Chapter 11

Qu Yan paused her steps, stopping with him beside a pile of gravel. After a moment of surprise, she quickly regained her composure. Looking at the man who was trying hard to control himself, her lips parted and closed again, unusually at a loss for words.

She should have realized it earlier. Judging from the scars left by his punishments, he must have endured more than just those torments. As for why those drugs had no effect on him, Qu Yan knew better than anyone.

To desensitize a person to this, one only needs to tie up their limbs and continuously force-feed them drugs. After all, as long as the drugs aren’t lethal, the amount doesn’t matter.

From watching him collapse in agony, begging and crying, to becoming numb and unfeeling.

That was the most humiliating period of Qi Ying’s life. He couldn’t even remember how he managed to survive and walk out of that dungeon.

And those capable of doing such things, throughout the jianghu, were only one type of people – the rumored shadow guards. Unlike assassins who only needed to take lives, shadow guards were mostly tasked with protecting their clients, hiding in the shadows, staying alert at all times, eliminating all dangers for their employers. Tasting poison for their masters was the most basic principle.

Training a shadow guard required over a decade of effort. Qu Yan had heard about the methods of training shadow guards in her earlier years, but those methods were too horrifying to believe, so she treated them as idle gossip. After all, she never thought she would pick up a living shadow guard.

Qi Ying was desperately trying to maintain his composure, his entire body tightly wound. The scene before his eyes gradually blurred, and he seemed to see his younger self, his mouth forcibly pried open to swallow medicinal concoctions, his body bound with iron chains and thrown into a dark dungeon, his struggles all in vain.

Later, slowly, he stopped struggling. Enduring meant survival.

“You…”

Looking at the man caught in his emotions, Qu Yan raised her hand to touch his back. She was about to say some words of comfort when, at that moment, Qi Ying suddenly retreated backward. His movement was so fast that he completely forgot about the pile of gravel behind him.

In that split second, Qu Yan’s expression sharpened. She changed the direction of her hand to wrap around the man’s waist, pulling him towards herself. Qu Yan used considerable force, but she completely forgot about his instincts as a shadow guard. Even though his martial arts were gone, his reflexes remained. Qi Ying’s perception of danger was quicker than anyone’s.

In that instant, Qu Yan and Qi Ying used force in the same direction. She originally had a chance to stabilize herself, but when she saw the panic in the man’s eyes, her hand tightly holding his waist pulled him down with her as they fell.

Fortunately, the grass was soft, so the fall wasn’t painful. Qu Yan looked at the man sprawled awkwardly on her chest and still had the leisure to compliment him.

“Nice reflexes.”

She was sincerely praising him, but unexpectedly, the man, like a startled rabbit, hurriedly scrambled off her, even trying to use his injured right hand for support. Qu Yan disapprovingly raised her hand to stop his movement.

He paused, then fell down again. Qu Yan raised an eyebrow, glancing down at the position he was pressing on.

Qi Ying’s face instantly turned red, his tone for the first time so agitated, “Let go.”

Qu Yan obediently released the man’s wrist. Seeing him still staring intently at her, his face growing redder, a mix of embarrassment and annoyance, so different from his previous cold and silent demeanor. Qu Yan blinked once, finally realizing something, and slowly released her tight grip on his waist.

The position of the two was indeed rather unseemly, especially the place where the young man was sitting. If others were to see this scene, they would likely exclaim about the decline of morals, thinking people were engaging in broad daylight intimacy within the valley.

Qi Ying hurriedly propped himself up. This was his first close contact with a woman. Recalling the softness from earlier, his cheeks burned even redder. He could tell that Qu Yan’s earlier action was to catch him, not intending for them to fall. If he still had his martial arts, they wouldn’t have ended up in such a mess.

He lowered his gaze to hide his emotions, seeing Qu Yan still sitting on the ground, her eyes half-closed as she looked at him. Qi Ying pressed his lips together, and after a moment of struggle, he walked in front of her, extending his left hand to try and help her up.

The sunlight fell on his long, fair fingers, which were indeed very beautiful.

Qu Yan squinted at them for a while, and before the man could urge her, she raised her hand to grasp his palm. In reality, she didn’t use his strength to get up at all. Her robe hem was covered in dust, which she was now brushing off. Though it should have been a disheveled appearance, she made it look leisurely and comfortable.

Qi Ying was still looking at her robe hem when he suddenly felt his hair being brushed aside. He abruptly looked up at Qu Yan, who blinked her eyes.

“Your hair was messy. I’m fixing it for you,” she pondered for a moment, then added, “There’s no dirt on my hands.”

“No need.”

Qi Ying turned his head away, hastily running his hand through his hair, but instead of smoothing it, he made it even messier. He wasn’t in the habit of styling his hair. For the past twenty years, he always tied his long hair high at the back of his head, as long as it didn’t get in the way.

Qu Yan sighed lightly, raising her hand to untie his hair ribbon. The man’s long hair fell down, strands by his temples blown by the wind. Combined with his shocked gaze, it was as if Qu Yan had done something extremely outrageous to him.

She very naturally gathered his hair, the blue hair ribbon deftly moving in her hands. After tying his hair ribbon, the woman’s voice sounded by his ear, gentle with a hint of comfort.

“It’s all in the past. I won’t let you suffer like that again.” Qu Yan stroked his hair, unconsciously drawing him a bit closer to her embrace. “Trust me.”

Qi Ying remained silent for a long time, then nodded almost imperceptibly.

