"Pingyuan——"
Puyang Zong ca running from afar.
Seeing this scene, his eyes almost burst with fury.
"Elder brother..." Puyang Yi’s lips quivered, trembling slightly, as she slowly collapsed to the ground.
The sound of the dagger falling was sharp and piercing.
Tears stread down her face as she reached out her hand toward Puyang Zong.
"Hold . Elder brother, hold . I feel so cold..."
"Yi’er! Yi’er! Yi’er! Don’t scare , don’t scare your elder brother..." Puyang Zong knelt by her side, his trembling hands struggling to hold her.
Blood was everywhere.
Blood was everywhere...
The blood sared her neck, shoulders, arms—blood covered everything.
Puyang Zong tried to stop the bleeding, pressing down with his hands, but no matter what he did, the blood wouldn’t stop. His hands were stained bright red.
"Elder brother..." Puyang Yi looked at her brother, her family, while tears flowed like a gentle stream, "Elder brother... I’m sorry... The man I love... killed your beloved Awan..."
Puyang Zong froze.
After a mont of stunned silence, he cried out in gut-wrenching agony.
"Don’t talk. Stop talking..."
Frenzied and trembling, he held Puyang Yi close, shouting desperately.
"Call the Imperial Physician—call the Imperial Physician now—"
"Imperial Physician... save my little sister..."
Puyang Yi’s eyes beca unfocused as a faint smile flickered at the corners of her lips.
She was conscious.
Conscious of the fact that she was leaving this world.
Elder brother...
Mother...
If only she remained the naive and sheltered Lord of Pingyuan County, and her elder brother stayed the carefree village schoolteacher in Huaxi... If they hadn’t been swept into power struggles, into war... At this mont... wouldn’t they be busy preparing for the New Year celebrations, joyfully welcoming the season together...
Lanterns, firecrackers, rice cakes...
Those simple, warm days now felt distant and illusory.
"Elder brother, tell Mother, I can no longer fulfill my filial duties..."
"This life of mine... though I lived it, it feels as if I haven’t lived... It has no aning..."
She repeated those words.
As if delivering her final judgnt upon herself.
"No aning... I... have no aning..."
Her life had no aning.
Her fate was insignificant...
To him, it didn’t matter.
"Yi’er..."
Puyang Zong tilted his head back toward the heavens, releasing a heart-rending wail.
"Why are you so foolish..."
The air was thick with the tallic scent of blood.
She no longer breathed.
Nor could she answer him anymore.
She would never again call him elder brother, never again tease or scold him playfully, and never again run to their mother to tell tales on him...
"Yi’er..."
The long cry carried an indescribable bitterness.
It was heart-shattering.
He didn’t even know if his tears were for Puyang Yi, or for himself...
-
Wen Xingsu stopped.
He turned back to glance behind him.
He saw the blood and also noticed that on Puyang Yi’s feet were the deer skin boots Ying Rong had made for her when they got married.
The deer hide had been hunted by him personally, and after the boots were made, she hadn’t wanted to wear them until now, when they were soaked in the pool of her blood, dyed a deep, dark red.
It felt as though a knife had been plunged into his chest.
Right into the softest, most vulnerable part of his heart.
He tightened his grip on the horse’s reins and turned around, instinctively starting to run back...
This couldn’t be.
She wouldn’t commit suicide.
Soone who often threw tantrums, acting out and threatening life and death...
How could she so easily choose to die?
He wanted to turn back, but the distant hoofbeats tangled his heart like countless threads pulling him back, tighter and tighter...
Closing his eyes, he took a deep, labored breath.
Though it took only an instant, it felt like an endless tug-of-war.
He couldn’t wait any longer, couldn’t hesitate any longer, couldn’t turn back.
And he could no longer turn back.
"Giddy-up!"
The horse galloped forward, taking him farther and farther away.
Puyang Yi’s eyes had already lost their light, but she could still hear the sound of hoofbeats...
Clip-clop...
Clip-clop-clop...
And then they faded away.
It ended.
She slowly closed her eyes.
-
The sky hadn’t yet fully darkened. The moon had already risen, hanging in the heavens as though it couldn’t wait to spy on the mortal world.
Feng Yun had no idea that Puyang Yi was already gone.
She ran with all her strength, suddenly pulling out the whistling arrow that Chunyu Yan had gifted her from her sleeve...
This signaling arrow needed to be shot into the sky with a bow in order to create sound while in flight, serving as a signal or warning.
But the one Chunyu Yan gave her was different...
Its ingenious design allowed it to be blown into, using airflow to produce a long whistle that could carry over great distances...
That’s exactly what Feng Yun did.
When she had been imprisoned in that well-guarded courtyard, the arrow hadn’t been of use, but now she had escaped...
Chunyu Yan had said, "When you need , I will co."
She didn’t hold out much hope.
The area was surrounded by Wen Xingsu’s stationed troops—Chunyu Yan couldn’t possibly appear...
But the sound could offer her comfort and hope...
Shriek!
The piercing whistle suddenly tore through the night sky.
The horse ran swiftly as Feng Yun continued to blow into the whistling arrow while running.
She wanted to get farther away from the rebel army’s territory—farther and farther. Although the wind was cool as it rustled her hair, she was drenched in sweat, her back soaked through.
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