Chapter 136
* referring to Dou E from Dou E Yuan
It was obviously too late to regret. Xia Muyun slowly followed Xia Yuqing’s footsteps with anxiety for the first time in her life.
“Gong Zi, this is the most exquisite guqin in the palace. As for the flute…” The little eunuch who handed over the guqin on stage was a little embarra.s.sed.
“There is no need for the flute, we have…” Xia Yuqing turned her head and looked at the person not far behind, following Cui Er, whose face was pale due to excessive blood loss a few days ago. “Senior Brother, let us borrow your jade flute to use.”
After hearing this, Su Wuduan stepped back two steps. His face was on guard… two-hands covering his chest: “What… what do you want to do?”
“…” Senior Brother, you b**tard, don’t force me to, on behalf of Xu Ge and in the name of the Moon, punish you*! Also him protecting his chest with his hands, does he really think that he was beautiful, like a flower?
* reference to sailor moon catchphrase
“Senior Brother, I just want you to lend me your jade flute to perform, nothing else.”
Su Wuduan gave Xia Yuqing a suspicious look: “This jade flute is a token my mother gave me. It is one of the sacred artifacts in Miao Jiang. Seeing this item is like seeing the person. I can’t lend it to outsiders at will.”
“Huh?” As soon as he said this, Cui Er lifted an eyebrow and made a sound.
“…” Su Wuduan stiffened. He laughed twice, then hurriedly drew out the jade flute from his sleeve. He offered it with his dog paws: “Wife, of course, is not an outsider. Please use it, please use it. It is the blessing of this flute.”
Cui Er glanced at him, stretched out her hand and took the flute and handed it to Xia Muyun’s hands.
Xia Muyun and Xia Yuqing: “…” Senior Brother, where’s your morals?
After solving the musical instrument problem, the two were ready to take the stage.
Xia Muyun took out the cotton b.a.l.l.s Leng Ruofeng had just handed her. As soon as she stuffed it in, she saw Xia Mingyuan and the others not far away arguing about something. After a closer look, what they were fighting over was… a cotton ball?
“…” What’s going on? The ominous hunch of hers is getting worse!
Before Xia Yuqing sat down in front of the zither, she met the probing eyes of everyone. She glanced at Xia Muyun, indicating that Xia Muyun would start first.
Xia Muyun blocked her ears, thus naturally couldn’t hear what she was blowing. As a result…
“Beep–” A sharp noise that sounded like a truck braking suddenly broke into everyone’s ears.
People toasting, talking, contemplating, and walking, their expressions all turned into this: “!!!”
After a brief astonishment, everyone suddenly had a big question. A flute… is a musical instrument that can make this sound? !
Before everyone was scorched by the sound of the flute, a zither sound that was like a bullet was inserted strongly.
Dong—that one sound, the momentum was grand. It was as if an army of a thousand horses rushed straight into the sky, and directly shot down the innocent birds that were leisurely flying in the air.
Accompanied by a m.u.f.fled sound, everyone watched the birds and beasts fall to the ground, foaming at their mouths.
“…”
For the first time in their lives, everyone realized how sound can be a sharp weapon. It turns out that not only can beautiful sounds shock and move people, but this kind of shocking performance can also destroy people’s minds.
The sound of brakes and the sound of the zither blended together in harmony. It strongly harmed everyone’s sanity, like an invisible sharp saw constantly cutting the strings of sanity in everyone’s mind. Like a blaze, after the event, the zither string loaded with the burden of the sound…snapped! ! !
After a flurry of madness, a desolate evening breeze blew across the hall, making everyone rigid in place.
When Xia Yuqing stopped her hands, all the strings on the zither were broken. Xia Yuqing was taken aback. She turned her head and looked at Xia Muyun with tears in her eyes. She spoke with a touch of emotion: “Third…Third Princess, as expected, our zither and flute are different. Even the zither could feel our affection that is as deep as the ocean. It snapped for the sake of you and me!”
“…” The corners of Xia Muyun’s mouth twitched slightly. Although she couldn’t hear anything, the scene below…the zither definitely did not break due to its admiration of them.
“…” The first time seeing Xia Yuqing’s magical sound, Su Wuduan suppressed the blood running through him like a horse in his chest. He groaned silently, “I finally understand why my father treats Junior Sister differently.”
Mother, your child is not filial. Your child does not know if he can retrieve our sacred artifact intact.
With a bang…under the deathly silence, someone who was holding a cup slipped, and the wine in the cup dropped to the ground along the edge of the table, making a tickling sound.
