Escape the Miaojiang Villain - Chapter 9
Chapter 9: The Marriages Matchmaking Assembly-Losing Face
“Ah…”
Tu Lingxiang’s intended scream could not be uttered, for her mouth was instantly covered by Lian Jing, who had charged over like a flash.
“Do not shout!”
He lowered his voice and spoke.
Tu Lingxiang’s pupils dilated in shock, how could he appear here?
How much… how much did he see?
How could she be so unlucky to run into him even while taking a bath?
Her face flushed deep red, her hands covered her chest, and muffled sounds of resistance issued from her mouth.
Lian Jing had not expected to stumble upon such a scene either, let alone that the person hiding here taking a bath would be her.
At this moment, he had no time to ponder why she appeared here, and said in a low voice, “Do not make a sound, there are people behind.”
There are more???
Tu Lingxiang raised her long eyelashes in terror, her eyes clouded with mist and filled with fear.
Lian Jing, you scoundrel, did you bring so many people here because you wanted them to see all of me?
She cursed loudly in her heart.
Seeing that she had quieted down, Lian Jing then released his hand that was covering her, stood up, and awkwardly averted his gaze.
He listened intently, the footsteps of those two people were approaching towards this place, he immediately dragged the person out of the water pool, picked up the clothes on the ground to wrap around her, and then holding her, he lightly tapped his toes and leaped up into a rock crevice overhead.
This was a sheer cliff, with a large indented rock crevice on it, and two short trees growing outside, whose lush branches and leaves just happened to block their figures.
Tu Lingxiang was entirely in a dazed state, pulled up from the water by him without warning, wrapped up like a bedsheet, and then carried up into mid-air so high, nested in his arms at this moment, both her eyes were still staring blankly.
How could Lian Jing… be so… rude?!
Just now when she was pulled out of the water by him, she must have been seen all over by him!
Heavens!!!
She wanted to cry but had no tears, her whole face resembled a cooked shrimp, startlingly red.
Lian Jing, perhaps fearing that she might make a noise, sealed the acupoints of her whole body again, and he had cast a drying spell on her body, so her whole body was refreshed without a single trace of water.
The clothes on her body were wrapped up messily by him, barely covering the critical parts, but her two lower legs and jade-like feet were not covered, exposed right before him.
She wanted to use her skirt to cover up, but she could not move.
And Lian Jing at this moment was not doing much better than her, he not only had to hold her, but also had to tightly grab those miscellaneous clothes of hers, and even more depressing was that he had to carry her pair of embroidered red lotus shoes.
The space in this rock crevice was narrow, he could only hold her in his arms, yet this dead woman still glared at him with those large round eyes, as if he had taken such a huge advantage of her.
His hand happened to be placed at her jade-like leg, the smooth skin like ointment was identical to the arm of that female demon he had touched earlier, he was so startled that he moved his hand away by a few fractions, but the faint sweet fragrance on her body kept entering his nose, making his head feel heavy with fragrance and his thoughts increasingly tangled.
Vixen!
He cursed secretly in his heart.
Tu Lingxiang cast a subtle glance at the person above her head, seeing him holding that pair of her embroidered shoes in his hand, that appearance was extraordinarily comical.
As for his earlobes, she wondered if her eyes were playing tricks on her, she actually saw a tiny bit of crimson.
He looked straight ahead, watching the lower ground, and did not look at her.
With warm fragrance and soft jade in his arms, could Lian Jing remain unperturbed like the male lead?
And his right arm actually had five long blood claw marks, his red clothes torn, blood flowing out and soaking his sleeve, the red color shocking to the eye.
Who did he go and provoke?
At this time, two young men walked over below, walking over to the hot spring pool from just now, muttering, “Where is the person? Where did they run off to?”
Those two were wearing plain long gowns, not Miao attire, and because many outsiders had come to Miao Territory recently for the marriage matchmaking assembly, it was impossible to tell who they were.
They were seen walking past the hot spring pool, one of them crouched down and picked up a red item from the grass, Tu Lingxiang took a closer look, that… that… was actually her undergarment.
“!!!”
It must have been missed by Lian Jing earlier in his anxious hurry.
That was a bright red embroidered undergarment, ever since she was captured by Lian Jing, the clothes he gave her to wear were all Miao attire, so that undergarment was also Miao clothing, embroidered with red and blue flower patterns, with colorful butterflies flying among them, revealing an exotic flavor.
