The next day, they both got up early. Shen Tang quickly tidied herself up, then gathered the water reed grass they hadn’t used the day before and tucked it into her sleeve.
Meng Huaiyan noticed and asked, “What’s that?”
“Water reed grass. It clears heat and detoxifies. It was what I used yesterday when you had a high fever.”
“It’s hard to find out here, so we should keep it in case we need it.”
Meng Huaiyan nodded.
Seeing the water reed grass reminded Shen Tang of yesterday, when she had fed him the medicine. Her expression turned a little awkward and uneasy.
Meng Huaiyan showed no sign of remembering her feeding him the medicine the day before.
She couldn’t help letting out a quiet sigh of relief.
Meng Huaiyan stepped out of the cave and surveyed the terrain, then decided they should head southeast.
Shen Tang had no sense of direction in the forest, so she could only follow close behind him.
Since Meng Huaiyan was injured, he didn’t walk particularly fast, and Shen Tang found it easier to keep up than she had the day before.
Every so often, Meng Huaiyan carved two horizontal lines into a tree trunk, one long and one short.
Shen Tang guessed they were a signal for his subordinates, so they could track him.
Neither of them spoke. They simply concentrated on walking, and the silence wasn’t awkward.
The sun hung high overhead. It was already noon.
Shen Tang was hungry and tired. Seeing how pale Meng Huaiyan looked, she suggested, “Why don’t we rest for a while?”
Meng Huaiyan stopped and said tersely, “Listen.”
Shen Tang stopped too and listened carefully. Faintly, she could hear what sounded like water flowing in the distance.
Her eyes widened with delight. “There’s water!”
Meng Huaiyan gave a soft “Mm.”
They continued on. As they rounded a bend, the view suddenly opened up before them.
A broad river, more than ten meters wide, lay before them, with a massive waterfall upstream.
The sound of running water they had heard must have come from here.
After walking for so long, Shen Tang was parched. As soon as she reached the riverbank, she eagerly cupped water in her hands and gulped it down.
Then she spotted a fish swimming nearby, and her eyes widened.
“Heir, may I borrow your sword?”
Meng Huaiyan handed it to her. Shen Tang took it and fixed her gaze on the water.
Waiting for the right moment, she thrust the sword down. A carp weighing three or four pounds was pinned to the blade.
She hadn’t lost her childhood knack for shooting birds and catching fish after all. Shen Tang was delighted.
She called to Meng Huaiyan as if showing off a prize. “Look!”
At her words, Meng Huaiyan turned to look.
Shen Tang stood bathed in sunlight, as if she were glowing.
She laughed freely, dimples appearing and disappearing in her cheeks as she moved. She was radiant and bright.
The sight made Meng Huaiyan’s heart skip a beat. For a moment, he stood there, stunned.
When Shen Tang saw that he wasn’t responding, she waved a hand in front of his eyes. “Heir?”
Only then did Meng Huaiyan come to his senses. He instinctively turned his head and looked away, his gaze unreadable.
He murmured, “Mm,” in reply.
Shen Tang was in high spirits and didn’t mind his perfunctory answer.
For the past two days, she had been filling her stomach with wild fruit. Her stomach felt full of sour liquid, and she felt awful.
Worried that one fish wouldn’t be enough, she caught several more.
With practiced movements, she split the fish open, removed the innards, and scraped off the scales.
Seeing how skillfully she did it, Meng Huaiyan was surprised. “You know how to do this?”
He remembered that her father held an official post. Though it wasn’t a high one, her household should still have had servants.
Yet she was a young lady raised in the inner chambers, and she was so adept at cleaning fish.
Shen Tang’s expression stiffened slightly. Then she said casually, “I thought it looked fun, so I learned.”
Meng Huaiyan’s expression was difficult to read, but he didn’t press her.
After preparing the fish, Shen Tang went into the forest, chopped down some branches, and put together a makeshift rack.
But the branches were damp. She spent a long time trying to start a fire, without success. Thick black smoke billowed up, making her eyes water as she choked on it.
Meng Huaiyan tried to help, but Shen Tang stopped him. “You’re injured. Don’t move around. I’ll be done soon.”
After some more struggle, she finally got the fire going.
Shen Tang turned the fish over with practiced ease. In no time, their aroma began to drift through the air.
She sniffed, feeling as though she were about to drool.
Shen Tang handed a cooked fish to Meng Huaiyan and took one for herself.
They had no salt or seasonings, so the fish tasted a little bland. Still, it was tender and juicy, crisp on the outside and soft within—far better than wild fruit.
They quickly finished several fish. Shen Tang patted her stomach and let out a satisfied sigh.
They sat quietly on the ground, with nothing to say. The only sound was the river flowing nearby.
