Chapter 100 Full of crows on the ground
He Danggui wrapped herself in a thick velvet cloak and went forward to figure out what kind of ferocious beasts killed hundreds of crows.
After all, the beasts on the ground couldn’t attack the crows in the sky. Even if a dozen beasts attacked together, it was impossible to cause such a tragedy. Not to mention there were no ferocious beasts like lions, leopards, tigers or wolves in the garden of Luo’s Family. And those overlords in the sky like goshawk and Hai Dongqing could only catch at most 4 crows to eat at a time. Besides, this Bitter Bamboo Grove was an inexhaustible natural hunting treasury for the large birds, so why did they sacrifice long-term benefits for immediate benefits and eat so “wastefully”, throwing the flesh and blood on the ground in vain... Eh?
He Danggui bent down suddenly and stared at them. She found that most of the skulls and brains of these crows had been crushed. But even the strongest eagle was incapable of doing such a thing!
If it hadn’t done by animals and birds, could it have been done by people? She frowned, bent down with her hands on her knees, and scrutinized the remains of a crow which had been divided into 6 parts. The joints were incomplete and horrible. These were not the neat cuts made by a sword or an axe. If it was true that people did this… It was obvious that these crows were torn into pieces by hands!
He Danggui took a deep breath. Even if ordinary people had such a cruel idea, it was difficult to put it into practice. Because there were so many muscles and bones in crow’s skin, it was even very hard to cut it with a sword or an axe. Anyone who was able to tear a crow apart must have practiced kung fu, while anyone who could tear a group of crows must be a senior!
The best kung fu senior in the East Yard of Luo’s Family was Nie Chun, and next were the Four Guards, or there might be a hidden senior who was a nameless female bodyguard of Second Miss, Luo Baiqiong, who had once fallen into the water accidentally when she paid a visit in Sun’s Family. Therefore, in order to protect her outing safety, with the request of Second Mistress Luo, the female bodyguard was recommended by Hong Xibai, the presbyter of the Beggars’ Organization. And the female bodyguard left an unfathomable impression on He Danggui in the previous life. In addition, Ms. Liang, the Second Wife of Third Lord, also had learnt kung fu. But He Danggui didn’t know how she was good at it. She only vaguely remembered that Ms. Liang was quite skilled in horsemanship, which could be inferred that she had internal energy base. However, Ms. Liang had followed Third Lord to do business in the north, so it was obviously not her.
As for Nie Chun, the Four Guards or the mysterious female bodyguard of Luo Baiqiong, they all seemed to be calm and normal, rational and alert. She couldn’t imagine that they might do such a crazy thing. Although these crows were annoying, they never flied to the halls of Luo’s Mansion. How could they incur anyone to kill them in such a terrible way? Even when she worked for Wuying Tower in the previous life, she saw all kinds of bloody scenes of fights in Jianghu and family extermination cases. But there were few such heinous unilateral massacres.
He Danggui shook her head. No matter how she thought of the scene, it would be a mystery. Since there was such a fierce character living in Luo’s Mansion, it seemed that she should be more careful on her trips in the future. After all, her internal force and Zhenqi were both in a state of semi-paralysis. Although she had practiced external energy in the previous life, her biological age was 10. She had never used this small body to practice boxing or swordplay. It was better for her to run away in any dangerous cases.
Searching as she walked all the way, He Danggui finally went away from the bloody and disgusting Bitter Bamboo Grove. Then she quietly opened the unlatched back door, went into Ting Zhu Yard which was under bright lights, and carefully rubbed the dirt off her shoes in the corner of the yard. Seeing no one around, she quickly took a shortcut and ran into the bedroom of the East Flower Hall.
After she ran down the long corridor, there was a dark red figure appearing in the shadow of the back door. The one looked towards the slender figure at the end of the corridor for a long time and stood there like a ghost.
Ning Yuan frowned deeply and thought about these two doubts.
It could be considered later about who did such a terrible thing for what reason. What surprised him the most was the little girl’s unusual reaction.
Even when he saw the bloody and broken corpses covering the ground, he felt chill with a shudder. In his list, there were several men who were interested in doing such a disgusting thing. Apart from Zhu Yuanzhang, Zhu Gang, Cao Hongrui, and Geng Bingxiu, he didn’t expect that there was another fierce person. Then he thought of what happened to his mother, suddenly he hated the things on the ground. So, he walked a long way to avoid them. When he was about to enter through the back door of Ting Zhu Yard, he was keenly aware of the “rustling” footsteps that came from a few feet away. However, he saw a cyan slender figure right after he turned around.
