Cuddling with the Cold Female Protagonist – Chapter 32
by Little PandaVolume 2: The Captivating Splendor of Jingdu
A Thread Between Life and Death1
The water in those basins was mixed with a full dose of Kuaihuo San and Lieri, Chun2, both renowned potent drugs. For someone as frail and sickly as Su Yi, being splashed with that stuff would be unbearable. Before long, she would bleed from all seven orifices3 and die from exhaustion.
Ji Qingchi didn’t know what they were splashing, but she was certain it was nothing good. The instant they made their move, Ji Qingchi ripped off her outer robe, using it to deflect the water, and simultaneously moved to deal with the four maids.
As soon as she engaged them, she realized their martial arts skills were profound. They were clearly not ordinary maids, but rather resembled the top-tier shadow guards trained by Ji Qingxuan, who had previously tried to assassinate her.
It seemed there were still spies among her shadow guards that she hadn’t rooted out.
Encountering Ji Qingxuan today was something she hadn’t anticipated. Before setting out yesterday, she had clearly sent shadow guards to check on Ji Qingxuan’s whereabouts, and they reported she wasn’t in the capital.
She only came here because she knew Ji Qingxuan wouldn’t be at the Prince’s Mansion. Otherwise, she wouldn’t have come here even if she were beaten to death. It was precisely because she hadn’t expected this that she hadn’t brought any of her shadow guards with her; otherwise, she wouldn’t be suffering this silent loss today.
Ji Qingchi’s heart blazed with fury. Ji Qingxuan, just you wait! In the end, either you die, or I do!
Filled with hatred, she wielded her soft sword in an impenetrable defense. The four shadow guards couldn’t get close. Seeing that they couldn’t succeed, one of them suddenly withdrew from the fight and blew a whistle.
Meanwhile, the group of young men, seeing that splashing water wasn’t working, covered their faces and lit incense. The incense cakes were also made with those two drugs. They burned quickly and had a strong scent, making it easy for people to inhale them.
One of the shadow guards, upon seeing them light the incense, immediately recognized the danger and urgently called out to his companions, “Bad! It’s Kuaihuo San and Lieri, Chun! Cover your mouths and noses!”
Hearing this, Ji Qingchi was startled. She swiftly struck several times with her sword, forcing the shadow guards back, and retreated to Su Yi’s side. “Quick, cover your mouth and nose!”
However, in that short time, Su Yi had already inhaled some. She was coughing violently, tears streaming from her eyes, and was unable to cover herself.
Ji Qingchi’s heart hardened. She tore off the bedsheet, wrapped Su Yi in it, and, holding her in her arms, smashed open the guest room window and jumped out.
The shadow guards quickly followed, jumping out after them. “They’ve escaped, chase them!”
The young men looked at each other. “TheYoung Master said to do this cleanly, and not to let them escape. Tell our men to chase after them too.”
After he spoke, he lit a signal fire. The guards of Su Tianci, who had been lying in ambush, took off their Su family guard uniforms, changed into night-traveling clothes, and joined the pursuit.
The two groups of people, totaling about ten, relentlessly pursued Ji Qingchi.
The effects of the drug quickly took hold of Su Yi. Blood flowed uncontrollably from her nose, her mind was muddled, and her hands clutched at the clothes on Ji Qingchi’s chest. She still remembered to prioritize the female protagonist, murmuring, “Don’t worry about me… don’t worry about me… Fulang, you run… run…”
Ji Qingchi, fearing they would catch up, didn’t dare to go through the main gate. She had no choice but to choose the secluded courtyards of the Prince’s Mansion. After a few leaps, she was out of the mansion. To avoid those people, and thinking that Su Yi, who had been drugged with an aphrodisiac, shouldn’t be seen in such an embarrassing state, she had no choice but to take a secluded path to escape.
Her choice played right into the hands of those relentlessly pursuing them. Both groups of people added more manpower. The more Ji Qingchi fled, the more pursuers she found. And Su Yi, in her arms, was now bleeding not only from her nose but also from her ears and the corners of her mouth. Her body was burning hot, and she looked like a blooming peach blossom, breathtakingly beautiful, yet as if she would wither with the slightest breeze.
