Chapter 156: "I Should Never Have Handed You Over to Her..."
Wen Yu still gripped the brass lamp holder fixed to the carriage wall tightly as the vehicle sped along.
The road was likely uneven, and the Wei soldier driving kept whipping the horses relentlessly. Several times, Wen Yu nearly tumbled off the seat from the violent jolts.
The window opening, damaged by earlier arrows, gaped wide, letting in a biting cold wind. Her fingers clutching the lamp holder grew stiff and painful from the chill, as if needles were piercing the spaces between her bones.
Using her other hand to protect the wooden case while pulling her cloak tighter for warmth, she furrowed her brow and peered through the broken window. She saw several Wei cavalry riding alongside the carriage, repeatedly turning back to shoot arrows behind them, while arrows also flew toward them from the rear.
She couldn’t see who was pursuing from behind, nor did she know the extent of the casualties, but the number of cavalry on either side steadily dwindled. From time to time, a rider or warhorse would be struck by an arrow and vanish from her view through the window.
Suddenly, a scraping sound of some sharp implement grappling against the carriage wall and roof behind her grated on her eardrums, setting her teeth on edge.
Fortunately, it seemed there was a layer of iron sheeting beneath the oilcloth covering the carriage roof. The thrown sharp implement ultimately failed to find a secure grip.
But with a sharp "clang," a grappling hook firmly latched onto the window opening where the shutter had been lost.
Wen Yu had seen how Pei Song’s Hawk Hounds used these grappling hooks. At that moment, her heart raced almost to its limit, yet she remained calm, releasing the hand that held the wooden case and gathered her cloak, instead tightening her grip on a hairpin.
From the carriage wall further ahead came the sound of another grappling hook securing itself. She even caught a glimpse of a taut steel cable stretching across the opposite window.
Clearly, one Hawk Hound was dealing with the Wei soldier driving at the front, while another intended to enter the carriage directly to eliminate her.
As the carriage wall near the window where the grappling hook had caught shook violently from the pull of a heavy weight, Wen Yu leveraged her grip on the brass lamp holder to stand. Just as the person outside the carriage reached a hand through the window, she thrust the hand holding the hairpin outward with force.
However, the Hawk Hound opposite her was, after all, trained as a death warrior, accustomed to a life of constant peril and possessing an almost instinctive ability to evade danger. In an instant, he leaned backward.
The hairpin, which should have pierced his temple, merely sliced heavily across the bridge of his nose from under his eye, leaving a trail of blood.
A flash of hatred sparked in the Hawk Hound’s eyes, and the blade in his hand began to descend toward Wen Yu, but an arrow suddenly pierced through his back.
His grip on the window failed, and he tumbled down entirely.
Leaning against the window, hairpin in hand, Wen Yu gasped for breath, hearing Tong Que’s voice call from behind, "My lady!"
She dared not address her directly as "Princess," fearing that any mishap might expose Wen Yu’s identity.
Their rescue mission today involved Pei Song’s men. Regardless of success or failure, they could later attribute it to Pei Song’s attempt to abduct "Jiang Yu’s concubine" to take to the Southern Border and threaten the Southern Chen faction, while also assassinating Wei Pingjin to strike a blow against Northern Wei.
The strands of hair loosened at Wen Yu’s temples fluttered wildly forward in the rushing wind. She saw Tong Que, who was whipping her horse repeatedly from behind, urging it into a frantic gallop to catch up to her.
Three streaks of blood stained Tong Que’s shoulder, clearly wounds from being hooked by a Hawk Hound’s grappling hook earlier.
Wen Yu was nearly overcome with joyous relief, bracing against the window as she urgently called out, "Tong Que!"
Then she hurriedly asked, "Where is Zhao Bai?"Tong Que knew exactly what Wen Yu wanted to ask and shouted back, "Sister Zhao Bai is fine! She's holding off the Pei family's Hawk Hounds at the rear!"
Just as Wen Yu breathed a sigh of relief, something unexpected happened at the front carriage shaft. The carriage jolted violently, and she barely avoided being thrown to the floor by clinging desperately to the window frame. A sharp crack echoed through the air, and looking up, she saw the familiar burst of a signal flare exploding overhead.
Wen Yu's face turned ashen. At that moment, the wooden door behind her was brutally kicked open.
Startled, she turned to see the Hawk Hound who had earlier climbed along the grappling hook's steel cable to the front shaft. He held a blood-drenched blade and stared at her with a bizarre, predatory glee—the look of a hunter who had cornered his prey.
