She wanted to chop him to pieces!

Even worse than Feng Shaoying.

Of course, that fellow didn’t get to display his so-called looks. Ye Qiao found them and paid their bill.

Ye Qiao’s family wasn’t wealthy, but fortunately she knew the proprietress. The boss grumbled and cursed, but ultimately didn’t have them sent to the authorities.

That fellow’s attendants clearly wouldn’t arrive anytime soon. Ye Qiao, being kind-hearted and learning that she had saved the person, admired her greatly and brought them both to her own home for the night.

She wasn’t originally willing, but unlike Lian Yu, while she might strike poses, she didn’t like tormenting herself, so she didn’t refuse.

Ye Qiao had a large family—parents, elder brother and sister-in-law, younger sister. There wasn’t much extra space at home. She cleared out a small storage room to barely make space for the dandy, asking Xiao Zhou to squeeze in with her and her sister. But her sister, seeing Xiao Zhou’s frightening appearance, absolutely refused. Ye Qiao’s parents were honest people who helped persuade a few words, but her brother and sister-in-law’s faces weren’t pleasant.

Xiao Zhou didn’t like staying with others anyway. Seeing the situation, she turned and left. The dandy thanked Ye Qiao, saying he would advance and retreat together with Xiao Zhou. Ye Qiao was embarrassed and asked where they would stay.

Xiao Zhou ultimately returned to the temple.

The dandy brought some bowls and household items from Ye Qiao’s family, plus clean clothes for Xiao Zhou.

The firelight was warm. By the fire, the dandy used waste branches to erect a frame, then removed his outer robe and hung it on the frame, creating a barrier.

“Come, change clothes. I’m truly a gentleman. But with your appearance, I have no interest anyway—” he said with a grin.

“Get the hell out!” Xiao Zhou groped for a tree branch.

Before he finished speaking, he was struck. Covering his head and jumping around, cursing as he went out.

Alone in the empty temple, the void in Xiao Zhou’s heart seemed to grow deeper. Strangely, though that fellow spoke without restraint, calling her ugly and unsightly, she felt no hurt. Yet where it should hurt, it was merciless.

What were they doing now?

Lian Xin had left a letter and departed.

That day, she was knocked unconscious with pressure points and thrown onto Wuqing’s bed. After Wuqing came to release her pressure points, she returned to her room without a word. The next day, she left a letter and departed, following Lian Yu.

“Do not search for me, do not miss me.”

The letter contained only these four characters.

Half-drunk on wine, this was what Leng Xue had learned from Wuqing about Lian Xin’s situation. When he returned, Lian Xin was already gone. It had been over ten days, and he had been restless, waiting at the Capture Gate for Xiao Zhou’s letter, only hoping this message would never come.

But as Xiao Zhou had said, she had traveled for years before finding that strange insect at the border between Wei and Chu. This type of insect needed time to recover and couldn’t be used again for a period. She also didn’t know where to find a second one. This past year, the situation between Wei, Zhou, and Chu had become increasingly tense. Apart from some capable major merchants or people with special identities who moved in various gray areas, it wasn’t easy for ordinary Zhou people to obtain travel documents to the Wei-Chu border.

Taking ten thousand steps back, even if one could smoothly reach the border between the two countries, unless both nations permitted it and provided substantial manpower and resources for searching, finding an insect that only appeared in ancient texts would be as difficult as ascending to heaven.

Therefore, he knew this day would eventually come—it was only a matter of sooner or later.

The two brothers drank and chatted in the courtyard, mostly talking about Suzhen’s past. Though melancholy, it was also pleasant. In his intoxication, he almost couldn’t help but tell Xiao Zhou’s story from beginning to end, yet feared betraying her trust and making the situation worse, so he never dared say an extra word.

But after three rounds of drinks, he ultimately couldn’t restrain himself. He took a sip of wine and said as if casually: “You’re quite a troublemaker too. Apart from Xiao Zhou and the Princess, there was Hong Xiao before, and now there’s some centipede, not to mention all those flowers and plants in the martial world these past years.”

Wuqing rarely smiled: “What centipede? That’s Wu Tong.”

“I ask you, if… if Xiao Zhou also treated you like the Princess did, would you change your mind?”

Across from him, Wuqing’s handsome face was slightly flushed. He seemed to pause, then said indifferently: “How could that be possible?”

“Actually, she already treats me well,” he took a sip of wine and pointed to his heart. “Every time I think of her, I feel blocked up here. Sometimes I’d rather she stab me a few times to vent her anger… I know I’m not a good person. I couldn’t learn even a bit of my father’s goodness—Zhen’er got it all. But I learned all of my father’s bad traits.”

“I hope to have someone who treats me like my mother treated my father—not asking right from wrong, living and dying together.”

“Didn’t Hong Xiao treat you well? I never saw you moved by her. This Wu Tong clearly dotes on you too, willing to accompany you in anything,” Leng Xue said.

