When Lü-er and Shuang Hong hurried over early in the morning, they were met with an unbelievable sight: their lady was peacefully asleep in Huo Zhan Bai’s arms, wrapped in a blanket! Huo Zhan Bai had his chin resting on the head of the beautiful woman dressed in purple, his arms around her waist, dozing off while leaning against the plum tree. Fallen plum blossoms, as white as snow, covered them both. The snow hawk had already woken up, but unusually, it remained obediently on its perch, watching the two under the tree and cooing softly.
"Oh my goodness, what’s going on?" Lü-er almost dropped her eyes in shock when she saw that the person next to her lady was the man she despised the most. "This—mmph!"
Shuang Hong quickly covered her mouth and pulled her outside.
"I’ve never seen Miss sleep this peacefully before..." Shuang Hong, who had been with Xue Zi Ye the longest, murmured. "No matter how angry she was, she always complained about being cold, getting up in the middle of the night to pace back and forth. Let’s just let her sleep a little longer now."
"But... what about the patient in Autumn Garden?" Lü-er frowned with concern.
That patient had been in a terrible state last night, clutching his head and screaming as if he were going to die at any moment. The maids had rushed over early in the morning to consult with the lady, only to stumble upon this awkward scene.
"Ah?!" Just as the maids were debating whether to enter, a loud exclamation echoed from the courtyard, startling everyone. "What is going on here?!"
"Miss is awake!" Lü-er exclaimed in delight, but soon after, a loud bang followed, and something crashed through the door from the courtyard.
"Huo Zhan Bai! You took advantage of me!"
Still half-asleep, Huo Zhan Bai didn’t have time to react before he clumsily tumbled to the ground, now wide awake from the pain.
"You..." Still groggy from sleep, he couldn’t quite remember what he’d done the night before to make this woman so furious. He instinctively dodged the cups being thrown at him like a rainstorm, and when one finally hit him square on the forehead, he suddenly remembered, shouting, "Stop throwing things! You’re the one who leaned into me! It’s not my fault... yes, you were the one taking advantage of me!"
"Rubbish! You lecher! You’re a scoundrel!" Xue Zi Ye stormed out, pointing angrily at his nose and ordering the maids, "He’s not here to see your precious courtesan! Lock him up! Once the medicine is ready, kick him out of the valley!"
"Yes, Miss!" Lü-er answered gleefully, clearly enjoying herself, oblivious to Shuang Hong’s frown beside her.
Xue Zi Ye, with a cold expression, turned and stormed off without sparing Huo Zhan Bai another glance. "To Autumn Garden!"
It wasn’t until everyone had left that Huo Zhan Bai finally regained his composure. He picked himself up off the ground and gingerly touched his bruised forehead—was this how a healer was supposed to treat a patient? This fierce woman was nothing like the quiet, gentle one from last night who had slept like a peaceful kitten in his arms... Was it all a dream?
But wait! What did she just say? "Courtesan?"
How—how did she know about his connection with Liu Feifei, the renowned courtesan of the Linglong Flower District in Yangzhou?
He suddenly slapped his thigh and jumped up. Oh no, could it be that he had let something slip after drinking too much last night? Dejected, he dropped his head and began furiously hitting himself on the forehead, wishing he could knock a hole into it.
Meanwhile, Xue Zi Ye stormed toward Autumn Garden with her maids in tow, still fuming.
How dare he take advantage of her! She would make sure to teach him a lesson later! As she strode forward, Lü-er hurriedly offered her a green fur-lined cloak. "Miss, you forgot your cloak. It snowed lightly last night—are you cold?"
Cold? She suddenly froze—right, it had snowed. But why had last night’s dream been so warm?
Holding the green cloak, she stood absentmindedly in the herb garden.
* * *
When they arrived at Autumn Garden and opened the door, they were hit with a strong fragrance filling the room.
"You idiots! Are you trying to suffocate the patient?" Xue Zi Ye scolded the night-shift maids as she went around rolling up the curtains and pushing open the windows. "Can’t you do anything right? Use your brains, will you?"
"Don’t..." Suddenly, a low voice came from the darkness. "Don’t open it."
Startled, Xue Zi Ye turned her head and saw a pair of pale blue eyes gleaming from the thick shadows of the bed’s quilts. "Close it... I don’t like the wind or the light. I can’t stand it..."
Her heart trembled slightly, but she said nothing, continuing to roll up the curtains all the way. The reflected snow light shone into the room, dazzling the eyes of the person inside.
"Close it!" The figure buried in the bedding immediately turned inward, shouting angrily.
