"Whoosh..."
Qin Yi had barely let out a breath when a dark figure pressed in against him.
The boy was tackled by the girl, both tumbling backward onto the grass behind them.
The silent moonlight collapsed downward, casting jagged shadows across the wooden wall.
The girl stared blankly at the boy beneath her, her disheveled hair falling loose before her face. Through the gaps in her hair, he could faintly make out the tears still glistening at the corners of her eyes.
Clothes rustled as the boy propped himself up, looking at the girl straddling his waist. He wanted to say something, but realized she seemed to be crying.
This was a side of her he had never seen before.
Her crying was barely audible, her body trembling slightly as she buried her head into the boy's shoulder, holding on tightly, her thin arms wrapped around him like she was afraid he would vanish like a phantom.
Feeling the tremors running through the girl's body, the boy reached up and cradled her head, his palm touching that mass of blood-stained hair. He let out a soft sigh and ultimately said nothing.
The Milky Way poured down from the heavens.The blood-soaked boy and girl were like two wounded beasts licking each other's wounds, curled together in this ravaged forest, each seeking the only warmth they had left.
It wasn't until some time passed that Ruan Su suddenly stopped crying. She lifted her sleeve to wipe the corners of her eyes, quietly rose, kept her head low without looking at Qin Yi's face, bent down to hoist him onto her back, and began walking home.
Starlight stretched their merged shadows long across the ground.
Qin Yi lay against her shoulder, his cheek pressed against her coarse collar, feeling the faint, feverish warmth radiating through the blood-soaked cloth shirt. He said softly:
"I can walk on my own."
"You... are... hurt."
"Not badly."
"Not bad... is still... hurt."
"......"
Qin Yi didn't insist further.
Ruan Su's bare, blood-soaked feet stepped onto the muddy ground, each step making a faint, sticky squelch. When they reached the courtyard gate, she suddenly spoke:
"I... thought... you... died."
Her voice lacked the crispness of a young girl. Each word was forced out, halting and difficult, carrying a dry, raspy breath, as rough as old tree bark grinding together.
The noble houses in the Central Plains favored keeping mute maidservants, and starting from childhood, the practice had spread to Shu, where even minor local gentry began to imitate it.
The poisoned broth she had been forced to drink upon entering the Immortal Guest Lodge had destroyed Ruan Su's vocal cords, though thanks to her special constitution, she had gradually regained the ability to make simple sounds over the past two years.
Qin Yi lowered his eyes and explained quietly:
"Almost died. Suddenly regained consciousness."
"...Mm."
They stepped through the courtyard gate, and moonlight revealed the horrifying bloodbath covering the ground. Ruan Su, barefoot, stepped past the corpses of the female ape and the girl, and asked in a low voice:
"The blood... on you..."
"The blood is someone else's."
"But that... beast..."
"I don't know. Something must have happened up on Nianci Mountain."
"I... meant..."
"This girl died in my place."
"...Oh."
Ruan Su glanced at the girl's mutilated corpse, let out a small breath of relief, and her thin shoulders sagged slightly. She said nothing more and didn't ask about the girl.
Death had never been far from the two of them. During the refugee exodus, Qin Yi had often picked up stray children, but every single one of them had died along the road.
The cottage the two of them lived in had been expanded over four years and was fairly roomy. There was one living area, and a small kitchen adjoining it.
Pushing open the creaking wooden door, with moonlight filtering in through the doorframe, the outlines of the furnishings inside the living area were faintly visible.
The furnishings were simple: a square table, a cabinet, three crooked wooden chairs, a brick bed, and a narrow wooden plank bed.
Setting Qin Yi gently down on a wooden chair, Ruan Su reached out with her small hands, helping him out of his clothes while checking his injuries at the same time.
Her fingers were ice-cold, trembling faintly against his ribs as she pressed down to probe.
Qin Yi caught her hand. Her fingers were slender like jade and pale as crystal, but her palms were rough, covered in calluses that didn't match a girl her age:
"They're all internal injuries. You can't feel them from the outside. Probably not too serious."
"Then I'll... go get medicine... tomorrow..."
"Mm."
Qin Yi took out the pouch of loose silver from the short-haired woman, set it on the square table with a soft clink, and stripped off his shirt:
"There's about seven taels of silver here. That should be enough."
Ruan Su nodded, carefully tucked away the money pouch, and went to the courtyard to draw a bucket of water. When she came back carrying it, the moonlight fell on her delicate bare feet, and Qin Yi noticed several fresh scratches on the tops of her feet, seeping fine beads of blood.
Ruan Su paid them no mind. She dipped a cloth into the water, wrung it out, and began wiping down his body. Wherever the cloth passed, the blood that didn't belong to him was washed away layer by layer, revealing pale skin beneath, along with several patches of blue-purple bruising.
