Perhaps it took time to identify the direction of the whistle, and the reinforcements to protect the emperor did not arrive yet.
Li Wan and the emperor have been pushed to the edge of the cliff.
It was not yet completely dark, and the color of the sky was a deep blue-black.
Without the cover of the jungle, the assassin's figure was finally fully revealed.
The emperor and Qin Lin killed at least a dozen people, but there are still more than a dozen assassins here, and they all have some injuries on their bodies.
Each of them is fearless and more like a death warrior than an assassin, determined to kill their target even at the cost of their life.
Li Wan turned his head to look at the cliff behind him, still feeling dizzy and frightened.
The emperor also turned his head to look at the cliff, then held Li Wan's hand tightly with his bloody hand and asked softly: "Ah Wan, are you afraid?"
Death was imminent, Li Wan stopped pretending, and instead held his hand, saying in a trembling voice: "I was lying to you when I said I wasn't afraid. In fact, I am scared to death."
At this critical moment of life and death, the emperor could actually laugh.
The young man fought a life-and-death battle with the assassin with a sword, but his handsome face stained with blood broke into a wanton smile.
He squeezed her hand.
"Ah Wan, don't be afraid, I'm with you."
He would accompany her to the underworld or the netherworld.
But he still felt a little regretful in his heart. She could have escaped today, but now he wanted her to die with him.
Li Wan's eyes became hot and she almost cried because of the emperor's words.
She held his hand tightly and suddenly said, "You have the aura of a protagonist, you will not die."
But she may not be.
Before the emperor could ask her what she meant by this, an arrow shot out and cut his arm.
The assassins who were fighting with the emperor suddenly retreated. A dozen meters away, several assassins drew their bows and arrows, blocking all their ways to escape.
There is no way around it.
The emperor and Li Wan looked at each other, and at the moment the arrow left the string, they held hands and jumped off the cliff.
Li Wan was afraid of heights, and the long few seconds in the air had already brought her to the brink of death several times. Fortunately, the emperor held her hand tightly, which made her feel a little better.
The huge impact force knocked Li Wan unconscious without him feeling much pain.
It was only a dozen seconds later when she suddenly woke up again, choked on some water and felt severe pain all over her body. She was still holding the emperor's hand tightly and was being pushed downwards by the current. She could not take care of herself and hurried to see the emperor, only to find that he had fainted completely.
She endured the pain and changed her position with difficulty, holding up the emperor's head so that his face was exposed to sleep, and then swam desperately towards the shore. Although the current was not fast, it was not an easy task to swim to the shore with a person.
Just then, Li Wan saw a barefoot child on the shore, staring at them blankly.
Li Wan yelled with all her might: "Help!"
The barefoot child finally reacted, turned his head and shouted, "Sister! Sister, come quickly! There is someone in the river!"
Then, Li Wan saw a little girl in cloth clothes not far away who had dropped a basket and was running towards this side. Li Wan seemed to see hope and swam desperately towards the shore. However, her strength was getting weaker and weaker, her arms were getting heavier and heavier, and she had to swallow several gulps of water.
Seeing the river ahead suddenly narrowing and the water becoming turbulent, Li Wan became anxious and paddled desperately. Then she watched the little girl jump into the water without hesitation and swim towards her. The little girl was about thirteen or fourteen years old, and it was obvious that she was very good at swimming. As she was following the current, she was swimming very quickly.
Li Wan looked at the little girl swimming towards them quickly, her eyes swollen and she almost cried. She clenched her teeth and desperately waved her arms, which had completely lost all feeling.
The little girl swam closer and tried to rescue her.
Li Wan shouted with all his might: "Save him first! He is the emperor!"
The little girl looked at her in shock, then took the emperor from her hands and shouted, "Hold on! I'm here to save you!" Then she swam hard towards the shore with the emperor. She came very fast, but it was not so easy when she went back, swimming against the current and carrying such a big man.
The child waited on the shore, half carrying and half dragging the emperor ashore.
The little girl wanted to go back to save Li Wan immediately, but when she turned around, there was no trace of Li Wan in the water.
…
…
In October, the emperor was assassinated during the autumn hunt and fell off a cliff together with Li Wan, the daughter of the Li family. The emperor was seriously injured but was rescued, but the daughter of the Li family disappeared.
Qin Lin, who was protecting the emperor, was also seriously injured.
Less than two months after the emperor returned to the palace, it was discovered that the masterminds behind the assassination were the Queen Mother and the Li family.
In December, it snowed heavily.
The Empress Dowager of Xiwu Palace, more than 30 members of the Li family, and a group of people involved in the case were all ransacked and beheaded in the heavy snow.
Rivers of blood flowed.
The noble family that had stood firm in Kyoto for three dynasties was destroyed in one day.
The crime of treason shall be punished with the punishment of nine generations of the clan.
However, there were some people in the Li family who were unaware of the situation and were implicated and convicted and sentenced to various places.
All officials praised the emperor's kindness.
At the same time, a branch of the Li family's illegitimate descendants rose rapidly because of this incident.
Li Wan's father was promoted three times in a row.
