Qiu Che, the weak spot
, had reached her limit. She had lost consciousness since she fell into the water. No
matter how strong her martial arts skills were, she was still a mortal. It was not easy for her to hold on until now after falling from a high altitude.
I don't know how long it had been.
Qiu Che woke up to the sound of gurgling water and the slight vibrations her body felt.
She was not fully conscious yet. When she opened her eyes, she saw only a familiar pale face.
The other person's hair was wet and stuck to her face, and water drops were sliding down from her chin. Because she had been soaked in the water for too long, her cheeks and lips were pale.
The teardrop mole at the end of her eye became particularly conspicuous.
She was breathing softly, carrying Qiu Che on her back, step by step, walking towards an unknown place in the empty valley.
Behind her was the rolling Nanxi River.
Qiu Che and she were both soaked, and their bodies were pressed together, and their temperatures became particularly hot.
She felt a little uncomfortable, but when she spoke, she found that her voice was hoarse: "...Where are we going?"
Li Qingwu paused and whispered: "Are you awake?"
Qiu Che said "um" and patted her arm: "Put me down, I'll walk by myself."
"Listen to your own voice first," Li Qingwu retorted slowly. Not only did he not put her down, but he also bounced up a little with some effort. "It's dark, it's not safe outside, we have to find a place to settle down."
Qiu Che looked up and noticed that they fell off the cliff at noon, and now it was dark.
They did fall into the river as Qiu Che expected, and they survived by chance. And because Qiu Che had been holding Li Qingwu tightly, the two were not washed away by the current.
But unfortunately, the current was going down.
They could not follow the river back to the capital, but were washed to a more distant and unfamiliar land.
This place is surrounded by empty valleys, with cliffs thousands of feet high, and no one lives.
On the mountain not far away, there was a faint sound of wolf howling.
The jungle covered the land piece by piece, making it difficult to tell the direction.
It was very dangerous to spend the night in such a deep mountain forest. They had to find a temporary shelter as soon as possible and survive tonight.
But Qiu Che opened her eyes for less than a moment before her eyelids started to droop again and she soon fell into a deep sleep.
When she woke up again, a bonfire had lit up in front of her.
She was lying in a cave, with a makeshift nest made of dry grass under her, just in a sheltered place.
Li Qingwu was nowhere to be seen.
Qiu Che subconsciously wanted to sit up, but her head was dizzy and she suddenly felt dizzy when she stood up.
When she lowered her head, she found that she was only wearing a white middle coat.
She touched her neck and shoulders again - sure enough, the shoulder pads and fake Adam's apple were gone.
They were probably washed away by the water after falling into the water.
A subtle sound came from the narrow cave entrance.
Qiu Che immediately tensed up, and her whole body was in a state of readiness.
At the dark cave entrance, Li Qingwu, also wearing only a middle shirt, walked in with a piece of cloth torn from her sleeve, holding a bunch of fruits and messy herbs.
Seeing her, Qiu Che immediately relaxed again.
Li Qingwu finally breathed a sigh of relief when he saw that she woke up: "... Come and eat something."
Qiu Che picked up a fruit from her pocket - it can be seen that Li Qingwu is very particular. Even at this time, the fruit she picked up was washed very clean, and there were still water drops on it.
Seeing that she was staring at the fruit without moving, Li Qingwu paused: "Don't worry, it's not poisonous."
"...I know." In her previous life, she marched and fought on the border of Nanyi, where there were many dense forests. Once she mistakenly entered the mountains, she suffered a lot, and thus learned about many wild fruits that can be eaten and those that cannot be eaten.
Thinking of this, Qiu Che took a bite of the fruit, and raised his eyes and said, "I was thinking... How do you know it's not poisonous?"
Li Qingwu licked his dry lips and smiled, "I've tasted it."
Qiu Che: "..."
She wanted to say that you were crazy, how dare you pick up fruits from the deep mountains and old forests and eat them casually?
But seeing Li Qingwu's exhausted expression, she swallowed her words silently.
Just as she was about to say something else, Li Qingwu reacted and said, "Wait a minute."
