He hadn’t appeared to be that strong, but he was holding her quite effortlessly.
He carried her forward two steps and gently deposited her in the carriage.
Chen Rong clutched his sleeve, murmuring: “Don’t go, don’t go… I beg you.”
“I won’t go,” he gently assured her. In the dark, his eyes gleamed as bright as the stars in the sky. Smiling down at her, he held out his hand to wipe her tears.
When his slender hand moved downward, intentionally or otherwise, its fingertips brushed across her lips. After making her shudder, he smilingly said, “You are here, where would I go?”
Chen Rong calmed down. She slowly let go of her grasp on his clothes.
Wang Hong also mounted the carriage.
She again clung onto him, ducking her face in his chest. Her arms wound around him, clearly still afraid he would leave her.
Wang Hong lifted her up and gently placed her on his lap. Then, he languidly leaned back against the seat.
Now hugging Chen Rong in a more comfortable position, Wang Hong’s fingers brushed across her cheek to wipe her tears. “There’s nothing to be afraid of anymore,” he murmured.
“Uhm,” Chen Rong hummed. She buried her face in his arms. “Now that you’re here, I’m not afraid.”
With her arms wrapped around his waist, she lay still in his embrace and felt the warmth emanating from his body. “I had thought I was done for.”
Wang Hong hummed. Translated by the ham ster master.
Like a chatterbox that had been opened, Chen Rong went on to talk: “There were nine of them. They had blocked my carriage. My carriage was stuck in the mud and wouldn’t budge no matter what. I had thought I was done for.” She sounded terrified.
Wang Hong stroked her hair, comforting: “Everything’s all right now.”
Both his action and words were simple, but they did enough to take away the panic from Chen Rong’s voice and she calmed down on the whole.
She hid in his arms, murmuring: “I even killed one of them! Wang Hong, I killed him with my own hands. I cracked the whip and broke his neck. He had bled so much that his blood was spraying onto me.”
Hoarsely, she described her killing in detail.
Wang Hong gently combed his fingers through her hair, lowered his head and very softly said, “Stop thinking about it. They deserved to die.”
Again, his simple words took the edge off of her.
“I’m glad you’re here,” she murmured as she was hugging him. “Qilang, I used to think there was no one who cared about me, loved me, or cherished me in this world… Qilang, I’m glad you’re here.”
Her voice drew long, and so did her affection.
Wang Hong gazed down. His extraordinarily starry eyes quietly watched the exhausted Chen Rong finally closing her eyes in ease.
…
Some time had passed when Chen Rong suddenly screamed and then hysterically yelled, “Old Shang. Qilang, you have to go save Old Shang!”
Wang Hong stroked her hair, softly shushing her: “Sleep, he’ll be fine.”
His tone and voice had a strange calming affect on Chen Rong.
She closed her eyes; light sonorous breathing slowly followed.
She had slipped into a slumber.