Chapter 54: Lost She had always been blocking his path.
The late spring in the morning gave way to the last wisp of wind, blowing slowly from the eaves, and Huaicheng could be said to have entered the new summer.
A red pomegranate flower hit Song Xieqing's eyebrows, but he remained unmoved.
He did not avert his gaze, and his pair of aggressive phoenix eyes were fixed on Zhu Hao. He clearly saw the cunning that flashed in the young lady's eyes.
Zhu Hao grabbed a handful of flour, walked around the round table, and stood next to Song Xieqing.
Song Xieqing was still leaning on the rocking chair. He saw the woman leaning forward slightly, tilting her head to look at him. The two were only half an arm's length apart. The warm fragrance from her body was carried into his senses by the wind. She had shed her sickly paleness and looked even brighter. She was wearing a long, tender apricot-colored dress, and her eyebrows and eyes were full of charm. Song Xieqing stiffened and looked away, not staring at her any longer.
Unexpectedly, the next moment Zhu Hao touched his face. Zhu Hao's palm was cold. Song Xieqing paused, raised his hand to touch her pulse, and let go when he found nothing unusual.
Zhu Hao's hands were covered in white flour. Her fingertips intentionally rubbed his jaw and cheeks. One of her hands wandered to Song Xieqing's brow. Her lipstick-coated lips moved, "Nothing special."
Song Xieqing was completely clear-headed by her four words. Seeing the woman smearing flour on his face and about to leave, he smiled and wrapped the shawl hanging from Zhu Hao's arm. The woman turned sideways and pulled the shawl back. She was of course no match for Song Xieqing. The Su Xing shawl slid down from her arm and circled around his wrist again and again.
Song Xieqing secretly estimated the strength, tightened his five fingers, and exerted force on his arms. He easily pulled the man into his arms and scoffed, "Nothing more than that?" He touched the back of Zhu Hao's neck and pinched it very lightly. "I wonder who said they liked me and were attracted to me a few days ago?"
Zhu Hao looked at Song Xie's cat-like face and laughed, "What did I say that day? It was..."
Her hesitant look seemed to have squeezed his heart in her hands. Song Xieqing raised his eyes and met the woman's smug smile. She had indeed succeeded.
"What I said is, it should be, it is somewhat. When did I say for sure that I like you, that I am attracted to you? How long have you lived, how long have I lived... I have never liked other men before, so if I accidentally misunderstood, it is reasonable. But the Immortal Lord..." Zhu Hao instinctively increased the pressure on her neck. She felt itchy and shrank her neck to smile. "The two words that the Immortal Lord said that day can be said to be 100% certain."
"Wish you well." These two seemingly plain words actually contained a myriad of emotions. Song Xieqing tucked the loose hair from her temples behind her ears. He stared at Zhu Hao's crescent-shaped eyes, and his gaze gradually darkened.
I thought she was going to block all the escape routes for both of them that day, but I didn't expect that she was only blocking his escape route from the beginning to the end.
Song Xieqing lowered his voice and asked with a smile, "Is it fun to tease me?"
The whole yard was so quiet that you could hear a pin drop, and the only sound was the rustling of fallen petals swirled in the wind.
Zhu Haoqing knew that this matter should not be taken too far. She was just trying to coax Song Xieqing when a burnt smell wafted from the open-air stove not far away. Zhu Hao suddenly jumped up from his arms and hurried to the stove to put out the blazing fire.
The warm fragrance in his arms was gone, leaving only the woman's shawl entwined in Song Xieqing's palm. He stroked it repeatedly, his lower lip slightly raised against his fist.
While Zhu Hao was kneading the dough, a whole basket of sugar cakes had already been steamed. She opened the pot and saw that fortunately only a few cakes on the outer edge were burnt. Zhu Hao breathed a sigh of relief and hurriedly took out the good sugar cakes and put them into the food basket.
Sugar cakes are best eaten while they are hot. Qiongyifang and Zhu's house are both located in the South Lane. Xuyin has also been drafting new clothing patterns in the clothing shop recently. Qiongyifang and Baihualou are just across the street from each other. If there are any extra sugar cakes, they can be sent to Miss Yusha.
With this thought in mind, Zhu Hao walked out of the open-air kitchen with her food basket in hand. When she passed Song Xieqing, she picked out the largest candy cake from her basket and stuffed it into his mouth. "Song Xieqing, this is the first bite I'm feeding you. I was just teasing you just now. Don't be angry with me... I don't know what flavors you like, and you never tell me about your trivial matters. If you really don't like it, don't force it. When I'm far away, you can break the candy cake into pieces and feed it to the fish in the pond. Just don't let me see."
She closed the basket cover, picked up the food basket and walked towards the door, saying, "Song Xieqing, I'm going to Qiongyifang to deliver some sweets and cakes to everyone. I'll be back soon. You stay at home."
