One Lifetime Is Never Enough

1.83 Warm Winter (1)

The commotion and Qian FanSheng's loud scream attracted about half a dozen of guards that were on patrol within the close proximity.

Although the guards did not directly report to the town lord, they noticed the blood on the ground. It was clear that Qian FanSheng had been injured, thus they hurriedly came to take control of the disturbance. After all, all Hun'ang's citizens' safety were their responsibility.

Qian FanSheng, upon seeing the uniformed men, clad in black and red, walking hastily towards him, felt a rush of adrenaline as his courage spiked up. He let out a loud aggrieved wail and seethed some curses through his teeth. In his anger, he managed to will himself to stand.

But from both of his arms, blood still flowed.

One of his accompanying servants, that had only been watching in fear before, quickly wrapped his master's bleeding arms with some makeshift bandages obtained by tearing his own garment. The servant was still terrified that he would get some punishment because his Young Master was hurt, but he still tried to be brave, to attend to Qian FanSheng's wound.

Qian FanSheng, however, did not pay him any heed as he finally could have a good look at the person who had caused him injury. His gaze darkened with transparent loathing, as well as from the throbbing pain from his bleeding arms, when he saw the woman that he almost got his hands on, was now in the other man's embrace.

If earlier, YuLan struggled for dear life when being held by Qian FanSheng, she docilely let herself be embraced by the sword-holding man.

The man already had his sword lowered, and the blade was still dripping with Qian FanSheng's blood, that quickly turned to frozen red colored ice on the cold ground.

"You!!", Qian FanSheng's pale face only showed anger as he furrowed his brows to withstand the excruciating pain that already started to cause black spots to appear in his line of vision, 

"What audacity to have disturbed this Young Master and dared to take this Young Master's.... thing!"

The man's eyes narrowed with icy coldness, and he lifted his sword once again, to point it at Qian FanSheng's neck. The latter involuntarily shrank his neck, looking at the pointy end of the sharp blade in terror. As he glanced up at the swordsman again, he then realized that the other person was the same man he had seen in front of the inn about a year ago.

That night in front of the inn, YuLan had also let her hand be held by him.

The memory made Qian FanSheng more aggrieved,

"Guards! What are you doing? Didn't you see what he has done to me??? Do your job! Seize him!!"

The guards had been fixated at their spots and were unable to move as they could clearly feel the blood-thirst exuding from the stranger. As Qian FanSheng yelled at them, the stranger in the dark-blue attire also coldly glanced towards their direction, a corner of his lips was lifted just slightly. Although subtle and seemingly harmless, the small movement was enough to cause their blood run cold.

Even if Qian FanSheng could not feel the stifling atmosphere from the swordsman - a feeling akin to impending danger from a hunter killer - the guards could definitely feel it. After all, they had been been trained by the Wolf clan, and had pretty decent martial arts. They knew stronger opponents when they saw one and were definitely not willing to become the man's opponent if they could help it.

But Qian FanSheng was Hun'ang town lord's son, as well as a long time resident.

"Perhaps in numbers, we can win." - was what they thought to themselves. As soldiers, death or injury was common. But their duty was absolute.