Lotus in a Bottle - Chapter 13

Section 21

When Gu Nanzhou’s subordinate swung his saber at me, my long-overdue terror of death finally kicked in.

And whenever I got scared, I lost all control of my mouth.

I squeezed my eyes shut and screamed.

“Aaaah! Gu Nanzhou, even if I become a ghost, I’ll never leave you alone! You think killing me will make Tan Lian yours? Dream on!

“Even as a ghost, I’ll haunt him and invade his dreams every night!

“I’ll crawl into his bed! This lady is going to be a seductive ghost! A seductive ghost!

“If you dare kill me, I’ll drain your beloved’s life essence dry!

“Ha! What a joke. You really think I’m afraid to die? This is all part of my plan!

“You think I’m still the same pushover who let everyone walk all over me back then? Wrong! I’m this year’s pushover!

“Tan Lian, maybe you should come save me after all! I promise I’ll never secretly call you a pretty-boy calamity again, waaah…”

“Oh? So Baoping has been secretly calling me names?”

A familiar voice suddenly came from behind me.

I opened my eyes blankly and found the descending saber blocked by a dagger. The face that never failed to take my breath away, no matter how many times I saw it, held not a trace of a smile.

Tan Lian sliced through the ropes binding me. I had no idea what kind of treasure that dagger was, but it could slice through metal like mud.

It had to be worth a fortune.

“This is hardly the time to be staring off into space.” Tan Lian swept me into his arms. “I know Baoping likes my face, but you can admire it once we’re home.”

…I was actually looking at the dagger.

Gu Nanzhou’s men exchanged uncertain glances. What were they supposed to do when the person their master loved was protecting the person their master wanted dead?

Forget it. Kill the target first!

The assassins swarmed us again. Tan Lian’s beautiful face darkened completely, and he muttered an incredibly filthy curse.

Having heard every word, I went, “???”

I was still reeling from the revelation that even a living bodhisattva could swear when Tan Lian sent an eight-foot-tall man flying with one kick.

Me: “!!!”

Whether in the original novel or in reality, this universally adored man had always been gentle and softhearted. Yet at that moment, he seemed like a completely different person.

I had never known Tan Lian possessed martial arts skills.

He was a civil official, yet armed with nothing but a dagger, he carved a path through the surrounding assassins. None of his usual mercy remained in his movements. Every strike was vicious and lethal.

My fingertips trembled. Tan Lian glanced at me in silence.

The next second, the dagger that should have pierced an assassin’s throat stiffly changed course. In the end, Tan Lian merely knocked the man unconscious with its hilt.

For some inexplicable reason, I breathed a sigh of relief.

Not for the assassin who had tried to kill me, but for a reason I couldn’t quite put into words.

Tan Lian was still the same softhearted Tan Lian. Even when facing the most vicious criminals, he would not take a life lightly.

He must have cursed earlier only because he was furious.

Right. The original novel had officially certified him as a thoroughly good man. Why would I ever think he had been pretending all along?

Haha.

After knocking out the last assassin, Tan Lian prepared to take me home.

He gently patted my back to soothe me. “Don’t be afraid, Baoping. I’ll report them to the authorities shortly. They’ll never have another chance to hurt you.”

He spoke the last sentence with particular solemnity.

I lifted my head from his arms, about to tell him I wasn’t afraid, only to realize I had been trembling the entire time.

At some point, my arms had even wound themselves around Tan Lian’s neck. As though they had minds of their own, they absolutely refused to let go.

Tan Lian’s expression softened completely. “Baoping, you…”

Just then, one of the assassins behind him silently rose to his feet.

Saber in hand, the man lunged at me. He clearly meant to trade his life for mine and drag me down with him even if it killed him.

He had fallen extremely close to us. By the time Tan Lian heard my warning and turned around, it was already too late.

The flash of the blade swept past my eyes, missing by a hair’s breadth above my forehead… No, it hadn’t missed.

Stunned, I touched the blood splattered across my face.

Because of Tan Lian’s movement, the saber had struck his right shoulder blade dead on.

Horrified that he had wounded the wrong person, the assassin faltered. Tan Lian seized the opening and knocked him unconscious with the flat of his dagger.

Blood instantly soaked through Tan Lian’s outer robe, but even then, his arms around me never loosened.

Only after we had left the courtyard and run a considerable distance did Tan Lian gently set me down.

Then, without saying a word, he slumped against the corner of a wall and lost consciousness.