The people present, rolled their eyes, fainted. Some who were stronger had pale blue faces as they clung to their cups tightly. But, judging from the liquor spilling from the cups, they were obviously not in a better state.
Glancing around the surrounding corpses, the people who knew about the power of Xia Yuqing’s zither sound had different thoughts.
Xia Mingxi: “I didn’t expect that there could be an upgraded version of Little Royal Sister’s devil zither sound. Is it possible that there will be an ultimate version in the future? It’s so powerful!!!”
Xia Mingyuan: “Separated for a time, in just one year, Little Royal Sister’s celestial demon zither sound has become more and more refined. Ye Country’s future of being tragic or fortunate makes one look forward to it.”
Everyone else: “I didn’t expect the sound of Niang Niang (Qing Jiejie) would match with the sound of the Third Princess and double in lethality, this is too d.a.m.n brutal!!! Sure enough, there is only more awesome and not the most awesome!!! Niang Niang (Qing Jiejie) is our idol. But… in other people’s palaces, is it okay to kill with no limit? What about keeping everything low-key?!!!
To sum up: to be able to play a musical instrument to such an unpleasant state is a realm beyond the reach of mortals, look afar ~~~~
“I changed my mind.” Feng Tingye’s face had a creepy and unpredictable smile from beginning to end. The sound at this moment attracted the eyes of everyone beside him.
“Change your mind?” Xia Mingyuan asked with a very bad premonition, swallowing hard.
“I originally planned to take Qing Er away and let her part ways with the Third Princess, now…hehe, I have decided to take the Third Princess away. After all, there are not many people in the world who can be like-minded with Qing Er. If we bring her back to the palace, the Ye Kingdom’s palace will definitely be even more powerful.”
“…” Your Majesty, can you be any more unruly? Niang Niang in the palace is something we can barely handle, if another one comes, we will definitely be ruined by you! ! !
“This matter… Zhen will leave it to Ruofeng.” Feng Tingye smiled lightly and gave Leng Ruofeng a powerful and difficult task.
“???” Leng Ruofeng was confused, but everyone on the side was 囧.
You are so despicable, my lord! ! ! You want to sacrifice the Prime Minister to perform beauty tricks and seduce the Third Princess back to Ye Nation? Where are your morals? What is your lower limit? Poor Prime Minister, he was sold out like this and looks out of it. A moment of silence for him…
“Speaking of which, Qing Jiejie and the Third Princess are both musical instrument killers. Could this be the nature of the legendary sisters…”
Li Yuan’s words successfully gathered everyone’s eyes on Xia Mingyuan and Xia Mingxi.
“…” Xia Mingyuan twitched and coughed lightly: “This is just… an accident, an accident.”
“An accident? Two accidents?” Feng Tingye raised an eyebrow, his eyes full of mockery.
“…” Xia Mingyuan and Xia Mingxi were embarra.s.sed at the same time. They silently made up their minds, in the future…they needed to stay away from musical instruments! ! !
“Ahem… Your Majesty, the performance of this Gong Zi and the little princess is really wonderful, it can be called a perfect match!!!” The imperial concubine recovered from her initial shock and chuckled.
In regard to how well Xia Yuqing and Xia Muyun played, everyone knew. The imperial concubine’s remarks were originally intended to satirize the two of them. Yet, she didn’t expect Xia Yuqing and Xia Muyun to be the kind of people who couldn’t read behind the words.
Hearing the words, immediately the two of them smiled shyly: “The empress is exaggerating, it is an insignificant skill that is not worth mentioning.”
“…” The imperial concubine paled. The smile on her face was completely frozen. A pair of beautiful eyes glared at the two firmly, as if trying to confirm whether the two were really stupid or pretending to be stupid.
Xia Haotian can be said to be the calmest of the people present. Hearing Xia Yuqing’s answer, he couldn’t help curling up the corners of his lips. Before the imperial concubine became angry, he calmly spit out two words: “Not bad.”
“…” The imperial concubine stared with big eyes as she looked at Xia Haotian in disbelief.
“!!!” Your Majesty, were you stunned into becoming an idiot by that Gong Zi’s zither? This was a group of officials who had just gotten up with great difficulty and fell to the ground again because of Xia Haotian’s words.
“…” Royal Father, did you forget to take medicine when you went out today? This was Xia Mingxi who was stunned and shut his mouth hard.
Feng Tingye was not at all surprised by what Xia Haotian did. The corners of his lips were slightly pursed, a faint interest flashed in his eyes.
Xia Haotian had already spoken, so the imperial concubine would naturally be tactful and wouldn’t hold on to Xia Yuqing for this. She could only smile reluctantly, and replied, “As His Majesty says.”
