Eastern Sun (4)
Ah Ku turned his head to the side, his pale cheek pressed against the iron bed. His cracked lips moved, and he called out hoarsely, “Young Sect Leader.”
His voice was extremely faint, but Yun Changliu, who had been at the peak of agitation, immediately fell silent upon hearing it. Over there, Yun Guyan, Wen Huan, and Guan Muyan also stopped talking.
Thus, the blood-extraction room of the Medicine Gate was suddenly enveloped in silence.
After a long while, Yun Changliu finally turned his head carefully to look at him, his eyes clearly filled with shattered pain.
He merely looked over silently like that, yet it made Ah Ku feel even worse.
Ah Ku had always felt that he was definitely not a kind-hearted person. His heart had long since grown cold—where would there be any warmth left to warm others? Much less for someone who had caused him to fall to this state?
But at this moment, his heart ached—it truly ached terribly. Because he could sense that Yun Changliu was in pain, and it was pain on his behalf—he was actually heartbroken because someone else felt heartbroken for him. What a strange thing this was?
Yet when he thought of that Young Sect Leader in snow-white robes, holding peach blossoms while standing under the golden sunlight, handing him candy as an apology, stammering and unable to speak after being teased by him with just a few words…
…He felt that Yun Changliu was different from him. He had never seen someone so clean and pure. He didn’t want… to stain him with his own filthy blood.
“Young Sect Leader, you should leave…”
Ah Ku closed his eyes forcefully. His throat was burning and dry; every word he spoke was torture, but he still said each word clearly, “This matter has nothing to do with you originally. Don’t concern yourself with me anymore. I was already a medicine person within the Zhuyin Sect. Having my blood extracted is part of my duty. It just so happened that the patient who needed the medicine was you…”
The three who had just been advising the Young Sect Leader were all shocked. They hadn’t expected Ah Ku to say such words—words that should have been spoken by them.
Yun Guyan’s expression shifted uncertainly, and finally he called out, “Liu’er, what he says is not wrong. You should first…”
But at this moment, Yun Changliu turned around. His expression was ashen and defeated as he walked step by step toward the iron extraction bed, as if he had lost his soul and couldn’t hear anyone’s words.
He walked all the way to Ah Ku’s side before stopping. His pale palm fell on the iron clasp that bound Ah Ku’s neck, and with a surge of internal energy, he shattered the restraint directly.
Ah Ku called out, “Young Sect Leader…”
Without saying a word or raising his eyes to look at Ah Ku, Yun Changliu proceeded to shatter the iron clasps on his hands and feet one by one.
But the Young Sect Leader’s hands trembled more and more violently, until finally his entire body was shaking.
Yun Changliu’s hand ultimately rested lightly over Ah Ku’s bleeding left wrist. His eyes lost focus, and his voice was so soft it seemed it would shatter at a touch. “I know, you… it’s because of me that you…”
How could it have nothing to do with him?
“No, it’s not for you!” Ah Ku suddenly pulled his hand back. He stubbornly gritted his teeth and said, “I’m only repaying your father’s kindness…”
Yes, it was clearly just repaying a debt.
He was using his own blood to repay Yun Guyan’s casual gift—it was worth it. Once the debt was repaid, they would be even. Even unto death, he could still be upright and clean.
But why did he now feel as though his heart was also dripping blood? If a gift given by others with ulterior motives was worth repaying with his life’s blood, then what about the sincere treatment these past few months from this noble Young Sect Leader of the Zhuyin Sect?
In the end, would he only receive the heart-wrenching truth?
Ah Ku suddenly regretted it. He felt extremely guilty. When he had bullied the Young Sect Leader and demanded candy from him, why hadn’t he thought more about it? How could he possibly repay such kindness?
“I don’t blame you, but please don’t concern yourself with me anymore.”
