by N/A
"Me? If I really have to marry, I won't ask for great wealth, position or fame, but they need to wholehearted love me, and can only have me as his wife." Du Xiao Li said. "Can't have concubines, can't have tongfangs*, even bed-warming servant girls aren't allowed. Not only must they have a clean body, but their heart needs to be clean too. No matter how beautiful of a girl, they are not allowed to even glance at. A frivolous young master like you, definitely won't do."
(*T/N: Tongfangs - very low-ranking concubines)
"Ai, a little girl like you yet still have this many requirements, see who still dares to marry you in the future." Ji Liu Feng was amused by Du Xiao Li's words.
Du Xiao Li sighed and said, "I also think this kind of husband doesn't exist in this time period, that's why I said I won't marry in the future."
"If you don't marry, in the future who will take care of you? Your big brother will have to establish a family sooner or later, he can't raise you your whole life." Ji Liu Feng said.
"I can raise myself. Why must I rely on other?" Du Xiao Li spoke unconcernedly, "My goal is to earn a lot a lot of money, let big brother marry a beautiful wife, and then I'll just travel around the world, see all the beautiful sceneries of the world. So exciting just thinking about it!"
"Really a girl with strange thoughts." Ji Liu Feng assessed.
Han Ming Yi was sitting under the eaves the whole time, with his eyes closed, dozing off. Hearing her conversation with Ji Liu Feng, his forefinger lightly tapped on the handrail.
After Du Xiao Li failed for the nth time, Leng Er finally gave up on teaching her qinggong, even giving a ultimatum in passing: 'This girl is unfit to learn martial arts!'
To this, Du Xiao Li also didn't have anything to say. Anyways, she felt that it was also quite good like this. Because of Han Ming Yi's illness, in their eyes, she was already not normal. If she were to then show talent in martial arts, then in the future, she might really not have anymore peaceful days.
Du Xiu Heng returned once in between. After learning that Du Xiao Li was learning martial arts from Leng Er, he didn't say anything either. He just said to let her do whatever she wanted to do. Even if in the future, she can't do anything, he will still take good care of her.
When he saw that the mountain they lived on was dug full of holes, he asked Du Xiao Li what she wanted to do.
Du Xiao Li explained her plans to have the tangerine trees transplanted. After listening, he nodded his head and said, "Even if in the future, it can't earn money, it's also not bad to just treat it as turning this mountain green with plants."
Du Xiao Li even took him to go see the several wells. Because they were just made recently, there weren't much water in the well. They used the roped tied to the bucket to draw a bucket of water up.
"This water is so nice and cold!" Du Xiu Heng reached in and touched it.
"That's right. Later, let's put the grapes in the well for a bit. Then, eating them at night will be even tasty." Du Xiao Li also stretched her hand into the bucket.
Two days ago, the work for the mountain was finished. Du Xiao Li, seeing that the weather was getting increasingly hot, thus didn't let the villagers fix up the other mountain. Because this well was relatively shallow, they thus made a few more.
"Then let's go get some." Du Xiu Heng said.
This morning, Leng Er and the others went to pick all the grapes on the vine, and shared half with Du Xiao Li. Du Xiao Li saved some for Du Xiu Heng, and the rest were all used to make grape wine. Thinking that afterwards, she won't be able to eat grapes, Du Xiao Li felt a bit sad inside. However, she planned to go over to the grape vines a few days later to see if there's any place suitable for cutting. Right now was currently the time for cutting. If successful, then she can start planting in mass.
(T/N: Cutting is the process in horticulture for plant propagation)
Du Xiu Heng filled half a basket full of grapes and used a coarse rope to lower it down, hanging it on top the water, following which the two of them went back. After eating dinner, the two of them finally had the grapes pulled back up. Eating it now, the grapes were ice cold, extremely refreshing!
At present, because the weather at noon was too scorching hot, Du Xiu Heng had no choice but to move out in the morning to return to school. Du Xiao Li waited until after he left, then put on her back-basket and her little satchel, and entered the mountains. This time, she wanted to go see how the tangerine trees are growing, and also see if there's any grape branches suitable for cutting.
