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Chapter 59: Wedding
“En! We don’t even know what Li Yiteng was thinking. Perhaps he can’t wait to marry off his daughter!” Xuanyuan Meng laid on the table blankly. Truthfully, she worried that dragging out the situation would only bring more problems. She really couldn’t fully relax knowing Jiang Chen was on their side. It made her heart itch.
“No problem!” Seeing her expression, Gu Yunlan understood her doubts. She’ll just deal with things as they occur. She patted her shoulders. “What are you afraid of? There are things that even Miss Xuanyuan fears?”
Xuanyuan Meng snapped back to attention after hearing this. She sat up and clapped her hands, saying, “That’s right! This Miss can toss some explosion talismans and blow him up!”
“Didn’t you already use up your talismans?” Gu Yunlan countered mercilessly.
“What a shame, now going to Grandpa’s place will truly be hard! What the heck!” At the memory of using up her talismans on saving those two idiots, her heart hurt. And she even almost lost Yunlan…
“Li Yiteng is too simple-minded!” Gu Yunlan sighed softly. He wanted to atone for his wrongdoings with good deeds!
“What do you think; is that man being sincere?” Xuanyuan Meng rested her chin and looked at her curiously.
“Well…” Gu Yunlan hesitated. She knew that he truly appeared to be sincere and kind. He was able to be sincere, and she truly hoped their love would last a long time.
“If it’s fake, then Li Zhuting will probably cry herself to death! To be involved for so long to no avail!” Xuanyuan Meng let out a deep sigh.
“Enough! Don’t go all crow-mouthed! This isn’t something to say before their wedding!” Gu Yunlan shot a look at her, then stood up to walk out, “Let’s do simple preparation! We didn’t bring any other clothes with us, so simple ones will have to do! Otherwise, we won’t be able to get to the wedding on time!”
TLN: Crow-mouthed is basically jinxing
The meeting time for the wedding was ten o’clock in the morning. The mountain stronghold was decorated with simple lanterns and banners, but the atmosphere was joyful. The bride and groom wore pure red outfits.
Gu Yunlan took a comfortable stroll to make her way there. Sometimes, she enjoys the feeling of not having a care in the world. Living in the Miao Family territory was her most comfortable days. Usually when she wasn’t studying, she enjoyed wandering around the mountains with her master. Her knowledge of herbal plants grew so quickly, even her master was astonished.
Thinking of her master led her to then think about her father. She wondered, how he is at the moment? He probably just arrived today right?
She lowered her head to look at the stones under her feet. It had only been two days since she parted from Xuanyuan Ying, but she suddenly felt as if it had been much longer, ai! What’s with this?
“Aiya!” A shout rang out, making Gu Yunlan lift her head.
Xuanyuan Meng and a girl had run into each other. That girl cried out, lowered her head, and said a word of apology before turning to run off.
“What’s going on?” Gu Yunlan wrinkled her brows. Didn’t they say that aside from those kidnapped girls, there were no other young girls on the mountain? And in fact, those kidnapped girls were sent down early this morning. Gu Yunlan would definitely remember if she was part of that group. Then who is she?
“I don’t know either. She just suddenly ran out from my left and bumped into me…” Xuanyuan Meng shook her head, slightly at a loss.
Gu Yunlan looked up and sunk into deep thought as she watched the girl run off in the distance.
The wedding was very simple. Gu Yunlan only had to say a few simple sentences while the others stood ceremony. Then during the banquet at noon, all the men of the stronghold cheered when they saw the good wine.
Bai Yiran and Li Yiteng were surrounded as they drank. Gu Yunlan sent the new bride into the bridal chamber. In one smooth motion, she and Xuanyuan Meng disappeared from the wedding.
“Is it here?” Gu Yunlan turned her head to ask. A seemingly infinitely tall cliff shot out below her. She whispered, “That’s odd, I did not know of such a tall cliff in Gu City! It simply doesn’t exist!”
