Chapter 34: Unspeakable Suffering
Yuan Jianlu and Mei Wan'er followed behind. Seeing that the two were out of breath, he had to stop and wait several times while holding Jiaoran.
Walking deep into the forest, they came across a large cave. Mei Wan'er approached Yuan and said, "Could he be some kind of monster that cultivated in the deep mountains and forests? A snake demon?"
Yuan knew that such a person must have sharp senses, so he winked at her and told her to speak less.
As they walked through the woods, the positions of the trees behind them quietly changed, and the footprints they left in the soil quickly disappeared.
Just as he was about to reach the corner of the cave, an extremely narrow stone door appeared in front of him. When the man walked to the door, it opened automatically.
Yuan Jianlu let Mei Wan'er walk behind him, and he followed with big strides. When he stepped down, there was thick grass under his feet.
He uttered an exclamation.
Mei Wan'er followed behind and hadn't come in yet. "What's your name?"
"Wow—" she exclaimed as she stood beside him.
A Guilin appeared before my eyes, with golden osmanthus trees stretching for miles with no end in sight.
The golden dust that would make the plum blossom jealous and the chrysanthemum ashamed is probably nowhere more abundant than here.
Mei Wan'er smelled the sweet fragrance of osmanthus, and the fatigue of the past few days was instantly swept away. "Could this be the fairyland of Penglai?"
Yuan Jianlu nodded. This was the first time he agreed with her opinion.
The two were still following behind him. Yuan Jianlu's legs were sore from walking, but they still hadn't reached their destination.
I saw a little girl of about twelve or thirteen years old, walking towards this side with a large bamboo basket of cut grass.
She held the bottom of the basket with both hands and held it high on her shoulders as she walked.
Seeing the white-haired man coming over, he put down the basket and bowed in an unknown dynasty, "Master, who is this man?"
He looked at Jiaoran in his arms, a little unsure, "It's considered... a new medicinal herb."
The little girl held out her hand and said, "Let me carry it."
"No, take them both to find a village to stay."
"Oh." she replied.
Mei Wan'er asked quickly, "What about her? Where are you taking her?"
"Didn't they say she was poisoned?" He didn't stay in front of them for long.
The little girl's sweet voice floated from behind him, "Master, will you come back for dinner tonight?"
"No, don't wait for me." He didn't look back.
Yuan Jianlu estimated that the basket of herbs weighed at least seventy or eighty kilograms.
The little girl, about twelve or thirteen years old, held it high with one hand and didn't look like she was struggling at all.
Yuan Jianlu felt that he should help this little girl, at least to leave a good impression on others, "Madam, why don't I do it for you?"
The little girl thought for a moment, then glanced at his arm, as if doubting something. "Okay, take it."
Mei Wan'er looked at the man who took Jiaoran away with concern.
The two of them had only walked a dozen steps, and the little girl still held it in the same position, without changing hands.
Now it was Yuan Jianlu's turn to carry it. After walking a few steps, sweat began to appear on his face and his shoulders began to tremble.
But he couldn't lose face in front of the girl, so he pretended to be casual and said, "May I ask your name, young lady, and where is this place?"
"Hmm... I'm just a country bumpkin. I don't have a name. My master has five disciples, and I'm the youngest, so I'm called Xiaowu. I have three older brothers and one older sister, and the rest are just ordinary people in the village."
After saying this, he still didn't tell Yuan Jianlu and Mei Wan'er where this place was.
After walking a few more steps, Yuan Jianlu suddenly put the basket of herbs on the ground, sweat dripping from his forehead.
Mei Wan'er finally couldn't help laughing, "It's a shame you're a martial artist, but you can't even lift a basket of grass, hahahahahahahahahahaha..."
Yuan Jianlu did not argue and pointed at the basket and asked her to try.
Mei Wan'er bent down and lifted the straw basket into her hands, then carried the basket like Yuan Jianlu did.
She put all her strength into her arms and didn't feel any difficulty at first.
After only seven or eight steps, I felt my shoulders getting a little sore, but it was still bearable.
After walking for dozens of steps, her arms began to tremble. She had just ridiculed Yuan Jianlu, and it would be embarrassing to put them down now. So she continued to endure the discomfort and insisted on walking. She forced herself to walk for dozens of steps, and her arms almost lost feeling.
Suddenly, he remembered that the little girl had walked all the way towards them without even getting out of breath, and she never showed any sign of effort. She was so young, yet her lower body and upper body were so strong.
She put down the basket and smiled at Yuan Jianlu.
"How about you stop laughing at me?"
Mei Wan'er said, "What a miscalculation."
The little girl sighed, "I'd better take it myself. If I spill the herbs, the master will definitely blame me when he comes back."
Continue walking with it on your shoulders.
After an unknown amount of time in a coma, Jiaoran slowly regained consciousness.
I opened my eyes and it was pitch black, I couldn't tell where I was.
There was silence in her ears, and apart from her breathing, there was no sound at all, as if the whole world had died.
She looked down and found that she had been sleeping on her back on a jade bed. No wonder she felt so cold.
She was about to ask loudly, "Is anyone there?"
As soon as she spoke, she was shocked to find that she couldn't utter a single word.
