Changlin County.
Fine snow fluttered in the sky. Winter was already deep, and mixed within the fine snow was a cold rain that chilled one to the marrow.
Xiao Changling let out a breath. The white vapor from her mouth quickly dispersed into the darkness. She held a small lantern in her hand.
The fine ice particles tapped against the surface of the lantern, producing a crackling sound.
As the wind blew through the narrow alleyway, the cold wind caused the lantern in Xiao Changling’s hand to sway wildly back and forth.
Xiao Changling lowered her eyebrows and eyes. Ordinary women would not dare to walk along such a path, but Xiao Changling had walked back and forth along it countless times.
The fine fragments of ice scratched her face until it throbbed with pain. Xiao Changling tightened her grip on the rough bamboo pole of the lantern.
Fingers that had been exceptionally well-maintained could not avoid becoming rough and red in such a freezing winter.
She pulled the hood on her head lower, concealing her beautiful face along with a pair of eyes that resembled stars polished like black ink.
In a small border town, night curfews were usually exceptionally strict.
In the dark of night, one never knew whether enemy troops would arrive first, or if drunkards or bandits would suddenly burst out.
A rustling sound came from deep within the alley. Xiao Changling grasped the short dagger hidden inside her sleeve.
“Hey, who’s up ahead? Hurry back!”
Suddenly, Xiao Changling was called out to. She came to an abrupt halt. Behind her, a person dressed as a soldier pointed a torch at her, brows furrowed as he barked sharply.
“Who are you? Do you have a pass token?”
Xiao Changling turned around. A corner of her hood was blown open by the wind, revealing a pair of eyes inside. She looked at the soldier ahead, smiled, and said:
“The winter is too cold. I went out to exchange for some charcoal and cotton quilts.”
The woman’s voice was brought to an extremely slow pace, as if it naturally possessed a magic that made people deeply convinced, compelling others to unconsciously believe the words coming out of her mouth.
Underneath the hood, the woman wore no pearl hairpins on her head; her long hair was tied up with a hairpin made of ram’s horn, and two plain silver earrings dotted her earlobes. Aside from these, there were no other valuable items on her person.
However, just looking at a face like this, one could tell at a glance that she was once a lady from a wealthy and prominent family.
An iron token flashed past from Xiao Changling’s hand.
“I have a token. I will head back right away.”
If it were normal times, the soldier would come forward, ask a couple of questions, and quickly scold her to hurry home. But today was different.
The soldier’s gaze swept up and down over Xiao Changling, as if confirming her identity.
It seemed that he had indeed seen her before.
The soldier narrowed his eyes and forcefully snatched the iron-cast token from Xiao Changling’s hand.
Xiao Changling’s pupils contracted for a fraction of a second. She tightened her grip on the dagger inside her sleeve.
“What’s wrong? Is there a problem?”
An accompanying soldier walked over quickly, his gaze equally sharp as it swept across Xiao Changling. He brought the torch closer, carefully scrutinizing Xiao Changling’s face.
“It’s not that person.”
“Holding a token from the Princess’s Manor, she should be a servant by that woman’s side.”
The soldier said in a low voice. The two exchanged glances, and out of a mind to avoid trouble, they shook their heads.
“Hurry back. Forget the Princess’s Manor, even if the Heavenly King himself came, it is still the time of curfew right now.”
Xiao Changling lowered her brows and eyes, answering softly in response: “I understand.”
The Princess’s Manor in Changlin County had always been an existence that everyone considered unlucky and avoided.
Though called a Princess’s Manor, it did not even have an official plaque. Inside was locked a princess who had been driven out of the Imperial Capital.
An existence that everyone in the Imperial Capital found unlucky was even more so upon reaching this borderland. No servants would treat her seriously, leaving behind only a spacious yet crude building, where no one would care whether the princess lived or died.
Xiao Changling held the swaying small lantern and watched as the two soldiers disappeared into the alley.
Xiao Changling’s delicate brows furrowed slightly.
Something was wrong; something was very wrong.
The Great Zhou Dynasty had just won a victorious battle. Even if the entire nation was not celebrating, it certainly should not be this grim and solemn.
Were they searching for someone?
Xiao Changling suppressed the doubts in her eyes, turned around, and walked into the dark, secluded alley.
