"Catch them!"
When Meng Yuxiu was rescued, the prefect almost lost his footing, his eyes filled with terror.
Guo Yan and Meng Xin took Chang Lili and the other person away and hid them in a dilapidated temple, while Aunt Lu covered their retreat and dealt with the assassins who were pursuing them.
After catching her breath, Chang Lili thanked them, "What are you doing in Huzhou?"
Guo Yan said, "Aunt Lu brought us here."
"For you," Mengxin interjected.
For me?
Thinking of Aunt Lu's attitude that day, Chang Lili covered her lower abdomen and retreated warily.
Guo Yan said, "If Aunt Lu really wanted to take action, she could have just used those men in black. You wouldn't hate her then, so why go through all this trouble?"
"I don't know you guys well at all, so what else could I possibly think?"
“My mother-in-law was worried about you, so she sent me to check on you. I’m also worried about you running around while you’re pregnant.” As soon as she finished speaking, Aunt Lu appeared, cracking her whip. There was some blood on it, which she wiped clean.
"Did your mother-in-law really send you?"
“That’s right! Meng Yuxiu can’t protect you at all, Ali. Come back to the Three Pages Sect with me! If you want to keep the bastard in your belly, I won’t force you to take it.”
Aunt Lu stared at Meng Yuxiu with hostility. Meng Yuxiu used his sword to support himself as he stood up and said in a deep voice, "This time it was my mistake that put her in danger. I have no way to defend myself, but Chang Lili will not go with you. She is mine."
Aunt Lu's expression turned cold: "This is none of your business!"
Chang Lili bit her lip and said, "I am very grateful to you for saving us, but... since my mother-in-law asked you to save me, she agrees to me being with Meng Yuxiu, right? I want to be with him."
The smell of gunpowder in the air was so strong it could ignite at any moment. Meng Xin hurriedly pulled Chang Lili away, saying, "How could you be so foolish?"
Chang Lili shook her head.
The effects of the muscle-relaxing powder on Meng Yuxiu wore off, and he went to deal with the prefect's matter. Chang Lili wanted to go with him, but Meng Yuxiu wouldn't let her. After comforting her, she left. Aunt Lu was still there, criticizing Meng Yuxiu for his incompetence.
Chang Lili was annoyed: "Why do you have to pick a fight with Meng Yuxiu?"
Aunt Lu said, "You have terrible taste."
"What do you consider good judgment? Money and power? Doesn't he have those? He risked his life time and time again to save me. That's genuine. How many people would do that?"
Chang Lili wanted to catch up, but Guo Yan grabbed her wrist: "Don't go, it's too dangerous."
"Then I don't want to stay here either!" Chang Lili was originally very grateful to Aunt Lu, but she always had a problem with Meng Yuxiu, which was completely inexplicable.
Guo Yan gave Meng Xin a look, and Meng Xin put her arm around Chang Lili's shoulder and led her outside: "Come on, let's go out for a walk."
Watching Chang Lili's retreating figure, Aunt Lu opened her mouth as if to say something, but Guo Yan whispered, "Chang Lili doesn't know anything. This will only provoke her rebellious nature. It's better to soften her little by little..."
Meng Yuxiu released a signal flare, and the secret guards stationed around Huzhou gathered, splitting into three groups to find the prefect hiding in the underground tunnel.
Meng Yuxiu interrogated the person behind him, but the prefect couldn't answer anything. Meng Yuxiu, with a cold face, paralyzed the man and claimed that he was seriously ill. He then found the anxious county magistrate, kicked down the window, and broke into the house.
The magistrate's knees buckled, and he knelt on the ground, trembling. He cried out in panic, "General, it was all the prefect's doing that forced me to do this! I know nothing! Please, General, investigate thoroughly!"
Meng Yuxiu said, "The method for building the dam has already been explained to the workers. The dam must be completed when the tide is high, understand?"
