Chapter 21

Parsed with an automated reader. The content accuracy is not guranteed.

It is only fifty miles away from Chengde, and the scenery along the way is no longer a single meadow and rice field. The high slopes, mountains, rivers and pools are gradually increasing, and many of the women got off and walked to enjoy the scenery along the way. Planning to arrive at Chengde Palace tomorrow, there is still plenty of time so Jingxuan ordered the team to camp by a very beautiful scenery of the highlands in the afternoon.

In order to avoid Jingxuan, Mei Li pretended to be exhausted and didn’t even eat dinner. She stayed in her camp all the time. She just frowned and closed her eyes on the soft couch, trying her best to calm down her worry… If she survives this night, she would never give him the chance to be alone with her again!

“Princess Mei Li? Princess Mei Li?” A shrill voice outside the door called extremely softly, and she knew it was a young eunuch.

Mei Lil quickly sat up, straightened her hair, and answered, “Come in.”

A twelve or thirteen year-old and extremely eye-catching young eunuch came in with an obvious panic in his eyes. He even looked around and did not speak yet.

“What’s the matter?” Mei Li was a little puzzled by his unusual behavior.

“Master Yonghe is back.” The little eunuch swallowed.

“Yes?” Mei Li frowned and looked at him. Why is he being squeamish with such a usual sentence?

“He… he told the servant to… come and deliver a message.” The young eunuch’s shoulders shrank. Then he pulled out a purse from his arms and respectfully delivered it to Mei Li’s hand, “Tonight at xushi¹ to the forest behind the camp, he has something important to say.”

Mei Li looked at the purse in her hand, it was really Yonghe’s, but… she still think it was weird. With Yonghe’s temper, he would never do such an underhanded thing. He would definitely come and talk to her personally if he has something to say!

She squeezed the purse in her hand with worry. Could it be that Yonghe learned what happened in the carriage this morning? Maybe he’s angry? When she looked up to ask the little eunuch, she found that at some point, he had slipped out without a sound.

She let out a long sigh… That day, Yonghe’s passionate kiss by the stream, her face was hot. She shook her head. Because no, after being found out by Jingxuan, Yonghe was ashamed and blamed himself. She believed that Yonghe would not do anything to hurt her!

The young eunuch’s legs weakened after coming out of Mei Li’s tent and stumbled to a secluded place to gasp for breath.

“Useless slave! How are you so scared like this?” Yindi flashed out of the shadow and kicked him angrily.

The little eunuch fell down on his knees, he trembled all over and kowtowed like a garlic, “Princess, have mercy! Lying to Princess Mei Li already difficult for this slave and will die if this one has to even go to Qing Wang²!” With this, the little eunuch shed tears.

“You!” Yindi kicked him a few more times, the little eunuch just kowtowed again and again, begging, staring at her while cursing. Yindi’s eyebrows furrowed, but she is helpless.

“Hmph! Waste!”

Jingxian finally couldn’t bear it and flashed out from the back of the tent. Yindi is really a helpless idiot, she still has to come forward to solve such a simple matter.

“Look at this!” She threw five hundred taels of silver ingots on the ground in front of the little eunuch, who glanced at it and stiffened, obviously stunned by the amount.

“You really won’t go even with this? After the matter is completed, you can go to my house to hide for a while. Everyone knows that Qing Wang is about to go to war, he won’t have the time to look for you all over the world! As soon as he leaves, I will talk to Lao Zuzong to transfer you to a good place to serve, this silver is an extra reward for you.” Jingxian sneered and promised.

“Really…?” The little eunuch’s tone although was unstable was obviously very tempted.

“We are all on the same boat³, I can’t get away with harming you myself, what are you worried about?” Jingxian glared impatiently.

“Okay… okay…” The little eunuch finally stood up, bowed as he promised, and took the silver.

“Be careful when you go to the prince! Don’t be so sneaky! You don’t even know how to deliver a message?” Jingxian scolded and the little eunuch bent down and nodded repeatedly. He hooked his shoulders and went away.

“Cousin, what will happen then?” Yindi inquired, pretending to be shrewd.

Jing Xian looked at her and sneered in her heart, stupid. “Yindi, I did it all for you! In my expense, this could not be in vain.”

Yindi waved her hand impatiently, “I know, I know, even if it kills me, I can not confess you out! You’ve said it a million times! Just tell me what to do next. Should I go find Yonghe?”

“You go to Yonghe, and asked him to follow you.” Jingxian sneered.

“If he doesn’t want to go, I’ll drag him there. Besides, Mei Li is the one who wants to covet another man. Yonghe will explode as soon as he hears this. He will be in a hurry to catch her!” Yindi said with a grimace.

Jingxian glared at her, “Yes! He will be anxious to go. But when he sees the good show, are you sure he won’t hold a grudge against you in the future? Will he not suspect you? You still expect him to like you?”

“…” Yindi choked.

She’s hopeless! Jingxian snorted disdainfully, “Do this then. Go and tell Suying the news! Let her be the one to find Yonghe for them to see it together!”

Yindi said in a daze, “Will she be willing?”

“Of course, she’s not as dumb as you are! Mei Li is her rival.”

Seeing Yindi stunned as she headed into the Suying tent, Jingxian sneered. Yindi, you can’t blame others, you can only blame yourself for being stupid! Suying is the one who wants Mei Li to marry Yonghe the most, so how could she pull Yonghe to catch the act! If you don’t understand such a simple truth, you deserve to be called stupid!

