Book 1: Winds Begin to Blow in Tai Yuan
Chapter 19 - Disrobing to Attack the Enemy
When Meng Fuyao ran away just a moment ago, Yuan Zhaoxuwatched her lithe figure fly like a bird, vanishing into the light yellowexpanse of trees in the autumn mountains. He silently smiled, then with slowsteps he walked towards the Grand Tutor"s horse.
"Your horse carriage can slowly travel, go along withQi Xunyi to Yanjing. I"ll bring her and leave first, saves us from always beinginside those people"s vision radius, possibly creating some kind oftrouble." [1]
The Grand Tutor squinted his old eyes and looked at YuanZhaoxu, his expression like he was regarding his own favorite son or nephew.Stroking his beard, he faintly smiled.
"Where are you going?"
"Also Yanjing. This time I borrowed your diplomaticmission to Tai Yuan to celebrate Tai Yuan Emperor"s birthday, just to deal withQi Xunyi. How could I miss this opportunity?"
"Ha ha ... as you please."
"Also from what I"ve heard, at this time"s birthdayceremony, he ... has also come."
"Ah? Hasn"t he always been under house arrest insideNemesis Dynasty"s capital? Nemesis" Emperor allowed him to leave?"
"A flood dragon trapped by limits, will only be for atime. Once there is a chance, it inevitably will soar up." Yuan Zhaoxuturned, thoughtfully looking towards the western horizon. His expressioncontained some antic.i.p.ation as well as some humor, seemingly even more radiant."And the great winds that will sweep through the Five Regions and soarthrough the Four Seas, have already risen ..." -----------------
"Why did we separate from the main procession?"Meng Fuyao setup the fire pit and raised a fire with deft motions, then neatlyskinned the hunted wild chicken with her dagger. "Also, why do I have togo with you?"
Yuan Zhaoxu was leaning against an old tree, comfortablylying down, while a spread of clean leaves was padded underneath his body.Master Yuanbao had its b.u.t.t sticking up, and was diligently pushing andcollecting fallen leaves, unceasingly trying to curry favor by piling up theleaves under its master.
The way it pushed was strange and despicable. It facedtowards Yuan Zhaoxu, shoving leaves up to his body, while its fat stubby backlegs kicked the torn and dilapidated leaves and dirt backwards. The personsitting behind it was Meng Fuyao.
At first, Meng Fuyao didn"t want to keep squabbling with apetty pet. After consecutively eating several mouthfuls of dirt, however, shediscovered that certain animals didn"t know to stop before going too far, theircourage too fat and their minds too skinny. Thus she tore off a strip of legmeat from the wild chicken, and took advantage of when Yuanbao was not payingattention to fiercely shove it in its mouth.
Consequently, that certain herbivorous animal immediatelysprinted to the riverside to rinse out his mouth, and the side of the fire pitwas finally clean.
Only now did Yuan Zhaoxu reply to her question.
"If you are willing to be watched by a couple wolvesall day, you could choose to keep going slowly. Also, I don"t recall that Iever wanted you to come with me, you chose to follow me yourself."
Meng Fuyao thought a bit, it seemed that it really was thecase. She couldn"t help but shamefacedly say, "Well its not like I canhelp it, there"s only one road from the Profound Origin mountains leading toYanjing after all."
Yuan Zhaoxu held back a smile while giving her a glance,deciding not to remind the person that was trying to fool herself, that therewere actually other roads leading to Yanjing as well.
The tree branches in the fire pit burned with "pipa" sounds, lighting up the two people"s flushed red faces like they weredrunk. A type of heated factor was transpiring in the air, making even the coldmoonlight shining from the distant trees seem a little warmer.
Opposite, that smiling man"s long eyebrow slightly rose, hispupils and hair shining black and wavy. A line of red lips burned redder thaneven the firelight, his features vivid like a painting, so beautiful that itentranced one"s soul and caused them to harbor resentment that would last evenin the underworld.
Meng Fuyao sat straight, harboring resentment that wouldlast in the underworld. While staring downwards in embarra.s.sment, she wonderedwhy extreme beauty always caused her heart to beat erratically.
Especially when that extreme beauty was always using hiseyes full of interest to sweep up and down her body, time and time again.
After sitting for a time and feeling that the atmosphere wastoo oppressive to bear, she suddenly sprang up, saying, "I"m going to takea walk."
Yuan Zhaoxu raised his head to look at the dark night, thenlooked at the surrounding blackness of the forest. He really could not bear toremind her, that this going for a stroll excuse was a little funny.
Meng Fuyao, upset by his understanding gaze that was tingedwith some humor, loudly said, "I"m going to sing."
This time, Zhaoxu lifted his eyebrow, his eyes full ofdisbelief. Meng Fuyao smugly laughed, then went to "sing".
