Qi Buyan had just opened the book and hadn’t even glanced at the pages when a black snake slithered back through the window with a loud noise. As it crawled in, an arrow “whooshed” into the room, striking the screen.
Someone outside the inn was shooting arrows inside.
Immediately after, a second arrow followed. Qi Buyan put down his book and raised his hand to catch the arrow aimed at him. The shooter had powerful inner strength, and the force of the arrow made the silver butterfly chain on his wrist tremble.
He Sui’an immediately hit the ground.
With arrows coming in, not getting down would make one a live target. She used both her hands and feet to crawl in front of the bed, where a thick wooden plank offered protection, difficult for arrows to penetrate.
The first and second arrows were shot by highly skilled individuals, and the next dozens of arrows followed quickly, indicating there were many attackers.
The arrows, wrapped in a strong wind, grazed the bed board where He Sui’an was hiding.
They “thunked” into the floor.
She remained unharmed.
When it came to martial arts, He Sui’an knew none, but when it came to hiding, she was skilled. She hid on her own while Qi Buyan dealt with his attackers, neither interfering with the other. She burrowed further in.
As another batch of arrows flew into the room, the thin Heavenly Silkworm silk threads wrapped around the arrows.
Qi Buyan twisted his wrist, causing the Heavenly Silkworm silk to steer the arrows in a different direction. His fingertips lightly plucked the tensioned silk, making a “zheng” sound, and the arrows wrapped in the Heavenly Silkworm silk shot back outwards.
The sharp arrowheads pierced through bodies, embedded in flesh, and pinned into bones.
Bones seemed to crack.
A faint “crack” sound came, accompanied by a slight vibration, transmitted through the Heavenly Silkworm silk back to Qi Buyan’s wrist.
He guessed the person hit had suffered a bone fracture.
Though there was some distance, Qi Buyan couldn’t hear the sound, but he could deduce it from the vibrations transmitted through the silk.
Qi Buyan felt a slight thrill.
Holding the Heavenly Silkworm silk that extended outside the inn, he manipulated it from afar, gently pulling and moving it, causing the triangular arrowheads to rotate within the bodies of the attackers, grinding and tearing the flesh.
When the opponents tried to cut the Heavenly Silkworm silk with their blades, Qi Buyan, still in the inn, seemed to anticipate this and instantly retracted the silk.
Leaving the attackers empty-handed.
Qi Buyan glanced at the Heavenly Silkworm silk stained with someone else’s blood, walked to the window, and looked down. The midnight street was empty, as if the people who had been frequently shooting arrows into the inn had never existed.
If not for the long arrows that remained inside, it would indeed feel like a dream.
The blood brought back by the Heavenly Silkworm silk didn’t reach the floor; the eggs parasitic on the silk quickly sucked it dry. The Heavenly Silkworm silk, once stained with crimson, returned to its pure, flawless snowy white.
He Sui’an left the bed and walked to the window, still shaken. “Are these people sent by the real culprit behind the murder of Princess Luoyan’s brother and sister-in-law?”
Qi Buyan’s lips curved slightly. “Yes.”
It was unexpectedly early.
He had thought they would have to wait a while longer, but the mastermind couldn’t wait and took action tonight. They would rather kill the wrong person than let them go.
The mastermind didn’t know how they got the Water Jade Pendant. Over the years, the pendant had disappeared like a stone sinking into the sea, only to resurface recently, arousing suspicion.
Regardless of whether they knew anything, the safest way was to turn them into dead people.
The mastermind was not foolish.
Shen Jianhe was the one who auctioned the Water Jade Pendant in the air pavilion, but they went with him, and they were the ones who took the gold. Who brought the Water Jade Pendant to the auction was self-evident.
Tonight, the mastermind sent people to test their strength. If successful, they would kill them; if not, they would retreat but not give up.
Qi Buyan stroked the bone flute at his waist. Killing with Heavenly Silkworm silk was ultimately limited.
If he played the bone flute, he could directly kill everyone who came to kill them tonight from a distance. His hand stopped on the bone flute, and he turned to look at He Sui’an standing beside him, seeming a bit dazed.
In the past, Qi Buyan used the bone flute without hesitation. Now, he seemed to hesitate twice because of He Sui’an. Once when he killed Bian Yichen, and again tonight.
All lives are fragile.
Including He Sui’an’s.
One moment a person could be lively, and the next they could turn into a cold, stiff corpse.
Qi Buyan had seen many such scenes and personally ended the lives of people and animals. But he couldn’t quite accept that she might become a lifeless, speechless corpse.
Even if he could turn the dead into Gu people, keeping them in that way because Gu people were living corpses.
Gu people were mindless.
Gu people had no thoughts of their own, every action was following the Gu master’s commands. Qi Buyan didn’t like the idea of He Sui’an becoming that way.
He disliked it greatly.
He wanted her to talk to him willingly, to hold his hand willingly, to kiss him willingly, and to be intimate with him willingly, not to become a mindless Gu person.
With this in mind, He Sui’an needed to stay alive, to live well.
Qi Buyan suddenly realized that at some point, he no longer cared if He Sui’an’s life and death were beyond his control. Not only did he not want to kill her, but he also seemed a bit afraid she might die.
