Chapter 746: What If That Dream Was False?

Chapter 746 What if that dream was false?

Xingxing called out to Wei Shiyan, "Come over and warm up by the fire for a while."

Earlier, Wei Shiyan had jumped into the water to save her, so naturally, he was soaked through too.

Wei Shiyan paused. "I'm fine."

Xingxing insisted, "Either you come here, and we'll warm up together, or I'll go there, and neither of us will warm up."

After a moment’s thought, Wei Shiyan relented.

Xingxing quickly ran over to support Wei Shiyan by the arm.

Wei Shiyan tensed. "I limp, but I can still walk."

Xingxing looked up at him. "I study medicine. I understand. You can walk, but it still hurts."

Wei Shiyan fell silent.

His eyes, already dark, grew even deeper in his silence, like the dark pool Xingxing had fallen into.

Ignoring his protest, Xingxing carefully helped Wei Shiyan over to the fire and made him sit down.

Wei Shiyan, always disciplined and proper, kept his gaze lowered, not once looking at Xingxing.

Xingxing ignored it, stirring at the fire with a stick to make it burn brighter.

Wei Shiyan had expected Xingxing to ask many questions.

But when she spoke again, it was with a heavy sigh.

"...You must’ve suffered a lot these past few days."

Wei Shiyan froze.

He hadn’t given it much thought about his situation.

Yet Xingxing’s words stirred something odd inside him.

Pursing his lips, Wei Shiyan instead asked her, "And you? How did you fall?"

Honestly, when Xingxing fell from above the cave, Wei Shiyan hadn’t even seen who it was—yet the thought crossed his mind: Could it be Xingxing?

The thought was absurd—ridiculous, even.

But it had inexplicably sprung to life.

Acting on that strange impulse, Wei Shiyan had jumped into the freezing pool to save her.

Yet even he had never imagined that the person who fell would truly be Xingxing.

When asked how she had fallen, Xingxing gave a simple explanation. "Grand Tutor Qin sent a secret message to the Emperor and Empress, informing them that you had pursued the troublemaking southern barbarian and disappeared. I had a dream—I saw you in a cave here... So I got the Emperor’s permission and came to find you."

"That’s insane!" Wei Shiyan, indifferent to his own plight, grew instantly angry upon hearing that Xingxing had come searching for him based solely on a dream.

"What if that dream was false?"

"It wasn’t."

Xingxing's voice was soft yet firm, "I know that dream was a sign from the heavens. Otherwise, I wouldn't be here right now."

Xingxing looked at Wei Shiyan.

The slender young man sitting by the fire had features so striking they seemed almost ethereal. Though the hardships of these days had left a shadow of stubble on his chin, it did nothing to diminish his grace.

His expression carried a detached indifference, as if he held no regard for himself, yet now it was laced with irritation over her reckless decision to come here based on a dream.

Xingxing noticed this as she gazed at him.

She felt... how should she put it? A twinge of sadness in her chest.

Wei Shiyan fell silent again.

At the moment, Xingxing was only wearing her inner garments, so Wei Shiyan restrained himself from looking at her.

He was never much of a talker.

The silence stretched, broken only by the crackling fire consuming the dry branches.

Xingxing didn’t speak either, merely shifting the unburned branches with a stick to help them catch fire more easily.

"...Those causing trouble aren’t actually from the southern barbarians."

Wei Shiyan suddenly spoke.

He still didn’t look at Xingxing, keeping his head lowered, which made his voice sound somewhat muffled.

Xingxing turned to him again. "The Western Yi?"

Wei Shiyan paused. "How did you know?"

Xingxing briefly recounted her encounter with Pang Jinkang’s supposed "uncle" in Anjiang City.

"...Pang Jinkang mentioned once that his uncle’s birth father was from the Western Yi and had once lived beyond the frontier. I was already wondering how this could be connected to the Western Yi. Now it seems these disturbances are their doing?"

"Correct. I have evidence that the Western Yi disguised themselves as southern barbarians to cause unrest," Wei Shiyan said. "That’s why they’ve been chasing me down relentlessly."

He added, "If I don’t get out, the evidence is buried under the only jujube tree in the central courtyard, wrapped in oiled paper."

His words, ominous as a last testament, made Xingxing deeply uncomfortable.

"Stop talking," she interrupted, reaching out. "Hearing this wrenches my heart. We leave together—no way I’m going without you."

Wei Shiyan said nothing.

Getting it off his chest, he felt a little lighter.

The fire crackled on.

The dry branches, having been stored in the cave for years, burned louder than expected, but surprisingly, they produced hardly any smoke.

That was just as well—the faint smoke drifting out of the cave would blend into the mountain mist, drawing no attention.

Once her clothes had mostly dried, Xingxing stood and put on her outer robe. "Wait here for now. I’ll go deeper inside to see if I can find any medicinal herbs."

She carried some medicine with her, most of it stored in oiled paper or porcelain bottles, but a few had been ruined when she fell into the icy pool.

Lately, whenever she went out, Xingxing mostly carried antidote pills, healing powder, and knockout powder for protection.

The most pressing issue for Wei Shiyan at the moment was setting his bones, and although Xingxing's current resources could help a little, she still felt it wasn't enough.

For instance, Wei Shiyan's leg required breaking the misaligned bone and resetting it—an agonizing process most people couldn’t handle.

Xingxing thus considered whether, under the current circumstances, she could whip up something for the pain for Wei Shiyan.

However, Wei Shiyan got to his feet like it was nothing and said, "I'll go with you."

Now that Xingxing had put on her coat, he finally looked her way again.

He kept his eyes on her as he added, "Though that patch of woods doesn’t have any particularly dangerous wild animals, there are still some insects."

After thinking it over, Xingxing didn’t refuse.

The two of them slowly headed for the central courtyard together.

Referred to as the "central courtyard," this place was more like a deep well in the mountains.

Cliffs towered around them, with sunlight shining directly into the space. Moss, vines, and green trees thrived in this narrow, secluded world, flourishing vibrantly.

The cave where Wei Shiyan had been staying connected to this area, creating a strange, otherworldly realm.

Xingxing naturally supported Wei Shiyan as they walked.

Wei Shiyan still tensed when she touched him.

After circling the courtyard once, Xingxing indeed found several types of usable medicinal herbs.

Her cheeks flushed pink, and a grin lit up her whole face—she was genuinely delighted by this discovery.

Wei Shiyan watched her for a while before looking away.