Upon receiving He Cai’s urgent letter, he had done everything possible to expedite his tasks and return early. On his way back, he happened to encounter a group of Liao Raiders acting suspiciously, hiding something. He had quietly followed them all the way here. Thankfully—thankfully he had made an exceptionally wise decision! Thankfully, he had appeared before her in time.
Chu Dingjiang had always believed that his feelings for An Jiu stemmed from a shared suffering, a dependency born of mutual hardship, or perhaps simply a man’s natural possessiveness over a woman. But just moments ago, when he saw her gradually being swallowed by that blue light, he had felt an unprecedented despair.
As he sprinted toward her, he wasn’t even sure if his abilities would be enough to calmly rescue her from such a dire situation. In that moment, his mind—usually teeming with countless schemes and plots—had gone completely blank.
Looking back now, it was truly somewhat unbelievable.
Chu Dingjiang let his hand slide down from An Jiu’s shoulder, his pinky hooking onto hers before he firmly grasped her bloodstained hand.
An Jiu twisted uncomfortably, trying to shake him off.
Chu Dingjiang chuckled and tightened his grip. "I finished my tasks early, so I can stay here with you for two months. By then, you’ll probably be recalled anyway."
An Jiu fell silent for a moment before grumbling, "Let go."
Chu Dingjiang ignored her minor resistance. In his eyes, as long as she wasn’t brandishing a sword at him, it counted as agreement. "A Jiu, after being apart for so long, did you ever think of me?"
Feeling the warmth radiating from his palm, An Jiu sighed contentedly and answered without a shred of sentimentality, "Why would I think of you?"
"Not even for a single moment?" Chu Dingjiang found this hard to accept. He had never spared even a sliver of thought for any woman before. The first time he invested his emotions, and this was the treatment he got? Surely it couldn’t be this bad…
"Once," An Jiu admitted. "Mo Sigui raised two tiger cubs. Once, I shelled some pine nuts for them, but they actually refused to eat them. That’s when I thought—if Chu Dingjiang were here, these pine nuts, the fruits of my labor, wouldn’t go to waste."
So he was only worthy of food that even tigers rejected?
Bracing himself against the blow, Chu Dingjiang pressed on stubbornly, "And besides that time?"
"Another time," An Jiu replied without hesitation. "The two tiger cubs only eat meat, but I don’t know how to grill it. At that time, I thought, if Chu Dingjiang were here, he could grill it for them. And I could have some too."
"..."
Chu Dingjiang pondered for a while before reluctantly offering a compliment. "You’re very honest. That’s… good."
A faint glimmer of amusement surfaced in An Jiu’s eyes as she cheerfully added, "I think so too. My mental state is gradually becoming more normal."
"Mn."
She did seem livelier, but Chu Dingjiang couldn’t shake the feeling that something was off. Did normal people really speak and act like her?
"I also talked a lot with that supervisor," An Jiu continued, omitting Zhao Ling’s reactions and giving Chu Dingjiang an example instead. "I used to struggle with communication and avoided strangers, but now I don’t find it so difficult. 'Long illness makes the patient a doctor'—I’ve diagnosed myself. I’m getting better."
Chu Dingjiang laughed. "Does the phrase 'long illness makes the patient a doctor' really apply to someone like you?"
"Oh, physical illness and mental illness are different," An Jiu conceded, a rare instance of her actually accepting a correction to her word choice.
Chu Dingjiang helplessly corrected her again. "It’s 'bodily illness.'"An Jiu considered herself a normal person now, and normal people should have the courage to doubt themselves. So she humbly asked, "What's the difference between 'flesh' and 'body'?"
"This..." Chu Dingjiang thought for a moment. "There's no essential difference, but the term 'flesh' just doesn't sound very pleasant."
"Flesh, flesh, flesh." An Jiu repeated the word several times, then looked up at him. "What's unpleasant about it?"
Chu Dingjiang stared into her bright eyes and felt a sudden pause in his heart. She really was different from before, yet this change wasn't the same as her previous unstable episodes. The fact that she could open up to him was a good thing. Perhaps, as she herself had said, her condition had indeed improved.
"If you think it sounds good, then it sounds good." Chu Dingjiang couldn't be bothered to argue with her over such trivial matters. What was the point of a scheming "old man" like him nitpicking with a mentally immature girl?
An Jiu, aside from the initial emotional stir, felt an indescribable joy at Chu Dingjiang's sudden appearance.
As a seasoned psychiatric patient, An Jiu's emotional responses were textbook—when she was low or explosive, she had terrifying destructive power. On the rare occasions she was happy, it was like she'd been injected with adrenaline. Though she didn't act outright crazy, her shining eyes and flushed cheeks from excitement might make one think Mo Sigui had carelessly fed her some Medicine.
If An Jiu had to describe her current feelings, she'd say: It's like ten thousand armored cavalry of the Liao army were galloping back and forth in her heart.
"A Jiu, laugh if you want to laugh, cry if you want to cry. Holding it in isn't good for your condition," Chu Dingjiang said, unable to suppress his amusement.
Hearing this, An Jiu restrained herself for a moment before gradually letting go of control.
In the following days, Chu Dingjiang deeply regretted saying those words.
On the first night, a female ghost in Hejian Prefecture cackled wildly at midnight, so loudly that the entire city could hear her laughter, almost to the point of convulsions. On the second night, a large grove outside Hejian Prefecture was heard being chopped down by a female ghost hollering in the dark. By morning, the grove was in complete disarray. On the third night, there was no sound, but people reported a shadowy figure darting around the city all night, even crowing like a rooster before midnight. On the fourth night, the largest winery in Hejian Prefecture was visited by the female ghost, who was said to have sat in the cellar drinking, singing, and crying all at once...
By the fifth day, the city's residents began organizing ghost-hunting parties. Chu Dingjiang searched everywhere and finally found her by a stream, clutching a wine jar in one hand and a tree branch in the other, singing, "Bang bang, he shot me down. Bang bang, I hit the ground. Bang bang..."
Chu Dingjiang didn't understand the lyrics, only seeing her point the branch at him and shout, "Bang bang, bang bang!"
With Chu Dingjiang acting as her protector, Hejian Prefecture's ghost-hunting operation ended in failure.
The next day, they considered inviting Buddhist and Taoist masters to exorcise the ghost.
The entire city was in a state of panic, while the "female ghost" now sat coldly and solemnly on a tree outside the Military Inspector's residence, as if nothing in the world could shake her emotions.
Except for Li Qingzhi, who was recovering from serious injuries, the other members of her shadow unit occasionally glanced at her with strange looks."Sir, Mei Shisi..." Gao Dazhuang suspected she might have suffered brain damage during the Liao army's surprise attack a few days ago.
"It's nothing," Chu Dingjiang said.
An Jiu was deep in thought. After venting her emotions, she had immediately inquired about the battle situation.
Just as Chu Dingjiang had said, six days ago, Ling Ziyue had dealt a crushing defeat to ten thousand Liao cavalry. The news had lifted morale, and the victory report had already been rushed to Bianjing by express courier. It was the most impressive battle in recent years—though the Song army had also suffered nearly ten thousand casualties, the significance of wiping out such a large number of the Liao's vaunted light cavalry was extraordinary. (To be continued...)
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