The gaze sent chills down Wen Yu's spine. Behind him lay the corpse of the Wei soldier who had been driving the carriage, and at his feet lay the bamboo tube of a used signal flare.
Clearly, he was the one who had launched the flare earlier.
Wen Yu gripped the window frame tightly with one hand. Though her veil remained in place, the biting wind revealed her deathly pale face, stark as the heavy snowfall outside. Only her eyes retained their composure.
As the man lunged at her with his blade, she abruptly raised her other hand—hidden beneath her wide sleeve—clutching a hairpin, ready to drag him down with her even in death.
But another loud crash came from the window, followed by the sharp clang of metal meeting metal.
Tong Que had swung over along the steel cable left by the previous Hawk Hound.
After parrying the blade aimed at Wen Yu, she vaulted through the window, ignoring the bloody gash the grappling hook had torn from her shoulder. Pressing her sword against the Hawk Hound, she unleashed a furious onslaught, driving him back outside the carriage door to prevent Wen Yu from being caught in the crossfire.
The carriage horses, now riderless, continued their frantic gallop, spooked by the clashing blades near the shaft.
Wen Yu clung to the window frame to steady herself, unable to assist. Peering outside, she spotted a dozen more Hawk Hounds galloping toward them, guided by the signal flare. The situation was dire.
The thundering hooves distracted Tong Que, creating an opening for her opponent. She stumbled and fell near the edge of the front compartment, half her head dangling over the side. A glance backward confirmed the pursuing Hawk Hounds were closing in fast.
Gritting her teeth until they nearly bled, she blocked the man's blade with her sword, arms straining, veins bulging at her neck. Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed the grappling hook he had earlier flung against the front compartment wall—and saw Wen Yu edging along the carriage wall, hairpin in hand, attempting to help.
Summoning her last ounce of strength, Tong Que jerked her head aside, allowing the blade to sink deeper into her already blood-soaked shoulder. Seizing the grappling hook's steel cable, she wrapped it around the Hawk Hound's neck and, with a powerful kick, dragged them both tumbling from the carriage. "My lady, drive the carriage away!" she roared.With the weight of two people suddenly gone from the carriage, it sped up instantly. Wen Yu had already released the window ledge and was quickly making her way along the carriage wall toward the door. As the carriage abruptly accelerated, she couldn't maintain her balance. She barely managed to cry out "Tong Que!" before tumbling backward, her spine and elbows striking the carriage wall with sharp pain.
The Hawk Hound, whom Tong Que had dragged from the carriage with a rope tightened around his neck, was ruthless enough to disregard his own life. He immediately raised his sleeve and fired his last few hidden arrows.
Wen Yu knew how to ride a horse but had never driven a carriage. In this critical moment, she had no time to hesitate. Remembering Tong Que's final shouted words, she endured the pain from her bruised joints, pushed herself up using the carriage wall, and moved toward the front to take control of the reins, hoping to buy Zhao Bai and the others a little more time.
But one of the hidden arrows struck a horse's leg.
The already panicked horse collapsed on its hind leg, thrashing and jumping in fright until it caused the entire carriage to overturn.
In an instant, Wen Yu felt the carriage interior spinning wildly. Instinctively, she protected her head, but her shoulders, back, and joints in her limbs were repeatedly battered by the violent jolts.
When the carriage crashed heavily to the ground, she was thrown forward by the momentum. A hairpin cut her calf, drawing blood, and her abdomen struck the corner of a wooden box that had fallen, instantly draining the color from her face with pain. She lost all strength, unable to move for a long moment.
Xiao Li, taking a shortcut through the wild woods following the signal flare, saw from a barren slope that Tong Que had already used a grappling hook's steel cable to leap onto the carriage.
The thunderous sound of hoofbeats behind him signaled the arrival of other Hawk Hounds who had seen the signal flare.
Gritting his teeth, he glanced at the speeding carriage and ultimately chose not to pursue it further. Instead, he reined in his horse, drew his bow, and aimed at the Hawk Hounds galloping urgently around the mountain bend. Each time, he fired three arrows at once, skewering them like shadow puppets, knocking the closest pursuers off their horses one by one.
Just as he shot down the last of the closest pursuers, Song Qin emerged from the woods with his men and said, "Liang Camp's people are already on their way."
Xiao Li glanced sideways past the mountain bend and saw Zhao Bai leading the charge on horseback, her group also firing arrows from their saddles, taking down the Hawk Hounds at the front.
