He Sui’an thought Qi Buyan was joking. Seeing his unchanged expression, she became unsure.
She stammered, unable to say a word.
Qi Buyan seemed indifferent about the matter of intercourse, merely stating the facts in a normal tone, telling her other ways to obtain the butterfly without feeling shy or excited.
The guards blocked by the silk at the door saw General Li lying motionless on the ground and thought Qi Buyan had killed him, causing a stir.
The killing of a general can easily lead to chaos within the troops.
Outside the city, the Hu people were eyeing Jincheng’s grain, gold, and jewels greedily. The guards feared this incident would cause panic among the city’s residents, leading to internal and external troubles.
The guards at the General’s Mansion were all personally led by General Li and were loyal only to him. If he died, they would be like headless flies.
At that moment, the deputy general arrived.
Most of General Li’s guards, seeing his arrival, thought they would have a new leader after today. Recognizing the situation, they made way for him, addressing him with even more respect, “Deputy General Yang.”
The guards’ voices were loud. He Sui’an, standing in the main hall, looked outside.
Deputy General Yang, in his thirties, had an old scar crossing his brow, sharp eyes, and a stern appearance.
Instinct told He Sui’an that he was a different kind of person compared to General Li.
This man wore heavy armor, carried a curved blade, had a grayish-brown leather whip around his waist, and his boots were stained with horse manure, indicating he had rushed over from somewhere.
He Sui’an had heard some things about Deputy General Yang from the servants in the General’s Mansion last night.
He was a military genius.
Also General Li’s strategist.
Deputy General Yang had led the troops several times to repel the Hu people, with the credit going to General Li.
Jincheng could do without General Li, but not without Deputy General Yang. The residents who knew the truth said so. The court highly rewarded General Li, but their greatest respect was for Deputy General Yang.
Qi Buyan casually followed He Sui’an’s gaze outside and saw Deputy General Yang, raising his eyes and meeting his gaze.
The latter scrutinized him.
His eyes were as sharp as arrows.
Before coming, Deputy General Yang had already heard the cause and effect from others. Seeing the tragic scene in the main hall with his own eyes still surprised him.
Was the person who made such a mess of the General’s Mansion really a teenager? Deputy General Yang glanced at the half-dead General Li, pondering, and gestured for his guards to step back.
Qi Buyan watched them with great interest.
The guards followed orders.
They could see that General Li was still alive, not dead.
Deputy General Yang’s gaze swept over He Sui’an and Qi Buyan, asking, “What exactly do you want to do?”
“We want to leave the city,” Qi Buyan said, lifting the incapacitated General Li and retracting the silk. He wiped the blood splatter from his face with his wrist guard, asking pleasantly, “May we?”
The head guard hesitated, “This…”
Deputy General Yang said, “Let them pass. He holds the General’s life in his hands.”
“Yes, sir.”
He Sui’an, carrying a bundle, closely followed Qi Buyan. One of the guards, disobeying Deputy General Yang’s orders, rushed up as if in a desperate struggle, placing a curved blade against her neck and cutting her skin.
Blood seeped from the cut, and the bundle slid off He Sui’an’s shoulder. Qi Buyan paused at the sound and turned to look.
The guard glared angrily at him.
“Put down our General, or I’ll kill her,” the guard threatened.
Qi Buyan responded, “You’re threatening me?”
The guard pressed the blade harder, causing He Sui’an to scrunch her face in pain. Despite the pain, she did not cry. Since losing her memory, she had realized that crying solves nothing.
Deputy General Yang immediately rebuked the disobedient guard, “In the military, everyone must follow orders. You’re defying a direct command!”
He Sui’an held her breath.
A bead of cold sweat dripped from her forehead.
However, the guard, loyal to General Li, ignored Deputy General Yang’s reprimand and asked Qi Buyan, “Do you really not care if she lives or dies?”
He Sui’an tried to remain calm.
Qi Buyan smiled faintly, “If you want to kill her, go ahead. Even if you slit her throat, I can turn her into a Gu person. But if you die, you’ll truly be dead, with nothing left of you.”
His smile was bright, almost seductive, “So, do you want to try?”
“You…”
The guard’s curse was cut off as He Sui’an headbutted him, almost dislocating his jaw. Seizing the moment, she clumsily rolled to the side, covering herself in dust.
Realizing she could rely on herself to escape, He Sui’an held her aching head, crying tears of joy.
She wasn’t entirely helpless.
Though her method was a bit clumsy.
Before the guard could react, several threads of silk seemed to appear out of nowhere, wrapping tightly around him. One strand constricted his neck, cutting into his flesh so deeply that even swallowing became impossible.
Qi Buyan snapped his fingers.
At that moment, blood and flesh splattered.
The silk threads severed the guard’s head, and his body was chopped into pieces. The others couldn’t see when Qi Buyan made his move; they only felt a blur in front of their eyes.
He Sui’an was stunned.
After all, she was the closest.
The guard’s head rolled to the hem of her skirt, his eyes still wide open, bloodshot, and about to pop out.
The scene was too shocking. He Sui’an froze for a moment, then clumsily got up from the ground, utterly at a loss. She took a few steps, then went back to pick up her bundle, like a headless cat.
