*Lu Yi’s story: Inside the Taohualin Forest*
That person was not weak, moving past the trees so lightly that Lu Yi could instantly tell that the figure was a man. Lu Yi didn’t dare to avoid the enemy and lure him out of the defensive area, in order not to move too far from Jinxia. Seeing that the person was almost disappearing in the fog, he broke a tree branch and gathered all his power to shoot the branch at the man…
Feeling a strong win approaching him from behind, the man jumped out of the trajectory, the tree branch going past his earlobe.
After dashing away a few more steps, he disappeared from Lu Yi’s eyes.
Lu Yi decided to not chase him any longer. He turned around and went back to where Jinxia was, checked her pulse and saw that there were no other injuries on her body. It seemed that she had only been exposed to miasma poison.
He called out to her several times, also shaking her body, but her eyes were tightly shut.
“Eight hundred quicksand borders in the world, three thousand depts of weak water, the goose can’t float, reeds are calm…” She muttered to herself.
After listening to what she was saying with attention, in his heart he secretly laughed. Although she was a girl and also a constable at LiuShanmen, yet she couldn’t help but read a forbidden book.
She remained unconscious. Lu Yi couldn’t do anything else, except for lifting her up and carrying her out.
“Tai Shang Laojun fire vessel, train your energy and mind the fire… Practicing until popping pills, my body has turned to ashes…” She whispered. With her eyelids opened for a moment, she looked at him faintly, then became unconscious again, her hands tightly gripping the clothes on his shoulder.
“You think you’re in a vessel of fire?”
The Zi Yan in Lu Yi’s mouth started to spread its effect inside his body, his organs felt a burning heat and he couldn’t help but laugh.
Once making it out of the Taohualin Forest, Jinxia was still unconscious. Lu Yi saw Xie Xiao who was riding toward them and slightly frowned: based on what YangYue had said, it was Xie Xiao who invited him to the Taohualin Forest…
He tried to remove her grip off his clothes, then he placed Jinxia near a boulder. Afterward, he jumped to a nearby tree, burying himself among the grasses.
From where he was, he could see Jinxia clearly, if Xie Xiao had done anything to her, he could have immediately taken action.
Xie Xiao quickly went up to the mountain, saw Jinxia by the boulder outside the forest and let out a sigh of relief, then rushed to her in a hurry.
“Jinxia! Jinxia! Girl.. .Jinxia!… Quick, wake up!”
Lu Yi furrowed his eyebrows. As he watched Xie Xiao slapping Jinxia’s cheeks left and right, he sighed softly. Seeing that Xie Xiao didn’t seem to be pretending and in front of him was a red puff cheek Jinxia, it seemed that someone tried to use Xie Xiao’s name to deceive them.
In the distance, there was the sound of another horse running. Lu Yi looked up and recognized that the person was YangYue, then looked down again. Jinxia had started to open her eyes.
“Is it you?”
Jinxia finally realized that the person in front of her was Xie Xiao. At the same time, she grabbed his sleeve. Lu Yi looked at her and suddenly thought that when she was unconscious, she had also grabbed his clothes like that. Although she was senseless, her fingers had still held him tight.
Seeing her waking up, Xie Xiao once again felt relieved, took her hand and checked her pulse.
Lu Yi’s eyebrows tightened: only now did he remember to check her pulse? This Young Master Bangzhu was moving without his brain.
“Luckily, you have a mild miasma. You are either stupid or an idiot, every year someone dies in this forest, yet you dared to go in…” Xie Xiao immediately took her hand and placed it on his shoulder, then steadily carried her on his back, walking down the mountain.
At the bottom of the mountain, YangYue was waiting for them. Jinxia was no longer in danger.
When he saw that they had gone far, Lu Yi jumped down from the tree and, before the Zi Yan’s effect would wear off, he turned back to enter the forest, but that person had obviously left and no one else was left in the woods.
Who was he? He didn’t have a clue. When he returned to the post station and saw Gao Qing and the others, he realized something was wrong.
