t.i.tle: The Crazy Adventures of Wu Gate
Chapter: 29.1 of 87
The prison was extremely cold and Qing Qiao was only wearing a thin, summer robe. She was so cold that she couldn"t help shivering.
She stretched her head out of the cell and quietly called out the jailer at the doorway, "Excuse me, big brother. Could you find a thicker piece of clothing for me? It"s too cold here."
Even after calling out several times, the jailer only treated her words as nonsense. Without a change in his expression, he turned a deaf ear.
Knowing that it was hopeless, Qing Qiao sighed and sat down back on the stone bed.
She looked at the heaped up dark quilt, mustered up her courage, spread the quilt open, and wrapped it around herself. The stinky and difficult to endure stench was overwhelming. With great difficulty, she resisted throwing up. She grabbed her nose and tried to minimize her breathing.
A while later, she still felt cold. So, she curled up in a ball at the corner of the bed.
Suddenly, she felt something wiggling behind her and digging at her back.
A white light flashed in her mind. She reflexively shifted away her body and saw a giant, plump, black mouse burrowing out from behind her. It squeaked as it crawled over her instep.
"Ahh!" She yelled out and immediately jumped down from the bed. At lightning speed, she reached the cell"s door and begged, "I"m begging you. Please, move me to a different cell! There"s mice on this bed!"
"What"s the big deal about mice? You"re lucky that you haven"t see a snake!" The jailer rolled his eyes at her.
The blood immediately drained away from Qing Qiao"s face.
"Go back and away from the bars! You"re a death-row criminal and you still want special treatment?" The jailer became inpatient and used his sword hilt to beat her hands that were wrapped around the bars.
The feeling was really too painful. In a daze, Qing Qiao loosened her hands. Scared out of her wits, she drifted to the back of the cell.
She didn"t dare to sleep on the bed. Would she have to sleep on the icy cold ground tonight? Wouldn"t there be more snakes, mice, insects, and ants down there?
After thinking about it, she gritted her teeth, took off the quilt that was wrapped around her body, twisted it into a roll, and walked to the bed.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
She started to use the quilt to beat the straw mattress with all of her strength, again and again.
One after another, many mice, c.o.c.kroaches, and unknown creatures came out of the straw mattress.
She didn"t stop beating the straw mattress until she was sure that she didn"t see anything else coming out of the straw mattress. Her entire body felt weak as she dropped onto the bed.
Smelling the musty and moldy odor in this cell, she couldn"t help thinking about her room at parents" home.
(T/N: Qing Qiao is reminiscing about her high school days below.)
It was a 1.8-meter long bed with a soft and thick mattress and an eiderdown blanket that was filled with the scent of sunlight.
When the weather was cold, her father would take out an electric blanket for her in advance and turn on a nuan jiao lu.
(T/N: Below is a picture of nuan juao lu. It"s a wooden box that you can put your feet on top of to warm them up.
When she didn"t want to wake up in the morning, her mother would lift up her quilt with a smile and say, "The sun has already brightened the sky. Hurry up and come out of bed!"
Subconsciously, she felt sick at heart and her nose felt stuffy.
She also thought about her language and literature cla.s.s during that time. The teacher would lecture about the revolutionary heroes in Zha Zi Prison and emphasized that they didn"t lower their heads even under torture.
At that time, she was absolute horrified by the teacher"s words and said these words to the person sitting next to her, "Aiya, if I was born during the Cultural Revolution period, I would definitely be the person to surrender and confess."
But now, the other person wouldn"t even give her the chance to confess. He directly sentenced her to death.
She sighed and mockingly laughed at herself.
She wiped her face and there was a handful of wetness. There was a pool of clear and shining water in her hands.
After she had dazedly fallen asleep for a while, she suddenly heard a faint noise in the prison.
Please read from the original source at fuyuneko dot org. It"s so upsetting to see people reading stolen translations from aggregator sites after I spent hours translating.
"Du Chun Jiao, someone is here to see you!"
The prison cell"s door opened and the jailer pushed a pet.i.te body inside. With an impatient expression, he said, "Speak quickly. Spit out any words you want to say!"
Even though that person had almost tripped and fallen down, she still hurriedly turned around to nod and express her thanks. When she turned around again and saw Qing Qiao, she immediately kneeled down.
"Miss! Miss, this servant is late " She lifted her head up. Her face was full of tears.
Qing Qiao stared at this familiar face and couldn"t help trembling as she said, "Dong.. Dong Xi?"
The person on the ground nodded and seemed as if she didn"t dare to get up.
Qing Qiao coughed and couldn"t resist stretching her hands out to pull her up, "Stand up to speak. Why are you kneeling?"
Before she finished saying these words, Dong Xi had already rushed over and hugged her. In a sorrowful tone, she said, "Miss, how can they treat you like this? You"re a high ranking official"s daughter!"
Dong Xi grabbed her hand and choked with emotion, she said, "It... It was Mister Qi who had this servant come here to see you." Then, she started to hysterically cry again, "Miss, what did you do wrong? Why did they imprison you?"
"This... I don"t know either." Qing Qiao shook her head and bitterly smiled, "If someone from above said I did something wrong, then I did something wrong."
"... Miss, don"t worry! This servant will immediately inform Old Master. He"ll save you!" Dong Xi stood up with a fl.u.s.tered expression. "Old Master is so skilled and he"s a high ranking official. He"ll definitely have a way..."
A light flashed through Qing Qiao"s eyes. She tightly held Dong Xi"s hand and said, "Are you saying that my daddy doesn"t know yet that I"ve been imprisoned here?"
Finding it difficult to speak, Dong Xi bit her lip, "... Mister Qi said that all news about Miss have been blocked from going outside.
Qing Qiao"s heart suddenly sunk. She understood that this time Duan Yu was determined to not give her a way to escape.
She closed her eyes and thought for a long time before turning her head and seriously saying, "Dong Xi, listen to my words. Tell Old Master that of course it would be good if he can save me. If he can"t..." She paused and gently smiled, "I definitely won"t blame him. If something happens to me in the future, you"ll have to do a good job with taking care of Old Master. You have to persuade him to go back to his rural hometown and live in seclusion as early as possible. It"ll be better for him to give up his court official status."
Even if Duan Yu eliminates her in the future, it didn"t mean that he wouldn"t be suspicious towards Gu Shang Shu. It would better if she asked her father to live in seclusion sooner rather than later.
Next to Qing Qiao, Dong Xi wiped her tears. She hadn"t been able to stop herself from crying.
"Don"t cry." She boosted up her spirits and comforted Dong Xi, "Nothing will happen to me. Heaven helps the worthy. Your Miss... is a G.o.ddess."
With tears falling from her eyes, Dong Xi raised her head.
Qing Qiao faintly smiled. Ai, I really am a G.o.ddess. A G.o.ddess with a mental disorder.
"Have you forgotten the prophecy made by the fortune-teller from the pugilist world? My fate is very resolute!" She reminded Dong Xi.
"... Really? You"re really a G.o.ddess?" Dong Xi was crying so hard that she didn"t have the breath to continue speaking.
"Yes, I"m definitely a G.o.ddess!" Qing Qiao decisively said, "from the Holy Mother!"
As a result, Dong Xi calmed down and she mostly stopped crying.
After briefing over other things with Dong Xi and telling her that she had to be absolutely careful, Qing Qiao finally sent her away.
(T/N: Just in case it was too long ago, the prophecy was mentioned in chapter 1. The prophecy was that her love for eating would cause incidents and might even bring calamity to the nation.)
If you feel like this story is getting to bleak, read the mini spoiler in the comments below.)