"The decision has been made to behead them on a date!" Gong Yu immediately felt his heart being pinched by something. His body felt like it was going through a sudden backward flow of blood. A dizziness overpowered him, blurring his vision.
"Yes. Everyone, including Nanny Wu, was put in jail."
Gong Yu recalled Nanny Wu"s kind face. Apart from his mother, she was the only one who really cared for him. When he had been young, he had considered Nanny Wu the most responsible servant. After his mother had died, he had felt that Nanny Wu truly loved him as her own child.
Nanny Wu remembered his personal preferences and every detail of his life and took the best care of him. This made Gong Yu feel bad. How could he watch Nanny Wu being beheaded like that?
Once he turned up, he would just walk into a trap set by Duanmu Gongcheng and Duanmu Gongqi. They wanted him to break into the jail and rescue his people. Then, he would be completely exposed. Besides, breaking into a jail was a matter of life and death. Gong Yu was not afraid of death, but what would Xiao Xi do if something happened to him?
Duanmu Gongcheng really kept him in check. He was in a dilemma now.
Murong Yunxi also felt sad when she heard this. Nanny Wu was very fond of her and treated her well. She didn"t want anything bad to happen to her either. Ruixue and Chuxia also used to try their best to take care of her, so she had feelings for them. Although she had only stayed for one year in Emperor Yu"s Mansion, it had been a special year for her and the people at Emperor Yu"s Mansion.
They had to find a way to kill two birds with one stone, It would be perfect to save everyone without exposing themselves.
Far away from the northern border of Mu Xia Country was its neighboring Zhongxi Country， where Shu Xi City was located.
Zhongxi Country was going through its cold season, so its climate was different from that of the country of Mu Xia. In the country of Mu Xia, it was spring all year round. There was almost no big difference between the four seasons. While Zhongxi Country was cold during all seasons, its spring and autumn were much colder than winter in the country of Mu Xia. In the summer, Zhongxi Country"s temperature was barely the same as in Mu Xia Country.
That day, it was snowy and freezing cold in Zhongxi Country.
In a small courtyard with one door, a man in a fox fur coat was kneeling on the snow.
The man"s long black hair was neatly bunched up and covered in snow. Although he was wearing a thick fur coat, it was obvious that he was shivering in the cold.
The man"s face was blue with cold, and a sign of illness crept into his handsome face. His eyes were narrowed slightly as if he were reposing, but this gave the illusion that he had frozen to death. His back was straight, making people wonder whether he was frozen or his stubbornness was holding his body upright.
The snow was getting thicker and thicker. It had even begun to cover his legs.
His real age was a mystery, but he looked about 30 or 40 years old. However, there was another kind of maturity beyond his years about him, as if he had seen a lot in this life.
Inside the room was a completely different picture at the moment. The warmth made people comfortable and sleepy.
A woman in purple was sitting at the table, drinking hot tea. She picked up a cake and got ready to put it in her mouth, when she frowned slightly and looked out of the window. The window was tightly closed, so she couldn"t see anything. Still, she seemed to see something. Her eyes glared at it fiercely before her brow showed a sign of hesitation and sorrow. There were so many emotions in her expression that they got tangled up.
As she looked down at the cake in her hand, she suddenly lost her appet.i.te and threw it back on the table.
She got up and walked towards the door, opening it at once. A cold draught of air blew in, making her shudder involuntarily. She shrank her neck and then shouted toward the courtyard, "Hey, you d.a.m.n fool! How long are you going to kneel?"
There was a silence.
"Hey, I"m talking to you."
The silence made people wonder if there was really someone in the yard.
Her heart suddenly panicked. She strode outside and stopped in front of the kneeling man. She gently kicked him in the leg with her foot, but there was no response at all. He didn"t even blink.
"h.e.l.lo? Don"t scare me! You won"t freeze to death, will you?"
There was still no answer.
She became more fl.u.s.tered. Her warm hands patted him twice on the cheek, which was as cold as iron. There was still no response. She felt the icy skin stick to her palm, as if she was actually touching a piece of icy iron.
She almost started crying immediately. That person couldn"t have frozen to death in her yard.
She bent her finger and reached out to feel his breath, but couldn"t feel anything.