That man hooked his finger around that thin red strap, picked up that undergarment, held it up against the sunlight to inspect, and said, “Why is there a woman’s clothing here? Could it be that someone was bathing here just now?”
Seeing this scene, Tu Lingxiang wished she could find a hole to bury herself in, she simply did not want to live anymore…
At the thought that her intimate garment was picked up by a man, and was even seen by Lian Jing, she was so ashamed that she had nowhere to hide her face.
Her face was red as if about to bleed, she dared not raise her head to look at Lian Jing, it was all to blame on this guy, if he had not run over here, how could her clothes have been picked up by those people?
She saw that the man below actually held that undergarment up to his nose and sniffed it in a very wretched manner, saying a phrase, “It really smells sweet…”
At that moment, she only wanted to pass away on the spot.
“Ah ah ah ah ah!!!”
Inwardly, she was incomparably frantic, wishing she could rush down and snatch that clothing back from that person’s hand.
It was too humiliating!
This time, she completely lost face in front of Lian Jing.
The two people below said a few more vulgar words, taking her piece of clothing and heading elsewhere.
After making sure they had gone far away, Lian Jing then leaped down holding her, as soon as he landed, Lian Jing unsealed her acupoints and threw her onto the ground, as if throwing away some garbage.
Tu Lingxiang fell onto the ground, the skirt wrapped around her body slid off, she immediately grabbed it, pulling it up to cover herself properly.
A pair of embroidered red shoes was thrown over by Lian Jing, followed by his displeased voice sounding, “Put them on quickly.”
She propped herself up from the ground to sit, a head of beautiful hair scattered like clouds, her two delicate arms exposed outside, tightly grabbing the clothes on her chest, her two fair legs even tenderer and whiter than bamboo shoots, trying hard to shrink back into the red skirt.
Her head hung very low, the color on her face frightfully red, her dense eyelashes trembling slightly, this appearance, no matter how one looked at it, seemed as though she had been bullied miserably.
She wouldn’t be about to cry, would she?
Lian Jing turned his gaze away, thinking in his heart that he hadn’t bullied her, so what did it have to do with him?
He turned around, walked a few steps forward, and urged, “Hurry up.”
Tu Lingxiang saw that he had walked farther away, only then did she pick up the pile of clothes on her, jogging behind a rock nearby to hide there and put on her clothes.
She did not cry, she just felt it was too embarrassing, how was she to face Lian Jing in the future?
Ah ah ah, the more she thought about it, the angrier she became!
After she put on her clothes and walked over, Lian Jing swept a faint glance at her, said nothing, and walked towards the bottom of the mountain.
He walked wobbly, almost falling to the ground, Tu Lingxiang immediately supported him, “Young Master, are you alright?”
She saw his eyes were dazed, as if he had been struck by miasma smoke, he leaned against her body and said a line, “Little Slave Bell, how bold of you, coming to this mountain to bathe, who are you trying to seduce?”
“I… how could I?” Tu Lingxiang raised her head angrily.
Lian Jing slanted his cold gaze at her, “No? If no, why did you run out here to bathe?”
“Isn’t it all because of you!” The more Tu Lingxiang thought about it, the angrier she became, not only was she seen all over by him, but her undergarment was also picked up and taken by someone else, she yelled, “If I used your tub, you would go crazy again, what do you want me to do?”
Lian Jing stared at her for a moment, “So it was because of this.”
He suddenly smiled wickedly, holding her face and saying to her, “This young master allows you to use my tub.”
“Ah??”
Tu Lingxiang blinked her eyes in surprise, thinking in her heart, could his brain be muddled with dizziness? Why was he talking nonsense?
“Really?” She asked once more.
“If you want to lose a few more pieces of clothing, you can also come to this mountain to bathe,” he said with a deep smile.
Tu Lingxiang felt her earlobes turn red, lowering her head, this matter was simply one of the ultimate embarrassing events of her life.
She helped Lian Jing back to the residence, among the accompanying team was a specialized physician to look at his injury and apply medicine for him, while he just passed out like that.
This embarrassing matter also gradually faded along with Lian Jing’s coma, by the time he woke up, it was already two days later.
What on earth did he encounter that caused him to be unconscious for two full days?
Tu Lingxiang was utterly unable to solve the riddle.
