Chapter 120: Regain Sight
Source: https://www.jjwxc.net/onebook.php?novelid=3614052
This translation was originally posted on https://love4baihe.blogspot.com please read it there. And check out other stories too.
Half a month of time passed in the blink of an eye.
The proposal the Princess whispered by her ear on the day of departure for battle still seemed to echo beside her ear. Even now, when the Young Master thought of it, her heart still felt burning hot.
“Fish, the fish is on the hook! Young Master, quickly pull the hook!”
Yuechu’s low call finally pulled the Young Master back from her longing thoughts..
After the Young Master quickly reeled in the hook, Yuechu hurried forward to take the hooked fish off and placed it into the water bucket nearby. She reported, “It is a red-crowned koi. We have already caught five kinds of koi today!”
Meng Chang’an smiled and answered with a “Good.” After Yuechu helped her change the bait, she once again settled into silence, quietly waiting for another fish to bite.
Seeing the two of them repeating the same leisurely pastime day after day these past few days, Shu Yao, who had been sitting on the pavilion railing watching for a long time, finally could not hold back her laughter and said, “You, if you keep fishing like this, the koi that the Sect Master spent a fortune to search for everywhere will all be fished up by you sooner or later.”
“Even if I catch them all, she still cannot do anything to me. Besides, we always return them after sunset.”
The Young Master’s calm and composed look, like that of an old monk in meditation, made Shu Yao feel dazed for a moment.
If it were before, this person would have surely responded with arrogance and asked her “So what?” How could she now just let it pass with a calm smile like this?
At the start of the year, the Young Master who was still in the sect had been that fearless little devil who looked down on everything. No one would have thought that after going through a few storms, the little devil would turn so quiet like this.
Looking at the blindfold around her eyes that still had not been taken off, Shu Yao let out a soft sigh and told her, “By the way, in two more days, I will be leaving too.”
“Where to?”
“To the battlefield, to find Imperial Sister.”
The Young Master’s hand holding the fishing rod could not help but tremble.
“Did something happen?”
Because of that slight tremble, the bait caused ripples on the water’s surface, scaring away the koi that was about to bite the hook.
Seeing this, Shu Yao had already looked away. She tried her best to explain to her in a calm tone, “No, everything is going well on her side. It is just that my injuries are almost fully healed now, and I want to go help her, so she will not have to work too hard.”
No matter how bad the injuries to the muscles or bones were, with the two miracle doctors whom all under Heaven would pay a fortune for, there was nothing that could not be treated.
On top of that, with high-quality medicine and daily medicinal baths these past few days, the external wounds on both of them naturally healed quickly.
Now Shu Yao’s injuries were fully healed. She had even gained a blessing in disguise, and her internal energy had risen to a higher level than before her serious injury.
Shen Lingyun had even specially forged a new sword for her. Now that she had returned to her usual swordswoman appearance, no one could tell how close to death she had been just a while ago.
The pity was, she had recovered. But even though the Young Master's external injuries had improved, her body was growing weaker by the day.
Shu Yao sighed deeply in her heart. Seeing the Young Master's brows furrow tighter and tighter, to stop her from continuing to worry, Shu Yao quickly took out a wooden tablet from her robe and stuffed it into her hand to shift her attention.
“Imperial Sister sent you a reply.”
There were words carved on the wooden tablet. The Young Master could not see, so she put down the fishing rod and slowly traced the surface of the tablet with her fingers.
A few days ago, the Divine Doctors Sect was about to send a batch of medicine to the battlefield for the wounded soldiers. At that time, Zhou Jinyi had come to ask her if there was anything she wanted to send to the Princess.
Back then, the Young Master had wanted to send a letter to share her true feelings with the Princess. She had also planned to explain in the letter that when the Princess proposed to her on the day she marched off to war, the reason she had not replied was not because she disliked or refused her. She had only been afraid that, in front of so many people, she would get too emotional and lose the dignity of the Young Master of the Blood Flame Sect.
That was why she had only kept a straight face and urged the Princess to leave quickly, without giving her answer on the spot...
But after thinking about it again and again, the Young Master still did not know where to begin among all the words in her heart.
She always felt that the Princess must understand her.
