Waiting for You for a Long Time, But You Haven't Arrived - Chapter 47

Jiang Qionghua could not tolerate her running away with someone else.

Ming Yishu had failed to leave this place.

Her mission was incomplete, the person the system required her to help was dead, and she seemed to have been abandoned in this world—a wandering soul passing the days aimlessly. She did not know what she should do or how she was supposed to live.

In truth, she had been resurrected a year ago. All her scars had vanished into thin air, and she had seemingly come back to life “clean and white”… yet, for some reason, the trauma in her heart could never be erased. Her heart ailment was clearly cured, but during every sleepless night, her heart would ache from the memories of her death. She fell into dream after dream, where someone was weeping to the gods and Buddhas for her with a broken heart, begging for her return.

She could not go back, and she did not want to.

Ming Yishu sank into a heavy darkness.

On that day, she had heard the coffin enter the earth. The clumps of soil hitting the wood made a da-da sound, like lying under the canopy of a boat listening to the rain. However, the falling earth was heavier and duller than rain—like dampened firecrackers exploding for her. The coffin blocked out the world; she felt as though all connections to people and affairs had been severed.

The interior of the coffin was unexpectedly tranquil, bringing peace to one’s mind.

Ming Yishu had no lingering attachments to either world. No one loved her, and she needed no one to love. Long-sleeping in a thin coffin was so peaceful, so perfectly in accordance with her wishes.

So… death… feels like this?

Perhaps because Ming Yishu was used to being alone, she actually felt a sense of release.

Unfortunately, Heaven refused to grant her wish. After staying in the coffin for only a brief moment, she was forced to come back to life.

She was reborn in a mass grave. A falcon circled in the sky, and a wolf cub stood guard by her side. It was Heyi, who had used its spiritual nature to find her. Ming Yishu looked up at the falcon in the sky; the bird flew down and landed on her shoulder, folding its wings.

Not long after, the owner of that falcon—Xieyang—found her way to the mass grave.

The two of them had known each other. Back when Grand Prefect Yang was still alive, Ming Yishu had gone to the Yang residence to meet her. The girl was a few years younger than Ming Yishu, but her figure was tall and slender, even standing a bit taller than her.

That winter, when Grand Prefect Yang was hounded to death, Ming Yishu found a way to send Xieyang to the North. Xieyang had remained there ever since, secretly leading a small troop of soldiers to fight in the borderlands, hidden from the eyes of the all-powerful Right Prime Minister…

Since Ming Yishu found life meaningless anyway, she followed her to the North and stayed in that place of perpetual snow.

In the North, the snow never melted. Looking out the window usually revealed a vast expanse of white, which brought quite a bit of peace to her heart. Further north were many nomadic tribes of the Beidi who often came to the border to raid. It was said that because the weather had been excessively cold these past years, freezing the livestock and vegetation, these savage tribes had turned their sights on the commoners of the dynasty.

Xieyang would often lead her troops to protect the border people. The people of the North truly revered her. Ming Yishu often felt their heartfelt gratitude—so pure and so fervent.

When Xieyang was away, Ming Yishu would often go out to clear her head. The local customs were simple, and no one recognized her except for Princess Xieyang. Thus, she didn’t need to wear anything to cover her face. Walking peacefully through the market, she saw many things one would never see in the capital.

Because of the cold weather, some locals sold a treat called “Frozen Flower Red Fruit” (frozen crabapples). Since her resurrection, Ming Yishu’s health had improved significantly, allowing her to occasionally eat cold things. She liked to buy these frozen fruits. In the local dialect, they were also called “Frozen Begonia Fruits.” You didn’t need to wait for them to melt inside a room; you simply placed them in ice water. Once a thin shell of ice formed, you could peel it away to taste the soft, sandy, and sweet flesh.

Every time Ming Yishu tasted one, a bit of joy would enter her heart.

She went to buy them every few days, never buying much—just enough for herself.

On this day, Xieyang accompanied her to the market, but even after walking for a long time, they couldn’t find any Frozen Flower Red Fruits to buy. Logically, these fruits were plentiful in the area and should never sell out, but for some reason, all of them had been bought up by a mysterious “big customer.”

The merchants respected Princess Xieyang and told her everything they knew without her even asking. They said the person who bought the fruits was dressed in black and didn’t look like a local—likely someone from the south who had never tried them and thus bought them all at once.

Ming Yishu wasn’t disappointed at not getting what she wanted. She continued her walk with Xieyang and didn’t return to the manor until dusk.

The servants rushed to meet them, frantically reporting that Heyi had nearly been taken away. There were rope marks on its body, but fortunately, it had bitten through the restraints and escaped back home.

