Before meeting him face to face, Changling had thought that if the young marquis surnamed He kept babbling about Nanxu this and Nanxu that, she would poke those unenlightened eyes with two fingers to see whether he was blind in his eyes or blind in his heart.
As it turned out, she hadn’t expected that Ye Qi would come up without saying a word, silently extending both arms and forcefully pressing her into his embrace.
“…”
From childhood to adulthood… no wait, she had no memory of her childhood either. In any case, from as far back as she could remember, she had almost never experienced being held in someone’s embrace—even when her elder brother of old showed concern, at most he would lightly encircle his arm and pat her shoulder before letting go. Having spent so much time with ascetic monks, she was never accustomed to expressing thoughts through such means.
Therefore, when Ye Qi hugged her with such genuine emotion and the heavy force of a long-awaited reunion, she was stunned.
What medicine had this fellow taken by mistake?
Ye Qi seemed completely oblivious. His right arm holding her showed no tender care for a woman, rubbing against the sword wound on her left shoulder. In a muffled, low voice, he said, “It’s you. It really is you.”
Just moments ago amid the rain of sabers, spears, and swords, she hadn’t felt any pain. But now, inexplicably squeezed into a sudden jolt, Changling remained silent for a moment. She merely glanced up at him, then aimed her forehead straight at his nose bridge and knocked—
Following Young Master Ye’s muffled groan, hot blood gushed from his nose. The residence soldiers who had been standing around quietly watching the excitement finally reacted, once again raising their weapons with a flourish. “Marquis!”
Ye Qi raised one hand, signaling everyone not to move, while covering his nose with the other hand. Changling successfully broke free from the embrace, her tone carrying two parts imperceptible discomfort. “No sense of restraint.”
No sense of propriety.
Ye Qi didn’t catch the implication in her words. Only now did he finally notice the gash on Changling’s shoulder still bleeding. So shocked he couldn’t even bother covering his nose anymore. “You, you’re injured?”
Before Changling could respond, he looked ahead, shaking his robe angrily. “Whoever had a hand in raising weapons against this young lady just now, step forward!”
All the stunned residence soldiers froze for a moment, then retreated a step in unison.
Their coordinated steps looked as if they’d discussed it beforehand.
“It’s not their fault. Mainly, your gate isn’t easy to enter.” Changling sighed helplessly. “Can you not just stand there? I’d like to bandage the wound. This blood seems unable to stop.”
The exterior of Marquis He’s residence was naturally imposing beyond words. The marquis’s own quarters took the four characters “extravagant luxury” to the extreme. Just digging a pit in the bedroom for bathing was enough to make one dumbfounded.
The water in the pool had apparently just been filled. Walking to the edge, one could smell a bit of sulfur. Changling had originally been criticizing it internally, but when she realized this entire pool was hot spring water, the previous eyesore instantly vanished—the former Second Young Master Yue had been a fine young man with no bad habits. He neither drank excessively nor approached women. His only pleasure was soaking in hot springs.
Sulfur pools were holy objects for healing injuries. Back then, her seventh and eighth levels of the Shimo Heart Sutra had been comprehended while soaking in hot springs—if not for the fact that this was someone else’s home, she’d guarantee she could jump right in.
Mm… but even if it was someone else’s home, who said she couldn’t soak?
Changling touched her chin, thinking: The fellow surnamed He owes me several lives. Never mind soaking in hot springs once—even if it were a hundred times… a thousand times, would he dare refuse?
With this thought, Changling no longer distinguished between her home and others’ homes. She kicked off those tall embroidered shoes she’d found unpleasant long ago, removed her socks, pulled up her trouser legs, and sat down by the pool’s edge. As soon as her feet entered the hot spring, she felt the temperature was perfectly moderate. She simply tried using her feet in place of hands to circulate true qi in the water.
Earlier, seeing Changling injured and bleeding, Ye Qi had almost gone to the medicine room to prepare medicine himself. When he remembered there was a jar of excellent wound medicine in his own room, he urgently pulled her toward the bedroom, telling her to wait a moment while he rummaged through boxes and cabinets on his own.
