Chapter 65 A Life for a Life
The person behind didn’t make a sound. She just rubbed a little bit like a little rabbit and shrunk in the thick crane robe. Leng Changxi was relieved, and his face even raised a never-before-seen satisfaction.
The air in dawn was a bit thin, and the temperature of Mount Sheshan was even lower. Just as Leng Changxi said, the nearest road back had been destroyed because of a landslide, so they could only choose a bumpy trail.
Leng Changxi brought six people. Two of them were ahead leading the way. Leng Wu and Leng Changxi walked in the middle. Two were walking behind for protection and the remaining two were guarding on both sides. It was a commonly seen formation in the army. It was practical.
Leng Changxi really was a very strict and cautious person.
Some bushes on their way had small thorns. Leng Changxi carefully guarded both sides of Qin Yunuan with his big hands, so as not to let her get scratched. Maner was asleep on Leng Wu’s back. Maner was the one Qin Yunuan worries the most at the moment.
After a while, the view of the dense woods suddenly widened. There was a rugged mountain road a hundred steps away, and two carriages were already waiting at the bottom of the mountain. They could leave the woods in a few more steps, but Leng Changxi suddenly released a hand and pointed forward with five fingers together.
The men under him understood immediately. It was an internal code sign which meant that there might be danger ahead.
Qin Yunuan was lying on Leng Changxi’s back, watching sweat dripping like rain from the junction of Leng Changxi’s black mask and his hair. There was a unique smell of male sweat of Leng Changxi and a nice smell of grass. Vaguely, she seemed to smell danger and hostility.
Suddenly, there was a whizzing arrow along with the crack of an arrow coming off the string.
Leng Changxi turned back and covered Qin Yunuan with his back, then he dragged Qin Yunuan behind a towering old tree with a circumference of three people’ arms. Almost subconsciously, he tightly held Qin Yunuan’s slim shoulder. Qin Yunuan was almost completely in his arms.
The rustling arrows were dense like battle drumbeats, like a sudden tropical rainstorm. The crackling sound was the muffled sound of the arrows nailed into the trees.
In the Qin Family, Qin Yunuan was accustomed to the fighting intrigues of life and death. However, it was the first time she saw a real battlefield. Her heart couldn’t help but trembled, and her fingertips pressed hard into her palms.
Qin Yunuan’s nervous little actions were all clearly seen by Leng Changxi. Of all the women in the world, Qin Yunuan was the first one he saw among the unsophisticated noble ladies who could face the battlefield so calmly.
“Don’t look. Don’t listen, then you won’t be afraid.” Unpretentiously, a pair of big hands gently covered Qin Yunuan’s ears. The heat of the palm rose slightly with moist sweat, and Qin Yunuan felt warm both her ears and her heart.
It was Leng Changxi’s hands, gentle and tender.
This feeling made Qin Yunuan stunned slightly, but soon, the pouring arrows in reality made her willing to accept such a shelter.
The time for such evasion was hard to pass. But suddenly, the sound of the arrows came to an abrupt end, and there was suddenly no sound outside. Such a situation was exactly like the sudden shot of arrow.
Because of Leng Changxi’s timely reminder, there were no casualties in the party. Only Maner’s wound reemerged due to the bumps when Leng Wu flashed to avoid the arrows. Everyone came out from the hiding trunks.
Only now that Qin Yunuan found out that she was hiding in Leng Changxi’s arms in a curled-up posture. She tried to calm herself down, but her face was still involuntarily blushed.
Leng Changxi was quite natural on the other hand. He loosened Qin Yunuan with a kind of expression like holding a small pet in his arms for a while, and even helped Qin Yunuan get up naturally.
Blood had flowed back to Qin Yunuan’s limbs, and she felt that her whole body had warmed up. She politely took a step back, “Now, I could really walk on my own.”
Leng Changxi’s inquiring gaze shot again from the pair of ink-colored pupils hidden behind the mask, almost just for a moment. After confirming that Qin Yunuan’s complexion had been recovered, he lightly said, “Oh!”
“General, there are words outside,” Someone shouted behind the big tree where Qin Yunuan and Leng Changxi were hiding.
Leng Changxi’s eyebrows tightened, and Qin Yunuan followed him quickly.
The thick trunk was now filled with arrows. It was just a mess of arrows at a glance, but as they looked at it again from ten steps away, they could clearly see the hundreds of arrows pieced together into large characters.
— A life for a life
Writing with arrows with such precision and speed was simply breathtaking. Even Leng Wu, who had followed Leng Changxi for many years, couldn’t help but took a deep breath. He knew that even the best archer of the Leng Army couldn’t guarantee a one-time success, but the archer just now did it. He had known that the Prince Anyang, Zhao Huijin, of East Qin had a lot of elite soldiers following him, and he loved to keep assassins around him. Now, even though he was in danger, he still had the power.
