Chapter 204 A female ghost in erotic dream
He Danggui felt cold and shivered. The same dress as her? Did Zhu Quan send someone to monitor her? Was there Zhu Quan’s spy around her?
Bai Yangbai found that she kept silence, so he continued to say slowly, “At that time, I thought that you had nothing to do with Quan. Although all the women he dotes on have the same dress, similar looks and also look like you, I didn’t doubt it. Because I just think pretty women all look alike, with a sharp chin, warped nose tip, petals-like lips and a pair of limpid eyes. Which man doesn’t love them? Those people just don’t have unforgettable eyes like yours. They are meek, and I think they always have less vitality. Hey, girl, why don’t you talk? Don’t you think it’s strange that there are so many women who look similar to you in Lord Ning’s Mansion? Do you know the reason?”
He Danggui broke the green foxtail and said sullenly, “How do I know? Maybe Lord Ning likes women with that kind of appearance, just like drinking tea. Some people just like to drink frozen Oolong tea all their life, and they don’t drink others. It may be the aesthetic and taste matters of that person.”
Bai Yangbai stared at her face and remained silence for a moment, then asked, “Is your nickname called ‘Qing Yi’? Do you like steamed chestnut buns best? Did you give him a lock of hair?”
“Hair?” He Danggui remembered that Zhu Quan indeed had taken a lock of hair from her. She couldn’t help but anxiously say, “Didn’t you say that you know nothing between he and me? How do you know that he has a lock of my hair? How did you hear that!”
Bai Yangbai studied He Danggui’s expression and said with a smile, “Very good. You have admitted that you have ‘something’ to do with him. Otherwise, I still think that he dreamed of a female ghost in his erotic dream, so he takes out a lock of hair to smooth it every day. He braids it into plaits and then scatters it. I asked him whose hair it was, and he said it is his mother’s hair. I asked him why I didn’t see him play with it before. He said he didn’t like it so much, but now he likes it more and more. The house where he lived was called ‘Qing Yi Yard’. He ordered two plates of steamed chestnut buns for every afternoon tea. He ate one and kept one. While I went to eat another one, he even stopped me and asked me to eat something else. I asked him what kind of trick it was. He said that after divination, he found that there would be a day-wandering immortal visiting his mansion at that month. So, the plate of chestnuts was reserved for the day-wandering immortal to eat. Ha!”
He Danggui suddenly covered her ears and frowned. She said, “Enough. Don’t talk about these things. I am so scared when I hear them. Bai Yangbai, don’t do anything. Go to Lord Ning’s Mansion in the next morning and ask him whether the hair is mine. If it is mine, you can grab it and burn it. And tell him that I am going to marry you, so I will return these gifts which he gave me. What’s more, please ask him not to fuss about the matter that I have offended him before, just as if he has never seen me.”
Bai Yangbai looked He Danggui up and down judgingly. He didn’t answer yes or no to her almost imperative request, but suddenly said, “You are too young.”
“Hmm?” He Danggui tilted her head and looked at Bai Yangbai. She found that he was staring at her...chest? Suddenly, she said unhappily, “What are you looking?”
Bai Yangbai sighed, “He is really strange. How can he like immature girls? You have no idea about that he has a Princess Xie Qiaofeng, who is four years older than him, and also has a Senior Concubine Zhou Jinglan, who is two years older than him. They are much more eye-catching in clothing, and their figures are especially pretty, which exactly is the ultimate dream of men. Compared with two of them, you are really inferior. Why does Zhu Quan never forget you for a moment? What happened between you and him?”
He Danggui was anxious. She stretched out a palm and counted it to him with fingers, “There is a man named Ning Yuan who lives in Luo’s Mansion for healing. I met him once in the bamboo grove, and we said just three words to each other. But we had nothing in common, so we went our own way respectively. At the second time I saw him, I was a little hurt. He took me in his room and let me have a rest. He said that since he has seen my bare feet, he should take me as a concubine, which made me be angry. So, I scolded him. Then, I scolded him again when I met him the next day. Because I found that he might be a seignior who left the fief privately, I lied that I was a member of an intelligence organization. If he was restless and still mentioned something about concubine, I would expose his secret. He wanted to kill me, so I poisoned him and then waited for an opportunity to escape. That’s all. I have only met him a few times. Although I met him in public, we don’t talk anything to each other.”
Bai Yangbai sighed, “I am confused. You seem to be his passer-by. Anyway, I recall his affection of playing a section of hair. Girl, what I mean is that you are really not suitable for someone like Zhu Quan. No matter what kind of feelings he has for you, and no matter how helpful your abilities for him, you can’t be together with him. Otherwise, you will get hurt, and he will have trouble too. What do you think?”
He Danggui nodded hard and said, “I totally agree.”
Then Bai Yangbai analyzed, “But he is also a stubborn person. He has the temperament that he won’t let his things go. If you want to get rid of him, you must get married. You’d better choose the best one to you. Of course, it is Meng Xuan. You can’t get married with Duan Xiaolou. His mother may take the responsibility of two lives of their family on your head now. Even Duan Xiaolou can’t feel nothing in his heart. After all, the one is his father, and the others is his son. And the matter happened because of your excessive demands. Why do you stare at me? I am analyzing their mentalities. Meng Xuan is strong enough to carry the conspiracy of Zhu Quan. As long as you stay in Meng’s Family properly, you can sleep well at night. So, what do you think of Meng Xuan?”
