After Transmigrating, the Female Lead Went Dark (GL) - Chapter 37

The moment Zhou Zhuying heard they could go on a long trip, she immediately threw the Thousand Mechanisms Cult, Liang Kong, and everything else to the back of her mind.

“Going to Jiangnan—does that mean Jiangdu, Jinling, Suzhou, and Hangzhou?”

Could this be the so-called honeymoon trip?!

Although they had to wait until the Thousand Mechanisms Cult matter was settled before they could set off, that was perfect. It would give her time to make a travel guide!

Xiao Xinyue could tell she was very excited and smiled. “Yes.”

“How long will we be gone?”

Xiao Xinyue hesitated for a moment. “That depends on how long you want to play.”

“We can’t play for too long. If my heart gets too wild, I won’t have the mind to do proper work!”

“The Cult Leader still has proper work?”

“Don’t look down on people. Aside from the sewing machine, there are still many things I want to make! Once I make them, I’ll sell them to Yunxi Pavilion, and then the two of us can split the profits fifty-fifty. We’ll have even more money!”

The Cult Leader’s serious appearance as she imagined the future made it hard for Xiao Xinyue to pour cold water on her. Smiling, she asked, “Has the Cult Leader fallen into a money hole?”

“I can’t always freeload food and drink at Moshan Sect. If this goes on for too long and I make no contribution to Moshan Sect at all, people will gossip. So earning some extra money to help with household expenses is very necessary.”

The Cult Leader’s enthusiasm for this matter was high. After returning to the room, she began asking Xiao Xinyue about the places they would pass through while also pondering her travel guide.

She was relatively familiar with Huaiyang, but that was the place hundreds of years later in another time and space. If one day she transmigrated back to reality from the book, she could absolutely publish a book called My Travels in Huaiyang Hundreds of Years Ago.

This time, it was her turn to write and draw, while Xiao Xinyue helped her grind ink.

Xiao Xinyue stood beside her, grinding the ink stick while slightly tilting her head, gazing at Zhou Zhuying’s side profile. She both hoped that such peaceful days could continue, and looked forward to seeing a complete Zhou Zhuying before her.

She was lost in thought, so much so that when Zhou Zhuying stopped writing and looked up at her, she almost failed to react.

“Sister Saintess?”

“Mm?”

“Do you want to play the qin?”

Why had she suddenly brought this up? Xiao Xinyue did not answer and instead asked, “Does the Cult Leader want to listen?”

“I do. Sister Saintess can play the qin, and I’ll go boil tea. Playing qin and drinking tea while admiring plum blossoms—wouldn’t that be beautiful?”

“Since the Cult Leader has such refined interest, I will accompany you.” As Xiao Xinyue spoke, she set down the ink stick and walked to the qin table.

She suddenly noticed that the qin seemed much cleaner.

Her fingertips gently plucked the strings, and no dust flew up. Logically speaking, since she had placed the qin here untouched for a long time, there should have been dust. Yet not even dust on the strings could be brushed off. It was clear someone had already wiped it clean.

Xiao Xinyue had always cleaned her study herself. Aside from her and the Cult Leader, no one else could enter. Therefore, it went without saying who had cleaned this qin.

Then, had the Cult Leader seen the words underneath?

“Cult Leader,” Xiao Xinyue called, turning back.

Zhou Zhuying responded, “Mm?”

Her eyes were wide with curiosity and confusion. Those clear eyes seemed like open doors and windows, allowing someone to see through them at a glance. Yet they also seemed covered by a layer of gauze, making it impossible to touch their deepest depths.

Xiao Xinyue swallowed back the words she had originally intended to say and merely smiled faintly. “Help me move the table.”

“All right.”

The two moved the qin table and stools beneath the plum tree in the courtyard. Afterward, Zhou Zhuying went to prepare the tools for boiling tea, while Xiao Xinyue brought over the incense burner and lit incense.

