Chapter 47: She had never seen Xiao Xu look like this before.
Unbeknownst to Yun Sheng, the young man with thick eyebrows and large eyes before her was none other than Xiao Ling, the Third Young Master Xiao, whom the Zhao Prince's Mansion had been searching for.
Xiao Ling held Yun Sheng's hand and used his arm to help her fall off the horse.
Yun Sheng lost her balance and nearly fell over.
Xiao Ling wrapped his other arm around her waist and effortlessly lifted her into the air for a moment before landing steadily on the ground.
Yun Sheng stared blankly and took a step back in a panic. When she looked up, she met the man's smiling eyes.
She felt for some reason that the eyes were somewhat familiar, but after looking at the face a few more times, the sense of familiarity vanished, and what she saw before her was clearly an unfamiliar face.
"...Thank you." Feeling embarrassed, she lowered her eyelashes and thanked him again, "Thank you for your help, sir."
Xiao Ling chuckled, finding her reserved way of thanking him rather amusing: "Didn't you already thank me just now?"
Yun Sheng looked around. It was a desolate wilderness with few people. Birdsong could be heard from the forest from time to time. The gloomy weather made it difficult to feel completely at ease.
She said, “A word of thanks is not enough to repay your life-saving grace. I will also trouble you to take me away from this forest. Once I reach a safe place and find my lost family and servants, I will repay you handsomely. Please feel free to ask, I will not be stingy in the slightest.”
Xiao Ling raised an eyebrow, feigning deep thought, and deliberately dragged out his words: "Oh? Judging from what you're saying, your family is quite wealthy. If I detain you and use that to blackmail your family, wouldn't I get even more?"
Upon hearing this, Yun Sheng's eyes widened in horror, instantly filling with tears and turning completely red.
Xiao Ling meant it as a casual joke, just to tease this seemingly well-behaved girl, but he never expected her to react so strongly.
Seeing that she was about to burst into tears, he panicked.
"Hey, no, I was just kidding, I was just teasing you, don't cry." Xiao Ling quickly waved her hand helplessly.
Yun Sheng was already terrified and had been holding on by sheer willpower. Now, Xiao Ling's actions had given her another shock. Regardless of his explanation, she couldn't stop her tears. Her emotions suddenly overwhelmed her, and large tears streamed down her face.
Xiao Ling was truly at a loss.
He stepped forward and instinctively reached out to wipe her tears, but then realized it was inappropriate and put his hand down. However, her tears kept falling, making him anxious and pacing back and forth around her for weeks, not knowing what to do.
"You, you stop crying... I'm really not a bad person." He scratched his head, his tone quick and urgent, trying to prove his innocence.
"My surname is Lin, and my given name is Xiao, the Xiao of 'carefree.' I'm a wanderer who has learned a few rudimentary skills while traveling around. Today, I happened to be passing through this place and wanted to stay overnight in the town ahead. I saw those bastards daring to commit violence and robbery in broad daylight. I can't stand such filth. I'm just helping out because I saw injustice. Who wants your little bit of money?"
Xiao Ling finished speaking in one breath, but when he looked up, he saw that Yun Sheng's tears were still falling, and he was so anxious that he was almost sweating.
In desperation, he pulled out his money pouch from his pocket and showed the money inside to Yun Sheng: "Look, look, I have my own money. How could I possibly do such a despicable thing as kidnapping and extortion? Don't cry..."
"I'm begging you, please? I've never begged anyone like this in my life, you're the first."
His flustered appearance was a stark contrast to his previous image of effortlessly outmaneuvering the bandits.
Yun Sheng glanced into his money pouch through her teary eyes, unable to see how much money was inside, but the tension in her heart eased a little, and she even found him somewhat comical, almost bursting into laughter through her tears.
But laughing and crying at the same time was too unsightly, so she pursed her lips and forced down the smile, but she couldn't stop the tears and they turned into soft sobs.
