"Young lady is now nineteen, and she is already too old to be a good match. Now that the master has passed away, if we don't find a husband for her within a hundred days, I'm afraid that even if she finishes the mourning, her life will be wasted."
Zi Jin was so upset when he heard this that he couldn't find Xia Yue for a while. He walked around and finally found her next to the wintersweet tree in front of Master Min's house. She looked up at the moon, and the two tear marks on her face made people feel very distressed under the moonlight. She said, "Sometimes I really feel that my father is still in the house."
Mother Chang's words kept turning over and over in his mind. Zi Jin couldn't help but reach out and hold her tightly to his chest, saying, "Don't be sad. Dad will be worried."
Xia Yue's tears welled up even more when she heard this.
"I won't let you leave me." After he said that, his heart ached and he was so excited that he couldn't help but lower his head and kiss her.
He first kissed away the tears on her face little by little, then he moved his lips slowly down, and finally timidly landed on her lips, pecking them gently, kissing her tenderly and tentatively.
As soft as a flower and as sweet as honey, it was the taste he had imagined in his dreams.
Suddenly—
He came to his senses and suddenly let go of Xia Yue.
Xia Yue stood in front of him blankly, raised her hand and slowly covered her mouth with an expression of disbelief: "Zi Jin...you!" Then she turned around abruptly and ran out the door.
"Yue'er—" he called her, but she didn't turn back.
She ran through the crowds admiring the lanterns on the street.
Stumble.
She ran along the river to the lake outside the city in one breath. When there were fewer people, she slowed down her pace. Then she sat on a rock in a daze, not knowing what to do.
She touched her lips again with her fingers and seemed to still feel the residual warmth of Zi Jin there.
I feel very confused.
I don’t know what to do.
Behind me is a wintersweet forest, exuding a strong fragrance.
Just now, he kissed her in this smell, a gentle and shy kiss.
Four
For a long time, she had always regarded Zijin as a person as important as her father in this world. So she loved him and felt sorry for him. If he was sad, she would definitely not be happy. However, she had never looked at Zijin as a man, but just felt that he was a part of her life and body, closer than blood relatives.
Now, it's too sudden.
I don't know how long I stayed there. I saw the wind started to blow, and the moon was gradually covered by clouds. She felt a little cold. After standing up, she was stunned again. How would she face Zi Jin and the others when she went back? Xia Yue shook her head and went back anyway. She sighed quietly and walked into the plum forest.
When she was a child, she and Zi Jin had played in this forest many times. She was in a confused mood when she came here and didn’t notice these things. Now, she was suddenly scared when she was alone in the dark night.
I vaguely heard a sound behind me, my heart jumped into my throat, and I didn't dare to look back. But the more I didn't look back, the more scared I became. Finally, I was too scared to walk anymore, so I turned around tremblingly and squinted my eyes to look.
"Flutter-flutter-" An owl flapped its wings on the branch.
Only then did she feel a little relieved.
"Yue'er!" Zi Jin's anxious voice came from afar.
She was delighted, as if she had finally seen the light in the darkness. She was about to start following the source of his voice when suddenly, someone covered her mouth from behind and threw her to the ground.
Three men suddenly appeared in front of her, but it was dark and she couldn't see clearly.
"No need to cover her mouth."
"But, sir, what if that person finds out?"
"Don't worry, he's deaf, and this woman can't hear you even if she screams at the top of her lungs."
Xia Yue finally remembered when she heard his voice and angrily asked, "Wang Gan?"
"You still have some memory. I told you to pay for it at that time. Today I finally got the chance, so let's have fun."
"Yue'er!" Zi Jin called out again and gradually walked towards the lake.
Xia Yue struggled to get up, but was held down by the other two big men.
Wang Gan leaned over with a lewd smile on his face, and tugged hard at her chest, tearing off a piece of her clothes. Her light-colored bellyband jumped out, and her breasts were vaguely visible. Not only Wang Gan, but also the two men next to him swallowed their saliva.
"See? If you don't serve me well, I might give it to them both to play with."
"Bah!" Xia Yue was terribly scared, but she pretended to be calm and spat at him.
Wang Gan got so angry that he slapped her twice and then ripped her clothes off.
"Yue'er—" the voice is getting closer.
"Zi Jin! Save me! Save me! Zi Jin..."
Wang Gan touched her from head to toe with his rough hands. She cried out Zijin's name over and over again in her heart, "Zijin! I'm here! Why can't you hear me? Can't you hear me!"
Zi Jin's voice was getting closer and closer, as if it was only ten feet away. However, the four of them were behind the bushes, and it was difficult to detect it in the dark, and his eyesight was not very good at night.
While struggling, Xia Yue took the opportunity to grab a stone from her side.
In the past, whenever Zi Jin couldn’t hear her calling him, she would use this method.
However, this action did not escape Wang Gan's eyes. He grinned and said, "It would be great if you could call him over. How can a deaf man like him fight against us? I have always thought that he has a handsome face and is better looking than the young men in Ziye Tower. Wouldn't it be better if you tie him up and let the three of us have fun with him together!" Then the three of them laughed wildly together.
