Su Niao’s mind buzzed. What was he trying to do? Had he finally been tempted by her looks? Impossible.
In her previous life, she had treated him far worse than this. She had even coaxed him, promising that if he submitted and softened his attitude, she would release him and stop tormenting him. Yet he had stubbornly refused to bow his head, even when the torture left his eyes bloodshot.
Had he suddenly changed now? But it didn’t matter. She had prepared a backup plan.
Struggling, Su Niao reached for the hidden Rainstorm Pear Blossom Needles concealed at her waist.
The moment she moved, however, Xie Chenyan caught her arm and held it down. “Don’t move. There are people.”
Holding her low in the grass, Chen Yan lifted his gaze toward the mountain path above them. He had heard movement—quite a few people, in fact.
And there had been the unmistakable sound of weapons colliding. Those were not sounds that should have been heard here.
Su Niao paused in the act of reaching for her weapon and looked up skeptically. But when she saw the expression on Xie Chenyan’s face, she found herself believing him a little.
Almost at that very moment, hurried footsteps approached.
A group of people came down the mountainside at high speed. As they walked, they swept away their tracks with leafy branches, erasing any trace of their passage. Their behavior looked suspicious, no matter how you viewed it. Each of them carried palpable killing intent and constantly scanned their surroundings.
Then one of them suddenly stopped. “I smell something.” His nose twitched repeatedly like a hunting dog’s. “A woman’s fragrance. She can’t have gone far.”
Another person coldly replied: “We can’t let anyone discover our tracks. Find them and kill them.”
Su Niao: …?
As she watched the group spread out, weapons in hand, and begin searching the area, nervousness surged through her. And at that exact moment, a belated realization struck her. How on earth did I come up with such a flawed plan in the first place?
Just like the last time, when she had gone through enormous trouble to lure a wolf pack over, only to spend even more effort hiring people to kill the wolves afterward. Is there something wrong with my brain? She wasn’t just doing stupid things; she was unbelievably unlucky, too!
Suddenly, Su Niao remembered those strange voices she had heard while lying on her deathbed in her previous life. Those voices had said that she was destined to be cannon fodder, while Su Xuan possessed a heroine’s halo. They also said that the stronger Su Xuan’s halo became, the more cannon-fodder role she would play. Originally, Su Niao hadn’t understood any of that nonsense. But in that moment, the pieces unexpectedly clicked into place.
It seemed that she had come up with this revenge plan right after hearing that Su Xuan and Xie Qinglan had become engaged. How had she thought it through at the time?
Su Niao tried hard to remember, yet no matter how much she racked her brain, she could not recall exactly how this plan had occurred to her. Just then, someone drew close.
Xie Chenyan exploded into motion. Swinging the hunting machete he had brought, he struck down the man who had approached them. At the same time, he shoved Su Niao toward the downhill path.
“Run.”
Then he charged forward himself, blade in hand, blocking the attackers’ way.
Seeing a lone man standing in their path with nothing but a single knife, the group didn’t take Xie Chenyan seriously.
The apparent leader said flatly, “Kill them all.” But then he noticed Su Niao turning and fleeing downhill without the slightest hesitation. Her face was far too striking to overlook.
The leader paused briefly, then changed his order. “Keep the woman alive.”
With a thud, Su Niao crashed to the ground.
To kill Xie Chenyan, she had mixed an exceptionally large dose of the muscle-weakening powder. And now, she had ended up poisoning herself. Her legs suddenly went weak. Struggling to her feet, she staggered downhill as fast as she could, but her steps were unsteady and chaotic. Footsteps rapidly closed in behind her.
A man’s delighted, sinister laugh sounded out. “A beauty, huh?”
But in the very next instant, a scream rang through the forest.
Su Niao watched as Xie Chenyan rushed over. With a single thrust of his blade, he ran the man clean through.
Blood sprayed across Su Niao’s clothes. Her eyes flew wide open in shock. Only then did she truly realize that killing someone was not a simple matter. And she had actually come up with the brilliant idea of luring the highly skilled Xie Chenyan into the mountains and killing him.
In those brief moments, the others had already formed a ring around them, completely cutting off the route down the mountain.
“Little beauty, come over here,” the masked leader sneered. “I won’t kill you.”
