In a dizzying spin, Gu Jianli was carried and rolled to the inside of the bed. Just as she was about to worry about hitting her head, the back of her head landed in Ji Wujing’s palm, supported by him. Immediately after, she heard Ji Wujing’s voice, his head buried in her neck.
For a moment, Gu Jianli was stunned, doubting her own ears.
“What? What did you say?” Gu Jianli couldn’t quite believe what she had heard.
Ji Wujing lazily closed his eyes, not intending to respond.
After a brief silence, Gu Jianli spoke again, “Fifth Master, your health isn’t suited for long journeys. You won’t be able to handle it. And what about Xinglan and Xinglou? Are you just going to leave them behind?”
“Bring them along,” Ji Wujing said casually.
A gravely ill patient and two four-year-old children…
Gu Jianli, being held from behind by Ji Wujing, couldn’t see his expression, nor could she guess how much of what he said was casual and how much was genuine.
Was he just talking nonsense?
“Fif… mmm…” Gu Jianli’s mouth was covered, unable to make a sound.
Ji Wujing, impatient, said, “Stop making noise, go to sleep.”
Gu Jianli quieted down, no longer speaking to Ji Wujing, and silently listened to his light and even breaths behind her neck. Gradually, she closed her eyes and fell asleep as well. Half-asleep, she slightly complained in her heart—finally back home and she hadn’t even had a good talk with her father and sister, yet now she had to sleep with him all afternoon. Gu Jianli even thought that when she got back, she should make a life-sized pillow for Ji Wujing to hold every night instead of her.
Ji Wujing lazily opened his eyes at dusk. As soon as he woke up, Gu Jianli woke up as well. She tidied up and went out to instruct Jixia to prepare the carriage. When she returned to the room, she saw Ji Wujing leaning by the window, looking listlessly outside. Gu Jianli stood at the door without entering, asking, “Were you serious about what you said before you went to sleep?”
“What did I say?” Ji Wujing blurted out.
Indeed, he was just talking nonsense. Gu Jianli quickly said, “Nothing. Jixia has prepared the carriage. Let’s go. If we delay any longer, it will be dark soon.”
Gu Jianli and Ji Wujing went to the front hall to bid farewell to Gu Jingyuan. Gu Jingyuan didn’t even spare Ji Wujing a glance, only repeatedly instructing Gu Jianli to take good care of herself. Gu Jianli felt a pang of sadness in her heart. Her father, who used to be taciturn, now cared even more since she got married.
“Alright, let’s go!” Gu Jingyuan waved his hand and finally glanced at Ji Wujing before turning away, or more accurately, glared at him.
Out of habit, Gu Jianli supported Ji Wujing’s arm, reluctantly turning to leave. Ji Wujing suddenly stopped, turned back, and asked Gu Jingyuan, “When are you leaving?”
Gu Jianli looked at Ji Wujing in surprise.
“What’s it to you?” Gu Jingyuan retorted irritably.
“What, planning to leave me behind?” Ji Wujing’s eyes were dark and gloomy. “Is this how you treat your son-in-law?”
“Who said you’re my son-in-law!?” Gu Jingyuan shouted back.
“Oh—” The gloom in Ji Wujing’s eyes dissipated in an instant, replaced by a smile. He said, “Trying to ditch me? Brother Jingyuan, that’s quite unbrotherly of you.”
He then turned his face to Gu Jianli, speaking slowly, “You see, your uncle is always bullied by your father.”
Gu Jingyuan was livid, his face turning red with anger. “Scoundrel! Scoundrel!”
Seeing her usually composed father so enraged, Gu Jianli hurriedly tugged hard on Ji Wujing’s sleeve, speaking gently, “Please, don’t anger Father anymore!”
Ji Wujing remained silent.
Gu Jianli pulled Ji Wujing to the side and asked seriously, “Are you serious or just joking?”
“We’re going. I’m bored in the capital anyway. And I’ll take the two children with me as well.”
“You just won’t give up, will you? And you even want to take those two motherless children!” Gu Jingyuan snorted heavily. “Ji Zhao, who do you think you are? Do you think I’ll allow you to come along? Go back to Emperor Chang and be his royal executioner!”
Gu Jianli was momentarily stunned. Her father’s words reminded her that Ji Wujing was the master of Xuanjing Sect, which served the emperor. What would it mean for him to accompany her father out of the capital? Her father might not fully trust him, and Ji Wujing would be caught in a dilemma.
“Really won’t allow it?” Ji Wujing asked slowly.
Gu Jingyuan waved his hand dismissively. “No!”
“Oh, that’s fine then.” Ji Wujing’s tone was casual. “In that case, I’ll just take Jianli and leave the capital first. It saves me the trouble of traveling with an old man like you.”
“What nonsense is this?” Gu Jingyuan, who had been angrily facing away from Ji Wujing, turned around incredulously. He began to understand. Indeed, as long as Gu Jianli was out of the capital, she would be away from danger. Whether she went with him or with Ji Wujing, it didn’t matter. They didn’t necessarily have to travel together.
But wait…
Why should his daughter leave the capital with Ji Wujing?
“I don’t agree!”
Outside, Gu Jianli and Madam Tao exchanged a helpless glance and shook their heads. Why did these two always end up bickering whenever they met?
Gu Jianli didn’t want them to continue arguing, so she quickly suggested they reconsider after returning home and pulled Ji Wujing away.
Madam Tao stepped forward to stop them. “I made you some pear candies and packed them for you in the carriage. But the steamed cakes need a bit more time to be ready. Please wait a little longer.”
Gu Jianli felt grateful and thanked her, saying, “It will be dark soon. If we delay, it will be too late when we return. I’ll go back with Fifth Master first. Let Jixia stay and wait for the cakes. She can bring them back.”
