Xin Kui looked up and met Xin Yunzhou's deep eyes. He had changed out of his heavy armor and was only wearing a black casual outfit. He looked less fierce and ruthless on the battlefield and more calm and reserved.
"General..." Xin Kui felt a little awkward and tried to withdraw her hand.
"Don't move." Xin Yunzhou's voice was deep, carrying an unyielding force. He poured a glass of warm water, tested the temperature, and then brought it to her lips. His movements were somewhat stiff, yet exceptionally careful.
Xin Kui stared blankly at him, at this general who hadn't even flinched amidst mountains of corpses and seas of blood, yet now possessed an almost clumsy tenderness. She obediently drank the water from his hand; the warm liquid slid down her throat, yet felt as if it had scalded her heart.
"Does it still hurt?" Xin Yunzhou put down the cup and looked at her left shoulder, which was wrapped in thick gauze.
Xin Kui shook her head and whispered, "It doesn't hurt anymore." Compared to the endless torment she had suffered in the brothel, this injury was nothing.
A brief silence fell over the tent, broken only by the sunlight dancing in the air. A subtle yet tense atmosphere flowed between the two.
Xin Yunzhou looked at Xin Kui's lowered eyelashes, at her pale yet undeniably beautiful profile, at the gruesome wound on her shoulder inflicted on him... The life-and-death bond on the battlefield, the day and night care in the wounded soldiers' camp—countless images flashed through his mind. Those emotions he had deliberately ignored and suppressed surged forth like a flood breaking through a dam, no longer able to be contained.
He suddenly knelt down on one knee, right in front of Xin Kui's soft couch.
Xin Kui was startled and instinctively tried to dodge: "General! What are you doing? Get up!"
Xin Yunzhou stubbornly remained kneeling, raised his head, and stared intently at her. His eyes held guilt, tenderness, and a resolute determination to burn his bridges.
“Xin Kui,” his voice was slightly hoarse with nervousness, but unusually clear, “I am Xin Yunzhou, a soldier by birth, a rough man. I don’t understand romance, and I’m not good at sweet talk. You pulled me back from the brink of death.”
He paused, as if gathering all his courage: "Back in the brothel, I was the one who pulled you out of that hellhole. At the time, I just thought I was saving a pitiful person. But these days... in Tongguan, seeing you shield me from arrows, seeing you grit your teeth and endure the pain, seeing you, despite being so badly wounded yourself, still thinking about changing the bandages for other wounded soldiers..." His voice choked with emotion, "I realized that my life, Xin Yunzhou's life, is no longer just my own. It's connected to yours!"
Xin Kui's heart pounded like a drum, almost bursting out of her chest. She looked at Xin Yunzhou, at the sincere, almost burning emotion in his eyes, at his fingertips trembling slightly with nervousness, and tears welled up unexpectedly.
“General…” she choked up, unable to speak.
"Don't call me General!" Xin Yunzhou interrupted her, his eyes filled with unprecedented seriousness and pleading. "Call me Yunzhou! Xin Kui, I know I'm not good enough for you. You are a cloud in the sky, clean and pure, while I... have blood on my hands and a body covered in killings. I also know that you... may still be hiding things from the past, hiding feelings of inferiority."
He reached out, not to touch her, but to open his palm, revealing thick, menacing calluses on his palm and the base of his thumb, as well as several new scars.
"These are my past, my sins, which can never be washed away. But I want to use these hands, and the rest of my life, to protect you, to guard you, to give you a clean and pure world! I won't let you suffer any more injustice, I won't let you be stained with any more blood!" His voice was resolute, carrying the unwavering commitment of a soldier. "Leave all the dirty work, all the shady schemes, to me! You just... do what you want to do, do the clean things!"
He looked up, like the most devout believer, gazing at the light in his life: "Xin Kui, are you... willing to give me this chance? Let me... use this life to repay you, to... love you."
He spoke those last few words very softly, yet they carried immense weight, striking Xin Kui's heart like a thunderbolt.
Tears streamed down her face, blurring her vision. All the deep-seated inferiority complexes, the unbearable memories of the past, the anxieties about the future—all crumbled in this moment, before this man's clumsy yet burning vows. She remembered the first time he rescued her at the brothel, his clear, compassionate eyes; she remembered him telling her, "No one will dare bully you anymore," when he told her to follow the prostitute; she remembered his bloodied figure fighting on the walls of Tongguan; she remembered the nervousness as he clumsily fed her medicine in the wounded soldiers' camp…
Unbeknownst to her, this man, as reliable as a mountain and as sincere as a raging fire, had already planted an indelible root in her barren heart.
With trembling hands, she extended her uninjured right hand and gently placed it on Xin Yunzhou's outstretched, calloused palm. The rough touch carried his warmth and strength.
"My...my hands aren't clean either." Her voice was weak but clear, her eyes filled with tears. "In the brothel...to survive, I did...things against my conscience. General...Yunzhou, I don't need you to do the dirty work for me. I just want...to be with you, whether clean or dirty, whether in heaven or hell. Your life...is already mine. My life...is already yours."
Xin Yunzhou trembled violently! A tremendous joy surged through his body like an electric current! He suddenly turned his hand and tightly grasped Xin Kui's slightly cool hand, with such force that it seemed as if he wanted to knead her into his very bones! He stood up and carefully pulled her into his arms, avoiding her injured left shoulder, his movements as gentle as if he were holding a rare treasure.
"Good! Good! Together! Together!" He stammered, his voice choked with emotion, and hot tears dripped onto Xin Kui's neck. This iron-blooded general, who shed blood but not tears on the battlefield, was now weeping with joy like a child.
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