Mo Qianxue drifted alone in a shower of flowers and reached out to catch, but unexpectedly, the flower rain suddenly became bitter wind and chilly raindrops.
In the while, then, it turned into a blizzard.
So cold!
She ran and ran and ran…
Not far away, she found—
There was a man spinning and flying up and down in a green forest, his body extremely lithe in agility and shifting into another direction upon slight touch against branches or leaves. He was in black, emitting overbearing air of sword which cut off all the branches and leaves before it.
A girl watched him on the side and wiped out his sweat with a handkerchief after the man finished.
Mo Qianxue stopped her footsteps and regarded them, but their faces just couldn't be seen clearly. What was prominent was the sweet chemistry between them.
"Cousin, you must be tired from practicing for such a long time."
"Xue, as long as you're here, I'm not tired of doing anything."
"Stop it… You're making me shy… I won't talk to you…"
"Yes you will! When aunt and uncle-in-law come back with triumph, I'll officially make a proposal and settle down on our marriage…"
As the girl in her dream turned around, Mo Qianxue's heart plunged into the depth of a icy lake. She saw crystal clear that the girl was herself.
In shock, she hurried forward, trying to figure out everything.
However, she was standing right before their eyes, but they just couldn't see her. Why did they only have each other in their eyes?
She was both in coldness and fluster!
Suddenly, the girl turned to and smiled at her, and her body seemed to float into the girl's body. As the two mixed into one, she no longer felt cold, but when she turned to look at the man, she stunned.
He was exactly the man she had met in the daytime—Feng Yuchen?! In that instant, her heart was so sour and bitter.
The uncontrollable feeling instantly took possession of her heart and veins.
Momentarily, the scene changed. All of a sudden, she sat in a carriage, followed by masked assassins holding swords and chasing after her.
The scene of being chased in her dream was ten times more dangerous and fierce than the real one having taken place in the snow land.
However, this time, there were no Ning Shaoqing, Asan and Awu. The driver was an old nanny, and sitting with her in the carriage were a few servant girls.
The ones protecting beside the carriage was a team of rider-guards with armors and swords.
From behind came the protuberant murderousness, "Go to hell…kill them…anyone who killed the woman in the carriage shall be rewarded big…"
Her guards collapsed off the horse one after another, rolling to the ground and paving it with fresh blood all over the land.
In the whistling wind, the leaves twirled and the horses clattered along…
The old nanny was shot by an arrow and fell to the ground, fighting desperately with the chasing masked assassins. The few servant girls also knew martial arts and protected her to retreat step by step. The old nanny spat a mouthful of fresh blood, "Lady, leave here…"
"Kill…" The eyes of masked men in black turned red, "Kill all of them…"
The servant girls were stabbed by their swords, "Lady, take care…"
"Ah…"
In the retreat, she stepped on the air and under her feet was a hellish deep abyss.
Then, she fell into the abyss…
Mo Qianxue woke up in the midnight from the half-true half-illusory nightmare!
She sat up in an instant, all sweat. The two scenes in the dream felt so real and empathetic.
Subconsciously, she reached out, in search of some comfort, yet the hand reached nothing. At once, her heart plummeted again.
In the dark, Mo Qianxue was flurried and scared, fumbling through the quilts all around the bed but only hearing the heavy heartbeat of her own. As she was sure that there was only herself in the room, she couldn't help screaming a short sigh and sweating.
So late at night, where could Ning Shaoqing be?
The night was silent. Trying to calm down, she heard noises from the room next to this one.
It was the study. The sounds seemed to came out of the study. Mo Qianxue calmed down, put on the slippers that Caixia had made for her, tiptoed to the wall and pressed her ear against it.
An unfamiliar but tough voice was heard through the wall, "Lord, are you okay? I thought that the poison could remain suppressed for at least one hundred days and didn't expect it to break out in merely two month. It's all my fault. I'm too useless."
Then, coming to her ears was the familiar cello-voice, "It's not your fault. Don't blame yourself too much. Luckily, although it breaks out, most of the poison is suppressed. Only a small part of it runs irregularly."
"But it breaks out more and more frequent and violent. This time, we've tried our best to suppress it, but if next time… I'm wondering whether the weird doctor has obtained…"
"Yesterday hidden guards have passed over the news that the weirdo doctor is already trying to get the herbal root. I think we can get it in a few days."
"Heaven helps the good men. Lord is sure to be cured."
