Chapter 122: Teenage Tricks
"How could you, a grown man, bully a girl like that? In these kinds of things between men and women, men should be more considerate of girls, but you went and made her cry!"
"Brother, please calm down. I was just teasing her, I didn't mean to bring up something that hurt her feelings."
"Don't offer me tea, I'm not drinking it! You really have no sense of propriety. She's such a pretty girl, you should be happy to be with her, why bring up sad things? What if she runs away one day and you won't even know where to cry!"
"You're right, I've taken it to heart and I won't do it again."
Wang Lianhua humbly accepted the lesson and, under the tutelage of his indignant elder brother, humbly admitted his mistakes. To better express his repentance, he took two steps over, embraced Xie Huailing who was leaning against the kind-hearted woman, weeping silently, took out a handkerchief, and tenderly wiped away her tears, gently coaxing her, "It's all my fault. I won't make you sad again next time. Seeing you cry makes me feel bad too."
Xie Huailing lowered her head and sobbed twice more, tears streaming down her face, as if a lone feather had fallen into his arms, and she continued to cry intermittently.
Wang Lianhua patted her back, his gesture full of affection. Everyone who saw it couldn't help but sigh at the deep affection between the young couple. The elder brother was also relieved, and his anger subsided. He said, "It's good that you know you're wrong and can forgive yourself. The most important thing is for you two to live your lives well. Girl, if he bullies you again next time, just come to me. My home is nearby, and I'll teach him a lesson for you."
"Thank you, brother, you're such a kind person," Xie Huailing said, weeping.
The two whispered sweet nothings in each other's ears, and Wang Lianhua said many sweet words to coax her. The intimate words were like a lamp illuminating the moon, proving that they had reconciled. After talking for a while, he coaxed her with a few more words like "good sister" and "good younger sister," and then he and Xie Huailing went downstairs. After they left, the old woman in blue couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief.
Once they left the inn and reached the alleyway opposite, where they could see the inn's main entrance at a glance, and where no one else was watching, Xie Huailing raised her hand to push Wang Lianhua away, but failed.
Instead, Wang Lianhua grabbed her hand, trapping it in his own, and gently held it. Then, as if a cloud had just emerged from the crabapple tree, he laughed triumphantly: "Good sister, my good sister, you really succeeded in your plan, and you've really tricked me again."
He kneaded Xie Huailing's hand as if caressing a flower, his thumb pressing in the center of her palm, slowly crushing the ambiguity until it seemed to exude pinkish nectar: "Are you happy to make fun of me in public? I'm not very happy about it."
"You've already asked me if I'm happy, so I certainly can't control whether you're in a good mood or not." Xie Huailing knew there was no going back, so she simply didn't. "Let's get down to business first. Even if you're unhappy, don't let it delay things."
Wang Lianhua then released her, seemingly having noted it down again. He brought up the old woman and said, "I looked at her carefully a few times, but I couldn't tell from her face what she had done. I need to look more closely. But judging from her figure and demeanor, she's probably not a real old woman, but a man in disguise. It's always difficult for a woman to disguise herself as a man, or a man to disguise himself as a woman. If you're not careful, you'll give yourself away."
A man? Xie Huailing's mind raced, and he immediately realized the answer, saying, "Then he is probably Situ Bian himself from the Situ family of Shanzuo."
She turned around and looked at the entrance of the inn, where the old woman in blue was just walking out unsteadily. Seeing this, Wang Lianhua hugged her again and pretended to whisper to her.
Once the old woman was out of sight of the alley, Xie Huailing pulled away from Wang Lianhua's embrace and urged him, "Hurry up, follow her."
Wang Lianhua didn't let go and whispered to her, "But I'm still not happy. Men aren't meant to be bullied like this."
Xie Huailing tried to twist his waist, but the muscles there were so firm that she couldn't get a grip: "Not happy? But you seem to be having a good time."
Wang Lianhua understood perfectly what she was saying, but he didn't say it. He smelled his own fragrance on her and felt much better when he saw her. He then followed her.
.
Disguised as an old woman, Situ could walk at a slower pace, but this allowed him to carefully observe every young woman he encountered in the inn. His gaze would immediately linger on any attractive girl, and when they turned around, they would only see a kind and gentle old woman, and would not suspect anything.
Once on the road, he continued walking slowly, but his eyes no longer wandered. He had already decided on the person he wanted to abduct at the inn, so he certainly wouldn't change his course halfway.
This time, he was staring at a girl in a pale yellow dress. She looked to be only seventeen or eighteen years old, with a fair complexion like a willow branch. In this town, she was considered a rare beauty. Recently, there had been several cases of missing girls, so she was in a hurry. However, there were many acquaintances on the road, and after exchanging greetings, Situ Bian did not need to speed up and caught up with her.
Above the street stood towering restaurants. At the railing of one of the restaurants, Xie Huailing leaned over, craning her neck, while Wang Lianhua leaned against her side, not forgetting his pose even at this moment.
“If I hadn’t been with you, he would definitely have been targeting you,” Wang Lianhua said, blowing in the wind.
Xie Huailing ignored him and continued looking down. From this vantage point, she could see several streets in one go, and she would definitely be able to see Situ Bian's movements clearly. If she walked further ahead, the girl would turn into a street with fewer people, and Situ Bian would make his move then. However, before that, an acquaintance started chatting with the girl, so Situ Bian could only wait behind.
