Chapter 34: Saving the Exiled Crown Princess Consort (6)

Tang Qi returned an hour later. When she entered the house, she was carrying several frozen wild game animals, and surprisingly, even a mangy wolf. She threw the things on the ground, not looking at Luo Xu. “This wolf skin is warm. I’ll make you a fur coat later.”

Once the snow on the game had melted, Tang Qi began to process the pelts. A faint smell of blood drifted throughout the room.

The first thing she dealt with was a wild rabbit. Tang Qi muttered quietly, “This one can make you a shawl.”

Luo Xu’s mouth pressed into a straight line. As if having made a firm resolution, she spoke. “When my injuries are healed, I’ll make you a hidden weapon.” No matter what past life Tang Qi talked about, even if she had been Tang Qi’s greatest benefactor in a previous life, she couldn’t accept this kindness without a qualm.

Tang Qi’s hands paused. She knew Luo Xu could make hidden weapons. Luo Xu’s father had been able to become Minister of Works precisely because of the credit from several farming tools Luo Xu designed that benefited the nation and its people.

In the original World Line, after Luo Xu came to Barren Mountain, she was able to fend off attackers by relying on that ugly-looking wooden bracelet on her wrist—which was actually a highly lethal hidden weapon.

She figured this was Luo Xu’s means of self-defense and hadn’t paid it much mind before.

Seeing no response from Tang Qi, Luo Xu thought she didn’t believe her. Growing anxious, she tried to get off the bed despite her immobile leg. Tang Qi lunged over in one step to support her. “Don’t move!”

“I really can make hidden weapons.” Luo Xu’s voice took on a sharp edge due to her urgency. “I won’t just eat without contributing.”

“No one said you were eating without contributing!” Tang Qi didn’t understand. Luo Xu bit her lip, her eyes reddening involuntarily. The System quickly reminded her: “Host, Luoluo has suffered betrayal after betrayal in this life.”

Tang Qi had a sudden realization. Because she had been betrayed so many times, Luo Xu always felt she needed to be “useful.” Only by being useful would she not be abandoned. Only by being “useful” would anyone treat her well.

Just like in the past life, when Luo Xue always felt she was unworthy of being loved.

“You…” Tang Qi crouched down so Luo Xu could look down at her. She grasped her hands. “Luoluo, look at me! I know you’re anxious and uneasy. You’re afraid my kindness has an ulterior motive too. You might even be afraid I’m someone from a certain faction in the Capital, right?”

Luo Xu’s lips trembled. Tang Qi continued, “But I’m telling you, I am just Tang Qi. I don’t belong to any faction. I didn’t lie to you. I saw you in a dream. In my heart, our Luoluo is the best girl in the world, deserving of the very best. I don’t need you to do anything for me. As long as you stay by my side, I will be very happy, very joyful.”

That pain of loss… she truly didn’t want to experience it again.

“Of course, if you make me a hidden weapon, I’ll be very happy, because it’s made by your own hands. It has nothing to do with whether you’re ‘useful’ or not, understand?” Afraid Luo Xu was still worried, Tang Qi raised three fingers. “I swear, I will protect you and will never betray you, for as long as you need me.”

“Really?” Luo Xu’s heart was in turmoil.

Tang Qi gently kissed her hand. “Of course.”

Luo Xu felt as if the back of her hand had been scorched by fire. Her heart pounded fiercely. She hurriedly pulled her hand back and didn’t look at Tang Qi.

Tang Qi awkwardly stood up, rubbed her nose, wanted to explain but didn’t know how. Seeing that Luo Xu had already changed her clothes, she turned her face away and made small talk. “Did you touch any of your wounds while changing?”

“No.” Luo Xu wanted to say thanks but felt it was too light a word. Her reply was flat.

Tang Qi made a fist with her right hand, held it to her lips, and coughed. “Are they comfortable to wear?”

“Very comfortable.”

Silence stretched between them. Luo Xu clasped her hands tightly. “I kept water warm on the stovetop. You should… wash up too, to shake off the fatigue?”

“Leave rough chores like that to me from now on.” Tang Qi quickly went over to check Luo Xu’s leg. Silence once again spread through the small room. Tang Qi turned her head. “I’m going to wash up.”

She wanted to remind the other not to look, as it would be awkward, but felt it was too abrupt. She could only silently recite “old married couple, old married couple,” and took off her outer clothes.

