Jiangjiang the Skeleton Spirit - Chapter 9

I packed a few things and prepared to head north alone.

As I left, I saw Qin Zhao standing at the entrance.

She wore white mourning clothes, her slender figure drooping like a willow.

“The general isn’t dead, is he?”

I looked at her without emotion, my voice icy. “You’d better pray Song Yuhuan isn’t dead.”

Then I brushed past without looking at her fragile expression.

I hadn’t gone far from the residence when galloping hoofbeats sounded behind me.

Turning, I saw A-Pei riding toward me on a tall horse.

“A-Pei?”

He hurried to catch up. “Miss Jiangjiang, I’ll go with you.”

I met his burning gaze.

“I don’t believe the general is dead.”

His voice was full of resolve.

Good. Two people searching meant a little more hope.

We traveled north, on and on without stopping.

A-Pei urged me several times along the way, “Miss Jiangjiang, rest a little. Don’t collapse before we’ve found the general.”

Panting, I shook my head weakly.

“I can’t rest. Every moment I spend resting is another moment Yuhuan’s life hangs in the balance.”

Unable to sway me, A-Pei could only keep going with me.

Along the road, I saw many bodies.

Refugees. Soldiers.

Whenever I saw one with a build like Song Yuhuan’s, my heart clenched a little tighter.

I always prayed it wouldn’t be him.

Only after seeing the face could my heart settle.

We kept traveling, kept searching.

As long as we hadn’t found Song Yuhuan’s body, we held firmly to the belief that he was alive.

I don’t know how long we traveled before reaching the foot of a cliff.

A stream murmured nearby. Our water flask was empty.

Unable to bear my thirst, I went to the stream.

I’d barely crouched when I saw a man wedged among the broken rocks.

My hand shook. My heart would not stop pounding.

Who was he?

I called A-Pei over. With considerable effort, we hauled the man up.

There were several deep cuts on his body, and his face was swollen from being submerged.

Though I couldn’t make out his features, I knew he wasn’t Song Yuhuan.

A-Pei studied him, then suddenly said, “It’s Wurile.”

Steep cliffs surrounded us. He looked around. “He must have fallen from the cliff while fighting someone.”

My heart had only just eased. Now it leaped into my throat again.

“Could that someone have been Yuhuan?”

A powerful feeling rose inside me.

Song Yuhuan hadn’t come to meet A-Pei at Muta Ridge because he must have gone after Wurile.

If we’d found Wurile here, Yuhuan must be somewhere nearby too.

Alive, I had to find him. Dead, I had to find his body.

Suddenly, I grew frantic.

I shouted, “Song Yuhuan!

“Song Yuhuan, where are you?”

I began running up toward the top of the cliff.

Unable to stop me, A-Pei began calling out as well.

Our alternating cries echoed between the cliffs.

I called again and again until my voice was hoarse. No one answered.

I was exhausted. My eyes stung.

Salty, bitter tears fell in wave after wave.

Song Yuhuan, where on earth are you?

Didn’t you promise to fight with everything you had to stay alive for me?

Didn’t you promise never to abandon me?

You lied to me again.

I rose weakly, preparing to search somewhere else.

Wind brushed the grass. A rustle came from behind me.

In that moment, my heart stopped.

“Jiangjiang…”

The voice was hoarse and parched, so faint it was barely there.

But I heard it clearly.

I ran back as if I’d lost my mind.

Amid the waist-high grass, I found Song Yuhuan, so badly injured he hardly looked human.

There wasn’t a patch of uninjured skin on him. He was a mess of blood and torn flesh.

An arrow had pierced his right arm, and the blood had clotted around it.

His lower leg twisted outward. It was probably broken.

I held him desperately in my arms and instinctively found a sharp stone to cut my skin.

He tried to resist, but he had no strength left. He could only let me feed him my blood.

A-Pei heard the movement and hurried over.

Seeing Song Yuhuan, injured beyond recognition, he nearly lost his footing too.

“A-Pei, get the horses ready!”