Wuqing took another drink: “Hong Xiao grew up in my family from childhood. I’m too familiar with her—I feel toward her like I do toward Zhen’er—”

Leng Xue snorted softly. Wuqing curved his lips: “Yes, yes, you’re also familiar with Zhen’er, but you had feelings for my sister. Whether you can see eye to eye sometimes is just that strange.”

“Unfortunately, it’s too late for Hong Xiao and me. Before meeting Wu Tong, I had already met Xiao Zhou and Lian Xin. I can no longer fit anyone else in. Besides, Wu Tong doesn’t suit my taste.”

“I think you’re just arrogant, liking people who aren’t ordinary—one talented and skilled, one of outstanding status,” Leng Xue scolded.

Wuqing lowered his eyes slightly: “Perhaps.”

“You ask me about if Xiao Zhou… I don’t know. After that incident, I kept paying attention to Lian Xin, and later naturally my heart included her. These days I’ve sent people to find Xiao Zhou and bring her back, but I don’t know what to do—whether to continue the unfinished wedding night or hurt her again.”

“So I don’t know how to answer your question even more. If that were the case, I could no longer be responsible to Lian Xin, but I also couldn’t face Xiao Zhou.”

Leng Xue was suddenly grateful he hadn’t spoken out, otherwise everything Xiao Zhou had done would have been meaningless.

If it were him, perhaps he also wouldn’t know what to do.

Wu Tong came over then to bring them new drinking snacks. Seeing the two drinking fiercely, she couldn’t help but say gently: “Master, don’t drink too much.”

Wuqing thanked her and shook his wine cup noncommittally. Seeing he had nothing else to say to her and always maintained distance, Wu Tong left dejectedly.

Wuqing looked at his wine cup, which held moonlight.

He seemed to see reflected in the wine surface Lian Xin’s hollow eyes from that night in the dense forest, as pale as this moonlight.

Lian Xin was also looking at the moonlight by her window at this moment.

She planned to return to the border city with Lian Yu first, then go to Wei or Chu—to a place where that person would have difficulty finding her. From then on, she would no longer inquire about his news.

She loved him desperately. He finally had a little feeling for her now, but she couldn’t take it.

She couldn’t afford it.

Living would naturally be good, but she actually thought that if she just disappeared like that, perhaps she could truly have him for a few days, even if afterward he and Xiao Zhou would be separated by mountains and waters.

She had rarely cried these past years, but looking at this frost-like moon, she cried uncontrollably.

Lian Yu was right next door. She bit her sleeve, not daring to make too much noise, afraid of making things difficult for him. She knew his feelings for Zhu Que were no less than his feelings for her.

She was no longer a princess, but she should live like one.

What wasn’t meant to be hers, she couldn’t take.

At her feet were wet clothes. Xiao Zhou realized she had forgotten to put on dry clothes for quite a while.

“Aiya, I didn’t see anything. Who told me to call for so long without you answering? When no one answers, I naturally assume you’re asleep…”

The dandy’s chattering voice suddenly rang out. He had suddenly barged in and seen things he shouldn’t have seen. She should beat him up thoroughly, but she didn’t even have the interest to speak.

Her relatives had died in the famine following a natural disaster in her childhood. She had gnawed on withered grass and eaten leather, struggling so hard to live. But now that all her tasks seemed complete and she no longer had the ability to stay by Lian Yu’s side, she didn’t know why she should continue living.

During those unbearably harsh training years, how to survive and how to protect her master were her first lessons, so she had never thought of suicide.

But what was the point of living so wretchedly while waiting to die? When that day came, having someone send a letter to Leng Xue—how much better would such an ending be?

Something hot fell to the ground.

Her eyes were wet and heated.

A scent of blood and orchid fragrance suddenly surrounded her.

The clothes not yet properly worn on her shoulders were pulled together and tightened, wrapping her tightly as she was drawn by one hand into a warm chest.

“Nothing is insurmountable, little leper.”

The dandy’s voice fell gently beside her ear.

She should beat him up again, but she didn’t.

This was a stranger, so she had nothing to fear. She closed her eyes tightly.

“Do you want to tell me about your troubles?” he asked with a slight smile.

He seemed to be someone who loved to laugh.

“No,” her voice was unclear as she refused harshly.

“Then let me tell you about mine. Eh, shouldn’t we start with names? We’re already embracing, yet we still haven’t exchanged names. Little leper, what’s your name?” he asked with interest.

“Little leper.”

“Aiya, what a grudge-holding girl. Fine, fine, I’ll throw the first brick to attract jade—”

“You got that saying backwards! Throw your mother’s jade—you’re not even a damn brick!”

“Alright, alright, I’m the brick, you’re the jade. Little leper, my surname is Pei, and I’m thirteenth in my family. Remember that.”