Chapter 338 - You didn’t know me even if we met
Chapter 338 You didn’t know me even if we met
The lady in red didn’t believe what He Danggui said so much. She slightly shook her head and said, “I’ve seen it once through the small gap you were looking at. There are only five men inside, three wearing ice-made masks, and two exposed. Then two people left the room. There are not many men wearing ice-made masks as you said.”
He Danggui blinked innocently, and responded in a soft voice, “Have you ever left halfway, heroine? Just now, a large group of people came down from the second floor, and they all wear ice-made masks and are dressed in official suits. I was frightened. Later, they took a wine jar and went back upstairs. Alas, I don’t know why my brother chose such an inn to live in. There are many weird people in it. Isn’t the ice-made mask very uncomfortable to stick on the face? What is that for?”
The lady in red didn’t think much and replied, “It seems to be used for healing purposes, specifically for Wujianmen School. Could it be that there are a lot of Wujianmen School disciples in the inn... We stayed here for a whole daybut didn’t find there were people upstairs. What a mistake...” She looked down at the tearful He Danggui, then looked up at the man and asked, “Yi Tong, what should we do now? Shall we leave here?”
The man named Yi Tong nodded, “We have no choice but to leave here. I didn’t expect them to be so cunning, lying in ambush to throw us into the net. Let’s retreat and settle with them later.”
The lady in red took another look at He Danggui, hesitated, turned her head, and left, but Yi Tong didn’t mean to go. He stared at He Danggui, and said towards the back of the lady in red, “Miss Xiao, this girl has heard our secrets and we can’t leave her here. She might snitch to them at the inn.”
The lady in red stopped and looked back at He Danggui. The latter also made eye contact with the former without any fear in her eyes. Except for the innocent expression, there was indifference deeply in her heart.
The lady in red squinted her eyes, sighed softly, and said, “She is not a bad guy, but unfortunate to run into our business, and it’s me to get her involved. Besides, she also provided us with important information and indirectly saved our lives, so we shouldn’t catch her, otherwise, what’s the difference between us and the robbers and bandits?” She stared at He Danggui’s tearful eyes and tried to persuade her, “Girl, we’d better not make trouble with each other. If you make an oath in the name of your family that you won’t tell our whereabouts and every word we have said, we will pretend we’ve never seen you before.”
He Danggui also squinted with an inexplicable smile on her face covered by the veil. What a reasonable and chivalrous heroine with good looks, gentle temperament, and a blend of delicacy and force. It was no wonder that she can be a confidant with Meng Xuan for two consecutive lives.
The lady in red who was called “Miss Xiao” by Meng Xuan’s entourage, Yi Tong, was probably Su Xiaoxiao, who was renamed Xiao Suxin to avoid being hunted by the Imperial Court. She was called “Su Xin” by Meng Xuan and “Su Niang” by Meng Ying.
As early as when He Danggui was young in her previous life, the name “Su Niang” was not unfamiliar. She was scolded by Madam Luo for several years because her only grandson Luo Baijieloped with “Su Niang”. No one knew if they were alive or not after many years. However, in this life, Miss Xiao first fell in love with Meng Xuan and didn’t know who Luo Baiji was even the two had a son.
This was good news for Madam Luo and Luo’s Family in that the successor of Luo’s Family Luo Baiji would not run away again. From the perspective of an onlooker, Miss Xiao and Meng Xuan were good matches. One was naturally chivalrous and the other was with a tender heart. If a person had both light and dark sides, then Miss Xiao and Meng Xuan must be the kind of people who shone in the sun most of the time, but He Danggui could only walk in the shadow. And she couldn’t give up the peace of mind that the shadow brought to her even she could walk with them by taking a step across.
In the past, she always felt that Meng Xuan was just a passer-by in her life, but she didn’t know why she had such an idea. She didn’t understand why she couldn’t grow old with Meng Xuan. But now she came to know why until she saw Meng Xuan’s confidante, and understood what kind of lady was suitable to accompany with Meng Xuan. She was still some distance away from them, and couldn’t travel together with them, because the sight of their backs when walking together were too pleasing to gaze at for a long time.
Xiao Suxin, or Su Xiaoxiao, was already a confidant of Meng Xuan when He Danggui was struggling to survive in Lord Ning’s Mansion. Their relationship was much closer than the entanglement between herself and Meng Xuan.
“Girl?” Xiao Suxin asked suspiciously at the faraway He Danggui, “Wouldn’t you like to swear?”
Gathering her wits, He Danggui swore with a dull voice even unnoticed by herself, “I promise not to tell others about you, and I will assume that I’ve never seen you before, otherwise my Eldest Uncle, Eldest Aunt, Second Uncle, Second Aunt, Third Uncle, Third Aunt, Elder Cousin, Elder Sister-in-law, Second Sister, and Fourth Younger Sister, all won’t live long.” After a second, she noticed that Xiao Suxin and Yi Tong were both confused, and then explained, “They are all the “family” that we live in the same house. And my stepfather’s family, including my stepfather, grandma, aunt, uncle, and a younger sister born to a concubine mother. Although I haven’t seen each other, we are still the family nominally.”
Xiao Suxin and Yi Tong looked at each other for a while, and then she “approved” He Danggui’s oath, and said apologetically, “We are not bad guys, and we didn’t mean to force you. I’m sorry for disturbing you just now, so... Goodbye. You are alone, so it’s better to be careful. The people at the inn are like wild beasts, stay away.”