For these two days, she had been guarding by his bedside, seeing him seemingly having a nightmare, uttering something unclearly in his mouth, but she did not hear a single word clearly.
When he woke up, she happened to be sitting in front of his bed dozing off, an embroidered pillow flew towards her face, she was instantly startled awake, exclaiming a sound, “Ah! What happened?”
As a result, she saw Lian Jing’s gloomy face, she said in surprise, “Young Master, you are awake?”
Whether it was morning grumpiness or something else, his temper was very bad, saying, “If this young master did not wake up, how would I know that you are actually sitting here slacking off?”
Tu Lingxiang picked up the pillow from the floor, saying with a beaming smile, “Young Master, I didn’t slack off. Weren’t you injured, I was praying for you, praying.”
Lian Jing let out a soft laugh, “I was wondering why I slept so soundly, turns out you were cursing me.”
“I didn’t…”
Tu Lingxiang said with a bitter face, carefully putting the pillow back on the bed for him, and then smiled again, saying, “Young Master, you must be hungry, right? I will go prepare lunch for you right now.”
Lian Jing looked at her departing back, humming softly, “Finally looks a bit like a maid.”
Tu Lingxiang ran downstairs, going to a restaurant not far nearby to order a few specialty dishes, then brought them up for Lian Jing, “Young Master, try them quickly, these are all very delicious.”
Lian Jing came down from the bed, sat in front of the table, raised his thick eyebrows and looked at her, “It seems that during the period I was unconscious, you ate quite a lot.”
Tu Lingxiang immediately shook her head, her head shaking like a pellet drum, “No… I didn’t.”
She naturally would not admit that over these two days, she had followed behind Huo Xin, calling him Big Brother delightfully and having him buy lots of food for her.
She explained, “I smelled it, these dishes smell so fragrant, they must be very delicious.”
Lian Jing lowered his head, sweeping a glance at the dishes on the table, three meat dishes and two vegetable dishes, brightly colored, they indeed smelled quite fragrant.
Tu Lingxiang immediately walked over and picked up the jade chopsticks to serve food for him, asking very obsequiously, “Young Master, which one do you want to eat first?”
Lian Jing raised his eyebrows even higher, looked at her for quite a while, and only then said, “From left to right, one meat and one vegetable, in turn.”
“…”
Tu Lingxiang replied respectfully, “Yes, Young Master.”
She kept paying attention to his expression, seeing that his expression was pleasant, only then did she speak, “Young Master, can you tell me what time you wake up and what time you get out of bed every day?”
She really did not want her fingers chopped off.
Lian Jing’s fingers holding the chopsticks paused, raising his thin eyelids to look at her, saying as if helpless, “I don’t know.”
Don’t know?
This was clearly just not wanting to say.
“Young Master, tell me, tomorrow I will go find delicious food to bring back for you again.”
Lian Jing showed displeasure on his face: This was raising him like livestock.
“Then talk about it after you find it.”
“…”
Tu Lingxiang had no choice but to nod and reply, “Alright.”
There were many rare and special delicacies in Miao Territory, Tu Lingxiang’s original home was located in a small county town not far outside a Miao village, when she was young she had gone to a Miao village once with her parents, from then on she fell in love with this place, so when writing this book, she wrote the female lead as a mysterious Miao girl.
The next day, she really went out to search for delicious food, while Lian Jing followed behind her, she knew his purpose in coming out was to participate in the female lead’s marriage matchmaking assembly.
A noisy sound rose from ahead, sounding like the site of the marriage matchmaking assembly.
“Quick, Young Master, let’s go take a look.”
She was excited to the extreme and ran towards the front, the marriage matchmaking assembly was a plot point she had been looking forward to for a long time, the male and female leads would meet at this moment.
Lian Jing stood behind staring at her fiery red running back, thinking in his heart, wasn’t she going to find food for him? What was she joining the excitement blindly for?
Over there, the crowd was bustling and voices were boiling, by the time he walked over, Tu Lingxiang’s petite figure could no longer be found.
After a while, someone in the crowd was seen raising a fair hand, holding a square gold-inlaid wooden token, saying, “Young Master, I registered you.”
Tu Lingxiang pushed through the crowd, squeezed in front of him, handed that token to him, and said with a bright smile, “Young Master, I registered you to participate in the marriage matchmaking assembly.”
