Chapter 313: Chapter 313: Quite Dangerous
Su Pei’er quickly said, "Of course. Second Miss Ye, you’ve had a long and tiring journey. You should get a good rest."
As she spoke, she moved to get up and prepare the bed for Ye Chutang, but Chutang stopped her.
"There’s no need to trouble yourself. I’ll be fine on the daybed over there."
Su Pei’er protested, "How could I let you do that?"
’Ye Chutang saved my life. Now that she’s here, if I can’t even let her have a proper night’s sleep, then I’m truly—’
Ye Chutang gave a casual wave and lay down on the daybed.
"This is perfectly fine."
’I’ve spent plenty of nights sleeping in the wild; it never bothered me.’
Su Pei’er was about to protest again, but Ye Chutang raised a finger to her lips with a soft "shh."
"We shouldn’t wake your little maid. She’s still young; this is when she needs sleep to grow."
Su Pei’er was speechless.
Seeing that Ye Chutang was insistent, and noticing the flicker of exhaustion in her eyes by the candlelight, Su Pei’er couldn’t bear to disturb her any further. She finally relented, then brought over a brand-new quilt.
"This quilt was just finished the day before yesterday. I hope you don’t mind, Second Miss Ye."
Ye Chutang smiled and thanked her.
In the dead of night, Su Pei’er glanced one last time at Ye Chutang on the daybed. Her eyes were closed and her breathing was steady, as if she had already drifted off to sleep.
Su Pei’er sighed to herself, her heart aching with sympathy. She tiptoed over and blew out the lamp.
...
Early the next morning, the little maid came knocking on the door.
"Miss, it’s time to wake up."
Waking at the sound, Su Pei’er immediately sat up and looked toward the daybed, only to freeze in surprise.
It was empty.
If it weren’t for the neatly folded quilt, she almost would have thought the previous night had been nothing but a dream.
"Miss?" The little maid knocked twice more.
Su Pei’er answered, "I’m coming."
As she got out of bed, dressed, and washed up, she couldn’t help but wonder, ’Where could Ye Chutang have gone at this hour?’
’Could she have gone to the mine already?’
The thought made her even more worried.
’Even though Miss Ye is highly capable, she’s a stranger here in Shiluan City. What if something unexpected happens...’
"Miss, why do you seem so out of sorts today?" the little maid couldn’t help but ask in her crisp voice, noticing her master’s unusual expression.
Su Pei’er snapped back to reality and pushed aside her jumble of thoughts.
"It’s nothing. It doesn’t look like it will rain today. We can go for a walk in a bit."
The little maid didn’t suspect a thing and nodded with a smile. "Okay!"
...
After waking up, Ye Chutang didn’t head directly to the mine outside the city. Instead, she began to wander leisurely through the streets.
Sun Lian’an’s claim that this place was nestled by mountains and water, a land of exceptional beauty, had been no exaggeration.
The Fuh River flowed through the city. Standing on its banks and gazing at the rolling mountains in the distance, the entire landscape was veiled in a white mountain mist. The humid air, carrying a slight autumn chill, was utterly refreshing.
The fatigue from Ye Chutang’s past few days of travel vanished, and her mood improved considerably.
As the sun rose higher, the streets gradually grew livelier, bustling with people.
No one paid any mind to a young man dressed in gray-blue brocade, his head covered by a wide-brimmed hat.
At that very moment, a troop of riders was leaving through the city gates.
The man in the lead, clad in fitted martial attire with a sword at his waist, sat tall on his horse. It was Lian Zhou.
He pulled on his reins, approached the side of a carriage, and murmured a few words.
A slender hand pushed aside the curtain, revealing only the lower half of a face, yet it was enough to suggest the refined elegance of its owner.
He gave a slight nod before letting the curtain fall again.
Lian Zhou spurred his horse forward. "The Master has given an order! We’ve been delayed on the road. We must quicken our pace and get there as soon as possible!"
The others all responded in unison, "Yes!"
Lian Zhou squeezed his horse’s sides with his legs. "Hya!"
The horses broke into a gallop, and the group’s figures gradually vanished into the distance.
...
Ye Chutang spent the entire day exploring half of Shiluan City.
As night fell, she went to a popular little tavern by the river, found a seat in a secluded corner, and ordered food and wine.
Once she removed her wide-brimmed hat, the face of a spirited and handsome young man was revealed.
People would occasionally glance her way, but seeing she was just quietly eating and drinking by herself, they would retract their gazes.
A little less than an hour later, Ye Chutang settled her bill and left.
She strolled along the riverbank, the evening breeze carrying the faint scent of wine from her breath.
After a few turns, her figure vanished completely into the crowd and the night.
...
The mine was pitch-black at night, with only a few sparks visible in the distance—the smelting furnaces, she presumed.
Two men stood guard outside the main gate.
One of them yawned and was immediately chided in a low voice by the other. "Stay sharp! If the higher-ups see this, it’ll be the whip for you again!"
"I just yawned, I wasn’t actually sleeping," the man grumbled resentfully. "This shift is six hours long. Who wouldn’t get tired?"
"That’s exactly why you have to be careful! Don’t forget what happened to Old Zhang when he messed up from drinking on the job!"
At that, the man finally seemed to feel a flicker of fear.
He glanced back and muttered under his breath, "This mine isn’t that big. Why guard it so heavily? No one’s got the guts to come here and start trouble."
When he finished, he heard no response. Puzzled, he turned to look at his partner. "Hey, I said—"
The next moment, a sharp pain shot through the back of his neck.
’Oh no!’
Before he could cry out, his vision went black, and he collapsed into unconsciousness.
It all happened without a sound. Coupled with the dim lighting, the commotion drew no one’s attention.
Shen Yanchuan took a step, about to move forward.
But suddenly!
Alarm bells screamed in his mind. He spun around and threw a palm strike!
The next instant, however, his eyes met a pair of dark, calm ones. His brow twitched, and he forcibly reined in his attack!
The moon was hidden behind dark clouds, letting slip only a sliver of eerie light.
In the gloomy night, the two people who should have been thousands of miles apart stared at each other in stunned silence.
In the delicate, dead silence, Ye Chutang felt a flicker of hesitation for the first time.
’Did he recognize me?’
’No, that can’t be. When did my Disguise technique get this bad?’
Shen Yanchuan, for his part, was struck by a rare sense of absurdity. And yet, within that absurdity lay a faint, almost imperceptible trace of delight.
’Hmm... to run into her here, too. I suppose you could say we’re quite fated, couldn’t you?’
Ye Chutang glanced down at the two unconscious men on the ground and felt her heart settle.
’It’s fine,’ she thought. ’A certain someone’s methods are even more brutish than my Disguise.’
’He certainly isn’t worried about being discovered.’
As if sensing her thoughts and the faint doubt in her eyes, Shen Yanchuan said in a low voice, "The guards change shifts every two hours. No one will come by in that time."
’He’s certainly thorough.’
Ye Chutang nodded and asked, "Are you going in too?"
Her voice was extremely low and completely different from her usual timbre, making her sound exactly like an earnest young man.
Shen Yanchuan suppressed the strange feeling in his heart and nodded.
However, before the word "together" could leave his lips, he heard Ye Chutang say:
"Since you’re going, maybe I shouldn’t?"
she said with earnest sincerity,
"It’s rather dangerous."
