Chapter 386 The blood-red cinnabar mole was startling
Duan Xiaolou sat up instantly with his eyes full of tiredness and surprise. He looked at He Danggui and asked in a hoarse voice, “What do you mean by that?”
“I mean,” He Danggui told him the truth calmly, “I didn’t intend to commit suicide. I just pretended to cut my neck with the dagger to lure you out but I didn’t expect that you would be so rash and grabbed the blade of the dagger directly. I’m really sorry. I didn’t know it was made of dark steel that could cut everything effortlessly, or I wouldn’t play that trick on you.” She looked at Duan Xiaolou with a smile and her canines were shown lightly as the portrait on the dagger did. “Xiaolou, you’re a generous man so you won’t blame me, will you?”
Duan Xiaolou remained silent for a moment and then, collapsed into the pillow while laughing wildly. A while later, he said, “That’s the way Qingyi is. You’re always crueler, more calculating, and more sedate than men. It was me who wasn’t calm enough just now...”
They looked at each other in silence for some time. He Danggui acquiesced in his words in some way because most of what she said was true. Duan Xiaolou was taking in the news that she didn’t intend to sacrifice for that man but wanted to lure him out by pretending to commit suicide. After a while, he said with a bitter smile, “I thought after I learned the skill, I could use it on you someday to get an upper hand and hear your true thoughts, but in the end, I lost to you again. You’re much more brilliant and have put me to shame.” Finishing his words, Duan Xiaolou reclined back on the bed. He did fall asleep this time and didn’t care if He Danggui would leave anymore.
After hesitating for a while, He Danggui turned around and walked to the door of the icehouse. She saw Lu Jiangbei leave very easily before and she could swim well so she didn’t want to give up without trying. Anyway, the die was cast. What could she say? She couldn’t even find a solution satisfactory to one side, let alone the one to both sides.
She trotted out of the naturally-formed ice gate of the icehouse and ran forward after passing a turning. She should run faster and leave here first... “Gosh!” She screamed and took two steps back. How could it be?
Was that a waterfall? Why would it appear underwater? The waterfall kept falling in front of the entrance of the icehouse and blocked the way out but the water didn’t pour in. How could such a weird thing happen? Was this why Duan Xiaolou stopped watching her and let her escape? Lu Jiangbei, however, went in and out time and again and it seemed to be very easy. Why could he do that?
She took a closer look and found the waterfall was eerie and vicious. It rushed onto the reefs on the bottom of the lake and they immediately cracked. Some rubble popped out from them. There were fishes and shrimps in the water and they became broken bits as soon as they collided with the reefs. Nothing more could be seen at the bottom except for a light red current. How destructive it was! What on earth was this waterfall? How could it be so powerful?
Staring at it from a distance for a while, He Danggui turned around and went back to the icehouse. She never doubted the devastating power of nature and also knew that many things in the world were supernatural and could hardly be understood. However, what baffled her was even if a waterfall that was 200 zhangs wide and 300 zhangs high fell down, it wouldn’t be so powerful as this, would it?
How deep was the lake? Why was there such a waterfall falling down into it? Moreover, if the water kept rushing like this, a trench would be created here, wouldn’t it? How would the bottom of the lake still be level with the icehouse? It was incredible.
Since she couldn’t get through the waterfall, she gave up escaping and decided to eliminate the poison of “He He Qi Ri Qing” in her body first. Imperial Guards wouldn’t eat her alive, right? She didn’t hurt them directly, anyway.
With her question and presumption, she returned to the icehouse. Duan Xiaolou was sleeping so she made a fire at the corner and cooked a pot of Laba Full Moon Congee with the remaining ingredients. Such congee contained several more different grains than the common Laba Congee did. She added four boiled eggs that had been shelled and called them “Full Moon”. When the congee was ready, she asked Duan Xiaolou several times but he gave no response. She didn’t know whether he was angry at her or just too tired to get up. Since he didn’t respond at all, she shrugged and walked away. Then, she filled a bowl with the congee and began to savor it. It tasted much better than the goat milk paste Lu Jiangbei had made for her before.
The congee in her bowl contained eleven or twelve grains, each of which needed to be sowed in spring and couldn’t be harvested until autumn. Now the essence of those grains was extracted and gathered in the purple bowl in her hand, with an egg on it. Great. Qing’er and she could become well-to-do hand in hand, then.
The simple taste brought people a good mood. After finishing the bowl of the congee, He Danggui felt she could breathe more smoothly. Then, she began to think about how she could persuade Imperial Guards to spare her and send her back to Yangzhou City safely. She did have some chips but she should decide whether to use them or not based on the situation. Judging from Lu Jiangbei’s words, people in the Baisha Mountain Villa seemed to have been attacked and missing. If it caused turmoil, she just needed to wait and take action at the right time.
If they were all right in the end, she would negotiate with Lu Jiangbei in another way and give him more useful information in exchange for her freedom. He had paid much effort to save her and restated he wouldn’t hurt her. It seemed he wanted to cotton up to her very much. However, she still didn’t believe she would be of use to him or should be treated so well by him even though she tried hard to think. About the weird reasons behind it, she had to figure them out in the future. Compared with her new “uncle”, Gao Jue, her “brother-in-law and master”, was more reliable and easier to get along with. She hoped he could stay safe...
