BVAHEDLA[W Chapter 36

Chapter 36: Ancient Times 10 – Trapped Beast

“What!”

Lu Mo-chen and Qian Ming exclaimed in unison. Chu Li-fei, sitting on the only grandmaster’s chair in the middle, furrowed his brows tightly.

They had originally thought that Qi Fu was dissatisfied because Qi Lu had snatched the marquisate that originally belonged to him, and that was why he harbored resentment and planned to drag the whole family down with him.

But now Qi Lu was actually telling them that things weren’t like that, and that Qi Fu himself had taken the initiative to hand over the marquisate.

Chu Li-fei stared at Qi Lu. He saw that Qi Lu’s eyes were firm and slightly red, as if he couldn’t believe that Qi Fu would secretly harm him.

Chu Li-fei’s fingertip lightly tapped on the armrest of the grandmaster’s chair as he pondered the ins and outs of the matter.

For a moment, the entire prison cell was extremely quiet, and only the faint shouts from afar and the sound of Chu Li-fei’s fingertip colliding with the chair could be heard.

Lu Mo-chen and Qian Ming didn’t dare to interrupt his thoughts when they saw that he was thinking.

After a long while, Chu Li-fei slowly opened his mouth and said, “Then, please tell me the story of what happened at that time again.”

Qi Lu frowned tightly. He didn’t know why Chu Li-fei and the others suspected Qi Fu. In his eyes, Qi Fu had always been a good brother.

Moreover, Qi Fu was still indebted to him.

Qi Fu’s leg was crippled because he had protected him.

But since Chu Li-fei and the others had asked, he would just tell the truth.

In Qi Lu’s narration, Chu Li-fei and the others gradually pieced together the past story.

Back then, when Old Master Qi was still fighting against the enemy at the border, Qi Shou hadn’t been born yet.

The border wasn’t as rich as the capital, nor as beautiful as the water towns of Jiangnan. Old Madam Qi also had to manage the affairs of the mansion, big and small, and couldn’t spare any time.

Therefore, the only things that accompanied the two brothers were the endless wind and sand, and the yellow earth.

Qi Fu was born a few years earlier than Qi Lu, so the age gap between the two brothers wasn’t that big. However, Qi Fu still shouldered the responsibility of being an older brother.

He would hold his younger brother and watch the sunset on the hill, and he would also hold Qi Lu’s little hand and accompany him from learning to walk to running freely.

When they grew up, the two brothers began to practice martial arts. Compared to his elder brother’s talent, who was already incredibly strong at a young age, Qi Lu seemed much more mediocre.

Fortunately, Old Master Qi’s requirements for them weren’t high, but even so, Qi Lu was still punished by Old Master Qi.

Whenever this happened, Qi Fu would be by his side, pleading with his father for him, or practicing the moves he hadn’t learned again and again with him until late at night.

Both of them were panting heavily and drenched in sweat. They smiled at each other and lay down on the dry lawn. Sweat dripped from their foreheads into the ground. The two of them leaned against each other, their hands behind their heads, and what they saw when they looked up was a sky full of stars.

These were the happiest times they had spent together.

At that time, Qi Lu thought that the days would continue like this forever. He admired his elder brother, even far more than his father.

His gaze would always unconsciously follow that figure that wasn’t much taller than him.

Qi Lu was like a little tagalong, following behind Qi Fu. Whenever this happened, Qi Fu would put his arm around his shoulder in a carefree manner and pull him over.

Later, the war situation became severe, and even the two brothers could sense the tense atmosphere in the air. A heavy smell of blood lingered in everyone’s hearts.

Old Master Qi and Old Madam Qi had grown a lot of white hair between their temples because of the war, and there were many wrinkles at the corners of their eyes. The two brothers, Qi Fu and Qi Lu, were also very worried when they saw this.

As they grew older, they both put on armor and went to the battlefield with their father.

With his natural strength and excellent martial arts skills, Qi Fu quickly gained the recognition of the soldiers in the military camp. When people mentioned him, their eyes were filled with hope, as if they were hoping that this “young general” could lead them to defeat the enemy and never dare to invade again, so that the people could have peace.

And Qi Lu became a foil to his elder brother. But Qi Lu wasn’t dissatisfied with this. He admired his elder brother, and thought that he should be the blazing sun in the sky, dazzling and dazzling. And he was willing to be the white cloud, setting off the extraordinaryness of the sun.

But later, everything changed.

Because of an accident, the two brothers accidentally got separated from the army.

They got lost in a small forest. The clouds were very thick that night, and the moonlight was dim, sometimes there and sometimes not, but they couldn’t sit still and wait for death. There were enemies behind them, and the road home ahead.

But they were trapped here, and they didn’t know which direction was the way forward.

The forest here was unexpectedly dense, and the tree trunks were very thick. Under the moonlight, the dry branches cast terrifying black shadows on the ground. As the moonlight flickered, these black shadows would also flicker, looking like the ghosts in the stories. From time to time, the cries of wild animals could be heard in the distance.

This made the two brothers even more panicked. Although they had been on the battlefield, they were only half-grown children after all. It was already not easy to be brave enough to support each other and walk forward in this situation.

The two of them groped forward little by little, but the moonlight became darker and darker, and the two of them were about to lose sight of the scenery in front of them.

Just then, Qi Lu accidentally stepped on a small slope because he didn’t notice it. He cried out subconsciously and was about to roll down.

Hearing the sound and the pulling coming from his hand, Qi Fu turned around and suddenly saw a cold light flashing faintly below the small slope.

