On the topic of Wei Yi, everyone suddenly perked up.
"Although Young Master Wei isn"t quite the same as the rest of us, he is adorable in his own way. Having him along on the journey has made us all very merry."
"Exactly. But Teacher Ji didn"t bring Young Master Wei this time. Great, now the journey will be really boring."
The bodyguards chatted among themselves, saying this and that.
Lang Po heard everything. He turned around and glared at them. "Do you not want your tongues anymore?" They suddenly stopped. They all knew that Lang Po was a coa.r.s.e fellow. He normally looked quite fierce and strict and Jing Rong"s temper more or less had rubbed off on him. But deep down, he was actually quite an amicable person and was quite easy going with his subordinates. However, because of this sudden shout, they couldn"t help but feel some fear in their hearts and could only obediently stand guard next to the carriage.
Just then, Mo Ruo lifted the curtain of the carriage and swept his gaze over the guards. "If you really miss Wei Yi, why don"t you just send some people back to Jinjiang and bring him here?"
"Master Mo, stop making fun of us. Teacher Ji"s instructions are our Prince"s instructions. He already said to leave him at the Wei residence. If we bring him here then the prince will definitely have our heads."
Mo Ruo continued to add fuel to the fire, "Your Prince isn"t a demon that kills without batting an eyelid, what are you scared of?"
They weren"t stupid, they knew that rascal Mo Ruo was trying to entice them to step on a landmine. Then, someone said, "Master Mo, stop trying to get us in trouble. It looks like it"s you who misses Master Wei. I heard that in the capital, he always stayed at your Yuhua Pavillion. In addition, it"s you who brought him on this trip to Yufu. So the one who misses him is really you!"
What a joke! Mo Ruo pointed at every one of the guards, "All of you gossip mongers, sooner or later I"ll stick some needles into you and make you mute." They all roared with laughter.
Mo Ruo pulled his head back into the carriage and saw that Tang Si was reading a book! Yes, a book. She wasn"t reading incomprehensible cla.s.sics, but rather medical books. In the past few days, she kept pestering Mo Ruo to teach her medicine. Mo Ruo wasn"t made of steel. He finally couldn"t take it anymore and threw some basic medical books at her so that she would focus on them rather than bother him. Therefore, Tang Si wasn"t her previous noisy self on this journey. On the contrary, she seemed to have changed into a new person and was reading quietly. Now her appearance really did seem like that of a gentle lady!
Mo Ruo accidentally glanced at her. At this moment, he felt that Tang Si somewhat resembled Kong Yu. The same gentle side profile, the same tall nose bridge, even the way they looked while quietly reading a book was so similar! At that instant, in some place deep down inside, his frozen heart had unexpectedly begun to thaw.
As if sensing something, Tang Si raised her head, glanced sideways and just happened to see Mo Ruo"s strange gaze towards her. She instinctively put the book down and sent a kick straight to Mo Ruo"s knee and roared, "What are you looking at? Never seen a woman in your life?"
Mo Ruo felt like he had been hit by lightning. He was so shocked. Clearly one was water and one was fire, why did he think that this woman looked like Kong Yu? He must be blind or had fallen ill!
He clutched his knee in pain and scrunched up his entire face. "Are you even a woman? So what if I look? There are only two people in this carriage and you don"t even let me look at you. If I don"t look at you who else am I supposed to look at?"
"I……" Tang Si was at a loss for words. She tilted her head while she thought. This reasoning seemed logical but she also felt that something was off. She swallowed several times. Forget it. She simply picked up the book again and started reading attentively.
On the mountain, the previously clear sky had started to rain. The weather in June was always rainy and humid. In the end, the entourage had to temporarily stop beside a bamboo forest. By chance, there was a pavilion to shelter from the rain.
Ji Yunshu"s emotions had calmed down significantly along the way. She stood at the edge of the pavilion, looking at the heavy downpour of rain and also happened to notice Zhao Huai and his men. They had built a simple shelter while making use of the density of the bamboo forest to avoid the brunt of the rain.
"Brother Lang," she called.
Lang Po replied, "What"s the matter, Teacher Ji?"
She pointed at the group in the bamboo forest. "Take some rations and give it to them."
"Yes." Lang Po did as he was instructed.
From Shanhuai county until now, Zhao Huai"s group had been closely following their every move but maintained their distance well. If they sped up, the other party also sped up. If they slowed down, the other party also slowed down.
Ji Yunshu thought, from the instant Zhao Huai saw the jade pendant, he had been following her. Could it be that he knew that the jade pendant was the tiger military seal so he said all that back then in the pavilion? But.i.t was impossible for him to have a connection with the tiger talisman. After all, twenty years ago, he was wasn"t even ten years old. What connection could a child, who wasn"t even ten, have with the tiger seal? She couldn"t make any sense of it.
The rain got heavier, as a few drops landed on her forehand. Jing Rong raised his sleeve to brush it away and turned back to sit down inside the pavilion. He saw that she wasn"t frowning like before and was very relieved. He said out of concern, "Be careful you don"t catch a cold."
She nodded. "Mm."
Jing Rong glanced at Mo Ruo and saw that he had been ma.s.saging his knee from when he got off the carriage until now. "What happened to your knee?"
At the mention of his knee, Mo Ruo got worked up. His eyes slitted needle-like, and he glared fiercely at the carriage next to the bamboo forest. He huffed, "What else could"ve happened? Of course, it got bitten by a spiteful woman."
Jing Rong joked, "Towards Miss Tang, you couldn"t have ……"
"What are you saying? What could I possibly do to her? As long as she doesn"t bully me I"ll already thank the heavens. I"ve set my mind on this, I can"t sit together with her. Otherwise, I"m scared I won"t be able to stop myself from poisoning her."
"Well, that can"t be helped. Miss Tang is your savior, therefore you have an obligation to take care of her. If she wants to follow you then you can"t run away. If she wants to learn medicine then you have to teach her. After all, you owe her your life, you have to pay it back!"
Jing Rong made it sound so easy! This was met with an eye roll from Mo Ruo. Ji Yunshu also showed a rare smile on her face.
At this time, there were five people outside rus.h.i.+ng through the rain to the pavilion. They all wore the same Confucian robes. A layer of gauze was wrapped over their clothes and they had blue undergarments beneath. They all had their hair in a topknot and had long blue-green sashes fastened on which fell to their waist.
As a result of the rain, they all looked like drowned rats! Four of them had their books over their heads to protect themselves from the rain. Only one of them had their books tucked inside their clothes and clutched to their chest to prevent it from getting wet from the rain. From the looks of it, they seemed to be students from a nearby academy!