Chu Ding Jiang’s bathing routine was much more elaborate than An Jiu’s. Whenever he had the chance, he would bathe every day, but An Jiu found it too much of a hassle.
She was wandering around the room, bored out of her mind, when she suddenly thought of something important – could any doctor truly use their own heart’s blood to cure illnesses? If only the most skilled physicians could do it, then Mo Sigui might be in grave danger!
Pondering this, she put on her cloak and went to find Chu Ding Jiang.
On the other side, Chu Ding Jiang had already sat down.
The room was lit, and Lingxi said, “I’ve thought it over, and I’m willing to take the gamble.”
She had been cautious her entire life, but what had she gained in the end? It might be better to take a bold gamble – even if she lost, it would only mean death, but if she won, she would have freedom and prosperity from then on.
“You can trust in me, Chu,” Chu Ding Jiang said.
Lingxi took a deep breath and looked at him. “There’s one thing we can tell you for certain – the person looking for you is not Yelu Quan Cang, but Xiao Ce.”
“Xiao Ce?” This was strange to Chu Ding Jiang, for he had never met this person. Countless possibilities raced through his mind. “Is he looking for me, or for An Jiu?”
Lingxi’s eyes flickered as she lowered her head and gently ran her fingers.
Chu Ding Jiang took out a stack of taels and placed them on the table.
Lingxi looked up and smiled, reaching out to touch the money before tucking it into her sleeve. “Our task from above was simply to keep an eye on you two and report your movements separately. But I suspect Xiao Ce is mostly after the Fourteenth Miss, as we once received a request to investigate her strength in particular. I can’t give you a definite answer on this, but since I’ve taken your money, I shouldn’t withhold everything. Yelu Quan Cang is shrewd – Hung You and I initially served the Great Song, then defected to him. He left us unused for a long time, almost discarding us, and now suddenly arranged for us to do this. Isn’t that strange? He must have sent other spies as well, but I don’t know who they are.”
“A clever tactic of feinting east and attacking west,” Chu Ding Jiang remarked.
Recently, An Jiu had been recruiting people, making it easy for infiltrators to blend in. Yelu Quan Cang had sent these two obvious spies to distract, while the true agents could more easily gather genuine information.
“Do you know how they communicate?” Chu Ding Jiang placed the deed to the manor in front of her.
Lingxi looked at the deed but did not take it. “I do not know.”
“You may leave,” Chu Ding Jiang said.
Lingxi cautiously stood up, and seeing that Chu Ding Jiang had no intention of attacking, she slowly left.
An Jiu, who had been waiting outside, was stunned and did not stop her.
Hearing An Jiu’s footsteps, Chu Ding Jiang turned around. “Why did you come?”
“I have a bad feeling.” An Jiu’s pale face was without color, and her eyes held a fear Chu Ding Jiang had never seen in her before. “He’s here.”
“He?”
An Jiu had spent most of these years with Chu Ding Jiang, so he was confident she had not provoked Xiao Ce. He had a bold guess that Xiao Ce was like them.
An Jiu suddenly felt very cold. No matter how tightly she wrapped her cloak, it was of no use.
Chu Ding Jiang embraced her.
“Chu Ding Jiang, I’m truly afraid,” An Jiu buried her face in his chest, her voice muffled. “I’m so content with my life now. I’m afraid of going back to how things used to be.”
With a goal, hope, and Chu Ding Jiang… An Jiu felt her life couldn’t be any better.
“He should have been here long ago. Why did he only show up now?” An Jiu clung tightly to Chu Ding Jiang as she spoke of this man. “He was our commander. He was also a top-tier assassin, a natural-born criminal with exceptional intelligence, capable of anything. Later, when his leg was injured, he no longer took on missions, but instead founded an organization, training many younger assassins. Seven of the world’s top ten assassins were personally trained by him. I was one of them.”
In An Jiu’s memories, he had never lost his temper, always speaking gently. He taught her to hold a crossbow, to use murder as a way to vent the wildness in her blood. In those dreary, lonely days, she had even been attached to him, but now, looking back, his gentleness seemed so terrifying.
“He’s already been here, hasn’t he?”
The Exploding Crossbow was an extraordinary existence, out of place in this world. This was something Xiao Ce had brought, and An Jiu had long had doubts, but she hadn’t thought much of it, and hadn’t tried to confirm it.
“Fortunately, he came late, giving me enough time to be with you,” Chu Ding Jiang said.
If Xiao Ce had shown up two years earlier, there was no guarantee that An Jiu wouldn’t have returned to her old ways.
“I’m not afraid.” Chu Ding Jiang grasped her hand. “No matter if it’s a bottomless abyss or being crushed to dust, I’ll be by your side.”
Seeing their hands tightly clasped and hearing his bold words, An Jiu gradually calmed down.
“Blood Slaughter,” Chu Ding Jiang said.
“My lord!”
“Kill Madam Mei.”
