.Perhaps, inw.a.n.g Yun Feng’s eyes, Xia Ling Mei who journeyed away from her lacked money?
In fact, everythingwas good when at home, but troubled when she left. Compared to when she was atXia residence or w.a.n.g residence, Xia Ling Mei while travelling in the Jianghu,did indeed lack money.
In the fewmonths she was in Chenzhou, when she first stayed at Gu residence she almostdidn’t leave or near the entrance, therefore she rarely went to visit thesurrounding scenery. After she left the Gu residence, without restrictions sherelaxed for a few days, completely exploring all the fun places in the hundredof miles of Chenzhou. She found out in these two days that a wander, a greaterteller of stories, he spoke of the rain and wind of Dayan of the last twohundred years with rhythmic undulation, he even spoke casually of the regentand beautiful court ladies. Xia Ling Mei by chance walked past hearing a fewwords she became interested, after a day of going to the flower and birdmarket, after walking around once, she was holding a small simple headed andsimple minded Tibetan Mastiff sitting in the quiet corner of the second floor.With a gentle breeze of April, drinking good quality bi lo chun tea, eating amouthful of light refreshments and giving one mouthful to the Tibetan Mastiff,listening to the pingshu, getting by freely and atleisure. Occasionally, from her window she can see w.a.n.g Yun Feng’s carriagebeing swarmed by everyone as it went on.
He simplydidn’t come to find her, Xia Ling Mei thought, the grand imperial censor seniorofficer appointed to Chenzhou, naturally it was for the purpose of imperialmatters, being immersed in love was already something he could only see but nottouch.
w.a.n.g YunFeng who had suddenly appeared, didn’t give her enough time to build up her ownhigh walls.
She wasused to, in a year, three hundred and sixty four days, to give her heart alittle bit of strength to build her walls every day, then afterwards she woulduse it for one day to block him no matter how stubborn, gentle, strongly heattacked. Every third day of the New Year, in an instant when she saw him herwalls would erect highly, again just as when he left it would crumble with aloud bang. Therefore, unexpectedly meeting, she still did not have time tocounterattack and had already retreated in defeat little by little.
“The windon the sea blew loudly, making crashing sounds, numerous seabirds spiralled inthe air, nonstop, vomit, bird calling. As far as the eyes can see, on the seathere were countless Dayan ships, neatly organised so that they looked like anarrowhead. The black hulls were slapped by water, the legendary giant bird withits wings spread out was embedded into the prow of the ships with goldfeathers, the commander, general Xia, stood on the biggest boat, his cloakblown upwards by the wind, red like the colour of blood. The sun was tooimmense that day, it seemed like a person was being roasted, when the pirateboat came speeding along the sh.o.r.eline, it made people think it was completelyablaze. Two armies faced each other, gongs and drums exploded in the air, thisnaval battle was completely different from battle on land, battle on land onlyrequired officers and soldiers on horseback to rush forward, but naval battleah, if you rush over with a tiger head and tiger brain you will only end up inthe sea. Ai, you don’t think falling into the sea will be very safe, I’ll tellyou, as long as it’s on a battlefield, anywhere is h.e.l.l. In the sea smelling alittle bit of blood, you will attract a large number of sharks…”
Xia Ling Meismiled, lifting the two fat paws of the Tibetan Mastiff she said: “The officersand soldiers of Dayan beheaded pirates and the enemies of the sea states, throwingtheir corpses into the sea to feed sharks, afterwards cooks would again huntand kill fish to make food, feeding the tens of thousands of peopleeverywhere.” She said to the two maids who had lowered their heads: “Does thatcount as cannibalism? It’s still the flesh of the enemy country’s soldiers.”
Xiu Yu hadjust picked up a piece of meat floss lotus seed paste cake, having heard whatwas said she stopped, looking at her lady, again looking at the pastry in herhand, she placed it down: “Lady, I’m very happy we were sent back here by theFifth master.”
Two fingerssuddenly went into the plate, pinching a piece of cake and placing it into hermouth: “The fifth master. You are talking about is the current fifth uncle ofImperial Consort Xia, as well as the fifth elder of the Xia family, furthermoreis the second ranked army officer who became important general Xia Xiang Min.”Zhuang Sheng was minding his own business eating cakes, again he spat out amouthful of tea before again drinking a cup of tea: “Then you truly are arelative of the emperor, I wonder what is the relationship between Lady Xia andhim?”
Xia LingMei glanced at him: “Are your wounds better?”
ZhuangSheng moved his arms around: “The lady is lucky, I’m fine. I only beg of you,next time Xiao Sheng bares his flesh, please don’t hang me on the memorialarch, that place presses painfully on people, with the sun shining, the marble scaldedmy skin. Me getting scalded isn’t a big problem, irritating the well-bred younglady who adore me to be heart-broken is not good.”
“You actedlike a pervert again?”
“Who did!”Zhuang Sheng scowled, beckoning a waiter over, asking the other person to bringa good pot of wine, before again frivolously winking at Xia Ling Mei: “RecentlyI’ve been busy with something, after I finished I came to find you.”
Xia LingMei was suspicious: “To seek revenge?”
“No,”Zhuang Sheng crossed his left leg over his right, laughing as he said: “I cameto find the lady to ask for a bit of expense for psychological damage. You mustknow, hanging a grown man like me completely exposed in public, is not right.”