Gao Qing was wearing a JinYiWei green uniform complete with a long shield robe, while he was exchanging moves with another JinYiWei. The two of them were fighting using long swords, their blades glowing and they seemed to be fighting with great concentration. When he saw the person beside him greeting Lu Yi, only then did Gao Qing realize and hurriedly turned around to greet Lu Yi as well. Unexpectedly his opponent did not stop his move in time and his blade cut into Gao Qing’s ear.
The next moment, Gao Qing’s ear was bleeding copiously.
The other JinYiWei started to be frightened, kneeled down in regret and said, “Beizhe deserves to die. Daren, I beg for your forgiveness.”
“Just a small wound, I know you didn’t mean to, it’s okay, just go.” Gao Qing held his ear for a moment, then turned to face Lu Yi and apologized, “Beizhe is so stupid, I made Daren laugh.”
Lu Yi glanced at his ear attentively, sighed and said, “Although it’s a small wound, you still have to be careful.”
“Daren is right, Beizhe is useless.” Gao Qing responded.
“Go apply some medicine, then come to my room later, I have something to say.” Lu Yi said.
“Beizhe understands.”
Gao Qing stepped back. Lu Yi watched him as he disappeared into the corner, he looked like he was in deep thought while looking at the area where they had fought.
At the place where they practiced, there was a green plank floor, which had been washed by the rain last night. Even the uneven parts looked clean now, although Gao Qing and his brother exchanged moves, on the floor there were not many traces.
Lu Yi’s eyes slowly became cold…
Earlier he had noticed Gao Qing’s leather shoes had just been brushed clean. By observing the green plank floor, Lu Yi noticed that not only did he brush the upper part of his shoes until it was crystal clean but the sole as well.
Obviously, he did not know for what reason he had cleaned his shoes.
In the midst of the forest, the tree branch that Lu Yi had shot, it had slashed past that person’s ear, and it was just so coincidentally that Gao Qing got injured before his eyes and the area of his wound happened to be his left ear.
What he was trying to hide was already obvious to Lu Yi.
Gao Qing had found out that day Yang ChengWan would have been receiving treatment at the clinic, so the fish-seller knew exactly where to find YangYue. In the past few days, Jinxia and YangYue had kept going in and out together, their speech and behaviour indicating they were very close. Gao Qing could have confidently concluded that if Yang ChengWan was being treated, YangYue would’ve definitely not left him, therefore Jinxia would’ve gone instead.
But, why did he have to trick Jinxia to the Taohualin Forest?
Why did he want to kill her? What was his reason?
At that moment, Lu Yi couldn’t answer these questions.
Gao Qing, who had already treated his wound, reappeared in front of Lu Yi. Lu Yi tried to suppress his suspicious look towards him and remained as usual. He also did not hide the events in the Taohualin Forest in the slightest, even asking him to go find the fish-seller brother.
“Does Daren feel that this incident has something to do with the existing case?” Gao Qing asked.
Lu Yi nodded his head, “Constable Yuan is here investigating a case for the first time, she shouldn’t have many enemies. If someone wants to hurt her, it must be because it has something to do with the case, what do you think?”
“Beizhe thinks Daren is right, but constable Yuan and Young Master Bangzhu are quite familiar with each other, the fish-seller also used Xie Xiao’s name, it could be that this has something to do with the Wu’An Gang.”
Lu Yi looked at him and continued his words, “It could be, the fish-seller brother came to the clinic hall to deliver the message, there should have been a lot of eyes on the street seeing him, you should start from there. As for the person in Taohualin Forest, I didn’t see his face clearly, his figure… It’s about the same as you, his kung fu is pretty good, you should investigate this too.”
“Beizhe understands.”
“There’s more, this case could be dangerous, you should be careful. Don’t foolishly be deceived like LiuShanmen.” Lu said, “JinYiWei can’t afford to lose face.”
“Beizhe understands.”
“You can go…Wait, I heard the snow wine in Yangzhou is quite famous, go ask the kitchen to send a bottle here,” Lu Yi took out some silver and gave it to him, “Last night, I couldn’t sleep well, drinking a little wine can calm the body. I want to rest early, you don’t have to come back here at night.”
