Chapter 182: Oddity, safely in storage
Schhaff!
Streams of arrows flew in from all directions like rain. Long Feiye held Han Yunxi tightly in his arms as his figure flashed like a shadow to weave amongst the weapons. It was hard to escape immediately, but also difficult for such simple arrows to harm Long Feiye. If this was before, Han Yunxi would definitely be frightened, but after seeing how formidable this fellow was, she had allowed herself to relax long ago. Carefully, she stuck out her head from Long Feiye’s embrace and stole a look at the poison pool below them. Very soon, she concentrated all her energy in maintaining focus.
When she was in a state of hyper focus, she could take poisons out of her detox system. Going by that principle, she could hide poisons inside it as well. However, the mental strength needed for such a task consumed much more energy than taking things out. As soon as Han Yunxi entered the zone, she forgot all about the danger around her. While Long Feiye dodged and resisted the arrows, she used all her strength on the poison pool. In the end, she lost awareness of everything happening around her, even the sounds. Her entire world was reduced to nothing but that poison pool…
Eventually, the rain of arrows thinned out. Long Feiye was about to take the chance and escape when someone cried out in alarm. “The poison pond’s gone! It’s disappeared!”
Long Feiye turned his body sideways to avoid another arrow as he glanced down. He was startled to see the teeming mass of medicinal plants completely gone. Not only that, even the pond water had thoroughly vanished!
This…
Below him, the skinny old man and everyone else were seized with panic. Long Feiye was amazed as well, but he only gave a cursory glance before making his escape. It wasn’t clear how long the guards had remained stunned. In any case, by the time Long Feiye made it out of the Medicine Forest, he was still in disbelief over what he’d saw.
“Did you see the poison pond?” he asked as he released Han Yunxi. It was then that he discovered she’d fainted in his arms.
When did she faint?
Was it because she was frightened?
This woman shouldn’t be that weak-willed, right?
Puzzled, Long Feiye’s eyes flashed with worry. He immediately brought Han Yunxi to the Wang family. Unexpectedly, Han Yunxi didn’t wake up after losing consciousness. Wang Gong searched everywhere for Medicine City’s doctors, but no one could figure out what was the matter. There was no illness, pain, or injury, and her pulse seemed perfectly normal, if a bit fatigued. Still, even exhaustion shouldn’t be enough to leave her unconsciousness for so many days.
As for possibly being poisoned–Long Feiye definitely couldn’t believe this woman would stay asleep because of that.
These few days, Medicine City’s three great families held various secret meetings to talk about the events at Medicine Forest’s restricted area. That night, Long Feiye hadn’t seen wrongly. The plants and water of the poison pond had truly wholly disappeared. When Wang Gong made a personal trip to check, he’d confirmed the empty remains of the pond.
“Duke of Qin, this matter…is really odd,” Wang Gong smoothed out his beard as he sighed repeatedly.
Since the Mu family had colluded with the Duke of Kang, they had to know Long Feiye and Han Yunxi had trespassed in the restricted area. Wang Gong didn’t expose the Mu Clan’s dealings with the Duke of Kang and his free use of the poison pond, while the Mu Clan was uncertain about his relationship with the Long Feiye. They could only say that two masked figures trespassed that night without revealing the identities of the invaders. The three great families increased the guards for Medicine Forest. Although they’d agreed to mutually investigate the incident of the poison pond, they didn’t have a single clue. Heaven knows what their investigations could yield?
“It’s better that it’s gone rather than having your lordship think of ideas to destroy it.” The restricted area’s poison pond was a treasure of Medicine City, but Long Feiye didn’t show any niceties in front of Wang Gong, who deeply understood the dangerous implications. If the poison pond fell into the Duke of Kang’s hands, then one day the Wang Clan, as well as the entire Medicine City, would be in peril. Wang Gong nodded to agree with the words.
“There’s something fishy about the whole thing. I’m afraid we’ll have to reinforce our men and keep watch covertly to prevent another unforeseen event,” Long Feiye added seriously.