He Danggui was afflicted, and she didn’t expect that Zhu Quan had done too many things that she did not know. He was so obsessed with her, but he didn’t come to meet her for three years, and he doted on some women who looked similar to her. What was his idea? No way. If she didn’t solve this problem early, she would not even have a good sleep, like what Bai Yangbai said. Meng Xuan? He Danggui shook her head and said, “Meng Xuan is not a proper man. I don’t like his overbearing and arbitrary. I can’t live with him for a lifetime.”
Bai Yangbai stared at He Danggui while rubbing his chin with his thumb. He said, “Well, the second one is me. As you said, Quan will treat me politely and will not rub my woman, but the premise is that you must be my woman. How can you fool someone as smart as him if you get married in to a fake way and do a play? Why are you staring at me? I don’t mean to take advantage of you.” When Bai Yangbai saw her dark eyes turning around, he immediately guessed out her thoughts. Then he shook his head and rejected, “If you leave home with bags, you have to take away the people you concern at one time and never show up. Otherwise, Quan will use his way to force you out.”
He Danggui looked upset. She realized that Bai Yangbai was right. She had to take at least five people to run away, and they had to hide their names and change their faces. She shook her head and sighed, “No, it is unrealistic and not safe...” When she felt that Bai Yangbai was staring straight at her, she also looked at him. Looking at his eyes which was as clear as a child’s, she couldn’t help but ask, “Old man, how old are you?”
Bai Yangbai dug his nose and said, “35 or 36? I can’t remember clearly. I am a loner, and no one celebrate my birthday for me. It is really sad.”
“Although you are not a nuisance, it seems that someone can live with you for a lifetime. However, old man, your ‘whole life’ is 21-22 years ahead of me.” He Danggui tilted her head to consider and said, “Even if you live ten years longer than me, I still have ten years to live alone. Qianjun, we are intimate friends. Can you bear to leave me alone for the last ten years? At that time, I will be too old to remarry. In fact, both of us can be regarded as powerful actors. As long as we cooperate well, we can play a loving couple and deceive that person. As for the reward, apart from my Yunqi Acupuncture, you can ask what you want casually, and I can afford the amount of 1000 or 2000 liang silver. Just play with me for a few years, and this matter will fade away in a few years, Okay?”
Bai Yangbai showed a look of listening carefully. Then he smiled and showed dimples, like Feng Yang. He told He Danggui word by word, “Girl, you are always interested on my secret, so I will tell you something about me. If you worry about me that I will die early, I will tell something secret to you. Now I have reached the realm of spiritual practiced. I can live for at least 200 years, so I will not die before you.”
“200 years old?” He Danggui unbelievably stared at Bai Yangbai. Then she remembered that she couldn’t believe anything about the old liar’s words, so she just said with relief, “I am discussing something serious with you, so don’t be ridiculous. If you can live 200 years, you will be an immortal. Besides, how can people know how long their life is? I’m serious with you. Your beauty-preserving prescription is your top secret. You refuse to disclose, and I also don’t force you too much, right? My Yunqi Acupuncture is the same secret. It is not a fact that I don’t believe you. I have my own unspeakable difficulties that I don’t talk about. You can have some consideration for me. So, don’t pry into my secret anymore, okay? In exchange, I won’t search for your secret in the future, as long as you burn bath water for me every month. How about it?”
Bai Yangbai couldn’t help laughing. He said, “Girl, you are not at a disadvantage at all. Now that you are so interested in my beauty-preserving prescription, I can tell you. My prescription is not only for external use to bath, but also for internal use. By doing both, the effect is not only to look young, but also to prolong life. And it can prolong life for decades or even hundreds of years. So, what I said that I can live for two hundred years is not cheating on you. How is it going? Girl, are you excited? Do you want my prescription or not? Marry me, and this prescription will be ours.”
He Danggui looked suspiciously at Bai Yangbai, considering whether his words were true or not. No, she could not trust him. She remembered that his nickname was old liar...
He Danggui remembered that there was a secret book left by her grandfather under the green flag of the ancestral hall in Luo’s Mansion. It said that many years ago, he met a Taoist priest who was stammering. They chatted very speculatively, and compared notes about medical skills. Later, they talked about the topic of keeping in good health, and discussed that which way of health maintenance could be combined with medicinal materials in order to keep fit and prolong life to the greatest extent. They also talked about the extreme problem. How could a person’s life be prolonged by taking the best medicine and keeping in good health from childhood to the end?
Later, her grandfather accidentally discovered the identity document of stuttering Taoist priest, which was from the early Southern Song Dynasty. And the name on it was really his name. He counted that the Taoist priest was 150 years old but looked like an ordinary old man in his early sixties. At that time, her grandfather didn’t believe that the identity document was true. Once the Taoist priest had a backache. When her grandfather touched the Taoist priest’s bones and massaged for him, he was found that the Taoist priest’s age might be over 100-year-old...
He Danggui was thinking something while pulling out the grass one by one. Suddenly, a flash occurred on her mind. She looked at the calm face of Bai Yangbai and asked, “I remember that your master was a stammer. Is this true? How old is he?”
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