Zhu Hao did not ask Qiu Er to ride in a carriage. After all, the house was not far from Qiongyifang. Besides, she had not strolled around the streets and alleys of Huaicheng for a long time since she fell ill. Zhu Hao quite enjoyed the feeling of walking lightly.
Seeing the beautiful figure disappear from his sight, Song Xieqing took out the sugar cake that Zhu Hao had forced upon him. It was soft and elastic, with half a red date embedded in the middle. Song Xieqing's brows wrinkled subconsciously, but he took a bite of the sugar cake, and then a second bite.
…
South Lane was bustling with activity at all times. The shopkeepers on both sides of the street, all open to the sky, saw Zhu Hao and greeted her with greetings. Zhu Hao walked briskly and smiled in response. Suddenly, a child emerged from the crowd and stopped her. "Sister, is your name Zhu Hao?"
She nodded slightly, and the child, having received confirmation, handed the crumpled paper ball to her and said, "Someone gave me two cents and asked me to give it to you."
After the little boy finished speaking, he ran into the side alley.
Zhu Hao was puzzled, and as soon as he unfolded the paper ball and took a look, his heart full of doubts suddenly hung in the air.
She crumpled up the letter paper, which was only half the size of her palm, into a ball again, looked around, but did not see the coachman pulling the passengers. Instead, she saw a familiar figure, who was also looking back at her.
"Xuein!"
"elegant?"
The two of them came forward at the same time. Fang Xuyin half-armed her and asked, "Pianpian has just recovered from her illness. Why did you go out instead of resting at home? What delicious food is hidden in your food basket? Pianpian, I was just about to visit you, but who would have thought that you and I would be..."
"Xu Yin." Zhu Hao interrupted her before she could finish her words, but her eyes were not on Fang Xu Yin at all. Instead, she looked around carefully. Seeing Zhu Hao's anxious face, she looked in the direction of Zhu Hao's gaze. Fang Xu Yin suddenly caught a glimpse of a flash in Zhu Hao's eyes, and the sound of a horse neighing came to her ears.
She stuffed the paper into Fang Xuyin's hand and wrote a few words, "Xuyin, please give this to my husband."
Fang Xuyin looked down and saw a small ball of straw paper. She wanted to ask more, but when she looked up, she saw the tender apricot cloth brushing against the shaft of a nearby carriage. Apart from that, there was no sign of Zhu Hao.
She recalled Jiang Zhu's extremely anxious expression, and guessed that the seemingly ordinary paper ball in her hand must be hiding something urgent. So Fang Xu pushed through the crowd, took two steps in three steps, and ran towards Zhu's house without stopping for a moment.
Suddenly, Fang Xu bumped into someone head-on and fell to the ground uncontrollably. She felt as if sparks were flying in her head. Besides the clamor of the downtown, she heard a gentle but anxious male voice, "Miss? What's wrong with you? Miss? I'm sorry! I'm new to Huaicheng, and I... I've been rude to you..."
Fang Xuyin half-closed her eyes. The young man was tall and thin, and his white round-necked robe hung loosely on him. There was just a stubble on his chin, but his head and face were very handsome, like jade covered with dust, but it was just neglected. The eyes that stared at her were clean and clear.
She had no time to deal with this person. Fang Xuyin's back of the hand was scratched and it hurt slightly. She clenched her hands, but there was nothing else except the pain.
Chen Ci's eyes were twitching and his ears were hot. He didn't hear the young lady's response for a long time. Instead, he was groping for something on the ground, his eyes constantly scanning the surroundings.
"Excuse me, young lady, what are you looking for?" He noticed the thin blood oozing from the back of Fang Xu's hand and hurriedly pulled out a clean cloth from his pocket and handed it to her. "Young lady, please wrap the wound first. I will search with you."
"No need." Fang Xuyin stood up and staggered forward without looking back.
The man who came was like a dog-skin plaster, sticking tightly to her until Fang Xuyin stopped a passing coachman and got on the carriage, and then she completely shook him off.
Zhu Haoyan knew she would be back soon, so the door was not locked but wide open. Fang Xu stepped over the high threshold and saw Song Xieqing sitting on a low stool with his hands immersed in a basin, scrubbing the water-soaked quilt.
The gentleman was dignified, with his hair tied with a bamboo hairpin and wearing a moon-white robe. Although he looked like a young man, his hands were not holding a pen or a sword. Instead, he was busy rubbing the bedding. His sleeves accidentally fell into the basin, getting it wet, but he turned a blind eye.
Song Xieqing lifted his hands from the soapy water, one of which was wrapped in a plain white cloth. After scrubbing for a while, he found that the quilt with blood stains on it, which he had pierced from his palm due to his nightmare, was still not clean. Song Xieqing suddenly felt a headache. He thought that there was no other way...he could buy her a similar one, or ask Zhuoshui to use magic to remove the stains.