"The hidden guards protecting lady reported today that a man claiming himself as her fiancé showed up. Tomorrow, you go to investigate the situation."
"But lord, you also need guards around you…"
"I have Asan around me. And the poison wouldn't break out so soon. You go and figure out who the man is and whether he's telling the truth. If that man might do any harm to lady, kill him directly!"
"Yes…"
His poison had broken out and he still thought for her good. Hearing the conversation, Mo Qianxue shed tears nonstop.
The two talked more things that she didn't understand or have the mood to figure out, then the man calling himself shadow guard held Ning Shaoqing back to the bedroom.
Mo Qianxue hastily crawled back to the bed, laid down in her quilt, closed her eyes while wiping out the tears and fought to adjust her breath to make it as calm as in a dream.
If he didn't want her to know it or make her sad, then how could she fail his kindness?
It turned out that his cold poison had long broken out but he chose not to tell her, because he didn't want her to worry, concern, or scare; he didn't want to give her the burden to stay restless all day long…
No wonder that last time he had given her a bank note of 500,000 taels of silver at one time, saying that with the money she wouldn't need to worry about her future and that she could decide on her own whether to build the factory or not.
It turned out that he was preparing her for a well-off future without him.
The door opened, and night gust blew in.
Ning Shaoqing feared that the wind would wake her up and quickly closed the door upon entering the room. He paced slowly to the bed and stared at her.
Mo Qianxue became stiff bodily, fearing that he would discover that she was awake. She already had no idea as to how to adjust her breath, only trying hard to inhale and exhale deeply…
Ning Shaoqing sat on the bedside for a while, sighed heavily, tucked the quilt for her, and then slipped into his own quilt and lay down.
Mo Qianxue couldn't hold it anymore, turned away to hide the welling tears from him.
She didn't dare to move or make the sound of sobbing or wipe tears, for fear that a slight movement could be noticed by Ning Shaoqing, so silently she dropped the tears into her pillow.
With a sigh, a big hand reached over and took her into his arms. Then, gentle kisses pecked away her tears…
How could him not know that she was awake? If the fact wouldn't be hid from, then what he could do was to comfort her… Having someone loving him, caring about him and crying for him was the warmest thing ever happened in his life.
Mo Qianxue replied him with kisses while sobbing… Everything didn't need to be explained in words. Every feeling was expressed through nonverbal language.
*
Midnight was the best time to get the herb.
The strange old man gathered qi in his elixir field, waved the medicine shovel and began to dig out the root of the rare flower.
Only in a moment's work, the rare flower was dug out, and the weird doctor cut off the stem and root, then, in delight, eyed it against the moonlight and discovered that it should gave out faint golden light.
He muttered in a smile, "Good, good! This one is in such good condition and of excellent medicine effectiveness. The eldest lord Ning is a blessed person; his poison will be cured…"
The words weren't finished yet when several figures sprang out of the darkness, reaching out to grab the medicine in the old man's hand.
The odd old man turned away to avoid the rushing men while from the other side came another group of people to fight against them at once.
Seeing the two groups were in heated fighting, the old man held the root of the rare flower in one hand and stroked his goatee with the other, laughing, "You go on, goodbye."
By his martial arts and experience, it would be strange that he hadn't noticed that he was followed by a huge bang of people. He didn't point out previously because he didn't mind it and also feared that the best time for digging the root might be delayed.
As he spoke, the odd man was putting the golden root into his pocket when, with a hiss, an arrow shot towards him out of the shadow, targeting right at the golden root.
The odd man retreated in a hurry, and at the same time, another three arrows came up at his face while three more at his belly and still another three at his lower body.
It was barely possible to escape the nine arrows at the same time. The only way was to catch with his body parts, so grabbing the root with one hand, he used the other hand to deflect the arrows aiming at his belly and lower limbs.
If he wanted to avoid all the nine arrows, he must throw away the golden root in his hand.
In the nick of time, out sprang a man who drew out his sword to fend off the arrows and then leap up in the direction where the arrows came.
In the dark, two people tangled in a fierce battle.
Afterwards, the doctor sneered at the man in black who had shot the arrows and planned to tuck the golden root into his pocket when another two men sprinted over again from another side.
The old man raised his palm and exclaimed that they really so didn't cherish lives as to dash over rashly to grab the herb.
His palm wind forced back one person and patted on the forehead of the other person.
By the moonlight, there should be a smile flickering in the eyes of that person.
Smelling a rat, the old man hurriedly raised more palm wind at that person.
However, it was late already.