Gao Qing refused to accept the silver and smiled, “It’s just a jar of snow wine. Daren, don’t be too formal, how can I use your silver? If Beizhe may talk, if you want to calm your mind, fruit grapes are more suitable. In my house, there is a bottle, it hasn’t been opened yet, if Daren doesn’t mind, I’ll bring it here.”
Lu Yi didn’t say much, laughed and said, “I see, then thank you, sorry to trouble you.”
“Why would you say that? Before I intended to give Daren a gift, unfortunately you’re so busy everyday, there was no chance to do so.”
Gao Qing resigned and not long after came back with two bottles of wine; one bottle of snow wine and the other one of fruit wine.
“I’m sure my wine can’t be compared with those in the Capital, just treat it as a thing you can throw away if you don’t like it. Besides, I have already prepared the snow wine, a specialty of Yangzhou.”
Suddenly, the kitchen servants came to deliver various food and drinks, much more luxurious than normal days. At first glance, it was obvious that it was Gao Qing’s order.
Lu Yi looked at it and said, “I’m bothering you.”
“Here in Yangzhou, songs and music are also very popular. If Daren wants to hear something, Beizhe can ask people to call them here to cheer you up.” He proposed.
“Songs and music are not necessary, I don’t really understand those things.” Lu Yi chuckled.
“Then Daren, please enjoy. Beizhe will leave first.”
Gao Qing walked out and closed the two doors.
Lu Yi was alone. He slowly sat down on the chair, picked up some vegetables and ate a few mouthfuls. The wine bottle was beside him, but he didn’t take off the seal because he had no intention of drinking it.
Outside, the sky became dark, the rain was expected to be heavy that night. He quickly fell sound asleep in his room.
If Gao Qing still wanted to hurt Jinxia, then tonight would have been a really good chance.
***
Jinxia was stunned and said ‘Oh’ once.
“That night, when you broke into my room, you thought that Gao Qing was going to hurt me.” She said with wide eyes.
Lu Yi said ‘Mhm’ slowly and then continued, “JinYiWei has its own set of systems for doing things… In fact, when the thunder started, I was already waiting for him.”
Jinxia remembered that night. Apart from her nightmare, she did not feel anything unusual, “So, did he come?”
“No.”
“So,” Jinxia frowned suspiciously, “Did he drink too much that night? Or did he change his mind and didn’t want to kill me anymore?”
“No, my judgment was wrong at the time. He didn’t want to kill you at all, otherwise, he would not feed you Zi Yan.” Lu Yi said.
Upon hearing this, Jinxia was more confused, “You mean, he is the one who fed me Zi Yan in the forest? Then, who was the one that tricked me to come to the forest?”
Lu Yi said, “It was him.”
After a long while, Jinxia finally said, “Brother, are you playing with me?”
“It’s not me that’s testing you, but someone is testing you.” Lu Yi paused for a moment, “You saw the ‘Ai Bieli’ in the forest and at Qifen Pavilion, it’s not a coincidence: someone wanted you to see it.”
“Why?” Jinxia was confused.
“Simple – teasing and playing with you.” Lu Yi said calmly.
Jinxia said with irritation, “Who? Gao Qing? Using a torture device and some corpses to make fun of me? Is he crazy? Or is someone behind him?”
“There is someone and he thinks very highly of himself. To him, people’s lives are in his hands, he can decide if he wants it to rain or snow. From his perspective, killing a person means nothing, but making fun of someone means he can act like a cat chasing a mouse, there is no need to rush in eating it, instead he wants to play with it a little, until he’s satisfied.” Lu Yi’s tone did not mask his disgust and hatred, “Do you still remember the big ship at the place of the Japanese pirate attack? The person on the ship?”
Jinxia froze, “That’s the person you said that wants to step on you.”
Lu Yi nodded his head.
“If you are the target, why bother me?”
“You mean, he should be playing around with me.” Lu Yi tilted his head and looked at her suspiciously.
