Chapter - 235 Disaster Strikes When the Screen Wall Breaches the Impregnable Fortress (15) (1/2)
From behind the blanket, Zhang Wuji peeked out and saw two girls; one was wearing light yellow silk robe, her dress and adornment were luxurious. The other was a younger girl, wearing dark green cotton robe; looked like she was the young maid.
”Xiaojie [miss],” the young maid said in a raspy voice, ”The night is deep, please have some rest.”
The 'miss' turned around and slapped the young maid's face heavily with the back of her hand. The young maid staggered and fallback one step. The body of the 'miss' swayed and she turned around completely. Under the candlelight Zhang Wuji was able to see clearly her big round eyes, with deep black pupils, on a round-shaped face. She was none other than Yang Buhui, whom he escorted for tens of thousands 'li' all the way from the Central Plains to the remote Western Region.
It had been several years; she had grown a lot taller, but her mannerism did not change, particularly the downward curve at the corners of her mouth, which he recognized as her childhood feature, was more pronounced.
He heard she cursed the maid, ”You told me to sleep, humph, the Six Major Sects are besieging the Brightness Peak, my Father and his colleagues have been discussing plans to fight the enemy all night and have not finished yet. He [orig. 'lao ren jia' – a polite term for an older person] has not slept, how can I sleep? It would be best if my Father is killed by the enemy, and then you can kill me; you would gain everything your heart desires.” The young maid did not dare to defend herself, she simply helped her to sit down.
”Quickly get my sword!” Yang Buhui said.
The young maid walked toward the wall and took off the sword hanging on the wall. Her ankles were shackled with an iron chain, her wrists were also shackled with iron chain. Her left leg was limping, her back was arched like a humpback. When she had the sword in her hands and turned around, Zhang Wuji was even more startled; he saw her right eye was small, the left eye was big, her nose and the corners of her mouth were twisted. In short, her form was extremely unsightly. He thought, ”This young lady's appearance is uglier than Zhu'er. But Zhu'er is ugly because the poison in her body had caused the bumps on her face; she can be cure completely. This young miss, however, has an inborn deformity.”
Yang Buhui received the sword and said, ”The enemy could be here any time, I want to patrol outside.”
”I am coming with Miss,” the young maid said, ”If we meet the enemy, we can look after each other.” Her voice was so raspy that it was hard to understand; she sounded more like an uncouth middle-aged man than a young girl.
”Who wants your fake good intention?” Yang Buhui said. Her left hand reached back and grabbed the pulse on the wrist of that young maid's right hand; the young maid was immediately paralyzed.
”Xiaojie,” she said in a trembling voice, ”You … you …”
”A large number of the enemy is here to besiege us,” Yang Buhui said with a cold laugh, ”We, father and daughter, are at the point of death. Most likely you, this little maid, were sent by the enemy to the Brightness Peak as a spy, are you not? How can we, father and daughter, let ourselves be tortured by you? Today I will kill you first!” While saying that, she flipped her sword to stab the young maid's neck.
When he saw the young maid was deformed, Zhang Wuji felt compassion toward her; now that he suddenly saw Yang Buhui's sword went straight to stab her, in this critical situation he did not have time to think, immediately he flew out and flicked the body of the sword with his finger. Yang Buhui was not able to hold her sword. 'Clink clank!' the sword fell to the floor. As soon as the sword left her right hand, her two fingers went straight toward Zhang Wuji's two eyes. It was actually a very common, mediocre stance called the 'shuang long qiang zhu' [a pair of dragons fight over a pearl], but since she had been under her father's tutelage for several years, the stance came out rather powerful.
Zhang Wuji leaped backward to evade and blurted, ”Buhui Meimei [younger sister], it's me!”
Yang Buhui was accustomed to him calling her 'Buhui Meimei', four characters; she was startled. ”Wuji Gege [big brother]?” she asked. She only recognized the intonation of the call 'Buhui Meimei', but she did not recognize Zhang Wuji's appearance.
Immediately Zhang Wuji felt a pang of regret in his heart; but he could not deny again. ”It's me!” he had no choice but answered in affirmative. ”Buhui Meimei, how have you been these past several years?”