Smoke curled upward. Just then, a plum blossom happened to fall from a branch, its calyx catching on the hollowed lid of the incense burner. At first glance, it looked as if the incense smoke had produced a flower.

Xiao Xinyue picked up the plum blossom and placed it by her nose to lightly smell it. A fragrant scent slipped into her nose, and she could not tell whether it was the scent of plum blossom or the fragrance produced by the incense smoke.

Zhou Zhuying happened to see this scene and immediately felt as if something had struck her heart, making her breath stop. Then her whole face reddened.

The female lead was too beautiful!

The moment of smelling the fragrance quietly etched itself into her heart. She feared she would never forget it in this lifetime.

“Cult Leader, what are you spacing out for?” Xiao Xinyue turned and called.

Zhou Zhuying hurried over and set up the stove to boil water.

To boil tea, one had to use freshly boiled water to bring out the taste of the tea leaves to the utmost. Although in the end, it was still steeped tea, the amount of tea and the steeping time were all matters of care.

Zhou Zhuying brewed the tea earnestly. Xiao Xinyue did not disturb her. Instead, she gathered her thoughts and lightly brushed the qin strings to check whether they had loosened or changed pitch.

People said paintings and calligraphy entrusted thoughts, while qin and xiao entrusted emotions. Today, Zhou Zhuying would listen and hear whose emotions Xiao Xinyue had entrusted.

Although she did not seem to understand music theory, when Xiao Xinyue played the qin, she vaguely saw an overlapping shadow.

—

Xiao Xinyue rode west as fast as she could. She did not dare take the official road, because the people pursuing her would definitely send people to guard every checkpoint along the official road. She was injured, and it was truly unsuitable for her to fight them head-on, so she could only choose the difficult mountain roads.

But in this way, the horse’s burden increased. She traveled without stopping, and after only one day and one night, the horse began slowing down and foaming at the mouth.

With no other choice, she could only find a place to treat her wound first. But the wound was on her back, and she could not carefully apply medicine to it. She could only take golden wound medicine and blindly scatter it over her back.

Her method of treatment was extremely rough, but she had not yet escaped the danger of pursuit. She did not even dare easily go to a medical clinic. She could only endure the increasingly obvious pain from her wound and continue west.

After traveling for half a day, she crossed the mountain and saw a village in the distance. She wanted to go over and ask for a bowl of water, but in the end, her strength failed her, and she fainted.

Although she had fainted, she had not completely lost consciousness. In the middle, she sensed someone touching her and instinctively attacked, but someone easily blocked her. A voice also sounded beside her ear. “Hey, this move actually has some strength. Even catching it made the web of my hand go numb.”

“Why don’t we just leave her alone?” another voice said.

At this moment, Xiao Xinyue felt the hair on her forehead being brushed to both sides. She wanted to resist, but unfortunately, her whole body was powerless. She could not even open her eyes and could only let that person make a flirtatious-sounding remark:

“Ai, if such a beautiful person is left alone on a mountain road, I’m afraid she’ll be carried away by beasts. You have to know, some beasts, whether the person is alive or dead, as long as it’s a woman and the body hasn’t gone cold yet, they can still take off their pants… Forget it, this kind of content unsuitable for children is not something I should tell you under-eighteens. Otherwise, the anti-pornography and anti-illegal publications people might sweep me in too.”

The other person said, “Benefactor, are you talking about beasts, or animals worse than beasts?”

Another person hurried over and called, “You two still have the leisure to discuss this? Hurry and carry her back!”

Xiao Xinyue was carried onto someone’s back. She almost exhausted all her strength to open her eyes, but saw nothing. She only smelled a fragrant scent on the person’s body. Then she fell unconscious again.

This time, she truly fainted completely. When she slowly woke, she was already lying face-down on an old, shabby bed that smelled faintly of mildew.

The wound on her back burned with pain. The moment she moved, she tugged at the wound on her back and drew in a sharp breath from the pain.

Seemingly hearing the sound, someone lifted the curtain and crossed the threshold into the room.

