Chapter 43

[Hm, yes, math. Very interesting.]

To avoid the arrows, I pressed the Emperor down and leaned slightly over him, the whistling of the wind as they whizzed past scraping my eardrums. Hearth seems to know there’s danger, putting everything it had into its sprint, but it’s being burdened by the weight of three people. Even such a powerful stallion is slowly losing speed, to say nothing of being in the middle of the forest, with all the branches and creeping vines preventing it from being in full control.

I look behind us. There are three or four black-cloaked people also riding horses in their chase, one of them already quite close to us. Most the Imperial Guards are settling things, with only the Leader and some of the ones with the best martial arts catching up to us.

My hearts burns with dread as I incessantly urge Hearth on, the nearest assassin in black only a few meters away. There was a flash of cold light, and I saw them throwing out a strange weapon, looking like a dagger tied to a long rope. It’s momentum is like lightning, aiming straight for the Emperor in front of me. My heart jumped, and without further thought, I shut my eyes and swooped forward to protect his entire body with mine. There was then warmth on my face as if someone splashed hot water on it, the suffocating stench of blood assaulting me, and something firm yet soft hitting me on the side of the bridge of my nose, my tear ducts quickly responding in kind. I subconsciously open my eyes, quivering all over in response to seeing that the thing that had hit my cheek at high speed was a severed arm. I can even vaguely glimpse the pink meat and white bone beneath the blood dripping from the place it got cut off…

I surprisingly didn’t scream.

Neither did the Emperor, neither did Zhou Zizhu. Yet their hands couldn’t stop themselves from grabbing at me forcefully at the same time, bodies shaking simultaneously.

Their nails dig painfully into my flesh.

I need this pain to keep my head clear now.

The severed arm is not my own. It belonged to the leader of these Imperial Guards who brought up the rear. He threw himself over seeing that the situation was critical, and, not able to do anything else, had to use his arm to hinder the dagger…

The bloodied guard who was missing an arm rolled up from the ground and yet again stood up, producing a tiger’s roar laced with a hiss of pain, “Flee now, Your Majesty!” He threw himself at the ones clothed in black once more.

The horse swept our despondent selves from the scene. We can’t see anything, only hearing things we don’t want to hear…

The Emperor’s hair and body are also splashed with a lot of blood. Hs tiny body is constantly trembling, his voice trilling and sobbing, “Subject…Zhang, do you remember…w-who he is? We want to admit him to nobility when we return…”

No, I don’t remember who he is. I nodded and smiled cordially when the Guards gave their names, but I didn’t remember a single one.

I only know that he won’t live to see what his title will be, and his family will be wailing and crying miserably into their clasped hands before his memorial tablet when the compensation money comes in.

“Your Majesty, we can check when we return…” My voice is dry and rough, unlike how I appeared.

Zhou Zizhu, who’s holding me by the waist from behind, whispers, “Lu Dayou is his name.”

However, it’s really to early to be saying this when it’s hard to say that all three of us will be able to escape today. The assassins in black that the Guard Lu Dayou had given his life to hinder have caught up again. When I turn my head I can already see a few distant black spots in my field of vision.

My heart sank. It was impossible for Hearth to go any faster while carrying the three of us like a camel, and we’ll be overtaken in no time. I have a moment of heavy regret; why did I have to pull up Zhou Zizhu? We could have escaped by now if I’d left him. If it was only His Majesty and I on the horse, how could those people have caught up?

It’s too late now. I can’t exactly kick Zhou Zizhu off.

I clench my jaw, making a decision. I remove both feet from their stirrups, swing my right leg over, and start to slide off the horse’s back from the left, whispering as I did, “Brother Zhou, His Majesty is entrusted to you.”

Zhou Zizhu and the Emperor cry out in unison, reaching out to pull me back, but they can’t hold me. Hearth neighs in sorrow, running out into the woods at the speed of light. I can still hear the Emperor calling out in the distance, “Subject Zhang, Subject Zhang…”

I fell to the ground on my back. It hurts badly, but this is a good position and isn’t likely to cause injuries. People have always incited their potential during times of crisis, and though I normally can’t deal with pain, I still stand up and run to the grass on the side of the mountain path that’s taller than a person.

Two of those black spots promptly chased me over here.

I run as fast I can through the grass; I haven’t run this hard since my middle school sports competition. Every organ in my body is going all-out, my heart beating like it’s about to jump out of my chest, my lungs torn up by breathing in the wind, my legs getting heavier, and heavier, and heavier, and heavier…

The two pursuers in black have ditched their horses and are chasing me through the grass. I look back and see Hearth running extremely quickly along the mountain road, leaving only a tiny red speck, and the hunters are getting left farther and farther behind.

I feel fulfilled. Seems like they’ll come out alive.

Now look at how my luck goes. I can’t see a route in the grass and can only keep running in the same direction. The surrounding scenery jolts like a montage. I think as I run about how Hearth has probably seen a lot of these eternal-parting scenes, completely unlike me. What kind of owner will it have in the future? What difference does it feel when it thinks of me versus the Huihu King?

