Book 1: Winds Begin to Blow in Tai Yuan
Chapter 18 - Clear Water, Flying Sleeves
"Be careful."
A warm and clean voice was heard, sounding a littledetached. With the sound, a white streak swept forward like a ribbon andunfurled in mid-air. With a "shua" sound, it caught Meng Fuyao"s handthat was grasping at air instinctively when she realized she was falling.
Fuyao"s figure was immediately stopped in a dangerous, halffallen position, forming a 45 degree angle with the rocks underfoot. Not farunderneath was a pool of clear water. Her long hair hung down onto the watersurface, with some longer strands dancing in the current - it was an unstable,yet beautiful posture.
Because her sleeve was pulled tight, her clothes werestretched close to her body, revealing those perfectly exquisite hills andvalleys. Under her willowy waist her robes scattered, fluttering like a dancingskirt. Even though she was wearing men"s clothes, they still couldn"t hide thenatural charm of her figure.
The visions of the many people by the stream could not helpbut fix on her. There was a brief atmosphere of silence.
In the middle of Qi Xunyi"s contingent, a horse carriage"scurtains were suddenly lifted up a hair. With a veil covering her face, PeiYuan gloomily watched the figure above the clear waters that could beconsidered a beauty with only a look. Her eyes exuded jealousy-inducedmalicious intent.
And in the first carriage, a pair of piercingly brilliant eyesturned, then let out a light "yi" sound. [1]
However, Meng Fuyao herself did not realize that this onepull had displayed her figure. She hurriedly used the strap that was holdingher up, and with a twist of her waist she stood up straight. Only then was sheable to take a look at the good Samaritan who had helped her in time.
The afternoon autumn sun shone through the dark green shade.Beside the clear stream, slightly yellow strands of gra.s.s were covered by thescattered rays of sunlight, and became even more brilliantly golden in color.Atop the tips of the gra.s.s, a white robe spread. It was a warm but distant man,young, graceful, his lips and pupils slightly paler than most people. When hesmiled, the autumn sun and golden wind suddenly seemed to transform into springbreezes and blooming cherry blossoms.
Because he had thrown out his waist strap with flyingsleeves, his robes had scattered outward. Yet this didn"t give one a sense ofinelegance or dishevelment; instead, it added to that originally present auraof remoteness, several degrees of natural serenity.
Meng Fuyao was shocked. She thought to herself, did sherecently become blessed with peach blossom luck [2]? Among the men she met, toomany were outstandingly handsome. While thinking this, she offered the waistbelt back to its owner.
Just when she wanted to say a few words of grat.i.tude,unexpectedly the other side calmly smiled, then softly said, "The strapwas already slightly dirty, this lady can feel free to throw it away."
After saying he very politely nodded his head, then turnedand left. He got onto a horse carriage behind Qi Xunyi"s, and then the carriagesped off to another side to stop and rest. This left Meng Fuyao dumbly standingon the rocks, clenching the waist strap with surprise.
The strap was clearly completely new and in good condition,so white that even tofu would die of shame, and he actually said it was dirty?
This person"s att.i.tude was pretty strange. You couldn"t sayhe was lofty and condescending - his manners were impeccable, he was culturedand modest, and when he didn"t want the belt he gave the completely inoffensiveexcuse of self-respect. But you couldn"t say he was friendly - he clearlydidn"t seem very amiable, even immediately abandoning the strap she had grippedlike worthless sc.r.a.p.
After Meng Fuyao stared for a half while, she hatefully usedthe waist strap to wipe her hands. That guy didn"t want it anyways!
Only after she wiped her hands and carefully inspected didshe discover, the waist strap was actually made from fabric that weaved Heavensilkworm"s silk together with white gold strands; in the middle was asimilar-colored mutton fat jade [3]. The strap was expensive, yet unostentatious,just like the man.
After thinking a little, Meng Fuyao hid the waist strap inher robes.
Yuan Zhaoxu, previously always off to the side, now poppedout of who-knows-where. With a strange gaze, he watched Meng Fuyao stuff thatman"s personal belonging into her robes. After some time he said, "Whatare you doing keeping that thing?"
