Chapter 40: 40

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Shao Min brought people to search for the assassins, and I followed a servant to see Shao Qing in the rear court.

It seems like Shao Qing doesn’t ordinarily stay with his wife, instead staying in the study’s side room from last time. He still has no heirs, no accepted concubines, and – apart from Zhang Qinglian – no sex scandals. He’s practically abstinent.

His room is currently brightly light, servants and maids running in and out with with medicines and water. I recognize the pretty young maid who had delivered the tea from the time before, reckoning that she’s a personal servant girl. “Has a doctor come?” I ask.

The young maid hastily gave me a respectful greeting and said, “Answering Sir Zhang, the doctor from Second Young Master’s army has already come. Eldest Young Master called for someone to ask for Imperial Doctor Lin, but Second Young Master didn’t allow him to.”

I nodded, lifting open the curtain and heading inside. A fifty-year-old doctor is just washing his hands, seeming to have already finished treating the wound. Shao Qing is lying on the bed, eyes closed, face all the more a ghastly white. There’s a basin of bloody water on the ground, along with some cut-off pieces of bloodied clothing. I promptly lower my eyes. Fortunately, my dizziness at the sight of blood isn’t too bad.

The doctor formally greeted me, saying “Sir Zhang, General Shao is out of danger. Though his external injury is somewhat heavy, it will close up in a fortnight, there’s no need to worry. It’s just that he has still has a moderately persistent impairment with his internal organs, so he must be properly taken care of.”

I was inwardly surprised. Internal injuries? Were they from Jinzi?

On the surface, I remain calm and collected, nodding. “Thank you immensely for your trouble.”

The doctor spoke again, “He was fed a bit of mafeisan when the wound was being treated, and will wake up in a while.”

My word, the original mafeisan wasn’t lost to time here. That old fellow Hua Tao must be smiling in his grave.

“I will stay here to care for him. Please go inform them on how to make his prescription, Doctor,” I say.

The doctor went with the attending maid to decoct the medicine, leaving Shao Qing and I alone in the room. His breaths as he slept soundly are shallow and hurried, really unlike someone who’s practiced martial arts, so unlike the long and subtle breaths Jinzi usually has. His internal injuries don’t seem to be light.

I softly walk to the side of the bed. Looking at his face, an odd thought floats up from within my mind: would I not be able to kill him right now, then seriously injure myself, claiming that the assassin had double-checked?

I quickly veto this idea. Even if I could pull off that difficult operation, the social and political unrest caused by his death, and the ebb and flow of the power ratio, is an aftermath I’m currently unable to endure.

But for that same reason, wouldn’t Shao Qing also not be able to break it off easily with me?

Thinking of this, my heart settles some.

Shao Qing tossed around a bit, then suddenly whispered lightly in his sleep, “Qinglian.”

I stare blankly.

Honestly speaking, male and female protagonists who call out a name as they dream for their lover to vaguely overhear are the kind I hate the most. At that point the lover will discover their true heart, reach some kind of epiphany, and be deeply moved, and the burned bridge between them will find a way to rebuild through the ‘power of love’. There’s too many kinds of dreams someone can have, so who’s to say that dream isn’t actually about borrowing money from you? Their voice is soft and full of emotions on a regular basis, too.

Even so, at this moment I almost didn’t have a doubt in my mind really did love Zhang Qinglian before. That hushed voice appeared to have all sorts of sourness, despair, and regret, as if he’s heartbroken and given up hope.

My heart gently twists up in pain.

Shao Qing roused earlier than was expected. His willpower’s quite strong, it seems. He groans lightly, and I immediately raise my head to look at him and say, “Is the pain too much? Do you want some water?”

He shook his head slightly, giving me a faint smile. “Have you been accompanying me long?”

His wound is below his shoulder, just a cun off from piercing his heart. Any movements below his neck will pull at it and cause severe pain.

I also shook my head, giving him a sweet smile. “No, not for too long.”

Shao Qing gazed at me cautiously. His gaze did not weaken due to the pain, and he even looked a bit upset.

He ultimately lowered his eyes, sighing. “I was too impulsive the other day and hurt you. I’m sorry,” he whispered.

My face heat up. “Say no more of the past.”

He smiled, closing his eyes after strenuously keeping them open. I’m silent for a time, then decide to cut to the chase, opening my mouth to say, “Did Jinzi severely wound you that day? Did he cause your internal injuries?”

Shao Qing opened his eyes, smiling again. “He… broke in at an awkward time, and seeing that you had passed out, he anxiously struck me with a palm, only I think he still remembered our old feelings, using only seven parts of his power, yet I still slashed at him…”

Him saying such a long string of words is inevitably takes some strenuous effort and is very stop-and-go, yet his energy was strangely good.

Could he be regaining his senses as he goes towards the light?

Nah, nah. Shao Qing wouldn’t die so easy.

“However… this little Junior Brother of mine’s gift for learning martial arts is truly astonishing, I was far beneath him back in the day, and I believed in these two years that his… skill would definitely regress by a lot, and I’d be able to compare to him… I didn’t expect that it would be even more difficult to reach his height…”

I cheerily tried to recompense him. “Jinzi can take one to ten enemies, Minzhi can take a thousand to ten thousand enemies. You both can’t be spoken of in the same breath.”

Shao Qing looked at me, suddenly laughed, aggravated his wound, then frowned in pain, his face a few shades whiter. He smiled again and gasped out, “You really do want to protect him. You don’t even hesitate to pour me some pacifying soup on his behalf.”

I’m a bit worried. “What I’d said is the truth.”

Shao Qing stopped smiling, stared at me, and sighed. “You can put your heart at ease, I won’t bring harm to him. He was still learning the arts from our former teacher when I had finished my apprenticeship. We didn’t have any close feelings as Brothers, but we still had the friendship of sectmates in the end. If it weren’t for… it seems that he won’t kill you now.”