She waved a hand, signaling the maids to leave, and then sat down beside the bed.
"No wind, no light... if you stay closed up like this, you’ll rot away in the darkness." She smiled and whispered to the pale-faced patient, "You’ll have to get used to it gradually, Ming Jie. You can’t stay in the dark forever."
She reached out to check his pulse, but he slapped her hand away.
"Who are you calling Ming Jie?" He stayed in the darkness, his voice cold. "Why did you save me? What do you want?"
There was no trace of emotion in his eyes, only a chilling indifference and guardedness.
She froze, and after a moment, reached out to check his forehead, murmuring, "You... should have regained some of your memory by now. Why would you still ask such questions? I saved you because we’ve known each other since childhood—you’re my brother."
"Heh." He sneered in the darkness, his eyes faintly glowing with a light green tint. "Brother?"
An elite assassin from the Asura Field of the Palace of Great Light could never have family or friends—if they did, they wouldn’t survive the Three Realms; if they did, they would be ordered to kill them by their instructor.
This woman was lying to him!
All this talk about removing the golden needles and curing his illness—she had to be someone sent from the Central Plains martial sects. Everything he saw in his mind was nothing but illusions created by drugs! She saved him only to use every possible means to extract the Demon Sect's secrets from him.
He had experienced this sort of thing far too many times.
Half a year ago, after successfully assassinating the Lord of Dunhuang City but failing to retreat in time, he was captured by the martial artists of the Central Plains and imprisoned for an entire month before managing to escape. To force the truth out of him, those so-called righteous people used every kind of horrific torture imaginable—one of which involved using drugs to break down his mind.
Even such brutal torture had not made him speak a word, so how could this woman, who clearly didn’t even know how to properly interrogate, succeed?
He sneered in the darkness, his fingers slowly curling into a fist, preparing to strike when the moment was right.
He had to get the Dragon Blood Pearl... he had to!
"Have you not remembered yet? Your name is Ming Jie, you were friends with Xue Huai, and we grew up together in the Mojia village." Xue Zi Ye’s eyes suddenly dimmed as she continued in a soft voice, "You met me when you were six... at that time, you killed someone for the first time—for me. Do you not remember?"
The eyes in the darkness flickered, as if recalling something, and a faint purple hue emerged from them.
His eyes, it seemed, could change color depending on his emotions, subtly drawing people in.
Killing... the first time he killed someone.
He froze, his hand, which had been lifting from under the quilt, now halted. A dull ache throbbed in the back of his head. Suddenly, the vision of blood splashing before his eyes filled his mind, and the swollen faces of two men appeared—two constables in official uniforms. Their eyes were wide open, their faces turning a bluish-purple as they strangled themselves to death, their own hands wrapped around their throats.
On the ground... on the ground lay a pale, frail woman, her body soaked in blood after being violated.
A little girl sat beside her, sobbing as she clung to the woman’s barely clothed body, her eyes pure black and white.
Suddenly, he felt like he couldn’t breathe.
"Do you not remember? Nineteen years ago, my mother and I were being escorted past the Mojia village. We stopped at the relay station in front of the village, where those two beasts in human form tried to violate my mother..." Even while recounting such a story, Xue Zi Ye’s tone remained calm and emotionless. "At that time, you and Xue Huai were playing outside. When you heard my cries for help, you rushed in to stop them, but they beat you mercilessly. It was then that you used your pupil technique to kill for the first time."
"After my mother died, I became an orphan and was taken in by the Mojia village. It was thanks to Xue Huai and you that I survived.
"The three of us became good friends—I’m a year older than you, so I even recognized you as my little brother."
He clutched his head, desperately fighting against the flood of memories her words triggered, his breathing becoming rapid.
It’s fake... it’s all fake! Just as the pupil technique could manipulate the mind, she was trying to control his memories through some method!
"Do you not remember? It was because you killed those two constables that the people in the village discovered your strange gift. They saw you as the reincarnation of the demon-eyed and locked you up." Xue Zi Ye’s voice became distant. "Ming Jie, you were locked away for seven years. Xue Huai and I came to talk to you every day... until that fateful night when the village was destroyed."
The night the village was destroyed... the night the village was destroyed...
His memories surged uncontrollably once again.
Snow was falling outside, and the house was dark and cold. His hands and feet were chained to the wall, and he was curled up in a corner of the darkness.
Someone opened the door to the dark room and spoke to him:
"Do you want to get out?"
That voice kept asking him, laced with temptation and a strange power.
0 Comments