Xue Yao took a deep breath and forced down his emotions. Only then, in extreme speechlessness, did he manage to find his voice again:
“…How did you end up here?”
Shouldn’t she have been hiding somewhere in some corner, waiting for the forest to quiet down before leaving properly?
“I came to find you.”
Lu Dantao answered as if it were only natural, as though he had asked a pointless question.
‘…Find him.’
Xue Yao clenched his back teeth, suppressing the surge of emotions rising again. “What I mean is, how did you find this place?”
“Oh, I ran into two assassins.” Lu Dantao shook the stray grass off her head. “Wait for me to come out before I explain.”
Xue Yao: “……”
He watched her coldly as she struggled, clumsy yet determined, to pull her body out from the bushes. When she finally crawled onto the ground, she seemed to be startled by the corpse lying there, jumping up like a rabbit. She patted her chest and muttered softly, “That scared me to death.”
Then, as if remembering that he was watching her, she gave him an awkward smile. Only then did she turn back, tugging out a small clump of black something from the bushes, and tiptoed around the corpse before coming over to him.
Xue Yao, who had just watched what felt like a one-woman performance: ……
Speechless, he let his strength drain away and leaned against the tree trunk, gazing at the star-filled sky, a trace of confusion surfacing in his heart.
This was the first time in three years that he felt so at a loss about the future.
If Lu Dantao continued to follow him, then how was he supposed to secretly investigate the matter of his former subordinates?
She was foolish, easily trusting others, and knew no martial arts. Following him would only cause trouble…
As his thoughts churned, a trace of killing intent suddenly flashed across his eyes.
The best method would be to let her sleep here forever. The hundred thousand wronged souls of the Xue Family Army, and the hundreds of lives in the Defender Duke Residence, would not allow him the slightest room to remain idle or delay any longer.
As for the blood feud Pei Di owed her, he could settle it on her behalf as well.
At that thought, Xue Yao lowered his eyelids and looked toward Lu Dantao, who was squatting in front of him.
The young girl crouched before him, tilting her head up. The red mole at the center of her brows resembled a vivid drop of blood against her dust-streaked face. At this moment, her expression was extremely serious:
“After you left, I ran into two assassins. I overheard them saying you went south. I was afraid they had the advantage in numbers and that you wouldn’t be able to handle them alone, so I knocked them unconscious and followed south all the way to find you.”
Lu Dantao secretly glanced at Xue Yao, trying to read the expression on his face. Both hands clutched tightly at the small bundle wrapped in the assassins’ clothing in her arms, inside of which were the medicine bottles she had just stolen.
This was her trump card. If Xue Yao were to go mad, she would use this to play the victim.
After spending the past few days with him, she had already come to understand Xue Yao’s terrible temper to some extent. Earlier, he had drawn away the pursuers alone for her sake, yet she had gone against his instructions and rushed over on her own.
Even thinking with her toes, she knew this bastard would most likely be angry, and might even think she was a burden.
‘See, didn’t he start questioning me the moment he saw me?’
If she answered even slightly poorly, he would probably pull a long face immediately.
Now that he had finally begun to regard her as an ally, for the sake of her future safety, she absolutely could not let everything fall apart at this point.
She had to smooth things over:
“You told me to hide for my own safety. I understand that.”
“But I’m not the kind of person who repays kindness with ingratitude. This forest is so deep, and there are so many assassins. How could I leave you behind and hide by myself?”
“If it were you, you wouldn’t do that either, right?”
Xue Yao: ……
Lu Dantao looked at him with full expectation. The moment their gazes met, her eyelid twitched, and her heart skipped a beat as a bad premonition surged up within her.
‘Why does his expression look so strange?’
‘Why did the corner of his mouth seem to stiffen just now?’
The two of them faced each other in silence.
A gust of night wind swept through, carrying with it the scent of blood. The canopy above rustled noisily in the wind, and a dry fruit fell from the branches, bouncing twice off Lu Dantao’s crown before rolling onto the ground.
“You’re not actually thinking of leaving me behind, are you?” she spoke.
“……” Xue Yao remained silent.
The surroundings fell into dead silence once more.
Lu Dantao was utterly incredulous. Her almond-shaped eyes slowly widened into round circles.
A surge of emotions mixed with grievance, anger, and even a faint trace of humiliation suddenly shot up from her heart—
Just now… she had thought he already regarded her as an ally, had even believed that he had done it for her… yet in the end, he actually wanted to abandon her.
