CHAPTER SIXTY-FIVE
The Jade Dragon Token
As that whip swirls to the sky, a black figure suddenly leaps out from the mountains, covering the dripping wet Pang Wan with a coat and flies to the horse carriage that has long been waiting.
Upon opening the door curtain, warm air immediately blows to her face, a charcoal-burning basin is actually in the horse carriage, the fire in full bloom; without saying a word, a pair of little hands reaches out to her and tries to rip off her completely wet clothes.
Pang Wan turns back and looks, it is the anxious mute maid.
“Ah Zhuo, I got it, I got the Jade Dragon Token,” Pang Wan has no time to care her soaking wetness, throwing herself to Ah Zhuo and tightly hugs her, “I got the Jade Dragon Token,” she is happy to the extent of almost jumping up.
“Nonsense!” A harsh scold sounds out from inside the horse carriage, He Qing Lu walks up to her with a gloomy face, picks up Pang Wan to the side.
“Gentleman, I got the Jade……” Pang Wan laughs and wants to hug him, yet hears a sound of “ci-la”, the clothing on her body directly teared off, her skin is just about to be exposed in the air.
Fortunately, the next second, a warm blanket that is clearly heated beforehand tightly wraps her up.
“Ride the horse! It won’t be any good to stay in this place any longer!” He Qing Lu made sure Pang Wan is completely covered, then commands in a serious voice.
The black figure outside the horse carriage immediately throws the whip, eight black horses lift their foot and races forward.
“Are you cold? Do you have a headache?” He Qing Lu turns to look at the person besides him, his amber eyes filled with concern.
Of course Pang Wan knows why her clothes were brutally ripped off a moment ago, her heart warms and has no time to fuss about that, and just smilingly buries her head into his embrace: “Not cold, nor hurt, let me show you.”
She carefully takes out her head from the blanket and spreads out her fingers, in her palm is unexpectedly a blood-covered bright white token.
“You were right, he is someone who does not trust anyone, in the end, I still found this token in his body.” She clicks her tongue in satisfaction, “Did not think he actually buried it in his calf, that place was really not easy to find out!”
Yet He Qing Lu just quietly gazes at her, with not even a single sign of happiness on his face.
“Gentleman, thank you, luckily you gave me this breathing machine, only then could I stay in the water for that long.” Seeing him not looking right, Pang Wan quickly goes up and kisses him on his cheek, “Thank you for being willing to coordinate with me.”
He Qing Lu sounds a light humph from the bottom of his nose.
Pang Wan knows he is not happy in his heart, thus hurries to coax him: “Don’t be angry anymore, I did not let him take any advantage of me, that drug was also decided to be used by his maid, I only incited her.”
She has known about Lu Kui’s unshakable obsession for Gu Xi Ju since a long time ago, so she took the opportunity to use some simple tricks during the time when she was kidnapped, provoking Lu Kui to the point of using drug on Gu Xi Ju —— only the drug that was put in by her own hands, is unable to be detected at all; and Gu Xi Ju misunderstood the situation due to her previous intimation, all these factors combined together made him to lower his guard, only then was it possible for her, who was hiding in the water, to seize the right opportunity.
“I am very smart in the end.” She smilingly places the token into He Qing Lu’s hand, “Now I have this thing, I just want to see what he will use to command the Wu Lin at the Kun Lun Heaven Worshipping Ceremony.”
The joyous smile on her face can even bloom out a flower.
Yet He Qing Lu still tightly embraces her, saying nothing at all, also not taking the token.
When Pang Wan just wanted to speak up, when suddenly, a freezing breeze breaks in, she couldn’t resist to sneeze—— achoo!
This was more than a sneeze, her capillaries probably bursted, crimson red blood flows out from her nose. Pang Wan unconsciously uses her hand to wipe, yet sees He Qing Lu’s eyes suddenly widen to the size of bells, as if he has seen the most frightening thing in the whole world.
“Ah Zhuo, you……you hurry over and take a look.” It was difficult for him to sound out his words, even voice is shaking, “She is bleeding, she is bleeding.”
The hand that is holding Pang Wan’s shoulder is as stiff as ice, its freezing temperature almost broke through the blanket to pierce into her skin.
Ah Zhuo is adding charcoal to the basin, upon hearing He Qing Lu’s call, she immediately throws away the pliers and rushes over, her face anxious and pale.
Seeing these two people as serious as facing a great enemy, Pang Wan couldn’t resist from burst out laughing, “What are you doing, it’s just bleeding a little blood……”
But then she does not dare to say more, because she has never seen He Qing Lu having such a solemn look.
Even when he was mourning for his beloved horse, Chrysanthemum Dragon, his delicate face was not this stern.
