Female Consort Chapter 56: The Past

Qiu Che felt disoriented throughout the entire night, her mind hazy, unsure of what time it was when she finally regained consciousness.

When she opened her eyes again, the sky had already brightened.

Two pieces of clothing, dried from the night, lay on top of her, though they had become somewhat torn from her fall off the cliff and into the water.

Li Qingwu sat beside her, her knees bent, head lowered. She appeared to have kept vigil in this posture all night long.

Qiu Che licked her dry lips, glancing at the sky outside. With some effort, she propped herself up.

She reached out to tap Li Qingwu’s shoulder gently, as if trying to wake her without disturbing something fragile: “Qingwu… wake up.”

Li Qingwu slowly lifted her eyelids, still half lost in sleep.

Qiu Che spoke softly, “It’s dawn.”

She had made it through.

Li Qingwu’s eyes brightened with joy, but when they met Qiu Che’s pale face, her expression dimmed again.

She sniffed, stretching her stiff limbs, and reached out to help Qiu Che to her feet.

Her strength wasn’t enough, and with her small feet, it had been a stroke of luck that she had managed to carry Qiu Che step by step to this temporary refuge the previous day.

Now, without food and only a few hours of sleep, the weight of Qiu Che on her shoulders made her sway slightly.

The two frail figures leaned on each other, both looking equally disheveled.

Qiu Che noticed that Li Qingwu’s complexion wasn’t any better. Seeing her about to squat down and carry her again, Qiu Che quietly withdrew some strength and hoarsely said, “No need to carry me. I…”

Before she could finish, Li Qingwu pressed her lips together, gently but firmly interrupting her, “Get on my back.”

“We need someone to keep their strength up,” Li Qingwu reasoned, “You’re still recovering from a fever. I have some strength left. I’ll carry you.”

Qiu Che remained silent, reluctantly conceding that she was right.

Fortunately, they were both women, and Qiu Che’s tall, slender build meant she wasn’t too heavy.

Without further words, Li Qingwu carried Qiu Che, quickly leaving the cave.

“Do you know where we are?” Li Qingwu asked, looking around at the desolate surroundings, nothing but dense greenery stretching endlessly.

Li Qingwu shook her head. “I was just focused on finding shelter yesterday. We took many different paths, and I can’t remember which direction we came from.”

She couldn’t remember, and Qiu Che, who had fainted along the way, certainly had no idea.

They exchanged a glance, and after a moment, Li Qingwu said, “We can only keep going forward now.”

Retreating meant returning the way they came, and that path had led nowhere.

Qiu Che sighed. “It’s the only choice.”

To conserve energy, Li Qingwu didn’t speak much for the rest of the journey.

They walked for what felt like hours, until the sun was almost at its peak, when Qiu Che passed out again, only to be roused by Li Qingwu’s anxious calls.

Hearing Li Qingwu’s increasingly labored breath and faltering steps, Qiu Che asked groggily, “Where are we?”

For a long time, they had been walking around the base of the mountain.

But they hadn’t encountered a single soul.

Li Qingwu didn’t answer.

Qiu Che sensed something was wrong and called again in a hoarse voice, “Qingwu?”

Li Qingwu seemed to snap back to reality, her response delayed. When she spoke, her voice was hoarse, barely audible. “I… don’t know.”

Qiu Che listened carefully to the surroundings, her hearing, honed through years of martial arts training, was far sharper than Li Qingwu’s. “I hear water,” she said, her voice growing urgent.

She patted Li Qingwu’s shoulder. “Let me down. We should drink some water and rest.”

Li Qingwu sluggishly responded, her movements slow as she lowered Qiu Che to the ground.

The moment Qiu Che’s feet touched the earth, Li Qingwu wobbled, and Qiu Che instinctively grabbed her arm to steady her.

Furrowing her brow, Qiu Che noticed something was off. “What’s wrong with you?”

Li Qingwu’s lips were cracked, and her face was even paler than Qiu Che’s. Yet, she simply closed her eyes briefly, forcing herself to stand up again.

“I’m fine.”

But she clearly wasn’t fine.

Qiu Che grew concerned, watching Li Qingwu closely, trying to see if she had any injuries she hadn’t noticed.

And then she saw it.