Fuyao replied like it was obvious. "This thing is wortha lot, if I keep it, if one day I need clothes or food, I can use it to tradefor living expenses."
Yuan Zhaoxu slightly wrinkled his brows, "That thingisn"t worth anything, don"t keep it. If you lack money I"ll give it toyou."
"Trying to trick me?" Meng Fuyao curled her mouth."You think I can"t see the value of this jade? Also, this girl has a lotof backbone, I don"t accept charity."
Zhaoxu cast a glance at her, then faintly grinned."Yes, you don"t accept charity, you just pick up the junk other peopledon"t want."
"You!" Meng Fuyao became gloomy, shifting her eyesto see Yuanbao poke its head out from Yuan Zhaoxu"s robes. Seeing Fuyaodeflated and melancholy, it turned extremely happy, chattering with zhi zhisounds non-stop. With indignation she used the "one finger flick",flicking Yuanbao, who squeakily protested and opened its mouth wide to bite.
Meng Fuyao had long escaped while loudly laughing.
After running for a couple steps, past a curve was a patchof forest shade. Not far forwards was Qi Xunyi"s contingent. Meng Fuyao wasjust about to go back, when she heard someone say, "Hey, you."
Turning her head to look, she saw the servant who had justpushed her and almost caused her to fall into the water. Seeing this person,she didn"t want to bother with him, but for some reason when this person sawMeng Fuyao his eyes suddenly lit up, and he beckoned. "Hey, you comehere."
Fuyao started, squinting her eyes to look at him."Calling for me?"
"Yes, you." The servant was not very polite."Our master doesn"t have enough servants, you come here and give ahand."
He saw Meng Fuyao with an expression of awkward indecisiveness,and patiently said, "We won"t make you work for nothing." From hissleeve he palmed out a string of copper coins [4]. Throwing it on the groundwith a "pa la" sound, he arrogantly said, "Here, one hundred wen, enough for you to eat at Yanjing"smeat broth shop for half a month." [5]
Meng Fuyao lowered her head, looking at the copper money byher feet. After a while, she smiled and picked it up, even blowing some dustoff of the coins.
The servant revealed a pleased expression, handing MengFuyao a copper basin and saying, "Go, go next to the stream to get somewater, it needs to be upstream water. After carrying it over, go to sister JinYan by the second horse carriage and ask her for some rosewater and lotuscream. After exchanging for them bring them into the carriage, remember, don"tlet your dirty hands touch the water! Alright that"s all, I"m going to help hishighness change clothes."
He shoved the copper basin to Meng Fuyao, a face of rejoicefrom finding a person to do his work for him. Fuyao could calculate with herfingers and she would still be able to guess that after Pei Yuan had herappearance ruined, her mood would be terrible. She already had a domineeringatt.i.tude before, and those serving her would definitely suffer even more. Thosewho helped her run errands must be trying to escape whenever they could,otherwise why would they pay others to help?
The servant held out the basin. Seeing Meng Fuyao didn"timmediately grab it, he impatiently shook the copper basin, "Hey, you dumb?"
Fuyao"s eyebrows jumped. Looking at the copper basin, shesuddenly smiled, then slowly went to scoop something out of her sleeve pockets.
The servant knitted his brows, shouting, "Moron----"
Instantly his words stopped, and then his eyes opened big.
In front, in Meng Fuyao"s palm, was steadily held a piece ofgold leaf, its quality extremely good, not underneath two liang in weight. [6]
According to Tai Yuan"s currency system, one liang gold can be exchanged for twenty liang silver, and one liang silver can be exchanged for onethousand wen coins. One liang of gold, he could work at the Qiimperial palace for over three years, and still be unable to earn that much.
The servant exhaled a breath of shocked air, struck dumb.
Meng Fuyao shook the gold leaf in front of the servant,kindly smiling, "You recognize this?"
The servant fixedly stared at that piece of gold, his facialcolor turning green then white. Dazedly he said, "Its gold ..."
