Chapter 60 Xu Jingzhen
Li San Niang did not speak, nor did she let go of the golden hairpin. She only gestured with her eyes, asking how she wanted to see it.
Xu Jingzhen approached Li Sanniang, grabbed her waist with one hand, stepped on the artificial rock next to her, and flew directly to the top of the artificial rock that was two people tall.
Fortunately, Li San Niang was a woman who had seen a lot, so she wasn't frightened by Xu Jingzhen's move.
When Li San Niang reached the top of the artificial rockery, she discovered the secret. It turned out that from a distance, the artificial rockery looked as tall as two people, but it actually used a visual illusion. At this height of about one person, there was a flat area that could only accommodate two people at most, but it was long and narrow.
At this moment, Xu Jingzhen was right behind Li Sanniang. Xu Jingzhen grabbed Li Sanniang's left arm and took two steps forward, gesturing for her to look north.
Following Xu Jingzhen's hand, Li Sanniang looked in that direction and discovered a small hole in the tall stone wall in front of her. Li Sanniang crouched down slightly and saw a bamboo forest across a narrow artificial river. Behind the bamboo forest, on the ground next to the artificial river, lay a person dressed in dark blue clothes, and a woman in apricot-colored clothes kneeling beside her.
No wonder these two dared to meet here in secret; their meeting place was completely covered by obstructions, so no one outside could see that there were two people hiding inside.
Before Li San Niang could take a closer look, she saw Rou Niang, dressed in an apricot-colored dress, quickly straighten her clothes, wipe her face, adjust the hairpin in her hair, look around quickly, and then get up and run out of the bamboo forest.
After seeing this, Li San Niang had no doubts.
To put it simply, Xu Jingzhen, who wasn't a bad person, arrived a step earlier. Whether out of curiosity or because he already knew, he jumped onto the artificial rock platform first to do what he called sunbathing.
Then, the couple who were having a secret rendezvous came from outside the bamboo grove to this place for their tryst.
Later, driven by her confusion and curiosity, Li San Niang ran into the artificial rockery and heard their voices.
As a result, for some unknown reason, Lin Lang suddenly fell ill. When Xu Jingzhen saw that Li San Niang was about to speak, he stepped in to stop her.
The reasons are twofold. First, he was probably afraid of being discovered himself, so he figured it was better to avoid trouble. Explaining such behavior would be too much of a hassle. Second, he might have wanted to save Li San Niang's life.
After all, although Li San Niang was able to attend the flower-viewing banquet at the Liang State Duke's mansion today, judging from her attire, one could tell that Li San Niang was at most the wife of a low-ranking official. If she were really involved in such sordid matters, she might very well lose her life.
Thinking of this, Li San Niang understood that Xu Jingzhen must know the name of the dead man, and he might even know who Rou Niang, who was wearing an apricot-colored dress, was.
Since that's the case, Li Sanniang turned around and bowed to Xu Jingzhen, "Thank you for clearing up my doubts, sir. Please take me downstairs, sir, I need to get to my seat."
After Xu Jingzhen helped Li Sanniang down from the artificial rock, Li Sanniang carefully put the gold hairpin back into her hair, nodded to Xu Jingzhen, and turned to leave.
At this moment, Xu Jingzhen became interested and reached out to grab Li Sanniang's sleeve.
Li San Niang looked back at the sleeve that Xu Jingzhen was holding in his hand, feeling a little sorry for the clothes that her mother had spent so much money to make for her. The clothes were beautiful, but beautiful fabrics usually don't last long.
Xu Jingzhen, who was able to carry Li Sanniang up and down the mountain, was naturally quite strong. He actually managed to pull Li Sanniang's delicate sleeves so hard that they were almost torn.
Xu Jingzhen realized that she had used too much force and quickly let go.
"My lord, is there something else?"
“I noticed that your hairpin is a little crooked.”
Li San Niang thought this person had something to say, but said, "Nothing, thank you for today, sir. We'll never meet again."
After saying that, Li Sanniang turned to leave, but Xu Jingzhen quickly said, "After this incident, whether it was an accident or a setup, people from the Dali Temple will definitely come later. Let me straighten your hairpin for you, so we can deal with it later."
