Chapter Twenty-Eight: Meeting You Again

The next morning, Chen Qing woke up from her warm and comfortable bed, feeling relaxed and not at all tired.

She yawned. "Xuan Nu."

Someone knocked lightly on the door.

"Prepare the water."

Chen Qing changed her clothes and got up. The colorful robe transformed into the silver brocade warm robe she had chosen yesterday.

A moment later, the door was pushed open, but it wasn't Pei Xuan who walked in; it was Yinhe.

Chen Qing frowned. "Where is Xuan Nu?"

"I'll teach him a set of techniques," implying that Pei Xuan was currently cultivating and didn't have time to come.

Yinhe's face was as white as jade, and even when she was carrying a basin of water, she didn't look like she was serving anyone.

"I'll do it myself then. Please just leave the water there."

Chen Qing was polite yet distant.

"Why?" Yinhe asked in a hoarse voice, "Can't I?"

Chen Qing was acting very strangely. With her hair disheveled, she angrily put on her shoes, got out of bed, and walked up to Yinhe.

Yinhe was tall and slender, a head taller than Chen Qing. Keep in mind, she was already 1.7 meters tall.

"You're such a strange person!" Chen Qing finally snapped, hands on her hips, venting her feelings that had been building up for days. "I hate people like you who don't like to talk, you know? You make everyone guess what you're doing, is that fun?"

Yinhe stared blankly at her, his thick eyelashes curled and long. He was indeed very handsome, with an androgynous beauty.

He's just not very bright; he seems to be unable to understand human speech all the time.

"Bend over! Can't you see how tiring it is for me to talk to you like this?"

Chen Qing became even angrier when he still didn't speak.

Not nearly as considerate as Li Yi!

Yinhe immediately bent down, his broad shoulders and narrow waist revealing a glimpse of his cleavage through his wide collar.

His skin was fair and delicate, even more so than a woman's. His two nipples, uncontrollably exposed to the cold air, turned even redder instantly.

"You!" Chen Qing was still too shocked to witness such a scene so early in the morning. She pulled Yinhe's clothes tighter in anger and embarrassment. "Is this how your Hanxing Pavilion teaches you to do missions?"

Is that reasonable?

Don't blame Chen Qing for disliking Yinhe. With Liu Wei's words preceding her, in her eyes, Yinhe is the kind of person who gets her job by selling her body.

Chen Qing's hands were warm, but when they touched Yinhe's cold skin, he subconsciously looked down, and his already sluggish mind became even more dull.

Just then, Chen Qing realized that Yinhe's clothes were a complete mess!

Where is your undergarment?

The inner garment is equivalent to the close-fitting lining in the previous life. Although the clothes in ancient times were beautiful, there was a risk of exposure if you didn't wear an inner lining.

Yinhe shook his head. "I don't know."

Chen Qing was speechless. She quickly called Xiao Wu over and asked her where Yinhe slept last night.

Then go and find the undergarment he had taken off.

Xiao Wu quickly brought Yinhe's clothes.

After closing the door, Chen Qing scrutinized Yinhe from head to toe. Could this guy really be a little slow on the uptake?

She asked Yinhe to take off her clothes, and he did so without hesitation. Then Chenqing discovered that Yinhe was not only not wearing an inner garment, but the ties on her clothes were also tied in a mess.

"Can't you dress yourself?"

The Milky Way fell silent.

Chen Qing looked up to the sky and roared, "Heavens! Why are there such idiots among the assassins of Hanxing Pavilion?!"

She couldn't do anything about Yinhe. She was angry, and Yinhe looked at her innocently, her beautiful eyes as moist as a little animal's.

"Watch! I'll show you how to put it on once, then you can put it on yourself from now on! If you don't know how to put it on, don't take it off!"

"Lower your head!"

Chen Qing looked fierce, pulling Yinhe down uncontrollably, Chen Qing almost completely enveloped in his shadow.

After finally helping Yinhe get dressed, Chen Qing was panting heavily.

"Now it's all good, there won't be any wardrobe malfunctions."

"I'm asking you, why are you following me?"

Chen Qing decided that it was better to speak openly; she didn't want to keep competing with Yinhe in secret.

Yinhe thought for a moment, then raised his hand, his thumb and forefinger raised, while the other fingers curled up.

Chen Qing immediately recognized that this was the posture for firing a gun.

She suddenly realized, "You saw me kidnap Liu Wei and are curious about my hidden weapon?"

The Milky Way nodded.

"I've never seen anything like it before, it's amazing," Yinhe said solemnly.

That hidden weapon was too fast; even he probably wouldn't have been able to escape it.

Hanxing Pavilion is an assassin organization, so of course it has a hidden weapon section, but Yinhe has never seen or heard of Chen Qing's hidden weapons.

Out of curiosity, he returned after leaving, deciding to follow Chen Qing. He was then discovered by Li Yi.

Li Yi recognized Yinhe and thought that Yinhe was going to hurt Chen Qing. He recklessly tried to fight Yinhe to the death, but was injured by Yinhe and sent back to Hanxing Pavilion.

