On side note, I am terribly busy these days. Some of you may remember that we are moving back to our home, hence there is no rest for the weary ... But rest assured that I intend to continue posting the updates, hopefully every 2 or 3 days, but I now realize that there is a possibility I might have to stretch that schedule, at least temporarily. Here is the end of Chapter 6. The Lord's willing, I am going to post first part of Chapter 7 Monday (my time) at the latest.
The quietness did not diminish much, but the end result was the beautiful Susu rushed in, carrying a whiff of fragrant wind around her, toward the two boys who had just sprang up from their seated position, and embraced them.
The three people cried and laughed, and laughed and cried, but there was not even half a sentence spoken.
However, because there was an outsider nearby, Susu reluctantly let the two boys go. With hot tears rolling down her face she said, "I thought I'd never see you anymore! Ay!” Unable to control her emotion, she threw herself into the two boys' embrace again, while weeping uncontrollably, revealing her true feeling.
The captain of the guard outside the door saw the red-hot brother-sister emotion in them, his heart was touched; lightly he closed the door to let the three freely talk about what happened to them after they parted.
Kou Zhong stroked Susu's collar, seeing she appeared to be pear blossom soaked in rain, his heart ached. "Susu Jie must not cry,” he said, "You ought to laugh.”
Holding her fragrant shoulders, Xu Ziling said, "Did Susu Jie receive wrong treatment here?”
Still in tears, Susu shook her head and said, "No! Miss is still treating me very well! Ay! You two boys have grown tall and strong; there must be a lot of girls fall for you.”
Kou Zhong awkwardly replied, "As it turns out, quite the opposite is true. Every time we met beautiful women, other than Susu Jie, if not shouting ‘beat them', then they would shout ‘kill them'. That's why we had no choice but to come looking for you, Susu Jie.”
Susu was accustomed to crack jokes with them; just like clear sky after the rain, "Pft!” she burst into tender laugh as she said, "You are still the same. Ay! You don't know how much tears other has shed for you, two brothers.”
Wanting to amuse her, Xu Ziling pretended to be puzzled, "That's strange! How come the more Susu Jie cried, the more beautiful your eyes become?”
Susu laughed while leaning on the two boys' shoulders.
The love between these brothers and sister was genuine; although they could not avoid suspicions, there was no carnal desire between men and women, not the slightest bit.
Kou Zhong whispered on her small ear, "What about Li Dage?”
Susu's tender body shook; lifting up her tear-stained pretty face, she said, "After he escorted me back here, he went to the Eastern Capital.”
Looking at her expression, Xu Ziling and Kou Zhong knew that this good sister's feeling toward Li Jing has rooted deep in her heart.
Xu Ziling asked with a frown, "He didn't ask you to come along?”
Susu bowed her head and said softly, "It was me who refuse to go with him. He is a real man and true hero, naturally he ought to take advantage of his young age to make a break through on his own career.”
The two boys felt deep veneration for her.
Kou Zhong seized the chance to say, "Although the two of us are real men, we are simply not true heroes; Susu Jie please come with us.”
Susu was shaken, "I still need to wait upon Miss,” she said.
Xu Ziling urged her, "If you stay, you might lose your life; we saw it with our own eyes how Zu Junyan conspired with outsiders to injure your Laoye [old master].”
Susu was stunned, "Nonsense!” she said, "Laoye is fine, how could you say he is injured?”
Kou Zhong was taken aback, "Wasn't your Miss captured by the enemy?” he asked.
"There is no such thing!” Susu replied.
Kou Zhong and Xu Ziling looked at each other; they were dumbstruck.
Xu Ziling changed direction; he asked, "Didn't your Miss go missing for a short period of time, and then she suddenly came back?”
Susu answered, "When I came back, Miss was still traveling outside and came back home only last month. It was Zu Junshi who personally escorted her back.”
Kou Zhong slapped his thigh, "This Zu Junyan is very crafty; be a good man, be a bad man, he did all.”
Thereupon Xu Ziling narrated their encounter at the abandoned village. Listening to him, Susu's countenance changed continuously; finally she said with determination, "I must tell this to Miss, and then let her inform Laoye. Ay! Now that you mention it, I remember something. When Miss came back, she was a lot thinner than before; also, it's just so not like her to scold us a lot.”
"What?” Kou Zhong's voice broke, "Does she like to scold people? Why did you say she is treating you very well?”
Susu earnestly said, "Her temper is not good, but her character is very good. I served her for many years, I have the clearest understanding.” And then she grabbed the two boys' arms and shook them, imploring them, "For Jiejie's sake, would you help Miss and Laoye just this one time? With someone like Zu Junyan in the army, sooner or later it will lead to disaster. If you are telling the truth, Laoye will definitely believe you!”
"How could he not believe us?” Kou Zhong said, "Otherwise, how could we know this much details?”
"It depends on whether we can speak directly to Zhai Laoye,” Xu Ziling surmised.
Seeing the two boys were persuaded, Susu was greatly delighted, "Whether you can speak directly to Laoye, it will be entirely up to Miss,” she said, "Maybe you can convince her.”
"There's no time to lose,” Kou Zhong said, "We'll have to see Miss immediately!”
Susu's pretty face blushed, "It will also up to Miss,” she said, "Just wait here patiently for a while. Because even if Miss nods her head, we still need to get formal approval before you can stay in the city.”
The two boys had no choice but to look at each other with a wry smile.
Who would have thought that waiting until deep into the night, there was still no news? Fortunately there were enough tea and food. The two boys might as well practice their martial art, so that they would not feel the bitterness of ‘imprisonment'.
