Chapter 48 (1/2)
CHAPTER FORTY-EIGHT
Grievous News
The s.h.i.+p sailed for half a month, and has finally arrived at the port nearest to Lin Yi. Here, Pang Wan was able to meet up with the sect’s people who received her message from the carrier pigeons, and orders them to send the unconscious Nan Yi back. Only then, does she move onto horse, heading down the main road with He Qing Lu.
At long last, Senior Brother needs not be forced into deep sleep, this has allowed for Pang Wan, who had been preoccupied with troubles along the way, to finally be relieved.
Just that, don’t know whether the Nan Yi who wakes up later, would still turn into that bloodthirsty beast with a full body of sudden exploding veins? Is he still capable of maintaining his sanity?
——the strange matter that has occurred on Nan Yi’s body, is yet another mystery to be solved.
Having grown rather worn out from their travels, they have finally arrived at Lin Yi, and the well-experienced Jin Di Luo leads them to the city’s largest and finest inn.
“Apologies to our four guests, but there is only one master room available.” The inn-keeper says the timelessly renowned lines that have been countlessly used in wuxia romance stories.
Everyone’s conditioned response was to shoot their gaze towards He Qing Lu.
“Add two more ordinary rooms.” Gentleman ponders a little, and then commands this.
“One is enough, us two can squeeze together.” Pang Wan thought the rooms were left for her and the mute maid, and hastily holds onto the mute maid’s hand to explain.
He Qing Lu stares at their two hands held together, his eyes undetectably turn somewhat stern.
“Add another two ordinary rooms.” He casts a glance at the inn-keeper, an air of coercion blowing against their faces.
Everyone were obediently rendered speechless all at once.
Pang Wan sits on the glamorous chaise lounge, looking dejected.
She really did not think, He Qing Lu would choose to have her “squeeze together” with him.
“You don’t want your face, but I still want my face (you have no shame, but I still have shame)……” She quietly mutters, secretly glancing at the slender figure currently was.h.i.+ng his face in front.
“You want to clean your face as well?” He Qing Lu turns to look at her, amber eyes looking increasingly bright amongst the dense steam, just like the frosty stars.
Pang Wan with her anger reaching her head, glares at him and says nothing.
He Qing Lu thinks for moment, then once again wrings the cloth and hands it to her: “You should give it a clean, looking just like a tabby cat, so ugly.”
Pang Wan pushes away the cloth, complaining in a rage: “Gentleman! Do you truly not understand or are you pretending to not understand? The two of us are not officially married yet, we cannot share the same room, what is the meaning of you making things difficult for me like this?”
What is the meaning?
He Qing Lu blinks.
His thoughts are actually very simple, Pang Wan’s internal energy has been wiped clean right now, he cannot rest a.s.sured with her staying by herself, nor is he willing to have her “squeezing together” with another person, so he can only do himself wrong by having her “squeezing together” with him.
But he cannot tell Pang Wan, where his rejection towards the mute maid had come from, because even he, himself, is unable to understand this.
“Didn’t we speak about this before? When outside, you must listen to me regarding all matters, en?”
He takes on a commanding bearing to intimidate her.
The threat being thoroughly effective, Pang Wan bitterly purses her lips and speaks no more, just that her facial expression was looking very bad.
Seeing her look so unhappy, He Qing Lu suddenly feels his heart soften.
He lowers his head wanting to pinch her puffed up cheeks, but suddenly pauses halfway, all that can be seen, is him taking the cloth to carefully wipe her face, then printing his lips onto her.
Succeeding in stealing a peck[1], he is greatly satisfied, hugging Pang Wan as he softly says: “We will be husband and wife sooner or later, no one would gossip about this, so why should you be bothered?”
He says this very righteously, but is completely unaware how his tone is no different to that of a rapist[2] who abducts kind and innocent young ladies.
But Pang Wan does not have the effort to bother with his unruly acts, right now, her entire attention has turned to the cloth in his hand.
