After faking my death, the male lead’s cousin went crazy - Chapter 10

Meeting Gu Wan’s gaze, Shang Rongyue looked into those cold, dark eyes and retreated several steps. Clearly, the other party suspected that she had poisoned them—wanted to harm these people, including the bandit leader herself.

“It wasn’t me. Tampering with snacks I made myself would be such an obvious way of poisoning someone! That would be too stupid!” Shang Rongyue tried to defend herself, but the other party’s expression did not soften in the slightest.

At this moment, Gu Wan had only one thought in her mind: she had to save them.

Su Zhaoyun had already collapsed. There was only one military doctor in the entire camp. Even if they knew what poison had caused this, everyone would still be helpless, let alone when they could not find even the slightest clue right now.

Whether or not this was Li Yueyue’s doing, Gu Wan had to rely on herself to think of a way.

It was very simple. If she had intentionally poisoned them, she definitely would not hand over the antidote. If the poison had nothing to do with her, then threatening her would be meaningless.

Antidote…

Gu Wan suddenly thought of a medicinal herb.

She ordered Lanxi to stay here alone and guard the place. Then she found a rope, turned around, and left.

Shang Rongyue saw that the female bandit’s face was dark as she left, and before going out, she did not even spare Shang Rongyue a single glance. She also did not say whether she believed her or not.

That was understandable. Even if Shang Rongyue put herself in the other party’s position, it would be very difficult to completely believe herself.

Shang Rongyue looked in the direction Gu Wan had left. After thinking for a moment, she turned and followed her out.

The road to the back mountain was not easy to walk. There was a dense forest in the middle, and the soil, covered in all kinds of weeds, was damp and wet. One also had to avoid tree roots that might appear at any moment. If one was careless, they might be tripped and fall straight into the mud.

After finally getting out of the dense forest, what came next was a gravel road covered in broken stones. Last time, Su Zhaoyun had told her that heavy rain washed over the rocks on the mountain, causing broken pieces to fall and roll down here. Over time, the once-smooth road had become rugged. Fewer people came this way now, and the ground was covered in small stones and gravel.

Gu Wan was tall with long legs, and because she was anxious, her pace was very fast. By the time Shang Rongyue caught up, her embroidered shoes and the hem of her skirt had been stained with a ring of brown mud, and the surface of her shoes had been scraped open in two places.

“I called you. Why didn’t you wait for me?” Shang Rongyue had run in a hurry and was now supporting her waist, panting heavily.

Gu Wan ignored her and continued busying herself with what she was doing.

She first tied one end of the rope around her own waist, then looked around and fixed her gaze on the huge stones nearby. She went forward and kicked them twice. After confirming they were relatively stable, she looped one end of the rope around them.

But Shang Rongyue directly stopped her.

Gu Wan suppressed the anger in her chest and gritted her teeth. “Let go.”

The matter was urgent. She did not have time to investigate who had poisoned them. She only knew that saving people was most important.

Ziying had followed her since childhood, and Su Zhaoyun was her most reliable companion. Both of them were very important to her. She could not accept these two people leaving right before her eyes.

No. They would not leave. She would definitely save them.

Across from her, Shang Rongyue took one end of the rope and directly looped it around her own waist.

“I know you want to climb down the cliff to pick that begonia. Tying the rope to a rock isn’t reliable. The safest way is for me to go down while you hold the rope above.”

Su Zhaoyun had once said that the begonia was extraordinarily beautiful and, when used as medicine, could cure hundreds of poisons. However, it grew year-round on sheer cliffs. If one wanted to obtain it, one had to climb a ten-thousand-zhang cliff.

On the way here, Shang Rongyue had been thinking about a question. Was the poison Su Zhaoyun and Ziying had suffered deliberately caused by someone, or was it backlash caused by her, a transmigrator, creating something that did not belong to this world?

If the root of the disaster lay in her attempt, then Shang Rongyue absolutely could not sit by and do nothing. If this had started because of her, how could she ignore other people’s lives?

She wrapped the rope around herself, tied a knot, and said in a low voice, “I know that if an accident happens to you on this cliff, I can’t be certain I’ll be able to get you back safely. But you’re different. Let me go down while you pull me from above. That is the safest method right now.”

Shang Rongyue lifted her lashes, revealing a pair of bright, shining eyes. The corners of her lips curved into a relaxed arc.

“I believe Sister will definitely pull me back up, right?”

Shang Rongyue thought that since this woman was willing to climb the cliff for those two people, if something happened to Shang Rongyue and they could not get the begonia, Doctor Su and the others would not survive either. So on the matter of the cliff, Shang Rongyue could trust the other party one hundred percent.

These words surprised Gu Wan greatly.

Gu Wan truly had not expected this Li Yueyue, who usually looked so delicate and who would even go back to change shoes if they got muddy, to be willing to take such a risk now, even entrusting her life into Gu Wan’s hands.

Perhaps the matter of the poisoning really did need to be considered carefully.

Gu Wan looked at the knot the other party had tied. She stepped forward, untied the unreliable knot, and retied it into a secure one. Then she said, “Don’t worry. The other end is tied around my own waist. As long as I’m here, I will make sure you return safely.”

Shang Rongyue nodded lightly and approached the edge of the cliff step by step. From afar, she saw that begonia. Last time they went to the back mountain, Su Zhaoyun had pointed it out to her from a distance. Back then, Lanxi had jokingly asked whether she would climb the cliff for this bandit. She had not expected it to come true now.

Judging by eye, the distance did not seem too far—about the height of two or three floors.

