Chapter 115 A Clever Plan and Getting Engaged to the Slag Man [1]
However, his feelings and affection for Zi You were not fake, but real.
He never thought that he would be emotionally moved for a female one day. That day at the market when he first saw Zi You, she was holding a dough figure in her hands. That pair of amethyst-like clear and deep eyes was slightly warm and haughty. Her figure was arrogant, slender, tall, and elegant. Her back was like a lonely lotus in the rain. She attracted his attention then.
So, for the first time, he went to tease her as himself and not his subst.i.tute.
Sure enough, Zi You’s reaction was different from other girls when they see him.
She didn’t turn into a love-struck fool because he was handsome. She also did not become timid because he stole her dough figure. Her coldness beckoned him to get closer to her.
She finally fought back after he called her ugly.
But the thing that he thought was strange was that the little yatou did not use her full strength to attack him. It let him see that the little yatou had a very kind heart behind her cold face.
Who knew that this thought didn’t exist for long before the scene of her punishing Zhao HongXiang shattered it?
He could not understand why she let a stranger who insulted her off, but was so ruthless to an acquainted son of her grandfather’s friend.
Seeing the hatred in her eyes, Shangguan LingRan admitted that he was very curious.
He felt that the little yatou was like a profound book that was waiting for him to solve its secrets.
She really did not disappoint. Every time he saw her, the little yatou made him shocked and stunned.
Until he unconsciously fell for her.
Shangguan LingRan was not un-frustrated that he liked a young underage yatou.
However, feelings weren’t something that you can control. The more he did not want to think about Zi You, the more an elegant, refined, cold, bashful, angry, desperate, and all sorts of Zi Yous appeared in his mind.
His ears still rang with her pearl-like laughter so that he couldn’t even relax in his sleep. His body felt like it was floating in the clouds. The place below that her small hand touched seemed to always rear its head.
It tormented him until he could not practice his internal energy. When he practiced with his sword during the night, he almost ruptured his wounds.
It tormented him so that once his martial arts had recovered a little bit, he ran over to find her.
If his martial arts were completely recovered, he didn’t need to fear such small animals right now.
But right now, he could not be completely sure that he could beat them. Moreover, he did not want to hurt the spirit pets of the woman he liked.
Thus, Shangguan LingRan immediately transmitted a secret message to Zi You through sound. He shouted to her, “Wife, you can’t welcome your future husband like this! You’ll be widowed if you kill off this Ye. Don’t forget. We’ve already done that.”
“Shangguan LingRan, you scoundrel!” Zi You angrily scolded, “If you dare to speak nonsense again, see if I won’t let Weishali bite you to death!”
“You won’t be able to explain things clearly if I’m bitten to death.” Shangguan LingRan continued to dawdle with Zi You. “Don’t forget that w.a.n.g Yiping and her brother were bitten by Weishali. It’s a small matter if Ye is bitten to death, but a big matter if you’re suspected. Ye can’t bear it if his wife will be bullied.”
Shangguan LingRan’s evil voice made Zi You livid.
Even she did not notice that the always calm her would break character and get angry whenever she countered Shangguan LingRan.
Zi You knew that if she didn’t go outside, Shangguan LingRan would not leave. Thus, she put on a veil and used qinggong to arrive in front of Hundred Herb Garden.
She said very impatiently, “You saved my life and I saved your life. We don’t owe each other anything. Why are you here?”
Shangguan LingRan didn’t answer her question, but advised, “Wife, are you sure you want your husband to answer your question here? Your husband doesn’t mind, but your husband is afraid that it would bring you trouble if grandfather and uncle see……”
“Weishali, let him in.” Zi You took a deep breath and suppressed the burning fiery rage in her heart.
Shangguan LingRan saw the poisonous snakes and mice leave in a flash. He walked in front of Zi You into Hundred Herb Garden, while saying, “This is right, wife. To see you, Ye had to lose several “specters.” Think about it. For you, Ye ran over here as soon as Ye’s martial arts recovered and had to battle three or four specters. Aren’t you distressed?”
“Distressed your head!” Zi You was angry and couldn’t take it anymore so she scolded. “If it wasn’t for your despicable and shameless imperial family, why would specters appear in our General’s Manor?”
Shangguan LingRan seriously reb.u.t.ted, “Wife, your words are wrong. Your General’s Manor may not have specters, but you have ghosts. Otherwise, Shangguan Lingluo wouldn’t have known that you went to the mountain to play. Your General’s Manor has ghosts that secretly let her know.”
“Huh!” Zi You coldly sneered. “How do I know that you’re telling me the truth? I have to believe you if you say that it was Shangguan Lingluo? Who knows if it’s a trick of yours?”
Zi You’s words finished and Shangguan LingRan’s face sunk. He looked coldly at Zi You. “Are you deliberately trying to anger me? Or do you really think that I’m lying to you?”
