WJ Chapter 99

Tu Yuan (1)

When I was first born, there was no turmoil.

After I was born, I encountered these hundred hardships.

——

Once excessive mental and physical tension relaxes, fatigue invades the entire body. Perhaps it was also because lying on Yun Changliu’s back was truly reassuring—before they even returned to the wooden house, Ah Ku had fallen asleep midway.

When he woke up, he was already lying in his own bed. Outside, daylight was just breaking—a fresh morning.

His body had obviously been carefully cleaned by the Young Sect Leader, his clothes changed to clean ones, and the wound on his neck had been medicated and bandaged. There was almost no trace of blood scent remaining around him.

Ah Ku threw off the covers and sat up, rubbing his temples. Recalling the series of events that had occurred in the blood extraction room, it all felt too unreal.

In the end, he had killed someone for the first time, and even implicated Yun Changliu…

It really shouldn’t have happened.

Right, where was Young Sect Leader Changliu?

Ah Ku put on an outer garment and got out of bed. His right leg, which had hurt terribly last night, could now barely support walking. Only then did he discover that not only the knife wound on his neck, but all the places on his body that had been beaten had been carefully treated with medicine, and the bruises had been massaged away.

Ah Ku couldn’t help feeling somewhat dejected—how could he have slept so deeply? He had no idea how long Yun Changliu had labored last night to treat everything…

He also felt that given Young Sect Leader Changliu’s nature, he couldn’t possibly have just left like that, but after looking through the entire room, there was indeed no one there.

When he opened the wooden door to look outside in confusion, he was immediately startled.

Yun Changliu was leaning against the wall right outside the door, still wearing those blood-stained robes without having changed, the short knife still held in his arms, curled up in a ball in the pale dawn light.

The Young Sect Leader’s head was lowered, his long hair disheveled and covering his face—whether he had been asleep before or not was unclear. In any case, at the sound of the door, his whole body shuddered as he jerked awake, raising his head and lifting his eyes to look at Ah Ku.

His complexion was extremely poor, his spirit also appearing very haggard—completely unlike the white-robed Young Sect Leader who had wielded the knife with cold decisiveness in the Medicine Gate yesterday.

Ah Ku was bewildered by Yun Changliu’s half-dead appearance. He hurriedly stepped over and grabbed his hands, which had turned blue from the cold, exclaiming in alarm, “Why are you sitting outside!? Don’t tell me you spent the whole night out here… Quick, come inside first!”

Yun Changliu stumbled as the small medicine person pulled him in. The Young Sect Leader also tried to resist somewhat, but Ah Ku glared at him irritably. “My right leg still hurts, so don’t trouble me at a time like this!”

This statement was very effective—Yun Changliu indeed allowed the small medicine person to drag him into the warm wooden house. But he still looked listless and said nothing.

Ah Ku sat back on the bed and pressed the Young Sect Leader down to sit beside him. Not minding Yun Changliu’s blood-stained clothes at all, he quickly shook out the blanket and wrapped him up in it, frowning. “Young Sect Leader, what’s wrong with you? Are you… afraid because you killed someone?”

Yun Changliu gripped the short knife in his hand and shook his head.

Ah Ku looked even more worried. He unconsciously touched the bandaged wound on the side of his neck, thinking to himself that this Young Sect Leader must have been traumatized by yesterday’s horrific scene… So he forced a relaxed smile. “This… it’s nothing serious. It looks frightening, but actually not much blood was lost. They didn’t beat me too heavily either—they all knew I was the Young Sect Leader’s medicine person, so they couldn’t possibly strike with lethal force. It just hurt for a bit and then passed. You don’t need to take it too much to heart.”

Actually, he also wanted to say that it wouldn’t even prevent him from going to extract blood for the Young Sect Leader again today. But he was afraid Yun Changliu would feel sad again, so he omitted that sentence, thinking to himself that at worst he could just sneak over there secretly while avoiding the Young Sect Leader.

…This really showed that Ah Ku’s temperament was truly unusual. If it were any other child—even an adult—who had suffered such bullying, if not developing lifelong trauma, they would at least spend five years living in constant fear. But this child, after sleeping it off, treated the matter as over and done with, actually daring to think about going alone to the Medicine Gate again the very next day.