Seeing that her emotions seemed to have calmed down a bit, Xiao Ling was about to breathe a sigh of relief when she suddenly felt a cool sensation on the tip of her nose.
Yun Sheng noticed it too and looked up at the sky.
The dark clouds finally gave way, and fine rain began to fall, gradually increasing in intensity.
"Tsk, it's raining." Xiao Ling frowned and muttered under his breath.
To completely shake off the two groups of people sent by his family to arrest him, he had some work done on his face after his last escape.
He was not very good at this disguise technique, and his technique was very rough. Although he could fool unfamiliar people at first glance, he could not withstand being drenched in rain.
He had only taken the shortcut because he saw the weather was bad and wanted to find a place to rest and avoid the rain. Who knew he would run into this mess on the way?
The raindrops gradually became denser, pattering against the leaves with a rustling sound.
Xiao Ling composed himself and looked at Yun Sheng: "The rain is getting heavier, young lady. I, Lin Xiao, swear by my sword that I am not a bad person. It's easy to get sick in the rain in this desolate wilderness. There seems to be a cave not far ahead. Let's go there to take shelter from the rain. I will take you out of the mountain to find your people after the rain stops. How about that?"
Yun Sheng raised her hand to wipe away the tears on her face, glanced at the increasingly heavy rain, and finally nodded gently, saying in a low voice, "Okay."
Seeing that she agreed, Xiao Ling finally breathed a sigh of relief, and his face regained its radiant expression. He stepped aside to lead the way: "Come with me, it's over there, not far."
Yun Sheng silently followed behind him, and the two of them walked quickly toward a cave entrance that was half-hidden by vines at the foot of the mountain wall not far away.
The two entered the cave, which was dimly lit and filled with the damp smell of earth, mixed with a musty odor that was hard to distinguish, either from moss or something else.
The cave wasn't very deep, the ground was uneven, and the damp stone walls reflected a faint light. There seemed to be a rustling sound coming from the corner, whether it was a small insect or something else, I couldn't tell.
Yun Sheng hunched her shoulders, instinctively and warily surveying the unfamiliar surroundings, feeling somewhat uncomfortable.
Xiao Ling, however, was quite at ease. He strode in and said with a hint of delight, "This cave entrance looks inconspicuous, but it's actually quite spacious inside, enough to shelter us from the wind and rain."
He glanced around and found a large rock with a relatively flat surface. As he walked over, he called out to Yun Sheng, "Miss, come and sit here."
Upon hearing this, Yun Sheng followed him over and, using the faint light filtering through the cave entrance, looked down at the stone.
The stone was covered with a thin layer of dust, its color a dull gray, and the crevices seemed to contain soil.
Yun Sheng showed a hint of disdain on her face. She lifted her skirt and tentatively tapped her toes on the stone, but didn't know how to sit down gracefully and cleanly, appearing somewhat at a loss.
Just then, she heard a noise beside her, and when she turned her head, she saw Xiao Ling undressing.
Yun Sheng was startled, her almond-shaped eyes widening as she took a large step back: "What...what are you doing?"
Xiao Ling paused in his work, looked at her with amusement, and said, "Seeing how much you dislike it, I'll take off my coat and let you sit on it. It's clean and doesn't have much dust on it."
Yun Sheng's cheeks flushed instantly, feeling a little embarrassed by her misunderstanding.
If it were Xiao Xu next to her, she would probably sit down without any qualms, and might even urge him to take his clothes off quickly.
But how could she possibly sit on a stranger's coat as a cushion right now?
Yun Sheng politely declined, saying, "Thank you for your kindness, but I'd rather not."
She pulled a plain white silk handkerchief from her waist and bent down to carefully wipe the dust off the stone's surface.
Xiao Ling sat to the side, tilting his head and watching her serious little expression with great interest. The more he looked, the more interesting he found it, even a little cute.
Yun Sheng finally finished wiping herself, put the dirty handkerchief aside, then straightened her skirt and sat down properly on the rock. After sitting down, she subtly moved to the side, keeping about half a person's distance from Xiao Ling.