Ignoring the dizziness in her head, Qiu Che moved quickly and grabbed Li Qingwu’s arm, urgently saying, “There’s blood.”

Seeing the confusion in Li Qingwu’s eyes, Qiu Che looked down at her nearly worn-out embroidered shoes and gritted her teeth. “Your feet are bleeding! Don’t you feel it?”

Li Qingwu sluggishly glanced down, then quickly stepped back a few paces, avoiding Qiu Che’s hand.

She mumbled, “It’s fine.”

Qiu Che’s worry turned to frustration. “How can it be fine? Come here, take off your shoes, and let me see, ”

But as soon as she took a step forward, Li Qingwu recoiled again, as if avoiding a wild animal.

The atmosphere froze.

Qiu Che’s hand hung in the air, and after a long pause, she finally understood.

“You… don’t want me to look?”

Li Qingwu averted her gaze, her body stiffening in an instinctive act of resistance, an oddly familiar posture.

She managed to squeeze out a single word through her lips. “Ugly.”

Qiu Che couldn’t help but laugh and cry at the same time. “It’s not ugly.” At a time like this, the injury mattered more than appearance.

Li Qingwu shook her head again. “No, ugly.”

Qiu Che patiently explained, “It’s not ugly. I won’t mind. Just take off your shoes, let me see…”

No matter what she said, Li Qingwu’s response remained the same: “No. Ugly.”

By the third time, Qiu Che detected a subtle tremor and a hint of tears in Li Qingwu’s voice.

She stopped urging, silently studying her for a long moment.

Li Qingwu had turned her head away, doing everything she could to avoid showing any vulnerability at this moment. Her pale neck strained as she held back a sob.

She blinked, forcing herself not to cry, and in a low voice whispered, “Please, don’t look.”

Perhaps realizing that her insistence might seem unreasonable, Li Qingwu’s eyes began to redden from the pressure. She clearly didn’t want to waste any more time on this matter, but she was clearly fighting a losing battle.

Now wasn’t the time to argue.

Qiu Che didn’t push further. Instead, she turned away, speaking softly, “Alright, I won’t look. But you should check yourself. If there’s a wound, wash it in the water…”

A long silence followed before she heard a soft reply from behind her: “Mm.”

Li Qingwu’s injury wasn’t too serious, but the bleeding had clearly slowed her down significantly.

Not long after, Qiu Che was supporting the limping Li Qingwu.

After replenishing their water, both regained some strength and walked in silence for a long while.

When they exited another stretch of bamboo forest, Qiu Che looked up. Ahead was still a vast expanse of forest, with a slight mist lingering in the air, making her fall into deep thought.

Li Qingwu slightly parted her lips, looking like a fish out of water.

She wore a coat, her appearance unusually disheveled and haggard, yet her strikingly cold and beautiful features, pale as they were, made her undeniably captivating.

Noticing Qiu Che’s hesitation, Li Qingwu lifted her head slowly and asked, “What’s wrong?”

Qiu Che snapped out of her brief daze, lowered her head to steady Li Qingwu, and replied, “It’s nothing.”

“Our pace hasn’t been slow. If we were still in Jinzhou City, there should have been some houses near the foot of the mountain, and we’d likely have been rescued by now... But we’ve been walking for so long, and not a soul in sight.”

Li Qingwu swallowed unconsciously. “Hmm... So, does that mean we’re no longer near Jinzhou City?”

“It’s just a suspicion,” Qiu Che said. “When we fell off the cliff, the water below was fast. It’s a good thing you woke up so quickly after falling into the water, or we might not have made it ashore... That river leads to the city’s moat. Even though we’ve taken several detours, we’ve mostly been walking along its bank, but we still haven’t seen any sign of the moat.”

Li Qingwu fell silent. “Could we have taken the wrong path?”

Qiu Che nodded, then shook her head.

“What do you mean?”

“It’s not just that. We’ve probably landed on the wrong bank too.”

If they had followed the other side, heading in the opposite direction, they would likely have been rescued by now.

But the problem was, neither of them knew that side was the right one. They had already walked quite a distance on this side, and the river had several branches.

It was clear that they had been following one of the river’s many forks, and now they had entered an unfamiliar region.

Qiu Che had a guess, but didn’t dare to voice it.

Jinzhou borders the Southern Yi, and to enter the Southern Yi territory, one must cross a poisonous marshy forest.