His first act was to leave the back door at once and turned around to the front door to the West Flower Hall!
Although his wound was only treated for an afternoon and it didn’t work well, he could use Dun Shu (a kind of kung fu that was unique and popular in Nihon, specializing on escaping or attacking others with the fully use of the surroundings materials) to move to the front door. Once the little girl’s scream attracted all the people and they were crowded in this place, he could not go back to his room silently. He disliked those women who were as noisy as ducks’ quacking in Luo’s Mansion.
Just a moment before he left, he turned his head and looked at the little girl who had once threatened him with words. In his mind, he didn’t see her panic even when the horse’s hooves stepped on her. Ning Yuan’s lips slightly raised. He sneered and thought that if she saw the pieces of those corpses, her expression and crying would be so funny…
Ning Yuan looked at her with schadenfreude. The little girl in cyan clothes and velvet cloak with a hood came out of the mottled bamboos slowly. She glanced back at the dark bamboo grove from time to time. And she looked uneasy. Ning Yuan sneered as he thought, “Now you know what fear is! Why did you bother to come to this place at the beginning? Hum, the fiercer scene is waiting for you!”
As expected, the little girl began to notice the objects in front of her… and then, out of curiosity and doubt, she ran forward.
When she approached, Ning Yuan immediately hid himself in the shadow of the wall and observed her expression change. Ning Yuan was worrying about the things of Daning all the time, and now he suddenly found this interesting. He saw the emotions in the little girl’s bright watery eyes. There were surprise, shock and… interest she failed to hide.
She carefully retracted the hem of the cyan velvet cloak with her left hand, slowly gathered her shredded hair near her ears with the right hand, and then gracefully bent down… Looking around the broken corpses, firstly she got close with them, and then looked up with a thoughtful expression. Next, she looked down. As she walked on the bloody corpses all the way, she looked at them carefully with interest. Finally, she came to the back door of Ting Zhu Yard, looked back for the last time and reluctantly turned into Ting Zhu Yard.
After she went far, Ning Yuan came out of the shadow slowly and looked at the back silently.
Who was that little girl?
She recognized Huolie Flower, which was rare in the world… The healing medicines she made were more effective than those made by the Royal Pharmacy… In the downtown, she almost sacrificed her life for saving someone she had nothing to do with. Ning Yuan had never seen any noble girls in the boudoir like her do such a thing for the people of humble origin.
For example, his eldest sister, Princess Lin’an, always showed mercy to people. She went to Da Liang Temple outside the capital each month and personally handed out money and rice to the poor people. He thought that his eldest sister was very sympathetic to people. Until one time when he went to the temple with her to distribute winter clothes for the poor, a 70-year-old woman came up to thank her and shook her skirt. At that moment, he saw clearly that there was conspicuous disgust in her eyes. Later, she went to the inner hall on the excuse of being sleepy. When she came out again, her dress was different from the previous one. Then, Ning Yuan avoided the crowd and sneaked into the back hall. In the fire basin behind the screen, he found a mass of burnt black carbon cloth.
That little girl was interesting... He remembered that Madam Luo called her “Yi”. Was there a “Yi” in her name? What was her last name? She was the granddaughter of Luo’s Family... Ning Yuan didn’t know which faction of the imperial court her father belonged to… Her father let her meet outsider guests like Lu Jiangbei, which could be inferred that her father was likely to be closely related to Changye Tower. If so, her father might support his fourth elder brother, Lord Yan...
An excellently erudite, calm and beautiful girl of 10 years old who was still unmarried... Although her family background didn’t make her deserve to be his wife or Senior Concubine, he could take her as a concubine. After all, he only had a Senior Concubine, Wan Ling and a concubine, Zhou Jinglan in Lord Ning’s Mansion now. When he went back occasionally, he always felt lonely. If there was such an interesting girl in the mansion, it would be very funny.... Moreover, if he did this, Lord Yan’s power would be weakened and he could take He Danggui’s father for his own use. It was a good deal.
He Danggui didn’t know she had already attracted a demon’s concern. She looked around, and then held her breath to hide herself, running into the East Flower Hall all the way to avoid others and quickly jumping into her bedroom. After she found that the room was dark and the quilt was still the same way she left, she breathed a sigh of relief and planned to quench her thirst with tea. After that, she would change her clothes to greet Madam Luo.