So in the end, she still did not say her true feelings or her longing. She only asked her mother to write on her behalf and send a few words to the Princess.
"I hope you are well."
And now, on the wooden tablet sent back as a reply, there was only one word carved.
"I am well."
The surface of the tablet was polished smooth. Even the grooves of the carved word had been carefully smoothed, with no sharp wood splinters left.
The surface of the card was polished very smoothly, and even the grooves where the words were engraved were carefully ground away to remove the sharp wood chips.
Meng Chang’an gently rubbed the wooden tablet in her hand. In her mind, she could already picture the Princess carefully carving each stroke and each cut into the tablet, then slowly smoothing out all the sharp edges with full concentration. She could not help but curve her brows and eyes into a smile.
There was no need to ask. She could already guess that this was surely carved by the Princess herself.
Seeing her like this, Yuechu smiled in relief and quietly released all the koi fish from the bucket back into the water.
Mm, the Young Master’s heart was all in a mess now. It seemed that fishing would not continue today.
Shu Yao had thought that since the Young Master had accepted the wooden tablet and did not ask her any further, it meant she had been successfully distracted and would not overthink it again. After parting with the Young Master, she peacefully returned to her own place to prepare for her journey.
But who would have thought that after she left, the Young Master put away the tablet and turned to Yuechu, saying, “Take me to find my Master.”
She thought, if Shu Yao was unwilling to speak of it, then her Master would surely know the truth.
And just as the Young Master expected, Sect Master Zhong did know the inside story—and even flew into a great rage because of it.
She had not yet stepped into the council hall when the angry voice of the Sect Master had already come from within.
"Are the people of the imperial court all useless? The envoy of the enemy state came to our doorstep to humiliate us, and they still let him go just like that?"
Beside her, Lin Ziyan quickly pressed down on her shoulder, making her sit back down as he tried to calm her. "Enough, do not be so angry. After all, when two countries go to war, they do not execute envoys..."
However, those words only made Sect Master Zhong even angrier.
"So they just respectfully sent the man out of the capital and even gave him carts of fine gifts? Do they really intend to agree to the envoy’s demands—send Princess Li Qiubai and Princess Li Shuyao to marry into their court, cede territory and pay reparations to end the war?"
"Is it not just the loss of two cities! It is not like everyone died—how could they be so frightened out of their wits!"
For the past half-month, the war had been intense, and the situation was far from optimistic.
This time, the Kingdom of Qi had mobilized its entire nation for the invasion. Although reinforcements from all sides had already rushed to assist, several battles—both large and small—had still been lost one after another, and two key border cities had fallen in succession. Now, the main army had retreated to Zhen'nan Pass.
If Zhen'nan Pass were to fall, then the path for Qi to invade the Central Plains from the south would be completely open.
Fortunately, Zhen'nan Pass was easy to defend and hard to attack. The enemy dared not act rashly, so the two armies were still locked in a tense standoff in front of the pass.
Upon learning that the envoy from Nanjiang was making a scene in the capital over the matter of the Third Princess Li Shuyao fleeing her marriage alliance, the Kingdom of Qi took the chance to send their own envoy, in the name of the Qi Emperor, to seek marriage with the current Supreme Commander of the three armies, the Second Princess Li Qiubai.
They even claimed that he did not mind the fact that the Second Princess already had a Prince Consort, and was willing to grant her the title of Noble Consort, all in hopes of forming friendly relations between the two nations.
This move was nothing short of an insult.
It was as if they were telling the civil and military officials of the Great Chang Dynasty: last time, it was the Third Princess who had to be married off to seek peace, and this time, it must be the Second Princess in order to bring an end to the war.
A heavy slap across their faces.
Yet the civil and military officials dared not speak up, even though they were furious.
So much so that the Qi envoy grew bolder, even arrogant enough to openly declare in the Golden Luan Hall, right in front of all the officials, that if the Great Chang refused to agree to the terms, bow in submission, and send out the Second Princess, then the Kingdom of Qi’s million-strong army would completely trample over the Great Chang gates.
For a time, rumors spread everywhere. They actually made those two princesses the target of all criticism, as if, if they refused to marry, they would become women who brought disaster to the nation.
