Seeing the worry on Wei Yan’s face, Wei Ning merely replied, “I’m fine.”
The burly escort officer couldn’t figure out the leader’s attitude.
Was he an enemy or an ally?
Along the journey, there had been people who had shown the Wei family kindness, as well as plenty who had kicked them while they were down.
Otherwise, the escort officers wouldn’t have waited until they entered Liaodong before making their move.
Putting on a flattering smile, the burly escort officer said, “My lord, look, Miss Wei is still holding the stolen saber, and it’s covered in blood. Shouldn’t she be treated as a rebel?”
The leader casually glanced toward Wei Ning and Wei Yan.
He replied coldly, “Isn’t this simply a case of an escort officer dying of illness on the way to exile? What’s there to deal with?”
The escort officer immediately understood.
This official intended to protect the Wei family.
Old Zhang was dead, and so be it. But the escort officer had suffered such humiliation, and his groin was still aching faintly. The anger in his chest had nowhere to go.
Unexpectedly, he foolishly argued back.
“My lord, there are so many witnesses here, and the physical evidence is obvious. I can’t exactly make up a story to cover this up, can I?”
“Witnesses? Who?”
The leader’s cold gaze fixed on the burly escort officer.
“You? Or the members of the Wei family lying on the ground like corpses?”
His voice became colder as he spoke, each word deliberate.
“If we investigate this matter thoroughly, who knows whose crime we’ll end up having to punish?”
The two escort officers finally remembered the strange behavior of the Wei family.
Under the leader’s piercing gaze, cold sweat broke out all over their bodies. Neither of them dared utter another word.
The burly escort officer glanced at the more than twenty Imperial Guards who had stood silently in the background from beginning to end.
He understood.
If this official wanted to crush him, he wouldn’t stand a chance of surviving.
“You’ll reach Yinzhou Guard tomorrow. After all your hard work, you’ll finally be able to complete your assignment and return safely to the capital. Isn’t that right?”
The burly escort officer was unwilling, but he could only nod eagerly in agreement.
“Yes, yes. We’ve been working hard for nearly four months. My wife and children are waiting for me to come home.”
The younger escort officer was, after all, still young. The leader’s aura—one that seemed to have been forged through countless brushes with death—had frightened him so badly that he couldn’t even speak.
The leader casually sat down beside the wall near the fire, leaning his back against it and closing his eyes.
“It is already late. Settle down early. We still have to travel tomorrow morning.”
The Imperial Guards behind him said nothing.
They simply gathered around the fire, each finding a place to sit. Some leaned against the wall while others lay on their sides, and soon they fell asleep.
No one paid any attention to the corpse of the old escort officer nearby.
No one paid attention to Wei Yan and Wei Ning standing there either.
It was as if none of it existed.
The two escort officers nearby were also stunned.
Could it be that the Imperial Guards simply couldn’t be bothered to interfere in the conflict between them and the Wei family, rather than actually being on the Wei family’s side?
But the escort officers didn’t dare do anything else.
If they guessed wrong, they would only bring disaster upon themselves.
The crisis was temporarily resolved.
Wei Ning’s hand relaxed, and the large saber fell to the ground with a loud clang.
She had been holding herself together purely through sheer tension. Now that she suddenly relaxed, her body swayed weakly, and she nearly lost her balance.
Wei Yan hurriedly bent over and moved his shoulder toward her.
“Ning’er, hold onto Big Brother’s shoulder. I’ll help you back over there.”
Wei Ning didn’t bother being polite anymore.
She grabbed Wei Yan’s shoulder and relied on his strength as the two of them staggered back toward the area where the Wei family was resting.
They sat down against the wall, hidden in the shadows.
The two escort officers exchanged glances before walking over and carrying the old escort officer’s corpse outside.
No one knew whether they buried him or simply threw him somewhere.
They didn’t sneak back into the temple until an hour later, when they found a spot near the entrance and quietly lay down to sleep.
After the two escort officers carried the old man’s body away, Wei Yan finally spoke softly.
“Ning’er, how are you feeling? Your forehead needs to be bandaged, otherwise the bleeding won’t stop.”
Thinking about how they had nothing with them, let alone medicine to stop the bleeding, he could only use strips of cloth to wrap the wound and hope it would be enough.