“You’re awake.”

This voice sounded very similar to one of the voices Xiao Xinyue had heard while unconscious. She had originally thought it belonged to a rather unrestrained, improper woman, but the person who entered was an unrivaled beauty in black clothes, with red lips and white teeth.

Her hair was simply tied in a single bun. Her face had no powder or rouge. Her clothes were embroidered with white lotuses using silver thread, and on her chest was one large character: “I.”

Xiao Xinyue: “…”

In a certain sense, she truly was quite improper.

However, just from this outfit, one could tell she was not a villager here. She walked very steadily, yet there was no sound of footsteps. Clearly, she was someone trained in martial arts.

It was only that, judging by her appearance, there was still some childishness that had not faded. It was hard to tell whether she was friend or foe.

When Xiao Xinyue was awake, she would not leave her back to someone else. So, ignoring the pain caused by tugging at her wound, she sat up and looked vigilantly at the woman walking over.

The woman said, “Your wound was inflamed. I applied medicine for you and stitched it up. Don’t move so much. If the wound opens again, you’ll have plenty to suffer.”

Xiao Xinyue was completely confused by what she heard. She understood “applied medicine,” but what was “inflamed”?

She asked aloud. The woman froze for a moment, then laughed awkwardly and explained, “I forgot that traditional medicine at this time doesn’t have the concept of inflammation. Inflammation means the wound becomes red, swollen, painful, and may even fester. Then it caused a fever too… meaning a wind-cold. You burned for a whole day. Your temperature was so high you almost went to meet King Yama. Good thing I acted and saved you!”

Xiao Xinyue had never seen any jianghu person brag about saving someone like this. But for the life-saving grace, she would remember it in her heart. “Many thanks. May I ask Benefactor’s honorable name? I will certainly repay you in the future!”

“In the future?” The woman’s expression was strange. “At your young age, how can you think of such filthy and unbearable content?”

Xiao Xinyue: “?”

Seeing her confused appearance, the woman cleared her throat again and pretended that the dirty-minded person was not herself.

She said, “My name is Zhou Shuren. What about you?”

Xiao Xinyue had never heard of such a person in the jianghu, so she thought either the name was fake, or this person was truly some unknown small figure or recluse. She was just about to answer, then paused and cautiously said, “Yunxi.”

“The surname Yun is rare, but the name is quite beautiful.” Zhou Shuren poured her a bowl of water. “Drink a little. You haven’t eaten anything for a whole day. Your lips are dry.”

Xiao Xinyue did not dare casually drink a stranger’s water. But thinking that if the other party had truly come for her, there was no need to save her. Yet when she was being pursued, she could sense that the assassins were holding back, as if they had never intended to take her life and only wanted to capture her alive.

While she wavered, Zhou Shuren understood her concerns and laughed. “Naturally vigilant, huh. Looks like you’re used to walking the jianghu. That’s how it’s always acted out in TV dramas!”

After saying this, she drank the whole bowl of water in one gulp, then poured a second bowl.

Xiao Xinyue had not expected her to see through her thoughts and reflected on her own act of doubting her life-saving benefactor. She accepted the bowl, held it, and drank it down with gulps.

She truly was very thirsty. After drinking this bowl of water, she felt that even the pain in the wound on her back lessened quite a bit.

“Many thanks.”

Zhou Shuren placed the bowl back on the table and said, “Miss Yunxi, your wound is rather serious, so you should not make any large movements. Also, don’t sleep lying on your back. Before the wound heals, you can only sleep on your stomach or sleep on your side.”

Xiao Xinyue, however, got off the bed. She said, “I will remember today’s life-saving grace. When I—”

“Enough. No need for these polite words. I can recite the lines by heart,” Zhou Shuren said.

“Ah?”

At this moment, several more women entered. They looked around the same age as Zhou Shuren, and each of them called her Benefactor. Xiao Xinyue was silent for a moment, wondering whether Zhou Shuren was a knight-errant who specialized in saving people. Otherwise, why were there so many women she had saved?

