How To Survive as a Villain-Chapter 64: Protecting a Life With Another Life.
In an instant, thousands of arrows were fired at the same time. Some of them were impossible to dodge and the Imperial guards, who relaxed their vigilance before, raised their shields turning themselves into hedgehogs. Their dead faces were extremely terrifying.
Xiao YuAn was being protected by Yan HeQing. He raised his sword to block away several arrows and pressed Xiao YuAn behind the Imperial chariot: “Stay here, don’t come out!”
“W-wait, h-hold o-on.” Xiao YuAn’s body was uncontrollably shivering and he was unable to speak clearly. He still got up as quick as he could, and pulled Hong Xiu over besides the Imperial chariot with him as a shelter to block the sharp arrows.
Hong Xiu’s left arm was pierced with a sharp arrow and the blood was flowing from the injury, dying her gauze skirt red. Her face was white and her eyes were full of fear, her voice was sobbing: “Y-yo-your M-Majesty, are you okay Your Majesty?”
Xiao YuAn held her wound and started to comfort her: “I’m fine. You don’t need to be afraid, you’ll be fine too, don’t be afraid.”
The remaining Imperial guards quickly gathered around the Imperial chariot to draw swords and protect their Monarch. At that instant, there were no more arrows being shot, and after a second of silence in the air, many people dressed in black suddenly appeared from the dark! They didn’t even hesitate and immediately raised their sharp swords.
“Protect the Emperor!” The Imperial guards, after shouting, raised their swords to meet with the enemy, but because the other side had too many people, they were being repressed.
There was a bloody smell in the air, and the lights and shadows of the swords were appearing faintly1. Yan HeQing grabbed Xiao YuAn’s arm and with an anxious tone of voice he said: “Let’s go!!”
The voice of Yan HeQing faded when five people dressed in black surrounded them. Their martial arts were exceptional and their swords were fierce, but they didn’t touch any vital points in Yan HeQing’s body. They were just trying to separate him from Xiao YuAn, however Yan HeQing didn’t intend to get separated from him.
With so many people, there was a long standoff, and these several people dressed in black were waving their swords at them. Gradually, Yan HeQing showed some weakness and he was unable to protect Xiao YuAn. As a result, the two of them ended up being separated.
Yan HeQing’s arm was caught by someone and he ended up kneeling on the ground, unable to move. A man dressed in black slowly stepped forward, and when he took off the cloth covering his face, Wuning Wangye’s face appeared.
Yan HeQing looked at him, his eyes showing complicated emotions for a moment, his four limbs and bones were gradually immersed in cold. Yan HeQing tried to open his mouth, but his throat felt like being strangled, making his eyes dizzy, and his blood freeze.
Since it was Wuning Wangye the one behind this, that means that these people dressed in black were the soldiers of the Southern Yan Kingdom that were lent to Wuning Wangye, and he was also an important part of pushing forward this plan.
Wuning Wangye chuckled and whispered to Yan HeQing: “Yan-huangzi, you’ve done a great job in this farce. I know you’re supposed to be the Emperor’s Imperial bodyguard, rest assured, you don’t have to worry about losing your reputation of protecting the Monarch. When I’m done, I’ll send you out of the Palace immediately and make you return to the Southern Yan Kingdom.”
After saying that, Wuning Wangye waved his hand gently.
“Wait……” Yan HeQing’s eyes suddenly shrunk, he was struggling to see at the direction of Xiao YuAn’s escape, but he was hit hard at the side of his neck, immediately fainting on the ground.
There were so many people on the other side that it was impossible for Xiao YuAn to run away at all. While he was protecting Hong Xiu, he punched a man’s face who was dressed in black, and then he received a sneak attack from behind, someone kicked him making him fall on the ground.
“Your Majesty!!!” Hong Xiu screamed and stepped forward to help him, but she was pulled away. Xiao YuAn was unstable, and he was immediately pushed down by several men dressed in black. When he looked up, he saw Wuning Wangye looking down at him. He had a crazy smile on his face.
“Your Majesty, in fact, I didn’t intend to make such a sudden attack.” Wuning Wangye kneeled and looked down at Xiao YuAn: “But, why did you have to give the military power to Li Wuding?”
Xiao YuAn sneered: “Because with General Fan Tong2, the Northern Kingdom will be over.”
“Tch tch, Emperor, that’s not what you said before. However, there wasn’t any faith in those words3.” Wuning Wangye narrowed his eyes.
“Wasn’t you the one who’s words lacked faith, and secretly colluded with the enemy?” Xiao YuAn sneered.
He can’t lose his imposing aura! Damn you!
“Your Majesty, even at a time like this, I can’t forgive you.” Wuning Wangye laughed. “His Majesty can be assured that if the Northern Kingdom is in my hands, it will grow stronger than when it was in yours.”
