Chapter 31 Falling in Love "Feng Tan, come sleep in my arms."...
Faced with such a sharp remark, Feng Tan slowly lay back down on the pile of withered grass.
What was she angry about just now? Xiao Yinshi's thoughts were just like those of most nobles and even commoners in Dahuang. For thousands of years, no one has been able to break this dark balance; those who tried to break it have all died as ashes.
She wasn't thinking of changing anything; she just wanted to rescue her husband.
Feng Tan smiled slightly, picked up a withered grass and slowly wove it in his hand. "I'm not looking for justice. The lessons of the past are right there. Why would I be in such a hurry to die? I just want to get promoted as soon as possible."
A light rain was falling, and mist formed a curtain at the cave entrance. Inside, matches crackled faintly. In the dim and quiet light, Xiao Yinshi remained silent for a while before asking, "What were you angry about just now?"
"You!" Feng Tan was so angry that she felt a lump in her throat. She shook off the dry grass and sat up again, looking directly at Xiao Yinshi and saying, "Are you ever going to stop?"
Xiao Yinshi remained silent for a moment, then said, "I just want to know the reason."
Feng Tan had endured much hardship, yet she was not corrupted or assimilated by the officialdom. Xiao Yinshi, in his youth, had heard an old monk speak of duality: reincarnation and nirvana. In the ever-changing world of officialdom, the vast majority of people follow the same old path from their previous reincarnation, employing their skills and strategies within the political landscape, regardless of whether they have been corrupted or not.
Feng Tan is different. He seems to be undergoing a rebirth in the officialdom. Deep down, he wants to clear the sky and declare war on all injustices, even though he is unwilling to admit it despite his words.
The campfire illuminated the two men's beautifully curved profiles, casting shadows on the cave wall, creating an ambiguous, inviting pose.
Feng Tan looked up and met Xiao Yinshi's scrutinizing gaze, which was also scrutinizing his doubts. Finally, her gaze moved down to Xiao Yinshi's wrist, which was covered by his sleeve. Without any hesitation, she lifted his sleeve to reveal the scar on his wrist.
Feng Tan only noticed it when she accidentally touched his wrist as she dragged him ashore. The scar on his wrist was raised, slightly darker in color, and had been there for many years. It was clearly caused by a sharp blade, and the angle of the cut could only have been made by himself, but it seemed... he had been cut more than once?
Menghe Nabuer had been Feng Tan's bodyguard for many years. He was a skilled physician, and Feng Tan would sometimes learn a little from him when the mood struck. Therefore, it was not difficult to see the cause of the scar.
Xiao Yinshi attempted suicide.
The most powerful minister of the Great Khan, the former commander of the Embroidered Uniform Guard who struck fear into the hearts of all, such a cold-hearted and hard-hearted man actually committed suicide.
So, when it comes to justice, is he asking her or himself?
Feng Tan held Xiao Yinshi's scar as if holding his shameful and unspeakable past. "What answer does the master want from me? Why don't you tell me yourself?"
Xiao Yinshi stared intently at Feng Tan, letting her hold his wrist, and said with a slight movement of his thin lips, "I don't know."
Feng Tan tightened her grip on him. As she drew closer to Xiao Yin, the pleasant, cool woody scent wafted into her nostrils. "Xiao Yin, do you know what you look like right now?"
Xiao Yinshi's lips twitched slightly as he asked, "What does it resemble?"
“A branch of red apricot,” Feng Tan teased with a smile, “The spring colors of the whole garden cannot be contained, a branch of red apricot extends over the wall. The old conventions and conventions oppress you, you do not want to break free of the shackles, but you also have a sharp blade in your hand, wanting to cut the chains.”
Xiao Yinshi's eyes remained calm, his body as still as a mountain, as he quietly watched Feng Tan.
Feng Tan continued, “I don’t know what you’re struggling with, but my husband once told me something that I can share with you: ‘When the mind is still, it moves with the heart.’ When the mind is calm, the spirit is at peace, and only then can one see through the essence of things. Don’t be swayed by circumstances, because the great way is simple and natural.”
After saying that, she poked Xiao Yinshi's chest and said, "Your heart is in a lot of turmoil!"
This was another case of using someone else's own methods against them. Back then, Xiao Yinshi sarcastically remarked to Feng Tan, "Your heart is quite the player," and Feng Tan seized the opportunity to retaliate, her eyes crinkling with laughter.