“Yes, sir!”
Blood Slaughter went to carry out the order, but soon returned, reporting, “My lord, Madam Mei has poisoned herself.”
An Jiu was a bit surprised to hear this. “How could she have poisoned herself?”
Madam Mei did not seem like a simple person, with her resolute temperament. Unless necessary, she would never resort to suicide.
Chu Ding Jiang went to the room where Madam Mei was being detained. The room was lit, and the teacup was shattered on the floor. Her neat, well-maintained appearance now had a deathly pallor.
She slowly opened her eyes, her gaze unusually bright. “That little maid thought you’d let her go, and she’d be free forever… Ha, ha, ha!”
Blood spilled from her mouth, staining her clothes. Madam Mei’s entire face was a ghastly gray-white, but she laughed through her tears. “She didn’t realize why I didn’t choose that path! Today, the truly free one is me!”
Not drifting like duckweed, not being anyone’s dog – only death could bring liberation. Lingxi, you’ll understand sooner or later.
Watching Madam Mei draw her last breath, Chu Ding Jiang said, “Bury her.”
As a concubine and a traitor, the Mei family would not accept her into their ancestral tomb.
Blood Slaughter ordered someone to fetch a burial mat, and they wrapped up the body and carried it out to be buried.
“Every elite has their way of controlling this kind of person. Madam Mei and Lingxi are two sides of the same coin. Since Lingxi has betrayed us, Madam Mei won’t have a good end either.” Chu Ding Jiang was explaining to An Jiu the reason for Madam Mei’s suicide.
An Jiu said, “Yelu Quan Cang’s method of controlling people is probably not poison.”
If both of them had been poisoned, there was no reason for one to know and the other to be completely unaware. No one had poisoned her before, yet she had still sunk deeper and deeper into the marsh.
“Oh, right!” An Jiu remembered the reason she had come after him. “Is it difficult to use one’s heart’s blood to cure illnesses? Is it something only someone like Mo Sigui can do?”
“I’ve heard that taking blood is very difficult,” Chu Ding Jiang understood her worry. “Don’t spread this for now, let’s just observe the situation quietly. You’ve just recovered, you can’t be running around aimlessly. Even if Yelu Quan Cang wants to capture Mo Sigui, he’s not in immediate danger for now.”
An Jiu nodded.
The quiet night was clear. The full moon hung high.
Mo Sigui, accompanied by two tigers, was joyfully hurrying towards the Bright Moon Pavilion. He had just heard the best news of his life – Yelu Hongwu was dead. Bright Moon should no longer be so stubborn and would go back with him to live a peaceful, tranquil life.
“Together in harmony, this is the perfect time for a reunion,” Mo Sigui glanced at the moon in the sky, then looked down and asked with a smile, “Big Jiu, how many children do you think I should have?”
Big Jiu stared at him with his bronze bell eyes, his face completely bewildered as he turned away.
“In the future, I’ll want a daughter. I’ll teach her to be gentle from a young age, not like her mother,” Mo Sigui said.
“Tsk, what should I say when I see her? What would be the most moving first words?”
Mo Sigui sat on the back of Little Moon’s tiger, his ebony hair flying in the wind. His peach blossom eyes were shimmering, as if dyeing the quiet night in a pale blush. It had been so long since he had exuded such elegance.
What would be the most touching first words to say when they met?
“Bright Moon, I was wrong before. I didn’t protect you well enough. Give me a lifetime to make it up to you,” Mo Sigui smiled, tapping his folding fan against his palm. “I’m talented, any woman would be moved to tears.”
“No, our Bright Moon is not just any woman.” He frowned again.
After pondering it the entire way, when Little Moon and Big Jiu finally stopped, Mo Sigui looked up and saw the sign – it was the same inn where he had helped Bright Moon before!
Mo Sigui was certain that Bright Moon was thinking of him, and couldn’t help but be delighted. Standing at the doorway, he carefully straightened his clothes and hair, then turned Big Jiu’s tiger face to look at himself.
“Graceful and elegant.” He wasn’t sure if Big Jiu saw clearly, but he was satisfied with the conclusion, turning to climb the steps.
As soon as he approached the main entrance, Mo Sigui faintly sensed a murderous aura. He paused slightly, then quietly retreated to a concealed corner. From his medicine case, he quickly wrote a letter, placed it in a bamboo tube, and tied it around Big Jiu’s neck, patting its neck.
Big Jiu turned and ran back.
Mo Sigui then heard a loud boom from upstairs, followed by a muffled groan from Little Moon.
His heart clenched, and he tossed a medicine pellet to Little Moon before leaping over the courtyard wall and rushing toward the room the sound came from.
“Miss, don’t be rash, we mean no harm!”
Without hesitation, Mo Sigui immediately kicked open the door. “Bright Moon!”
The sight that greeted him was shrouded in mist.
Hearing Mo Sigui’s voice, Bright Moon slowly turned around. The room was filled with smoke, and a dozen black-clad men had her cornered.
