Chapter 178 The Dust Settles
Dai Li stayed in the outhouse, listening intently to the sounds outside.
This area was filled with the residences of the concubines. The lord had ordered everyone to gather, and they all obeyed and went outside. The large number of women, their footsteps, whispers, and the jingling of their accessories mingled together like a hymn.
The "singing" faded from high to low, and the flowers drifted away.
Dai Li waited patiently for a while until it was completely quiet outside before she peeked out.
Sure enough, no one was there anymore.
She hesitated, wondering whether she should go back to Falling Flower Garden. It wasn't far from here, and she could sneak back in by walking a short distance.
But if we show ourselves now and get caught, it would be really bad, and we might end up making things worse.
With this in mind, Dai Li decided to stay a little longer.
The VIP the steward mentioned was most likely Qin Changgeng. If he couldn't find anyone, he'd definitely have to leave. It was just a matter of how long it would take; she could just wait.
She had clearly made up her mind, but for some reason, Dai Li felt increasingly uneasy. The negative emotions seemed to have a tangible form, as if they were a sharp shriek exploding in her ears, making her breath quicken and her blood rush.
Her veins were throbbing, screaming at her to leave immediately.
Dai Li steadied herself and decided to trust her sixth sense, just as she had intuitively felt that Zhouzhou was still alive when she first arrived here.
Dai Li pushed the door open a crack and peeked outside. Hmm, it was still empty.
She gently pushed open the door and slipped out. Knowing that she needed to return to Luohua Garden as quickly as possible after leaving, Dai Li ran out.
With her heart pounding so loudly that her ears were ringing from the tension, Dai Li didn't hear any footsteps.
The outhouse was filthy, so it was located in a corner. There were only two paths leading out of this place: north or west. And the Fallen Flower Garden was to the north.
Dai Li rushed north, but after only two or three steps, she suddenly heard a thunderous shout.
"Dali!"
The familiar male voice was stern and cold, like a dragon roaring and a tiger howling, which startled Dai Li so much that her hair stood on end. She didn't look in that direction and subconsciously sped up her pace.
Qin Shaozong was already suppressing his anger, and seeing this, it felt as if a knife had been plunged into his heart, spreading a fine, dense pain. He froze for a moment, and then his anger soared to a great height. He took a step forward and grabbed the person.
He was in his prime, used to fighting on the battlefield, and never slacked off in his daily morning training. Plus, he was much taller than Dai Li, so catching her, who didn't exercise much, was a piece of cake.
Xiao Tong, who was leading the way, and Huang Shichang and the others who were accompanying him watched in astonishment as Qin Shaozong stepped forward and, like an eagle pouncing on a rabbit, swiftly and accurately grabbed the woman in green and then neatly hoisted her up.
"Qin, Grand Commandant Qin?" Huang Shichang stammered.
The other person didn't even glance at him, and quickly walked out carrying the woman with the scar on her cheek.
Xiao Tong stared blankly, feeling as if something had shattered with a "bang." So the nobles of Chang'an had such peculiar tastes—they preferred imperfection to wholeness!
Bai Jianping came to her senses and said to Huang Shichang, who was still standing there, "Lord Huang, the Marquis has something to attend to and must take his leave first. Let's meet again another day."
Without explaining what had just happened, nor specifying when "another day" would be, these polite words only revealed one thing: they were leaving.
When Dai Li was first grabbed and hoisted up, she was terrified. Her abdomen was pressed against the man's strong shoulder. After losing her balance, driven by the instinct to survive, she instinctively wrapped her arms around his neck and her legs also struggled involuntarily.
Unexpectedly, he got a punch on the butt after kicking his leg.
"Behave yourself!" Qin Shaozong was furious.
Although he had already taken a few quick steps and turned the corner, leaving Huang Shichang and the others out of sight, Dai Li's cheeks were flushed red from being beaten in broad daylight. "Put me down, I can walk by myself."
Qin Shaozong turned a deaf ear.
Seeing that he didn't respond, Dai Li became anxious. Just because there was no one on that short stretch of road didn't mean there wouldn't be anyone behind her. So she softened her tone and said to him, "Qin Changgeng, my stomach hurts because you're carrying me like this."
The man stopped and put Dai Li down without saying a word.
Just as Dai Li breathed a sigh of relief, her feet were lifted off the ground again, but this time she was being carried instead of lifted up.
Dai Li couldn't see Qin Shaozong's face before, but now that it's facing her directly, she can see it clearly. He probably hasn't taken care of himself properly in a long time; the stubble on his chin isn't clean, making him look a bit more rugged than usual.