She was about to say something more when she caught sight of several disciples approaching from a distance. They were carrying baskets on their backs, presumably going to the back mountain to gather herbs. The one in the lead had clearly seen the intimately positioned pair and was now standing stock-still, hesitating whether to come forward and greet them.

Qu Yan withdrew her gaze, lowering her eyes to brush his hair again, squinting as she admired her handiwork, seemingly quite satisfied with Qi Ying’s hairstyle. She raised her hand and gently rubbed his hair with her fingertips. The man’s body stiffened, as usual showing no other reaction.

“Don’t tie your hair so tight all the time. It’s not good for blood circulation.”

As she spoke, Qi Ying turned to look at the woman behind him, his eyes filled with complex emotions. Qu Yan just gave him a faint smile.

“You remember the way back, right? I have some matters to attend to. Can you return on your own?”

He naturally agreed. Qu Yan stood in place watching the man walk away until his figure disappeared from sight before she left in the opposite direction.

The few junior sisters who had witnessed the entire process saw their senior sister approaching and exchanged glances, rapidly organizing their thoughts. Why hadn’t they just run away earlier?

Seeing the eldest senior sister come up to them, the leading junior sister hurriedly said, “Greetings, eldest senior sister.”

“Going to gather herbs?” Qu Yan’s tone was kind, without any intention of making things difficult.

The junior sister breathed a sigh of relief and nodded with a smile, “Yes, it’s an assignment from third senior sister. We’re going to collect Moon-full Grass.”

Qu Yan made an “Oh” sound, her eyes filled with amusement. She looked at the most restless of the junior sisters, whose curiosity was about to overflow, “What do you want to ask? Go ahead.”

Zhao Mian, who had been holding back for a long time, was suddenly called out. She was stunned for a moment before realizing the senior sister was talking to her, and immediately asked curiously, “Senior sister, that person just now was…”

As soon as she spoke, there was a collective gasp from those around her. The leader almost wanted to go up and cover Zhao Mian’s mouth directly.

But the eldest senior sister didn’t get angry at all, and instead said with a smile, “What do you think?”

Qu Yan left after these three ambiguous words. Qi Ying’s existence would be known to people in the valley sooner or later. She hadn’t given him a specific title, leaving it up to the disciples’ imagination.

Qi Ying’s sense of direction was excellent. He could recognize the path from the courtyard to the bamboo grove even if blindfolded. From the first day he saw the view outside the window, he knew he was in a mountain valley.

Relying on instinct, Qi Ying memorized the surrounding scenery. As he turned back to the courtyard, his footsteps paused. A young girl was standing at the gate of the courtyard, holding some rice paper in her hand, looking inside anxiously.

It was the first time Qi Ying had seen anyone else come to the courtyard. He didn’t know if his presence was known, and as he was hesitating whether to avoid her, the young girl had already noticed him.

The two stared at each other for a while, then the young girl suddenly exclaimed, then covered her mouth guiltily. She ran a few steps towards him, her eyes full of curiosity.

Ren Ling finally couldn’t help but speak, “Are you the person senior sister rescued?”

“Senior sister?” Qi Ying blinked, softly repeating the phrase. If he remembered correctly, Qu Yan had said this was her home, and that she was just a country doctor in the mountains. Although he didn’t quite believe it, he hadn’t delved deeper.

“The senior sister you mentioned, is her name Qu Yan?”

“Ah? Yes!”

Ren Ling hadn’t heard senior sister’s name in a long time. Everyone just called her senior sister, and hearing it from this man’s mouth now felt quite strange.

As they were talking, the three dogs in the courtyard heard the sound and ran out. Unlike usual when they would hover around Ren Ling, they all wagged their tails and nuzzled against Qi Ying. After all, they still remembered clearly who had fed them meat jerky in the morning.

“Wuyun! You’re all so biased, not even looking at me. I won’t bring you bones next time.” Ren Ling squatted on the ground, looking at the dogs passing by her side, then quietly stood up.

Qi Ying frowned slightly, his voice a bit strange, “Who’s called Wuyun?”

“That one.” Ren Ling pointed at Ahei, who obligingly wagged its tail. She thought he didn’t know the dogs’ names, so she very kindly introduced them to him.

“The fat one is called Sanhua, and the yellow one is called Ahuang.”

Seeing that the man didn’t respond and just stood there silently without moving, Ren Ling felt somewhat scared for no reason. She didn’t know that this unease stemmed from Qi Ying’s cold and stern aura. She just rubbed her hands quietly, looked up at the sky, her expression a bit troubled.

“It’s almost time for class. Could you help me give these to senior sister, and also pass on a message for me?”

Qi Ying looked at the stack of rice paper in her hand, and after a while, he raised his hand to take it. He glanced at the four large characters ‘Treatise on Cold Damage’ on the top and looked up at the young girl in front of him.

“What message?”

Ren Ling, swept by his gaze, thought about the source of her punishment being this person, and suddenly felt conflicted. “…Just say ‘The words were spoken by Ren Ling alone. I have copied the Treatise on Cold Damage twice as instructed. Please review it, senior sister.’ Thank you.”

Qi Ying returned to the courtyard. Ahei, no, Wuyun kept sniffing around his hand, hoping to get another piece of meat jerky to eat.

He lowered his eyes to look at the wagging black dog, recalling the scenes from the past few days. He had called it ‘Ahei’ many times, and Qu Yan had never corrected him, even calling it the same name along with him. Qi Ying couldn’t understand why she did this.

Perhaps she was simply making fun of him.