Jingxuan leaned back on the high pillow of his soft couch, his fingers gently caressing his chin. He squinted at the little eunuch who was trembling across the room, he is looking at him to the ground, regretting his own momentary greed, to provoke such master.

“You said… Mei Li asked me to meet at the back mountain forest?” He chuckled and repeated the little eunuch’s words lazily.

“Yes… Yes.”

“Well, tell Mei Lie…” he raised one eyebrow, and his deep underworld eyes flashed with a treacherous light, “…that I will be there.”

The little eunuch breathed a sigh of relief, and ran out of the camp like his life depended on it.

Jingxuan laid down with a sneer. Such shitty tricks! But these things are very much to his liking. After the matter is completed, he is willing to give Jingxian some credit.

The weather in spring was already dark by the time Yindi arrived. She came early in the forest at the back of the mountain to find a good place to hide. She waited anxiously and proudly, while despising Jingxian’s cowardice. She did not even dare to watch the show!

She was also vaguely worried whether Suying would be able to pull Yonghe with her because after hearing her news, Suying just bowed her head in contemplation and did not say anything, nor did she give a clear statement!

Near xushi, she heard the rustling of footsteps and Mei Li stumbled up holding a small lantern. Yindi hid in the shadows, full of joy. Good, the main character is finally here.

The mountain breeze was cool, blowing the leaves and making people chill for no reason. Mei Li hugged her arms and was a little cold. It was already past the appointed time, why hadn’t Yonghe come up yet? She gently tiptoed back and forth, uneasy and anxious.

But there is someone more anxious than her. It is Yindi who is still in the dark. How come the others are nowhere to be seen? At least Jingxuan should have come! The little eunuch clearly said that he agreed to do so readily!

It was half an hour later, and the candles in the lanterns were burning to the end. Mei Li frowned tightly, she must have been deliberately played her for fun! It was no wonder that it was strange from the beginning!

She decided to stop waiting and go back quickly. Maybe Yonghe already really came back. If he would not find her, he would be anxious!

Seeing that Mei Li was walking back, Yindi became so anxious that she jumped up and down. It was such a good plan, so how did it turn out this way?

She squatted for a long time, her legs have long been numb. Anxious, she stood up too fast and she did not realize that her legs did not have such strength so she fell down, her body pressed on the ground making clicking sounds of the branches she fell in.

“Who’s there?!” Mei Li jumped up in fright, and hurriedly lighted the side with her already faint lantern. When she saw Yindi lying on the ground with pain and grinning, her face suddenly sank.

“It’s you?!”

Yindi began to panic. Her legs gradually regained feelings and no longer tingled so she stood up. Although the plan did not work, she did not have to be afraid of Mei Li, right?

“Yes, it’s me.” She deliberately lifted her chin and sneered nonchalantly.

“Is it interesting?” Mei Li didn’t bother to pay attention to her anymore and turned around and left.

“Mei Li! Stop!” Angered by Mei Li’s dismissive attitude, Yindi stepped forward and yanked her clothes as hard as she could. “Bitch! Shameless! You really know how to stick to different men!”

The lantern fell to the ground and was extinguished during the scuffle. Mei Li was already angry, plus Yindi was fighting reluctantly. After a push, Yindi was no match for her and fell on her buttocks.

“You hit me? Do you still have the face to hit me?” She rushed to grab Mei Li’s hair as she went crazy, and her grievances poured out.

Mei Li was pulled by her scalp painfully. But she also fought back so the two people twisted into a ball, Yindi hit her back on the trunk of the tree back and felt a spicy pain. But leaned more and used the force to push. Suddenly Mei Li harshly screamed and disappeared in front of her.

“M-mei Li?” She shuddered and crawled over to check, and found to her horror that the place where Mei Li had disappeared was a natural pit, hidden by the grass and vines.

Climbing on the edge seems to be able to hear Mei Li choking and fluttering in the several feet deep pit, faintly crying for help.

“Heavens!” Yindi got so scared, “There is water at the bottom of the pit!”

Before she finished her words, a black shadow flashed past her quickly, and fell into the water at the bottom of the pit with a thump, splashing a few drops of water on her face.

“Ghost!” She was so scared that she crawled a few steps. But when she thought about it, someone must have jumped down to save Mei Li so she climbed back to the pit to see. There was only dead silence so she screamed with a trembling voice. She yelled few times more but, no one answered.

Who is that person? Could it be… that both of them have all drowned?!

She was so scared that she was in a cold sweat and rolled away from the place that terrified her so much. She just wanted to run away and pretend that she didn’t know anything of these!

Previous | Table of Contents | Next

Notes:

戌时 (xu shi) xu hour or 7-9pm at modern clock

Gentle reminder, Qing Wang is the title of Jingxuan

The actual idiom used was 一条线儿拴俩蚂蚱 (yitiao xian er shuan lia ma zha) or grasshoppers tied in one rope. I changed it to a more familiar but similar english idiom for the tone

This is one of my favorite classic angst and I still sometimes wonder why I reread this. I have been busy but it was also very difficult to translate. I paused like 5 times while reeling on this chapter. Mei Li had a difficult life :((

Like this:Like Loading...