Chapter 009: The Only One You Can Rely On Is Yourself!

But what she truly needed was not this. Silver would eventually run out, while loneliness and helplessness were endless, and she was just a defenseless little girl—what if she encountered another villain? No matter what, she had to cling to him!

With this thought, Jin’er hurriedly stuffed the silver into her bosom and dashed after him.

“Brother Ye, wait for me!”

Yet the tall, handsome figure ahead paused only briefly before suddenly quickening his pace, vanishing in the blink of an eye amidst the sparse passersby.

Jin’er’s face turned pale as she quickened her steps to chase him. But even after she had run out of the town, there was no sign of him at all. She suddenly realized that if he wanted to shake her off, it would be the easiest thing in the world.

However, he had appeared at the crucial moment yesterday—didn’t that mean he wasn’t truly heartless? So Jin’er stubbornly believed that as long as she kept chasing, he would surely appear before her again.

The mountain wind howled, sending the grass and trees into a wild dance. The dusk sky suddenly turned gloomy, and a fierce gale arose.

Jin’er pressed on through the forest, guided by nothing but instinct. Soon, wind and clouds gathered, thunder rumbled, and a torrential rain poured down. She was quickly drenched to the skin, slipping and stumbling as she struggled through the rain-soaked woods.

The downpour blurred her vision until she could hardly open her eyes. Shivering with cold, she felt lost but refused to give up halfway. But then, her foot suddenly slipped—

“Ah!” Jin’er screamed as her body tumbled uncontrollably down the mountainside, crashing into saplings and jutting rocks, each blow nearly shattering her very soul.

Looking back now, that slope seemed endless; the terror and searing pain still haunted her. With a soft sigh, Jin’er slowly pushed aside those memories of the past. No matter how much she regretted, it was already too late—what she needed to do now was look ahead and strive to change her circumstances.

She would not keep compromising forever, nor would she foolishly rely again on a stranger with no ties to her. Now, there was no one she could depend on—no one but herself.

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A month later, that hateful man announced he was heading south into the dense forests to seek out a venomous snake. For the first time in ages, a spark of light flickered in Jin’er’s dim eyes.

She had spent all her days either inside the cave or lingering nearby, often going a month without uttering a word or seeing anyone other than him. Jin’er felt she was becoming almost feral.

After leaving the mountains, they traveled toward Jin Kingdom. What shocked Jin’er most was that Mu Kingdom had truly fallen. From the timeline, it was only a few days after her fall down the mountain that the royal capital was seized by the Jin army.

Mu Kingdom had plunged into chaos, and the Jin army easily captured two-thirds of its cities. Mu’s other neighbor, Tu Kingdom, seized the opportunity to claim the remaining third of Mu’s territory.

Most of the common people did not resist. They believed it was their emperor’s defiance of the gods that had cost him the right to rule. Moreover, Jin Kingdom was already wealthy and powerful, and many believed life under Jin’s rule might be better. Indeed, over the past two years, the people’s lives had improved significantly compared to the days when Mu Kingdom governed.