Chapter 20: The bitterness of wanting to acknowledge but being unable to, the urge to kneel...
Just when Hengbo thought he would reach Yujing in this swaying, dizzying state, something unexpected suddenly happened.
However, this unexpected turn of events did not originate from their group. Instead, when they reached a dense forest on the outskirts of the capital, a ragged woman rushed towards them.
The woman, seeing them as if they were her saviors, rushed straight towards them without regard for the speeding carriage. Fortunately, the caravan members noticed in time, quickly pulled on the reins, and stopped the carriage.
However, even so, it is unclear whether the woman was still frightened or she finally felt relieved upon seeing people, but she rolled her eyes and fainted completely.
Even the caravan dared not handle such a situation on their own and had to consult the merchant caravan. When the visitor explained their purpose, Hengbo looked at Aunt Shen, who was deep in thought, with surprise, since she had always assumed that Granny Green was in charge here.
"Let's get that girl into the carriage first. She's such a pitiful girl; she must have suffered some hardship." As she spoke, a hint of emotion appeared on her face.
Hengbo wasn't surprised at all by Aunt Shen's answer. Since they had known each other, Aunt Shen had become known for her extremely kind-heartedness. Therefore, when the girl finally woke up and learned that they were a group of traveling merchants from out of town, hoping that they could help her report to the authorities, and Aunt Shen readily agreed, Hengbo didn't find anything wrong with it.
“My name is Bai San Niang, and I live in Baijia Village, Ji County. This year, during the Spring Festival, my uncle and aunt, who sell wood products in the capital, told me to come to the capital after the Spring Festival to find me a good marriage. The people of Bailin Village have been making a living by logging for generations. If you have a good skill, you can open a shop and do business like my uncle. But most women like me just stay at home and process wood. This year, I had a lot of things to do at home after the Spring Festival, so I put it off until a few days ago.”
"As a result, after finally finding my uncle and aunt's shop, I discovered," she said, her expression turning panicked.
To prevent the girl from fainting again, Aunt Chen quickly handed her a water bag to calm her down.
Bai San Niang took the water bag, took a few sips, and then continued, "That day, I went to Bai's Woodware Shop, only to find that the shop was not open and the entrance was covered in a layer of dust. I learned from the proprietress of the rain gear shop next door that my uncle and aunt had not opened for business for several days. Although I was puzzled, I had no choice but to find an inn in the capital to settle down temporarily."
"But land in the capital is expensive and prices are high. In just a few days, I had spent a lot of money. I went to the wood shop every day but never got anything. Later, I couldn't afford to spend so much money, so I came up with a plan."
"That night, I took advantage of the fact that all the shops next door were closed, and secretly climbed over the back wall. When I got inside, I found that no one was in the house, but it was very messy as if someone had ransacked it. At the time, I just thought that my uncle and aunt had left in a hurry and hadn't had time to tidy up, so I found a room to stay in first."
I stayed there for two days. One night, I suddenly heard a noise in the yard, and then I heard a noise coming from my uncle and aunt's room. I thought they had returned, so I got up to go and see.
But to my surprise, when I shone a light to look inside, I found the door wide open, and the person ransacking the house wasn't my uncle and aunt, but a man dressed in black with his face covered by a cloth. Startled, I made a noise, and the man, seeing someone, simply broke through the window and escaped.
Hearing this, Aunt Shen patted her chest with lingering fear: "Luckily, that person didn't kill you to cover it up, otherwise you wouldn't be alive now."
“Who says otherwise?” Bai San Niang said bitterly, “But I knew he would come back to me after he realized what was happening, so I was prepared to leave immediately. But I was really curious, so I went to see what that person was looking for.”
Hengbo: ... This girl seems to have not only a lucky life, but also a big heart.
“In my hometown, there’s a tradition of making a hidden drawer under the bed to store important things. The mechanism and latches are very clever, and outsiders usually wouldn’t know about it. I just tried it out, and who knew I would actually find an account book.”
Aunt Chen was clearly intrigued: "What's recorded in that ledger?"
Hengbo thought to himself: This is obviously a secret concerning human lives, and this girl definitely won't tell her.
But to everyone's surprise, Bai San Niang said without hesitation, "The ledger records that Zhao Lian, the head of the Ministry of Works, bought a lot of wooden burial objects from my uncle's shop. There's just one strange thing: the quality of these wooden burial objects is mixed. There are rosewood and sandalwood that cost a lot of money to buy, but there are also pine and poplar that ordinary people don't want to use. And these pine and poplar," she hesitated for a moment, but finally whispered, "are all marked with the word 'mixed' next to them."
"This is a fake!" Aunt Shen exclaimed in surprise.
Hengbo was also shocked, but she hadn't expected this girl to be so open and honest with someone she'd just met. Could it be that her master's wife was wrong? Were the people down the mountain really that simple and honest?
"That's true, but judging from the entries in the ledger, the person clearly paid for pine and poplar wood."
"It must be that this supervisor from the Ministry of Works embezzled money by selling inferior goods, and now he's trying to kick us while we're down," Aunt Chen said, clicking her tongue.
"I hid under the bridge that night. The next day, there were more constables patrolling the area. Luckily, I disguised myself as a beggar and managed to get out of the city. But when I got out of the city gate, I saw my wanted poster, so I didn't dare go home and could only hide everywhere."
