Mistress, I Was Wrong

Chapter 9 – Escape

Dongfang Wanyu came back with bunches of fruit in her arms, “Have you seen ninth brother?”

Muqing’s eyes were  swollen like grapes, she shook her head, “Last time I checked he was sleeping, but I don’t know right after that.”

Dongfang Wanyu observed the messy surroundings Minghui had originally slept around. Her baggage remained untouched, the only thing missing from the picture was Minghui herself.

“Strange.”

If someone wanted to leave, they’d most certainly run off with their valuables. According to Minghui’s temperament towards her luggage, it would be highly unlikely she’d casually abandon her belongings like this.

These traces didn’t seem to indicate she’d leave willfully.

Dongfang Minghui followed the Lightning mouse. With every turn they made, Minghui made signs on the tree. With every time she stopped, the lightning mouse stopped, waiting for her patiently.

A human and a beast, in tandem, walked for a long time.

Dongfang Minghui watched the trees grow more and more luxuriant. Moreover, on the sturdy trunk whose thickness could be measured in five people’s embrace, she spotted the shadows of several small things. It was like playing hide-and-seek with cats, they would pop up a head and expose a big tail. When one of them noticed Minghui looking towards its direction, it immediately covered itself in foliage.

The more she tread, the more of them she saw. There were dozens, or even hundreds of them on every tree, peeking at her with small, slippery eyes.

“Why are there so much.”

Dongfang Minghui suddenly had a bad premonition, she couldn’t have entered the rat’s nest, right? When the Lightning mouse saw her stop again, it squatted on the ground and looked at her foolishly, wondering why she didn’t make a mark on the tree.

A person and a beast, big eyes and small eyes.

Several lightning mice around them, pulling a long, thick branch from time to time and swayed in the air.

In the end, Minghui lost the battle, she sighed, comforting herself, “Well I’m already here, let’s see what this little guy is up to.”

Further on, Dongfang Minghui observed violet flowers blooming wildly, each colored in brilliancy. She dared not to approach them, lest these poisonous flowers had the heroine in the background as well.

“Why’d they come along?” Dongfang Minghui glanced back at her shoulder to find a mass of mice, when did they appear? Their forelimbs stuck to their chest, hind legs stood like a human.Their tails curled up into a shape of a flower, but it seemed they weren’t wary of strangers.

When the mice saw Minghui stop, one by one, they also stopped. Every now and then, they’d scratch at their stomach and flicked their tails, curving them back. It seemed they were having fun, the pattern changed constantly as they played.

“Chichichi.” The mouse, seeing Minghui’s lack of movement, flicked its tail, wrapping at her wrist. It gave a light tug.

The meaning was clear, there was still more distance to cover.

It was not until they came outside a large cave that the lightning rat stopped.

Beyond the cave, Dongfang Minghui’s eyes laid on a gigantic animal, several sizes bigger than her, bearing large horns on its forehead. It looked like a cow, but also not like one. It laid on the floor, motionless.

Dongfang Minghui shifted vision to the lightning mouse in confusion, unsure on why it  brought her to see this creature.

Before her doubts could be answered, the swarm of rodents jumping on the animal’s body imposedly. Their claws sliced and sliced, noisily cutting several pieces of meat and throwing them in front of her.

“Ah——”

The smell of blood scattered in the narrow space, the animal littering the floor unresponsive, apparently long dead.

The mouse in the back continued to slice and slice, swiftly managing scrape off all of the animal’s flesh, leaving only its white skeleton behind.

The Lightning mouse scratched its head, placing a paw at its stomach and patting it.

“What does that mean?”

The Lightning mouse repeated its actions, placed its paw on its abdomen. Pat, pat.

It took several repeated actions for Dongfang Minghui to finally understand, they actually dared to bring her in as a cook. **For a moment, her vision was clouded by swarm of grass mud horses passing through.

