Chapter 17 Her temples were like autumn cicada wings, delicate as a moth's wings...
Yang Qing waited a while longer before going out, and before leaving, she gave the little black cat a hard tap on the head.
This little guy really got her into trouble today.
Li Shangxuan wouldn't be the kind of person who would deliberately delay the emperor's approval of a marriage just for a minor verbal dispute, would he?
She was still a little uneasy. When she returned to her seat, she saw that Chu Ying had already come back and changed into a dress. Although it was the same color, the pattern was slightly different. People who were not close to her probably wouldn't have noticed.
Chu Ying's expression finally softened when she saw her return. "Where did you go? I didn't see you when I came out."
Yang Qing only told her about the little black cat: "It got a little lost and it took some time to get back."
Chu Ying said, "You're so stupid, how could you get lost in a place like this?"
Yang Qing said with dissatisfaction, "You are such an ungrateful person! If it weren't for keeping you company, I wouldn't have gone out at all, and now you're mocking me!"
Chu Ying then said embarrassedly, "Alright, it was my fault. Thank you for being willing to come out with me."
Yang Qing snorted, indicating that she wouldn't hold it against her.
As the Crown Prince's teacher, Master Chi was quite popular in this setting, surrounded by people and talking for a long time, and also drinking quite a bit of wine.
He was fine outside, but once he got home, the second wife's eyebrows furrowed so much they could kill an insect, and she looked at her husband with utter disgust.
Chu Ying then secretly discussed with Yang Qing: "Did you see Empress Ming's two nieces? There's only one Crown Prince, but the Ming family sent two daughters. I really don't know who will win them."
Yang Qing paused for a moment. The Emperor and Li Shangxuan probably wouldn't let a Ming family girl become the Crown Princess. She felt a little uncomfortable. "This is none of our business. Why are you talking about this?"
Chu Ying said, "Actually, I think neither of them is as pretty as you."
Yang Qing said, "Oh, you're not allowed to mention them anymore. I have nothing to do with them."
Chu Ying sensed that she was annoyed, so she nodded and reluctantly agreed, "Alright."
After the Emperor's birthday celebration, the various princes and nobles were about to return to their fiefdoms, and the matter of the arranged marriage was left unresolved. Yang Qing breathed a sigh of relief, but couldn't help but wonder if Li Shangxuan had spoken well of her.
Liu Ye'er was much happier than Yang Qing when she learned that everyone from the Ning Prince's Mansion had left. However, the two of them hadn't been happy for long when they received a letter from outside. The envelope only had the words "To Miss Chi Liu" written on it. When they asked the gatekeeper, they found that the messenger was a little beggar who had already run away.
Yang Qing opened it and saw two lines of poetry written on it; the handwriting was quite beautiful.
"Her temples are like cicada wings in autumn, her eyebrows are like distant mountains."
The signature consisted of only one character: 蕴 (yùn).
Yang Qing was furious when she remembered the last line of the poem, "If betrothed, she will be a wife; if elope, she will be a concubine." She not only cursed the bastard in her heart, but also, since there was only Liu Ye'er in front of her, she didn't need to hide her anger. "You want me to be your concubine? Don't you even know if you're worthy?"
She was, after all, the daughter of an official of the imperial court, and her grandfather was still alive. He couldn't even ask her to marry him, let alone force her to become his concubine.
Yang Qing found it all laughable.
After the Wanshou Street incident was over, Li Shangxuan requested another job, requesting to travel incognito to the Xichuan area.
Who says good fortune never comes in pairs? Isn't this the best thing ever for Yang Qing?
It will take him at least several months to travel through all the prefectures of Xichuan. By then, Yang Qing might already be married.
Madam Mu seemed to like her very much. Every time they met, she would hold her hand and ask her all sorts of questions. She also seemed to be trying to push her son and nephew in front of her.
Yang Qing was also somewhat tempted; marriage is not just a matter between a young man and a woman.
Although Empress Ming in her previous life didn't pay much attention to her and she had never suffered from her mother-in-law's mistreatment, she had heard that some mothers-in-law liked to torment their daughters-in-law.
For example, Xu Pianran often complained to her mother-in-law after getting married. Every day at dawn, she had to go to her mother-in-law's room to stand in the rules, which was extremely annoying, but she couldn't really say anything about disobeying her elders.
Even Xu Pianran, who married down, was treated this way; one can only imagine what kind of lives other newlyweds lived.
Naturally, Rongyue will not marry the eldest son of the Yun family again in this life, and she naturally does not want to marry the second son of the Yun family either. The Mu family is a good choice.
She hadn't met the two young men of the Mu family much, but she had taken a liking to her mother-in-law, Madam Mu, first.
However, Mu Xinghuai is steady and taciturn, while Mu Xiangwen is young and impetuous. The two are still a good choice. Yang Qing is also somewhat tempted. If she can get married before Li Shangxuan returns, it will be a done deal.
Mu Hanjing, the daughter of the Mu family, is sixteen years old this year. She gets along very well with Yang Qing. She is new to the capital and doesn't know many people yet. Whenever she wants to go out or host a banquet at home, she always invites Yang Qing. Over time, Yang Qing has met the two young masters of the Mu family many times, but she can't help but secretly compare herself to Li Shangxuan.
