With Xue Gu present, breaking through the ambush was not a particularly difficult matter.
Even so, Xing Zizhou had still been wounded. The long swords of the ambushers were laced with deadly poison. Xue Gu had no choice but to first seal his pressure points, and after breaking through, she found a place to channel her energy and expel the toxin from his body.
Had it not been for Xue Gu’s years on Snow Lotus Mountain, where she had compounded no small number of excellent medicines herself, this round of poisoning Xing Zizhou had suffered would have been another matter entirely as to whether he could pull through safely.
These people had been entirely bent on taking their lives — they had clearly known from the very start which path they would take.
By every indication, their whereabouts had truly been exposed.
“Jiu’er and the others…” The moment the toxin was expelled from his body, Xing Zizhou’s heart was swept by a thousand anxieties. “The path Jiu’er and the others took — could it also be…”
“Most likely not. I think they assumed we would all be using this same path. Judging from the scale of the ambush, they committed their main force here.”
Xue Gu stood, walked to the edge of the dense forest, and fixed her gaze in the direction Feng Jiu’er and Feng Yinan had gone, a slight furrow between her brows.
“That direction doesn’t look like there are any signs of a fight. And yet…”
“And yet what?” Xing Zizhou rose to his feet, took several deep, steadying breaths, and managed at last to begin settling his energy somewhat.
The poison had been expelled, but his body still felt considerably weakened.
He walked to Xue Gu’s side and together they looked in the direction that Feng Jiu’er and the others had gone.
Beneath the vast, dark night sky, there seemed a faint, almost imperceptible unease drifting on the air — and yet any sense of a clash or struggle seemed genuinely absent. What did that mean?
“Elder Xue, should we…”
He had been about to ask whether they should follow after and check on Jiu’er’s situation. But Xue Gu’s expression had already shifted subtly as she said, “Our whereabouts are exposed. The ones who may suffer first could well be the people at the compound!”
Xing Zizhou’s heart sank, and the realization hit him at once.
He struck his own forehead. The energy he had only just barely steadied collapsed into chaos again in an instant. “Xiao Yingtao! No — I have to — I…” His mouth opened, and a mouthful of fresh blood came up instead.
Xue Gu seized his wrist, and her internal energy flowed through his meridians into his body: “The residual toxin in you is not yet cleared — you cannot rush!”
Xing Zizhou wanted to speak, but the blood that had been welling in his chest refused to settle. He could only clench his jaw and endure.
Once his breathing had grown something more like steady, Xue Gu took one more long, deep look in the direction Jiu’er and the others had gone, then steeled herself — and still gripping Xing Zizhou’s wrist, turned back along the way they had come.
But they had not expected it — barely reaching the foot of the mountain, they saw a figure approaching at a rapid pace.
No — looking more closely, it was not one figure. It was clearly two people.
Only, the one she held in her arms was a tiny infant. The child was still so small that without looking carefully, you might have thought she was alone.
“Qiaomu!” Xue Gu pulled Xing Zizhou along and hastened toward her. “What happened? Weren’t you with Jiu’er and the others…”
“Jiu’er had a vague sense that something wasn’t right and ordered me to go back and find Xiao Yingtao.” Qiaomu’s expression darkened. She looked down at the infant in her arms. “And as it turned out, something had indeed happened. Lian Consort… is gone.”
“Lian Consort is gone?” Even Xue Gu’s expression, which rarely changed, shifted slightly. “Why? What happened?”
“Xiao Yingtao said she suffered a difficult birth — a hemorrhage — and so… she’s gone.” The infant in her arms — she had no idea whether he had fainted or fallen asleep. Qiaomu had no experience whatsoever.
She glanced at Xing Zizhou’s pallid face, then said in a grave voice, “Xiao Yingtao and I split up. She went to draw away the soldiers in pursuit. The child wouldn’t stop crying, so I had no choice but to take him and go first. I still don’t know how things are on Xiao Yingtao’s end. We agreed to meet near the compound at first light tomorrow.”
Even though the compound had been searched tonight, there was a saying — perhaps the most dangerous place was also the safest. As long as they were careful, returning to the compound to regroup shouldn’t cause too many problems.
Another tide of surging, roiling energy rose in Xing Zizhou’s chest. Xue Gu said steadily, “The residual toxin in your body is not yet cleared. Right now — stay calm.”
Xing Zizhou said nothing. The truth was, there was no way to say anything at all.
Xiao Yingtao’s fate was unknown, and the anxiety in his heart was something no one could imagine. But right now, other than waiting for dawn, there was nothing that could be done.
What was more, given his current condition, even if he went — he would likely only be a burden to everyone else.
“This child…” Qiaomu looked at Xue Gu, hoping she might offer some guidance. She was, after all, older than the rest of them — surely she would have some experience.
“This child has likely not had even a single drop of milk from the time he was born until now.”
“What?” Xue Gu, thrown into a sudden panic, immediately released Xing Zizhou and moved to take the child.
The child stirred in her arms, and the fright nearly made her drop him on the spot.
“Xue Gu, be careful!” Qiaomu’s brows drew together sharply. The near-miss had startled her too — how was this woman so completely unreliable?
“Could he have fainted from hunger?” Xue Gu truly had no idea how to hold an infant. No matter how she adjusted her arms, the child sat awkwardly in her hold.
She flustered about for a moment, and in the end, handed the child back to Qiaomu. “I… I have never… I have never held a baby before.”
Qiaomu stared at her in bewilderment. Xue Gu looked to be well past her forties — how had she never held an infant?
“I have lived alone on Snow Lotus Mountain for many years. I truly have never had occasion to hold a child.” Xue Gu seemed a touch flustered — something no one would have expected from the usually imposing Xue Gu: this much expression over a single infant.
Painstaking care. Unease. Even outright panic.
“Well. I, at least, lived in the mountain stronghold for a time and managed to hold other people’s children at least once or twice.”
Qiaomu took the child back securely into her arms and looked at his ashen little face, her heart clenching with compassion. “He must be starving. Xue Gu — what do we do?”
“We need to find a wet nurse.” Out in the wilderness like this, a wet nurse was naturally nowhere to be found. Xue Gu looked at the road leading down the mountain. “When we came, I noticed there were a few small settlements nearby. Poor, but with a bit of life to them.”
“You all find somewhere to shelter. I’ll go and find a wet nurse — I’ll be back soon.”
She was about to turn and leave when she couldn’t help but look back once more at Xing Zizhou. “I know your heart is in turmoil. But before tomorrow, it is not advisable to take any action. Rest well for now. First thing in the morning, I will go with you to look for Xiao Yingtao.”
Xing Zizhou was mildly taken aback. He hadn’t expected it of Xue Gu — someone who had almost never spoken with any of them — that in her heart she had noticed so many things so clearly, even him and Xiao Yingtao.
He gave a small nod. After the two of them watched Xue Gu depart, Qiaomu said, “Xue Gu may seem cold and indifferent on the surface — but in truth, she has a warm heart.”
Xing Zizhou let out a slow, quiet breath. “Tonight, if it weren’t for Xue Gu, I should have lost my life in that poisoned arrow ambush.”
Qiaomu too wanted to know exactly what had happened tonight — but for now, the most pressing matter was to get the child some milk, to give him a chance at life before anything else.