On the contrary, Yun Changliu seemed possessed after one night. Ah Ku gave him a little push, somewhat helplessly saying, “Why won’t you speak again? Weren’t you quite formidable when killing people yesterday?”

He continued persuading in a muffled, gentle voice. “Also, you’re the Young Sect Leader—you shouldn’t have helped me kill Zhuyin Sect members. Don’t you know you’ll be scolded for that?”

Yun Changliu still said nothing, his eyes faintly churning with dark emotions. Ah Ku sighed worriedly—sometimes he really couldn’t understand what was going on in this taciturn Young Sect Leader’s mind.

He could only try softening his tone. “What’s wrong exactly… Young Sect Leader? Can you please say something?”

Hearing this, Yun Changliu finally moved. He raised his eyes and looked deeply at Ah Ku, then got off the bed, drew out the short knife, and handed the handle to Ah Ku.

The handle felt rough. Ah Ku gripped the knife handle and blinked in confusion. “Why are you still keeping this thing? I don’t want—”

Before he could finish, Yun Changliu’s hands once again covered his.

Without warning, the Young Sect Leader suddenly exerted force just as he had in the blood extraction room yesterday!

Ah Ku’s pupils contracted sharply.

He was sitting on the edge of the bed with his feet not touching the ground. At this moment, with Yun Changliu pulling his hands forward, his upper body naturally fell forward uncontrollably, and the sharp blade flashing with cold light thrust straight toward Yun Changliu!!

…The knife tip silently plunged directly into the tender lower abdomen.

Immediately, warm blood began to seep out, staining the robes that were already covered in large patches of dark red with fresh, vivid color once more.

In an instant, Ah Ku’s mind exploded into blankness.

He trembled in shock. “You… you… you!?”

The short knife and the bloodstain spreading beneath it made Ah Ku momentarily unable to believe his own eyes. He finally burst out in angry rebuke. “Yun Changliu!! What madness has possessed you!?”

Yun Changliu’s face was deathly pale, the pain making him bite his lower lip, but his expression otherwise remained very calm. Only his furrowed brow showed a hint of confusion as he asked in a low voice, “…Why?”

“Don’t move, don’t move, you absolutely must not move…” Ah Ku’s limbs went soft. He slid down from the edge of the bed to sit on the floor, reaching in terror toward the knife handle still embedded in Yun Changliu’s abdomen: “Don’t move… let me see… where you’re hurt…”

Yun Changliu seemed somewhat disappointed, his long eyelashes drooping down. “I don’t understand.”

His hands pressed against the knife handle. Ah Ku’s breathing tightened, his heart crying out that this was bad. He had just instinctively called out half a sentence—”Don’t—”

…But it was already too late. Yun Changliu calmly pulled the short knife out with a squelch, and a large amount of blood immediately gushed forth.

“Young Sect Leader!! You…!”

Ah Ku was so agitated he couldn’t speak. He panted rapidly twice, grabbed the blanket to press against Yun Changliu’s wound, and forcefully helped him lie down on the bed.

Heavens, what was happening?

How could Yun Changliu have become like this!? What was wrong with him!?

The confusion on Yun Changliu’s face only deepened. He paid no attention to his own continuously bleeding wound and instead turned his head hesitantly to ask Ah Ku:

“Didn’t you want to kill the people who extracted your blood?”

“Didn’t you hate them?”

“Could it be… you don’t like this?”

But in the blood extraction room, he had clearly seen it with his own eyes, heard it with his own ears.

Ah Ku had said he wanted to personally kill them. Ah Ku had told him to get lost. Ah Ku wouldn’t let him touch him. Even the looks he threw contained hatred.

At that time, he had been in such pain, so at a loss… Fortunately, after killing that hall master, Ah Ku was willing to look at him properly again and speak with him.

But why, when he turned the blade on himself—the true culprit—did Ah Ku not seem any happier?

The small medicine person had no idea of the Young Sect Leader’s bizarre train of thought. His heart was in chaos as he started to say, “What nonsense are you talking about? I never…”

“You did!” Yun Changliu grabbed Ah Ku’s shoulder with some agitation and refuted, “You once said you weren’t afraid of having your blood extracted, weren’t afraid of being a medicine person! But clearly you were unwilling… you clearly would rather die than be willing!”