Qi Buyan beckoned, “Come here.”
Fearing other disobedient guards might try to grab her as a threat, He Sui’an ran toward Qi Buyan.
Running too fast, she couldn’t stop in time and crashed straight into Qi Buyan’s arms. The boy’s frame was sturdy, his waist and abdomen lean and strong.
He was still very warm.
He Sui’an looked up at him.
The live Gu aroma made her body feel soft, and Qi Buyan found this novel, wanting to hold her tight. Eventually, he gripped the back of her neck and pulled her slightly away to inspect the cut on her neck.
He said, “You’re bleeding.”
He Sui’an knew Qi Buyan was looking at her wound, so she had no other thoughts. She just wanted to leave the General’s Mansion and Jincheng as soon as possible but didn’t know how to urge him.
Deputy General Yang clasped his hands in apology, promising that such an incident would not happen again and hoping they would keep their word to return General Li after safely leaving the city.
Whether Qi Buyan heard him or not was unclear. He touched He Sui’an’s blood.
When touched, her shoulders flinched.
He Sui’an lowered her eyes.
The boy’s fingers played with the blood, which seeped into his fingerprints. His pale skin contrasted eerily with the bright red blood. “Does it hurt?”
Instinctively wanting to shake her head and say it didn’t hurt, He Sui’an remembered Qi Buyan’s warning not to lie to him. She was silent for a moment, then looked up at him, slowly nodding, and softly said, “It hurts.”
Qi Buyan said, “Next time someone hurts you, kill them.”
He Sui’an said nothing.
She couldn’t deceive herself about something she couldn’t do. She didn’t know where she had lived before but felt very unfamiliar with this world, not just because of her amnesia, but because…
It was a sense of unfamiliarity that she couldn’t quite explain.
It felt as though she had never been in this world before. Faced with the common killings in the martial world, all He Sui’an wanted was to get away from it.
She knew her thoughts were absurd. How could she not be from this place? Perhaps she used to live in a peaceful and safe environment, which made her dislike the violent ways of the martial world.
Qi Buyan noticed He Sui’an’s silence and moved closer to her, reducing the distance between them.
“Why aren’t you answering me?”
His eyes reflected her image.
At that moment, He Sui’an didn’t want to look into Qi Buyan’s eyes, which seemed to see through her. In a panic, she hugged him, as if only by doing so could she avoid his gaze.
She clutched Qi Buyan’s red, black, and blue waist sash, whispering, “Can you take me away from here first?”
She feared death the most.
He Sui’an never denied her fear of death.
With her butterfly-shaped hairpin pressing against Qi Buyan’s chest, he could smell the fragrance of her hair, which inexplicably lifted his mood. Keeping a person had its perks; the Gu insects he used to keep couldn’t speak.
“Alright.”
The most important thing was that He Sui’an, like Qi Buyan’s Gu insects, was obedient. Otherwise, he would have strangled her like he would a disobedient Gu.
*
Deputy General Yang and General Li’s guards followed them through a hidden path out of Jincheng without alarming the city’s residents.
He Sui’an hadn’t let go of Qi Buyan’s waist sash the whole time. It wasn’t until he reminded her that if she continued gripping it so tightly, it might come off, that she loosened her fingers a bit.
As soon as they exited the city gates, Qi Buyan dropped the incapacitated General Li.
A few guards rushed to carry General Li away. They wanted to chase and capture Qi Buyan and He Sui’an but were stopped by Deputy General Yang.
Looking at the speechless General Li, Deputy General Yang seemed to contemplate something. “He uses Gu. Besides, the Hu people excel at ambushes. If you chase them recklessly, you might encounter the Hu.”
The guards hesitated.
Chasing them only to encounter the Hu meant certain death.
They frowned, feeling indignant. “Are we just going to let them get away like this? The General is severely injured by them.”
The guards were not skilled in medicine. Seeing General Li still alive but with various injuries, they thought he was merely wounded, unaware that he was inflicted with a Gu that would kill him in four days.
Deputy General Yang said, “The most important thing now is the General’s safety. Quickly find a military doctor.”
“Yes, sir.”
—
After completely leaving the jurisdiction of Jincheng, He Sui’an felt relieved. After all, Qi Buyan had placed a fatal Gu on General Li, and if his guards found out the truth, they would not let them go.
For the past two days, no one had come after them. It seemed they either had given up or were unable to track them any longer.
However, something happened to Qi Buyan that worried her greatly.
He began to be excessively sleepy.
The colder it got, the more he slept.
Like a hibernating snake in winter, Qi Buyan required more sleep than normal. During these times, the Gu insects he kept would become lively and stand guard around him.
He Sui’an couldn’t wake him up.
If Qi Buyan hadn’t warned her in advance, she might have thought he was ill.
She was very cold.
Hiding in a mountain cave sheltered them from the snow and wind but not from the overwhelming cold.
She called out to Qi Buyan several times, but he didn’t respond. Accidentally touching his wrist, she found it very warm, like a natural heater.
Faced with a choice between freezing to death and touching Qi Buyan, He Sui’an chose the latter. She secretly snuggled into his arms for warmth. When she saw a snake crawling nearby out of the corner of her eye, she burrowed deeper in fear.
