The sound of groaning grew clearer and clearer. Only after drawing closer did she discover that it was actually one of the students from their own Long Si Army.
He was sitting on the ground, clutching his leg, his face full of pain.
“Don’t move around recklessly, you’ve been bitten by a poisonous snake!” A’Jiu rushed over at once and tore open his trouser leg.
While administering acupuncture to drive out the poison, she said, “In a wild mountain place like this, venomous snakes are as common as cattle hairs—you have to be careful and cautious.”
The student only looked at her, sweating profusely from the pain, unable to even speak.
After a while, A’Jiu withdrew her silver needles and set them aside in a contaminated area, separate from her other needles.
Only then did she stand up, wiping her hands with a handkerchief soaked in medicine. “You’ve been struck by snake venom—you must rest and recover properly. You can’t go to today’s training. Set off your signal flare so your seniors can come and take you back.”
“Thank you, Miss Feng.” The student gave her a weak smile, his face full of gratitude, yet also full of guilt.
“But you delayed so long because of me, and today’s training…”
“So I can’t stay here to keep you company. Set off your own signal flare. Bye-bye… no, farewell!”
A’Jiu cupped her hands together, and after confirming he was fine, turned and left.
She really had spent quite a bit of time on this. Worse still, what was this little place? Which direction was she supposed to go?
A’Jiu was a bit dumbfounded. She had rushed over the moment she heard the groaning, without paying any attention to direction at all.
To find her way back, she would have to walk out of this stretch of dense forest, find a place with tall trees, climb up and take a look—then she should be able to find her way back to Lintou Mountain.
She felt her way forward, and this stretch of forest path was nearly at its end. Just as she was about to quicken her pace, she suddenly seemed to catch a faint trace of voices speaking.
It wasn’t strange in itself for people to be talking, but why did the voices feel so cautious? Something about it felt… off?
She slowed her steps, stopping behind some bushes, and the moment she parted the grass to look ahead, a chill suddenly shot up from the bottom of her heart.
Mu Mu… why was he together with a man in black? That man in black wasn’t wearing a black cloth over his face, and looking from afar, those features… were actually very similar to the Ruhe person she had seen yesterday!
No, it wasn’t that they merely resembled each other—it was that these features clearly belonged to someone of the very same people.
Mu Mu, together with a Ruhe person—why?
Suddenly, she heard the Ruhe man say something… Ninth Prince!
What exactly were they trying to do to the Ninth Imperial Uncle?
A’Jiu’s heart lurched in alarm, and without meaning to, her foot shifted slightly and stepped on a dry branch.
There was a crisp snap. It wasn’t loud, but for anyone with sufficient internal energy behind them, they would absolutely be able to hear it.
Feng Jiu’er didn’t dare to delay. She turned to flee at once, but unexpectedly the other party’s skill was even better than she’d imagined—after only a dozen or so steps, that man in black had already arrived in front of her.
With a whooshing sound, the man in black, having gathered his strength to full force, struck out with a palm that arrived before Feng Jiu’er in an instant.
A’Jiu’s footwork faltered, and she barely managed to dodge—but unexpectedly, the man in black’s second palm strike had already reached her chest.
His technique was something strange she had never seen before—the force of his palm was sharp and merciless, holding nothing back, truly intent on putting her to death.
Although A’Jiu’s skill these days had become quite good, when facing a genuine master, she still found herself struggling hard to defend.
With the second strike clearly impossible to dodge, she steadied her heart and prepared to meet it head-on with her own palm strength.
Unexpectedly, the other party’s palm never got the chance to land on her at all—midway, someone blocked it away.
The man in black stared at Mu Mu, who now stood in front of Feng Jiu’er, his eyes darkening, clearly displeased.
Mu Mu’s expression remained blank, and he said flatly, “Leave this to me to handle.”
The man in black hesitated slightly, but the moment Mu Mu’s face turned cold, he still turned and walked away.
It seemed this man in black listened to Mu Mu. But just what kind of identity did Mu Mu actually hold, that even a Ruhe person would listen to him!
Feng Jiu’er watched his retreating back, with so many words she wanted to say, so many questions she wanted to ask—but since he was unwilling to turn and look at her, she didn’t even get the chance to voice half a question.
Even if she did ask, would he answer?
Suddenly, Mu Mu turned his head to glance into the distance, and then turned to leave.
A’Jiu wanted to chase after him, yet she didn’t know what she would even say to him once she caught up.
He should have killed her to silence her, but Mu Mu hadn’t done that. Yet if he wasn’t willing to speak, then no matter how she pressed him, it would be useless.
In the end, what more could she do?
Footsteps sounded from behind her. Although they hadn’t spent that much time together, Feng Jiu’er was already quite familiar with this particular set of footsteps.
She didn’t turn around. Zhan Luori walked up behind her, staring at whatever lay ahead in the direction of her gaze. “What are you looking at?”
“Nothing.”
“Why haven’t you caught up yet? Don’t you want today’s results anymore?” He frowned, displeased.
A’Jiu let out a breath, forcing her thoughts back under control before turning to look at him. “It’s nothing. I just ran into a student who’d been bitten by a venomous snake. I delayed some time treating him, I…”
“Who fought here?” Zhan Luori’s expression darkened slightly as he crouched down, examining the marks on the ground not far from A’Jiu’s feet.
Feng Jiu’er’s heart skipped, and she said hastily, “There’s nothing, you saw wrong. Just now two people walked through here, that’s all, they were just being rowdy—what fighting?”
She started walking. Zhan Luori still had doubts in his heart, but since she was clearly fine, he let it go.
His task, after all, was simply to watch over her safety whenever the Ninth Imperial Uncle wasn’t around.
After they had walked for some unknown stretch of time, A’Jiu suddenly asked, “Seventh Prince, suppose… I mean hypothetically, if someone within the imperial city met privately with a Ruhe person, then… wouldn’t that mean he intended to betray the country?”
“Given how matters now stand between the two sides, if a Ruhe person entered the imperial city at this time, it would certainly mean they harbored ill intentions.”
Zhan Luori still felt suspicious, and suddenly grabbed hold of her, forcing her to stop. “Did you see something?”
“No, didn’t we see a Ruhe person yesterday? The Ninth Imperial Uncle was there too. I was just curious whether all Ruhe people are bad people.”
Feng Jiu’er asked it so innocently—after all, there were good and bad people everywhere, and even more so, even when two sides were at war, it didn’t necessarily mean one side was good and the other bad; everyone simply served their own master.
She just felt a bit guilty inside, wanting to bring up a different topic to smooth the matter over.
Sure enough, the Seventh Prince had no particular cunning about him, and being questioned this way put many of his doubts to rest.
“There are good and bad people everywhere—people simply hold different political views, that’s all.”
“Mm.” She hadn’t expected the Seventh Prince to think so clearly about it—he must have followed at the Ninth Imperial Uncle’s side for so many years that his thinking had become quite similar to the Ninth Imperial Uncle’s.
The two of them set off toward Lintou Mountain. Feng Jiu’er still found herself unconsciously turning back to look at the direction Mu Mu had left in earlier.
Now that he knew she had seen him together with the Ruhe person, what would Mu Mu do next?