Leng Changxi’s other men also couldn’t help but showed the same worries as Leng Wu.
But Leng Changxi didn’t think so. He lifted his chin slightly, as arrogance appeared in the corner of his mouth. His eyes slowly glanced away, as if had greeted the tough opponent. He said, “People won’t bet their lives before they have no other options.”
Zhao Huijin was the only opponent that Leng Changxi had encountered in nineteen years who could fight with him for so many rounds. Zhao Huijin was a capable man who had a lot of tactics and skills, but it was a pity that now he was almost forced into the corner by Leng Changxi.
“Take care of all these arrows and don’t leave any traces,” Leng Changxi ordered lightly.
When he looked back, he saw Qin Yunuan, who had the same calm look. Her white cheeks radiated an indescribable light in the thin and dim morning light, and her hair drifted with the wind along with the particular spring dew which was moist, fresh and bright.
Leng Changxi couldn’t help but thought of the scene that he just hid behind the tree with her.
“Don’t look, don’t listen, then you won’t be afraid.”
When he finished saying this, he thought Qin Yunuan would immediately close her eyes and hide herself like an ostrich. But this young lady just stared back at him stubbornly. The watery eyes seemed to speak which made him feel complicated. He was always the one who protected the others and made others feel at ease, but at that moment, Qin Yunuan’s glance slowed his heartbeat down. The arrows around were like an illusion, only the eyes that were as clear as the pool water were real.
And right now, Qin Yunuan was standing outside with him, looking at the characters “a life for a life”. It seemed that there was a bit more of perseverance in her eyes. Unlike the panic that other women would show, it was all calmness and indifference in her eyes.
He once questioned why Qin Yunuan’s character was so different from what Zizhan described. He once scoffed at Qin Yunuan’s little tricks. He had admired Qin Yunuan’s more decisive strategies. If he doubted his feelings to Qin Yunuan in the past, now he was incomparably certain.
He didn’t like stupid women. He also felt deeply that those vulgar and useless rich young masters were not good enough for her, and she suited him the most. Moreover, he liked her, as simple as that.
Things had been dealt with, and the carriage was near.
Qin Yunuan watched Leng Wu cautiously put Maner on the carriage. And she turned around, took off the crane robe she had been wearing, folded it and handed it to Leng Changxi, “I would have to thank you for saving my life today, General Leng.”
“Don’t thank me,” Leng Changxi smiled unnoticeably , “I know that even if I hadn’t come, you could have survived this.” He never underestimated the young woman’s ability to trick and to survive.
Despite that, Leng Changxi took the crane robe Qin Yunuan handed over seriously.
Seeing the carriage gradually going away, Leng Changxi took his men on the hill and watched the sun gradually climb up from the mountain. The sky in the distance was rendered in red, like the embroidery meticulously done by a bride when she got married.
Seeing Qin Yunuan’s carriage becoming as small as an ant in the distance, Leng Changxi turned to command Leng Wu, “Take three people with you and continue to protect her.” Everyone knew who this “her” meant.
Leng Wu gave a slight pause and seemed to think for a long time, but he still persuaded, “General, Zhao Huijin is scheming. This time he made such a great determination. You only have eighteen personal guards. Now you want to send four out, won’t it be….”
“Leng Wu, you don’t know him too much,” Leng Changxi looked into the distance, as if it could have reached the sky, “Yes, Zhao Huijin is capable, but he also treasures his life very much. Otherwise, he won’t abandon the city on the day of the siege without even bringing his so-called beloved Princess Yuanning, Wei Xian, with him. Some time ago, it was rumored that the imperial concubine was seriously ill, and even the imperial doctors were helpless. It happened that a thousand-year-old Tianshan snow lotus in Prince Ning’s Mansion could save her. What Zhao Huijin meant by a life for a life was to make a bet with Yunuan’s life, forcing me to treat his sweetheart with the Tianshan snow lotus.”
Leng Changxi looked back slightly, and there was a disdainful sneer on his face, “Forcing me? It’s ridiculous. I want my woman, and I want my medicinal herb. What can he do to me?”
But at the moment, in the palace of the rumored badly ill imperial concubine, it was soft and warm. A seductive incense was burning in the palace. The Imperial Concubine Xian was only wearing clothes as thin as a cicada’s wings. Her waist was thin, smooth and luring.
The beautiful face of Imperial Concubine Xian was still flushed, and her mind was constantly recalling the grace of last night.
The man next to her moved a bit, and Imperial Concubine Xian immediately approached him. Her voice was seductively charming. She asked, “Third prince, are you awake?”