Chapter 173: Couple’s Night Talk
Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
The reconstruction of Dye Workshop Street was progressing very quickly. In four or five days, most of the road had been paved with limestone bricks, but there were still few people along both sides of the street.
Ye Jingtang rode his horse back to Double Osmanthus Alley. Luo Ning jumped down first and kept a distance from him to prevent Little Yunli from discovering that her master’s wife was cheating.
Ye Jingtang went to the outside of the small courtyard and looked around. He could see that there were actually lights in the house. On the window paper of the main room, there was a reflection of a girl. She was holding a brush in each hand and writing furiously…
As an experienced person, Ye Jingtang naturally understood why this was the case. When Heroine Luo went out, she had arranged homework for Yunli and said that she would be back in about five days. Little Yunli must have had too much fun and only stayed up late to do her homework when death was imminent.
Luo Ning flew over the wall and saw this scene. Like all mothers, her expression darkened. “Yunli!”
“Huh? Martial Mistress, why are you back now? I’m studying hard by the cold window…”
Luo Ning turned around and took a small wooden stick from outside the kitchen. She was about to go in and deal with her daughter.
Ye Jingtang sympathized with Little Yunli and hurriedly went forward to smooth things over. “Don’t stay up late in the future. Your martial mistress will get angry.”
Squeak!
The door of the main room opened. Zhe Yunli, dressed as a delicate young lady, ran out with her saber hanging from her waist. Her face was a little timid. When she saw Ye Jingtang helping her, she heaved a sigh of relief. She gave Ye Jingtang a look that said, “How righteous!”
Then she took out a small bamboo tube. “Martial Mistress, there was news from the South Firmament Mountains yesterday. Take a look. I’ll feed the horse.”
Luo Ning took the small bamboo tube used by messenger pigeons and pulled
Yunli inside. “It’s already so late. Go to bed first.”
“I’m not sleepy…”
Tap, tap!
As Zhe Yunli was speaking, her back was tapped twice. Helplessness flashed across her watery eyes as she spread her hands slightly and fell straight down.
Luo Ning supported Zhe Yunli, carried her horizontally, and placed her on the elegant bed in the main room.
Seeing this, Ye Jingtang understood Heroine Luo’s intentions. He placed the bird in the main room to sleep and turned to enter the west wing.
Heroine Luo covered Yunli with a blanket and the bird with a handkerchief. She closed the door of the main room and went to the west wing. When she saw Ye Jingtang taking off his clothes in the room, she frowned. “What’s the hurry?”
Ye Jingtang paused and turned around. “My robe is wet. I just want to change into a clean one. What news did you get?”
Luo Ning closed the door, sat down on the bed, opened the bamboo tube, and took out the letter inside. It was written in small words. The first sentence was: Ning’er, how are you doing?
Luo Ning’s eyes moved. For some reason, she felt a strange sense of immorality…
Ye Jingtang knew that it was a private message from the Pacifying Heaven Cult Master, so he didn’t look at it together and just waited at the side.
As the saying went, ‘The most beautiful thing is not in front of the light.’ Luo Ning leaned against the edge of the bed with the letter in her hand. Her beautiful peach blossom eyes reflected the light of the candlestick. Her skin was as fair as jade, and with her cold expression, she looked like a fairy who had descended to the mortal world. Her blue clothes made her look like a fairy that could only be seen from afar but not touched.
Ye Jingtang raised his hands to help his wife take off her shoes, but when he saw his hands that had been holding reins all day, he stood up. “I’m going to take a bath.”
Hearing this, Luo Ning moved to the head of the bed, moved the candle lamp over, and carefully looked at the paper.
The letter had been personally written by the Pacifying Heaven Cult Master. There was quite a lot of content, and in order to prevent the message from being intercepted, the key content had been encrypted.
In the beginning, she wrote about the situation in the South Firmament Mountains and asked her to be careful in the capital and not let Little Yunli be naughty.
The following content was about the ins and outs of the Wandering Body Palm.
‘South Mountains Iron Trigram’ Zhang Henggu had been a little Daoist child of Great Yan’s imperial astronomer of the previous dynasty. His master had been the imperial preceptor of the previous dynasty, and he had often preached the Dao to the last Yan emperor.
