Jing Hengbo was naturally delighted at the thought of getting out, yet she also felt a faint melancholy. These days of walking through the dense forest, aside from encountering a leopard at the beginning, nothing particularly dangerous had happened afterward. Every night Gong Yin would find her a suitable place to sleep and rest nearby fully clothed. Sometimes she couldn’t even see where he was, but she could feel his presence in the air, feel his breathing—calm, peaceful, long and gentle, like a layer of tranquil aura enveloping her. She always slept dreamlessly because of this, sleeping sweetly until dawn.
In the morning, waking up to exchange smiles in the hazy dawn light, with the forest’s filtered light like misty green gauze, both felt the other’s smile was pure and moving. Although not long after they would start their venomous verbal sparring, in that moment of first awakening when consciousness was hazy and the heart was clear and empty, the emotions displayed were the most genuine.
She gradually learned from him how to skin rabbits, progressing from initial squealing and finding it dirty and disgusting to now finishing cleanly in one minute. He also learned to recognize lemongrass and even found oregano under her guidance, which she always said tasted like pizza. As for what pizza was, she wouldn’t say, and he just smiled without asking—anyway, through guessing and context, he could mostly figure out what she meant. Her nonsensical chatter and unique personality were the brightest and freshest scenes in this forest. Why pursue clarity on every detail?
This day they reached a riverside where countless small streams converged into a surging river that rolled away. Gong Yin looked at the river’s direction and said, “Cross this river, and we should be able to get out.”
Jing Hengbo let out a long breath.
Gong Yin took down the roe deer from his shoulder—today’s meal—while Jing Hengbo took down a pile of animal hides from her shoulder and spread them on the ground, stretching out her long legs wearily. The hides were collected by Gong Yin during their journey for nighttime bedding to avoid mountain cold. Previously he had always carried them, but starting yesterday, the lazy woman Jing Hengbo suddenly developed a conscience and snatched several hides to carry, so her current expression suggested she didn’t want to move once she lay down.
“You haven’t walked that far—how are you tired again?” Gong Yin frowned at her.
“You snore and keep me awake.”
“Oh?” Gong Yin said mildly. “I don’t know if I snore, but I don’t think I talk in my sleep, much less shout in the middle of the night ‘Do Min Joon, I love you! Do Min Joon, come sleep with me!’ Who is Do Min Joon?”
“Impossible!” Jing Hengbo shot up in alarm. “I should have shouted: ‘Do Min Joon xi, don’t be so passionate—I haven’t decided yet!'”
“Who is Do Min Joon?” Gong Yin was persistent about this question.
“Did I dream about him? Why don’t I remember?” Jing Hengbo was very annoyed. “Oh no, such a great opportunity…”
“You have many such opportunities,” Gong Yin said expressionlessly while tending the fire. “Sometimes you say, ‘Little Beck, you’re so handsome—divorce Victoria! I have a much better figure than her!’ Sometimes you say, ‘Long-legged oppa, your legs are so long—let me touch them, okay?’ Sometimes you say, ‘Sherlock, you look better and better—give sister a smile.’ Sometimes you say, ‘Wow! Little Wa! Wa wa wa wa wa…'”
“Wow…” Jing Hengbo stared blankly. “I can dream about that too?”
Gong Yin watched her for a long moment. She clutched her heart, lost in reverie, alternately happy about her dreams and annoyed that she couldn’t remember them. Her expression changed constantly—happy, then dejected, then gloomy, then smug—as varied and rich as a kaleidoscope. Spectacular as it was, it made the observer feel depressed.
Even a fool could see that at this moment she was swimming in an ocean of handsome men, with Gong Yin, Feifei, Yelu Qi, and Dahuang all pushed aside.
“I’m asking you,” Gong Yin said with a green face, unable to bear it any longer. “Who is Do Min Joon? Who is Little Beck? Who is Long-legged oppa? Who is Sherlock? Who is Little Wa…”
“They’re all beauties…” Jing Hengbo stared straight ahead, her hands beckoning in the air like summoning spirits. “Beauties, come into my bowl…”
Gong Yin stood up and flung the roe deer from his back, hitting Jing Hengbo’s shoulder.
With a smack, the daydreaming Beauty Jing fell down responsively.
She lay in an undignified spread-eagle position. Normally this posture would be very unseemly and ugly, but her good figure made it even more apparent—long legs, slender ankles, wasp waist, with beautiful undulating curves. She seemed completely unaware of Gong Yin’s sneak attack, rolling over to prop up her head with a silly smile, probably still troubled by how to choose between Do Min Joon, Lee Min Ho, Beckham, Sherlock, and Wallace Chung. As she turned, her skirt lifted, revealing glimpses of her long legs, a patch of skin like congealed cream, like the snow on distant mountain peaks.
Feifei sat obediently to one side with well-behaved movements, cautious attitude, and proper expression, except its colored contacts kept glancing toward the gap between her legs.
Gong Yin’s gaze drifted across her legs, away, then back again, then looked at Feifei. Half a quarter-hour later, he passed by her carrying an armload of gathered firewood. Long branches fell down, catching Jing Hengbo’s skirt. With a flick of Gong Yin’s wrist, the skirt was pulled down to cover her.
Another thorny branch fell and hit Feifei on the head.
The absent-minded Miss Jing was completely oblivious to this moment of scheming. She hadn’t finished her fantasizing yet. Had she known she had the ability to dream of handsome men, she should have brought more photos of handsome men before coming here.
She suddenly thought of a serious problem—Yelu Qi and Gong Yin were also within her standards for handsome men. Had she dreamed about them? Had she said anything about them?
From Gong Yin’s face that looked like early menopause, apparently not.