The cave fell silent for a moment, with only the sound of pattering rain coming from outside.
Xiao Ling's gaze fell on Yun Sheng's lowered profile, and he broke the silence by asking, "Do you still not know the young lady's name?"
“I…” Yun Sheng pursed her lips, naturally remembering that she had accompanied Xiao Xu on an undercover investigation under an assumed name, and that she did not need to reveal her real name to a strange man.
A thought flashed through her mind, and she casually replied, "My surname is Xu, and my given name is Nan."
"Xu Nan..." Xiao Ling repeated softly.
Did he believe it, or did he not believe it?
Yun Sheng was unsure, feeling that the name, which was chosen to sound the same as her mother's surname and her own nickname, was too casual.
To avoid arousing his suspicion, she added the same explanation Xiao Xu had given her earlier: "My husband and I came from the capital. We are returning to our hometown in Jiangnan to visit relatives and pay respects to our ancestors."
As soon as he finished speaking, Xiao Ling's eyes changed slightly: "You're married?"
He blurted it out, his voice slightly louder than before.
Yun Sheng was taken aback by his sudden reaction and subconsciously raised her hand to touch her hair bun.
She wore her hair in a standard married woman's bun, and anyone with eyes could tell that she was a married woman, so there was nothing surprising about it.
She suppressed her doubts and nodded: "Yes, I'm already married."
Xiao Ling pursed his lips, his gaze lingering on her womanly hairstyle for a moment, and remained silent for a long while.
He naturally saw her hair bun, but the girl looked young, with clear eyes and a pure temperament. Since she was alone in this desolate wilderness, he assumed that this was a woman's hair bun, which she deliberately styled to make walking easier and reduce trouble.
After all, a lone woman is less likely to attract unwanted attention and questioning than a young girl in certain situations, and this kind of disguise is not uncommon in the martial arts world.
He paused for a moment, then asked, "Is your husband from the capital?"
Xiao Ling grew up in the capital and had more time to play outside than her two older brothers. She could tell at a glance that Yun Sheng's clothes and accessories were the elegant styles popular in the capital, and her demeanor did not seem like that of someone from a humble background.
Yun Sheng noticed something odd about his tone, but couldn't quite put her finger on it. The cave was dimly lit, and she didn't want to scrutinize a stranger's expression. She simply assumed it was just her imagination and continued with her original explanation: "No, my husband and I are both originally from Jiangnan. We just run some business in the capital. This trip south is both to visit relatives and to check on our sources of goods."
"Oh?" Xiao Ling's voice rose at the end, seemingly intrigued. "Where in Jiangnan are you from?"
Xiao Xu didn't say anything specific about this.
All the customs documents were processed under pseudonyms, and Mu Shan and his team handled any questioning or checks without ever requiring her to specify her place of origin.
She casually replied, "We are from Ganzhou."
Upon hearing this, Xiao Ling revealed a rather peculiar smile: "What a coincidence, my ancestral home is also Ganzhou. We're actually from the same hometown. But why don't I hear any Ganzhou accent from you?"
Yun Sheng's heart skipped a beat, and she almost lost control of her expression.
This person must be bluffing her; how could such a coincidence happen?
She forced herself to remain calm: "Is that so? But when I listen to you speak, Mr. Lin, you don't seem to have a Ganzhou accent."
Xiao Ling cleared his throat and spoke in a soft, sweet tone with a unique ending.
He spoke quickly and naturally, but Yun Sheng was completely confused, unable to understand many of the words, and could only stare blankly at him.
She knew that people from different places did speak with different accents, but as a sheltered young woman, she knew very little about the specifics. She had no idea what the real Ganzhou accent sounded like, nor did she know whether Xiao Ling was just making things up to tease her or if he was really from Ganzhou.
Xiao Ling smiled and looked at her with a leisurely air, as if waiting for her to smooth things over.
Yun Sheng could only bite the bullet and say in a low voice, "I went to live in the capital with my husband a long time ago. I've been away from home for many years and have almost forgotten my hometown accent, so it might not sound quite right."