She remembered that before she fainted, she, Mei Wan'er and Yuan Jianlu had drifted to this nameless island. The scary red snake wrapped around her neck, and then she fainted.
Jiaoran was extremely frightened. She was afraid that she would become a mute and never be able to speak again.
She had survived all the things that had happened before, including the plots of Mu Jin and Fenghuang Chu, the hardships of wandering all the way, the fever and vomiting of blood, the inability to return home, and the worries about life and death everywhere. She had been enduring it silently, thinking that after she returned home, none of this would matter.
Now she has become a mute, a mute who can no longer complain to her mother or act coquettishly with her senior sister.
She was silent for a moment. She had never cried all the way here, even when she was betrayed and killed by Mu Jin and her blood was taken by the Phoenix Chick.
She could still hold on, thinking that she was just new in the world and didn't understand how people's hearts were calculated. Anyone could be deceived, so what did it matter? As long as she had her life, she was not afraid of anything.
But now when I woke up, I found myself in a dark and deserted place. I couldn't speak and my whole body was in pain.
She just wanted to go home, that was her only wish.
The injured child must remember the way home. Her parents said so, and now she doesn’t know where home is.
She sat up, and all the grievances accumulated over these days burst out in an instant. She couldn't help sobbing, covering her face with her hands, and tears kept flowing from between her fingers.
She cried for a long time. It was not that she liked to cry. She had rarely cried since she was a child. But now she could only blame herself for being useless and stupid, and being fooled by others. Apart from using crying to vent the resentment and sadness in her heart, she had no other choice for the time being.
She hated Mu Jin to death. To be honest, she hated Mu Jin even more than Fenghuang Chu. Fenghuang Chu was not a good person to begin with, so she was not surprised by anything he did. Stabbing someone in the back was a common tactic used by people in the martial arts world. When you are in the martial arts world, you will inevitably get stabbed.
But Mu Jin couldn't. How could he betray her like this and put her to death?!
She deceived him, tried to get close to him, and took advantage of his kindness, but he was more ruthless than her and sent her to hell.
What's the most vicious heart of a woman? It's obviously the most vicious heart of a man. This is the first time she has liked a man, and she almost got killed by him. Dad said that beautiful women are the most deceitful, but he didn't say that beautiful men are more deceitful than women.
It's all fake, what a bullshit love story between man and woman. The only people in the world who treat her well are her father and mother.
Mu Jin wanted her to cry, to beg him, but she refused. Wasn't it just that he had temporarily defeated her with his superior skills? He used the face of a bodhisattva to cover up his venomous heart.
Damn it, she was sold when she was just a rookie and had to help count the money. When she sees him again, she will gouge out his heart to see how dark it is.
When her limbs were tired from crying and she had no strength to move, she looked around and saw a bright star on the top of the cave on her right, and apart from that star, there was nothing else.
It's dark now, Jiaoran thought, so the stars are out.
She didn't know if she was sent here by Mei Wan'er and Yuan Jianlu. Why did they put her here?
Yes, yes, they thought she was a burden, so they left her here alone.
Jiaoran realized that she could no longer rely on anyone, and she had to go home by herself.
No matter how far away she is, as long as she is alive, she will be able to go home.
She thought of her mother again. She had waited for her senior brothers and sisters to go back, but she had not gone back. No matter what Fenghuangchu said, she would not believe it. Her mother and father must be extremely worried and would send people to look for her everywhere.
She couldn't sleep here any longer, so Jiaoran struggled to get off the jade bed.
She was in poor health and collapsed to the ground as soon as she got out of bed, but she refused to stay there and wait to die. She forced herself to stand up and looked around.
Jiaoran looked up and saw the faint light again. It didn't seem to be in the sky, but seemed not far away.
She walked towards the light, step by step, with difficulty.
But it was too dark here. She had just taken a few steps when her forehead suddenly hit something hard, which made her eyes dizzy. She reached out and touched it, and it was cold and hard. It was a wall.
She was running around like a headless chicken.
She continued to walk towards the light, but her feet suddenly slipped and her knees hit the stone. She lay on the ground and felt forward with courage, and finally found layers of stone steps.
Jiaoran stretched out his hands, groped left and right, up and down, and climbed up the stone steps under his feet.
The sides of the stone wall were very damp, and her palms were covered with wet moss.
When she was almost at the light, Jiaoran breathed a sigh of relief. There must be a door to exit, otherwise how could she have gotten in?
Just as she stood firm, a stone suddenly hit her knee. She staggered and fell forward again.
Her hands scraped against the stone ground, getting their skin scraped off. "Who is it?" she wanted to ask, but she could only make a strange sound.
Jiaoran was afraid that there might be some mechanism here, so he slowly squatted down and moved forward to avoid bumping into anything again.
She groped her way forward and finally climbed all the steps.
There was a high platform on the stone steps. Under the starlight, a white-haired old man was meditating peacefully on a cushion. Jiaoran didn't dare to approach, as he didn't know who he was.
He heard her footsteps and slowly opened his eyes.
She didn't dare to move forward, so he moved his finger to call her forward.
Jiaoran suspected that she was dead, otherwise how could she see an old man with gray hair and no wrinkles on his face, like a young man who had just come of age. Only when she walked up to him could she see his appearance clearly.
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