Who’s their Master? I’ll ask Jinzi when I return home.

He continued, “Reach out your hand.” I’m a bit suspicious, but still do what he says. He reaches out his own fingers to find my pulse, and I looked at him in confusion as he shut his eyes in complete focus, afterwards letting go of my hand and saying, “Your Jade Spider Arts… sigh, I’d told you before… not to practice it, and now… don’t touch it again, just don’t practice martial arts. Your internal force is twisted up and stagnant at the moment, Jinzi will try to untangle it for you, and after my injury is healed, I’ll also help you think of a way…”

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“You have internal injuries, you can’t be rash with your true qi,” I say.

Shao Qing faintly smiled again. “Injuries… that’s right, I haven’t had a good rest since I was young, I’m really tired… I want to go back to my ancestral home in Luoyang to recuperate, look at the place I spent my childhood, rest up for a month or two…” He stares into nothingness, his smile containing unspeakable sorrow and exhaustion.

I can only say, “Minzhi, you’re hurt. You have to be careful on the road, boats and horses will wear you out.”

Shao Qing looked back at me. “I’ll take care of myself. As for you, there’s trouble brewing in the court, and you must be even more careful…”

Looks like Shao Qing really isn’t planning on breaking it off with me. Curiosity arose following the calming of my thoughts, so I asked him, “What did Jinzi and you say to each other then?”

Shao Qing laughed. “So he still hasn’t told you? In that case, it wouldn’t be right for me to say it first, you should ask him later…”

My head fills with disbelief upon hearing this. Shao Qing is like this too… what kind of creature is this man?

Shao Qing has said a lot of things with his grave injury, his vitality winding down. I’m also feeling tired, so I get up and say my goodbyes. As I got to the doorway, Shao Qing suddenly called out to me, “Qinglian, do you still have the bloodstone seal I helped you carve for your birthday last year?” His tone is flat, but his eyes contain hidden anticipation and great hope.

My heart went ba-dump. I acted like nothing had happened, turning my head and saying, “Of course I kept it, what’s wrong? I’ll go back and find it.”

Though there wasn’t any huge movement from Shao Qing’s form, he seems to instantly deflate, his face becoming pale as death in the same amount of time. He moves his eyes away, no longer looking at me, and whispers indifferently, “Nevermind. You don’t need to find it. You can go.”

I left with doubts and self-preservation worries within me, returned to my room, and stared: there’s two people in it. One is Hong Feng, and the other is the Assassin Princess.

Hong Feng already had the Princess under control; sealing her acupoints, bandaging her wound, and changing her clothes for her. Now she’s just neatly sitting in a chair as she waits for me.

She’s truly worthy of being called eternally efficient. If this were modern times, she would be even more qualified than me to be a successful businesswoman.

But what kind of scene is this right now? A nighttime interrogation of a prisoner?

I’m tired to death and only want to sleep, but I had to also take a seat.

The Princess is immobile sparks flying from her eyes. “Were I not wounded, you would not be able to block me.”

Hong Feng ignored her, saying to me, “Sir, this woman’s skill seems to be in the Kunlun arts. How should she be taken care of?”

Taken care of? I looked at the Princess with a headache.

A flicker of light red passed the Princess’s face. She turned her head away and didn’t look at me, huffing coldly. “I’ll cut your flesh off too.”

I suddenly discovered that the Princess is the type that look more beautiful the more you look. There’s such a strong vitality in her, her whole person exuding flames as if her soul was born to burn.

She wants to kill Shao Qing, and the cause is reasonable; there’s insurmountable bad blood between them and their countries! How many hardships has she suffered, from fighting to being taken prisoner to taken several thousand li away? How did she endure it all?

I asked softly, “How did you escape?”

The Princess says disdainfully, “That twit Shao Qing threw me in a small pavilion in the back court. He sent two guards to watch me like he wasn’t concerned about it. I escaped when I found the opportunity to.”

Her playing it down like that, I can’t even know the true hair-raising course of events. If she immediately went to assassinate him right after escaping, then had she deemed the environment of the big banquet the best for doing so? If that’s it, then her courage and ability to judge such things makes her quite an unusual woman.

“What do you plan to do in the future?”

The Princess’s beautiful almond eyes glance at me harshly, her voice frosty. “Revenge. Return.”

“Which is more important? Which is first and which is second?”

The Princess looked at me, a sudden look of faint comprehension in her eyes, and even some gratitude. “Returning to my country is most important.”

I smile lightly. “If I take you out with me, do you have a way to escape afterwards?”

“There’s someone here to help me in the capital.”

“Is that so? Alright,” I speak to Hong Feng, “Disguise her as a servant girl. We’re taking her with us when we leave tomorrow.

Hong Feng has been level-headed the whole time, only lowering her head and saying, “Yes, Sir.”

I yawn. “Hong Feng, take her to your room to sleep. I need to go to bed.”

The Princess looked at me with a complicated expression.

Due to Shao Qing’s assassination attempt, the three-day celebration died an early death. After lunch on the second day, everyone went about their way. I got the Princess out of the estate in the confusion, completely undetected.

Before the Princess left, she said to me, “We Huihu repay kindness with kindness, and hatred for hatred. The kindness I owe you today will be repaid tenfold another day.”

Back at the Residence, I recall what Shao Qing had said. I say to Hong Feng, “Help me find the bloodstone seal General Shao sent for my birthday last year.”

Hong Feng was slightly surprised. “You’ve remembered wrong, Sir. General Shao sent a set of bloodstone cups last year.”

My head whips around to stare at her, thoughts in chaos.

Whoops.

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