Reluctantly, he stowed his bow and arrows, wanting one last look at the distant carriage. But as he did, he saw the speeding carriage suddenly overturn, the horses startled into a frenzy.
In that moment, Xiao Li's mind went completely blank. Whatever Song Qin said to him was lost in a buzzing in his ears, utterly inaudible.
He only heard himself say, "Hold them off," before urging his horse to leap down the slope.
The pure black steed galloped furiously through the wind and snow, the howling wind roaring in his ears and stinging his face like blades. Yet, it all felt agonizingly slow.
Even though the overturned carriage was right before his eyes, it still seemed too far away.
When he was still about ten feet from the carriage, Xiao Li didn't even bother to rein in his horse—he practically rolled off the saddle in his haste.
Ignoring his disheveled state, he rushed to the carriage and savagely ripped off the door, which had been jammed shut from the impact. Holding back the wildly flapping curtain that now offered no protection from the wind, he stared with red-rimmed eyes at the figure collapsed inside.Fine snow and pale daylight streamed into the carriage compartment together. The wood carving from the box had fallen out when the carriage overturned, scattering around Wen Yu. Her knuckles were covered in scratches and bruises as she struggled to lift her eyes to look at the person half-crouching at the carriage door. Though only his eyes were visible, Wen Yu recognized him immediately.
For a moment, she almost thought it was a hallucination.
Remembering the farewell gift he had given her, her eyes involuntarily reddened. She wanted to say, "I never got to properly bid you farewell," but only managed to utter "I" before the pain in her abdomen choked her voice.
Xiao Li saw her clutching her abdomen with one hand, her face deathly pale, with bloodstains spreading on her skirt. The veins on his hand gripping the carriage frame bulged. Though he was as furious as a maddened lion, his crimson eyes fierce enough to devour someone, the emotion in them seemed even more agonized than hers.
He muttered, whether to himself or to Wen Yu: "I never should have entrusted you to them."
While clearing the debris blocking the doorway, the rage born from extreme fear made him lose control of his strength—anything he grabbed shattered or deformed in his grip. Only when reaching to carry Wen Yu out did he dare not use any brute force, carefully supporting her shoulders and back to lift her out.
Wen Yu finally realized this wasn’t her hallucination. Recalling how Tong Que had fallen from the carriage with that Hawk Hound before it overturned, her heart wrenched in pain. Weakly, she asked, "Tong Que..."
Xiao Li felt as if his chest had been struck hard—stifling, bitter, and suffocating. Knowing she wouldn’t rest without an answer, he forced himself to reassure her, though his frantic worry and near-breaking anger made his tone cold and harsh: "Injured. Not dead."
Wen Yu’s strained expression relaxed slightly. Remembering the words she never got to say to him, she whispered, "I'm sorry..."
Xiao Li wrapped her tightly in a thick white fur cloak, his eyes blazing red. "Don’t speak," he said, lifting her and striding outside. "I'm taking you to a doctor. You and the child in your womb will be fine."
Wen Yu had sustained multiple injuries from the carriage crash, but the blow to her abdomen had been particularly severe, leaving her too pained to speak.
When mounted on the horse, the jostling made her grimace in agony, yet she still struggled to explain to Xiao Li: "There’s no child... there never was..."
But Xiao Li, torn apart by overwhelming emotions, couldn’t process her words. Doctor Tao himself had confirmed the pregnancy pulse, and Wei Pingjin’s men had also brought physicians to verify her identity—all diagnosed pregnancy. How could there be no child?
And now she clutched her waist in agony, blood on her skirts...
To him, her denial sounded like grief-stricken words upon realizing the child might have been lost in the fall.
In the distance, Song Qin signaled their retreat using forest bandits’ covert signals, while Zhao Bai galloped toward them with a furious expression.
Xiao Li’s eyes seethed with crimson rage. He had never regretted anything more.
To hell with letting go! To hell with parting ways!
It was all bullshit!His heavily suppressed breathing was as deep as some fierce beast's panting, completely enveloping Wen Yu within his broad chest and arms in a posture of absolute possession that allowed no one to snatch her away. Urging the horse forward into the vast, snowy expanse, he barely maintained his composure and said, "I'll take you to see a doctor first."
[Bonus Scene]
Fish Treasure: There's no child.
Xiao Huan (with red-rimmed eyes): Let's hear what the doctor says first!
Fish Treasure (weakly): ...I already told you there's no child. Hey, hey, don't cry...
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