Chapter 76: Innocent Child
On the thirty-fourth day after returning to Siyu Garden, Mu Jin's injuries seemed to have improved a lot.
But he became more and more sleepy, sometimes for half a day, sometimes for a whole day, usually after he finished drinking the medicine.
He fell asleep quietly. The doctor said that it was because he had consumed too much energy and blood and could not fully recover for a while.
Jiaoran played shuttlecock with Shaofeng, Xiaoju and the others, just like before, but now she knew why Xiaoju was so good at it. She blamed herself for being short-sighted and not realizing that her steps were unique and very different from the jumping of ordinary maids.
Jiaoran asked her, "Sister Xiaoju, do you know where Chai Xiao is now?"
Xiaoju shook her head and took her shuttlecock. "Even if I knew, I couldn't tell you. The Lu family is hunting her down."
"In that case, you and she have the same master, so you can be considered her senior sister.
Xiaoju did not deny it, "I am half her master. Later, my master recognized her."
"Chai Che also learned martial arts from Madam Rou?"
She said yes, "When the Second Young Master was young, he was highly regarded by his master because of his high level of understanding."
As he was speaking, Chai Lie came again. He was just like a fly circling around Si Yuyuan. Jiaoran didn't know his true face before, but after seeing it, he was completely disgusted with him.
"What are you doing here?"
Chai Lie ignored him and went to find Cheng Yuan on his own.
She was about to stop her, but Xiaoju stopped her, "Let him do it."
"But……"
Shao Feng kicked her and said, "Go on. She's not one to take any losses. Last time, she almost poisoned the eldest master to death, but even so, the eldest master didn't really do anything to her. They have always been like this."
Jiao Ran's eyes widened. "When did this happen? How come I don't know about it?"
Shao Feng said, "With you all gone, she's the only one left in Siyu Garden. We obey her orders in everything, and the eldest master is very indulgent towards her."
Sure enough, after a while, Chai Lie came out covered in dust.
As soon as he walked out, he saw Jiaoran and the maids looking at him curiously and a little afraid.
He snorted.
Before leaving, he said to Jiaoran, "I'll pick you up at night."
Jiaoran was stunned for a moment.
"He means... to pick me up?" Jiaoran pointed at himself.
Scratching his forehead, he asked, "Did you say something wrong? Are you coming to pick me up?"
He turned around and replied impatiently, "If you don't go, someone else will come and take you away."
"Why?" Jiaoran didn't understand.
Xiaoju was shocked and went to Qianlin Garden.
It was already dark when we returned to Siyuyuan.
Shao Feng said, "I went to wake the young master, but he fell asleep again as soon as he opened his eyes. Are they going to take Jiaoran away and do something to her?"
Xiao Ju pretended to be calm, "It's okay, the Second Young Master said it's nothing, we just have to wait for her to come back."
It's very strange here. It's not that cold outside, but when we sailed to the middle of the lake, we were already shivering with cold.
Is autumn coming so quickly? She even feels like winter is approaching.
Chai Lie brought her to Qianlin Garden. She faintly heard Xiaoju's voice outside. She wanted to go out and say a few words to her but was stopped by Chai Che.
He said that the time had come and that we couldn't wait any longer.
Jiaoran didn't know what time he was talking about.
It's early autumn, but it's freezing here.
In the middle of the lake, where the moonlight illuminated, there was a spot of light. Chai Che personally rowed a boat to that bright spot. It looked like a firefly floating in the middle of the water, which was very beautiful.
"Why did you bring me here?"
Chache said, "You'll know soon."
She was not too scared because deep down in her heart, she already regarded Chai Che as her senior sister and did not think he would do anything bad to her.
In public, she should still call him brother-in-law.
As Chai Che circled the lake three times, his sword suddenly stabbed towards the light spot, and the calm lake surface was stirred into a whirlpool by a single point.
He grabbed her by the shoulders and jumped from the boat into the whirlpool.
One by one, they walked towards these countless stone gates.
A staircase made of stacked stones.
She was silent, and the further she went in, the quieter she became.
Because she already knew where this place was.
Even if the door she entered was different, she should have recognized it after walking so far inside.
It is the secret passage of the Governor's Mansion.
Three years ago, she entered it, and that was only a small part of the secret passage. She never thought that this secret passage was connected to all directions and connected to the entire Governor's Mansion.
It can also be accessed by water, so the builder must be a skilled craftsman with miraculous skills.
What is at the end of this secret passage? Is it the place where Mu Jin and Fenghuang Chu framed her?