The magistrate readily agreed and rushed to the riverbank to oversee the construction, intending to complete the work within half a month and send the giant Buddha statue away as soon as possible.
Mengxin took Chang Lili for a walk, and along the way she talked a lot about Aunt Lu, saying that she had a hard life and that the loss of her family had shaped her personality.
Chang Lili lowered her head: "It's not that I don't like her, it's just..."
Meng Xin shrugged: "To be honest, if you didn't like Meng Yuxiu, I wouldn't have given him a good look. Chang Lili, you have to know that he and we are not on the same path."
But he and I are!
Chang Lili thought this, but didn't say it out loud. She didn't know why, but she always felt that she had an inexplicable relationship with the Three Pages Gate.
That's why she subconsciously resisted whenever Aunt Lu separated her from Meng Yuxiu.
Without the interference of officials, the construction progressed quickly. Chang Lili had more red pine wood brought in, creating a 30-40 degree incline, which was used to support the walls in rows, making many improvements on the original foundation.
Aunt Lu exclaimed that Chang Lili was so outstanding that even the Empress in the afterlife would be gratified.
The day after the dam was completed, Chang Lili and her group set off to return to Beijing. Aunt Lu also took her leave that day, and Meng Yuxiu made a promise on the same day.
He would give his life to protect hers!
Aunt Lu's gaze shifted slightly as she looked at him: "Anyone can talk the talk, but if you can't walk the walk, I'll kill you!"
Upon returning to the capital, Meng Yuxiu sent Chang Lili back to her residence. He then went to the capital alone to meet the emperor. No one knows what he said, but that afternoon, the emperor pardoned her, saying that her merits and demerits canceled each other out.
“Ten days from now is an auspicious day, what do you think?” Meng Yuxiu asked her.
Chang Lili thought for a moment and said, "It's good to be pregnant sooner, I have no objection." If she delays for another month or two, her pregnancy will become more noticeable.
"The wedding dress has already been ordered; it's from the best tailor shop in the capital."
Chang Lili sat on the stool, swinging her legs, a little embarrassed: "I heard from Lu Ming that the groom always goes to the bride's house to pick her up, in a grand sedan chair carried by eight men. Meng Yuxiu, where are you planning to pick me up? The General's Mansion?"
Meng Yuxiu said, "I don't care about these formalities. Since you've brought it up, why don't we go to your old house?"
"Where do my mother-in-law and I live?" Chang Lili thought of the small house and felt a sense of anticipation. "I haven't been there in a long time. I guess it's been abandoned for a long time."
Meng Yuxiu shook his head with amusement: "I'll arrange for someone to clean it up."
Chang Lili thought of her mother-in-law and went to see her. After explaining things to Meng Yuxiu, she went to Guo Yanshi's teahouse, went to a private room, took out her token, and the waiter led her inside and served her a pot of tea.
He drank tea, feeling restless and uneasy.
"Going to talk to Grandma?" An old voice came from behind. Grandma joked as she wiped away her tears.
Chang Lili threw herself into her mother-in-law's arms: "It's all my fault, I shouldn't have upset you, Mother-in-law. Please don't hold it against me, okay? In ten days, I will marry Meng Yuxiu. I want to pay my respects to you, Mother-in-law."
Seeing the child she had raised pleading, the mother-in-law thought of her own daughter and sighed deeply: "You like him that much?"
Chang Lili nodded shyly: "I make a living by swindling people in brothels, but I can't do anything about him. Maybe my whole life was just to meet him."
Chang Lili recounted Meng Yuxiu's virtues bit by bit, her eyes shining, completely immersed in happiness. Her mother-in-law silently shed tears.
Chang Lili was startled and hurriedly said, "Ali knows she was wrong, Grandma, please don't be angry..."
The mother-in-law held her hand and patted the back of it gently: "Grandma is just happy. My Ali has finally grown up. On this joyous occasion, Grandma can't be missing."
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