Later, she didn’t dare to embarra.s.s Xia Yuqing. Slowly taking her seat, she vented all the anger in her heart on her handkerchief. The poor, delicate silk handkerchief was twisted into a ball, losing its original beauty.
The thing that little b*tch brought back is not a good thing either, a nest of snakes and rats! There was a cold stern look in the eyes of Imperial Concubine Roujia. Why does that kid look so familiar…
Xia Mingxuan was not too surprised by the disadvantage of his mother. In Xia Mingyuan’s mansion that day, he could already vaguely feel Xia Haotian’s favoritism towards Xia Yuqing. Thus today when his mother had targeted Xia Yuqing, the results were as expected. He had told her early on not to trouble Xia Yuqing, but his mother was arrogant and would not listen.
He was not surprised at all when the current situation appeared, but he was a little puzzled. Why did his Royal Father indulge her so much? Who is she?
Xia Haotian’s words undoubtedly gave everyone a warning that Xia Yuqing was the person he was protecting, so no one could move against her.
Except for a few people who noticed Xia Haotian’s att.i.tude towards Xia Yuqing, most people thought that Xia Haotian was loving the house and its crow (idiom that means if you love the house, you would even love the ugly crow that lives on it), and was giving face to his future son-in-law.
With Xia Haotian’s words, the banquet became surprisingly smooth. If there was anything unusual, it was when Xia Haotian got up and left. When he was leaving, when pa.s.sing by Feng Tingye, he deliberately uttered some words in a voice that only the two could hear: “Take her out of here and treat her well.”
Feng Tingye took the wine gla.s.s in his hand and naturally replied so only the two people could hear: “Yes, father-in-law.”
The two pa.s.sed by each other with tacit understanding and both individuals returned to their lives.
Xia Haotian’s att.i.tude at the banquet made many people believe that a good thing was approaching for the Third Princess. A large number of people had begun to calculate and scheme about Xia Yuqing in their hearts, but it was a pity that their abacus was destined to fail this time.
On the next day of the banquet, when the officials were about to visit the prospective son-in-law in person, they all unexpectedly received closed doors.
There was news, late last night, that the father of the Gong Zi and Feng Gong Zi had a sudden cold. As sons, they were very worried. Therefore, as early as the next morning, they said their goodbyes with the eldest prince and left.
Now the whole group of people were dumbfounded, but it was hard to say anything. The relations.h.i.+p between a father and son, if the father was infected with a cold, as their children, they really couldn’t stay outside for long. Thus, the group of people secretly sighed that their fortune was not good and scattered.
However, they obviously underestimated the consequences of Xia Yuqing and the others leaving. This is because Xia Yuqing and the others took one more person when they left.
“Third Princess, just sending us here is fine. You can go back first.” Xia Yuqing said politely, looking at Xia Muyun who was walking behind them.
Unexpectedly, Xia Muyun raised a bright smile at her, and said triumphantly: “I won’t go back, I’m going with you.”
“!!!” Xia Yuqing’s eyes suddenly opened wide, staring in disbelief at Xia Muyun, “Third Royal Sister, what are you talking about? You want to go with us?”
“Yes.” Xia Muyun said naturally.
“…Does Royal Father know about this?”
Xia Muyun pondered for a moment, then gave an ambiguous answer: “He should know.”
“…What is that supposed to mean?”
“I left a letter to Royal Father, so Royal Father should know about it.”
“…” Royal Sister, can you not be so casual about you running away from home?
Xia Yuqing was 囧 for a long time. She swallowed her saliva and continued to ask: “Um… Royal Sister, can I take the liberty to ask, what is written in the letter?”
Xia Muyun spread her hands: “It’s nothing. I just told Royal Father that I’m going to pursue my own happiness, please don’t worry.”
“…” How can one not worry? In fact, Royal Sister, can you not be so vague? Hearing these words, it seems that you eloped with me, okay! ! ! It doesn’t matter to me, but Royal Sister don’t you need to worry about your reputation? Please don’t make trouble! ! !
Xia Muyun looked at Xia Yuqing’s stunned look. She couldn’t help but smile, and rode her horse to Xia Yuqing’s window and whispered: “Royal Sister, we are sisters of blood relations.h.i.+p, right?”
“…” She seemed to have a bad feeling? Can I say no?
Xia Muyun directly took Xia Yuqing’s silence as a default agreement. She smiled and said: “Jiejie is in trouble now, Royal Sister, since you are so enthusiastic and kind, you will definitely not just stand by and not help, right?”
“…” I knew things could not be so simple? According to the words of Royal Sister, if I don’t help, I’m not kind hearted? Royal Sister, you are just giving me an ultimatum, can’t we be sisters that get along nicely?!
