The next day, not long after breakfast, Butcher Zhang indeed came to Ling'er's house to break off the engagement; it seemed he couldn't wait any longer.
To express his apology, he brought a lot of food and fabric and said a lot of polite things.
Although Ling'er's father felt it was a pity, he couldn't force someone to marry his daughter, but he had a ulterior motive.
Ask the matchmaker to keep an eye out for men from wealthy families. Second wives and concubines are fine, as long as the bride price is high.
Ling'er sighed softly, relieved to have escaped a disaster. Judging from her father's expression, she knew he had other ideas.
Ling'er sat to the side, lost in thought, wondering when Brother Chen would come to propose marriage.
Li Xi called her a few times without getting a response, then said, "Ling'er, are you missing your Brother Chen? Now you can finally be together with him. When are you going to have your Brother Chen come and propose marriage?"
Ling'er blushed when she heard Li Xi's joke.
"Xi'er, stop laughing. Brother Chen is waiting for the results of the provincial examination. He hasn't had time to talk to me yet. He should be able to pass the county-level examination this time. Maybe he won't even look at me anymore."
"Our Ling'er is gentle, quiet, and beautiful. She also has excellent cooking skills. Who says she's not good enough for you?"
Li Xi was busy making a backpack. If she planned to go to Kyoto, she needed to have money and prepare a practical and personalized backpack to carry some daily necessities.
To this end, she even improved upon the sanitary napkins of later generations and created the current menstrual belt. She also felt that the current baggage could not meet her needs, so now she writes, draws, sews, and mends whenever she has free time.
Taking advantage of the time, Li Xi went to Zhang the butcher's house to remove the previous arrangements.
Life is busy and hectic, some are happy, some are sad. Time has betrayed me, making it hard to meet again; emotions bind me, leaving me no freedom. - Wang Bo, "Preface to the Pavilion of Prince Teng"
After lunch, Meng Zhelan took Li Xi to the woods where her father had gone before he disappeared.
It is the beginning of autumn. Yunnan and Sichuan are located in the southwest of the Jingyuan Dynasty. The terrain is complex and the mountains are crisscrossed.
In addition, the influence of the monsoon climate makes Yunnan's weather extremely changeable, which should be the Yunnan of later generations.
The climate of Yunnan and Sichuan is mild all year round, with little temperature difference. Summers are not hot and winters are not too cold.
The unique climate made Yunnan and Sichuan ideal places to live. However, there is no historical record of the Jingyuan Dynasty in later generations.
Perhaps parallel universes exist, and even if she died in the modern world, she could still come here and be reborn in someone else's body. Aren't she experiencing all sorts of bizarre things?
Previously, due to work and my mother's illness, I was never able to travel to Yunnan.
While others post pictures of beautiful scenery and delicious food on social media, she can only work hard as a laborer.
It's truly a stroke of luck amidst misfortune that I'm in this situation now.
The woods were unusually cool, and the autumn breeze was refreshing.
Meng Zhelan had already searched the entire forest over the past few months, but her father hadn't left any trace of where he used to gather herbs.
They've been missing for months; Dad must have been kidnapped by those people.
Her father had told her before that if he went out to collect herbs and didn't come back for four or five months, it meant that he had been kidnapped by that person.
According to information passed down from my father's fellow disciple, that person was hiding in Kyoto, so my father must have been captured and taken to Kyoto as well.
"Lan'er, come and take a look." Li Xi jumped down from the tree.
Since perfectly merging with this body, he has become exceptionally skilled, possesses profound inner strength, and is as light as a swallow and as graceful as the wind.
"Look at this branch. The leaves on the branch are abnormally black, and there is a small area on it that is also like this."
Meng Zhelan carefully examined it and found that there was indeed some powder on the branch. She scraped some off with the tip of her fingernail and smelled it.
“It’s heartbreak grass. There are traces of my father digging for medicinal herbs around here. He brought me here before. But I don’t know martial arts, so I didn’t check the tree.”
"Based on the direction he dug up the herbs and the location where the poisonous plant was scattered, it must have been that someone attacked your father while he was digging for herbs. He was dodging the attack, and when he sprinkled the powder, someone dodged it, so the tree was damaged."