Hearing this, Li Sanniang felt that what he said made sense, so she lowered her head and said, "Then I'll have to trouble you, sir."
Xu Jingzhen then stepped forward, took the gold hairpin from Li San Niang's hair bun, found the right angle, and reinserted it into the bun, while also straightening the pearl flowers next to it.
Li San Niang bowed again and quickly headed back along the path she had come from.
Xu Jingzhen, watching Li Sanniang's back from behind, thought to himself that this young woman was truly interesting. When faced with this situation, she neither asked for his name nor told him her own, and that was already quite something.
But she didn't even notice his physical appearance!
It's understandable that she didn't see his face when he initially covered her mouth.
Later, when the two confronted each other, Li Sanniang looked directly at Xu Jingzhen, but she did not give up her golden hairpin; in fact, she gripped it even tighter.
This was an experience Xu Jingzhen had never had before!
As for Xu Sanlang, who was famous on the list of beauties in Chang'an, ever since he returned from learning martial arts at Wudang Mountain at the age of sixteen and attended a banquet at his own home, he was often pelted with handkerchiefs by women because of his good looks. After he came of age at twenty, there were at least eighty or a hundred families who came to propose marriage.
It wasn't just because of Xu Jingzhen's beauty that they came; her grandfather was the Duke of Yingguo. Although her father died early, the title of Duke of Yingguo was inherited by her elder brother, Xu Jingye. Xu Jingzhen could be said to have a distinguished family background.
In this case, beauty is merely a bonus.
However, Xu Jingzhen, who was sent to Wudang Mountain to cultivate Taoism since childhood due to a problem with his destiny, really did not want to get married. Because of the problem with his destiny, his family, from his grandfather to his mother and brother, did not dare to pressure him too much. At this point, Xu Jingzhen was already twenty-nine years old and was still a golden bachelor in Chang'an City.
Despite this, Xu Jingzhen consistently ranked first on the list of the best marriageable men in Chang'an.
In Chang'an, those older than him were either already married or had many children, while those younger than him did not have his illustrious family background or his good looks.
Not to mention, the years after his coming of age were the busiest time for Xu Jingzhen, who was being urged to find a wife. Annoyed by his mother's nagging, he declared that he was a Taoist practitioner and would only have one Taoist partner in his life, so he wanted to find someone he liked.
His original intention was to use his own preferences to force his mother to stop urging him to marry a girl, but once he said this, the young women in Chang'an became even more frenzied.
After all, apart from Xu Sanlang, which of the top ten beauties in Chang'an City didn't have a harem of wives and concubines?
A husband who is truly devoted to only one person only exists in storybooks.
This highlights what makes Xu Jingzhen so remarkable.
You tell me, this guy is really strange. Every woman Xu Jingzhen usually encounters, from teenagers to women in their fifties, is all smiles and friendly to him. But when he suddenly meets Li Sanniang, a woman who doesn't give him any attention, he finds her interesting and really wants to get to know her better.
Actually, Xu Jingzhen had grabbed Li Sanniang's sleeve earlier to ask her name and where she lived, but when he saw the furrowed brows on Li Sanniang's face after he had torn her clothes so hard, he felt a little nervous and didn't dare to ask the question. So he made up an excuse to help her fix her hairpin.
When Li San Niang arrived at the fork in the road where her maid Bi Tao had parted ways with her, she encountered groups of women of different ages. These women were being led by their maids, so Li San Niang followed them to the place where the banquet was being held.
Upon arrival, they were quite considerate, with a maidservant coming forward to guide them. After Li San Niang gave her name, she was led to a round table set up in an open space near a pavilion on the south side. Li San Niang chose the outermost seat and sat down. Soon after, many other women arrived one after another.
Only then did Li San Niang realize that this was not a flower-viewing banquet at all, but a matchmaking banquet.
It turned out that on the other side of the artificial river that stretched across the garden were the male guests. Gentlemen dressed in various clothes were talking loudly there, some of them like peacocks spreading their tails to attract the attention of the women on the other side of the river.
After listening to the conversation of the young ladies at the same table, Li San Niang learned that Princess Anding had not only returned to attend Emperor Wu's birthday celebration, but also wanted to find a husband for her youngest daughter.
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