Adorning Flowers by Night - Chapter 39
Chapter 39
When Feng Bo entered, Xie Xuanzhi had already donned his golden coronet. He cut a tall, elegant figure, his bearing magnificent.
But the trace of unease in Feng Bo's heart would not dissipate.
Yet how could a mere house slave question the Villa Master's decision? Feng Bo could only swallow the words of caution at the tip of his tongue. He bowed and said, "Villa Master, Sect Leader Zhu has arrived."
Xie Xuanzhi turned from the mirror.
"Zhu Wuhua? Where is she? Has she entered the villa?"
"No, Sect Leader Zhu seems to have found lodging elsewhere."
Xie Xuanzhi flicked his sleeve and snorted.
But Feng Bo had brought more than just this news.
He recounted what had happened at Wangxian Tower.
While others had only noticed Zhu Wuhua's zither music, Feng Bo had keenly sensed the presence of another person.
"This servant received the news and rushed to Wangxian Tower with some men, but Sect Leader Zhu had already left. This servant questioned the restaurant's patrons. They were all dazed, only remembering the zither music. They didn't know what happened before they woke up and vomited blood. However, there was a fisherman on the lake at the time. He said he saw a figure fly onto the roof from a distance, and after a long cry, the music stopped."
"Do you know what that person looked like? Man or woman?" Someone who could interrupt her zither music must be comparable to Zhu Wuhua in skill. Unfortunately, Chuzhou was currently teeming with experts. Besides himself and Tang Yue, the leaders of the other "Three Greats" were also present. Still, for a trivial matter like this, he could simply ask the others and find out.
"The fisherman didn't get a clear look. But according to the restaurant patrons, two women left with Sect Leader Zhu."
"Women? Two of them?"
"According to the manager's description, one of them matched the appearance of the person who injured this servant at Huixing Tower, and the young woman in white with her also fits the description."
"So those two are indeed disciples of the Falling Blossoms Sect?"
"It's possible." Feng Bo thought for a moment, not daring to be certain.
"Good, good. One woman wasn't enough, so another has come. I, Xie Xuanzhi, have never feared a woman in my life," Xie Xuanzhi said coldly.
"They are staying together now. Villa Master, this servant has already sent men to watch them."
"You've done well," said Xie Xuanzhi. "Now there is another important matter I need you to handle."
"Please give your orders, Villa Master."
"Go and capture a few more children."
"Villa Master!" Feng Bo looked up in horror.
"Get going!" Xie Xuanzhi's expression was grim, his patience worn thin.
"Yes..." Feng Bo turned and took two steps, then stopped. "Villa Master, there are more and more martial artists in Chuzhou. It won't be easy for this servant to act. I will have to travel to a city about thirty miles away. This servant... will need some time."
"As soon as possible," Xie Xuanzhi said with a wave of his hand.
Feng Bo said nothing more, clasped his hands, and strode out.
Xie Xuanzhi looked down at himself, then opened the door a moment later.
The disciples at the door bowed respectfully.
"Villa Master."
"Master."
Xie Xuanzhi nodded and strode outside.
Hu Yan was meditating in his room when Xie Xuanzhi pushed the door open and entered.
Blinded for a moment by the sudden light, Hu Yan saw a hazy, imposing figure at the door.
"Disciple greets Master." He ceased his cultivation, got off the bed, and knelt on one knee.
"No need for such ceremony." Xie Xuanzhi personally helped him up by the arm, asking affectionately, "Yan'er, are you feeling any discomfort today?"
Hu Yan was moved. He shook his head and said, "This disciple is fine."
"Let Master check your pulse." Just as he had every day before, Xie Xuanzhi checked his pulse, then sent a thread of true qi into him, circulating it through his meridians. Only after sensing no abnormalities did he withdraw his hand.
As he was leaving, Xie Xuanzhi said, "You've been training diligently lately. Master will have someone send a bowl of ginseng soup later. Be sure to drink it."
"Yes, Master!" Hu Yan knelt inside the doorway, performing a deep bow as he saw Xie Xuanzhi off.
"One, two, three, four..." The woman in black on the roof curled her fingers back. She said to the woman beside her, "Usually, we're the only ones watching others. No one has ever dared to spy on us Jinyiwei. It's like a thief trying to rob the king of thieves."
The other woman stared down below without speaking.
The woman in black nudged her companion's arm again. "Hey, tell me, what kind of person is our Commander, really? So mysterious. Even I'm getting curious."