"Does... it hurt?" she asked.
"I can bear it," he answered.
Silence.
After a moment,
Ruan Su glanced toward the kitchen and said in a low voice:
"You... eaten..."
"Yes. What about your injuries?"
"I'm... fine. The wounds... will heal on their own... in a few days."
"I meant your face."
"......"
Ruan Su's movements froze instantly. Water droplets from the cloth in her hand splattered onto the dirt floor, making faint pattering sounds.
A few strands of hair swayed apart, revealing the vivid red scars that covered half her face, twisted patterns like a dried-up riverbed.
Qin Yi looked at her.
Seeming to notice his gaze, Ruan Su pressed her lips together and instinctively turned her head slightly, letting that curtain of messy hair fall back into place, hiding the horrifying burn scars, leaving only the half of her face that was flawless enough to rival a fairy's.
She didn't want him to see her disgrace. She didn't want him to see her ugliness.
Qin Yi raised his hand, his fingertips brushing that strand of fallen hair, gently lifting her hair aside.
Ruan Su frowned and instinctively turned away, tucking her neck in slightly, like a young beast whose wound had been touched.
Qin Yi reached out and held her shoulder.
Ruan Su stopped resisting immediately. She averted her gaze, looking toward the two corpses in the courtyard, a smile curling at the corners of her lips as she laughed casually:
"...Very... ugly?"
"Yes."
"....."
Ruan Su's pupils contracted. She instinctively lowered her head.
Moonlight slanted in through the crack in the door, falling on her lowered eyelashes, casting a fine shadow.
The smile still hung at the corners of the girl's lips, but the curve trembled slightly:
"Right...?"
She said it lightly, but she hoped he would offer some words of comfort.
Even if it was just a hollow, surface-level reassurance,
A single casual sentence would do.
But all that answered her was silence.
A draft swept in from the courtyard, letting out a low moan as it passed through the crack in the door.
After a long moment,
Qin Yi spoke again, but this time he was already discussing practical matters. To maintain control, one had to apply pressure at the right times. He said softly:
"There's a hidden chamber beneath the broken shrine east of town, where this group of roaming bandits stores their smuggled goods. I'll think tonight about how to deal with it."
"Oh, right. The bundle of weapons you brought back can be sold for money too. Forget the crossbows though. You can use them to set up more traps in the courtyard, like I taught you before."
"There's a tendon in the arm and shin of the ape that's quite tough. It can be made into a crossbow string. Disassemble it and set it aside for now. The next time I wake up, I can use it to improve the draw weight of those crossbows..."
"...Okay."
Something dimmed in Ruan Su's pitch-black eyes, but she didn't show it. She silently noted down the boy's instructions and responded with a smile.
After wiping down his upper body, she knelt half-crouched on the ground, her knees pressing into the cold floor. She took hold of the boy's ankle, removed his shoes, and began wiping the bloodstains from his legs.
Autumn wind seeped into the room, and Qin Yi, bare-chested, instinctively shivered.
Ruan Su's hands stopped abruptly. She hurriedly ran to fetch a worn cotton coat, washed white from repeated launderings, and came running back to drape it over him.
"Be... careful... not to catch cold."
She folded the lapels of the cotton coat over his chest, her fingertips tying a knot in the fastening cord, her movements gentle and practiced.
Looking at the girl's hands that didn't match her age, Qin Yi suddenly said softly:
"I can actually do this myself. I'm awake right now."
"I am... your big sister."
Ruan Su shot him a glare, leaving no room for argument.
Qin Yi immediately shut his mouth.
This older sister of his was terrifyingly stubborn about certain things.
After washing his body, Ruan Su went to the courtyard to fetch another bucket of clean water and brought back the soap Qin Yi had made himself from herbs:
"Lower... your head. There's... blood in your hair too."
Water droplets ran down along his strands of hair, the girl's fingertips pressing gently against his scalp.
Qin Yi pondered for a moment, then brought up the practical matters again:
"Sis, the old master might come looking for you tomorrow or the day after."
"...Huh?"
Ruan Su's movements washing his hair paused briefly.
Qin Yi explained:
"This attack was probably just the young master acting on impulse and emotion."
"Why...?" Ruan Su didn't understand.
Qin Yi smiled slightly and said softly:
"We're of low birth. In the young master's eyes, even if he likes you, he'd see it as an act of grace. The way you rejected him, he was bound to want to teach you a lesson. The old master is different. For someone who built the Immortal Guest Lodge to its current scale, he values interests over emotions. In other words, your future value."
"...Oh."
Ruan Su frowned slightly and gave a soft acknowledgment.
After a moment of silence,
Her voice remained hoarse and difficult, but carried a hint of barely perceptible gravity:
"But... Xiao Yi, the one who came to propose marriage on the young master's behalf... was the old master."