Noble's Woman Guide

Chapter 9 - Climbing the wall

The weather turned gloomily cold after the high tide in the Yijiang river which caused dampness in the front and rear of the mansion. Chu Jinglan's knees would dully ache whenever such weather arrived as he had suffered a very serious injury before. Not only was he unwilling to see the physician, he would still sit and read in the backyard pavilion for the whole day which nearly infuriated Lu Heng to death.

"I can see that you are really idle. Why not just agree to Ye Huaiyang's proposal!"

Lu Heng raised the hem of his robe before taking a seat on the stone bench and with a frown, he stared at Chu Jinglan's knees which was covered by a thin blanket. It didn't appear to be any major problem but only he would know how intense it was if the old injury flared up. Yet the person concerned was just sitting there without a care, so how could Lu Heng not be angry?

"Nonsense." Chu Jinglan turned the page of the book he was holding without raising his head, obviously not taking those words seriously.

"I however have seriously considered this. No matter how, it's after all a worthwhile deal of getting a Ye family by ridding one Bai family, but I just have to find out what exactly is Ye Huaiyang's objective. She seems to know what we want to do and this is not a good thing."

As his usual habit, Lu Heng stroked his chin and enthusiastically reckoned but Chu Jinglan immediately changed the subject, "How's the inclinations of the royal court and the people these days?"

"Everything is just as you have anticipated; very calm. Basically no one knows the assassination attempt on King Lan mansion, but everybody is discussing about the appearance of Bai Zihao and you in Yujing restaurant at the same time. Now everyone from the Bai family is on tenterhooks."

Chu Jinglan fixed his gaze as he placed the book back on the glossy marble table before he slowly said, "This is the result that Ye Huaiyang seems to ask for."

Lu Heng was well aware of the situation and sighed, "Her stratagem of sowing discord was truly ingenious. Without moving a sword or a spear, she has managed to sow the seeds of suspicion on the Bai family. According to this approach, there will most probably be more provocation.... Ai.. this Ye Huaiyang is indeed not simple. It is actually good if she truly wants to cooperate with us, but it will certainly be troublesome if she is a chess piece controlled by the Eastern Palace that was deliberately used to lure us to take the bait."

His implication had just fallen through when some rustling sound suddenly came through from the top of the wall which was twenty meters outside the room. Lu Heng instantly became alert. He gave the shadow guard a glance before several mysterious lights shot towards the top of the wall. They probed their hands over the wall and unexpectedly pulled out a shaggy big fellow!

In a split second, everybody fell into an unusual silence.

That big fellow was lying horizontally on top of the wall with half of its body in King Lan mansion and the other half in Ye manor. Its round belly was suspended in midair and was slightly shaking which was indeed hilarious. In the beginning, it would just blink its eyes and look around but soon, it started to whiningly cried out as its position might probably not be very comfortable with its movement detained by the shadow guards.

The mouthful of tea was choked in Lu Heng's throat.

"It's the first time for me to see a panda in Wangdu for my age...."

Hearing the movement on this side, Tang Qingfeng immediately ran over but instead was bewildered when he saw this big fellow and mumbled, "No wonder there are so many purchases of bamboo shoots everyday for next door. It must really be for feeding it."