Yinhe has guards by his side who not only protect his safety but also take care of his daily needs.

As soon as he left, Yinhe was cold and hungry, so she simply followed Chen Qing.

Chen Qing asked, Yinhe answered, and that's how the truth of the matter was revealed.

"Can I take a look?" Yinhe asked.

Chen Qing refused without even thinking, "No! That's a treasure my mother left me for self-defense. I can't show it to outsiders. Forget about it."

"Oh." Yinhe wasn't too disappointed.

Upon learning that Li Yi had been injured by Yinhe, Chen Qing couldn't help but punch Yinhe in the chest. Her punch was light, like a kitten tickling her.

Yinhe looked down at his chest and asked her, "Want to touch it again?"

Just now, when Chen Qing was dressing him, he couldn't resist touching his chest. I have to say, for a grown man like Yinhe, that part of him is really quite nice.

Everyone has a love for beauty, and the desire for food and sex is perfectly normal.

Chen Qing retorted confidently, "I touched you just now, now I'm beating you up!"

"Beat me up?"

"Her?" Yinhe stared at the top of Chen Qing's head.

This was the lightest beating he had ever received.

The Milky Way suddenly smiled, filling the room with brilliance.

Chen Qing was so captivated by his smile that she was speechless.

He muttered to himself, "A vixen!"

"My water for washing up is already cold! How can you serve someone like that?"

Yinhe hurriedly carried the water out to change it.

When he returned with the water, Chen Qing threw a tantrum again: "You're so stupid. I want Li Yi back. When is he coming back?"

"I don't know."

"Didn't we agree on seven days?"

The Milky Way remains silent.

Enraged, Chen Qing punched him again, yelling, "If he doesn't come back, get out! I don't want to see you!"

Yinhe remained silent, trying to imitate Pei Xuan washing her feet and help her with her personal hygiene.

Chen Qing got water all over her face and shooed him away in disgust: "I can do it myself, you idiot!"

Then she thought of Li Yi's thoughtfulness and meticulousness, and said with a touch of melancholy, "If Li Yi were here, he would definitely be able to comb my hair!"

Aside from being prettier than Li Yi, Yinhe has no other redeeming qualities. Is this how rich people expect him to serve them?

They don't even know how to properly discipline them.

Chen Qing didn't have the patience to style her own hair, so she just casually used a hairpin to fix her long hair.

Ding Dayong's wife and daughter-in-law prepared breakfast and saw Yinhe coming out of Chen Qing's room. They wanted to look but dared not.

A little girl chuckled secretly and whispered in Chen Qing's ear while she was eating, "Sister, brother-in-law is really handsome."

Chen Qing was speechless.

She looks down on the Milky Way.

That's so infuriating.

After breakfast, Chen Qing and his group had to continue their journey. They thanked Ding Dayong for taking them in, gave him plenty of money, and then boarded the carriage to continue heading north.

Today the weather turned from cloudy to sunny, but the sun didn't come out for a long time. It didn't rain, but the cold wind was howling and it was freezing.

Pei Xuan worked up a sweat in the morning and learned that Yinhe had taken the opportunity to bring water to Chen Qing and help her wash up. He was both annoyed and angry. Why was everyone trying to curry favor with Sister Qing?

Chen Qing was worried that he would catch a cold if he sweated and then caught a chill, so she let him rest in the car and let Yinhe sit outside to drive the car. Pei Xuan felt a little more at ease.

He spoke animatedly about the cultivation method Yinhe taught him, "I only practiced it for two cycles, and I could feel a surge of energy in my meridians. In a few years, I'll definitely become very powerful!"

When the time comes, Li Yiyinhe and all that stuff will be sent far away. He'll be the one serving Sister Qing.

Xiao Wu insisted that Pei Xuan teach her as well, and Pei Xuan agreed.

Chen Qing smiled helplessly, holding the book, "Okay, you're the best."

"Huh? Is someone up ahead?"

Outside the carriage, Wang Zhong looked at the black dot that blended into the snow ahead and rubbed his eyes in confusion.

Hearing the sound, Chen Qing asked, "What's wrong?"

"Young Miss, there seems to be someone ahead, but this old servant's eyesight is failing and I can't see clearly."

"Yinhe, go ahead and scout ahead. See if anyone is still alive, whether they are refugees or just passing by."

In this heavy snow, who would be idle in this desolate wilderness? They'd freeze to death.

The Milky Way returned quickly, and there were indeed people ahead; a carriage was stuck deep in a snow pit and unable to get out.

Chen Qing frowned upon hearing this, "Since they've encountered difficulties, let's help them out."

She asked Wang Zhong to find a rope, intending to help him once they got closer.

When Wang Zhong saw that group of people, his eyes nearly popped out of their sockets.

"Wang Da! What are you doing here?"

"Butler...butler! It's you! Please help me! I'm so cold!"

The carriage stopped, and Chen Qing lifted the bed curtain, only to find that it was the servants who had followed Chen Zhenyan.

