Chapter 689: Chapter 233 Heart Matters_4
Those were the silver scissors used to shorten the wick, whether intentionally or unintentionally, Lady Yun had left them in the room.
Lu Tong stood up, picked up the scissors, and also picked up the long rope on the ground, made up her mind, and snipped it into two.
The length of this rope was perfect for hanging oneself, but she wanted to use this rope to bind her hands. She had learned the method to tie the rope from Lu Qian before, a method to bind the hands, inescapable.
She wanted to try it.
The method of tying the rope was not very clear in her memory, and a gradually intensifying pain was emerging in her chest. Lu Tong, her hands trembling, was nearly unable to grasp the hemp rope firmly and awkwardly put the cut piece around her wrist. In the final moment when the hemp rope was fitted, an immense pain overwhelmed her.
Lady Yun had deceived her.
It was not just a bit of pain. It was pain enough to destroy one’s will.
It hurt so much that, in that instant, she could suddenly understand why the former "Sixteen" had chosen to hang from a beam; that sensation was indeed more unbearable than death itself.
When it became too much to bear, she couldn’t help but scratch the wall, her fingernails deeply embedded in the mud wall, and gradually blood oozed from her fingertips. She rolled in pain on the ground, and that dark little room, deprived of light, was filled only with her hoarse cries.
...
"Lady Yun..."
In the quiet of the night, suddenly a human voice arose.
Pei Yunmeng abruptly opened his eyes.
Being alone, he always slept lightly. He didn’t know when the light in the room had been extinguished by the wind, but an even more oppressive low moan came from the couch.
"Lu Tong?" Pei Yunmeng frowned as he looked towards the bed.
No one answered.
He sat up, found the fire starter, lit the oil lamp on the table, and the warm flame flickered throughout the room. He placed the oil lamp on the side table and walked over to Lu Tong’s bed.
Lu Tong’s eyes were closed.
Before sleep, she had turned her face to the wall, but now she had turned back around, her body curled up, and her usually serene face wore an expression of pain, with large beads of sweat seeping from her forehead.
Pei Yunmeng’s expression changed slightly as he shook Lu Tong’s shoulder, "Lu Tong?"
She seemed to be lost in a dream, not waking; then suddenly, she reached out her hand.
Pei Yunmeng paused for a moment and looked down.
Lu Tong was grasping his hand.
She held it tightly, refusing to let go, with a great deal of strength, as if a drowning person was clinging to the last straw. Her eyes tightly shut, her fingernails almost embedding in the back of his hand. Pei Yunmeng allowed her to hold on, softly calling her name, "Lu Tong?"
"Lady Yun..." she murmured drowsily, sweat beads rolling down from her forehead into her neck.
Seemingly trapped in an unawakable dream.
The candlelight flickered in the room, Pei Yunmeng’s eyes were deep, and he made a decisive move, his fingertips brushed the acupuncture point on her neck, pressing down firmly.
There was a sudden cry of alarm, and the person on the couch suddenly opened her eyes.
Lu Tong sat up abruptly, gasping for breath.
A hand reached over from behind.
Lu Tong felt herself being pulled into a warm embrace, one that carried a familiar crisp fragrance, dispelling the cold medicinal scent from the dream, warmth slowly spreading from behind. She looked up, directly into Pei Yunmeng’s downward gaze.
For a moment, Lu Tong immediately realized.
This was not her first time taking medicine following her arrival at Luomei Peak, "Crossing Ant Formation" was merely a past agonizing dream. She was now a Medical Officer at Shengjing Hanlin Medical Officer Academy, Lady Yun was already dead, and she didn’t have to take bowl after bowl of unknown medicinal soup amid anxiety and fear. Her reason to climb the mountain was to find herbs to cure the plague.
She had dreamt again.
Lately, she was always dreaming.
If this continued, she would be unable to distinguish between dreams and reality.
"Lu Tong." Pei Yunmeng’s voice came from beside her ear, and Lu Tong looked up at him.
