Chapter 208 That guest coming from afar
“Take care of her...forever?” Chang Nuo repeated in his heart. He was stunned for a moment. What did Pan Jingyang mean? Damn it, did it mean that Taoist Sage, who disguised as Feng Yang, actually molested Sister He?
Thinking of it, Chang Nuo was very anxious. Although Taoist Sage was old, he was still a man, and he handled things without a sense of propriety. Chang Nuo hoped that Taoist Sage hadn’t gone too far and didn’t ruin the reputation of Sister He by using Feng Yang’s identity. That girl was very cherished for Ning Yuan. And Ning Yuan was seeking a decent identity for her, so that she could be his princess at Lord Ning’s Mansion. If there was anything wrong, how could Chang Nuo explain to Ning Yuan?
After replying Pan Jingyang perfunctorily, Chang Nuo went to the inner courtyard quickly. When he was about to rush to the direction of Tao Yao Yard, he saw a pretty lady in red standing on the lawn not far away. She was Sister He, whom he hadn’t seen for one year.
After looking at her carefully, he noticed that she was much taller than last year, and she also had the delicate line of a maiden. Seeing that she threw a tantrum with vivid expressions and hit the tree with mud, Chang Nuo couldn’t help but sigh with emotion. Time was really a magical good stuff. A girl became a maiden unconsciously.
As such a beautiful and elegant maiden, even if she stood next to the dashing Ning Yuan, she would not look inferior. Ning Yuan indeed had a unique vision for the beauty.
However, no matter how beautiful she was, she was just a woman. She would be kept in Lord Ning’s Mansion like a flower. Her existence was the icing on the cake among many beauties in the mansion. And without her, it would not look much bleak. Why was Ning Yuan so obsessed with her? What was the special about her? The biggest use of a woman was to procreate. As long as she had a decent appearance, wasn’t it all the same that no matter which woman procreated?
Ning Yuan said that every time he thought of her, there was always a strange tingling sensation in his heart. Was this feeling “love”? Did “love” equal to “pain”? Chang Nuo shook his head, and he really couldn’t figure out why Ning Yuan bewitched her. Every time Ning Yuan mentioned her, Ning Yuan seemed to be a different man at once. His eyes became dull, and his hands unconsciously touched the sachet hanging around his waist. Chang Nuo knew that there was a strand of Sister He’s hair inside.
Looking at the lady in red with a cloak on the grass, Chang Nuo shook his head and sighed. What kind of love poison did she poison Yuan?
The lady in red did not notice him approaching. She pouted lovably, as if she had suffered a great grievance. She was constantly throwing mud to a banyan to vent her anger. Under her continuous attack, most of the leaves had fallen sparsely. Chang Nuo was a little shocked. It was terrible when a woman got angry.
Suddenly, the girl stopped. She stared at a snow-white bunny on the ground intently. There was a look of yearning on her face. And she walked slowly towards that bunny. Unexpectedly, the little bunny ignored her. It turned head and got into the dense grass. The girl immediately showed some childish sulks, which made Chang Nuo smile involuntarily. When he visited her in the past, she was always estranged and polite, acting like a little adult. He had never seen such a childish her.
Who was she mad at? And what was she upset about? Her action of throwing mud was so agile and swift, so she didn’t seem to get injured. It was a sharp contrast to the scene in which he thought that she was bedridden. Chang Nuo breathed a sigh of relief. If she had any misfortune, he really didn’t know how to face Ning Yuan’s eyes, which would suddenly brighten when she was mentioned.
Chang Nuo walked several steps closer and hid behind the banyan to check the situation. He wanted to see whether the fake Feng Yang, who was pretended by Taoist Sage, was there or not. Chang Nuo thought if Taoist Sage was there, Sister He would be frightened when he suddenly appeared. When Chang Nuo was pondering, he felt that something would hit him. His hands moved faster than his brain, and reflexively waved away that black object, making it bounce back. But after swiping it out, he realized that the thing he hit just now was the mud ball thrown by Sister He. And the direction he hit back was aiming straight at Sister He!
Chang Nuo was anxious because he used 50 percent or 60 percent of his strength. If he hit her, she would be wounded! Although she had internal force and Zhenqi for protecting the body, she was still a girl who was more fragile than a begonia in nature. Her bones must be the kind of weak bones that could be easily broken!
Chang Nuo took out the long whip wrapped around his waist, and thrillingly pushed her away before the mud hit her. After she saw Chang Nuo, she actually mistook him for Taoist Sage. And she just harangued something that he couldn’t understand. However, it seemed that she was very familiar with Taoist Sage, and she also knew that Taoist Sage wasn’t the true Feng Yang, just wearing Feng Yang’s mask. It was weird. How could Sister He, who was a girl staying in boudoir, have such a good friendship with the world-renowned Taoist Sage? This was really unexpected.
In the next conversation with her, her strange remarks surprised him too much, and her coldness made him feel a little sullen. Ning Yuan was already obsessed with her, but she was so offish. She didn’t be delighted or touched. And she even said, “One day, I will be put in use by them, as if candles burning their lives into the light and become a pile of oil at the end. If I did what Lord Ning wants, death would be the only thing waiting for me.”
Just because Chang Nuo was carried away by anger, he couldn’t help but speak out to defend Ning Yuan. However, she immediately realized that he was not Bai Yangbai, but “the real Feng Yang”. As she stepped back away from him, she asked coldly, “Who are you? You are not Bai Yangbai!”
In this way, the first open-hearted conversation between him and the girl was stopped. Looking at the girl’s trembling shoulders and panic-stricken eyes, Chang Nuo explained, “I didn’t mean to pretend to be Taoist Sage, and I have no malice towards you. You don’t have to be so panicked. I just want to hear your heartfelt words. Those words you just said are quite disrespectful to Lord Ning. Those words will hide in my heart. I will never tell anyone.”