Fine snow fell onto her cloak and was soon blown away by a gust of wind. On the frozen blue flagstones, every single step Xiao Changling took produced a fine, crunching sound.
She stepped on and shattered the thin layer of ice on the ground.
Aside from the sound of her footsteps, a subtle, extremely faint noise came from the darkness.
It did not sound like the wind howling past her ears, nor did it sound like the softly falling snow. Rather, it sounded like the creaking noise of a heavy object leaning against a doorboard.
There was also a faint, intermittent gasping.
The gasping came and went, making one feel that this person might breathe their last breath at any moment.
Xiao Changling’s footsteps paused for a moment. In the next second, a cold glint flashed past, and she gripped a short dagger decorated with gold and jewels tightly in her hand.
The dim light of the lantern probed into the darkness inch by inch, and subsequently, Xiao Changling saw a figure curled up against a dilapidated wooden doorboard.
It was a woman.
A strong, thick stench of blood rushed straight at her face.
The woman was leaning against the cold wooden doorboard, her body curled up together, her hair stained with blood foam and stuck to her face.
More air was going out than coming in. Her dark-colored clothes were drenched through with fresh blood, which had long since frozen rock-hard in the freezing midnight air that was several degrees below zero.
A large patch of blood spread out from beneath her, presenting a shocking sight.
Xiao Changling’s breathing stalled for a second. She brought the light of the lantern closer, only then clearly seeing that the woman’s body was covered in wounds. Every single wound varied in depth, looking at a glance like they were caused by sharp weapons.
Her leg was twisted to one side in an extremely unnatural manner, clearly broken.
“Hss, ”
The woman sitting in the corner of the wall was shivering violently. A face that should have been as pale as paper displayed an unnatural flush of fever.
Her long eyelashes, like the wings of a butterfly unfolding, trembled slightly, and her dry, cracked lips were also an unnatural shade of red.
“So hot… so hot…”
That woman held a broken sword in her hand, and her hands were also covered with several split wounds. Xiao Changling used the short blade in her hand to pick open her sleeve; fine, fragmented wounds, both old and new, extended all the way to her elbow.
Just a single glance was enough to make one’s heart freeze with fear.
Xiao Changling set the lantern down to the side. She stood on the windward side, blocking the gusts of cold wind blowing over.
Xiao Changling was not naturally a meddlesome person. Her current situation was already extraordinarily difficult, and she did not wish to cause more trouble.
However, just as Xiao Changling intended to merely search the woman’s body to see if there was a token, she saw a somewhat familiar appearance on the woman’s face.
She wore damaged armor on her body. Judging by the appearance of the armor, she looked like a certain military officer from the front lines.
For a woman to go to the battlefield was truly rare.
Not only did she go to the battlefield, but she had also managed to earn at least the title of a military officer.
Xiao Changling’s heart suddenly throbbed. As if possessed by spirits, she pulled out a handkerchief to wipe away the dirty blood on the face of the woman before her.
Just as her hand touched the cheek, the unconscious Ning Yan suddenly opened her eyes, and Xiao Changling’s wrist was abruptly seized by a powerful force.
Xiao Changling instinctively held up her short blade to block, but her movement was too slow.
How could she possibly compare to Ning Yan, who had been through a hundred battles?
Her wrist was suddenly squeezed until it hurt fiercely; the force was so immense it felt as if it would crush a person’s bones to pieces.
Amidst this commotion, Xiao Changling suddenly smelled a familiar fragrance.
It was an indescribably sweet scent, like a lotus blooming in the ice and snow, or like the scent of osmanthus flowers covered by snow.
The high fever had long tormented Ning Yan beyond recognition. Her cheeks were flushed with an unnatural crimson, looking remarkably bewitching and moving under the eaves covered in snow.
“Who are you?!”
Ning Yan spoke in a dry, raspy voice that sounded as if it had been ground by sandpaper.
In the next moment, the golden short blade in Xiao Changling’s hand had been snatched away, its sharp edge pressing directly against Xiao Changling’s neck.
The person holding the knife looked as if she would faint in the very next second, yet her hand did not tremble at all. The bottom of her eyes carried an intense murderous aura, looking like a wild beast backed into a corner, issuing an unwilling roar.
She was already at the end of her rope.
Xiao Changling held onto the knife hilt. Suppressing the shock in her heart, she feigned calmness as she spoke:
“The patrolling soldiers tonight suddenly increased in number. They should be looking for you.”
