Cold Blooded Wife

98 Wu Xingxie's Marriage (16)

As the festival went on, Wu Xingxie chose to go sight seeing much to General Tang's dismay. He suggested they end the day and return home but Wu Xingxie was not having it.

It was her first time experiencing the festival so how could she just leave? The events earlier had put her in a bad mood but Sizheng convinced her to enjoy the day. The little boy was a ray of sunshine, making her smile softly.

A few hours passed and the sun began to set, but the capital was bustling with festivities and entertainment. Music could be heard throughout the city, people rushing to prepare their lanterns.

"Let's get that one!" Wu Xingxie pointed happily at a particular lantern. The lantern had moon designs on it, revealing the different phases. For some reason, it attracted her attention because of how well done the lantern was made, even though it would be released.

"This one looks better though." General Tang chose a different one and asked the owner if he could have it.

The owner of course said yes. The more lanterns he sold, the better.

"Mr, did you create this? It's so pretty!"
Checking the details of the lantern, Wu Xingxie asked enthusiastically.

The owner froze upon hearing her question and tried to think of a good answer.

In fact, he did not make these lanterns. They were given to him by an unknown person who paid him to sell the lanterns. Not only that, he was told that he could keep the money and didn't have to give a percentage to the person as long as he sold the one with moons on it to a young lady. The person told him it had to be the one with a shawl, hiding away her facial features.

When the owner met Wu Xingxie, he had already knew she had to be the one who the person referred to. Amongst his customers, no one wore a shawl or tried to hide away their faces. Only this lady who came along with an older man and younger boy matched the description.

The owner naturally thought that they were a family of three. However, when he saw how different the way she acted towards the older man versus the boy, he retracted it immediately.

"No, I had them made from a craftsman." The seller stated, and he clearly saw the disappointment in her eyes. It seemed like she really liked the lantern.

"Mr, how about this? If you can introduce me to this talented craftsman, I will pay you 200 in bars of gold for the lantern." Wu Xingxie offered straightforwardly.

The seller's jaw nearly dropped as he stared at the female dumbfounded and thought if she was insane.

200 gold bars for a lantern?

The most expensive one was only 2 gold bars.

The offer was tempting but how was he to find the man who gave him these lanterns?

The middle-aged man bit his finger nails as he glanced back and forth between Wu Xingxie, General Tang and Sizheng.

Neither males gave an reaction so the female could really offer him such a price?

The man opened his mouth, stammering.
"A-Alright, I will set up a meeting for you and the craftsman."

He had no idea where to find that man, but who would be crazy enough to give up 200 bars of gold?

"Then it's a deal. For now, I will only only give you 5 for the lantern. Once I've met the craftsman, I will send you the remaining gold."
Of course, Wu Xingxie was not easily fooled. From his body language and facial expressions, the man clearly had no idea who made the lanterns. She only offered the 200 gold bars to see if he would be honest or not.

Seeing as he had blatantly lied, she chose this.

Hearing her words, the man's smile disappeared as he digested her sentence.

Five was the one she wanted to pay for now? Them why did she offer 200?

The man was upset but he thought,

"I can just ask one of my friends to pretend to be the craftsman. She's never seen him so there's no way she would know!"

Of course, this would lead to his downfall for arranging this.

He accepted the 5 gold bars from Wu Xingxie, smiling evilly as he thought of the rest of the golds.

Excited, Wu Xingxie took her lantern and admired it's designs before telling the others that they should hurry to the river.

"That way, we can light our lanterns and let it go without other people's lanterns."

It was an hour before people gathered by the river for the lanterns so Wu Xingxie took advantage of the time to release hers.

At the river, a few torches had been set up so that people could walk around and see in the dark. The night was a bit chilly since it was autumn but not to the point where one would get sick. Multiple stands had been put up containing candled so that people could ignite the flames to make the lantern fly.

"I'm going to light mine." Wu Xingxie smiled before she grabbed a candle. Walking to one of the torches, she allowed the fire to burn her candle, starting a small flame.

Lighting up her sky lantern, Wu Xingxie's eyes brightened by how it accentuated the moons.
The lantern looked extremely beautiful, almost to the point where she was reluctant to release it.

Having notice her hesitation, General Tang sighed and snatched the lantern, letting it go before she could react.

Wu Xingxie's orbs remained fixated on the lantern as it flew higher and higher, farther away from her grasp. Absentmindedly, she reached her arm out to catch it but the faint face of a mam replaced the lantern momentarily before disappearing.

Gasping, the female stepped backwards, as her pupils dilated, seeing the familiar face again.

The man in my dream......

***
After what happened on the Mid-Autumn Festival, Wu Xingxie's mind started to wonder off where she'd think of the man. She had only seen him in her dreams but now she would see him in different places.

Each time she tried telling Yuyan, her words would get stuck and she couldn't. Wu Xingxie kept her distance from Wei who had returned to silently guard her from the shadows. Since he had taught Wu Xuan all that he knew, he didn't train him anymore. The boy already knew enough to find out what his strengths and weaknesses were in the future.

Of course, no one would be able to prevent what was going to unfold in the near future.