Chapter 10
Smoke had blackened Hongyu’s face and mine. We looked like a pair of beggars.
Some passing beggars even complimented us. “Well now, looking respectable! Stole those clothes, did you?”
They had sweet tongues and helpful hearts.
“Come watch the excitement at the Xia house!”
Hongyu’s face fell at once. “Bah! A pack of heartless wolves. What’s there to see?”
A beggar raised his thumb. “You hear news fast! How did you know the Xias were so shameless they even switched the man’s bride?”
An older woman nearby heard him and immediately joined in.
“I saw it myself! The groom frowned the moment the bride came out. He must have noticed her figure was wrong. Fourth Miss Xia is tall, you know. That bride was at least half a head shorter.”
She studied me, then clapped her hands. “About as tall as you!”
“Well, look at that,” the beggar put in.
Encouraged by our fascination, the woman grew more animated.
“But guess what? He didn’t make a scene then. When he helped her into the sedan, he gave her a tug. She cried out in fright, and he knew for certain they’d switched her. He drew his sword right there and demanded to know where Fourth Miss Xia was!”
“Where else?” said the beggar. “At home, surely.”
He pointed toward my courtyard. “See? That last building is—”
The beggar and the woman gaped. So did everyone listening in.
Black smoke towered from my courtyard. Listening carefully, we could hear servants shouting for help with the fire.
The Xia family’s gate descended into total confusion.
An angry voice rang out nearby.
“Headmaster Xia, if anything happens to Miss Tingchan, I’ll charge you before the emperor with deceiving the throne!”
A red-clad figure flew onto the wall and raced toward my courtyard without touching the ground.
Hongyu and I exchanged a glance, then hurried after him.
The walls of the dilapidated room where I had lived for more than ten years had collapsed. Its beams were still burning.
An easterly wind rose just then, guiding the flames toward the storeroom roof.
I heard Xia Linlang shriek, “Hurry! My dowry’s in there!”
Such a fine sight deserved to be savored.
“Xia Tingchan!”
Jiang Qihe’s frantic call brought me back to my senses.
He stood on a roof. The fire was growing fiercer, and the household servants only dared stand outside, throwing buckets of water in.
Those few buckets were a drop in the ocean.
“General Li is here to put out the fire! Make way!” At the shout, the crowd scattered.
But Jiang Qihe would not wait another moment. He was about to leap down and run straight into the flames to find me.
The hopelessly straightforward fool!
“Jiang Qihe, I’m here!”
It no longer mattered if Li Wujin discovered I was alive.
I did not want Jiang Qihe hurt.
That had nothing to do with love.
He stood on the wall and looked at me, just as he had when we first met.
The towering flames looked so much like that evening’s sunset.
He leaped down. Only then did I see my embroidered bridal veil clenched in his hand.
His chest heaved. In the end, he only scrubbed the soot from my face and snapped, “You frightened me to death.”
Countless curious gazes followed him to me.
I heard the woman exclaim, “Heavens! I thought she looked familiar. It really is Fourth Miss!”
“Come and look, everyone! Master Xia calls himself a scholar, and he drove his daughter to burn her own room!”
Most were only enjoying the spectacle. One gaze alone made my whole body uneasy.
I looked up and met Li Wujin’s angry eyes.
A moment later, red fell over my head.
Jiang Qihe’s voice came from above me.
“Come. Let’s go home.”