57 Are You Planning for Me
“Where’s Lin Zhuyu?” Su Ying scanned everyone’s faces again to make sure that Lin Zhuyu wasn’t there.
Bai Shuang replied, “She said that her stomach wasn’t feeling well just now, so she went to the back of that rock in front. It seems like she has been gone for some time. Why hasn’t she returned yet?”
Su Ying glanced at the big rock not far away. “I’ll go and take a look.”
Su Ying quickly walked to the big rock and called out, “Lin Zhuyu, are you there?”
There was no response from behind the big rock. Su Ying walked around the stone and went to the other side. Lin Zhuyu was nowhere to be seen.
She took out a flashlight the size of a thumb and shone it on the ground. There was a row of shallow footprints on the ground.
Su Ying followed the footprints and walked towards an earth mound up ahead. Just as she reached the earth mound, she heard muffled cries.
She turned off the flashlight, pulled out the dagger from her body, and quietly approached the source of the sound.
When she walked around to the front of the earth mound, she found Lin Zhuyu lying on the ground with her hands and feet tied.
Su Ying checked the surroundings. After she was sure that there was no danger, she cut the ropes around Lin Zhuyu’s limbs and removed the rag that was gagging her mouth.
“Mistress, Mistress… Boo hoo hoo!” The moment Lin Zhuyu regained her freedom, she threw herself on Su Ying, crying loudly.
Su Ying looked scornfully at Lin Zhuyu, who was trying to cling to the former desperately. “Shut up. Stand up straight and speak.”
When Lin Zhuyu saw Su Ying, it was as if she had found her pillar of support. The terror she felt earlier dissipated a little.
“Just… just now… just now I… I was going to… Someone suddenly rushed out and tied me up here… If Mistress hadn’t found me, I… I would have died.”
“The other party only captured you?”
Lin Zhuyu nodded, choking back her tears. “Yes, yes.”
“Did you see what the other party looked like?”
Lin Zhuyu shook her head. In the pitch-black darkness, she was so scared that she didn’t think of taking a good look at him. “But he… he doesn’t smell.”
Su Ying raised her eyes. If the guy didn’t smell, it meant that he wasn’t one of the criminals tagging along with her group. These criminals had been walking under the sun for so many days, so it was impossible that their bodies would not smell.
“Go back first.”
“Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.”
When Su Ying returned to their encampment, she saw a man with chains standing up and looking at her not far away. The moment his gaze met her eyes, he made the hand gesture of a knife slicing his neck from behind.
Su Ying’s almond-shaped eyes darkened. She glanced at Lin Zhuyu, who was still in a state of shock. She realized that the other party had captured Lin Zhuyu to warn her! Furthermore, they might have other people following them nearby. There were more enemies than they had imagined.
Su Ying’s eyes narrowed. She didn’t kill that bastard last night because she wanted to let these people know that she wasn’t to be trifled with. Who knew that these bastards would go from bad to worse?
On the other hand, because of Wang Lang’s matter, Jiang Yang wasn’t able to bring the man with the knife scar at the corner of his eye to Xiao Jin.
“Your Highness, I noticed that those people are very protective of that man. He seems to be injured too.”
Xiao Jin knew who had injured the man without even thinking. “Look for another opportunity to do it on the way.”
“Yes, Sir.”
“Leave a message for Lin Kun. Tell him to pay attention to the surroundings and see if anyone is following us.”
“I understand.”
At dawn, the criminals woke up one after another. After having breakfast, the group was ready to set off.
Su Ying didn’t sleep for the entire night. When it was time to set off, she was still thinking about herding the oxen and goats, but Hea Shouyi and the others chased her into the small carriage. Wang Lang and Li Wanniang were lying in the big carriage at present, while Tian Mu carried the child and took care of the patients together with Madam Sun inside the carriage.
Su Ying leaned against the carriage and was almost falling asleep. In her drowsy state, she heard Xiao Jin’s voice. “Su Ying, take off your clothes.”
“Hmm?” Su Ying opened her eyes sleepily. “What did you say?”
