Hidden Shadow – CH 079

Chapter Seventy-Nine: An Jiu Tells a Story

Everything returned to calm, as if nothing had happened, and the people on the opposite bank of the river were completely unaware of the ambush.

“My Young Lady, let’s go back!” With no one else in the house, Yao-Ye no longer concealed her address.

Mei Jiu was in a state of panic. Hearing Yao-Ye point out a way, she nodded repeatedly.

The guards closed the window, sheathed their swords, and escorted Mei Jiu slowly out of the elegant residence.

The group boarded the carriage and hurried back to the mansion, encountering no ambushes along the way.

“My Young Lady, Lady Lou suddenly had an accident, and then someone suddenly attacked us. This servant thinks, could these people have mistaken you for my young master?” Yao-Ye could only think of this possibility for the time being. Otherwise, even if someone wanted to harm Young Lady Mei, they should have done it at the Mei Mansion, not ambushed a young girl in broad daylight.

They were probably trying to stop Mo Sigui from rescuing Lady Lou, and Mei Jiu, dressed as a man, was mistaken?

Yao-Ye thought about it more and more, and it seemed plausible. When she came to her senses and looked at Mei Jiu, she saw her trembling slightly and asked in confusion, “What’s wrong, My Young Lady?” She had already endured the brutal trials; she could not possibly be frightened by one or two arrows.

“N-nothing,” Mei Jiu forced herself to remain calm. Having experienced so much carnage and influenced by An Jiu’s mental strength, she had developed a certain immunity to it and would not faint so easily.

However, even so, it could not change her fear of this precarious life. She had run away from it for so long, but finally, she had to face it.

“Yao-Ye,” Mei Jiu lowered her eyes, her voice soft, “should I join the Konghe Army to save my mother or try to escape the Mei Clan?”

Seeing Mei Jiu’s quiet and gentle demeanor again, Yao-Ye felt as if she had been reborn. She suppressed her doubts and comforted her. “Lady Yan has already arranged a way out for you. Elder Zhi has promised to protect you. You just need to hone your martial arts, and you can stay in the Mei Clan. Find a husband and live a peaceful life! I do not mean to discourage you, but once you join the Konghe Army, no one can save anyone else. You should give up this idea as soon as possible, lest you disappoint Lady Yan’s good intentions.”

“That’s what I was thinking too,” Mei Jiu admitted to her cowardice. If she had not personally experienced those cruel survival rules during this trial, she might have obediently followed the path Mei Yanran had laid out for her. But, “Thinking about my mother living that kind of life every day, I cannot rest easy!”

Later… when she slept in a comfortable bed, her mother was fighting in the dead of night; while she ate exquisite meals, her mother might have gone without food for days… How could she possibly enjoy a peaceful life with a clear conscience?

“I can not,” Mei Jiu murmured.

She was afraid; she wanted to back down, but she could not pretend indifference to her mother’s sacrifice.

An Jiu was deeply moved, wondering what Mei Jiu would think if she knew her meridians were destroyed…

“Young lady, are you alright?” Yao-Ye asked.

“I am fine.” Mei Jiu had gradually calmed down. She asked An Jiu, “What are we doing in Bianjing?”

Mei Jiu had not woken up when they left, so she did not know.

An Jiu answered succinctly. “To play.”

Relieved by the answer, Mei Jiu said to Yao-Ye, “Let’s go back.”

“My Young Lady, we came with the caravan that’s buying New Year’s goods for the mansion. If we go back now, we cannot take too many guards with us. Why do we not wait until the morning after tomorrow?” Yao-Ye looked at her quiet demeanor, so different from the previous two days, and could not figure it out.

The change in Mei Jiu and An Jiu confused Yao-Ye. But that was all; thankfully, neither of them caused any trouble, saving her a lot of worry.

Mei Jiu valued her life and did not insist.

Because of the sneak attack, she did not dare go out for a stroll. After lunch, she sat in the pavilion with a hand warmer, reading. Bathed in the warm sunlight, thinking of Mei Yanran suffering somewhere, she could not help but feel sad again.

An Jiu really did not want to comment on Mei Jiu’s melancholic nature, but Mei Jiu’s emotional outbursts affected her, so she could not help but offer some comfort. “I remember a story,” An Jiu said, her initiative surprising Mei Jiu.

“What story?” she asked.

“It’s called something like Dream of the Red Chamber. It is about a beautiful young woman who lives with her cousin. She falls in love with him, but he does not like her constant crying, so he marries another cousin. The important part is that she dies from excessive grief, coughing up blood,” An Jiu earnestly warned Mei Jiu. “Like you, you will definitely die young.”