Ming Yishu was shocked and hurried to check.

Heyi had indeed been in a struggle. Its fur was disheveled, and the ferocity in its eyes hadn’t fully faded; until it saw her, it was in a state of high alert.

“Heyi, who dared to hurt you?” Ming Yishu soothed the wolf cub, holding it in her arms and gently coaxing it. “Where did you go to play?”

Heyi whimpered and loosened its clenched teeth, dropping a torn piece of black fabric for her.

“What is this?” Ming Yishu picked it up with confusion. The fabric was black—a common color for commoners—but the quality was not coarse cloth. It was fine and sturdy, resembling the attire worn by private soldiers raised by noble households.

An uneasy feeling crept into Ming Yishu’s heart. She held the fabric up against the light to inspect it closely. Then, she furrowed her brows and brought the scrap to a candle flame.

Against the dancing flame, she brought the fabric dangerously close to the center of the fire—a trick she had learned at the Prime Minister’s estate. The clothes of the Prime Minister’s secret guards had a unique feature: when scorched by the center of a candle flame, a unique hidden pattern would be revealed, marking them as belonging to the Prime Minister’s manor.

Except for Jiang Qionghua, no one else would know how to identify this, not even the secret guards themselves. Jiang Qionghua had once said this method was used to identify corpses and determine if they were her guards, preventing enemies from muddling the truth and clouding her judgment.

Ming Yishu didn’t know if other high officials used similar methods. Her only goal was to see if the owner of this fabric came from the Prime Minister’s manor…

The moment the thought surfaced, Ming Yishu’s pupils trembled violently, and she accidentally let the black fabric burn away.

She had seen it. The person who tried to take Heyi was indeed from the Prime Minister’s manor.

“Yishu, what’s wrong?” Princess Xieyang’s face filled with worry as she saw Ming Yishu suddenly begin to tremble, as if terrified by some horrifying person—so scared she lost her composure, her face turning pale.

Ming Yishu shook her head slightly and suddenly turned to the Princess. “I must leave.”

Xieyang panicked. “Why leave? Are you not used to living here? Or did I do something wrong…”

“It’s not because of those things. Xieyang, you have treated me well, and I am grateful in my heart,” Ming Yishu said. “But my current status is problematic. The Right Prime Minister has caught wind of something. Someone tried to snatch Heyi today, which means the Prime Minister’s manor is starting to investigate my whereabouts. She knows I am not dead.”

Princess Xieyang’s heroic brows knit together. “Jiang Qionghua has come to the North? By herself? Perhaps I can have her bound.”

Ming Yishu shook her head. “It’s not her.”

She knew that woman. If she had come in person today, she would not have returned empty-handed. Heyi would never have escaped, let alone come back to deliver a message.

The fact that all the Flower Red Fruits were bought up confirmed this. It must be that the secret guards Jiang Qionghua dispatched to various regions had found traces of her, knowing she often went to buy her favorite treats, and so the guards bought them all to take back as proof.

It took at least seven days to travel from the North to the capital. She still had time to escape.

“Xieyang, I worry about implicating you, so I must go,” Ming Yishu looked into her eyes and urged her earnestly. “You have a place to protect, and you cannot let your identity be discovered by that person. Only if I leave can you remain hidden.”

Princess Xieyang’s grip on her hand slowly loosened. “But since your ‘death,’ she has become listless. Even when the Emperor granted me my titles, she showed no reaction—Yishu, is it possible she’s no longer interested in these matters? Perhaps this is all a coincidence, and she has no intention of coming to the North at all…”

“She may have become indifferent to court affairs, but that is only because she knows no one else can cause any trouble. A person like Jiang Qionghua will not allow her ‘possession’ to betray her. She will certainly be angry, and she will certainly travel a thousand miles to act against you.” Ming Yishu retreated half a step bitterly, preparing to pack her things and leave overnight. She said, “Xieyang, you are in the prime of your youth; you aren’t suited to fight her. That woman is heartless and devoid of virtue; she has no scruples when venting her rage.”

Princess Xieyang agonized for a moment before finally deciding to send her elsewhere. “Suzhou is a good place. It isn’t too far from here. If this turns out to be a false alarm, I can often visit you. Wan’an has become increasingly lazy, but this distance isn’t too long for it; I can command it to deliver letters between us.”

Ming Yishu agreed and bid her farewell.

Ever since Jiang Qionghua discovered the coffin was empty of bones, she had been unable to close her eyes for nights on end.

The joy in her heart was too intense, like a rabbit jumping wildly. Every time she thought about seeing Ming Yishu again, her whole body felt restless with longing. She was so desperate that she had sent out almost all her secret guards to find her, including those who had been on missions for years.

