“Handsome, I’m afraid of pain. Lend me your finger.”
Ignoring the man’s icy, menacing gaze, Ji Yunsu bit down on his fingertip with her pearly teeth. Instantly, a crimson bead of blood welled up from the pale pad of his finger.
The slight pain from his fingertip caused Pei Wuheng’s distant-mountain-like thick brows to furrow slightly.
Before he could react, he saw the audacious, plump woman tear off a piece of fabric from his undergarments with a “rip!”
The pupils in Pei Wuheng’s deep phoenix eyes abruptly contracted into black dots!
“Don’t worry, my poison has been neutralized. I won’t force myself on you anymore.”
A glimpse of well-defined muscles came into view. Ji Yunsu blinked twice, secretly swallowed, and spoke with feigned seriousness.
As she spoke, Ji Yunsu used the man’s finger to scribble on the fabric.
“Here, this is a prescription to cure your illness. You saved my life, I’m returning the favor. We’re even.”
While saying this, Ji Yunsu directly stuffed the fabric into Pei Wuheng’s chest.
“The master’s distress signal came from ahead! Hurry!”
Suddenly, an urgent voice rang out.
Ji Yunsu’s almond-shaped eyes flickered. Not good! Could it be the man’s subordinates coming?
Judging by his extraordinary attire, this man must be someone important. This lady needs to make a quick escape!
Having decided, Ji Yunsu tossed out, “Handsome, let’s never meet again,” then lifted her skirts and, enduring the discomfort from her first time, immediately took off like greased lightning.
Pei Wuheng stared fixedly as the woman’s plump figure “whooshed” into the forest and disappeared.
“Pfft!” A mouthful of blood sprayed from his thin lips.
His body still couldn’t move! Damn it!
You fat sow, just wait! I will definitely find you, tear you to pieces, and grind your bones to dust!
“The master is over there!”
In the darkness, a group of tall, robustly dressed guards emerged with swift “whooshing” sounds.
They immediately spotted Pei Wuheng and hastily carried away the immobilized, speechless man from the desolate mountains.
Some time later, rustling sounds came from the bushes.
Soon after, a swollen, pudgy face—bloated from poison—peeked out from the thicket.
In Ji Yunsu’s beautiful almond eyes, which starkly contrasted her ugly, bloated face, a bright, uncertain light flickered.
Gazing in the direction where the group of tall guards had carried the Transcendent Immortal away, she unconsciously murmured.
“I need to quickly detoxify my body. Otherwise, with this pig-faced appearance, I’ll be caught sooner or later!”
For Ji Yunsu, she believed in facing the consequences of her actions alone. If caught, at worst, she’d go to jail and emerge to start anew.
But now she wasn’t alone. She had a mother and a younger brother. Having family meant she had to consider the repercussions if things came to light.
She couldn’t implicate her mother and brother!
With this thought, Ji Yunsu wasted no more time. Resolutely turning around, she headed toward a simple thatched cottage at the mountain’s base.
Meanwhile, at the foot of the mountain, inside the humble thatched cottage.
Under the dim light of a bean-sized oil lamp, a beautiful woman in coarse cloth and a simple hairpin was doing needlework.
The woman’s eyes seemed somewhat impaired. In the dimly lit room, her embroidery work appeared rather laborious.
Each time she pushed the needle into the fabric, she had to lean in very, very close to find the right spot.
“Mother, your eyes aren’t good. You should wait until daytime to do your embroidery.”
Ji Wenbo was squatting on the ground, gripping a wooden stick as he practiced writing characters with intense concentration.
When he turned his head and saw how hard his mother was working on her needlework, his sallow, thin, childish face couldn’t help but show deep distress, and he couldn’t stop himself from speaking up.
Liu Rumei coughed weakly several times. Her pale but gentle face broke into a soft smile as she said tenderly,
“Your elder sister’s feet have been swelling badly lately. Her old shoes don’t fit anymore.”
“If Mother finishes them sooner, your sister will suffer less. Mother is fine.”
Hearing this, Ji Wenbo pursed his lips, wanting to say something but not knowing what.
In the end, the young boy could only lower his head dejectedly and secretly wipe away his tears.
Mother works day and night doing embroidery for others to support me and my sister.
