Cuddling with the Cold Female Protagonist – Chapter 13
by Little PandaVolume 2: The Captivating Splendor of Jingdu
Encountering Danger
The journey from Feng City to the capital city took two months.
The journey was long and tedious. The Su Family Head worried that Su Yi would become bored, so she specifically had people prepare sour plums, dried fruits, and snacks. She also brought story books to pass the time, along with equipment for qin, qi, calligraphy, and painting – anything that could serve as entertainment was packed.
Su Yi didn’t feel too bored; she had never traveled far in this world and was curious about what the capital city and the outside world looked like.
She was like a bird released from its cage, free and curious, watching the scenery along the way and reading the extraordinary tales in the story books, feeling extremely happy and free.
As her mood improved, her health got much better. Ji Qingchi had thought she would need to lie down constantly in the carriage, but unexpectedly, she kept lifting the carriage curtain now and then, moving here and touching there, not appearing sickly at all.
Ji Qingchi watched her actions with secret amusement but said nothing, busy channeling her inner qi, taking advantage of the journey to recover from her injuries. As long as Su Yi wasn’t dying, everything was fine.
After traveling for about a month and a half, when they reached an official road surrounded by dense forest, they suddenly encountered a woman carrying a basket running out from the woods, pursued by more than ten women in green clothes wielding swords.
Those people clearly wanted the basket-carrying woman’s life. Their swords moved in an impenetrable formation, though the woman was quite agile, narrowly avoiding each strike as the blades came close to her.
When the woman saw their caravan, she quickly ran towards them, shouting, “Help!”
The caravan stopped when the Su Family Head saw the woman being pursued. The pursuers, upon seeing them, probably decided to leave no witnesses and immediately engaged in combat with their people.
Despite the Su Family Head’s order not to show their faces, Ji Qingchi lifted the carriage curtain. Su Yi, curious about the commotion, poked her little head out behind her and made a surprised sound “yi” at the woman running frantically towards them.
The woman crying for help turned out to be the same medicine basket-carrying woman that Ji Qingchi and Su Yi had met before.
Upon seeing them, the woman became very excited and ran towards them with all her might, crying, “Young Miss, Young Master, save me!”
Su Yi watched the string of sword-wielding women chasing behind her and mentally screamed, “Don’t come this way!”
However, the woman, desperate to survive, ran hard in their direction. As Su Yi watched several of their guards being killed, her eyes reddened – she knew all these guards, and they had been very kind to her.
She couldn’t help muttering, “What should we do, what should we do.”
The female protagonist seemed to be injured – could she not fight now? Were they all going to die here?
“Seeking death,” Ji Qingchi naturally heard her words and, catching sight of her reddened eyes from the corner of her vision, grew irritated, her voice turning colder.
Her injuries had mostly healed, and she didn’t take these people seriously at all. When they came close, she secretly threw hidden weapons from beneath her sleeve, striking the tendons in their sword-wielding hands.
The Su family guards, though terrified facing these vicious assassins, had to charge forward and fight for their lives. However, these assassins seemed not to see them coming and suddenly froze as if someone had pressed a pause button, standing motionless with their swords.
The Su family guards didn’t know what had happened to these assassins, but they didn’t care – strike while the iron is hot.
So they raised their swords and struck. Those who had been shouting and killing so viciously before now offered no resistance, allowing themselves to be cut down like vegetables, one after another.
In an instant, bodies lay scattered across the ground.
Seeing that she was saved, the woman breathed a sigh of relief and approached their caravan, bowing as she said, “Thank you all for saving me. This humble one is named Feng Ruoqing [้ฃ่ฅ่ฝป | fฤng ruรฒ qฤซng]. My family runs a medical hall [ๅปๅ | yฤซ tรกng | traditional Chinese clinic], though it’s not very large and depends solely on me to keep it running. I was searching for medicinal herbs when I unfortunately encountered these murderous bandits. Thankfully, with your help, please accept my bow of gratitude.”
After speaking, she stared at Ji Qingchi and the others, smiling, “Young Master, Young Miss, what a fateful encounter to meet again.”
Su Yi smiled back, but she wasn’t foolish. She could tell that the woman had deliberately led the assassins to them. They had suffered losses, with several of their household guards dead, and her initial good impression of this woman had diminished significantly.
The woman was clearly trying to get close to them. Ji Qingchi watched as Su Yi smiled so broadly her eyes disappeared, secretly snorted, then descended from the carriage to tell the Su Family Head about how this woman had once saved Su Yi.
After hearing this, the Su Family Head wasn’t as pleased as the woman had expected, instead frowning as she said, “Miss Feng, your story is hard to believe.”
How could an ordinary doctor be pursued by so many people?
Clearly, she was deceiving them.
The Su Family Head’s expression was terrible. She had originally brought fifty guards, and after careful counting, nine had been killed and six injured on the road. Although her worthy son-in-law said this woman had saved her precious daughter, this woman had caused such great losses without good reason, and she couldn’t swallow this anger.
Feng Ruoqing apologetically took out some medicine from her bag as a gesture of apology, saying sincerely, “I apologize. This junior did indeed withhold some information, but I truly have difficulties that cannot be spoken of. This is my secretly formulated medicine, and I hope Aunt can understand.”
