I stared blankly at the scene before me, feeling an unprecedented chill down my spine. Those chess pieces were just our toys for entertainment moments ago, but now they had become deadly weapons. For a moment, I wondered if I hadn’t invented five-in-a-row chess, perhaps those guards who were just following orders would not have died at Liu Yu’s hands.
In a daze, Liu Yu in his plain white robe appeared before me again: “It’s done. Do you know where the mechanism is?”
“I… I don’t know.” I was stunned. The passage seemed to have fallen into an unprecedented silence. Seeing Liu Yu limping and randomly feeling the prison wall, I finally came to my senses. Yes, I needed to get out, find my grandmother, and then roam the world, breathing the taste of freedom.
l my leg be broken?! But don’t worry, even if it breaks, I’ll take you away!” I guiltily grabbed his hand, wanting to carry him on my back, but he suddenly froze, looking at me in a daze. My eyes rolled around in their sockets, and he chuckled, shaking his head: “I hadn’t noticed how beautiful you look in the sunlight until now…”
“Now I look even better!” I glared at him, both angry and amused that he could still joke while in such pain.
Not letting him continue joking through his pain, I struggled to carry him step by step towards the stone door. The piercing sunlight made my eyes hurt. Carefully looking around, I was captivated by the spectacular surroundings. Peaks upon peaks of mountains stretched endlessly into the distance, with blue and green covering the mountains, lush trees and grass displaying the warm summer…
He is the Chen King.
I couldn’t help but look back at the moss-covered stone door, the prison where I had lived for six years. It was hard to believe I had escaped so easily. If not for Liu Yu, how much longer would I have been imprisoned?
Thinking this, I couldn’t help but shiver: “Liu Yu, where are we going now?”
I gazed at the surrounding mountains, completely at a loss. Liu Yu’s leg needed urgent treatment. Unfortunately, after six years in a dark dungeon, I was physically weak, and with his leg injured, how could we possibly climb out of these completely uninhabited mountains?
“Someone will come,” Liu Yu wrapped his arms around my shoulders, confidently saying, his gaze scanning the surroundings.
Seeing Liu Yu so composed, I was stunned. A thought jumped into my mind: perhaps his injury was part of a calculated plan.
at Liu Yu in surprise. His eyes, black as gemstones, were looking at me with a hint of a smile, like a spring or a cat’s eyes. His soft black hair fell on my shoulder. His face, pale from leg pain, showed a childlike innocence.
Soon, the forest on the mountain began to move, and several men in black robes flew out from the trees, landing before us. Seeing Liu Yu on my back, they all knelt down with swords in hand: “Greetings to the Chen King! We are unworthy, arriving a step too late!”
This further confirmed my suspicion: Liu Yu was not just a fallen prince without a mother, but a bold, far-sighted young political strategist…
“Rise,” Liu Yu waved to the man in front, who immediately understood and lifted Liu Yu from my shoulder. Liu Yu pointed at me, “Take her along as well.”
“Woo…” A few weak tiger cries sounded behind the tiger, and immediately a trace of tenderness appeared in its eyes, releasing the claws that were pressed against my back. It turned out there was a tiger’s den here, no wonder the tiger was so afraid of people nearby…
Those little tigers slowly stepped forward with their still-unsteady limbs. I smiled kindly at them and turned over, moving unnaturally. The mother tiger seemed to think I was going to escape or harm her cubs, suddenly pinning me to the ground. Her claws suddenly stretched out, and I looked in panic as her claws quickly fell, viciously swiping across my face…
A sharp pain spread through my entire body, my right face immediately burning hot. My consciousness slowly blurred, and the fierce mother tiger gradually turned into a white mist before my eyes, then everything fell into darkness…
When a faint light entered my eyes, a pair of bright little tiger eyes were blankly staring at me. I opened my eyes and carefully observed my surroundings. This was a spacious mountain cave, with dense green vines intertwined covering…
ng the entrance. The mother tiger was lying inside dozing, and several tiger cubs curiously approached me when they saw I was awake. I carefully counted them – six in total.
A little tiger suddenly climbed onto me, extending its tongue to continuously lick my right face, sticky and wet, mixed with painful sensations. Only then did I recall being attacked by the mother tiger before losing consciousness, my right face viciously clawed.
I supported myself against the cave wall and sat up with difficulty, reaching out my weak hand to gently touch my right face. One mark, two marks, three marks… three clearly felt scars, rough and uneven. I gave a bitter smile, thinking this face was probably already disfigured.
Suddenly remembering Liu Yu’s words in the dungeon that I was the most beautiful girl he had ever seen, a bitter heartache swept through me. I slowly lay down, letting the tiger cubs lick the wounds on my right face, unable to imagine that I had actually survived the tiger’s mouth – probably saved by these inherently kind little cubs…
The sleeping mother tiger seemed to hear a sound and suddenly opened her eyes, her sharp gaze startling me. She stood up and walked towards me, lying down beside me. I panicked and turned my head, yet vaguely felt the taste was somewhat familiar. Heaven, how long had I been unconscious? Could I have been surviving by drinking tiger milk?
“How long was I unconscious?” I blurted out, immediately realizing my ridiculous mistake – as if she could understand.
The mother tiger, seeing me refuse her milk, suddenly stood upright, gently tapping me with her head, then parted the vines and walked outside. Was she taking me somewhere?
I stood up without hesitation and followed her, though my body was too weak to walk quickly. This made the mother tiger turn back every three steps and stop every five steps to wait for me.
ame familiar with the scenery – it was the stone door from before, now scattered like it had been bombed. Just as I stopped, the mother tiger nudged me again with her head, indicating I should continue forward…
Unconsciously, two streams of warm tears flowed out, and I was too lazy to wipe them away. I looked at the mother tiger staring intently at me and said: “I don’t like bloody things, take it away. I want to sleep…”
After saying this, I didn’t care whether the mother tiger understood or not, and lay down to sleep deeply.
When I woke up again, it was already dark. The mother tiger had dragged me to a cave, and two tiger cubs were nestled contentedly in my arms, back in this place again…
I scratched the little tiger cub, and it let out a comfortable low growl, turned, changed position, and burrowed deeper into my arms. Well, let it be. I can’t escape anyway. Although I don’t have any boring thoughts of seeking death, what difference does it make to die a day earlier or later? There’s nothing in this world that makes me want to cling to life anymore… Drifting with the wind and waves, living one day at a time – this is the life of Lan Jiao Long from now on!
After this, I no longer had any will to survive, just letting myself live or die in the wilderness. I couldn’t force myself to eat the raw beasts the mother tiger hunted, so I often climbed the mountain to randomly pick some medicinal herbs to eat…
