Shuiling looked towards the bed again and saw eight bloody holes in Lianju's chest.
Each one was deeper and more severe than the last, clearly demonstrating the archer's intent to kill.
Shuiling's limbs turned cold with fright. She forced herself to remain steady, supporting Lianju's limp shoulders.
Lianju's consciousness was completely blurred. If it weren't for the white medicinal powder sprinkled on her wounds, stimulating her to still feel pain, she would have long since fainted.
Ji Zizhao then took out a surgical needle and gut thread from the medicine box, rapidly stitching up each gruesome wound.
Under the candlelight, Ji Zizhao's forehead was already covered in a dense layer of sweat, her fair face appearing almost transparent.
Shuiling watched her mistress anxiously, fearing she would collapse from exhaustion.
Yet, under her concerned gaze, Ji Zizhao proceeded methodically, swiftly and efficiently closing all of Lianju's wounds.
Only after snipping the last gut thread did Ji Zizhao look at Lianju and say, "Sleep now, have a good rest."
Lianju, who had been holding on by sheer will, exhaled and let her head tilt to the side.
Ji Zizhao took Lianju's shoulders from Shuiling and carefully helped her lie down on the bed.
Due to her injuries, Lianju could not lie flat or on her stomach. Ji Zizhao gently turned Lianju onto her side, then looked at Shuiling and said, "Go call Xinlan."
Shuiling nodded. "Understood, Miss."
Not long after, Xinlan, still groggy from sleep, returned to the room with Shuiling.
Upon seeing Lianju unconscious on the bed, Xinlan's sleepiness vanished instantly. "Miss, what happened to Miss Lianju?"
Ji Zizhao had no time to explain. She simply instructed, "Support her with utmost care, ensuring she doesn't touch the wounds on her chest or back. You two will take turns watching over her. If you're tired, sleep in my room. Absolutely no one else in the manor must know, especially Yongmei."
Xinlan and Shuiling quickly nodded in unison.
They walked to their mistress's side. One supported, the other assisted, carefully lifting the unconscious Lianju from Ji Zizhao's embrace. Shuiling then sat by the bedside, carefully watching over Lianju.
Xinlan stood guard beside them, her breath held steady. Lowering her gaze, she spotted a bamboo slip fallen beside the bed.
"Miss, what is this?" Xinlan picked it up, her brow furrowed. She realized the bamboo slip was already soaked in blood, and as she lifted it, dark red drops continued to drip onto the floor.
Xinlan was startled and instinctively wanted to drop it, but Ji Zizhao's hand grasped hers first. "This was what Lianju risked her life to retrieve."
Xinlan's eyes widened, and her body trembled.
Ji Zizhao took the military dispatch and turned towards the inner hall.
In the inner hall, two hall lamps cast a soft glow through the paper screens.
Ji Zizhao sat on a round stool shaped like a begonia and gently flipped through the blood-stained military dispatch in her hands.
In the room, Shuiling and Xinlan felt an unusual quiet emanating from the inner hall, so silent that not a sound could be heard.
Xinlan, worried, quietly crept to the entrance of the hall. She saw her mistress staring intently at the bamboo slip before her, her eyes crimson. Her fingers, stained red with blood, were white from the force of her grip, as if she were trying to crush the slip.
Xinlan, concerned, wanted to step forward, but Ji Zizhao spoke first, "Come in."
Xinlan paused, not daring to disobey, and turned back to the inner room.
Ji Zizhao waited until Xinlan's figure had completely disappeared from the hall entrance before looking down at the military dispatch again.
The reason her grandfather always recorded his military campaigns in separate dispatches was so she could read them in private, passing the time that was too boring.
It was through these military dispatches that Ji Zizhao came to understand the world outside the imperial city.
However, even Ji Zizhao never imagined that one day these military dispatches would become a record of the tragic deaths of the men of the Ji family!
Every word was cruel and cold, each sentence infused with scorching blood!
The men of the Ji family were born for Yulin, lived for the peace of the people, and for the prosperity of the nation.
With the Ji family's ancestral training in place, all male heirs of the Ji family began martial arts training at five, mastered military strategy at seven, and entered military camp for drills at eight. She heard that her father had first stepped onto the battlefield before he was even ten years old!
The world knew that the men of the Ji family were skilled warriors, invincible in battle, but no one knew the price the men of the Ji family paid behind these glorious but empty titles.
The men of the Ji family sought no fame or fortune, only wishing to shed blood and sweat for the people of Yulin. But even so!
They ultimately could not withstand the utterly disgusting schemes!
The enemy forces launched a surprise attack. The men of the Ji family bravely charged forward, intending to act as bait to trap fifty thousand enemy soldiers. Little did they know that the Second Prince held the military seal and ordered the thirty thousand supporting troops to remain stationary, waiting. For the sake of preserving his own reputation, he watched with folded arms as the men of the Ji family battled fifty thousand enemy soldiers.
In the end...
Not one survived. Sudan Novel Network
Ji Zizhao clutched the military dispatch, tears streaming down her face, her heart tearing with unbearable pain.
The last few lines of the military dispatch were written by her grandfather with his dying breath. These shaky strokes carried an unimaginable tragedy and a furious sense of injustice that no outsider could comprehend!
The wind and rain subsided, she looked up, a long cry to the heavens, filled with heroic spirit, the Ji family army marched away and never returned!
Do not wait idly, for sorrow in vain, the shame of Luoyi, still unavenged, the hatred of political maneuvering, when will it be extinguished...
The Second Prince...
Xie Jingxi!!
First pushing the Ji family into the abyss, then sending an imperial envoy to spread false reports and slander the Ji family.
Good, very good!
The monstrous hatred surged like a tidal wave, threatening to engulf Ji Zizhao. The early autumn sky was crisp and pleasant, yet Ji Zizhao felt as if she had fallen into an ice cellar, trembling uncontrollably.
When Qingzhu walked in, she saw her mistress in extreme pain.
"Miss..." Qingzhu quickly stepped forward, intending to ask what had happened. Before she could utter a word, her steady gaze fell upon the military dispatch Ji Zizhao was tightly gripping.
A few simple words were enough to explain everything.
Qingzhu, having once served as Vice-General to the Old Master of the Ji family, how could she not understand?!
"This was what Lianju protected with her life, but it cannot serve as evidence to clear the Ji family's name. Qingzhu, do you find this funny? It's laughable... so laughable..." Ji Zizhao gently caressed each word on the bamboo slip that seemed to weep blood, tears uncontrollably gushing out, the friction on her cheeks causing a sharp pain.
The military dispatch was a private record kept by her grandfather. It bore no official seal or general's seal, making it insufficient to prove anything. Given how deeply the Second Prince had schemed against the Ji family, he had likely already privately altered everything on the military slips.
Qingzhu seemed to recall something, her face turning pale. "Just now, I saw a messenger soldier entering the city. At this time, I fear..."
The imperial envoy first, the messenger soldier follows.
If the messenger soldier has already entered the city by now...
Then the army will likely be returning to the imperial city soon!!
How could the person who pushed the men of the Ji family into the abyss spare the innocent women of the Ji family?