Chapter 86 Spring Thunder Rolls Across Distant Mountains
Mo Yanyun blocked Qin Yanzhou's door and earnestly said, "...Young master, isn't our northern land good enough? Why do you want to stay in the Qinglian Sect? They deceive the world and steal fame, do nothing but commit crimes, and often use gods and Buddhas as a cover to swindle and cheat people. They are definitely not the righteous ones."
"Get out of the way!" Qin Yanzhou didn't want to say anything more to him.
Outside, lightning flashed and thunder roared, making it impossible for him to hear anything coming from the next room.
Unable to hear, he grew increasingly anxious.
Unfortunately, the gate was blocked, and they couldn't get out.
Mo Yanyun continued, as if chanting a mantra, "In our northern lands, we all treat Lady Dai with utmost respect and devotion. If she asks us to catch a chicken, we would never dare to beat a dog. Jewels, jade, silks, brocades, wealthy servants, beautiful maids—what could she possibly want that our Lord wouldn't provide?"
Yes, Mo Yanyun believed that Dai Li and her son's secret departure from the city was entirely at the behest of the Qinglian Sect. Because Xia Gu was no longer safe, they were instructed to relocate to another stronghold.
As for why Dai Li would submit to the Qinglian Sect, it's easy to understand. The young master was being held there, and she had no choice.
He never considered that Dai Li was unaware of the "detaining people" incident, and that her departure was neither due to her being from the North nor the Qinglian Sect.
Qin Yanzhou was extremely annoyed.
From the moment he opened the door, the big man in front of him kept muttering to himself for over two quarters of an hour. The words rolled back and forth like wheels, chanting incessantly.
Now that his mother is with Marquis Wu'an, it would be clearly inappropriate for him to hit the other party's people. He can't hit them, and he can't drive them away by scolding them.
"Shut up!"
Mo Yanyun continued muttering, "Oh, young master, listen to me..."
Qin Yanzhou's room was lively, but the room next door was unusually hot.
The tub that Dai Li used to bathe in was not carried out, and now the water inside is spilled everywhere.
Some of it spilled directly onto the ground, some left a small patch of water on the black armor that had fallen to the ground, and some even wet the dark red cloak.
Clothes were scattered everywhere in the room. Next to the black armor lay a woman in an apricot-colored thin shirt. The further towards the bed, the fewer the patches of water stains there were, and the more clothes, especially the woman's clothes, appeared.
The electric dragons that occasionally flashed outside the window became the only source of light, and when a flash of electricity passed by, the scene inside the room would light up for a moment.
In that instant, the room was brightly lit, except for a dark shadow that was perched on the bed.
The man was tall and imposing, with broad shoulders and a narrow waist. He knelt on the couch, his back to the outside, trapping a figure in a corner. The electric light illuminated his scarred, dark back. At this moment, with his powerful movements, the strong muscles of his back and waist taut out smooth lines.
The swallowing sounds were exceptionally clear in this small space, like those of wolves and tigers, as if they wished they could devour the animal whole, skin and bones.
“Dai Li.” He called her by her full name, which was unusual for him.
Hearing his two deep words, Dai Li felt a chill run down her spine. The ominous premonition grew heavier and heavier, like a wet blanket pressing down on her head.
"I'll ask you one last time: did you go south on your own initiative, or did the Green Lotus Sect really have a mission for that kid?" Qin Shaozong's voice was hoarse and deep.
"Waaah..." Dai Li tried to brush it off.
Qin Shaozong clicked his tongue and raised his hand to cover half of Dai Li's face. "Speak up, stop pretending to be confused!"
Her face was so small that he could cover it completely with his palm. At this moment, he was holding her chin in his palm, and it was just that small.
Her lips were bright red and slightly swollen, and the tips of her nose and the corners of her eyes were also red, contrasting with the small cinnabar mole on her forehead. Her face was a mix of white and red, and she had a pair of extremely dark, jet-black eyes.
Her colors were vibrant and pleasing to the eye; there was probably no one else in the world who could match his taste better.
However, Qin Shaozong became increasingly irritated as he looked at it; every part of his body—heart, liver, spleen, lungs, and kidneys—was burning with pain.
This fox is full of wicked schemes; he can come up with eight hundred tricks in the blink of an eye. When he gets caught doing something bad, he starts to play dumb when he can't be fooled.
His long, calloused fingers bent slightly and then straightened, probing into her red lips, pinching her soft red tongue between two fingers. "Don't you want your tongue anymore if you're not going to speak?"
With a foreign object in her mouth, Dai Li instinctively tried to bite it, but suddenly woke up halfway through.
Her eyelashes were slightly damp with moisture. She looked up at the man in front of her, whose face was still very pale, but she didn't bite him again. Instead, she gently touched his finger with the tip of her tongue.
"Yes, I want it." The two words were spoken vaguely and sweetly.
"Madam's ability to change her mind so easily is unparalleled; I truly admire her." Qin Shaozong chuckled in exasperation. He withdrew his hand and deliberately rubbed her lips with his silver-streaked fingers. "Was your trip south entirely because you wanted to leave?"