"Silver, you go play by yourself." After Du Xiao Li had Silver brought to the deepest part of the mountains, she patted its head and let it go hunt by itself.
It's already almost a month since she's adopted Silver. In this month, it has grown quite a bit, and its ability to catch some small animals have also improved a lot too.
"Awoo---" Silver had only ran off for a while before running back. Using its mouth, it bit onto Du Xiao Li's trouser, pulling her in the direction it'd had just gone, seemingly having discovered something.
Ch. 033 – Saving a Beautiful Man
Saving a Beautiful Man
T/N: Chapter sponsored by Azurixa! Thank you for sponsoring!
"Silver, did you discover something?" Du Xiao Li crouched down and rubbed Silver's head as she spoke.
"Awoo---" Silver let go of Du Xiao Li's trousers and ran forward a bit, turning its head back to see Du Xiao Li following itself, before continuing to run ahead.
"Silver, slow down." Du Xiao Li's current body although was quite a bit better than before, she still couldn't catch up with Silver's speed. By the time she was out of breath from running, she saw it sitting by the underbrush.
Because it saw Du Xiao Li, it called out towards her. Du Xiao Li went forward to look, discovering a man dressed in black buried in the underbrush, and a bundle wrapped in cloth lying nearby. She walked into the underbrush to carefully look, noticing that he had knife cuts deep and shallow, about ten to twenty some, all over his body. On his body, there was also scrapes and abrasions, and also injuries received from falling off a high place.
"Actually didn't die with such serious injuries?" Du Xiao Li placed her finger under his nose. The person was still faintly breathing.
Du Xiao Li looked to Silver. Although she has been training it to not bite the villagers, to not eat the animals raised by the villagers, and to hunt in the mountains on its own if it wants to eat meat, but she seems to have never to taught it to save someone before?!
"Silver, this person is undoubtedly not simple. If we save him, we might attract disaster." Du Xiao Li said.
"Awooo---" Silver cried out, unsure if it was letting Du Xiao Li save or not save.
"How about we pretend we didn't see?" Du Xiao Li continued.
"Awoo---" Silver replied her still with a howl.
"Then it's decided!" Du Xiao Li clapped her hands, and got up from the ground, preparing to leave.
But just as she took a step, she discovered that her trousers were grabbed by him at some point. She pulled with all her strength, and that person that had his eyes closed the whole time suddenly opened his eyes, startling her, following which he completely fell unconscious.
"Such a contradicting pair of eyes." Although it was only a short glance, she still saw his eyes clearly. Killing intent floated in his eyes, probably having killed quite a few people before, but with a careful look, they were very clean. This kind of contradicting eyes drew even herself in.
Looking to his hand that tightly grabbed onto her trousers, she sighed, saying: "Being discovered by Silver can also be considered your fortune. Thus, I'll save you for once. But I also can't cause trouble for myself. Silver, you go hunt a wild animal and bring it over."
Silver seemingly understood Du Xiao Li's words and ran off.
Du Xiao Li placed her back-basket to the side, took out the dagger in her bag, and had the person's outer clothes stripped, throwing it to the side. Seeing his inner clothes made from top-quality satin inside, she though
t, 'This person must be very wealthy and noble too.'
"Tsk tsk, don't know if there's money in the baggage." Du Xiao Li sighed, and easily stripped him naked, only leaving behind a pair of underpants. Seeing the wounds on his body, she couldn't help furrowing her brows.
These wounds were beginning to rot. If not removed, he can very easily die. Furthermore, there were two cuts that were very strange. She could tell at a glance that they weren't caused by ordinary weapons.
"You really are troublesome." Du Xiao Li looked to his wounds and said, "I'll try my best, but whether or not I can save you, I don't know either!"
She took out her silver needles and stabbed them into several of his acupuncture points. Very soon, his bleeding stopped. Soon after, she took out a few more needles, and temporarily suppressed his pain-sensing nerves. Afterwards, she began using her dagger to slice off the rotted flesh on his body. When she got to those two special cuts, her hand paused for a moment, and her gaze slightly darkened.