The last Yan emperor, like all emperors of the previous dynasty, had raised a personal attendant by his side. Because Eunuch Wei of the previous dynasty was already old, he chose a child with nothing to enter the palace and gave him the name Cao Qianqiu.
In addition to practicing the Roaring Dragon Chart pictures collected by the previous dynasty, Cao Qianqiu would also go to the imperial preceptor to learn martial arts. Because he was the same age as Zhang Henggu, they had often practiced martial arts together.
Although the two of them were young, they were both very talented. Zhang Henggu felt that the Eight Trigrams Palm taught by his master wasn’t right, but he didn’t dare to say it out loud, so he discussed it with Cao Qianqiu in private. In the end, Cao Qianqiu thought so too, so the two of them secretly studied the qi circulation method of the palm technique.
Unfortunately, just as the two of them figured out a general idea, the world turned chaotic, and the flames of war soon spread to Yun’an.
Zhang Henggu escaped with the last Yan emperor, while Cao Qianqiu, who was only 12 years old, had been trained as a deathsworn since he was young. It was meaningless for him to survive the destruction of the country, so he chose to guard the Imperial City for the last Yan emperor.
Afterward, the two of them never met again. During the war of country annihilation, the imperial preceptor of the previous dynasty, Eunuch Wei, and other loyalists of the previous dynasty all died in battle. Cao Qianqiu was captured and finally surrendered to the founding emperor of Great Wei, becoming Eunuch Cao, the Great Palace Gate God of Great Wei.
On the other hand, Zhang Henggu and others escorted the last Yan emperor to the South Firmament Mountains. He was protected by the Xue family to the death and established the Pacifying Heaven Cult to accumulate power secretly and try to restore the country. In the blink of an eye, it was the present.
Zhang Henggu had taken in seven disciples in his life. Three of them had already died, and the remaining four were all in the South Firmament Mountains. If there was anyone else in the world who knew the Wandering Body Palm, it could only be Eunuch Cao.
When Luo Ning read this, she couldn’t help frowning. After the founding of Great Wei, there were many extraordinary people in Jianghu, but no one could carry a weapon to the emperor’s resting palace. Just this alone was enough to show the weight of the words ‘Eunuch Cao’.
Eunuch Cao never left the emperor’s side. No one knew his exact strength, and he wasn’t included in the rankings of Jianghu. But if any martial artist of the current Jianghu really met Eunuch Cao, no one would dare to think that he was a small fry.
Ten years ago, when the empress succeeded the throne, Eunuch Cao had disappeared without a trace. It was said that he had been killed by the deathsworn left behind by the previous emperor, but no one knew if he was dead or alive.
Eunuch Cao had been confirmed to practice the Roaring Dragon Chart, and it was more than one picture. Moreover, he was over 70 years old, extremely talented in his seventies, and had practiced it all his life.
If the murderer she met last time were Eunuch Cao, it would definitely not be the little thief scaring people with his voice. Instead, it would have been Eunuch Cao who suddenly said in front of them, “Young friends, why are you hiding in the morgue in the middle of the night?”
The letter speculated that since she could still write a letter, the person she met must be a disappointing disciple of Eunuch Cao’s.
Furthermore, the Pacifying Heaven Cult Master also revealed a piece of information. Last year, a force had come to visit and wanted to ‘collaborate’ with the Pacifying Heaven Cult Master for a great cause. They had promised to confer the Pacifying Heaven Cult Master the title of ‘South Stabilizing Prince’ after the matter was over.
The Pacifying Heaven Cult Master was Great Wei’s biggest rebel leader on the surface. The other party didn’t think that the Pacifying Heaven Cult Master would divulge information to the Imperial Court. Moreover, the Imperial Court wouldn’t believe the words of rebels ‘sowing dissension’, so they didn’t hide their identities very tightly. The Pacifying Heaven Cult Master roughly guessed that they were people of the Prince of Wu.
Among the princes of Great Wei, the strongest were the Prince of Liang and the Prince of Yan, who guarded the country. They had military power in their hands. If these two wanted to rebel, the Pacifying Heaven Cult Master would probably have to consider it.
But the Prince of Wu was clearly thinking too much. He was surrounded by the Yan Province infantry and cavalry and the Jiang Province navy. The only way his rebellion would succeed was if he developed an ‘air force’ and found a way to attack Yun’an from the sky.
