chapter 12

Since the imperial envoy had left, she didn’t need to stay here any longer. As Murong Yun Shu was about to leave, she saw Feng Ling happily grabbing onto Nie Qing’s shirt and coming back. Nie Qing’s expression was as dark as coal.

“Brother, my speed is quite fast, right? In the blink of an eye, I’ve already caught and brought Nie Qing back.” Feng Ling boasted as though she wanted to show off her achievement. She completely ignored Nie Qing’s expression which looked as though he wanted to crush her very badly.

“Mmm.” Feng Cheng responded vexingly, his thoughts were still stuck on the fact that Murong Yun Shu was Chu Changge’s wife. Cupid really was making a fool out of Murong Yun Shu. How can such a great lady like her be matched with Chu Changge, that disaster?!

“Feng Ling, even if you kill me, I still won’t marry you as my wife!” Nie Qing raised his chest proudly, trying to sound firm and unyielding.

After Feng Ling heard those words, tears immediately flowed from her eyes: “Nie Qing, you’re too much! If you go too far, I will…… I will take it for real someday!”

Nie Qing coldly moved his face away so that he wouldn’t be looking at Feng Ling anymore. He directed his himself towards Murong Yun Shu instead.

“You are the Imperial Envoy that was sent from the kingdom to visit the Murong Sect in Jin Ling Province?” Murong Yun Shu asked.

Nie Qing was shocked: “How did you know about that?!” He was told to secretly fulfill the decree, there weren’t many people who knew about this.

“I am Murong Yun Shu.” That one sentence explained everything.

Looks like his rescue had come! Nie Qing burst into ecstasy: “Where are the others?”

“Halfway up the mountain.”

“How many?”

“Two people.”

“You’ve brought only two people to rescue me?!” Nie Qing squealed with his darkened face.

Murong Yun Shu was stunned by the situation. When did she ever say that she had come to rescue him? Was it popular nowadays for all men to be so self-sentimental? The reason why she came to Hua Tuo Mountain was because of the matter of the bank. After she finished talking about business, she was intending to leave. She did not care to poke her nose into troublesome stuff at all.

“As to the matter of my request, does the kingdom agree to it?” Murong Yun Shu got straight to the point.

“You intend to discuss national affairs with me right here, right now?” Wasn’t she adapting too easily to this situation?!

“If not, when?” Murong Yun Shu looked at Nie Qing who had been acupunctured into paralysis by Feng Ling. She saw that his body below the neck was unable to move at all and said: “If you can move, I don’t mind changing location.”

“You should bother about escaping from here first! Not about business!”

“Lord, please don’t joke with me. My legs are both still healthy, and since Lady Feng Ling doesn’t want me to be her husband, why would I scared about not being able to leave this place?” Murong Yun Shu disagreed with Nie Qing and smiled, then she continued: “Not to mention that since I still have a powerful fiancé as backup, Lord Feng Cheng won’t dare to stop me.”

Chu Changge became so speechless that he laughed. Looks like his only role as a fiancé was mainly to scare people.

“You did not come here to rescue me?” Nie Qing asked.

“I am here to talk business. You came to Jin Ling Province to represent the kingdom so as to discuss Huifeng Bank’s matter with me. Now that I’m right in front of you, you may start.”

Nie Qing was deeply hurt. Originally, he thought Feng Ling was the weirdest woman in the whole kingdom, but now he realized that he had been short-sighted. He didn’t know until now that there is always someone who is weirder. Compared to Murong Yun Shu, Feng Ling was way more normal than her!

Wasn’t it normal to rescue him, the Imperial Envoy, first?! Only after being rescued and getting settled down in relative safety would people then start discussions of business! Her thinking was so different compared to normal people!

Nie Qing completely gave up on trying to cotton up to Murong Yun Shu and said: “His Majesty has summoned you to the palace and wants to discuss the matter with you face-to-face.” Since there were nosy people around, he did not announce the decree but instead handed it over to her instead.

“Looks like the kingdom is not willing to accept my condition.” Murong Yun Shu leisurely smiled. She pinched the decree in her hand and said: “I shall now set out for the capital.” Then, she turned her face to the Feng siblings and said: “Lord Feng, Lady Feng, see you next time.”

“See you next time.” Feng Cheng felt a little sense of reluctance at her departure.

Feng Ling also couldn’t bear to see Murong Yun Shu leave. Murong Yun Shu was a kind person! People who didn’t steal Nie Qing from her were all labeled as “kind.”

Since his Madam had left, naturally as her husband, Chu Changge also shouldn’t tarry any longer. Chu Changge said: “Brother Feng, we’ll meet again at Shaolin Temple on the August of fifteen.”

“I hope you’re still alive by then.” Every year, only for the duration of the martial arts world tournament was he, Feng Cheng, set free from Hua Tuo Mountain.

*

The humidity in the mountain was quite high. Since the Peach Forest had not been easy to burn, the fire had not been too fierce. Instead of widespread damage, the forest was covered with condensed smoke.

Murong Yun Shu used her sleeve to cover her nose and mouth while she followed behind Chu Changge, trying to keep up with strenuous effort.