Thus, when he emerged from the partition holding a medicine jar in one hand and silk cloth in the other, the scene before him was a picture of a beauty bathing her feet—the beauty’s feet rose and fell, her ankles slender and well-proportioned. She lightly tapped the water surface, creating ripples, then submerged them back into the spring.
An inexplicable heat suddenly surged up. Ye Qi silently recited “Amitabha, see no evil” several times in his mind, instinctively averting his gaze, his heart pounding wildly.
When Changling turned her head, she saw him standing stiffly three steps behind her, neither advancing nor retreating.
“What are you standing there for?”
Only when she spoke did Ye Qi belatedly bring forward the medicine and silk cloth, tilting his head elsewhere. “This wound medicine is from Elder Yin’s prescription. It might sting a bit when first applied, but it’s always had miraculous effects on external injuries…”
Changling saw he was only talking without any intention of helping, so she had to do it herself. The dried blood had stuck the clothing to her skin. Fearing that tearing it carelessly would pull at the wound, she unfastened the clasps and loosened her outer garment, exposing her entire left shoulder along with half her arm—only upon looking did she realize this gash was quite long, actually extending to the oblique area behind her shoulder.
This would be somewhat difficult to bandage.
“Can you manage? When applying this medicine, it can’t be too thick, or it won’t breathe and will heal slowly. Too thin won’t work either—if the amount is insufficient, the medicinal effect won’t be enough…”
The crooked-neck marquis was still babbling. The more Changling listened, the more irritated she became. “When you talk, can you look at the person?”
Hearing this, Ye Qi unconsciously turned his head. After just one glance, he felt his eyes were about to be burned. Changling pushed the medicine jar forward and directly issued an order: “You do it.”
“…This… wouldn’t that be rather inconvenient?”
“No, it wouldn’t.”
In Changling’s eyes, Ye Qi wasn’t much different from that young brat in Taixing City eleven years ago. In any case, she’d let him see everything back then, so exposing a shoulder and back now—what did it matter?
Ye Qi wore a Guan Gong-style red face. Throughout the entire process, from cleaning the wound to applying medicine, his gaze only stubbornly fixed on the wound itself. Unfortunately, his peripheral vision was completely uncontrollable. Despite the protests of his violently beating heart, he would not yield.
Her shoulder was slender, her collarbone smoothly contoured, without excess muscle, not like someone who practiced martial arts year-round, yet her lines were unreasonably beautiful—from birth, Young Marquis He had set his life’s aspiration on the two words “staying alive.” He possessed a naturally formed resistance to beauty. Usually, he could recite even the line “warm spring water smooths congealed fat” with righteous spirit. Yet at this very moment, after silently reciting from the Heart Sutra to the Ksitigarbha Sutra, what finally popped into his mind was the line “failing neither the Tathagata nor thee.”
Changling immersed herself wholeheartedly in the hot spring at her feet. Just using a pair of feet to circulate qi made her feel comfortable throughout her body. She was pondering whether there was a possibility of detoxification in the sulfur pool when she saw Ye Qi’s nose emit another streak of scarlet red. She let out a soft sound of surprise. “Your nosebleed is flowing out again. Did I hit you too hard?”
“…” Ye Qi had just tied the knot. Hearing this, he hurriedly felt his nose tip and guiltily blocked it with the silk cloth. “It’s fine. Just plug it and it’ll be good. This… I’ve finished bandaging. Don’t let the wound touch water for these two days. Change the medicine once a day and that’s it.”
Changling put her outer garment back on. “Thank you.”
“I’m the one who feels terrible. My residence soldiers are too ignorant. In a moment, I’ll have them all receive twenty strikes of the rod. If you’re still not satisfied, I’ll also receive twenty strikes. In any case, I can’t let you suffer this injury for nothing.”
“I was the one who forced my way in. They were just dutifully performing their duties. What could I be unhappy about? Earlier, if you hadn’t pressed on my wound, I wouldn’t have struck you either.”
“Presumptuous—I was presumptuous. Miss, please don’t blame me.” Ye Qi said, “It’s just… why did you force your way in? Actually, if you’d just sent someone to notify me, I would naturally have seen you.”
