Desert Wolf Girl

"My clan uncle, Minister of War Yang Yuxuan, was an upright and incorruptible official. He had made many enemies at court. The Eastern Depot framed him, and after several rounds of struggle, it ended with his entire family being sentenced to death!"

"On the day of the execution, righteous martial artists bravely raided the execution ground, but they could only barely save the Yang family orphan. The Eastern Depot's lackeys then hunted him across the land, forcing him into exile."

Yang Yuncong paused before continuing, "Now, countless eyes are watching from the shadows. The Yang family dare not act rashly, while my identity makes it impossible for me to step forward and interfere in this matter."

"Uncle Yang, what do you want me to do?" Qin Shuang looked at Yang Yuncong and asked seriously.

Yang Yuncong drew a deep breath, as though he had made up his mind. Word by word, he said, "I want to ask you to act in secret and protect the only surviving bloodline of my clan uncle!"

"All right!" Qin Shuang agreed without hesitation.

The setting sun was like blood, greedily licking the last patch of light in the western sky. It drenched the entire desert in searing crimson gold, yet could not diminish its desolation in the slightest.

A crazed, parched wind rose from the horizon, sweeping up a sky full of sand. Like countless tiny golden whips, it shrieked and danced between the scattered caravans.

Wu En, the caravan guide, had a face rough as tree bark from years of battering by sand. At this moment, only two weary slits of eyes remained.

He struggled against the scorching wind, narrowing his eyes as he tried to make out the direction.

Wu En raised an arm and pointed toward a distant dune, its blurred outline resembling the broken remains of some enormous beast. A hoarse growl, like gravel scraping against gravel, forced its way from deep in his throat.

"Wind Fiend, tonight... we'll make camp behind Bone Mountain."

The exhausted members of the caravan finally had a destination. Dragging their heavy feet, they shuffled toward the lee of the dunes and raised their faded, dust-covered tents.

At night, a campfire struggled to flicker to life amid the howling wind and sand.

Just then, a sharp, furious shout rang out from the tent on the western side of the caravan where the cargo was stored, instantly tearing through the peace.

"You miserable thief, are you tired of living? How dare you touch our salt pouch!"

In the firelight, several burly, weather-beaten guards roughly dragged a short figure stumbling into the fire ring.

The figure was emaciated, wearing a tattered, filthy animal hide that barely covered her body.

Beneath her tangled, dirty hair, as dry and messy as withered grass, was a pair of eerily vivid green eyes. It was barely possible to tell that she was a woman.

At that moment, she was like a wolf cub caught and wounded in a trap, radiating scorching fury and primitive ferocity.

Her withered fingers clutched a salt pouch from a saddlebag that she had snatched from one of the guards. Her knuckles had gone deathly white from the force, while a low, rolling growl of warning rumbled in her throat.

One corner of the saddlebag had been torn open, and precious bluish-white salt grains were spilling onto the filthy sand.

"You dog!"

The guard captain, Chen Zhenqun, had a face covered in layers of flesh. He stepped forward, raising his fan-sized hand high. The wind from it heavily cleaved through the hot air wavering above the campfire.

"Chop off her claws and feed them to the vultures!" Chen Zhenqun's voice was rough and vicious.

Wolf Girl clearly understood human speech. At his words, her filthy, gaunt face beneath the withered-grass-like hair suddenly tightened, and the warning growl in her throat took on a shrill edge, like a dying creature preparing to strike back.

Several guards around them grinned viciously as they closed in. Their gazes stabbed into her like steel awls, as if searching for the best places to land the blows they were about to rain down.

"Wait!"

A cool voice that could still overpower the fierce wind came from beside them.

They looked toward the voice and saw Qin Shuang, who had silently traveled with them during the day like a solitary shadow detached from the world.

He had been sitting cross-legged beside the campfire. Now, he had risen and stood upright.

His blue cloth robes fluttered slightly in the hot wind, his tall figure straight as a lone pine rooted in the desert.

Qin Shuang stepped beyond the edge of the firelight, dividing the scorching air between Wolf Girl and the guards into two.

His gaze swept over Chen Zhenqun's furious face before finally settling on the girl.

The fear and despair deep in those wolf-like eyes were firmly suppressed by rage, but they could not escape his notice.

He looked heavily toward Chen Zhenqun. "Brother Chen, is a pouch of salt and a few pieces of clothing worth taking a life?"

His tone was as still as the water of a deep pool, yet it carried undeniable weight.

Chen Zhenqun's fleshy face instantly flushed an even darker purple. The veins on his short, thick neck bulged and pulsed like snakes.

"Young Hero Qin! Don't stand there talking as if your back doesn't hurt!" He nearly sprayed hot breath onto Qin Shuang's face. "Do you know how many brothers have died of thirst by the roadside along this journey? Their bones are about to turn to dust! What are we doing this for? In the desert, salt is gold! It's life!"

He suddenly pointed at Wolf Girl, who was curled on the ground and still growling, and spat curses at her. "A wild thing that steals food from a wolf's den—what does she know about rules? Let her die and feed the wolves!"

"Rules are made by people." Qin Shuang's tone remained calm, as though he had not heard the venom in those words. "Salt can save lives, but it can also kill. If you take her life today, will that show everyone what your rules are?"

He pulled a small yet heavy leather pouch from his robes and gently tossed it over. The pouch, filled with fine greenish-white salt, landed steadily at Chen Zhenqun's feet. The salt grains inside faintly rattled against the leather and gravel. "Use this pouch of salt as compensation for everyone."

Seeing that it held at least three times as much as the original saddlebag of salt, Chen Zhenqun froze, and the murmurs of the onlookers quieted somewhat.

His eyes widened as his gaze shifted back and forth between the new salt pouch and Qin Shuang's expressionless face.

Qin Shuang did not look at him again. He simply bent down and undid the clasps of his blue outer robe with one hand, his movements smooth and decisive.

He lightly shook out the old outer garment, washed pale with age yet still whole and thick. The next moment, it covered the girl's stiff, emaciated shoulders, like one corner of a roof shielding her from wind and rain.

Her dark-green pupils, fierce as those of a nocturnal beast, contracted sharply. Her fingers gripping the salt pouch lost all color from shock and tension.

The low, threatening growl rolling up from deep in her throat abruptly cut off, as if it had been strangled.

"Go."

Qin Shuang uttered only that one low word. When he finished speaking, he shifted slightly to the side and cleared a path.

His gaze passed over the campfire and the crowd, settling on the boundless black sea of sand in the distance, which seemed ready to devour everything.

A spark burst from the campfire with a sharp crack. The silence beyond the ring of fire was as deep as a frozen spring.

Every eye was fixed on Qin Shuang's lean figure.

Chen Zhenqun's nostrils flared. He forced a mocking snort through clenched teeth. "Fake kindness! You'll die in this desert sooner or later!"

He spat a thick glob of phlegm heavily onto the ground and turned away.

The spittle mixed into the sand and was soon swallowed by the dry earth.

Green-eyed Wolf Girl continued staring fixedly at Qin Shuang, as if she wanted to carve his face into her bones and blood.

After a moment of dead silence, she suddenly curled up, snatched up the heavy pouch of salt, and wrapped herself more tightly in the old blue cloth robe.