Song Yihuan's request took the other person by surprise.
"Follow me?" He lowered his head and pondered for a while, then unexpectedly agreed. "It's not a bad idea. I travel around practicing medicine, and it is indeed a bit lonely being alone. But aren't you afraid that when he wakes up and finds out, he will resent you?"
Song Yihuan shook her head with a firm look in her eyes. "He won't. He will understand my painstaking efforts and will obediently stay by the divine doctor's side."
The silver note worth two hundred taels in her hand was picked up. The white - haired man agreed.
"My surname is Feng. My name is Feng Tingyun. You don't need to address me as 'divine doctor' all the time."
Song Yihuan also introduced herself. "My name is Song Yihuan, and my younger brother is Song Yixuan. He is a kind, innocent, and lovely child, and he is also very smart. I'm sure he will satisfy Mr. Feng."
After entrusting Song Yixuan to Feng Tingyun, Song Yihuan finally felt completely at ease. She gently stroked Song Yixuan's hair, planted another kiss on his forehead, and then said to Feng Tingyun,
"Mr. Feng, I'd like to ask you for a kind of medicine..."
Gu Yunzheng waited patiently outside. After a long time, he saw Song Yihuan walking out of the thatched cottage. Seeing that she was alone and didn't take Song Yixuan with her, he was taken aback and asked,
"Where's Xuan'er? Don't you plan to take him back?"
Song Yihuan shook her head. "I've decided to leave him with the divine doctor."
"But you've only met him once. How can you just leave Xuan'er with him? What if..."
Song Yihuan looked at him. The hatred and coldness in her eyes made him stop speaking.
"Brother Gu, you heard just now. My mother was poisoned with a chronic poison, which is why she had a premature and difficult labor to give birth to Xuan'er. She was always cautious in the Marquis's Mansion all her life and never dared to do anything improper, but they still wouldn't let her go."
"I will avenge my mother. Xuan'er was kidnapped here by villains today and almost lost his life. I will also avenge this."
"Xuan'er has walked through the gates of hell twice. Now the toxins in his body have been completely removed, and he will finally no longer be troubled by heart disease and will not be a concern for me. I don't want him to go back to the capital and return to the Marquis's Mansion that seems to be able to devour people."
She looked up at the sky and said word by word, "I want him to be free, soaring freely like an eagle in the sky."
Gu Yunzheng was deeply shocked and couldn't say anything more.
"Brother Gu, the only purpose of my going back today is to seek revenge." She looked at Gu Yunzheng. "Can you help me?"
Gu Yunzheng nodded seriously. "I can."
"Thank you, Brother Gu."
Song Yihuan let out a sigh of relief. Thinking of the road ahead, she closed her eyes tightly. When she opened them again, there was only determination in her eyes.
Marquis Ding'an, the Meng family, Song Nanxin... None of them could escape.
...
Ji Lingchuan led the Black Armored Army and a hunting dog, carefully searching along the road outside the town. He successively found several pieces of torn clothes.
This clue prompted him to keep searching. As dawn was breaking, when he found another piece of torn clothes in the hunting dog's mouth for the fourth time, Ji Lingchuan frowned tightly.
Something was wrong. He always felt that something was amiss.
He raised his hand. "Stop!"
"Bring the torches here!"
The torches from all around gathered. Ji Lingchuan squatted down, laid out the several pieces of torn clothes he had found on the ground, and his pupils suddenly shrank. He clenched his fists tightly.
The cuts on these pieces of cloth were neat, obviously cut by a sharp blade. Someone had deliberately thrown them on the road to lead them here. Song Yixuan was not in this direction at all!
Realizing that they had taken the wrong path, Ji Lingchuan immediately stood up. "Everyone, immediately follow me back to Xile Town. The faster, the better!"
He mounted his horse and galloped back to Xile Town with the others. He whipped his horse hard, and the horse galloped forward like an arrow leaving the bow.
When Ji Lingchuan returned to Xile Town, the sun was gradually rising. The first thing he did was to rush to the civilian house to look for Song Yihuan. But when he entered the door, he only saw an empty bed.
Ji Lingchuan strode out of the civilian house, mounted his horse, and galloped towards the end of the town again.
Faster, even faster. If something really happened to Xuan'er, he hoped he could be by her side and go through this difficult time with her.
The dust raised by the galloping horseshoes obscured the man's figure. When Ji Lingchuan finally reached the back mountain behind Xile Town, he heard a heart - wrenching wail.
He dismounted his horse and didn't stop for a moment. He pushed aside the branches and leaves and slid down into the mountain depression.
Song Yihuan was kneeling on the ground, tightly holding something in her arms and crying uncontrollably. Her cries echoed through the valley, making people feel even more oppressed.
Gu Yunzheng was squatting beside her, his face full of grief.
Ji Lingchuan stopped in his tracks. The color drained from his face, and he turned extremely pale.
He was still too late after all.
Taking a deep breath, he walked towards Song Yihuan who was kneeling on the ground.
Hearing the sound, Song Yihuan turned her head and looked at Ji Lingchuan. When her tear - filled and broken eyes appeared in front of Ji Lingchuan, he felt a sharp pain in his heart.
"Ji Lingchuan, why are you so late?" She cried. "Xuan'er, he..."
She trembled and stretched out her hands towards him. It turned out that what she was holding in her arms was a tattered undergarment stained with fresh blood. Anyone could tell that it was a child's clothing.
She didn't find Song Yixuan's body, but this undergarment was so badly damaged that Song Yixuan was probably in great danger.
All his strength seemed to be drained from his body. Ji Lingchuan knelt on one knee beside her and said hoarsely, "I'm sorry. I made a wrong judgment and failed to detect the problem in time."
Song Yihuan threw herself into his arms, grabbed his collar and cried loudly, "He's just a child. Who is so cruel to treat him like this? He was fine all the way, and he even survived the rebellion in the hunting ground. How could he die at this time? We were almost back in the capital. We were almost home!"
Ji Lingchuan couldn't hold back anymore and tightly hugged her in his arms, saying hoarsely, "I'm sorry. I didn't take good care of him."
"Xuan'er, Xuan'er—" Leaning in Ji Lingchuan's arms, Song Yihuan tightly grabbed his lapel. Finally, she no longer suppressed herself and completely let out the grief and anger that had been pent up in her heart.
Because of her excessive grief, she stopped making a sound while crying and fainted from extreme sorrow. Ji Lingchuan picked her up horizontally and looked at Gu Yunzheng opposite him, saying,
"Lord Gu, please tell me what happened?"
Gu Yunzheng took a deep look at him and told him all the details of how he and Song Yihuan had sensed something was wrong and had ridden to the back mountain at the end of the town to look for someone. However, he omitted the detail that Song Yixuan had met the "Carefree Divine Doctor" Feng Tingyun and had been saved.
This was an agreement between him and Song Yihuan. From now on, they would act as if "Song Yixuan" was really dead.
"Thank you for staying with her. From now on, I'll take care of her." Ji Lingchuan nodded to Gu Yunzheng.
He turned around with Song Yihuan in his arms and was about to leave.
Gu Yunzheng called out to him. "My lord."
Ji Lingchuan stopped in his tracks but didn't turn back.
"Have you thought about what you'll face when you take her back like this?" Gu Yunzheng questioned.
What answered him was Ji Lingchuan's proud, straight, broad, and powerful back that seemed to be able to bear all the sufferings in the world.