Wang Gong nodded to show he understood. The restricted area’s poison pond was filled with mysteries to being with. Today it’d completely disappeared, so who knows whether it’d completely reappear again another day? They couldn’t overlook the possibility.
While they were talking, a servant girl’s voice suddenly cried out cheerfully from inside a room. “Your Highness Duke of Qin, Your Highness Duke of Qin, esteemed wangfei woke up! She’s awake!”
Long Feiye rejoiced, abruptly rising to his feet to leave. Though he was usually calm and collected, this time his pleasant surprise was written all over his face. Looking after his hurrying back, Wang Gong couldn’t quite believe the sight. Actually, it was already beyond expectations for a cold man like the Duke of Qin to take along Qin Wangfei in his travels.
Inside the room, Han Yunxi had just opened her eyes. Her head was still dazed and heavy, her limbs weak as if she’d collapsed. She knew she had to sleep a long time to recover, but she wasn’t sure how much time had passed.
Where was this place?
She was about to ask the servant girl on the side when a familiar voice spoke. Though it sounded ice-cold, there was an obvious sign of pleased surprise in its tone. “Han Yunxi, you’re finally awake?”
Unfortunately, the befuddled Han Yunxi didn’t catch his tone. Very quickly, the handsome face of Long Feiye appeared before her eyes. She drew back the corners of her mouth into a grin, her face pale. “Your Highness, so we escaped.”
Long Feiye had taken large strides to get here, but now that he’d arrived and saw Han Yunxi on the bed, he wasn’t sure what to do next. He only answered with a noncommittal ‘hn’ before sitting down by the bed. The servant girl immediately poured some warm water before respectfully offering it to Long Feiye. He accepted the cup, but looked a little lost afterwards.
“Your Highness, esteemed wangfei hasn’t drank water for days. She needs to drink some warm water first before taking her meal. Your servant will go get some millet congee right away,” the servant girl spoke before hurrying off.
She has to be fed water…
Long Feiye didn’t answer, but quickly helped Han Yunxi sit up so she was leaning against him, before feeding the water to her lips. His movements were unfamiliar and out of practice, as if this was his first time ever treating a patient. Still, his arm was steady and filled with strength. Han Yunxi’s head was still dizzy and heavy. After sleeping for so many days, she was both hungry and thirsty. As soon as she saw the warm water, she burned with impatience to drink it down. Her lips touched the liquid and started gulping it, but she choked after only a few mouthfuls. “Pfttt….cough, cough…”
Her choking caused her to spit up a mouthful of water onto Long Feiye’s hand. Seeing this, Han Yunxi immediately shut her mouth, suddenly growing alert. Although her throat dearly wanted to cough, she still suppressed the urge, her face ghastly white. After all, the most respected His Highness Duke of Qin had an unhealthy obsession with cleanliness! He was severely mysophobic!
Unexpectedly, Long Feiye set down the cup and hastily had Han Yunxi lower her head while he clapped her on the back. He was unhappy as he spoke. “Use your strength to cough. What are you doing holding it back? Are you trying to kill yourself?”
Didn’t he mind at all?
Han Yunxi couldn’t hold herself back and broke into a heavy coughing fit. It was a long time before she coughed out the water stuck in her throat. Once her air passageways were clear, she’d basically lost all her strength and was left paralyzed in Long Feiye’s arms. She was extremely weak, looking timidly at Long Feiye like a child who’d done something wrong. She was about to apologize when Long Feiye had her rest against the headboard and went to wash his hands.
The words of apology rose to her lips before Han Yunxi swallowed them back down.
She couldn’t see Long Feiye’s expression head-on, but caught the coldness in his side profile, and how he’d slightly creased his brows as if in loathing. He washed his hands for a very long time, focused and earnest. Actually, it was good enough that he hadn’t pushed her away right then and there. But still, Han Yunxi had an inexplicable sense of disappointment as she watched Long Feiye absorbed in washing his hands.
After wiping his clean hands dry, Long Feiye peered at them for inspection, his gaze complicated. Again, he poured a fresh cup of water and faced Han Yunxi. “Drink some more?”
