Perhaps it was the notoginseng that took effect. The yellow dog, which had been breathing rather rapidly, now had a steady breath and closed its eyes again to fall asleep.
Seeing this, Ye Wanmian secretly let out a sigh of relief. Only then did she have the time to take a look around her room.
After being ransacked by those unreasonable guards, her originally tidy room was in a complete mess. Some of the clay pots she had saved over the years were broken into pieces on the ground. The clothes and cloth in the cabinets had been pulled out, and the whole place was in a state of utter chaos.
"What imperial guards of the Eastern Palace! They're just a bunch of unreasonable bandits in soldiers' clothing," she murmured softly.
After those guards left Ye Wanmian's house, they continued to search other civilian houses. All the way, they caused a great deal of commotion. Ye Wanmian was not the only one who suffered. From afar, one could still hear scolding and crying from the neighbors.
She couldn't help but feel a bit strange.
She knew that these people were searching for the crown prince, but such a high - profile house - to - house search seemed more like they were hunting down a wanted criminal rather than looking for their own master.
If the crown prince was really in Dongli Town and knew that they were looking for him, wouldn't he show up voluntarily?
Or perhaps something really had happened to the crown prince and he had been hidden away. Was he unable to speak or show himself to identify his status?
Ye Wanmian immediately shook her head, trying to shake off the sudden thought in her mind.
That person had caused her so much harm back then. Whether he was alive or dead had nothing to do with her. She only prayed that these barbarians would leave Dongli Town quickly and restore peace to the town, and not bother her anymore.
Lost in her random thoughts, Ye Wanmian hugged the yellow dog in her arms and leaned against the bed, gradually falling into a drowsy sleep.
The cold night was deep. The night in Dongli Town was doomed to be sleepless because of the soldiers' search.
Perhaps it was because of the kick from Bu Hua. In a daze, Xiao Jingcheng felt as if his body was floating up, and then it seemed to be pulled hard by a rope and suddenly sank.
Everything was pitch - black in front of Xiao Jingcheng's eyes, and his body seemed to be fixed and unable to move. Just as he was feeling confused, there came some hazy voices of conversation in his ears.
"Do you think... when will the crown prince... finally die?"
At first, he could only hear some broken words. Gradually, the voices became clearer.
"The immortal master said that his soul needs to be imprisoned for forty - nine days before it will completely disappear from this world. There are still thirty days left. What's the hurry?"
"I'm just anxious for our master."
"I never thought there was really such an immortal art in the world that could imprison a person's soul. I thought it was all nonsense in the storybooks. The immortal master our master found is really capable."
Master? Immortal master? Imprisoning souls?
Before he could think further, his mind was suddenly shaken violently. His previously immobile body seemed to be pushed hard by something.
He suddenly fell from the clouds and smashed hard onto the ground.
But before he could regain his senses, he felt himself suddenly being pressed against the wall, as if someone was trying to drive him out.
[Get out of the way! You're not allowed to snatch mother from Huanghuang!]
The words he had accidentally heard earlier had already made Xiao Jingcheng extremely annoyed. Now that he was being suppressed, it made him inexplicably think of the matter of "imprisoning the soul". A surge of anger suddenly welled up in his heart.
No one, no matter who they were, could easily take his life!
The suddenly burst of strength allowed him to break through the force behind him. Then, he turned the tables and firmly suppressed that force, completely taking the upper hand.
Finding that it couldn't compete with him, the force chose to submit to him. Xiao Jingcheng fixed his eyes and only then discovered that the force that had been pushing him was a warm - yellow light ball. Judging from its shape, it seemed to be a half - human - tall yellow dog?
After a moment of dizziness, Xiao Jingcheng suddenly opened his eyes and couldn't help but choke and cough.
The morning light shone through the window, illuminating the mess on the ground. In front of him was still Ye Wanmian's shabby and simple hut.
He knew that he had returned to the body of that yellow dog again.
As if sensing something, he closed his eyes and tried to look inside. Sure enough, he found a warm - yellow light ball closely next to him. After the yellow light ball noticed that he was "looking" at it, it trembled and then backed away a bit.
[Huanghuang, I'll give it to you.]
Xiao Jingcheng's expression was complicated.
If he hadn't experienced it himself, he would never have thought that he, who used to be high and mighty, would now be reduced to fighting with a stupid dog for the control of the body.
After calming his mind, he opened his eyes and felt that he was being gently held in someone's arms. A continuous stream of warmth was coming from the other person.
He raised his head, and his line of sight moved upward. A sleeping face unexpectedly came into view.
After a night, the pain from various internal organs before he fell into a coma had subsided a lot, indicating that the girl's rescue last night had worked.
Recalling what had happened last night, Xiao Jingcheng's face darkened.
He knew that he was being hunted down, but he never thought that there was such a sinister plot behind it.
Who was the master they were talking about?
Since they wanted to kill him, why didn't they just kill him directly? Instead, they found an immortal master to imprison his soul. What on earth were they trying to do?
And where had they hidden his body?
There was also Bu Hua.
He never knew that the imperial guards of the Eastern Palace were so domineering. They could recklessly break into civilians' houses for a thorough search, and use the power of the Eastern Palace to bully and insult ordinary people, ruining his reputation.
Who gave him the guts?!
If it weren't for this village woman who had timely fed him medicinal herbs and warmed him with her body temperature, nourishing his soul, he might have already completely vanished as those people had said!
Once he retrieved his own body, he would surely find out everything and make these demons and ghosts pay the price!
"No, don't, don't bully my Huanghuang!"
The sleeping girl didn't know what she had dreamed of. She choked and murmured in her sleep and was startled awake.
The first thing she did when she woke up was to hurriedly lower her head to check the yellow dog in her arms.
"Huanghuang, you're awake? That's great! You don't know how scared I was last night!"
Overjoyed, she bent down and kissed Xiao Jingcheng's forehead again and again.
Suddenly, his nose was filled with the faint fragrance of the girl. An indescribable tingling sensation came from the place where the girl had kissed him and spread all the way along his spine...
Then, Xiao Jingcheng felt something behind him start to swing uncontrollably!
Damn it!
This damned canine instinct!
What was even more embarrassing was that after sleeping for a night, the girl's clothes had become much looser than before. When she bent down, Xiao Jingcheng, who was held in her arms, could see her slender neck and beautiful collarbone hidden under her clothes.
Compared with her sallow face, the skin on her neck and collarbone was fair and flawless. He could clearly see a small red mole on the vortex of her left collarbone.
It was extremely eye - catching.