That man had already spat a mouthful of black blood on the golden herb. The blood was poisonous and would ruin the root at once upon touching it.
It turned out that these people's final goal wasn't to take away the herb but to destroy it.
The strange doctor became flurried, holding the stem up high in one hand and utilizing the other hand to gather up authentic qi to fend off the pool of black blood. For a time, blood fog spread out away from his chest.
The old man took back his palm and was greatly relieved seeing that stem of the rare flower was still shining.
However, it was too early to be gratified.
In the end, the stem was tainted with a light trace of the blood fog. In a short while, the golden light around the stem disappeared and the stem itself withered quickly.
At the sight of this, the man with arrows blew a loud high-pitched whistle and then retreated into the darkness.
On hearing the whistle, the rest figures also began to retreat.
The magic herb being destroyed, the strange old man hit the ceiling and wouldn't let the arch culprit escape and chased after…
*
At the Changyou dock, Feng Yuchen was looking up at the forest before him.
His mind had already wandered through the forest to reach the small village.
Who would imagine that the legal daughter of the father of this nation should be forced as a luck wife in this remote destitute village?
Who would believe that the noblest lady of this country should be showing her face in a small restaurant at the dock?
The dawn sun was rising. Two riders galloped at full speed in this direction. On the running horses were two smart-dressed chic people, one in red and the other in yellow.
However, those were two men but girls.
"Stop…" The two girls spurred the horses at Feng Yuchen, stopped them and jumped off in one breath in a proficient and elegant way.
"Lord." Although the two girls greeted him, the freezing eyes were teemed with anxiety. Immediately afterwards, they asked impatiently, "Lord, where is our lady?"
Feng Yuchen didn't look at them and smiled bitterly, "Lady…your lady…"
The girl in red seemed to be more impatient, seeing Feng Yuchen only glancing into the sky and laughing bitterly, and asked, "Lord. Please tell us. Stop torturing us!"
Only then did Feng Yuchen turned to fixed his eyes on them, "I'll take you there, and you'll understand everything." These two girls had been serving her since she was born. Probably when she met them, she would remember something.
Until now, he still lacked the courage to take a look at that so-called husband and the Wang village.
Since yesterday, he had been staying at the dock all the time.
Maybe, he disdained to take a look. Or probably, he didn't dare to.
As long as he never saw that person, he could keep his mind free of the shadow. He could even lie to himself that the man never existed.
However, now he must accept the truth. He was going to wake her up and give her a hand.
The Mo family wouldn't accept a village son-in-law, and the Feng family wouldn't accept a married woman to be their daughter-in-law either.
He would take her away and let all this buried here forever.
For once and forever…
Obviously, the two girls didn't think as much as he did. Hearing that he was going to take them to lady, they displayed excitement on their faces.
With two guards leading the way in the front, the two girls followed closely, and Feng Yuchen rode on the end.
The five of them set off to the Wang village from the dock.
*
At eight o'clock in the morning, Nizi had come to help Mingyue with cooking.
Suddenly, there was a knock at the door.
Nizi went to open the door and, before she saw clearly the visitors, two girls already broke into the yard.
Nizi stepped back, blocked them and asked critically, "How are you? How can you break into our yard?"
The girl in red came forward and arrogantly pushed Nizi away while saying, "We are…"
At the moment, the girl in yellow stopped her peer and gave her a look, smiling, "Sorry, little sister. We didn't mean any harm. She's just too short-tempered. Please don't be angry at her."
Nizi gave a glare at the girl in red and asked the one in yellow, "What on earth are you doing here?"
"We're the former servants of your lady… Please help us pass a word to her. We'll wait here…" The girl in yellow held in her excitement and replied modestly. Now their lady even didn't remember her, so they mustn't offend the people serving around her now.
On the way, they had gotten a glimpse of Mo Qianxue's current life from Feng Yuchen's brief words.
All the way here, they worried about her and blamed themselves.
How could their lady be a luck wife to nobody? What about lord Feng? How could they tell master and madam and others?
Nizi didn't totally believed their words because their didn't dress like servants, but on a second thought, how would call themselves servants for no reasons? Therefore, she replied, "Please wait here. I go in to report to her."
It depended on aunt Ning whether to meet them or not. Her job was to report.
Nizi walked through the smaller courtyard to the inner bigger courtyard.
The girl in red shook off the hand locking hers, saying, "Why bother to tell the countryside girl so much? Don't you fear that lady really forgot us when she met us?"