Escape the Miaojiang Villain - Chapter 28
Chapter 28: Gusheng Valley-Retaliation
When she finally understood what was going on, her body couldn’t stop trembling. The word “Young Master” stuck in her throat, impossible to utter no matter how she tried.
She thought to herself: It would have been better to let the snake bite me to death.
“Little fairy, why did you fall down from the sky? Can’t you fly? Why didn’t you fly?”
Lian Jing’s husky voice held a trace of a laugh—the kind of laugh Tu Lingxiang knew all too well. It was the very same smile he had worn that night when he caught her ordering dishes for Baili Xi.
If she could truly fly, she would have flown away from the Miao village and far away from his side long ago.
How could she fail to hear the overwhelming irony packed in those words?
His arms were still holding her. She tried to roll out of his embrace, but he tightened his grip on her shoulders and pulled her a few inches closer to his chest.
“I picked up a fairy. Is the fairy going to marry me?” His dark, moist eyes stared at her, yet hidden deep within them was a surging, sinister chill.
“Lian… Lian Jing…”
Don’t be like this; she was genuinely terrified.
She could never guess when he might explode. The process of waiting and speculating was the most agonizing torture of all.
“My, the fairy even knows my name. It seems this is a marriage fated by heaven.”
“Lian Jing, stop talking…” The more he spoke, the more panicked her heart felt.
Lian Jing carried her over and set her down on a large rock under the tree, trapping her between the ancient tree and his body. Bending down, he began to tear at her clothes.
In sheer panic, Tu Lingxiang retreated until her back pressed against the textured bark of the trunk, her voice shrieking in fright: “Lian Jing, what are you trying to do this time?!”
He had already tattooed the lotus on her; what was he going to tattoo this time?
Pinning her shoulders down, Lian Jing unfastened all the ties on her upper garment and pulled open her collar to glance inside. Her undergarment was still intact, revealing a corner embroidered with blue flowers. He asked, “Did he strip your clothes?”
“Huh??”
Tu Lingxiang froze for a moment before realizing the “he” he referred to was Zhang Haiming.
Could it be that simply because she had told him earlier that Zhang Haiming wanted to strip her clothes, he was now checking like this?
She immediately shook her head: “No, he didn’t.”
She used her hands to shield her chest, hanging her head low as she said, “Lian Jing, can you not be so direct…”
Couldn’t he just ask her? Did he really have to check with his own hands?
Lian Jing looked down at the top of her head. Her raven-black hair had become messy from the recent fall, cascading loosely over her shoulders. The two small silver flowers pinned in it swayed precariously, reflecting a bright, glistening light just like her eyes.
He asked, “Why can’t I?”
Tu Lingxiang raised her face, her translucent, water-bright eyes looking at him as she spoke up loudly: “In our Central Plains, if a man looks at a maiden’s body, he has to marry her! He has to marry her! Do you understand?!”
After saying that, she muttered under her breath in a low voice: “A demon like you definitely wouldn’t understand.”
Besides, he didn’t count as a Central Plains person anyway.
Lian Jing: “…”
“I am a person of the Miao Land; naturally, I don’t understand the rules of your Central Plains.” He pulled his hands back, crossed his arms, and gazed down at her leisurely before adding, “You speak as if you would actually marry me if I offered.”
“Of course I wouldn’t marry you!!!” she shouted, raising her voice.
He abruptly bent at the waist, bringing his face close to hers. A pair of thin crimson lips stopped a mere inch above hers, his raven-black eyelashes drooping slightly as he breathed out like orchids: “Then why say all that? I thought… you wanted to marry me.”
Looking at his handsome face suddenly leaning in close, Tu Lingxiang’s pupils dilated. Her eyes unconsciously darted toward his lips as she stammered, “My point is… next time… don’t be so… direct with your hands.”
Lian Jing, however, maintained an indifferent attitude: “Back at Baiyue Pool, I already saw everything. If you’re not satisfied, you can look back at me to make it even. But… you won’t get that chance.”
Hearing his words, a raging fire of fury surged in Tu Lingxiang’s heart. This was the first time she had ever met someone so brazenly shameless—clearly in the wrong, yet acting so completely justified!
Suddenly, a strong desire to retaliate against him welled up inside her.
She wanted him to taste this feeling of being unwilling yet utterly helpless as well!
Gritting her teeth in hatred, she steeled her heart, opened her arms, wrapped them around his waist, tilted her face up, and pressed her lips directly onto those thin lips of his.
Lian Jing’s pupils underwent an earthquake. His beautiful eyelashes, dusted with bright moonlight, fluttered rapidly—it was exceptionally gorgeous.
And then there was his high-bridged nose, like a steep, icy peak, cold and firm enough to hurt her slightly when they bumped.
She saw shock in his eyes; she saw sheer disbelief.
She was thoroughly satisfied.
Holding him in a tight embrace, she kept her lips pressed against his without moving further. Aside from being somewhat soft, his lips didn’t feel like anything special, yet her heartbeat still accelerated uncontrollably. She simply closed her eyes, counted three seconds silently in her heart, and then released him, shrinking back toward the base of the tree.
