Violent Wind
Chapter 15: The Sound of Violence
Peng Zuoyuan stayed in Chang Garden. Before going to his bedroom, he came to take a bath.
The door bolt was unlocked and someone walked in. Peng Zuoyan closed his eyes and heard the different depths of the person's footsteps. He smelled the faint familiar scent of her approaching. He let her approach without any defense.
"Master, I will help you bathe."
Peng Zuoyuan folded his arms and looked sideways. On the tray were clothes from inner to outer. The bold maid lowered her head, wearing a low-cut skirt that was not in accordance with the style of the mansion.
Peng Zuoyan realized her purpose but didn't move. He asked, "Did Aunt Huan send you here?"
"My aunt has not been feeling well these past few days, so I am willing to help my mistress go to bed."
Peng Zuoyang shook his head. It was definitely not Yi Huan's order. It was just that he had too good a temper in Changyuan, and any servant would dare to climb into his bed if they had the urge.
After not hearing him speak for a long time, Cuiyin hardened her heart and held the tray tightly, looking up. "I, Cuiyin, truly love you. My heart is tied to you. I know I have thoughts that I shouldn't have. Please accept me for your sake. I will live a peaceful life and put you first in everything. I will not go against your wishes like you did."
Cuiyin couldn't help feeling a little proud while begging. Although her beauty was not as good as the other concubines in the mansion, being a beautiful girl from a small family had its own charm. When a beautiful woman took the initiative to throw herself into her arms, she didn't believe that her husband would not feel pity for her.
"Is it your turn to dictate what happens in my backyard?"
"That's not what Cuiyin meant. I am loyal to you, my lord. I have admired you for a long time, and now I have mustered up the courage to ask you to take me in as your wife."
Peng Zuoyao snorted coldly, pulled his arm out of the water, and rested it on the edge of the bucket, asking, "If I don't respond, will you take over my robes?"
Cui Yin shook her head repeatedly and said shyly, "No, I am here to serve you. I am thinking that if you are willing... I won't dirty your clothes."
"That's quite thoughtful."
Cuiyin gave a gentle smile, but the next second his words brought her back to her original form.
"It's a pity that he is not a dutiful one."
Meeting his extremely cold eyes, Cui Yin didn't dare to watch him emerge from the water naked, and lowered her head.
Peng Zuoyan stood barefoot in front of her and slowly put on his narrow-sleeved shirt piece by piece.
She was surrounded by an extremely oppressive gaze. The less he spoke, the more afraid Cuiyin became. After putting on the last belt, she couldn't help but collapse on the ground.
A silent atmosphere flowed, and Cui Yin timidly begged for mercy: "Master..."
After Peng Zuoyan left, Chang Yi came in, covered her mouth and dragged her away. Changyuan no longer had a place for Cuiyin, so they just had to promote her or buy another one.
"The people under you are restless. As the head of the garden, it is your job to manage them well."
Yi Huan turned around in surprise, holding the half-dry hair in his hand. He immediately realized what had happened and retorted, "Did someone succeed? Do they just want you to whore others and not let others like you?"
Peng Zuoyan found a chair and sat down, emphasizing, "She is yours now."
"Ha, you are her master."
Seeing that his face looked a little ugly, Yi Huan deliberately said: "Where did she touch you? Did you let her succeed? What a bold girl, she touched you all over with evil intentions, tsk tsk tsk."
"Ah Huan, if you say one more word, I will do what you just left unfinished."
Yi Huan already had a golden ticket to avoid death and snorted, "I'm here, Kuishui, if you need to do something, there are dozens of girls in the whole mansion."
After all, they have a clear distinction between master and servant, and each of them regards the master as the most important thing. Even if Peng Zuoyan wants their lives, they will give them up.
Peng Zuoyan was not the kind of person who cared about others. Seeing her cunning smile, he couldn't help but interrupt her and said a few words to her in a light tone, asking her to take charge of others.
The rainstorm was merciless, and the summer heat was washed away by the bean-sized raindrops, but what could not be eliminated was the sultry heat at night. The huge lightning illuminated most of the sky and earth, and Yi Huan woke up to the thunder.
If you listen carefully, you can hear other sounds amidst the thunder and rain.
It's someone crying for help!
Yi Huan suddenly stood up and quickly put on a wide-sleeved shirt. Before he could walk into the compartment to hide, the closed door was chopped open by someone with a knife.
"Where's Peng the thief?"
The blood on the narrow sword in the man's hand had not been washed away yet, and it was dripping down in a line.
Yi Huan clutched the thin vase on the flower table in his right hand and spoke quickly in a raspy voice, "In the second courtyard, past the flower corridor and the wing rooms is his courtyard. The main house is next to the study."
"Don't try to play any tricks." Seeing that she confessed so quickly, the man stepped forward with a knife.
"How dare I lie to you, my lord?" Yi Huan cried out, and said sternly, "I was captured by him and forced into a corner. Please spare my life, my lord. I will pray for your wish to be fulfilled."