“…”
Lian Jing had a dark face, gritting his teeth as he said, “You are truly proactive in doing things.”
“Thank you for the compliment, Young Master!”
She didn’t realize at all that Lian Jing was mocking her, after all she was helping him get connected with the female lead, despite his dark face, he was very happy in his heart.
“There are really so many people coming to participate in the marriage matchmaking assembly, Young Master, you are already ranked number twenty-nine.”
This marriage matchmaking assembly only recruited foreigners, and there would be several rounds of competition, only the final winner could marry the Miao King’s daughter, and that person… was Lian Jing.
It was Lian Jing who used sinister means to frame the male lead, thereby becoming the final winner.
Her eyes searched in all directions, where was the male lead? He should be coming, right? Where was he?
The surroundings were filled with heads, there were noble young masters coming from afar, chivalrous heroes roaming the martial realm, and young ladies coming to watch the excitement, crowded together closely shoulder to shoulder.
The Miao ethnic group had always refrained from intermarrying with outsiders, so once the news of this marriage matchmaking assembly came out, numerous outsiders rushed over, some sincerely wanting to marry a Miao girl, some coming to pass by and catch a glimpse of the beauty’s countenance.
There were also those who came for the dowry of that Paulownia Flower Mirror.
The male lead came here also for that mirror, which was a sacred object of the Demon Realm, his master sent him here to prevent it from falling into the hands of the Demon Realm, yet he unexpectedly stumbled into the female lead’s marriage matchmaking assembly, and even obtained her marriage matchmaking number token, participating in a marriage matchmaking contest by a twist of fate.
“Where is Miss Sang Yue? Why hasn’t she come out yet?” Someone in the crowd began shouting impatiently.
There was an arena ahead, square in shape, covered with a red carpet, with a large red banner hanging on the pillar, on which four elegant words were written, “Marriages Matchmaking Assembly.”
A middle-aged man in his forties ran up onto the stage, looking like the steward in charge of hosting this marriage matchmaking assembly, standing on the stage and cupping his hands to everyone, saying, “Everyone please settle down, my young lady will be out shortly.”
Behind the arena stood a standalone tower, constructed in a unique style, a stilt building constructed with mortise and tenon structures, painted with vermilion lacquer, with exquisite silver-beaded wind chimes hanging under the upturned eaves.
Not long after, two graceful young ladies walked up the stairs beneath the wind chimes, both wearing intricate embroidered blue Miao attire, wearing bright silver horn headpieces on their heads, and double-layered silver rings around their necks, the silver pieces clinking pleasantly to the ear.
Strangely, both of their faces were covered with a thin blue veil.
From the moment they appeared, the area below immediately became silent, everyone’s eyes drawn towards them.
“Huh? Why did two come?”
“Yeah, could it be that today’s marriage matchmaking assembly is recruiting two husbands?”
“But I remember the Miao King only has one daughter.”
At this time, the steward on the high platform spoke, “Everyone please listen to me, this marriage matchmaking assembly only recruits one person, and our Miao King also only has one daughter, as for why there are two young ladies, this is a test set by our young lady for everyone.”
“A test?” Everyone revealed puzzled expressions.
“Yes, one of them on the tower is our Miss Sang Yue, and the other is Miss Sang Yu, the daughter of our Miao King’s second brother, and the first stage of our marriage matchmaking assembly is to guess the person, only those who guess Miss Sang Yue correctly can enter the next round of competition.”
“Guess the person?”
Everyone voiced their doubts, how could anyone guess accurately?
In the crowd, only Lian Jing was clapping his hands, “Interesting.”
For Lian Jing, who had already met both Sang Yue and Sang Yu, wasn’t this leaking the exam questions in advance?
Tu Lingxiang saw him looking so pleased with himself, thinking in her heart: Don’t be pleased too early, it’s not that easy.
Someone asked loudly again, “If I guess Miss Sang Yu correctly, can I marry her?”
Anyway, both are beauties, marrying either is the same.
A young lady on top of the tower muttered softly, “Dream on!”
Her eyes were fixed tightly on the handsome youth in red clothes below, pulling the person beside her and saying, “Sister, Young Master Lian has come too.”
Pity, he came to marry sister.
If she could make him select herself during the selection stage, wouldn’t he lose the chance to marry sister?
The corner of her mouth under the blue veil hooked slightly, suddenly coming up with a plan.