Her health is ruined, her eyes are ruined, but I can’t help at all. I’m so useless!
The more the boy thought about it, the more frustrated he became. The branch he was using to practice writing snapped with a “crack” in his tightly clenched fist.
Seeing this, Liu Rumei’s gentle eyes showed a trace of worry as she softly called out,
“Wenbo, don’t be sad. As long as you and your sister are well, no matter how much hardship Mother endures, it doesn’t matter.”
“Mother…”
Ji Wenbo’s nose stung with emotion, and he immediately threw himself into Liu Rumei’s embrace.
Liu Rumei coughed violently several more times. When she opened the hand she had been covering her mouth with and saw the blood she had coughed up in her palm, fear inevitably surfaced in her eyes.
Lately she had felt her health deteriorating day by day. Was she going to die?
She still had a daughter and son to care for. She didn’t want to die, she couldn’t die!
Heavens, I beg you, please give me a little more time. Let me make arrangements for my son and daughter’s future before I close my eyes forever.
“Mother, you’re coughing up blood!”
Ji Wenbo had also seen the blood in Liu Shi’s palm now, and his face turned pale with fright.
Almost simultaneously, Ji Wenbo turned around anxiously: “Mother, I’ll go find my sister. You must hold on!”
“Wenbo, your sister said when she went out that we should stay home and wait for her to return. Don’t run around, be obedient—cough! Cough, cough!”
Ever since her daughter had woken up yesterday after narrowly escaping death, Liu Rumei had learned from her that all three of them had been poisoned with a slow-acting toxin and could die at any moment.
Liu Rumei had kept this secret, worried about frightening her son.
Although she found it puzzling how certain her daughter was about their poisoning.
After all, her daughter had never studied medicine or understood healing.
But seeing how confidently and logically her daughter spoke, Liu Rumei couldn’t help but believe her.
Still, who would want to harm the three of them, and why would they want to harm them? Liu Rumei couldn’t figure it out no matter how much she thought about it.
“Bam!”
Suddenly, the dilapidated, drafty door was kicked open from outside.
A crowd of people swarmed into the room.
Seeing this, Liu Rumei quickly hugged her son Ji Wenbo and shrank into the corner.
“Who are you people? Breaking in in the middle of the night—what do you want!?”
Ji Wenbo mustered his courage and lifted his sallow, thin, childish face—marked by the poisoning—as he warily challenged the uninvited guests who had flooded into their home.
As the words fell, an opulently dressed elderly matron, her face full of fleshy creases, stepped out from the crowd.
This was Zhang Momo, a trusted confidante of Grand Tutor Ji’s wife, Qin Shi.
With an air of haughty arrogance, Zhang Momo looked disdainfully at Liu Rumei and her child cowering in the corner and spoke contemptuously.
“Concubine Liu, your good days are about to arrive. This old servant has been specially dispatched by Grand Tutor Ji’s order to take you and your two children to the capital for permanent residence.”
Hearing this, a flicker of shock passed through Liu Rumei’s gentle eyes – Grand Tutor Ji!
Memories came flooding back. Back then, she had defied her parents’ objections and used all her dowry to support her beloved Ji, providing him travel expenses to go to the capital for the imperial examinations.
That separation had lasted sixteen full years. The year after Ji left, she gave birth to dragon-phoenix twins for him.
Because they had married without parental consent, bringing shame to her family, she was driven out of the village.
All these years, there had been no word from her beloved Ji. She had assumed something must have happened to him during his journey to the capital for the examinations, which was why he never returned to find her.
She never imagined that her Ji had become such a high-ranking official as Grand Tutor in the capital?!
“This Grand Tutor Ji you speak of – is his name Ji Xueli?”
“How dare you! How can a country woman like you casually address the Grand Tutor by his personal name?” Old Matron Zhang rebuked her harshly.
With that, Zhang Momo waved her hand impatiently and ordered her servants to force Liu Rumei and her children into the carriage.
“Let go of my mother!”
“Release my mother!”
Ji Wenbo watched as his mother was dragged out of the house by a group of fierce-looking servants and rushed forward to stop them.
But one burly servant simply shoved Ji Wenbo aside with one push.
With a loud thud, Ji Wenbo’s forehead hit the corner of a table, immediately causing blood to flow freely!
“Wenbo!”