She couldn't figure it out, so she asked Cha Che directly. Cha Che said, "No one knows the end of these mechanisms. Perhaps only the people who designed them know."
"Why build such an underground city in the Governor's Mansion?"
Chai Che said, "Even though our Chai clan was exiled by the royal family, we are now in such a dangerous city. If we don't make plans for our entire family, we will be doomed."
Sure enough, he wanted to take her to the secret room.
The glittering Cainu Pond was different from before. There were two stone platforms rising up. She remembered clearly that there was only one back then.
Jiaoran did not recognize the man sitting in meditation in the room, who was dressed in gorgeous clothes. His hair and beard were white, and he looked as if he had passed away and was motionless.
"Who is he?" Jiaoran didn't recognize him because she had never seen the governor like this before.
The handsome middle-aged man she met, Lord Chai, who had both military skills and a certain elegance and refinement, could never be such an old monster.
Few people have seen the Governor in this state.
Of course, many of the people who saw it died, and the remaining ones can be counted on five fingers.
Hearing Jiaoran's voice, he raised his old face and looked at her.
Only then did Jiaoran recognize that it was him.
This time she didn't want to run away immediately.
Because she suddenly had a terrible guess.
Three years ago, Mu Jin tricked her into this place and let her bleed. Three years later, Chai Che brought her to this place again.
Even if she was slow-witted, she could still guess that it was related to her blood.
She did not hold a sword in her hand today, but came with bare hands.
The governor raised his hand with difficulty and called Chai Che. He waved very slowly and, of course, spoke slowly as well.
He looked like an old man who was almost a hundred years old.
"Why... did you bring... her here? Where's Mu... Mu?"
As he spoke, saliva from his mouth dripped down his clothes onto the stone platform.
Jiaoran heard it clearly. He was asking Mu Jin. Even though he spoke so vaguely, she heard it clearly.
Her eyes, reflected in the mercury pool, were dark and shiny, so bright that Chai Che dared not look directly at her. "You were originally going to bring Mu Jin with you?"
Jiaoran raised his head and saw the stone box at a glance. It had clearly been taken away by the phoenix chick, but now the stone box had been replaced with a new one, and he could also see the colorful gems shining on it.
It can be seen that the stone box they took away was a replaceable machine and was not an important thing at all.
It was late at night, but there were bright lights hanging everywhere in the secret room, and Jiaoran could see every expression on Chai Che's face.
He couldn't bear it, he felt guilty, and hesitant.
A cold wind blew into the secret room, and no one knew where it came from or where it was going. It was extremely desolate.
She remembered that after she injured the phoenix chick, he seemed to be seriously injured and turned into an old man in an instant. He could only absorb the essence and blood of young people to recover.
I heard Chai Che say, "If father hadn't been injured, he wouldn't be so anxious to use blood. Once every six months would have been enough."
Jiao Ran's throat tightened, but she still asked him calmly, "So you want to use me to replace Mu Jin?"
He thought she was scared and was ready to catch her if she ran away, but Jiaoran didn't. She stood there, just wanting to get clarification.
"Just this once, I beg you," he said.
"Is once enough?" Jiaoran asked.
He said yes.
Jiao Ran laughed dryly, "I'm afraid it happened more than once."
"I promise you... just this once..."
Jiao Ran was a little angry. She clenched her fists tightly. "I mean, you have been using Mu Jin's blood, not just once, right?!"
Chache's silence said it all.
At that moment, she understood why Mu Jin wanted to escape. To him, the Governor's Mansion might not be a home, but a den of evil.
"Since when?"
It was painful for her to ask this question, and Cha Che's answer was also extremely painful, almost spitting out word by word, "Since he... was born."
She slowly closed her eyes, as if that would stop her from crying for him. "To you Chai family, he's just a bloody man you can bring here when you need blood, right?"
No one questioned him like this, not even Mu Jin. He just accepted his fate and stopped asking why they did this to him.
For a long time, he had considered himself an object. Later, when he desperately tried to escape, Chache finally felt relieved. He was still a human being, knew fear, and wanted freedom, which proved that he still wanted to live.
As she sat there, she looked up at the box above her head. The moment Chai Che opened the mechanism, several thin transparent silk threads flew out from the air and pierced into her body.
It was a pain that seeped into her bones. Countless silk threads pierced into different parts of her body and slowly wrapped her up. She tilted her head and saw through the last gap that her blood was being sent into the body of the old monster by these ghostly tentacles.