Xuanyuan Meng approached. Below was a bottomless gap, the wind stinging at her face. She lifted her head to discover that she couldn’t see to the other side. The huge cliffs on the Miao territory are nothing compared to this!
“Mengeng!” Gu Yunlan backed off and looked at her hesitantly. “That bug thing didn’t follow wrong, right? How could she get down a cliff like this? We should go back! It should be fine as long as we remember this place! If not, Yiran may not be able to find us later!”
“Weird, I can’t sense it now that we’re here. Yunlan, that girl who bumped into me, don’t you think she’s behind some kind of a scheme?”
The two of them slowly turned around and walked down. The road was winding and confusing; even they didn’t know how far they walked. It was rather difficult to find their way. At a turn in the road, Xuanyuan Meng immediately pulled her back.
“Wait, Yunlan. There’s movement to the right!” Xuanyuan Meng grabbed her from behind and said quietly.
Gu Yunlan nodded and immediately turned around to follow Xuanyuan Meng. They carefully kept to the right. She felt rather lucky that she learned from Xuanyuan Meng before, otherwise, she never would’ve survived the journey with the body from her last life.
This place was already beyond the Hazy Mountain’s patch of thornberries, as seen by the bamboo that started to appear. Although there weren’t many, it said something alarming about this forest. Gu Yunlan jolted and pulled on Xuanyuan Meng, leaning to her ear to whisper, “Mengmeng, there’s only one place with bamboo in the Gu City!”
Xuanyuan Meng stared blankly. Oh no! She forgot! They immediately turned around, wanting to leave. Yet, they were stopped by a call for help behind them.
“Help! Don’t bite me! Let go of me!” A girl’s voice rang out. Xuanyuan Meng’s gaze looked towards Gu Yunlan. Should we save her?
Gu Yunlan looked at the surrounding bamboo, yet ended up shaking her head. The two looked at each other, then turned around and ran!
As soon as they left the bamboo behind, they let out their breath and sat down, terrified, on the ground.
Gu Yunlan hinted to Xuanyuan Meng to help her put up some protection. She shut her eyes and cautiously let out her spirit power.
“Master! This servant is incompetetant!” A girl fell down on her knees, her body trembling.
“The blame does not fall on you! She is clever! If she wasn’t, she couldn’t have destroyed my secret path and even saved those two!” The man stood with his hand clasped behind his back, his long, black hair lined up to his waist. His voice was very relaxed, but carried a thread of resentment.
“Then shall we still give chase?” The female’s voice was still trembling.
“Chase? They fled long ago!” The man turned around. His face was covered by a silver mask; it was Jiang Chen. The corners of his lips hooked upward, as he smiled wickedly. “Flee? Once this King recovers his strength, you will have no way of fleeing from this king’s palms!”
After saying this, he chuckled lightly twice as he glanced towards a certain direction. He suddenly smiled openly. “Haha! Now, get up! I shall give you a chance to atone for your failure! Find me more girls in Gu City!”
Hearing his final verdict, Gu Yunlan’s eyes shot open. Her heart raced fiercely as she covered her mouth. The look in his eyes was as if he was going to swallow her, which utterly terrified her.
“Yunlan! What’s going on?” Xuanyuan Meng saw her sweating profusely and covering her mouth. She immediately wiped her sweat with concern.
“We were discovered!” Gu Yunlan gasped, clearly not yet recovered from the scare. He could detect her spirit power; those last words were directed at her!
“What? Then we need to run, now!” Shocked, Xuanyuan Meng immediately pulled on Gu Yunlan’s arm, wanting to pull her away. This was Xuanyuan Meng’s first time since birth that she felt fear for someone else. No matter how horrifying, how strong Big Brother was, she knew that he would never harm Gu Yunlan!
“He’s gone already!” Gu Yunlan grabbed her hand, and stood up slowly. “We’ll talk while walking! This forest is too terrifying!”