He sighed, picked up the quilt, twisted it with his hands, and then grabbed both ends of the quilt and threw it forward. The quilt was briefly flattened in the air, and water droplets splashed to one side. Song Xieqing took the still wet quilt and walked to the nearby wooden beam to dry it flat.
The woman not far away looked hesitant. Song Xieqing gathered the quilt and asked sideways, "Pianpian just went out. Didn't you two bump into each other?"
Fang Xuyin told him everything, including the missing paper ball. She apologized, "I'm sorry, I should have just..."
"Miss Fang." Song Xieqing was standing in the shadows. Fang Xuyin couldn't see the expression on his face, but she was sure that he was in a very bad mood.
"Please report my wife and Miaoli missing to the police. Miss Fang, have you seen the coachman clearly? If you have, please draw a picture and ask around at the nearby shops. If you can find the driver, you'll know where Pian Pian went. As for the paper ball, you should also ask anyone on the street if they saw the messenger delivering the letter to Pian Pian."
…
When the three Zhuoshui monsters approached the inner courtyard, Song Xieqing was busy fiddling with the bloody cloth on his palm.
Zhu Hao had forcibly bandaged the wound by pulling his hand. Now that he was in the water, the wound had opened again. If Zhu Hao knew about it, he would definitely be angry with him. Thinking of this, Song Xieqing's gloomy expression finally showed a hint of change.
A murderous aura approached from the side. Song Xieqing stared at the blood droplets mixed with blood and soapy water and said calmly, "If you want to take this opportunity to kill me and no longer be under my control, then please do as you please."
As soon as he finished speaking, a sharp dead branch flew out from the void and stopped just inches away from Song Xieqing's eyes.
"Kill me, and perhaps you'll be able to steal a moment of freedom. However..." He suddenly raised his head, a playful look in his eyes. "If a godslayer's cultivation level were lower than that of a god, he would surely suffer backlash and die without a burial place. Although I've lost my consciousness, do you think you can even take a few steps out of this house?"
He looked at the water on the side and asked calmly, "Are you going to rebel too?"
Zhuoshui stared at him but did not answer the question.
The woman transformed by the viper urged the withered branch forward a little, until the tip was directly against his eyeball. The viper said angrily, "Bah! You've clearly lost your divine power, so how can you be called a god? It's true that you transformed the three of us demons, but you trap us in this house day after day and forbid us from using our magic. Even though we've achieved enlightenment and transformed, we live in such a miserable state. We still have to take care of your fragile little wife. Don't you deserve to die?"
Song Xieqing flicked the dead branch away with his fingers and crushed it with his foot. "After you break free from my restraints, what do you want to do?"
"Taste all the delicacies in the world, travel around the nine continents and four seas, play with all the handsome men, is that not possible?"
Song Xieqing glanced at her and said, "It's not impossible, but if I hadn't enlightened you to become a human, such an aspiration would be difficult to achieve even if you practiced for thousands of years with your talent."
The viper was furious, "You!"
His eyes flicked over the raccoon cat, then landed on Zhuoshui. Song Xieqing asked pointedly, "The Qinse Palace has made a lot of moves with their magical instruments, right? Didn't Song Yue notice?"
Zhuoshui took two steps back. "...a naked, undisguised threat?"
Song Xieqing didn't argue. He unwound the hideously entangled ribbons around his palms one by one and said calmly, "I'll give you two choices. First, help me find her. If she's alright, I'll set you free. Second, kill me, and you three demons will be buried with me and my wife."
No one answered for a moment. After a long silence, Song Xieqing continued, "Have you thought it through? My patience is running out."
The raccoon cat hid behind the viper and gently tugged at her sleeve, "Sister, how about we..."
The three demons all knew the consequences of killing a god. If he was still a god, he had only temporarily lost his magic...
The viper had no choice but to grit his teeth and say, "Human God, you'd better keep your word."
After she finished speaking, she and the raccoon cat both disappeared into the inner courtyard.
Song Xieqing saw Zhuoshui lying on the ground, looking discouraged. A strong wind blew a strand of his sweat-soaked hair. He asked, "The other day, I asked Miaoli if you were really going there just to return to your hometown. What was your answer?"
Only close people can make Zhu Hao panic, and before he lost his supernatural powers, he discovered the wonderful truth that his luck has been bad recently. He had already reminded him gently, but he didn't expect that it would still affect Zhu Hao.
Zhuoshui coughed dryly and said, "I used my magic to investigate, and it's true that she's returning home in earnest. But... then again, if she wanted to return home, but met with disaster along the way, I can't say for sure. Do you agree? I, a newly transformed little demon, suffered a lot because of my sorcery of peeping into the sky... I tried my best."
