The mission had already been completed, so Liu Qiu had no need to follow Liu Huang and the others.
Liu Qiu shifted a little away from Liu Huang as the carriage jolted violently, Liu Huang’s thigh pressing against her backside until it hurt, and she braced a hand on Liu Huang’s shoulder to steady herself.
Liu Huang noticed her movement and tightened her arm around Liu Qiu’s waist, pressing her further into her embrace.
“Don’t move around. You’ll fall in a moment.”
Liu Qiu’s fingers curled slightly as she said, “Liu Huang, I want to stay in Liu Family Village.”
Liu Huang lifted her eyelids lazily.
“Wasn’t I rough enough with you?”
The dense marks on her neck extended down beneath the collar, and there were even more further below.
When she had changed Liu Qiu’s clothes earlier, she had realized just how numerous those marks were, to a shocking degree.
The redness blooming across her chest was swollen.
Her pale skin had been stained red, vivid and alluring, layered with bite marks of varying depths that covered both the red traces and the white skin beneath.
Even the most private place was red; it had originally been a tender pink, but now it was swollen like a red steamed bun.
Half and half, each side bore faint bite marks.
When applying medicine, she had only done so on the outside, and her fingertip had barely brushed against it before nearly slipping inside.
She could not quite name the emotion she felt; after the anger had passed, only helplessness remained.
It was simply that she and her elder sister had not been capable enough.
Now that they had found her again, and she still had a heartbeat, a pulse, and breath—warm and cool in turns—a living person.
The tips of Liu Qiu’s ears flushed faintly red.
She pressed her lips together and did not answer Liu Huang’s question, instead saying, “Wouldn’t it be better if I stayed here alone? You don’t like me anyway, do you?”
Liu Huang let out a scoff, raised a hand to grip Liu Qiu’s chin, leaned in, and bit down on her lips.
Liu Qiu frowned in pain, her fingers tightening against Liu Huang’s shoulder.
Liu Huang had wanted to teach her a lesson and bite hard enough to draw blood, but when she truly bit down, she could not bring herself to do it.
This sickly girl was delicate; if she bit until she bled, she would probably cry for half the day.
In the end, Liu Huang only left a somewhat deep bite mark on her lips.
Liu Qiu frowned at her, eyes filled with confusion.
“Why did you bite me?”
Liu Huang muttered in a low voice, “Idiot.”
Not only did she bite her, she even scolded her, but Liu Huang had always been like this, so Liu Qiu did not get angry.
Lowering her head, she placed her hand over the arm wrapped around her waist and began prying it off with force.
Liu Huang would probably not listen to her in this state.
“I want to stay in Liu Family Village,” Liu Qiu repeated.
She used all her strength, but Liu Huang’s fingers did not move in the slightest.
“Let go of me.”
Suddenly, the carriage curtain was lifted, and Liu Feng stepped inside.
“Sister Qiu, you’ve only just woken up and already you’re so lively. Feng’er is truly delighted.”
Liu Feng’s voice was light and airy as it drifted into Liu Qiu’s ears.
Liu Qiu paused and looked at her.
Liu Feng’s brows and eyes carried a smile as she slowly sat down beside them, gazing at Liu Qiu.
“Why are you looking at me like that, Sister Qiu?”
The carriage seemed to have entered a smoother stretch of road, and the jolting lessened.
Liu Qiu’s gaze fell upon Liu Feng’s palm, which was wrapped in bandages.
It seemed she had properly tended to her wound.
After a moment’s hesitation, Liu Qiu said, “Liu Feng, can you let me stay in Liu Family Village? I don’t want to go anywhere else.”
Liu Feng’s eyes curved into crescents.
“Hmm…”
The way she appeared to consider it made Liu Qiu think there was hope, and expectation flickered unconsciously in her eyes.
But the next moment, Liu Feng said slowly, “That won’t do. Our family has to stay together forever.”
An anxious expression surfaced on Liu Qiu’s face.
“I want to go back.”
Liu Huang snorted with laughter and released her arm from around Liu Qiu’s waist.
“Go ahead and look. Do you think you can still go back from here?”
Liu Qiu immediately stood up, though she had to remain slightly bent in the cramped carriage.
She glanced at Liu Huang.
She had the System.
Though the System was not especially useful, it could at least help her locate a small place.
And after just one night, how far could the carriage have gone?
