worried that she might fall into the air. Fortunately, A-Cuo had amazing arm strength and was able to keep steady while carrying the weight. She finally caught up with the last moment of Miss Sun's fight with the Yellow Thief.
"?" Sun Fengwan was puzzled by what the girl in front of her meant, and hesitated before replying, "Shouldn't... feel dizzy?"
Upon receiving the reply, A-Cuo's eyes lit up, and he approached the two of them, opening his arms in greeting.
Having learned from her first experience, Shang Yuji walked to her side with ease and wrapped her arms around A-Cuo's neck.
A-Cuo firmly wrapped his left arm around her waist, securing her in place, and then she looked up at Sun Fengwan.
Following the example of that graceful young woman, Sun Fengwan carefully wrapped her arms around the back of A-Cuo's neck, placing one hand on her shoulder, and asked worriedly, "Isn't it too heavy?"
A-Cuo weighed the two of them up in his arms, his face calm: "They're alright."
Suddenly, they were lifted off the ground, and the people on both sides gasped in fright.
Unaware of his mistake, A-Cuo even seriously considered it and asked, "Does this count as what you call having two women on the left and one on the right?"
The two women, one elegant and the other alluring, embraced her, their breath sweet as orchids as they breathed near her neck. She concluded:
"This is the blessing of having multiple wives."
"A-Cuo!" Shang Yuji called her name playfully, his affection for her undisguised.
Sun Fengwan lowered her eyes and smiled. They had a really good relationship, just like she did with her sisters in the village.
"Okay, I'm leaving now, hold on tight."
As soon as he finished speaking, A-Cuo quickly climbed onto the courtyard wall. The wind blew in his face, and the surrounding noise seemed to disappear, leaving only the sound of his steady breathing and the whistling wind on his face.
Opening his eyes quietly, he saw the girl lightly stepping on the bamboo branches, the bent bamboo stalks emitting mournful cries of unbearable suffering, and Sun Fengwan was afraid of breaking the bamboo branches.
The next moment, the nearest bamboo branch was three or five steps away, and she worried that the girl might slip and fall.
The bamboo branches bent their bodies more and more, and in the blink of an eye, they had leaped into the air. She quickly closed her eyes to avoid the horrific scene that was about to unfold.
Her body was leaping, but her heart had already stopped—
Her wind-blown hair still brushed against her cheeks, the itch lingering. Sun Fengwan slowly opened her eyes, barely relieved before embarking on another thrilling adventure.
So this is what the girl shooting arrows was asking about, "dizziness from light-footedness"?
She...she's dizzy!
At this moment, the sorrow that had filled the room was washed away by the current danger, and her heart felt much lighter.
Shang Yuji's face showed a look of sudden enlightenment. It has to be said that after getting used to it, looking at the scenery from a different perspective has a unique charm.
"Crack—" A-Cuo, who had misjudged the weight-bearing capacity of the tree branch, was stunned.
The branch snapped in the middle, and she said calmly, "It's over."
As the sudden feeling of weightlessness washed over her, Shang Yuji calmly replied, "That's really unfortunate."
Sun Fengwan instinctively hugged A-Cuo closer, but unexpectedly met the gaze of the millipede coiled in A-Cuo's hair: "..."
A piercing scream rang out, and Shang Yuji was momentarily unsure whether falling from a great height or the terrified screams of Miss Sun was more unbearable.
"A-Cuo, are you sure you can do it?"
"Okay, just a moment."
He touched the low bushes beside him with his toes to cushion the impact and land, then ran a few more steps before stopping.
Before Sun Fengwan could calm down, A-Cuo stepped onto the artificial rock and used it to take off.
Finally arriving at the rocky area, Shang Yuji and Sun Fengwan naturally found a place to lean against and catch their breath.
Once she caught her breath, Shang Yuji said confidently, "Miss A-Cuo, a strongwoman."
A-Cuo nodded in acknowledgment of the compliment: "Thank you."
Sun Fengwan, feeling weak in the limbs, tapped the secret command. Inside, Xiao Mo pushed open the stone door and happily ran out after seeing that it was Sister Sun.
The two embraced each other with tears in their eyes. Several more girls emerged from behind the stone gate and rushed forward with joy upon seeing who it was.