Well practiced, Dongfang Minghui set up the fire and the rack, stringing the pieces of meat. Perhaps it was because the slices were thin, the time took to bake the meat wasn’t too long.

The fragrance was overflowing, and though there was still a strong scent of blood, she thought these little guys probably wouldn’t mind.

The little thieves eyes glittered at the meat held in her hands, so much so that Minghui was worried they’d rush up to herself and gnaw her alive.

“Here you go.”

Dongfang Minghui placed the meat on a branch and presented it the mouse that brought her here. From her observation, she got the gist of group dynamics of these creatures. So the most gluttonous of the mice happened to be the leader?

The rodent gleamed a sharp row of teeth, in a few minutes, it had gobbled down all of the meat into its stomach. After eating, it looked towards Minghui, eyes still shining.

No need for words to understand.

Dongfang Minghui resigned herself to roast all of the meat. Spending most of the day, feeding the little guy to the point where it could practically walk on its stomach. It left her ashen-faced, neither of her hands could be lifted up.

On the other side, Dongfang Wanyu hadn’t seen the Minghui’s figure for most of the day. It was plaguing her with mixed feelings for a while.

At noon, she’d packed all her things and carried them on her back. She leaned against the tree trunk, snacking on a biscuit to fill her hunger.

Bearing sight of Dongfang Wanyu’s ugly expression, Muqing couldn’t help but console her, “You can’t be too sure little lady, maybe your brother left in advance.”

Dongfang Wanyu flashed as smile as she glanced to her, “He has hands and feet, he’ll come back.” Having observed the situation and finding no faults, perhaps this was also good news.

“Little lady, don’t——”

“Hush!”

Dongfang  Wanyu laid on the ground, placing an ear on the ground and listened. Her face changed greatly, “Pack faster, the beetles are coming at our way.”

Muqing was surprised at first but quickly transformed into delight, “Since they’re coming, does that mean they succeeded? Then fifth brother will definitely be saved!”

“I don’t know if he’ll be saved, but I do know you’ll most certainly die if you stay.” Dongfang Wanyu came to support her, *hating how iron couldn’t become steel, “Pack up quicker, or would you like to see the beetles come, eating everyone to the bone?”

Muqing was taken aback, she dropped her head in shame, picking up her pace in tidying up. Unexpectedly, she soon saw Zhao Sanqi’s sudden return, his body drenched in blood.

“Eldest brother, you came back!” Muqing was overjoyed.

Zhao Sanqi’s hand contained the living creature of a single female iron beetle. His eyes red, voice choking, “We have to go, or else the beetles will get us.”

When Dongfang Wanyu saw him returning alone, she knew something had changed, and on a rare note, wondered why.

Muqing started to pack their belongings at once, but asked, “Brother, what about the others?”

Zhao Sanqi covered his face, throat hoarse, unsteadily narrating the tangent of events that had occurred一一saying, “All of them were met with misfortune, it was old three, he, he ignored my objections and stole eggs from the King iron beetle, they immediately poured out from their nest, and old four also一一”

Muqing’s tidying hands froze, throwing an incredulous expression at Sanqi, her lips quivering, “Eldest brother.”

Looking at their hesitance, Dongfang Wanyu roared at them, “You’ve done enough, there’s no time to wait, we have to leave first. Don’t forget, you still have someone to save!”

The two wasted no time conversing any further, having packed up, they finally fled with their comatose fifth.

Just before they left, the iron beetles swept through the area like locusts, wherever they passed, no life remained.

Her eyes watched as that the iron beetles were catching up, Dongfang Wanyu threw the old fifth towards them, “You go first.”

This act of righteousness was, without a doubt, providing them fuel in a blizzard, exactly what they needed!

Dongfang Wanyu soon found herself surrounded by iron beetles. Swarm by swarm, they rushed towards her. Killing all of them was impossible.

With no choice, Dongfang Wanyu put on clothes that were worn by Minghui yesterday. The scent of the corpse grass was still prominent, enough to actually smoke away a large area of beetles.