He is like a dead tree sprouting new life.
However, the pain did not become numb due to the long time. The longer the time went on, the more frightened she became, because those threads in her body seemed to want to crush her. They seemed to be living threads, exploring the wonders of her blood.
She had never felt such pain before, as if every inch of her skin was cut by thousands of knives, and it was no more painful than this.
Every part of her body hurt in strange and bizarre ways. If she hadn't been brought here, she wouldn't have known that such torture existed. One could hear one's own blood flowing out of the body, and one's heat slowly dissipated.
Before she was about to pass out, she vaguely saw Mu Jin's smile. His smile was like... it was like she was back in the Huiying Inn when she was a child. In order to save money on oil lamps, there was only one lamp on in the small room in the dark. She lay on the table, watching the lamp swaying in the wind, watching her mother sharpening a dagger under the lamp, and watching her father making the quilt.
After it was over, she was like a fallen flower after a storm swept through the tree. Chai Che stretched out his hand gently, hugged her waist and carried her away.
When she woke up, she saw her senior sister sitting beside the bed. Her senior sister's face was also pale, just like her own face in the mirror in the room.
Two extremely pale faces.
A smile flashed in Jiaoran's eyes, "Senior Sister, why are you here?"
She forgot that her senior sister was already the owner of this small building, and she was also the owner of Qianlin Garden because she was Chai Che's wife.
She fed her donkey-hide gelatin water, one spoonful at a time, just like when she was a child. Jiaoran looked at her, smiled foolishly and said that she would go back soon.
She slowly fed her the soup in the bowl, then put away her things and looked at Jiaoran.
After a long time, she suddenly burst into tears, covering her face, unable to stop, "It's my fault, Senior Sister."
Jiaoran felt that she seemed to know where Chai Che took her. That was terrible. She didn't want to put her senior sister in such a difficult position.
When Cha Che heard her crying, he suddenly pushed the door open, but when he came in, he couldn't say a word. He could only lower his eyes and look at the ground.
It took him a while to think of his words. He said, "I am thinking about the overall situation. Mu Jin lost too much blood last time. Letting him go now would be like asking him to die. I am thinking about everyone else. This is the best way."
"Would you be willing to let your own sister go?" Zhuxing asked him.
He didn't dare to look into his wife's eyes and said slowly, "If you want me to go, I'm willing to go. Do you think I don't dare?"
They argued until Jiaoran felt dizzy. She waved her hands, got out of bed, dressed, and said, "I want to get back to Siyu Garden before he wakes up."
Chache said okay, "You can go back."
"He doesn't know anything, does he?"
Chache nodded. "I had someone add some sleeping herbs to his medicine. He's been feeling sleepy these days."
"Then why didn't you do this some time ago?" Jiaoran was puzzled.
He shook his head slowly. "No one expected that after Mu Jin was injured, my father would also be seriously injured like this. No one has been able to hurt him like this in many years, so he is in urgent need of blood and essence."
Jiaoran said, "Taking yin to replenish yang and sucking essence and blood are evil ways and weird methods. You shouldn't help the evil." Jiaoran said it sincerely, and these were her heartfelt words.
If he couldn't intervene in this matter when he was a child, now that he is no longer a child, he will still use such a horrific method to prolong his father's life and heal his injuries.
These words made Chai Che feel unpleasant. His face turned pale. He, who claimed to be just and fair, could not say a word in defense.
Jiaoran walked out slowly, leaving them all behind. She just wanted to go back, back to him.
She was in so much pain and so tired that she took one foot forward and followed with the other, walking very slowly.
When she returned to Siyu Garden, he was still in a coma and seemed to be struggling. Jiaoran walked into the room. He struggled violently, trying to wake up from his dream.
Seeing this, Jiaoran sat down beside the bed and spoke to him. Her voice was low but soft. She was right next to his ear, "Go to sleep. I'm here."
When he heard these words, he slowly gave up struggling and fell asleep again.
Jiao Ran whispered, "From now on... I will never leave you again."
She pressed her cold face against his jade-like cheek, touching her skin to his, "You're so warm."
As soon as she said this, she vaguely remembered that three years ago, on the way back from painting when she had gone to pick him up, she had rubbed his face with her palms to warm it up.
He whispered, "You're so warm."
It’s a pity that she didn’t take it seriously at the time.
It’s so cold and so painful.
If it were her, she would definitely try her best to escape.
This is not a warm home, but a cold cage.
He was a prisoner, an innocent prisoner who was tortured.
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