Then he put down the fruit, returned to the door, and laboriously moved a pile of firewood in.
Qiu Che threw the fruit into her mouth and wanted to get up to help, but Li Qingwu avoided her.
She turned sideways and looked at Qiu Che with a condemning and anxious look in her eyes: "Hurry up and sit back!"
Qiu Che: "......?"
She sat back in the haystack in a daze.
Li Qingwu put down the firewood, added a few pieces to the bonfire, and quickly came around, rummaged through a pile of herbs, and then crushed it into a semi-juice state with a small stone, pulled Qiu Che's hand, and applied it to her.
Qiu Che realized that her hand was injured.
Because she had used a carving knife to slow down her fall, her right hand was almost half broken. She bled all the way in the river, and then bled all the way along the shore after getting ashore.
Now the blood has solidified and covered her hands.
She didn't feel anything just now, but now that she has come to her senses, the slightest touch on the wound is excruciatingly painful.
Li Qingwu glanced at her, lowered his head and continued to apply medicine to her with his clean hands.
His white fingers wiped away the blood vigorously, then dipped in the dark green medicine juice and applied it to the wound marks - a very simple action, but inexplicably made people feel that these hands should not be stained with any filth.
Li Qingwu didn't notice her gaze, but just lowered his eyes and whispered: "The environment is not good, so I can only make do with it... It may be a little painful, just bear with it."
Qiu Che didn't say anything.
The veins on her forehead jumped slightly because of the pain she endured, and her teeth were clenched.
But looking at the half of Li Qingwu's face illuminated by the firelight, she suddenly became a little dazed.
Even in such an embarrassing situation, Li Qingwu's movements were slow and methodical.
Every move was particularly pleasing to Qiu Che's eyes.
Li Qingwu was still muttering in a low voice: "I think you are confused. It's okay to jump down with me suddenly. At least you didn't really jump with me, but you didn't even know that you had a fever..."
Qiu Che came back to his senses, touched his forehead, and thought dully: She has a fever?
Why didn't she feel it?
But if that's the case, it can explain why she fainted for so long.
Maybe it's because of excessive blood loss.
Li Qingwu bit the other sleeve, and before Qiu Che could stop her, she had already used force to tear off a piece of cloth.
Maybe because she had never done this before, her bandaging movements were a little unfamiliar, and finally she barely wrapped Qiu Che's hand.
Seeing Qiu Che silently staring down at the extremely ugly "bandage", Li Qingwu coughed.
Qiu Che also knew that she was embarrassed, so he changed the subject very considerately and asked, "Where are our clothes?"
Li Qingwu pointed outside and said, "Hanging them. They are soaked. I want to put them outside to let the wind dry."
Qiu Che tilted his head and glanced at the bonfire next to him: "Isn't there a fire here? It's windy at night, and if you hang it outside, it might be blown away by the wind."
Li Qingwu blushed, coughed again, and whispered: "I'm afraid of getting burned."
In addition, he was in a hurry to go out to find herbs to apply to Qiu Che's wound, so he didn't spend time to get clothes.
Qiu Che was a little amused, and said, "It's okay, then hang it outside."
"I can't find any herbs that can cool you down," Li Qingwu was silent, handed over a fruit, and said softly, "I'm sorry."
Qiu Che shook his head: "I have a good physique, maybe I will be fine after holding on. Wait until dawn."
"I've checked, not far away, but judging from the surrounding area, there should be no one," Li Qingwu said softly, "Tomorrow morning, if no one comes to rescue..."
If Qiu Che had worse luck, even if she practiced martial arts and had a good physique, in this era where a cold can kill half of your life if it is not treated, she may not be able to survive.
Thinking of this, Li Qingwu lowered his eyes and his eyes were unconsciously red.
Even though she knew Qiu Che became like this for her sake, she still couldn't help but say, "You shouldn't have jumped down."
Amid the crackling sound of the bonfire, Qiu Che stood up and reached out to rub her head, as a joke, to tell her not to be so serious.
But his body was weak and he didn't have the strength to do so.
Finally, his hand landed on Li Qingwu's face.
He pinched it lightly.