One of my shortcomings is that I always think about inappropriate things at inappropriate times.

The men in black seem to be getting closer.

My luck is so bad, I run straight to the edge of a precipice.

The two masked assassins close in on me.

I draw back some steps.

One of the assassins opened his mouth, his voice as ear-piercing as a blackboard being scraped, and spoke to the other one, “Turns out it’s just him, he didn’t take the Emperor… pah, us two really have some rotten luck, they’re going to take all the credit… something’s wrong, didn’t the confidential say that Zhang Qinglian had pretty good martial arts? This one doesn’t seem to have any.”

The other assassin laughed. “To hell with it! He’s not the main target anyways… this isn’t so bad, how many men are there that look like women, with those red lips and white teeth…” This one’s figure is quite tall and lanky, voice soft and greasy, moist and chilling. It very uncomfortably reminds me of some kind of reptile.

The shrill-voiced one said, “The boss said that it’s best not to kill Zhang Qinglian, how is it not so bad?”

My heart is glad. The other reptilian assassin chuckled and said, “There’s no credit to be had and we can’t go back to get in on the fun, so it’d be better to have fun with him here… this guy really wants to get a taste of the ass that old Emperor had…”

My heart goes cold. I recoil on reflex. I desperately avoid the hand the reptile tries to grab me with, resulting in me losing my footing and falling down the cliff.

Luckily, in the midst of danger, my hands hold tight onto the earth and stone at the edge of the cliff. I found it very challenging to hang there.

The reptile assassin chortled.

The other one said, “How come you always like screwing with men… pull him up now, or all you’ll have is a pile of dead meat to play with.”

The reptile laughed as he talked, “You’ll know when you mess around with him for a while… but don’t get addicted to it, finding high-quality goods like this’ll be hard in the future…”

He touches my hand with his own, fingers cold, wet, sticky, and slimy. I almost let go out of disgust, but letting go means falling a great number of zhang. Though according to the Established Law of Cliffs, not only will I not die if I fall, but I’ll have a fortuitous encounter, practice exceptional martial arts, obtain exceptional spiritual weapons, and meet exceptional beautiful women that I won’t be interested in… my instinct still barely keeps my hand clinging to the stone and soil.

The reptile smirks obscenely as he strokes me, but wasn’t in a hurry to yank me up, instead laughing merrily and saying, “Better beg quick for me to pull you up, Sir Zhang.”

Bah, what is this third-rate plotline? On what basis did I have to run into something like this?

It’s not like I’d rather die than give in, but this tacky plot has grievously wounded my aesthetic. I kept silent out of stubbornness.

The reptile opened his mouth with the intent to say something, when suddenly, a brilliant ray of light like lightning on the horizon arced across, scalding my eyes. The lightning flitted across half the shrill assassin’s head and then blew between the reptile’s chest and abdomen. I subsequently saw the upper half of his body launch into the sky, a bloody mist spreading as far as the eye could see while his fragmented viscera intermingled with the other’s milky white brains.

This is the third time I’ve experienced something gory in an hour. I once again squeeze my eyes shut and scream to vent my hysteria, waiting with resignation for the blood, organs, and brains to spray onto me.

However, after waiting for a bit, those filthy things failed to fall onto me. There’s only the sound of cleaved air as a weight falls beside me, the echo of it dropping coming below.

I open my eyes.

I saw a clean, elegantly beautiful face, not a trace of blood staining it.

“Jinzi?” I don’t dare to try sounding hopeful in my whisper. I’d rub my eyes if I had a free hand.

His face is still there. It hasn’t disappeared. I shout with reckless joy, “Jinzi!”

His face is ashen and expressionless. He looks at me coldly, not reaching out to help pull me up.

Don’t tell me he’s being petty? Is he still angry about this morning?

I grow suspicious, closing my mouth.

“Tell me first. Who are you? …Or are you a ghost? How long have you been dead? Were you a man or a woman?” His voice could almost be regarded as gentle, yet still has that distinct chill. Very nice to hear.

My heart gradually goes cold.

Tell me first… who… a ghost? …A man or a woman?

Otherwise, he won’t save me?

Jinzi’s… threatening me.

Why not ask earlier? Why not ask properly? Does he think I wouldn’t answer?

Why… did he have to use this to threaten me?

My heart hurts so much I can hardly stand it.

Jinzi’s still talking. “You said you put a parasite in my little brother… were you lying to me?”

My heart trembles. My hand’s strength can no longer support me, my body falling towards the ground.

His pupils enlarged in an instant. He reached out to grab me, but only grabbed the edge of my clothes, the silk tearing and I still falling.

“You…” There’s panic and terror and alarm on Jinzi’s face. It’s crystal clear, despite him slowly getting further away.

In my final scene, I smile at him.

Welp. Thanks for reading Qinglian Chronicles, everyone!