"Hold her down, let me taste it first." Wang Gan said as he unbuttoned his pants.
Xia Yue closed her eyes weakly. She heard Zi Jin's footsteps and his almost hoarse voice from the effort he put into calling her name. She held the stone tightly in her palm until the edges of the stone sank into her flesh.
At this moment, there was a dull thud, and one of the servants was knocked unconscious by a punch from behind. Wang Gan looked over and saw two burly men in tight clothes appear in front of him, and it was one of them who had just punched.
"What... are you going to do?" Wang Gan asked as he pulled the remaining attendants to him to protect him.
The servant was also a bully who only feared the strong and stammered, "Do you know who my master is?"
"The one you hit is your master, Wang. You will not die a good death." One of the strong men shouted.
The other person took off his clothes and covered Xia Yue's exposed skin.
Wang Gan heard the voice and immediately recognized the person who was speaking. He pointed at the other person and said, "You...you...you are Yao Chuang?"
"Yes, I have come back alive, but I regret that I didn't kill you with my sword, so you can hurt others again."
Wang Gan had suffered at his hands before, so he pulled up his trousers and ran away without waiting for him to finish.
Seeing this, Yao Chuang drew his sword and started to chase after him.
He Chuyi, who was standing by, held him down and said, "Brother Yao, don't be reckless. You and I have important matters to attend to. It's best not to involve too many people. Saving people is the most important thing."
They were on Shang Rui's orders to travel to the South Region overnight, passing through Jinluo. Both of them were martial artists with sharp ears, and they heard a woman crying from afar, so they followed the sound and saw what was happening.
Yao Chuang had no choice but to listen to the advice and put away his sword. He turned around and asked Xia Yue: "Miss, where is your home?"
After asking twice in a row, Xia Yue's eyes were empty and she did not answer.
He Chuyi asked, "What should we do?" Jinluo was about to close the city gates, and they still had to hurry on their way.
Yao Chuang thought of his woman's original situation and shook his head, saying, "We can't just send her into the city like this. If others see her and spread rumors, this girl won't be able to survive."
"Then let's take her away first and see if there's anyone who can let her stay overnight along the way."
Suddenly, another voice came from not far away, shouting "Yue'er Yue'er".
This was the second time Zi Jin went into the woods to look for her.
He had just asked along the way and was sure that Xia Yue had left the city. If she had left the city, she must be nearby.
He thought that maybe she was mad at him, so she was hiding on purpose. His eyesight was not good at night, so he could not hide from her. So he borrowed a torch and searched corner by corner.
It's raining.
The rain gradually wet his hair and clothes, and his voice became weaker and weaker when he called her, and his throat was almost unable to speak.
When Xia Yue heard the voice, her originally wandering expression suddenly moved.
Yao Chuang quickly asked her, "Girl, is this your family member looking for you?"
Xia Yue didn't answer, but just let the tears flow.
"That's easy." Yao Chuang asked He Chuyi to light the fire and put it next to Xia Yue. After making sure that the other party had discovered Xia Yue, the two of them left quietly.
Zi Jin saw a slender figure sitting on the ground against a tree trunk behind the bushes in the firelight. Only then did he feel relieved and walked around to her: "Yue'er, let's go back." The last word "go" died in his throat when he saw Xia Yue in the firelight.
At that moment, he completely stopped breathing and his heart almost stopped beating.
Zi Jin strongly suppressed his mad desire to kill, and with a clang, he let the torch in his hand fall into the mud. The torch was extinguished by the rain in no time.
He squatted down and asked in a calm tone, "Yue'er, who is it?"
She didn't answer him with tears in her eyes.
Zi Jin looked at her face and asked softly again, "Who is it?"
He saw that Xia Yue's eyes were full of tears, her face was pale, and there were bloodstains at the corners of her mouth.
He wanted to wipe the stains off her face with his hands, but found that his fingers were shaking uncontrollably.
Why
Why does God always treat the people he cherishes like this? Why doesn’t he just punish him directly
He clenched his trembling hands and punched the tree trunk behind Xia Yue hard. Finally, he could no longer hold back his tears and buried his head in her neck and cried.
five
On this rainy autumn night, Aunt Zhao from the Zhao family outside Daye Village was suddenly awakened by a knock on the door.
She answered the door with her coat on.
After opening a crack, I saw a very young man holding a girl. The man said, "Auntie, it's raining heavily outside. Can we stay here for one night?"
The man spoke every word very slowly with a strange accent, and his throat was so hoarse that it was almost inaudible. He said it twice before she could understand.
Aunt Zhao hesitated a little and shone the light in her hand towards the man.
His handsome face was dripping with water, and he was only wearing a wet white undershirt, with a long gown covering the woman in his arms. The woman seemed to be asleep, with her head down and buried in his chest, so it was hard to see clearly.
Perhaps because of the other person's clear eyes, Aunt Zhao relaxed her guard: "It's so cold outside, come in quickly. My son is accompanying his wife to her parents' home for the holiday, you can sleep in their room."
Zi Jin expressed his gratitude several times.
After stepping into the door, Zi Jin looked at Xia Yue in his arms again. He wanted to explain something to her, but he couldn't open his mouth.