Hiding

deeply in the city, this was something Xia Ling Mei knew a lot of from

experience.

Shut

indoors in the tavern for three days, Hei Zi came to give a report, he

said that the person who had pretended to run away had already lost w.a.n.g

family’s secret guard.

Xia Ling

Mei bring two maids with her, if someone really wanted to follow her it would

be very easy, therefore, this time when she planned her escape, Hei Zi

immediately made his subordinates transform into women, a three men team

separated into three different directions leaving the city.

w.a.n.g Yun

Feng also did not know the reason for so, even if the secret guards were

exploited by Xia Ling Mei that they’re skeletons didn’t even remain, he would

continue as always to send people to follow her.

After three

days, the most difficult pair of man and horse also lost w.a.n.g family’s secret

guards, worthy of celebrations. Before w.a.n.g Yun Feng could again obtain her

whereabouts, Xia Ling Mei was happily free and at leisure.

This sort

of one-upmans.h.i.+p between them had already been going on between them for many

years, they enjoyed it and never tired of it. When it reached the fourth day,

Xia Ling Mei had already worn a veiled hat, shedding her entire body of the

superfluous clothes and ornaments of a girl from a wealthy family, changing

into a woman of the Jianghu, dressed light and convenient, wandering in the

great streets and small alleys of Chenzhou.

No one

could have thought, she simply had not left, moreover no one would have thought

she would openly stroll along the streets. The most dangerous place is the most

safest place, the aspect of playing with w.a.n.g Yun Feng, had always been an easy

task for Xia Ling Mei. Although, every year when they met in the Xia residence,

she never exposed a hint of a smile at him.

She was

already used to seeing him once a year, seeing him she only said one thing “May 

you have a prosperous New Year.” Afterwards, the next day, like running water

the w.a.n.g family would send countless gifts, the list of gifts given to Xia Ling

Mei could fill a book of

.

Perhaps, in

w.a.n.g Yun Feng’s eyes, Xia Ling Mei who journeyed away from her lacked money?

In fact, everything

was good when at home, but troubled when she left. Compared to when she was at

Xia residence or w.a.n.g residence, Xia Ling Mei while travelling in the Jianghu,

did indeed lack money.

In the few

months she was in Chenzhou, when she first stayed at Gu residence she almost

didn’t leave or near the entrance, therefore she rarely went to visit the

surrounding scenery. After she left the Gu residence, without restrictions she

relaxed for a few days, completely exploring all the fun places in the hundred

of miles of Chenzhou. She found out in these two days that a wander, a greater

teller of stories, he spoke of the rain and wind of Dayan of the last two

hundred years with rhythmic undulation, he even spoke casually of the regent

and beautiful court ladies. Xia Ling Mei by chance walked past hearing a few

words she became interested, after a day of going to the flower and bird

market, after walking around once, she was holding a small simple headed and

simple minded Tibetan Mastiff sitting in the quiet corner of the second floor.

With a gentle breeze of April, drinking good quality bi lo chun tea, eating a

mouthful of light refreshments and giving one mouthful to the Tibetan Mastiff,

listening to the pingshu, getting by freely and at

leisure. Occasionally, from her window she can see w.a.n.g Yun Feng’s carriage

being swarmed by everyone as it went on.

He simply

didn’t come to find her, Xia Ling Mei thought, the grand imperial censor senior

officer appointed to Chenzhou, naturally it was for the purpose of imperial

matters, being immersed in love was already something he could only see but not

touch.

w.a.n.g Yun

Feng who had suddenly appeared, didn’t give her enough time to build up her own

high walls.

She was

used to, in a year, three hundred and sixty four days, to give her heart a

little bit of strength to build her walls every day, then afterwards she would

use it for one day to block him no matter how stubborn, gentle, strongly he

attacked. Every third day of the New Year, in an instant when she saw him her

walls would erect highly, again just as when he left it would crumble with a

loud bang. Therefore, unexpectedly meeting, she still did not have time to

counterattack and had already retreated in defeat little by little.