“It wouldn’t be worth losing your life alongside your sweetheart there. Follow me from now on, and I’ll treat you well.”
“Okay,” Su Niao immediately replied.
Avoiding the hand Xie Chenyan had extended to shield her, she lifted her skirts and walked a couple of steps forward. Bracing herself with all her remaining strength, she stretched out a hand toward the bandits. “I can’t walk anymore. Which one of you is going to carry me?”
Several nearby men grinned lewdly and approached, eager to claim the unexpected beauty they had found in this remote wilderness.
At that very moment, Su Niao’s other hand shot out. She pressed the hidden trigger of the Rainstorm Pear Blossom Needles concealed at her side. The mechanism sprang open—a flurry of nearly inaudible projectiles sliced through the air, followed by screams.
In an instant, the five or six men closest to her cried out and collapsed to the ground. Their faces quickly turned a dark bluish-purple. Naturally, the hidden weapon had been poisoned.
Su Niao tossed aside the now-useless launcher and immediately spun around, throwing herself into Xie Chenyan’s arms. “Run!”
Chen Yan caught her, turned, and lunged forward at full speed. These were no ordinary mountain bandits. If he were alone, he might still have had a chance of escaping. But burdened with an extra person, he was no match for them.
With the downhill route completely blocked, Chen Yan could only rely on his memory and race in another direction as fast as he could.
Held in his arms as he ran, Su Niao stared fixedly at the pursuers closing in behind them, clutching another hidden weapon tightly in her hand.
“I only have one left,” she said to Xie Chenyan.
Mainly because she had never expected to be this unlucky. She had only brought two. Had she known things would turn out like this, she would have carried an entire bag full of them!
“Save it for protecting yourself,” Chen Yan replied.
At that moment, a sharp whistle sounded from behind them. Then another answered from elsewhere in the forest. And another.
The whistles came from different directions. Those people had accomplices. The signals already surrounded them from all sides and steadily drew closer.
Su Niao’s heart pounded wildly. She gripped the Rainstorm Pear Blossom Needles so hard her fingers ached. Though panic-stricken, she maintained a strangely cold-headed calm. An absurd thought even crossed her mind: Which hurts more, being cut down with a blade or being forced to drink poisoned wine?
Then she heard Xie Chenyan say: “There’s a cliff ahead. A river runs below it.”
He spoke quickly but calmly. “Jumping means a slim chance of survival. Miss Su, choose.”
Su Niao understood what he meant. The choice was hers. Jump and gamble on that slim chance of living. Or stay behind and fall into those people’s hands.
Grinding her teeth, she snapped: “If you dare abandon me, I’ll kill you right now.”
The arm around the young woman tightened.
Chen Yan accelerated, carrying her forward at top speed.
Just then, a figure burst out from the forest behind them.
The man wore a black cloak. The moment he saw them racing toward the cliff, he realized what they intended to do. Abandoning the chase, he raised his arm. The whistle of something cutting through the air lasted only an instant.
Su Niao had no time to react. The moment she saw him, she instinctively triggered her hidden weapon, hoping to stop him from getting closer.
At that same instant, Xie Chenyan abruptly pulled her in front of him and leaped from the cliff with her in his arms.
The fall seemed both incredibly brief and unbearably long.
Su Niao had already lost her grip on her hidden weapon. Her eyes were wide as she desperately clutched the front of Xie Chenyan’s robes.
The moment she heard Xie Chenyan say, “Hold your breath,” Su Niao immediately stopped breathing.
With a tremendous splash, the two of them crashed into the water together.
The impact was enormous. For an instant, Su Niao thought she had struck solid rock, yet she was unmistakably sinking into the river.
After a stream of bubbles escaped her lips, she instinctively struggled toward the surface through her dizziness. But her limbs were weak, and she floundered helplessly in the water, choking and disoriented. Just as she thought she was about to drown, her hand suddenly tightened. Then she was yanked up out of the water.
Looking up, Su Niao saw that Xie Chenyan’s face was somewhat pale. After pulling her above the surface, he reminded her: “Relax your body and stretch out your limbs.”
She was so frightened that she instinctively wanted to grab hold of him. But the water was both deep and swift. The moment she moved, she nearly sank again.
Knowing that panicking would only get her killed faster, and understanding that the man who had just saved her would not deceive her now, Su Niao forced herself to suppress her terror and slowly spread out her arms and legs. To her amazement, she gradually began floating on the surface.
