Inside the small house of Chengfeng Town.
A Shui had fallen into a deep sleep. After a night of running around and enduring repeated shocks, both her body and mind were utterly exhausted. Yu Tuan'er had let her rest beside Feng Feng, but Feng Feng wasn't asleep at all. Instead, the child sat on the bed, full of energy, looking around curiously—first at Wan Yu Yuedan, then at Yu Tuan'er. His big, round eyes were bright and lively, as if fascinated by everything. Yet he seemed to understand that his mother was tired, so despite his restlessness, he remained quiet, his tiny right hand tightly clutching A Shui’s sleeve.
Yu Tuan'er and Lin Bu were working together to carry Xue Tao onto the bed. Yu Tuan'er had just applied trauma medicine to the wound on her chest, but the injury was severe. It was uncertain whether a simple application of medicine would be effective, and the yellow droplets Liu Yan had once used to heal Lin Bu were nowhere to be found. All they could do now was leave it to fate.
Wan Yu Yuedan sat nearby. Earlier, Yu Tuan'er had chattered nonstop about everything she knew regarding A Shui, Liu Yan, and Tang Lici. With his sharp intellect, it wasn’t difficult for him to grasp the key points. However, the question of who had inflicted such a wound on Xue Tao’s chest remained unanswered. A Shui had carried her back, but the truth seemed both obvious and baffling.
She had been with Zhu Yan—who could have possibly harmed her? And even if someone had managed to wound her, why would Zhu Yan abandon her alone in the wilderness? There was only one answer: the one who had gravely injured Xue Tao was Zhu Yan himself.
But why would he want to kill Xue Tao?
Hadn’t he gone through fire and water for her? Hadn’t he been willing to kill Wan Yu Yuedan for her sake, even daring to break into Wangting Manor and navigate its deadly traps just to rescue her? How could he turn around and deal her such a vicious blow in the blink of an eye?
"Little Yue," Yu Tuan'er stared at Xue Tao for a long time, "She's so beautiful." Wan Yu Yuedan couldn’t see, so he simply smiled. "Is that so?" Yu Tuan'er nodded. "If I were this pretty, I wonder if he’d think of me more often... Ah..." Wan Yu Yuedan replied, "Well... not everyone in the world values beauty the same way. I’ve heard some men prefer plump girls, others favor older women. So whether a man misses a woman or not largely depends on whether she left a deep impression on him—a good one, that is." Yu Tuan'er looked at Wan Yu Yuedan. "I wish I had lips like yours. I love the shape of your mouth—small, like a baby’s." While Wan Yu Yuedan was trying to engage her in conversation, she was busy admiring his lips. Lin Bu couldn’t help but burst into laughter—these two were completely talking past each other.
Wan Yu Yuedan didn’t mind. He lightly pressed the back of Xue Tao’s hand—her skin was burning hot, a clear sign of how dire her condition was. After a moment of thought, he suddenly asked, "Where are the clothes Young Master Tang wore?" Lin Bu was taken aback. That garment had been torn open by Shen Langhun’s dagger, soaked in blood, and then rolled up and hidden in the wardrobe to avoid raising suspicions among the Dissolute Shop members. No one had touched it since. "In the wardrobe."
"Bring it here. There might be medicine in the pockets." Wan Yu Yuedan’s sharp, expressive eyes darted around. "He always carries plenty of useful things." Lin Bu stood up and quickly retrieved Tang Lici’s bloodstained robe from the wardrobe. Reaching into the pockets, he indeed found several small bottles and jars, which he then placed on the table one by one.There lay a small pale-green square jade box, a Mutton Fat White Jade Beauty Bottle, a string of pearls, several small pieces of jade, a few small gold ingots, and a round medicinal pill.
Wan Yu Yuedan gently sniffed each item one by one. "Young Master Tang seems quite fond of jade. These are all top-quality pieces with exceptional character and appearance—it’s truly a pity to use them as mere containers. Hmm... dioscorea cirrhosa, Paris polyphylla, Dioscorea bulbifera... the box contains wound medicine." He picked up the finger-sized Mutton Fat White Jade Beauty Bottle. The craftsmanship was exquisite, the texture smooth—undoubtedly a rare treasure. Opening the stopper, he gave it a slight sniff. Lin Bu immediately caught a very peculiar scent and sneezed involuntarily. Wan Yu Yuedan frowned slightly and poured out a small piece from the bottle. Lin Bu saw that what landed in his hand was a white tablet, different from the pill. The tablet was round and flat, a type of medicine he had never seen before. Clearly unable to identify it either, a faint trace of confusion flickered across Wan Yu Yuedan’s delicate and refined face. He placed the tablet back into the jade bottle and picked up the round pill instead. "This is the Purple-Gold Pill. Though rarely seen in the world, ancient texts record its existence. The ancients claimed consuming it could lead to Ascension and immortality—I don’t quite believe that, but this medicine must have its own unique properties."
