Chapter 78 Truth Revealed
The wind blew fiercely. The scenes caught by Qin Yunuan turned from the black tiles and red walls at Prince Ning’s Mansion into the lush woods. The person kidnapping Qin Yunuan stopped when they reached an open space in the woods. He put down Qin Yunuan and almost tumbled. Now Qin Yunuan could see clearly that the man got hurt on his left shoulder.
The only sound in the woods was the rustle of wind blowing leaves. The man suddenly got alert and soliloquized, “He chases us here.”
At the moment Qin Yunuan was thinking about the “he” he meant, Leng Changxi jumped lightly on the ground like a ghost falling at night. The slightly tight cardigan showed his muscular body. He stayed still with his half-tied black hair blown a little by the wind. However, his eyes had already caught everything through the thick fog in the woods.
Apparently, he was following them all the time.
“Don’t come closer even for one step!” the person kidnapping Qin Yunuan subconsciously put the dagger close to the neck of her when he saw Leng Changxi. Soft moonlight fell through the leaves, which exactly helped Qin Yunuan saw clearly the pattern on the dagger. She remembered that it was the same dagger that was used to kill Shangguan Rang but finally caused the hurt of Maner when they got attacked in the thatched cottage.
So the person was….
“Prince Anyang Zhao Huijin,” Leng Changxi breathed a little and said slowly, “You are such a poor man who should use a weak girl as your hostage. I thought highly of you before.”
“Me too,” Zhao Huijin smiled gloomily, “I thought you were a frank and honest rival but you even played despicable tricks.” Zhao Huijin looked subconsciously at his left shoulder. He would have had more time to play with Leng Changxi if he had not ignored the danger which caused that he was attacked by the ambush of Leng Changxi.
Leng Changxi raised his eyebrows, “You have no right to rebuke my dishonesty because you threaten me by hijacking an impotent girl.”
Zhao Huijin sneered, “But you will still be beaten by me today,” He put the dagger much closer to the white neck of Qin Yunuan. She seemed to feel the convulsion of the nervous skin, and heard the coarse shouting of Zhao Huijin, “I know. You dare not hurt me considering her. Now let your fellows back, right now! And, prepare a quick horse and an official document for departure for me.”
Leng Changxi sneered and glanced quickly at the face of Qin Yunuan. The quick glance made Qin Yunuan feel safe and easy, “Do you really believe that Beidi will help you?” Leng Changxi said while he was making gestures behind. The woods behind him gave out slight sounds. Those were the sound that his 18 shadow guards retreated. Zhao Huijin had profound inner power and he knew well if they had retreated, Leng Changxi would not take the risk here.
Apart from the retreat of shadow guards, Leng Changxi unfastened his belt and threw a soft sword away hidden at his waist. The soft sword then was inserted straightly on the ground with sparkling silvery light.
“Even heroes fall for beauties,” Zhao Huijin sneered, “Leng Changxi, you are the same as me. I could not rescue Xianer so I won’t let this girl alive.” Zhao Huijin raised his gloomy and malicious eyes and added, “And you will be dead too.”
Just in a flash, Zhao Huijin threw the dagger in his hand out straightly to the face of Leng Changxi. No one could avoid the quick dagger, but Leng Changxi just turned his body slightly and the high-speed dagger flew away without hurting him. It was a failing sneak attack but Leng Changxi knew that what Zhao Huijin did was not for hurting him.
As expected, Zhao Huijin successfully attracted the attention of Leng Changxi by the dagger, and then took out the short dagger hidden in his boot. The short dagger was put down uprightly towards the heart of Qin Yunuan, but when the nose of the short dagger was one centimeter away from the heart of Qin Yunuan, time seemed to be frozen.
Zhao Huijin suddenly got stiff and the short dagger seemed to be frozen at that place. Big hands held that short dagger and the fingers gripped the blade of the short dagger with great power. Thick red liquid shed into the fingertips of Qin Yunuan.
Leng Changxi held the blade of the short dagger with one hand, and stabbed the heart of Zhao Huijin accurately with the soft sword. The sword was pierced the chest of Zhao Huijin completely. Now thick sounds of footsteps emerged immediately. Those were Leng Changxi’s 18 shadow guards chasing the heelers of Zhao Huijin. Ignoring the fighting scene around, Qin Yunuan just stared at the face of Leng Changxi who wore a mask and smiled.
At this moment, her heartbeat seemed to cease due to his face.
Leng Wu stepped forward to handle the corpse of Zhao Huijin. Poison was smeared on the soft sword so Zhao Huijin had been not cured and would die soon. Leng Changxi just looked at his injured left hand. The bloody wound with blood clots looked very scary.
“Your hand….” Qin Yunuan lowered her head and looked at the palm of Leng Changxi. She was about to say something but stopped.
