CH 157

March 11, 2023Merchie

Pei Zheng didn’t know how to comfort him.

He could say that it wasn’t because of him, but wasn’t all of this because of them?

That was the truth.

He could only hug the small man tightly, preventing him to from looking back at the bloody massacre behind them.

There was only the sound of the wind whistling past his ears, as well as the raging heartbeat in his chest.

The sounds of battle gradually ceased. All of the merchants in the caravan had died under those barbarian soldiers’ cold blades.

Then, a group of people on horseback began to pursue the two of them.

In front, a horse galloped along with two people on its back. Behind them were the barbarians, wielding huge blades, their eyes red with murderous intent.

They ran and ran, and the greenery around them gradually increased.

Faster, just a little faster.

But a ‘swoosh‘ suddenly sounded from behind them.

Pei Zheng’s gaze chilled, and he suddenly ducked. An arrow grazed his back as it shot toward them.

Several more ‘swoosh‘ sounds followed in rapid succession; the horse’s legs had been shot.

With a pained whinny, the horse collapsed onto the ground.

Pei Zheng only had time to protect the person in his arms, and he fell heavily on his back onto the coarse sand below.

The wounds on his back had definitely reopened. His brow creased and he let out a muffled groan, before he hurriedly examined the small man lying over his chest.

“Are you hurt?”

Although Qi Changyi hadn’t been injured, his ears were ringing painfully.

Pei Zheng supported him to stand up, before he heard the sounds of horse hooves echoing from every direction.

The barbarian soldiers had surrounded the two of them and were currently pacing circles around them.

Pei Zheng looked down, staring at the small man’s face. Seeing that his complexion was deathly pale, and that he was about to faint, he couldn’t stop his heart from tightening.

“Hey! Look up! You’re Pei Zheng?”

The captain of the barbarian guards spoke in an incredibly disdainful tone, “And I thought the Prime Minister of the Celestial Dynasty was an extremely capable individual. How could he have been captured so easily?”

The others also burst into raucous laughter.

“What ‘Lord Prime Minister’, he must be a peasant, he doesn’t look like anything special!”

The captain noticed the blood that was dripping beneath Pei Zheng’s robe and knew that he was injured. His attitude instantly became even more condescending.

“Oh, he’s hugging a beauty in his arms too. It’s too bad, this beauty’s complexion looks terrible, he’s not going to die, is he?”

Just as he finished speaking, the captain leisurely walked up to Pei Zheng and Qi Changyi, and looked Qi Changyi up and down.

They knew who Pei Zheng was, but they were only given orders to kill him, so they didn’t know who Qi Changyi was.

In a flurry of martial arts moves, the captain’s neck was squeezed in someone’s grip.

Pei Zheng exerted a bit of strength, and the bones of the neck clutched in his hand began to make cracking sounds. His gaze was ice-cold as he lifted his eyelids and looked at the captain. His eyes were full of an overwhelming killing intent, as well as the strong urge to drown the person in front of him.

The captain was shocked by his gaze. He struggled a few times, but that made it even more difficult for him to breath, so he immediately stopped squirming.

When the other barbarian soldiers saw this, they all yelled and were about to charge over.

However, at this moment, a commotion sounded in the distance.

In a few moments, another group of soldiers arrived, led by Wu Quan. They instantly encircled the barbarian soldiers from the outside.

Wu Quan spotted Pei Zheng and Qi Changyi in the center of the ring. He shot the other soldiers a look, and in the time it look for a lightning bolt to strike, the two sides engaged each other in battle.

However, the Celestial Dynasty’s soldiers had rested enough beforehand, and they had numbers on their side. Very quickly, they killed each and every one of those barbarian soldiers.

Now, the only person left was that captain.

The captain was still being restrained by Pei Zheng and couldn’t move. As his soldiers fell to the ground, he could only hear the sound, but all he could do was close his eyes in grief.

He sneakily drew his long knife, intending on killing himself with a slice of his blade.

Pei Zheng suddenly let go, before he swiped the long knife away, and the captain immediately collapsed limply onto the sand.

Pei Zheng held that long knife and gazed at it. There were still a few smears of dried blood left on the blade. Most of it was Boss Liu’s.

At this moment, Wu Quan walked up to the two of them, before he clenched his fists and collapsed to his knees.

“Lord Pei, Your Highness, we’ve finally found you!”

After Wu Quan stood up, he turned and walked over to kill the captain, but stopped when Pei Zheng called out to him.

“Hold him up, be careful.”

Pei Zheng temporarily left the small man in Wu Quan’s care.

Wu Quan was a bit surprised, but he hurried over to support Qi Changyi.

Pei Zheng dragged the tip of the blade on the ground, and slowly walked toward the captain.

He lifted his arm and the blade swung downward. A long, deep cut had appeared on the captain’s arm. Blood flowed incessantly, and one could even see the white bone beneath his flesh.

The captain screamed in pain.

“So noisy.”

Pei Zheng sliced another deep gash into his thigh.

The captain immediately shut his mouth. Although the pain was driving him mad, he didn’t dare to cry out again.

Pei Zheng bent down slightly, “Who sent you? What are your intentions?”

The captain’s face was ashen. He gritted his teeth and refused to say a word.

“You refuse to tell me?”

He slashed another cut on the captain’s body. The sound of the blade scraping against bone could be heard as it tore off a chunk of flesh.

Fortunately, Qi Changyi had already been escorted to the side by Wu Quan, who wouldn’t allow him to see this bloody scene.

