Against the Current - Chapter 305

Chapter 305 - Ferocious (Part 5)

Right at that moment, his entire body suddenly convulsed violently, his teeth chattering with a sharp clatter. The severe tremors tugged agonizingly at his wounds, pushing him to the absolute brink of endurance, leaving him feeling as though death would be a mercy and nearly causing him to shatter his teeth from clenching them so hard. Xianglan threw herself over him, holding him tightly in her arms while murmuring softly by his ear, though he was in too much of a haze to catch her words. Before long, the shaking gradually subsided, but soon another spasm seized him. Clenching his jaw to bear it, he felt utterly drained and helpless, with only Xianglan holding him close, rubbing his face and hands, constantly breathing warm air onto his skin, and chanting phrases like "Namo Amitabha" and "Guanyin Bodhisattva" as if reciting scriptures for his sake. Listening closely to that voice, he managed to catch a faint thread of life. After going through this ordeal over and over again, he was thoroughly exhausted, yet the stubborn backbone deep in his bones refused to let him utter a single groan. At some point, he finally regained the ability to speak, comforting her in a raspy, broken murmur, "It... it's nothing... I once went to fight in Liaoning... back when I froze stiff and then warmed back up afterward, my body would always start shaking with chills like this..."

Sensing that Xianglan had let out a relieved sigh, he heard her choke back a sob and say, "Bodhisattva protect us." He mustered every last ounce of his remaining strength to pull Xianglan down so she could lie beside him. She was far too tired to resist, and as she settled down, she heard Lin Jinlou's raspy voice say, "Things have come to this, there's no use dwelling on it. Let life and death rest in fate's hands." After a brief pause, he added, "Get some sleep. You've suffered terribly today, I..." His hand gave her shoulder a gentle squeeze before his voice trailed off entirely. He laboriously shifted his body to tuck Xianglan inside the cloak she had wrapped around him. Xianglan carefully arranged the garments over them both, pulling the thin blanket up to cover their faces. At that moment, Lin Jinlou's hand came up to cover her ear, and he murmured softly, "Go to sleep. I'll keep watch for an hour, then I'll wake you to switch." Xianglan mumbled a sleepy acknowledgment and drifted off the instant she closed her eyes.

Lin Jinlou pulled the blanket down from his face and stared blankly up at the sky. Above them, the reeds swayed gently back and forth, and the moon at the edge of the horizon flickered in and out of view. With no sounds of slaughter reaching his ears here, this tiny patch of reed beds felt as though it encompassed the entire world and universe. Every part of his body ached with misery, and the pain made it impossible to sleep, but he preferred to let Xianglan get some proper rest. He looked down at the woman with her head buried against his armpit. He had always fancied himself a man who had seen countless people and possessed extraordinary insight, yet he had never been able to fully read this Xianglan. Back within the grand courtyards of the Lin family estate, he had treated her like training a hawk, gradually wearing away her sharp edges and pride piece by piece. From her initial baring of claws and teeth, she had slowly grown silent, yet that stubborn streak remained deeply embedded in her bones. Gradually, even that stubborn streak had melted away, as if she could swallow every hardship and grievance life threw at her. Yet amid that quiet transformation, she had grown fundamentally different from her past self; her stubbornness and pride had dissolved into a profound, poised resilience. Tonight, amidst the freezing winds and falling snow of repeated catastrophes, it was she who had single-handedly kept half his life hanging by a thread, proving herself far more courageous and unyielding than any man.

Lin Jinlou lay there with his eyes wide open, staring blankly at the heavens, lost in a deep, wandering daze as he thought goodness knows what.

As a pale, fishbelly-white hue spread across the horizon, Lin Jinlou woke Xianglan up. Sitting up, she rubbed her eyes hard, untied the brocade pouch from her waist, opened it to pull out a misshapen piece of pastry, and nudged Lin Jinlou, saying, "Master, eat something before you go back to sleep." With that, she held the pastry up to his lips. Lin Jinlou closed his eyes and took a bite, chewing with excruciating slowness as if forcing down nausea to swallow the food, before speaking in a weak voice, "Damn it, it's dry and hard, and sickeningly sweet—worse to swallow than a day-old stale bun."

Xianglan urged, "It's so freezing cold out, eating sweet things is better for you. Have a few more bites."