The two pairs of black eyes revealed by the black scarf glanced at her, and actually felt that she was not a threat, so they left with the news.
After two startling thunderclaps rang out and fell, Yi Huan dared to call out, "Cui Xue?" Before anyone else came, she hid in the camphorwood trunk, pinching her hands together to ease her fear, and tried her best to breathe lightly.
Someone came to kill Peng Zuoyuan, and there must be a lot of people who could enter the inner house. She just needed to hide and wait until no one was on guard before escaping.
The box was too quiet and the thunder outside was too far away. Suddenly, there was a noise above Yi Huan's head, and someone caught her out faster than she could react.
“Ah.”
"Ha, it's hidden pretty well."
This was the first time Yi Huan saw Peng Zuoyang, who had killed people with a sword. Facing those double-eyed eyes that contained a calm murderous intent, Yi Huan actually felt a deeper fear than the one he felt with the man just now.
Peng Zuoyan pulled her out with his left hand, saying, "The enemy is here, come with me and hide."
The journey was quiet until they reached the alley behind the mansion. The man walking in front suddenly staggered. The light became brighter, and Yi Huan could clearly see the blood on his back.
With heavy rain hitting his back, Peng Zuoyan struggled to walk two blocks before relaxing his vigilance.
Yi Huan quietly touched the hairpin she had used for self-defense before hiding, but the hairpin stopped half an arm's length away from her. Meeting his clear and cold eyes, Yi Huan let go of the hairpin with boredom.
"Ah Huan, are you taking advantage of someone's misfortune?"
Yi Huan broke free from his restraints and asked confidently, "Are you testing me?"
Peng Zuoyang didn't answer. He cut his inner robe with the sword, tied it into strips, and tied it around the wound to stop the bleeding.
Yi Huan thought carefully about what had gone wrong since the incident, and said clearly, "You did it on purpose. If something really happened to you, they wouldn't have failed to protect their master. This was your deception."
"It's really embarrassing."
"Ah Huan, don't you know that sometimes hiding one's shortcomings is also a strategy?"
Pretending to flee without a moment's delay, Peng Zuoyan reversed his grip on the hilt of his sword, resting the butt of the sword against her chin. He assessed her and said, "I didn't know Ah Huan had this skill."
Yi Huan knew that he must have a backup plan. She couldn't kill him, so she submitted to his coercion. There was no emotion in her quiet eyes.
"If that person wants to kill me, will your people stop him?" He also knew the words of denunciation she had said.
"Ah Huan does know where this general lives."
His killing intent was too weak, so Yi Huan remained motionless, looking at him calmly.
The threat to his neck was removed, and Peng Zuoyan showed no sign of begging for help. "So, I need Ah Huan to help me out now."
"Why do you think I will save you?"
Peng Zuo's smile deepened. He reached out and patted the hem of his robe, which had become heavier due to the rain. "You haven't been to his grave yet, have you?"
Ah Yu?
Yi Huan raised his eyes in shock, then quickly lowered them to hide his turbulent emotions. When he suddenly heard his name again, he felt a sense of suffocation in his heart.
After the coffin was separated, she and Chao Lanyu would never have the chance to see each other again in this life.
"Ah Huan, it's not that I need your help, it's that you need me not to treat you as a pawn."
Compared to the concubines who were left in the mansion and knew nothing, following Peng Zuoyang still gave her a chance of survival.
"Okay." Because of that drifting grave, Yi Huan was willing to be a pawn in his chess game. He asked, "Where are we going now?"
"Go to the village."
Peng Zuoyang was very accurate and bold in his calculations, and the two of them settled in the directly-administered county of Gongzhou.
In early autumn, the ridges of the fields are lined with green and yellow wheat. The bright yellow all over the fields blends into one scene with the green mountains in the distance. Groups of three or two half-grown children run over, holding up their clothes.
Yi Huan was walking on the dirt road. When the group of children came running over, he asked with a smile, "Where's Xiaoquan?"
"Sister Huan, we're back from picking red fruits."
Each person wrapped a few hawthorn fruits with yellow-brown spots in their hems. The fresh roots still had the unique grassy scent of hawthorn.
Yi Huan recognized it as hawthorn and asked, "Is it delicious?"
The boy, who was not even as tall as Peng Zuoyan's waist, hesitated a little. Yi Huan thought he was reluctant to give it to her, so she didn't force him. "I was just joking, you can keep the ones you picked for yourself."
"No, sister, the red fruit is not sweet, I'm afraid you won't be used to it."
The thumb-sized fruit had many cores. Yi Huan thought that the child would not find it tasty because it was sweet and sour. But after taking a bite, he realized that it was because of the different varieties. The astringent taste on the tip of the tongue made it hard to say that it was delicious.
Peng Zuoyang stood beside him. Xiaoquan was afraid of his intimidating presence and didn't dare to speak to him. The two fruits were in Yi Huan's hands.
"Did you pick it just for fun?"
"To fill my stomach, so my mother and father can eat more bean porridge."