“You just left me alone because I didn’t answer you!” Duan Xiaolou shouted to her abruptly and looked livid, which scared He Danggui.
Looking at him in shock while he rose from the bed and made a fuss, she asked slowly, “You’re awake. Would you like some congee?”
Duan Xiaolou found fault with her by saying, “You don’t care about me at all! You just called me several times perfunctorily. Didn’t you know that I had eaten nothing these three days? Would you still snub me like this if I were him? Is this how you treat the one that has saved your life?”
He Danggui had nothing to say in reply to his accusation. After he finished the fusillade of questions, she explained slowly, “First, the congee is still simmered in the pot. It will become more and more fragrant and viscous. Even four hours later it will still be warm and right for you to eat after you get up. Second, you looked so tired and your vital energy must’ve been exhausted. I understand people that can’t sleep well are often bad-tampered so I didn’t dare to wake you up. If you want to eat the congee now, I’ll fill a bowl with it for you, okay?”
Duan Xiaolou looked furious. Seeing her being so gentle and considerate, he became more willful. He tilted his head and said with a nasal sound, “I want you to feed me.”
Then, He Danggui put aside the bowl she had used and filled a big cup with the congee. They were in lack of kitchenware at the bottom of the lake so all utensils could be used as bowls. Except for the lobed bowl with eight pleats she used before, from which liquids would spill easily, and the purple bronze alms bowl she used to eat congee just now that was often used by monks, the big blue porcelain cup in her hand now was the only usable container. She added two eggs to the cup and the congee almost spilled. Then, she handed it to Duan Xiaolou but he didn’t take it. She kept holding the cup in the air and her fingertips became red and numb because of the hotness but she still didn’t put it down on the bed or the Ice Pool.
After they kept being like this for a while, Duan Xiaolou asked again, “Feed me as I did to you these days. I’ve almost become your spoon. Since you used me happily back then, it should be my turn to be served now.” While saying this, he even blushed.
Hearing this, He Danggui thought of what Lu Jiangbei had said. Duan Xiaolou was true but as soon as she remembered what he had done to her in front of those men when she was in a coma and neither Gao Jue nor Lu Jiangbei had tried to stop him, she became indignant. After stuffing the cup into Duan Xiaolou’s left hand, she said in fury, “Eat it or leave it. Whatever you like. I’m a prisoner but not a maid.”
Duan Xiaolou didn’t expect that she wasn’t embarrassed or timid at all but became angry. Meanwhile, he failed to hold the hot porcelain cup tightly. When the fragrant “Laba Full Moon Congee” was about to be spilled on the bed, He Danggui caught the cup and pushed it back into his hand. A bit of the hot congee was spilled on her forearm so she frowned and rolled up her sleeve to check on it in a hurry, but when she saw her forearm, she was so shocked that she couldn’t come to herself until a long while passed.
“What’s wrong?” Duan Xiaolou realized he had made a mistake so he became less arrogant. He asked carefully, “Did you get burned? You’re not full, are you? How about I feed you as an apology?” The word “feed” could mean much. Duan Xiaolou stared at her with his bright eyes full of eagerness and expectation, which made him look like an animal.
He Danggui came to herself and glanced at him indifferently. After saying “Eat it up. Don’t waste food”, she turned around without hesitation and walked to a corner far from the Ice Pool where an ice sculpture stood. She lifted the sleeve on her right arm and took a closer look. The shock and bewilderment in her eyes couldn’t be hidden anymore.
A round cinnabar mole that was as red as blood and flamboyant petals was seen on her right arm instead of the left one. The position where the mole lay was still the same and it still looked like what it had been. It was removed to the middle of Duan Xiaolou’s eyebrows by him with a kiss before but now, it appeared on her right arm! What on earth was it?
Looking at the red mole that seemed to be smiling at her, He Danggui felt fluttered inexplicably. Judging from this, what she had guessed before was right. The mole was a living thing. It could get through people’s skin and “travel” from one person’s body to another! What a weird and unreasonable thing! Why did Qi Xuanyu do this to her? Although he had persuaded Zhu Quan with effort not to marry her, she and he never met each other. They were still strangers before she ran into him that night, but why did he use such a vicious skill on her?
She made a long sigh after touching the mole once. “Did Qi Xuanyu regard me as another ‘Luo Baiqian’? Is this cinnabar mole another mysterious thing that can be used to connect with ghosts?” She immediately got rid of the worst idea she thought about.
By some chance, she lowered her head and kissed the mole in the way how Duan Xiaolou did before. One, two, three.
After kissing it three times, the cinnabar mole disappeared again! She took the dagger out of her chest, removed its sheath, and looked at her face in the shiny blade. Then, she saw a beautiful face of a young lady who was in a daze and there was a blood-red cinnabar mole between her eyebrows. He Danggui had never imagined she would look so seductive one day.
At the same time, a man rushed into the icehouse and shouted in great pain, “Mr. Duan, help! Please run!”
The man’s body was covered with blood and he was dying. He Danggui recognized him. He was the middle-aged man from Nihon in the Imperial Guards and they always called him “Xue Xiao”.
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