The Su Family Head’s face turned iron-blue with anger, but before she could respond, Su Yi, who had been ordered to stay in the carriage, suddenly lifted the curtain and said, “Mother, considering she saved me before, let’s let it go.”
This Feng Ruoqing hadn’t appeared in the original text, so she probably wasn’t an important character.
Thinking about it, everyone was just cannon fodder [็ฎ็ฐ | pร o huฤซ | expendable character] in the story anyway, so there was no need to make things difficult for each other.
The Su Family Head loved her daughter dearly and had never refused her requests, but thinking of their dead people, she felt very reluctant. After some thought, she said, “I can let you go, but on one condition.”
She pointed at the injured guards, “Help me heal them, come with us to the capital city, and stay by my daughter’s side for a year to help with her health.”
Since her worthy son-in-law said this woman had some skills, there was no reason to let her go without benefit. Moreover, they had saved her, so she owed them a debt of gratitude. Looking at the woman’s attire, she appeared to be from jianghu [ๆฑๆน | jiฤng hรบ | martial arts world], and jianghu people valued debts of gratitude highly. The Su Family Head was certain she would agree.
Sure enough, after a moment’s hesitation, the woman put down her basket and bowed to them, “Aunt has saved my life and shown me kindness. I am willing to repay this debt by accompanying Young Miss.”
The Su Family Head nodded with satisfaction. After exchanging names, she had Feng Ruoqing treat the injured guards, then had her join Su Yi’s carriage to help with her care.
The Su Family Head doted greatly on Su Yi, treating this only daughter like a precious treasure that might melt in her palm, so she gave her the best of everything.
Considering her daughter’s weak constitution, which required constant attendance, she had specially commissioned an exceptionally spacious carriage.
Being a four-horse carriage, it could accommodate at least seven people.
Yanshen and Gancao were responsible for attending to her, Ji Qingchi as her fulang was naturally inside, and now with Feng Ruoqing added, although the carriage could fit them all, the space became much tighter.
Su Yi couldn’t move freely anymore. The two servant girls, Yanshen and Gancao, whether thoughtlessly or not, kept pushing her towards Ji Qingchi.
She tried to make herself as small as possible, but because little Gancao kept pushing outward with her elbows, her body inevitably leaned against Ji Qingchi, practically half-lying in her embrace.
She froze, not daring to move. Ji Qingchi noticed her discomfort and said, “Wife Master, lean against this slave, or you’ll fall.”
Su Yi didn’t dare, “No need, I’m fine sitting like this.”
As soon as she said this, she saw tears glinting in the eyes of the person before her, who bit their lip and said, “Could it be that Wife Master despises this slave? This slave knows his status is lowly, merely a flood refugee, while Wife Master is the young miss of the Su family…”
Several crystalline tears threatened to fall as Ji Qingchi gazed at her with seemingly heartbroken eyes. Su Yi, intimidated, had no choice but to slowly lean over, almost half-resting on her shoulder, and smiled weakly, “How can fulang say such things? Precious treasures are easy to find, but a worthy fulang is rare. In my heart, you are more precious than any rare jade or treasure.”
Su Yi’s praise was so extravagant that Yanshen and Gancao broke into mischievous grins, making Su Yi want to pound the ground and cry.
What are you smiling at? Your young miss feels like she’s walking on a tightrope every moment – do you know how torturous this is?!
Ji Qingchi, hearing this, inwardly gave a cold snort.
Someone who never leaves the house sure has a sweet tongue, showing an extremely frivolous nature – who knows how many people she’s sweet-talked before.
Though thinking this, she didn’t push Su Yi away.
Instead, she played along, covering her sleeve and timely showing a shy expression, “Wife Master treats this slave so well.”
“You’re my fulang – if I’m not good to you, who should I be good to?” After saying this, Su Yi cringed at her own mushiness, chose to stop talking, and half-leaning against her, slowly closed her eyes and fell asleep.
Ji Qingchi quietly watched the woman leaning against her.
In their Yanxue Kingdom, women valued martial prowess and were mostly robust, but Su Yi was delicate and soft. With her unique medicinal fragrance lingering around her nose, now sleeping with a peaceful expression, she looked so well-behaved that Ji Qingchi was reminded of her imperial younger sister who had died seven or eight years ago.
Her eyes dimmed at the thought.
Feng Ruoqing sat across from them, watching their interaction with curiosity.
Her medical skills were good, and although Ji Qingchi’s disguise skills were excellent, portraying a man perfectly, she could still detect some signs.
This Young Master was clearly a woman dressed as a man.
As for this Miss Su, who knew if she really hadn’t noticed or was being deceived, yet she had married her.
Being stared at, Ji Qingchi naturally couldn’t fail to notice.
Her gaze moved away from the delicate woman beside her, slowly meeting Feng Ruoqing’s eyes.
Her expression was blank, her pupils deep and dark, with a killing intent that made Feng Ruoqing shudder.
Since she dared to deceive people by dressing as a man, she must have something to rely on.
Remembering Ji Qingchi’s martial arts skills from their first meeting, she slowly averted her gaze, coughing lightly, “I’m only here to repay the debt of gratitude. As for other matters, I won’t inquire.”
Even if she did inquire, what could she do about it?
Ji Qingchi was confident she could kill her before she could reveal anything.
But since she knew her place, she could spare her.
Relaxing her body to let Su Yi lean more comfortably against her, she said coldly, “Good that you understand.”
0 Comments