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Chapter 3 Luo Shui Town
The Luo Shui River, 376 miles long and 30 ten feet in width, this river serve as a boundary between territories, on the left was a Qiong Yue gateway and on the right situated a town. Since it was nestled near Luo Shui river, it was called Luo Shui Town. During the time of peace, these two neighboring countries have common people and common trade, therefore, Luo Shui Town, although not large, nevertheless, was very lively.
Goddess of Lou Shui River Mountain was located East of Luo Shui Town and it was a mountain sierra, the mountain was home to various birds and beasts, there were many herbal plants used for medicine also, and for people with some skills they like Goddess of Lou Shui River Mountain for hunting. Slowly, at the foot of the hill, were the hunting household and medicine agriculture. The number of families that had settled grew little by little until small hamlets were form. There were more than ten families living in one hamlet looking after one another’s situation.
A pedestrian of several people just descended the mountain; the road was too narrow, they were trekking their way to the small village. They have not enter the village yet when the little girl on Lou Chen’s side shouted “Mother”, she suddenly ran cheerfully to the woman that was standing at the entrance of the village.
The woman was emaciated, palms of her hand were big even, her face looked pale and her hair was yellow, the facial features were thin and haggard making her appearance and especially her temperament to be very different from Lou Chen who was wearing a black dress at the moment. Jin Yan Hen glanced at Lou Chen and decided to remain standing in his place and has not planned to walk past her, and in his heart he was completely convinced that the woman was not Lou Chen’s mother and the little girl was not her biological sister.
She saw the little girl’s dress was covered with dust, hair stained with grass clippings, her pale face became paler and urgently asked, “Su Tong, what happened to you? Did you fall?”
Su Tong shook her head and with a smile excitedly related her story, “Oh! Mother, I am okay. Today, Su Tong was quite fierce, I help big brother and saved elder sister!”
“Huh?” Zhang Jing did not understand her daughter’s story.
Su Tong was holding her mother’s hand and pointed to the man being detained at a distance by Wu Yi, declared, “That is the bad guy that held elder sister.”
Zhang Jing followed the direction the daughter’s finger was pointing, the man she referred to had both hands tied, his whole body was very distressed. After seeing the appearance of the man clearly, she hesitated and then exclaimed, “Wang ……Brother Wang?!”
The man who had his head bow heard some voices and immediately looked up, “Ah Jing is that you?”
After she was definite that the man was someone she knew, Zhang Jing quickly asked, “Why did you catch Eldest Brother Wang?”
Wu Yi slightly frowned and in a cold voice said, “He is a murder suspect … …”
After hearing the words ‘murder suspect’, the delicate person became anxious immediately and the pale face suddenly flushed, “Brother Wang is a good person, how could he possibly kill people? You are certainly making a mistake here!”
“Making a mistake?” For the whole day they had all gone out to pursue Wang Si, they were already exhausted, and besides, Wang Si kept on proclaiming his innocence and that they have been unfair to him and now this woman also accused them of false accusation. Wu Yi was annoyed and got angry, “Wang Si’s wife was murder and the weapon used by the murderer is the same one that Wang Si’s commonly use in killing pigs. He is left handed and the killer also used his left hand during the murder. Their friends and neighbors heard that afternoon before the wife died, they had quarrel fiercely and his wife died in the evening, are these just coincidences?”
The lawsuit has not settled yet, supposedly without proper approval no one can disclosed anything about the case, (but this constables were blabbing about it). If these subordinates were working under Younger Aunt, they would have long been stripped a layer of skin. What a pity this was not Qiong Yue, Lou Chen was not Gu Yun, she resolutely looked at Wu Yi but did not say anything.
Zhang Jing was frightened and clutched her chest with one hand and stammered, “You … and you said that Sister Hua died?! Impossible ……” suddenly looked up and Zhang Jing more agitated than before, grabbed Wu Yi’s arm and quickly added, “Sister Hua and his father are personal caravan guards and her martial arts is fiercer than Brother Wang, how is this possible? You certainly got the wrong person, certainly!”
Wu Yi did not expect the woman would go crazy and suddenly got mad, but he didn’t dare push her, and only shouted, “What are you doing? Stop pestering and do not meddle with the handling of this matter, let the official attend to this matter, this man must be lock up.”
Zhang Jing grabbed Wu Yi and shook several times; suddenly her heart cannot take the distress, closed her eyes and fainted.
“Mother!”
“Ah Jing!”
Wang Si want to rush toward her, but was blocked by Wu Yi. Jin Yan Hen was near Zhang Jing and when she fainted, he reacted quickly and caught her in his arms and pulled her toward him. Zhang Jing emaciated body was so light that even a gust of wind can blow it run. Jin Yan Hen pulled her without effort, but how could a person who was unconscious possibly remained standing, the soft body completely poured in Jin Yan Hen arms.
Jin Yan Hen cough lightly and with peach blossom eyes (meaning look full of charm) turned to gaze at Lou Chen helplessly. Lou Chen automatically ignored his gaze and grabbed the hand of Zhang Jing to take her pulse.
Wang Si was being held back by Wu Yi and could not go near her, making him very anxious, “Ah Leng body is not good since childhood, quickly take her to the hospital to have a look.”
