Chapter 38
Xie Qinghong made an excuse about having an appointment with Yuan Qingqing and went out. Pei Shizi, expressionless and wearing a bamboo hat, sat in front of the carriage, waiting to drive for her. Because his bamboo hat was lowered and covered most of his face, his cousin who was seeing him off did not recognize him and thought he was the family's newly hired coachman.
When Xie Qinghong boarded the carriage, her cousin earnestly wanted to come along, but her beautiful older sister smiled gently and said, "Have you finished your homework? Why are you still thinking about going out to play? There will be big exams when the academy starts, so you should 'learn and practice regularly'."
Once his cousin was coaxed away, Pei Du flicked his whip, and his snow-white steed, with the elegant gait of a scholar from Huaizhou, trotted forward.
After walking slowly for half an hour, without even leaving the street where Liang Mansion was, Pei Du threw away his whip, took out a bamboo flute from his pocket, and with a whoosh, a black horse with a shiny coat galloped over. The clattering of its hooves seemed extremely cheerful. When it got close, it even slowed down and swayed slowly with the carriage.
He turned around and lifted the thin gauze curtain that served as a summer cover, and saw Xie Qinghong holding a veiled hat and arranging the thin silk hanging down. Before leaving, she had specially recombed her hair into a simple bun, without any pearl hairpins or ornaments, only a long red ribbon wrapped around her hair.
Pei Du was leaning against the door watching her do her hair. She even made him tie a pretty knot and made him carry a bamboo backpack. He didn't know what was inside, but it was quite heavy.
With this delay, it was already early afternoon when they set out. And with this slow-moving Huaizhou horse, they probably wouldn't reach the mountain by nightfall, let alone raid the bandit's den.
Xie Qinghong noticed him lifting the carriage curtain and looked up, her eyes filled with confusion: "What are you doing?"
Pei Du looked at the luxuriously decorated carriage and the exquisitely beautiful girl from head to toe, and suddenly understood the true meaning of her words, "I'm afraid I'll get in your way."
But for some reason, he felt only joy. Even if he couldn't ride a horse at full speed and feel the wind, just driving slowly in the leisurely summer day, watching her behind him within reach, the resentment and anger in his heart naturally disappeared. It was much more effective than going to a Buddhist temple to listen to high monks chanting sutras and meditate.
“I’m afraid we won’t be able to reach that mountain today,” Pei Du said.
Xie Qinghong glanced out the window and saw the black horse stick its head out to the window. If the window hadn't been so small, the horse's entire head would have rubbed against it. She was surprised for a moment and couldn't help but reach out to touch the horse's mane. Then the horse's head pressed against her palm and rubbed against it hard.
She asked curiously, "Is this the wild horse you tamed in the capital? I heard from the young master of the Fang family that it was fierce and shouldn't be this docile."
Pei Du glanced at it coolly: "It is it. Its fierceness varies from person to person."
Xie Qinghong touched it for a while and then withdrew his hand before getting back to the point and saying seriously, "I also think it's too late. Why don't you send me back? We can teach them a lesson when it gets colder."
Pei Du said, "It's better to wait until next spring to bring the bride than to wait until it gets cold."
This was the first time he had revealed a hint of anxiety. Xie Qinghong felt a little awkward, looking back on the months since they met, and couldn't help but sigh that his extraordinary charm had caused a young man's heart to fall for him.
However, it cannot be ruled out that this prince is cunning and scheming. In order to form a marriage alliance with the Xie family, he pretends to be deeply affectionate and loyal, just to bewitch her mind and soul, and then take the opportunity to step on the Xie family to rise to power and consolidate the power of the prince's mansion.
Xie Qinghong mentally pointed and commented, after all, she was well-read and had read a couple of plays and storybooks that described it this way, serving as a stark warning to naive fifteen or sixteen-year-old girls. Moreover, such cunning people often have a shrewd, untouchable ideal woman in their hearts, whom they cannot easily discard, and who will return to their former lover after the day they are abandoned.
Ah, the clear-headed Xie family girl will never be bewitched!
She deliberately said, "That's still a long way off, after all, my brother isn't even married yet."
Pei Du frowned slightly. Thinking of his two brothers-in-law, his mood was no longer so pleasant. He was certain that his future father-in-law, Xie Gong, would not hit anyone because Xie Gong looked like a refined scholar. As for his two brothers-in-law, one was upright but had excellent swordsmanship, and the other was even more troublesome.
The horse-drawn carriage slowly cruised through the city, passing through a grove of trees filled with the chirping of cicadas, before leisurely leaving the city.
Outside the city, the road was a wide dirt track, and the carriage didn't travel very smoothly. Xie Qinghong had to hold onto the handrail, but the carriage was making her a little dizzy. Just as she was about to ask him to slow down, she heard the black horse neigh loudly. Pei Du turned around and quickly grabbed her wrist, pulling her out of the carriage and leaping onto the black horse.
Xie Qinghong was momentarily stunned, and only after she got on the horse did she realize that in that brief moment, Pei Du had actually put the veil on her head.
Pulled in front of Pei Du, the girl, who had never been so intimate with any other young man in her life, was utterly astonished: "What are you doing?"
"You lecher!" The long-dormant grudge book immediately resurfaced in my mind. The seventh one: Pei Du is a lecher! A lecher!
She cursed him three times in her heart for being a lecherous scoundrel. Pei Du pressed down her veil and said in a low voice above her head, "Don't make a sound, hold my waist."
Xie Qinghong stopped abruptly, listening to the whistling wind beside her ears. She immediately realized the situation was critical. They had only been out of the city for a short time, could it be that bandits were attacking them? She immediately stayed still and obediently. How dare they rob the peerless war god Pei Shizi? She hoped he would live.
But when she heard Pei Du draw his sword and hear the ringing sound, she realized that the bandits would not be so arrogant and bold. They must be assassins or killers.
The memory of being chased by assassins last time suddenly flooded back to Xie Qinghong. His heart tightened, and he listened intently to the battle. He only heard a few words that did not sound like the official language of Sheng Kingdom, nor the dialect of Huaizhou. The voices were deliberately lowered and spoken quickly and urgently, as if they were rolling out of the throat. It sounded more like... the language of the Hu people!
Because of the spoilers, Xie Qinghong thought she might be married off to a Hu person, so she studied the Hu language diligently for several days. It must be said that she was exceptionally talented, and daily communication was no problem for her. She calmed down and tried to understand the fragments of words she had just heard, her gaze unconsciously darkening.
After an unknown amount of time, Pei Du reached out and removed her veil, then helped her back to the carriage. Seeing her head bowed in deep thought, he raised an eyebrow and asked, "Were you frightened? Look, there's no body."
Xie Qinghong looked up at him with suspicion: "There are clearly guards with you to protect the carriage, so why did you have to put me on horseback?" What do you mean there were no corpses? Those corpses had clearly already been dealt with by his guards.
Pei Du smiled and lowered his head: "Everyone says that the youngest daughter of the Xie family is intelligent and quick-witted, how could she not understand?"
Xie Qinghong looked away, cleared his throat, and changed the subject: "That assassin just now seemed to be after me. Judging from his accent, he was a Hu (non-Han Chinese)."
Pei Du immediately frowned: "What did they say?"
Xie Qinghong looked into his eyes and said, "They said that it was fortunate that they saw me outside the city today, and they could not let this opportunity pass by. They must kidnap me."
The usually unassuming Prince Pei felt a chill run down his spine in an instant, and said in a low, aggrieved voice, "Thank you, you can't slander me just because I don't understand the Hu language."
Xie Qinghong: "?" This doesn't fit your persona.
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