Chapter 35

Chapter 35

A small black donkey pawed at the ground, then stopped in front of the little courtyard with obvious reluctance.

Zhou Lingsheng untied the boxes from the donkey’s back, gave its rump a sharp smack, then swiftly darted aside to avoid the hoof it kicked back at him. The movement was practiced to perfection.

“Run, run, run. I took you around two extra loops on purpose, and you still haven’t had enough!”

In the shadows, the guards who had followed the donkey around two extra mountain paths: “…”

The little black donkey snorted disdainfully, rolled its eyes, and lowered its head to graze.

Zhou Lingsheng was so angry his teeth itched, but faced with those donkey hooves, perpetually ready to launch, he still had no choice but to compromise.

He looked at the two boxes in his hands. They were packed full of precious medicinal herbs, and together, they were worth a considerable sum.

All of these had been taken from the private storehouse of Zhenbei Prince’s Mansion. He had well and truly fleeced Wei Chengjun this time.

Zhou Lingsheng’s expression eased. The corners of his mouth lifted slightly, and he unconsciously hummed a little tune as he walked briskly into the courtyard.

The guards from the Chi Residence hid among the trees, silently surveying the surroundings.

The place was ringed by mountains on all sides, with only a single forest path leading in. At the foot of the mountain stood a simple little fenced courtyard. There was not a soul in sight, only the sounds of insects, birdsong, and a murmuring stream.

Yet it was precisely this unusual stillness that made the place especially suspicious. Judging by the instincts of a martial artist, this area was surely layered with mechanisms and traps. It was not somewhere one could simply set foot in.

The guards did not dare follow him in on their own. After observing from the shadows for quite some time and confirming that there was no further movement inside the courtyard, they finally retraced their steps and returned to report to Chi Wan.

Zhou Lingsheng set the boxes on the table.

There was a trace of chill inside the room, not much warmth at all. A faint medicinal fragrance drifted through the air. He walked over to the brazier and looked down. The charcoal had burned out.

Zhou Lingsheng picked out fresh charcoal, added it in, lit it, and covered the brazier.

Then he glanced toward the bed in the inner room and, out of habit, walked over to check.

He rounded the screen and passed through the curtain. Morning light spilled in soft flecks as he reached the bedside. He raised a hand to draw back the gauze canopy and swept a careless glance over the bed. His expression froze. The next instant, a biting chill pressed against his neck.

A dagger lay dangerously across his throat.

Zhou Lingsheng’s gaze shifted away from the empty bed, then slowly moved downward, passing over the hilt and the pale, flawless wrist revealed beneath a sleeve, before finally settling on the ashen face of the person behind him.

“You woke earlier than I expected,” Zhou Lingsheng said, relaxing.

Sheng Zhaoning’s eyes were filled with deep wariness and scrutiny.

“How long was I asleep?” Her voice still sounded somewhat weak.

Seeing that the dagger did not seem intent on cutting any deeper, Zhou Lingsheng boldly took a step back, putting distance between his blood vessels and the blade.

“Aren’t you going to ask who I am?” Instead of answering her, he threw the question back at her.

“Not important.” Sheng Zhaoning’s tone was cold and hard.

Zhou Lingsheng grew interested. “How is it not important? This is my home. Besides, I’m your savior.”

“If that weren’t the case, you’d already be dead.”

She withdrew the dagger, and her arm dropped weakly to her side.

It had been half an hour since she had awakened, yet her entire body still felt frail and powerless. A chill seeped through her from the inside out, cold from her organs all the way to her skin.

Standing across from her, Zhou Lingsheng saw her so vividly alive for the first time.

A plain white underrobe wrapped around her overly thin frame. There was no color in her lips, and no brightness in her eyes, yet that face was still so beautiful it made it difficult to look away. Her features were exquisite, as though carved from jade and stone. Her black hair cascaded like a waterfall, a few loose strands falling over her shoulders and half concealing a snowy-white stretch of slender neck. If not for the excessive coldness and murderous severity on her face, she would have been nothing more than a sickly beauty who stirred pity in anyone who saw her.

He suddenly remembered the first time he had seen her.

That version of her-mangled beyond recognition, her hands and feet broken, tendons and bones shattered.

Zhou Lingsheng still remembered the first words he had said: “She’s like this, and she’s still alive?”

There had been no exaggeration in his words. With injuries like that, how could anyone possibly survive? Even the strongest body should have already stepped through the gates of death to report to the King of Hell, let alone a woman who looked so slender and frail.

Wei Chengjun had left only one sentence behind-“Save her”-and then walked away without a second thought.

Zhou Lingsheng looked at the person on the bed, clinging to her last thread of breath, and cursed the whole time as he poured in every bit of medical skill he had and every precious medicine he had hoarded for half his life and never been willing to use. By sheer force, he dragged her back from the doorstep of the underworld.

The process of reshaping her bones was excruciating. Several times, even while completely unconscious, Sheng Zhaoning broke out in a cold sweat from the pain.

It took him more than ten days to piece all her bones back together. And the more he treated her, the more curious he became about this woman.

What exactly had she been through? And how powerful did her will have to be to endure such unimaginable pain and survive on that final breath?

“I truly admire you,” Zhou Lingsheng said from the bottom of his heart.

Sheng Zhaoning’s gaze was like a blade, sweeping over him with murderous intent in her eyes.

Zhou Lingsheng glanced at her legs and asked with a trace of uncertainty, “Um… does it not hurt?”

Sheng Zhaoning clenched her teeth as darkness washed over her vision in waves.

…It hurt.

How could it not hurt?

She closed her eyes and took a moment to steady herself. Her legs felt as though they had been nailed to the floor, impossible to move even an inch.

When she had first woken, every bone in her body had been screaming with violent pain, leaving her almost unable to move.

Yet when a sound had come from the doorway, she had still forced herself to bear the agony and hide in the shadows. Only after the newcomer entered the room and drew close had she emerged with a knife in hand.

Now that she had confirmed there was no danger, the taut string of her mind loosened. Only then did the unbearable pain throughout her body belatedly flood back, hurting so badly that every inch of muscle trembled with it.

Sheng Zhaoning stood there with her eyes closed for a while without speaking.

Zhou Lingsheng looked at her, the corner of his mouth lifting before he realized it. “How about I give you a hand?”

When she gave no response, he knew that with her twisted personality, this counted as tacit permission.

He stepped forward and took hold of her arm. What settled into his hand was so light, so slight, that he could have easily encircled it with one hand.

Using his support, Sheng Zhaoning took a few steps. Moving slowly, she made her way back to the bed and lay down again.

After those few steps, Sheng Zhaoning was drenched in sweat. Her forehead throbbed in time with the pain in her body, her mind blank. A sharp, unrelenting ache spread through her, dragging a faint, broken buzzing through her ears.

In truth, she still had many questions she wanted to ask.

For example: Where was this? Why had he saved her? Did the people of Zhenbei Prince’s Mansion know? And the question Zhou Lingsheng still had not answered-how long had she been asleep?

She did not know what point in time it had already reached, or what had happened outside while she was unconscious. She knew nothing about the world she had just awakened to.

But Sheng Zhaoning had no strength.

Pain had taken over all of her senses.

She could only use every bit of energy she had to fight it, to keep her consciousness from sinking once more into a long, endless darkness.