Li Wan's mother was granted an imperial decree.
He was also rewarded with ten thousand taels of gold and a thousand acres of fertile land.
But no one thought that the Li family didn't deserve this.
The younger brother of the two siblings who rescued the emperor from the water described vividly on the street how Li Wan gave up his own hope of living for the unconscious emperor and tried his best to push the emperor to the shore in the rapids after the sun set that day.
If this happened to any other guard or a noble young man, it would not be surprising.
But it happened that it was Li Wan, a weak woman who was known for her frailty.
It is hard to imagine how she fell from such a high cliff and yet she risked her life to save the emperor.
The brother and sister who saved the emperor were naturally rewarded. Their family was poor, and their father was ill and had no money for treatment, so the brother and sister went out to collect herbs in order to sell them to the pharmacy.
After the emperor returned to the palace, he sent an imperial physician to treat their father, awarded them a house in Kyoto, and gave them and their descendants endless gold and silver, and allowed the brother and sister to study at the Imperial Academy.
Three months had passed since the emperor was assassinated, and there was still no news of Li Wan's whereabouts.
A few days later, the emperor's guards, who were ordered to track down the river, found a boot from the salvage team.
The emperor recognized at a glance that they were the boots that Li Wan wore that day.
On the second day, an official who learned of the incident submitted a memorial to the court in the morning court, requesting that Li Wan be posthumously conferred the title of Princess.
The emperor was furious in the hall. He threw the memorial in the hall and scolded the young official in public.
The emperor had always been upright and calm. This was the first time he had lost his composure in front of all the officials. He stood in front of the high dragon throne, his handsome face gloomy, his eyes filled with anger, and he glanced at the ministers in the hall. His cold voice seemed to be squeezed out from between his teeth: "I want to see him alive or dead!"
All the ministers in the court were silent.
The young official who was scolded was so frightened that he banged his head on the ground.
Unexpectedly, the emperor vomited blood before he could finish his words.
There was sudden chaos in the court.
…
"Ah Wan!"
Suddenly a scream of fear was heard from the inner hall.
Cao Yu was startled, and the slight sleepiness he had just felt disappeared instantly. He immediately rushed into the hall, walked quickly to the bed, opened the bed curtain, and looked at the emperor lying on the bed with a thin and pale face and lifeless eyes. His eyes reddened and he almost cried, but he held back his tears. He stepped forward lightly and spoke softly, "Master, are you having a nightmare again?"
The emperor fell off a cliff seriously injured and had countless scars on his body. It took him a month to recuperate before he could barely get out of bed. During these three months, he had not eaten or slept well, and he was getting thinner and thinner, with a sickly look on his face.
The emperor stared at the ceiling with his phoenix eyes for a long while. Then he looked at Cao Yu blankly and murmured, "Cao Yu, I dreamed of her again."
Cao Yu naturally knew who the "she" the emperor was talking about, and his heart ached immediately: "Master..."
In the past three months, the emperor was often awakened by nightmares, and when he woke up, he looked as if his soul had been taken away.
The emperor was stunned: "Cao Yu, you say... is she really gone? .... The little girl said that she wanted to save Ah Wan first, but it was Ah Wan who asked her to save me first... How could she be so stupid... I often feel that she doesn't love me enough..."
After hearing this, Cao Yu felt a pang of sadness in his heart and his eyes were swollen and sore.
If he had known earlier, he would never have made things difficult for her like that. He would have been respectful to her and respected her as his master.
"Cao Yu." The emperor murmured softly: "I once told Ah Wan that we should be together forever, even if we die, we should be buried together..."
Cao Yu was stunned.
The emperor continued, "She joked that if she died before me, what would happen to me? I replied that I would not be able to survive. I did not think deeply about it at the time, but now I know that if she really died, I would not be able to survive..."
The emperor's tone when he said these words could even be described as calm.
Cao Yu was suddenly shocked, his heart ached and his eyes were filled with horror.
He suddenly thought of the late emperor.
On the second day after the late queen passed away, the late emperor also coughed up blood.
After that, his health deteriorated day by day. He held on for a few years, but finally passed away with the late queen.
Cao Yu straightened his back suddenly: "Master, Miss Wan is blessed by heaven, she must be fine, such a good person must be blessed by gods and Buddhas. She may have been washed too far by the water, and may have been injured, so it is inconvenient for her to set off, so she can't come back for a while..."
The emperor suddenly grabbed his hand, as if he had grabbed a life-saving straw, and his dull phoenix eyes burst into light, staring at Cao Yu intently: "Really? You think so too, don't you? She fell from such a high place and was fine, and she was able to find someone to save me... She must have drifted too far and was injured. She must have recovered from her injuries before coming back to find me... right?"
Cao Yu felt uncomfortable in his heart and tears welled up in his eyes, but he tried hard to hold them back and continued, "Yes, of course. If Miss Wan comes back one day and sees you like this, how uncomfortable would she be? Can you bear to make Miss Wan uncomfortable?" His voice was trembling.
The emperor slowly loosened his grip on Cao Yu's hand: "It's all right... As long as she comes back, it's all right..."
…
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