When Xu Ziling woke up the next morning, he saw Kou Zhong was sitting on a chair, staring blankly with face deathly pale. Xu Ziling was greatly shocked, "What happened?” he asked.
Scowling miserably, Kou Zhong replied, "I don't know whether it was fire deviation during practice, but I can't draw true qi from Tianling acupoint anymore.”
Aghast, Xu Ziling did quick self-examination, and his countenance immediately changed, "I am the same thing; could it be that someone put poison in our food?”
Kou Zhong moaned miserably, "Looks like it's something like ‘san gong wan' [scattering energy pill]. Who would want to harm us like this?”
Xu Ziling closed his eyes and circulated his qi, suddenly he felt his dantian [a point two inches below the navel where the qi resides] growing hot; the true qi was gradually condensing again. Opening his eyes, he happily said, "Try again, I seem to be able to gather my qi.”
The two boys sat on chairs, closed their eyes and circulated their energy. Half a day later their skin emitted hot perspiration, which smell a little bit like medicine.
They had never imagined that they would become this formidable; unexpectedly they could even discharge the poison from their body. While they were rejoicing inwardly, the iron door opened.
The instant the two boys heard the lock, they immediately wiped the perspiration from their head and face, exchanged an eye signal, and pretended to look dejected, but inwardly they were in full alert.
The incoming person was, surprisingly, the one with beauty like a fairy, but the heart as poisonous as snakes and scorpions, Shen Luoyan. She was smiling coquettishly as she came in and walked over to the two boys. Bowing with cupped fist she said, "Two Gongzi, how are you?”
Kou Zhong took a furtive look behind her; seeing there was only someone who looked like a city gate guard, he was relieved.
"Why are you harming us?” he asked hatefully, "If you are a heroine[1], come and have a fair fight with us.”
With flowery face and tender voice Shen Luoyan said, "I only want you to be a bit quieter! However, one day I don't give you the antidote, two Gongzi may forget being as naughty and active as before. But you must not blame me, Jiejie only received Duke Mi's order, we must guard against anybody suspicious, that's all.” [Translator's note: in this entire conversation, she was referring herself as ‘renjia', basically means ‘other people'.]
Xu Ziling angrily said, "Don't you know that we are you Da Longtou's precious daughter's honored guests?”
Calm and unfazed by the accusation, Shen Luoyan said, "Naturally I do. Right now the city of Xingyang has become my, this bad woman, responsibility to administer. Were it not for reading the file that Zhai Jiao girl submitted to apply for pass you you, I would not have known that two Gongzi have honored us with your presence.”
Kou Zhong dejectedly said, "Are you really dying to get married? Alright, let me take you, beautiful b1tch as my wife!”
Shen Luoyan's beautiful eyes flickered with murderous intent, which quickly died down. After carefully sizing up Kou Zhong for half a day, also examined Xu Ziling carefully, she smiled and said, "Long time no see, you have made a little bit of progress, but it will still be difficult for me, Shen Luoyan, to have you in my eyes. You are very good at adapting to circumstances, if you are willing to obediently tell me the whereabouts of the ‘Duke Yang Treasure', I will let you go immediately. Otherwise, I will have to kill you, once for all, so that no one will be kept in suspense.”
Xu Ziling forced a laughter and said, "I thought you were a bit more special; in the end it is still greed at play.”
Shen Luoyan sighed silently.
The two boys knew that the time she was going to make her move was at hand; they quickly focused their mind and spirit in full alert.
Right this moment, a feminine voice scolded from outside the room, "Who dares to stop me, Zhai Jiao?”
Shen Luoyan's countenance changed slightly. It looked like she was going to make her move to kill the two boys, but then she immediately withdrew to the side.
Someone stormed in, a woman, who was thick and solid like men, who was completely different from the image of the ‘Miss' that the two boys had in mind, who was wearing colorful clothes, suddenly appeared in the room, followed by indignant-looking Susu.
Shen Luoyan saluted and said, "Good morning Miss!”
Zhao Jiao, who did not look delicate at all [‘jiao' means tender/delicate/frail], glowered at her with her round, copper-bell like eyes. "Shen Junshi still considers me Miss?” she said, "I told you yesterday that I want to see these two boys; why are you still unwilling to let them go until this morning?”
Kou Zhong and Xu Ziling turned as dumb as wooden chicken; they stared blankly at this ‘Miss', who did not have the slightest ‘womanly flavor'.
Actually, she could be considered as having regular features; only her cheekbones were too high and round, her hair thick and her eyebrows coarse, her waist straight and her body sturdy, so that although she was wearing makeups, she looked nondescript [orig. neither fish nor fowl], enough to give a man who look at her nausea.
On the outside, Shen Luoyan appeared did not dare to defy her. Smiling apologetically, she said, "As per our usual practice, Luoyan only wanted to cross-examine them! Miss may take them right now, the pass will be delivered to Miss later.”
This time around the two boys were greatly amazed. How could Shen Luoyan be this agreeable?
Zhai Jiao maintained her reputation; she barked her order at the two boys, "You, these two slaves, have not quickly crawled out to follow me, do you want to be locked up in here forever?”
Looking at the smirking Shen Luoyan, and the apologetic and pleading expression on their good older sister Susu's face, what could the two boys say? Without any choice they smiled wryly and ‘crawled' out of the room.
They still heard Shen Luoyan's voice giving them warning, "Don't ever say that I drugged you, I would never admit it; I would kill you instead.”
[1] Hero - heroine. Orig. Chinese only have word for hero, ‘ying xiong', ying - brave, xiong - male, could be used both for humans and animals. Here Kou Zhong said ‘ying ci', ci - female, counterpart of ‘xiong'.