“You used to deceive me all the time,” the Young Sect Leader pressed his pale lips together and turned his head away dejectedly, “…I don’t believe you anymore.”

Yun Changliu’s emotions were agitated, and the blood from his lower abdomen flowed even more uncontrollably. Ah Ku was nearly driven mad. “Young Sect Leader!! It’s not like that! You… you need to stop moving first!”

This was truly maddening… This Young Sect Leader, appearing calm and expressionless on the surface, but what chaotic things was his mind constantly pondering?

Could it be that he… he had spent the whole night freezing outside the house, thinking about all this nonsense!?

“…I can’t let you kill me. If I die, Father will take revenge on you.”

Yun Changliu couldn’t listen at all anymore. The Young Sect Leader struggled to formulate his words, explaining methodically, “But if you want to vent your anger, I—”

“Nonsense! Yun Changliu! Can you please calm down and listen to me!?”

Ah Ku suddenly raised his head and roared. He only felt the fresh blood beneath growing hotter and hotter, and before he knew it, his eyes had reddened with urgency as he said in a trembling voice. “You’re different from those people! I extract blood for you willingly! It’s not deception—only for you… only for you am I truly willing!”

Yun Changliu looked bewildered, his voice weak as he still asked, “Why…”

“Stop talking for now!” Ah Ku glanced again at Yun Changliu’s wound and said anxiously, “This won’t do… the bleeding won’t stop like this. I need to find medicine for you first. Wait for me, and absolutely don’t move around anymore, do you hear me!?”

“Wait…” Seeing Ah Ku turn to leave, Yun Changliu helplessly reached out his hand, as if wanting to keep him there.

But immediately after, his expression changed drastically. He actually threw off the blanket, pressed one hand to his wound, got off the bed, and tried to walk outside.

When Ah Ku heard the sound and turned to look, he nearly fainted from anger.

He rushed over to grab Yun Changliu. Simply not bothering to argue with him anymore, he brought his fingers together and gathered his qi, intending to first use acupoint techniques to restrain him.

But unexpectedly, before he could act, Yun Changliu softly collapsed downward. Ah Ku caught him in alarm, cradling him in his arms and turning his face toward him: “Young Sect Leader? What’s wrong with you…”

He saw the Young Sect Leader’s face was as pale as paper, teeth clenched tight, yet still unable to suppress the extremely restrained moans of pain escaping him. Gradually his whole body actually began to tremble!

Ah Ku’s voice caught. He stared blankly, holding Yun Changliu in his arms. A thought ran coldly through his mind, immediately sending his soul flying—

The Fengchun Sheng poison had flared up!?

Why did it have to happen at exactly this moment!

The next instant, Ah Ku suddenly realized with alarm: Right, last time he had only extracted half the usual amount of medicine blood… And then with such severe stimulation, with his emotions greatly disturbed several times, how could the Young Sect Leader’s body withstand this violent poison!

In just a split second, Ah Ku became strangely calm. He knew what he had to do. He laid the Young Sect Leader, who was already trembling in a ball from pain, beside him, then strode over to pick up the short knife that had fallen on the floor.

The blade still had the other person’s blood on it. As soon as Ah Ku gripped the knife, he bit his own sleeve with his mouth to expose his wrist.

…This actually worked out well—it would let the Young Sect Leader see that he truly was willing to have his blood extracted, and it would put this little ancestor’s mind at ease so he wouldn’t keep having wild thoughts.

As Ah Ku’s thoughts turned, his eyes had already softened. He located the blood vessel and was about to cut down without hesitation. But suddenly his back sank heavily, and the hand holding the knife could no longer descend—

Yun Changliu, drawing on strength from who knows where, had endured the pain of the poison outbreak to lunge from behind and grip his hand with a death grip!

Ah Ku was caught off guard for a moment, and the short knife in his hand had already been knocked to the ground by the Young Sect Leader. Gradually moisture seeped into his back—though the temperature was warm, it made his heart freeze through with fear.

That was—that was Yun Changliu’s blood!!

His wound was still bleeding!

