Li Yu hurriedly drew the curtains and asked Gao Xun, “The one you’re waiting for; is it her?”
Gao Xun hadn’t realised that he didn’t have a good impression of Xie Zhen, so he excitedly nodded his head, saying, “She only agreed to meet up with me yesterday, and I forgot to tell you. You aren’t angry, right?”
How could he not be angry? He was incredibly so!
Li Yu made a face, and rose up to leave. “Both of you can play together, I’d rather go home.”
Unfortunately he’d only taken two steps before being dragged back by Gao Xun. “Why’re you going back now? I promised Uncle and Auntie that I’d take good care of you today; what if something happens to you when I’m not around?”
Before, Li Yu’s parents had refused to let him go out with Gao Xun. After all, they were both stubborn and naughty, if a problem arose how could they deal with it themselves? It was only because of the Mid-Summer Festival, coupled with the many servants that Gao Xun brought along, that the two had reluctantly agreed to let them go out together.
Furthermore, there was only one carriage, so how would he get back home? What if he was kidnapped on the way home?
Being forcibly restrained by Gao Xun, no matter how much Li Yu wanted to leave, he couldn’t. He was still stuck in the doorway of the carriage, and could be seen from outside. At that moment, Xie Zhen happened to catch a glimpse of him.
Snuggled comfortably in Xie Liqing’s embrace, her bright and adorable face attracted many gazes, and the passers-by couldn’t bear to tear their eyes away from her. There were many children on the street, but none of them were as eye-catching as her. In the middle of the crowd, she was shining bright like a beacon, as though she was an iridescent piece of white jade.
Upon seeing Li Yu, Xie Zhen’s eyes lit up, and she pointed in his direction.
Carrying her, Xie Liqing walked over.
Even from a distance away one Xie Zhen’s delighted exclamation could be heard. “Big Brother Xiao Yu, why’re you here?”
Li Yu had been forced down onto the floor so harshly by Gao Xun that he couldn’t even speak; his face red from the pressure.
Gao Xun quickly got off him and patted down his clothes before greeting Xie Liqing as his uncle. Then, he said, “Ah Yu’s also coming with us, after all, the more the merrier!”
Xie Zhen didn’t mind this one bit. Instead, she was rather happy. Ever since catching him at the Old Madame’s birthday party, she hadn’t seen Big Brother Xiao Yu again. She’d made regular trips to the Li household, but he’d never once come out to play with her.
Li Yu’s lips thinned, and he felt as though he’d been betrayed by his partner.
Looking around, Xie Liqing saw that there were eight servants stationed around the carriage, and they were all as wide and tall as horses. In just a glimpse, he could tell that they were martial arts practitioners. Still, he was a little worried, and asked Gao Xun, “Where will you be taking Little Lamb to?”
Gao Xun pointed towards the street in front and replied, “The place we’re going to is right across the road. Uncle, rest assured, I swear I won’t let anything happen to Ah Zhen.”
Although it wasn’t that far away, there were many people around…Xie Liqing originally wanted to follow them, but something had suddenly cropped up at the government bureau office and he had to rush over to take care of it. Thinking for a moment, he then told Xie Rong and Steward Wang to stay with the children. After sternly reminding them to stay safe, he rushed off to the office.
Once he had left, Steward Wang sat in front of the carriage, while the four children stayed inside.
Xie Zhen was seated opposite Li Yu, with Xie Rong sitting right beside her, while Gao Xun was the furthest away from her. It just so happened that Gao Xun was the one who loved talking to her the most, and braving Xie Rong’s icy gaze, he laughed as though nothing was wrong. “Ah Zhen, where do you want to go? I know of a fun place to go to, do you want to go there?”
Without even waiting for Xie Zhen’s reply, Xie Rong had already spoken for her. “Little lamb cannot go too far away.”
Gao Xun wasn’t deterred, and continued asking, “Do you want to eat some nice food? Yi Restaurant’s crystal steamed buns and sweet-scented osmanthus pastries are must haves…”
Yi Restaurant was quite far away, and if they wanted to go there it would take one hour, a return trip would waste quite a bit of tine. Xie Zhen stonily rejected him, “Little lamb isn’t going there.”
