Chapter 707 - Unexpected Recovery
Yu Xiaocao stroked her face and valiantly squeezed out a smile, “Silly lass, I’m seriously injured and can’t even move much now. Dying alongside with me would just be a waste. I’ve already agreed to Hou Xiaoliang’s request to allow you to marry him. A married out maidservant is like spilled water...in the future, you need to enjoy your life with Hou Xiaoliang ah.”
She panted a few times before she continued, “Tell my final words to the prince: The fact that I wasn’t able to accompany him to the very end was my bad. In the next life, I will still become his wife, so he needs to be able to spot me in the crowd in the blink of an eye. Otherwise, I’ll punish him to kneel on a washboard and won’t let him into...my bed!”
“No! Young Miss, Wutong won’t marry anyone! Wutong will stay with you, so don’t abandon me! Who will take care of you in the other world? You’ve once complimented me, saying that I’m the most considerate and the person who understands you the most. Don’t abandon me!” Wutong noticed that her mistress’s breath was getting more and more shallow and didn’t know what to do anymore. Tears flowed down her face and dripped onto the floor.
A slight bit of moisture appeared at the corners of Yu Xiaocao’s eyes. She murmured in an almost inaudible voice, “Go and find His Highness. Get him to save me.”
When she was certain Wutong had understood her secret signal, Yu Xiaocao suddenly angrily scolded, “Stop saying such things ah! In the past, you were afraid of hard work and didn’t want to leave the capital to go to the small town Tanggu to serve me when I was still an ordinary farmer’s girl. At that time, you lost this princess consort’s trust! If it weren’t for the fact that you’ve been pretty obedient these past few years, I would have sold you off long ago!!”
“Just look, you’ve been with me longer compared to Hechun and Xichun, yet I gave the important responsibility of managing ‘Blossoming Beauty’, the dessert and pastry shop, and the flower tea business to them. As for you, you’re just a maidservant who serves me on a day to day basis. Don’t you understand now ah? You only say such touching things to comfort yourself!!” Yu Xiaocao scolded her as she also gave her a silent signal through her eyes.
“But...” Wutong wiped some tears off her face and was still reluctant to leave her mistress.
“There are no buts! This princess consort gets angrier the more I think of it. I don’t want to see you anymore!” Yu Xiaocao used all of her strength in one last snarl, “Get out——”
“Tsk tsk tsk! Such deep feelings between a servant and her master!” Eunuch Yuan smiled maliciously and suddenly pulled Wutong into his hands. He placed his left hand under her chin and snarled at Yu Xiaocao, “Give me the Prolonging Life Pills, otherwise...your good maidservant’s neck will be snapped in two by me!”
“Wring away ah! In any case, neither of us would be let go by you after you get your hands on the pills. Since we’re going to die anyway, I’ll make sure to die without leaving you what you want!” Yu Xiaocao picked one Prolonging Life Pill and slowly placed it into her mouth. Under the alarmed eyes of Eunuch Yuan, she leisurely chewed on it before swallowing while enduring the pain in her chest. Then she did the same to the second pill.
Just as she was about to place the last pill into her mouth, Eunuch Yuan screamed in anguish, “Stop!! Don’t swallow any more, I’ll let this maidservant go!”
It took a full seven weeks, forty-nine days, to make these three Prolonging Life Pills. If all of them were swallowed by her, he didn’t know how long it would take to get the ingredients again and wait for that bitch to recover from her wounds! At that time, he also couldn’t guarantee that the situation wouldn’t have changed either.
Wutong, who had just escaped from the clutch of death, had been thrown out unceremoniously by a black-clothed man. She looked back to stare at her young miss again as if she was trying to say, “Young Miss, please hold on. I will go find His Highness right now to save you!”
Time seemed to have stopped flowing and was creeping by incredibly slowly. Yu Xiaocao discovered that her grip on life was slowly becoming looser. At this time, she didn’t even have the strength to place the remaining pill into her mouth.
This life had been picked up by her coincidentally. She had family who loved her and had fortuitously encountered a man who understood her, deeply loved, and pampered her to the heavens. It was worth it! The only thing she regretted was that she was unable to accompany him to the very end and wasn’t able to help him birth a few beautiful and adorable children. She wasn’t able to see whether he would still be as stunningly beautiful in old age...if there was another life ahead of her, she hoped that she would be able to encounter him again...
Yu Xiaocao felt her consciousness slowly slip away drop by drop...
Eunuch Yuan had sensed that her breath was becoming more and more shallow. When he thought of the fact that he had lost two pills for nothing, he wanted to scream in fury, ‘Even if you die, I will make sure to rip your body into shreds so I can vent my temper a bit.’
He stepped closer...in Yu XIaocao’s blurry eyes, she could see a pair of large feet slowly heading over towards her. Was her life about to end like this?
Just as Eunuch Yuan’s hand was about to grip around her delicate neck, a beam of golden light shot through the thick wall of the hidden room. With a rumble, the golden light transformed into an elegant young man who was currently pushing Eunuch Yuan away from Yu Xiaocao.
If Yu Xiaocao was still conscious, she would have immediately been happily surprised to discover that the person standing in front of her was the little divine stone in its human youth form.
[Psh——this immortal was only gone for a few days yet you managed to land yourself in such a precarious situation? It looks like this divine stone...that’s not right, it’s this immortal, can only stay by your side in the future, keeping an eye on you. It’s so exhausting having a master who only knows how to get herself into trouble!] The little divine stone took out a pill that he had shamelessly begged off of the Goddess of Spirits and stuffed it into Xiaocao’s mouth, who had just stopped breathing. He then placed his actual self, the multicolored stone, back on her wrist.