If it were in the past, the court’s actions would have had nothing to do with people from the Jianghu, and the Sect Master Zhong would not have been so furious because of it.
But this time, the two princesses at the center of the storm both had deep ties with them.
One was the person the Young Master loved.
The other was the one Shen Lingyun would risk her life to protect.
They were all children from their own household.
Having gone through it themselves, who could not guess the relationships between those few children now?
Although Sect Master Zhong had yet to acknowledge the matter between them verbally, she had always been protective of her own, and her love extended to those they cared about.
Those whom her own children liked were naturally people the Blood Flame Sect would protect.
How could she let them be bullied by those dog thieves from foreign lands?
Unlike Sect Master Zhong, who was seething with rage, Gu Qingyin, sitting to the side, was still rather calm. She simply tapped the table and asked, “Have the routes of the two groups of envoys been confirmed?”
At that, Meng Muxin on the side gave a cold laugh and replied, “The envoys from Nanjiang and the Kingdom of Qi are traveling together. If nothing goes wrong, they will pass through Yuzhou in two days, and then split up. I have already sent people to keep watch.”
Very good. They dared to set their sights on her daughter-in-law.
She wanted to see whether those arrogant envoys could still laugh before their deaths.
Two nations at war do not kill each other’s envoys.
But that was a matter for the court. What did it have to do with their Demonic Sect?
If the court would not protect the Young Master of the Demonic Sect's wife, then the Demonic Sect would defend that honor themselves.
For many years of tacit understanding, Sect Master Zhong already knew everyone’s intention. She slammed the table and agreed to the plan.
“Good. I, the Sect Master, will handle it myself. Let them know that some people’s plans are not for them to mess with!”
At first, everyone thought letting them handle it directly was the best solution.
So the Young Master would not find out and have strong emotional fluctuations that would hurt her injury.
After all, now the Young Master had lost her sense of taste completely, and even her sense of smell was weakening. The situation was not optimistic.
Unfortunately, before they could discuss a more detailed plan, a shout came from outside the door.
“Young Master! What is wrong with you?”
The little maid’s cry had already alarmed the experts inside the council hall.
Everyone rushed outside at once, only to see the Young Master already vomiting blood and fainted on the ground.
“This is bad, sudden anger attacking the heart...”
After checking her pulse, Gu Qingyin did not delay. She quickly picked up the Young Master and used qinggong to rush away, leaving the few stunned people behind with a message:
“Go quickly and call my cousin to the medicinal pool, tell her I agree.”
Although Zhong Shujin did not understand the deeper meaning of her words, she knew to follow her wife’s order and hurried off to find her.
When Zhou Jinyi hurried into the specially built medicinal pool for the Young Master, Gu Qingyin had just finished a round of acupuncture, sealing the Young Master’s heart meridians with silver needles.
Seeing the Young Master still breathing, Zhou Jinyi finally relaxed a little. She sat beside Gu Qingyin and said, “Cousin, please start. How should I assist?”
Ever since the last quarrel, this was the first time the two of them had spoken in the past half month.
Seeing Zhou Jinyi’s anxious look, Gu Qingyin directly rolled her eyes at her. “Are you in a hurry to die?”
“Bah, listen to what you are saying. How unlucky.”
Zhou Jinyi looked helplessly at Gu Qingyin and sighed. “I trust you. That is why I dare to hand my life to you.”
“Truly a fool.”
Gu Qingyin’s gaze stayed fixed on the Young Master’s pale face. She asked again, “You do not regret it?”
Zhou Jinyi had always been one who rarely smiled, yet now she actually showed a touch of extremely gentle smile.
Her gaze also remained on the Young Master’s pale face.
“If I just watched her keep weakening like this, gradually becoming a useless person, watching her carry regrets for life—then I would regret it.”
“Now I am only fighting one round for her. What is there to regret?”
Last time when Zhou Jinyi had said this, she had even spoken calmly, “At worst... it is just staking my life, that is all...”
Gu Qingyin was furious, hating her for treating herself like this. She had quarreled with her on the spot, even smashed a vase and told her to get out.