He Danggui sneered after hearing that. She said, “Don’t worry, Childe Feng. I won’t care if you pass these words back to Lord Ning. Anyway, I will never follow his will to be his woman, and I don’t care if I will offend him. At first, I was still worried about how to clarify the matter with you. Now, under such a misunderstanding, you know my truest view towards Lord Ning and you. This is a good thing, huh. It saves me a lot of energy on getting up the courage, and I make myself clear to you with muddle.”
“Well, but I can’t understand,” Chang Nuo frowned and asked, “He is the lord with a perfect physiognomy, and he is so crazy about you. Don’t you even have the shyness and joy which a normal woman should have? What does his performance make you think that he is an unreliable man so that you rejected him immediately?”
He Danggui looked up at the stars. On the dark curtain, the shining stars were so beautiful. However, they were remote and ruthless, without a hint of warmth. Even if she didn’t like walking under the dazzling sun, she didn’t want to sign a dark pact with the cold star in the dark night. In this life, she could no longer let herself down, and could no longer sell herself worthless to a demon who didn’t even cherish the life of his own daughter.
Zhu Quan hated his father Zhu Yuanzhang. She told herself that it was because Zhu Yuanzhang killed his mother. It was not because Zhu Quan couldn’t understand the blood relationship. He just didn’t know how to choose between love and hate. She just watched this quietly.
Zhu Quan attacked his brothers. She told herself that it was because they attacked Zhu Quan first, and he was just for self-protection. Since ancient times, many people had been forced to participate in the battle for power and status. She just watched this silently.
Zhu Quan was cruel and ruthless towards his concubines. She told herself that it was because they were greedy and vainglorious women. They married into Lord Ning’s Mansion for their wealth and rights, without any sincerity to Zhu Quan. So, he gave them false feelings. Some women were unwilling to be lonely, so they were thrown by him to the Mongolian soldiers in the barracks; some used extreme methods to fight for favor, so they were given to guests from afar at the banquet; some sneaked into the study to steal military secret drawing, so they died silently. She just watched this silently.
Zhu Quan threw her and her daughter into Water Dungeon. Her daughter’s forehead became hotter and hotter, and her daughter’s cry became weaker and weaker. Her daughter died, and in the end she died. Everyone just watched this silently.
This time, she would no longer remain silent, so she raised her head and said resolutely, “Feng Yang, you and I are not on the same road. I can only describe Lord Ning as venomous serpents and wild beasts, so I will never accept the proposal you brought for him. Besides, I hope to return all the betrothal gifts you sent before. You can bring them back and tell him that between ‘being his woman’ and ‘death’, I prefer the latter. If he does constrain me, use his identity to suppress me, or use violence to detain me forcibly, I will have nothing to say and only send him my cold corpse as the answer.”
Chang Nuo was shocked by her words. Death? Corpse? Why was she so resolute? Wasn’t it just a chase between a man and a woman? Sweetness and affection between each other ought to be the main theme of this chase. Even if he, a matchmaker, used a threatening way to force her to accept the tokens, how could she be unmoved as a woman who was courted by the best man in the world?
Chang Nuo didn’t know how to talk to this young girl who threatened with death. But there were some things he had to say. If she was still indifferent after understanding Ning Yuan’s affection, he would do nothing but sigh that she was so ungrateful. And she failed to live up to Lord Ning’s heart.
“Sister He, since you have read the letter left by Lord Ning, you should understand that his affection to you is not a whim definitely. It won’t be done just with a sedan chair into Lord Ning’s Mansion,” Chang Nuo sighed, “He really values and cherishes you. And he can’t bear to wrong you with the status of a concubine. So, unless you can be his princess, he will never come to get you.” Zhu Quan had so many women, but who could be so favored and cherished by him?
He Danggui blinked and asked, “So, do I have the right to refuse? The vital thing about marriage is loving each other. Now, I not only feel unhappy, but also have a strong sense of dislike for him. If he does respect me, he should immediately take back his self-righteous tokens and let me live my own life from now on. Otherwise, his so-called love is fake. And it is his self-righteous plunder and possession.” If Zhu Quan knew how to love someone, how could she have hated him from the bottom of her heart?
Chang Nuo slowly closed his eyes and remained silence for a long time. When he opened eyes again, he stared at her coldly and said in a deep voice, “Lord Ning is coming to Yangzhou. If you have something to say, just tell him face to face. As a messenger, I am too disappointed in you, so I don’t want to help spread your words anymore.”
He Danggui was shocked at first when she heard it. Then she smiled, like a begonia in the wind, and said sarcastically, “You have always been Lord Ning’s only messenger, passing down the noble orders of him. Have you ever been my messenger once? I told you that I don’t want his shit tokens; I don’t deserve that kind of superior man like him; I don’t want him to send you again. However, you didn’t tell him these words, did you? After all, you have always brought those damn tokens, appearing in Tao Yao Yard like a ghost.”
The anger in Chang Nuo’s heart suddenly rose from the tiny flames into a white blaze, and a strange light appeared in Chang Nuo’s eyes. He waved his wooden fan and hit the dying big banyan ten meters away which was hurt by He Danggui before. The tree immediately turned into so many sawdust, and was drifted into the endless sky with the night breeze.
He Danggui stood here firmly with her hands in sleeves. That decisive and delicate posture had a strange charm that tempted others to conquer and destroy.
Chang Nuo was tempted, and he suddenly stretched out his hand to her. His hand approached her neck slowly. When it touched her neck, he squeezed.
This content is taken from (f)reewe(b)novel.𝗰𝗼𝐦