Jinxia was speechless, explaining her words at once, “Of course not. It is an honour to share the worries with Daren.”
Hearing her words, Lu Yi’s expression didn’t lit up at all. He only said, “To be honest, I am unsure why he’s playing with you. Maybe Gao Qing said something in front of him and he thought it would be fun to tease you.”
“So, am I a mouse?”
Lu Yi looked at her as if he thought of something and a smile appeared on his lips but he didn’t answer her question.
“Gao Qing is his subordinate, if anything that means he’s here to spy on you, but now he’s injured…” Jinxia looked at him in suspicion, “Isn’t this going the way you wanted?”
“Do you think it was a coincidence that he got injured?” Lu Yi snorted.
Jinxia continued to stare at him for a long while, then said, “His injury, did you arrange it?”
Lu Yi replied coldly, “The person beside me is a spy planted by someone else, he deserved to be disciplined. He’s lucky I didn’t kill him, that’s me giving him mercy.”
“He…” Jinxia’s mind was a little messy, “Then, Sha Xiuzhu’s release, you knew about it? How much do you know?”
“All of it. The plan was arranged by me, so how much do you think I know?”
Lu Yi continued to answer her questions with the same expression.
For a moment, Jinxia felt like she was struck by lighting.
“You, you, you…” She stuttered continuously.
Lu Yi explained, “Shangguan Bangzhu helped me with a number of things, I let her take Sha Xiuzhu as a repayment.”
“Why didn’t you say that before?!?” Jinxia couldn’t control her emotions, she was both annoyed and disappointed, “Then, me taking a slash was for nothing?!”
“I understand you have deep feelings and a great concern for Young Master Bangzhu, to be willing to accept that sword slash for his sake.” Lu Yi said.
“How could it be for him? Obviously I… I was afraid of being punished by you, and if I knew, I, I…” The feeling of being played was terrible. Jinxia felt depressed just thinking about it, and also felt like she was just one of his chess pieces.
How does the chess game work? How could a player talk to his chess piece?
*Lu Yi’s story: Inside the Taohualin Forest*
That person was not weak, moving past the trees so lightly that Lu Yi could instantly tell that the figure was a man. Lu Yi didn’t dare to avoid the enemy and lure him out of the defensive area, in order not to move too far from Jinxia. Seeing that the person was almost disappearing in the fog, he broke a tree branch and gathered all his power to shoot the branch at the man…
Feeling a strong win approaching him from behind, the man jumped out of the trajectory, the tree branch going past his earlobe.
After dashing away a few more steps, he disappeared from Lu Yi’s eyes.
Lu Yi decided to not chase him any longer. He turned around and went back to where Jinxia was, checked her pulse and saw that there were no other injuries on her body. It seemed that she had only been exposed to miasma poison.
He called out to her several times, also shaking her body, but her eyes were tightly shut.
“Eight hundred quicksand borders in the world, three thousand depts of weak water, the goose can’t float, reeds are calm…” She muttered to herself.
After listening to what she was saying with attention, in his heart he secretly laughed. Although she was a girl and also a constable at LiuShanmen, yet she couldn’t help but read a forbidden book.
She remained unconscious. Lu Yi couldn’t do anything else, except for lifting her up and carrying her out.
“Tai Shang Laojun fire vessel, train your energy and mind the fire… Practicing until popping pills, my body has turned to ashes…” She whispered. With her eyelids opened for a moment, she looked at him faintly, then became unconscious again, her hands tightly gripping the clothes on his shoulder.
“You think you’re in a vessel of fire?”
The Zi Yan in Lu Yi’s mouth started to spread its effect inside his body, his organs felt a burning heat and he couldn’t help but laugh.
Once making it out of the Taohualin Forest, Jinxia was still unconscious. Lu Yi saw Xie Xiao who was riding toward them and slightly frowned: based on what YangYue had said, it was Xie Xiao who invited him to the Taohualin Forest…
He tried to remove her grip off his clothes, then he placed Jinxia near a boulder. Afterward, he jumped to a nearby tree, burying himself among the grasses.