“Young Sect Leader… no, let go…” Ah Ku’s voice trembled with panic. He hadn’t truly feared even when people forcibly extracted his blood yesterday, but now he truly felt afraid. “Yun Changliu, let me go… have you gone mad… you’ll die, you really will die!!”

Yun Changliu’s hands locked tightly around him, enduring the intense pain throughout his body to force out broken sounds from his throat. “Don’t… you can’t… I won’t allow it…”

But the intensifying agony gradually sapped his strength. Ah Ku gritted his teeth and steeled himself against the swelling pain in his chest, cruelly breaking free of Yun Changliu’s grip and reaching again for the knife.

The Young Sect Leader let out a low groan as he fell to the floor. Fengchun Sheng fully erupted. In that moment, Yun Changliu felt as if thousands of needles were piercing all the meridians throughout his body. He could endure no longer and curled up, crying out in agony!

In the blink of an eye, the pain had tortured him until his consciousness was foggy. Yun Changliu’s awareness was swallowed up like remnants swept by wind, his eyelids growing heavy and about to close.

…In that increasingly darkening sliver of vision, he dimly saw the blue-clothed child’s pale fingers touch the knife handle.

He seemed to see again the bleeding wrists, the scars.

The dark blood extraction room, the cold iron bed.

Those beautiful eyes filled with humiliation and hatred…

…

Under the peach blossoms, a blue-clothed young boy smiled at him.

Ah Ku.

…

—Clang!!

A clear ringing sound—the short knife that the small medicine person had just grasped was knocked away again.

Yun Changliu knocked Ah Ku to the ground. Both children tumbled to the floor, and the blood on the Young Sect Leader’s body dragged a trail of dark red across the wooden floorboards—a shocking sight.

Ah Ku had just propped himself up when he was embraced from behind by the Young Sect Leader again. Yun Changliu’s entire body was so weak it had gone limp against his back, yet he gripped Ah Ku’s wrist with a death grip, as if he had wrung out all his remaining strength to concentrate it in this one place. “No… you can’t…”

Ah Ku was actually rendered immobile by Yun Changliu’s restraint. He raised his head. Time seemed to freeze. Through the nearby wooden window, he saw outside the bright morning sunlight, tree branches swaying in the gentle breeze, light clouds drifting leisurely in the distance.

Such a peaceful scene fell into his eyes, starkly transforming into pitch-black despair.

Why? Why!?

Hadn’t Yun Changliu’s poison flared up?

Wasn’t his knife wound still bleeding?

Where on earth did he get such great strength…

Yun Changliu was already very unclear-headed, only staring blankly and continuously murmuring in a low voice. “You can’t… you can’t…”

Suddenly, several teardrops fell in succession onto Ah Ku’s shoulder, dampening the pale blue collar into a deeper color.

He was crying.

Yun Changliu was actually crying.

What could he do? It really hurt so much. He was in so much pain he had no strength left, so much pain he was about to pass out… He was about to lose his grip on the person in his arms.

Would Ah Ku’s wrists be injured again?

Would they bleed again?

No matter how much he cherished Ah Ku, as long as he himself remained alive for even one more day, would Ah Ku be forever trapped by the lowly status of a medicine person, looked down upon by others, bullied by others, and continue to show those eyes full of hatred and unwillingness?

It was all his fault, all because he was still alive.

Yun Changliu’s tears wouldn’t stop. That cool temperature dripped down drop by drop, and before he knew it, Ah Ku’s voice also carried a hoarse sob. “Let go… Young Sect Leader, I’m begging you, please let go first…”

“What do you want me to do, what are you asking me to do!? I already told you I’m willing—”

Yun Changliu suddenly cried out fiercely, “—It’s ME who’s unwilling!!”

Ah Ku was struck blank.

His breathing stopped. He stared with wide eyes.

In just this moment of shock, Yun Changliu used all his remaining strength to suppress Ah Ku’s force, raising his hand to strike the back of his head.

“You…”

Ah Ku tried in extreme alarm to turn his head to look at the Young Sect Leader, but the darkness that suddenly surged up instantly pulled his consciousness into the depths of chaos.

Before falling unconscious, the small medicine person was still thinking:

Why…

…

When he woke, what met his eyes was the red light of sunset.

The decadent evening light shone into the wooden house from the window, illuminating the blood on the floor.