But now, she still could not find a better method. With no other choice, she could only agree to Zhou Jinyi’s request.
The blood exchange technique, with a survival rate of one in ten, had long become a secret art sealed away by the Divine Doctors Sect. If not for Gu Qingyin having learned this technique from her master, even Zhou Jinyi, the Sect Master of the Divine Doctors Sect, would not know how to perform it.
These days, though she had ignored Zhou Jinyi, she had still been constantly searching for a chance of survival within this method.
Aside from the one donating blood, what was more important was a continuous flow of internal energy to support the vitality of the two people exchanging blood.
The medicinal pool had been specially built by her during this period of time for these two. She had originally thought she might find a better method during this time, but unexpectedly, in the end, she still had to use this pool.
The medicinal pool was in the shape of a Bagua formation*, with special medicinal liquid used as the pool water. Within the two polarities of yin and yang sat Zhou Jinyi and the Young Master.
*Octagonal-shaped - Bagua (the Eight Trigrams from Taoist cosmology, often used in formations, divinations, and feng shui)
The two of them were both soaked in the medicinal pool.
When Zhong Shujin, Meng Muxin, and Lin Ziyan were brought in to assist, they did not even know what Gu Qingyin intended to do.
Because of years of trust and tacit understanding, the three of them did not think much. They simply followed her instructions, taking turns pouring internal energy into the two people within the pool.
It was not until Gu Qingyin cut open the wrists of Zhou Jinyi and the Young Master, letting the blood flow into the groove between the Yin and Yang poles of the Bagua formation, that Meng Muxin faintly sensed what she was trying to do.
“You are…”
“Using the blood exchange technique to expel most of the poisonous blood from Chang’an’s body…”
Gu Qingyin did not give much explanation. She merely swept a glance toward the panicked Meng Muxin and said in a hoarse voice, “If you stop now, then neither of them will survive.”
Just that one sentence dispelled the hesitation in Meng Muxin’s heart.
Fortunately, all three of them were martial arts grandmasters with deep internal energy. With Gu Qingyin, the half-baked expert, added in, this secret blood exchange technique surprisingly proceeded without mishap and lasted through the entire night.
That night, the ones in the medicinal pool were all physically and mentally exhausted. Those keeping watch outside also felt uneasy in their hearts.
Liu Sanniang and Leng Shaoying, along with others, were guarding outside the medicinal pool, waiting at all times for Gu Qingyin’s instructions, so they could bring in whatever was needed, running back and forth.
Shu Yao, however, held the dazed Shen Lingyun and sat on the large tree across from the medicinal pool, so that she could see the situation outside the pool at all times.
Shen Lingyun said nothing, just silently stared at that door.
The night was deep and the dew was cold. When Shu Yao noticed the person beside her had begun to tremble uncontrollably, she finally gathered the courage to pull her into her arms.
“How about… you go back and rest first? I will keep watch here.”
Shen Lingyun shook her head and simply let Shu Yao hold her hand to pass over some internal energy to warm her body. Bit by bit, she relaxed and leaned against Shu Yao.
Ever since they were rescued from the Prince of Yu’s Manor, the two of them had not been this close for a long time.
Not being pushed away by Shen Lingyun, and even being leaned on by her—Shu Yao suddenly felt that she was somewhat shameful, to actually feel a bit of joy at such a dangerous moment…
Clearly, the people inside whose lives were uncertain included not only her beloved’s master, but also her imperial sister’s beloved. And her beloved was even here, full of worry—how could she feel secretly happy just because of this bit of rare closeness?
After some self-blame, Shu Yao finally spoke to comfort the person in her arms: “Do not worry. The Sect Master’s wife is skilled in medicine. She definitely will not let anything happen to them…”
“Is that so?”
Shen Lingyun lowered her eyes and gave a bitter smile, then said, “A'Yao, do you know? A few days ago, Master already passed the position of Sect Master of the Divine Doctors Sect to me.”
What?
Shu Yao was stunned, not knowing this had happened.
Before she could react to the meaning behind Shen Lingyun’s words, Shen Lingyun kept speaking by herself.
