Sitting on the edge of the bed, Sha Xiuzhu cautiously moved his legs. As the legs stretched and bent, a little bit of blood leaked from his knees, so painful that he gritted his teeth. This was the doctor’s recommendation, the remaining blood in his legs made his knees swell like two buns, hence he had to drain the blood himself.
“Brother…” Xie Xiao clenched his jaw as he watched by the side, “The pain you’re suffering today, I will make that Lu person pay you back double.”
After only stretching twice, Sha Xiuzhu’s forehead was already covered in sweat. Upon hearing Xie Xao’s words, he smiled bitterly, “Brother, compared to other people in the prison, my injury is almost nothing but a mosquito bite.”
Xie Xiao was about to speak, then he heard someone knocking on the door and became alerted. After hearing the knock three times, one long and two short, he let out a sigh of relief and got up to open the door. Outside there was A’Rui, carrying a lacquer box. When he saw Xie Xiao, his expression became cold and stiff.
“Come in.”
Xie Xiao always followed the motto: ‘you respect me once, I’ll respect you a thousand times’, but with A’Rui’s attitude, he naturally didn’t smile either. He just hurried him inside and closed the door.
Putting the lacquer box on the table, A’Rui turned to him, “This is the medicinal soup that helps with blood swelling. After Brother Sha will have finished drinking it, Shangguan Bangzhu told me to massage the injury.”
“You? You know how to massage?” Xie Xiao asked doubtfully.
“What I learned is the science of the internal power of boxing*, massage is the basic knowledge.”
*[Internal power of boxing = A type of energy that they practiced, TN]
Xie Xiao furrowed his eyebrows, stopped talking, and looked at Sha Xiuzhu. Sha Xiuzhu said, “In this case… Sorry to bother you then.”
“You don’t have to be polite, this is an order from Shangguan Bangzhu.”
A’Rui said slowly. It was clear, by the tone of his voice, that he was following a direct command, so there was no need to feel indebted.
Xie Xiao was also not in the mood to answer him. He walked forward to open the lid of the lacquer box, took out the medicinal soup and gave it to Sha Xiuzhu. Sha Xiuzhu took the medicine bow, the smell was very strong, it seemed like it was hard to swallow, so he drank it with difficulty.
“Miss Yuan… She’s not bothered right?” He asked Xie Xiao, while swallowing the soup.
“She shouldn’t be. I saw her taking care of her injury in her room, with that Lu person…” As soon as he thought of Lu Yi, his face immediately became displeased, “I really don’t understand, that Lu person is clearly a JinYiWei, how could he possibly ask LiuShanmen to help him, then act as if they belonged to him! Just looking at him makes me mad to death.”
Sha Xiuzhu sighed, “A government official of one level higher can suppress people at will. You are not an official, of course you don’t understand such rules.”
“I don’t understand,” Xie Xiao said, “She’s being mistreated there, this Lao Si can’t stand still. I said I will marry her, so that she doesn’t have to suffer anymore.”
Sha Xiuzhu didn’t get a chance to reply but A’Rui, who had been sitting in silence next to him, suddenly got up and asked Xie Xiao, furious,“What are you talking about? You want to marry her?!?”
Xie Xiao glanced at him, squinting his eyes and then ignored him.
A’Rui walked up to Xie Xiao and asked aggressively, “Did you just say that you want to marry that girl?”
“That’s right.” Xie Xiao also stood up, his tall body was half a head taller than A’Rui. He said in a displeased tone, “Is it your turn to ask who I’m going to marry?”
The anger in A’Rui’s eyes was very obvious, he didn’t fear Xie Xiao at all, he looked at Sha Xiuzhu, who was standing beside him, and said to Xie Xiao, “You come out! I have something to say!” Without waiting for Xie Xiao’s reply, he already stepped out with anger.
The door was slammed harshly by him.
“This kid!” Xie Xiao was irritated by him, and said to Sha Xiuzhu, “Brother, rest. I will come back as soon as I can.”
Unable to understand the situation, Sha Xiuzhu nodded and watched Xie Xiao walk out.
After exiting the door, he saw that A’Rui, who was in front of him, continued to take wide steps toward a quiet place, then suddenly stopped.
