CH 17.1

17. The Killing Machine (1)

“No I don’t.” Yu Qingjia felt a bit strange, “How would I know someone from the Imperial family.”

Murong Yan looked at her carefully, his pupils were dark, and there was almost a blue ghostly light in them, “Then why are you speaking for a stranger?”

Against Murong Yan’s sunken gaze, Yu Qingjia inexplicably felt pressured. She could not say that she saw it in her dream, so she said vaguely, “I heard about him from my father. He would always praise the young, wise, and talented Prince of Langya, so I guessed…”

Yu Qingjia did not dare to say anything more, and quickly took Murong Yan’s hand and said, “The caravan just stopped to rest, let’s also go down for a walk. My legs are numb after sitting all morning.”

Murong Yan looked down at his own hand, did not ask further, and let her pull him out of the carriage. It is now the time where the sun is at its peak, the autumn wind is still rampant, and the ground is almost steamed out with heat waves. The young and strong laborers in the caravan were drinking tea in the tea shack, and the noisy commotion could be heard from a long distance away.

Yu Qingjia didn’t want to get too close to these men, so she dragged Murong Yan to a shaded place by the roadside.

When she reached under the shade of the tree, Yu Qingjia turned back and looked again, in the end, she still could not bear it. She quickly told him to “Wait for me”, and then she ran to another tree by herself, and put down a string of copper coins in front of those children.

She didn’t say anything. She just put down all the money she had left and then turned around and went back. She was wearing a knee-length curtain hat, with white gauze layered on top of each other like clouds and mist. When walking from a distance she looked like a fairy. The dirty children could not even react, when they suddenly saw the full white skirt blocking in front of their eyes. Before they could even say anything, that fairy sister came, and immediately drifted away.

Yu Qingjia also knew that her behavior is very silly, and everyone during these troubled times can’t take care of themselves. Even if she puts down money for these children, what’s the use? She knew that if Yu Qingya was here, she would have mocked her as a pretentious Saintly Mother, but even so, she didn’t care, she just wanted to be true to herself. Just that amount of money is nothing to her. It wasn’t even comparable to a hairpin she lost before, but for these homeless children, it may be able to save the lives of one or two people, or at least keep them alive for a few more days.

Murong Yan silently watched Yu Qingjia walk away, after putting down the money, she did not dare accept the kneeling worship of the poor like ordinary women, but turned around and left immediately. From start to finish, she did not even show her face.

This is really an act that he could not understand. His conscience seems to be extraordinarily shallow, and he thinks only of himself. He does not empathize with other people’s circumstances, nor does he feel pity after seeing another person’s suffering. Yu Qingjia, including Yu Wenjun’s behavior of giving up their life for others, all made him feel confused.

Why did Yu Wenjun risk his life to protect him? And why did Yu Qingjia want to help these children? She doesn’t even know if these half-grown children will survive tomorrow, and it won’t do her any good in the future.

Although he did not understand it, it did not affect the feeling of comfort that he had by Yu Qingjia’s side. Even in these short six months he had in Guangling County, he felt that it was one of the few peaceful and even happy times in his life.

Yu Qingjia approached quickly, and nodded slightly at Murong Yan, “Okay, let’s go.”

Ever since that incident in Xisong Town, Yu Qingjia and Murong Yan decided to always wear curtain hats whenever they went out. Seeing that they behaved like everyone else when they were sitting or lying down, the other people became even more respectful, and they would not come up to talk to them casually.

However, even though the curtain hats made them appear like immortals, it will inevitably be very stuffy when they try to breathe. Yu Qingjia pulled Murong Yan away and saw that there were trees covering them all around, and no one noticed them, so she untied the curtain hat and let out a long breath.

Just at this moment, a gust of autumn wind blew past, rustling the yellow leaves. Yu Qingjia stretched out her hand to hold down her hair. While she was worried that her hair would be messed up, she felt a great deal of pain at the same time.

She held the curtain hat with one hand, her sleeves and the white gauze were entangled, fluttering in the wind, it almost made people suspect that she was going to rise with the wind like this. Murong Yan stood by the side, for some reason his eyes fell on the broken hair between her temples. The strands of hair covered her side face from his view, which made anyone watching her feel very itchy, and always wanted to help her tidy it up.