Chapter 240 The brocade quilt of Su Mei Yard
He Danggui was transfixed immediately, and she even lost the desire to escape at the very thought of Zhu Quan’s Dun Shu (a kind of Kungfu that is unique and popular in Nihon, specializing on escaping or attacking others with the fully use of the surroundings materials) originated in Nihon and Ning Yuan’s arts of lightness which was as swift as a flash of lightning. The depressing thought that she was doomed to die whether she struggled or not came to her mind. She even closed her eyes, thinking that Zhu Quan must be the catastrophe in her life, by whom she was destined to be killed for 2 consecutive lives.
She didn’t run, waiting for the death.
She closed her eyes and laid her head down on her knees. Quietly, she was waiting for the death.
In a while, she was encircled by warmth. She heard the wind howling, smelled the fragrant and mild aroma of green tea and felt the warm and soft cloth touching her cheek under the veil. Before she opened her eyes, she recognized who came with her sense of smell. She closed her eyes and inhaled the aroma, enjoying everything at that moment.
The man who held her in his arms was not her friend anymore because she had just fallen out with him several days ago. He believed that she had lost her virginity, and she had no intention of explaining because it was not the first time that he had mistaken her, and he knew less about her than Chan Yi did. She used to take him as a confidant, so she didn’t want to open her eyes to quarrel.
Holding He Danggui in his arms, Meng Xuan evacuated from Qi Lu Yard as quickly as he could. He didn’t know how long had he flied, but he felt that he, embracing her, could fly all the time, to the end of time and space, and to the next life and then the next. He might have flied as long as the duration of a burning joss stick, or as short as one dropping in the water clock. All of a sudden, he was unable to reckon the time accurately. When he saw a tranquil yard with no one chasing after, he took her to a wing-room and raised the latch to close the door.
As they entered, Meng Xuan found that it was a bedroom. So, he lifted He Danggui onto the bed, unfastened her feathered cloak, and dragged a brocade quilt to wrap around her.
At this point, He Danggui had to open her eyes. She wriggled in the quilt, asking with doubt, “Why do you wrap me in the quilt? It’s not time for a nap. Besides, this is not my bedroom. Where I am?” When saying these, she felt an excitement of coming from the hell to the earth, as if she suddenly walked into a log cabin with a stove after having been numb with cold in a snowy day.
Meng Xuan turned to drag another brocade quilt from a closet and put it on the one wrapping her. “I don’t know either,” he said, “It’s just an abandoned yard. Don’t worry. Keep lying.”
Although He Danggui believed that facing the former friend with lying on the bed was a little out of place, the warm quilt was a magical thing to rely on, especially for a person like her who had sat on the cold ground for long in the icy wind.
She heard about many astounding news. The Elder Cousin with Dissociative identity disorder she had been curing for 3 years was not only a strange kid, but also the young brother of her enemy’s subordinate. Her enemy Zhu Quan recruited a capable subordinate, who said out her secret! At last, she even doubted that the person who killed her in the previous life was her husband, for whom she had worked herself to the bone!
Numb with cold on the ground, she heard about these, which sent shivers down her spine. Now, she liked being wrapped in the quilts, so she left everything aside. As an adult, she felt it improper to get along with grown Meng Xuan in this way. Besides, Meng Xuan’s brother said that Meng Xuan and his concubine had a son, and she couldn’t tolerate it as she required monogamy. So, Meng Xuan no longer belonged to her. And he had forsaken her at the thought that she had an affair with Zhu Quan, although it was an utter misunderstanding.
Looking around the yard, she found that it was Su Mei Yard.
The yard belonged to the first wife of Third Lord Luo Chuanpu, and it had been locked since she passed away and was planned to give their son Luo Baiji when he grew up. Since the whole family of Third Branch went to the north running business, it was abandoned. And later Luo Baiqiong got its key from the Sun Meiniang and forcibly occupied it for a long time because she liked the sea of Su Mei flowers in it. She didn’t move away until Luo Baiji returned to Luo’s Mansion for half a year. Su Mei Yard was locked and deserted again, and it was not worthy of its name anymore as all Su Mei flowers withered and fell.
All of a sudden, He Danggui shuddered with cold in the quilts and wanted to absorb every inch of warmth from the cotton above her. A moment ago, an astonishing thought flashed through her mind which exhausted almost all her breath in an instant.
Did Bai Yangbai in the previous life… fall in love with her?
Did he send her to the present life with “Forbidden magic of binding the soul for 3 lives”, while he himself pay for it?
When Zhou Jinglan harmed He Danggui by Xiaoyao Poison, she explained clearly, “After using the Xiaoyao Poison, the pain will last for an hour at first, and the next pain will start after an interval of an hour. In addition, each time the duration of the pain will increase. On the third day, the person using it will die from the pain, and it’s said that this person will lose his or her soul, thereby losing the chance of reincarnation.”