After a few days of joy, Jiang Qionghua quickly became tormented. She did not know how to treat Ming Yishu once she found her.

Should she bring her back to the Prime Minister’s manor? If Ming Yishu was truly still “mad” as Bo Lu had said, should she move to a new residence to prevent her from remembering the tragic past and allow her heart to heal?

But… what if Ming Yishu wasn’t mad and refused to come back with her?

Jiang Qionghua waited in agony, hoping Ming Yishu was fully recovered yet wishing she wouldn’t remember the past. She was truly afraid Ming Yishu would continue to loathe her and keep her at a distance.

Before she died, Ming Yishu had said she never wanted to see her again. If she intruded abruptly, would she frighten her? Would it make her even more repulsive?

Jiang Qionghua grew increasingly worried. She reclined on Ming Yishu’s chaise longue day after day, waiting for news and thinking of her a thousand times over.

Finally, the secret guards sent to the North returned.

They reported that she had been spotted in a market in the North buying Frozen Flower Red Fruits, and they had later discovered the wolf cub she raised. Because they had to return quickly to report, they couldn’t catch the wolf cub, but they brought back many of the frozen fruits.

As Jiang Qionghua listened to the report, her entire body became as tense as a drawn bowstring. She gripped her sleeves tightly and didn’t speak until they finished. Then, her voice trembled with excitement. “How is she faring?”

“Miss Ming was dressed in fine clothing; she seems to be living well,” the guard said. “She has specialized people protecting her. Fearing discovery, I did not dare to get close. From what I saw, Miss Ming seems to have recovered and can even eat cold frozen fruits.”

Jiang Qionghua looked down at the fruits brought from a thousand miles away, her eyes filled with unreadable emotions. She picked up a few frozen fruits in her palm; as she felt the coldness melt against her skin, she missed Ming Yishu’s image with a frantic intensity.

Hearing that her Yishu was fully recovered and no longer mad, yet had never taken the initiative to find her… she must still hate her and be unwilling to see her.

Jiang Qionghua felt even more troubled. Her longing was about to overflow, but considering Ming Yishu’s attitude, she couldn’t simply go and snatch her back as she had before.

Compared to forcing her back, she preferred Ming Yishu to be healthy, safe, and prosperous in this world.

If the other woman didn’t want to see her, she could accept it. She could watch Ming Yishu from the shadows forever, satisfied with just a glimpse of her silhouette. Jiang Qionghua thought she could protect Ming Yishu for a lifetime like a silent shadow; perhaps one day when Ming Yishu was no longer angry and remembered her, she could appear in her sight again…

Jiang Qionghua rolled the hard, frozen fruits in her hand, her tone turning gentle. “Do not disturb her. Keep a close eye on her and report back to me. Also, remember to protect her well…”

Just as Jiang Qionghua was calculating her next move, the secret guard spoke up again. “Miss Ming should be safe from harm. She has highly skilled people by her side. I do not know whose subordinates those attendants are, but on the day I left the North, I saw a woman of exceptional stature accompanying Miss Ming…”

This time, before the guard could even finish, Jiang Qionghua lost control and crushed the fruit in her hand. The juice splattered across her fingertips, and her expression became incredibly dark.

“There is someone by Ming Yishu’s side? Which bold scoundrel has laid eyes on my woman?”

Seeing Jiang Qionghua stand up, Bo Lu quickly asked where she was going.

Jiang Qionghua threw down her handkerchief with a foul mood. “I am going to the North tonight. Any later, and Ming Yishu will have run away with someone else.”

Bo Lu hesitated and tried to persuade her. “Prime Minister, didn’t you say you wouldn’t disturb Miss Ming or interfere with her life?”

Jiang Qionghua’s face was grim, looking like someone carrying a deep grudge. “I’m not going to disturb her. I’m going to kill those bastards who are lusting after her! None of them have good intentions; they just see her beauty and want to possess her. I am the only one in the world who truly cares for her. Others don’t deserve to be near her. They all have ulterior motives. Ming Yishu surely can’t see through them. I must go to ensure her safety and keep her away from those low-life scoundrels.”

Jiang Qionghua was clearly driven mad by anger, her words tinged with uncontrollable irritability. She could endure Ming Yishu not seeing her, and she could endure the daily torture of overflowing longing, but the one thing she could not tolerate was Ming Yishu running away with someone else.

The mere thought of the Ming Yishu who was once intimate with her now whispering sweet nothings to another woman made her feel so jealous she could go insane.

Impossible.

She would never allow such a thing to happen.

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