Live different but die together
Shangguan Yichen pounced on her, only to feel the edge of her clothes gently slipping through his hands, but he couldn't grab anything...
His heart was instantly drained, empty, without a heartbeat, and without any intuition. All his senses fell off the cliff with her, never to be recovered...
He opened his eyes wide and lay on the edge of the cliff, looking at the direction she fell. For a moment, he couldn't tell what was true and what was false. Was the end of the darkness as deep as a cave really where she went? He still stretched out his arms, maintaining the posture of grabbing her, but she was gone, swallowed by the darkness and disappeared.
The thief who held Zhong Yujing hostage apologized to Yifei while holding his arm and crying in pain, "Young Prince, I didn't do my job well and let that kid fall to his death." He sighed heavily and said hatefully.
When Yifei heard the boy who jumped off the cliff call the person with him "General", he became suspicious. Could it be that the two of them were not the two soldiers who escaped?
Yifei took two steps forward, squinted his eyes to look at Shangguan Yichen's back, and asked suspiciously, "Who are you?"
Shangguan Yichen came back to his senses after hearing this, and was deeply saddened. He barely propped himself up and stood up. He slowly turned around, looked up at Yifei fiercely and said, "Shangguan Yifei, look at who I am!"
Yi Fei slowly walked up to him, took a closer look, and was startled. He trembled twice, staggered back a step, and stretched out a trembling hand, pointing at Shangguan Yi Chen and said, "How could it be you?"
Shangguan Yichen approached him and said angrily, "I still want to ask, why are you here?"
Yifei was panicked and backed away, "I...I..." unable to speak.
The crowd was filled with voices, all asking, "Who is this man?", "Who is he?"
A voice suddenly came from the woods: "He is the general sent by the emperor to lead the army to support Sai, His Royal Highness the Wise King." The owner of the voice slowly walked out of the darkness and approached. His thick eyebrows were murderous, and a red mole was conspicuous at the corner of his right eye. Wang Qiang stood with his hands behind his back, staring at Shangguan Yichen.
The crowd gasped, whispering, "He's the Wise King!" "I heard he's never been defeated." "We almost died under his sword just now. We're so lucky."
At this time, the sky was already slightly bright. Shangguan Yichen stood at the edge of a cliff, a horse beside him, holding a sword in his hand. The sword was slightly cold, but the blade light was sharp. His dark martial arts uniform was soaked with blood, and his iron will was unyielding. "Rebellious traitor! Do you dare to fight again?"
Everyone retreated into the forest in fear.
Suddenly, the sound of horse hooves could be heard from the other side, as an army galloped towards them. As they approached, they could see that they were all dressed in military uniforms, and their faces were full of righteousness. The leading generals saw Shangguan Yichen, dismounted, ran up to him, clasped their fists and saluted, and said, "General!" Seeing the ground covered with corpses, broken swords, and bloodstains, the wounded and remaining generals retreated into the woods to watch. Seeing the blood on Shangguan Yichen's body and face, and the blood-drenched sword in his hand, they suddenly felt that something was wrong. "General, was someone ambushed? I am too late to save you. Please punish me, General!"
Shangguan Yichen shook his head and said nothing more. The soldiers quickly blocked in front of him and formed a battle array. The leading general said to the people in the forest, "Where did these thieves come from? How dare they attack our general Shang Gong? Are they rebelling against the emperor?"
Yifei retreated quickly and was not seen by the soldiers. Wang Qiang and the remaining men from both sides saw that the situation was not good, so they did not dare to move forward and retreated in disgrace.
Seeing the bandits gone, the soldiers laid down their weapons and bowed before Shangguan Yichen. The leading officer said, "Last night, our scouts reported a large number of troops moving out of the Setu camp. I wanted to report this to the general, but we found no one in his tent, nor in the camp. Patrolman Jing and Benlei were also missing. Fearing for something untoward, I led a search, and finally found the general."
Shangguan Yichen lowered his eyes and said, "You are all loyal to your duties and have done meritorious service without any guilt. I left the camp on my own to explore the enemy's strength. The departure of the Setu army camp was also my plan."
The general, relieved, stood up with the other generals and looked around. They saw Ben Lei lying on the ground licking his wounds, but they didn't see Zhong Yujing. So they asked, "Is Inspector Jing with the general? Why is he nowhere to be seen?"
Shangguan Yichen felt a wave of pain in his heart, his eyelashes trembling, and he closed his eyes. The general heard his unsteady breathing, but he tried hard to control it. After a slight pause, he opened his eyes and asked, "If I fall into the cliff behind me, is there any chance of survival?"
