âHow, how did you do that?â Luâer felt that her mistress is so omnipotent, she could even control animals as scary as snakes. No wonder sheâs the head of the Murong House.
âBack when I lost my appetite for three days after seeing a snack, I started researching on how to summon them.â
Luâer suddenly recalled when her mistress was 10 year old, sheâd bring a stack of strange books with her to the bamboo forest everyday and knocked and banged on things. She even spent a sizable amount of money to have someone build her an ancient zither that wouldnât produce any sound. Master Murong was so angry when he found out he almost fired the person who got this done, luckily mistress spoke in his favorâŚ.
Suddenly it all clicked, âThat ancient zitherâŚ. earringâŚ. itâs just like the ancient zither that couldnât make any soundâŚ.â and itâs all coming back to her, what mistress said back then wasnât that the zither âcanât make any sound, itâs just that dad canât hear the sound that it makes.â So that was what she meant â humans couldnât hear it, but snakes could!
Luâer was getting more and more frightened, how⌠how could miss have turned something so deadly into earrings and wore them everydayâŚ
âYou are getting smarter,â Murong Yun Shu was very happy that she didnât need to spent time and effort in explaining any further. Actually when she was researching for the method to tame the snakes she merely wanted to show off in front of the snakes, to avenge for ânot being able to eat for three days.â Later on she had someone make her this pair of earrings for self-defense purposes â she didnât want to be bullied by snakes again. She didnât think itâd end up saving her like they did yesterday. Frankly speaking, if it wasnât the last resort, she would not have done it. Even with her eyes closed, just visualizing the scene with many snakes slivering at the same time was enough to make her loose her appetite in days to come.
âThen how did you know Feng Ling was in her room?â Nie Qing was going to ask about the snakes first, but once Luâer brought up earrings, ancient zither, and it all made sense after looking at the earrings. His look turned into fear. From now on, no matter what happened, never offend the Murong womanâŚ
Murong Yun Shu turned around, just in time to see Nie Qing shuddered. Baffled, she asked, âMaster Nie is cold?â
Nie Qing gritted his teeth, âA little.â
Murong Yun Shuâs eyes flickered, pretending she had accepted Nie Qingâs explanation. She continued, âIf I was the intended target of Jiang Zhou Four Odds, they wouldnât be so stupid to kidnap Feng Ling ahead of time to alarm usâŚ.1â She noticed Nie Qing had shuddered again and realized why his look was so peculiar. She carried on, âBesides, one side of Feng Lingâs room was connected to the cliff and the other side to the hallway. The kidnappers couldnât have escaped through the window, nor could they carry her out the front door, so she must be still inside the room.â
âThey have nothing to gain, why did they bother?â
âAs I have said, to alert usâŚâŚ.â and she saw Nie Qing shuddered again, finally she couldnât contain herself anymore, âIf Iâm not scare, why should a man like you be afraid of snakeâŚ.â
And Nie Qing shuddered again.
Murong Yun Shu patiently cast him a very subtle supercilious look and continued on with what she was saying, âThey purposefully kidnapped Feng Ling and took away my baggage, just to alertâŚ.. 2 us that we are in danger.â
âSo what you were saying was, these individuals are on our side?â
Murong Yun Shu seemingly mindlessly glanced over at a particular table in the inn and said, âHard to say.â
While they were chatting, Feng Ling had finished her breakfast and skipped outside with a bright smile, âOkay, Iâm ready to go!â
Everybody piled into the carriage and slowly headed toward their next stop, the town of Qing Yuan.
Back in the inn, the table in the middle sat three
***
1. Took me a while to figure this one out. But the Chinese idiom âbeat the grass and startle the snakesâ means âaccidentally alarming someone by some rash actionsâ. In the story Nie Qing shuddered every time he heard the word âsnake.â đ
2. This time Murong Yun Shu purposefully omit the word âsnakeâ in her conversation. ^__^