Li Xi used to watch crime investigation documentaries; she has always been interested in this type of program since she was a child.
The only person Meng Zhelan could make her father kill is that person. As of now, his grand plan is not yet complete, so her father is still safe.
Her father, Meng Zhong, was a master of both medicine and poison. Because he did not want to associate with that person, he took her and fled from place to place.
For the first three years, he temporarily settled down in Yadi Village in Yunnan and Sichuan, but he was never able to escape him.
Now that her father has been taken away by him, it seems she will have to go to Kyoto as well.
Li Xi and Meng Zhelan remained silent all the way home.
Meng Zhelan said, "Lan'er, I know you've been preparing to return to the capital these past few days. To be honest, my father and I came here because we were hiding from someone. I can't tell you who that person is, but we'll talk to them in detail when the time is right."
Now that man has taken my father back to Kyoto, and I'll have to go there myself in a few days. Although we haven't known each other long, we hit it off immediately, so I won't waste time with formalities. We'll go to Kyoto together then.”
"Lan'er, you and I don't need to be so polite. You are my savior, and I should repay you with my body," Li Xi teased Meng Zhelan, pulling her close.
Meng Zhelan pretended to pinch Li Xi's waist, "Fine, then I'll make this clear first: if anyone falls for someone else, I'll poison you."
After joking around for a while, the two began to discuss the items they would need for their journey. The most crucial thing now was to raise money for the trip.
If they were to walk, given their pace and the fact that most of the roads are mountainous, it would take them at least six months to reach Kyoto.
They still needed to buy a horse-drawn carriage to travel, since neither of them knew how to ride a horse.
Although Li Xi had memories of the original owner riding horses, she never had the chance to practice after she arrived.
Once I had enough money to buy a horse, I spent some time practicing. After I became proficient, I found an old man in the village who drove an oxcart to learn how to drive a horse-drawn cart.
There are so many tasks to be done, one after another, that it's impossible to finish them all.
Meng Zhelan began to organize the medicinal herbs that could be used and refine them into pills or powders for easy carrying.
Every day after finishing her work, Ling'er would come to Meng Zhelan's house to help them with everything, from cooking and housework to drying medicinal herbs.
Since she saw through the illusions of family ties, she no longer cared how her father, stepmother, younger brother, and sister-in-law ridiculed and insulted her.
A few days ago, Brother Chen told her that he would come to propose marriage once he passed the imperial examination and became a scholar. She was eagerly anticipating the day she could leave this place soon.
During the Jingyuan era, those who passed the imperial examinations and became scholars enjoyed certain rights, such as not having to kneel before officials like ordinary people.
Scholars were exempt from paying taxes. People with land would seek out scholars to register their land for tax exemption, and would give them a certain amount of money in return. The imperial court also introduced many policies to benefit the people in order to encourage ordinary people to read and write.
Seeing Ling'er sometimes lost in thought and smiling foolishly, Meng Zhelan felt relieved. Having known Ling'er for several years, the two were close friends. If Ling'er was happy, then she could leave in peace.
Seeing the two of them, Li Xi couldn't help but sigh, "The friendship between girls is so beautiful."
Thinking of her old friends, I wonder if they will be sad and upset if they can't contact her and find out that she is dead.
Definitely. The two of them have lived and eaten together since college, and after they started working, they rented apartments not far from each other.
During the years her mother was hospitalized for chemotherapy, she helped her mother with everything and lent her a lot of money.
After her mother passed away, her close friends stayed by her side, helping her through those difficult days. Afterwards, they even introduced her to many side jobs to earn extra money.
Now, the two are not only separated by death, but also in different times and spaces.
Thinking of all this, tears blurred Li Xi's vision, and she quickly turned around to wipe them with her sleeve.
Meng Zhelan and Ling'er thought she was worried about the situation at home, so they comforted her, saying, "Lan'er, don't be sad. We will be able to set off for Kyoto soon."
Li Xi had already explained her family situation to the two of them during her recovery, and it wasn't something that needed to be kept secret.
Actually, she wasn't in a hurry; she had just promised the original owner that she would help her fulfill that promise. In truth, she wanted to return the body to the original owner.
So far, she still feels resistant to living in this era.
She is still struggling simply because she is one of the countless strong-willed Chinese women of later generations.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com