Rain and mist lingered at the cave entrance, and fine, dense water vapor rose around the campfire. Xiao Yinshi looked at Feng Tan through this mist, and the karmic entanglements of nine lifetimes came crashing down on him, causing his heart to ache.
Lost in his memories, Xiao Yinshi's demeanor became even more imposing. Feng Tan wisely released his wrist and lay down on the pile of dry grass for the third time. "I'm not a man of great ambition or seeking justice. I just sometimes feel the need to help those in need. I just want to finish this mission as soon as possible and return to the capital to continue my promotion."
As the boy's fingers left his wrist, the brief warmth vanished. Xiao Yinshi looked thoughtfully at Feng Tan's cheeks, which were slightly red from the campfire, and thought he resembled a pot of intoxicated rose wine.
Xiao Yinshi's eyes were filled with deep meaning. He rubbed the thumb ring on his hand to suppress the surge of emotion and asked, "What rank do you want to be promoted to in the end?"
Feng Tan closed her eyes, feeling a bit sleepy. "Of course, the bigger the better."
Xiao Yinshi chuckled and said, "This nobody has quite the ambition."
“A pawn crossing the river becomes a chariot,” Feng Tan’s voice became drowsy, clearly exhausted. “And how do you know I don’t have the talent of a general?”
Beneath the surface of the game, undercurrents surged, and the greatest variable lay beside Xiao Yinshi. Amidst the rising tide and mist, he pondered: such a person, if kept by one's side, is both a sharp sword wielding power and a deadly blade that could strike back at any moment.
He lowered his head and gazed at Feng Tan's peaceful sleeping face. With a flick of his sleeve, his finger was now an inch away from Feng Tan.
Feng Tan sensed the man's approach and said with her eyes half-closed, "Xiao Yinshi, to you, I am now a second-rank expert!"
Xiao Yin leaned down, seemingly pressing half of his body against Feng Tan. As their breaths mingled, his fingers touched Feng Tan's delicate neck.
The glistening drop of water that had risen from the tide clung to the boy's neck; he had wanted to wipe it away for a long time.
*
The next day, the rain continued on the island. After resting overnight, Feng Tan was in much better spirits and began preparing tools to make a small boat early in the morning.
The distance to Mermaid Island is unknown. It was only by chance that she was able to swim here with Xiao Yinshi. Therefore, they would need a bamboo raft to leave this place.
Yoshino Iebo's men will not give up looking for them. Xiao Yinshi's internal energy is exhausted, and she has even lost a lot of it. She can hardly stand up and cannot be relied on. She must act quickly.
Feng Tan had never eaten pork, but she had seen pigs run. She considered herself to be quite capable with her hands. She used the dagger she carried with her to split the bamboo cleanly and efficiently. In no time, she had divided the tree trunk into flat pieces of equal length.
The bamboo stalks were scattered together. Feng Tan wiped the rain off his face, found some sisal to make hemp rope, and tied the bamboo stalks together tightly. A simple bamboo raft was completed.
Just then, Feng Tan heard a commotion coming from a distant cave.
Feng Tan felt a chill run down her spine. How could her luck be so bad! Just as she had finished making her bamboo raft and was about to flee, they caught up with her!
Feng Tan leaped into the air and rushed to the source of the sound at top speed. He saw that more than a dozen Japanese pirates had surrounded the cave. Xiao Yinshi was supporting himself on the ground with one palm, his face pale and blood gushing from the corner of his mouth.
The Japanese pirates had witnessed his strength and were initially wary of him. However, after discovering that his inner strength had been depleted, they felt safe enough to fight him.
Xiao Yinshi had lost his internal energy and didn't have much strength left, so he quickly fell into a disadvantageous position.
The leader of this group of Japanese pirates was a burly man with a full beard. He grinned maliciously at Xiao Yinshi and said, "Where's your companion? Speak up about your companion, and I'll give you a dignified death, huh?"
Xiao Yinshi slowly stood up from the ground, lifted his eyelids to look at him, his voice devoid of emotion, "He abandoned me and ran away. If you're fast enough, you might be able to catch up with him."
"Bullshit!" the Japanese pirate leader roared. "Stop wasting time talking to him, take his head!"
Despite having no internal energy left, Xiao Yinshi remained unmoved in the arena.
Feng Tan hesitated; she knew she couldn't defeat these dozen or so people with her skills.
But... Feng Tan gritted her teeth, her figure darting like an eagle to Xiao Yinshi's side, hugging him and swinging her sword to block the downward slashing blade.