“That day, Master told me many things. Told me how to take over the Divine Doctors Sect, taught me how to handle all the disputes inside the sect. She even told me about her regrets when she was young. She also told me about some old illnesses my Master’s wife has, so I know what medicine to prepare for her in what weather. She also told me that I must be filial to my Master’s wife from now on…”
“She said many, many things, as if she was handing over her affairs before death.”
“At that time, when I heard it, I became scared. I watched her nervously for many days. When I saw no unusual action from her, I slowly felt a bit at ease.”
“But only today did I understand what she wanted to do.”
“It turned out she was really handing over her affairs to me…”
The more Shen Lingyun spoke, the more her eyes became sore.
Even though many days had passed, Shen Lingyun could still clearly remember what Master had said that day.
She said, “I became famous when young, but I was always troubled by this worldly name. I could not do as I wished, to do what I really wanted. That was why I missed so much and left behind so many regrets.”
She said, “This position of Sect Master, to me, is actually just a shackle. Lingyun, now I have passed this shackle to you, will you blame Master?”
She said, “Do not be afraid, and do not overthink. It is just that Master is tired now and wants to be lazy. Only by doing this, later, can I do what I really want to do.”
She said, “From now on, I do not want to leave regrets or carry regrets for life.”
So, what she said that day about what she wanted to do was for the injury on the Young Master.
Why is she always like this, always thinking of others, but never thinking of herself…
Tears gradually blurred Shen Lingyun’s vision.
When Shu Yao noticed what was dripping on the back of her hand, she quickly lowered her head and cupped Shen Lingyun’s cheek, only to see her face full of tears.
“Lingyun…”
Shu Yao felt heartache immediately.
“Do not be afraid, you still have me, I will stay with you…”
Her beloved did not even shed a single tear when they said they would separate to think carefully.
She did not cry when they parted, nor when they faced life and death together.
But now, she cried like a person drowning in tears.
Still silently shedding tears.
The more she looked, the more she felt heartbroken.
Shu Yao carefully held Shen Lingyun's face, gently wiping the tears at the corner of her eyes.
But no matter how much she wiped, the tears would not stop.
Helpless, Shu Yao lowered her head and covered Shen Lingyun's cheek with her lips.
Using her lips like cloth, she slowly licked away the tears on Shen Lingyun's face, leaving a mark at the corner of her eyes.
The feeling of heartache would not leave.
Under Shen Lingyun's red eyes, Shu Yao could not help but move her lips to Shen Lingyun's mouth corner.
Slowly, the kiss at the mouth corner was pressed onto Shen Lingyun's lips.
And all this time, Shen Lingyun never pushed her away.
This unresisting attitude was like permission to Shu Yao.
This was the first time in her life she kissed her beloved.
No longer carefully licking away tears, Shu Yao now held Shen Lingyun's lips with her mouth and gently sucked once.
Still, she was not rejected.
She did not expect that with each step of testing, she would receive that person’s acquiescence to do as she pleased.
After gaining such indulgence, Shu Yao finally dared to stick out her tongue and slipped it between her beloved’s lips and teeth.
Her beloved also parted her lips to respond.
Bitter tears spread between their lips and teeth.
After some time, that person slowly stopped crying.
When their lips parted, Shu Yao still did not want to move away.
She pressed her forehead against Shen Lingyun’s and smiled foolishly.
She thought their relationship could break the ice with this kiss and wanted to kiss again.
But Shen Lingyun had already turned her head aside.
Then came her voice, crying and accusing:
“You liar.”
Shu Yao was stunned and did not immediately understand what the "liar" meant.
The crying voice mixed with a nasal sound made the accusation less cold.
"You said you would stay with me? Do you think I do not know you are not going to the battlefield but preparing to return to the capital?"
"I..."
Shu Yao wanted to explain, but heard the other person speak coldly again, "Also, do you think returning to the capital will be useful?"
At this, Shu Yao slowly stopped smiling and admitted, "But... this way my imperial sister might be a little more relieved..."
After that, there was a long silence.
Shen Lingyun looked at the door of the medicinal pool for a long time, then finally stepped back and asked in a low voice, "If Master wants to leave me behind, will you also leave me behind?"
Shu Yao felt a pain in her heart. She was about to reach out to hug her again, but unexpectedly, her hand was slapped away.