Ah Ku suddenly raised his hand to push Yun Changliu away, but his arm had no strength at all. “You said it yourself… since this is an ill-fated connection, it cannot end well. Don’t concern yourself with me. Forget everything you heard and saw today…!”
But though he said this, he knew in his heart it was impossible. Once such a thing was known, how could it be forgotten? He had truly dragged this Young Sect Leader into the mire…
Yun Changliu showed no reaction. He only removed his outer robe and wrapped it tightly around Ah Ku before reaching out to embrace him again. “That statement—I was wrong to say it.”
The outer robe the Young Sect Leader had taken off for the little medicine person was embroidered with the candle dragon pattern—the significance was self-evident. Yun Guyan’s face had already turned terribly dark, and he roared through gritted teeth, “Liu’er!”
Wen Huan and Guan Muyan were so frightened that they each grabbed the Sect Leader from either side and pulled him back. Wen Huan anxiously urged in a low voice, “Sect Leader, you absolutely mustn’t lose your temper. Don’t push Liu’er any further…”
Guan Muyan also said repeatedly, “Sect Leader, if you push him any more, the Young Sect Leader will truly have a poison outbreak… Just bear with it this once, ah? Calm down?”
Yun Guyan wanted nothing more than to spit a mouthful of blood onto Guan Muyan’s old face.
When he learned something had happened, he had already nearly gone mad with rage. He had originally planned to keep using this medicine person Ah Ku for Yun Changliu, ideally to help Liu’er get through the tribulation at age fifteen. But who could have known how this came about? Spending a year cultivating the medicine blood, only extracting blood once—how did Liu’er end up knowing Ah Ku!?
With Liu’er’s temperament… anyone he was willing to know must be someone he had favorable feelings toward; and anyone he was willing to touch and embrace like this must be someone he had truly placed in his heart.
—Yet that person just happened to be a medicine person, a medicine slave! Someone who could very well stop breathing after any blood extraction!
How could Liu’er possibly agree to such a thing?
Yun Guyan felt his lungs were about to explode with rage, yet when he looked at Yun Changliu’s lost and devastated appearance, his heart ached.
What was he to do? What on earth should he do!?
On the iron bed, Ah Ku’s vision was already alternating between black and white. He struggled twice but couldn’t break free at all. Yun Changliu held him even tighter, yet it caused fine, dense pain to surge suddenly in his heart.
…He could play with Yun Changliu every day, eat his candy, make pastries for him, take him to read storybooks, but when this Young Sect Leader in unstained white robes walked step by step into this dark, cold, bloody, and filthy place and bent down to embrace him tightly, he felt that warmth was too scorching to bear.
He thought, why? Why are you trying so hard to protect me, and why are you holding me so tightly?
What do I have left?
Yun Changliu, Young Sect Leader Yun, what are you doing this for?
Having lost too much blood and exhausted all his strength, Ah Ku’s body grew colder and colder, and his consciousness gradually grew distant.
He could no longer open his eyes. Finally, he unconsciously leaned toward Yun Changliu, his slender neck going limp and tilting back, only to be supported by the Young Sect Leader and allowed to rest in his embrace.
Yun Changliu’s small embrace was unexpectedly warm. Whether it was an illusion or not, Ah Ku vaguely felt Yun Changliu grasp his hand and send a continuous stream of warm energy through his internal energy.
He finally couldn’t help but nestle tightly in Yun Changliu’s embrace and shiver with cold. Several times he tried to open his eyelids, but in the end, he lost consciousness again at some unknown moment.
…..
Ah Ku didn’t know how long he had been unconscious. When he woke again, he was already lying on a soft bed, covered with a thick quilt. His wrists also seemed to have been treated with better medicine—at least they didn’t hurt as badly.
He opened his eyes and struggled to see his surroundings through the dimness. It was a room he had never seen before—not small, but extremely quiet, with pitifully few decorations and furnishings.
It was already dark, yet not even a lamp was lit, relying only on the moonlight streaming in through the window for illumination.