Suddenly, she felt really scared and cried out in panic. "Hey, you d.a.m.n fool, don"t die! Wake up, don"t die here..."
As she shouted loudly, she stepped forward and tried to lift him up. However, his stiff body was like an ice sculpture.
She tried to carry him on her shoulder. Unfortunately, he weighed too much and her strength wasn"t enough, so she failed several times. His body was very still. As she became more and more panicked, she burst into tears.
The temperature outside was too low, so her warm tears made her cheeks ache and nearly froze into ice on her face.
In the end, she simply gave up on the former method and put her hands straight through his arms and dragged him desperately into the house. She dragged with all her strength, leaving two deep snow troughs on the ground that extended to the door of the house.
At the door of the house, the difficulty increased again. She dragged him layer by layer onto the threshold of the door. Each time, she could hear the sound of his knee hit the threshold. Just by the sound alone, she could feel the pain. Even then, the man still did not react. This made the woman feel even more desperate while tears flooded her eyes.
Finally, the man was dragged through the door. Then, she dragged him onto the bed with great effort.
She was exhausted, but she had no time to consider whether she was tired. She went straight down to the ground and closed the door to shut the blowing cold air outside. Then, she came back with a basin of hot water and a hot towel.
She quickly took off his fox fur coat and unb.u.t.toned his clothes one by one, baring his strong chest. She picked up the hot towel and began to wipe his ice-cold body, trying to warm him up.
Tears kept falling from her eyes and dripping on his chest.
The basin of hot water turned into a basin of warm water. Only then did she take his cold clothes off one by one. Then, she pulled two thick quilts over and covered him up tightly.
Just as she got up to carry the basin away, the man"s mouth finally pulled up into a sly smile out of her range of sight. It was a self-satisfied smirk.
When the woman turned around and came back, she had wiped her cheeks clean. She had cried outside in the cold, so her cheeks looked frostbitten. Two red marks were left on her face, making it look a bit weird.
She directly took off her shoes and got on the bed, putting her tender little hands under the quilt. She put her hands in his underwear, covering his warm body. She was relieved to feel that his body was no longer that cold. However, she was worried that he showed no signs of waking up.
"Why don"t you wake up? Are you really frozen? Won"t you ever wake up again?" the woman muttered to herself in a low voice, her words sounding anxious.
She reached with her hand to feel his breath again. She could feel a weak breath, but it was so weak that she couldn"t feel rea.s.sured.
She hesitated before she once again reached with her hand into the quilt and put it on the man"s chest. She touched his heart directly and felt his heartbeat. Although her mind was at ease, she soon felt a little strange.
"Why is your heart beating so fast? You are really frozen!" She murmured to herself again.
However, when she was about to withdraw her small hand, a big hand suddenly grabbed her hand.
All of a sudden, a pair of sharp eyes opened and looked straight at her.
As she looked into those eyes, her heart missed a beat.
He pulled up his lips slightly into a charming smile.
"Are you worried about me?" His voice was as cold as the weather outside.
She glared at him and avoided his eyes with less confidence. "You wish! No one worries about you!"
"But you saved me!" His voice was firm.
"I, I was afraid that you had died in my yard and I would get into trouble. It"s uncomfortable to live in a house people have died in."
"Oh, yeah? Then why did you cry?"
"I didn"t cry!"
He stretched his big hand out of the quilt and touched the two obvious red marks on her face. "What is this?"
She had not noticed, but she now felt the burning pain on her cheeks.
She gritted her teeth and argued. "This is nothing. This is the latest makeup trend. You don"t understand."
"Oh, yeah?"
"Of course, you should know that people in Zhongxi Country are weird."
"They are really weird, especially the ones that are two-faced."
"You... What are you saying? I don"t understand!"
The man rolled over on the woman directly, his smirk growing deeper.
The woman, who was shocked, screamed. "What are you doing?"
"What am I doing? Proving that you just said something you don"t even mean!"
"You, get off me."
The man didn"t get up. Instead, he kissed her.
The woman, who was unable to resist, did not do anything else. She just clenched her teeth and stared at him with angry eyes.
The man looked back at her with a meaningful expression, showing his confidence to conquer everything.