Frowning, Lin Jinlou took another bite, swallowed slowly, and opened his eyes to ask, "Where did this pastry even come from? You should eat some too..." He stopped dead in his tracks the moment he caught sight of Xianglan's face, staring in shock before reaching out to gently touch her cheek and asking, "Does it hurt?"

Startled, Xianglan touched her face and only then realized that it was swollen. The mere touch sent a needle-like stab of pain through her skin, and it flashed back to her that she had taken a blow from that tall, lean man the previous night. At the time, panic and the freezing cold had numbed the entire left side of her face, leaving her completely insensible to it. She shook her head and murmured, "It doesn't hurt."

Before Lin Jinlou could speak, he suddenly raised the crossbow, keeping his eyes locked in a fixed stare upon the reed bed beside them. Emerging from within the stalks was none other than the face of Zhao Yuechan. Her hair was a tangled mess, and she was wrapped in a cloak, looking utterly disheveled and wretched. Gone was all the alluring, heavily made-up charm she had once possessed, though it still failed to completely mask her classically stunning features. Only her eyes were red and swollen, her expression was bone-chillingly cold, and her lips were frozen white, radiating an indescribable, bone-deep despair.

Taken aback, Lin Jinlou frowned and asked in genuine bewilderment, "Zhao Yuechan?"

Zhao Yuechan said quietly, "It's me." After a short pause, she added, "How fickle fortune is. I never imagined I'd run into old acquaintances in a place like this. I figured out it was you two yesterday."

Lin Jinlou asked Xianglan, "How is she here?"

Xianglan answered in a low voice, "Last night, some scoundrels hijacked their carriages and horses. Her brother is dead, and she..." She glanced at Zhao Yuechan and trailed off ambiguously.

Zhao Yuechan suddenly let out a sharp, piercing bark of laughter and declared, "I'm doing just fine! Just fine!" After letting out a few chuckles that failed to mask her choked voice, she suddenly began weeping and cursing in the same breath: "What is there for this lady to fear? What is there to fear?! At worst, it's just as if this lady took herself a man for the night... Bah! Animals, they're all a bunch of animals! ...Those who bullied me, those who owe me, I will get it back a hundredfold, a thousandfold! Bah! Animals! Every single one of them deserves to be hacked into a thousand pieces and left without a burial place! Left without a burial place!" She alternated between weeping and cursing, occasionally bursting into hysterical cackles before crying even more violently.

Seeming to understand what had happened, Lin Jinlou fell silent for a long moment before speaking in a calm tone, "You know very well how Furong met her end; this is simply your retribution."

Zhao Yuechan gave a violent shudder, tears streaming down her face as she threw her head back and laughed wildly like a madwoman, demanding of Lin Jinlou, "Are you satisfied now?"

Without a word, Lin Jinlou lowered the crossbow he had been holding, turned his face aside, and ignored her entirely.

Zhao Yuechan covered her face with her hands, her cries finally degrading into muffled whimpers as her whole body trembled. Her weeping grew intermittent and broken until it was practically inaudible.

Xianglan let out a soft sigh. She had detested Zhao Yuechan to the core and had never thought of seeking revenge, wishing only to stay far away if she ever saw her again. Yet seeing the state the woman was in now, Xianglan felt a soft spot yield within her heart, finding Zhao Yuechan simultaneously hateful, pitiable, and tragic.

After crying for a while, Zhao Yuechan abruptly wiped her face, stared fixedly at the pastry in Xianglan's hand, and rasped, "Can you... give me something to eat... I..."

Without hesitation, Xianglan took a piece of pastry from the brocade pouch and handed it over. Lin Jinlou knit his brows. With the current situation entirely uncertain and no telling how long they would be trapped here, every single mouthful of rations was as precious as a pearl. By this point, Xianglan had already lowered her head to feed the remaining half-piece of pastry directly into Lin Jinlou's mouth. Staring at Xianglan's face, Lin Jinlou ultimately said nothing, but gently squeezed Xianglan's hand.

Zhao Yuechan held the pastry without uttering a sound for a long time, muttering something that sounded like words of thanks, though the utterance was far too faint, caught up and scattered by the howling northwest wind.

Having eaten the piece of pastry, Lin Jinlou could no longer fight off his exhaustion and sank into a heavy sleep. Xianglan reapplied the ointment to his wounds, noting that the injuries on his shoulders had stopped bleeding, though the arrow wound on his chest remained severe enough to cause genuine alarm.

Zhao Yuechan sat a few paces away, her back turned to them, as all three of them fell completely silent.