“The wind

on the sea blew loudly, making cras.h.i.+ng sounds, numerous seabirds spiralled in

the air, nonstop, vomit, bird calling. As far as the eyes can see, on the sea

there were countless Dayan s.h.i.+ps, neatly organised so that they looked like an

arrowhead. The black hulls were slapped by water, the legendary giant bird with

its wings spread out was embedded into the prow of the s.h.i.+ps with gold

feathers, the commander, general Xia, stood on the biggest boat, his cloak

blown upwards by the wind, red like the colour of blood. The sun was too

immense that day, it seemed like a person was being roasted, when the pirate

boat came speeding along the sh.o.r.eline, it made people think it was completely

ablaze. Two armies faced each other, gongs and drums exploded in the air, this

naval battle was completely different from battle on land, battle on land only

required officers and soldiers on horseback to rush forward, but naval battle

ah, if you rush over with a tiger head and tiger brain you will only end up in

the sea. Ai, you don’t think falling into the sea will be very safe, I’ll tell

you, as long as it’s on a battlefield, anywhere is h.e.l.l. In the sea smelling a

little bit of blood, you will attract a large number of sharks…”

Xia Ling Mei

smiled, lifting the two fat paws of the Tibetan Mastiff she said: “The officers

and soldiers of Dayan beheaded pirates and the enemies of the sea states, throwing

their corpses into the sea to feed sharks, afterwards cooks would again hunt

and kill fish to make food, feeding the tens of thousands of people

everywhere.” She said to the two maids who had lowered their heads: “Does that

count as cannibalism? It’s still the flesh of the enemy country’s soldiers.”

Xiu Yu had

just picked up a piece of meat floss lotus seed paste cake, having heard what

was said she stopped, looking at her lady, again looking at the pastry in her

hand, she placed it down: “Lady, I’m very happy we were sent back here by the

Fifth master.”

Two fingers

suddenly went into the plate, pinching a piece of cake and placing it into her

mouth: “The fifth master. You are talking about is the current fifth uncle of

Imperial Consort Xia, as well as the fifth elder of the Xia family, furthermore

is the second ranked army officer who became important general Xia Xiang Min.”

Zhuang Sheng was minding his own business eating cakes, again he spat out a

mouthful of tea before again drinking a cup of tea: “Then you truly are a

relative of the emperor, I wonder what is the relations.h.i.+p between Lady Xia and

him?”

Xia Ling

Mei glanced at him: “Are your wounds better?”

Zhuang

Sheng moved his arms around: “The lady is lucky, I’m fine. I only beg of you,

next time Xiao Sheng bares his flesh, please don’t hang me on the memorial

arch, that place presses painfully on people, with the sun s.h.i.+ning, the marble scalded

my skin. Me getting scalded isn’t a big problem, irritating the well-bred young

lady who adore me to be heart-broken is not good.”

“You acted

like a pervert again?”

“Who did!”

Zhuang Sheng scowled, beckoning a waiter over, asking the other person to bring

a good pot of wine, before again frivolously winking at Xia Ling Mei: “Recently

I’ve been busy with something, after I finished I came to find you.”

Xia Ling

Mei was suspicious: “To seek revenge?”

“No,”

Zhuang Sheng crossed his left leg over his right, laughing as he said: “I came

to find the lady to ask for a bit of expense for psychological damage. You must

know, hanging a grown man like me completely exposed in public, is not right.”

Xiu Yu angrily

said: “You came to extort us!”

“You

shouldn’t say it like that. You didn’t do anything to me, at most you stole the

last best room in the middle of the night; you also didn’t plot against me, at

most you only let your bodyguards rough me up, I was completely fine only after

three days; You also didn’t slander me, at most you only stripped the innocent

me like a poached chicken, suspending me in public for everyone to see.” His

eyes wide, he innocently said: “If the lady thinks these things are enough to

make us enemies, then fine, I came to extort you. Ladies how much money do you

have, hand it all over.”

Xia Ling

Mei had travelled extensively, she met a lot of people, she had also met people

like this who took the opportunity to blackmail people. But, she was certain

her opponent was smarter than other blackmailers from before, at least, the

things he said to provoke her did not have much harm. At least he didn’t say

something like `this master is here to sort you out`, instead casually he ate

their light refreshments and drank their tea. This confident and ease, truly

was hard for nasty people to portray.

She was

slightly interested: “Outside of home, those I can rely on are friends. If

money can eliminate our enmity…”

“Don’t

think of using a little money to get rid of me.” Zhuang Sheng interrupted,

staring at her in the eyes: “The elder cousin of Dayan’s current Imperial

Consort, external relative of the Xia family, the eldest daughter of the second

wife, Xia Ling Mei.”

