Chapter 2

"Get on it."

Li Wu reached out and adjusted the saddle on the camel, gesturing for Zhu Yu to climb up.

The two camels stomping their hooves and looking a little lazy were their transport across the desert.

Zhu Yu stared at the spit the camel was huffing out and felt a little uneasy. "It won't throw me off, will it?"

"No."

Zhu Yu approached with some trepidation, then turned to the person beside her and said solemnly, "If I do fall, you have to catch me. If you can't and I get killed, remember to bury me somewhere pretty."

Her earnest expression made it sound as if she were deadly serious.

Li Wu was almost amused by the young woman and explained, "Camels are naturally docile. They won't throw you that easily." With that, he urged her to put her foot in the stirrup and helped her swing up onto the saddle.

Zhu Yu obediently did as she was told, though she muttered under her breath, "Then what about thieves? They don't exactly make themselves easy to run into either, and we still ran into them..."

Li Wu pretended not to hear her. He had thought the young woman would be shaken after being frightened last night, but judging from how wildly she had gone on a buying spree at the market that morning, she probably hadn't been traumatized at all. Tough as nails.

At the edge of the desert it was still bearable, but once they headed deeper inland, the wind and sand that kicked up from time to time were so bad that even opening one's mouth felt like a risk of getting a mouthful of grit. Zhu Yu finally understood why Arabs all wore those big cloaks.

"Hey, it's almost dark. Where are we staying tonight?" Zhu Yu's muffled voice came from inside the cloak.

Li Wu looked at the map and replied, "Soon. There's an oasis nearby. We'll rest there."

An oasis?

Zhu Yu's eyes lit up. Didn't that mean there would be a lake?

Sure enough, after riding for another hour, they saw a patch of green.

It was a small oasis, lush with grass and trees all around. Parting the dense greenery revealed a lake, its surface faintly shimmering with silver light.

After Li Wu helped her down from the camel, Zhu Yu ran straight to the lake without stopping. She even tested the water temperature; it was a little cold, but when she pressed it against her sun-reddened face, it felt heavenly.

She cupped a handful of lake water and splashed it over her face, letting out a satisfied sigh.

"I'm taking a bath tonight!" Zhu Yu decided. For days, sweat had been sticking to her clothes, drying and soaking again and again until it had almost caked into a crust.

Li Wu objected. "No. There are red scorpions that come around this lake to feed."

"..." Zhu Yu was immediately torn. She was afraid of being stung by a scorpion, but being sticky and grimy all over made her desperate to bathe.

"It's fine! How unlucky could we possibly be? You can just watch nearby, can't you? I'll grab a stick for self-defense too. If a scorpion comes near me, I'll smack it."

Zhu Yu knitted her little brows and came up with that plan after a long moment.

She said it with excited determination to Li Wu.

"..."

"You have to keep a close eye out, okay? Don't let any scorpions sneak in!" Before Li Wu could answer, there was a rustling sound.

It turned out Zhu Yu was worried Li Wu would refuse, so she had simply gone ahead and stripped off her clothes to bathe first.

Li Wu could only sigh helplessly and sit down outside the oasis, taking out some water to drink a few mouthfuls.

Zhu Yu swam happily around the lake several times and even washed her hair before finally getting out, fully satisfied, and putting on her clean clothes.

But before she could even finish pulling on her lower garments, something red suddenly fell out from beneath them. Just as Zhu Yu was about to look closer, a sharp pain shot through her calf, making her cry out at once.

Li Wu started and immediately stood up. "What's wrong?"

Zhu Yu's tearful voice came from among the trees. "Wah... I got stung by a scorpion!"

That was probably what you called a jinx, or more simply, a crow's mouth.

Li Wu fixed his gaze on the scorpion on Zhu Yu's leg. The bright red thing was the red scorpion he had mentioned earlier, about the length of a finger, swaying in midair as Zhu Yu struggled, its two large pincers clamped tightly onto the tender flesh of her leg.

"Don't move." Li Wu pressed down on Zhu Yu's struggling leg.

Then he took out a fire starter and blew on it to get the flame going again.