His eyes widened. He, who was originally hungry and exhausted, burst out with strength in the critical moment. With his brute strength, he forcibly pulled Qi Lu back.

But the price was that he himself rolled down the small slope.

The pain from his knee instantly overwhelmed him, and Qi Fu’s face turned pale in an instant, and his back was covered in cold sweat. But he knew that he couldn’t shout, otherwise the enemy would find him.

He gritted his teeth and stuffed his arm into his mouth. For a moment, tears and snot were all smeared on his clothes, and a trace of blood slowly overflowed into his mouth.

Qi Lu was suddenly pulled and fell backward uncontrollably. He quickly realized what had happened and immediately got up and walked down the slope.

Dry branches scratched Qi Lu’s arm, leaving a long bloodstain, but Qi Lu didn’t care at all.

When he got down the slope, he found that an animal trap was tightly stuck on Qi Fu’s knee. It must have been set up by the nearby villagers in order to catch wild animals.

Qi Lu’s eyes turned red in an instant. He tried to pry open the animal trap, but even if he used all his strength until his knuckles turned white and streaks of blood were left on his fingers, the animal trap still didn’t budge.

He wasn’t strong enough.

Qi Lu was momentarily stunned. What should he do?

He looked into the distance, and there seemed to be some light faintly, which might be the hunters living nearby… or it might be the enemy’s army.

Qi Lu decided to take a gamble.

But when he stood up, an icy hand grabbed him.

Qi Fu’s body temperature was dropping rapidly due to blood loss.

“Brother, don’t go, I’m cold.” Qi Fu said this while shivering. He was really too cold. But he felt even more uneasy in his heart, and the injured leg was already numb…

He already had a guess in his heart.

Hearing this, Qi Lu wiped the tears from his face with his sleeve. He took off his coat and put it on Qi Fu, carefully avoiding his wound, and sat down next to him, trying to transfer his temperature to him.

The two brothers slept on the hillside like this all night.

In the morning, a rustling sound came.

The two of them became vigilant in an instant and looked nervously at the place where the bushes were shaking not far away.

A burly man walked out of the darkness. He was dark-skinned and dressed as a hunter.

Qi Fu and Qi Lu cautiously breathed a sigh of relief.

The man skillfully walked to the place where the animal trap was placed and “tsk”ed in disappointment when he saw that it was actually two children.

Qi Lu was a little afraid when he looked at his tall figure, but he still mustered up his courage and said, “Um… my brother is injured, can you unlock the animal trap…”

The hunter then glanced at Qi Fu, who was sitting on the ground, and then squatted down and roughly unlocked the animal trap.

A night had passed, and the original wound had already congealed, but as the hunter pulled the sharp teeth of the animal trap from his knee, the wound burst open again, and blood flowed out one after another.

Qi Lu’s eyes were filled with heartache when he looked at it. He turned his head and asked the hunter, “Do you have any medicine for injuries?”

Who knew that the hunter would ignore him and walk away while cursing.

The sky was breaking, and golden light slowly rose from behind the mountain.

With the help of the light, Qi Fu was able to see clearly what the structure of the small slope they had fallen down was. He saw that the edge of the small slope was basically a straight line when looking into the distance, except for the foot that Qi Lu had stepped on last night, which had a depression.

And there was a broken shrub branch corresponding to the depression, and thinking of the heavy rain that had fallen not long ago…

Qi Fu lowered his eyes, not knowing what he was thinking in his heart.

It took a lot of effort for the two brothers to climb up. They looked ahead along the path with dusty faces, and what they saw was the flag of the military camp.

It turned out that they were only a few hundred meters away from home…

But this distance of a few hundred meters was simply torture for Qi Fu.

Qi Lu tried hard to support Qi Fu, wanting to reduce the weight on his leg, but it was in vain due to his height.

Qi Fu limped back like this.

When he heard from the military doctor that his leg could no longer be restored, the stone hanging in his heart finally fell to the ground, and there was a feeling of “as expected” in his heart.

The last trace of hope in his eyes was extinguished like a candle in the wind.

But Qi Lu still admired his elder brother from the bottom of his heart. Whenever he finished practicing martial arts, Qi Fu would sit aside and hand him a handkerchief.

They would sit under the stars as before, but the laughter and cheerful voices of the past had turned into silence today.

Qi Fu would still care about him as before. Because of his injury, Qi Fu had instead gained some of the scholarly air of a literati.

Qi Lu would sometimes sit on the ground and look at the sun in the sky until the dazzling light burned his eyes. Feeling the yellow sand flowing between his fingers, Qi Lu always felt as if something was quietly slipping away between his fingers.

Later, Old Master Qi summoned Qi Lu to his room late at night to discuss the matter of inheriting the marquisate.

At this time, Qi Fu broke into the room.

He said, “It’s better for the second brother to inherit the marquisate.”

Old Master Qi and Qi Lu exchanged glances and finalized the matter.

After listening to Qi Lu, Chu Li-fei and the others were silent.

The Qi Fu he described was a brave and fearless person who loved his brother.

But was that really the case?

Chu Li-fei had a faint guess in his heart.

He waved his hand to signal the jailer to take Qi Lu down and bring Qi Shou up.

Unexpectedly, as soon as Qi Shou came up, he grabbed the hem of Chu Li-fei’s pants, and a greasy fat face squeezed up with him: “Your Honor, it really has nothing to do with me!”

Immediately afterwards, Qi Shou stretched out a finger and pointed at the jailer next to him: “They all forced me to confess!”