Xie Zhen blinked innocently, showing that her brother’s words had nothing to do with her. “I only want to go to the shop that you mentioned…I want to buy a hairpin for Ah, Ah Xun.”
Her tongue had almost slipped, and she worriedly glanced over towards Xie Rong. Thankfully, he didn’t seem to have noticed.
Moving her eyes away from him, she happened to meet Li Yu’s gaze. Smiling at him, she happily asked, “Why did Big Brother Xiao Yu come out today?”
Frowning, he coldly answered, “No reason.”
“…Oh.” Xie Zhen had already been treated like this by him before, and she’d gotten used to it, so she didn’t get angry and instead continued talking to Gao Xun.
*
When the carriage turned round the bend, it suddenly shook.
As the carriage went askew, Xie Zhen wasn’t very stable, and her whole body flew towards Li Yu, who’d been sitting opposite her. Her forehead hit his chin, and the two were both in immense pain, and Xie Zhen looked as though she would start crying at any moment.
“Ow…”
She didn’t even have time to start crying before she suddenly banged against something else, and the sound echoed throughout the carriage. From the sound it seemed that two carriages had collided together, and inside the carriage they weren’t sure about what had happened outside.
At this Xie Zhen was incredibly frightened, and her two hands clutched at Li Yu’s neck, her head pressed down onto his chest. Voice shaking with repressed tears, she cried, “What happened…What happened outside…?”
With some difficulty, she finally calmed down, but she refused to remove her hands, and she clutched onto Li Yu tightly. Feeling Li Yu move slightly, as though he wanted to stop her, she hurriedly said, “Big Brother Xiao Yu, don’t push me off!”
Li Yu immediately stayed still.
To be honest he really did want to push her off, but looking at her frightened face, he thought that it would be a little too ungentlemanly to just push her off like that…Forget it, even though he did dislike her, he would just have to bear with it for a while.
Xie Rong raised the curtains, and rose up to leave the carriage and find out what had happened. “What happened just now?”
Both the driver and steward were still shivering with fear, and with difficulty they managed to stutter through the whole story. Before, just as they were turning round the bend, a carriage had suddenly rushed out and had been headed straight towards them. The driver had yanked on the ropes to get out of the way, but because the situation was so urgent, the carriage accidentally banged against the wall. At first they’d thought everything was over, but they’d never thought that the carriage would actually turn back around to ram into them again.
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Chapter 9.2: Awkwardness (2)
The driver forlornly said, “The carriage wheels are broken, we probably can’t go any further.”
As such, they could only get down the carriage. Fortunately, they weren’t too far from the jewellery store, and would only have to walk for 15 mins.
The rest of them didn’t think too much about it and it was only Xie Rong whose eyebrows furrowed.
Given that the road was so wide, why was their carriage hit?
Holding Xie Zhen’s hand, and ensuring that she stuck closely to him, he said, “Little lamb, follow me”.
After experiencing that episode of danger, Xie Zhen had become more obedient and followed her older brother closely. “Big brother, why did the people collide with our carriage earlier on?”
Xie Rong likewise couldn’t figure it out, and was worried that it was still dangerous. If it wasn’t for his younger sister’s disappointment, he would have brought her home immediately.
To console her, he said “It’s probably due to carelessness”.
“Oh.” Xie Zhen didn’t continue asking.
The streets were filled with activity. Before, they hadn’t been able to see it clearly on the carriage, but as they walked on the streets they could truly understand what it meant to be shoulder-to-shoulder with someone.
Jugglers and acting troupes were everywhere, as well as sweet and pastry sellers. In the end Xie Zhen was still a child, and as she played to her heart’s content, she quickly forgot the earlier scare and looked around curiously.
