Chapter 22 – Mrs. Long San who is reunited with her husband
Feng Ning’s assessment was on the mark, the Long Family was panicking all over since she had disappeared together with the container, many suspicions were pointed at Feng Ning, just Grandma Yu alone pointed out many suspicious things about her, and the seriously injured guard testified as well, that Feng Ning said: “it is you” to one of the men in black. That was evidence that they knew each other.
When Long Er and Long San rushed home, they didn’t let themselves become overtaken by anger, instead, they were calm about the incident. It’s just, every time someone stated a suspicion they had about Feng Ning, Long San would counter it, and he said: “if Feng Ning had intended to steal the item, with her skill in martial arts that you’ve all seen for yourselves, she could have made her move the instant that my older brother and I left, why would she have to wait and join forces with other people?”
Long San thought about it a bit as well, and also felt like it wasn’t the case, if Feng Ning had evil intentions, she could have just kidnapped Grandma Yu and done whatever she wanted, instead of risking her life fighting the attackers.
“But, how come she took the item with her and never returned?” Long Er felt like she wasn’t likely to be a traitor that was working with the attackers, but that there was a large possibility she may have taken the opportunity to steal the item during the chaos.
Long San looked at him and said: “there’s obviously a traitor inside the family. Feng Ning knows that obviously people won’t trust her, if she returned with the item and it got stolen by the hidden traitor, it’ll become even harder for her to talk her way out of it.”
Long Er said: “you understand her really well.”
Long San replied: “if you don’t believe that she has bad intentions, then of course you’ll understand her.”
Long Er was lost for words for a second, and could only reply with: “it seems that you don’t intend to order Jianghu to search for her, so what do you plan to do?”
Long San replied: “I’ll leave the house to you. I’ll go look for her myself, if she’s safe, she should be thinking about some method to contact me.”
And just like this, Long San made his arrangements, and set out to find her. While on his search, instead of looking for sightings of her appearance, he looked for news of strange cases of thievery, news of someone being chased, and as far away from water as possible, and he was somehow able to pick up some clues like this.
As for Feng Ning, she made up her mind to go to Baiqiao City, and so she stopped first at Qingfeng City to take a rest, Qingfeng City was still a ways from Baiqiao City, it was neither near nor far from it, and Feng Ning’s already heard all the info on this place, this city is where many routes intersect, it’s easy to go any direction from here and lose her pursuers. This way, she can gain some time to secretly give the item to Nie Chengyan, and return here to lead the men in black to some other place. Nie Chengyan will contact Long San to come take the container, and then she’ll return there to be with Long San, then she’ll be safe.
And she had a thought, she used a trick, she made a commotion at the eastern exit of the city, and left from there, but the men in black were fooled by her, thinking that she was only covering her tracks by pretending to leave the city, so they were still guarding each of the exits to the city as well as looking for her inside. But, Feng Ning had indeed escaped out in the open from the eastern exit just like that.
Rushing all the way, she stopped when she almost reached Baiqiao City, she felt that since she’s going to visit Long San’s close friend, as Long San’s wife, she can’t cause him to lose face, there’s no way that she can go visit him while she’s so dirty and stinky like this right now.
And so, she located a tavern and stayed there, even though she had no money on her at all, she proudly puffed up her chest and acted like she was really rich, and asked for the best room, as well as making the waiter buy clothes for her, and made him bring food to her room for her, and asked for a hot water bath to be prepared for her, with the way she acted, the manager and the waiter didn’t suspect at all that she was actually penniless, they missed the fact that her clothes didn’t really fit the act she was putting up.
Feng Ning had her first good meal in a long while, and cleaned herself all over her body, and dressed herself nicely, she looked like a rich lady now, so she said to the mirror in satisfaction: “Long San, look at just how much I’m thinking about your sake, I won’t cause you to lose face.” That very night, Feng Ning jumped onto the roof of the tavern from the window, and escaped towards the direction of Baiqiao City.
Without any rest, hurrying as much as she could until she was forced to slow down, she finally reached the Nie Manor in Baiqiao City. Nie Chengyan was different from how she thought he would be, since he was good friends with Long San, she figured that he would be a handsome young man type as well, but instead, Nie Chengyan turned out to be a dour, ice-cold cripple.
While sitting on a wheelchair, frowning with an arrogant attitude, he asked: “so you’re Feng Ning?”
“Sure.” As Feng Ning replied, she wondered if Nie Chengyan would also ask her if she really thought she was Long San’s wife?
But since Nie Chengyan had never seen Feng Ning before, he was still a bit suspicious: “how are you going to prove it?”
Prove? Feng Ning became rather unhappy, she risked her life to escape to here, she hardly got any sleep and starved all the way, why is it that nobody believes what she says no matter where she goes? With full confidence that she was in the right, she replied: “I don’t know, why do you need proof?”