From where he was, he could see Jinxia clearly, if Xie Xiao had done anything to her, he could have immediately taken action.
Xie Xiao quickly went up to the mountain, saw Jinxia by the boulder outside the forest and let out a sigh of relief, then rushed to her in a hurry.
“Jinxia! Jinxia! Girl.. .Jinxia!… Quick, wake up!”
Lu Yi furrowed his eyebrows. As he watched Xie Xiao slapping Jinxia’s cheeks left and right, he sighed softly. Seeing that Xie Xiao didn’t seem to be pretending and in front of him was a red puff cheek Jinxia, it seemed that someone tried to use Xie Xiao’s name to deceive them.
In the distance, there was the sound of another horse running. Lu Yi looked up and recognized that the person was YangYue, then looked down again. Jinxia had started to open her eyes.
“Is it you?”
Jinxia finally realized that the person in front of her was Xie Xiao. At the same time, she grabbed his sleeve. Lu Yi looked at her and suddenly thought that when she was unconscious, she had also grabbed his clothes like that. Although she was senseless, her fingers had still held him tight.
Seeing her waking up, Xie Xiao once again felt relieved, took her hand and checked her pulse.
Lu Yi’s eyebrows tightened: only now did he remember to check her pulse? This Young Master Bangzhu was moving without his brain.
“Luckily, you have a mild miasma. You are either stupid or an idiot, every year someone dies in this forest, yet you dared to go in…” Xie Xiao immediately took her hand and placed it on his shoulder, then steadily carried her on his back, walking down the mountain.
At the bottom of the mountain, YangYue was waiting for them. Jinxia was no longer in danger.
When he saw that they had gone far, Lu Yi jumped down from the tree and, before the Zi Yan’s effect would wear off, he turned back to enter the forest, but that person had obviously left and no one else was left in the woods.
Who was he? He didn’t have a clue. When he returned to the post station and saw Gao Qing and the others, he realized something was wrong.
Gao Qing was wearing a JinYiWei green uniform complete with a long shield robe, while he was exchanging moves with another JinYiWei. The two of them were fighting using long swords, their blades glowing and they seemed to be fighting with great concentration. When he saw the person beside him greeting Lu Yi, only then did Gao Qing realize and hurriedly turned around to greet Lu Yi as well. Unexpectedly his opponent did not stop his move in time and his blade cut into Gao Qing’s ear.
The next moment, Gao Qing’s ear was bleeding copiously.
The other JinYiWei started to be frightened, kneeled down in regret and said, “Beizhe deserves to die. Daren, I beg for your forgiveness.”
“Just a small wound, I know you didn’t mean to, it’s okay, just go.” Gao Qing held his ear for a moment, then turned to face Lu Yi and apologized, “Beizhe is so stupid, I made Daren laugh.”
Lu Yi glanced at his ear attentively, sighed and said, “Although it’s a small wound, you still have to be careful.”
“Daren is right, Beizhe is useless.” Gao Qing responded.
“Go apply some medicine, then come to my room later, I have something to say.” Lu Yi said.
“Beizhe understands.”
Gao Qing stepped back. Lu Yi watched him as he disappeared into the corner, he looked like he was in deep thought while looking at the area where they had fought.
At the place where they practiced, there was a green plank floor, which had been washed by the rain last night. Even the uneven parts looked clean now, although Gao Qing and his brother exchanged moves, on the floor there were not many traces.
Lu Yi’s eyes slowly became cold…
Earlier he had noticed Gao Qing’s leather shoes had just been brushed clean. By observing the green plank floor, Lu Yi noticed that not only did he brush the upper part of his shoes until it was crystal clean but the sole as well.
Obviously, he did not know for what reason he had cleaned his shoes.
In the midst of the forest, the tree branch that Lu Yi had shot, it had slashed past that person’s ear, and it was just so coincidentally that Gao Qing got injured before his eyes and the area of his wound happened to be his left ear.
What he was trying to hide was already obvious to Lu Yi.