By the time she finished, Silver had returned with a deer in its mouth. She quickly had the deer cut, spraying the blood everywhere. Afterwards, she sliced some meat off, and placed it together with the flesh she'd just sliced off from that person.
"Silver, bite here." Du Xiao Li placed the flesh cut from that special wound just now next to Silver's mouth.
Silver obediently bit some flesh off, and the smooth dagger cut thus became markings caused by a wild animal's teeth.
"Silver, tear these clothes to shreds." Du Xiao Li tore some of the clothes off, and threw it to Silver to tear. Afterwards, she had the remaining clothes placed into her basket.
After Silver finished tearing, Du Xiao Li had those messy clothes scraps thrown on the ground, and then had those rotten flesh also thrown together with the torn clothes, making this place into a 'eaten by a wild animal' scene as much as possible.
Soon after, she opened the bundle, seeing that there's a flute, two books, a few change of clothes, and several thousand taels of silver inside. In addition, there was also a plaque. On one side of the plaque carved a complicated pattern, and on the other side, carved the character 'qi' ().
"Sure is rich as hell!" Du Xiao Li glanced at that person. She then had the book and flute, and also more than half of the silver, placed into her basket. Afterwards, she had that plaque, the clothes, and also the remaining money wrapped up according to how that bundle was wrapped up just now, and thrown into the nearby underbrush.
When she finished these things, she removed her silver needles from that person's body, and dragged him onto the ground outside of the underbrush. Looking at her own handiwork, she said to Silver, "Silver, go and jump of few times in the underbrush."
Silver ran inside and jumped a few times, and even rolled a few times too.
Du Xiao Li looked again, discovering that her footprints got covered up by Silver's markings. She finally let out a breath and wiped the sweat from her forehead. Then, she took out a silver needle and slowly inserted it into his acupuncture point, using her thumb and index finger to slowly twirl it.
Following the insertion, that person slowly opened his eyes.
"Don't talk, if you talk, you'll die." Du Xiao Li saw that his lips moved, like he wanted to speak, and hurriedly stopped him.
That person saw how he was naked, with holes all over his body, and his eyes filled with confusion.
Du Xiao Li saw the holes on his body, and unnaturally coughed once. In order to be able to let this place look like he'd gotten eaten by a wild animal, when she was later carving out the rotting flesh, she'd sliced off quite a lot. Originally, it was just knife cuts, but now it all became holes.
"First come home with me." Du Xiao Li said, "Your injuries need to be properly treated. Can you stand up right now?"
Du Xiao Li used her silver needles to raise his body's potential to the highest, lasting till they return shouldn't be a problem.
That person stood up and stared at Du Xiao Li.
"We need to walk pretty far, hopefully you can last till we get back." Du Xiao Li picked up her basket and started heading back.
She let that person walk in front, while she herself stayed behind, using the dirt to cover up the bloodstains he left behind, all the way till they returned home.
"Phew...." Returning to her own courtyard, Du Xiao Li let out a long breath. This breath hadn't even finished, when that person in front started tottering. She hastily went forward to support him, and lead him to Du Xiu Heng's bed, following which he fainted again.
"Such a strong will to live." Du Xiao Li thought of how he really walked back from the mountains, only collapsing when they finally returned home. She couldn't help sighing.
She went out and had the bloodstains in the courtyard taken care of, before carrying a jar of wine over to the bedside. Afterwards, she used water to clean the dried bloodstains from his body.
"Unexpectedly, he's also quite handsome." Du Xiao Li looked to the cleaned face and said. The man looked about sixteen seventeen, with skin white as snow, and painted brows. At the moment, even the man's underpants were gone, if Du Xiu Heng were to find out, he would certainly scold her.
"So tired." After taking care of all the wounds on the man's body, Du Xiao Li sat down on the bed.