The look in Nie Chengyan’s eyes was a look of questioning that Feng Ning extremely disliked, she’ll put up with it from the Long Family since they’re her husband’s relatives and thus her own family, but why should she bear with it from a complete stranger, she took the container out of her clothes and handed it to Nie Chengyan, saying in displeasure: “the Long brothers aren’t at the Long Manor right now, the Long Manor was attacked, their goal was what’s in this container, I managed to get it away from their clutches, but I don’t know who to give it to. I heard before that the leader of Baiqiao City was one of Long San’s close friends, so that’s why I came here.”
Nie Chengyan was shocked at hearing this, but he rejected Feng Ning’s request to return to Qingfeng City before coming back here, he promised that he would send someone to take care of this matter, and he made Feng Ning stay here at the Nie Manor for the time being.
Feng Ning considered it and thought that was just fine, might as well let someone who has the ability to take care of everything do all the work, for someone like her with no skills whatsoever, she can’t do anything but run no matter where she goes. Although Nie Chengyan’s intentions are untrustful and cautious of her, and even sounds somewhat like he’s monitoring her by making her stay here, but after Feng Ning made sure that he would provide meals for her, she didn’t mind one bit. Since he’s Long San’s friend anyways, she’ll just enjoy herself here while waiting for Long San to come pick her up.
During three days at the Nie Manor, she had a really good time here, even though Nie Chengyan tried to find out her intentions and if she was an imposter, Feng Ning didn’t do anything bad at all, and was just being herself. Since she had good food and a nice place to sleep here, and there were several servants’ children that would play with her, she had an even better time here than the Long Manor.
The person that Feng Ning was most envious of though, was a girl named Han Xiao. She’s Nie Chengyan’s personal maid, and in charge of Nie Chengyan’s medications and daily life, in a medical town like this, she’s called a personal doctor. Feng Ning doesn’t really feel like being someone’s servant is all that great, but what she was envious of was how Nie Chengyan treated Han Xiao so well.
Even though Han Xiao’s only his personal doctor, but he listens to everything she says, no matter what it is, as long as it wasn’t during one of his temper tantrums, but anyways, Feng Ning feels like, it doesn’t matter what someone’s status is, as long as someone will treat you so well with all their heart, that’s more than enough.
Han Xiao was really polite to Feng Ning as well, and since she was a doctor, when she heard Feng Ning had lost her memory, she immediately gave her a checkup, wanting to help cure her, but this was a strange affliction, that Han Xiao had no way of curing. Feng Ning thought that as a servant, Han Xiao didn’t act ingratiatingly or overbearingly, she wasn’t arrogant or impatient, she’s really likable, it’s really unfortunate that she’s together with a cripple with a bad temper like Nie Chengyan.
Long San arrived much faster than Feng Ning expected, she didn’t know that Long San had already tracked her all the way to Qingfeng City, and luckily met up with Nie Chengyan’s underlings, which is why he was able to come to Nie Manor in only three days.
When Long San arrived, Feng Ning just happened to be playing “blindfolded tag” with the children, her eyes were blindfolded, and she was chasing the children that were darting everywhere. She was laughing joyously, and he could hear her from really far away, and when Long San walked over, at seeing her jumping around so happily, he was finally able to feel a great sense of relief in his heart.
A child loudly ran in Long San’s direction, and Feng Ning was chasing him closely by listening to the sounds, and with a shout, the child hid behind Long San, while Feng Ning shouted: “you think you can get away from me?” and jumped in this direction.
With this jump, she caught Long San in her arms, Feng Ning immediately let go of him in surprise and took one step back: “oops, I got the wrong person.” She took off her blindfold, and saw that it happened to be Long San, and her shout of surprise was even louder than the children, and she jumped back on him again, hugging him as tightly as she could in happiness: “I didn’t get the wrong person, I didn’t, it’s my Long San, my Long San has come to pick me up, hahaha……”
The children surrounded the two adults that were hugging each other in curiousity, but only Han Xiao’s younger brother, Han Le, acted like a little adult and rubbed his eyes, acting all grown-up by saying: “it’s bad to look, it’s bad to look.”
Feng Ning didn’t mind one bit, and she was jumping up and down in excitement: “Long San, Long San, you’re here, how’d you get here so fast, you were so fast……”
“Alright, alright.” Long San couldn’t resist her and laughed, but being surrounded and watched by a group of kids, he couldn’t be himself, and had to push her away, saying: “don’t play around so much, go clean yourself up a bit, I’ll be waiting for you in Ah Yan’s (Nie Chengyan) study.”
Feng Ning didn’t mind that Long San didn’t spend much time with her, and happily ran off to her room in a daze, Han Le also ran off as well, towards the study, he wanted to spy and see what everything was about.