Gao Qing had found out that day Yang ChengWan would have been receiving treatment at the clinic, so the fish-seller knew exactly where to find YangYue. In the past few days, Jinxia and YangYue had kept going in and out together, their speech and behaviour indicating they were very close. Gao Qing could have confidently concluded that if Yang ChengWan was being treated, YangYue would’ve definitely not left him, therefore Jinxia would’ve gone instead.
But, why did he have to trick Jinxia to the Taohualin Forest?
Why did he want to kill her? What was his reason?
At that moment, Lu Yi couldn’t answer these questions.
Gao Qing, who had already treated his wound, reappeared in front of Lu Yi. Lu Yi tried to suppress his suspicious look towards him and remained as usual. He also did not hide the events in the Taohualin Forest in the slightest, even asking him to go find the fish-seller brother.
“Does Daren feel that this incident has something to do with the existing case?” Gao Qing asked.
Lu Yi nodded his head, “Constable Yuan is here investigating a case for the first time, she shouldn’t have many enemies. If someone wants to hurt her, it must be because it has something to do with the case, what do you think?”
“Beizhe thinks Daren is right, but constable Yuan and Young Master Bangzhu are quite familiar with each other, the fish-seller also used Xie Xiao’s name, it could be that this has something to do with the Wu’An Gang.”
Lu Yi looked at him and continued his words, “It could be, the fish-seller brother came to the clinic hall to deliver the message, there should have been a lot of eyes on the street seeing him, you should start from there. As for the person in Taohualin Forest, I didn’t see his face clearly, his figure… It’s about the same as you, his kung fu is pretty good, you should investigate this too.”
“Beizhe understands.”
“There’s more, this case could be dangerous, you should be careful. Don’t foolishly be deceived like LiuShanmen.” Lu said, “JinYiWei can’t afford to lose face.”
“Beizhe understands.”
“You can go…Wait, I heard the snow wine in Yangzhou is quite famous, go ask the kitchen to send a bottle here,” Lu Yi took out some silver and gave it to him, “Last night, I couldn’t sleep well, drinking a little wine can calm the body. I want to rest early, you don’t have to come back here at night.”
Gao Qing refused to accept the silver and smiled, “It’s just a jar of snow wine. Daren, don’t be too formal, how can I use your silver? If Beizhe may talk, if you want to calm your mind, fruit grapes are more suitable. In my house, there is a bottle, it hasn’t been opened yet, if Daren doesn’t mind, I’ll bring it here.”
Lu Yi didn’t say much, laughed and said, “I see, then thank you, sorry to trouble you.”
“Why would you say that? Before I intended to give Daren a gift, unfortunately you’re so busy everyday, there was no chance to do so.”
Gao Qing resigned and not long after came back with two bottles of wine; one bottle of snow wine and the other one of fruit wine.
“I’m sure my wine can’t be compared with those in the Capital, just treat it as a thing you can throw away if you don’t like it. Besides, I have already prepared the snow wine, a specialty of Yangzhou.”
Suddenly, the kitchen servants came to deliver various food and drinks, much more luxurious than normal days. At first glance, it was obvious that it was Gao Qing’s order.
Lu Yi looked at it and said, “I’m bothering you.”
“Here in Yangzhou, songs and music are also very popular. If Daren wants to hear something, Beizhe can ask people to call them here to cheer you up.” He proposed.
“Songs and music are not necessary, I don’t really understand those things.” Lu Yi chuckled.
“Then Daren, please enjoy. Beizhe will leave first.”
Gao Qing walked out and closed the two doors.
Lu Yi was alone. He slowly sat down on the chair, picked up some vegetables and ate a few mouthfuls. The wine bottle was beside him, but he didn’t take off the seal because he had no intention of drinking it.
Outside, the sky became dark, the rain was expected to be heavy that night. He quickly fell sound asleep in his room.
If Gao Qing still wanted to hurt Jinxia, then tonight would have been a really good chance.
***
Jinxia was stunned and said ‘Oh’ once.
“That night, when you broke into my room, you thought that Gao Qing was going to hurt me.” She said with wide eyes.