The captain couldn’t take any more of this torture. His voice trembled as he said, “I’ll tell you, I’ll tell you, it was Chief Ah Mu Le who wanted us-“

He didn’t even have time to finish, because even though he responded, Pei Zheng still wouldn’t stop.

Pei Zheng never planned on granting him a merciful death. He had asked him those questions, even though he had long since uncovered the answers.

He tossed that dirty long knife to the ground, and it fell with a clatter. Pei Zheng wiped his hands in disgust.

He walked back to Wu Quan’s side and noticed that the small man’s eyes were about to close. Pei Zheng gathered him back into his embrace.

Wu Quan led the two of them to the oasis.

After the sandstorm that night, Shen Huan and the others had slowly regrouped, only to find that Pei Zheng and Qi Changyi were missing.

They continued to look for the oasis as they sent people to search relentlessly for the missing pair. But up until they reached the oasis, they still hadn’t found the pair’s whereabouts.

Fortunately, Wu Quan found them in the end.

Once they arrived at the oasis, Shen Huan, Jiang Yubai and the others were about to cry with joy.

But the small man’s condition was already at its worst, so they didn’t have time to ask about any details. Shen Huan hurriedly prepared the herbs they had acquired to begin treating the small man’s illness.

After Qi Changyi was taken away by Shen Huan, Pei Zheng seemed to have suddenly relaxed, before he immediately lost consciousness.

Jiang Yubai was a step ahead and managed to grab onto him, but he couldn’t hold on, and Pei Zheng still ended up collapsing into the sand. Fortunately, Cheng Feng quickly gripped Jiang Yubai’s arm, preventing him from falling over as well.

“Pei Zheng! Pei Zheng!”

Jiang Yubai shoved him, but he didn’t respond at all. Then, Jiang Yubai hurriedly had someone escort him into a nearby tent.

It was only after he had been taken away that Jiang Yubai saw the viscous blood covering his hands.

When Pei Zheng opened his eyes again, he was lying upon a swaying cart pulled by camels.

Led by the guide, the convoy was making its way back, following the original route.

The wounds covering his body had all been treated with the best medicine, and they had all been tightly bandaged. Now, there was no way that they would open up again.

Once his eyes adapted to the brightness, Pei Zheng propped himself up with his hands.

Jiang Yubai saw that he had woken up, and reached out, pushing him back down.

“Lay down.”

Pei Zheng glanced at him, ignored him, and still tried to get up.

Jiang Yubai was so angry that he pressed both hands against his shoulders.

“I told you to lay down. If you don’t listen, I won’t let you see the little Highness.”

As expected, Pei Zheng froze and stopped trying to move.

Jiang Yubai asked, “The wounds on your back look like scratches from a wild beast, was it a wolf?”

Pei Zheng coughed a few times and nodded.

“You actually encountered a wolf?! Then how did you escape? I’ve heard that desert wolves are even more vicious and cruel, and even more terrifying.”

“I killed it.”

Jiang Yubai’s eyes widened in shock, “You killed a wolf, by yourself, while you’re still injured?

“What? Do I have to prove it to you?”

Pei Zheng closed his eyes. Right now, he didn’t want to argue with Jiang Yubai about whether he killed the wolf or not. All he wanted was to know how the little prince was doing.

Jiang Yubai could see a trace of impatience on his face, and sensibly decided not to inquire any further.

“Uh, the little Highness still isn’t awake yet, he’s in the cart in front of this one-“

When Pei Zheng heard this, he turned over and was about to jump off the cart. Jiang Yubai hurriedly grabbed the hem of his robe.

“Wait! I’m not done yet! You can’t disturb him right now. He and the Third Princess are in the process of performing the final blood transfusion. If it goes well, he’ll probably wake up very soon.”

Pei Zheng sat back in the cart, his back to Jiang Yubai.

“Then, what if it doesn’t go well? Then what?”

Jiang Yubai hesitated for a moment, “If it doesn’t go well, his symptoms will probably get worse, and there won’t be any other way…”

Pei Zheng stiffened.

This meant that, after they had spent so much effort, there was still a possibility that they wouldn’t be able to save the little prince?

Although Shen Huan had said before that even if they could perform blood transfusion, the chances of success were very low. But they had really done their very best; they could only quietly wait for the results, so a deep sense of helplessness still remained.

Why… can’t I help him?

Why… is he the one who has to bear it all?

Pei Zheng jumped off, walked to the side of the cart in front of them, and sat onto it.

Jiang Yubai had wanted to remind Pei Zheng that he couldn’t wake His Highness up, because right now, he had two types of blood in his body that were competing with each other.

But Jiang Yubai didn’t say anything, because he saw that Pei Zheng was merely sitting in silence beside His Highness.

Cheng Feng was walking beside the cart Jiang Yubai was sitting in, and was also looking at the pair in front of them.

Pei Zheng sat beside the small man, looking at his gently closed eyes, his long, curled lashes, his pale cheeks, his delicate chin.

He was lying there so quietly; it looked like he was asleep.

“If you’ve slept enough, you should wake up.”

Pei Zheng clasped his hand, and said softly, “We made a promise before, to go back to the Imperial City together, to go home together. You won’t abandon me either, right?”

Notes

Hallo~ Today, I have a little announcement:

I will be taking a little break from the normal upload schedule (1 chapter per 1-2 days) in order to focus on school. I’m not quitting, I promise! Updates will just be sporadic for a month or two maximum. In the meantime, please enjoy a few other danmeis~ My apologies, and thank you for reading~