lcionline Chapter 442: Roadblocks
Chapter 442: Roadblocks
Chapter 442
Meeting his blazing gaze, Lu Zhaozhao's heart trembled violently, and fear welled up in her eyes. Her lips trembled uncontrollably, and she swallowed nervously. She hurriedly turned her face away from his gaze, her voice trembling, "I, I didn't forget. Don't be angry..."
The Third Prince was obsessed with controlling everything, and he particularly favored women like Lu Zhaozhao who were weak and submissive. Seeing her frightened expression, how could he contain himself? The next second, Lu Zhaozhao's unfinished words were completely blocked back.
Half an hour passed, and silence returned to the room. Lu Zhaozhao curled up in the Third Prince's arms, exhausted and drifting off to sleep. The Third Prince gazed at the woman in his arms, his eyes filled with contentment. He bent down and gently kissed the top of her head, then stood up, quickly changed his clothes, and left. Although his thirst had been quenched for a moment, the burning desire within him remained lingering. He was proud of his status and didn't want to lose face in front of the woman he loved.
Leaning against the door frame, the Third Prince sneered at the distant dusk. Back in Kyoto, he had a plethora of beauties to choose from, but now, living in poverty, he found this kind of forbearance rather odd.
When the door was completely closed, Lu Zhaozhao, who should have been asleep, slowly opened his eyes. There was no sleepiness in his eyes, only a calculating glimmer.
She forced herself to stand, enduring the pain all over her body, a sneer curling her lips. She remembered her mother's dying words, "Men are often fickle. They won't cherish what they easily get, but simply rejecting them will backfire. You have to be like flying a kite, sometimes loosening the string to give him a sweet treat, sometimes tightening it to keep him hooked. Only then can you keep a man firmly in your grasp."
She wanted to use the Third Prince to achieve her goals, so naturally she had to make him pay. Now, the only thing between them was the final layer of window paper, yet it remained unbroken. When and how to break it were crucial, and it would affect the entire situation. She couldn't rush into anything.
Lu Zhaozhao bent down to pick up the lotus handkerchief that had fallen to the ground at some point, and a determined look appeared at the corner of her eyes: she believed she could easily deal with this trapped beast.
.........
Luo Shuiyao, who had already left the city, leaned against the carriage, bored. She naturally didn't know that someone had quietly come last night and solved a problem for her.
After her modification, the carriage became much more stable, and soft backrests were sewn all around, making it comfortable to lean on, but she still didn't like it. In her previous life, she had always disliked riding any kind of transportation, and she hated going out the most. Now, sitting in this carriage, she felt even more uncomfortable.
Chun Xing righteously rejected her. The young lady seemed to have just mentioned it casually, and seeing her refusal, she no longer insisted, but just lazily leaned back in the carriage, wondering what she was thinking.
Chun Xing looked at the young lady's expression, her heart filled with pity. After a moment's thought, she suggested, "Young lady, I bought two miscellaneous notes from the shopkeeper before I left. Please wait a moment, I'll take them out. If you're bored, you can flip through them to relieve your boredom."
"Oh, you are thoughtful." Luo Shuiyao was a little surprised.
Chun Xing had always been careless, so she had never expected someone so thoughtful. Although she didn't like the books here, as the text was obscure and difficult to understand, and the dizziness of the car ride made reading even more difficult, Chun Xing's kindness was so precious, how could she refuse? So she nodded and said, "Then take it out."
When Chun Xing heard this, a look of joy immediately appeared on her face and her heart was filled with pride.
Normally, Chuntao was thoughtful and meticulous, always taking good care of the young lady. She was mostly sent out to run errands, and she didn't think she was as smart and clever as Chuntao. But now that she could help the young lady, she was very happy and quickly bent down to take out two books from a secret compartment and handed them to Luo Shuiyao.
Luo Shuiyao reached out to take them, and saw that one was called "Taoyuan Records" and the other was called "Zhou Gong Records". Judging from the names alone, they did look like two miscellaneous notes.
She set the "Records of Zhougong" aside and opened "Taoyuan Chronicles." The first two pages described a man whose family had fallen on hard times and who was forced to travel on foot. He stopped at a dilapidated temple while passing through the mountains and encountered some strange and bizarre things. But after just a few pages, something started to feel off.
Luo Shuiyao was stunned and flipped through several pages. The content of the book became more and more explicit, and there were obscure pictures in between. This was not a miscellany at all, it was clearly a pornographic book!
Chun Xing, a woman with limited literacy skills, enjoyed playing with swords and knives, and was completely averse to books, unwilling to even touch them. Because of this, she hadn't noticed she'd bought a pornographic book. As Luo Shuiyao flipped through the pages faster and faster, Chun Xing looked at her mistress with anticipation, hoping for some praise, a chance to show off her "good taste in books."
Luo Shuiyao quickly flipped through "Taoyuan Ji", glanced at Chun Xing, then picked up "Zhou Gong Ji" and flipped directly to the middle. As expected, this book was more explicit than "Taoyuan Ji" and the illustrations were even more bold.
She pursed her lips, threw the two books aside, stared at Chun Xing suspiciously, and asked, "Which shopkeeper did you get these books from?"