Xiu Yu angrilysaid: “You came to extort us!”
“Youshouldn’t say it like that. You didn’t do anything to me, at most you stole thelast best room in the middle of the night; you also didn’t plot against me, atmost you only let your bodyguards rough me up, I was completely fine only afterthree days; You also didn’t slander me, at most you only stripped the innocentme like a poached chicken, suspending me in public for everyone to see.” Hiseyes wide, he innocently said: “If the lady thinks these things are enough tomake us enemies, then fine, I came to extort you. Ladies how much money do youhave, hand it all over.”
Xia LingMei had travelled extensively, she met a lot of people, she had also met peoplelike this who took the opportunity to blackmail people. But, she was certainher opponent was smarter than other blackmailers from before, at least, thethings he said to provoke her did not have much harm. At least he didn’t saysomething like `this master is here to sort you out`, instead casually he atetheir light refreshments and drank their tea. This confident and ease, trulywas hard for nasty people to portray.
She wasslightly interested: “Outside of home, those I can rely on are friends. Ifmoney can eliminate our enmity…”
“Don’tthink of using a little money to get rid of me.” Zhuang Sheng interrupted,staring at her in the eyes: “The elder cousin of Dayan’s current ImperialConsort, external relative of the Xia family, the eldest daughter of the secondwife, Xia Ling Mei.”
Xia LingMei threw away her mask of pretence: “You investigated me.”
ZhuangSheng held the wine pot and poured all of the liquid into his own bottle gourd,nonchalantly said: “Know yourself, know your enemy. If I didn’t understand yourhistory, how could I open my mouth to quote a price. Fifty thousand, hand itover right now. If you don’t, on the spot I can let everyone hear your past righthere, providing an amus.e.m.e.nt to everyone during their leisure time.” He liftedhis eyelid, shrugging his shoulder as he smiled: “A young lady of a rich familywho should have stayed at home in her bedroom but actually appeared in a tinyplace like Chenzhou, were you disowned by your family leading you to wonder theJianghu, or where you tricked by a scoundrel, leaving home to elope…”
“Shut up.”
“Could itbe you really eloped?” Zhuang Sheng laughed loudly, “Don’t tell me you werelured to Chenzhou by Lord Gu…ah, wei, you lioness, don’t frequently take yourwhip to thrash people.”
Xia LingMei bared her teeth: “If I beat you to death I get rid of many problems, alsofifty thousand, fine.”
ZhuangSheng wailed out loud, jumping up from his chair, instead of retreating herepeatedly attacked her wrist, he wanted to thereby take control of her whip.However, he clearly forgot about the two maids, as he was moving forward toattack, Xiu Yu had already with one move poked his belt.
“Oi, littlemaid do you want to molest Xiao Sheng?” He only had the time to clutch one sideof his trousers, preventing himself from being a complete featherless poachedchicken again, or his bottom half being featherless. Just as he had finishedspeaking, a hot pot of tea came at him right in the face, burning him that heleapt about: “My body is wet, my body is wet, you have to take responsibilityfor me.”
Ying Shiheld the empty teapot, the corner of her mouth twitched, she just happened tosee the glimpse of severity in her lady’s eyes, this was a desire to murder.
Thereputation of a daughter of the Xia family, was not permitted to be slanderedor vilified
by anyone.
ZhuangSheng was besieged by the shouting and screaming of the three women, from thatwindow he jumped to another window, in between his movement his trousers slidedown several times carelessly, Xia Ling Mei’s whip seemed to demand hischast.i.ty – managing to
follow him like the shadow of an evil tyrant.
Saliva wasstill flying out of the storyteller’s mouth downstairs: “The boss of thepirates had
a shiny smooth head, missing an eye, with just half a leg he stillcharged and broke through
enemy lines. His target was our Dayan’s General-in-Chiefwho Guards the Army, Xia Xiang Min. The bald pirate charged towards him, hislong sword pointed directly at the lofty motionless General Xia. Suddenly, theair split to reveal a rainbow dyed with blood, directly from the lower half ofthe bald pirate. Only a screech of `oh----` was heard, the baldy…”
“Oh----,oh----“ Zhuang Sheng jumped into the corridor from the window.
“Hey,storyteller, the baldy cried out.”
“Oh,oh----“ Zhuang Sheng moved around on the staircase.
“Did thebaldy die?”
“Oh, oh,oh----“
“Oh yousc.u.m %**&（）*——）（）%&” The angry listeners swarmed around, beating theyoung man down who was shrieking miserably, holding up his trousers and jumpingabout.
Xia LingMei smirked pulling on her blood red whip, one foot stepping on Zhuang Sheng’schest, smiling with malicious intentions.
She did notput pressure on him, but again Zhuang Sheng shrieked: “Lord w.a.n.g, good morning,you also came to listen to stories? A----“
Xia LingMei was shocked, she only saw the narrow doorway of the teahouse had alreadybeen surrounded by people that it was impenetrable, in the centre right infront of her was a
man dressed entirely in green, black clouds over his head,w.a.n.g Yun Feng.
Inside theteahouse, the storyteller suddenly banged his wooden gavel block: “So, that isa dark red whip covered with spikes, and the girl who is wearing a similarcoloured skirt. Only hearing a few `swishing` sounds, the baldy, gloriouslybecame the first eunuch amongst pirates.”
“Sh!” Thelisteners sighed.
Literally means “Black”.