Cang Lan Dao - Chapter 15.2

Chapter 15.2
If You Know How To Unsheathe The Sword, You Must Learn How To Sheathe It

Luo Wanqing’s movements lurched, and the other party immediately kicked at her vitals.

Luo Wanqing didn’t hesitate when the other party moved. She pressed down the sword with all her strength and chopped off his entire head.
Blood splattered all over Luo Wanqing.

Luo Wanqing stood still, always maintaining a defensive posture without moving. Until someone flicked her shoulder with a branch, she subconsciously swung her knife. The blade was harsh, but the youth didn’t dodge.

Luo Wanqing saw the other person’s face, and the sword halted violently.

“Aiya,” Qin Jue raised his hand and pinched the blade in Luo Wanqing’s hand. Looking at the person covered in blood in front of him, he smiled and glanced at the surrounding ground full of corpses, “Your killing aura so heavy, ah?” Saying that he moved the blade steadily away from his neck. He held Luo Wanqing’s hand slowly and methodically, inserting the sword into the prepared scabbard.

As the blade entered the sheath inch by inch, Luo Wanqing felt as if her opened heart had also been put away little by little.

The youth’s voice was very nice, with a reassuring tone amidst the sound of the wind and leaves: ”If you know how to unsheathe the sword, you must learn how to sheathe it. It’s easy to open the blade but hard to close it. If you can’t control the blade, it’s better not to have it.” After the sword sheathed completely, Qin Jue raised his eyes and smiled, “How does it feel?”

Luo Wanqing didn’t say anything. As she calmed down, she remembered the events of that night. She wasn’t sure if the person in front of her knew that the bowl of meat was poisonous, nor was she sure if he knew that he was being hunted down or not, but no matter what, she was sure of one thing – Tonight’s calamity was happen because this scourge.

Without hesitation, she turned around and carried her sword toward the inn, saying as she walked, “Go wherever you like on your own. Don’t follow me.”

“But ……”

“I said don’t follow ……” Words did not finish, and blackness fell before Luo Wanqing’s eyes. Then, she passed out.

Qin Jue stood in the back, helplessly opened his mouth, “But you had broken your tendons and veins for me. I’m such a good man. How can I let you go?” He walked forward and princess-carried Luo Wanqing. “Let’s go. This Young Master will do one good deed for today.”
*** ***

Luo Wanqing didn’t know what was happening. She felt a little bumpy, and in a daze, she vaguely had a dream.

In the dream, she was sixteen years old. She and her mother went to the outskirts of the countryside for the first time for charity. In the village, there were many sick people. Bandits often came to rob, too. She was worried, but Jiang Shaoyan comforted her, saying she could go anywhere.
So she rode in a carriage and left Yangzhou City with Yao Zelan, arriving at the village where all the sick people were. That day went smoothly and without encountering any obstacles. She was giving medical treatment, and Jiang Shaoyan was waiting at the door. When she finished seeing a room full of patients and walked out, she realized that Jiang Shaoyan had disappeared. She then took her servants to look for him, and when she walked to an alley, she smelled the strong odor of blood. When she lifted her foot, she stepped into the blood pool.

When she screamed in shock, she startled the people in the alley.

Jiang Shaoyan was using a knife against a person’s neck when he heard her voice. He looked up in distress, but his hand didn’t stop slashing the other person. He said in a panic, “Miss?”

“Retreat!” Luo Wanqing reacted and sharply halted the household servants. She looked at the corpses in the alley. There were six of them. Those corpses were holding blades in their hands, dressed in short clothes, obviously bandits. She instantly realized that this journey was not smooth at all. It was Jiang Shaoyan who swept away all the obstacles.

The two of them were speechless against each other in the alley. Luo Wanqing stepped half of her foot in the blood pool for a long time before she calmed down, restraining her trembling voice, and said, “I’ve found Mr. Jiang. You guys should step back first.” The servants backed away at her words.

Jiang Shaoyan pursed his lips, sheathed his sword back, and walked out of the darkness. He stood in front of Luo Wanqing, trying to organize his words.

Luo Wanqing lowered her eyes to look at his still dripping blood hand, thought for a moment, and finally said, “You’re not hurt, are you?”

Jiang Shaoyan froze. Then, he reacted, looked happy and suppressing his emotions, only saying, “No.” He realized that she had stepped on blood. He hurriedly turned around, half squatted down, and softly said, “I’ll take Miss back to change clothes.”

Luo Wanqing climbed onto his back. He carried Luo Wanqing back to the house the villagers had arranged earlier, half-kneeled to remove her shoes. Then, he fetches water to help her wash her feet.

She quietly looked at the teenager half-kneeling in front of her. She hesitated for a long time before saying, “In the future, if it’s dangerous, just tell me, and I won’t come.”

“How is that possible?” Jiang Shaoyan shook his head, scooping water from the nearby hot water basin and adding it to her foot basin.

The water temperature was right. Jiang Shaoyan’s voice was as gentle as this warm water, “Shaoyan hopes that Miss can go to all the places she wants to go in this world, and I will pave all the paths for Miss,” Jiang Shaoyan tilted his head up and said earnestly, “There’s no place you can’t go to, and nothing you can’t do.”

Luo Wanqing froze as Jiang Shaoyan lifted her feet and dried them with a towel. “It’s my fault for letting miss get bloodied today. Miss, don’t worry. As long as this servant is present, you will never touch these dirty things again. You can go wherever you want to go and do whatever you want to do. Live your best life. Shaoyan will always guard you.”

Getting stained with blood was his fault.
He would always guard her.
In an instant, a man chopped in two appears before her eyes, and blood splatters.
She screamed in her sleep, cursing, shrieking.
Where are you?
Jiang Shaoyan, where are you?
Jiang Shaoyan —
“I’ll kill you if you dare to come here.” The words suddenly came to mind, and Luo Wanqing’s eyes snapped open. She gasped fiercely. Her whole body was in pain, but her wounds were all wrapped in bandages. She lay flat on the ground, the vast starry sky falling into her eyes, and as she blinked, she felt a tear that had accumulated in the corner of her eye slide down. There was an unnatural temperature next to her, accompanied by crackling charcoal. Then a leisurely voice rang out, laced with helplessness, “Finally woke up?”

Luo Wanqing sniffed. She braced herself to get up, twisted her head, and saw the surrounding was a wilderness. Not far away, there was a small river. Next to a fire, “Qin Jue” dressed in the clothes of an exile, sitting on a rock near a fire, flipping and roasting two birds. The birds were roasted just right, looking charred in color, and smelled good.

“You cried a lot in your dream just now,” He said half-truthfully, “I’m not good at coaxing girls either. But I’m good at roasting meat, so I especially caught two magpies for you.”

The youth handed her one of the birds and smiled, “Be happier after eating such an auspicious bird?”

Luo Wanqing didn’t say anything. She lowered her eyes and looked at the one-size larger bird body in front of her, then looked at the bird’s fur not far away, and honestly said, “Magpies aren’t this big.”

“Hmm?”

“It’s probably a crow.”

Qin Jue froze, lifted the bird on the wooden pole, and examined it. He frowned, “Maybe these magpies are fatter?”

Listening to Qin Jue struggling to prove it was a magpie, Luo Wanqing didn’t dwell on it. She lowered her eyes and took the roasted bird, whispering, “Then assume it is a magpie.”