Fuyao smirked, "Yep, this is two liang of gold, enough for you to go to Yanjing"s best HeavenlyFragrance Restaurant and spread a full course of swallow wings, and eat thats.h.i.t for a month."
With a laugh, her fingers loosened all of a sudden, and thegold leaf fell onto the ground.
Subconsciously the servant squatted down to pick it up.Fuyao"s boot shifted, stepping on the gold leaf.
Stooping down, Meng Fuyao pushed that copper basin to theservant who had dumbly lifted his head to look at her. "Sorry to botheryou, go next to the stream to get some water, it needs to be upstream water.After carrying it over, go to sister Jin Yan by the second horse carriage andask her for some rosewater and lotus cream. After exchanging for them bringthem to me, remember, don"t let your dirty hands touch the water! Alrightthat"s all, go on."
She edged the copper basin closer to the blackened face ofthe servant, shook it in the exact same motion, then lightly smiled, "Hey,you dumb?"
The tip of her foot slightly lifted. That piece of gold leafglittered in the dusty soil, tempting a gaze of avarice.
The hand of the servant shook, and clenching his teeth, hesuddenly took the copper basin and with large leaps sprinted towards thestream.
Fuyao stood in the same spot, silently lifting her eyebrow.After a while she whispered, "Pity ..."
The tip of her foot flicked, and the gold leaf flew up andlanded in her palm. Unhurriedly putting the gold leaf in her bosom, Meng Fuyaoslightly shook her head. "If you had some backbone to refuse me, I mightreally give this gold leaf to you, but now ... you"re not worthy."
She moved her fingertip in a circle. The string of coppercoins hooked on the finger, that was enough for her to eat at Yanjing"s meatbroth shop for half a month, was shook flying, with a "pa" soundfalling to where the gold leaf had just fallen on the ground.
"I"ll return this to you, you can go eat meat brothyourself. Also forgot to tell you, Yanjing"s meat broth shop is so cheap sincereportedly they use rat meat."
With a "haha" laugh, Meng Fuyao turned her body toleave, her nimble steps quickly vanishing into a patch of shady forest, like arefreshing breeze gusting past in an instant.
At the place where her figure disappeared, the trees andgra.s.s became still. Silence surrounded the area.
After a long while, behind some trees appeared a faintshadow out of the darkness. The person"s white clothes were immaculate, hispale lips like cherry blossoms.
He clasped his hands while staring towards Fuyao"sdirection, his calm expression containing a small trace of interest. Suddenly,he softly said, "Sorry for bothering you."
The words were said absentmindedly, but immediately someoneresponded.
"For young master"s orders, I would not shrink from athousand deaths, let alone a little bother."
That person had a lowered head and stooped body, a copperbasin shining at his feet. It was actually that sn.o.bbish servant from justbefore.
Only, him right now had a reserved expression, his att.i.tudetranquil, without any trace of that vulgar and haughty behavior from before.
The white-clothed man was silent for a while, then said,"So?"
The person thought a little and said, "Young master,when I pushed her down the stream back then, did your flying sleeve pull notdetect anything?"
"I did." The white-clothed man tilted his headupward, a pondering expression on his face, saying, "The angle and powerof the wounds on Pei Yuan"s face, whoever made them, their martial techniquesare definitely abnormal. Even though this girl hid it well, in that one pull, Istill could sense some of it."
"Although," He indifferently smiled, "in thetests just now, I have finally determined she is not one of Qi Xunyi"speople."
"How?"
"Qi Xunyi"s subordinates, are they worthy of such acharacter?" The white-clothed man leisurely sighed, his voice long,containing some laughter.
"She is a good person ..."
1. "Yi" 咦 is a sound of shock or surprise
2. Peach blossom luck, "桃花运",means someone is lucky in their encounters with the opposite s.e.x
3. Nephrite:
4. Chinese coins have square holes in them, which allows foreasy carrying by stringing them in a line. Picture:
5. wen, "文",is an ancient Chinese unit of currency.
6. liang, "两",is a unit of weight equal to about 50 grams