Lou Chen reach behind her back to welcome Su Tong’s red eyes, said in a whisper, “There’s no serious trouble.” By the time Su Tong barely arrive, she had already taken Zhang Jing’s pulse, congenital sickness, she should rest well as this illness has no cure, in addition, she was not properly nourish, life was difficult and her delicate body was frantic, these were the reasons she collapse, it was hardly surprising.
“This girl is so smart and also an expertise in medical skills.”
Lou Chen felt those pairs of seemingly amused eyes staring at her, if she was an average person, she fear she would have been annoy already. Unfortunately, this person was Lou Chen, and just according to Lou Xi, though she perfected the skill of Gong Fu, not fencing, but rather ignoring the critical and fresh look of bystanders was her supreme feat.
After hearing the comment of Jin Yan Hen, the little girl proudly added, “Elder sister medical skill is good and had cure elder brother’s foot. So if elder sister said that mother is all right, definitely she is all right.”
The little girl was fully-confident, on the contrary, Wang Si, obviously, did not trust Lou Chen as much. He was struggling while shouting, “You lead Ah Jing to harm until she pass out and now you intend to disregard her?!” Wang Si was exceptionally violent, it seems he won’t calm down until Zhang Jing was sent to the hospital, he was protesting with all his might.
Bringing Zhang Jing body to the hospital was also useless but Lou Chen this time explained in any case her need to buy two ingredients for Su Meng’s foot injury. Lou Chen took down the bamboo basket and gave them to Su Tong, instructing her, “Su Tong, you go home first and tell your elder brother, I will take your mother to the hospital.”
Su Tong was anxious and was excited, “I want to go with ….”
“Be obedient and wait at home for us with your elder brother.”
Su Tong’s mouth contract and her eye’s looked like she was about to cry but did not dare refute Lou Chen’s instruction, she liked the desolate looking sister but was also somewhat afraid of her.
Jin Yan Hen glanced at the woman who remained unconscious, afterward, he lifted his hand to rub the girl’s hair and said with a smile, “Don’t worry little girl, I will accompany your older sister, we will go together.”
Wu Yi was so annoyed with him but held himself back not to strike him and scolded, “Jin Yan Hen, you are to apprehend the criminal, and that was the important official mission, as a constable you should attend to it. But what you have been doing all day was follow behind this woman!”
Jin Yan Hen trace the look of his colleague who was mad and nudge at the direction of Zhang Jing who was in stupor, replied, “You should not be saying that we are constables and then look at the common people who are in danger and not help. The person have been caught already, you go back and report of the accomplishment. I am not going to have anything to do with it. Otherwise, will you take her to the hospital?”
Wu Yi was on the bind and could not find a way to express his irritation; he doesn’t have a rebuttal against that statement. He can only get angrier as he was staring at Jin Yan Hen, “You!”
Mu Yan and Jin Yan Hen looked at each with tacit understanding, then quickly turned his head and pushed Wu Yi, saying, “Let’s go. Let us first go back to report on the success of the mission.”
Mu Yan and Wu Yi detained Wang Si and left, Su Tong was also under Lou Chen’s cold vision and obediently went home.
The men and women already left, Jin Yan Hen cannot hold Zhang Jing by himself to go to the hospital, they can only support her by the arm, one on the left and other on the right, and walk her toward the small town.
Along the way, Jin Yan Hen’s mouth had not stopped chatting and did not care about Lou Chen’s indifference, “Did you realize that it has been awhile and I still am not sure how to address you? You are not willing to tell me, I can only call you like knocking on a door, guniang… guniang** (meaning young woman), putting it this way, calling you guniang is also not too good, it is tasteless and doesn’t have any appeal…”
The tranquil eyes swept to look at her, subtly, Jin Yan Hen always agile glib lips unexpectedly quiet down for a moment to listen with his heart jumping bewilderedly, suddenly and crazily with expectation. Meanwhile, like a mountain of cool stream, a woman’s voice resounded lightly, “Lou Chen.”
Lou was not an uncommon surname, in addition several elders from the small family in every way protected and safeguarded the three sisters, majority of the people was in government seat position in succession, the young lady’s name in Prime Minister’s inner chamber was not even known, therefore, Lou Chen had not planned to say a fake name.
With Su Tong she said her name, so long as Jin Yan Hen traces the Su family (the hunter’s family), he will naturally learn her name, and Lou Chen was by no means an artificial person, therefore, she generously give out her own name.
Lou Chen? Two characters he studied and remembered carefully by heart, Jin Yan Hen continued to present a smiling face, said, “Every day, every month your name suits you, Chen, guniang really like this name, but for me I will very well call you Chen’er**…”
**(‘er- meaning little son or call of endearment)
“Ahh!”
Extreme joy turned to tragedy, Jin Yan Hen celebrated too soon to only feel layer upon layer of pain on his foot, he had likely been kicked by something, all of a sudden he was thrown down on the ground, as he grovelled on the ground, Lou Chen supported Zhang Jing with one hand, watching the man with satisfaction laying flat on his stomach, she proceeded to walk, simultaneously transforming her once clear light steps to heavily digging up the gravel, causing the dust to be sprinkled at someone’s face.
End of the Chapter