Chapter 283: Help (1)

Chapter 283: Help (1)

This chapter has been stolen from volarenovels. Please read from the original source!

The men were shouting in strange gibberish sounds.

Chu Lian's brows furrowed together. Her expression turned grave and she immediately turned to Wenlan. "Be careful, Wenlan, these people are Tuhuns!"

They hadn't even reached the northern border and they were still within the territory of the Great Wu Dynasty. How had the Tuhuns set an ambush for them here?

Although Wenlan didn't know how Chu Lian had been able to tell that these people were Tuhun, she had always put her full trust in Chu Lian.

Wenlan gripped her wrist and forced Chu Lian onto a horse.

As she held onto the reins, Wenlan looked up at Chu Lian and said, "Third Young Madam, run away first! This servant will hold them back!"

After saying so, without waiting for Chu Lian to speak, she slapped the horse on the rump. The red chestnut horse reared up in fright and let loose a cry before taking off.

Chu Lian snatched the reins and held on for dear life. She crawled forward as far as she could on the horse's back and grabbed onto its neck.

With the howling of the wind in her ears, Chu Lian could hear the sounds of battle getting further and further away. After a moment, she could hear hoofbeats replace them.

Chu Lian hugged the horse's neck as tightly as she could. The cold wind cut against her face. She could really do no more than inwardly wail.

Wenlan had been too concerned with protecting her that she had forgotten to ask if her master even knew how to ride a horse! This was just great! Even if she somehow evaded capture by the Tuhuns, she was going to be half-dead from falling off a horse!

As the horse charged out of the forest, the hanging branches of the trees forced Chu Lian into a sorry state. Before she could relax and try to control her steed, the sounds of hoofbeats from behind her increased in pace, as if someone had come chasing after her.

Chu Lian's nerves were at an all-time high. She tried her best to hold onto the horse's neck with the reins in her grip. It took a little maneuvering, but she managed to balance herself properly before turning around to take a glance behind her.

Chu Lian gasped, inhaling a mouthful of cold air.

Those two Tuhuns had come after her.

When she had glanced back, the Tuhuns were actually not more than twenty metres away from her!

A chill snuck down her spine. Chu Lian knew that she wouldn't meet a good end in the hands of the Tuhun. Even if she managed to survive in the Tuhuns' grasp and return to the Great Wu Dynasty alive, her reputation would be ruined.

Even though the Great Wu Dynasty was more open-minded, they were still a feudal society, and females were on the losing end.

Furthermore, going by how crazy He Sanlang was towards her even when her reputation was just fine, if she ended up getting kidnapped, he would probably write a divorce contract on the spot!

Chu Lian forced herself to calm down and stop thinking of anything irrelevant to her situation. She gritted her teeth and plucked a hairpin from her head before stabbing the horse's rump viciously.

The horse had already started slowing down; after getting stabbed, it went crazy and started sprinting forward again.

Chu Lian couldn't care about anything else any longer. The only thing she could do was hug the horse's neck in a death grip and do her best to stay on its back as she was jolted around.

The winter winds beat against her face like an endless wave of ice shards. The Tuhuns behind her seemed to be angered by her move. They shouted in gibberish she couldn't understand, but their tone clearly meant to scold.

Even though Chu Lian couldn't understand, she didn't dare to look back again and clung to the horse.

After the chasing Tuhuns realised that screaming angrily at her was useless, one of the Tuhuns spoke again and pulled out the bow he carried on his back.

He drew out a sharp arrow from his quiver and notched it to his bow. Then, he pulled back the string so far back that the bow took the shape of the full moon -- such a deep angle that it was nearly circular! Then, the Tuhun shut one eye and began to take aim at Chu Lian's back!

Meanwhile, Li Xing and Li Yue were battling against the attacking barbarians with some other guards in their party. Although the barbarians didn't know martial arts, they had strength that the Great Wu people did not.

Even though Li Xing and Li Yue were skilled at martial arts, they still couldn't hold back the combined attacks of so many strong barbarians at once.

Soon, Li Xing blocked a blow for his sister and sustained a heavy injury.

The barbarians were divided into two groups. One group was in charge of besieging the men that Chu Lian had brought along, while the other group was stealing away the party's supplies and luggage.

The luggage from the carriage was all shifted onto horseback.

Wenqing was tripped by a middle-aged barbarian. Just as that thick sword was about to land on her chest, Wenqing shut her eyes in fright. It didn’t matter that she had been trained in martial arts since a young age -- she still flinched back!

And yet, even as she was scared beyond belief, Wenqing was still worried for her Third Young Madam. She could only pray to the gods for Third Young Madam's safety.

Wenqing had thought that this would be the end of her life. However, the clash of metal-on-metal rang out in front of her, and the broadsword that should’ve slashed through her chest… didn’t! The tip of the sword lost its original course and instead plunged into the tree behind her.

Before Wenqing could recover from her brush with death, she heard an icy yet familiar voice say, "Where's your Third Young Madam!"

Wenqing abruptly opened her eyes and looked up, only to see a slender man dressed in black armour standing before her... with a huge beard...

Wenqing's eyes almost popped out. Trembling with uncertainty, she said, "Third... Third Young Master?"

He Changdi's expression was stormy as he shot a cold glare at Wenqing. "I asked you, where's Chu Lian?!"

Wenqing immediately came to her senses and ignored her injuries as she replied, "The situation was critical just now, so Wenlan took Third Young Madam to escape in that direction! Third Young Master, please hurry!"

He Changdi didn’t even wait for her to take another breath. Wenqing could barely catch him from the corner of her eye as he darted in the direction she had pointed in.

TL Note: Just for fun and because I love horses, here's a picture of a red chestnut horse like the one Chu Lian's riding.

[caption id="attachment_86958" align="alignnone" width="353"] Red chestnut horse[/caption]

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