She stood by the window, and seeing Mo Sigui burst in, she suddenly pushed open the window, hoping the wind would clear the mist. The moonlight streamed in from behind, casting a silver glow around her, and outlining her beautiful figure. Her expression was indistinct in the darkness.
“Go!”
She could only hoarsely utter that single word before her entire body was enveloped in thick black smoke, the stench of burnt flesh permeating the room.
Spring Wind Unspeaking! The corrosive poison he had concocted!
Mo Sigui’s eyes were wide with anguish, his hands trembling as he opened his medicine case, the bottles and jars spilling to the floor. He frantically grabbed the antidote for Spring Wind Unspeaking.
Bright Moon looked down at him, her eyes brimming with tears.
When Mo Sigui looked up again, he saw her enchanting features crumbling, turning into withered butterflies blown away by the night wind.
The tears fell to the ground, but she was already gone.
Just like that, in an instant.
The smoke drifted out the door, and the room quickly returned to calm, leaving only piles of charred bones and ashes.
Mo Sigui looked around blankly, his gaze finally settling on the full moon outside the window.
What happened?
Just now… did he see Bright Moon?
His clothes were soaked with the antidote, and his body was immune to most poisons… but Bright Moon had just used her last ounce of strength to push open the window, clearly afraid that he would be caught in the vast amount of toxic fumes before he could take the antidote.
Mo Sigui’s face was expressionless, and Little Moon let out a low whine, stepping forward to nudge the pile of remains by the window, but afraid of breaking them.
After standing there for a long time, Mo Sigui finally began to react, the excruciating pain suddenly overwhelming his entire being, robbing him of the ability to make a sound.
He had prepared so many words, but not even one had come out yet.
They had been apart for so long, and he hadn’t even had a chance to properly look at her, not even to apologize. And now she had disappeared from his sight forever.
In the blink of an eye, so suddenly.
Did she die by the very poison he had concocted?!
Pah!
Mo Sigui suddenly felt a sweetness in his throat, and he coughed up a mouthful of blood from his heart.
The blood was a vivid crimson, but his face was deathly pale as if he had aged ten years in an instant.
“Ha, ha, ha! Ha, ha, ha, ha!” Unable to shed a single tear in his utter grief, he instead wanted to laugh, to laugh at this cruel fate!
After laughing, his whole body trembling, he pointed a hoarse finger at the pile of remains. “I, Mo Sigui, can bring life and reduce flesh to bone, but tell me, how do I revive the one I’ve reduced to ashes?”
Mo Sigui had never felt such bone-deep hatred. It was not only hatred for those who had forced Bright Moon’s death but also hatred towards Bright Moon herself. Why had she been so resolute, leaving no room for retreat? And so cruel, to use the poison he had made himself!
A weight like Mount Tai pressed on his heart, nearly suffocating him.
…
“Mo Sigui!” An Jiu suddenly sat up.
Chu Ding Jiang, awakened by the movement, sat up and patted her. “Did you have a nightmare?”
“I dreamed that Mo Sigui jumped off a cliff.” An Jiu was still shaken. “I saw him standing on the edge of the cliff, and I kept shouting for him. He turned and smiled at me, saying, ‘Ah Jiu, I’m going to go take a look,’ and then he jumped off.”
“You’ve just been thinking too much before bed.”
“No!” An Jiu grabbed his arm urgently. “You don’t understand, I used to only dream about the past, but ever since I used Wei Yu Zhi’s blood, I’ve been having all these strange dreams, and they always come true.”
“But that doesn’t necessarily mean he jumped off a cliff. It could just be a warning that he’s in danger.” Chu Ding Jiang comforted her. “Tomorrow, I’ll take you to find him.”
An Jiu lay back down, tossing and turning, unable to fall asleep again.
Chu Ding Jiang couldn’t sleep either, so he asked her, “When you dreamed about Xiao Ce, what did you see?”
“That dream was very chaotic, with some scenes from the past and some I’d never seen before. But the clearest thing I remember is a phrase he said to me before.”
“What did he say?”
“You are the most perfect weapon I’ve ever seen. With you, I can destroy everything, so I’ll never let you slip from my grasp.”
Chu Ding Jiang felt that this person’s reference to An Jiu as the “most perfect weapon” was not actually about a physical weapon. After all, no matter how powerful a person is, they can’t destroy everything. And from An Jiu’s simple description, this person seemed to be a genius, and geniuses often had arrogance. He wouldn’t truly entrust such a thing to someone else.
Most likely, this person was dependent on An Jiu.
“What are you thinking about?” An Jiu asked.
Chu Ding Jiang joked, “Wondering if you’ve become a seer.”
An Jiu was very serious. “You’ll have to ask Wei Yu Zhi about that.”
Chu Ding Jiang laughed and embraced her. “Sleep now, I won’t let you go out until you’ve fully recovered.”