Hearing such words while being in the midst of a pile of grain that was about to ripen, Yi Huan was inevitably moved. He bent down, stroked his short hair and said, "Xiao Quan is really good."
The golden ears of wheat are mostly arranged in neat rows, and each piece of wheat field has the same name written on it. Taxes consume half of the labor force, and the owners of the farms swallow up most of it.
Their parents planted and harvested the crops themselves, but they could never fill their stomachs.
"Here, I have a piece of cake. Can you guys share it?"
Amidst the cheers from the crowd, Yi Huan half-knelt down and distributed the food as evenly as possible to take care of each child.
Peng Zuoyan looked down at her, his dark eyes flashing for a moment, and he kept her gentle side in mind without missing a moment.
Looking at it this way, those adjectives that describe kindness and holiness also come alive.
"Ahuan still likes to give dry food to people." Looking at the child's back with her, Peng Zuoyan suddenly sighed.
"If I had known, I would never have spoken to you, let alone offered you my hand."
Peng Zuoyan laughed at her joke and said domineeringly, "It's too late, Ah Huan. You and I were destined to be together the first time. You should be mine."
The world was vast, and the person before him was so quiet. Peng Zuoyao took the initiative to say, "What's wrong with being by my side? How could I have ever wronged you?"
"Perhaps not."
Yi Huan tilted her head to the side, and her coarse clothes made her look even more simple and plain, with a sense of detachment as if she was out of touch with the world.
The two did not stay there for too long. After seeing Chang Yi and Chang San in succession, Yi Huan guessed that the time had come for Peng Zuo's plan.
"Are you going to fight back?"
Peng Zuoyuan patted her horse's back, his elbow touching the scabbard at his waist, and said, "Some things are not yet finished. Go wait for me at the front."
When they were riding back, Peng Zuoyan caught up with them after a delay of an incense stick. Yi Huan noticed something was wrong as he was wiping his hands with a handkerchief. He felt uneasy and reined in his horse, asking, "Why do you smell like blood?"
Throwing the handkerchief to Chang Yi, Peng Zuoyan confessed, "How could Ah Huan not guess this when she's so smart?"
"You, you go back and kill their whole family."
Peng Zuoyan stood under the horse, reached out to hold the reins that she was unable to hold steadily, and did not think there was anything wrong with her behavior.
"You just said goodbye to them, and the next moment you picked up your sword and started killing them. Peng Zuoyao, are you a murderous demon? They are not your pawns. How can you be so cold-blooded?"
Yi Huan looked at him in shock and anger, his eyes full of disapproval, "Wouldn't it be more risky to be exposed if they died?"
"It would have been a greater risk for them to be alive."
"They took you in, but you turned your back on them. Your conscience has been eaten by dogs!"
Peng Zuoyao raised his eyes calmly and stated, "I don't like that beast."
"Your actions are no match for a dog."
In his sleeve was still the hawthorn fruit Xiaoquan had given him. Yi Huan threw it into his arms, his voice choked and angry as he said, "You don't deserve their sincerity."
"Ah Huan, you said it all, my sincerity was eaten by a beast."
Two days passed without any rush. As the frequency of delivering letters increased, the two of them rode on the same horse and their journey became faster.
The wall of people behind him was strong and hot. Yi Huan was wrapped in a cloak and stood with his back straight, about a fist's distance away from them.
"Ah Huan, are you afraid of death?"
Yi Huan looked aimlessly at the desolate mountain road, thinking about last autumn when she and Chao Lanyu agreed to go up the mountain to look for the five-pointed red maple tree. Under the tree that was so big that they could hug each other, Yi Huan took the initiative to kiss Chao Lanyu again.
"Are the maple trees still red this year?"
"What?"
Yi Huan came back to his senses after being disappointed, and said desolately, "Nothing."
There was no trace of the weakness of being forced into rebellion in Peng Zuo's tone. Instead, he spoke with determination and a deliberate show of weakness. "Alas, with Goshuel in power, the people are suffering. I barely managed to survive, but I couldn't bear to see the people suffer, so I forced myself to fight the enemy despite my illness. Such a great cause must be responded to by all. Let's fight this bandit together."
"hypocritical."
Peng Zuoyan curled his lips and leaned closer, saying, "And you, Ah Huan, must always stay with me and take care of me when I'm seriously ill, until a miracle happens."
"Everything you said is your raft."
Including Chang Yitong, there were a total of six people accompanying him, all of them were agile, quiet and experienced, not to mention the trap he had set up in secret. Peng Zuoyuan had already prepared for a counterattack when Shule used his power to pressure him.
The reason for showing weakness is just to seduce the Hu people.
Yi Huan hardened his voice and cursed in the opposite direction: "I'm afraid you will survive."
"Ha ha."
Peng Zuoyan reached out and pinched her cheek, then lowered his head and bit her. It was unknown whose lips started bleeding first. As their lips and teeth met, the two of them were left with lips that were both brightly colored and confronted with each other.
"Ah Huan, just remember, if I die, you will be buried with me."
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