Pei Yunmeng frowned as he looked at her.
The young face no longer had its usual composure but reached out to feel her forehead.
"What’s the matter with you?" he asked.
Lu Tong calmed herself down and avoided his gaze, "I just had a dream."
He withdrew his hand from Lu Tong’s forehead, "Who is Lady Yun? You kept calling Lady Yun’s name in your dream."
Lu Tong’s body stiffened.
Pei Yunmeng furrowed his brows and stared at her.
Her face was very pale, and she had always been thin, but now after the arduous task of fighting the epidemic in Su Nan, she had lost even more weight, and her face was only as big as a palm, her eyes no longer calm as usual, somewhat scattered and bewildered, her lips as white as paper.
Lu Tong, from the moment he knew her, had always been either calm or crazy, but this was the first time he saw her "fear."
In her dreams, there was something she feared.
"Is it your enemy?"
Lu Tong shivered, snapping back to reality.
He was always very sharp.
Lu Tong turned away, "No."
He didn’t speak, just stared at her firmly. The eyes that had always been gentle now seemed also to bear the frost and snow of Luomei Peak, carrying a trace of desolate chill.
The blizzard roared outside the door; the room dimly lit by the stove’s fading light. As the two faced each other, one was aggressive, the other evasive.
After a silence, Pei Yunmeng looked away, as if finally relenting, stood up, and said, "You just sweated through your clothes, there are handkerchiefs in the medical kit. I’ll fetch one for you."
Lu Tong breathed a sigh of relief.
The young man walked to the table in the middle of the room, where Lu Tong’s medical kit was placed. He opened the kit and reached for the white cloth inside.
Lu Tong watched his movements, and suddenly, as if remembering something, she stiffened, bolted off the bed, not bothering to put on shoes, she ran in front of Pei Yunmeng: "Wait—"
The panic was to no avail.
She watched powerlessly as Pei Yunmeng picked up an object from the medical kit.
It was a piece of colorful silk ribbon, delicately shaped and completely woven, the pretty pomegranate color shining like a fragile, radiant cloud in the dark night. When its shadow was cast, even the lamp light seemed to grow more brilliant.
It was the birthday gift Pei Yunmeng had once asked her to make, which she worked on for a long time but ultimately never gave to him.
"What is this?" he turned around.
Lu Tong pursed her lips, reaching to snatch it, but he held it just out of reach.
Pei Yunmeng said, "Why are you carrying this colorful ribbon with you?"
"Someone else’s," Lu Tong stubbornly claimed, "I kept it by chance."
"Is that so?"
He nodded and his fingertips gently wound around the ribbon, revealing a small, not-so-smooth wooden bead beneath the tassel.
"And what is this?"
Lu Tong stiffened again.
The tiny piece of wood swayed at his fingertips.
Lu Tong clenched her fist slightly.
It was a piece of wood she had taken from Pei Yunmeng’s wooden pagoda.
On the Qixi Festival, his ambiguous words had momentarily shaken her. He offered to give her a piece, which she outright rejected, but in the end, for some unknown reason, she took one after all.
Later, when she left Shengjing for Su Nan, she kept the piece of wood safe. Many times she thought about throwing it away, but in the end, she never succeeded even once.
The colorful ribbon and wooden bead contained her hidden feelings. She carefully guarded her secrets, yet on this stormy night, they were suddenly exposed.
In the quiet and tranquil night, with blizzards howling outside, the young man’s gaze fell, observing Lu Tong’s disheveled appearance, he calmly stated, "Lu Tong."
He stared into her eyes, "I will ask you once more, are you truly straightforward with me, without a shred of selfishness?"
Lu Tong’s breathing hitched.
She instinctively wanted to argue, but when she faced those dark, heavy eyes, she couldn’t speak a word.
"I..." she stammered.
Those beautiful black eyes fixed on her, the lamplight flickering within them, swirling about as if it were an unending, lingering melody.
He spoke coldly, "I see the answer."