Cai Yu and Sheng Jiangli had just returned from the fields when they were grabbed by Lan Guifan.
The young boy said anxiously, "Third Sister, Brother A Li, A Ye and I found a General of the Great Ye buried in the heavy snow. He's dying. Please save him quickly!"
Cai Yu and Sheng Jiangli exchanged a glance, surprise flashing in their eyes.
"Don't panic," Sheng Jiangli whispered to Cai Yu, then strode into the inner room with Lan Guifan.
Cai Yu also followed in.
Just one look at the man lying on the simple wooden bed, and they were stunned.
Cai Yu nervously clutched the door frame, her legs feeling as if filled with lead. She stared fixedly at the motionless and pale - faced man on the bed.
Song Yinghuai...
He had chased after them!
Sheng Jiangli took a glance and reassuringly put his arm around Cai Yu's shoulder. He smiled and said,
"Don't panic. He's really dying and won't do anything to you..."
He paused for a moment, a glint of killing intent flashing in his eyes. "If he really has chased us, with his current state, I can slit his throat with one knife!"
"Brother A Li!" Cai Yu couldn't help but cry out.
"I'm just joking," Sheng Jiangli said, withdrawing the killing intent from his eyes. "I know you can't bear to see him die."
He wouldn't kill Song Yinghuai, but if Song Yinghuai really discovered them, he would let A Ye tear him apart!
Lan Guifan looked at them, his eyes full of doubt. "Sister, Brother A Li, do you know that general? Is he a bad guy?"
"He's not really a bad guy," Sheng Jiangli ruffled his confused little head. "He just had some disputes with your sister and your brother - in - law. The past is like the wind. We've all forgotten about it. Don't think of him as a bad guy."
Although he was repelled by Song Yinghuai's appearance, without this man, the people and the country of the Great Ye might be counter - attacked by the Tartars.
Sheng Jiangli could tell the situation clearly.
It's good that he's not a bad guy!
Lan Guifan went to boil hot water as he was told.
Sheng Jiangli stepped forward to take a look and felt Song Yinghuai's breath.
Cai Yu finally summoned up the courage to step forward. "Is he... seriously injured?"
Come to think of it, when she faked her death back then, she was kind of sorry for this man's whole - hearted affection for her.
Now, a year had passed, and suddenly seeing him again, she felt a kind of fear like that of a traveler approaching home.
If he knew that she had faked her death, he would probably hate her very much, right?
Sheng Jiangli was removing Song Yinghuai's tattered armor and clothes while examining him. He said, "He's seriously injured. He's mainly frost - bitten by the snow. He won't recover and wake up for a while. Don't worry about him seeing you."
Cai Yu stared blankly at the man whose clothes had been removed, revealing his strong body. Her heart tightened.
There were many, many wounds on his body.
New and old wounds were stacked one on top of another, criss - crossing.
Just like the wounds on Sheng Jiangli's body.
Why did he have so many new wounds in just one year?
Suddenly, her gaze sharpened. She stared at the bloody lotus mark branded on the man's left chest. "This is..."
Sheng Jiangli naturally saw it too. His eyes turned cold. "A red lotus, branded with a hot iron."
He took a deep breath and looked at Cai Yu with a complex expression:
"Shu'er, when you were in a coma that day, I took care of you personally. I once asked you how the black lotus on your lower back came about, but you refused to say. Now I know..."
It was the token of love drawn by Song Yinghuai!
Cai Yu looked at the red lotus on the man's chest in shock, her head feeling tight.
She didn't know that what Song Yinghuai had drawn on her lower back was a black lotus back then.
She had always regarded the mark on her lower back as an insult and never dared to look at it in the mirror.
It was not until Sheng Jiangli casually mentioned after she woke up that the black lotus looked very unique that she knew what was drawn on her lower back was not the character "wrong", but...
But so what?
It couldn't change Song Yinghuai's state of mind when he drew the black lotus, nor could it change her feeling of being insulted.
Cai Yu's fingertips clutching the door frame trembled slightly. She took a few deep breaths to calm her chaotic emotions:
"... Brother A Li, I'll clean his wounds!"