Xiao Suxin and Yi Tong looked at each other and nodded, and started running one after the other. Xiao Suxin ran a few zhang and leaped on the meadow to fly lowly, and the scene could be accurately described as “flying on the meadow” that He Danggui had boasted of, while Yi Tong couldn’t fly, he ran after Xiao Suxin, and…suddenly disappeared where he was!
No, it was not accurate to describe the scene as “disappearing”. To be precise, Yi Tong was like “leaking” into the ground, just like the Ginseng Baby in the script for story-telling, a person burrowing into the ground!
He Danggui walked over in surprise. It was a flat, just a normal land with no tunnels for people to enter and exit. In other words, Yi Tong...had burrowed into the ground! He Danggui breathed a sigh of relief. It was an amazing burrowing technique. She just heard of that in the previous life, “There is a senior with a unique skill in Dongying, who can burrow into the ground.” But she didn’t expect such an odd thing to happen. A person dressed up as a manservant subordinate to Meng Xuan had such good skills. She had seen Yi Tong three years ago, but he looked like a girly-looking manservant, leading the horse for his master and helping him mount the horse. It turned out that he was good at burrowing into the ground.
He Danggui stood there in a trance for a while, and then turned back and walked to the backyard of the inn. She couldn’t but chuckle that she had seen something incredible. She had seen Yi Tong at least fifteen times before, but she had never noticed that he boasted martial arts, but today he was covering his face and met each other as a stranger, and he showed such a fleeing technique. Could it be that he was scaring her in this way that if she dared to reveal their whereabouts, he would come out of the ground and take revenge on her one day?
Back in the yard, she listened carefully to the voice at the inn for a long time, only Jiang Pi and Du Yao were joking and laughing, no Duan Xiaolou interrupting voice. Had he returned to the guest room to rest? It was too dangerous here. Although it was unclear why Meng Xuan’s subordinate was against the imperial guards, Duan Xiaolou with injury must not stay overnight at this targeted wild inn. There was a large Mocha Villa in Xuehua suburb in the west five miles away from here, more comfortable than here. Why did he choose to stay at the inn?
While thinking about the words to persuade the people inside to leave the inn, the ambiguous low laughter of Jiang Pi and Du Yao came to He Danggui’s ears—
“Hey, you took a glance last night, and her face was covered with a veil.” The rough voice was from Jiang Pi, “How can you be sure that she is a beauty from the south as soft as water? Could it be that you were too drunk to distinguish between pretty and ugly?
Du Yao smirked with the drunk voice, “She is like... moist pepper, with dewy eyes, and a sweet voice, but she was tough-talking. If it was not... we go in a hurry to support the action, I want to talk more with that little girl. Haha, she is so funny.”
Looking at Du Yao’s silly look, Jiang Pi couldn’t help shaking his head and sighed, “Don’t expect much from her. The greater the expectation, the greater the disappointment. Bro, according to my years of experience in viewing beauties, the lady covered by the veil with big eyes and a sweet voice is usually ugly after unveiling herself. Since she dares to chase a strange man’s horse at midnight, and is not like an ordinary pretty girl of humble birth who is too shy to say anything, then why she dared not show her true face? I think her nose must be crooked, and her mouth grows bigger than you, haha!”
Du Yao retorted angrily, “She is veiled because she is so beautiful that she is afraid of attracting the evil on the street! Her voice was clear and sweet, even better than this loquat wine. Her mouth couldn’t be as big as mine! It must be as small as it!” He was holding something in his hand.
Jiang Pi guffawed right away, and said out of breath, “Haha, which girl has a mouth as small as a seed shell? It’s impossible even for a baby girl who was just born.” He laughed wildly again, and he said with the lowest voice as if spoking with no sound to Du Yao. Only a few words could be recognized, “After she gets married...her husband...plays the flute...”
He Danggui walked away after hearing the vulgar dialogue without any limitation. This was the most real imperial guard. Gentlemen like Lu Jiangbei and good livers like Duan Xiaolou were perceived as different.
There was no Duan Xiaolou’s voice after listening for such a long time. In fact, it was the most suitable time to go into the room to return Du Yao’s ten liang silver, but the two people inside were too disgusting. Xiao Suxin was right. Most of the imperial guards were the wicked ones. It seemed that they were waiting for her to feast their eyes, so they could make comments and provide them with absurd conversations after drinking.
She walked a few steps away, back to the door curtain leading to the hall, and then, the door curtain suddenly made a sound and someone was breathing behind her.
His breath was echoing in her ears.
She slowly turned around, and saw a tall man wearing an ice-made mask and a scarlet round neck gown, with his eyes as dark as the midnight, was staring at her.
“Are you,” the man was puzzled in his voice, and the face under that mask must be full of confusion, “Are you the lady who has been wandering outside the inn? Are you the veiled lady from the south said by Du Yao? Are you here to find your horse?”
He Danggui’s heart was overwhelmed by the cold water with these questions. He didn’t recognize her. He didn’t even recognize her!
Duan Xiaolou with an ice-made mask also looked strange and distant, which made her dare not recognize him, but how could he not recognize her under the veil! Even Peng Shi and Bai Yangbai could recognize her at first glance, but why he couldn’t?
Was this the situation that “You didn’t know me even if we met”?
Why you didn’t know me even if we met? ƒ𝑟𝐞𝗲𝘄𝙚𝚋𝑛o𝙫𝒆𝒍.𝒄𝘰𝓂
It felt in this way that you didn’t know me even if we met.