To ordinary commoners, this might even seem somewhat shabby, but Ah Ku was after all a child who had come from a great family. At a glance, he could tell this room was definitely not one that ordinary people could afford to live in. Though the furnishings were few, each one was worth at least a thousand gold pieces—they were simply all objects with understated appearances.
Memories from before losing consciousness gradually returned. Ah Ku wanted to sit up but forgot what he had just experienced. As soon as he applied force with his hands on the bed, the pain felt as though he were being torn apart. He groaned and fell helplessly back onto the bed.
Unexpectedly, at this sound, there was suddenly movement at the foot of the bed.
A small figure rose from the floor and leaned over the bedside, staring at him very nervously. “You’re awake? What do you need? Are you still uncomfortable somewhere?”
It was naturally Yun Changliu. Ah Ku was startled. By now, how could he not realize that this place was most likely the Young Sect Leader Changliu’s own bedchamber?
Only… this Young Sect Leader had actually let an outsider occupy his bed while he himself sat on the floor leaning against the bedpost and fell asleep!?
“Don’t move… don’t move, you’re cold.” Yun Changliu embraced him again through the quilt, tucking in the gap he had just opened, not letting even a bit of cool air through. “You said you were cold while you were unconscious.”
Ah Ku was embraced fully once more. This time he felt that force more clearly and soberly, feeling as though the softest part of his heart had been struck hard, making him dizzy.
He had never dared to imagine that one day he would encounter such a person who was willing to protect him from behind and hold him in their arms, who knew when he was cold or warm, who felt his pain…
Yet seemingly didn’t want to take anything from him.
After wrapping him properly in the quilt, Yun Changliu poured warm water and held him in his arms to feed it to him bit by bit.
Ah Ku had never been served like this in all his memory. From head to toe, he felt uncomfortable and embarrassed. He wanted to refuse, but the Young Sect Leader had wrapped him in the quilt like a cocoon, and he couldn’t even get his hands out. He could only swallow the warm water from Yun Changliu’s hands.
Finally, when that half cup of water was finished, Ah Ku seized the opportunity to catch his breath and spoke. “Is this where you live?”
He had figured it out—this Young Sect Leader would act on whatever thought he had without a word. If he didn’t speak up, who knew what else Yun Changliu would do to him!
Yun Changliu said, “Changsheng Pavilion. I live here.”
He hesitated, then glanced at Ah Ku’s expression and struggled to find the right words to explain. “It’s… warmer here, and there’s better medicine. When you’re better, I’ll definitely send you back…”
Ah Ku smiled slightly. “Do you normally not light lamps here either?”
Seeing that Ah Ku wasn’t displeased at being brought here, Yun Changliu quietly breathed a sigh of relief. He helped Ah Ku sit up against the headboard and tucked soft pillows behind his back and waist before obediently nodding. “I’ll go light a lamp.”
Leaning against the bed, Ah Ku watched his retreating figure, thinking how this Young Sect Leader who was second only to one person and above all others was so good at taking care of people, and his temperament was so quiet—he really didn’t seem like a Young Sect Leader at all. “Was I unconscious for long?”
“Two days.” Yun Changliu stood on tiptoe to retrieve the candlestick and placed it on the table to light it.
The candle was quickly lit, and the room had just brightened with soft, warm yellow light when someone suddenly knocked at the door requesting an audience.
Yun Changliu’s expression turned cold, but he ignored it. Instead, he carried the candlestick and placed it by the bedside, saying to Ah Ku, “Don’t pay attention. Is there anything else you want? Are you hungry?”
The next moment, the sound of kowtowing came from outside the door. Someone anxiously shouted, “Young Sect Leader, I beg you to take your medicine! You haven’t taken medicine for two days, and you’ve had severe emotional turmoil multiple times. Yesterday you nearly had a poison outbreak. If you don’t take medicine, the consequences will be unthinkable… I beg the Young Sect Leader to consider your precious body. Please just drink a mouthful of medicine!”