After going around in circles, we've come full circle back to the original question.
Dai Li couldn't possibly admit it, "...No."
Qin Shaozong sneered, "Still lying, you're courting death."
Outside the window, purple light flashed, as if a giant tiger was wreaking havoc in the sky. With a casual stomp of its claws, several streaks of purple lightning shot out for thousands of miles.
Thunder roared in the sky, and while the noise inside wasn't as great as outside, it wasn't quiet either.
The plain curtains on either side of the couch were not hung up, and in the flickering purple light, two figures appeared and disappeared.
Dai Li bent over, gripping the openwork bed frame in front of her, and tried to scratch the crossbeam with her fingernails. When she found that she couldn't scratch it, she turned to grab the pillow under the bed frame with both hands.
She sobbed, crumpling the pillowcase as she did so: "I really didn't lie to you..."
"Did you want to escape on your own, or was it a mission from the Qinglian Sect? Tell the truth." He didn't believe it at all.
Dai Li rubbed her cheeks against the blanket, her face flushed, her eyelashes wet with tears. She was exhausted from his interrogation and knew he was convinced that she wanted to run away and wouldn't listen to anything else.
She had to admit it.
“It was… my own idea.” Dai Li’s voice was barely audible. After saying this, she called him softly again, saying all the nice things she could think of. The nice things she said later were much louder than the ones before.
Thunder and lightning flashed outside, but Qin Shaozong heard both of Qin's words clearly. The man laughed angrily, "So that means that when you first met me today, Madam lied to me?"
Dai Li thought to herself, "Isn't this obvious?" But the man was furious, and she couldn't provoke him further. She could only whisper, "I was wrong."
The veins on Qin Shaozong's forehead bulged.
She's still the same, avoiding the important issues and never changing. I couldn't help but raise my hand and slap her.
Dai Li's pupils constricted sharply. It didn't hurt much, but the sound was very loud, even though there hadn't been thunder outside. Her shame surged at that moment; she suspected the sound had penetrated the wall and reached the next room.
Dai Li was tired and secretly collapsed.
"If you won't listen to reason, you'll have to suffer the consequences. Behave yourself." He raised his hand and struck again.
"How did you promise me before, Madam? Putting aside what happened later, you personally agreed to the initial one-year agreement, didn't you?" After saying that, he gave her another slap.
At first, Dai Li would bite the corner of the blanket and sob, but later, when he realized he wasn't getting a response from her, he would sometimes give her two slaps for every word she said.
Dai Li is going crazy.
"...I promised it." She had no choice but to admit it.
Then came another cold laugh, "Breaking promises, going back on one's word, and abandoning those who have helped you!"
He didn't say those three words quickly, but each one was delivered with tremendous force, as if he were gritting his teeth, and with each word he slapped her.
"What promises I made to you, Madam, have I failed to keep? When we first didn't hear from that boy, did I send someone to Yangzhou?"
"……yes."
He patted it again and asked once more, "After learning that the boy had appeared in Yangzhou ten years ago, after my wife and I reached an agreement, did I, as I said before, issue missing person notices to all the states and assemble an inspection team for my wife to travel to all the states?"
"……yes."
Suddenly, a thunderclap erupted outside, the sound of thunder completely overlapping with the "crack" sound, the former swallowing up the latter entirely.
Although she was hit several times, she couldn't hear it, so Dai Li pretended not to hear it and said, "Qin Changgeng, I was wrong."
Qin Shaozong couldn't stand hearing her admit her mistakes; it was like adding fuel to the fire, making him increasingly angry the more he listened.
Since meeting him, she has apologized many times, but each time it was only to avoid trouble and to escape her predicament. Her apologies were perfunctory and never sincere.
He ignored her words and continued, "Later, when we found your son, that kid had gotten himself into a lot of trouble. He had offended Yanzhou, Qingzhou, and other minor powers. Did I help him sort them out one by one?"
“...Yes.” Dai Li’s eyes were filled with tears.
He kept moving.
The sound made Dai Li feel extremely ashamed. She tried everything to appease him, but he showed no sign of stopping.
Dai Li broke out in a cold sweat, and finally simply grabbed a piece of clothing that she didn't know whose was on her head and covered it with it.
Out of sight, out of mind; out of hearing, out of mind.
Qin Shaozong scoffed coldly, raising his hand to remove her clothes. "You dare to do it and then take responsibility? Since you dared to break the contract and run away without a word, why are you afraid to face the consequences now? I have never broken my word to you, yet you have repeatedly toyed with me. It is true that the Qinglian Sect committed evil deeds, and it is also true that you wanted to take advantage of the situation and then discard me. So, this whole 'going with the flow' thing happened, didn't it?"
The pillowcase that Dai Li was biting was already soaked and its color was uneven.
Seeing that she didn't speak, the embarrassing sound rang out twice more.
Dai Li's eyelashes trembled. At this critical juncture, she really couldn't afford to make excuses. Now she just hoped that this part would be over quickly and that they would stop harping on her lying.
She should agree to whatever he says.
"Yes," she mumbled, then begged him to stop hitting her.