"Fine, you go back. If you return to the capital, then, it will be completely over between us. I do not want to see you for the rest of my life."
Shu Yao suddenly panicked and hurriedly tried to keep her, "Lingyun, do not..."
Before she finished her words of pleading, she heard Shen Lingyun quietly say again,
"If you do not go back, then we... will start over."
This was a rare moment of weakness and concession from Shen Lingyun. For Shu Yao, it was truly a rare surprise.
If it were before, Shu Yao would have immediately agreed, excitedly hugging Shen Lingyun and spinning around several times on the spot.
It would also be a good chance to completely reconcile.
But now is different from before.
At that moment, she hesitated.
She did not dare to agree, nor did she dare to tell Shen Lingyun whether she would leave or not.
She had a premonition that if she left now, Shen Lingyun might really never see her again.
But if she let her sister carry all that pressure alone without caring, she really could not do it...
That night, everyone had different thoughts in their hearts.
Shen Lingyun did not close her eyes all night. Shu Yao also stayed with her and did not close her eyes.
She did not agree, so Shen Lingyun did not pay attention to her anymore, as if the uncontrolled kiss in the night never happened.
Only until the next morning, when they saw with their own eyes those two being safely carried out, did they suddenly breathe out in relief.
Before losing consciousness, Young Master Meng did not know how many people would be scared by her anger in that urgent moment.
When she opened her eyes in the afternoon of the next day, facing the glaring sunlight, she was still somewhat confused.
It had been a long time since she had felt such harsh light.
This feeling of seeing the sky again did not seem real.
In a daze, the Young Master almost thought she was still dreaming.
"Is it not so? Did the Sect Master’s wife not say that she would be able to see after the remaining poison was cleared?"
It was Shu Yao’s voice full of regret that pulled the Young Master’s mind back, together with the hand that waved in front of her eyes.
“This dumb and blank look, it seems she still cannot see…”
But this time, the Young Master was able to grab her wrist exactly.
Like this, the Young Master finally confirmed that this was not a dream. Now she really had gotten her sight back.
Not only did she get her sight back, even the force that used to block all her internal energy had already disappeared.
“Eh, you really can see now!”
The ones keeping watch by her bedside were no longer her mother, who had always stayed with her day and night during the past days, but Shen Lingyun and Shu Yao.
The very first moment she opened her eyes, when she did not see the person she most wanted to see, the Young Master could not help but ask, “Where is Mother?”
Mm, the Princess was not here, and the moment she opened her eyes, all she cared about was finding her mother.
This really was the Young Master’s usual style.
Shen Lingyun crossed her arms and sneered
“I think you should go see my master first.”
The Young Master was confused by this sudden hostility and instinctively glared at Shu Yao, “Did you make her mad again?”
Shu Yao: “…”
Although that was one of the reasons, it was not completely her fault…
“I think you should go take a look first… your mother is there too.”
Right after, she already told the Young Master everything about what had happened.
When she stepped into Zhou Jinyi’s room in a daze, the Young Master still had not come back to her senses from what Shu Yao had just told her.
So it was like this…
So it turned out that she could regain her sight all thanks to Zhou Jinyi…
She really did not know that Zhou Jinyi could make such a sacrifice for her…
Even though… even though there was not such a deep blood tie between them…
She is her mother’s daughter… not Zhou Jinyi’s daughter…
Zhou Jinyi really must have gone crazy, or else why would she be willing to make such a big sacrifice for someone who had always been hostile to her…
Meng Chang'an was filled with emotions, all tangled and hard to explain. Right now she really wanted to rush forward and scold Zhou Jinyi, ask her why she did not treasure her own life, and tell her not to think that doing this would make her feel grateful or deeply moved…
When she dazedly walked into the inner room of Zhou Jinyi’s chamber, Meng Muxin was sitting at the bedside, holding Zhou Jinyi and feeding her medicine one spoonful at a time.
The Young Master had never liked seeing those two getting along so closely.
If this had been in the past, the moment she saw such a scene, the Young Master would have already jumped up in anger.
Even if she did not storm off, she would definitely say something sour and sharp just to feel better.