Long San was already chatting with Nie Chengyan, he confirmed that this Feng Ning was indeed his wife, and that the container was something valuable: “it’s too long of a story to tell.” He told Nie Chengyan: “either way, I probably have more on my plate than you do.” They looked at each other, and both sighed.
Before long, Feng Ning rushed over, and the moment she came in, she asked: “Long San, Long San, does your family think that I’m with those attackers, trying to steal your things?” This was something that she’d been thinking about over and over, and minded greatly.
“Indeed.” Long San sighed.
“Then you have to clear my name for me when you return, or else Grandma Yu will punish me again.” Feng Ning went over to pull on Long San’s sleeve, since she doesn’t have any memories, in this big, wide world, Long San’s the only person she can count on.
When Han Le heard Grandma Yu’s name, he shouted: “that mean old lady!”
“Eh, you guys have met?” Feng Ning questioned.
Han Le nodded fiercely, saying: “she was trying to steal my sister away from me, to marry her off to him as a concubine.” Han Le pointed at Long San, and both Nie Chengyan and Long San’s faces darkened, and they really wanted to toss him out of here.
“Ahh.” Feng Ning circled around Han Xiao: “so we were sisters-in-law, so how come you’re in a place like this now?”
Nie Chengyan’s expression became even grimmer, and he shouted: “Xiao Xiao isn’t your husband’s concubine!”
Long San covered his mouth with his hand, and said to Feng Ning: “this happened when I was seriously injured, and Grandma Yu believed in some superstitions, but she wasn’t able to decide it for me.” Feng Ning sent Long San a look of sympathy.
“Since people always misunderstand, just in case, you might as well write out some divorce papers for you and Han Xiao.” Nie Chengyan seemed to be incredibly angry, and gritted his teeth as he said so.
They immediately set out to write, the two men understood each other really well even without talking, and they prepared paper and ink, and Long San quickly wrote out some “divorce papers.” Feng Ning stared in hope as she watched them, and was so jealous, why is it that it was so easy for someone else to get divorce papers, but she couldn’t? It must be that having someone to rely on made things easier, she tried to put up with it, but couldn’t help saying in the end: “Long San, how about, you write one up for me as well?”
Long San’s hand shook a bit, and almost wrote the next character crooked, but luckily he managed to finish, and he stamped it with his seal, while pretending not to hear her. Feng Ning circled him, and said: “it’s really simple, all you have to do is copy this one, and change her name to mine.”
Long San ignored her, handed the divorce papers to Nie Chengyan, and pushed her outside, saying: “go pack up your stuff, everyone’s waiting for us to return home.”
“I don’t have anything with me, since there’s paper and ink here, you might as well write another one while you’re at it, didn’t you say I broke all seven laws of divorce before? It’ll be very easy to get a divorce.”
Right now, Long San is completely deaf, he can’t hear anything. He said to Nie Chengyan: “since this incident happened to my family, I won’t be able to send people to help you over in the desert, as for the scouts, send someone over to take charge.”
Nie Chengyan nodded, and they discussed something amongst themselves under their breath, and then Long San looked over at Feng Ning and said something else to Nie Chengyan, before finally saying goodbye. Feng Ning was quite unhappy. Long San was too partial to others, he treated others nicely, but just not her.
Someone else wants divorce papers, he’ll give it to them so easily, when she wants them, he just acts dumb. Whenever she thinks about how the Long Family will all think that she’s a bad person, she feels so bad for herself, if only she had some divorce papers in hand, she’ll be able to hold her head up proudly. But, Long San, this bad guy won’t do it.
Long San looked back at her puckering her lips while pouting, and said: “I have to leave now, are you coming?” Feng Ning couldn’t do anything else, so she listlessly said her goodbyes to Han Xiao and Han Le, and followed Long San out.
“Long San, on our way back, we won’t starve, will we? Did you bring enough money with you?” There’s tons and tons of difficulties while traveling, but this was the one that Feng Ning feared the most.
“You won’t starve anymore.” Long San’s promise made Feng Ning happy again.
“Eh, Long San, how come you have no guards with you?”
“Aren’t you one? A bodyguard and assassin in one.”
This reply made Feng Ning chuckle.
After a while, Feng Ning got bored again, and said: “Long San, where are we going? Is this really the right way home?”
“We’re not going home yet, I have something to take care of first.”
Feng Ning wanted to ask what would happen to the container, but then reconsidered and figured who cares, she gave it to Long San anyways, and he can do whatever he wants with it, it has nothing to do with her. She’ll just follow Long San regardless, and go wherever he goes.
Long San turned around and looked at her, and saw her bright, wide-open eyes staring straight at him, and laughed, saying: “what, you’re out of questions?”
Feng Ning kept staring and staring at him, and suddenly asked seriously: “Long San, do you lack women?”