Lu Yi said ‘Mhm’ slowly and then continued, “JinYiWei has its own set of systems for doing things… In fact, when the thunder started, I was already waiting for him.”
Jinxia remembered that night. Apart from her nightmare, she did not feel anything unusual, “So, did he come?”
“No.”
“So,” Jinxia frowned suspiciously, “Did he drink too much that night? Or did he change his mind and didn’t want to kill me anymore?”
“No, my judgment was wrong at the time. He didn’t want to kill you at all, otherwise, he would not feed you Zi Yan.” Lu Yi said.
Upon hearing this, Jinxia was more confused, “You mean, he is the one who fed me Zi Yan in the forest? Then, who was the one that tricked me to come to the forest?”
Lu Yi said, “It was him.”
After a long while, Jinxia finally said, “Brother, are you playing with me?”
“It’s not me that’s testing you, but someone is testing you.” Lu Yi paused for a moment, “You saw the ‘Ai Bieli’ in the forest and at Qifen Pavilion, it’s not a coincidence: someone wanted you to see it.”
“Why?” Jinxia was confused.
“Simple – teasing and playing with you.” Lu Yi said calmly.
Jinxia said with irritation, “Who? Gao Qing? Using a torture device and some corpses to make fun of me? Is he crazy? Or is someone behind him?”
“There is someone and he thinks very highly of himself. To him, people’s lives are in his hands, he can decide if he wants it to rain or snow. From his perspective, killing a person means nothing, but making fun of someone means he can act like a cat chasing a mouse, there is no need to rush in eating it, instead he wants to play with it a little, until he’s satisfied.” Lu Yi’s tone did not mask his disgust and hatred, “Do you still remember the big ship at the place of the Japanese pirate attack? The person on the ship?”
Jinxia froze, “That’s the person you said that wants to step on you.”
Lu Yi nodded his head.
“If you are the target, why bother me?”
“You mean, he should be playing around with me.” Lu Yi tilted his head and looked at her suspiciously.
Jinxia was speechless, explaining her words at once, “Of course not. It is an honour to share the worries with Daren.”
Hearing her words, Lu Yi’s expression didn’t lit up at all. He only said, “To be honest, I am unsure why he’s playing with you. Maybe Gao Qing said something in front of him and he thought it would be fun to tease you.”
“So, am I a mouse?”
Lu Yi looked at her as if he thought of something and a smile appeared on his lips but he didn’t answer her question.
“Gao Qing is his subordinate, if anything that means he’s here to spy on you, but now he’s injured…” Jinxia looked at him in suspicion, “Isn’t this going the way you wanted?”
“Do you think it was a coincidence that he got injured?” Lu Yi snorted.
Jinxia continued to stare at him for a long while, then said, “His injury, did you arrange it?”
Lu Yi replied coldly, “The person beside me is a spy planted by someone else, he deserved to be disciplined. He’s lucky I didn’t kill him, that’s me giving him mercy.”
“He…” Jinxia’s mind was a little messy, “Then, Sha Xiuzhu’s release, you knew about it? How much do you know?”
“All of it. The plan was arranged by me, so how much do you think I know?”
Lu Yi continued to answer her questions with the same expression.
For a moment, Jinxia felt like she was struck by lighting.
“You, you, you…” She stuttered continuously.
Lu Yi explained, “Shangguan Bangzhu helped me with a number of things, I let her take Sha Xiuzhu as a repayment.”
“Why didn’t you say that before?!?” Jinxia couldn’t control her emotions, she was both annoyed and disappointed, “Then, me taking a slash was for nothing?!”
“I understand you have deep feelings and a great concern for Young Master Bangzhu, to be willing to accept that sword slash for his sake.” Lu Yi said.
“How could it be for him? Obviously I… I was afraid of being punished by you, and if I knew, I, I…” The feeling of being played was terrible. Jinxia felt depressed just thinking about it, and also felt like she was just one of his chess pieces.
How does the chess game work? How could a player talk to his chess piece?