Shen Tang had been stretched thin over the past two days, and at last she had a moment to catch her breath.
She couldn’t help thinking of her aunt and worrying about her. In a low murmur, she said, “I wonder how Aunt and the others are doing.”
Meng Huaiyan glanced at her. “They’re safe.”
“How do you know?”
“The assassins were after me. They wouldn’t dare go after the entire Meng family.”
Meng Huaiyan never said anything he didn’t mean. If he said the Meng family would be safe, then they certainly were.
Shen Tang relaxed.
After resting a little longer, Shen Tang doused the fire with river water, and they got up and continued on.
They had been walking for a while when Meng Huaiyan suddenly stopped and held out an arm to block Shen Tang.
She didn’t understand why. When she looked up and saw his grave expression, her scalp tightened.
It was too quiet. There wasn’t a birdcall or an insect chirp anywhere nearby. The silence was unnerving.
Frightened, Shen Tang instinctively grabbed something and held it in her hand.
Meng Huaiyan glanced down at the small, fair hand clutching his sleeve. His brows drew together slightly, but he didn’t pull away.
Whoosh!
An arrow shot out of the woods, hurtling straight toward Meng Huaiyan’s face with unstoppable force.
In the blink of an eye, Meng Huaiyan swiftly swung his sword at the shaft. The arrow veered off course and plunged into the earth behind him, sinking three inches into the ground.
The force sent the arrow’s tail quivering rapidly, making a “kek-kek” sound.
The sheer strength of the shot showed how formidable the person behind it was.
This attacker was even more skilled than the two from last time. Meng Huaiyan’s expression grew grave.
They’d hired so many experts to kill him. They really were sparing no expense.
Meng Huaiyan gave a cold laugh and called loudly in the direction the arrow had come from. “Is shooting someone in the back the only cowardly trick you know?”
“Or are you afraid to face me directly?”
The man in the woods gritted his teeth at Meng Huaiyan’s fearless taunts. “You’re asking to die!”
Meng Huaiyan gently pushed Shen Tang away. “Hide!”
Shen Tang hurried off and crouched behind a boulder that came up to about her waist.
The man in the woods suddenly darted out, reaching Meng Huaiyan in an instant.
He was burly and dressed in black, his face covered by a mask. Only his sharp, hawk-like eyes showed.
They gleamed coldly, filled with murderous intent.
Meng Huaiyan struck first, every move vicious and aimed at a vital point.
The assassin was just as fierce. He met Meng Huaiyan with his sword, and the two fought in a clash of blades, their swords flashing like lightning.
They moved too fast for Shen Tang to follow. She could only make out their flickering afterimages and hear the shrill clang of their swords striking each other.
Shen Tang clenched her fists, her face anxious. Meng Huaiyan was already wounded.
The assassin was also exceptionally skilled. Meng Huaiyan might not be able to defeat him.
As Shen Tang worried, she suddenly heard a loud bang and saw the assassin kick Meng Huaiyan to the ground.
Meng Huaiyan’s chest hurt terribly. He tried to push himself up, but a mouthful of blood came spilling from his lips, and he collapsed helplessly.
The assassin touched the wound Meng Huaiyan had cut into his chest. Looking down at him with contempt, he said, “You’re not bad.”
“But it’s a shame you ran into me. Today is the day you die.”
“Still, it’s your honor to die by my hand.” He pointed his sword at Meng Huaiyan, his voice arrogant.
Now!
Shen Tang gathered all her strength and hurled the stone in her hand at the assassin’s face.
The assassin seemed to sense it coming and dodged to the side.
A slight stinging pain came from the corner of his eye. He raised a hand to touch it and found a thin streak of blood on his finger.
He glared in Shen Tang’s direction, his eyes sinister and terrifying.
Terrified by his look, Shen Tang backed away several steps. “Stay back!”
The beautiful woman’s angry expression had its own charm. The assassin relaxed his guard and walked toward Shen Tang.
His eyes were full of amusement and contempt. “I almost forgot about the little wildcat.”
Shen Tang backed away several more steps, her face full of panic.
The assassin strolled toward her at ease. Watching her frightened face, he laughed excitedly.
Shen Tang was both angry and afraid. Then she saw Meng Huaiyan behind the assassin give her a signal with his eyes.
Without drawing attention to herself, Shen Tang picked up several stones and threw them all at once.
The assassin dodged them with ease and said flirtatiously, “Stop struggling. Just accept your death.”
“Since you’re a beauty, I’ll make sure your death is quick and painless…”
With a wet sound, the assassin’s words were cut short. Meng Huaiyan’s sword had pierced straight through him from behind.
The assassin stared at the sword tip protruding from his chest, unable to believe what he was seeing.