Lu Dantao was so angry that her cheeks puffed up. She tossed the bundle of clothes onto the ground:
“I was even worried that moving too violently would tear open your wound again, so I grabbed the medicine and rushed over to find you!”
The clothes scattered with her movement, and several small medicine bottles rolled out along with a strong smell of sweat.
One of the small bottles rolled across the ground and stopped by Xue Yao’s feet. He bent down and picked it up. There were no markings on the bottle, but judging by his experience, this shape usually contained wound medicine.
“Where did you get this medicine?”
“I stole it!”
Lu Dantao snatched it back in one motion. She gripped the small medicine jar tightly in her palm, her fingers tightening around it as if it were Xue Yao’s neck. “I had my eyes on their medicine, and I was worried you’d get injured while fighting, so I risked everything to knock them out and take it for you! And yet you were actually planning to sneak off and abandon me.”
“You actually wanted to leave me behind?! We’re allies, aren’t we?”
“I even saved you twice!”
Xue Yao: “……”
He raised his eyes, his gaze shifting from her puffed-up cheeks to the few strands of wild grass swaying slightly in her hair, then back to her clear, bright almond eyes.
A glimmer of moisture shimmered in the depths of the young girl’s eyes, as if holding back a trace of tears.
She pressed her lips together. Her whole face looked as though it was not even the size of his palm. Dirt clung to her cheeks, and her hair was messy, still tangled with bits of grass.
She looked even more bedraggled than she had over the past few days.
Forget it.
His Adam’s apple bobbed as he suppressed the killing intent in his heart.
After all, she had saved him. She was still young, only sixteen or seventeen. What could she possibly understand?
He was the one who had brought her into these deep mountains. It was only natural that she had followed him here, frightened by the ferocity of the pursuers.
Even if he wanted revenge, he could not lay a hand on an innocent girl. If he did, how could he face his parents and kin? How could he face the hundred thousand loyal souls of the Xue Family Army?
And how would he be any different from Pei Di?
Once he led her out of this place, he would make things clear to her, and from then on, they would go their separate ways.
He closed his eyes briefly and casually made up an excuse. “I wasn’t planning to leave you behind.”
Lu Dantao lifted her eyes and shot him a sidelong glance. “Really?”
“Believe it or not.” Xue Yao pushed himself up with the support of the tree trunk. “If you don’t believe me, you can leave on your own.”
Lu Dantao watched the way he held his waist and abdomen, pouting slightly. She wasn’t stupid. There was no way she would leave on her own.
She had indeed been angry at first, but she had quickly calmed down. Her complaints afterward were nothing more than a way to make Xue Yao willingly act as her hired muscle.
‘Just a few simple complaints, and I’ve hired myself a free bodyguard.’
The corners of her lips curved up slightly as she secretly gave herself a thumbs-up.
‘Not bad, Tao. You really know how to use people well!’
‘In the future, I’m definitely going to become an outstanding, formidable woman!’
Xue Yao could not be bothered with her little schemes. He tilted his head slightly, focusing as he listened to the movements within the forest. His expression darkened. “When you heard them mention that I was in the south, did you also hear the sound of fireworks going off?”
Lu Dantao nodded quickly. “Yes!”
Xue Yao’s voice suddenly turned cold. “Then they’ll be here very soon.”
“Then what do we do? Which way do we run?”
“There’s no escaping, and there’s no need to.”
Hmm?
What was he being so cryptic about now?
Lu Dantao did not understand, but she watched as Xue Yao swiftly and skillfully dealt with the assassins’ corpses on the ground. He covered the bloodstains with dry branches and fallen leaves, then pulled her into a concealed spot near the bodies. Just as the two of them finished hiding, the sound of orderly footsteps arrived right on cue.
“Where are they?”
“There are traces here!”
The footsteps drew closer to the two of them. Just from the sound, Lu Dantao felt that there was only a single corpse’s distance separating them.
“Our brothers’ bodies are here!”
“Those bastards, trying to clean up the scene to fool us? Do they take us for idiots? After them! He can’t have gone far!”
Hidden in the shadows, Lu Dantao’s eyes shone with excitement.
Wasn’t Xue Yao’s move just like hers, hiding in plain sight?
Lu Dantao clenched her small fists in excitement. Although this guy had a terrible personality, acted arrogant, and was overly suspicious, his professional ability was solid. He could kill above, dispose of bodies below, and was proficient in everything from murder to escape. He could be considered a full-chain professional.
