A piece of Japanese incense

Chapter 256 Being targeted

Yu Nian supported Zhi Yihe, avoiding jagged rocks and heading towards the sea of flowers. The closer they got to the cliff, the stronger the wind became, rustling their clothes and bringing with it the faint fragrance of the golden lantern flowers.

When Zhi Yihe's feet stepped onto the edge of the soft flowers and the slender leaves of the golden lantern brushed against her skirt, the blurry darkness before her eyes was instantly swallowed up by a dazzling white light!

"Ugh..." Zhi Yihe only had time to let out a short, muffled groan before his body seemed to have all the bones pulled out, and he fell backwards softly!

"Ah He?!" Yu Nian grabbed her limp body: "Ah He! What's wrong with you?!" Yu Nian called out anxiously and took her pulse. The pulse was disordered and extremely weak. He looked at the sea of golden lanterns swaying in the wind. The golden flowers seemed full of weirdness in his eyes at this moment.

Consciousness sank, and in the dead silence and nothingness, a tiny light lit up, and then countless broken images, sharp sounds, and piercing emotions rushed into Zhi Yihe's mind!

She "saw" her younger self, dressed in finery but standing alone in the courtyard. Her father, Zhi Yian, had achieved top honors on the imperial examinations, and soon married the eldest princess. The princess gave birth to a baby boy, Zhi Siqi. And her mother gave birth to her younger sister, Yuntang.

Yuntang, the little sun-like girl, attracted everyone's love since birth.

A gathering of noble ladies in the capital. She sat awkwardly in a corner, the whispers around her piercing her eardrums.

"Coming from a merchant family..."

"The stink of money..."

"Her mother was abandoned..."

“You are not worthy to sit at our table…”

The contemptuous looks made her feel uneasy. She tried hard to fit in, but all she got in return was alienation and ridicule.

The only one who reached out to her was Tian Tian, who had a gentle smile. They laughed and played together, sharing their girlish thoughts. She was her best friend in childhood.

However, misfortune struck. Tian Tian's father was convicted, and the entire family was imprisoned. When she saw Tian Tian again, she had become a servant, and she saw how haggard she looked. She feared being implicated, afraid of losing the dignity she had worked so hard to maintain.

When Tian Tian knelt down to beg her, she chose to retreat and watch coldly...

The next time I saw Tian Tian was when she was being taken to the execution ground. I heard that she had attempted to murder the prince, was caught on the spot, and was sentenced to beheading.

She didn't even have the courage to see her off. Later, she asked someone to inquire about her family and learned that her sister had been sold to a brothel. She was afraid that if people knew that she was involved with someone in the brothel, her reputation would be damaged, so she let the matter go.

She heard that Tian Tian had a younger brother who was still alive, but she didn't have the courage to do anything for him. The guilt and cowardice she felt became a permanent thorn in her heart.

She didn't know what she liked about Feng Zhixu, his elegant demeanor, his gentleness and thoughtfulness, his status and identity. In short, she gave her heart to him without reservation and indulged in that false tenderness.

Until that day, Feng Zhixu used the information she told him to plot the death of the crown prince! The man who trusted her unconditionally, who always followed her and stood up for her.

Prince Yun rebelled, plunging the country into chaos. Feng Zhixu was captured and imprisoned. And she, utterly tumbled from the cloud of "being loved."

In order to protect himself and to prevent his family from being implicated, her father hastily betrothed her to the crown prince Feng Jinqi.

Marrying into the Eastern Palace was like entering a tiger's den. To survive, for that pitiful sense of security, she chose to cling to him. She gave Feng Jinqi whatever he needed: family secrets, her grandmother's money, even Xiqi's national treasures. Like a drowning man, she grasped at Feng Jinqi's seemingly strong driftwood, offering him everything she knew without reservation.

Her "loyalty" was rewarded with catastrophic disaster! Using all the information she provided, Feng Jinqi seized the Cui family's vast wealth and the Xiqi national treasure. Without hesitation, he turned his sword against her, his "meritorious official" and "insider"! He slaughtered the Yun residence with blood! Grandfather, grandmother, mother... all the relatives she had longed for and resented, perished in a pool of blood!

Before her father died, he gave her a ring that could command thousands of people. They risked their lives to take her away from the Eastern Palace and escape the hell on earth where she had been imprisoned for a hundred days.