His eyes bulging, he raised his hand to stab backward with his sword.
Sensing what he was about to do, Meng Huaiyan drove his sword another inch forward.
The assassin let out a sudden mouthful of blood. All strength left him.
He swayed, then pitched forward with a thud and lay still.
Shen Tang saw that the assassin was dead. Before she could even feel relieved, Meng Huaiyan also crumpled to the ground with a thud.
She cried out in alarm, “Meng Huaiyan!”
Shen Tang hurried over. Meng Huaiyan’s face was pale, and he lay completely still, as if he were dead.
With trembling fingers, she felt beneath his nose.
Thank goodness! Thank goodness!
He was still breathing! Thank heavens!
Shen Tang pulled open Meng Huaiyan’s upper garment. All his previous wounds had split open, and he had several new ones as well.
His entire chest and back were slick with blood, with hardly a patch of uninjured flesh. Shen Tang stared at him, at a loss for how to begin.
Daring not to hesitate, she took out the medicine and carefully sprinkled it over his wounds as quickly as she could.
The medicine worked remarkably well. The wounds stopped bleeding as soon as she applied it. Shen Tang bandaged them, then struggled to help Meng Huaiyan up.
Their location had been exposed; it was too dangerous to stay. They had to leave at once.
From noon until night had fallen, Shen Tang had lost track of how long she had been walking.
Time seemed to stretch endlessly, every minute and every second growing longer and harder to bear.
Her body was already exhausted, and her legs felt as heavy as lead.
But Shen Tang didn’t dare stop. She gritted her teeth and kept forcing herself onward.
The night was dark, and Shen Tang’s consciousness grew hazy. Distracted for just a moment, she suddenly felt something beneath her foot.
The instant before she could react, her foot twisted sharply. She lost her balance and pitched straight toward the ground.
In that split second, Shen Tang hurriedly grabbed at Meng Huaiyan. He fell squarely on top of her.
A piercing pain shot through her chest. She furrowed her brow and let out a muffled groan.
At last, the pain in her chest began to ease.
Gritting her teeth, Shen Tang summoned all her strength to push Meng Huaiyan off her. But her hand accidentally touched his neck.
His skin was scorching hot. Somehow, Meng Huaiyan had developed a high fever again.
Anxious, Shen Tang quickly laid him flat on the ground. She couldn’t help feeling relieved that she hadn’t thrown away the water reed grass.
She took the water reed grass from her sleeve. After all this time, it had lost its moisture and wilted.
Shen Tang silently prayed that it hadn’t lost its medicinal properties.
She found two stones nearby, set the water reed grass on the larger one, and crushed it. Having done this once before, she was much more practiced now.
Shen Tang held the crushed water reed grass in her mouth, then pressed her lips against Meng Huaiyan’s without hesitation and transferred the medicine into his mouth.
In his hazy state, Meng Huaiyan only felt a warm softness against his lips. Before he could make out what it was, the bitter taste of the herbs spread through his mouth.
He frowned and tried to open his eyes, but his eyelids felt as heavy as a thousand pounds.
He struggled several times, but couldn’t manage it. Too exhausted, he soon slipped back into unconsciousness.
Shen Tang knew nothing of this. After giving him the medicine, she opened his clothes again and, seeing that his wounds weren’t bleeding, felt reassured.
She hoisted Meng Huaiyan over her shoulder again. But after taking just one step, she felt a sharp pain in her right ankle.
Shen Tang sucked in a breath and furrowed her brow. She must have twisted it just now.
She tried moving her ankle and found it felt a little better.
Gritting her teeth, she continued onward.
Along the way, she had followed Meng Huaiyan’s example and left marks. Shen Tang silently prayed that his subordinates would find them before the assassin did.
She struggled on for a while longer, her stomach growling and her vision spinning. She was about to collapse when a faint, warm yellow light appeared ahead.
Shen Tang rubbed her eyes and stared. At last, she was sure it wasn’t a hallucination.
Someone! She was saved!
Shen Tang lifted her hand and bit down hard on her arm. She didn’t let go until she tasted blood.
The pain brought her back to her senses a little.
Summoning one last burst of strength, Shen Tang hurried toward the small courtyard.
At last, she reached its gate. Completely drained, she could no longer stay upright and slid helplessly to the ground.
Half her body leaned against the gate. With the last of her strength, she pounded on it.
A dog barked furiously inside, followed by the owner’s call: “Who is it?”
Then she heard the gate opening.
As it swung open, Shen Tang lost her support and fell flat on the ground. The owner let out a startled cry at the sight.
Shen Tang clutched the owner’s trouser leg and breathed, “Help me!”
Then she lost consciousness completely.