Qin Shaozong then asked, "When I told my wife that she would stay by my side forever, you said you would give me an answer in a month. Did you already plan to use delaying tactics at that time?"
"……yes."
Qin Shaozong gritted his teeth and slapped her again, "Will you dare to do it again?"
"I dare," Dai Li replied instinctively.
After giving an affirmative answer, Dai Li was stunned for a moment, then belatedly realized she had said the wrong thing, "No, it's not..."
Qin Shaozong had lost count of how many times tonight he had been driven to the brink of madness by her.
Well, it turns out she didn't listen to a word I said to her and just wanted to deal with him as quickly as possible.
Okay, very good indeed. She really needs to be taught a lesson!
"Qin Changgeng, that's not what I meant," Dai Li said anxiously.
She hadn't expected that she'd been so impulsive and said the wrong thing, and now he'd seized on it. And as soon as she finished speaking, she noticed he'd gradually moved to another spot.
He moved his hand along her waistline from top to bottom, finally landing on a tiny spot. "What Madam said herself, how could it be false?"
Qin Shaozong's eyes almost burned with fire. "If these words don't count, then so many words will be invalid. It will be really hard to tell which words are true and which are false from now on."
"Just that last sentence doesn't count, that's all." Dai Li's eyes instantly welled up with tears again.
His fingertips were covered in thick calluses and were very rough. They would feel rough to the touch normally, so how could anyone deliberately play with such delicate areas?
Qin Shaozong wouldn't listen; he couldn't bear to hear a single word.
Dai Li couldn't hold back any longer and reached behind her to push him away, but before she could even touch him, he grabbed her wrist.
His palms were hot and thick, like red-hot shackles, and Dai Li was unable to move her wrists.
"If you dare to run again, I'll break your son's legs!" Qin Shaozong said viciously.
He said everything else, and Dai Li could respond or tolerate it, just turning a blind eye and letting it pass. But this one sentence made her react very strongly: "You hit me, and you're going to hit Zhouzhou too! Doesn't that mean I got hurt for nothing?"
She began to struggle and refused to cooperate with him any longer.
Qin Shaozong held the man down firmly, firmly pinning him beneath him, and said, "We will not attack Qin Yanzhou."
Dai Li paused.
Qin Shaozong guided her hand down, finally placing it on her own stomach. Dai Li's once flat abdomen could no longer maintain its original state.
"If he dares to run away again, I'll have another one, and when he grows up, I'll break both his legs."
"Qin Shaozong, you pervert!"
Qin Shaozong raised his eyebrows slightly, "What do you mean by perverted?"
"It means you're being praised... Stop rubbing, I can't take it anymore, sob sob."
Qin Shaozong didn't believe a word of it. "It seems that Madam's bad habit of lying is impossible to change. Oh well, the road ahead is long and arduous, we'll correct it slowly."
As if remembering something, Qin Shaozong added, "If Madam agrees to a few things, I will tell you one important matter concerning that boy and the Green Lotus Sect."
As soon as he finished speaking, Dai Li eagerly said, "I promise, I promise you."
The fire in Qin Shaozong's chest began to churn again. "You flatterer, Dai Li. Let me tell you, even if you run to the ends of the earth, I will find you."
Lightning flashed and thunder roared outside the window, and torrential rain poured down. The flags used by merchants to attract customers fluttered in the wind, and there was no peace all night.
*
The magistrate of Nanyang County was surnamed Mi, and his given name was Gao. Mi Gao was a diligent magistrate who liked to handle government affairs personally.
Before dawn, a servant rushed in to report, "Your Highness, a cavalry force has opened the north gate under cover of night."
The combination of "cavalry" and "under the cover of night" was enough to send a chill down Mi Gao's spine.
"Who goes there?" As soon as he finished asking, Mi Gao muttered to himself, "I heard there's a war going on in Yanzhou, but that doesn't make sense. Wasn't it said that the war in Yanzhou was over, and that they should just stay and fight their own battles? What are they doing in Yuzhou?"
After muttering something, Mi Gao asked who the visitor was.
The servant shook his head and said he didn't know: "After the cavalry opened the city gate, they went straight to a post station in the north of the city, and then the whole team moved in there. There has been no unusual activity since then."
The reason it took so long to report this is that all the guards in the north city were tied up, and all the watchmen and patrolmen they encountered at night were also arrested. They were not released until dawn.
Mi Gao paced back and forth in the room. "They released them? They don't seem to have any ill intentions. If they really wanted to seize the city, they could have killed them and sneaked into my residence at night. Which post station are they at? Send someone to lasso their horses; I want to pay them a visit."
...
When Dai Li woke up, it was already bright daylight outside.
She was still lying on the couch, staring blankly at the plain canopy above her, her memory somewhat confused, unaware of what day it was.
It wasn't until quite a while that the scenes from last night resurfaced.
Qin Shaozong caught up with them.
Dai Li let out a low wail and grabbed the blanket next to her to cover her head. But less than two seconds later, she immediately took the blanket off and threw it aside.
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Author's Note: Here I am!
I need nutrient solution [Cat Head]
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