After she wiped clean his entire body using water, she then used alcohol to wipe his wounds. Afterwards, she took some gauze and wrapped his entire body into a glutinous rice wrap. Seeing his current look, she suddenly laughed, "Luckily, right now still isn't the hottest period, else don't know how this wound will be taken care of."
(Glutinous Rice Wraps)
After resting, Du Xiao Li went to go prepare his medicine. She fed him the medicine, and also took his pulse, sensing that although his pulse was very weak, it was already steady. She finally relaxed.
Meanwhile, two men in black arrived at the place where Du Xiao Li discovered that man. After searching the surrounding, they left carrying the bundle they discovered.
Ch. 034 – Dangerous Figure
Dangerous Figure
On a mountain several kilometers from the village, the men in black stood at the edge of the cliff looking at the scenery in the distance. The scorching sun covered their heads, yet they didn't feel it in the slightest.
"You've returned." Hearing the sound coming from the left, someone spoke.
Everyone looked to the mountaintop nearby. Very soon, two men similarly dressed in black clothes appeared, one of them even holding a bundle in hand.
"Second master." After the two arrived, they greeted the person in the lead.
"Where's the person?" The person called second master looked to the two of them and asked. From the sounds of his voice, should be a thirty-four year old middle aged man.
"Replying to second master, we searched following the bloodstains the whole way, but didn't see fourth young master. In a mountain, we saw a patch of blood and some torn clothes, also there were some unfinished flesh bits. He should have gotten eaten by a wild animal." One of the men replied.
"Got eaten by a wild animal? Not getting saved by someone?" The man wasn't too convinced.
"Yes." That person continued. "Fourth young master at the time had fallen into a dense underbrush. We only saw markings of a wild animal in the underbrush, and didn't see any human tracks. Furthermore, the clothing scattered there was indeed fourth young master's. However, it got torn to shreds by a wild animal. On the ground, there were also some unfinished human flesh."
"Then how did you know that was Luo Qi?" The second master continued to ask.
"We discovered a scar on a rather large piece of flesh. This scar can only be cause by second master's weapon." The other person had that large piece of flesh wrapped in a handkerchief in his hand handed to the second master to see.
The second master took it and looked it over. That scar certainly could have only been caused by his weapon.
"This looks like bite marks of a wolf." Someone next to the second master saw the bite marks on that piece
of flesh and said.
"Indeed the bite marks of a wolf." The second master threw the piece of flesh in hand onto the ground. Someone next to him immediately handed him a top quality brocade handkerchief. The second master took the handkerchief and wiped his hands a few times, following which he threw it on the ground, continuing to ask, "Where's the thing?"
That person had the bundle in hand handed over. The person that had just spoke about the bite marks earlier went forwards and looked it over, saying to the second master, "It's the style of knot that only fourth young master knows how to tie."
Since the manner was the same, then that meant that the bundle haven't been opened by anyone before. Ordinary people would all assume this. But encountering someone like Du Xiao Li, even if she opened it, she still wouldn't let you all know.
"Open it." The second master ordered.
"Yes."
The bundle was opened, and inside were a few change of clothes, some ingot of silver, and also a plaque to prove his identity.
"Second master, the thing isn't here." The person examining said.
The things in the bundle were very simple. One could finish looking with a glance. The second master naturally also saw. Seeing that the thing he wanted wasn't there, his face darkened, and a cold air exuded from all over his body.
"Second master, could it be that fourth young master played a trick on us, and that the thing wasn't on him, but had let someone else take it back?" Someone voiced their guess.
"Go investigate, have everyone that Luo Qi had interacted with previously all investigated." The second master said.
"Yes!" The men in black behind him accepted the order, and immediately after some of them flew away, only leaving behind the second master, the person that spoke just now, and also the two guards that had just returned.
"Second master, since fourth young master has died, how should we explain to eldest master?"
"Explain? Just say we got separated by the people that came to steal, and by the time we found him, he'd already been eaten by a wolf." The second master coldly snorted, "He Shun, say, Luo Qi's death, how big of an impact will it have towards Luo Yun Feng?"