Only then did Xie Huailing pay attention to Wang Lianhua, not to respond to his words, but to bring up something else: "You and Madam Wang must have something else to tell me—about why you came to Jin Feng Xi Yu Lou to cooperate."
She spoke with such certainty that Wang Lianhua, feigning ignorance, found it pointless. Leaning against the railing, her hair ruffled by the wind, she said, "I do remember. It's a long story, but I'll keep it short."
Every time he moved a little closer, Xie Huailing would move a little closer, and he seemed to enjoy it immensely. After this went on two or three times, he finally had his fill of teasing and stood up straight: "Originally, Mother had no such plans. Since nine years ago, she had been preparing to kill Chai Yuguan. A little over a month ago, she suddenly found out that Chai Yuguan had entered the pass, and along with that came another piece of news, which you should also know: Chai Yuguan was invited in by someone."
"And the person who invited him..." Wang Lianhua's voice was carried by the wind, sometimes near, sometimes far, "I have been investigating, but I have only found out that the person came from Bianjing."
The point was made clearly, and Xie Huailing understood it perfectly.
In fact, this only confirmed her guess. After she learned what Wang Yunmeng had, she knew that the people looking for Wang Yunmeng would only come from Bianjing, and even the true identity of the person behind her was only a few possibilities.
Wang Lianhua didn't know anything more. After all, the forces under Wang Yunmeng's command were different from intelligence. Even with his intelligence, he was powerless to do anything about it. "As for why we invited Chai Yuguan into the pass, we'll have to ask you again, Huailing. Jin Wuwang must have said something, right?"
The girl downstairs finished talking with an acquaintance, then hugged a large bouquet of flowers, looking even more beautiful than the flowers themselves. Xie Huailing looked at her carefree appearance, her beaming smile, and the old woman in blue who was watching her intently from behind: "Indeed. But he hasn't been the King of Joy's confidant for long, and he only knows of his existence."
She concealed the part about searching for Wang Yunmeng's whereabouts, and Wang Lianhua couldn't tell that she had hidden anything. He pondered, "It seems that we still need to start from other places. We absolutely cannot let this Shan Zuo Situ get away."
"Talk is cheap, why aren't you going down yet?" Xie Huailing glanced at him.
Wang Lianhua then reached out, his knuckles lightly touching the girl below, while his eyes remained fixed on her. He said, "Why are you rushing me so fast? Is it because you think I'm too slow, or are you kind-hearted and want me to go and save that little girl?"
Xie Huailing didn't answer, but only asked, "Aren't you tired?"
Aren't you tired of speculating and guessing?
Wang Lianhua didn't answer. He smiled and then disappeared in the blink of an eye, as if he had really been blown off the high building by the wind. Xie Huailing leaned against the building alone, feeling only peace and quiet.
Looking down, there was no sign of Wang Lianhua. Spring breeze passed again, and for no reason or perhaps intentionally, it overturned the old wooden frame by the roadside. The wooden blocks, which had become loose over the years, shattered into pieces on the ground and fell into the muddy puddle. The girl's skirt was also splashed with unsightly mud, and the romantic pale yellow color was crumpled and torn by the mud.
Although she couldn't see it, the girl's face must have fallen. She couldn't put down the flowers that someone had given her on such a dirty ground. In the end, with tears in her eyes, she lifted her leg to look at the hem of her skirt and had no choice but to abandon her plan to go somewhere she didn't know. She pursed her lips and returned the way she came.
She brushed past Situ Bian, a few flowers falling on the road. Situ Bian, disguised as an old woman, stared at her for several moments, watching her walk back into the crowd and complain to her acquaintances about her bad luck that day. But no matter how much her sinister gaze continued, the girl had already disappeared into the crowd.
He had no choice but to change direction, instead of heading back to the inn, and instead walked into another, narrower, more secluded path.
Having failed to abduct the child, and with nightfall approaching, he figured he'd need to return to his lodgings first. Xie Huailing didn't see Wang Lianhua. Looking closer, she suddenly felt a tap on her right shoulder. Speechless, she didn't want to look, but then she heard a soft laugh, and a feeling of helplessness, like being back in elementary school, washed over her. She didn't look to her right, but instead looked in the opposite direction—to her left—and there she saw Wang Lianhua's smiling face.
This wasn't a case of his trick being seen through. If Wang Lianhua really didn't want her to catch him, he had plenty of agility. It just meant he was incredibly bored. All the men Xie Huailing had met before were extremely serious. Su Mengzhen goes without saying, and neither were Di Feijing, Wuqing, or Lengxue. Even Lu Xiaofeng wasn't this bored. Xie Huailing was always the one annoyed by them; she had never been annoyed like this before.
Perhaps it's because Wang Lianhua is indeed the youngest among these people, or perhaps he's just a peacock—either she annoys him to death, or he annoys her to death.
In that short time, Wang Lianhua changed his appearance again, becoming handsome and dashing. He even picked up a flower for her, snapped his fingers, and as if by magic, it bloomed pure white in his hand. He said, "There's only a dilapidated temple that's been abandoned for many years in that direction. Looks like that's the place. Let's go."
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Thank you again for the long review—[cheering emojis]
I'll see if I can squeeze in some more time during the National Day holiday to add more chapters. If not, I'll try my best to write more words in the later chapters!
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