The other woman said indifferently, "Speculating about the Commander is a great disrespect."
"I'm not speculating wildly, I'm just discussing it with you."
"..."
The woman in black, having been rebuffed, said no more. She saw a gray figure land in the back courtyard and suddenly said, "Xuan Mo is back."
The other woman, however, glanced over at her. "Are you that happy she's back?"
"Haha, I thought you were ignoring me."
"..."
Like a shadow, Xuan Mo appeared silently behind Lu Ruzhuo.
"Commander."
Pei Yu, startled at first, was now used to it. Without waiting for Lu Ruzhuo to ask her to stay, she tactfully withdrew.
After all, the difference in their official ranks was vast; she wasn't necessarily privy to matters reported by the secret guards.
Lu Ruzhuo walked into the shadows of the corridor and asked in a low voice, "Any movement from Xie Xuanzhi?"
"This subordinate has been watching him for half a month and discovered..."
Pei Yu stood not far away, watching the secret guard lean close to Lu Ruzhuo, an intimate gesture, and whisper in her ear for a long time.
Pei Yu reached out, broke off a twig, and twisted it unconsciously in her hands.
Lu Ruzhuo gave Xuan Mo some instructions. The secret guard nodded and vanished like a shadow again.
Under the corridor, Lu Ruzhuo left alone.
Pei Yu stewed in her jealousy for a moment before remembering that Lu Ruzhuo was still angry with her. Though she didn't know what she was angry about.
"Senior Sister!" she hurriedly chased after her.
The woman in black on the roof watched them and sighed. She plucked a blade of wild grass, put it in her mouth to chew, and said, "The young miss seems so clever usually. How come she's like a block of wood when it comes to matters of love?"
"And you're not like a block of wood?"
"What is with you today?!" The woman in black turned around, unable to bear it any longer. "You're so cantankerous."
"...The young miss is still young." The other woman avoided the question.
"She's already had her eighteenth birthday. In half a year, she'll be nineteen. That's not young. Wait, you still haven't said why you're being so sharp-tongued!"
Lu Ruzhuo passed through a doorway and came face to face with Zhu Wuhua and Zhu Weirui. Zhu Wuhua waved and smiled. "I was just about to call you for dinner."
Lu Ruzhuo had no choice but to stop.
Pei Yu, running in a hurry behind her, wasn't prepared and bumped into Lu Ruzhuo's back.
The collision was unintentional, but clinging to her without letting go was quite intentional.
"Senior Sister, are you all right?" Having finally caught up to her, Pei Yu held her by the waist and looked her up and down.
"I'm fine." Lu Ruzhuo flicked her sleeve to shake her off.
But Pei Yu held on tight, and surprisingly, Lu Ruzhuo couldn't break free.
Once that initial burst of resolve passed, it wasn't so easy to be harsh again.
Lu Ruzhuo looked at the innocent and sincere face before her, and her heart felt like the evening clouds on the horizon, piled with soft pinks and whites. No matter how angry she had been, she couldn't muster it anymore.
Zhu Wuhua took it all in with a smile, teasing, "Are you two planning to stand here sharing a tender moment until the end of time?"
What tender moment?
Pei Yu's face instantly flushed red.
A faint pink dusted Lu Ruzhuo's cold expression.
Zhu Weirui's eyes darted between the two of them, a look of partial understanding on her face.
Lu Ruzhuo said, "Weren't we having dinner? Where is it?"
Zhu Wuhua smiled brightly and gestured for them to proceed.
Lu Ruzhuo took the opportunity to pull her sleeve from Pei Yu's grasp and strode forward.
She no longer seemed angry.
Zhu Wuhua called out with a laugh, "Getting shy, are we?"
Pei Yu had wanted to follow, but at Zhu Wuhua's words, Lu Ruzhuo vanished in a flash.
"..."
As a guest, Pei Yu couldn't just ignore her hosts, so she slowed her pace to walk with the Zhu mother and daughter.
Zhu Wuhua sized her up and asked, "Did you make your aunt angry?"
Pei Yu found it hard to speak, so she just gave a reserved nod.
Zhu Wuhua said, "She's had that temper since she was little. She's very easy to coax."
"How do I coax her?" Pei Yu asked humbly.
"If it's you, a little kiss should do it," Zhu Wuhua teased.
"?" Pei Yu couldn't help but ask, "In the past, when she was angry, did Sect Leader Zhu kiss her too?"
