An Jiu opened her eyes, the lamplight stinging slightly. She closed them again to adjust.
"Awake?" Chu Dingjiang sounded surprised.
An Jiu turned her stiff neck and saw a man in a dark warrior's outfit sitting opposite her with legs spread wide, his back straight. The close-fitting clothes outlined his figure, faintly revealing the muscles beneath that seemed to contain boundless power, like a leopard ready to pounce at any moment.
"Chu Dingjiang?" An Jiu stared at the half-mask on his face.
"Your eyesight isn't bad." He stood up and came over, taking her wrist to check her pulse.
His warm fingers rested on her wrist, giving An Jiu a burning sensation. She instinctively tried to pull away but was firmly held by Chu Dingjiang.
Her pulse was normal, but there was no sign of any change in her Inner Force. He concluded that the earlier signs of a breakthrough must have been in her Mental strength—something that couldn't be detected through pulse diagnosis.
"You've been unconscious for half a month," Chu Dingjiang released her hand. "Now you're finally better."
"Did you save me?" An Jiu asked. "Thank you."
Chu Dingjiang replied indifferently, "I dare not take credit. Thanks to someone who treated your wounds beforehand and fed you an antidote, otherwise even a deity couldn't have saved you."
An Jiu's memory of that time was fragmented, but she remembered Mo Sigui being the only one by her side. There was no one else who could have done those things for her.
Thinking this, An Jiu looked up at the man before her. "You saved me. How do you want me to repay you?"
Hearing this, a hint of amusement surfaced in Chu Dingjiang's eyes. "Dare to offer yourself in marriage?"
"I didn't expect someone who looks so serious to be such a flirt at heart," An Jiu remarked.
"I'm not joking." Chu Dingjiang's gaze shifted to her chest. "When I removed the hidden weapon, I saw your body. From now on, you are my wife. As for the wedding, since I'm in the Crane Control Army, I can't give you ten miles of red dowry. Only a pair of red candles and a happy quilt—I'm afraid you'll have to make do."
As a member of the Crane Control Army, marrying privately was a significant risk for Chu Dingjiang. This was the best he could offer.
"Are you demanding repayment for your kindness?" An Jiu asked calmly.
Chu Dingjiang frowned. "What do you mean? I'm merely doing what a true man should!"
"Then I'll choose another way to repay you. You don't mind, do you?" An Jiu thought carefully and added, considering she owed him a debt of gratitude, "Although my views on sex aren't particularly conservative, I'm not keen on promiscuity either. You don't need to take responsibility in that regard."
Chu Dingjiang was taken aback, his face suddenly flushing red. He coughed awkwardly a few times and turned away to compose himself.
After all, he was someone who had weathered storms and faced countless dangers, having seen much of the world. He quickly regained his composure and calmly changed the subject. "There's porridge. Want some?"
"Yes," An Jiu answered succinctly.
Chu Dingjiang left and soon returned with a bowl of plain porridge. Sitting by the bed, he scooped some with a spoon and brought it to An Jiu's lips.
His movements were clumsy, and he didn't even help her sit up—clearly inexperienced in caring for others. Yet An Jiu ate from the spoon just like that.
For both of them, feeding and being fed were memories buried deep in the past. Though it seemed somewhat awkward, there was an inexplicable emotion flowing between them.
After finishing the bowl of porridge, Chu Dingjiang asked, "Want to go outside and sit?"If an ordinary person heard these words, they would surely find them baffling—what’s the point of sitting outside at night without the sun? Strangely enough, this suggestion received An Jiu’s full approval.
Half a month had passed, and the external wounds on An Jiu’s body had healed enough for her to move slightly without issue.
Wrapped in a heavy cloak, An Jiu sat beneath the corridor, hands clutching the front of her robe at her chest, squinting at the distant mountains in the night.
Chu Dingjiang leaned against a pillar with his arms crossed, looking down at the crown of An Jiu’s head.
They sat in silence until the moon dipped westward.
Chu Dingjiang said, “Let’s go back inside.”
An Jiu didn’t move. “If someone told you before they died to live well, would you follow their last words or avenge them?”
Chu Dingjiang hadn’t interacted much with An Jiu, but he could tell she was cold to the core. He hadn’t expected there to be someone she cared about so deeply.
An Jiu tilted her head up, staring into his ink-dark eyes.
After a pause, Chu Dingjiang replied, “Life is full of meetings and partings—some last a century, others mere moments. Just follow your heart.”
An Jiu nodded in agreement. “Is the commander of the Crane Control Army really this idle?”
Otherwise, how could Chu Dingjiang have spent half a month here taking care of her?
“Of course not,” Chu Dingjiang chuckled. “But I was demoted a while ago.”
An Jiu raised an eyebrow—a silent question.
Though it involved Crane Control Army secrets, Chu Dingjiang didn’t hide it from her. “Many people have been waiting to replace me. Recently, one incident after another has caused heavy losses to the Crane Control Army, giving them the perfect excuse.”
His decision not to fight back now was also to avoid unfavorable circumstances.
“Was it the Emperor who moved against the Lou and Mei families?” An Jiu didn’t know if she’d get an answer, but she asked anyway. She was curious about the ruthless mastermind behind it all.
“If the Emperor wanted to act, he wouldn’t choose such extreme methods. Though His Majesty is a man of deep schemes, he seeks immortality and the Dao—his actions wouldn’t be so brutal.” Chu Dingjiang said, “All current evidence points to Yelü Huangwu of the Liao Kingdom, and I believe it’s undoubtedly her.”
An Jiu gazed at him quietly. “You tell me everything—what’s your reasoning?”
If it was just because he’d seen her body and now considered her one of his own, that would be ridiculous! There might be many such people in this era, but An Jiu’s intuition told her Chu Dingjiang wasn’t one of them.
“It’s complicated.” Chu Dingjiang had discovered that An Jiu’s meridians were completely destroyed and initially thought it was because he had forcibly expanded them to push her into using the Startling String technique.
Of course, seeing her body was part of it, but there were also many other subtle reasons—like how An Jiu’s temperament made her a good listener for him. As a Transformation Realm Master, it was already rare to find someone with mental strength on his level, let alone someone like An Jiu, who had mental strength but no inner force. Killing her would be as easy as crushing an ant.
An Jiu couldn’t guess the twists and turns in his mind. She judged that Chu Dingjiang meant no harm, so when she didn’t get an answer, she didn’t press further.
“One last question.” It was the one An Jiu most wanted to know. “Why did you save me?”
A breeze passed, making the lamplight flicker, casting shifting shadows over their faces.
After a few breaths of silence, Chu Dingjiang spoke. “I didn’t know your meridians were ruined beforehand.”
“You should’ve just thrown me into the pond to drown.”
Chu Dingjiang laughed. “Holding grudges but not gratitude isn’t a good habit. You should change that.”
...
The morning sun rose slowly, the ice and snow had melted, and all things were awakening.In a remote tavern seventy miles outside of Bianjing, a young man in a loose earthen-yellow robe sat by the window. On the table before him lay a silk handkerchief, upon which rested a butterfly with tattered wings.
Though the table was laden with food and wine, he had not touched a single dish.
"Elder, my heart has already been punished," he murmured.
The butterfly had died on the third day after leaving Plum Blossom Village. Mo Sigui had searched every corner within seventy miles but found not a single trace. (To be continued...)
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