Ah Zhuo feels her pulse, also measures her breathing and heartbeat, only then did she shake her head at He Qing Lu.
He Qing Lu lets out a long long breath.
“You promised me, this is your last time taking risk.” He holds up Pang Wan’s chin, his fingers slipping on her cheeks, “You said after getting the Jade Dragon Token, you would go back to the main estate with me to get married, do you remember or not?”
His voice is husky yet deep, as if many many emotions are about to burst out, but they are forcefully pressed back down.
Pang Wan’s face turned blushing red because of his sudden expression of deep love, rebuking, “I remember, but you need to at least wait for me to give the Jade Dragon Token to Father, this way he would have the weapon to fight against Gu Xi Ju, so I will leave without worries too.”
He Qing Lu sighs, speaking no more words.
Pang Wan thinks to herself that this person is truly strange, ever since coming back, he has shown extreme care for her on every single detail, as if he just hates that he could not actually tie her to his belt and make her stay next to him twenty-four hours every day. If she did not threat him with marriage again a few days ago, he probably would not have ever allowed her to follow through with her plans and take this risk.
“Gentleman, you should not worry this much about me.” She tenderly acts spoilt towards him, “Wait till I become a white-haired old lady in the future, having a whole bunch of bare-a.s.sed grandchildren following behind me, would you still want to care about everything that I do?”
He Qing Lu’s face stiffens, “How long would it take for that to happen?” He smiles somewhat hoa.r.s.ely, gently caressing her hair, “You are just over sixteen.”
“But I already had a strand of white hair before.” Pang Wan shrugs her shoulders, “The maid said it is because I worry too much.”
He Qing Lu’s movements completely freezes: “You rest well, and take Ah Zhuo’s medicine on time, then nothing will go wrong.” After a long moment, his rovering voice gradually sounds above her head, bringing to her unbounded sense of security.
Wrapped in the warm and comft blanket, also being comforted by him, Pang Wan unconsciously starts to sink into drowsiness.
—— fortunately, I have someone whom I can completely trust with all my heart; fortunately, he also trusts me with all his heart, she thinks of this, and falls into a sweet dream.
The capital, Misty Wave Manor.
“What? They solved the Five Phase[1] Matrix?” Gu Xi Ju tosses aside the maid who was applying medicine on him, slaps on the desk and stands up.
“This subordinate truly does not know the ident.i.ty of that carriage driver, he actually solved the matrix that took ten years of Advisor’s painstaking work to set up.” Wu Peng awkwardly kneels on the ground, “Aside from the carriage driver, that carriage was also very eerie, its speed is several times that of normal carriages, also diffusing poisonous fog along its way, caused all the spies sent by this subordinate to die.”
“Humph!” Gu Xi Ju sounds a sneer, lifting his brow, “Doesn’t that make their bodies pointing the direction to you?”
Wu Peng shakes, bites the bullet and says: “The strangest factor is that after that horse carriage entered the forest, none of its track was left, as if it disappeared into thin air.”
Gu Xi Ju’s eyes narrow.
“But your subordinate did find out something!” Wu Peng sees his face looking not right, and hurriedly adds, “The mute maid by the side of that gentleman, is actually the last pupil of the Divine Physician of the Medicine King Valley, if the Divine Physician has pa.s.sed away, then probably no one else can compete with her skills now! Being capable to have this kind of talented person following him, this subordinate guesses that the ident.i.ty of that Gentleman He must either be wealthy or n.o.ble!”
A trace of light quickly shines in Gu Xi Ju’s eyes, then immediately perishes within the next second.
“Interesting.” He lightly sighs, “Truly interesting.” His lips start to curve up little by little.
——Pang Wan, your revenge indeed has not disappointed me.
“No need to chase anymore, since they intentionally want to escape, then I will go against their schemes and wait for them to come.” Gu Xi Ju commands the person kneeling in front of him in a tone that is as warm as the spring, “From now on, you only need to continue to look for those people’s news.”
Wu Peng is frightened to the extent of almost shaking again: “Supreme Chief really allows them to escape as they wish?” He unconsciously confirms with his master one more time, this kind of non-exterminating command truly is rarely seen after all, “Didn’t Supreme Chief say a moment ago, this group of thieves stole your thing?”
Gu Xi Ju laughs in silence: “I just want them to understand, even if that thing is stolen, I am still capable of creating another one out of nothing.”
Touching the wound on his calf, scattered yet hazy light overfills his eyes.
[1] Five Phase/五行/wǔ háng: the basic five elements of nature in Chinese Philosophy-gold, wood, water, fire, soil. The matrix that Bai Xiao Sheng had set up to block others from entering and exiting the Misty Wave Minor, which makes use of all five basic elements of nature.