“Rip some cloth from Big Brother’s inner garment. That part should be cleaner.”
Wei Ning, breathing slightly heavily, turned her head toward Wei Yan.
He was only sixteen or seventeen years old and so thin that he looked almost skeletal.
His face was pale, and cold sweat covered his forehead. One side of his face was smeared with blood and sand, while the other side remained uninjured.
With his sword-like eyebrows, bright eyes, gentle gaze, and sharply defined features, he was an exceptionally handsome young man.
“How about you?”
Wei Ning asked softly.
“I’m fine. Bandage yourself first.”
Wei Yan stubbornly insisted.
The Wei family’s restraints were iron chains rather than handcuffs. The chains between their hands were long enough to allow the prisoners to perform simple movements.
But Wei Ning had noticed the way Wei Yan struggled to get up from the ground earlier.
She guessed that his arm must have been injured.
“Did you hurt your hand?”
“That bastard twisted it. I’ll rest for a while. It’ll be fine later.”
Wei Ning fell silent.
She needed to recover too.
Her entire body was weak.
After about fifteen minutes, Wei Ning finally regained some strength.
She pulled open Wei Yan’s outer prison garment and tore some cloth from his inner garment around the waist. She ripped it into strips.
She felt around the wound on her forehead and then carefully wrapped the cloth around her head twice before tying it tightly.
Actually, after all this time, the wound had nearly stopped bleeding on its own. The flow had slowed considerably.
After finishing, she had Wei Yan turn around.
She reached out and examined the wrist joint of his injured hand.
Fortunately, there was no fracture.
It was probably dislocated.
Wei Ning massaged the area around his joint and then gently rotated his palm in circles.
Wei Yan’s voice came through his tightly clenched teeth.
“Ning’er, I’m fine. Don’t worry.”
What a fool.
He was already sucking in breaths from the pain, yet he was still trying to reassure her.
“Mm.”
Wei Ning softly acknowledged him.
Her hands didn’t stop moving.
Then she suddenly applied force.
Crack!
The joint snapped back into place.
“Ah!”
Wei Yan couldn’t hold back his cry of pain.
“It’s fine now. Try moving it.”
Wei Ning spoke softly.
She turned around and crawled toward where the water pouches were kept.
She grabbed two of them and crawled back.
“Huh?”
Wei Yan was still immersed in his astonishment at being able to move his hand freely without any pain.
“Doesn’t it hurt having your hands behind your back the whole time?”
Wei Ning reminded him helplessly.
Only then did Wei Yan bring his hands around to the front.
Wei Ning dampened the remaining strips of cloth with water.
Under the dim yellow glow of the fire, she moved closer to Wei Yan and slowly, gently cleaned the sand from the wounds on his face.
“Hiss…”
The pain made Wei Yan instinctively pull back.
“Don’t move. These wounds need to be cleaned properly. Otherwise they’ll become infected and leave scars. Then that handsome face of yours will be ruined!”
Wei Ning spoke quietly.
Hearing this, Wei Yan stared intently at Wei Ning, who was only inches away.
Her expression was calm, and her eyes were focused.
“Ning’er, you’re different from before.”
“How do you know how to set bones and treat wounds? And you’re so skilled at it.”
Wei Ning’s movements paused for a moment before continuing.
During the fifteen minutes she had spent recovering, Wei Ning had also been digesting the original owner’s memories.
The original owner had been weak and sickly since birth.
She had seen countless doctors, but none had been able to do much for her. They had only said that she probably wouldn’t live beyond five or six years old.
Wei Ning’s mother loved her daughter dearly. Desperate for a cure, she had tried everything—folk remedies, praying to the gods and Buddha, and countless other methods.
Eventually, they encountered a traveling physician.
He said the Wei household was too noisy and crowded, and that if the girl were sent to their estate in the countryside to recuperate, she might live longer.
Indeed, she had lived longer.
She had made it to thirteen.
Only to die unexpectedly just now.
Therefore, the members of the Wei family had actually spent very little time with Wei Ning.
Only when they had some free time would they travel by carriage for two days to the estate, where they would stay for two or three days.
“You know me that well?”
Wei Yan was at a loss for words.
His eyes lowered, and his long eyelashes concealed the guilt in his eyes.