Volume One, Chapter 2: The Astonishing Surge of Acceleration

“Bastard! How dare you take liberties with me!” Xiao Ruoqing shouted furiously.

As she spoke, she summoned all her strength and viciously pinched Fan Xiu’s waist.

If she had not been poisoned and could still use her martial arts, she would have slapped this cowardly, money-grubbing, utterly shameless bastard to death long ago.

“Ohhh!” Fan Xiu shrieked, seizing Xiao Ruoqing by the wrist. “What are you doing? When did I take liberties with you? This donkey keeps jolting up and down—I can’t control it!”

His elbow had indeed struck her chest just moments ago, and he had not done it deliberately.

But, to be fair, although the woman behind him looked like a beggar, her pampered bearing and the soft, delicate hands clasped tightly around his waist made it obvious that she was a young lady from a wealthy household.

She did not look especially curvy from the front, but judging by the force repeatedly pressing against his back and the astonishing sensation of being pushed forward, she was certainly not lacking in that department.

What a pity.

Had he known she would climb onto the donkey, he would have continued riding backward.

Wouldn’t that have allowed him to hold her face-to-face in his arms?

He might be riding a donkey rather than a horse, but this donkey had a much more vigorous gait. Just imagining it was thrilling.

Speaking of the donkey…

Fan Xiu lowered his head and glanced at the panting jenny, foam frothing at the corners of its mouth. He said heartbrokenly, “My poor donkey. My second uncle gave you to me. If you die of exhaustion, I’ll never forgive you!”

“Isn’t money what you want? Here!”

Gritting her teeth, Xiao Ruoqing held out a gold ingot.

The instant Fan Xiu saw it, his eyes practically turned into stars. He even began to drool.

Though he had only just arrived in this world, he still had a discerning eye. That ingot weighed at least ten ounces and could be exchanged for a hundred ounces of silver.

A young jenny cost only five ounces of silver.

He had struck it rich!

“Big sister, you’re generous! Mama Donkey, hang in there! Let’s launch a Don Quixote-style charge against that impossible windmill!”

Fan Xiu pocketed the gold and began shouting excitedly.

Xiao Ruoqing was so furious that she nearly choked.

She understood very little of Fan Xiu’s incomprehensible rambling, but she understood the words “big sister”—and “Mama Donkey.”

A moment ago, he had called her a filthy beggar. Now that he had seen money, he had changed his form of address to “big sister”?

Was he completely obsessed with money?

And he was calling the donkey “Mama Donkey”?

If he wanted to adopt a donkey as his mother, that was his business. But she was the dignified empress of the Great Yin Dynasty, the most honored woman in the entire realm!

How dare he make her call a donkey her mother?

Just then, a wave of weakness suddenly swept over her.

Fan Xiu was enthusiastically imagining himself charging into battle on a warhorse when he suddenly realized that the woman behind him had gone completely still.

“Hey! Big sister?”

Fan Xiu called out tentatively. The hands that had been wrapped tightly around his waist suddenly slackened, and her body began to fall straight downward.

“Damn it!”

Fan Xiu hurriedly caught her hand with one arm while pulling on the donkey’s reins with the other, bringing the animal to a halt.

He glanced back. The assassins had vanished, apparently having given up the chase.

With considerable effort, Fan Xiu lifted Xiao Ruoqing and moved her onto the grass beside the road.

She looked slender, but she was unexpectedly heavy. He was nearly exhausted by the time he got her there.

With a body this feeble, Fan Xiu could not understand how the original owner had survived this long.

“Hey!”

Panting heavily, Fan Xiu said, “Wake up. Come on, wake up, big sister.”

Xiao Ruoqing lay motionless, her willow brows tightly knitted as though she were suffering terribly.

“If you’re not waking up, I’m leaving,” Fan Xiu said again.

Xiao Ruoqing felt as if countless ants were crawling all over her body. Combined with her grievous injuries, her body was unbearably weak.