Xuanyuan Meng hurriedly helped her up and the two headed out quickly. She asked quietly, “Since we were discovered, doesn’t that mean we have no hints or trail left to follow?”
“We still do! We found that the missing girls really were sent to him, and that there’s a girl acting as an accomplice…” Gu Yunlan let out a soft sigh. Her brows knitted tightly. “However, I still feel like something’s missing! Did Jiang Chen really force that girl to do that?”
“No matter what it is, we have to be careful for a while! Don’t think about it anymore. Your brows are so wrinkled that you’re turning into an old granny!” Xuanyuan Meng covered her mouth with a giggle.
“We must hurry back!” Gu Yunlan looked at the sky. “If Yiran finds that we’re missing, he’ll definitely get anxious!”
“En!”
Once again passing by the cliff, Gu Yunlan curiously looked to the other side. She thought she saw a golden light flash by. She blinked, but there was nothing but fog. It was as if that flash was nothing but her imagination.
“That’s odd!” She lowered her head and thought a bit, could her eyes be going bad?
“What is it? Yunlan!” Xuanyuan Meng walked behind her. Seeing her stop in front and whisper to herself, she immediately followed up.
“Nothing! My eyes are going bad. I thought I saw some kind of treasure by the cliff!” Gu Yunlan shook her head, and despite Xuanyuan Meng’s confused look, continued on her path.
By the time they got to the mountain stronghold, the sky had already darkened. The banquet had scattered long ago, but a bonfire blazed.
“Yi? Miss Gu? Where did you go just now? How come I didn’t see you?” This was that Second Brother; he smiled foolishly at Gu Yunlan.
“Oh, I drank too much, so I wandered around in order to dispel the wine.” Gu Yunlan also grinned, pretending to be intoxicated and not quite in the right mind. She looked around and asked astonishedly, “Is this bonfire for an evening banquet?”
“Right! For the stronghold master to finally marry is a grand event!” The Second Brother smiled even more foolishly.
“You guys go play then! I drank so much that I’m dizzy!” Gu Yunlan rubbed her forehead, then walked towards Xuanyuan Meng, who said, “I’ll help you back! You’re still dizzy and need someone to take care of you!”
Bonfire banquet? Spare her. Returning to watch the stars is much better than having to watch a bunch of guys playing around.
Xuanyuan Meng immediately nodded at Second Brother apologetically and supported Gu Yunlan to leave.
“Ai! Miss Gu! The bonfire banquet here is really fun!” Second Brother hollered towards the two of them.
Gu Yunlan and Xuanyuan Meng’s leaving figures sped up even more!
The second day at noon, Gu Yunlan and her group of four set off on the road; they were leaving. She released her breath. Zhuting wasn’t with them, saying that she would return on the third day: for the first time, as a bride!
Ever since passing through the Shing Wong temple, Gu Yunlan always felt as if there were a pair of eyes watching her. But whenever she turned to look, the feeling disappeared. With her heart beating rapidly, she finally returned home. She let out a huge sigh of relief.
“Young Miss! You’re finally back!” Xin’er was standing in front of the gate, waiting for her anxiously. Seeing Gu Yunlan’s group of four appear, she immediately jumped to greet them.
“Eldest Miss, now that I know you’ve returned safely, I shall retire first!” Seeing Xin’er’s look of having a lot to say, yet holding it back, Li Yiteng quickly cupped his fist in a salute to leave.
“Uncle Li, you’ve been really tired these last few days, so go back and rest well! We’ll still have to trouble you later with the matter concerning the missing girls’ families!” Gu Yunlan smiled at him wanely.
“No problem! That is something a subordinate should do! Goodbye!” This time, Li Yiteng addressed himself more modestly.
“What is it?” Gu Yunlan turned her head to look at Xin’er. What’s with all the jittery nerves?
“Something happened to Miss An!”
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