However, the quilt on the bed suddenly wriggled at that time. Then a pair of round chignons of maid appeared from above, followed by a pair of round almond eyes. He Danggui was startled at first. When she recognized the face on the bed, she immediately laughed, “What are you doing, Chan Yi? Why are you covering yourself with a quilt?”
Chan Yi’s eyes were round. She pushed the quilt away, jumped up from the bed under He Danggui’s surprised eyesight and came straight to her. Chan Yi held He Danggui’s shoulders tightly and shook them twice. Then she cried to He Danggui with a sharp and harsh voice, “How can you do this, Miss? Where did you go? You asked me and Huai Hua to pick flowers, so we did. After we helped Ji send money and medicine for a few hours, we took a gharry and entered Luo’s Mansion! The Madam asked us to serve you to sleep. But when we entered the room, we found you were not here! Why didn’t you sleep in the room? Do you know how we felt when we found you didn’t sleep in the room?”
He Danggui stared at Chan Yi’s mouth opening and closing at the top of her nose. After Chan Yi finished, He Danggui was about to explain. But Chan Yi didn’t give her a chance to talk at all.
“When we found that you were not sleeping, we racked our brains to hide this for you. Finally, we had a solution. Huai Hua was responsible to go outside to keep watch and I pretended to be you! Madam Luo sent Pu Gongying, Xiang Chunya, and many maids to ask you over a dozen times. But they were all sent away by Huai Hua.” Chan Yi finally finished in one breath and caught her breath, then she shouted in a lower voice, “Miss! Miss! Do you know how I felt when I was lying in bed and pretending to sleep? I felt things getting weirder as I lay there. I thought you were kidnapped by your terrible cousin. So, I was about to join Huai Hua and plead with Madam for your justice together!”
When He Danggui got close with Chan Yi to talk, she took off her cloak and clothes covered with autumn dew, poured a cup of herbal tea and drank it up. There was a plate of fragrant mooncakes made of cow’s milk on the table, which were tempting. As if the cakes were saying “eat me”. He Danggui looked at her muddy hands in depress, then turned her head and saw the water on the basin shelf beside the dresser, so she couldn’t wait to wash her hands.
Seeing He Danggui’s attitude, Chan Yi angrily beat her thigh and yelled, “It doesn’t matter you were not here if it was just the Madam who asked you to have dinner. Miss, do you know? Something important happened at home! Xiang Chunya came again just now. And she said that when First Younger Mistress learnt that Madam Luo and you had gone back to the mansion, but you hid and refused to see anyone, she led a lot of people to pound on the door!”
On this side, He Danggui took out the Yingying powder she carried with and put a little on her face. After spreading it evenly, she trotted to the acid pear wood table and grasped the mooncakes with her clean little hands.
“She said that she would get even with you. I heard it from the East Flower Hall even when she shouted this at the gate of the yard. She said that she wanted to see ‘He Danggui’ in a thin voice with a cannibalistic posture!” Chan Yi knocked on the table to remind someone who was too hungry to remember her surname. “Stop eating, Miss. You’re the He Danggui she mentioned!”
After swallowing 2 or 3 mooncakes, He Danggui looked around the room and found that all the boxes and baskets were there. Then she enjoined, “Find out the pink coat which Duan Xiaolou gave to me last time.” After that, she poured a cup of tea to drink and sighed, “Drinking cold water in the cold night, everything comes to my mind.”
Chan Yi rushed to open the boxes and baskets and rummaged through it. She still continued, “Madam Luo asked First Younger Mistress and Fourth Miss to have a talk in the hall. At the same time, she asked Xiang Chunya to call you. But you didn’t sleep in the room at all. Do you know how I felt at that time...?”
“Have you heard the sound of firecrackers just now?” He Danggui interrupted her with half a mouthful of tea in her mouth and looked up to ask, “Did you hear the crackling of firecrackers in the distance when you were sleeping in the room?”
Chan Yi nodded blankly, “Oh... yes, I heard it crackling for a long time.”
He Danggui clapped the crumbs on her hands, stood up and said with a smile, “I haven’t seen my Elder Sister-in-law and fourth younger sister for a long time. I miss them so much and we have to make up for the time we lost. Chan Yi, come with me. There are some old friends I want you to meet.”
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