Eunuch Yuan avariciously eyed the jade bottle inside the little divine stone’s hands. His intuition told him that this bottle of pills was even more valuable and rare than the Prolonging Life Pill in his hands. Those pills would have great use for him.
“Just who are you?” Eunuch Yuan only had eyes for that jade bottle that was apparently filled with divine medicines and had seemed to completely disregard the fact that the little divine stone and a golden light had appeared from nowhere.
[This immortal has no need to tell you my identity!!] The fellow in front of him had hurt his master so badly that she had almost lost her life. Thus, how could the little divine stone possibly allow him to live on in this world? Someone who was destined to die had no qualifications in finding out his identity.
This immortal? That was right ah! Earlier, there was clearly a beam of golden light that had flashed in before this youth appeared. Furthermore, the hidden underground room had thick walls and many mechanisms preventing entry, yet the youth had easily entered like nothing had blocked it. Were there truly gods and immortals in this world? Then, were the pills in his hands...immortal medicines?
Eunuch Yuan’s desire for everlasting life had already clouded his reason. He actually tried to steal the bottle of pills from the little divine stone in an obvious manner.
[Go die!!] A beam of golden light flashed and the hand that Eunuch Yuan had stretched forward had fallen to the ground, severed from his arm. After the shock passed, an anguished and painful scream echoed in the room.
“It’s so loud——” Yu Xiaocao, who had been at the gates of death, was currently frowning slightly as she weakly groaned.
Zhu Junyang and Su Ran were currently running through the broken door that they had just pummeled down outside the Chen Family’s warehouse. When he heard the scream from within, the look on Zhu Junyang’s face changed and he leapt through the hole that the little divine stone had created. Within the underground chamber, black-clothed men flooded out like a bunch of water. Zhu Junyang remembered the tearful Wutong’s lamentations and the sword in his hands became a death reaper, killing everyone in his path.
Su Ran’s sword danced around like a deadly bladed storm and his usually gentle face looked to be frozen over with frost. He was like a white-clothed grim reaper. He howled at Zhu Junyang, “I’ll hold back the enemies here, go in and find that lass Xiaocao!”
Zhu Junyang beheaded another black-clothed man and skewered another in the heart. When he heard this, he leapt away from the crowd and bolted towards the broken wall at top speed. Behind him were a few black-clothed men who had gotten entangled with more hidden guards.
By the time he broke through a couple more defenses, he arrived at the medicine concocting room that Wutong had mentioned. A thick stench of blood hit his nose and the sound of the shrill scream was slowly dying off. Zhu Junyang felt his heart tighten as he was afraid to see just what a dismal situation had unfolded here.
[Hmph! Don’t they all say that men are unreliable ah? By the time he arrived, who knows where your soul had flown off too? I think you should repudiate him sooner rather than later. This immortal will help you find an even better man!] The little divine stone supported Yu Xiaocao up and regarded Zhu Junyang with a face full of disdain.
On the ground was Eunuch Yuan. His two arms and two legs had been neatly severed from his body, causing a bunch of blood to pool on the ground. He was howling in grief as he wriggled around. The Prolonging Life Pill that he had desperately wanted was only about a meter away from him. The glistening pale white pill had a bit of fresh blood stained on it and seemed to glow with an alluring light.
“I’m alright...” Yu Xiaocao had strolled around the gates of hell before her soul had been pulled back. At this time, she saw her husband who was covered in blood from head to toe. Her deathly pale face revealed a bright smile——it was truly good to be able to see him again...
When he saw that the little lass had become significantly thinner and was ghostly pale with a dab of dried blood by her mouth that had a smile that looked like it might disappear at any time, Zhu Junyang felt like his heart was being crushed by a giant hand. It hurt so much that his bones ached.
Zhu Junyang felt his nose and eyes sting and he reached out a hand towards the lass, “I came too late...”
“You’re not late. As long as I can see you, you’re never too late! Because I know my unparalleled hero will go through anything in order to save me from the depths of despair. Zhu Junyang, you are my true hero!” Yu Xiaocao placed her hand into the burning hot hand of her husband as tears of pure joy and happiness shone in her eyes.
[Ugh...isn’t that too corny?] The little divine stone had just been served up a plate of lovey-dovey mush and rolled his eyes in a vulgar and exasperated manner.
Zhu Junyang ignored the stone and carefully propped up Xiaocao’s bloodstained little hand as if he was holding onto the most delicate treasure in the world. He slowly clasped his hand around hers and gazed deeply within her eyes, “I let you suffer hardship, I...” When he reached that word, his voice choked up.
“It’s not your fault. I was the one who didn’t listen to you and easily trusted an outsider, leading me out of the residence. In the future, I will be very well-behaved and won’t let you worry...” After experiencing this round of torments, Xiaocao finally understood that only when she was by her husband’s side was she truly safe. Without him holding up the sky for her, she would be surrounded by danger at all sides and be unable to move a single step.
“Where are you injured? Wutong said that you had been hit by one of them and even spit up blood. The young master of Medicine King Valley is at our residence. Let’s have him take a look at you.” Zhu Junyang noticed that the lass was very careful when she spoke. She must have been scared to death. From when she was young until now, the little lass had never faced such a frightening situation before. Would she be scarred for life by this experience?
He wanted to bring the little lass into his arms and comfort her, but he was also afraid that her injuries were too heavy and he’d end up inadvertently hurting her more. He didn’t know what to do now. Only someone who loved someone dearly like this would feel so helpless in this situation.