Xiao Ling remained noncommittal, then pressed further, "How early did you go to the capital?"
Yun Sheng looked quite young, with a girlish innocence in her eyes and brows. Although she wore a woman's hairstyle, she appeared to be no more than sixteen or seventeen years old.
Xiao Ling no longer believed her story at all, but he found it increasingly amusing to see the girl racking her brains to make up lies.
"It's been... seven or eight years, I guess." Yun Sheng's mind was a little foggy, and she stammered out a number.
Xiao Ling chuckled and teased, "So, you got married to your husband when you were around ten years old, and then left your hometown for the capital?"
Yun Sheng's eyes widened, and she realized that she was talking complete nonsense.
But her mind worked quickly, and she raised her chin slightly and said, "We are childhood sweethearts and have been engaged since we were young."
She thought that if Xiao Xu hadn't ignored her with a cold face back then, they would have met at the West Garden Palace. Wouldn't that have made them childhood sweethearts? They might have even gotten engaged the following year.
Xiao Ling found it even more amusing and nodded, saying, "Yes, your parents are quite carefree. Before the marriage is even finalized, they send their ten-year-old daughter away from home with her fiancé to the capital, thousands of miles away, where she will be gone for many years."
"You!" Yun Sheng was speechless, finally getting angry and embarrassed. She puffed out her cheeks, snorted, and turned her head away from him. "Believe it or not, it's up to you."
"Don't be angry," Xiao Ling said, quickly stopping his teasing when he saw that she was really angry. "I believe you, I believe you, okay?"
Even so, his tone and expression made it clear to anyone that he didn't believe a single word of it.
Yun Sheng knew that her story was full of holes. After all, apart from the fact that she was married, almost everything else was made up on the spot. She was not good at lying, and she was already quite quick-witted to be able to make it up to this extent.
Although Xiao Ling laughed at her, she gradually began to feel that he might not really be a bad person.
If he doesn't believe it, so be it, Yun Sheng thought. Anyway, the rain had stopped, and he had escorted her out of the woods. She had thanked him properly, and they would probably never see each other again after that. Thinking this, she felt a little more at ease.
She slightly shifted her attention from the awkward situation at hand and began to notice the scenery outside the cave.
The rain seemed to be getting heavier, pounding heavily on the vines hanging from the cave entrance and the leaves outside. From where she was sitting, she could see outside the cave through the gaps in the vines.
Rain fell like a curtain, and the world was shrouded in a gray mist. The distant trees and rocks were reduced to blurry outlines, like a watercolor painting that had been soaked and blurred by water.
Just then, Xiao Ling suddenly spoke again, her voice sounding somewhat abrupt amidst the continuous sound of rain: "Where is your husband?"
"What?" Yun Sheng didn't react for a moment.
"Didn't you say you have a husband? Why isn't he by your side? Why did you have to go out alone and run into this kind of thing?"
Yun Sheng was stunned. She lowered her eyes, her long eyelashes casting a small shadow under her eyes. After a long silence, she said, "I came out by myself today. I had a fight with him."
Xiao Ling raised an eyebrow, now sounding as if he were telling the truth.
He followed up on her question, his tone more serious than before: "Why did you argue?"
Perhaps because she felt that although the stranger in front of her had a sharp tongue, he was not a bad person, or perhaps because of the special atmosphere at the moment, and since she would not have any further contact with this person in the future, Yun Sheng suddenly felt an urge to confide in him.
She hesitated, but finally whispered, "Actually... my first fiancé was someone else."
Xiao Ling was stunned; she hadn't expected her to fabricate such a story.
Yun Sheng didn't look at him, as if she was talking to herself: "My husband is still a little bothered by this matter, but I think that since we are already married, we shouldn't hold grudges about the past. That's why we argued about it."
Xiao Ling listened quietly until Yun Sheng finished speaking. He gave a short, light scoff, and regardless of whether she was telling the truth or not, he immediately said, "Of course I would mind. Any man would mind."