Ji Qingchi looked at the bloodstains that had reddened the clothes on her chest, and felt as if her eyes had also turned crimson like those clothes.
She quickly sealed the acupoints in Su Yi’s body to prevent the drug from continuing to take effect. “Qizhu, bear with it. It will be alright once we get rid of the pursuers.”
However, their escape had already caused a commotion. The people chasing them, in order to eliminate all traces, would not give up easily.
So, more and more people were sent to pursue them. Ji Qingchi used her qinggong4 to flee for her life, while also blowing a whistle arrow to summon her shadow guards.
Most of her shadow guards were stationed in the city. They had already fled to the outskirts, so it would likely take some time for the shadow guards to arrive.
Ji Qingchi used her qinggong to run desperately, with the pursuers hot on her heels. Seeing that they couldn’t catch up to Ji Qingchi, they even started shooting arrows.
“Whoosh—”
“Whoosh, whoosh—”
The sound of arrowheads piercing the air added a chill to the quiet outskirts.
The pounding of footsteps and the shouts of people echoed throughout the wilderness. “Don’t let them escape! The master said, this matter must absolutely not get out!”
Soon, they forced them to a cliff. Ji Qingchi looked at the bottomless cliff in front of her, then at the pursuers behind her. Gritting her teeth, she leaned back towards the cliff, holding Su Yi in front of her, and prepared to jump.
As she jumped, the sound of chains breaking through the air suddenly rang out, “Clang.” Then, she felt a sharp pain in her left shoulder. At the same time, Su Yi in her arms also let out a cry of pain. “Ah…”
Su Yi’s face contorted in pain. Those people, in order to capture them, had actually used a dragon claw hand5. The iron claws, combined with a chain that could be extended and retracted at will, were an excellent weapon for capturing large prey.
Now, one half of the iron claw had pierced through the pipagu6 of Su Yi’s right shoulder, extending all the way through, while the other half had directly pierced through Ji Qingchi’s left shoulder.
The people on the cliff cheered, “Hahaha, we caught them! Quickly pull them up and kill them! Then destroy the bodies!”
Ji Qingchi endured the pain. Seeing a pine tree not far from the edge of the cliff, she used her zhenqi7 to solidify her soft sword into a long blade, thrusting it into the rock of the cliff. Then, using that as leverage, she flew to the pine tree, using it to support them and resist the pulling force on her shoulder.
“It’s not working. They seem to be hanging on the tree. That tree is too big, with roots intertwined and growing on the cliff. We can’t pull them.”
“Pull harder. I don’t believe we can catch someone and let them get away.”
“Ah…” Su Yi was like a fish caught on a fork, about to be pulled up by the people on the cliff. The pain in her shoulder was so intense that she was almost numb. She even felt like she could hear her bones colliding with the iron claw, making a grinding sound.
“Qizhu, bear with it.” Ji Qingchi’s eyes were bloodshot. She sat cross-legged on the pine tree with Su Yi, using her zhenqi to protect Su Yi’s heart meridian. With her right hand, she firmly grasped the iron claw, intending to use skill to pull it out of her own left shoulder.
As she exerted force, the iron claw shifted slightly in Su Yi’s shoulder. Su Yi’s tears flowed, “Wuwu, it hurts, it hurts, it hurts so much…”
The sound of the little beast’s whimpers made Ji Qingchi’s heart tremble. Her vision was filled with blood: the blood on Su Yi’s shoulder, the blood flowing from her nose and ears.
All of it was her blood.
Su Yi didn’t have much blood, and her complexion was always pale. This was the first time she had seen so much blood on her body and face.
However, Ji Qingchi would rather not have seen this scene.
“Qizhu, it won’t hurt soon. Bear with it, bear with it.” Afraid of hurting Su Yi further, Ji Qingchi didn’t dare to use skill. Gritting her teeth, and disregarding whether she would injure her tendons and veins, she used her zhenqi to cut off the half of the iron claw that had pierced into her left shoulder, pulling it directly out of her shoulder. “Ah—”
The moment it was pulled out, blood flowed profusely. She only sealed the acupoints to stop the bleeding, then carefully held Su Yi, tending to the other half of the iron claw.