Chun Xing looked puzzled, but she answered honestly, "I got it from the innkeeper. I saw her sitting at the counter flipping through the book whenever she had some free time. I thought you were bored on the bus, and reading a book would help distract you, so I asked her if it was a good book."
"What did the shopkeeper say?" Luo Shuiyao asked.
Chun Xing touched her chin, recalling her conversation with the shopkeeper. "She said it was beautiful, but not suitable for me."
Chun Xing withdrew her hand. "I'm just a servant, not a lady from a wealthy family. I can't read much anyway, so naturally I don't like reading."
"I told her, 'Don't worry about it, this is for my young lady.' The shopkeeper was a little reluctant at first, but when he heard it was for you, he relented and told me...it was a unique copy, extremely rare. He only took one or two taels of silver and told me to show it to you, young lady."
Chun Xing remembered the shopkeeper's strange smile and told the truth.
Luo Shuiyao closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and felt quite helpless. The innkeeper was a woman in her thirties. The inn they were staying in was originally run by her and her husband. However, her husband later fell ill and passed away, leaving her to run the inn alone.
Luo Shuiyao had met her several times and thought she was kind and seemed decent, but she didn't expect that she was so... so rebellious in private.
Chun Xing noticed that her young lady looked unhappy, so she moved closer and asked, "What's wrong, young lady? Is this book not interesting?"
Without waiting for Luo Shuiyao to answer, she murmured to herself, "If it doesn't look good, just keep it. When I go back, I'll find the shopkeeper and ask her to return the money to me."
She was very angry and thought that the book was not good and that the shopkeeper had cheated her.
"Well, now that I've bought it, there's no point in returning it. The book is quite good, and I'll read it in my spare time. You're feeling quite bored in this carriage, so if you're feeling upset, go out and get some fresh air."
She was afraid that Chun Xing would say something shocking again.
Although Luo Shuiyao felt helpless, she had to admit that while this book wasn't considered serious reading for the average person, the content was genuinely interesting, with a well-connected plot. It was more engaging than most books of the era. Besides, she wasn't born and raised in this era, so she didn't feel shameful about reading such books; it was a good way to pass the time. However, the Great Zhou was still a feudal society, so while she could read it privately, she wouldn't be so shameless if others found out.
Chun Xing stayed in the carriage to accompany Luo Shuiyao. Now that she saw that the young lady had something to entertain herself, and heard her asking her to go out for some fresh air, she nodded in agreement. Just as she was about to lift the curtain and leave, she heard the guards outside shouting to stop, and then she felt the coachman tighten the reins, and the carriage suddenly stopped.
Her hand that was lifting the curtain paused, and she leaned out to ask the guard, "What happened? Why did you stop so suddenly?"
The guard didn't turn around, his brows furrowed, his eyes fixed on the front. He said, "There seems to be something up ahead. We've sent people up to check it out. Let's wait a moment."
Upon hearing this, Chun Xing lifted the curtain and walked out of the carriage. She stood on the edge of the carriage, raised her hand to block the glaring sunlight, raised her eyebrows and looked forward.
The guard beside him rode his horse quickly forward, seemed to be looking down at something, and soon rode back.
Chun Xing hurriedly asked, "What's that in front? It looks like a person to me."
"It is indeed a person, a man, with a pale face and seemingly fainted."
While answering Chun Xing, the guard turned to look at Luo Shuiyao who had walked out of the carriage and asked, "Miss, what should we do?"
Luo Shuiyao opened the curtains and walked out. When she heard the guard's question, she followed his gaze and looked forward. Due to the distance, she could only vaguely see someone fainted in the middle of the road.
She frowned and didn't answer the guard's question immediately. Instead, she jumped off the carriage, holding onto the edge of the carriage and said, "Come on, let's go up and take a look."
After saying this, without waiting for the guard's reply, she strode forward.
When Chun Xing saw Luo Shuiyao get off the carriage, she also jumped down and followed Luo Shuiyao in a few steps. She looked ahead vigilantly but didn't say much.
Seeing this, the guard who had just replied also dismounted and followed the two of them.
Luo Shuiyao soon approached the unconscious man. He was dressed in ordinary green clothes, tall, with a pale face, but no obvious scars on his body.
She half-crouched down and reached out to feel the man's pulse, thinking to herself: This man is clearly deficient in Qi and blood. Perhaps he's been injured somewhere. As she was thinking, her fingers accidentally touched the man's forearm.
Luo Shuiyao's heart moved, and she lifted up the man's sleeve. Sure enough, the touch was strange. It was obviously the mark of an injury and bandage, and the bandage cloth looked extremely familiar.
She opened her mouth and looked up stiffly. The man in front of her had an unfamiliar face. Although he was not ugly, he was very different from the person in her memory.
Chun Xing saw Luo Shuiyao squatting there for a long time without moving. She was standing behind Luo Shuiyao and couldn't see clearly what happened. Seeing that Luo Shuiyao didn't move, she planned to go forward to check.
Luo Shuiyao subconsciously pulled down the man's sleeve to cover his bandaged forearm.
Chun Xing didn't notice this action and asked quietly, "Miss, what's wrong with this guy?"