He always didn't like others except her to touch him.
Sheng Jiangli's hand on Song Yinghuai paused for a moment. He concealed the coldness in his eyes, nodded, and then walked out.
Cai Yu took a few more deep breaths, then stretched out her trembling fingers to initially clean the wounds all over the man's body on the bed.
She was too familiar with the man's body.
She could tell which wounds were left before she left and which were left after she left.
She seemed to be able to forget about them when she didn't see the man, but when she saw him, those dead memories were like a surging tide, attacking her without any gaps.
She had to admit that she couldn't suppress her feelings for this man in her heart.
It took Cai Yu an hour to treat all the wounds. She was sweating profusely from exhaustion. Just as she was about to turn around and leave, her wrist was suddenly grabbed from behind!
Cai Yu's scalp went numb instantly, and she didn't even dare to turn around.
Was he awake?
Was he awake?
Cai Yu struggled hard, trying to pull her hand out. From the corner of her eye, she saw that the man on the bed still had his eyes closed and wasn't awake. Only then did she heave a sigh of relief.
However, the next second, she was startled out of her wits by Song Yinghuai's dreamy voice:
"Yu'er... don't go... please don't leave me..."
Her heart was pounding like a drum. Cai Yu looked at Song Yinghuai in a panic.
Was he talking in his sleep or deliberately acting pitiful?
But he was Song Yinghuai!
The high - and - mighty Prince Yan, no, now he was the regent and even more powerful.
How could he use the word "please"?
Cai Yu panicked and tried to pull her hand away, but the man on the bed was like a drowning man grabbing a life - saving straw. No matter how hard she tried to shake him off, she couldn't.
Song Yinghuai on the bed was sweating profusely, as if haunted by a nightmare. Holding her hand, his chest heaved violently:
"Yu'er! No! No..."
Cai Yu cruelly dug her nails into his palm!
The unconscious man winced in pain and finally retracted his hand. Cai Yu quickly pulled back her hand and fled the inner room.
Before her back could leave the door, the man on the bed half - opened his eyes.
Song Yinghuai had briefly regained consciousness for a second when his palm was stabbed hard.
When he slightly opened his eyes, he happened to see a familiar figure with its back turned to him, about to disappear.
Suddenly, it seemed as if blood was surging in his throat. He murmured with difficulty two words: "Yu'er..."
Then darkness enveloped his vision again.
Cai Yu panicked and fled to the kitchen. Sheng Jiangli and Lan Guifan had just finished boiling the medicine. Seeing her panicked appearance, Sheng Jiangli frowned:
"Shu'er!"
"Brother A Li!" Cai Yu grabbed his arm, her voice trembling. "Should we... leave Qilian Mountain?"
Sheng Jiangli winked at Lan Guifan. The little boy smartly carried the medicine to the inner room, leaving the two of them alone.
Sheng Jiangli led Cai Yu to sit on a small wooden stool, then slowly squatted down and said,
"We are going to leave. He's such a smart man. After he wakes up, he can deduce everything from the clues here."
"Then..."
Sheng Jiangli held her trembling hand and said, "I'll give you two choices."
"First, leave right now and abandon him. Don't care about his life or death."
"Second, take care of him for the time being. Move him to the small wooden house on the back mountain and let Fan'er take care of him. We'll always keep an eye on him secretly. As soon as I contact the nearby Yan troops, we'll leave immediately."
Cai Yu looked at the man's handsome and calm face. Her panicked heart finally calmed down.
After a long time, she slowly said, "I choose the second one."
Song Yinghuai woke up three days later.
"Yu'er!"
He suddenly sat up from the nightmare of Yu'er drowning day and night.
Big beads of sweat covered his chiseled face. He looked blankly at the strange wooden house in front of him.
This was...
The wooden door was pushed open. Lan Guifan carried the medicine in. A Ye followed behind. The wild wolf walked with a vigorous gait and squinted its eyes as it calmly stood at the door.
"Big brother is awake?" Lan Guifan put the medicine on the bedside of Song Yinghuai and asked with a smile.