Lian Jing looked as though he had been frozen in place, having not yet snapped back to reality. She had never seen him wear such an expression—cracks seemed to form on that flawless face, turning red and white in turns, looking strangely ludicrous and… a little cute.
Just like someone who had been picked on.
Seeing him like this, she finally tasted a tiny bit of sweet satisfaction from her revenge.
She said, “How about it? How does it feel to be kissed by your enemy? If you’re not satisfied, you can kiss me back! But… you probably can’t bring yourself to do it.”
She threw his own words right back at him to hit back.
Lian Jing finally lifted his eyes. He had never expected in his wilder dreams that she would actually dare to lean up and kiss him!
The first thing that came to his mind was the dream he had inside the underwater palace earlier. It seemed it really wasn’t his own fault—it was her! This abominable woman was deliberately enticing him!
Clusters of rage shot out from his eyes as he yelled, furious beyond restraint: “Tu Lingxiang, you’re asking for death!”
He raised an arm, bringing down a powerful palm blast. Scared into a scream, Tu Lingxiang blocked her face with both hands—if this palm hit her, she would probably be shattered into bone splinters!
Looking at her body trembling like a sieve, curled up on that stone like an overly frightened hatchling, Lian Jing’s palm ultimately stopped right above her head. Suppressing the rage in his chest, he spat: “I don’t hit women.”
He was genuinely worried that if this palm landed, she would breathe her last again just like in the illusion.
Tu Lingxiang raised her head tremulously, the luster gone from her severely startled pupils, and uttered a line: “Domestic abusers can’t get wives.”
Lian Jing pulled back his hand and flicked his sleeves, asking back: “Then you kissing me just now—does that count as cheating on your husband?”
Tu Lingxiang pursed her lips and muttered in a small voice: “I just treated it as kissing pork. Either way, there wasn’t much feeling.”
“What did you say?!” Lian Jing’s pitch instantly spiked, scaring her into another shudder.
“In your eyes, this young master is just a piece of pork?!” Lian Jing had never been so speechlessly baffled in his entire life.
Tu Lingxiang said: “At most, a slightly better-looking piece of pork belly.”
Hearing this, Lian Jing turned around, muttered a curse under his breath, and kicked a dry tree branch on the ground flying.
After that, he took off walking: “Then stay here and wait for your other pieces of pork belly.”
“???” Where was there any other pork belly?
Hopping off the rock, she sprinted up to catch up with him, flattering him shamelessly: “Young Master, in my eyes, you are absolute, absolute, absolutely the most handsome piece of pork belly!”
Lian Jing whirled around abruptly and roared: “Try saying the three words ‘pork belly’ to me one more time!”
“No, no, no, I won’t say it anymore!”
She immediately took down the waterskin at her waist and handed it to him: “Young Master.”
Lian Jing pushed her hand away: “I’m not thirsty. Move away.”
“No, I’m not giving it to you to drink.” She proffered the waterskin again. “I’m giving it to you to wash your lips. Don’t you have mysophobia? Hurry and wash up—don’t let me contaminate you.”
“You…” Lian Jing was momentarily choked into silence. “Do you think this can be washed off?!”
“It can!” Tu Lingxiang nodded twice.
“Tu Lingxiang, I really want to beat you up!”
“Don’t, don’t, don’t, Young Master! You just said you don’t hit women!” She clutched the waterskin and took a huge leap backward. “If you don’t want to wash it, then don’t wash it! Why beat me up?”
“I only said I’ve never hit a woman, not that I won’t!” he corrected her words.
“Isn’t that basically the same thing?”
“I see you’re far more cunning than the foxes on the mountain.” The more Lian Jing thought about it, the angrier he grew. Having that absurd dream earlier was one thing—after all, it was fake—but now they had actually kissed for real! That soft texture kept lingering in his mind, refusing to fade. Walking forward, he swore in extreme frustration: “You vixen.”
Tu Lingxiang quickened her pace to keep up, arguing back: “Young Master, you can’t put it that way! No matter how anyone looks at it, you’re the one who looks more like a vixen!”
Lian Jing turned around. Perhaps finding it too tedious to keep turning back and forth while talking, he extended a long arm and yanked her right next to him: “How do I look like one?”
“Every single part of you looks like one!” She began counting on her fingers. “You love beauty, you’re narcissistic, you refuse to wear clothes if they’re wrinkled, and cleaned clothes must be scented with sachet incense! And then there’s your hair—the first time I styled your hair, you weren’t satisfied even after I redid it seven or eight times!”
“That’s because you’re stupid,” Lian Jing interrupted her.
Holding her head high, she said: “Don’t think I don’t know! Every time before going out for a marriage contest, you look in the mirror! You’re afraid of making a fool of yourself in front of your sweetheart, aren’t you?”
“I am not!” Lian Jing gritted his teeth in fury.
“And you always say Sang Qing smells like a fox! I think you’re the one who has it—you’re the most flirty of all!”
“You!” Lian Jing’s face turned ash-pale, looking as though he wanted to swallow her whole. Tu Lingxiang had already assumed a posture to run, but Lian Jing suddenly coughed violently, spitting out a mouthful of blood.
