Chapter 7

It was not her own.

Yan Lan opened her mouth to scream. But before even a peep could get out, a hand clamped over her lips, muffling her. In the end, she sounded like a dying chicken who had stuck its head underwater! Yan Lan's heart pounded in her ears like a drum, and her body shook slightly. Blood rushed in her ears. 

Was this it? It was well-known that Yougu was ridden with crime, even though it was nothing close to as bad as Xiequ. Sometimes, crazed brothel customers would break in and kidnap unsuspecting courtesans. Yan Lan struggled violently, trying to bite at the hand, but another hand swooped around and clamped her arms down, lifting her off the ground and preventing her from moving besides kicking her legs uselessly. How strong was this man? Or, no—it was a woman! Yan Lan could feel breasts against her back. A woman, so strong? Was this a kind of thing that even happened? Wasn't it mostly men who got violent towards courtesans?

"Don't scream," A voice murmured next to her ear. Yan Lan stopped struggling.

The voice sounded…terrified? Desperate? 

Whatever it was, it didn't sound scary.

After another moment of silence, Yan Lan nodded shakily. The woman let go of her, and Yan Lan stumbled forward, running towards the door. She needed to go and scream for help out the door!

"Wait! Please…ah…"

Yan Lan faltered and stopped, looking over her shoulder with a mixture of terror and curiosity. Her eyes widened, and she nearly dropped the towel covering herself.

Kneeling on the ground by the window was a beautiful woman. 

So, so beautiful…

Maybe the most beautiful woman Yan Lan had ever seen!

She had skin as smooth and pale as jade. Her hair and eyebrows were thick and dark, black and shining like freshly ground ink. Her eyes were a pale green color in the shadow of the moonlight, but when she looked up at Yan Lan, they became a dark brown. And her body…

To say the least, she looked both strong enough to lift Yan Lan over her head and slender enough to dance like a courtesan. Yan Lan's face reddened, and she looks away quickly. 

Then, something clicked in her mind. She looked back, and her eyes widened.

This woman…

She was wearing cultivation robes.

What's more, on her back were strapped not one, but two swords. One had a white hilt that shone in the moonlight, and the other was all wrapped up in a cloth save for the glinting golden hit.

But more important than even that…

This woman had blood splattered on her face. Her white cultivation robes were torn at the side, and her jade-colored sash was splattered with blood from a gaping wound there. The woman looked up at Yan Lan with pained eyes filled with desperation.

"Please…" She croaked. "Don't go."

Yan Lan swallowed. For a moment, she thought about running to get Xue Shi. Xue Shi would know what to do…but then again, Xue Shi wasn't the type of person to care deeply about others. She might just report this injured cultivator to Madame Mei, who would throw her out, and then who knows what would happen to an injured woman in this district…

Quickly, Yan Lan rushed to the woman's side, examining the wound.

"Don't worry. I won't leave." She pulled back some of the torn silk and winced at the blood and sliced flesh beneath, like a horrible tapestry. She'd never been good with wounds. "You…this is a very bad wound. I mean…obviously, it is, but…how did this happen…?"

While Yan Lan tied her towel around her chest and grabbed a nearby towel to use as a bandage, the woman explained, panting through tears of exhaustion. Though she was in pain, her voice was velvety and strangely soothing to Yan Lan:

"A ritual. It…backfired."

"A ritual?"

"I…I tried to take on someone else's curse…Also, I got into a fight…on the way…"

Yan Lan gaped. Then she shook herself and started to remove the woman's outer layer of robes to see the wound more clearly. In response, the woman jerked backward and in a flash had grabbed Yan Lan's wrist, holding it so tightly that it hurt. Yan Lan cried out and blinked, struggling.

"What the…I'm trying to help you! I need to see the wound better! What's wrong?"

After a moment, the woman let go, clearing her throat. She looked away, seeming embarrassed. "Sorry. Instincts."

Yan Lan sighed shakily and rubbed her wrist. After a moment, she nodded. She understood. The instinct of wanting to jerk away whenever someone touched your clothing…that was common for courtesans who'd been cast to the most abusive customers. "Try not to move. I'll bandage it to stop the blood. I'm sorry if it hurts a bit."

"Don't be sorry," The woman said sharply. Yan Lan jumped; her voice was a little harsh when she said that. Immediately after, the woman cleared her throat, embarrassed again, and repeated herself more calmly: "I mean…there's no need to apologize. You're helping me."

"Oh…sorry."

"Don't—! I mean, again, no…no need to apologize. You didn't do anything wrong."

Yan Lan tilted her head, tearing up the towel into bandage-able strips. "I never thought about it like that. I guess I apologize a lot. Maybe it's because I'm the dog of Xiaoyue. I've been trained," She joked, laughing slightly to herself. Suddenly, she felt a cold stare on her face, and she looked up and jumped once more, heart freezing. 

The woman…her expression was so dark and cold it might as well be dripping with icicles in the middle of winter! 

"Wha…" Yan Lan squeaked, shrinking back. Noticing this, the woman shook her head rapidly and rubbed her temples, softening her expression.

"Sorry. Um…headache."

"...Okay…"

Yan Lan worked in silence for a bit. Bandaging, tearing, removing clothing to wrap the bandages all the way around the woman's back and chest to stabilize them. As she worked, she grew curious. Though she was scared of this woman because of her sudden appearance and her rapidly changing moods, her curiosity was too strong to ignore.

"So…you tried to take on someone else's curse? What kind of curse? Why would you do that?"

"...It was a curse on their cultivation. It was someone close to me, that's why. Do I need another reason?"

"Well, I think you would. I don't think there's ever a reason to hurt yourself for someone else, no matter how close they are to you."

The woman's eyes glittered, flashing green with shadows. "...Do you really think that?"

Yan Lan paused to think, rubbing her chin. "Yep! I do. I mean, I wouldn't want anyone to ever hurt themself because of me. If I was cursed, I wouldn't want my friend to take on my curse. I would feel horrible!"

The woman scoffed. It seemed she was feeling much less pain now that her wound was half-bandaged up. What a good pain tolerance and healing rate! "Right. Let me ask you something, then."

"Hmm? All right, ask me."

"If your friend was cursed, would you hurt yourself to take their curse away?"

Yan Lan froze. Why was the woman's voice so cold again? What was up with that? Hot and cold, hot and cold, like a fire freezing over and burning through again and again.

"Of course I wouldn't!" She insisted, frowning. "I would help them but not try to take it away. What's the use of trying to take their curse away if it doesn't work in the end and I just get hurt like you? Then both of us would be hurt for no reason!"

The woman's eyes flickered. She hummed, as though in thought. "...You never really know until you get into that kind of situation, I guess."

"Hmm…I guess that makes sense."