Perhaps Zhao Sanqi was right, the iron beetles might’ve fumed at the thievery of the eggs, many still didn’t appear to be fazed by the scent of death.

****”Uh, this is awkward.”

Just as Dongfang Wanyu was at a loss on what to do, the cold voice in her mind began to ring again.

Dongfang Wanyu gnashed her teeth, “If I die, your next plan would be useless, no matter how much you’ll laugh.”

“If a tiny insect like an iron beetle could kill you, then I think you need some exercise in the Purple Devil Mountains.”

Dongfang Wanyu was ignorant of this truth, she was in great need of training herself, she hadn’t been able to use her hands due to the presence of Minghui.

“Less talk, but do you have any more methods for restraining these beetles?”

Dongfang Wanyu’s long whip passed, whipping dozens of iron beetles crawling towards their way.

“There is one way, but——”

“Ahh! Help! Get out of the way, make way!”

A figure suddenly dashed in, running as if their ass was on fire. They sprinted in the direction to Dongfang Wanyu in a fiery rush. Behind them, no, the whole sky, darkness was following and pressed towards them.

“Help!”

Dongfang Minghui wasn’t even aware of Dongfang Wanyu’s presence, she was pale-faced, eager to flee for her life. She specifically ran to the jungles to chase off the Jinwu birds, only to stumble a nest of iron beetles. It was true, there were wolves in the front and tigers in the back, in this case, the iron beetles behind her and Jinwu birds at the front.

***The rows meant death, the columns meant death, regardless of choice, the only path was death. Dongfang Minghui closed her eyes, she simply ran straight over, swift and agile. It should be said that in the face of death, human potential could  rise dramatically.

As she sprinted forward, the Jinwu birds spewed out blades of wind, one after another. One came close to her, cleanly cutting a tree in half. Another came and hit the floor, forming a pit.

One had to ponder, what would a human look like after being hit by one of those blades?

Dongfang Wanyu witnessed a miracle with her very own eyes. When Minghui rushed over, the beetles dispersed. One by one, the insects quickly slipped away, as if they’ve experienced an even more terrifying foe than the corpse grass. Large groups that were too slow to escape were stepped and smashed into pieces.

The scene was so vivid, Dongfang Wanyu wasn’t sure whether to laugh or cry.

“Help——!”

“Ahhh——!”

Dongfang Minghui’s face paled, believing that she’d be captured by that Jinwu bird, she almost had a heart attack.

“Shut up. “

Dongfang Wanyu nabbed at the back of her collar, carrying her in the air as they  retreated in full speed, “I haven’t seen you for half a day, where were you, why  do you provoke so many demonic beasts?”

Dongfang Minghui recognized the protagonist at first sight. Now she was sure she was in safe hands. Her throat sore and hoarse, she sighed in relief. Minghui licked her dried lips and responded, “I honestly have no idea where I went or how I made them angry.”

“She has Jinwu eggs on her, get rid of them quickly, otherwise you’ll end up killed by those birds instead.” The cold voice in her head reminded.

Dongfang Wanyu responded straightaway, “Do you have the eggs of the Jinwu bird? Throw them out, or else they’ll chase after us.”

“What egg? I didn’t take—— Ah.” Minghui thought up of a possibility, scavenging her body, taking out the stone that was the size of her palms, “You mean this?”

My god, all the misfortunes she suffered from came from this egg, but could this even be called an egg?!

“What’s the hold up, they’re going to catch up to us, just throw it away.”

Like a baby trying to suck milk, Dongfang Minghui used as much strength as she could, throwing the egg towards the  bird’s direction.  Sure enough, the birds opened their beaks, catching the egg in their mouth, suddenly stopping halfway. They no longer pursued her.

Dongfang Minghui pat her chest, having run out of breath from running. If the protagonist wasn’t here, she’d surely end up in those beaks as bird food.

“Seventh sister, how did you know that was a bird egg?”