Zhi Yihe saw herself in this life, and in the cold winter, she saved Xiaohan regardless of the danger. At that time, she just thought it was a moment of weakness.

She saw that when she learned that Aban was in danger, she knew that she could not save herself, but she still racked her brains and risked her life to save him from the fire. At that time, she explained it as a moral obligation and a commitment.

……

Fragments of this life intertwine and collide with memories of past lives!

Boom——!

This is a revelation! That's it!

She always thought that she was kind-hearted and followed her heart. However, she didn't know that these so-called "kindness", every "helping hand", every "kindness" were not without reason!

That was the Zhi Yihe from her previous life, buried deep in her soul, the Zhi Yihe who had made countless mistakes and ultimately failed to save anyone.

A mixture of sadness, guilt, and... a sudden realization, tears rolled down from the corners of her tightly closed eyes.

The mountain wind howled at the edge of the cliff, rolling up the golden petals. The branch and body in her arms were frighteningly cold. Her tears soaked Yu Nian's clothes, but she showed no sign of waking up.

"Ah He! Wake up!" Yu Nian tried to wake her up. Zhi Yihe didn't respond to his call.

The familiar streets of Menghui City unfolded before her eyes, though without the usual bustle. Carrying the unconscious, tear-stained Zhi Yihe, Yu Nian rushed into the city's largest Jishiditang.

"Doctor! Help! Hurry!" Yu Nian put Zhi Yihe on the examination bed in the hall.

Seeing this, the old doctor in the hall did not dare to neglect and immediately stepped forward. He checked the patient's breath, touched his wrist, opened his eyelids to check his pupils, and pricked his acupuncture points with silver needles, but Zhi Yihe showed no reaction.

"Why is she unconscious? Is she injured? Poisoned?" the old doctor asked repeatedly.

"There is no external injury! I just fainted suddenly beside the golden lantern flowers!" Yu Nian answered anxiously, concealing the unspeakable parts such as the formation and poison.

"Golden Lantern Flower?" The old doctor was stunned, then shook his head. "This girl's pulse is truly bizarre. It's extremely weak, yet there seems to be an undercurrent surging, chaotic but unceasing, like a candle in the wind, yet somehow a strange vitality is forcibly hanging on! I've been practicing medicine for decades, and I've never seen such a strange pulse! Forgive me for being frank, but this condition cannot be cured by medicine! It's more like... like..."

The old doctor lowered his voice, a hint of awe and uncertainty: "It's like what people call 'soul separation syndrome'! The soul has left the body and is wandering elsewhere! This... cannot be cured by medical means!"

"Soul separation syndrome?!" Yu Nian's heart sank to the bottom. He didn't believe in ghosts and gods, but what was happening to Zhi Yihe was beyond common sense. Holding on to a last glimmer of hope, he took Zhi Yihe to several other well-known medical clinics in the city.

The result is exactly the same.

After examining the patient, each doctor shook his head and sighed, their faces etched with uncertainty. Some said, "An evil spirit has invaded the body. We need to consult a master." Others said, "The heart is failing. Prepare for your funeral." Still others simply declared, "The pulse is strange. I've never heard of it. We can't do anything." The various explanations were inconsistent, but all pointed to the same conclusion: helplessness.

Yu Nian held Zhi Yihe in his arms and squatted on the street as dusk gradually deepened.

However, he was completely unaware at the moment that while he was anxiously carrying Zhi Yihe and running between various clinics, several pairs of eyes had already locked onto them in the dark.

At the city gate, a man dressed like an ordinary vendor calmly put down his goods when Yu Nian rushed in with Zhi Yihe in his arms. He nodded slightly to a vendor selling candied haws next to him. The vendor licked his lips and quietly disappeared into the crowd.

Across from Jishitang, in a private room on the second floor of a teahouse, a tiny crack opened the window. A man in a brocade robe, holding a teacup, peered through the slit, coldly gazing at the clinic as Yu Nian emerged, a look of despair on his face, carrying someone.

"Keep a close eye on them. Don't alert them. Find a secluded place and 'invite' them back."

In the shadow of the street corner, an old beggar with a hunched body and a cane seemed to glance at Zhi Yihe in his arms unintentionally when Yu Nian passed by. The old beggar knocked the ground three times with his cane. At the distant alley, a young beggar who was begging immediately put away his broken bowl and followed Yu Nian silently not far behind.

The two waves of people came from different directions and had different purposes, but both targeted Zhi Yihe and Yu Nian.