Zi You saw a trace of hurt in his eyes and hesitated. But she thought about her previous life’s suffering and immediately hardened her heart. She woodenly replied, “Of course I really doubt you. How many of you men are actually sincere to women? Especially the men in the imperial family, like you. None of you are good people.”
“You actually compare me to Shangguan Pengxuan [Taizi] and Shangguan Boyu [Third w.a.n.gzi]?” Shangguan LingRan was apparently hurt by Zi You’s words.
He looked painfully at her to see if she was lying. But, unfortunately, Zi You had always been standing coldly to one side and looking distrustfully at him.
Shangguan LingRan bitterly and self-deprecatingly said, “Fine. You’re ruthless, Mu Zi You. This is the first time I try so desperately for a woman only to be trampled on by you. You’re a cold-blooded animal just like your poisonous snake!”
He coughed and his body flashed and disappeared.
He left Zi You behind standing there. Her heart inexplicably hurt and tears surged. She said to herself, “If I’m not cold-blooded, I will be swallowed by others.”
Zi You thought of her past life’s hatred and gradually calmed down.
She took out a pouch that contained two of Zhao HongXiang’s hairs that she secretly got from Duke Yongnan fu last time. She burned the hairs into ashes and put them into a box with a gu [legendary venomous insect] in it. She dripped her blood into the box and generated her spiritual power to move the gu.
She just learned this ancient Indian gu magic from the books her mother left behind.
She wanted to give it a try to see if it works. If it worked, Zhao HongXiang would dream about her and beg his father to ask for marriage. If it didn’t work, then she would find another way.
Later on that night, Zhao HongXiang was tortured unbearably by the pain in his leg. He even wanted to die.
Zhao HongXiang drank pain-killing medicine and fell asleep with difficulty. He dreamed of Zi You very affectionately giving him a pill. “Xiang gege, eat this. If you eat this, you won’t be in pain anymore.”
Zhao HongXiang put the pill in his mouth and swallowed. As Zi You said, his pain was gone a short time later. He was in seventh heaven. He felt more comfortable than when he was doing that sort of thing.
Zhao HongXiang suffered for so many days. He felt that he was the most comfortable today.
He would exchange everything to feel as if he reached the heavens.
Unfortunately, this was only a dream. Only, the things in the dream actually felt like they just happened.
But when he woke up, he didn’t see Zi You or that pill and his never-ending painful torment was even stronger than before.
Zhao HongXiang went mad! He hoa.r.s.ely shouted, “Ask my father to come over here. Hurry!”
Duke Yongnan listened to the maidservant tell him, “Duke, hurry up and take a look. Shizi Ye asks you to go over. He looks very anxious, like he can’t wait another moment.”
Duke Yongnan immediately rushed towards his son’s courtyard.
When he got there, he saw Zhao HongXiang clutching his leg and shouting heartrendingly, “Father, son wants to marry You’er. As long as son marries her, son’s illness will be cured. Hurry and go propose marriage. Otherwise, son will die for you to see.”
Then he crazily went to hit his head against the bedpost.
Duke Yongnan was distressed. He held his son and nodded. “Xiang’er, father will go now. Bear with it, okay?”
However, he hadn’t left before Nee Chen came over to say, “Laoye, Mu Zi You’s reputation is not good right now. I heard that Taizi Ye, Third w.a.n.gzi, and An w.a.n.g Shizi Ye are three men fighting over one woman. What is this? She’s a source of calamity. She will bring calamity to Duke Yongnan fu!”
Duke Yongnan angrily pushed her away. He viciously said, “Your son is about to lose his life, but you’re still worrying about what Duke Yongnan fu will look like in the future? He’s like this, yet you’re still making a mountain out a molehill? Besides, is Ye not clearer than you on Old General Mu’s character? Scram for this Ye! You are not the person in charge in this fu!”
He rushed out, jumped into a horse carriage, and went towards the General’s Manor.
He didn’t have time to worry about etiquette and hand an invitation card over. He directly had someone report that, “This Duke is here to see Old General Mu. Please announce it for this Duke.”
The guards saw Duke Yongnan and knew that his relationship with Old General Mu was good, so they went to announce his arrival.
Old General Mu was first startled hearing that Duke Yongnan came. Then he said, “Invite the Duke to the drawing room. I’ll be there immediately.”
How could Duke Yongnan sit still while waiting in the drawing room? He paced to and fro like a trotting horse lantern, making the maidservant serving tea and the managing steward frown.
Old General Mu arrived at the drawing room ten minutes later.
Who knew that as soon as he walked inside, Duke Yongnan knelt down with a “bang?” He tearfully said, “Old General, save my son! He is dead-set on marrying your granddaughter and can’t rest or recuperate!”