A Stolen Romance - Chapter 28.2

Chapter 28.2

Shi Yuning turned to Xie Zhaoran and raised an eyebrow, as if to say, “See? I told you so.” Xie Zhaoran looked down at her and smiled silently. Shi Yuning was right. Holding her tightly, Xie Zhaoran’s smile faded. She turned to face the nun. “Who sent you?”

“Miss Xie is incredibly clever. You must already know, so why ask? My master has ordered that if you cooperate, he will spare both your lives.”

Xie Zhaoran’s eyes grew cold. She shouted toward the figures behind the nun. “Qin Xiao, come out.”

Shi Yuning looked on in surprise. Where was Miss Qin Xiao? Had they captured her?

The nun seemed a little impatient. “Don’t waste time. Hurry—” Before she could finish, a figure walked out from behind her right side. She walked to the center and removed her mask, looking at Xie Zhaoran with a complicated expression.

“Miss Qin Xiao, how could you—” Shi Yuning couldn’t believe her eyes when she saw Qin Xiao.

Qin Xiao gave her a brief glance, then turned her gaze back to Xie Zhaoran. “I knew I couldn’t hide it from you.”

Xie Zhaoran said coldly, “Why?”

Qin Xiao sneered. “I should ask you that. Why would you give up years of planning?”

“So you defected to Prince Yu? Who are you, really? What do you want to do?”

Qin Xiao wiped a tear that slid down her cheek. “Surrender. Prince Yu promised me he would spare your life.” She glanced at Shi Yuning, who was being protected by Xie Zhaoran. As for her, she couldn’t make any promises.

Seeing that Qin Xiao wouldn’t answer, Xie Zhaoran looked away and only at the person in her arms. “You’ve listened to many stories. Why do subordinates usually betray their masters in these situations?”

Shi Yuning was still in shock, but hearing Xie Zhaoran’s question, she blurted out without thinking, “Because the other party gave her what she wanted.”

Xie Zhaoran nodded, her gaze on Qin Xiao intense. She didn’t want to ask what Prince Yu had given her. Whatever it was, betrayal was betrayal. Qin Xiao met Xie Zhaoran’s gaze, and a pang of pain shot through her heart. She was a spy planted by her father. When the Crown Prince ascended the throne and later fell ill, Xie Zhaoran would have been able to govern from behind the curtain under the pretense of the Empress Dowager’s pity. As long as she could earn Xie Zhaoran’s trust, her father, who planned to overthrow the Northern Empire and establish himself as the new Emperor, would have an ally. But all of this turned to dust after Xie Zhaoran and the Crown Prince broke off their engagement. Fortunately, Prince Yu promised her father that if he ascended the throne, he would fully support her father in replacing the Northern Empire’s royal family.

A fierce mountain wind blew, and the birds suddenly took flight, as if sensing the danger, abandoning the murderous mountaintop. Qin Xiao raised her hand, and the archers all drew their bows. “Don’t force me,” Qin Xiao shouted at Xie Zhaoran. “Lay down your weapons and come over. I will guarantee your life.”

Xie Zhaoran didn’t move. She stared into the distance, a look of resolute sorrow in her eyes. It seemed they might die here today. She wasn’t afraid of death, but she didn’t want Shi Yuning, so young, to die with her in this desolate place.

Shi Yuning tugged at Xie Zhaoran’s sleeve. When Xie Zhaoran looked at her, she pointed at the deep gorge behind them, pursed her lips, and said, “Have you ever heard of the ‘cliff rule’?”

Xie Zhaoran raised an eyebrow. “Hmm?”

Shi Yuning quickly explained. “In all the stories told by storytellers, when a protagonist is forced to the edge of a cliff and has to jump, this is what happens.”

Xie Zhaoran shook her head. What could happen? Nothing but being turned to dust and bones.

Shi Yuning smiled faintly. “The protagonist’s rule of not dying.”

“What?” Xie Zhaoran was confused.

“In all the stories, when a protagonist falls off a cliff, no matter if it’s ten thousand feet deep or if there are mountains of knives and seas of fire, or demons or ghosts below, the protagonist not only doesn’t die but also finds some rare treasure.” Shi Yuning’s smile was confident. If her eyes weren’t filled with tears, Xie Zhaoran might have believed her more.