Afraid.
Was he afraid she might die?
Through He Sui’an, Qi Buyan experienced an unfamiliar emotion.
His hand, which had been holding the bone flute, moved to He Sui’an’s cheek, slowly caressing her skin. He wanted to confirm this emotion, his gaze seemingly fixed on her face, yet also floating in the void.
She looked at Qi Buyan, puzzled.
He Sui’an had initially wanted to discuss the people who had come to kill them tonight, but she noticed Qi Buyan’s expression was somewhat strange.
He looked as though he was perplexed by something he couldn’t understand or something extraordinary, and this expression appeared when he looked at her. Following his hand on her face, He Sui’an asked, “What are you thinking?”
Qi Buyan didn’t hide it: “I’m thinking about something related to you.”
He Sui’an could tell.
He lowered his head and eyes to look at her, then suddenly said, “He Sui’an, hold my hand.”
He Sui’an held Qi Buyan’s hand.
Though she didn’t understand, she did it anyway.
Her hand was small, pale pink, with slender fingers and a bit of softness in the palm, which felt tender when it brushed against his hand, offering a gentle touch.
Holding Qi Buyan’s hand, He Sui’an couldn’t help but glance at their hands.
His hand was pale from lack of sunlight, but his fingertips were slightly pink. When she held it, the slightly pink fingertips pressed against the back of her hand, their fingers interlaced, as if in an intimate hold.
After she had held his hand for a while, Qi Buyan softly said, “Kiss me.”
He Sui’an quickly realized that Qi Buyan was trying to confirm something. She didn’t question it at that moment, placing her hands on his lean shoulders, then standing on tiptoe to kiss the corner of his lips.
Her lips were slightly cool, bringing a touch of chill to his warm lips.
Qi Buyan opened his mouth.
He Sui’an, intending only a brief kiss on the corner of his lips, felt her face heat up and deepened the kiss, the faint sound of moisture between their lips and teeth. Qi Buyan’s Adam’s apple moved, swallowing her saliva.
The kiss didn’t last long. He Sui’an pulled away and quietly looked at Qi Buyan. The room, dimly lit by a single candle on the table, was half-shrouded in shadows.
Qi Buyan’s long hair was stirred by the wind blowing in from the window, brushing against He Sui’an before falling again.
He stared at her intently.
Perhaps He Sui’an didn’t notice, but every time she listened to Qi Buyan speak, she would show a small, thoughtful expression, pondering whether to follow his words or not.
This was the liveliness of the living He Sui’an, something irreplaceable.
Qi Buyan fully confirmed it.
What he had wanted all along was this He Sui’an, who acted on her own whims.
He Sui’an noticed the change in Qi Buyan’s expression, guessing that he had found clarity. She didn’t ask about it but instead pointed to the arrows stuck in the floor, door, screen, and walls of the room.
“Should we tidy up the room?”
By “tidy up,” she meant pulling out all the arrows. Otherwise, it would look too messy and could be dangerous if they tripped over or got scratched by them. Besides, this was someone else’s inn room.
Seeing that Qi Buyan didn’t object, she went to pull out the nearest arrow.
Arrows shot into soft materials like fabric were easy to remove, but those embedded in wood were more difficult. He Sui’an was exhausted after pulling out just one arrow. “Will they come back tonight?”
Qi Buyan pulled out an arrow embedded in the wooden wall with one hand. “No, they’re seriously injured by my Heavenly Silkworm silk. Unless they can find another group of people before dawn.”
He Sui’an diligently continued pulling out arrows.
By the time she finished, she was drenched in sweat. She noticed Qi Buyan pulling out the last arrow and collapsed onto the floor, panting, her chest rising and falling with each breath.
Qi Buyan, holding the last arrow, sat beside her.
Although they had removed the arrows, the holes remained. He Sui’an poked at a hole in the floor with her finger, realizing they would have to pay for the damage. She wasn’t about to fix the holes herself.
She lightly kicked at the removed arrows. Even though they didn’t shoot the arrows, they would have to pay for the damages. She counted the holes in the room, estimating the cost would be significant.
The door, walls, and floor were all made of high-quality wood.
Replacing the damaged sections would require replacing entire pieces.
Given the innkeeper’s character, he wouldn’t tolerate a room with numerous arrow holes and wouldn’t simply fill the holes with wood scraps. He would replace the whole wooden panel.
He Sui’an did some calculations. “We’ll have to pay a lot of silver to the innkeeper.”
Her face turned sour.
Qi Buyan wiped a drop of sweat from her nose with his indigo sleeve. “How much?”
She gave him a figure.
“Alright.” He pulled her up from the floor and led her out of the room.
Although they didn’t shoot the arrows, they wouldn’t be the ones paying for the damages. However, Qi Buyan could front the money for now and later get it back from the mastermind, with interest.
The interest he sought wasn’t in silver. The poison Gu he kept hadn’t eaten well in a long time, and human flesh was its favorite.
He Sui’an and Qi Buyan went downstairs.
Although it was curfew time, the residents could move freely within their lodgings.
The innkeeper and a few staff were still in the main hall. When a staff member saw them come down, he put away his cloth and asked if they needed anything.