“It’s just a small wound,” Leng Changxi answered. Though he pretended not to care about the wound, he felt warm in his heart. After all, Qin Yunuan was caring about him.
Qin Yunuan sighed a little, and said after she saw those men in black who were clearing here retreated and her acupuncture point had been got through, “Is he dead?” She meant Zhao Huijin.
“Yes,” Leng Changxi nodded, “dead.”
“So, General Leng, your show is over?” Qin Yunuan said in a slightly cold voice.
Leng Changxi said nothing and just looked at her silently. Moonlight covered hazily her face like a cloudy veil, which looked very crystal. No one would break the tranquil silence now.
It was so silent around now and it only seemed to hear the breaths of the two people. Qin Yunuan went back for one step and took out an old jade pendant from her dress. The jade pendant was exactly put in her heart, so even if Zhao Huijin had stabbed down, she would not have got hurt.
“Actually, General Leng, it is not necessary for you to save me.” Qin Yunuan unfolded her palm and showed the jade pendant.
Leng Changxi turned pale and seemed to have known what Qin Yunuan would say next.
Qin Yunuan raised her eyes slowly and looked at the gold-thread mask of Leng Changxi, “You helped me a lot all the time no matter when you were Su Chenghai or Leng Changxi.”
Leng Changxi was stunned a little and lowered his eyes slowly. He kept silent without any facial change, but his eyes were still determined without any guilty conscience. All of what he did was not concealed. He looked at her as if he were enjoying the smartest artwork.
Qin Yunuan said, “General, maybe you have never wanted to conceal anything from me. I remembered that my cousin Su Chenghai took the gift when he first visited Qin Family – yamamai silk from East Qin and books collected in the White Horse Academy. General, you were responsible for the issue related East Qin and the renovation of the White Horse Academy at that time. It was very easy for you to find those two things. Besides, the rapidly-developing First Boite, could easily gain the seal of the shop of Yuan Family and the new bottom drawer of Yuman Embroidery Shop. It was very tough for Su Chenghai, a newcomer for business in the Royal City, to get all of those things. But for you, general, it was easy very much.”
Leng Changxi turned back. The silvery moonlight seemed to coat silvery rim on his face, “And then?” he added.
“The first time I made up my mind to suspect you was in that fire accident, namely Li Qiqi met you for the first time,” Qin Yunuan looked into the distance and seemed to recollect that memory, “Li Qiqi looked at you with her soulful, surprised, happy and ecstatic eyes. But general, your eyes kept calm and even did not give her a glimpse. Anybody would have some reaction when he saw the person who had never met him for a long time even if he were heartless. The only explanation was that general, you did not know her at all.”
Leng Changxi kept silent with his mouth up a little.
“Finally, I made sure when you saved me at Mount Sheshan. Before I saw my cousin Su Chenghai off, I sent him a flower sachet especially. I put the specially-made spices into the sachet. It gave out light fragrance but was unique and distinct. The fragrance would stay in the body for a dozen days if someone carried it for three days. On that day, when I came close to you, I could smell that fragrance clearly. From the moment I opened my eyes, I could make sure that my cousin Su Chenghai around me was not real, and all were the tricks played by you, general.”
After the words of Qin Yunuan, Leng Changxi finally turned back and said in a voice as mild as the sweetest lover’s prattle, “Tricks were played for teasing people but what I did was not to tease you.” He did that for protecting her all the time. From the beginning, he protected her under the request of Zizhan, but later, he protected her out of his inner heart as if he were protecting a treasure that he tried his best to find.
“It’s for making Zhao Huijin get exposed?” Qin Yunuan looked at Leng Changxi straightly, “General, you have no weakness. So you cared about somebody deliberately for creating a fictive weakness so as to make Zhao Huijin swallow your bait?”
Qin Yunuan did not believe it subconsciously but she still asked that question which was her worst guess about this issue. Qin Yunuan tried her best to believe Leng Changxi but the long journey of inner struggling in his family taught her not to believe anybody, any person out of her family, and any person who had ever deceived her.
Her life did suffer threatening before no matter when she was attacked in the small thatched cottage or in that danger happening just now. All of those were indisputable. Qin Yunuan suddenly reached her hands to touch the mask of Leng Changxi which had never been removed. But her hands stopped halfway and she just said in a low voice, “Let me see your face,” and then she continued.
Leng Changxi, the Cool Face General, hated people touching his mask, but now, for no reason, he kept still and indulged Qin Yunuan’s small hands to touch the knots on his mask, which felt like a little cat scratching him lightly.
Although she could not remember those old memories clearly, Qin Yunuan found that Su Chenghai appeared in her life was not so different in the face from the one ten years ago. Or Dou Qing’e and Qin Yunzhuang, even Qin Zhi would find the trick. Qin Yunuan thought before that there must be some masks made in human’s face.
But when she loosened the rope fastened tightly on the mask which was falling from the face of Leng Changxi….