Chapter 8
Chapter 8
Although the courtyard was secluded, it was quite large, with several buildings scattered across the grounds.
The grove had gone untended for years and grown dense and luxuriant. The sight filled Xing Shuwei with panic.
Even if she screamed herself hoarse here, no one would likely discover her.
Only now did she realize that someone might have invoked Princess Jin’an’s name to trick her into coming here.
Just then, a coarse voice sounded from behind the bushes. “Well! They really didn’t lie to me. There is a beauty here after all!”
Xing Shuwei looked toward the sound. A short, fat figure hurried toward her.
He stopped in front of Xing Shuwei, looking her up and down as his eyes narrowed into delighted slits.
“What beauty? This is clearly a celestial maiden.”
“Come, my fairy. Let me die in ecstasy upon your body.”
Xing Shuwei gathered her skirts and retreated again and again.
Half the man’s broad, round face was covered in stubble that almost concealed his enormous mouth.
When he grinned, he revealed a mouthful of yellow teeth, and a foul stench sprayed from his lips.
The rolls of flesh on his face jiggled, yet he moved with remarkable agility.
Laughing obscenely, he lunged at Xing Shuwei like an eagle swooping upon a chick.
Xing Shuwei dodged aside and ran forward with all her strength.
Obscene laughter followed relentlessly behind her.
“Don’t run, beauty. This young master will show you a good time. Afterward, you’ll beg me for pleasure every day.”
Xing Shuwei felt as though that voice would pounce upon her face at any moment.
As she ran, she cried urgently, “You dare cause trouble in the Shen residence and ruin Young Master Shen’s happy occasion.
“He will certainly drag you to the Northern Pacification Office and make you beg for death while denying you even that release.”
The man paid no heed and planted a foot on her skirt.
With a ripping sound, the fabric tore.
Xing Shuwei did not dare look back.
She feared that the slightest delay would let that fat hand seize her hair and drag her to the ground.
“Lord Zhang, even if you care nothing for your own life, you must consider the Marquis of Qingyuan’s estate.
“One crime from you today could make your entire household a blood sacrifice.
“If you let me go, I will take the secret of how you used Princess Jin’an’s name to lure me here to my grave.”
Gasping for breath, Xing Shuwei called out the identity she had guessed.
An ordinary member of a distinguished clan could never commit an act like this.
The heir to the Marquis of Qingyuan was notorious for his wanton, unruly conduct.
Disgust filled every face whenever anyone spoke of him.
Although Dowager Lady Pei had already told Xing Shuwei that she intended to marry her to Lord Zhang, Xing Shuwei had never met him and did not know what he looked like.
This man was unkempt, and his obesity made his age difficult to judge.
Xing Shuwei estimated that he was very likely that scoundrel Lord Zhang.
Thinking he might restrain himself after being recognized, she called the name aloud.
Unexpectedly, he replied, “I’m no noble heir. I’m the good man who is going to take you to heaven and back.”
“You can’t escape. Submit to me already.”
Just as he was about to catch her, Xing Shuwei abruptly stopped and turned to look steadily at him.
She gave him an ingratiating smile.
Already exceptionally beautiful, she became breathtaking when she smiled.
The man stopped as well, staring blankly at her devastating face. “Can’t run anymore, can you?”
Xing Shuwei released a long breath. “I won’t run.”
The man raised his hands to loosen his clothes. “You should have said so! What was the point of running? This lord will treat you well.
“Don’t worry. Once I have you, I’ll take you into my household. Then we can make merry day and night.”
“You just said you aren’t a noble heir?” Behind her back, Xing Shuwei snapped a branch from a tree.
“Of course I’m not,” the man answered without hesitation.
Xing Shuwei suddenly looked startled and pointed behind him with her left hand. “Oh! Look over there!”
The man turned his head.
Seizing the opening, Xing Shuwei stepped forward, steadied his arm, and struck with the branch. Its sharp, broken end plunged into the back of his hand.
“Ah!” He released a terrible scream.
Xing Shuwei lowered her body and drove forward with all her strength.
She felt with terrible clarity the resistance as the branch tore through flesh, and the warmth of blood spreading over her hand.
Gritting her teeth and steeling her heart, she yanked the branch free, then lashed wildly at his face and eyes.
“You said you aren’t a noble heir, so you aren’t one.”
“Since you have no illustrious background, no one will offend the Shen family for your sake.
“Even if you die here, the Shen family will suppress the matter.”
“Die! Die!”
The man squeezed his eyes shut and covered his face tightly with his bleeding hand.
Howling in pain, he cried, “Younger brother! Good younger brother, save me!”
Younger brother?
What younger brother?
Xing Shuwei’s movements halted.
A dark-robed figure descended lightly from the branches of a locust tree.
Like a dragonfly skimming water, he landed steadily on the ground.
With his hands clasped behind his back, the man watched her with keen amusement.
The hand in which Xing Shuwei gripped the branch trembled uncontrollably.
When the man howling in pain realized she had stopped beating him, he kept one arm loosely over his face and pointed at the dark-robed figure with the other. “Him! He’s the heir to the Marquis of Qingyuan.
“I’m his elder brother.
“He brought me out and tricked me into coming here.”
The dark-robed figure abruptly darted forward, moving as fast as lightning.
He kicked the man in the neck and knocked him unconscious.
Then he smiled at Xing Shuwei and raised a finger to his lips.
Xing Shuwei closed her slightly parted lips.
The dark-robed figure swiftly leaned closer, his chin nearly touching her shoulder.
Xing Shuwei instinctively tried to evade him, but his spring-breeze voice brushed past her ear.
“You want to seduce Shen Yanqi?”
Xing Shuwei froze as if sealed in ice.
How did he know?
Xing Shuwei met his eyes. They were large and double-lidded, as though holding an entire lake.
“Yanqi may seem rebellious, but he is the most obedient young gentleman in the capital.
“He cannot decide his own marriage.
“Generations of the Shen family have presided over the Embroidered Uniform Guard, and the commander’s position passes from father to son.
“The Emperor decides whom he may marry.”
“Choose me. We are the most suitable match.”
His words swept across Xing Shuwei’s heart like a blizzard.
Xing Shuwei bit her lip and looked at him as a sliver of hope quietly died within her.
She stepped back twice, drained of strength. The cut on her hand throbbed. “I don’t understand what you’re saying.”
“But you know what you did.” He chuckled and glanced at the man lying on the ground. “He is my full elder brother. If I insist that you failed to seduce him and tried to kill him instead…”
Xing Shuwei’s breath caught.
Why were there so many people determined to make her life difficult?
“Hah! Your reputation as a ‘scoundrel’ is certainly well deserved.”
With that, Xing Shuwei thrust the branch at him.
He smiled faintly. Instead of dodging, he reached for Xing Shuwei’s wrist.
Unexpectedly, Xing Shuwei seized his sleeve and yanked down with all her strength-
As his body dropped, Xing Shuwei raised her hand, and the branch raked across his handsome face.
He hissed in pain.
Then he heard Xing Shuwei shout toward the courtyard gate, “Someone’s dead! Someone’s been killed!”