Chapter 352 A satyr and a lady

Du Yao asked, “Ms. He, what did you write? Why would you give me that? Even I have become like this after being taken away twelve years of internal force. I don’t want you to risk your life for giving it back to me. After all, you’ve saved my life before.”

Shaking her head, He Danggui replied, “Of course, I should make it up since I did wrong things. Please be patient and wait for me. Take good care of yourself. I will manage to save you. Never give up on yourself or even give up your life.”

Gao Jue was reading the IOU. It wrote, “If I fail to help him recover, I will regard Du Yao as my elder brother and take care of him till the end of my life.” Judging from the touching conversation between them, Du Yao was pitying her, and He Danggui looked so righteous. Was it really what a satyr and a lady almost hurt by him would say to each other? It’s so strange. Something must have happened between the two. When had He Danggui been so “gentle” to a man? Everyone knew how Duan Xiaolou treated her, but she was still very coldblooded. Du Yao only stayed with her in this room once, and her attitude changed rapidly. It was indeed suspicious.

Du Yao said, “I deserved it. If we had to do that again, I would take the same action. You don’t need to feel guilty. I can accept it.”

He Danggui replied, “Anyway, just trust me. I will also keep this matter in my mind. Whenever you feel sad or unconformable, you can think of me and take a look at the IOU. Then, you may feel hopeful again.” She found Du Yao’s hand under the sheet, took it out, and shook it vigorously as if she wanted to pass him some strength in this way, “Where there is life, there is hope. Master Lu and I, all of us will never give up on you. Thus, you shouldn’t give up, either.”

Du Yao forced a smile and said, “Don’t worry. I never said that I would give up my life. There are thousands of people in the world that don’t have kung fu at all. They still live happily, don’t they? If I hadn’t learned kung fu at first and had just grown up as an ordinary person, I would still have been who I am right now.”

He Danggui shook her head and refuted him, “I’ve experienced how happy it was when I became a master from an ordinary person. The happier you were at that time, the more upset you would be after losing all internal force. Du Yao, the IOU will always be valid and there is my fingerprint on it. Even if I fail to repay it, I will ask my master to do it. Thus, you should be positive.”

Hearing their sincere talk, Gao Jue finally couldn’t help interrupting them. He asked, “What charades are you playing? What happened to you in this room before? Du Yao, how did you lose your internal force? I didn’t know she was capable of doing this.”

Gao Jue had chosen to support Du Yao who was injured since the very beginning. No matter if he was “castrated” or “robbed” of his internal force, he was always on Du Yao’s side. However, Gao Jue couldn’t deny that it’s Du Yao who was in the wrong. He Danggui was innocent and she almost lost her virginity. If she hadn’t been so smart, the situation would have been worse when they entered the room. Therefore, Gao Jue couldn’t help wondering why she kept apologizing to the man that almost raped her after she had gotten away from him. No one could blame her hard in any way even if she had mistakenly killed him, because she was the victim and Du Yao asked for it.

Du Yao asked back, “What does the note say?”

Gao Jue answered, “It says she will definitely give the twelve years of internal force back to you no matter how long it will take or how hard it will be. If she fails to do that, she will regard you as her elder brother, live with you and take care of you till the end.”

Hearing this, Du Yao laughed and said, “That must be a big fortune to me. I gain a sister for nothing.” He laughed for a while and then, said to himself, “It’s just internal force. It doesn’t matter a lot to give it to my wife or sister.”

He Danggui comforted him, “It’s not “giving” but “borrowing”. I know a master who will be able to save you. If you take good care of yourself and wait for the treatment, I will grant you the request you mentioned before after you’re recovered.”

“Really?” Du Yao stared at her in surprise and said, “You’re not lying to me?”

“It can’t be more real,” He Danggui replied sincerely, “I’ll be a dog if I’m lying to you. I… I can even do it right now.” Then, she puckered up her lips and slowly approached Du Yao’s forehead. She got closer and closer with her eyes closed.

“Stop! Stop! Don’t do it!” Du Yao became flustered and shouted, “I’m not ready yet. Maybe next time. I’ve already seen your sincerity. I trust you!”

Du Yao trusted her, but Gao Jue was shocked. He asked, “What exactly are you doing? Can anyone explain it to me?”

He Danggui turned around and looked at Gao Jue’s boots. The frost was still there. Although she was still mad at him, she thought revenge was a dish best served cold. She could cure his legs first and ask him to pay for it in the future. Thinking about this, she grabbed two needles between her fingers in both hands. She pricked them respectively on the Xuehai acupoints of his left and right knees and massaged the meridians on his calves with bare hands. It could invigorate the circulation of blood and qi and nourish yang.