Zhu Wuhua: "..."
How was she supposed to answer that?
Wait, she was clearly here with the intention of playing matchmaker. How had this child turned the tables on her?
But Zhu Wuhua was not one to lie.
She explained, trying her best to avoid any misunderstanding, "We were only a few years old when we met, still very young. I'm two years older than her. If she got angry with me, I'd find some fun little trinkets, give her a little peck on the cheek, and she wouldn't be angry anymore. It happened very rarely. You know what 'rarely' means, right? And that was all before she came of age. It never happened again after that."
Pei Yu said, "Oh," thinking sourly: Childhood sweethearts.
Zhu Wuhua added, "Later, due to certain circumstances, we were forced to part for more than twenty years. She was only sixteen or seventeen at the time."
Pei Yu's jealousy boiled over completely.
Forced to part, old friends reunited.
Zhu Wuhua looked at her expectantly and said, "Do you... understand?"
Please don't misunderstand that there's anything between me and Lu Ruzhuo.
Pei Yu, who was already convinced they shared a past romance, smiled gently. "This junior understands."
Zhu Wuhua had a bad feeling about this.
Although she enjoyed watching Lu Ruzhuo's drama unfold, she was also, without a doubt, the person who most wanted to see Lu Ruzhuo win the beauty's heart.
Twenty years had passed. She herself was married with a daughter, yet Lu Ruzhuo was still all alone. It would be one thing if she didn't have a sweetheart, but her sweetheart was right before her eyes, someone she could see and touch, but not kiss or hold. And there was the barrier of their worldly statuses between them.
Lu Ruzhuo had been unconventional since childhood and never cared for worldly conventions, but most people in this world were bound by them, and her sweetheart was no exception.
Two years ago, in the valley, Zhu Wuhua had received a letter from the capital that arrived outside their agreed-upon time. In it, Lu Ruzhuo had, for the first time, poured out her troubles, filling several pages.
And it was because of that letter that Zhu Wuhua came to know of Pei Yu.
She had spent a great sum to find the materials and specially commissioned a master from Sword-Forging Valley to craft a short dagger that could slice through iron as if it were mud. Unfortunately, two years later, she still hadn't been able to give this carefully prepared first-meeting gift.
Zhu Wuhua thought for a moment and decided she had to find Lu Ruzhuo later to admit her mistake and clear the air, lest her words cause some kind of trouble.
Oh, this mouth of mine.
Zhu Wuhua turned and lightly slapped her own mouth.
"Mother."
Zhu Weirui took her hand, glanced at the silent Pei Yu behind them, and asked in a low voice, "Before you got together with Dad, did you and Aunt Lu have a thing?"
Zhu Wuhua: "..."
"What thing? There was nothing!"
"If there was nothing, why are you so worked up? Don't worry, I definitely won't tell Dad. It's all in the past. I'm always on your side."
"Do I need you to be on my side?! I think you're deliberately trying to anger your mother to death!"
Zhu Weirui grumbled inwardly: She's getting defensive.
Zhu Wuhua felt she couldn't clear her name even if she jumped into the Yellow River, so she simply flicked her sleeve and stormed off.
Leaving the two young women to stare at each other in dismay.
After looking at each other for a moment, they exchanged awkward yet polite smiles.
"Sister Pei."
As the two walked toward the main hall in the front courtyard, Zhu Weirui, unable to bear the almost suffocating silence, took the initiative to start a conversation. "Do you also think my mother and Aunt Lu had a past romance?"
Pei Yu's heart ached with sourness. She managed a sound of agreement from her throat.
"Right? I think so too. Otherwise, why would she have thought about Aunt Lu for so many years."
"Mm." Pei Yu's throat felt tight as well, and she could only respond with a nasal sound.
"But she probably doesn't have those feelings anymore," Zhu Weirui said. "My mother is married, and she and my father are very much in love. As for Aunt Lu..."
Zhu Weirui furrowed her brow.
When Pei Yu didn't hear her continue for a long time, she lifted her gaze.
Zhu Weirui said, "Sister Pei, don't be angry with what I'm about to say, and don't take it seriously. Just think of it as me rambling."
Pei Yu thought, If you're afraid I'll get angry, you don't have to say it, but she knew that with Zhu Weirui's personality, she would surely feel awful if she held it in.
So she nodded and said, "Go on."
Zhu Weirui bit her lip and said in a low voice, "I think Aunt Lu... she seems to like you a little."
Comments
Post a Comment