Chapter 252 - The Underground Old Lady (6)

Translator: wuxiasociety

But Lu E was just concentrating on the granny; she saw that most of her hair had fallen out and was almost completely bald; her face was full of wrinkles but her eyes were still full of vigor. The granny was looking at Lu E without blinking too; the two of them stared at each other, ignoring Yang Guo.

After looking at her for a while, the granny said, “You’ve got a red birthmark on your waist on the left side, haven’t you?”

Lu E was shocked and thought, “Even father may not know about my red birthmark; how does this granny know about this? She also knows my birthday and time; it looks like this granny has a deep tie with my family.” So she said softly, “Granny, you must know my father and my dead mother, isn’t that right?”

The granny was startled and said, “Your dead mother? Ha-ha, of course I know her.” Her tone suddenly became stern and shouted, “Have you got a birthmark on your waist? Quickly let me take a look. If you’re lying I’m going to kill you right where you’re standing.”

Lu E turned her head and looked at Yang Guo, her face blushing. Yang Guo quickly turned away and kept his back towards her. Lu E took off her gown and uncovered her white gleaming waist. Indeed there was a red thumb size birthmark on her waist; the red and white contrasted each other, like a red plum in the middle of a field of snow, looking extremely adorable.

The granny just took one look and she trembled all over; her eyes were filled with tears and she opened her arms, calling out, “My precious, mother has been thinking about you bitterly.”

Lu E looked at her expression and suddenly her natural instincts were stirred, she threw herself on her and cried, “Mother, mother!”

Yang Guo was startled when he heard one of them call out ‘my precious’ and the other call out ‘mother’; he turned around and saw the two hugging each other tightly. Lu E was shaking while the granny was in tears; Yang Guo thought, “Could it be that this granny is actually Miss Gongsun’s mother?”

The granny’s eyebrows suddenly rose and her face was filled with an air of death, just like Valley Master Gongsun when he fought. Yang Guo silently called out, “No!” He was afraid that the granny would harm Lu E and dashed forward. But all she did was push Lu E lightly away on her shoulders and shout, “Stand up, I’m going to question you.”

Lu E was startled; she moved away from her and called out; “Mother!”

The granny said sternly, “Why did Gongsun Zhi send you here? He wanted you to come here to lie to me with your sweet talk, didn’t he?”

Lu E shook her head and said, “Mother, you’re actually still alive, mother!” Her face was filled with both joy and sadness, showing a daughter’s love; how can this be faked?

The granny kept on asking sternly, “Gongsun Zhi said I was dead, didn’t he?”

Lu E said, “I have been filled with sadness over the years; I thought that I was a child without a mother. But my mother had actually been alive all this time; I’m really overwhelmed with joy today.”

The granny pointed to Yang Guo and said, “Who’s he? Why did you bring him here?”

Lu E said, “Mother, listen to me.” She then told her how Yang Guo entered the valley, how he contracted the Passion Flower poison, how the two fell down into the crocodile pool; she told it all from the beginning. But she kept the matter of Valley Master Gongsun marrying Xiao Longnu from her in case her mother would be disturbed by this and break out in a jealous rage.

Whenever Lu E was unclear on something, the granny would ask her carefully about it. Apart from the matter about Xiao Longnu, Lu E did not keep anything from her. The more the granny heard, the more peaceful she became; her expression towards Yang Guo was also getting more and more pleasant. When Lu E described how Yang Guo killed crocodiles and how he protected her, the granny kept on calling out, “Good, good! Little kid, looks like my daughter hasn’t picked you without good reason.”

Lu E’s face went red and she lowered her head.

Yang Guo knew that it wasn’t conveniently to explain all the intricacies within all these events right now so he said, “Auntie Gongsun, we first need to come up with an escape plan; how do we get out?”

The granny’s face sank and shouted, “What Auntie Gongsun? Don’t ever say the words Auntie Gongsun again. Don’t think that because I look frail I can’t do anything; if I want to kill you it’ll be as easy as turning my palm.”

A sudden ‘bo’ sound was heard as something came out of her mouth, a ‘zheng’ sound was heard as it knocked Yang Guo’s dagger to the ground.

Yang Guo felt his arm tremble severely; his five fingers couldn’t hold on and the ‘dang’ sound heard was the dagger striking the floor. Yang Guo leapt backwards in shock; he saw that there was a date stone by the dagger, spinning around on the floor. He was still in shock as he thought, “With the force that I grip the dagger with, even if it was Jinlun Fawang’s golden wheel, Da’erba’s golden rod or Valley Master Gongsun’s jagged saber, they wouldn’t be able to knock the dagger out of my hands. Though I wasn’t prepared, this granny just spat out a date stone from her mouth to do this; this person’s martial arts really are awesome.”

Lu E saw his face change color and she quickly said, “Brother Yang, my mother won’t harm you.” She went over to him and tugged his hand; she turned to her mother and said, “Mother, tell him how to greet you. He doesn’t know yet.”

The granny laughed and said, “Fine, this old woman’s name will never change; the people of Jianghu call me the ‘Iron Palm Lotus Qiu Qianchi’. What should you call me? Ha-ha, shouldn’t you be kowtowing to me and calling me ‘mother-in-law’?”

Lu E quickly said, “Mother, don’t you know, there’s nothing between brother Yang and I, he… he just has good intentions towards me and nothing else.”

Qiu Qianchi said angrily, “Nothing else? Nothing between you? Where are your clothes? Why have you only got underwear on? Why are you covered by his gown?” She suddenly pitched her voice up and screamed, “If the one named Yang is thinking about being shameless like that Gongsun Zhi I’m going to make sure that he dies without a complete corpse. [Refers to hacking the body apart.] The one named Yang, are you going to marry my daughter?”

Yang Guo saw that she spoke madly and was impervious to reason; how could she force him to marry her daughter after just speaking a few words? But if he bluntly refuses, it would be extremely embarrassing for Lu E. There’s also the fact that this granny’s martial arts are extremely high and her character extremely weird; if he said any words that were just slightly displeasing, she would kill him immediately. He saw that the most important thing right now was for the three of them to get out of this place so he said, “Please relax Old Senior; Yang Guo is not a man without a conscience; I will never dare to forget the kindness that Lu E has shown me.” These words were extremely agreeable; though he didn’t agree to marry Lu E, the words pleased the ears of Qiu Qianchi; she nodded, “You’d better not.”

Gongsun Lu E of course knew what Yang Guo meant by this; as she looked at Yang Guo, there was a look of disappointment in her eyes and she lowered her head. A while passed before she said to Qiu Qianchi, “Mother, how did you get down here? Why did father say that you were dead and let me stay saddened for all these years? If I’d known you were here, I would have risked my life to come and find you.” She saw that her mother was unclothed; if she let her mother wear Yang Guo’s gown then she would be insufficiently dressed; so she tore the back and front of the gown and draped it over her mother’s shoulders.