Chapter 10 The Young Master Beats Someone

When the eight-treasure box was opened, Liu Yueli's chopsticks froze in mid-air. The emerald shrimp, reflecting the candlelight, was clearly her favorite dish, but now it reminded her of Luo Zhaohan's venomous eyes.

"It's still not right..." she muttered to herself.

Xie Wuqi was tearing the roasted venison. Hearing this, he looked up and asked, "What's wrong?"

"Those letters." Liu Yueli suddenly clenched her silver chopsticks. "I hid them in the inner compartment of my dressing table, where even my personal maid didn't know about them." Her fingertips scratched deep marks on the table. "But they were stolen that day, and they were discovered by Luo Zhaohan's maid Chunxi!"

With a "clang", the wine cup in Xie Wuqi's hand fell to the ground.

He suddenly remembered the look on Luo Zhaohan's face when she stroked the sword scar in the main hall - so indifferent, as if she was looking at a stranger.

Liu Yueli was shocked by his pale face and quickly reached out to touch his forehead: "Did you catch a cold kneeling outside today?"

Xie Wuqi suddenly grabbed her wrist: "Do you think Luo Zhaohan will..."

The word "rebirth" stuck in his throat. In his previous life, he had witnessed that woman's death. If she returned... a sudden chill ran down his spine.

Suddenly there was a loud thunder outside the window and heavy rain poured down.

Liu Yueli took the opportunity to throw herself into his arms: "Wuqi, I'm scared!"

With the sweet and soft beauty in his arms, Xie Wuqi suddenly chuckled.

If Luo Zhaohan was truly reborn, how could he let go so easily? How could he let it go?

He must have been worrying too much.

He picked up the beauty and carried her horizontally towards the bed, but he didn't see the unwilling look in Liu Yueli's eyes when she buried her head in his shoulders.

She can't just be kept outside like this, she wants status, she wants Xie Wuqi to marry her in a grand sedan chair carried by eight people!

Xie Wuqi's hand holding the teacup suddenly tightened, and fine lines appeared on the celadon.

Liu Yueli was startled by his sudden action and jumped up: "Wuqi?"

"This courtyard is under my name after all." He let go of the broken porcelain and wiped the tea stains from his palm with a handkerchief. "Father will come looking for us sooner or later. After dinner, we will rent another house."

Although Liu Yueli didn't understand, she nodded obediently.

The dusk that filtered through the window screen enveloped her frail figure, like a dodder that could break at any moment. "Wherever you go, I'll go."

Xie Wuqi's heart softened.

He finally accepted the idea of ​​rebirth - why should Yueli accompany him in fear?

The copper bells on the eaves were jingling in the night wind.

Xie Wuqi looked at Liu Yueli, who was packing her belongings, with a sinister look in his eyes. It was time to find an opportunity to test Luo Zhaohan.

…

The aroma of almond crisps wafted through the teahouses on Zhuque Street. A storyteller clapped his hands and said, "The marriage between the Fuyuan and Wuwei General's Mansions truly embodies the saying, 'Colorful clouds are easily dispersed, and glass is fragile.'"

In the elegant room on the second floor, several noble ladies were whispering to each other beside the diamond-shaped window.

"I heard that General Xie eloped with the Luo family's adopted daughter?"

"How could that be? The Luo family took the initiative to cancel the engagement. If you ask me, that Miss Liu must be the daughter of a concubine..." The lady in the yellow goose-yellow shirt covered her lips with a fan, "Don't you think her features bear a resemblance to General Luo?"

Everyone in the room smiled knowingly.

The proprietress of the rouge shop on East Street interrupted, "Yesterday, when the Xie family's carriage passed by, I saw Miss Liu. She was truly tearful and panting slightly."

"The Luo family girl deserved to lose." The woman in the crimson silk skirt curled her lips. "What man can stand her playing with guns and sticks all day long?"

Rumors spread throughout the capital on the autumn wind.

Some said Liu Yueli was Luo Dinglian's romantic debt at the border, while others said Xie Wuqi risked his life for a woman he loved. By the time the story reached the butcher shop in the East Market, it had become known as "Miss Luo's face looked like a demon, frightening General Xie so much that he ran away from his marriage overnight."

The ginkgo trees in the backyard of Fuyuan General's Mansion were covered with golden leaves.

Luo Zhaohan swung his gun with his backhand, and the silver light split the falling yellow leaves, and the tip of the gun pointed directly at the dancing light and shadow on the bluestone slabs.

"Miss!" Chunxi ran to the corridor holding her cloak, "Be careful not to catch a cold."

Luo Zhaohan seemed not to hear.

