Chapter 79 My True Heart
Ten days after Yan Lang made the promise.
It was already dusk in the capital of Nan Kingdom.
The huge relief of an awaking lion is gilded like blood, revealing the grandeur and majesty of the Huo family.
In a room in the inner house, above the solemn and clean altar, precious cloud incense slowly burned with light smoke, and gentian flowers bloomed in clusters.
Beside the altar, two wooden couplets inscribed with the following words:
"A three-foot-long sword cannot cut through my true heart."
Amidst the curling candle smoke, a graceful figure was kneeling.
Huo Luyu's cheeks were pale and the traces of tears were hard to dry.
She looked up at the statue of the immortal, reciting the precious edict over and over again, and then prayed:
"I, Huo Luyu, the faithful woman, hereby call upon the Emperor Fuyou, and ask you to bless Yunchen to turn misfortune into good fortune and return safely..."
Xiaoyue'er stood by with a sore back, and felt even more sorry for Huo Luyu's delicate body, which must be even more difficult. She couldn't help but whisper:
"Second Miss, for over three months now, you've come here every day to pray, kneeling for four or five hours at a time. Even the guards' bodies can't stand it... If this continues, I'm afraid you'll collapse before we even find Guard Yun..."
Huo Luyu seemed to have not heard what Xiaoyue'er said at all. He just looked at the statue with great piety and solemnity, and continued:
"As Da wishes, I am willing to serve you for my whole life..."
Just like the past three months, there was no way to persuade Huo Luyu. Xiao Yue sighed helplessly and began to pray in her heart, "Damn Yunchen, stinky Yunchen, please come back soon, otherwise everyone in this mansion will go crazy - bah, bah, bah, you can't say 'death'..."
Xiaoyue'er still doesn't know what happened in the Huo family ancestral hall two years ago when Huo Luyu disappeared.
She only knew that Yun Chen saved Huo Luyu and kept his promise like a gentleman, never saying a word to anyone else.
Xiaoyue didn't believe all the messy gossip from the outside world. She only believed that her own Second Miss was the most foolish woman in the world. From secretly falling in love with him to becoming more and more deeply in love, it was out of control...
Sometimes Xiaoyue really wanted to rush to the group of men in the outer courtyard, grab Yunchen and yell at him:
"You're such a heartless man! Do you know that every time you get hurt, the Second Miss is worried about you! Do you know that every day when you're having fun, the Second Miss stays awake all night thinking about you!"
But Xiaoyue'er couldn't do that. Even though she was a maid and not as strict about gender separation as the young ladies from wealthy families, she couldn't do whatever she wanted.
Huo Luyu's girlish tenderness and complicated feelings kept wandering around in this endless mansion, but never really reached Yun Chen.
Whether it was the purses, handkerchiefs, and blessing characters she had embroidered over and over again, or the arm guards she had sewn for Yun Chen with the skilled needlework she had mastered despite not knowing how to work…they were all hidden in a corner of her boudoir…
Xiaoyue sighed deeply again, tiptoed out of the house, and bumped into Runhe who was coming towards her.
"How come you have time to come here?"
Runhe handed a brocade box to Xiaoyueer, "The princess's mansion has received many more rewards. The young master said that the medicinal herbs should be sent to the old master, and the pearl hairpin should be sent to the second young lady."
Xiaoyue took the brocade box and said weakly:
"In the past few months, the princess has given the mansion several rewards. Can God also give us a reward and return Yun Chen to us..."
Run He's expression changed: "You really are just talking about things that are not related to the topic. Please don't say such things again!"
Xiao Yue'er frowned, "What's the matter? Why can't I tell you? Yun Chen has helped me carry boxes of bedding and delivered my personal belongings. He also helped move the twenty pots of crabapple flowers that the Second Miss transplanted into her yard... I really miss that guy..."
Run He also recalled Yun Chen's good deeds, sighed, and said:
"I wanted to, too. But you and I both wanted to, not to mention the others. Guard Ye Yan, who never cries, cried twice. Let alone Hua Jue, who spent the whole day hugging that Xiao Liu and crying. Guard Bu Yan was even silent, and Xun Jian was just busy doing his job every day, gritting his teeth to get by...
Every time there's a clue, or a gang reports news about Yun Chen, the guards rush to verify it themselves. Over the past three months, I've been through over a hundred false reports. I'm almost exhausted, but the guards have never been careless, and every time they're convinced that Yun Chen is really coming back... Xiaoyue'er, do you know what this means?"
Xiao Yue'er felt sad after hearing this and wiped away her tears. "What does this mean?"
The words were on the tip of Runhe's tongue, but he didn't say them.
He wanted to say: This means that everyone has raised hope a hundred times, and been disappointed a hundred times... a hundred times, putting people's hearts on the millstone...
