Chapter 43 Chapter 43 The numbness has already overwhelmed the pain.
It was the end of the year, snow was falling and firecrackers were blasting.
The streets are brightly lit, rows of big red lanterns are hung under the eaves, white snow is slowly falling from the sky, and the streets are bustling with people.
Gu Zhi was suddenly bumped on the shoulder by someone. He turned around to look at the person passing by, and suddenly someone grabbed his sleeve again.
"Look at that," Chu Jiaojiao bit into a piece of candied haws and pointed to a small stall not far away. "It looks like they're painting portraits."
"Portrait?" He looked up, then looked at the person in front of him. Fine snowflakes fell on her black hair. He gently brushed the snow off and put the hood of her cloak on her.
"No, I like snow." She pulled the hood off again.
He sighed, "Cold." There was a hint of complaint in his voice. "You're disobedient."
He took her hand and walked towards the old man who was painting the picture. "Jiaojiao, do you want to draw a picture?"
She nodded, "I want to try it."
He said with a hint of bitterness, "Everyone says I'm the best painter on the mountain. Why don't you like me?"
She was speechless for a moment, then smiled with her eyes curved: "What don't I like?"
Of course he doesn't like me. Gu Zhi lowered his eyes in silence.
After so long, he still always felt that she didn't like him.
At least, not as much as he liked it.
He was silent for a moment, feeling a little bitter, but he didn't know how to be angry with her, so he walked a few steps faster and led her to the small wooden stool in front of the old man.
"Uncle, can you please…" He paused for a moment, "can you please draw a small portrait of my wife?"
Her hand holding the candied haws stick paused for a moment, and she looked up at him.
The old man smiled, his wrinkled face like an ancient tree. "A couple? Newlyweds?"
Her face suddenly turned red, as red as a hawthorn covered in rock sugar. She quietly reached out and grabbed his clothes, "What nonsense are you talking about?"
He smiled and stood in front of her, "We're getting engaged soon."
"Oh, you're getting engaged soon. Good, good." The old man spread out paper and ground ink, dipped the brush into the paint, and held the brush between his fingers, bowing. "Have a happy marriage! Have a happy marriage!"
She was stunned for a moment, looked at him, and smiled shyly and a little angrily.
The portrait was drawn very quickly, with only two or three strokes, but it does bear some resemblance to the original.
Chu Jiaojiao looked at the portrait carefully, "Don't tell me—"
Suddenly, a piece of golden crystal sugar from the candied haws fell off and landed on her hand. She lowered her eyes and took it in her mouth.
However, there was still some sugar and lip balm on my fingers, and when I picked up the painting again, there was a slightly red fingerprint on the right edge of the painting.
She stared at the fingerprint for a long time, clearly upset. "Just finished drawing—"
Gu Zhi knew her obsession with cleanliness, so he took the painting, rolled it up, and put it in his sleeve. "It's okay, I'll keep it. I'll draw another one for Jiaojiao some other day."
She stood there, biting her lips in frustration. Her bright red lips were pinched between her white, pearly teeth.
How can it be so soft?
He lowered his eyes and looked at her, thinking to himself, I really want to kiss her.
But there are too many people.
He gently lifted her chin, brushed his thumb across the side of her lips, and rubbed them lovingly. "Why? You don't like what I'm drawing for you?"
"...No. It only takes two or three strokes to create a resemblance. It's quite fresh."
He laughed coldly, "You see me every day, so I'm no longer new?" He paused, then said casually, "Then who's newer?"
She laughed dumbly, pushed his hand away, and walked away. "Why do you keep pestering me with these questions every day..."
He refused to give up and caught up with her in two steps. He grabbed her wrist and applied a little force. "Jiaojiao. Who's fresher?" He said, as if trying to hide his mistake, "I'm not angry."
She was walking in front, and when she saw him chasing her relentlessly, she turned back and smiled, "Need I ask? Li Xuanbai."
That name made him freeze instantly.
Chu Jiaojiao turned around. It was the same face, the same voice, but that face was filled with cold malice and playful teasing. She raised an eyebrow and said, "I'm going down the mountain with Master Xuanbai. Master, don't you know?"
Gu Zhi couldn't understand for a moment, but he still trembled uncontrollably.
"Didn't you sign the document for leaving the mountain yourself?" A nonchalant voice suddenly interrupted. Li Xuanbai naturally put his arm around her shoulders. "It's between the two of us. You forgot? Are you out of your mind?"
He said hurriedly: "Jiaojiao...wait a moment. I have something else to say..."
However, she turned around with his frivolous junior brother, not even bothering to give him a sympathetic glance. Amidst the huge crowd, she waved at him nonchalantly from a distance, "Sir, I'll take you here. We'll say goodbye."
Suddenly, he didn't know where he was. He lay on a bench, the whip of a punishment officer crackling in the wind, the blazing sun overhead, the crowd forming an airtight circle around him. He could hear the disciples whispering to each other, words they wouldn't dare say to his face.
My mind was in a state of confusion, and even my back seemed numb.
The outlines of everything in front of me seemed to be blurred and swirling, the sky became earth, the day became night, and lying on the bench seemed to fall into the abyss. Some people were lamenting, some were frightened, some were crying bitterly, and some were still in shock.
But as the crowd slowly spun around, the single, blazing sun overhead seemed to transform into a warm paper lantern. The dim light of the lantern illuminated a figure, holding a chess piece in her hand while resting her chin on the board. She placed the jade-white piece on the board, her eyes as charming as two autumn springs as she said to him,
"If you ask me, you are the best person in the world. If it weren't for you... I don't know what I would do."