Supporting his injured chest, he spat a sentence: “You’ve angered this young master to the point of coughing up blood!”
“???” She hurriedly cleared herself of responsibility: “You can’t blame this on me!”
Lian Jing propped himself against the nearby stone wall with one hand and coughed again. His fragile appearance looked just like a delicate flower wilting in the wind.
Tu Lingxiang watched him from the side. It seemed he had sustained very severe injuries under Zhang Haiming’s trap, yet he had still managed to escape.
Lian Jing raised that face white as snow and looked at her coldly and indifferently: “Can it really not be blamed on you? This young master got injured precisely to save you!”
Tu Lingxiang looked at him with an equally cold gaze. He knew full well in his heart why he had saved her—it was merely for the last bit of utility value she had left.
They were enemies in the first place; why look at her with that look as if accusing her of having no conscience?
Lian Jing withdrew his gaze and said: “Support me! Don’t you know how?”
She immediately raised her hands and supported his arm, after which she heard him say: “Find a place—I need to heal my injuries.”
“Oh.”
Lian Jing leaned half his body weight onto her. If she hadn’t been propping him up, he likely would have collapsed to the ground.
“Aren’t you going to ask me what I did to those two brats, Zhang Haiming and his junior?”
“Young Master, you’re very weak. You’d better stop talking.”
Lian Jing, however, carried on of his own accord: “I used the Puppet Dream Bell to enter their minds. Right now, they’re crying out in agony to high heaven. Have you ever seen a human gu?”
“Human gu?” Tu Lingxiang’s face was filled with terror.
“It’s a entity that’s part human and part gu creature. Those Puppet Dream threads erode their nerves like insects. From now on, they lose all capacity for independent thought and become living corpses without souls.”
Tu Lingxiang trembled all over. Had Zhang Haiming and Yuan Zhedao become living corpses like that from now on?
Would the next person to end up like that be her?
“Little Slave Bell, why are you trembling? Those two villains bullied you; aren’t you happy that I avenged you?”
“I…”
He raised a hand and gently patted her head, soothing her in a soft voice: “Don’t be afraid. Next time, no one will capture you again.”
Because of this action of his, Tu Lingxiang trembled even more violently. As clever as he was, how could he possibly not know that she had a hand in this matter too?
“Little Slave Bell, your face has turned pale with fright. Those two were truly despicable, actually setting up such an illusion to slander you. You definitely wouldn’t run away with Sang Qing like in that illusion, right?”
She shook her head frantically and raised her eyelids to look at him: “Young Master, you…” Do you really not suspect me?
Lian Jing comforted her as if comforting a small pet: “Little Slave Bell, don’t worry. No one will come to strip your clothes again.”
She was utterly terrified by his comforting. Lian Jing was a man like poison and like fog—she truly could not fathom him.
Not far ahead was a barren stone platform. She supported him over to sit down. Sitting cross-legged, Lian Jing closed his eyes and began regulating his qi to heal his injuries: “Little Slave Bell, while this young master is meditating, you must absolutely not run around, alright? If I end up angered to death later, you’ll have to be buried alongside me.”
“I won’t run.” Tu Lingxiang stood beside him, thinking in her heart that it was impossible to run right now anyway—she could only wait for another chance.
“Young Master, you have vast family assets; are you really lacking a burial accessory like me?” she muttered quietly under her breath.
“I am lacking. After all, you are this young master’s first woman.”
“Nonsense!” Tu Lingxiang hollered loudly. “Where do we have that kind of relationship?!”
“Didn’t we just kiss?”
Tu Lingxiang hadn’t originally felt much about it, but having it brought up by him made her face turn hot. Sitting down on a small stone step to the side, she said, “That doesn’t count either.”
He said: “Anyway, in the eyes of Huo Xin and the others, you and I share that kind of relationship. If I die, you definitely have to be buried with me. Even if you escape to the ends of the earth, they will go and drag you back. That’s the custom where we come from.”
Tu Lingxiang buried her head and muttered: “You guys sure have a lot of customs…”
While regulating his qi, Lian Jing said: “Our customs aren’t limited to just these. That kiss you gave me just now—where we come from, that counts as a private pledge of lifelong devotion. If you ever betray me one day, you will be dragged off to be afflicted with the Heartless Gu.”
“Heartless Gu?”
“It’s a gu cultivated specifically to punish those who break promises of love. Anyone afflicted with this gu can only sever all feelings and abandon love from then on. If they ever harbor romantic feelings, their heart will be gnawed on by the gu creature… until it’s completely chewed to pieces.”
Just listening to it made Tu Lingxiang feel like her heart was failing. Turning her head, she said: “Then you’re going to marry Miss Sang Yue before long—wouldn’t that count as betraying me? Can we afflict you with this kind of gu then?”
“I’m afraid that won’t work.”
“Why?”
Lian Jing opened his eyes and said innocently: “Because you kissed me first. You cannot betray me, but I can betray you.”
Tu Lingxiang turned her face away in anger, thinking to herself: A broken piece of pork belly, constantly yapping away.