The youthful fragrance filled his heart. Xiao Yinshi's eyes were deep and knowing. He watched as the knife that was about to slash down at the door was blocked by Feng Tan with a dagger. The bulging veins on his wrist seemed to meander through every nerve in his body, stirring his heart, which had been decaying for many years, to throb.
It never jumped when faced with a deadly situation over the years, but today it's been jumping around quite a bit.
Xiao Yinshi was protected behind Feng Tan, his smile so unrestrained it was almost demonic. Feng Tan turned around and looked at him, then cursed, "Xiao Yinshi, are you sick in the head?!"
"She's probably a little sick." Xiao Yinshi looked at Feng Tan's face, which was splattered with blood, and smiled.
Feng Tan glanced at him, then circled Xiao Yinshi and flew away from the center of the attack. She then heard the man say in her ear, "Feng Tan, you can't beat them, but with your lightness skill, it won't be difficult for you to leave on your own."
Feng Tan said fiercely, "Shut up!"
Human strength is limited, and Feng Tan could not possibly carry him all the way to escape. If they dragged it out any longer, they would both die. Xiao Yinshi was certain of this.
But it doesn't matter if Feng Tan runs away; he won't die here, and this won't be the end of his life.
Feng Tan stopped the rushing pace he was taking, looked at the hordes of Japanese pirates surging forward again, and glanced at Xiao Yinshi, cursing himself inwardly that his path to promotion was truly fraught with peril.
She stood in front of Xiao Yinshi, in a protective posture behind him, just as Xiao Yinshi had protected all the soldiers as they left the previous night, with unwavering determination.
The boy's long hair, ruffled by the wind, struck Xiao Yinshi's chest, like the sun piercing a solid crack, instantly causing blood to flow and wind to rage.
He heard the boy's slightly hoarse voice in front of him, filled with a sense of courage and arrogance, "Hey, I'd like to make a deal with you. I'm not a person who wants to commit murder, so just pretend you didn't see us!"
It wasn't that she didn't want to commit murder; Feng Tan had never been that kind. These Japanese pirates were committing all sorts of atrocities on the border, and she wished she could kill them as soon as possible. However, she had a suspicious chief minister behind her, and there were some secrets she didn't want him to know.
"Tch! What are you pretending to be so powerful for!" The Japanese pirate leader scoffed coldly, saying disdainfully, "Go see the King of Hell!"
After saying this, he led his men straight in.
Feng Tan paused for a moment, then moved her fingers and took out the sniper rifle that her master had given her from the subsystem.
The boy carried a sniper rifle, pulled the bolt, chambered a bullet, squinted at the sniper scope, and pulled the trigger to fire the bullet, appearing extremely skilled.
"Bang bang bang..." Several gunshots startled the birds circling overhead, and they fled in flocks from this hellish place.
The smell of gunpowder permeated the surroundings. Feng Tan's long, dark hair was whipped back and lifted by the force of the blow. Her marksmanship was exceptionally accurate, and her shooting movements were heroic and valiant. She killed more than a dozen Japanese pirates with a single shot, leaving no survivors.
Blood stained the green grass. Feng Tan put down his sniper rifle and gasped for breath.
Her fingers were still trembling as she fired her first shot.
Xiao Yinshi grasped her still trembling fingers, slowly encircling them in his palm, and gently patted her back.
This is a comforting gesture.
Rainwater rolled down her cheeks. Feng Tan raised her eyes, her fingers tightening around the sniper rifle. She looked at Xiao Yinshi's handsome face, smiled, and said, "This is the first time I've used it in combat. I haven't let her down after training me."
Xiao Yinshi knew that the boy was shrouded in mystery, and he knew that if he asked, Feng Tan would only try to trick him in different ways, so he didn't ask where the gun came from, and only replied with a faint "hmm".
Xiao Yinshi stepped forward, slowly took out a tinderbox from his sleeve, and said, "They need to die a different way."
The existence of the sniper rifle must not be known to a third person. Xiao Yinshi threw a tinderbox onto the corpse. "We have to get out of here quickly. Let's go."
The fire behind them grew larger, gradually melting everything that was happening there.
After the battle, Xiao Yinshi's face was noticeably paler, and a trace of blood trickled from the corner of his lips. Feng Tan helped him onto the bamboo raft and asked with concern, "How are you? Should we go back and rejoin the troops?"