“Hahaha, these men dressed in black are not my soldiers of the Northern Kingdom. You even have to rely on the power of other countries. Who gave you the confidence to say this, and how will you ensure that the throne will be definitely yours?”
“I will be…” Wuning Wangye stood up and slowly raised his sword, his eyes were full of murderous intent. “As long as you’re dead, I will definitely take the throne!!”
He moved his sword in a treacherous way, and for a brief moment the world went silent. Xiao YuAn slowly closed his eyes in resignation.
“Your Majesty!!!”
A scream suddenly cut through the sky, and Xiao YuAn abruptly opened his eyes. What he saw was something he didn’t want to see in this lifetime.
Hong Xiu stood in front of him. Her body was so delicate, and the sharp blade cut her throat and cheek. Hong Xiu slowly and slowly fell right in front of Xiao YuAn’s eyes.
A warm liquid splashed on Xiao YuAn’s face, and his body unexpectedly started to shiver.
He can’t hear anything, he didn’t even hear what Wuning Wangye said to him: “There’s still people who are willing to block a sword for you. It seems that you must have had some good points as an Emperor.”
He couldn’t see. He didn’t even see when Wuning Wangye moved his sword again, but then, an unexpected sharp arrow penetrated his arm making him drop his sword to the ground.
He couldn’t hear Li Wuding shouting: “Weichen arrived late to protect His Majesty.”
He wasn’t able to see anything just for a brief moment, but the situation suddenly was reversed.
He came to reality, hurriedly stepped forward and hugged Hong Xiu’s body covered in blood tightly, his mind was full of thoughts: How could this happen, how could this end up like this?
Hong Xiu tightly grasped Xiao YuAn’s sleeves. Her throat was cut open by the sharp blade and the scar spread to her left cheek, it was shockingly red all over. She seemed to want to say something to him, but when she opened her mouth, her throat was bleeding non stop.
Hong Xiu looked at him twice, opening her mouth and breathing with difficulty, but the blood just kept pouring more and more. Slowly, she reached out to her head and tried her best to remove the red flower hairpin from her hair. With a last effort she slowly placed it into Xiao YuAn’s hands.
Xiao YuAn saw Hong Xiu smiling at him sweetly, and that smile pulled the cut wound, making her feel extreme pain. Then, her arm fell on the ground and she no longer breathed.
“It’s not… this wasn’t supposed to be, it wasn’t supposed to be like this…”
When Xiao YuAn heard himself murmuring like this, he felt like his voice was extremely desperate and sad. His body was helplessly trembling while holding the body of Hong Xiu, he seemed to try to stop her body from losing warmth, but all that effort was in vain.
This wasn’t supposed to happen like this, the ending of Hong Xiu wasn’t like this at all. She should be able to escape from the Imperial City after the Northern Kingdom was broken into, take her brother and sister with her, and spend the rest of their lives in a small village, in peace.
Why is this happening? Why?
This kind of thing.
There was a cruel voice, whispering in Xiao YuAn’s ear.
That’s right, you clearly knew that after Yan HeQing and Wuning Wangye meet each other, Wuning Wangye will be assisted by the Southern Yan Kingdom soldiers. You willingly passed the General’s position to Li Wuding, forcing Wuning Wangye to revolt against this military change.
All of that, isn’t that just the truth?
Hong Xiu was killed by you.
Why did you always treat yourself as an outsider? Why did you treat people as you pleased?
For what reason?
The howling wind roared and passed through the place they were at, jiejiejie’s4 voice was like a woman cursing and laughing in Xiao YuAn’s ear.
Footnotes:
Footnotes
刀光剑影 dāo guāng jiàn yǐng; it’s a Chinese idiom, it describes an environment that is full with a dangerous atmosphere. From《战城南四首》(zhàn chéng nán sì shǒu), “Four Poems From the South of Zhancheng”, written by (吴均 wú jūn) Wu Jun [469-520AC] a writer and historian from the Southern Liang Dynasty [502-557AC].Here Xiao YuAn keeps mentioning Fan Tong as 饭桶 fàn tǒng (a-good-for-nothing).言而无信 yán ér wú xìn; a Chinese idiom, it means: When someone goes back on their words / When someone breaks their promise / To be unfaithful / To be untrustworthy. From 《谷梁传·僖公二十二年》(gǔ liáng zhuàn xī gōng èr shí èr nián), “Biography of Guliang: Twenty two years of Xi Gong”, written by (谷梁赤 gǔ liáng chì) Guliang Chi [year of birth and death unknown] a famous Confucian scholar from the Warring States period [475-221 BC].桀桀桀 jié jié jié; it’s used as an onomatopoeia to describe the villain’s laugh, it’s the kind of laughter that a big traitor, evil people or a demon likes to make / It’s often used in novels to describe a very unpleasant laugh.