“That works!” Madam Tao nodded.
Gu Jianli didn’t let her family see them off, but Gu Chuan still chased the carriage, running alongside it for a while. Gu Jianli leaned out of the window, waved at him, and told him to go home.
Seeing that Gu Chuan had stopped chasing and fallen back, Gu Jianli let down the small curtain of the carriage window and sat properly.
After a while, she looked at Ji Wujing, who was leaning against the side of the carriage wall, and said, “Fifth Master, the fatigue and travel are not good for you or the two children. I think—”
Ji Wujing suddenly grabbed her wrist and pulled her into his arms. Gu Jianli collided with Ji Wujing’s hard chest, causing a sharp pain in her chest. As she winced in pain, she heard the sound of an arrow slicing through the air. She turned her head to see an arrow shooting into the carriage. If Ji Wujing hadn’t pulled her aside, that arrow would have pierced her heart.
Gu Jianli shuddered in fear.
Thwack, thwack—
Two more arrows followed, shooting into the carriage. Ji Wujing pressed Gu Jianli’s head down. The two arrows thudded into the back wall of the carriage, their shafts quivering.
Outside the carriage, there was a muffled grunt and the neighing of horses. The carriage shook violently.
Gu Jianli looked up at Ji Wujing and noticed that his face showed no emotion, as if he were completely unconcerned.
Changsheng, who was sitting outside the carriage, glanced at the coachman who had been decapitated by a sword, drew his own sword, and leaped to confront several black-clad attackers.
The wind rustled the trees, and several black figures leapt down from the branches, aiming for the roof of the carriage.
Changsheng glanced back, his hand at his waist moving swiftly. A soft sword sprang from his belt, shooting towards the carriage behind him.
Ji Wujing nonchalantly reached out, catching the soft sword in his hand. He glanced coolly at the gleam on the blade, his lips curling into a faint, cold smile. But the smile quickly turned to disdain.
He disliked using soft swords.
Gu Jianli looked up at the carriage roof. The black-clad man standing there activated a mechanism on his wrist, releasing a flurry of sleeve arrows into the carriage.
Ji Wujing casually lifted the thin blanket covering his legs and flung it upwards.
Gu Jianli instinctively blinked, her vision obscured by the red blanket. The flurry of short arrows was intercepted by the ordinary thin blanket. Gu Jianli vaguely thought she saw a flash of silver in Ji Wujing’s hand just before she closed her eyes.
The red blanket slowly drifted down, covering Gu Jianli’s head. She hurriedly pulled the blanket off, and short arrows fell along with it.
Gu Jianli looked up again. The carriage roof had a huge gash from a sharp weapon, and the person who had been standing on the roof was nowhere to be seen. Light streamed in through the gash, dazzling her eyes. She quickly looked away and glanced at Ji Wujing. He seemed relaxed, holding a thumb-sized piece of something and chewing it leisurely.
“What are you eating?” Gu Jianli blurted out.
Ji Wujing glanced at her, then took another piece from the box on the bench beside him and stuffed it into Gu Jianli’s mouth.
Gu Jianli was stunned until the sweet taste of pear candy spread in her mouth.
Candy. Pear candy. The pear candy Madam Tao had made for her that afternoon.
The candy in Gu Jianli’s mouth slowly melted, the familiar, beloved sweetness filling her taste buds. But how could she have the heart to enjoy candy at this moment? Is this really the time to be eating candy?
Ji Wujing frowned, turned his face away, opened the window, and spat out the half-melted pear candy. He turned back to Gu Jianli, looking a bit displeased. “Too sweet. Not tasty. Why do you like eating this stuff?”
A black-clad man thrust a sword through the window. Gu Jianli’s eyes widened in terror as she cried out, “Watch out!”
Ji Wujing didn’t even turn his head. He raised his hand in a slow, leisurely motion, but his long fingers accurately caught the incoming sword. With a slight movement of his fingers, the sword shattered inch by inch, the fragments shooting back at the black-clad man, piercing his forehead. Blood streamed down from the man’s brow, and he fell heavily backward, eyes wide open.
“What kind of fish are we having for dinner tonight?” Ji Wujing asked.
Gu Jianli looked at Ji Wujing with a complex expression.
Not far away, Ye Yunyue, having hired bodyguards from an escort agency, was hurrying towards them.
The leader of the escort agency, a burly man with broad shoulders, had been eyeing Ye Yunyue suspiciously for a while. Finally, he asked, “Miss, you hired our escort agency but didn’t specify any escorting tasks. You said it was to save someone. We’ve been wandering these remote mountains all day. Who exactly are we saving?”
Ye Yunyue was anxious too!
She scanned the distance, urgently saying, “Keep looking! They should be around here somewhere!”
As someone who had lived through this once before, she knew about the assassination attempt on Ji Wujing today. If it had been a discreet assassination, the Ye Yunyue of the past wouldn’t have known about it. But Ji Wujing had made a big fuss about it afterward, so Ye Yunyue knew. However, she only knew that this incident angering Ji Wujing would happen today, somewhere in this vicinity. As for the exact time and place, how could she know?
She had planned meticulously, spending a fortune to hire the escort agency. She aimed to stage a heroic rescue, hopefully getting injured in the process to evoke his gratitude and sympathy. Men naturally feel tender towards a woman who risks her life to save them. She didn’t expect much, just to become a concubine first and then slowly climb her way up!
But JW is not an idiot who wouldn’t ask why she came to a remote place with so many hired guards, how did she found them and how did she know they’d be there, how did she knew about the assassination and why her arrival is so suspiciously timely…
Either she knew about assassination attempt or was involved, logically thinking.
You can’t underestimate ancient people especially those way smarter than you (grave mistake of every transmigrated/reborn person).