Taken care of by a beauty, Gao Jue didn’t feel grateful and kept mumbling as if he was noble. Instead of getting angry, He Danggui squatted beside his feet and said while massaging his calves, “The reason why I don’t hate Master Du and even feel guilty about him is that I find he’s a clumsy good man. He brought me here when I passed out and got ambushed by that Nihon master, but he did nothing bad to me after the drug had taken effect. I’m very grateful to him. But at that time, after being provoked by that Nihon master, I attacked Master Du with needles. He got panicked and hit me with his palm. Then, his internal force ran into my body while he was healing me. This is what happened between us. We made mistakes one after another, so we were even. However, I haven’t been hurt while he has suffered a lot. I must take responsibility for it.”

What He Danggui said was generally true. She was hit at her neck by Jiang Yi in the courtyard and she indeed stayed in a coma for about thirty minutes. During that period, Du Yao had been ambushed by Xue Xiao and stepped on the Jin Mai Nail with a strong philter. If he had lost control and assaulted her at that time, she would have been unable to save the situation though she’s smart. But somehow Du Yao suppressed the effect of the philter and didn’t do anything to a young lady that had passed out. Instead, he just sat at the corner of the room and waited for her to wake up. Xue Xiao just stood there as a looker-on.

Then, He Danggui woke up and they talked about it. She knew they were imperial guards and she figured out that Xue Xiao was from Nihon. Xue Xiao was nothing different from people in the Central Plains on his accent or dressing because he had lived here for many years. However, in the previous life, He Danggui met lots of people from Nihon in Wuying Tower. Actually, the first members of Wuying Tower were dozens of masters brought back by Zhu Quan after he went to Nihon that year. It became a killer group gradually based on that. Thus, with her intuition and experience, He Danggui thought Xue Xiao was from Nihon and Du Yao was a rich man in the capital. And their vicious looks were fixed on her at the same time.

After asking several more questions, He Danggui got an idea gradually. She would attack Du Yao and pretend to be harmed by him. Then, she would ask him to give her the antidote of the cold poison, fight back and find a chance to run away. But she was wrong on one thing that Du Yao and Gao Jue weren’t from the same school of kung fu. There was no coldness in Du Yao’s palm force, so he didn’t have any antidote of cold poison!

Feeling disappointed, He Danggui pretended to be weak, leaned against the head of the bed, and asked Du Yao to heal her. Du Yao was a bit delirious. He took off his boots, got on the bed, and held her in his arms. Then, he began to feed Zhenqi to her to do the “treatment”. He released all of it and was so generous that the Zhenqi ran into her body like flowing water.

At this time, He Danggui could have hit him with her palm and controlled him, but Du Yao was so mannered on the bed. He put one hand on her back to feed Zhenqi to her and put his other hand behind his back. He was trying so hard to suppress the philter’s influence that his forehead was sweating. He also recited the Heart Sutra to resist the vicious intents in his mind. All evilness and wildness shown in his eyes before were gone. He Danggui could even see his hand on his back was bleeding because he clenched it so hard that his fingernails hurt his palm. The blood dripped slowly on the bed. Facing such a righteous gentleman, she couldn’t bear to hit him. However, if she could put the clock back, she would rather hit him at that time. Then, things after that would haven’t happened at all.

Later, He Danggui saw the bookshelf and the old covers of those books on it. She knew they were the only existing copies of lots of ancient books. She was curious, so she got out of bed to read them. Du Yao didn’t stop her and let her read them freely, but he kept feeding Zhenqi to her with his hand on her back. He just followed her everywhere she went.

He Danggui wanted to stop him, but she didn’t do it. She thought she had been frightened and she could take some of his internal force as compensation. Thinking about gaining petty advantages like this, she read books one after another rapidly and remembered all the content. Gradually, she found that all of them were banned books from Imperial Guards and the imperial palace. There were amazing secret rumors written in almost each of them. The more she read, the more shocked she became. She couldn’t help wondering why Du Yao would let her read these banned books she should never know!

She turned around to look at Du Yao. He grinned and said, “Miss, after reading these books, you’ll be part of Imperial Guards. Now you have two choices. First, you can marry me. Second, you die. You will lose the chance to choose if I tell others about it.”

He Danggui realized she was tricked. Feeling upset, she asked him, “You had many chances to hurt me just now, but you didn’t. Thus, you must be a good man and a gentleman, or maybe a mediocre woman like me can’t attract you at all. Please show me some mercy and keep the fact that I’ve read books in Crystal Tower as a secret, okay?” She looked pitiful while saying this.

Du Yao shook his head and replied, “No. I must marry you. You get prepared mentally. I’ll visit your families and talk about our marriage tomorrow. Hey, don’t look so wronged and pitiful. I have a good enough family background and personality to marry you. You should feel grateful for being liked and proposed by a man like me.”

He Danggui lowered her head and cried while Du Yao still kept feeding Zhenqi to her. Then, she wiped the tears and said, “Then, you should write an engagement contract now. Just write down whatever I say. I’ll agree if you can fulfill all the requirements I mention.”