Chapter 54: I’m still pretending. I don’t know how powerful I will become in a few years...
She had fully expected the young man to be happy. But he simply nodded gently, then turned his head and gazed out the window. His face showed no sign of joy or any other emotion.
This reaction made Qing Guiyu very puzzled. She stood up with a frown, looking at him left and right.
"You... aren't very happy," she finally concluded. She leaned closer, tilted her head, and spoke in a gentler voice. "Why?"
The young man still had his head bowed, his gaze fixed on his hand. He clutched the delicate white flower tightly in his palm, the edges of the petals slightly wrinkled from being squeezed.
"Miss Qing," he spoke after a while, "will the senior brother you just mentioned come to this medicine house to look for you?"
Hearing him say this, Qing Guiyu breathed a sigh of relief. It turned out that this was what he was worried about.
"You don't have to worry about being discovered," she curled her lips, sat down in front of him, and soothingly brushed his drooping hair with her fingers. "Junior Brother doesn't come to the Medicine House often."
"Whenever there's something going on, I'm always the one who goes to look for him."
The young man suddenly raised his head, stirring up a gentle breeze. The tiny golden flowers carefully pinned in his hair were startled by the sudden vibration and fell silently from his hair.
He stared at her blankly, and his beautiful eyes were instantly filled with a misty icy haze. Finally, he turned away somewhat embarrassedly and said slowly,
"No wonder... No wonder Miss Qing is so happy today."
"Yes." Qing Guiyu rubbed his hands, his face showing an undisguised, almost overflowing excitement. "Although I haven't yet mastered my ultimate needle technique, it can at least give you a few more years. After a few more years, I will definitely be able to find a way to eradicate this cold poison in your bone marrow."
She looked at him, and the more she looked at him, the more she found him pleasing to the eye. Lately, immersed in the civic atmosphere of her herbal shrine, his sickly paleness had finally faded, revealing a touch of warmth and life.
This gave her more confidence. She stood up, put her hands behind her back, and gestured to him with a beaming expression.
"With such progress in just a few months, I don't know how great it will be in a few years."
"Come back to me when the time comes, and I will definitely be able to cure you."
The young man fell silent again. After a while, he spoke again, and his words seemed to be flake off and shatter.
"By that time," his Adam's apple rolled violently, with a slight, uncontrollable tremor, "will Miss Qing... still be in this medicine house?"
Of course I am. Qing Guiyu was about to say it.
But if you think about it carefully, whether it is stealing the warm jade needle, stealing the secret book of Huangdi's unique needle, or using the third needle on others, it is probably a serious crime against the master.
Even if a junior brother pleads for her, she still has to prepare for the worst.
"...Not necessarily." She suddenly became discouraged and shook her head gently, her eyes falling on the scattered honeysuckle. "Maybe... it's not here anymore."
The young man turned his head away in a deep voice.
In her daze, she always felt that he said something else, but she couldn't remember it clearly.
I only remember that when he turned his head, I saw the little golden flowers I had adorned in his hair. I had worn them for so long that they seemed to have become a part of him.
Therefore, she was still sleepy, and she raised her uninjured right hand in a daze, and her fingertips touched his scattered hair, trying to brush away the golden spots.
hiss--
My finger felt a pain and I realized that it had been cut by the golden blade, leaving a tiny cut.
Qing Guiyu woke up instantly, rubbed his face, and realized that a whole night had passed.
She turned her neck slightly and realized that she was almost half-leaning in Shen Juansheng's arms. He still maintained the posture that suppressed her pain. He closed his eyes, his head resting lightly on her side, and his breathing was so shallow that it seemed almost non-existent.
His loose, cool black hair and the golden silk blade silently entangled on the back of her hand.
The morning light struggled to penetrate the dust on the window frames of the inn.
He didn't seem to notice that she had woken up, as if he was still asleep. His beautiful yet restless face was caught in the morning light, and his whole body was immersed in an almost withered silence.
Qing Guiyu took a deep breath, causing his shoulder injury to move. The slight sound of his breathing was particularly clear in the overly quiet room.
The drooping eyelashes suddenly trembled,
"...Awake?" He seemed to be expecting something, but his voice was very hoarse. "Miss Qing...are you still in pain?"
Qing Guiyu didn't say anything, just shook his head and tried to prop himself up.
As she moved, a suppressed pain surged up from her injured shoulder, and she frowned.
Almost at the same time, a lighter, more delicate chill descended, silently soothing her. Shen Jiansheng instinctively leaned closer, one hand subconsciously moving to support her, but just before it touched her body, it froze in mid-air.
"Miss Qing," he hesitated, biting his lip, "Don't move...it will hurt."
Qing Guiyu looked at him, who looked more painful and tormented than himself, a wounded patient. The anger in his heart that was aroused by his crazy words last night disappeared inexplicably, leaving only a deep sense of absurdity.
Therefore, he did not answer immediately, but moved his uninjured right hand and tried to reach the bowl of water on the table next to him.
Who knew that as soon as she extended her fingertips, a slightly cool hand would quickly pick up the bowl of water and steadily hand it to her lips. The movements were smooth, even familiar.