Hmm, he was unhappy probably because he felt that despite his great beauty, he couldn’t enter her dreams, which greatly wounded his pride and self-esteem, causing his abnormal behavior.
Yes, that must be it.
Understandable. She chose to forgive.
Sister was a magnanimous girl.
“Come skin this,” Gong Yin called her matter-of-factly.
Jing Hengbo, feeling she had done something slightly wrong, crawled up actively to skin the roe deer. Since taking in Feifei, the unscrupulous Gong Yin said he had no obligation to support two useless beings, so Jing Hengbo had to contribute labor. He forcibly assigned her the job of processing animals, gave her a sharp dagger, personally taught her how to do it, and supervised her movements, requiring her to follow his instructions strictly. Once when Jing Hengbo found his method troublesome and tried to slack off, he caught her. That day Gong Yin caught thirty rabbits, roe deer, badgers and such creatures, forcing her to process them for an entire day. By evening, she couldn’t even lift her wrists, and Gong Yin had to feed her.
Jing Hengbo firmly believed Gong Yin was an obsessive-compulsive perfectionist. Was he a Virgo? If things weren’t done according to specific steps and sequence, would he feel as uncomfortable as being covered in lice?
She skillfully held down the roe deer, flicking her wrist up and down in several fluid and strange arcs. With a series of soft sounds—snap snap snap snap—the bones separated from the hide first, then with a turn of the knife tip, a complete hide was carved out whole. The entire process took less than a minute. Even the most skilled hunters would think she had lived in the jungle for twenty years.
In Gong Yin’s eyes, a hint of satisfaction appeared.
“I’ll go wash the knife and relieve myself,” Jing Hengbo said, wrapping herself in hide and shuffling toward the river.
Gong Yin turned to wrap the roe deer in lemongrass and took out rock salt dried over the past few days to rub on carefully. Feifei jumped into her arms.
Jing Hengbo turned a corner, going behind a large tree that could block the view, immediately pulled the hide from her shoulder and unfolded it. Inside was a long strip of hide pieces sewn together in a circle, looking like a giant intestine.
Jing Hengbo patted the thing, feeling drowsy and couldn’t help yawning. She had secretly worked several nights to make this thing.
The circular “intestine” had a hole for inflating at one end. Jing Hengbo nervously glanced toward that direction while puffing up her cheeks to blow air into it. After blowing for a long time until her stomach nearly hurt, she barely managed to inflate the thing. Now the complete outline could be seen—an animal hide swimming ring.
Jing Hengbo put the swimming ring around her waist and whispered to Feifei, “Now, can you help me escape?”
…
This continent was now in midsummer. The fiery red sun illuminated from the easternmost part of Da Yan all the way to the Yunlei Plateau, but stopped before the swamp behind the Yunlei Plateau. The boundless black swamp seemed to cut off not only sight but also sunlight. Behind the swamp, the mysterious and rich Dahuang waited silently.
Dahuang’s capital Dige, the premier city at the center of Dahuang, was also recently shrouded in mysterious atmosphere, with turbulent undercurrents flowing beneath the quiet surface.
In an official residence in the city center, curtains hung deep, flower shadows swayed, and wind from the lake surface lingered here with soft sounds, not daring to overstep. The polished jade stone floor reflected the bowed, humble figures of servants. Everyone wore soft-soled shoes, moving lightly and restrainedly like cats prowling in darkness.
Conversations of varying volumes echoed amid the tinkling collision of pearl curtains.
“They disappeared in the nameless valley of northern Lu Nan in Da Yan. It’s been over half a month now.”
“Could they be… dead?”
“You dare to think that! In my opinion, who is Gong Yin? Could a few foreign assassinations make him die in a foreign land? I’ve looked at Da Yan’s mountain maps. The mountain range where they are is vast and continuous, but the exit happens to be near northern Da Yan. If Gong Yin moves quickly, he might have already emerged from the mountains and be approaching Da Yan’s border or Xi E.”
“What a pity! Such a good opportunity—Yelu Qi and the Zhanyu tribe put in so much effort yet still couldn’t keep that Gong Yin boy. Truly regrettable!”
“More than that—Yelu Qi was forced to break with the Zhanyu tribe. The Zhanyu tribe’s great king swore undying enmity with him and is sending people to hunt him down. A few days ago, the Zhanyu tribe’s chief minister secretly sent me their tribal treasure medicine through intermediaries, hoping to form an alliance with me.”
“Then your meaning is…”
“We once swore never to violate the master of Yuzhao Palace, and Gong Yin’s ‘Spider Web’ spies are extremely capable. So we cannot take any open action.”
“Times change—Yuzhao Palace has now been occupied by usurpers with a new master. Why should we still honor our old oath? Besides, what does ‘never violate’ mean? What we did to that person back then…”
“Silence!”
The room fell silent, someone coughed awkwardly.
“Speaking of which, there’s good news to report to everyone—the new queen has been found.”
“…Uh, we knew that already. Is this good news?”
“Of course not—I haven’t finished. I heard the new queen’s appearance actually resembles the previous one somewhat.”
“Ah?”
“You see, this reincarnation theory has some merit after all.” Someone chuckled with great satisfaction. “Gong Yin holds absolute power, overturning clouds and rain, but he’s not without weaknesses. If he knew the truth from back then…”
“If we prepare early and cultivate the new queen well…” someone continued with a smile, “perhaps in the future, without us lifting a finger, Yuzhao Palace itself will explode in bloody chaos.”
“Exactly!” Everyone laughed with comfort and satisfaction.
“Since she inherited that person’s position and appearance, let her continue the unfinished grudges, entanglements, rights and wrongs, and schemes that belonged to the previous one!”
“Let’s prepare well and welcome the new queen’s arrival!”