After being unbound, they didn't say anything but rowed back toward Lotus Pond.
Without oars, they used their hands to paddle against the current.Lady Yu said that he would take two weeks to recover from this beating, but Wei Wuwen felt a burning and tingling pain at the places he had been hit, with no significant hindrance in movement.
They worked hard together, as if fighting for their lives, rowing for over an hour until they finally pulled the boat back to Lotus Pond.It was already midnight.The main gate of Lotus Pond was tightly shut, but outside, lights illuminated the scene.
The moonlight reflected on the water like shattered glass, and a few dozen nine-petaled lotus lanterns floated quietly by the dock.Everything seemed as it always did, yet precisely because everything remained unchanged, it made his heart ache with unease.The two stopped far out in the lake and anchored themselves in the water.
Their hearts raced so wildly that they didn't dare approach the dock or rush ashore to see what was happening inside.Tears welled up in Jiang Cheng's eyes as he shivered from head to toe.
After a while, Wei Wuwen said, "...Let's not go through the gate."Jiang Cheng nodded frantically.
The two silently rowed to the other side of the lake where an old willow tree stood with its roots buried in the shore.
Its thick trunk grew diagonally over the water, and the branches dipped into it.
In the past, Lotus Pond's young men often used this tree to climb to its top, sitting there to fish.They stopped their boat behind one of the tree's drooping branches, using the night and the willow branches for cover as they approached the shore.Wei Wuwen was accustomed to climbing walls;he pulled Jiang Cheng close and whispered, "This way."Jiang Cheng, now both terrified and shocked, could barely differentiate directions.
Following him, he clung to a wall and hid quietly behind a wall until they reached an overhang where a row of animal heads provided a good vantage point.
In the past, people outside the walls used to climb onto this overhang to spy on them;now it was their turn to spy.Wei Wuwen peeked inside, his heart immediately sinking.In the courtyard of Lotus Pond, rows upon rows of people stood.These people all wore robes dyed with flames of blazing sun, their collars and sleeves adorned with fiery patterns that were as bright as blood.Apart from those standing, some lay on the ground.
The fallen bodies had been moved to the northwest corner of the courtyard, piled up haphazardly.
One person was turned away from them, his head bowed, seemingly examining a heap of Jiang family members who could either be dead or alive.Jiang Cheng's gaze continued searching for Yu Ziyuan and Jiang Fengmian;they were not there.
Wei Wuwen's eyes suddenly filled with tears.Among these people, he saw several familiar figures.His throat was dry and sore, his temples throbbing as if struck by an iron hammer, and he felt cold all over.
Just as he wanted to look closely at the boy on top, who seemed to be Sixth Brother, that person in the northwest corner suddenly turned around as though sensing something.Wei Wuwen immediately pressed Jiang Cheng's head down.Although he managed to hide just in time, he still saw clearly.Era un joven de una edad similar, con rasgos delicados, ojos negros como la noche y una palidez en su rostro.
Aunque vestía ropas teñidas con las llamas del sol ardiente, no emanaba ninguna aura de poder ni fuerza.
Según el símbolo solar en su túnica, debería ser algún Junior Príncipe de la familia Wen.