Li Qingwu was stunned and turned to look at her.
Qiu Che smiled and said, "Life and death are determined by fate. It doesn't matter. I don't care."
If Li Qingwu was with her at the end of her life, it would be another kind of perfection. But
Li Qingwu immediately glared at her and said, "Pah, pah, pah, don't talk nonsense!"
It was rare for her to be so vivid, as if she had suddenly shed the shackles brought by the identity of "princess" and got rid of those messy rules, becoming lively again.
Qiu Che's eyes curved as he saw her, and he naturally followed her words and said, "Okay, then I'll say it again."
"Yao Tai said that I am a person with great fortune and a long life, and I will not die," Qiu Che said, "Don't worry."
Although when Yao Tai said this, she inevitably died at the hands of her biological father in her previous life.
But it is also good to use it to settle Li Qingwu's heart.
Li Qingwu asked with red eyes: "Really?"
Qiu Che nodded firmly and swore: "Really."
The two looked at each other for a moment, and suddenly looked away at the same time.
Li Qingwu didn't know whether he believed it or not, but he didn't ask any more.
After a while, she turned her head again and called her: "...Qiu Che."
Qiu Che leaned against the stone wall behind him, trying to use the coldness of the stone wall to stimulate his drowsy brain without making a sound.
Hearing this, she said "um", and her tone was still calm and cool, as always.
It seems that she is still omnipotent.
Li Qingwu was silent for a while, then suddenly curled up, hugged her knees, put her head on them, and looked at her with red eyes like a tired little animal.
Qiu Che then asked again: "What's wrong?"
Li Qingwu said in a very low voice: "Am I your weakness?"
Qiu Che was stunned.
Today on the cliff, when she was tied up by Yuan Fu, Li Qingwu actually thought of many things.
She knew that Yuan Fu tied her up, most likely to threaten Qiu Che.
And because she had no martial arts, let alone escape from danger, she couldn't even protect her companions.
If Yaotai hadn't repeatedly angered Yuan Fu today, those knives would have been stabbed at Li Qingwu.
She even needed her only true friend besides Qiu Che to protect her with his life.
In this way, her marriage with Qiu Che did not seem to bring any benefits to Qiu Che. What
she brought was the emperor's suspicion, the fear of the ministers, the prying of the enemies, and the crisis that was everywhere and at any time.
Because of her existence, Qiu Che, who should have been invincible and fearless, had a weakness.
This made it difficult for Li Qingwu not to feel depressed and collapsed.
When she asked this question, she had already concluded it in her heart. She knew there was no other answer. All the accidents that had happened so far were actually caused by her to Qiu Che.
Guilt and suffocation of her own incompetence almost engulfed her like a tide.
The words she asked were accompanied by a slight tremor that she had not yet noticed.
But unexpectedly, Qiu Che also looked at her for a moment, and his eyes were calm from beginning to end.
She stretched out her intact left hand again, as if she wanted to pinch Li Qingwu's face again to comfort him.
But when her hand fell, it turned into a gentle caress.
Like the wind, it brushed past Li Qingwu's cheek.
"It's not a weakness." Qiu Che said seriously, "It's a soft spot."
Li Qingwu pursed her lips, not realizing what this sentence meant, but stubbornly said: "The two mean the same thing."
She still became a means for others to shackle Qiu Che.
Qiu Che smiled: "I am willing."
Li Qingwu suddenly felt a huge sense of powerlessness and sadness in her heart.
She didn't say anything else, but turned her head and calmly added another piece of firewood to the bonfire, and then thought calmly:
Qiu Che said that she was willing, and she didn't know how much of it was for comfort and how much of it was sincere.
But Li Qingwu felt from the bottom of her heart that Qiu Che should look down on the heroes, should be high above, and not touch the dust.
She didn't want Qiu Che to bow his head, didn't want her to cry, and didn't want her to fall from the altar.
A hero cannot have weaknesses.
Li Qingwu believed that she was gentle by nature, but since she couldn't be the knife in Qiu Che's hand that killed people, then she would be Qiu Che's strongest and most reliable shield.
She didn't want what happened today to happen again.