Climbing onto the donkey’s back and fleeing this far had already exhausted her limits.

Now the poison had taken effect, while her injuries continued to worsen. Every last ounce of strength and energy had been drained from her. She did not even have enough strength to move her eyelids.

Yet she had not lost consciousness. She could still faintly sense what was happening around her.

“Suit yourself!”

Seeing that Xiao Ruoqing still did not move, Fan Xiu took two steps back. “I’m not interested in sticking my neck out for a stranger. So long.”

With that, he turned and walked away.

He and the woman were complete strangers. Besides, he had already risked himself to save her from the assassins. He had done more than enough.

Hearing his words and the sound of his retreating footsteps, Xiao Ruoqing was so furious that she nearly vomited blood.

How could anyone be so heartless?

The moment danger appeared, he had turned and run without a second thought.

And now that she had lost consciousness, he actually intended to abandon her in the wilderness?

Even if they had only met by chance, leaving an unconscious woman alone beside the road was worse than killing her outright.

What if she encountered wild beasts and was devoured alive? Or fell into the hands of some villain and was violated? Either fate would be more agonizing than death.

Just then, the sound of Fan Xiu’s footsteps abruptly stopped.

A moment later, he came walking back.

“One might as well see things through once one has started.”

Fan Xiu crouched beside Xiao Ruoqing and sighed deeply. “After all, you’re the goddess of wealth who gave me that gold. If I leave you here to fend for yourself and some thug carries you home to be his wife, wouldn’t that make me responsible for ruining your life? Ah… who can blame me for being such a good person? When you wake up, you’d better give me a few more gold ingots to show your gratitude.”

Xiao Ruoqing knew that Fan Xiu had returned, and for a moment she felt grateful.

Whatever a scoundrel he might be, he had at least come back to save her. That proved he was not entirely bad at heart.

Then she heard what he said, and her blood surged so violently that she nearly injured her internal organs.

You call yourself a good person?

If Xiao Ruoqing had been able to move, she would have spat straight in his face.

If every good person in the world were dead, you still would not qualify!

How could a selfish, heartless, money-obsessed, timid, lustful, cowardly bastard like you have the nerve to call yourself a good person?

Meeting a man like this was truly the worst misfortune of eight lifetimes.

Had Fan Xiu known what Xiao Ruoqing thought of him, he probably would have gone over and finished her off.

Fan Xiu examined Xiao Ruoqing’s injuries.

She had been wounded in the back and legs, all of them knife wounds, and she was still bleeding.

Her unconsciousness was probably also caused by excessive blood loss.

But there was no time to treat her now.

Who knew whether those assassins might catch up?

After once again exhausting himself hauling Xiao Ruoqing onto the donkey, Fan Xiu began leading the animal down the road.

“Count yourself lucky to have met such a wonderfully kind man as me,” he boasted shamelessly as he walked.

Before long, Fan Xiu found a dilapidated temple and hurriedly carried Xiao Ruoqing inside.

Xiao Ruoqing had no idea where Fan Xiu had taken her, and her heart was filled with unease.

She wanted him to save her.

But she knew nothing about him and had no idea what kind of man he truly was.

Moreover, night was about to fall. If Fan Xiu took her somewhere deserted and committed some beastly act against her, she would have no means of resisting.

Just then, she suddenly felt Fan Xiu’s hands searching over her body. Every so often, his fingers even squeezed her chest.

“Heh heh. Being unconscious has its advantages! The fabric of these clothes is excellent—they must be worth quite a bit. Too bad they’re useless now except for getting in the way.”

The next instant—

Riiip!

Xiao Ruoqing felt the clothes on her body being violently torn open.

She panicked at once.

It was over! This bastard truly had evil intentions!

She screamed frantically in the depths of her heart:

“You bastard! If you dare touch me, I will return to the palace and have you cut into a thousand pieces! No! Don’t touch me! I… I beg you…”