"The reason you suffered so much was because you tried to understand the secrets of Heaven. If she really just wanted to return home, how could she have anything to do with the secrets of Heaven? Zhuoshui, not only have you not grown, you haven't made up your mind to practice Taoism properly either."
"...Then I can't possibly be upset and tell you this, can I? It's not right for a man to be married and a woman to be unmarried. Besides, how can a little demon like me, who's about to transform into a human, know all these twists and turns regarding the secrets of heaven? I've never learned anything." She sighed in self-deprecation. "Also, ever since Madam Zhu's friend entered the room, I've been spying on her in advance. Guess what? Because of the spell you cast on her a few days ago, I, as a demon, can't spy on Madam Zhu at all."
The implication was that he was shooting himself in the foot.
Song Xieqing rubbed his brows, "You once rested in the Nine Heavens with the Heavenly Water, so you can go in and out of the Qinse Palace and the Heavenly Realm, wash in the water, and look for water plants in the pond."
"No." She refused bluntly, but she had already stood up from the ground and immediately continued, "Let me ask you a question. If you answer well, I will definitely bring Madam Zhu back safely."
"When you found Ah-shi, she was still alive. Did you know that? Even if you didn't know then, now that you know, will you stop... to save her?"
Blood trickled from Song Xieqing's palm onto the lush green meadow, invisible. "The poison she took has no antidote, and even Hua Tuo couldn't help even if he stopped. In other words, if she still had a breath, why would she hold her breath and pretend to be dead? If I stop, wouldn't I be doing her a disservice?"
Zhuoshui's fingertips were surrounded by a circle of bright light. "Since you stopped for an insignificant koi, why don't you take a closer look at her?"
"You're still alive, it wasn't in vain." Song Xieqing walked straight to the gate. "I know you've had a prejudice against me for a hundred years because of Jiang Lin's incident. Maybe you want to kill me like a viper? But no matter how much you ask me, I can't give you any more answers."
"What if it was Madam Zhu who committed suicide by poisoning herself?"
Song Xieqing slowed down his pace, his eyes glancing at Li Feng, "There is no if."
He discarded all assumptions, but Zhuoshui could already sense a look of heavenly punishment and earthly destruction in his eyes.
Her feelings towards Song Xieqing were extremely complicated. Zhuoshui knew that what he said was indeed impeccable. Jiang Lin had already taken poison, and although he was still breathing, he had already been killed. She also understood that Jiang Lin's death had nothing to do with the people who died in the palace coup and Song Xieqing, nor was it the work of the "rebels" under Jiang Ji and Mei Lianqing. It was a palace massacre and robbery directed and acted by Jiang Zhi himself, just to take advantage of the chaos to eliminate the officials headed by Jiang Ji.
It's not that he didn't help A Lin. After all, it was Song Xieqing who saved her life. She just didn't know who to blame for her anger. The maggots from a hundred years ago had already died, and only he was left to numb the hatred in her heart.
Zhuoshui crossed her arms, raised her eyebrows, and tried her best to resemble a murderous demon. "Aren't you afraid that I won't go looking for her? Or maybe I'll kill Zhu Hao secretly?" She thought of the curse thread that had grown on Song Xieqing's neck when he fainted a few days ago, and said sarcastically, "You haven't consummated your marriage with her yet, have you? If I kill her, you won't survive either."
Song Xieqing hadn't reacted to the first words, but his expression changed slightly when he heard the second. He glanced at the nearly transparent teleportation technique under Zhuoshui's feet and said, "Since I've asked you to pay attention to the wonderful principles these days, you should know that I have lost my divine power, and the viper and the raccoon cat obviously know it. They know this because I don't know why Fang Xu came here, nor do I know Zhu Hao's whereabouts."
"Zhuoshui, you had many opportunities to inform Viper, or to incite her two demons to kill me."
Song Xieqing changed the subject and said, "The crux of the matter must be Miao Li. She has been getting along very closely with Zhu Qi in private lately. Please help me find out where Zhu Qi is."
Unfortunately, she was not good at acting. Seeing that Song Xieqing was not fooled at all and did not beg for mercy, Zhuoshui suddenly felt bored and said dejectedly, "Xi Gao."
"Put aside the search for Chi Xing for now and just send me to Xi Gao."
Seeing that Zhuoshui didn't move at all and looked embarrassed, Song Xieqing curled his lips and said, "Can't do it?"
"...Yes." Zhuoshui's voice was barely audible, the magic circle teetering at her feet. "I can only move myself."
Song Xieqing: "..."
She raised her hands high and promised, "After this, I will study hard and practice diligently!"
As Song Xieqing clenched his fist and stepped out of the gate, he only said, "You go to Xigao first. If Pianpian is not here, go find Chi Xing."
-----------------------
The author has something to say: Hey, I received a lot of nutrient solution and thunder recently, muah [Good Luck Lianlian]
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