Xiao Changling’s clear, cold voice flatly stated a fact. “If you continue to stay here, you will be found in less than fifteen minutes. Your leg shouldn’t be able to move, right?”
The corners of Xiao Changling’s mouth rose into a curve that seemed to be a smile, yet also resembled satire.
“How tragic. A military general from the front lines, reduced to such a state now. Your body temperature isn’t low; you must have a fever. Even if you aren’t found by them, on a night like this where water freezes into ice the moment it drops, you won’t live until sunrise.”
Ning Yan sized up this strange woman wearing a hood from head to toe.
This woman’s attire was extremely plain, looking like a resident. But judging by her speech and demeanor, she was completely different from a rustic country woman, sounding somewhat like someone from a wealthy household in her choice of words.
Not a simple character.
Ning Yan wanted to continue holding onto the broken sword, but waves of an indescribable heat flowed within her body, causing her to bite down tightly on her lower lip, biting it until beads of blood emerged.
A layer of fragile flush surfaced on her face. Her features, which possessed a rather heroic aura and should have looked quite sharp, gained a few touches of gorgeous beauty when flushed by this heat.
Xiao Changling looked silently at the fragile woman on the ground, initially thinking that avoiding extra trouble was better than causing it.
However, when her gaze fell upon the damaged armor on the woman’s chest once more, she suddenly dazed off slightly.
“Someone like you who fights for the country shouldn’t die here. Just consider me a good Samaritan.”
Xiao Changling bent down and painstakingly helped Ning Yan up.
A stench of blood rushed straight at her, permeating the air around Xiao Changling.
“Let go of me, get lost!”
Ning Yan instinctively wanted to prevent this danger from coming any closer, but she no longer had any strength left in her body to struggle further, leaving her with no choice but to submit to Xiao Changling’s actions.
Stumbling with every step, Xiao Changling dragged and supported Ning Yan up out of the snow, leaving a long trail behind on the ground.
Soon, another blizzard swept through. Fresh snow fell onto the ground, covering up the blood traces that had been dragged across it.
Ning Yan was settled into a crude cottage. Fortunately, the house was sufficient to block out the wind and snow.
Charcoal was lit inside the room.
Ning Yan curled up on the daybed. Unsure if the pain had surpassed its limit, she no longer felt much discomfort from the wounds on her body; only the heat spreading out from inside her bones caused her consciousness to sink completely into a daze.
Layers of morbid, false heat bloomed across her cheeks, and under the effect of that vile aphrodisiac, her pair of eyes filled with physiological tears.
The flush on her face spread all the way down to her neck.
Bursts of muffled groans came from the bed. Xiao Changling carried a basin of hot water over, only to witness such a scene upon her return.
The woman she had kindly rescued on a snowy night was now making fine, fragmented gasping sounds from her mouth from time to time.
Her fingers were on the verge of clutching several holes into the bedsheet Xiao Changling had just laid out.
Xiao Changling:?
Ning Yan clamped her teeth tightly together. Her four limbs were weak and limp, instinctively craving physical touch.
Damn it!
Xiao Changling had read quite a few medical books and classic texts. She stepped forward to place her fingers on Ning Yan’s wrist, intending to check her pulse, only for that woman to suddenly charge up like a wild beast, her lips pressing straight onto Xiao Changling’s lips.
Xiao Changling was caught completely off guard: !!
It was not a kiss at all; it was entirely a violent biting and chewing.
Snatching away the air inside Xiao Changling’s mouth, tasting the blood beads emerging from the tip of her tongue.
“Mmh! Are you crazy?!”
Ning Yan had long been unable to distinguish who the person before her was, left only with the instincts driven by the love poison in her bones.
The blurry figure standing in her field of vision radiated an exceptionally pleasant scent just by standing there.
Ning Yan’s half-closed eyes were filled with suppressed craving.
Her lips opened and closed unconsciously.
Under the effect of the drug, she only wanted to resolve the burning heat currently inside her body.
The metallic taste of blood on the tip of Xiao Changling’s tongue was completely swept away by the other party. Just as Xiao Changling was about to lose her temper and push the person away, the woman fainted dead away.
Even before fainting, she did not forget to tightly clutch Xiao Changling’s sleeve.
As if greedy for the cool sensation on her body.