They surely were not too far from Liu Family Village.
“I can find the way back,” Liu Qiu insisted stubbornly.
Seeing her like this, Liu Feng laughed softly and shook her head.
“Sister Qiu, be careful not to fall.”
Liu Qiu slowly moved toward the carriage entrance and looked outside.
Two horses trotted steadily ahead, and greenery filled her vision.
She saw trees larger, denser, and more numerous than those on the mountain near Liu Family Village.
Even the sunlight could only slip through in narrow beams.
[System, how far are we from Liu Family Village?]
The System replied: [Host, thirty-five kilometers.]
Liu Qiu pressed her lips together.
It was not that far; in modern times, a car could cover that distance quickly, but this was ancient times.
If she walked on foot with this body of hers, she probably would not even make it out of this forest.
Just as she was considering a solution, her waist tightened, and she was pulled back into the carriage.
“Sister Qiu, you should continue resting.”
Liu Qiu was about to refuse when the scent of medicine reached her nose, and then her mind went completely blank.
Cradling Liu Qiu’s limp body in her arms, Liu Feng sighed softly.
“If Sister Qiu were a little more obedient, I wouldn’t have to use these things.”
Liu Huang’s expression was faint.
“Elder Sister, your medicines are too strange. I always feel the odd things Liu Feng finds will hurt people.”
“Do you know that the medicine you gave me last time made the sickly one cough up blood?”
Liu Feng pressed a hand to her own chest and gently brushed her fingers across Liu Qiu’s pale cheek.
“Huang’er, that time was my mistake.”
“But I don’t want to hurt her now. I just… Huang’er, trust me this once.”
Liu Huang lowered her eyes and said nothing.
Liu Feng’s smile faded slightly.
She lowered her head and kissed Liu Qiu’s tightly closed eyes.
“I’m sorry.”
Liu Huang did not speak.
She folded her arms and closed her eyes lightly.
Perhaps because she and Liu Feng were twins, what she liked, it was only natural that Liu Feng would like as well.
So she did not find it strange at all that Liu Feng kissed Liu Qiu.
It would still take a month to reach the capital, but no one would come to disturb them anymore.
Neither that Daoist, nor Su Li.
The affairs of the Liu family should never have involved outsiders in the first place.
The scorching sunlight poured down from high above, fierce and blinding.
The blood on Bai Qingqing’s body had long since congealed into black.
She stood before a household, staring at the empty courtyard.
She laughed soundlessly, then was seized by a violent fit of coughing, tears spilling out along with it as she clutched her collar and collapsed to the ground in disarray.
It was gone.
Qiuqiu had left again.
“Qiuqiu, why won’t you even give me one chance?”
She could not tell whether her body hurt more or her heart.
Bai Qingqing laughed again, her smile widening gradually to a near-twisted degree.
“It’s fine. As long as Qiuqiu is still in this world, I will find you.”
But in the blink of an eye, the smile faded, and Bai Qingqing broke down into hysterical sobs.
“Why? Why don’t you want me?”
Her crazed appearance, combined with her blood-soaked body, was terrifying to behold.
Perhaps from exhaustion, she eventually stopped crying, curled her body up, and slowly closed her eyes.
Why had she failed to control her emotions again?
How could Qiuqiu like her in such a state?
“Daozhang.”
A childish voice sounded in midair.
Bai Qingqing gave a low hum and said hoarsely, “Xiao Chan, I’ll sleep for a while.”
She needed to rest.
Once she had rested enough, she could go look for Qiuqiu again.
She still had to wash up and dress nicely; Qiuqiu would surely like someone beautiful.
The air gradually grew quiet, with only occasional birdsong proving the scene was not frozen in time.
Xiao Chan kept watch beside Bai Qingqing.
Suddenly, she turned sharply in alert toward a patch of grass.
A white fox darted out from the dense undergrowth.
At a glance, Xiao Chan knew it was that fox demon.
Her emotions tightened immediately.
In this situation, she did not know whether she could protect the Daozhang.
Yet to Xiao Chan’s surprise, the fox merely glanced this way twice before slipping into the courtyard in a flash.
Su Li had followed Bai Qingqing’s scent to this place.
She felt that something was not right, yet she could not pinpoint what it was.
Though she had only met the Daoist once, the Daoist had asked her, “Do you remember Liu Qiu?”
The moment that name appeared, her head began to ache.