Thus, the Pacifying Heaven Cult Master ignored his people and directly chased them out.
After the Pacifying Heaven Cult Master’s analysis, she told Luo Ning that if she wanted to investigate this matter, she could start with the Prince of Wu.
But this was a hidden danger of Great Wei’s Imperial Court. It made her remember her identity as the ‘madam of Great Yan’s South Stabilizing Marquis’ and not lose her mind and run to help the empress clear mines.
After reading the letter, Luo Ning put it down and fell into deep thought.
This matter definitely involves a lot. If the little thief settles it, the princess will probably treat him as a god…
Xue Baijin is right. I am a member of the Pacifying Heaven Cult. Isn’t it siding with outsiders if 1 help the Imperial Court punish traitors and eliminate dissidents?
The little thief wants to make a contribution and win the favor of the princess. What does it have to do with me? Won’t 1 lose both my husband and my troops…
Oh, right, I almost forgot about helping Yunli save Qiu Tianhe…
After Luo Ning deliberated for a moment and suppressed her distracting thoughts, she looked at the door and heard a sound coming from outside.
Splash- Splash-
The little thief is taking a bath. Luo Ning blinked and looked at the clothes on her body. I didn’t have the chance to bathe for the past few days because it was inconvenient. The little thief will definitely come to me later. I have to take a bath…
Luo Ning hesitated for a moment before getting up and walking out of the west wing.
It was drizzling outside, and it was early in the morning. It was pitch-black in the courtyard, and only the corner of the main house and the west wing had some light.
There was a small well in the corner of the courtyard. Beside the wall of the west wing was a laundry pool. In order to be considerate of the women, Ye Jingtang had even built a curtain under the eaves. The inside was clean and tidy.
At this moment, Ye Jingtang was standing behind the curtain with a bucket of water in front of him and pouring water on his head with a ladle.
Although the environment was simple, the little thief used it extravagantly. He was taking a bath with a piece of ‘osmanthus soap’ worth a teal and covering his entire body in bubbles.
Luo Ning stood in the corner, opened the curtain with her fingers, and looked inside. She saw the naked man from head to toe. “You’re not done yet?”
Ye Jingtang washed his face and replied, “Don’t be in a hurry. I’ll be done soon.”
“Who’s in a hurry? It’s almost dawn. It’s been so long… Can I still bathe?”
Ye Jingtang paused, turned around, and said tentatively, “I can’t scrub my back.
Why… why don’t we do it together?”
Luo Ning’s eyes turned cold, but after a moment of silence, she walked into the curtain and untied her belt. “Don’t look back.”
“Okay.”
Rustle, rustle-
Luo Ning hung her clothes on the wall, walked behind Ye Jingtang, picked up the osmanthus soap, and rubbed it on his broad back. “Stand properly.”
Ye Jingtang stood up straight and asked, “What did the letter say?”
“The murderer has something to do with Eunuch Cao…”
Luo Ning told Ye Jingtang the news in the letter while helping him scrub his back. Then she scooped some water and poured it on herself.
Splash-
With the mentality of taking care of his wife, Ye Jingtang went behind her, rubbed the soap on her, and slid it up from the side of her waist. “Heroine Luo, analyze it carefully. I’ll do this kind of work.”
Luo Ning’s face quickly turned red. She held Ye Jingtang’s hand and whispered, “I’ll do it myself-”
It’s fine. We’re helping each other.”
Sigh… There’s also a problem with the Prince of Wu…”
Ye Jingtang’s movements were very agile. He filled the front with soap, and the little watermelons became slippery.
After Luo Ning finished speaking, her breathing was already unsteady. In order to prevent the little thief from seeing anything, she tilted her head and pretended to be forced. “I think you’re suitable to be Eunuch Ye in the palace. You’re skilled in martial arts, talented, and like to serve concubines to bathe.”
“The concubines in the palace don’t enjoy this kind of service.”
“You have never seen the world. 1 heard from the old palace maid in the
Pacifying Heaven Cult that the concubines in the palace bathed like this… Ah-i’ll do it myself.”
Ye Jingtang smiled, hooked his feet around Heroine Luo’s ankle, and spread it to the side…
Luo Ning held Ye Jingtang’s attentive hand, but she couldn’t stop him, so she gave up struggling…
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