Qing Guiyu glared at him. Chen Juansheng acted as if asking her to drink water was something extremely important.
"...What's wrong?" Shen Juansheng paused slightly when she looked at him, blinking his eyelashes rapidly, and asked anxiously, "Is it not okay? Is it...my hands are too cold?"
…
I don't know if he is real or just pretending.
"You sat like this all night?"
Qing Guiyu could only drink two sips of water from his hand, feeling a little embarrassed.
She had saved others many times in her life, but she had not had many opportunities to be saved by others.
"You should go and rest." She paused. "Why don't you move? Are you stupid?"
There aren't many opportunities in the world to call Tianji Mouzhu stupid.
She thought it was funny and started laughing.
Although the injury was closely related to him, he did his best to take care of himself.
Qing Guiyu thought about it, turned his head, and his eyes fell on his left shoulder.
The cloth wrapped there has been changed. It is a clean coarse white cloth. Although the bandaging technique is not the best, it is neat and tidy, obviously the work of Shen Juansheng.
She sniffed and could smell the familiar bitter and cool scent of the gold ointment.
Sure enough, this mastermind had already predicted that she was carrying life-saving medicine with her, and he took the initiative to deal with it for her while she was unconscious.
But Shen Juansheng just stared at her lips which were moistened with blood after drinking water, as if in a daze.
It wasn't until she tilted her head, waiting for his answer, that he finally murmured, as if waking from a dream. The voice was light and a little dazed, as if he didn't care at all about what she said.
"Hmm..." He suddenly turned his head again, his ears turning red.
As she moved, golden threads swirled through her hands, "No... I think this is good enough."
Two days passed in a flash.
Outside the window, the sky shifted from gray to light, then back again, repeating a cycle twice. In this inn room, time seemed frozen by the lingering smell of medicine.
It almost smells like the smell in the medicine house back then.
The wound on her shoulder blade that had been torn repeatedly was finally mostly tamed by Master Jin Sheng's cold power, which was so refined that it was almost luxurious, and the secret medicine she carried with her.
On the afternoon of the third day, the gloomy air was suddenly torn apart by the noisy sound of horse hooves coming from far away.
The sound of horse hooves was not the leisurely advance of ordinary merchants, but rather chaotic and urgent, with a sense of dusty and unruly air.
Qing Guiyu was leaning against the edge of the couch, trying to move her left arm, but paused at the sound. Chen Juansheng, sitting a little over two feet away from her, aimlessly twirling strands of gold thread between his fingers, seemed lost in thought, or perhaps in a daze.
Downstairs, the landlady's slightly panicked greeting, heavy footsteps, the clanking of weapons, and several rough voices could be heard:
"Shopkeeper! Serve up some good food and wine! Damn it, I've been running around in this godforsaken place for three days, and my mouth is dry as a chaff!"
"The horses are well fed! Use the best feed!"
"Boss, are there any clean rooms left? Make a few available for me!"
"What are you arguing about! Keep your voices down! Don't forget what we are here for!"
The leader downstairs was a man with a voice as loud as a bell. He had a heavy nine-ring knife slung around his waist. The knife rings made a rattling sound as he slammed the table, and he looked very aggressive.
Behind him were seven or eight equally strong men, all of them dusty and with fierce eyes. They filled the small main room so tightly that the air was immediately filled with the smell of sweat, dust and a faint smell of blood.
The proprietress turned pale with fright and quickly asked them to sit down. Before half of the wine and meat were served, she heard a few more people walk in from behind.
Those who came in later were obviously wearing brighter and more elegant clothes. Leading the group was a middle-aged scholar with a sallow complexion and sinister eyes, holding a gold-painted folding fan.
The three behind them were carrying swords and knives, walking steadily. They were also carrying weapons, obviously they were also people from the underworld. When they saw these people sitting in the store, they glared, stepped back, and turned to leave.
The man who arrived first looked at the scholar and said angrily, "Hey, friends from Xinglinwu, you despise us Cao Gang for being rough and uncouth, so you came all the way from the south just to make fun of Yaowang Valley."
The sallow-faced scholar from Xinglinwu darkened his expression, and he opened the gilded folding fan in his hand with a swish, then slowly closed it again. He said with some disdain, "The Cao Gang brothers are so rude."
"We, the disciples of Xinglinwu, are here solely to search for some rare medicinal herbs unique to the north, to help save lives. However, I haven't seen any of you wielding swords, so why are you here?"
"Bullshit!" A lean man among the Cao Gang suddenly stood up and pointed at the scholar's nose and cursed.
"Looking for medicinal herbs? You're kidding! Who knows if you, the medicine vendors, have any connection between Xinglinwu and Yaowang Valley? Did you hear about Yaowang Valley and want to come and get some bargains?"
When Qing Guiyu heard the words "Yaowang Valley", he stood up suddenly and was about to push open the door.
A flash of golden light appeared before his eyes, and the figure in Xuanyi was like a silent barrier, blocking the door.
Young Master Jinsheng blocked her way silently.
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