After confirming that no one was nearby, Wanyan Chongjie finally untied her outer nightclothes and tried to reset her ribs. Unfortunately, the location of the injury made it difficult for her to exert force, so no matter how many times she tried, she couldn’t get the bones properly set.
“Search carefully! Every gate is guarded—the assassin should be somewhere nearby. Don’t leave a single corner untouched. Even if we have to dig three feet into the ground, we’ll catch them!” Suddenly, the voice of a small captain rang out.
“Yes sir!” A chorus of assent rose from the guards. Soon they spread out, searching the area, poking their blades into the underbrush as they went. Even a pheasant couldn’t have hidden from them, let alone a living person.
Wanyan Chongjie’s heart sank. She looked in another direction and saw another team of guards approaching. If she rushed out now, she’d be caught between the two groups. Among these guards were no lack of experts. Even at full strength, she wasn’t confident about taking on so many at once—and now she was seriously wounded.
Biting her crimson lip tightly, Wanyan Chongjie shrank further back into the rockery. Her only hope now was that they wouldn’t find her. But she knew the odds were slim. Though this spot was concealed, so many guards conducting a systematic search would find her sooner or later.
Just as her anxiety peaked, Wanyan Chongjie noticed the captain glance in her direction. He drew his blade and walked toward the rockery with a grave expression.
Wanyan Chongjie gripped her short sword tighter. A thin sheen of sweat formed at her temples. *If things go south, I must end my own life in time. If I become a prisoner, I won’t even have that chance.*
The Song and Jin were mortal enemies. During the Jingkang Incident, how many imperial consorts and princesses of the Song royal family had been reduced to tools for the Jin to vent their animal lusts. If she fell into Song hands, the thought of what awaited her was too horrifying to contemplate.
Although Jin women didn’t prize chastity as highly as Jiangnan ladies, there was a world of difference between open-mindedness and being violated. And given what her mother had suffered in recent years, Wanyan Chongjie was far more conservative than the average Jin woman.
Seeing the man drawing nearer, Wanyan Chongjie prepared to strike the moment he came to investigate. As her short sword slowly left its scabbard, her other hand fumbled for the nightclothes she had just taken off. But instead of fabric, her fingers brushed a warm hand.
Brave as she was from childhood, this made her hair stand on end. If not for the voice in her head constantly warning her not to cry out and alert the guards, her scream would have already pierced the night.
She turned her head and saw a young man grinning at her. That lazy, roguish expression—if it wasn’t that Jia Baoyu who had taken advantage of her during the day, who else could it be?
It turned out Song Qingshu had heard the commotion and come to investigate. The assassin wasn’t Zhou Zhiruo or Lan Fenghuang as he’d suspected, but Wanyan Chongjie was still one of his own people, so of course he couldn’t just stand by and let her die. Seeing her trapped, he had immediately shown himself to help.
“Shh—” Song Qingshu made a silencing gesture and pointed at the half-removed nightclothes. “Take them off.”
The very reason Wanyan Chongjie had broken into the Jia mansion in the dead of night was to avenge the humiliation he’d inflicted on her earlier. And now, here he was trying to strip her again. Old grievances mingled with new, and she threw caution to the wind. She thrust her sword at him—*at least if I die, I’ll take him with me.*
But as soon as she moved, her entire body went numb. She couldn’t move an inch. Terror gripped her, then she heard him say, “Talk about misdirected goodwill. You women really have filthy minds.”
Song Qingshu looked deeply aggrieved, though of course he knew perfectly well how ambiguous his earlier words had been.
“Who’s there!” Though the exchange had been over in a flash, it inevitably made some noise—enough to alert the guards outside. The captain quickly gestured for his men to circle around behind the rockery.
Wanyan Chongjie’s heart turned to ice. *This legendary, pathetic dandy turns out to be a dark horse. Against him alone, I’m helpless. What difference does it make how many guards there are?*
While she was dazed, Song Qingshu flicked his hand. Somehow, in one smooth, fluid motion, he stripped off her outer nightclothes and pulled them on over his own.
“May I borrow your veil, miss?” Song Qingshu smiled faintly. Without waiting for her reaction, he removed the black gauze from her face and tied it over his own.
By now, the guards had surrounded the rockery entrance and were about to send someone in to investigate. Song Qingshu shot out of the cave like a cannonball, and a chorus of shouts and screams erupted.
“The assassin’s running toward the master’s study—after him!” Recognizing the dark figure’s direction, the captain was both alarmed and enraged. If the assassin made it into the perimeter of Jia Sidao’s study, he would be in deep trouble. He immediately shouted for his men to give chase.