Xia Ling

Mei threw away her mask of pretence: “You investigated me.”

Zhuang

Sheng held the wine pot and poured all of the liquid into his own bottle gourd,

nonchalantly said: “Know yourself, know your enemy. If I didn’t understand your

history, how could I open my mouth to quote a price. Fifty thousand, hand it

over right now. If you don’t, on the spot I can let everyone hear your past right

here, providing an amus.e.m.e.nt to everyone during their leisure time.” He lifted

his eyelid, shrugging his shoulder as he smiled: “A young lady of a rich family

who should have stayed at home in her bedroom but actually appeared in a tiny

place like Chenzhou, were you disowned by your family leading you to wonder the

Jianghu, or where you tricked by a scoundrel, leaving home to elope…”

“Shut up.”

“Could it

be you really eloped?” Zhuang Sheng laughed loudly, “Don’t tell me you were

lured to Chenzhou by Lord Gu…ah, wei, you lioness, don’t frequently take your

whip to thrash people.”

Xia Ling

Mei bared her teeth: “If I beat you to death I get rid of many problems, also

fifty thousand, fine.”

Zhuang

Sheng wailed out loud, jumping up from his chair, instead of retreating he

repeatedly attacked her wrist, he wanted to thereby take control of her whip.

However, he clearly forgot about the two maids, as he was moving forward to

attack, Xiu Yu had already with one move poked his belt.

“Oi, little

maid do you want to molest Xiao Sheng?” He only had the time to clutch one side

of his trousers, preventing himself from being a complete featherless poached

chicken again, or his bottom half being featherless. Just as he had finished

speaking, a hot pot of tea came at him right in the face, burning him that he

leapt about: “My body is wet, my body is wet, you have to take responsibility

for me.”

Ying s.h.i.+

held the empty teapot, the corner of her mouth twitched, she just happened to

see the glimpse of severity in her lady’s eyes, this was a desire to murder.

The

reputation of a daughter of the Xia family, was not permitted to be slandered

or vilified 

by anyone.

Zhuang

Sheng was besieged by the shouting and screaming of the three women, from that

window he jumped to another window, in between his movement his trousers slide

down several times carelessly, Xia Ling Mei’s whip seemed to demand his

chast.i.ty – managing to 

follow him like the shadow of an evil tyrant.

Saliva was

still flying out of the storyteller’s mouth downstairs: “The boss of the

pirates had 

a s.h.i.+ny smooth head, missing an eye, with just half a leg he still

charged and broke through 

enemy lines. His target was our Dayan’s General-in-Chief

who Guards the Army, Xia Xiang Min. The bald pirate charged towards him, his

long sword pointed directly at the lofty motionless General Xia. Suddenly, the

air split to reveal a rainbow dyed with blood, directly from the lower half of

the bald pirate. Only a screech of `oh----` was heard, the baldy…”

“Oh----,

oh----“ Zhuang Sheng jumped into the corridor from the window.

“Hey,

storyteller, the baldy cried out.”

“Oh,

oh----“ Zhuang Sheng moved around on the staircase.

“Did the

baldy die?”

“Oh, oh,

oh----“

“Oh you

sc.u.m %**&（）*——）（）%&” The angry listeners swarmed around, beating the

young man down who was shrieking miserably, holding up his trousers and jumping

about.

Xia Ling

Mei smirked pulling on her blood red whip, one foot stepping on Zhuang Sheng’s

chest, smiling with malicious intentions.

She did not

put pressure on him, but again Zhuang Sheng shrieked: “Lord w.a.n.g, good morning,

you also came to listen to stories? A----“

Xia Ling

Mei was shocked, she only saw the narrow doorway of the teahouse had already

been surrounded by people that it was impenetrable, in the centre right in

front of her was a 

man dressed entirely in green, black clouds over his head,

w.a.n.g Yun Feng.

Inside the

teahouse, the storyteller suddenly banged his wooden gavel block: “So, that is

a dark red whip covered with spikes, and the girl who is wearing a similar

coloured skirt. Only hearing a few `swis.h.i.+ng` sounds, the baldy, gloriously

became the first eunuch amongst pirates.”

“s.h.!.+” The

listeners sighed.

Literally means “Black”.

A

folk art where a singer performer narrates stories from history or fiction.