“En?” Xia Muyun saw that Xia Yuqing was still indifferent. Her eyes suddenly drenched, she saw that the hair on her back was erected. She nodded and said impa.s.sionedly: “Royal Sister, if you have any difficulties, as long as your younger sister can help, going through fire or water, I will do whatever it takes.”
“…” Niang Niang, what is your lower limit? Li Yuan glanced at Xia Yuqing with complicated eyes.
Xia Yuqing sighed back at her: A wise man knows better than to fight when the odds are against them. What’s more, I am just a weak woman.
“…”
Xia Muyun was startled. She slapped Xia Yuqing’s shoulder with joy and admiration: “You are worthy to be my little Royal Sister.”
“No, no, Royal Sister just taught me well.”
“…” Li Yuan glanced at the two, no longer wanting to say anything.
“Royal sister, hmm Royal sister, let me just say it straight. Royal sister, I… to the person in front… I have goodwill towards him.”
The person in front? Xia Yuqing raised her head to look forward. A tall figure came into view instantly. As if he felt Xia Yuqing’s gaze, the person turned to look at Xia Yuqing, with his signature silly smile.
“…Royal Sister, you are interested in the person in front?”
“Yes.”
“…” Third Royal Sister, your taste is so heavy, was it due to Royal Father?
“Ahem, Royal Sister, I don’t have much to say about your taste, but this love thing needs to be mutual. The man you are fond of… It’s not that Royal Sister doesn’t want to help you, but he already has someone in his heart. “
She can’t do things like letting her own people have affairs. Don’t look down on the small Yunxi Xiao Longbao in her family, she is the heir of Shu Country. When angry, this Xiao Longbao can easily turn into a barbecued pork bun! When she comes back and finds out her person was stolen, it would not just be a dispute between the two countries, but a melee of the Three Kingdoms!
At that time, if Xue Country is unwilling to be lonely and joins in, it will be a life and death situation for the whole continent. It will easily cause dynasties and times to change! In fact, it will be so shameful when it’s written down in history books! Because of an affair…it caused the war of the century? O(╯□╰)o
“What? Does he have a sweetheart? Who is it?”
“…What do you want to do?” Are you planning on killing that person and stealing back your love! Yamete!
“Why are you so nervous? Afraid that I would do something to that person? Don’t worry, I, Xia Muyun is not that cheap. I just want to see who can melt that big iceberg before me.”
“Melting iceberg?” Xia Yuqing turned her head and looked at He Wenzhong not far away. She became 囧. Did I misunderstand something?
“…Royal Sister, the person you like is…”
“Leng Ruofeng!”
“…” Xia Yuqing suddenly felt a cold wind blowing in front of her. She shuddered from the cold. Royal Sister, I’m sorry, I… I underestimated your aesthetics and courage. It’s a crime! Daring to collide with the iceberg, face to face, and create sparks, Queen, please receive my bow! ! !
“You didn’t… misunderstood something, did you?” Xia Muyun glanced at He Wenzhong not far away, and narrowed her eyes. “You didn’t misunderstand, did you?”
“…No…no. I just felt a little sad all of a sudden. It’s just that for Leng Ruofeng, I had become the scapegoat. I was thinking whether I should change my name.”
“Change name? Change it to what?”
“Dou E*!!!”
* “… Is there any inevitable connection between you changing your name to Dou E and you being a scapegoat?”
“No connection…”
“…” Are you teasing me again?
Xia Muyun took a deep breath and glanced at Xia Yuqing: “Whatever, I’ll ask you again, does Leng Ruofeng have a sweetheart.”
“No…”
Xia Muyun narrowed her eyes: “Then you just…”
“…” Royal Sister, I was wrong, please let it go! ! !
Xia Muyun looked at Xia Yuqing’s crying expression without tears. She smiled lightly: “Okay, let’s not mention this. Little Royal Sister, you know what to do right?”
Xia Yuqing was trembling all over her body. She made a pious expression of pledge: “I know, I know. Royal Sister’s happiness is my happiness, I promise to live up to Royal Sister’s entrustment and will actively complete the task!!!”
“…En.”
“Royal Sister, let me tell you, that iceberg… he is not as you imagined…”
On the other side of the carriage, Feng Tingye silently curled his lips up while riding the horse far away as he listened to the conversation between the two.
The sound of the marching horses and the sound of the carriage, mixed with the laughter between the two, echoed on the s.p.a.cious mountain road for a long time.
At this moment, they never thought that the trip to Xia Country, which they thought had ended, still had a bunch of aftermath waiting for them.