She didn't want to marry someone worse than him.
Even after leaving the Mu family, she couldn't help but feel depressed. No matter how hard Liu Ye'er tried to cheer her up, she couldn't manage a smile.
Suddenly, there was a loud crash on the road, and the carriage broke down. Liu Ye'er quickly helped Yang Qing out first, and saw that the right wheel of the carriage had rolled quite a distance.
Liu Ye couldn't help but complain, "What's going on? Didn't you even check before you came out?"
The coachman scratched his head, looking puzzled. "This... I checked it last night..."
At this point, further reprimands are useless.
Fortunately, the Mu family and the Chi family were not far apart, and it would only take about the time it takes to drink a cup of tea to walk there.
Liu Ye'er said, "How can that be? Miss, please sit here for a while. I'll go home and find someone to come and fetch you."
Should we let her sit here for a while? Or should we just let her stare at the driver?
As soon as she said it, Liu Ye realized it was inappropriate. But if she sent the driver back to report, the two of them would be left alone on the road again, so walking was the best course of action.
Liu Ye'er muttered to herself, "I should have brought more people with me. I thought it was just a small gathering of girls, and it wouldn't be good to make a big show of it. I didn't expect this to happen halfway through."
The sky was darkening, and the sunset in the west was as fiery as fire, as if it were about to set the woods on fire.
Although the curfew was extended, the truly bustling areas were still the East and West Markets, while the residential neighborhoods remained remarkably quiet, with only the occasional horse-drawn carriage passing by.
Yang Qing felt her heart pounding, and she couldn't help but wonder if she had been too lazy lately. Her chest was pounding as soon as she took just a few steps.
Even though her heart was pounding, she still urged, "Willow Leaf, let's walk faster."
Liu Ye'er asked with a pained expression, "Why are you in such a hurry, Miss?"
Yang Qing didn't answer, and walked faster and faster until she was almost jogging.
After not hearing footsteps behind her for a while, she urged, "Willow Leaf, hurry up..."
Turning my head, I was met with a masked face.
Yang Qing's eyes widened, and before she could even scream, everything went black, and she lost consciousness.
When she woke up again, she was back in the carriage, experiencing the familiar bumpy ride, but the person sitting next to her was no longer the slender Liu Ye'er; it had been replaced by a robust old woman.
The man looked to be around thirty or forty years old. He had been watching her the whole time, and when she opened her eyes, he immediately forced a smile. This smile did not make Yang Qing feel any warmth; instead, she couldn't help but shiver in the May weather.
"The young lady is awake?"
Yang Qing stared at him coldly for a while before saying in a cold voice, "You kidnapper, you have some nerve! I am the daughter of an official of the imperial court. Let me go now, and I may forgive you for what you did. But if you are stubborn, you will suffer the consequences later."
When she spoke, she was stern and imposing, and she couldn't help but imitate how Li Shangxuan used to give orders to others in his previous life. She acted fiercely on the surface, but she was actually terrified inside.
These heartless kidnappers are fearless when they take action. Although she has never seen them, she has heard a lot about them. The youngest daughter of the Marquis of Yongning went missing at the Lantern Festival when she was seven or eight years old. Now, almost thirty years have passed, and no one knows whether she is dead or alive.
She had heard plenty of stories about how wicked these kidnappers were; the slightly better ones would be sold as concubines or maids, while the truly wicked would be sold to those shameful places.
The words she had heard in the past kept replaying in her mind, and Yang Qing could only clench her sleeves tightly to stop herself from trembling.
The old woman looked at her with a half-smile, seemingly seeing through her bluster, and slowly said, "Don't be afraid, young lady. Although we forcibly brought you here, we are not kidnappers. A noble person fell in love with you at first sight, which is why we are taking you back. Your good fortune is yet to come."
Love at first sight?
Yang Qing was stunned for a moment, and quickly searched her mind. The only person who could be so "infatuated at first sight" and capable of abducting someone like Li Heyun was probably Li Heyun.
Her face darkened; this person was truly audacious.
The burly old woman, surnamed Zhao, was quite polite to Yang Qing along the way. While not exactly respectful, she didn't say anything harsh either. It seemed that she had drugged the food she gave her, as Yang Qing was always at her weakest after each meal, and could barely even sit up.
Besides Granny Zhao, there were several other tall and strong men. Yang Qing had never seen their faces, only their backs when the carriage curtain was lifted. Therefore, Yang Qing was not sure how many there were.
She felt helpless and afraid; the carriage was dark and she could hardly remember the route.
In Daxia, a travel permit is required to enter and leave the city. She originally planned to ask for help while the guards at the city gate checked the travel permit, but unexpectedly, they used some trick, and the guards did not even lift the curtain of the carriage when entering and leaving the city.
They walked like this for about five days. Yang Qing silently remembered her three meals a day. She ate the dry food that Granny Zhao handed her, and with the psychological effect, it was almost impossible to swallow, but she had no choice but to swallow it.
I couldn't help but think of the milk custard and various jujube paste cakes and osmanthus cakes I used to eat at home. I wondered what my parents and sisters were like now, and where Liu Ye'er had been taken.
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