He walked straight ahead, not looking at her, but the lines of his jaw were as sharp as a knife, his muscles were taut, and his heavy, imposing presence suppressed his anger, like thunder rumbling on the Black Sea, about to fall.
Dai Li knew perfectly well that he was furious, but since he was still outside at the moment, he hadn't settled the score with her yet.
Her heart was filled with melancholy and panic, but she couldn't deny that when the male voice calling her name fell, all her uncertainties and anxieties about the future vanished like sand blown away by the wind.
The dust has settled.
By the time Dai Li came to her senses, Qin Shaozong had already arrived at the front courtyard of the Huang residence. His horse was leisurely strolling around the courtyard, occasionally ravaging the flowers and plants belonging to the Huang family.
Seeing its master stride forward, the red dragon eagerly went to greet him.
Qin Shaozong placed Dai Li on the horse's back, then nimbly mounted himself and sat behind her. He held the reins with one hand, while his other large hand tightly encircled the slender waist of the woman in his arms, whether out of fear that she would fall off the horse or because he didn't want her to escape again without a word.
The main gate of the Huang residence remained open, with only two soldiers guarding it on the left and right to prevent the horses from running away, making it convenient for Qin Shaozong to leave now.
The red dragon was pinched in the belly of the horse, and immediately ran out of the mansion.
Qin Shaozong has been staying in a post station these days. He declined the residences offered by the major families in the prefecture and instead rented a post station as his place of lodging.
The inn was not far from the Huang residence, and the two were not separated by a bustling market. The red dragon galloped wildly. To Dai Li, it seemed as if the horse had reached its destination in the blink of an eye.
As the heat source against her back disappeared, Dai Li saw that he had dismounted and tried to use the saddle for leverage to get down as well. However, before she could move, her waist tightened, and he lifted her down, walking swiftly into the post station.
"My lord!" The soldiers were startled when they saw their superior carrying a young woman back, but they were overjoyed when they saw who she was.
The mistress has been found! They no longer have to spend their days in the ice cellar.
The wooden stairs of the inn were pounded heavily with each footstep, making a rapid and heavy sound, which stirred up Dai Li's emotions.
"Qin Changgeng..." she tried calling him.
But the man did not respond at all, just as he had done when he picked her up in his arms at the Huang residence, looking straight ahead without glancing at her.
Qin Shaozong carried her up the three-story staircase in one breath without stopping. He kicked open the door, went inside, and threw Dai Li onto the couch.
A dark shadow loomed over her, and before Dai Li could even look up, her chin was gripped and lifted by three fingers like a pair of pliers.
Their eyes finally met.
Dai Li noticed the new gray hairs appearing at his temples and the fine lines around his eyes that seemed more pronounced than she remembered.
Inside the dimly lit tent, those brown eyes with red roots at the bottom resembled a swirling lake, capable of sucking people in at any moment.
"Did you ignore what I said in Nanyang County?" Although he was looking at Dai Li, every word seemed to be squeezed out from between his teeth, as if he wanted to crush her.
Nanyang County was the place where she was caught on her way south after leaving him for the second time.
"If you dare to run again, I'll break your son's legs!"
“If I don’t beat Qin Yanzhou… and he dares to run away again, I’ll have another one, and when he grows up, I’ll break both his legs.”
Those words drifted over from time and space.
Dai Li's pupils constricted, and she shook her head in panic, "No, Qin Changgeng, don't hit him..."
"I told you, even if you run to the ends of the earth..."
The two voices overlapped, then stopped one after the other.
After a moment of surprise, the veins on Qin Shaozong's forehead throbbed, clearly indicating that he had also thought of the other two lines.
His anger surged even higher, far exceeding his initial expectations. Yet, it wasn't just anger; his chest ached terribly, as if a pot of boiling oil had been poured over it, scalding his skin and flesh, and causing countless blisters to form on the tip of his heart, which was then suddenly pierced by a sharp needle.
Dai Li knew something was wrong. She saw his rapid breathing and the veins bulging on his large hand resting on the edge of the bed. It seemed that he had exerted too much force. When he clenched his long, well-defined fingers into a fist, they turned bluish-white.
He was so angry that it seemed inappropriate to say anything at that moment.
Dai Li stopped talking, her hands trembling as she reached out and encircled the man's neck. Seeing that he didn't resist, she leaned in and kissed him. First, she gave him a light, fleeting kiss, leaving a mark, then looked at him...
Qin Shaozong remained expressionless, his eyes filled with complex emotions, an indescribable mix of anger and something else, intense like aged wine, yet as uncontrollable as a raging fire. Yet, his expression remained cold, clearly suppressing his rage.
Dai Li kissed him again, and this time it was much more profound than the last time.
