He didn"t expect to meet her again after three years in Jinling —— the woman who could act on her own and still be calmed while in the face of a man who was covered in blood.

While holding a cup of wine in his hand, Chu Changge gazed at the fancy dressed woman who was walking leisurely into the restaurant, with a slight hook at the corner of his mouth. He asked, "Young waiter, who is that woman in green?"

"You mean Miss Murong?" The young waiter suddenly lowered his voice and said, "She is Murong Yunshu, the eldest daughter of the number one Murong family in Jinling. However, the other day, Old Man Murong suddenly pa.s.sed away because of illness, and with Minjian Mountain Villa withdrawing from their a.s.signed marriage, I"m afraid the Murong good day has come to an end."

Chu Changge"s sword-shaped eyebrows slightly puckered as he repeated, "Mingjian Mountain Villa has withdrawn from their a.s.signed marriage?"

"Yeah. Miss Murong originally had an a.s.signed marriage with Fang Hongfei, the young master of the Mingjian Mountain Villa, but as soon as Old Man Murong pa.s.sed away, the Mingjian Mountain Villa withdrew their marriage. Ah, it really is a pity." The young waiter shook his head as he spoke.

Chu Changge put down his wine cup and muttered to himself for quite a while. Suddenly, he said to the Four Guardians who lined up behind him, "Prepare ten boxes of gold."

East Guardian asked in a low voice, "For what purpose?"

"Betrothal gifts."

Betrothal gifts? The four people were dumbfounded. Ever since Eldest Miss pa.s.sed away, there had not been another woman in Leader"s life except for the Old Madam. So what with these sudden betrothal gifts ah?

Chu Changge took a light sip of the wine from his cup and smilingly said, "Go to Murong mansion to propose marriage."

"Go to Murong mansion to propose?! Why?"

"No reason."

Up until now, Chu Changge still didn"t know why he let the Four Guardians propose to her. He also did not think on how to deal with the aftermath of his marriage proposal. At that time, there was only one thing in his mind, to turn himself, Chu Changge, into her "saviour". How could he let her be in such a tight position, and been bullied by others? Therefore, when he heard that she had a broken engagement, suddenly, a mentality to shield her shortcomings arose inside him. He didn"t only want to propose marriage to her, but also wanted it to be a large scale event, to let it be known all over the world, so that those who make fun of her and thought of her as a pitiful person, would become very envious and jealous of her. .

But he didn"t expect that the result would be completely beyond expectation. She actually refused his proposal, and asked him to marry into her family instead.

Interesting. This was really interesting.

＊

Their second meeting took place in Murong mansion. Faced with a strong lineup of "Ten Lithree hundred (or three hundred sixty) paces (步)¹ of Red Costumes", she not only did not panic, she also wanted to be a human trafficker by selling his followers to the palace to be eunuchs. This really opened his view and broadened his knowledge. It was the first time he had seen such a strange woman in his life.

Originally, he wanted to destroy Mingjian Mountain Villa to vent anger on her behalf, but that day, he suddenly felt that it was fortunate that Mingjian Mountain Villa had withdrawn from the marriage, which gave him an opportunity to get involved in her life, so he dismissed the idea of picking up a fight with Mingjian Mountain Villa. However, he never expected that Fang Hongfei would not take the road to heaven, but pushed himself to h.e.l.l when there was not a doorbring himself to ruin². He actually took a group of jianghulit. rivers and lakes—people wandering from place to place and living by their wits, e.g. fortune-tellers, quack doctors, itinerant entertainers, etc. , considered as a social group³ warriors to Murong mansion to find trouble. Good, very good, now he didn"t have to worry about finding any excuse to fight back.

In fact, for him to shave the heads of all the men up and down in Mingjian Mountain Villa was only on a whim. He originally wanted to teach Fang Hongfei alone. But on second thought, because of the size of the jianghulit. rivers and lakes—people wandering from place to place and living by their wits, e.g. fortune-tellers, quack doctors, itinerant entertainers, etc. , considered as a social group³, there were so many people who would go looking for trouble too and if he only taught Fang Hongfei alone, it would be really difficult for him to achieve the effect of setting an example to others. So he decided to teach Mingjian Mountain Villa all together, so that those who claimed to be lofty in the right path could see clearly that whoever dared to touch even a hair of Chu Changge"s people, he would have all their hairs removed!

＊

Another encounter in Huatuo Mountain was the most unexpected thing for him. On that day, it happened to be Xi-er"s memorial day, so he had made a prior detour to Jinling to visit Xi-er grave in Huatuo Mountain.

