Chapter 83: Layout
A severe pain then came, and after Cui Wangshi let out a short "uh", her face instantly turned as pale as paper, her body swayed, and she fell backwards.
"lady!"
Screams and cries filled the air instantly. The hall was in chaos. The maids hurriedly supported the unconscious Cui Wangshi, some screamed for the palace doctor, and some tried to grab Wen Youqing, but were forced back by the blood-stained dagger in her hand.
Wen Youqing held the knife, her eyes gradually becoming clearer. Many years ago, she had also fought for herself with a sharp weapon.
She looked at the glaring red on the tip of the knife, at her mother-in-law lying in the crowd with blood flowing, and at the terrified and angry faces around her that were looking at them as if they were monsters.
What a bunch of oppressive lunatics, they should see blood to wake them up. With such a good excuse, she finally didn't have to pretend anymore.
She had a crossbow in her sleeve that she had prepared long ago. It was time for the Cui family to pay a price.
She turned abruptly, rushed out of the main hall with a clear goal, and ran towards the ancestral hall deep in the mansion.
The wind filled her sleeves, but she felt extremely free.
Over the years, she had truly entered the Cui family's "inside," taking care of Cui Junji's affairs, the Cui Mansion's internal affairs, and Cui Junji's interactions with officials. She was a termite, finally getting into this unshakable tree after so many years.
It's time to let this tree discover.
In the ancestral hall, the conversation today lasted an unusually long time.
Ying waited silently in the shadows under the eaves outside the ancestral hall. He was Cui Junji's most loyal and ruthless secret guard, and his world was only about obeying orders and dealing with danger.
He heard a faint commotion in the front yard, but didn't think much of it.
Until, a figure with disheveled hair, holding a sharp blade and covered in blood, rushed towards the gate of the ancestral hall like an out-of-control arrow.
Ying's pupils suddenly contracted.
With his eyesight and hearing, he recognized it. It was Wen Youqing. The weapon in her hand, clearly reflecting light, was the hidden weapon Wen Youqing would have used before she lost her memory! How could she be holding this thing?
The glaring bloodstains on the robe, and the resolute momentum of rushing straight to the ancestral hall regardless of everything, followed by a group of servants in blood-stained clothes - it was clearly heading for the young master!
no!
"Stop!" Ying's voice was as cold and hard as iron. It came from the shadows, carrying a cold murderous aura, and flashed in front of Wen Youqing.
However, Wen Youqing turned a deaf ear to him. In her world, there were only the two closed doors of the ancestral hall and the man who had deceived her.
Seeing that she not only did not stop but instead rushed towards him faster, Ying no longer hesitated and decisively attacked to knock her unconscious.
But Wen Youqing was faster, and a torrential downpour of pear blossom needles shot out from his other sleeve.
Ying had clearly underestimated Wen Youqing, a woman with only mediocre kung fu skills. Within the tight network of needles, Ying dodged at high speed. Although she dodged most of them, Ying still felt a wave of dizziness as she used her internal energy to force the needles out of her arm.
poisonous!?
Wen Youqing sneered and cried out. Uncharacteristically, she threw away all her hidden weapons, leaving only a short knife, and ran past him towards the ancestral hall's courtyard.
Protecting Cui Junji was his only order, and no mistakes were allowed.
With a bewildering movement, a deft reach reached his limit. With every last ounce of strength, Ying unsheathed the specially crafted bow on his back and nocked a feathered arrow with a dark iron tip. His movements were fluid and precise, without a single wasted moment. The bowstring was stretched to full length, his muscles tensed, all his strength concentrated in his fingertips.
Just before the arrow was about to leave the string——
"Bang!"
The door of the ancestral hall was suddenly pulled open from the inside.
A few moments ago, Cui Junji was increasingly alarmed by the conversation inside. The elders of the clan wanted him to kill Wen Youqing and keep the child after she gave birth.
Cui Junji heard the noise outside, heard Ying's warning, and also heard the familiar, yet unprecedentedly shrill cry.
A strong sense of foreboding seized him, and he rushed out without hesitation to see what was going on.
The moment the door opened, he saw a scene that scared him to death - Wen Youqing was in a miserable state, covered in blood, holding a bloody dagger in his hand, and rushing towards the ancestral hall.
In the shadows not far behind her, Ying's bowstring had already been released. The arrow, imbued with the aura of death, flew out with a sharp sound! Its target was directly at Wen Youqing's heart!
Cui Junji's thoughts froze, his body's instincts outpacing his awareness. He lunged forward, desperately reaching out to block Wen Youqing's path, to catch the fatal arrow!
Too fast! Ying's arrow is a sure-kill blow from a top master, its speed and power reaching the extreme.
"Puff!" In a flash of lightning.
It was the dull and teeth-grinding sound of a sharp blade piercing flesh and shattering bones.
Time seemed to be stretched infinitely, and then suddenly froze.
Wen Youqing's forward steps suddenly stopped, and he stopped just a few steps away from the threshold, just a span away from Cui Junji.