Mei Jiu was immediately annoyed, but then she understood An Jiu’s meaning and could not help but laugh and cry. “That’s not concern, but a curse! Besides, your story is not interesting!”

After spending so much time together, Mei Jiu understood An Jiu somewhat. She was just sharp-tongued but meant no harm. Thinking it over, she felt it was unusual for Mei Jiu to offer comfort, and her ungratefulness seemed a bit heartless. So she said gently, “Why not tell me another one? This story is too sad.”

An Jiu did not argue and told another one as requested, “How about ‘Water Margin’? It is a story about a leader leading a group of followers in a rebellion. They went through a lot of turmoil, and the court bribed the leader, so the group dispersed.”

“…”

“Tell me another one.”

Sensing Mei Jiu’s disdain, An Jiu did not believe it. These were all stories once considered classics. “This is a story about an ugly man who loves a beautiful woman but cannot have her. The beautiful woman falls for a seemingly respectable man, who is later hanged. The ugly man, unable to have the beautiful woman, becomes twisted and jumps off the bell tower with her body.”

“You say stories that are all so…so special.” Mei Jiu could not think of any words of praise.

“Hypocritical,” An Jiu said unhappily.

The story was bizarre, yet Mei Jiu could sense the change in An Jiu compared to before. In the past, An Jiu would likely have been too disdainful to offer comfort. Realizing this, Mei Jiu felt a warmth in her heart. “Thank you.” The two souls, initially filled with mutual loathing and rejection, now felt a strange sense of mutual dependence.

An Jiu had never been so close to anyone before. She disliked Mei Jiu, but during the time Mei Jiu had been gone, she felt incredibly lonely without speaking to her.

The air rippled slightly.

“Someone’s here!” An Jiu’s heart skipped a beat. She tried to control her body, but it was too late. A handkerchief soaked in sleeping potion was already pressed against her mouth.

A pungent smell filled her nostrils, and An Jiu instantly lost consciousness. Mei Jiu automatically filled the void, also fainting at the same time.

After an unknown amount of time, someone placed a pill in her mouth. The pill melted upon entering her mouth, its taste spicy, burning her entire esophagus with a searing pain.

Mei Jiu opened her eyes to find herself in a dilapidated temple, a black-clad man sitting on an altar, staring down at her.

The sharp gaze made Mei Jiu involuntarily shrink back.

The black-clad man frowned. “Are you Fourteenth Young Lady?”

“I…” Mei Jiu choked, unable to admit it.

A long sword was drawn and pressed against Mei Jiu’s neck. “Are you or are you not?!”

“I am,” Mei Jiu cried.

“Very good.” The black-clad man sheathed his sword. “How did your meridians get damaged?” Mei Jiu was speechless. She had tried to hide it for a few days, but she was exposed on the very first day.

Mei Jiu was bewildered. After a long while, when the black-clad man was about to lose his patience, she said pitifully, “I…I do not know.”

“Could it be that you were injured when you borrowed Chu Dingjiang’s internal energy that day?” The black-clad man suddenly laughed gleefully. “It seems the madman’s expectations are going to be dashed. Ah, why am I in such a good mood?”

Chu Dingjiang was the name of the Divine Martial Commander of the Konghe Army.

“What did you say?” A roar, like a thunderclap, sent dust flying from the roof beams. With a tremendous force, a tall figure burst into the room.

The withered leaves brought in by the force swirled down, and his long, loose, gray hair fell slowly over his broad shoulders. A longbow was slung across his back.

He wore a half-silver mask, revealing only a pair of cold, stern, upward-slanting eyes.

“You are Fourteenth Young Lady!” He flashed forward, his iron-like hand gripping Mei Jiu’s thin shoulder. “You are the one who fired the arrow! Quick! Quick! Fire another arrow!”

He dragged Mei Jiu to an open area outside the temple, untied a longbow, and shoved it into her hand, pointing to a large tree a hundred feet away. “Shoot that tree.”

Mei Jiu gripped the longbow, thinking to An Jiu, “What should we do? You handle this?”

“Madman,” the black-clad man said, arms crossed, leaning against the temple gate, his eyes crinkling, his voice cheerful, “Test her meridians.”

The “madman” paused, then grasped Mei Jiu’s slender wrist.

In that instant, his intense enthusiasm vanished.

The black-clad man spoke sarcastically, “The destroyed meridians are secondary. This young woman looks so frail, and she does not seem to possess the powerful spiritual energy to activate the ‘Startling the String.’ You have not mistaken her for someone else, have you?”

“Impossible!” the madman roared, falling into a state of frenzy. “My eyes have never been wrong!”

He gripped Mei Jiu’s shoulders tightly and shook her violently. “Shoot the ‘Startling the String’! Now!”