Edited by Tnyhy

Shen Miao’s dark gaze got cold and suddenly she raised her hand and used a knife to pierce towards the other’s face. The Short one was caught off guard, Shen Miao was able to draw blood from his face and blood continuously flowed down. One did not know when the ropes behind Shen Miao’s arms and legs were grinded apart. She was used to hiding a dagger in her sleeves, and it was a surprise that there was a use for it today. After she brandished it around for a bit, she ran out of the boat screaming, “Help!” But when running to the hatch of the s.h.i.+p, she was stopped by a violent force and threw onto the ground. Her entire back was knocked onto a wooden table on the boat and it was so painful, that she sucked in a breath of cold air and the boat even rocked for a few times. Her reaction was still fast as she immediately got up and ran out. The skinny tall one sneered and kicked her knees and a bitter pain burst out. Shen Miao recovered to her senses and reached out with the dagger in her hands to stab the person’s eyes. The skinny and tall one jumped in shock and dodged to the side to avoid her sharp dagger as he cursed, “Poisonous woman” and s.n.a.t.c.hed the dagger from her hands. Shen Miao endured the pain in her legs and climbed to the cabin windows and jumped down without even blinking.

“Want to run?” The skinny tall one coldly laughed and did not hesitate to throw the dagger in his hand over and straight into Shen Miao’s calf. Even though it did not penetrated deep, a dark red trace started forming quickly on the lake.

Shen Miao knew how to float on water but this was winter and the water in the Wan Li Lake was biting cold. When one enters it, they would only feel that their entire body was an ice block and could only paddle a few times before feeling their whole body stiffen and become unable to move.

The skinny and tall one was about to jump into the water to fish Shen Miao out, after all Shen Miao had information about the people in the secret chambers, but before he could make a move, there was a burst of an unknown bamboo cannon. When one raised one’s head to look, the west side was lit by a firework.

“The situation has changed!” The short one wiped the blood off his face and said, “Withdraw!”

“Take her away first.” The skinny tall one scolded and wanted to jump into the lake, but who knew that his body would jolt violently and then he saw two black cladded persons that unknowingly had already been standing on the head of the boat. Both of the black cladded persons had a gold embroidered eagle pattern sown on their shoulders. The short one cried out, “Mo Yu Army! Why is the Mo Yu Army here?”

Before the two people recovered to their senses, the two black cladded persons already reached to the front and in a flash of silver, both the short one"s and the skinny and tall one"s frightened looks stopped at that moment as they slowly fell down.

In the lake, Shen Miao was still fiercely rummaging. From the words of the short one and skinny and tall one. They were not just the two black cladded persons and it seemed that there were forces behind them and those forces sounded quite powerful. Shen Miao had a kind of intuition beyond imagination that if she were to fall into both of their hands, she would be able to find a way out but if she were to end up with those forces, even if she were to die, the Shen family would never be able to find the murderer.

But one did not expect that with this drastic jump that cut off her means of retreat, she would trap herself in a dead end. Seeing that the two black cladded persons did not come to save her even after a long time pa.s.sed, could it be that she would die here in the ice cold lake?

Her head started to feel heavy and a buzzing by her ear started to sound, like she was sinking into an icehouse. It was evident that the surface of the water was just in front and one could even see the lanterns floating downstream but one was unable to grab it, only see it.

Just when her eyes were becoming unclear, she suddenly saw a figure swimming over from afar. That figure was rather vigorous and under the bright lights of the lake, it was as if one that had come down from the skies, bringing the light to her as one swam.

That person swam to Shen Miao and with a pull, clutched her waist and swam to the surface. In such a world of ice and snow, the lake was biting cold and it is difficult for one to swim, but he was able to swim comfortable even with an additional person. When one swam up to the front of the boat, he picked Shen Miao up and set her on the hold of the s.h.i.+p before flipping himself over.

Shen Miao was choking on a few mouthful of water and when she got onboard the s.h.i.+p, she had yet to turn herself over and could only held her throat to cough a number of times. But she saw the figure in front turn and look over. That person was also wet from top to bottom, and there was no trace of the joking expression he previously had on his face as he looked at her with twisted brows.

It was precisely Xie Jing Xing.

With the energy she was using to look at Xie Jing Xing, Shen Miao saved the effort to be surprised. That two black cladded persons came because of Xie Xing Xing, and it may be a.s.sumed that Xie Jing Xing himself came to know of the news and thus rushed over.

She used up her energy to lift herself up, and it was only then she saw there were two corpses on the hold of the boat. They were the skinny tall one and the short one, and from the hold walked out two black cladded persons and one of them walked over to Xie Jing Xing’s side and whispered something. Xie Jing Xing waved his hand and those two persons left with the two bodies, and even wiped clean the boat of blood stains.

Shen Miao did not bother to think about who those two persons were, as even a fool could also guess that they were Xie Jing Xing’s people. She moved her body and felt that there was no part of her body that was not sore and in pain. She had been soaking in the icy cold waters for more than half a Ke (1 Ke = 1 quarter of an hour) and it was so cold that she was trembling. Previously that skinny tall one threw her down a couple of times, thus her back was in pain but where she felt the most pain was probably her calf. She lowered her head to look at her skirt and it was pasted onto her skin, and there was a blood red flower on the area of her calf mixing with the red embroidery on her skirt, making one unable to differentiate. That was caused by the skinny tall one’s dagger.