Xie Xiao walked behind him, saying angrily, “What is the matter with you,…”
Before he could finish his words, A’Rui turned to face him with a punch. It came so quick that it caught him off guard. Xie Xiao didn’t expect that he would dare to hit him, and had let his guard down. The punch was quite strong, therefore the corner of his mouth started to bleed.
“You…”
Xie Xiao was fuming and threw a kick toward him, but A’Rui was fast to react and held his leg with both hands. Then, Xie Xiao rapidly swept his foot and kicked A’Rui on his left leg.
A’Rui’s eyebrows furrowed, he channeled all his power toward his legs, but he didn’t move at all. Instead, he reached out and grabbed Xie Xiao’s leg pulling it hard. Xie Xiao took advantage of the situation, rotated his body a few times, then kicked the vital point in his chest.
Unable to dodge in time, A’Rui was pushed back a few steps, his breathing became difficult. He gritted his teeth, his two hands turned into fists, and was about to jump forward…
“Wait!” Even though Xie Xiao was aggressive and liked to fight, he didn’t want to fight without a clear reason, “You were injured the other day… Even though I can beat you to the point you’ll be begging for forgiveness, this will not make this Lao Si feel good. You speak first, this Lao Si didn’t mess with you, why do you suddenly want to start a fight with me?”
A’Rui put on a stubborn look and glared at him. After a while, he still didn’t say anything, and slammed down a fist.
Luckily, Xie Xiao had been prepared this whole time, hence he was able to dodge his fist, then said in anger, “How could my sister keep someone like you here?”
If Xie Xao hadn’t mentioned Shangguan Xi’s name would have been better, because as soon as A’ Rui heard Shangguan Xi’s name he became furious, turning to Xie Xiao and exclaiming, “Do you feel guilty about it?”
Xie Xiao was stunned for a moment and said in surprise, “Why should I feel guilty?”
“Three years ago, you broke her trust and ran away from the marriage, abandoned her, left her, it was unrighteous. Now that you have returned, do you not feel guilty toward her? Right now, you still want to marry someone else, what position are you giving her?” Although A’Rui looked like a boring guy on regular days, at that very moment his words were aggressive and his eyes were burning with anger, as if he wanted to burn Xie Xiao to flying ashes.
“What do you mean, what position am I giving her? Jie is my senior sister, also a Red Bird gang leader. In my heart, I really respect her and thank her as well, and it will continue to be like that.”
“If you think she’s really good, then you should marry her!” A’Rui said in a loud voice.
Xie Xiao froze for an instant and sneered at his words, “You don’t know my senior sister. She is the heroine of all little girls. She didn’t want to get married back then, it was a forced situation by two elders.”
A’Rui became more angry because of his words, and gave him another punch, “You, yourself ran away from the marriage, stop passing the responsibility to Shangguan Bangzhu! How can there be a shameless person like you in this world?”
Parrying his fist, Xie Xiao shouted, “The incident at that time, you don’t understand at all, this Lao Si doesn’t need to explain it to you!”
There was no common ground in their conversation, their hands and feet spoke for them. It was a countless number of attacks and retreats of punches and kicks, they were making a huge mess. A’Rui had been in a hurry, not being able to properly take care of the wound on his shoulder, therefore he wasn’t fully healed. He fisted into the wind, just wanting to beat Xie Xiao as much as possible. Whereas Xie Xiao still remembered his injured shoulder, and saw that the boy was very loyal and attentive to Shangguan Xi, so he was holding back his strength, not really wanting to fight him.
Because Xie Xiao didn’t want to fight him, he’d been hit with many punches.
“Stop!”
A clear female voice shouted.
Hearing this voice, A’Rui’s entire body stiffened and he stopped his fist in mid-air.
Xie Xiao took two steps back. Furiously rubbing his bleeding lips, he glanced at Shangguan Xi who was walking towards them and said, annoyed, “Is this subordinate of yours crazy? Does he have a grudge against me?”
Shangguan Xi quickly walked towards him. Seeing his nose bleeding, his face swollen and the corners of his lips and eyes all smashed, although they were minor wounds, it was impossible to hide them in front of Xie Baili. She turned to face A’Rui; his face was difficult to look at, she reached out and gave a hard slap on his cheek, angrily saying, “Who is behind you? How dare you start a fight with Young Master Bangzhu?”
A’Rui paused for a moment, while a part of his face swelled up right away, then he just lowered his face, not saying a word.