“Your gatekeeper said to wait until after the banquet dispersed before passing word. Today I inadvertently learned that Seven Kills Hall people had infiltrated the banquet intending to assassinate you. I worried that if I was a step late, your life wouldn’t be preserved, so I had no choice but to kill my way in.” Changling said this and couldn’t help but smile. “Fortunately, seeing you’re still alive, this blade strike wasn’t taken in vain.”
Ye Qi stared at her dumbly. “You’re saying… you broke through the gate because you were afraid I’d be killed by someone else?”
“Mm.” Changling nodded matter-of-factly. “Didn’t I explain clearly enough?”
Ye Qi suddenly had an indescribable feeling.
The violent leaping from earlier had clearly slowed down, yet his heartstrings were somehow touched by something. It was as if something sealed away for a long time had suddenly been opened and could no longer be stopped.
“You didn’t think… that you might be stopped by my residence soldiers, be injured, or…” He said this with a wave of lingering fear, not continuing further.
“I didn’t think about it.” If she hadn’t held back everywhere, how could mere residence soldiers have restrained her?
“A few days ago at the ruined temple, why did you say you were Nanxu?”
“Fu Yangui was hiding outside at the time.”
“So what?”
“Weren’t you quite clever before? Why are you so stupid today?” Changling said, “I killed Nanxu, and he is Nanxu’s fiancé. If I let him detect my identity, wouldn’t there be trouble?”
Only then did Ye Qi come to his senses. After Changling briefly narrated the ins and outs of the entire matter, he belatedly said, “Even so, in that situation, you should have hinted to me… I almost…”
Changling smiled. “But you still couldn’t bring yourself to do it, could you?”
As soon as Ye Qi saw that smile, he immediately lost his temper.
“If that’s the case… you deliberately went along with the mistake to be mindful of Fu Yangui?” He asked, “With your skills, there’s no need to do so. If you wanted to leave, who could stop you?”
“Speaking of which…” Changling wasn’t in a hurry to explain the reason for infiltrating the Jing residence. “Last time we came out of Dazhao Temple, before you fell unconscious, do you still remember what I said to you?”
Ye Qi blinked with a confused expression. “We talked before I lost consciousness?”
“…” No wonder from the moment she entered, he hadn’t asked. It turned out this fellow hadn’t heard those words “I am Yue Changling” at all.
“What did you say to me?”
“I…” Changling hesitated.
At that time, she’d seen the young marquis about to kick the bucket and feared he would carry Yue Changsheng’s dying words to the underworld together, so in her urgency, she revealed her identity. But now there was no need to immediately disclose her identity. Regarding the ring-jade and the broken fan matters, she might as well first inquire clearly before saying anything.
“Let’s talk about that later.” Changling said, “I actually have a question I’d like to ask you first.”
“Please ask, Miss.”
“At that time, you felt your end was near, so you gave me the ring-jade. You said that many years ago you’d saved Yue Changsheng, and that jade pendant was what he gave you. Besides that, there was also half a broken fan, but you gave that fan to Fu Liujing. Is that right or not?”
He was taken aback. “These… are all things I said?”
“You also entrusted me to be sure to give the jade pendant to Fu Liujing, saying he could unlock a secret.”
“This… is also what I said?”
“Mm.”
Changling saw his expression of left-right difficulty. “What, you’re unwilling to say?”
“No, I’m just somewhat shocked.” Ye Qi sighed. “These secrets I should have taken to my grave. I really didn’t expect I’d tell Miss everything before dying… I’ve truly failed Brother Yue’s entrustment.”
Hearing these words, a thread of warmth instead flowed through Changling’s heart. “You’re afraid I’ll tell others?”
Ye Qi looked at her steadily, untied the jade pendant from his waist, and said softly, “If I didn’t trust Miss, how would I dare transfer the jade pendant to you? When I saw you going to Dazhao Temple to find Fu Liujing, I thought it was strange. Now hearing you speak of it this way, if I still can’t figure out something, I’d truly be extremely dull-witted… Miss, your relationship with the Yue family—is it quite deep?”
Changling was taken aback and didn’t answer. “Now, you need to answer my question first.”
“Alright, ask. I’ll tell you everything I know.”
“Eleven years ago, where were you, and under what circumstances did you see Yue Changsheng?”