Yun Sheng looked up at him in surprise: "Really?"
Xiao Ling said, "Of course, who wouldn't mind that their wife almost married another man? The more you care, the more you'll mind. This isn't about being narrow-minded; it's just human nature."
After he finished speaking, he looked at Yun Sheng, who seemed to have been awakened and was in a daze, while his own expression darkened slightly.
What is he doing?
Could it be that he actually took this girl's flawed words seriously and even began to analyze men's psychology for her in a very earnest manner?
And for some reason, although he found what she said to be absurd and obviously false, the thought of it made him very uncomfortable.
He suddenly didn't want to continue the topic.
Yun Sheng's mood softened a bit because of his words. She turned her head and took the initiative to start a new topic: "And you, Young Master Lin, are you married?"
"No," Xiao Ling answered crisply, but as soon as the words left his mouth, he found them somewhat amusing, so he added, "I ran away from my wedding."
Yun Sheng was particularly sensitive to the term "runaway marriage" and asked in surprise, "You...you ran away from your marriage?"
Xiao Ling glanced at her expression and suddenly realized that what she had just said wasn't so absurd after all, because what he was about to say was also quite absurd.
Moreover, everything he said was true.
“Yeah, I ran away. It’s kind of boring.” Xiao Ling pursed his lips and looked at the continuous rain outside the cave. “When my family arranged that marriage for me, I didn’t really feel anything. It didn’t matter who I married.”
"But later, I don't know why, there were always people around me nagging, saying that my fiancée looks gentle but is actually very capable, and that I would have to give up my hobbies of horseback riding, archery and making friends in the future, otherwise I would be wasting my time and becoming unruly."
"They also said that my fiancée's family, though seemingly respectable, is actually not so clean. A couple of years ago, there was an old case involving tribute goods from Jiangnan, and a close relative of hers may have been involved. Although it was eventually suppressed, those in the know say that the methods used were not clean."
Yun Sheng was taken aback: "How can you so easily believe something like this?"
“I didn’t believe it entirely at the time. Later, someone said that he saw my fiancée’s brother riding his horse outside the city, trampling on farmers’ fields and damaging their property. Afterwards, he just left some loose silver and that was it. He was very arrogant. With such a family background, how could the girl be any better?”
“But these are matters concerning her family, and may not necessarily represent the girl herself,” Yun Sheng couldn’t help but argue softly.
“I thought so at first, but the girl’s brother boasted at the dinner table that once his sister married into our family, she would be able to leverage our family’s influence. This marriage was a carefully planned move on his family’s chessboard.”
Although it was a matter involving a stranger, Yun Sheng frowned as she listened.
Even she, an outsider, couldn't help but be drawn into these words, and following the tone of the conversation, she felt that this marriage was extremely unacceptable. The young man in front of her was always hearing people around him say such things, so how could he not be moved? No wonder he ran away from the marriage.
But Yun Sheng still asked, "Didn't you think about asking for verification?"
"Of course I thought about it. I even considered asking around, but as soon as I hinted at wanting to verify, my mother told me that the marriage was arranged by our elders long ago, that the woman's family was of good standing, and that she was gentle and lovely. She told me not to listen to the rumors and to just focus on preparing for the wedding."
"The more I suppressed it, the more I felt that something was amiss. Later, I heard more and more news about her, and my friends also said that if this girl and her family background were truly flawless, why did so many coincidental rumors point to her?"
He let out a long sigh: "The more I think about it, the more heartbroken I feel. I feel that this marriage was full of scheming and concealment from beginning to end. There were even people hinting to me that my older brother... oh, I have a very powerful older brother in my family. He has never married and has been watching coldly. If I obediently give in, I will become a pawn in the marriage between these two families. I don't want to do that. I feel aggrieved."
Yun Sheng blinked and calmly concluded, "So, you ran away from home."