Still, the best performance was held by the opera troupe in front of Li Yuan Chun. From afar, the sounds of the play attracted many people, until the crowd was practically airtight, leaving no spaces in between. Wanting to see, Xie Zhen pulled at Xie Rong’s hand, saying, “Big Brother, let’s go there!”
Xie Rong stopped moving and shook his head, saying, “No way, there are too many people there.”
Steward Wang also strongly discouraged her, as that place was the most chaotic, and it would be a target for troublemakers.
Xie Zhen continued begging but as they remained unmoved, she had no choice but to give up.
Gao Xun and Li Yu caught up with them from the back, and in order to please Xie Zhen, said, “If Ah Zhen wants to see, I’ll go with you next time to listen to them.”
Xie Zhen immeditely agreed “Sure!”
Immediately, Xie Rong coldly glared over at Gao Xun. Rubbing his nose, Gao Xun pretended not to see it.
If one were to call Xie Zhen little fairy, then Xie Rong was the cold and emotionless judge. Just one look from him could instantly kill someone; the less courageous would definitely be unable to take it.
As they walked past the acting troupe, the crowd suddenly dispersed; the crowd like a tide, scaring a few children into moving back. Looking inside, they then realised that the performance had ended, and the opera troupe was getting ready to leave.
Clutching tightly to Xie Rong’s hand, Xie Zhen braced herself as several grown men knocked into her. She hadn’t experienced that sort of chaos before, and was shocked silly, only remembering to hang on tightly to her brother.
Steward Wang kept the young master and young miss together and guided them forward, alongside Gao’s household servants who had come to help out.
However, after the acting troupe finished up, they came towards their direction and just so happened to block their way. Steward Wang’s elbow was heavily hit by someone and as he let go his grip, Xie Zhen was forced out from the protective circle. Taking two steps back, she carelessly looked around and realised that her surroundings had become unfamiliar, and in just a moment, she could no longer spot her big brother or the steward.
Immediately, tears appeared at the corners of her eyes and she couldn’t help but cry, “Big brother…”
Just then, a pair of hands grabbed her, and brought her into a side alley.
Thinking that it was a bad person, Xie Zhen struggled and shouted, “Who’re you? Let me go!”
Li Yu’s voice came from the front, “Don’t speak!”
Abruptly, she forced herself to stop tearing up. The familiar voice seemed like a lifesaver to her, and as she wiped away her tears with her sleeve, she followed Li Yu into the small alleyway.
The alley was quite narrow, and only just managed to fit the two of them. Inside, they could even smell the putrid scent of some kind of rotting thing. Li Yu and Xie Zhen hid inside silently, neither of them saying a word. A long time later, she finally opened her mouth, whispering, “Big Brother Xiao Yu, what happened just now?”
Li Yu himself didn’t know what had happened, but he only felt that the opera troupe earlier made him feel uneasy.
They had purposefully surrounded them, and blocked their way, forcing them to disperse and lose track of each other. If he hadn’t run away quickly, he could’ve been caught by them.
Thinking back to Gao Xin’s earlier warnings of illegal slave traders, be furrowed his eyebrows.
After waiting for a while, he surreptitiously looked out, and only after seeing that the street was relatively peaceful did he bring Xie Zhen out.
Despite looking around a few times, he still didn’t manage to find Xie Rong and Gao Xun. Thankfully Xie Zhen was quite brave, and didn’t mind it. Walking forwards, she tightly grasped Li Yu’s hand, pitifully saying, “Big Brother Xiao Yu, don’t leave me.”
Startled, Li Yu brushed her off. “There’s no need to hold my hand anymore.”
Before it had been a special situation, so he’d been willing to hold her hand, but afterwards there was no need to anymore.
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Still Xie Zhen disagreed, and again she took his hand. “What if both of us get lost again?”
Li Yu told her it would happen, and brushed her hand off again.
Despite this Xie Zhen refused to relent, and started pestering him.
Li Yu wanted to brush her off again, but turning his head he saw that she was about to cry again. If he rejected her, she’d probably really start crying. Then, he suddenly realised that she was afraid.
Hesitating, he finally relented, and expresionlessly continued to walk.