In the corner of that snow white cotton towel, a familiar looking eagle head symbol is printed on it.
“What’s this?” She points to that blue symbol.
“This is a clan emblem.” He Qing Lu follows her finger, “This inn is a property of a certain huge clan, everything provided by them will be branded, in order to avoid loss or confusion with outsider products.”
Having said that, he then adds: “All the cloths here are new, they are thrown away when the guests leaves, it’s clear that the owner is definitely a rich and powerful individual.”
Pang Wan is occupied with thoughts as she nods.
In a blink of an eye, it is already night.
The so called master room of the inn, is exclusively used for the wealthy cla.s.s with servants, with two compartments, both inside and outside, each with their own respective bed. So when evening came, Pang Wan would of course stay in the outer room, the most luxurious room inside is thus left for the Great Young Master He to enjoy.
Fortunately, even though He Qing Lu comes from an influential background, presumably due to his habit of conducting research alone, he does not have maids helping him with dressing, face was.h.i.+ng, hair combing, such acts of prideful extravagance. Before sleeping, all he does is hold a candle and comes checking on Pang Wan, once he sees all is well with her, he would return to his own room.
Pang Wan hid under the covers for a good moment, only once she had confirmed there is no longer any signs of movements in the room, does she secretly take out a black jade piece from within the pillow case.
Carved on it is a gloriously imposing eagle head, impressively, it perfectly matches with the symbol printed on the corner of the cloth she saw this morning.
She looks at it and touches it, deep down she solemnly makes a decision.
Moving onto the next day, He Qing Lu takes Jin Di Luo to the Ninth Prince’s alternative residence, but did not find any traces of Sang Chan, instead, they received unexpected news, causing their faces to instantly turn gloomy.
“Young Master, should this awful happening be reported to Lady Wan Wan?” Jin Di Luo is somewhat unsure about this.
He Qing Lu starts playing with the blood-red coral beads in hand, his long lashes lowered, covering all his inner thoughts.
“If you were her, what would you do if you heard this news?” He suddenly asks.
Jin Di Luo is stunned, then lowers his head to respectfully say: “If I, your subordinate, am in her shoes, naturally I would rush back regardless of anything else, but……” He pauses, expression looking slightly shy, “But Lady Wan Wan is a woman, and now she also has Young Master, such a good companion to end up with, thus would not necessarily be willing take the risk.”
“Oh?” He Qing Lu sounds an almost undetectable harrumph.
“Young Master, I, your subordinate, apologise for speaking too much, but no matter what position we hold, we cannot stick our hands into public matters of the Jiang Hu, may Young Master think everything over three times before progressing.” Jin Di Luo respectfully wraps his fist in reminder.
He Qing Lu declines to comment, hooking up a smile.
Master and servant sit in the inn for half a day, until the sun was setting, and only then did they finally see a young lady in red appear from the door curtains.
Straws hanging from her head, skirt covered in leaves, hair loosely strayed to the side, looking in quite the sorry state.
“What did you two do?”
With a blink of an eye, she sees the two people sitting inside the room, and cannot help getting a shock.
“Where did you go? How did you get into such a filthy state?”
He Qing Lu’s forehead was tightly creased, the eyes gazing at her looking exceptionally stern.
Pang Wan rubs her nose, and sounds two dry laughs: “Hei-hei, today Longfu Temple held a temple fair nearby, I and Ah Zhuo went to join the fun.” Ah Zhuo is the obedient and intelligent mute maid.
“Where’s Ah Zhuo? Why did she not come back with you?” He Qing Lu’s forehead did not loosen up in the slightest bit.
“There were too many people at the temple fair, we got separated along the way, in the end, I managed to find her back with great difficulty.” Pang Wan shrugs her shoulders, “Leaving me in a full head of sweat from searching, so once she got back, she went to prepare a bath for me.”
Her explanation makes sense and is reasonable, only now does He Qing Lu nod, the doubts in his eyes instantly disappears.