Xiao Ling shrugged: "Yeah, but now that I think about it, it was really impulsive, childish, and irresponsible. My fiancée, whom I've never met, probably hates me to death."
Perhaps because Yun Sheng herself had experienced being jilted by her fiancé, she couldn't objectively agree with the woman and marriage the man was talking about, even though they sounded really inappropriate.
She didn't know what to say, so she just looked down at her toes and tapped them lightly. In the brief silence, she regretted going out today. She might have already eaten the fish that Xiao Xu had ordered at the inn.
After a while, Xiao Ling spoke up: "The rain seems to have stopped."
Yun Sheng also came to her senses and quickly stood up to walk with him to the cave entrance, where she indeed saw that the rain had stopped.
“That’s great. Then, Young Master Lin, please escort me out of the forest. I will still give you the reward I promised you. I hope you will accept it as a token of my appreciation.”
Xiao Ling chuckled dismissively, "Let's talk about it after we deliver it."
Yun Sheng didn't care whether he cared or not; all she wanted right now was to leave this place as soon as possible.
Just as she was about to leave, she saw Xiao Ling turn around and go back into the cave.
"what you do?"
Xiao Ling didn't answer her, and quickly came out of the cave again: "Alright, let's go."
Yun Sheng was a little puzzled, but didn't ask any more questions. She followed Xiao Ling back to the place where the black horse had been tied up.
The forest after the rain was filled with a cool, damp air. Water droplets fell intermittently from the tips of the leaves, making a hollow, soft sound as they tapped on the fallen leaves.
The black horse carried the two along the muddy path until the view suddenly opened up, and not far ahead was the city wall of Wangzhou.
Before we even entered the city, it started raining again.
The rain wasn't heavy, but the man was unwilling to continue his journey, so he stopped at a teahouse near the city gate.
Yun Sheng couldn't ride a horse and had no money on her. She said she wanted to repay the kindness, but instead, he paid some copper coins to the teahouse waiter and sent a message to the inn where she was staying in the city. Then he ordered a pot of hot tea and sat down with her in the main room.
She didn't understand why this person was so delicate, unwilling to travel even in a little rain, but after all, she needed his help. Fortunately, the news had already spread, and someone should be coming to pick her up soon.
She remained polite, saying, "Young Master Lin, you've gone to so much trouble."
Xiao Ling poured hot tea into the two teacups in front of them and didn't say any more polite words to her: "Well, have some hot tea to warm yourselves up."
Yun Sheng held a teacup, but had no time for leisurely drinking and chatting. Her gaze drifted toward the main entrance of the teahouse, and she suddenly felt a little nervous.
It was only then that she belatedly began to wonder whether Xiao Xu was still busy with official duties or already knew about her attack, and who would come to pick her up after the inn received the news.
Her thoughts wandered aimlessly, and all she knew was that she must be looking on with longing and anticipation.
The rain continued, and after an unknown amount of time, Yun Sheng finally heard a rapid and distinct sound of horses' hooves amidst the subtle noises.
Many people in the teahouse heard this and turned around out of curiosity.
The sound of hooves stopped, and before anyone could be seen, Yun Sheng subconsciously stood up from her seat.
Until the teahouse curtain was urgently lifted from the outside.
Yun Sheng was taken aback when she saw Xiao Xu burst in.
He was almost soaked from head to toe, his messy hair plastered to his forehead and dripping water, his robes tightly wrapped around his body, their color stained dark by the rain, his breathing still uneven, his chest heaving violently.
She had never seen Xiao Xu like this before. His eyes were red, filled with anxiety and fear, and beneath his wet eyelashes, his gaze was fixed on her.
He felt as if he had been suddenly pulled from a raging river; his taut heartstrings snapped open, but he couldn't catch his breath.
The next moment, he strode towards her, his Adam's apple bobbing heavily: "Are you hurt?"
Yun Sheng answered with her lips slightly parted, but seemed not to make a sound, and then shook her head.
She saw that he finally breathed a sigh of relief, turning into a weak and fragile state.
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