He began burning the scorpion with it. After a while, the creature couldn't withstand the heat, curled up, and gradually loosened its pincers before dropping into the sand.

Li Wu stabbed it dead with his dagger.

But Zhu Yu's leg had already been stung until black blood welled up, looking terrifying.

Tears streamed down Zhu Yu's face in big drops as she trembled and asked, "Am I going to die from the poison?"

Li Wu chuckled. "No. As long as we deal with the poisoned blood, it'll be fine."

In a flash, Zhu Yu suddenly thought of those scenes in TV dramas where the male lead sucks the poison out of the female lead's wound.

Whether she was frightened or what, her mind short-circuited. She lifted her leg and placed it on Li Wu's knee, looking at him anxiously. "Then hurry up and suck it out for me."

A thunderclap seemed to go off in Li Wu's head, and heat surged through his body. In all his years traveling everywhere, he had never seen a girl so bold.

He looked at her with suspicion and said in a strange tone, "Do you even know what you're saying?"

Still crying, Zhu Yu kicked him with the bitten foot, her voice full of grievance. "I'm practically dying and you're still joking with me!"

Li Wu sighed. "No need for that. Just cut a cross with a knife and squeeze the poisoned blood out."

Zhu Yu heard that and said, "With a knife? Will that leave a scar?" Clearly, her focus had already drifted elsewhere.

"This..." Li Wu wasn't entirely sure. Some people really were prone to scarring.

Zhu Yu pouted and cried again. "Then no. Having an ugly scar like that is practically the same as dying. I'd rather die beautifully than live ugly."

Li Wu, "..."

This was already the umpteenth sigh he'd let out in the past few days. He really couldn't understand how Zhu Gong had raised such an oddball daughter. Other people would be panicking in a situation like this, but she was still thinking about looking pretty.

"Hurry up! Otherwise the poison will spread!" The words were clearly a command, but spoken by her in that drawn-out, soft little voice, they came out almost like a plea.

When Zhu Yu saw that Li Wu still hadn't moved, she leaned closer and tugged at his sleeve, her catlike eyes shimmering with moisture. "Please, please."

Li Wu's body went rigid. His hand clenched and then loosened again before he finally gave in. "All right. Sit still."

Li Wu lowered his head and grasped her ankle. Her snow-white foot fell into the rough palm of the man, looking delicate beyond measure.

Her skin was smooth and fine, so soft that it felt as if it would slip from his grasp if he didn't hold it firmly.

On that jade-white calf, a ring of purple marks had appeared, making it impossible not to want to wipe away the blemish.

Li Wu drew a deep breath and slowly pressed his lips to the wound, carefully sucking out the poisoned blood.

The process was far from pleasant. Zhu Yu's little face had gone deathly pale from the pain, and with tears brimming in her eyes, she told Li Wu, "Gently. It hurts."

Li Wu spat out a mouthful of black poison blood and looked at her. "Don't talk."

...Wait, that sounded way too suggestive.

Zhu Yu immediately realized it too, and her face burned bright red. She knew perfectly well her skin wasn't that thick.

Mortified, Zhu Yu lowered her head and fell silent.

For a moment, all was quiet except for the rustle of leaves.

Moonlight filtered through the gaps in the treetops, and Li Wu could see that her calf looked even more pristine and jade-like under it, soft and boneless. With the poison blood gone, only two tiny beads of red remained on the skin, adding a faintly ravaged allure that stabbed straight into the eye and left a deep mark behind.

Li Wu suddenly felt his knee burn hot. He wondered if he had gone mad, to be so entranced that he was actually fantasizing about the daughter of an old friend. He abruptly stood up and rasped, "All right."

Zhu Yu had not been prepared, and Li Wu's sudden movement made her leg drop onto the sand. The pain made her flinch, and she snapped angrily, "Why did you stand up all of a sudden!"

Without turning back, Li Wu walked away from her. "Come on and sleep. We have to set off first thing tomorrow morning."

The awkwardness from just now had mostly been washed away by that little commotion. Zhu Yu puffed out her cheeks, stood up, and hobbled after him.