Wanyan Chongjie crouched in the rockery, stunned. She couldn’t figure out why he would help her. *Wouldn’t summoning the guards to tie me up and drag me to his bedroom be more in character for a notorious lecherous dandy?*
But what astonished her even more was the Qinggong he had just displayed—it was breathtaking. No wonder he had stood behind her without her noticing a thing.
“Daydreaming?” A teasing voice sounded in her ear. “Thinking about me?”
Wanyan Chongjie turned her head and found him leaning against the rockery, looking at her with a sly smile.
“Didn’t you go that way?” She was taken aback.
“I shook them off. Too slow.” Song Qingshu replied casually, pulling off the black gauze. “This thing’s a bit small—hard to breathe. The only nice thing is it smells nice.”
Wanyan Chongjie’s delicate brows arched. “You womanizing scoundrel!”
Song Qingshu shrugged. “I never said I wasn’t. You can ask around Lin’an—Jia Baoyu definitely deserves that title.”
“Hmph!” Wanyan Chongjie turned her head away with a delicate snort, her mind racing. *How am I going to get out of this? I was far too rash this time. If Ouyang Feng had been with me, I wouldn’t be in such a mess.*
Song Qingshu had snuck out from the study a while ago. Worried that Chen Jian would notice his absence, he had no more time to tease the girl. He stepped forward and scooped Wanyan Chongjie into his arms.
“Hey! What are you doing? Let me go—” Held by a stranger man, Wanyan Chongjie was both shocked and furious. She tried to struggle free, but her acupoints had been sealed—she had no strength at all, no matter how she twisted.
In all her life, aside from this same man’s earlier transgression, she had never been this close to any man. The feeling was one of both terror and fear.
But what perplexed her most was that being held by this man wasn’t accompanied by the revulsion she had imagined. On the contrary, he seemed to have a certain… comfortable aura. Realizing this only frightened her more.
“Stay still, or you’ll aggravate your injuries.” Feeling the girl’s body squirm, Song Qingshu slapped her once on her pert bottom.
In his previous life, Song Qingshu would never have done something so rash. Even a year or two ago, he wouldn’t have been so forward. But now, his horizons and vision had long since transcended such things. He no longer agonized over romantic entanglements—his heart was set on the grand landscape of the realm beneath heaven. Though he realized such actions might trouble a woman, he simply couldn’t be bothered to care.
Perhaps the world saw this as frivolous behavior. But given his current status and perspective, the mundane rules of society held no sway over him.
Of course, he could have patiently explained that he wanted her to stay still to avoid aggravating her injuries—that if her broken ribs shifted and pierced her organs, even the highest immortal couldn’t save her. But Song Qingshu found that troublesome. Better to just sp@nk her—simple and direct.
Wanyan Chongjie’s mouth fell open. After a brief silence, her voice came out cold as ice. “Do that again. I dare you.”
Song Qingshu chuckled and landed another slap.
Wanyan Chongjie finally exploded. “You despicable, shameless, filthy Song pig! I, Wanyan Chongjie, swear that one day I’ll make you wish you were dead!”
Song Qingshu ignored her and delivered another slap. After that, for every curse she spat, he answered with a sp@nk. Finally, Wanyan Chongjie begged, “Please… stop hitting me.”
Her voice cracked with tears, mingled with a strange tremor. Song Qingshu looked down and saw mist gathering in her eyes. Her naturally alluring peach-blossom eyes, even at her young age, gave her a look of silky seductiveness.
“If you behave, of course I’ll stop.” Along the way, Wanyan Chongjie’s curses had attracted several guards, but Song Qingshu relied on his superior Qinggong, turning left and right, until finally he quietly returned to the courtyard outside the study and stopped.
The courtyard was usually heavily guarded. Before, Song Qingshu had barely managed to slip out alone. Now, with the disturbance of an assassin in the mansion, the hidden sentries were even more alert, their eyes and ears open in all directions. Trying to carry someone in was a pipe dream.
But he had another method. With a wave of his hand, a handful of small stones from the ground flew into his palm. He flicked one with his finger, and a soft sound came from ten yards away.
“Who’s there?” The sound, though soft, was enough to alert the guards. Someone immediately emerged and moved toward the noise.
Song Qingshu flicked again and again, sending stones flying one after another. Soft sounds echoed through the courtyard, as if a master of Qinggong were fleeing through the grounds. Finally, he drew the attention of all the sentries.
Taking advantage of the distraction, Song Qingshu, with Wanyan Chongjie in his arms, glided through like a wisp of breeze. When he stopped, he was inside the study.
Wanyan Chongjie’s small mouth hung open. She had witnessed the entire process—it was nothing short of divine skill, momentarily making her forget the burning shame on her backside.