“This is a disrespect toward Young Master Bangzhu! If you don’t know how to respect your superiors, this gang does not need someone like you! Right now, go pack up and leave at once!” Shangguan Xi said loud and firm.
“Jie, this… It is…”
Hearing the punishment, Xie Xiao felt it was a bit too much, after all it was just a fight, not a big problem.
A’Rui did not move. He raised his head, his eyes were fixated on Shangguan Xi, then he knelt down on his knees.
“I was wrong, please punish me, Bangzhu. Three knives and six holes*, anything but please don’t kick me out!”
*[Three knives and six holes = it’s a rule in the gang, if someone committed a crime that is unforgivable, they would have to beg the other person to use knives and stab them, until on the body would display six holes, TN]
Shangguan Xi looked at him, her mind was confused, for a moment she didn’t know what to say.
“You’re a brave man…” Xie Xiao never expected that he would kneel down, “Jie, we were just joking, there is nothing wrong with that. My words as a Young Master Bangzhu are still effective, right?”
Shangguan Xi looked at him unhappily, “Who dares to say your words are not?”
“Alright.” Xie Xiao chuckled, “Get up, don’t do it again next time.”
A’Rui was still motionless.
Shangguan Xi could only say, “Since Young Master Bangzhu has given his orders, you should stand up, but if this happens again, I will definitely punish you!”
A’Rui stood up in silence, looked at her with sadness, but quickly lowered his head and left without saying a word.
After seeing his shadow had left, Shangguan Xi turned to Xie Xiao, frowned and said, “He never touches people easily, what’s the matter?”
“I don’t know, I just said I want to marry Jinxia and he went insane.” The bottom of Xie Xiao’s lips was in extreme pain.
From head to toe, Shangguan Xi became stiff like a stone. After being silent for a while, she said, “…You want to marry Miss Yuan?”
“That’s right.” That conversation made Xie Xiao somehow uneasy, “I think she is a girl who suffers a lot from public affairs, it’s better to bring her home.”
“So… I still have some other business…”
Shangguan Xi couldn’t say anything else, and walked away as soon as she uttered those words.
***
It was strange to say that Lu Yi’s medicine gave a pungent smell, but when applied on the wound, it was cold and very comfortable. In fact, Jinxia was currently having a fever, yet she had to accompany YangYue to a disaster, and still had to be in high spirits when facing Liu Xiangzuo and Lu Yi. As soon as she arrived in her room, her head felt dizzy, her vision was blurry and her body was tired. She rapidly took off her outer robe, laid down on the bed, and fell asleep.
Not knowing what time it was, suddenly she felt very thirsty and woke up. Her room was pitch black, only the sounds of heavy rain could be heard outside. She tried to get up, put on her shoes, and felt the table beside her. Lazy to light the candle, she reached out to open the lid of the straw container and took out the teapot.
Before the water was poured, among the sounds of rain, she heard the sound of footsteps from afar that were coming closer… She remained silent for a moment.
The footsteps stopped in front of her door. They were only separated by a single door, yet she could already hear the heavy sigh of the person outside. ‘It’s a man!’
The door was pushed several times but because it was closed from the inside with a lock, it could not be opened.
After that, the person outside started to knock on the door and his voice whispered: “Jinxia, Jinxia, Jinxia…”
Da Yang! It was him!
Jinxia hurriedly got up and unfastened the lock. To her surprise, when she opened the door, she realized that YangYue was not alone – on his back he was carrying a girl.
She, she, she turned out to be Zhai Lanye!
“You…” Jinxia was bewildered, “How did you get her out?”
“Let’s go inside and talk!”
YangYue carried an unconscious Zhai Lanye into the room. Jinxia quickly locked the door, then took the umbrella, shaking off the water, and put it in a corner of the room. She tilted her head and saw YangYue gently placing Zhai Lanye on the bed.
“What happened? No matter how much you care about her, you can’t kidnap a person. We are officials, not kidnappers.” Jinxia was anxious and angry, but didn’t dare to make loud noise, so she pinched YangYue’s neck, “If the master finds out, he will definitely break your legs.”
“Listen to me first!” YangYue’s face was all wet, he wiped the water off his face and said in a low voice, “She jumped into the river looking for death, and I was the one who saved her.”
“Ah?!?” Jinxia was taken aback and looked at Zhai Lanye on the bed, “She jumped into the river? Could it be that she was thrown in?”