She carefully observed the stone wall along the way and soon planned a relatively smooth route for herself. After mentally preparing herself, she sighed, faced the cliff wall, and slowly took the first step.

The moment she took that first step, Shang Rongyue regretted it.

Back when she was in school, even running eight hundred meters had nearly killed her. Yet now she was actually doing extreme survival here!

For some reason, as soon as she stepped out, fierce winds suddenly rose around her. Her skirt fluttered in the wind, making sharp rustling sounds.

After steadying herself, she slowly took the second step, then the third…

After all, she was descending, and Gu Wan was above pulling her with the rope. The following steps were relatively smooth. A faint illusion rose in Shang Rongyue’s heart: maybe it was not as difficult as she had imagined.

Following the route she had chosen earlier, she held onto the upper rocks with her hands and stepped on the protrusions in the cliff wall. Very soon, she moved closer to her target bit by bit.

When she reached the area near the begonia, Shang Rongyue’s gaze accidentally swept downward. A buzzing instantly rang through her mind, and even her hands and feet stopped obeying her.

It was truly so high.

It felt as though she were stepping above the clouds, and beneath those clouds, the faint sound of flowing water could be heard. It was like wave after wave of icy tides striking her most fragile nerve.

“Don’t look down!” Above her, Gu Wan shouted while pulling the rope.

Shang Rongyue pulled out the dagger Gu Wan had just handed her from her waist and neatly cut through the flower stem, preserving the plant’s roots.

As long as the roots remained, there was still a possibility it could grow again. Perhaps it might save someone’s life again in the future, Shang Rongyue thought.

Then she tucked the entire begonia into the front of her clothes. After everything was properly handled, she began the journey back.

Following the original path, she slowly climbed upward little by little.

Climbing up took more strength, but fortunately, her goal was visible right in front of her. Each step forward made her a little safer. On the other side, Gu Wan was also pulling hard on the rope tied around their waists, giving Shang Rongyue support from above.

Seeing that she was getting closer and closer to the cliff edge, with only two more steps before she could return to safety, the stone ledge she had been stepping on suddenly formed a crack. Then, in an instant, it shattered apart.

Shang Rongyue’s foot suddenly lost support, and her whole body dropped several chi.

The young girl’s scream echoed through the valley. Because of the fall, her skirt spread out layer by layer like a flower, resembling a fragile branch swaying on the edge, still refusing to sink into the mud.

Fortunately, Gu Wan above grabbed the rope in time. The force around Shang Rongyue’s waist protected her body and pulled her to a stop in midair.

But during the fall, the dagger at her waist fell along with the broken stones beneath her feet. It faintly struck the cliff wall several times, but because this place towered into the clouds, they could not hear the sound of the object hitting the ground.

Shang Rongyue quickly grabbed the nearest rock wall. Even though her fingertips were rubbed bloody, she still refused to loosen even a little. Her ankle seemed to have been cut by a sharp protrusion on the cliff wall, and the sock wrapped around her skin felt icy cold.

But at this moment, Shang Rongyue did not feel the pain. Her face had already gone deathly pale from fright, her body trembled uncontrollably, and sourness filled her eyes.

She had planned to go down herself precisely because she feared something like this might happen. The other party had the ability to save her. But she had forgotten that even if she were saved, would she still have the strength to climb back up?

Suspended high in the air, her calves had been trembling from the moment she stepped out. As time passed, the pain in her ankle gradually became more obvious.

“How are you?” Gu Wan looked down. After confirming that she was all right, she pointed to a protruding rock on the right. “Move that way and step on that stone. Then I’ll be able to pull you up.”

Shang Rongyue calmed herself slightly and looked in the direction Gu Wan was pointing.

That stone was located between the two of them. It was not too far from her, but she needed to move sideways to reach it.

After what had just happened, Shang Rongyue became extremely cautious. She shifted her body bit by bit. When she finally stepped onto that stone, her right leg seemed to have already lost feeling.

She raised her head and looked upward. Gu Wan was not far from her, already leaning half her body over the edge and reaching out with all her strength to pull her up.

But she really had no strength left.

Shang Rongyue reached into the front of her clothes. When she stretched out her arm again, she handed over that begonia.

“Take this flower first. If something happens to me, please make sure you bring this antidote back.”

After Shang Rongyue finished speaking, it was as though she had completed a great task. After thinking for a moment, she still added, “I… I really didn’t mean to harm them…”

Shang Rongyue’s voice grew softer and softer. In the end, she choked up completely. At this moment, there was no trace of her previous composure. Her bright eyes were reddened by tears, and her soft voice carried grievance, as though she was about to cry.

“Sister…”

“I got cut. My ankle hurts so much.”

“I… I really have no strength left…”

At this time, Gu Wan’s outstretched hand just happened to touch her. The other party did not choose to take the begonia first. Instead, she reached down again and directly grasped Shang Rongyue’s wrist.

Because Gu Wan practiced martial arts year-round, there was a thin layer of calluses on her palm. Unlike Shang Rongyue’s icy coldness, her palm was scorching hot. The moment they touched, a stream of warmth passed through her skin.

Following that warmth, Shang Rongyue lifted her eyes and looked up.

That bandit, who had nothing to do with her, was already leaning half her body over the cliff edge just to grab hold of her.

“Will I die here?” For some reason, this sentence suddenly popped into Shang Rongyue’s mind. Without thinking, she directly asked it aloud.

And above her, the formerly dignified and graceful bandit now had veins bulging on her sweat-covered forehead because of the force in her hands. She gritted her teeth and said:

“Shut up!”