After a few breaths of kissing, his brown eyes flickered. He changed his previous indifferent attitude and suddenly reached out to wrap his arms around the woman's waist, holding her firmly and tightly in front of him, while deepening the kiss.
His kiss was fierce, pouring out much of the anxieties and worries of the past few days, as well as the rage he felt upon learning of her departure. The raging flames covering the mountain slowly receded, settling into the thickest swamp, howling as they dragged Dai Li into it and submerged her.
Dai Li felt a slight pain on the tip of her tongue, and she even had the illusion that she was tasting blood.
The sounds of kissing were particularly clear in the undisturbed daytime.
Dai Li was trapped in a corner, with his hot chest in front of her and his two iron arms holding her on either side. His body was incredibly hot, as if even his breath carried sparks, or like red-hot iron that hissed and released a cloud of heat as soon as it touched water.
The space in the corner of the tatami was limited, and Dai Li could not move, so he could only kiss her thoroughly.
Once Qin Shaozong had stepped back slightly, she didn't even have time to catch her breath before saying, "Qin Changgeng, I'm so sorry I didn't tell you about these things beforehand."
He scoffed, "You only say these things after kissing me? Using your beauty to seduce me, is this how you apologize, Madam?"
Dai Li pretended not to hear this and continued, "You've already read the letter I left for you, haven't you?"
The veins on his forehead twitched, as if a surge of anger was welling up within him. Just as he opened his mouth to speak, a soft, delicate hand touched his cheek.
"Chang Geng, listen to me first."
The man paused, only letting out a cold snort, and said nothing more.
Dai Li said softly, "If I had a choice, I wouldn't want to leave. You've done a great job since we got married; you're an excellent husband. We're well-off, living a life of luxury, but I haven't transcended the point of being able to ignore all material things. Besides, the matter of the fertile land hasn't been completely resolved yet. How could I not want to see the golden autumn of Yuyang with my own eyes this year?"
It was unclear which of her words had comforted him, but Qin Shaozong's tone was less fierce than before, though his face remained cold. "Then why did Madam run away?"
Dai Li slowly withdrew her hand. "That throne in Chang'an will be yours sooner or later. If I don't leave, what will become of Zhouzhou and Qinian? Do you really want me to watch them brothers turn against each other? Qin Changgeng, I can't do that!"
Qin Shaozong is the kind of person who responds better to gentle persuasion than force, but after he caught her, Dai Li was determined to use a soft approach to overcome his rigidity and slowly explain the situation to him. He had experienced many ups and downs and would surely understand her concerns.
However, when she finally reached the point where there was no way to retreat, Dai Li discovered that everything was out of control.
She wasn't a precise machine after all, and couldn't eliminate the interference of emotions, just as she couldn't write the "Divorce Agreement" for him in one go.
Those moments of unease in the dead of night, those feelings of being distrusted, those moments of confusion as I pondered the future—all erupted like a torrent that could no longer be contained, with his cold questioning.
“Nalan is clearly siding with Zhouzhou and challenging Mr. Cui. As their superior, don’t give me any nonsense about how you didn’t authorize this. You didn’t tell me what you did behind my back, you didn’t tell me anything, so I have to figure it out myself.”
Dai Li's emotions grew increasingly agitated. "By learning from history, we can understand the rise and fall of dynasties. Letting these two brothers go unchecked will inevitably lead to them turning against each other and becoming irreconcilable enemies! Even you, Qin Changgeng, may not fare well in the future. How can I keep them here? You have no room for me to stay!"
In the past, Li Shimin and Li Jiancheng competed in a contest, and in the end, Emperor Taizong won. His elder brother was defeated and died, while Emperor Gaozu was directly imprisoned. He had no choice but to make his second son the crown prince. Later, he became the retired emperor and let his second son succeed him.
Of course, Dai Li did not believe that Qin Shaozong, who had spent half his life on the battlefield, was completely equivalent to the historical figures she knew.
But as the saying goes, "By learning from history, we can understand the rise and fall of dynasties." Even if it doesn't follow that trajectory exactly, there will always be some similarities.
After all, that was the power over the entire realm, possessing the unreasonable power of life and death. The Midas touch could turn stone into gold; whoever it touched could rise to prominence, and their entire clan would rise with it. The same applied to life and death; if the ruler commanded his subject to die, the subject had no choice but to die.
Given such power, how many people can remain unmoved and indifferent?
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Author's note: (Tug-of-war in progress)
By the way, which author would you like to see featured next? Please vote:
A: "The Mistress", also known as "My Mother is the White Moonlight of All the Powerful Figures in the Capital" (tentative title)
B: Transmigrated as a Demonic Concubine Who Brings Disaster to the Country
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