They were guarding a wagon stuck in the mud, out of ammunition and food. The place was deserted, without even a house. Last night, in order to keep warm, they had to dismantle the wagon to make a fire. Now, only some unburnable parts of the wagon remained.

If the petition had arrived an hour later, these people would probably have frozen to death.

Chen Qing couldn't help but frown. "Uncle Zhong, get them some hot water to warm them up first, and then find out what's going on."

"yes!"

Using the carriage to shield them from the north wind, Wang Zhong quickly unloaded coal from the carriage and started a fire to boil snow water. Of the eight servants abandoned by Chen Zhenyan, two had frozen to death the previous night, leaving six: four men and two women.

They huddled around the fire, shivering. Wang Zhong used the embers to bake cornbread for them. After eating one cornbread, the six of them came back to life.

"Butler, if we had known, we wouldn't have followed the master and the others, and we would have followed the young lady like you!"

Once he had filled his stomach, Wang Da couldn't help but start crying.

That day, Qibao Town was in chaos, with refugees entering the city and many soldiers arriving in the wealthy area. When Chen Zhenyan learned that the city gates had been opened, he was overjoyed and quickly had people pack their belongings to prepare for departure.

Wang Zhong pleaded with Chen Jiao to wait for the young lady, but Chen Jiao insisted that they couldn't wait, otherwise Liu Wei would retaliate against them and they would be unable to leave.

Chen Zhenyan made a decisive decision, abandoning his eldest daughter, and packed his things and left Qibao Town in less than half an hour.

Apart from Wang Zhong, more than ten servants and guards followed Chen Zhenyan and fled Qibao Town.

When they first left Qibao Town, everything was fine. But as the carriage moved forward, there was nowhere to rest outside the town, and food, clothing, and other necessities were inconvenient. Chen Jiao kept throwing a tantrum, and when they finally found a village to rest in, they were driven out of the village because she had angered the host. They had no choice but to struggle to survive in the cold winter night.

Chen Zhenyan and his companions were able to sit inside the carriage, but most of the servants had to get off and push the carriage, and were not allowed to rest inside.

As time went on, the servants, who could only eat cornbread when hungry and snow when thirsty, could no longer endure it.

Some were sick, some were complaining, but Chen Zhenyan not only failed to solve the difficulties his servants encountered, he also ordered his guards to kill one as a warning to others.

Wang Er felt that if things continued like this, he didn't know if he would be able to make it to Qingzhou alive, so he might as well take advantage of the chaos to rebel against the Chen family and rob them to make a living.

He joined forces with some other disgruntled servants to steal a carriage, only to find themselves stuck in a snow pit.

"Butler! We know we were wrong, please let us follow Miss! From now on, we'll do whatever Miss says!"

"Young Miss, please have mercy and let us follow you!"

The cries for help outside the car were deafening. Wang Zhong was in a dilemma and could only say, "Miss, what should we do?"

Inside the car, Chen Qing frowned slightly. Yinhe stared at her furrowed brows, his hand unconsciously reaching for his sword.

"Uncle Zhong, give them some dry food and charcoal, and let them leave on their own."

Chen Qing's place isn't some garbage dump. Although Chen Zhenyan and the others were in the wrong first, these servants were capable of betraying their master, so they might very well betray her in the future.

Chen Qing disliked loyal people the most.

At most, she would give these people a way out.

"Go ten miles back, there's a small river village there. Find the village chief, Ding Dayong, and tell him that I recommended you. Take this severance pay and go back to a normal life."

The servants outside hadn't even seen Chen Qing's face. They looked at each other, wondering why Chen Qing was unwilling to accept them.

A maid mustered her courage and said, "Young Miss, I may stay by your side to serve you and comb your hair..."

"No need, you should leave quickly, don't wait for me to change my mind."

Wang Zhong quickly distributed the items to everyone as the young lady had instructed.

"Let's go, let's go!"

The servants grabbed their knives and ran back immediately.

It seems he took Chen Qing's words to heart.

The carriage continued on its way, and Wang Zhong couldn't help but ask, "Why didn't you let them stay, Miss? We're short-handed, and keeping them around would be of some use."

Chen Qing's tone was calm, making it impossible to discern his emotions: "I only keep loyal people around me. I would rather have none than use the wrong ones. If someone is disloyal once, I will never use them again."

Wang Zhong was taken aback by the seriousness of Chen Qing's words and quickly lowered his head, saying, "Yes!"

Unconsciously, he was intimidated by Chen Qing's imposing presence.

Pei Xuan looked at Chen Qing with admiration; whatever Sister Qing did was right.

"Sister Qing is right, those people are nothing but treacherous villains!"

Chen Qing chuckled and looked at Pei Xuan. She hadn't forgotten that Pei Xuan had also committed "betrayal" before.

However, their connection wasn't that deep back then, so Chen Qing forgave him that one time.

If he commits the offense again, Chen Qing will absolutely not allow him to stay.