Because she didn"t want to "sing" too loudly andbe heard by Yuan Zhaoxu, Fuyao walked a very far distance into the silentwoods, before she finally found a place to squat down. Her pants werehalf-removed, when suddenly her hands paused.
The midnight forest was abnormally quiet. Besides some tracesof wind meandering around, even the night"s owls were mute. The noises of thosenormally soft chirping autumn insects, was now also nowhere to be heard.
From the branches above round moonlight scatteredly landed,outlining her long shadow onto the ground. That shadow was split into sectionsby the black outlines of the trees and rocks behind her, but it could still bemade out with difficulty.
Meng Fuyao half-crouched, still maintaining that pantshalf-taken off position. Her fingers noiselessly shifted up little by little,attempting to pull up her pants, while the corners of her eyes slanted andexamined her own shadow ... feet, hands, neck ... head, alright, there"s thehead, that semicircle protruding out of that rectangular boulder on the side,what was that?
Sweat formed on her palms, the moisture sticking on herpants. Fuyao"s heart jumped tightly, then loosely, drumming in the silent nightwith "peng peng peng" sounds.
That was ... the top of a person"s head.
With her fingers tightly gripping her pants, Meng Fuyaosilently scolded herself, just why did she have to run out so far by herself.Behind that boulder was who knew how many people, most likely waiting for herto take off her pants before taking advantage of the opportunity to move.
Right now, taking off her pants was not possible. Right now,successfully pulling up her pants, would be determined by their reactions.
Fuyao half-squatted, her waist already sore.
That semicircle behind the boulder slightly moved, as if itwas a getting a little impatient.
Meng Fuyao calculated the time then dejectedly realizedthat, according to this distance, if she chose to pull up her pants and fastenher pant strap, her two hands wouldn"t be able to be used. She definitelywouldn"t have time to deal with the opponent"s attack.
With extreme nervousness brought extreme stillness. Shefaintly heard a distant brook gurgle, or maybe it was the soft splash of abird"s wingtip dipping into a pool.
In the black night Meng Fuyao"s shadowy pupils darklyturned. All of a sudden, she hatefully grit her teeth.
Her eyes sharply glinted, the ominous resolve found in themnot appearing in most other girls" att.i.tudes.
Wind swept through from the forest"s direction, bringingwith it a wavering of the shadows of the trees. The top of the head behind theboulder also wavered a little.
Meng Fuyao"s hands suddenly loosened, letting go of the pantstraps.
The pants immediately fell down, and at the same time herlong robes fell down and covered her shame with a "shua" sound. MengFuyao executed a backwards somersault, flipping over the boulder like a largebird. Her flexible body was like a spring, in a flash arriving at the back ofthe large rock. With a kick of her two legs the pants fell off and landeddirectly on top of the two heads behind the boulder. The two people didn"texpect Meng Fuyao to suddenly launch a counter-attack, so just when they jumpedup their heads were smothered by thick pants. In the darkness they couldn"t seeclearly what it was, and one of them hurriedly reached out an arm to tear itoff.
Before he could complete that motion, Fuyao had alreadyappeared behind him like an evil ghost. Underneath baggy male robes longsnow-white legs flashed, in an instant twisting onto the opponent"s neck. Witha revolution of her body, she fiercely wrenched in mid-air!
In the darkness, only a hair-raising crunch sound could beheard.
The person"s skull immediately drooped bonelessly.
A streak of severity flashed through Fuyao"s eyes. Shedidn"t regret attacking with such ruthlessness, because in the instant when shehad flipped over the boulder, she had caught a glimpse of a net soaked inpoison held in their hands. That poison"s color was a vague pink. In the past,when Meng Fuyao was forced by that old Daoist priest to undergo his gruelingtraining, she had learned broad topics, and had uncommon strengths that mostpeople would have difficulty learning. With one look she had already identifiedthat thing as the "Weakening Fragrance Powder", spread throughout theFive Regions Continent and specifically designed for upper-cla.s.s n.o.bility to captureor deal with woman from good families.
Who knows how many respectable young girls had their innocencedestroyed, and how many young people had their entire lives ruined, justbecause of that powder? Anybody who had this thing in their hands could only bedescribed as heartless and obscene. After seeing this today, how could MengFuyao let them off easily?
The moment the other person saw that Meng Fuyao was actuallywilling to disrobe to attack her enemies, moving so decisively and ruthlessly,that in a flash his companion was already dead underneath a twist of her twolegs, he cast aside those pants with great shock and turned his legs to flee. Beforehe could even manage to run a few steps, he heard a cold sneer from behind him.
"After seeing my thighs, you still think you can runaway?"
1. The "your" that Yuan Zhaoxu uses to talk to theGrand Tutor is a respectful form of you, "您"