When she had rushed over earlier, she had still been thinking that if she handed the male lead’s original opportunity over to Xue Yao, it might be unfair to the male lead.
But now…
She tried hard to suppress that tiny bit of moral bottom line in her heart.
Snatching the male lead’s opportunity might not be entirely honorable, but this was a male-oriented novel. In male-oriented novels, competing for opportunities like this was quite common, wasn’t it?
Moreover, the male lead had originally risen to power with the help of a strategist from the Xue Family Army. Now that the rightful person was here, returning things to their original owner was only natural.
A formidable woman shouldn’t be bogged down by trivialities. If men could do it, why couldn’t she?
What others could seize, she could seize as well!
Xue Yao focused, listening as the footsteps on the outskirts gradually moved farther away. His eyelids lowered slightly. It seemed the outer perimeter of the mountain had already been sealed off. As expected, it was the same old tactic of trapping a turtle in a jar.
If he wanted to force his way out, he alone could still manage. But if he had to bring along a burden—
He turned his head, only to see Lu Dantao hiding behind him, her eyes gleaming in a strangely eerie way, a faint, cryptic smile curling at her lips as she seemed to be plotting something.
“……”
Xue Yao’s brows knit together. If he did not know full well that she was a complete fool, he might have suspected her of harboring some shocking conspiracy.
With a flick of his foot, he kicked the set of black night-traveling clothes into Lu Dantao’s arms and instructed, “Change into these. We’re heading into the mountain.”
Lu Dantao was nearly overwhelmed by the strong stench of sweat, her vision going dark for a moment. She pinched the collar of the clothes between two fingers, holding them as far away from herself as possible. Wrinkling her nose, she spoke with extreme disgust, “Can’t we wash them first? They smell awful.”
Xue Yao shot her a sidelong glance. “You’ve been wearing a dead man’s clothes for this long already, and you’re still being picky about this?”
Lu Dantao: ……
Lu Dantao: ???!
If he had not said it, she would have completely forgotten about it!
She was furious, but mindful of his role as her hired muscle, she did not dare to truly argue with him for the moment. She could only glare at him with fire in her eyes.
If he just kept his mouth shut, no one would mistake him for a mute.
Back then, when the Northern Barbarians dragged him out for posthumous humiliation, it was probably because of that mouth of his.
She tossed the medicine bottles into his arms, looked straight into his eyes, and spoke with a warning tone:
“You’re not allowed to peek!”
Xue Yao: ……
She was seriously overthinking things.
“Who would want to look at you.” With that, he turned his back to her.
Oh? Really? She did not believe it.
With a beauty like her standing right here, she refused to believe he would not sneak a glance.
Lu Dantao nervously untied her belt, repeatedly turning her head to check whether Xue Yao was behaving himself.
When she saw that he truly showed not the slightest bit of interest, she began to mutter to herself again.
Of course, it was not that she needed a man’s prying gaze to feel confident. After all, she knew very well how beautiful she was—
The original host looked almost exactly like her. The biggest difference was the extra mole between her brows.
She had already been good-looking to begin with. As a noble young lady in ancient times, the original host slept early and never stayed up late, so in terms of vitality and complexion, she was far better off than she had ever been.
Right now, she was undeniably a great beauty. There was no way she could be considered ugly.
Then…
She secretly glanced back at Xue Yao again, only to see that his back was still straight, as if he had not the slightest interest in her at all.
Lu Dantao clenched her teeth. That sense of grievance from being disliked by someone she considered a rival was like being bitten by ants. It did not hurt, nor itch, but it was irritating.
She thought about it seriously.
Could it be… that she was too dirty?
She lowered her head and sniffed herself. The moment the smell reached her nose, her entire face twisted into a pained expression, and even her whole body involuntarily leaned back.
So—smelly—!!!!
She had actually been crawling around everywhere in these clothes!
In all her nineteen years of life, she had never been this dirty or this disheveled!
Take them off! Immediately!
The rustling sound of clothes came from behind him. Xue Yao held his breath and focused, doing his best to ignore it. Lowering his eyes, he was just about to apply the medicinal powder to his wound.
Suddenly, a piece of clothing flew at him from behind, landing squarely against his elbow.
His hand trembled, and all the wound medicine spilled directly onto the reopened injury.
Xue Yao’s whole body jerked violently.
Hiss—
This medicine… burned fiercely.