Xiao Jin said with a straight face, “I just saw a centipede burrow into your clothes.”
“What?” Su Ying sat up immediately and removed all her clothes rapidly until there was only an unlined garment left.
“Where is it? I don’t see it.”
Xiao Jin reached out and pulled down her unlined garment, revealing her lean and thin shoulders.
Su Ying simply took off her unlined garment, leaving only her undergarments. She checked all over her body and didn’t find any centipedes. She raised her head and looked at Xiao Jin icily. “You lied to me.”
Xiao Jin murmured something with a straight face, but his deep, dark eyes fell on her bare shoulder.
Su Ying glared at him and was about to put on her clothes when he stopped her.
“Xiao Jin, what are you doing?” Su Ying strongly suspected that filthy thoughts were spewing in his mind again.
However, Xiao Jin took out a bottle of medicine that promoted blood circulation and alleviated bruises from a bag nearby and opened it. “You’re covered in bruises. Doesn’t it hurt?”
Su Ying looked at the bruise on her shoulder and said nonchalantly, “This small injury is nothing. It will heal naturally in a few days.”
Nonetheless, Xiao Jin poured the medicine onto his palm to warm it up before applying it to her bruise.
Under his warm palm was the mildly cooling medicine, and the stimulation gave Su Ying goosebumps all over her body.
Xiao Jin’s palm was gently massaging her bruise. For some reason, the area he was massaging gradually heated up. The heat slowly spread throughout her whole body and rushed to her head. Even her heart rate accelerated.
Su Ying frowned. What the hell? Could it be that the medicine that promoted blood circulation could speed up blood circulation in the entire body?
Su Ying was somewhat at a loss to know how to react to this feeling. She snatched the medicine bottle from Xiao Jin’s hand, poured it into her hand, and haphazardly rubbed it on her body. “You’re so slow. It’ll be dark by the time you’re done.”
After haphazardly rubbing all over her body, she grabbed her clothes and put them on. She then found a spot in the carriage that was furthest away from Xiao Jin and leaned against it.
Xiao Jin clasped his fingers slightly. There seemed to be some lingering warmth from her body left on his palm.
“Do you also take off your clothes in front of other men like that?”
Xiao Jin broke the silence in the car again.
Taking off her clothes in front of other men? Su Ying frowned and thought for a while. It seemed that she had never done that before. In the past, even if she was injured, she would go to the operating room in the interspatial store by herself for treatment. She had the robot to help her and didn’t need anyone else. Even if she was totally naked, only the robot would see her.
“No,” she replied decisively.
For some reason, Xiao Jin felt like laughing.
“You didn’t have to say that yesterday. I was negligent in this matter too.”
Su Ying knew that he was talking about Madam Sun. She said indifferently, “This Deputy General Wang is a capable general you trusted previously, right? That means he’s someone you can use. You should keep him.” From Jiang Yang and Xiao Jin’s attitudes, she could tell that they had a friendship with this Deputy General Wang.
Xiao Jin frowned slightly and nodded. “Yes.”
“The northern wilderness is full of unpredictability. One more helper means one less enemy.”
Xiao Jin’s dark eyes looked slightly surprised. “Are you planning for me?”
Su Ying raised her eyebrows, and her chilly almond-shaped eyes carried a trace of fatigue. “Can’t I?”
Xiao Jin felt the joy in his heart expand substantially.
Su Ying looked at his bizarre expression and closed her eyes. From the moment she came to this world and figured out the situation, she had felt responsible for Xiao Jin and the two children. She would find a safe place for them, and she would do her best to plan for their future. After all, she couldn’t stay with them forever. It wasn’t a bad thing to let him have one more person he could trust by his side.
Therefore, when she allowed Madam Sun to vent her anger today, her goal wasn’t to win Madam Sun’s forgiveness but to let Wang Lang live and lend a helping hand to Xiao Jin in the future. This way, the two children would also have an additional layer of safeguard in the future.
On either side of the carriage lay one person each, but in between the swaying of the carriage, totally different thoughts were coursing through the minds of these two people.