Murong Yun Shu regretted. If she had known that the forest was covered with a high condensation of smoke, she would’ve agreed to a certain someone’s suggestion—which was to carry her down the mountain. If she had agreed, she wouldn’t be tearing up her eyes from the smoke right now. After all, just as he had said, even if she doesn’t marry him, nobody would dare to marry her anyway. So it really didn’t matter if her innocent reputation was ruined by him.

Sadly, there wasn’t such a thing as a pill for regret in this world. Luckily, the Peach Forest wasn’t so big, so they managed to escape the sea of fire in close to no time. Murong Yun Shu was soon able to breathe in fresh air from the mountain once again.

Along the quiet path of the mountain, both of them walked. One at the front and one at the back. They remained silent. Chu Changge was leading in front of the road. He turned back every once in a while to check whether Murong Yun Shu was following him. Murong Yun Shu steadily walked at the back while looking up at the sky, looking down at the ground, and looking left and right. She seemed to be uneasy.

Being alone with him, Murong Yun Shu felt……. One word…… Bored.

Suddenly, Murong Yun Shu slipped. She screamed unconsciously knowing that she was going to fall on the ground. But unexpectedly, she fell onto a solid chest. She still hadn’t recovered from the shock, before she found herself staring at a pair of concerned black eyes. Her heart was beating so fast and her ears started to heat up. “Thank you.” She panicked and tried to stand up and pull away to put some distance between them, but she felt a flash of pain from her foot that was so painful that she unconsciously frowned her eyebrows.

“You sprained your ankle?” Chu Changge asked.

She lightly nodded her head and didn’t know what to do.

“Looks like God doesn’t want you to let me go easily.” Chu Changge intentionally sighed a long sigh, then he lifted her up like a princess. His face was smiling brightly.

It looked more like God didn’t want to let go of her so easily! Murong Yun Shu sighed lightly, her face looked expressionless, but her heart was perturbed. This was the first time that she was carried by a man. It felt quite mysterious. Did she feel happy? A little. Did she feel uneasy? A lot.

The scent of pure grass emanated from Chu Changge. It smelled as though it were the first day of spring where the morning breeze blew along the scent of freedom, it gladdened the heart and refreshed the mind. Murong Yun Shu was impressed, she thought that people from the underworld wouldn’t have such a peaceful kind of smell.

The wind slightly blew against Chu Changge’s black hair, causing the right side of his bangs to drop on her face, covering half of it. Murong Yun Shu smoothed away the wisp of hair and used her fingers to play around with his hair. At least there was something for her to do so that she wouldn’t feel so awkward anymore.

“Is it fun to play with my hair?” A laughing voice suddenly sounded from the top of Murong Yun Shu’s head.

Murong Yun Shu’s fingers immediately stopped, she felt so embarrassed that she didn’t know how to react. After a few seconds, she finally realized that she needed to retort back: “Are you so poor that you can’t afford to buy a hairpin to tie your hair?” She had wanted to ask him for a very long time about why he never tied his hair.

Chu Changge smiled devilishly and said: “Yes, I can’t afford to. All of my silver taels were deposited into your bank, and now it’s vanished in vain.”

Murong Yun Shu felt more 囧, she felt a little guilty and said: “I don’t intend to repudiate the debt, the bank is just temporarily closed and will open again soon. Huifeng Bank’s silver notes will be usable throughout the country as always.”

“Why didn’t you say so earlier?” Chu Changge tried to hold back his laugh. He acted sad by adopting the look of a heartbreaking and distressed face: “If I knew the silver notes could still be used, then I wouldn’t have used them to start a fire!”

Murong Yun Shu opened her eyes wide while looking up at him, she couldn’t believe that he had done such a thing and asked again: “You used your silver notes to start a fire?”

“Mmm, it was too humid inside the Peach Forest and since it’s not easy to burn it, I just happened to have some silver notes on me. Since the bank had already closed down, I figured that keeping the silver notes was useless anyway, so I burnt them all.”

“……” Why did his tone sound as though he were saying, ‘the day is so boring, so let’s burn some money to play’ ……

“It’s not that much, really. It could just be exchanged for about ten boxes of gold, as I’m sure you’ve seen before.”

Murong Yun Shu’s face was shocked. Don’t tell her that he meant those ten boxes of betrothal gifts from the first time he visited? “You should worry about being a beggar in your next life for burning money so easily.”

“You mean the beggar sect? Such a prestigious sect won’t accept me, I’ll confirm in advance that I’ll still be the Mojiao Sect’s sect leader in the next life.” Chu Changge didn’t agree with Murong Yun Shu. “Moreover, since the bank was opened by Madam, the burnt silver notes will be returned back to Madam. Madam is also mine, so it can’t count as waste.”

Murong Yun Shu was moved deep inside her heart. Her mind was still trying to recall his words…… Ten boxes of gold, you’ve seen them before…… the burnt silver notes were returned back to Madam……

In the blink of an eye, Murong Yun Shu completely understood something. He had intentionally burnt the silver notes just to gift her those ten boxes of gold. At that moment, a warm feeling spread all over her heart. Her heart started to beat intensely.

Murong Yun Shu bent and made a soundless smile. This man, even the way he gifted money was so domineering. She found that she couldn’t even reject him— Of course, she wouldn’t reject either.