The madness and despair on her face had not yet faded away, but were replaced by an extreme, confused and incomprehensible expression.
Cui Junji's broken left hand tightly grasped the arrow, which was rubbed bloody by the rapid speed, while his intact right hand tightly protected Wen Youqing's back.
The arrow had pierced his entire palm fiercely! The tip of the arrow protruded from the back of his hand, dripping with blood and broken flesh.
But this is not the end.
After the arrow pierced Cui Junji's palm, its momentum was only slightly weakened, but it still continued to move forward with terrifying force.
It pierced Wen Youqing's chest fiercely.
The position is on the left, exactly where the heart is.
Wen Youqing lowered her head, staring blankly at her chest. The arrow's tail feathers still trembled in Cui Junji's pierced palm, and the arrowhead had already sunk into her body, leaving only a fragment of the arrow outside.
The intense, tearing pain belatedly swept over her.
She seemed to feel no pain, but only felt absurd and unbelievable. She raised her head and looked at Cui Junji who was close at hand.
His face showed shock, fear, and disbelief that were a thousand times more intense than hers.
His eyes were fixed on the arrow in her chest, then he suddenly raised them and looked at her face. His lips trembled violently, but he could not utter a single syllable.
She opened her mouth and asked him: "Why... lied to me..."
However, all that surged up her throat was a stream of sweet, fishy heat. Blood flowed uncontrollably from the corner of her mouth, snaking down.
Her body began to lose strength and she fell forward softly. She tried her best to plunge the dagger into Cui Junji's chest, inch by inch, finally cutting through his thick spring shirt.
"Ah Qing——"
He didn't care about his hand that was pierced by an arrow and was covered in blood. He suddenly knelt down and used his other intact arm to carefully hold her tightly in his arms before she fell to the ground.
"Ah Qing! Look at me! Look at me!" His throat was so tight that he couldn't utter a word. He whispered incoherently, his voice trembling. "House doctor! Go call the house doctor!"
He tried to cover the wound on her chest that was bleeding with his left hand, but the arrowhead was still standing there. He didn't dare to touch it for fear of increasing her pain.
The hand that was connected to her by the arrow could clearly feel the blood gushing out, taking her life away bit by bit.
His hands and body were instantly stained with her blood, warm and sticky.
Wen Youqing lay in his arms, her eyes had begun to blur, the light in her pupils fading quickly.
She looked at his broken face, at the hot tears rolling down his face and hitting hers.
She wanted to raise her hand to wipe off the disgusting liquid on her face, but in the end she could only move her fingertips weakly.
Her plan... was almost complete.
"Why did you lie to me... Mother-in-law said... I was a concubine..."
Until this moment, Cui Junji's throat was strangled by extreme panic and regret. He didn't know how to explain, and could only repeat himself: "If you wake up, I will explain to you, I will explain to you. Ah Qing, I am the one who messed up, but you have to listen to my explanation."
The arrow pierced Wen Youqing's heart and he soon died.
Feeling that the person in his arms had lost his breath, Cui Junji felt as if all the blood in his body had stagnated. He stared blankly at the person in his arms, not knowing what to do.
After a long moment, a shrill roar, so shrill it didn't sound human, erupted. It was filled with despair, collapse, and devastating pain, as if it was tearing apart his internal organs.
"No!!" Cui Junji howled in despair like a wounded beast. He hugged her gradually cooling body tightly, buried his face in the crook of her neck, and trembled violently.
The world crumbled around him, all color, sound, and meaning vanishing with the passage of her life.
The sun was at its peak, yet its rays were chilling and biting. Cui Junji held her in his arms, kneeling in a pool of blood, like two weathered stone sculptures.
Blood continued to flow from his and her bodies, dyeing the stone steps in front of the ancestral hall red, and also dyeing the jade hairpin that fell in the pool of blood, which he had put in her hair this morning and was now broken.
The only sound in the air was Cui Junji's desperate and seemingly endless cries, which echoed for a long time above the silent Duke's Mansion.
That arrow not only pierced his palm, but also completely shattered all his expectations, plans and future.
He thought his family would accept their views and policies.
He thought his family would accept her.
He thought he could lie to her forever.
It's all fake, this family, this clan, it's all fucking fake. It's ridiculous that he still cares about them.
The guards and servants who rushed over after hearing the news were all terrified by the bloody and tragic scene in front of the ancestral hall and stood there like wooden chickens, not daring to move forward.
After crying enough, Cui Junji turned around and glanced at the indifferent onlookers in the deep ancestral hall, just like the rows of cold seats in the hall.
It would be great if they were really ranked.
That glance brought a chill to everyone's bones, which instantly ran through their entire body from the soles of their feet.
Cui Junji picked up Wen Youqing. The wound on his hand was so painful, but he didn't intend to pull his hand out.
Their blood mixed, as if she was in his body and had never left.
"Aqing, look, the sun is shining brightly today. The doctor said we should get more sun. Let's go home and get some sun, okay?"
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