Qiu Che had never been to this forest, but she knew that the forests in the Southern Yi were not marked with boundaries and blended seamlessly with other woods.

When she served in the army, she had fortunately entered a non-toxic part of the forest, which allowed her to return safely.

But now...

Qiu Che turned her head to look back at the path they had taken.

The forest was filled with their footsteps, the trail they had created with each step. There was also a faint mist drifting through the air, so subtle that it was almost invisible unless you looked closely.

She had just replenished their water, yet their conditions were deteriorating so quickly.

If they had truly wandered into the Southern Yi’s forest...

A chill ran down Qiu Che’s spine, and she couldn’t bear to think any further.

Supporting Li Qingwu, she spoke in a low voice, “We can’t keep going forward. I’ll take you back.”

Li Qingwu paused for a moment, then seemed to realize something, meeting Qiu Che’s gaze.

She then said, “I don’t have the strength anymore.”

She asked a sharp question, “Do you remember when we started seeing the mist on the way here?”

Qiu Che didn’t answer.

She couldn’t remember, because even the mist she had noticed only hit her after the fact.

She understood Li Qingwu’s meaning.

If they retraced their steps in their current exhausted state, they would still breathe in the toxic mist, and might even become more poisoned.

It would be better to rest and see if they could adjust their conditions.

After all, there were rumors that some people had survived after entering the Southern Yi’s forests, though they were all from the Southern Yi.

This forest had isolated the Southern Yi from the prying eyes of others. To launch an attack, one would have to take a longer, roundabout route.

But by doing so, the Southern Yi would be aware of any approaching forces, making it hard for the Great Xia to conquer them.

Li Qingwu spoke these words, and neither of them noticed the thoughtful look in each other’s eyes.

Qiu Che stopped, tacitly accepting the situation and no longer mentioning turning back.

The two of them stopped by the riverbank, leaning against a large stone. Qiu Che whispered her plan to Li Qingwu, she would swim to the opposite bank, perhaps there was still a chance of survival.

But that plan was risky. This river was much wider and faster than the one they had fallen into.

Li Qingwu remained silent.

As Qiu Che was speaking, a gust of wind blew by, and she felt her eyelids growing heavy.

Before long, her eyes fluttered shut. She still held the herbs she had found along the path, and her hand, crushing the medicinal juice, froze mid-motion.

Half-conscious, Qiu Che heard a rustling sound from beside her, as though Li Qingwu was getting up.

Struggling to keep her eyes open, Qiu Che saw Li Qingwu squatting in front of her, her expression calm, her form fragile.

Li Qingwu reached out and gently touched Qiu Che’s cheek with her fingertip.

Unconsciously, Qiu Che followed the movement, her hand brushing against it like a child searching for the comforting presence of someone dear.

Li Qingwu smiled faintly, withdrawing her hand and softly saying, “Sleep.”

As soon as the words were spoken, it was as if Qiu Che had received some sort of command. She quickly closed her eyes, her breathing becoming even and slow.

Li Qingwu took off her outer garment and draped it over Qiu Che’s head. This was to prevent the toxic mist from corroding her body while she slept.

With the fabric covering her, the poison would spread much more slowly.

Li Qingwu took one last look at Qiu Che, then, with a resolute expression, hobbled toward the depths of the forest.

Had Qiu Che been awake, she would have noticed that Li Qingwu was in a far better state than her.

The mist didn’t affect her.

Qiu Che only felt as though she was dreaming, and the dream seemed unusually long.

What was strange was that the protagonist of the dream wasn’t her, but Li Qingwu.

She saw the trajectory of their past lives.

She saw herself in the great hall, where the emperor, in a furious rage, smashed things and shouted that he would have Qiu Che imprisoned and beheaded. It was Li Qingwu, who knelt three times and kowtowed nine times, offering a plan to marry Qiu Che and silence the rumors, thus saving her life.

A low-ranking official didn’t matter.

What mattered was that Li Qingwu had protected her after she had been dishonored by the princess.

Through a fortunate series of events, Li Qingwu managed to secure Qiu Che’s safety.

From the perspective of an observer, Qiu Che suddenly realized something.

Long, long ago, before she even knew it, Li Qingwu had already saved her.

And not just once.