She searched through her memories and was certain there was no one named Liu Qiu in them.
Moreover, she was a demon.
How could she have entangled herself with a human?
She was not like her sisters.
Yet a strange emotion rose within her heart, something like restlessness, something like pain.
Unable to find an outlet, she found herself unable to continue cultivating.
The wound near her heart was also strange; she did not know when she had received it.
She had clearly been cultivating in her cave the entire time, only occasionally going to places with many humans to drink blood.
After swiftly searching every room, Su Li found nothing.
The house was empty, though traces of human presence lingered, as if they had not left long ago.
Standing in the courtyard, her eyes darted about.
She thought of the unconscious Daoist outside and the little ghost guarding her.
Su Li ran back out and stopped in front of the little ghost.
Xiao Chan’s expression was extremely vigilant, her eyes fixed fiercely on the white fox before her.
“Fox demon, you are not allowed to harm the Daozhang.”
Su Li narrowed her eyes.
This little ghost was so certain she would harm the Daoist; it seemed she knew her.
Su Li gave a soft laugh.
“I won’t harm her, but may I ask where Liu Qiu has gone?”
Xiao Chan’s face remained expressionless.
Foxes were cunning by nature; she would not believe a single word from this fox.
Black mist swirled faintly around her as she prepared to resist at any moment.
Su Li parted her fox mouth slightly, bent her hind legs, and sat neatly on the ground, her tail swaying gently.
Her tone turned soft.
“I said I won’t harm her. Just tell me where Liu Qiu went.”
The little white fox sitting on the ground with her head raised looked incomparably well-behaved, almost deceptively so.
Xiao Chan locked eyes with her for a long while and indeed sensed no killing intent from the fox demon.
If the fox chose to act by force, she would not be able to defeat her anyway.
Xiao Chan floated down, her feet appearing to land on the ground though they did not truly touch it.
“I don’t know where Sister Liu Qiu has gone,” she said.
The Daozhang had told her to search, but she had not found anything.
However, she carried a spell cast by the Daozhang that allowed her to locate the Daozhang’s position.
When she arrived, she had seen the Daozhang lying blood-soaked on the ground, though it seemed that the blood was not the Daozhang’s.
The Daozhang’s vitality was still strong.
Su Li’s ears twitched.
So this little ghost truly did know Liu Qiu.
“Little girl, Liu Qiu owes me a lot of silver. I want to find her.”
The moment she heard this, Xiao Chan’s brows furrowed in anger.
“As expected of a filthy demon! You’re already married to Sister Liu Qiu, yet you’re still thinking about money! Disgusting!”
Su Li’s furry face revealed no expression, but a trace of contemplation surfaced in her golden eyes.
It seemed she had lost some of her memories.
If she had married a human, given her personality, it must have been for the convenience of absorbing human essence and blood.
And if she had gone to such lengths, that human’s vitality must have been especially pure and rare.
Should she go look for her or not?
She was only a human.
There was no need for her to expend effort.
Su Li stood up straight, let out a short howl toward Xiao Chan, then turned and darted back into the grass.
Xiao Chan let out a small breath of relief.
The fox truly had not intended to attack her.
Su Li did not return to the mountain but instead ran toward the village.
Though she was reluctant to admit it, that human was probably very important to her.
Otherwise, why would hearing the human’s name make her feel sad, even without her memories?
She would go find that human.
If that household had not left long ago, then surely someone in the village would know something.
“Ah, how enviable.”
“Isn’t it? From now on, they’ll be people of the capital.”
“It really is like their ancestors’ graves are smoking with good fortune. But that Liu Qiu is pitiful. She died before she could enjoy wealth and glory.”
“Don’t pretend to feel sorry for her. Back then you cursed her the hardest, saying she was an outsider and urging us all to ostracize her. The Liu couple had no choice but to move to a remote place and keep their distance from us. If they hadn’t moved away, wouldn’t we neighbors now have some connection to the capital?”
“Don’t talk about me. You didn’t curse her any less. Bah, damned thing, deserves to be poor for life.”
The group that had begun by discussing gradually devolved into mutual insults.
Su Li stopped listening.
She had already heard the key information.
So they had gone to the capital.
If You Notice any translation issues or inconsistency in names, genders, or POV etc? Let us know here in the comments or on our Discord server, and we’ll fix it in current and future chapters. Thanks for helping us to improve! 🙂