"Miss Xue’s injuries are critical," Lin Bu interjected. "Why not let her take this pill and see if it has any miraculous life-saving effects?" Wan Yu Yuedan lightly cracked the wax shell encasing the pill, revealing a golden, longan-sized orb inside. His fingers were warm, and the moment he picked it up, the pill seemed on the verge of melting. With no time to spare, he quickly placed it onto Xue Tao’s lips.
The sizable Purple-Gold Pill touched her feverish lips and soon dissolved into liquid, trickling down the seam of her mouth into her stomach. Both Lin Bu and Wan Yu Yuedan caught a whiff of an elegant, rich medicinal fragrance—proof that this pill was indeed extraordinary, incomparable to the tablet from the Mutton Fat Beauty Bottle earlier.
After ingesting the Purple-Gold Pill, the fiery redness on Xue Tao’s cheeks slightly subsided. A while later, her eyelashes fluttered faintly. "Huh?" Yu Tuan'er exclaimed softly. "Miss Xue?"
Xue Tao slowly opened her eyes—clear and beautiful, like autumn waters. Yu Tuan'er gently stroked her hair. "Everyone says Sister A Shui is a rare beauty, but I think you’re even prettier than her. You’re truly stunning." Those autumn-like eyes gradually turned toward Wan Yu Yuedan. "You... are... who..."
"Please rest and recover, young lady. You are neither at Wangting Manor nor by Zhu Yan’s side." Wan Yu Yuedan’s gentle and harmless demeanor made Xue Tao keep her gaze fixed on him. Her chest rose and fell rapidly a few times, her lips parting as if to speak, yet no words came out. Yu Tuan'er couldn’t help but stare at the remaining half of Xue Tao’s face—her brows, eyes, and nose were all shaped exactly how she liked them. The more she looked, the more she admired, growing increasingly envious.Wan Yu Yuedan listened to Xue Tao's rapid breathing and knew she had something to say. Softly, he asked, "What is it you wish to say, miss?" Xue Tao parted her lips, moving them silently. Lin Bu watched her mouth the words, "I... am... sorry... to... him..." Wan Yu Yuedan smiled gently, "He gravely injured you and likely regrets it already. Don’t dwell on it too much. Once you recover, you’ll have the strength to say many things to him." Yu Tuan'er looked at him in surprise, "You know who she’s talking about?" Wan Yu Yuedan smiled, "She’s referring to Zhu Yan of 'Raging Orchid No Trace.'" Yu Tuan'er sighed and said to Xue Tao, "Didn’t he love you deeply? Why would he try to kill you? After going through so much trouble to rescue you, he just abandoned you like this?"
A tear slid from the corner of Xue Tao’s eye as she finally managed a faint whisper, "He... was the only one who ever treated me well in his life... but I... I wronged him..." Yu Tuan'er asked curiously, "How did you wrong him? You were captured and imprisoned by Yu Konghou—that wasn’t your fault. Besides, after suffering so much all these years, he finally found you. Why wouldn’t he treat you well?" Xue Tao stared blankly at the ceiling, "Ten years... so long... Why didn’t he rescue me eight years ago, six years ago, or even four years ago?" Yu Tuan'er raised her hand as if to slap her, "What nonsense are you saying? Eight, six, even four years ago, he was poisoned by Yu Konghou, delirious and senseless, unaware of anything. How could he have rescued you then? The moment he regained his senses, he came for you. Isn’t that enough?"
"I imagined him breaking through walls, overcoming obstacle after obstacle to find me. Every day for ten years, I imagined it. I thought he might appear at the window, see me tied to the bed, and feel heartbroken—and that would have made me happy... But he never came. I was bound year after year, year after year... Every hour of every day, I imagined how he would come to save me... Maybe today, maybe tomorrow. Without these thoughts, I couldn’t have survived... But he never came." Xue Tao’s voice was weak, "Sometimes I was heartbroken, sometimes disappointed, sometimes despairing, sometimes furious. No matter how I felt, he never appeared. I hated my cousin—you can’t imagine how much I hated him. But over all these years, when I was heartbroken, he mocked me. When I was disappointed, he ridiculed me. When I despaired or raged, he was the one who stayed by my side. For ten years, he was the only one I saw... Everyone else seemed to have vanished." Tears streamed from Xue Tao’s eyes like the last drops of blood from her frail body, "I hated him. But one day, I realized... though my cousin was cunning and cruel, though he committed unspeakable atrocities, though he bound me until I fell ill—he suffered just as much. Sometimes... he suffered more than I did. I had hope—I waited for Zhu Yan to save me. But he watched me, bound me, and had no hope at all. When I was in agony, he too felt pain and regret, yet he couldn’t let me go..." Her breathing grew labored, "All he could do was sit there and watch me. Sometimes I knew he didn’t want to see me, didn’t want to stay with me, even wanted to kill me. But he couldn’t. I wished he would kill me, but instead, he held me and wept... I... I..."
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