YangYue, who was all wet, sat down on the round chair, and wiped the water on his face again, then said, “No, I saw it with my own eyes. Just past one in the morning, she walked out on her own, went straight to the edge of the lake, stood there for a while, then jumped into the water.”
“You were guarding outside her house?” Jinxia looked at him.
YangYue said, uncomfortable, “After father had gone to rest, I also had no work to do, nor could I sleep… You help her change her wet clothes first, I’m afraid she will catch a cold.”
Jinxia took the girl’s clothes, struggling to change the unconscious Zhai Lanye, then looked at him.
She knew YangYue too well, “You, are you not planning to bring her home?”
“How can I send her back? What if she… goes looking for death again?” YangYue said anxiously, “Her family doesn’t care at all about her life.”
“That’s uncertain. They want to use her to earn a living, how can they ignore her life?” Jinxia sighed, “Brother, it’s not that I don’t want to help you, but this is unreasonable! You saved her, but you should send her home. Then advise her family to take good care of her, why did you bring her here?”
YangYue said in anger, “Then have I to see her die one more time? I do not know if I’ll be next to her next time, then how can I help her?”
“…”
Jinxia held her forehead in annoyance, then she asked, “Then, what are you going to do?”
“I… I just wanted to come here and discuss it with you. Anyway, no matter what, I can’t send her back.” YangYue said in an unequivocal tone, “It could destroy her.”
“I say, brother, you are… As soon as it’s dawn, people will find out she is missing. Don’t forget her adopted father is the brother-in-law of Yangzhou’s prefect. Their person is missing, they won’t leave this alone. What if they find out that we were the one who hid her? We will with no doubt get labelled as kidnappers and get arrested. The two of us definitely won’t be able to hide! Brother, you have to think about the master.” Jinxia continued trying to persuade him. At last she said frantically, “After all, we have nowhere to hide her!”
Upon hearing her words, YangYue’s head didn’t move, and he didn’t even make a sound for a while, then he suddenly stood up, “Her being here will cause you trouble, I will take her away!”
“Brother, brother… Sit down! Where can you go?” Jinxia struggled to restrain YangYue, “Let me think again, there will be a way…”
Sitting on the edge of the bed, Sha Xiuzhu cautiously moved his legs. As the legs stretched and bent, a little bit of blood leaked from his knees, so painful that he gritted his teeth. This was the doctor’s recommendation, the remaining blood in his legs made his knees swell like two buns, hence he had to drain the blood himself.
“Brother…” Xie Xiao clenched his jaw as he watched by the side, “The pain you’re suffering today, I will make that Lu person pay you back double.”
After only stretching twice, Sha Xiuzhu’s forehead was already covered in sweat. Upon hearing Xie Xao’s words, he smiled bitterly, “Brother, compared to other people in the prison, my injury is almost nothing but a mosquito bite.”
Xie Xiao was about to speak, then he heard someone knocking on the door and became alerted. After hearing the knock three times, one long and two short, he let out a sigh of relief and got up to open the door. Outside there was A’Rui, carrying a lacquer box. When he saw Xie Xiao, his expression became cold and stiff.
“Come in.”
Xie Xiao always followed the motto: ‘you respect me once, I’ll respect you a thousand times’, but with A’Rui’s attitude, he naturally didn’t smile either. He just hurried him inside and closed the door.
Putting the lacquer box on the table, A’Rui turned to him, “This is the medicinal soup that helps with blood swelling. After Brother Sha will have finished drinking it, Shangguan Bangzhu told me to massage the injury.”
“You? You know how to massage?” Xie Xiao asked doubtfully.
“What I learned is the science of the internal power of boxing*, massage is the basic knowledge.”
*[Internal power of boxing = A type of energy that they practiced, TN]
Xie Xiao furrowed his eyebrows, stopped talking, and looked at Sha Xiuzhu. Sha Xiuzhu said, “In this case… Sorry to bother you then.”
“You don’t have to be polite, this is an order from Shangguan Bangzhu.”
A’Rui said slowly. It was clear, by the tone of his voice, that he was following a direct command, so there was no need to feel indebted.
Xie Xiao was also not in the mood to answer him. He walked forward to open the lid of the lacquer box, took out the medicinal soup and gave it to Sha Xiuzhu. Sha Xiuzhu took the medicine bow, the smell was very strong, it seemed like it was hard to swallow, so he drank it with difficulty.