She was so cold and in pain that she was unable to say a single word. But it was Xie Jing Xing who walked into the boat cabin, and since these exquisite sightseeing boats would come prepared with a furnace and clothes, he pulled out the furnace out from a wooden box and lit it before adding coal into it.

As the furnace burned warmly, the boat swayed on the lake. Xie Jing Xing glanced at Shen Miao before his lips suddenly formed a smile, “I want to change clothes, you want to watch with your eyes?”

Shen Miao suddenly shut her eyes, at this moment her state of mind was in some confusion and Xie Jing Xing still had the mood to joke around. One only heard a light chuckle following which was the rustling sounds of the changing of clothes. After a moment, Xie Jing Xing’s voice sounded, “Finished.”

When Shen Miao opened her eyes, Xie Jing Xing was buckling the last b.u.t.ton. He had changed into a deep black coloured robe, and had a big white fox cloak covering him that exuded a kind of cold but awe-inspiring feeling. A pair of black peach eyes stared at Shen Miao in a smile but not a smile, “Do you also want to change?”

When one wore cold and wet clothes, one would catch a cold easily. Even if one was sitting by the burning stove to roast, it would require a number of s.h.i.+chens (1 s.h.i.+chen = 2 hours) to be fully roasted dry. One fear that if she were to wait till that time, she would have already be suffering from chills. With regards to her body, she had always cherished it. Coupled with the uncomfortable feeling of her entire body, she looked towards Xie Jing Xing and calmly said, “Is there any other clothing?”

Xie Jing Xing got up and took out a set of clothes from the clothes bag on the wooden table, and said as he leaned against the wall, “My subordinates sent me clothes and seeing that there are still some troubles currently around, one was not able to search female clothes for you. If you want to change, you can only change to mine.”

For an unmarried female, to change into a stranger’s clothes, it would be an alluring tint when it gets spread out. Shen Miao looked towards Xie Jing Xing and saw a nasty smile on his lips, she did not know if the situation was forced or deliberately staged.

Shen Miao discovered that Xie Jing Xing indeed had a special kind of power, as since from her rebirth she had faced everyone with the ‘Empress Shen’ frame of mind. Even when facing Shen Qiu, she was unable to treat Shen Qiu as her Eldest Brother and something would have the feeling of protecting him. But on every encounter with Xie Jing Xing, he would always try to distract Shen Miao with his vile actions, and to be teased this much was something not experienced by Empress Shen before, but by a Fifth Shen Young Lady who was naïve to the sinister world.

She took a deep breath in her heart before saying, “Give them to me.”

Her reply was a little unexpected to Xie Jing Xing, thus he looked at her with doubts, “You want to wear my clothes?”

“Is there any other clothing here?” Shen Miao asked.

Xie Jing Xing smiled and threw the clothes he held to her. Shen Miao caught them and after much tolerating she said to Xie Jing Xing, “Request Little Xie Marquis to turn around.”

When Xie Jing Xing heard this, he sized her up as he looked at her from head to toe meaningfully. Currently Shen Miao"s clothes were pasted onto her body, she was pet.i.te in size and undoubtedly revealed some youthful figure of a lady, and the sorry appearance revealed a lovely att.i.tude. Xie Jing Xing said full of interest, “Little girl who is still wet behind the ears knows about embarra.s.sment? Do not worry,” His gaze was fussy and criticising, “There is nothing at all and also nothing good to see.” Finis.h.i.+ng he chicly turned around and did not even look at Shen Miao at all.

Shen Miao’s heart gave a slight relief as she picked up Xie Jing Xing"s clothes. It was a piece of an azure blue robe with the collar pressed snugly and the embroidery was excellent. Shen Miao subconsciously touched it. This kind of workmans.h.i.+p, she only enjoyed it when she was in the Palace in her past lifetime. The rumours that the Marquis of Lin An was rich enough to rival the country were indeed not false.

She slowly took off the wet external and internal clothing, and used the damp clothes on the stove to clean her body of water before picking up Xie Jing Xing’s robes. Who knew that Xie Jing Xing’s robes were so complicated that she was unable to put them on properly. Not only that, the belt was entangled with her left calf. Her calf just had a dagger injury and previously it was not serious, but at this moment the flesh was indistinctive and looked somewhat scary. As the belt rubbed against the wound, Shen Miao sucked in a breath of cold air in pain and was unable to sit properly, leading to her falling onto the ground with a ‘bang’, also knocking over the teapot on the table.

When Xie Jing Xing heard the commotion, he immediately turned around to see Shen Miao falling onto the ground so he took a step forward to help her. Shen Miao was unable to stop and her entire body leaned into his embrace. The clothes were not properly worn and were hanging loose on her body as one’s shoulder was exposed with damp hair, there was some charming appearance. No matter how calm she was, there was an instantaneous panic and helplessness.

But it was Xie Jing Xing that had his brows twisted as he held on to her leg and stared at the wound before speaking deeply, “What happened?”