He suddenly heard his uncle's voice, deep and solemn, echoing in the tall hall:
"May I ask, Young Master, which is more important, the mountain rules or her?"
He was silent for a moment, his head was in chaos, and he could only utter one word:
"she."
*
Nan Qiong Shuang frowned and paused for a moment.
Did he speak just now?
But it's only one byte.
Did he speak or just groan in pain?
She looked at the person on the couch suspiciously.
The figure lying on the couch still didn't move.
She lowered her eyes and slowly opened a paper package in her hand, revealing a few candied dates with donkey-hide gelatin inside.
These candied dates were what she had just taken out from the small kitchen.
I heard that this man, who endured seventy lashes a day, and for some unknown reason, went to the Pure Spring with his injuries before returning home. Upon entering, he didn't touch the food prepared by the servants, and refused to let the servants help him apply medicine. He simply lay down on the couch and rested, where he has been unconscious ever since.
She sneered in her heart, wondering why everyone was as reckless as her.
but.
Just now, Asong said that in order to save her, Gu Zhi used the Mountain-Suppressing Jade Plate to open the Star Pavilion.
Then, Zi Ni was right.
The mountain-guarding jade plaque is not in the Xingchen Pavilion.
As for where it is, perhaps only Gu Zhi himself knows.
Or, more likely—he was carrying it with him.
She lowered her eyes, her long eyelashes hiding all the emotions in them, and gently picked up a candied date with her index finger and thumb, the sticky sugar liquid sparkling on her fingertips.
That would be much more convenient. At least, she wouldn't have to go through the trouble of sneaking into the Star Pavilion.
If the jade token was on him, hanging on his chest...
What are the chances of her stabbing him to death here and then escaping down the mountain?
I'm afraid it won't be very big, as the mountain is full of traps and there are gates to the mountain.
She sighed, pinched the candied date, and slowly handed it to his tightly closed lips.
He was so weak, no matter what, it seemed like he should be fed first. Otherwise, he might die before the wound was cleaned.
She leaned down, careful not to let her breath brush his eyelashes, and moved the long hair that fell on the side of his face to the other side bit by bit.
Then, he turned his face slightly towards her.
He fell asleep with his eyes closed, his long eyelashes like feather fans drooping, his eyebrows, forehead and nose bones were elegant and refined, and with his weak breaths, the cold sweat on his nose and forehead almost flashed in the moonlight.
But—what was crystal clear was not even just the sweat beads that he could not control due to the pain, but his entire body.
She simply couldn't believe that there was actually someone who, after receiving seventy lashes in his life, did not even look disheveled or dirty. Even at the end of his strength, he only showed a heart-wrenching brokenness and sadness.
He was truly a handsome man. If his fate had been less fortunate, and he had passed away, perhaps he would have been accompanied by her.
However, I don’t know which fate is worse, falling into the gate of rebirth or being targeted by the gate of rebirth.
She sneered slightly, holding the candied date in one hand and reaching out with the other to pinch his chin.
But at the moment when she almost touched him, her long eyelashes trembled twice and opened.
She sat up awkwardly, a little further away from him: "...Sir, you're awake."
Gu Zhi opened his eyes and looked at her, his eyes a little blurry for a moment.
He opened his mouth and said hoarsely, "Jiao..." He swallowed the last word and said, "...Miss Chu."
He lay on the brocade pillow and said with difficulty, "I am not in a good mood today, please go back, young lady."
He wanted her to leave, but those misty eyes under the moonlight looked at her with a kind of sad despair, and almost...humble hope.
She didn't know why, but he kept looking into her eyes these days, and sometimes, it almost hurt her.
She took a deep breath and lowered her eyelashes. "I heard that the young master refused to apply the medicine, so Asong asked me to come."
He chuckled, immediately understanding what Asong meant, and shook his head slightly, "I knew it. Miss, you're timid, and I didn't want you to know." His voice was so soft, almost coaxing a child, "Are you scared? I'm fine. Go back to sleep."
If Gu Huaijin didn't know her true face, she would have laughed out loud. "Nothing? How can you call this nothing?"
She shook her head stubbornly, pretending to be worried, and wanted to touch his still intact skin with her fingers, "This is obviously not okay..."
Before she could finish her words, he grabbed her wrist.
He didn't want to be touched by her. Even the slightest brush of her fingers across the top of his back caused the numbness to overwhelm the pain, making him more anxious than the whiplash.
"Young Master..."
His face was frozen, and he was stunned. He was shocked to find that he had actually held her wrist, and hurriedly let go.
He couldn't look at her anymore, nor did he dare to look at her anymore. He was already too hurt today, dizzy and missing her the most.
If he continued to indulge himself like this, he didn't know what he would say to her that he shouldn't.
So he turned his head away and faced the couch.
But then the person beside the couch started crying: "Young Master was injured because of me, and now he refuses to apply medicine. I, I don't know what to do..."
He was most afraid of her tears, so he hurriedly turned his head back. The seriously injured man struggled to get up and frantically tried to comfort the well person. He wanted to wipe her tears but didn't dare. He reached out his hand and then retracted it. He was at a loss for a moment, and finally gently held her arm, caressing it with his thumb lovingly.
"Okay, Jiaojiao, don't cry... I'm really fine. Go back and have some sleep. I'll be fine the next day. Be good."
At this time he called Jiaojiao again, because he really couldn't do anything about her tears.
However, when he stood up, she saw him.
Because of the wounds from the whip, he was currently shirtless.
The mountain-guarding jade plaque was hung neatly on his chest.
——So it’s here.
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