Three years ago, Xi-er was killed by the poison of the Soul s.n.a.t.c.her. In a rage, he led his followers to destroy the Tang Clan and was on his way to visit her grave in Huatuo Mountain. Unexpectedly, he was ambushed in Jingling and he had to fight his way through. With his last breath, he fled to the bamboo forest, where he met Murong Yunshu there.

"Hey, you should die outside. Don"t dirty up my house."

"Hey, do you hear me?"

"Forget it. I give you the bamboo house."

"There"s water and food in the kitchen. If you don"t die, go have something to eat."

"There"s a little medicine chest under the bed in the bedroom, but the medicines inside were in a mess, all of them had been put in by Lu-er. Take a look at them yourself, and use them if you need to. All of them are for you."

Between half-asleep and half-awake, he felt something being put in his hand, and in a trance he heard someone say, "There, they are all here. Now, it is up to you." Her tone was cold, with a look of reluctance to get involved with him, but between her words, they revealed that she didn"t have the heart to not save someone in trouble.

What a kind and awkward woman. He thought so, then he completely lost his consciousness.

When he woke up again, he didn"t know how many days had pa.s.sed. He merely felt hungry, and dizzy. While his whole body felt weak, when he suddenly remembered her words —— there"s water and food in the kitchen. So Chu Changge dragged his heavy body as he unsteadily moved to the kitchen. Afterwards, he discovered that the water was readily available, while for the food, they couldn"t even be said to be semi-finished products. They were a small jar of rice.

Wotou (lit. nest thing)
Also known as wowotou or Chinese cornbread.
Image Creditfrom London, UK - CC BY-SA 2.0

It was better for him to just drink the water.

Jinchuang Medicine
Image Credit

Although the men who ambushed him were not masters, he had already been burdened with internal injuries before that. As a result, the battle only made his internal injuries turn much worse. Therefore, he had to go to Huatuo Mountain as soon as possible to find Feng Cheng.

However, looking at the bamboo house with its wind musical instrument, antique calligraphy and painting, Chu Changge suddenly wanted to see the owner of the bamboo house again, whose elegant look had etched into his mind from just one look. This room, it really matched her.

After waiting in the bamboo house for three days, he did not see her return, Chu Changge realised that she really did "give" him the bamboo house. She was a peculiar woman, eccentric and true to her word.

Now, the more he got in touch with her, the more he found that she had an attraction which made people involuntarily want to be close to her, whether in flirting or bickering. In short, it was a very pleasant thing to be around her.

But it shouldn"t be in Huatuo Mountain, because here, where Xi-er was buried, there could only be grief.

However, just by looking at her light expression and listening to her voice, he could not help but feel very happy. For the first time in three years in Huatuo Mountain, he forgot about Xi-er"s death, his hatred of hypocrisy, and the shackles that had made him unhappy. And this made him feel guilty. For him to be able to live till this day was because of these shackles. If he dropped all these shackles, what was the point of him being alive then?

＊

He was aware that her presence would only break his life"s trajectory, but, when they were going to take different roads and urge the horses onChinese idiom : parted ways⁸ at the three road junction, Chu Changge unilaterally made a date with her on the 15th day of the 8th lunar month.

However, before the 15th of the 8th lunar month, he heard the news that she was poisoned by the deadly Soul s.n.a.t.c.her.

This time, he truly fell apart.

Jade Emperor - Public Domain

Soul s.n.a.t.c.her. Another Soul s.n.a.t.c.her. Can you change it to a different trick? Change it to a powerless poison….

Fortunately, heaven never sealed off all the exitsChinese well-known phrase : there is always a way out⁹. Her luck was better than that of Xi-er. That Old Man Shenji had shown them a clear path. Although this path was exchanged for the position of the Great Leader of the Martial Arts, he felt it was worth it, really worth it. The position of the Great Leader to him, was just like the position of the wife of the Crown Prince, which he treated it as dirtsomething worthless¹⁰. The antidote to the Soul s.n.a.t.c.her was what he most wanted in his life. No matter what the price was, he must get it and see what it was, for it to be hidden so deep and come out so late.

The thought of Murong Yunshu being able to survive naturally delighted him. Even for a moment, he was not sure whether he was so attached to the antidote to the Soul s.n.a.t.c.her because his heart was unwilling or he did it for her sake. Perhaps, it was both, he thought. As for which was more important, he was still not clear at the moment.

He was even more uncertain about his answer to her question the night before the Martial Arts a.s.sembly.

Why was he being so nice to her?

Really, he just happened to choose her? If she was exchanged for another woman, would he also use the marriage proposal to save her face? Would he be mischievous and deliberately and continuously call out "madam madam" to her? Would he not allow anyone to bully her, or would he also be unreasonable while blindly shielded her shortcomings?

He, was not a man who knew how to repay kindness, not to mention, for this kindness, he had repaid enough already….

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