Luo Xu hadn’t intended to look, but her mind kept returning to what had happened earlier. Her gaze unconsciously drifted over. In the lamplight, Tang Qi possessed a beauty unseen during the day, while retaining her unique heroic spirit. Under her thick clothes, delicate collarbones traced alluring lines. Below was a slender but not empty chest, and further down, a taut waist, long, shapely legs…

But as she looked, she suddenly felt parched. She grabbed the water beside her and drank deeply. When she looked again, she found Tang Qi had already put her clothes back on.

For some inexplicable reason, a sense of loss she couldn’t name filled Luo Xu.

Seeing Tang Qi walk towards her, Luo Xu’s fingers curled slightly, her heart a chaotic mess. There seemed a hint of desire mixed with confusion. She was about to say something when she saw Tang Qi climb straight onto her side of the heated brick bed. A surge of Internal Energy extinguished the oil lamp nearby. “It’s late. Sleep!”

Luo Xu: …It feels like there’s something unresolved, stuck in limbo!

System (gleefully): So there is a reason the Host is single.

Time flowed quietly on. Barren Mountain entered the coldest season of the year. The north wind, carrying snowflakes, swept across all the land of Barren Mountain. Sometimes when they slept at night and stepped outside in the morning, a wall of snow half a person’s height blocked their way.

The medicinal ointment on Luo Xu’s leg changed from once every ten days to gradually once every three days. Slowly, the wooden splints on her leg were removed. Later, she could walk gently. Now, as long as she walked slowly, one couldn’t tell at all that her leg had ever been injured.

One day, Tang Qi went to the town. Luo Xu sat by the window. The somewhat old window frame rattled in the wind, and occasional drafts seeped through the gaps.

However, this bit of wind didn’t make her feel cold. The stove inside the house was constantly burning, heating water and a few rice cakes on top. The small room was warm and cozy.

She held a storybook, but her gaze was fixed outside, until a figure finally appeared in the wind and snow, far off in the distance.

Luo Xu immediately hopped off the stool and slowly moved to the door. Just as she opened it, Tang Qi arrived. Tang Qi was now wearing thick animal hide furs, a bamboo hat on her head, her entire figure covered in white snow.

She brushed the snow off outside the door. As she patted it off, she said, “Don’t let the cold air blow onto you.” Then she entered the house. Luo Xu quickly took her bamboo hat and hung it to the side.

Tang Qi put her bamboo basket on the ground. “I met a merchant caravan from Chang’an today. I brought you a hairpin.” She handed a white jade hairpin to Luo Xu. “I noticed you’ve been using a piece of wood you just picked up.”

Luo Xu took it. Every time Tang Qi went to town, she brought back small trinkets for her. Various supplements poured into her mouth like running water.

Relying on the decoctions and supplements, her injuries were more than half healed. The pustules on her face had dried up completely, leaving only faint traces, revealing her original features.

Luo Xu had never imagined she could see the day of her recovery. And Tang Qi, looking at her face, silently turned her head away—Luo Xu and Luo Xue looked eighty percent alike.

After that day, Luo Xu never again said things like “eating without contributing.” Tang Qi also didn’t make any overly forward gestures. Sometimes when Luo Xu remembered it, she’d feel that that day’s kiss was just a dream. It was just that they got along much more smoothly now. Occasionally, Luo Xu would get the feeling they had known each other for a very long time.

“Even with snow this heavy, you still go out? My injuries are healed. You could have stopped those supplements long ago.” Luo Xu was worried. When she’d woken up in the morning, Tang Qi was already gone. “The snowy paths are slippery, and wild beasts often roam this Barren Mountain. Besides, we have enough at home!”

System: Don’t worry, Luoluo! Nothing will happen to that Trashy Host!

“It’s just a little snow.” Tang Qi rubbed her head, and Luo Xu was long accustomed to Tang Qi’s occasional affectionate gestures.

“I bought an ointment at the medicine shop. It’s supposed to remove scars.” To escape Luo Xu’s nagging, Tang Qi quickly produced a jar of the ointment, smiling ingratiatingly. “They say using it for a month will make your skin just like before.”

In reality, this was an ointment she’d exchanged from the System, and it would be very effective for Luo Xu.

As she spoke, Tang Qi habitually crouched down to feel her leg bone. Under the effect of the System’s Spirit Medicine, Luo Xu’s injury was indeed healing very quickly.

“Don’t change the subject!” Luo Xu was annoyed and amused.

Tang Qi prepared to be lectured, when she suddenly heard an unusual sound in the wind and snow. It sounded like the cry of a bird of prey. But in this freezing winter weather, how could there be such a creature?

The System took the hint and went to investigate. “Host, there are three strange people heading this way. They’ve got bloodstains on them… This is bad. The nearby households have all been killed by them.”