The general walked straight to the edge of the cliff and looked down. It was already bright daylight, illuminating the cliff below clearly. A thick fog barrier surrounded the cliff, making it seem as if it were in the clouds. Looking through the thin mist, it was also empty and bottomless. The general pondered, "I'm afraid... even the remains will be hard to find."
Shangguan Yichen's heart also fell off the cliff and shattered heavily. He turned his back to the cliff in silence and no longer made a sound.
The general looked at Shangguan Yichen's trembling back, and suddenly realized something. He asked in astonishment, "Has Jing Xun'an fallen into this abyss?"
The general saw Shangguan Yichen nod silently with difficulty.
The soldiers were suddenly in an uproar. Someone said, "Let's not worry about whether he can survive or not. Let's search the cliff first."
Everyone agreed, "We can't even see the bottom of the cliff clearly, maybe there are other barriers holding us up, so there's still a chance we can survive!"
The leading general also bowed and said, "General, please order us to go down the cliff to search for Jing Xunan. General, we must not miss any chance of survival!"
Shangguan Yichen suddenly opened his eyes and turned around. The soldiers saw that his eyes were bloodshot and he said in a low voice with sobs: "Pass my order, send ten groups of troops to go around to the bottom of the cliff and search separately!"
All the generals prostrated themselves on the ground, "I obey your orders!"
It was a cemetery of dry bones. Looking up, the wilderness was covered with white bones, both human and animal, mixed in. After years of weathering, they were no longer complete and unrecognizable. The pale broken bones were like fangs, scattered everywhere. You had to be extremely careful when walking in it, as you would be stabbed or scratched if you were not careful. There were also newly dead bodies that had fallen from thousands of feet and had already been smashed to pieces. It was hard to tell whether they were human or animal, and they emitted a foul stench of decay.
Around the bottom of the cliff, where bones lay scattered, a dead silence reigned, barren grass and, save for the undulating hills, a lifeless presence as far as the eye could see. The soldier who had led the search for Shangguan Yichen looked up at the clifftop. Just as he had looked down from the summit, the thick fog obscured even the sky, making it seem as if he were in hell. He couldn't help but think that even if he were alive, trapped in such an abyss, he would give up the will to live and allow himself to die. Let alone this distance, like plummeting from the clouds into hell. Being alive at all was truly a miracle... He dared not dwell on it any further and continued searching with the other soldiers.
At noon, it rained heavily and the fire near the ferry was finally put out. Yifei's men did not find any remnants of burnt supplies in the ruins. When his followers came to report, he was neither surprised nor angry. Since the military rations and supplies were not damaged, there was still room for recovery, but he just had to deal with Wang Qiang. What made him most uneasy now was that Shangguan Yichen discovered that he came to Nansai, and as luck would have it, he killed Shangguan Yichen's men. Shangguan Yichen always treated his subordinates as brothers. This time he forced the soldiers to jump off the cliff just to protect Shangguan Yichen's life. Looking at Shangguan Yichen's last expression when he looked at him, it was as if he vowed to tear him to pieces. Yifei took a breath and was anxious. He had not done what his father had asked him to do, and he had caused himself such trouble. If he had known that this trip to Nansai would be so bumpy, he should have listened to Yuanyang and not come.
Thinking of Yuanyang, he felt a sense of melancholy again. He wondered if she was eating well and sleeping soundly in the villa alone in the mansion. After thinking about it, he felt that this was not right and that was not right. Yifei pounded his hands in the tent, paced back and forth, and sighed.
In the evening, the rain stopped. The soldiers waded through the mud and the water soaked with rotten corpses and searched the bottom of the cliff several times. Shangguan Yichen's whole body had been soaked by the rain. His military boots were soaked with water. His feet felt like two pieces of ice, heavy and painful, and numb. There were wounds on his legs and arms, but he could not feel any pain.
A faint green light flickered on the distant mountain. A soldier noticed it and reported: "There are wolves in the mountains!"
The general leading the search hesitated for a moment, exhausted, before finally stepping forward. "General, this place is difficult to navigate, and wolves are swarming in the mountains. If we're trapped here after nightfall, we'll be prey to the wolves..." He pondered for a moment, then said, "Why don't we return to camp and search again tomorrow morning?"
Shangguan Yichen's eyes were dim and expressionless, and he closed his eyes in despair. "Let's go back to the camp. There's no need to look for it anymore."
The general sighed, and all the soldiers looked sad. They quietly packed up their luggage and marched back to the camp.