“Miss Yuan… She’s not bothered right?” He asked Xie Xiao, while swallowing the soup.
“She shouldn’t be. I saw her taking care of her injury in her room, with that Lu person…” As soon as he thought of Lu Yi, his face immediately became displeased, “I really don’t understand, that Lu person is clearly a JinYiWei, how could he possibly ask LiuShanmen to help him, then act as if they belonged to him! Just looking at him makes me mad to death.”
Sha Xiuzhu sighed, “A government official of one level higher can suppress people at will. You are not an official, of course you don’t understand such rules.”
“I don’t understand,” Xie Xiao said, “She’s being mistreated there, this Lao Si can’t stand still. I said I will marry her, so that she doesn’t have to suffer anymore.”
Sha Xiuzhu didn’t get a chance to reply but A’Rui, who had been sitting in silence next to him, suddenly got up and asked Xie Xiao, furious,“What are you talking about? You want to marry her?!?”
Xie Xiao glanced at him, squinting his eyes and then ignored him.
A’Rui walked up to Xie Xiao and asked aggressively, “Did you just say that you want to marry that girl?”
“That’s right.” Xie Xiao also stood up, his tall body was half a head taller than A’Rui. He said in a displeased tone, “Is it your turn to ask who I’m going to marry?”
The anger in A’Rui’s eyes was very obvious, he didn’t fear Xie Xiao at all, he looked at Sha Xiuzhu, who was standing beside him, and said to Xie Xiao, “You come out! I have something to say!” Without waiting for Xie Xiao’s reply, he already stepped out with anger.
The door was slammed harshly by him.
“This kid!” Xie Xiao was irritated by him, and said to Sha Xiuzhu, “Brother, rest. I will come back as soon as I can.”
Unable to understand the situation, Sha Xiuzhu nodded and watched Xie Xiao walk out.
After exiting the door, he saw that A’Rui, who was in front of him, continued to take wide steps toward a quiet place, then suddenly stopped.
Xie Xiao walked behind him, saying angrily, “What is the matter with you,…”
Before he could finish his words, A’Rui turned to face him with a punch. It came so quick that it caught him off guard. Xie Xiao didn’t expect that he would dare to hit him, and had let his guard down. The punch was quite strong, therefore the corner of his mouth started to bleed.
“You…”
Xie Xiao was fuming and threw a kick toward him, but A’Rui was fast to react and held his leg with both hands. Then, Xie Xiao rapidly swept his foot and kicked A’Rui on his left leg.
A’Rui’s eyebrows furrowed, he channeled all his power toward his legs, but he didn’t move at all. Instead, he reached out and grabbed Xie Xiao’s leg pulling it hard. Xie Xiao took advantage of the situation, rotated his body a few times, then kicked the vital point in his chest.
Unable to dodge in time, A’Rui was pushed back a few steps, his breathing became difficult. He gritted his teeth, his two hands turned into fists, and was about to jump forward…
“Wait!” Even though Xie Xiao was aggressive and liked to fight, he didn’t want to fight without a clear reason, “You were injured the other day… Even though I can beat you to the point you’ll be begging for forgiveness, this will not make this Lao Si feel good. You speak first, this Lao Si didn’t mess with you, why do you suddenly want to start a fight with me?”
A’Rui put on a stubborn look and glared at him. After a while, he still didn’t say anything, and slammed down a fist.
Luckily, Xie Xiao had been prepared this whole time, hence he was able to dodge his fist, then said in anger, “How could my sister keep someone like you here?”
If Xie Xao hadn’t mentioned Shangguan Xi’s name would have been better, because as soon as A’ Rui heard Shangguan Xi’s name he became furious, turning to Xie Xiao and exclaiming, “Do you feel guilty about it?”
Xie Xiao was stunned for a moment and said in surprise, “Why should I feel guilty?”
“Three years ago, you broke her trust and ran away from the marriage, abandoned her, left her, it was unrighteous. Now that you have returned, do you not feel guilty toward her? Right now, you still want to marry someone else, what position are you giving her?” Although A’Rui looked like a boring guy on regular days, at that very moment his words were aggressive and his eyes were burning with anger, as if he wanted to burn Xie Xiao to flying ashes.