Blood.

Blood splattered all over the floor of the entire room, even the table legs and bed corners stained red. The originally elegant and tidy wooden house was in complete disarray—looking around, only a tragic color remained.

Only the small area around Ah Ku was clean and dry.

Yun Changliu was curled up in a corner of the room, his face frighteningly pale, his long hair completely soaked with cold sweat and spread out on the floor. His eyes were slightly open, but his pitch-black pupils didn’t move at all, without a trace of light.

As if he were dead.

His body was covered in blood, that white robe no longer showing a hint of its original color. Besides the knife wound on his lower abdomen, there were many new injuries—some from biting his own wrists, some from hitting his forehead against the wall and bed posts, and many more scrapes…

When Fengchun Sheng flared up, it was simply too painful. He hadn’t deliberately self-harmed—he truly couldn’t bear it.

At this moment, Ah Ku felt that he too was about to die. Thousands of sharp knives seemed to slice at his heart in lingering torture, churning it to a bloody pulp.

He didn’t even dare think in detail…

From morning to noon to sunset, such a long time… almost an entire day, Yun Changliu had actually left this antidote—himself—nearby unused, enduring the bleeding and suffering through a poison outbreak!?

…And in such cruel torment, he had still pulled together a bit of clarity to protect the area around him, keeping it clean, not letting a single drop of blood touch him.

Ah Ku’s heart ached to the extreme. He stumbled and rushed over, gathering up the lifeless Yun Changliu in his arms. The Young Sect Leader’s body was cold as ice. When picked up, he showed no reaction at all.

“Young… Young Sect Leader… Yun Changliu…” Ah Ku called to him with a trembling voice, gently patting his cold cheeks. “Wake up, please wake up… Young Sect Leader, wake up and look at me…”

Still no response. Ah Ku, both panicked and bewildered, lowered his hand to check Yun Changliu’s breathing.

But his fingers kept trembling—how could he tell clearly?

Suddenly, Yun Changliu’s eyelashes trembled slightly.

His eyes gradually lit up with a faint glimmer. He moved slightly in Ah Ku’s arms and came to.

“Young…” Ah Ku hurriedly held him tighter. He opened his mouth to call to him, but his voice caught and tears fell first.

Yun Changliu struggled to raise his eyes to look around, then lowered them sadly, speaking in a thin, weak voice. “…I’m sorry… for making such a mess… I’ll clean it up for you in a bit…”

As he spoke, he laboriously reached for both of Ah Ku’s wrists. Only after confirming there were no new wounds did he let his hands fall in relief, weakly coaxing, “No more blood extraction from you in the future, really… don’t cry anymore, alright?”

Whether his head was muddled from being tormented by Fengchun Sheng or not, even at this point, this Young Sect Leader still hadn’t realized why Ah Ku was crying.

The more he spoke like this, the more angry and pained Ah Ku became. He simply closed his eyes and turned his head aside, letting tears fall uncontrollably.

Yun Changliu’s fingers hooked onto the corner of Ah Ku’s clothes, asking cautiously, “Are you still willing… to be on good terms with me…”

Ah Ku choked out. “I…”

He truly wanted to curse someone. He thought to himself: when have I ever been unwilling to be on good terms with you? Clearly it’s just you being ill—not only physically ill but mentally ill too, refusing to speak yet not listening when others speak!

How could there be someone like this… what was wrong with this person?

But after saying just one word, he began sobbing and momentarily lost his voice. He could only hold the Young Sect Leader tighter in his arms under this sunset glow.

Fortunately, this time Yun Changliu finally understood his meaning. His eyes immediately lit up with joyful radiance. He thought again of the scenes that had surfaced in his mind during the painful poison outbreak, and said softly:

“If… I can live until next spring… will you let me pick a branch of your peach blossoms again?”

Ah Ku took a deep breath. He carried Yun Changliu to the bed, forcefully suppressing the ache in his throat, and said gently, “I’ll give you all of them… all of them. From now on, I’ll pick flowers for you every year.”

Yun Changliu’s mind and spirit immediately relaxed completely. He seemed to want to smile but had no strength left. He simply closed his eyes and lay in Ah Ku’s embrace, completely satisfied, and passed out.