“Ha! This is called ‘evil people have evil consequences’?” Seeing Wang Er Niang subdued by such a casual remark, Yan Zi Yan suddenly clapped and laughed, greatly admiring.
However, the further they went, the thinner the daylight became, with an eerie trend of them about to transition from day to night immediately. A Yang stopped again and naturally consulted Xu Wan Zhi, as the master: “Master, shall we continue?”
Xu Wan Zhi looked at the seemingly endless trees and the oppressive dim light, honestly telling her: “I’ve never encountered such a situation before, but my instinct says going forward is the way out.”
“Yes.” She did not hesitate, again leading the Wang sisters forward.
“I’ve heard that men’s intuition can be quite remarkable,” Yan Zi Yan sighed with a laugh, naturally moving closer to him. Xu Wan Zhi was speechless, but a smile emerged in his eyes.
The forest in the darkness presented another kind of unease, with various leaf rustling sounds and scattered bird sounds.
A Yang no longer dared to move forward rashly. The Wang sisters, without being ordered, huddled together trembling silently. Xu Wan Zhi’s brow furrowed, asking Yan Zi Yan: “Where’s your night-illuminating pearl?”
“…I didn’t bring it.” If she had one, she would have taken it out to show off.
Could they really be seeing ghosts? He racked his brain but could not explain this phenomenon.
Yan Zi Yan whispered: “Could this be a ghost maze?”
Her words slightly shook him, and he frowned, trying to refute: “But that should happen at night.”
“But it is night now…”
Blocked by her words, Xu Wan Zhi focused, suddenly sensing something approaching, instinctively reaching out, but hearing a startled cry, he asked: “Yan Liu, what are you doing?”
When I was young, I was weak and somewhat feared these invisible things. Afraid of the dark—” Her voice gradually weakened, and when focused, one could hear a slight tremor.
He did not mock the seemingly brave Miss Yan for having such a weakness. Xu Wan Zhi’s outstretched hand moved left and right, grasping her wrist, saying softly: “Don’t worry, I will never let you wander in the darkness.”
Yan Zi Yan was stunned. The hand holding hers was delicate and smooth, far from her sister’s solid steadiness, yet at this moment, she forgot to struggle, gradually developing an inexplicable dependence on his palm. After a pause, she finally allowed him to hold her tightly.
“Mm.”
Holding her hand, Xu Wan Zhi pulled her closer, feeling around and kicking a tree trunk by the path, finding it substantial, and sitting down. “If you believe me, we’ll sit here and wait for dawn. Even if there are ghosts, I’ll just take this as another experience.”
Everyone had no objections and sat down, momentarily extremely silent. With a man so calm, they had no face to create a bigger spectacle.
Yan Zi Yan sat next to Xu Wan Zhi, silent for a while, then softly said: “Wan Zhi, thank you.”
He laughed: “If I get a night-illuminating pearl when we return, I’ll have made a profit.”
Okay.” The two engaged in light conversation, quietly waiting for dawn.
After a while, weak light slowly filtered through the forest layers, growing brighter and brighter. And they, as the protagonist and important supporting character, were destined to encounter something for the plot’s development.
In recent days, Qu Xiaojue had spent increasingly more time with Xu Wanzhi, growing more concerned. In the morning, he deliberately ordered people not to disturb him and let him sleep enough. Knowing he would not obediently stay in the room doing “a man’s duties”, he thought and ordered people not to restrict him. The first thing after returning from the kiln was to ask where his master was and what he was doing.
Who knew that Qu Leihou was at the main gate, reporting their trip to the back mountain, and said that bodyguard Li Yuan had sent back the little maid Qingli and immediately returned to the mountain to search, but now there was no news at all.
Her expression suddenly changed. Without drinking a sip of water, she immediately led people up the back mountain, directly diving deep into it to search. Li Yuan saw her extremely ugly expression and dared not speak much. They retraced their original path but found no trace of anyone. Finally, he cautiously said, “Mistress, the master might have.
.. taken a wrong path.”
“Then we’ll search separately!” she shouted loudly, taking a few people and hastily searching down a random path. She must find him! Anxious yet not daring to concern herself with the passage of time.
As fate would have it, Xu Wanzhi and the others finally emerged together and encountered this search party. Seeing Qu’s mistress and the others, he was a bit happy and called out, “Qu Xiaojue, how are you—”
“Slap!” Qu Xiaojue suddenly reached out and slapped his smiling face. Xu Wanzhi’s face turned to one side, completely stunned.
With this sudden change, the servants were all shocked, holding their breath and looking at the main characters, silently lowering their heads, not daring to look or listen.
She was so anxious, afraid he might have any mishap. During her search for him, she felt indescribable fear. But the moment she finally saw him, she saw her husband holding hands with a woman he had only known for a few days, smiling.
In front of so many servants, he not only refused to call her “wife” but also did not maintain the barely respectful title of “Qu Mistress.” He just naturally held another woman’s hand and called her name. Where did he place her?!
Was this the outcome she would receive after repeatedly lowering her stance to care for him?!
Night Inquiry
Qu Xiaojue’s chest heaved, staring at him coldly: “Xu Wan, I have indeed been too indulgent!” Saying this, she reached out to grab his shoulder. He swiftly turned and dodged, suddenly reversing to seal her wrist’s acupoint, his eyes showing a coldness she had never seen before, saying word by word: “Qu Xiaojue, you dare to hit me.”
Xu Wanzhi was even more angry. In the first half of his life, except for being spanked as a mischievous child by his parents, he had never been slapped. She Qu Xiaojue actually dared—
He had finally come out and was truly happy to see her, but received such a “welcome gift.” When had Xu Wanzhi ever been bullied to this extent?!
“Xu Wan, do you treat me as nothing?!” She did not pull away her wrist, coldly questioning. Even if she died, he was still her Qu Xiaojue’s husband. She could tolerate him temporarily not seeing her, but she could not tolerate him being with another woman!
Qu Yao had been following the master and saw that Yan Ziye had caused trouble on her first day.
Without thinking, she directly flew to attack, and the two immediately started fighting.
Unexpectedly, she would be so shameless. Yan Ziye dodged her flying palm and approached to question her. Qu Yao’s first move failing, she immediately launched another, showing no courtesy. Hearing these words, she turned her sword tip and coldly responded: “I warned you.”
The grassland was quite wide, and the two moved back and forth, fighting further and further.
He flung away her wrist, unwilling to look at her again, and turned to walk down the mountain. Qu Xiaojue was startled and immediately reached out to grab his shoulder, but he skillfully dodged. She did not hesitate to continue attacking, making Xu Wanzhi turn and accurately punch her shoulder, his voice also cold: “Qu Xiaojue, this palm today, I no longer owe you anything.”
Then he turned and left.
He clearly intended to truly leave the Qu family, to leave her! Qu Xiaojue was shocked and angry, loudly ordering: “Someone, bring the master back to his room to reflect!”
Unexpectedly, this woman was unreasonable to this extent.