“We can’t go back,” Xiao Yinshi closed his eyes and regulated his breathing. He was clearly at his limit, and any further use of his internal energy would cause his meridians to collapse. “The person who orchestrated this has a deep-rooted influence in the Linzhang sea area. This couldn’t have been accomplished overnight; he must have been planning for years. If we return to the sea area now, we will be intercepted by him again. Your rudimentary skills won’t be enough to deal with him, even if you have that… weapon from earlier. For now, our only option is to find the hiding place of the stolen silver from the national treasury in the Linzhang sea area and try to contact the army.”
After listening, Feng Tan asked, "How does Your Excellency plan to contact Zhu Qi?"
Xiao Yinshi said, "A signal flare would suffice under normal circumstances, but it's not suitable for this situation."
Using a signal flare now would be blatantly exposing our position to the Japanese pirates. After a moment of silence, Feng Tan took out a whistle from his pocket and blew it.
She looked up at the azure sky until a dark figure appeared in her field of vision, and called out loudly, "Qing Cang!"
Upon hearing the sound, the gyrfalcon swooped down and landed in front of Feng Tan, its sharp eagle eyes fixed on him.
Feng Tan stroked its head, tore off a piece of cloth from its body, and asked Xiao Yinshi, "My lord, where are we going now?"
Xiao Yinshi took out a map made of human skin and pointed out the location of Mermaid Island for Feng Tan to see.
Feng Tan understood, forcefully tore off a piece of clothing, touched Xiao Yinshi's lips with his index finger, and smiled as he said to Xiao Yinshi, "My lord, can I borrow some blood?"
Xiao Yinshi lowered his gaze, and in his line of sight, the boy's warm fingertips touched his chin, and after getting a little blood on them, he wrote a secret code on a piece of clothing.
Feng Tan tied the pieces of clothing to the gyratory claws of the gyratory, then patted its head and said, "Go, go find Menghenabul!"
After receiving the mission signal, the gyrfalcon charged up and took off, the wind whipping around its wings leaving Feng Tan with a mouthful of dust.
Feng Tan washed her face with seawater and turned around to meet Xiao Yinshi's probing gaze.
She smiled wryly and said, "I have very few interests, the only one I like is taming animals."
This gyrfalcon was trained by Feng Tan under the tutelage of Menghe Nabul. Back then, she competed with an eagle in patience, going seven days and seven nights without sleeping. Compared to this gyrfalcon, perhaps because she had taken it in as a cub, the white tiger she had raised in her youth was more affectionate.
Xiao Yinshi said, "That's quite a rare hobby."
Feng Tan didn't want him to know too much about her, so she said, "Please adjust your breathing, sir. Without internal energy, we'll easily fall into a lower level."
"It will take at least a month to recover your internal strength." Xiao Yinshi closed his eyes again and said, "The only way now is to outsmart them."
Feng Tan said, "Don't you think that after we landed on Evil Spirit Island, it was exactly what the mastermind wanted? He wanted to catch us like turtles in a jar?"
Xiao Yinshi said, "The mantis stalks the cicada, unaware of the oriole behind."
Feng Tan asked, "What do you mean?"
"Please step into the trap." Xiao Yinshi's thin lips curled into a strange arc as he slowly opened his eyes. Feng Tan's puzzled expression was reflected in his dark pupils. He smiled wickedly, "Feng Tan, just as you did to me."
Even though the boy was unintentional, Xiao Yinshi had to admit that in addition to his desire for his body, he now had another strange desire.
This thirst made it increasingly difficult for the ethereal internal energy within his body to coalesce.
There was no more conversation between them. Xiao Yinshi had difficulty even moving, and Feng Tan didn't expect him to help her row the bamboo raft. She rowed the boat by herself for most of the day using her skillful strength. As night fell, the sea breeze became a bit cold, and Feng Tan was exhausted. She simply curled up at the other end of the small bamboo raft, hugging her arms to warm them.
Xiao Yinshi meditated and regulated his breathing at the other end. He only slowly opened his eyes when he felt the bamboo raft slow down on the swaying sea.
As far as the eye could see, the boy had already lay down to rest, but he looked very cold, and he was curled up in a small ball pretending to sleep.
The island where we rested last night had a unique climate, and the two of us burned dry firewood for warmth, so we didn't get too cold. But tonight, drifting on this island, we can't keep warm, and if we stay out all night, we're afraid we won't feel well tomorrow.
Xiao Yinshi's lips curled up slightly. He reached out and poked Feng Tan's arm, his deep voice ringing out, "Feng Tan, come sleep in my arms."
The author's note: It's bad enough that my body has succumbed, but now my heart is about to succumb too.
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