“Don’t listen to her nonsense! This is the Qinghui Cliff. If you fall, you’ll be turned to dust and bones. Hurry and come over. Prince Yu will at least give you a way out.” Qin Xiao was frantic. She kept telling herself that Xie Zhaoran wouldn’t be so foolish as to believe such a nonsensical claim, but then she remembered all the out-of-character things Xie Zhaoran had done since meeting Shi Yuning. “No, no, shoot! Shoot the arrows!”

Qin Xiao watched as the two of them leaped. She wanted to shoot and wound Xie Zhaoran, hoping to get a doctor for her later, which was better than falling off a cliff and being turned to dust and bones! But it was too late!

The two figures, so full of resolve, disappeared from everyone’s sight.

They fell rapidly. Xie Zhaoran gritted her teeth, using her last ounce of strength to push off a tree trunk growing diagonally from the cliff face, using the momentum to spring up. With her left arm, she held Shi Yuning tightly in her embrace, and with her right, she thrust her sword into a crack in the rock face. After a series of blinding sparks, the two of them finally managed to halt their descent.

Shi Yuning’s face was ashen. She looked down at the misty, bottomless abyss below, then up at Xie Zhaoran, her eyes welling with tears. She couldn’t say a word.

“Is this the protagonist’s rule you were talking about?” Xie Zhaoran’s face was smiling, but her voice was hoarse.

Shi Yuning was stunned, and her tears flowed uncontrollably. She hugged Xie Zhaoran back tightly. She had just been talking nonsense. How could she be a protagonist? The protagonists in those stories were all brilliant and radiant. She was not like that.

“Don’t cry.” Xie Zhaoran held her tightly with one arm, as if she were holding the most precious treasure in the world. “Don’t cry. We will definitely survive.” She thought to herself that even if it took her last breath, she would find a way for Shi Yuning to live.

Below them was still the bottomless gorge. The two of them were hanging on the rock face, held only by Xie Zhaoran’s sword wedged into a crack. They could fall at any moment. Shi Yuning also realized this. She tried with all her might to wedge her own sword into a crack in the rock, but she couldn’t.

“Don’t move. Listen to me.” Xie Zhaoran’s right hand was trembling violently. The torn wound was in great pain, and she couldn’t hold on for much longer. “Look at that tree growing diagonally below.”

Shi Yuning looked down. “Hmm?”

“I used that tree a moment ago to gain momentum. The branches aren’t very thick, but you are small. It should be able to support you. Qiang Di will surely discover that we are missing soon, and she will report it to the princess to come and find us.”

“I’m going to throw you over now. You have to grab that tree.”

Shi Yuning looked at the tree. It was a little far away. “What about you?”

Xie Zhaoran held her tightly, and tears unexpectedly fell where Shi Yuning couldn’t see. “Without your weight, my sword can hold on for a little longer.”

Shi Yuning buried her face in Xie Zhaoran’s chest, closing her eyes tightly. “Okay. You have to hold on.”

Xie Zhaoran took a deep breath, suppressing the heart-wrenching pain. She threw Shi Yuning toward the tree. Seeing that Shi Yuning successfully grabbed onto it, all the strength in her body, which had been tensed to its limit, receded like a tide. She could no longer hold on. Her hand, gripping the sword, slowly slipped away.

“Live a good life.”

Her vision went black, and Xie Zhaoran’s body fell like a withered leaf.

“No—”

Shi Yuning screamed hysterically, and like a madwoman, she reached out with all her might toward the falling figure, wanting to grab her. But she only brushed past her fingertips. Watching as Xie Zhaoran was about to disappear from her sight, Shi Yuning didn’t hesitate for a second. She threw herself after her, as if her life didn’t matter. She hadn’t had time to confess her feelings to Xie Zhaoran yet; she hadn’t told her how much she liked her. She hadn’t gone to eat douhua at Ah Bei’s place with her yet. She hadn’t seen the lotus pond in the West Garden. She hadn’t even properly said thank you to her.

Even if her life ended here, it was better than living alone with this regret. If they were going to die, they would die together.

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