However, Xiao Xinyue did not have time to think about these things. She planned to leave as soon as possible to avoid being caught up to by those assassins and implicating innocent people.

She said she wanted to leave, and Zhou Shuren did not stop her.

After she went out the door, she heard one of the women ask Zhou Shuren, “Her injury hasn’t healed yet. Why didn’t Benefactor stop her?”

“Why would I stop her? I’m not running a charity foundation. I can’t manage things that broadly. Besides, her legs grow on her own body. Would stopping her even work?” Zhou Shuren said.

When Xiao Xinyue heard this, her steps paused. Quite a bit of her suspicion toward Zhou Shuren’s identity disappeared, but she still did not plan to stay.

After traveling for a few more days, her wound began itching. Ever since leaving Zhou Shuren, she had never changed the medicine on this wound. The wound had probably become inflamed again. For some inexplicable reason, she had remembered Zhou Shuren’s way of describing it.

Just as she was preparing to stop and find a place to remove the bandages, she saw a carriage slowly approaching along the road, with seven or eight horses accompanying it.

Those who did not know might think some young master or young lady was traveling, but Xiao Xinyue recognized the driver as one of the women who had been with Zhou Shuren.

The carriage stopped. Zhou Shuren lifted the curtain, leaned by the window, and greeted her. “Miss Yunxi, what a coincidence!”

Xiao Xinyue said, “Miss Zhou, where are all of you going?”

“We don’t know where we’re going. We’re just wandering around. Wherever we end up is where we’ll be. What about Miss Yunxi?”

Xiao Xinyue nearly thought the other party had followed her here. She said, “I am going to Xunyang to visit relatives.”

“Xunyang as in ‘at Xunyang River, seeing off a guest at night’ Xunyang? But Ayou, where is Xunyang?” Zhou Shuren asked the woman driving.

“Jiangxi.”

“Oh, your hometown.” After Zhou Shuren said this, she asked Xiao Xinyue again, “Xunyang is far away. Why doesn’t Miss Yunxi take a boat or ride a horse?”

Xiao Xinyue said, “No money.”

“That’s a pity. I have no money either,” Zhou Shuren said regretfully.

Xiao Xinyue: “…”

She believed Zhou Shuren was poor, because when she had left in a hurry before, just a quick glance had allowed her to see that the back of Zhou Shuren’s clothing was embroidered with the character “poor.” Together with the character on the front, they made: “I’m poor!”

As they were chatting, they suddenly heard chaotic hoofbeats from far to near. Judging by the sound, there were at least a dozen horses.

Xiao Xinyue’s heart chilled, and she prepared to hide. However, Zhou Shuren, whose expression had originally been relaxed and cheerful, also changed. Her gaze sharpened. She immediately said, “All of you hide first.”

The other women all rode off to hide, leaving only Ayou, who was driving the carriage, and Xiao Xinyue, who had not left.

Xiao Xinyue guessed that those assassins had caught up. She was just about to tell Zhou Shuren to hide, when an arrow tore through the air, shooting straight at her.

Xiao Xinyue’s blade left its sheath, and one slash knocked the arrow away. But even more arrows shot over densely.

“Come here!” Zhou Shuren grabbed her arm and lifted her into the carriage.

The rain of arrows continued brushing past them. Some pierced through the carriage walls. Xiao Xinyue said, “The carriage can’t run fast. They’re about to catch up. Don’t worry about me!”

“How can I abandon you in a moment of danger?” Zhou Shuren said.

At a time like this, Ayou still had the mood to bring up old accounts. “Benefactor, didn’t you say you weren’t running a charity foundation?”

“The situation is different.”

“What is different?”

Zhou Shuren was at a loss for words. She turned back to look and nearly had an arrow poke into her eye. Fortunately, she grabbed that arrow with one hand.

Ashamed into anger, she said, “These people actually still dare chase us? Courting death!”