She first used her soft sword to cut the chain, carefully using her zhenqi to stop the bleeding, and then cautiously pulled out the iron claw for her.
Su Yi’s face was pale with pain, like a dying fish. Looking at Ji Qingchi, she said weakly, “Fulang… I… definitely… definitely won’t live long… When I… die… just send my body… back to the Su Mansion… but… but don’t let my mother see you… Just… find someone to send me… Otherwise… she will think… think that you harmed me… harmed me… and will blame you…”
Ji Qingchi remained unmoved, continuing to pull out the iron claw for her. “Qizhu will be fine.”
“Don’t… worry about me… You go… I’m weak… and sickly, anyway… anyway, I don’t have much longer to live… Ah…” As she spoke, she pulled on the wound. Ji Qingchi pulled out the object at this time. The two combined, it was too painful. She couldn’t bear the pain and fainted directly.
Ji Qingchi completely ignored what she had just said. Enduring the pain, she examined her and found that no bones were broken. Just as she breathed a sigh of relief, the people on the cliff shouted angrily, “They actually got rid of the iron claw chain!”
“Then send down more, and bring the iron hooks too!”
Hearing this, Ji Qingchi felt that if they stayed on this tree any longer, they would die. She looked down at the bottomless cliff below the tree, and was about to jump down with Su Yi, when the sound of weapons clashing suddenly came from the cliff above.
She heard the voice of her shadow guard commander, “Master, Master, are you down there?”
“I am,” Ji Qingchi said in a deep voice. “Kill everyone on the cliff, then rescue us.”
“Yes.” The shadow guards who came to rescue them were all elites, and they were determined to fight with all their might to save their master. They cut down people like they were cutting grass, their eyes red with killing intent. Soon, all those who had come to pursue them were killed, not a single one left alive.
After eliminating the pursuers, a basket that could hold one person was slowly lowered from the cliff above.
Ji Qingchi looked at the basket, thought for a moment, and carefully placed Su Yi inside. “You pull her up first.”
“Yes.” After the shadow guards pulled Su Yi up, they lowered the basket a second time, and Ji Qingchi returned to the cliff.
The yellow mud ground was stained red with blood, and bodies lay scattered everywhere. More than a hundred of her shadow guards knelt on the ground. “Master, this servant was late in rescuing you. Please forgive us.”
“We’ll talk about that later. Go find a doctor first.”
“Yes!”
“Wait—”
The shadow guard leader asked strangely, “Master, what is it?”
“Go to the Pingyang Marquis’s residence, and secretly find a young lady surnamed Feng. Just bring her here.”
“Yes.”
When Feng Ruoqing rushed to the temporary residence Ji Qingchi had found, following the shadow guard, she thought her eyes were playing tricks on her.
She looked at Su Yi, lying unconscious on the couch, covered in blood, and then at Ji Qingchi, sitting beside her, almost a blood person herself, and felt shocked. “Didn’t Gancao say you were going to attend a flower viewing party? How did it end up like this?”
Ji Qingchi had been staring at Su Yi. Hearing her question, she finally spared a glance for her, saying coldly, “Ask any more questions, and she’ll die.”
Feng Ruoqing quickly ran over with her medical kit. “Alright, alright, I won’t ask. I’ll save her first. We can talk later.”
Footnotes
- 生死一线 | Shēngsǐ yīxiàn | Idiom: A very precarious situation; a narrow escape from death.
- 烈日,春 | Lièrì, Chūn | “Scorching Sun, Spring”; likely a fictional potent aphrodisiac. “烈日” means scorching sun and “春” means spring, often associated with romance/lust.
- 七窍流血 | qī qiào liú xuè | Bleeding from eyes, ears, nose, and mouth; a sign of severe internal injury or poisoning in traditional Chinese medicine and fiction.
- 轻功 | qīnggōng | “Lightness skill”; a martial arts technique allowing characters to move with incredible speed and agility, often defying gravity.
- 龙爪手 | lóngzhuǎshǒu | A grappling hook weapon, often with a chain or rope attached.
- 琵琶骨 | pípágǔ | Scapula (shoulder blade).
- 真气 | zhēnqì | Internal energy or vital force; a key concept in wuxia/xianxia stories.
0 Comments