Suddenly, both Yun Changliu’s and Ah Ku’s expressions changed.
The peace between them, barely maintained and deliberately treated as if nothing was wrong, was shattered to pieces by the voice outside.
Medicine—what medicine?
Naturally, it was medicine with Ah Ku’s freshly extracted blood added! The medicine he had unknowingly been drinking for so long, which suppressed the Fengchun Sheng poison!
Yun Changliu felt as though he had been slapped by that voice. He was immediately so ashamed and indignant that he had nowhere to hide. The usually indifferent Young Sect Leader was so angry that his lips trembled. He didn’t even dare to look at Ah Ku again and turned to roar furiously at the door, “Get lost!”
Ah Ku suddenly spoke. “Why won’t you take the medicine?”
Yun Changliu suddenly turned to look at him. Though the Young Sect Leader didn’t speak, his eyes clearly said: Don’t you understand? Do you really not understand?
Ah Ku discovered that he truly couldn’t bear to see Yun Changliu’s eyes filled with such sorrow. He suddenly grabbed the pillow from behind him and threw it at Yun Changliu, feigning anger:
“I worked so hard to have my medicine blood extracted, and you won’t drink it? You want me to have shed all that blood for nothing?”
Yun Changliu stood obediently with lowered eyes, letting him throw the pillow. He stood by the bed and endured for a long time before suppressing the pain surging in his heart and gently tucking the pillow back behind Ah Ku.
After another long while, he finally managed to squeeze out his trembling voice from between his teeth. “I absolutely will not drink it, never again. And you must not… ever again…!”
“I already said this doesn’t blame you and has nothing to do with you.” Ah Ku pressed his lips together, then gently persuaded, “Medicine people live like this. If you don’t use my blood, I’ll be killed.”
Yun Changliu suddenly looked up. His eyes were slightly red, yet his gaze was so cold and piercing it sent chills down one’s spine. “No one can kill you!”
“You want to protect me?” Ah Ku smiled slowly. This was the first time he had seen the Young Sect Leader display such presence. “But if you don’t take your medicine, you’ll die from a poison outbreak in a few days. How will you protect me then?”
Yun Changliu was suddenly stunned by his words.
Ah Ku said seriously and calmly, “If you die, I can only be buried with you. I’m not afraid of being a medicine person. I’m not afraid of having my blood extracted… but I don’t want to die.”
He changed from sitting to kneeling within the bundle of quilts, clasped his hands around the quilt, and kowtowed to Yun Changliu, saying solemnly, “I beg the Young Sect Leader’s mercy.”
…This was the first time Ah Ku had ever knelt before someone and kowtowed.
He had thought he would feel humiliated, but in fact, he didn’t.
When he saw Yun Changliu’s expression suddenly become panicked, as if deeply wounded, he actually felt as though he were bullying him.
Yet Ah Ku also felt quite helpless. I told you properly to take your medicine and you wouldn’t listen, forcing me to say such things—is it my fault?
“…”
Yun Changliu’s face turned pale. He seemed as though his spirit had been drawn out by Ah Ku’s few sentences, only knowing to stare blankly and bewilderedly at the kneeling figure on the bed.
After a very, very long time, the Young Sect Leader finally spoke softly and confusedly, “You… aren’t you cold?… Don’t kneel…”
Ah Ku bit his teeth hard to suppress his heartache and pointed toward the door. “Go take your medicine.”
Yun Changliu swayed, looking as though he couldn’t bear it.
But he truly did slowly walk toward the door and opened it.
The servant kneeling outside revealed an expression of almost tearful joy, though because their face was covered, only their curved eyes could be seen.
Yun Changliu’s face showed complete indifference. He pointed to Ah Ku on the bed inside and said coolly:
“Go inform Father. Give him to me, and I’ll take the medicine.”