Once he saw that she had calmed down, Chen Yan lifted his head and surveyed the forests lining the riverbanks. This stretch of water was broad, with sheer cliffs on both sides that could not be climbed. He therefore refrained from making any rash moves.
Only after some time, when the current slowed and riverbanks finally appeared on either side, did he pull Su Niao toward shore.
Half an hour later, they finally climbed onto dry land.
Only then did Su Niao notice that a wound marked Xie Chenyan’s back, with part of an arrow shaft still protruding from it. He had been hit by a crossbow bolt.
“You’ve been shot!” Su Niao’s eyes widened.
Had she seen Xie Chenyan wounded before today, she would have been overjoyed. In fact, if they had been anywhere else, she might still have found it immensely satisfying. But now they were deep in the mountains, surrounded by wilderness. There was no telling whether those vicious, mysterious pursuers would continue the chase. She did not even know the way through the mountains. If something happened to Xie Chenyan, she would likely be buried with him.
Su Niao had never imagined that only moments ago she had been hoping for his death, yet now she was terrified that something might happen to him.
Chen Yan clearly already knew he had been struck. He glanced over his shoulder at the arrow and then said to her: “I fear I’ll have to trouble Miss Su to pull the arrowhead out for me.”
Su Niao was stunned. “Pull it out? Me?”
She immediately shook her head. “I can’t. I don’t know how. I really can’t…”
Chen Yan drew in a sharp breath. “The arrow is probably poisoned. If the arrowhead isn’t removed, I won’t be able to get you out of here.”
At once, Su Niao clenched her fists and gritted her teeth. “What do I need to do?”
“Pull out the arrowhead. Then use this dagger to cut open the wound…”
Su Niao took the small dagger that Xie Chenyan produced from somewhere. First, she sliced open the clothing on his back. Then she hovered the blade over the crossbow bolt embedded in his flesh several times before finally hardening her heart and making a shallow cut alongside the shaft.
“Pull it out,” Chen Yan said in a low voice.
Gritting her teeth, Su Niao grabbed the end of the arrow and yanked hard.
With the sickening tear of flesh, the arrowhead came free. Immediately afterward, a stream of blackened blood welled out. The horrifying sight, coupled with the thick metallic smell of blood, made Su Niao turn her head and retch. Tears sprang into her eyes.
Chen Yan glanced at the pale-faced young lady, whose eyes were watery from vomiting. “Are you all right?”
Su Niao waved her hand. After taking several deep breaths to suppress the nausea, she asked: “The blood is black. What about the poison?”
She still wanted to make it back alive. This man had better not die halfway there.
Chen Yan looked at her. After a brief pause, he said: “The poisoned blood around the wound needs to be sucked out…”
Su Niao nearly jumped to her feet. Suck out the poison? There was no way she was doing that for him. She would rather die!
She forcibly swallowed back the curse that nearly escaped her lips. She had not forgotten that she still depended on this man.
Forcing out a strained smile, Su Niao cautiously ventured: “It shouldn’t matter if we don’t do that, right? You don’t seem all that seriously injured…”
As long as he could stay alive long enough to get her out of the mountains, that was good enough.
Chen Yan said nothing further. Instead, he merely asked her to help bandage the wound and stop the bleeding.
Su Niao didn’t know how to bandage wounds, nor did she want to touch the injury that was still steadily bleeding. But she knew she still had to rely on Xie Chenyan. So, forcing down her revulsion, she cut a strip from the hem of her skirt. Following Xie Chenyan’s instructions, she awkwardly and reluctantly pressed on the wound and managed to wrap it tightly enough to stop the bleeding.
As she wound the bandage around his chest, Chen Yan quietly took in the sight of the pampered young lady. Her lips were pressed together. Her brows were knitted. She was plainly enduring her disgust through sheer force of will. Even battered by hardship and looking somewhat disheveled, she was still a bedraggled little peacock. His gaze fell upon the blood smeared across the back of her hand and staining her sleeve.
Thinking about how that blood belonged to him, Chen Yan’s eyes darkened slightly. The feeling of this delicate young lady being stained by him… To his surprise, it brought him a strange sense of satisfaction. So it turned out he, too, could harbor such dark thoughts.