“What do you mean, what position am I giving her? Jie is my senior sister, also a Red Bird gang leader. In my heart, I really respect her and thank her as well, and it will continue to be like that.”
“If you think she’s really good, then you should marry her!” A’Rui said in a loud voice.
Xie Xiao froze for an instant and sneered at his words, “You don’t know my senior sister. She is the heroine of all little girls. She didn’t want to get married back then, it was a forced situation by two elders.”
A’Rui became more angry because of his words, and gave him another punch, “You, yourself ran away from the marriage, stop passing the responsibility to Shangguan Bangzhu! How can there be a shameless person like you in this world?”
Parrying his fist, Xie Xiao shouted, “The incident at that time, you don’t understand at all, this Lao Si doesn’t need to explain it to you!”
There was no common ground in their conversation, their hands and feet spoke for them. It was a countless number of attacks and retreats of punches and kicks, they were making a huge mess. A’Rui had been in a hurry, not being able to properly take care of the wound on his shoulder, therefore he wasn’t fully healed. He fisted into the wind, just wanting to beat Xie Xiao as much as possible. Whereas Xie Xiao still remembered his injured shoulder, and saw that the boy was very loyal and attentive to Shangguan Xi, so he was holding back his strength, not really wanting to fight him.
Because Xie Xiao didn’t want to fight him, he’d been hit with many punches.
“Stop!”
A clear female voice shouted.
Hearing this voice, A’Rui’s entire body stiffened and he stopped his fist in mid-air.
Xie Xiao took two steps back. Furiously rubbing his bleeding lips, he glanced at Shangguan Xi who was walking towards them and said, annoyed, “Is this subordinate of yours crazy? Does he have a grudge against me?”
Shangguan Xi quickly walked towards him. Seeing his nose bleeding, his face swollen and the corners of his lips and eyes all smashed, although they were minor wounds, it was impossible to hide them in front of Xie Baili. She turned to face A’Rui; his face was difficult to look at, she reached out and gave a hard slap on his cheek, angrily saying, “Who is behind you? How dare you start a fight with Young Master Bangzhu?”
A’Rui paused for a moment, while a part of his face swelled up right away, then he just lowered his face, not saying a word.
“This is a disrespect toward Young Master Bangzhu! If you don’t know how to respect your superiors, this gang does not need someone like you! Right now, go pack up and leave at once!” Shangguan Xi said loud and firm.
“Jie, this… It is…”
Hearing the punishment, Xie Xiao felt it was a bit too much, after all it was just a fight, not a big problem.
A’Rui did not move. He raised his head, his eyes were fixated on Shangguan Xi, then he knelt down on his knees.
“I was wrong, please punish me, Bangzhu. Three knives and six holes*, anything but please don’t kick me out!”
*[Three knives and six holes = it’s a rule in the gang, if someone committed a crime that is unforgivable, they would have to beg the other person to use knives and stab them, until on the body would display six holes, TN]
Shangguan Xi looked at him, her mind was confused, for a moment she didn’t know what to say.
“You’re a brave man…” Xie Xiao never expected that he would kneel down, “Jie, we were just joking, there is nothing wrong with that. My words as a Young Master Bangzhu are still effective, right?”
Shangguan Xi looked at him unhappily, “Who dares to say your words are not?”
“Alright.” Xie Xiao chuckled, “Get up, don’t do it again next time.”
A’Rui was still motionless.
Shangguan Xi could only say, “Since Young Master Bangzhu has given his orders, you should stand up, but if this happens again, I will definitely punish you!”
A’Rui stood up in silence, looked at her with sadness, but quickly lowered his head and left without saying a word.
After seeing his shadow had left, Shangguan Xi turned to Xie Xiao, frowned and said, “He never touches people easily, what’s the matter?”
“I don’t know, I just said I want to marry Jinxia and he went insane.” The bottom of Xie Xiao’s lips was in extreme pain.
From head to toe, Shangguan Xi became stiff like a stone. After being silent for a while, she said, “…You want to marry Miss Yuan?”
“That’s right.” That conversation made Xie Xiao somehow uneasy, “I think she is a girl who suffers a lot from public affairs, it’s better to bring her home.”
“So… I still have some other business…”
Shangguan Xi couldn’t say anything else, and walked away as soon as she uttered those words.