Even though the Xiaoyao Poison was not as awful as Zhou Jinglan described, He Danggui, after being killed, would at best start her new life after reincarnation, without memory, gratitude, grudge and knowledge of the previous life. But why could she avoid the reincarnation after the previous life, being exiled to the Ming Dynasty 18 years ago with complete memory?
Qing’er conjectured that she could have Time Travel largely because she had read too many books about Time Travel in the previous life. And she had a Buddha bead said to come from a temple in Tibet, which could draw souls. As to Meng Xuan, he died in the battlefield, who said that 3 days before he died, an elder of him gave him a yellow shining amulet which would turn calamities into blessings if he carried it.
But He Danggui died miserably without any amulet and protection. According to Zhou Jinglan, Xiaoyao Poison would make her soul vanish. So, how did she survive? Seeing the appalling symptoms of Qian Mudan affected by Shi Hua Poison and the surprising scene of Qian Mudan’s walking and speaking after death, He Danggui was in awe of things like “venomous insect” and believed somewhat that what Zhou Jinglan had said was not alarmist but true. At that time, He Danggui had already hit the lowest point in her life, so it was unnecessary to frighten her.
Didn’t… Bai Yangbai save her? According to Qi Xuanyu, Bai Yangbai was able to use that forbidden magic!
It was reasonable for her to have such thoughts. She suddenly recalled that when Bai Yangbai and she went to Qingzhou City to take revenge on He Fu, she heard that He Fu had died from disease. But she was not happy and complained that it was not fair as she couldn’t kill her enemy herself.
Then, Bai Yangbai comforted her with saying, “This is cause-and-effect transmigration. He owes your mother too much, and he has to repay from this life to the next. Don’t be sad, girl. Your mother will be lucky in the next life. Maybe she will marry a good man the first time. When she passes away, I will read the Scripture of Feng Qiu Huang (Phoenixes Seeking Mates) for your mother for 3 days to expiate her sins.”
She asked Bai Yangbai what scripture he would read for her when she died. After a period of silence, he said, “If you die, I will conduct a religious ritual to call back your soul and save you. I can do it, so you will never die, girl.”
In the previous life, she felt many times that Bai Yangbai liked her or even loved her.
Though, several years ago, she found Bai Yangbai’s secret, he didn’t kill her and just asked her to keep the secret. Moreover, he promised to endow her with the capability of agerasia. Then, Bai Yangbai found that she often hid a small bottle of herb soup used for having a shower, conducting undercover investigations into his secret recipe, and rummaged around in his study stealthily. Although he was angry and murmured that he would stop helping her have the capability of agerasia, he still heated up the bath water for her. He only told her about Yingying Powder, a unique prescription in the world.
His secret was extremely shocking, and even his good student, Zhu Quan, knew nothing about it. If the message of “Taoist Sage’s agerasia of 30 years” was spread, Bai Yangbai would be caught up in endless troubles, and at the very worst, he would be killed. She had his secret in hand, so she had his life in hand. Why didn’t he kill her, the possible threat to him?
Only the dead could keep a secret forever. He had many chances to kill her, or if he didn’t save her, she would die. However, he didn’t do that. He saved her at least 10 times during the years she served in Wuying Tower. He was also hit by a poisoned dart in order to keep her safe and sound. Even, because of her, he was badly wounded by a group of assassins. And then she knew the stunning secret he had kept for decades.
In the light of this, she was more convinced that, in the previous life, Bai Yangbai fell in love with her. Bai Yangbai was Zhu Quan’s teacher, so he had to take great responsibility for having turned Zhu Quan to such a bully. How could Bai Yangbai be virtuous with having such a vicious student! Most of the time, she was deceived by his outward appearance and forgot his great power and experiences of killing. Not only did she take him as an unskilled charlatan, but she often showed irreverence for him.
How could he allow his student’s concubine to take control of him? Just now Zhu Quan said that Bai Yangbai would never use any forbidden magic, and that the biggest rule of Daguomen Sect was prohibiting the forbidden magic. Anyone who used the forbidden magic should leave Daguomen Sect initiatively and would not be reincarnated. However, in the previous life, Bai Yangbai was deceived into using the forbidden magic with her little tricks, which endowed her, who was not suitable to be pregnant due to her cold physical characteristic, with a pigeon pair.
Now she realized that the little tricks she used to threaten Bai Yangbai were childish. How could he be threatened? It was clear that he humored her. Every time she reached out for a yard after taking an inch, he would humor her unwillingly. And it raised suspicion as he was abnormally good to the concubine of his student.
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