When she wrapped her wrists and closed the posture, her wide sleeves were filled with the autumn breeze, and she seemed to recall the wedding day of her previous life - the wedding candles illuminated the wedding wine, and Xie Wuqi said, "It is not a long-term solution for a woman to carry a weapon." The next day, her mother-in-law took away her pear blossom spear.

"bite!"

The gun handle hit the ground hard, making the palm of his hand numb.

Luo Zhaohan wiped the sweat from his forehead and drank the cold tea. The taste of freedom mixed with the taste of rust burned in his throat, a hundred times more refreshing than the cold wine offered in the Xie family ancestral hall.

Chunxi stared at the sweat stains winding down the young lady's neck, and suddenly her eyes turned red.

She felt choked up when she heard all those dirty words outside, so how could the young lady be so calm?

"But did you hear the new line about 'Yaksha and the jackal'?" Luo Zhaohan casually tucked his soaked hair behind his ears. "Or 'The she-beast scared the handsome young man away'?"

"Miss!" Chunxi stamped her feet anxiously. "You can still laugh! The ruffians in West Market are all betting on when you'll hang yourself!"

The bronze mirror reflected the girl's suddenly cold eyebrows and eyes.

Luo Zhaohan recalled the day in her past life when the Fuyuan General's mansion was ransacked, rotten vegetable leaves mixed with dog blood smeared all over the gate. Those who had praised her as "a woman as capable as a man" could now spit at her in the blink of an eye.

"Hanging from the beam?" She scoffed, pulling off her hairband, letting her black hair cascade down her shoulders. "I'm determined to outlive them all."

The steam from the bathtub blurred the embroidery pattern of red plum blossoms reflecting the snow on the screen.

Luo Zhaohan was immersed in the sweet fragrance of osmanthus, listening to Chunxi chattering outside, and humming a cheerful little tune to herself.

…

The next day, the sky was bright.

Luo Zhaohan suddenly sat up from her rosewood bed, the brocade quilt sliding off to reveal her plain white undergarment. Barefoot on the cool blue bricks, she stared blankly at the girl in the diamond-shaped mirror—the cinnabar mole between her eyebrows was as red as blood, the very spot her mother had personally placed there when she came of age.

"Miss?" Chunxi came in carrying a copper basin, almost knocking over the gilded candlestick on the shelf. "The ground is cold."

"What year is it today?" Luo Zhaohan grabbed her wrist with astonishing force.

"The ninth day of the fourth month of the third year of Yong, Yongchang..." Chunxi was startled by the figure of his young lady rushing out of the door before he could finish his words.

The morning mist had not yet dissipated, and Luo Zhaohan ran quickly to the main courtyard on the dew.

When the carved door creaked open, Qin Wan was pinning a white magnolia in her hair in front of the mirror. When she heard the sound, she turned around and saw her daughter standing in the morning light with her hair disheveled.

"Zhao Zhao?" The white magnolia fell to the ground from her fingertips and broke into three petals.

Luo Zhaohan threw himself into his mother's arms, the familiar scent of agarwood lingering around his nose.

It’s real, it’s my real mother!

It’s not a dream!

"What's wrong with Zhaozhao?" Qin Wan stroked her trembling back and suddenly felt a damp heat on her collar.

Since my daughter started learning martial arts at the age of six, have I ever cried like this?

Luo Zhaohan raised his face, shook his head, and laughed until tears streamed down his face.

At noon, crystal shrimp dumplings and sweet osmanthus lotus root were placed on the Eight Immortals table.

Luo Zhaohan bit his silver chopsticks, his eyes never leaving his mother. Until the sound of iron horses clanging under the eaves, Xia Huan hurried through the moon-shaped gate with a gray-clothed servant.

"Qiuping wants to see the madam!"

Qin Wan put down the sweet white porcelain bowl in her hand.

The servant beside Luo Jince appeared in the mansion at this moment. There was only one possibility - her gentle young son must have had an accident in the Imperial College.

"Come in and talk."

Qiu Ping knelt down on the bluestone steps, a bruise still on his forehead. "Young Master...Young Master assaulted someone in the Imperial College!"

Luo Zhaohan stood up suddenly, "Who is that person?"

"It's... it's Young Master Sun from the Minister of Personnel." Qiu Ping's voice was weak. "He said that the Xie family broke off the engagement because... because the eldest daughter looked like a female demon..."

Qin Wan was so angry that she threw the dishes and chopsticks when she heard this.

The Luo family has been a family of noble families for generations. How could they have ever suffered such humiliation? She suddenly stood up and said, "Prepare the carriage! I want to go to the Imperial College in person to demand an explanation!"