Night fell. After nightfall, Shangguan Yichen was alone in the tent and changed into neat clothes. Yi Shi had just put a bowl of hot soup on the table when he heard that Zhong Yujing fell off the cliff. He said it was impossible and shouted that he wanted to go to the bottom of the cliff to look for her. He was pressed down by the general leading the search and told that the team had been searching for a whole day and there was no possibility of survival. Yi Shi was so sad that he could not accept it. He pounded the table and said that he would kill the young prince to avenge Zhong Yujing. But Shangguan Yichen sat there silently, not saying a word. In just one day's absence, he seemed to have lost a lot of weight, his eyes were hollow, and there were bruises under his eyes. Yi Shi thought to himself that Shangguan Yichen always valued his subordinates' lives more than his own on the battlefield. This time, Zhong Yujing jumped off the cliff to avoid being a burden to him. Shangguan Yichen must be feeling extremely guilty. Yi Shi choked up and said, "General, don't blame yourself. Although Jing Xunan is..." He hesitated, then said, "Although he is not a military general, he has a great integrity and is resolute. His talent and bravery are not inferior to those of us. I have escorted Jing Xunan all the way here and admire her character. Now she is leaving for the general and for this battle. General, you must not be depressed. Don't let Jing Xunan down. This is the last trust he has placed in you."
Shangguan Yichen's eyelashes trembled, and after a while, he said, "I know what I am doing. You should go back to camp and rest. You are all exhausted today."
Yi Shi and the generals retreated silently. After a while, Yi Shi brought a bowl of soup and carefully placed it on the table in front of Shangguan Yichen, and said softly: "General, drink this soup to warm your body." Seeing that Shangguan Yichen had no reaction, he quietly left the tent again.
The steam from the bowl rose up, lingering in front of him with a fragrant aroma. He recalled the day she first arrived. She stood in front of him with a thin body wearing dirty clothes of a servant. She was obviously in a dishevel, with a face like a little spotted dog, and had no image at all. But when she saw him, her eyes were surprisingly bright.
Later, she changed into the clothes of a soldier and sat across from him, eating with him. He watched her through the steam. She ate like a hungry person, guzzling food like a wolf. She must have never experienced such hardship since she was a child, but she seemed to enjoy it. Everything was new to her. In fact, she was tall and slender, and even in men's clothing, she had a unique charm. If you didn't look closely, you would think she was a handsome young man. But she never made him feel weak. As Yi Shi said, she didn't know how to wield a sword, but she gave people a sense of determination. Although she was thin and gaunt, she always made people rely on her and trust her. He remembered that night, she said that she would advance and retreat with him, and after winning the battle, they would return to Daqi together. He remembered her chasing him out of the tent, looking at him firmly from the horse, and wanting to go with him, even if there were mountains of swords and dangers ahead...
But she was also afraid, timid, terrified of the despair her family would feel after her death, yet she always wanted to give them hope. She told herself that if that day ever came, she would rather her family never know she was gone... But what about her? Wouldn't she be afraid if she were alone? Her fear, worry, timidity, helplessness... How could she resolve it? No, she couldn't be left there alone.
Shangguan Yichen suddenly stood up and rushed out of the tent. Ben Lei was still recovering from his injuries and could not travel. He casually grabbed a horse, jumped on it, gave a spur of the horse, and rushed out of the military camp with the horse into the darkness.
Shangguan Yichen dismounted at the edge of the cliff, tied the horse tightly to a tree trunk in the forest with a rope, and walked towards the edge alone.
He walked to the spot where Zhong Yujing had jumped and stood at the edge of the cliff. It was late at night, and darkness once again swallowed up the entire Nansai. In the distance, the endless mountains, like hands hidden in the depths, beckoned to him again and again. From the moment he watched Zhong Yujing fall over the cliff and failed to catch her, his heart had fallen to the bottom with her, like those unrecognizable corpses and the shimmering bones, long dead. From then on, every breath he took was painful. He thought of his loved ones who had left him, their cold bodies, their closed eyes that could never open to look at him again, all gone from him... On the battlefield, his life hanging by a thread, struggling alone in the tent, he had never felt so lonely, so tormented. Those unfinished ambitions, the trust his father had placed in him, and the ideals he had always wished for, even if they were laid out before him at this moment, meant nothing to him. Without her by his side, nothing meant anything...
Since it is so painful and I want to die, then just let her go.
"We may live in the same bed, but we may die together. I'm here to accompany you." He closed his eyes in despair and walked towards the abyss before him.
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