Chapter 418 - 417: Nightmare
The food box contained simple porridge and small dishes.
At this moment, compared to lavish meals, these simple foods were more appetizing.
Du Yunluo had two bowls and then asked them to be taken away.
Jin Rui suggested, "Madam, why don’t you take a nap?"
Du Yunluo smiled slightly, got up, walked to the side of the Arhat Bed, and said, "I’m waiting for the Princely Heir to return."
Jin Rui, who had been attending to Du Yunluo for many years, knew her temperament well. Her lady might be gentle and easygoing, but once she made up her mind, no one could persuade her otherwise.
Supporting Du Yunluo into a half-reclined position, Jin Rui placed a pillow at her neck.
Though she said she was waiting, after having a bowl of calming soup earlier, as soon as Du Yunluo lay down, her eyelids drooped, and she quickly fell asleep.
Jin Rui dimmed the oil lamp and quietly kept watch.
After two quarters of an hour, Mu Lianxiao returned. Seeing Du Yunluo asleep, he quietly went into the washroom.
These past few days, he had been on the move non-stop, with hardly any free time.
The bloodstains on his face and body, it was hard to say if they were from the Great Desert or from the siege, and after being smoked by two big fires, he was covered in soot.
After freshening up, Mu Lianxiao returned to the next room, where Du Yunluo was still asleep.
He gestured to Jin Rui, who understood and followed him to the main room.
"What exactly happened?" Mu Lianxiao asked Jin Rui in a low voice.
Mu Lianxiao only knew that Du Yunluo had knocked out the intruder today. He hadn’t had time to ask for the details.
Jin Rui had been with Du Yunluo all along. Recalling the evening’s events, her face turned pale as she took a deep breath and said, "It happened just as the fire on the north side was stopping. The eldest madam smelled the smoke and rushed in, and the madam started looking around inside the room.
Just as she reached the north window, a sudden blaze erupted outside, breaking the window. We saw the intruder’s sleeve on fire as he turned, wielding a dagger, trying to come inside.
We were all so scared and shocked that we couldn’t react at all.
Madam grabbed a porcelain bottle and knocked the man unconscious. In the end, she was so terrified that the eldest madam had to drag her out of the room."
Mu Lianxiao’s heart pounded as he listened.
An assailant with fire on him, wielding a dagger, and his Yunluo was just standing by the window. If she hadn’t been determined and knocked the assailant out, wouldn’t Yunluo have been the first to get hurt?
The room was full of women and children. Even if there were two sturdy old women, they couldn’t have overpowered a villain willing to die together!
By the time the Government Official and Protector heard the noise and rushed in, the villain might have already...
Mu Lianxiao’s hands clenched tightly.
Du Yunluo had escaped from danger, and the others were all safe, but Mu Lianxiao’s heart beat heavier with each thought.
He hadn’t thought much about it while busy earlier, but now that he knew what happened, he wished he could grind that villain’s bones to dust!
Suddenly, Mu Lianxiao heard a low whimper. He quickly lifted the curtain and entered the next room.
Du Yunluo’s breathing had become heavier.
She was sleeping soundly on the pillow at first, but gradually her body grew heavier. She wanted to move, but it felt like a thousand-pound stone was pressing on her, preventing any movement.
Even her fingertips couldn’t move.
She was sometimes clear-headed, sometimes muddled. The intruder with bloodshot eyes and a dagger appeared in her mind.
His whole body was on fire among the surging waves of heat. Du Yunluo heard hoarse, sinister laughter, mingled with the sound of flesh burning, crashing into her ears.
She even smelled the scent of burning flesh.
The intruder advanced step by step. Du Yunluo’s feet seemed nailed to the ground; she couldn’t move an inch.
She widened her eyes, but there were no floral stands or porcelain bottles in the corner, nothing within sight to protect herself.
And the intruder continued to approach, the flames on him almost reaching her.
The more terrified she was, the more she struggled, the less she could move.
Du Yunluo wanted to scream, to cry out, but she couldn’t do anything.
Suddenly, someone pushed her, and she seemed to fall from the air, her body convulsing violently as her eyes snapped open, gasping for breath.
The oil lamp illuminated the room. She saw Mu Lianxiao sitting beside her, nervous and worried. Jin Rui twisted a cloth and handed it to Mu Lianxiao, who placed the warm cloth on Du Yunluo’s forehead.
"Had a nightmare?" Mu Lianxiao, suppressing his anger towards the intruder, gently spoke to Du Yunluo.
Du Yunluo blinked, her long lashes trembling.
The cloth wiped away the cold sweat on her face. Mu Lianxiao hugged Du Yunluo and said, "Yunluo, listen to me.
The Changping Marquis’s private soldiers in the desert have mostly been wiped out by us, and Jia De has been captured. The rest were attacked by us inside and outside the city gate.
Changping Marquis is at his wit’s end. He’s already defeated.
It’s all over now, you don’t have to be afraid anymore."
Du Yunluo opened her mouth, wanting to speak, but her lips trembled, and her teeth chattered uncontrollably.
The images in her dream were clear and complete, yet they weren’t merely dreams. They were scenes she had witnessed firsthand.
She gripped Mu Lianxiao’s hand tightly, biting her lip hard. "I-I didn’t know anything at that time. When he rushed in, I just used the porcelain bottle to crush him.
Then he fell to the ground, motionless at first. I didn’t know if he was unconscious or dead.
I was terrified; I couldn’t hear anything. I thought Brother Yan must be crying, but I couldn’t hear a single sound.
When the eldest madam came to drag me, my feet had no feeling. I didn’t know how to walk.
He wasn’t dead; he wasn’t dead at that time...
The fire was burning him all over. I watched him in the fire. He could move, he convulsed, he rolled.
I stood in the courtyard, constantly thinking about how he was, whether he was still rolling...
The eldest madam talked to me. I only saw her lips move, but I couldn’t hear.
Even though the fire was so big, I was very, very cold.
Later, later you came. You kept calling me, and I heard you...
I told myself not to be afraid, not to be afraid. I didn’t do anything wrong. If I didn’t kill him, he would kill me, Brother Yan, the eldest madam, the eldest sister-in-law, Brother Duan, and the daughter...
I couldn’t let him harm us. If it happened again, I would kill him, ruthlessly smash him with the porcelain bottle.
But...
But I just saw him again, standing in front of me covered in flames, staring at me, wanting to die together with me.
I wanted to run, but I couldn’t move..."
Du Yunluo’s voice trembled, more violently than her body. Her usually soft and sweet voice was filled with fear, seemingly rooted in her heart.
Jin Rui listened as tears streamed down her face. She turned away and crouched on the ground, crying silently.
She felt utterly useless. At the time, she was stunned, and if it weren’t for Yang Family calling her, she wouldn’t have thought to pull Du Yunluo away from the fire.
If she had been braver, just a bit braver, her master wouldn’t have suffered so.
Mu Lianxiao didn’t interrupt Du Yunluo. She needed to voice it. Only by saying it would she find relief; if she kept it bottled inside, the nightmares would be endless.
His hand, gripped tightly by Du Yunluo, felt the pressure. Her fear brought immense strength, beyond what his rough skin could withstand.
Yet Mu Lianxiao found comfort and reality in it. The pain indicated Du Yunluo was alive and so was he.