After saying this, she leaped straight onto the horse of the assassin closest to the carriage. With just one palm, she directly sent the assassin flying. He sprayed blood as if a sudden heavy rain had fallen, then died on the spot.

“What powerful palm technique!” Xiao Xinyue clicked her tongue. She asked Ayou, “You’re not going to help?”

Ayou said, “With my three-legged cat martial arts, going over would only cause trouble for Benefactor.”

Xiao Xinyue fell silent. Ayou could watch coldly from the side, but she could not. After all, this group of people had come for her. So she had Ayou stop the carriage, then carried her blade and rushed over.

However, Zhou Shuren’s martial arts seemed even more powerful than she had imagined. By the time she arrived, Zhou Shuren had already dealt with half of the assassins. The remaining ones wanted to escape, but Zhou Shuren was instead unwilling to let them flee. “Since you’re already here, why are you in such a hurry to leave? Since you love chasing people relentlessly so much, then just stay!”

“You came at the right time. Let me borrow your blade!” Zhou Shuren seized the blade from Xiao Xinyue’s hand. She did not chase after them, but a force suddenly exploded from her body, so powerful that even Xiao Xinyue found it hard to withstand. In Zhou Shuren’s hand, her blade seemed to become a thousand jin heavy.

Zhou Shuren swung with all her strength. A blade qi flew from the blade, spreading forward like ripples in water.

Yet it was far from as gentle as water ripples. Instead, it carried a sharp and merciless momentum. Wherever it passed, trees were cut into two sections, and even people were separated into upper and lower halves.

There had been more than a dozen assassins here, yet in less than a quarter of an hour, all of them had actually died by Zhou Shuren’s hand. Xiao Xinyue was dumbstruck. What kind of technique was this? So tyrannical and sharp.

“This blade is pretty good. Here, returning it intact to its rightful owner.” Zhou Shuren handed the blade back to Xiao Xinyue.

Xiao Xinyue recovered from her shock. She accepted the blade and, for a moment, actually did not know what to say.

How long would she have to cultivate before she could have power like her benefactor?

Seeing that there was no danger, Ayou and the others returned. Zhou Shuren pointed at the bodies and directed them. “Go search the corpses. Whether we can cover our travel expenses depends on whether we can find anything good.”

Xiao Xinyue remembered something and also ran over to search whether they had any tokens on their bodies.

Zhou Shuren followed behind her and said, “You weren’t active when it came to killing, but you’re very active when it comes to looting corpses.”

Xiao Xinyue: “…”

She wanted to be active too, but had Zhou Shuren given her the chance?!

Forget it. On account of the other party being her life-saving benefactor, she would not lower herself to argue.

Before long, Ayou found a map. She and Zhou Shuren huddled together and muttered, “What’s this?”

Hearing this, Xiao Xinyue took it and looked. Immediately, her brows knitted. “The marked places are the checkpoints along the official road, as well as the ferry crossings.”

Zhou Shuren suddenly thought of something and asked, “Could they actually be chasing you?”

Xiao Xinyue admitted it simply. “Naturally, it is me. Did Benefactor think…” She also noticed the oddity in Zhou Shuren’s words.

“No. I didn’t think anything. They were coming for you. But how did you provoke the Demon Sect?”

Waves rose in Xiao Xinyue’s heart. She had never been clear on who exactly was pursuing her, or why, and they even had the ability to track her down.

So it was actually the Demon Sect?

But what was the reason? Could it be related to the Xiao family’s matter?

A doubt also arose in Xiao Xinyue’s heart. This woman before her, who could tell at a glance that the assassins were Demon Sect disciples, whose martial arts were powerful, and whose attacks were ruthless—who exactly was she?

Author’s Note:

Cult Leader: I thought they were chasing me. Ai, if I’d known earlier, I wouldn’t have acted! I got more than a dozen lives on my hands for nothing.

Saintess: ?

—

After the divider is the past. Everyone understood that, right?

—