As she spoke, tears welled up in Bai San Niang's eyes, making her look incredibly pitiful.
Aunt Shen immediately made a heartfelt promise: "Don't worry, young lady. Now that you've met me, I'll definitely help you. Even if you're going to beat the drum to appeal to the emperor, I'll help you to the end."
Regardless of what the girl thought upon hearing this, even Hengbo, who was standing to the side, was deeply moved.
The woman, tears streaming down her face, said, "Thank you so much for saving me, sister. From this day forward, I will belong to you in life and in death."
Hengbo felt that the two of them were deeply in love, and if it weren't for the difference in gender, it would be exactly like the story of pledging oneself to another in a novel. However, she didn't notice that in a corner where no one could see her, Er Gou's eyes were practically rolling to the sky.
At this point, the group was only forty or fifty li away from Yujing, and if all went well, they could enter the capital before nightfall.
When she saw the gates of Yujing City in the distance, Aunt Chen instructed her to hide in the medicine boxes at the back of the caravan's wagons.
Although the management of people entering and leaving the country is relatively lax during peacetime, the caravan members were still worried.
As the line of people waiting to enter the city finally reached them, Aunt Chen's expression became visibly serious, and even Er Gou couldn't help but tug at the corner of his clothes.
They had barely endured until the city guards finished inspecting all the cargo boxes, and before they could even breathe a sigh of relief, a fierce-looking captain suddenly strode towards them. "Wait a minute."
Everyone's hearts immediately jumped again.
He stood in front of the convoy, holding a stack of road permits, and asked, "Who is Hengbo?" His deep voice trembled slightly.
Hengbo:? ? ?
Completely bewildered, Hengbo leaped down from the carriage and was met with the captain's barely suppressed excitement. If she hadn't known her identity and had never been to Yujing before, she probably would have thought she was his long-lost lover.
I have to say, Yokomura is absolutely right.
This person was Chang Sheng, who had been ordered by Wen Tinglan to ambush her at the city gate.
He was incredibly excited when he learned from Young Master Wen more than twenty days ago that the princess was going to return to Yujing. However, he had only seen the princess a few times when she was young, and he really didn't know what she looked like now. His mission this time was to prevent the princess from entering the capital.
Fortunately, Young Master Wen told him that the princess always carried a sword with her, which was the famous sword Hengbo.
He carried a portrait of Hengbo Sword with him every day, taking it out to look at it whenever he had free time, for fear that he might mess up the task entrusted to him by Young Master Wen. Being punished was a small matter; if the princess were to be in danger because of going to the capital, he would not be able to atone for his sins even if he died a thousand times.
The consequence of watching it day and night is that he now dreams of a woman carrying a horizontal wave sword, whose face he cannot see clearly.
Hengbo stared blankly at Changsheng, unaware that Changsheng's heart was in turmoil. From the initial admiration that the princess was so beautiful, resembling the Crown Prince, to the heartache over how thin she was, knowing she must have suffered all these years, to the bewilderment of having stared at the Hengbo Sword for over twenty days only to find the princess using the pseudonym Hengbo, he was left speechless with a mixture of amusement and exasperation. Heaven knows how numb his expression was when he first saw the name "Hengbo" on the travel permit...
Finally, there's the bitterness of wanting to acknowledge someone but being unable to, and the agonizing feeling of wanting to kneel but being unable to.
Then all his thoughts ultimately boiled down to a single, chilling sentence that sounded extremely cold to Hengbo: "Your travel permit information is incomplete. Wait here for now."
Hengbo never expected that he would be the one to run into trouble in the end, but he had no choice but to say goodbye to the caravan members. As he stood silently by the city gate, he was still regretting that he had died before he could achieve his goal.
As darkness fell, Hengbo stood alone, head bowed, staring blankly at his shadow that was about to merge into the night.
At that moment, she noticed another, much taller shadow suddenly appear beside her own.
Hengbo shifted his feet, wanting only to remain quietly as a shadow.
But the shadow persisted, creeping closer to her.
Hengbo moved aside again to create some distance, but before she could even breathe a sigh of relief, that oblivious shadow, thinking it was being discreet, pressed itself against her again.
Hengbo:……
Hengbo felt an itch in his hand holding the sword and could only repeatedly advise himself not to act impulsively.
She was prepared to have a serious talk with that man, but when she looked up at the owner of the shadow, what she saw was the captain's fierce face. But why did his expression look so strange at that moment?
In fact, he was just trying to appear kind, but Chang Sheng, who looked somewhat fierce because he didn't look like a good person, noticed Heng Bo's gaze. He scratched his head embarrassedly and explained shyly, "I'm just shielding you from the wind."
Hengbo:……
This person had just confiscated his travel permit, yet now he was offering to shield him from the wind. Hengbo felt that he was like a weasel offering New Year's greetings to a chicken, with ill intentions.
Moreover, Hengbo rubbed the goosebumps on her arms and thought: Am I afraid of the wind? I'm clearly afraid of you!
A note from the author:
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I've been quite busy lately, so updates might not be as frequent. Readers who prefer to wait for a while can do so, but remember to bookmark this page!
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