Shang Yuji and A-Cuo stood to one side, not disturbing them. Xiao Mo noticed the two of them and shyly stepped forward to thank them.
He accepted her thanks, and soon after, a loud bang echoed through the village.
The deafening roar caused the earth to tremble.
This is a sign that things will succeed.
The girls laughed and cried out loud, their emotions a mixture of joy and sorrow, but things would only get better from there.
A black flying insect landed on A-Cuo's fingertip. A-Cuo gestured with her fingers to indicate its size: "If you get too fat, you'll fly slowly. You're not allowed to eat for the next two days."
Flying insects buzz and flap their wings.
"Still dare to protest? Three days!"
Shang Yuji leaned against the wall with her arms crossed, looked at the scene before her, and breathed a sigh of relief, saying, "It's over."
When deep suffering is suddenly stripped away, people may feel momentarily lost and helpless.
With a smile in her eyes, she knew she had to find them something to do, to reconnect them with the outside world after a long period of isolation, and to let the busy time help to dissipate the painful memories of stress.
It just so happens that the printing of books and the operation of Xinhua Bookstore both require manpower...
I don't know if they will accept it.
·
As they descended the mountain, a group of defeated bandits were mixed among the government troops, followed by cartloads of weapons.
The line stretched as far as the eye could see.
With too many people, the most urgent task is to send them to Yangzhou.
Before leaving, Shang Yuji and Yi Ning had a good chat in their inn room.
With time pressing in capturing the bandits, there was much information that Yi Ning hadn't had time to share with Shang Yuji.
Yi Ning first brought up Sun Dashu, who had disrupted the wedding banquet: "The mastermind he mentioned is Fu En, one of the registrars of Yangzhou City, and coincidentally, this Lord Fu has connections in the capital..."
She dipped her finger in the tea and wrote the character "二" on the table.
Shang Yuji couldn't help but raise an eyebrow, pondered for a moment, and then chuckled: "The auspicious day calculated by Master Xuanming is indeed a good time."
"?" Yi Ning was puzzled.
She explained, "The scoundrel caught on the wedding day actually implicated a noble person of that caliber, and even managed to break one of his arms. It was truly a case of using a small force to achieve a great victory."
If she hadn't gone on this trip with Jiang Xi, the matter would have started with Sun Dashu to find out about Fu En, which would then lead to Fu En implicating the Quanshan bandits in manufacturing weapons for the Second Prince. In the end, the bandits would have been captured, and the Second Prince's secret location in Quanshan would have been destroyed. The ensuing bloodshed in the court would have had a completely different outcome.
Unfortunately, whether it was encountering Sun Dashu at the wedding banquet or stumbling upon the crisis at Fulai Inn during their travels, it seems that these bandits from Quanshan Mountain cannot escape their grasp.
Is it fate, or just pure coincidence?
Without giving it much thought, Shang Yuji told Yining to return to Yangzhou to handle the matter, and then added, "I intend to let those girls take over the printing and bookstore business."
"The pain has passed, but the wounds remain. I only hope that what I'm doing now can help them temporarily forget their memories of the village."
Time heals all wounds. Hopefully, one day, when they look back, they can accept their broken selves with equanimity.
“Okay, just call me if you need anything,” Yi Ning replied.
Shang Yuji added, "I haven't asked the girls what they think yet. I'll find time to ask them if they're willing, and then give them time to think it over. Once Haitian and I return to Yangzhou, we'll bring back as many as we can..."
"Do you think I should hire some people to protect them? Miss Yang Bai would definitely be happy to take on the job..."
Yi Ning smiled and said, "In Yangzhou, the famous Miss Shang is their backer, so no one dares to bully them."
Knowing that Yining was just coaxing her, Shang Yuji laughed and said, "Even so, we still need to hire some people. Miss Shang is not short of money now... By the way, I bought a house in the south of the city. Could you tell Old Chen for me to hire people to clean it up and prepare bedding so that these girls will have a place to stay when they go to Yangzhou?"
"Okay, I'll follow Miss Shang's arrangements."
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Author's Note: I made it!! [Sprinkling flowers][Sprinkling flowers][Sprinkling flowers]
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