Tang Qi’s heart sank. She pulled Luo Xu into the inner room and quickly said, “Be good, Luoluo. I have something to do. Wait for me here!”

Luo Xu was baffled as Tang Qi grabbed her scimitar, pulled the door open, and slipped out. Through the window, she could see Tang Qi quickly disappear into the snowstorm.

The sky-filling white snow obscured everything between heaven and earth. The biting wind mixed with snowflakes, making it hard to keep one’s eyes open. Tang Qi, completely composed, traveled in a few leaps to behind the three men. Her blade rose and fell, cleanly killing one.

The howling wind concealed the death before them. The assassins ahead didn’t notice.

She slowly wiped the blood from her scimitar, formulating her thoughts. In the original World Line, Nalan Xue had gotten her wish and married Zhao Chengfeng. To test Zhao Chengfeng’s devotion to her, she had sent assassins to kill Luo Xu.

Luo Xu had wounded her attacker and fled into the mountains, where, by great luck, she evaded the killers’ pursuit.

These people were undoubtedly sent by Nalan Xue. In that case, she didn’t need to hold back…

Luo Xu anxiously waited for Tang Qi. Moments later, the sound of clashing blades reached her ears. The faint clashing sounds came and went, finally fading into silence, leaving only the north wind’s howl.

Her entire body was rigid with tension; she even forgot to breathe. She gripped the hairpin tightly. If something had happened to Tang Qi…

Soon, footsteps sounded at the door. As if knowing Luo Xu would be frightened, Tang Qi announced herself beforehand. “Luoluo, it’s me.” Relief flooded Luo Xu, and she only then noticed her palm had been cut by the hairpin.

Tang Qi dragged a black-clad figure inside and casually tossed him on the ground. Ignoring the wound on her hand, Luo Xu rushed forward and hugged Tang Qi. “You’re really alright, thank heavens!”

She was afraid. She still had revenge to take. She didn’t want to die.

And… she didn’t want Tang Qi to die! In this world, Tang Qi was the person who treated her best!

Scimitar in one hand, Tang Qi wrapped her other arm around Luo Xu and gently kissed her forehead. “I’m back, aren’t I? Just a few petty thieves, that’s all.”

Tang Qi kissed her so naturally, falling into the habit of comforting her. But she forgot this was Luo Xu after being reborn. “Don’t be afraid. Do you have anything you want to ask? If not, I’ll throw him out.”

It took Luo Xu a long moment to understand that Tang Qi had just kissed her. Her face instantly flushed crimson. By the time she regained her senses, Tang Qi was already, with no particular reaction, searching the man’s body, after conveniently having sealed his acupoint.

The man in black opened his eyes. Tang Qi’s scimitar was planted right by his ear. The blade held the cold of the wind and snow, and the blood of his companion. “Death by a thousand cuts, or one swift stroke? Choose for yourself.”

The man in black remained silent. Tang Qi had already found a token on him.

“This is Crown Prince Zhao Chengfeng’s token.” Luo Xu found herself surprisingly calm. “You’re one of Zhao Chengfeng’s men?” She took the token and fiddled with it in her hands. A hidden compartment appeared in the seemingly solid wooden token.

Inside was a slip of paper, upon which was written: “Kill Luo Xu.”

“Zhao Chengfeng wants to kill you?” Tang Qi frowned. This wasn’t the same as the book she had read.

Luo Xu shook her head. “No, it should be Nalan Xue who wants to kill me, just using Zhao Chengfeng’s manpower.”

The man in black showed a flicker of shock, not understanding how Luo Xu could know this.

Luo Xu explained. “Zhao Chengfeng’s Deathsworn are divided into an inner and outer division. The outer division Deathsworn are Jianghu people he’s bought. They carry out missions for others besides him in exchange for payment. Their loyalty is limited, so this token is used to relay messages. The paper in the hidden compartment is specially made; it can only be removed once. If they fail, they can take the token to find the nearest reinforcements.”

Before she finished speaking, the slip of paper in her hand spontaneously combusted, turning to ashes in the blink of an eye.

“I just hadn’t imagined that Zhao Chengfeng’s hatred for me would reach this point.” Luo Xu’s expression was calm. She had always thought that with the feelings between her and Zhao Chengfeng since childhood, Zhao Chengfeng would show some mercy, no matter what.

Even when Zhao Chengfeng hadn’t saved her in the end, she had only felt her heart die, not hatred. The target of her revenge had always been only Nalan Xue.

“How do you know these things?” the man in black asked.

“Because… I made this token,” Luo Xu said with a smile. “The hidden weapons you use, the mechanisms for passing messages… I made them all.”