Source: https://www.jjwxc.net/onebook.php?novelid=3614052
This translation was originally posted on https://love4baihe.blogspot.com please read it there. And check out other stories too.
But now, when she saw how weak Zhou Jinyi looked, as if she was hanging on by a thread, and noticed those several strands of white hair that suddenly appeared on her head, she unexpectedly fell silent.
Clearly… clearly before leaving home, this person still had a full head of black hair.
Could so many white hairs really have grown overnight…
The Young Master’s legs went weak, and she knelt straight down by Zhou Jinyi’s bed.
Meng Muxin was so scared that her hand trembled. She missed when feeding Zhou Jinyi with the spoon, and the medicine spilled directly on the embroidered quilt covering Zhou Jinyi.
“Even if you could not see for too long and missed your mother too much, you do not have to act so formally…”
Because of the stiff relationship between these two in the past, and the Young Master’s proud attitude that never changed even when she was wrong, Meng Muxin thought the kneeling was meant for her as the mother.
However, the child kneeling by the bed rarely paid attention to her as the mother.
At this moment, the Young Master’s eyes were already red, but she did not say a word. She lightly held the hand of Zhou Jinyi hanging down from the bed.
The bandage on the wrist was already soaked red with fresh blood.
Looking at the wound that was exactly like her own, the Young Master could not hold back the tears in her eyes, and they burst out.
Drop by drop, the tears fell silently, hitting Zhou Jinyi’s wrist.
Only then did Zhou Jinyi gather strength to lift her eyelids and force a weak smile.
“Do not cry. If you cry more, you will lose your sight again. Then I will not be able to give you back your eyes.”
It sounded like comforting words, but the Young Master’s tears flowed even more fiercely.
“I am sorry…”
She sobbed without control and spoke confusedly. She only knew to kneel there holding Zhou Jinyi’s hand and call out “I am sorry” again and again.
What was she sorry for? Was it for the coldness she had shown Zhou Jinyi all these years?
Or was it for trampling on Zhou Jinyi’s kindness again and again and giving her a cold face?
The Young Master thought carefully, and only then did she realize that the things she owed Zhou Jinyi an apology for were not just those. There were so many, many more…
She had thrown tantrums, ruined the herbs Zhou Jinyi had worked hard to find, and even splashed ink on her white robe…
One thing after another, too many to count…
When she was a child, she only wanted to use those childish acts to anger Zhou Jinyi, to tear off her fake face, to let her mother see Zhou Jinyi lose her temper, so her mother would stop liking this person so much…
She always believed that as long as she drove Zhou Jinyi away, no one would fight with her for her mother’s love…
But from beginning to end, no matter how many awful things she had done, this person had always treated her well as before.
Only she herself had always been trapped in that dead-end alley.
“Silly girl.”
Zhou Jinyi did not ask why the Young Master was apologizing, nor did she say anything else. She just raised her hand with difficulty and gently rubbed her head.
“I have never blamed you. Get up now. The floor is cold. Do not kneel anymore. You have just recovered from illness. You cannot get cold again.”
Sure enough, all along, it had only ever been herself making things hard for herself.
The Young Master felt so sad in her heart that she wanted to say something more, but then the back of her head was suddenly knocked by someone.
“Alright, stop being so squeamish. Hurry and get up when you are told to."
When she turned her head to look, she saw that it was her own Master who had hit her.
With her stood Lin Ziyan and Gu Qingyin, both smiling with satisfaction.
Seeing the Young Master’s tearful and pitiful look, Sect Master Zhong could not help but feel a little regretful. Did she hit her too hard and hurt her?
“Ahem, alright, if you keep crying, those dogs from the two countries will run away. Do you not want to go fight for your wife’s honor?”
Only then did the Young Master remember the things she had heard before falling unconscious.
So they still want to forcibly marry the Princess…
When Sect Master Zhong saw the fierce glint flash in the Young Master’s eyes, she finally chuckled, then stepped forward and lifted up that foolish disciple who was still kneeling in a daze.
“Alright, all your men and horses are ready. Since your wounds are healed, then go settle your own anger.”
“Go. Even if you overturn the heavens, we will hold it up for you.”