Xiaoyue didn't pursue Runhe's half-finished question, but asked curiously:
"Everyone is like this, so what about the young master? I heard that the young master is no different from before, still managing affairs in the study every day and feasting with the dignitaries of Kyoto."
"Not caring? If you don't care, will you set Yun Chen's bounty to no upper limit?" Runhe asked back.
Xiao Yue'er said, "Didn't they say it was because Yun Chen had the Huo Gang's account book?"
Runhe was both angry and amused, thinking about how confidential the Huo Gang's account books were, and over the years, there were so many account books that they could fill several trucks. Could it be something that Yunchen could just take away?
That excuse was just a pretext made by Huo Gannian to protect Yun Chen's life and to reasonably explain the "unlimited bounty".
By pretending to have the "account book" on him, any enemy, even the Yu family members, who find Yun Chen, will not easily take his life.
Runhe understood the logic because he was used to seeing Huo Gannian handle things, so it was normal that Xiaoyue didn't understand.
As for what Xiaoyueer said about Huo Gannian looking no different from usual, Runhe really wanted to explain for Huo Gannian, but due to his duty, he couldn't say much, not to mention that he was not sure whether Huo Gannian was worried about Yun Chen.
Huo Gannian was worried, but the more others cried for the missing Yun Chen, the calmer Huo Gannian became. He handled matters as usual, with his expression as cold and calm as usual. There was really no difference from usual, and he rarely even talked about Yun Chen.
But if Huo Gannian wasn't worried...
Runhe clearly remembered that one night, he woke up from a nightmare and wanted to go to the toilet, but found that Huo Gannian, who had originally said that he would just watch the sunset and go back, was sitting alone in the yard until late at night when the moon was bright.
The Hidden Moon Sword lay flat on his legs. He looked down at the Nanzhu on the sword tassel, motionless.
The figure looked extremely lonely, as if the sorrow as vast as the black mountains and the sea of ink was bound up in the thin body, with only a corner of it barely visible at night.
Runhe called out "Young Master". Huo Gannian turned around and saw a pair of eyes that were red from the cold winter wind.
That day, Runhe suddenly discovered that Huo Gannian had become even thinner in the past three months.
Runhe and Xiaoyue sighed at the same time and chatted about other trivial matters, but then they saw a guard with an injured arm running towards them, shouting as he ran:
"There's an assassin! Everyone on alert!!"
The guards on the side were all stunned. Xiaoyue was the first to react and rushed into the house screaming. The guards surrounded Huo Luyu and drew their swords to be on guard.
Run He asked anxiously, "How is the young master doing?!"
The injured guard said "Fighting!" and ran back.
Runhe hurriedly followed and picked up a shovel to protect himself.
After following Huo Gannian for six or seven years, Runhe had countless enemies and was assassinated hundreds of times, but he still couldn't adapt to the fear of "life and death" in front of him.
As a first-class personal servant, he knew that even if he died, he would die while protecting Huo Gannian.
The guard ran so fast that Runhe could not catch up. From a hundred feet away, he could hear the guard fighting with someone else. The sound of the guards fighting with the assassins became clearer and clearer.
Runhe rushed into the melee and looked around in panic. In the chaotic crowd, swords and sabers flashed and blood splattered.
One by one they fell down, and one by one they stood up again.
Runhe saw Xun Jian and Xiao Liu standing back to back, fighting fiercely.
Without saying anything, he swung a circle of silver thread in his hand and cut off a person's head with a flick.
Hua Jue and Ye Yan stayed close to Huo Gannian. Facing the fierce assassins rushing towards them, they were fearless and fought hard.
Seeing that Huo Gannian was fine, Runhe felt relieved. He stopped and was immediately kicked out by an assassin.
The assassin was about to stab Runhe to death with a sword, but was seen by the sharp-eyed Hua Jue.
Hua Jue flew over with a knife, killing the assassin and saving Runhe.
Without his weapon, Hua Jue quickly rolled on the ground to avoid the hacking and rushed out to pick up his weapon.
Taking advantage of this gap, the two assassins exchanged glances, rushed towards Ye Yan's knife tip, and held Ye Yan back at the risk of their lives.
Ye Yan held a knife in one hand, with the blade stuck in the abdomen of an assassin, and with the other hand he was tightly gripping another assassin. He was restrained and unable to move, and watched helplessly as another assassin rushed up and slashed at Huo Gannian's face with a knife.
Just when the blade was only a finger's distance away from Huo Gannian's forehead, in a flash, a small black shadow came flying quickly, and with a "clang", it hit the assassin's knife hard, causing the blade to deflect and miss.
A piece of Shan Yinyue's waist badge fell to the ground, and it was this one that had struck the sword.
The next moment, a handsome figure landed beside Huo Gannian, kicked the assassin away, and pulled out the Hidden Moon Sword from Huo Gannian's leg. His movements were smooth and clean.
He swung the cold blue sword that everyone had seen countless times fiercely!
"Young Master! I'm back!"
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