Wei Shuwan raised an eyebrow slightly, her eyes sparkling, clearly asking him: How are you?!
Li Qingchen initially gritted his teeth, but eventually couldn't hold back any longer, spitting out a mouthful of blood and collapsing in front of Wei Shuwan...
This time, it was Yan Sandao's turn to be dumbfounded. He had feigned an attack on the young lady to lure the lord to her rescue, hoping to make her remember the lord's kindness. Although he was strong, he was not agile, and the lord could easily pick up the young lady and avoid his palm strike.
But he didn't expect that his lord would rush directly in front of the young lady and forcefully take the blow.
He also failed to control his strength in time, and this palm strike used seventy or eighty percent of his internal energy!
Seeing that Li Qingchen had fainted, the bandits who had been beaten to a pulp by him earlier became happy and made a move to finish him off.
Yan Sandao immediately shouted, "Who dares!"
The bandits were stunned by the shout. They looked at their leader with confusion and a bit of grievance. Yan Sandao swallowed hard and explained, "This man can fight against many with few men. I respect him as a hero. No one is allowed to make things difficult for him!"
The gang leader was known for his strong sense of brotherhood and loyalty, a fact well understood by his men. Therefore, they weren't surprised by his words and nodded in agreement. At this moment, one of them asked, "Then, boss, shouldn't we tie him up first? Otherwise, he'll be difficult to deal with when he wakes up!"
"Of course, tie him up and lock him up here! I'm in a good mood tonight, let's all go back and drink together!" Yan Sandao ordered his men to tie up Li Qingchen, and then sent everyone away.
I also gave two extra jars of wine to the brothers guarding the village tonight, so that it would be easier for the lord to rescue the beauty and escape later.
...
After everyone left, only Li Qingchen and Wei Shuwan remained in the dark, simple hut, with Li Qingchen still unconscious.
Worried about Li Qingchen's injuries, Wei Shuwan tried to wake him up, so she struggled to move towards him. Fortunately, the bandits hadn't thrown him too far; they left him on another pile of straw next to her, and she quickly reached his side.
Li Qingchen lay sprawled on the haystack. Wei Shuwan couldn't call out to him, so she could only bang her head against his chest repeatedly. But remembering that Li Qingchen had just vomited blood, she didn't dare to use too much force. In addition, her hands were tied behind her back, making her movements very clumsy. As she buried her head in his chest again and again, she had the illusion of throwing herself into his arms.
After repeating this countless times, Li Qingchen finally coughed, and Wei Shuwan immediately stopped what she was doing and stared at him intently.
Under her anxious gaze, Li Qingchen finally opened his eyes.
She was gagged and unable to speak, and he seemed too injured to speak for the time being. Under the gentle moonlight, their eyes met across the distance, calm yet ambiguous.
After a long while, Wei Shuwan seemed to suddenly come back to her senses, blinked her long eyelashes a few times, and then continued to communicate with him with her eyes: How badly are you hurt?
Li Qingchen seemed to only remember at this moment that he had been struck by Yan Sandao's palm. He replied hoarsely, "I'm fine," while subconsciously covering his chest with his hand, only to find that he had also been tied up by them.
That's true, if we didn't tie him up, this whole thing really wouldn't be able to end.
His fainting spell just now was no charade. Although his martial arts skills were superior to Yan Sandao's, he relied on swordsmanship. If it were just a matter of brute force, Yan Sandao would have a hard time finding an opponent in the entire Da Ye. Therefore, he truly took that palm strike and genuinely fainted.
As for why he would take that blow even though he knew Yan Sandao wouldn't really hurt Wei Shuwan, he couldn't figure it out for a moment.
Seeing the worry and fear in Wei Shuwan's eyes, Li Qingchen swallowed and moistened his throat to make his voice sound more like usual, in order to comfort her: "Don't be afraid. Once I regain some strength, I will take you away from here."
Wei Shuwan's eyes flickered a few more times, but this time Li Qingchen couldn't understand what she was saying. Later, seeing that she was getting a little impatient, Li Qingchen suddenly realized: "You want me to help you remove the handkerchief from your mouth?"
Knowing that her deepest desire had been met, Wei Shuwan nodded vigorously! She had been mute all night and couldn't take it anymore. Even if she couldn't escape tonight, at least let her say something.
“But…” Li Qingchen lowered his eyes and looked at his hands, which were bound.
Unable to articulate her meaning, Wei Shuwan could only laboriously climb onto the haystack. Li Qingchen lay diagonally, and she knelt beside him before slowly bending down.
Just as their faces drew closer, Li Qingchen finally understood what she meant and asked incredulously, "You want me to use my mouth?"
He finally guessed it again, and Wei Shuwan quickly nodded.
They were already trapped in a thief's den, their lives hanging in the balance, so why should they worry about such things? Besides, he was just using his mouth to help her remove the cloth; there was no real physical contact between them!
This was the meaning revealed in Wei Shuwan's shimmering blue eyes, but she didn't know if Li Qingchen could understand it.
However, it seemed that he understood, because Li Qingchen only hesitated for a moment before raising his head and moving closer to her.
The cloth wasn't very big; after it was stuffed into Wei Shuwan's mouth, only the corners were sticking out. Li Qingchen was afraid that he would touch the wrong place if he used too much force, so he was very careful.
He lowered his eyes and stared at Wei Shuwan's mouth, first using his lips to hold one corner of the handkerchief and pulling it out a couple of times. However, the handkerchief was stuffed too tightly, and his lips weren't strong enough to pull it out at all.
Li Qingchen lifted his eyelids and met Wei Shuwan's gaze. Their noses almost touched. This was the first time he had been so close to a woman since leaving his mother's embrace. He instinctively swallowed, intending to ease the awkwardness, but the action unexpectedly caused a misunderstanding, making Wei Shuwan's watery eyes tremble.
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