Han Yunxi shook her head, not wanting to drink at the moment.
“Drink a little more,” Long Feiye said, preparing to feed her at the same time Han Yunxi reached out to take the cup. The two of them paused before Long Feiye quickly gave the cup to Han Yunxi with a mild tone. “No one’s going to steal it from you, so drink slowly.”
“Oh,” Han Yunxi answered as she lowered her head to sip.
Both of them remained silent before Han Yunxi still spoke up. “Just then…I got you dirty, sorry about that.”
Long Feiye ‘hn’d’ without saying anything else.
But Han Yunxi seemed to feel annoyed for no reason. Even she felt this was strange. She was always clear-cut and straightforward, natural and unrestrained, but why did she always feel so constrained before this man? Perhaps she held hopes and expectations she shouldn’t have?
It was then that Long Feiye questioned her in his cold voice. “You were unconscious for three days and three nights, what happened? Were you frightened into a faint?”
The change of topic eased Han Yunxi’s nerves as she lifted her eyes to feign astonishment. “Three days three nights?”
“What happened? Why did you just faint?” Long Feiye asked again.
“I don’t know either. I was even afraid to lift my head with all those arrows about. Somehow, I started feeling unwell, and then I forgot what happened afterwards,” Han Yunxi replied.
Was she implying that he’d held her too tightly and suffocated her into fainting? Long Feiye stared fixedly at Han Yunxi. “That’s it?”
Honestly, it wasn’t easy to pass a lie before this guy. Han Yunxi hemmed and hawed. “Actually…actually, chenqie pushed against Your Highness many times while I was being suffocated, but Your Highness was too busy dodging the arrows to notice. Your Highness’s arm strength was too great for chenqie to push aside.”
There were no hints, this was directly accusing him of holding her too tightly. Hearing this, Long Feiye’s gaze turned less wanton than before. Han Yunxi secretly chortled. Did this count as taking liberties with the Duke of Qin? Even if she was beaten to death, she wouldn’t admit it. She didn’t have the guts!
Striking while the iron was hot, she added, “Your Highness, was chenqie really unconscious for three days and three nights? Chenqie couldn’t have caught some strange illness, right? What did the doctors say?”
“Rest first, we’ll have the doctors come take a look later,” Long Feiye finally withdrew his scrutinizing gaze.
“Your Highness, the restricted area’s poison pond…how should we deal with that?” Han Yunxi sounded him out.
Long Feiye explained the strange things that had happened, along with the arrangements by the three great families.
“Something that strange! How could this be?” Han Yunxi said inconceivably. She was visibly moved, but a crafty look flitted past her eyes. In this world, she was the only one who knew what had happened!
“That pond was abnormal to begin with. Even the three great families don’t know where it came from. However, it’s a good thing that it’s gone,” Long Feiye said simply.
If the pond and its plants hadn’t disappeared, he wouldn’t know how to deal with them either. Since it was a treasure of Medicine City, destroying it would’ve been no easy task. Han Yunxi nodded her head like a stalk of onion. Neither gods nor ghosts had known what she’d did, so even if the three great families had Heavenly skills, they wouldn’t be able to track down the poison pond. Moreover, there was no way that piece of land could ever make water again!
If that Duke of Kang knew that his painstakingly cultivated plants had been stolen by her from the roots and stored away, how would he react?
She closed her eyes and pretended to rest while secretly taking a mental trip to the detox system dimension. There laid the poison pond and its collection of plants, secretly hidden inside. Only then did she set her mind to rest. Coming to Medicine City this time really was worthwhile. Right now, she didn’t have the energy to start up the detox system’s programs to analyze the pond and plants. However, it’d been safely stored away so she didn’t have to rush.
Han Yunxi wasn’t aware of the many great surprises awaiting her from this poison pond and plants. Of course, these were words for the future.
After resting for a day, Long Feiye and Han Yunxi finally returned to the inn, where Gu Qishao had nearly given up on finding them both.