***
It was strange to say that Lu Yi’s medicine gave a pungent smell, but when applied on the wound, it was cold and very comfortable. In fact, Jinxia was currently having a fever, yet she had to accompany YangYue to a disaster, and still had to be in high spirits when facing Liu Xiangzuo and Lu Yi. As soon as she arrived in her room, her head felt dizzy, her vision was blurry and her body was tired. She rapidly took off her outer robe, laid down on the bed, and fell asleep.
Not knowing what time it was, suddenly she felt very thirsty and woke up. Her room was pitch black, only the sounds of heavy rain could be heard outside. She tried to get up, put on her shoes, and felt the table beside her. Lazy to light the candle, she reached out to open the lid of the straw container and took out the teapot.
Before the water was poured, among the sounds of rain, she heard the sound of footsteps from afar that were coming closer… She remained silent for a moment.
The footsteps stopped in front of her door. They were only separated by a single door, yet she could already hear the heavy sigh of the person outside. ‘It’s a man!’
The door was pushed several times but because it was closed from the inside with a lock, it could not be opened.
After that, the person outside started to knock on the door and his voice whispered: “Jinxia, Jinxia, Jinxia…”
Da Yang! It was him!
Jinxia hurriedly got up and unfastened the lock. To her surprise, when she opened the door, she realized that YangYue was not alone – on his back he was carrying a girl.
She, she, she turned out to be Zhai Lanye!
“You…” Jinxia was bewildered, “How did you get her out?”
“Let’s go inside and talk!”
YangYue carried an unconscious Zhai Lanye into the room. Jinxia quickly locked the door, then took the umbrella, shaking off the water, and put it in a corner of the room. She tilted her head and saw YangYue gently placing Zhai Lanye on the bed.
“What happened? No matter how much you care about her, you can’t kidnap a person. We are officials, not kidnappers.” Jinxia was anxious and angry, but didn’t dare to make loud noise, so she pinched YangYue’s neck, “If the master finds out, he will definitely break your legs.”
“Listen to me first!” YangYue’s face was all wet, he wiped the water off his face and said in a low voice, “She jumped into the river looking for death, and I was the one who saved her.”
“Ah?!?” Jinxia was taken aback and looked at Zhai Lanye on the bed, “She jumped into the river? Could it be that she was thrown in?”
YangYue, who was all wet, sat down on the round chair, and wiped the water on his face again, then said, “No, I saw it with my own eyes. Just past one in the morning, she walked out on her own, went straight to the edge of the lake, stood there for a while, then jumped into the water.”
“You were guarding outside her house?” Jinxia looked at him.
YangYue said, uncomfortable, “After father had gone to rest, I also had no work to do, nor could I sleep… You help her change her wet clothes first, I’m afraid she will catch a cold.”
Jinxia took the girl’s clothes, struggling to change the unconscious Zhai Lanye, then looked at him.
She knew YangYue too well, “You, are you not planning to bring her home?”
“How can I send her back? What if she… goes looking for death again?” YangYue said anxiously, “Her family doesn’t care at all about her life.”
“That’s uncertain. They want to use her to earn a living, how can they ignore her life?” Jinxia sighed, “Brother, it’s not that I don’t want to help you, but this is unreasonable! You saved her, but you should send her home. Then advise her family to take good care of her, why did you bring her here?”
YangYue said in anger, “Then have I to see her die one more time? I do not know if I’ll be next to her next time, then how can I help her?”
“…”
Jinxia held her forehead in annoyance, then she asked, “Then, what are you going to do?”
“I… I just wanted to come here and discuss it with you. Anyway, no matter what, I can’t send her back.” YangYue said in an unequivocal tone, “It could destroy her.”
“I say, brother, you are… As soon as it’s dawn, people will find out she is missing. Don’t forget her adopted father is the brother-in-law of Yangzhou’s prefect. Their person is missing, they won’t leave this alone. What if they find out that we were the one who hid her? We will with no doubt get labelled as kidnappers and get arrested. The two of us definitely won’t be able to hide! Brother, you have to think about the master.” Jinxia continued trying to persuade him. At last she said frantically, “After all, we have nowhere to hide her!”
Upon hearing her words, YangYue’s head didn’t move, and he didn’t even make a sound for a while, then he suddenly stood up, “Her being here will cause you trouble, I will take her away!”
“Brother, brother… Sit down! Where can you go?” Jinxia struggled to restrain YangYue, “Let me think again, there will be a way…”
