Chapter 64: Borrowing Someone, Strategically Asking Old Madame For Help
The capital was rather lively in recent days, what with various rumours regarding the Lin Family and the Prince Li Manor flying all around. After all, while Miss Lin had been found following her disappearance, Prince Li had been injured in the process. This naturally fueled the speculations surrounding the incident. Moreover, both of them were rare specimens in terms of looks within the capital, and this marriage had been highly anticipated. But now, it had truly become rather hard to say.
Some were even betting that Prince Li would take the initiative to reject this marriage. He was someone who’d never tolerated even the slightest thing, even a bit of sand in his eyes. Miss Lin’s disappearance had been a great blow to his pride.
However, this matter had nothing to do with Long Heng, who was in the midst of enjoying himself with a conflicted Bai Xiangxiu. Their current situation was very much like a cowering white rabbit faced against a fully recovered big grey wolf. The white rabbit tried to hide every day, but there seemed to be a transparent rope around its throat, dragging it back whenever it tried to escape.
The big grey wolf wanted to eat this piping hot dish up at any second, but it was a little hesitant because it had never done this sort of thing before. Time passed and the impasse continued, before Long Heng could finally go to court. He was a little embarrassed to continue the teasing any further, and moved back to his own courtyard.
Actually, he had finally formulated his own plans. Now that he’d seen the true form of that Miss Lin, he would not let this marriage happen no matter what.
It was just that while this matter had been proposed by Madame Lin, it had also gained the approval of both the emperor and the empress. As such, terminating the marriage was not something that could be done casually. First, he needed the emperor’s consent.
Long Heng was not someone who was all brawns and no brain. Otherwise, the armies of the kingdom would not be left in his hands. It was just that he hadn’t thought that as soon as he entered the palace, the emperor would ask both him and Minister Lin to remain behind.
Bai Xiangxiu had already prepared food for Long Heng to eat at noon, and had, much to her sorrow, prepared to give her body to Long Heng that night. She wasn’t a fool. Big grey wolf Long’s eyes were growing more and more fiery by the day. He’d definitely think of a way to eat her up sooner or later. It was probably due to his leg injuries that she’d managed to stay intact up to now.
Now that this person had gone to court today, the time of her ravishing was not far away. Eating his lunch here, then drinking a little bit of wine at dinner…
And then she’d be tragically ravaged afterwards.
As she thought of this, Bai Xiangxiu’s face turned red and her heartbeat sped up. While she had already made her decision, thinking of that foreign feeling which had stimulated her body that night, and remembering the feeling of that man’s presence, her hot body couldn’t help but become a flustered mess that wouldn’t easily settle.
This isn’t good. She’d probably been possessed by the devil. Otherwise, why would she have such thoughts? She held her face, rather amazed at this body’s reaction. She was even tempted to rush over and prick herself on the cactus to calm herself down. However, Huo’er piped up from beside her, “Mistress, your face is very red. Have you been sunburned?”
“Can one be sunburned within a room?” Bai Xiangxiu was rendered a little speechless. She rushed to wash her face before waiting a little awkwardly by the side. Even she herself didn’t know what she was waiting for. She was just feeling especially nervous.
When she felt like she should go wash her face once more, Ye-mama rushed in from outside, her expression awry, “Mistress Xiu, not good!”
With this classic phrase finally being used on herself, Bai Xiangxiu smiled slightly. “I’m fine, actually.”
Her response left Ye-mama shocked before she immediately realized that her mistress was joking. Sometimes, she felt as though she couldn’t keep up with the pace of this mistress of hers. Sometimes when she joked, there wasn’t a single person who smiled in response.
“Eh, what is it?” Seeing Ye-mama in a daze, Bai Xiangxiu felt that she was unable to properly communicate with them. At this point, since she wanted to live here properly for a few months, she figured she might as well build up good relationships with them rather than co-exist like strangers.
However, it was easier said than done, since she couldn’t find any common topics of interest when she tried to grow closer to them. What she found to be funny left them dazed in incomprehension, while what they found to be funny left her the same. Alright, the gap of time could not be bridged so easily. She would have to learn slowly.
Hearing her mistress finally return to normal, Ye-mama then said, “It’s the prince. I don’t know why, but he was in a very great temper following his return. The pageboy was kicked out the courtyard, and is now spitting out blood. Now, he’s wrecking everything over at the martial courtyard. It looks like he is quite enraged.”
“Ah?” While she had always thought that Long Heng was a little tyrannical and slightly chauvinistic, he seldom vented his mood on other people. Why was he suddenly injuring others? What had happened to make him so unhappy? Even though he hadn’t left the manor this past couple of days due to recovering from his wounds, he had also always maintained a peaceful attitude!
“This old servant also doesn’t know why, but no one dares to approach him right now. The old madame’s headaches are acting up again from her stress. She asked this old servant to ask you to take a look.”
Thinking of the scenes of just then, Old Servant Ye couldn’t help but inwardly tremble. As women who usually stayed deep within the inner residence, how would they have seen such scenes before?
She knew that the Prince was powerful, but even having married and served a man for half her life, she had never seen anything like this. Shattering the stone that served as a mounting block with a single stomp, with the poor pageboy on the receiving end of a similar stomp—it would only be because the prince had shown mercy if the pageboy hadn’t died instantly.
Seeing that no one else dared to approach, the old madame had actually asked her to get Mistress Xiu to come. What would such a fragile beauty be able to do there? What if she got injured? However, the old madame had always been clever and intelligent. She should have some thoughts of her own since she’d asked Ye-mama to ask this of her.
“Me, go?” What for? Bai Xiangxiu frowned. I’m also scared ah!
Old Servant Ye hesitated for a moment, “This is the old madame’s decision.”
She could only go since the old madame had given her instructions. That man wouldn’t hit women in his rage, would he? Still, she was so scared!
Ye-mama walked her to the martial courtyard. Her legs were already trembling, although that was more because of the distance she had just walked.
The martial courtyard had a heavy door at its entrance, which was currently shut tight. The screams of the wind gusts came through the door. They wanted to get closer for a look, but concealed weapons hammered through the door as soon as they walked in front of it. Before she even had a chance to see what had come through the door, Bai Xiangxiu already felt pain lance through her forehead.
“Ah…” A low cry rang out as she could only bemoan how unlucky she was. Hey now, three people are standing there at the same time, but I’m the only one injured!
Xiao Shi was the first to react. “How are you? Ah! It’s red!”
“What are you doing here?” Long Heng walked over, panting slightly, as his previous anger dissipated like smoke with her single cry. He himself didn’t know why that was so, and he was even more unaware of the corners of his mouth involuntarily lifting at her voice.
However, his face quickly morphed into a frown as he found out that she was injured. He strode over to take a look at her. However, with her head lowered, he couldn’t see clearly at all. In his hurry, he used his fingers to raise her chin.
Pa!
Bai Xiangxiu’s face was lifted to look up at him. She felt immense pressure because of their height difference. Most importantly, from that angle, the cold contours of his face were truly attractive. As her heart beat rapidly, she lightly placed a hand on the area of her wound. Her brows furrowed slightly because of the pain.
A pang of pain pricked Long Heng’s heart as he brusquely released his grip, saying, “Don’t come in here in the future without notifying me before. At least send someone to report your arrival first.”
Off to the side, Ye-mama was dumbstruck. Was this their Prince Li? If she recalled correctly, he was the one who’d said before that women should not easily approach the martial courtyard. Even the old madame seldom came here.