Book 1: Winds Begin to Blow in Tai Yuan
Chapter 28 – Framed for Marriage Destruction
Her fingers silently rubbed in her sleeves, wiping away the sweat on her fingertips. Meng Fuyao calmly turned, looking at the murderous glare from Pei Yuan’s eyes, then smiled and said, “Pei, Yuan.”
“I knew it was you.” Pei Yuan’s vision swept across her body like a brush. She said in a deep voice, “Just looking at your figure, I got a familiar feeling … Meng Fuyao, you didn’t die.”
“If you haven’t died yet, how would I dare to die?” Meng Fuyao laughed. “I haven’t even had time to take revenge yet.”
Pei Yuan had already took a step forward, but hearing this she paused instead. Thinking, she then coldly laughed. “Trying to feign ignorance? Hasn’t your revenge already been taken? The wounds on my face, you dare to say that they are not your masterpiece?”
“What don’t I dare to say?” Meng Fuyao didn’t retreat, but instead strode forward a step, her gaze lifting to directly shoot towards Pei Yuan’s eyes. Her brilliant clear eyes didn’t even flinch in the face of Pei Yuan’s deeply cold, murderous stare. “I actually truly wish that those wonderful cuts on your face were my masterpiece. Look at that X, drawn so well it satisfies one’s heart.”
“You!” Pei Yuan’s whole body slightly shook, the clenching of her teeth sounding from behind the face veil. However, the uncertainty in her eyes became even stronger – Meng Fuyao’s unexpected forthrightness, made the suspicious Pei Yuan hesitate. She bit her teeth while pondering for a while, before a fierceness flashed in her eyes, and she hatefully yelled, “Not right! After you fell down the cliff we didn’t meet each other again. Right now with my face is covered by the veil, how would you know about the cuts on my face?”
Meng Fuyao was waiting for exactly this question, but her face revealed a speechless, panicked expression, and she retreated back a step without speaking. Pei Yuan definitely wouldn’t let her off, and quickly forced in front of her. “Say! How did you know!”
Meng Fuyao’s hands were covered in her sleeves. She slanted her head to look at her, then suddenly said, “Hey, Pei Yuan, coming so close to me, aren’t you afraid of me striking out and killing you?”
In agitation Pei Yuan had lost her composure, and only after Fuyao’s reminder did she remember that Fuyao’s martial arts were better than her’s. Hesitating for a bit, she slightly s.h.i.+fted backwards by a step, then sneered, “If it was somewhere else I would have to be careful of you, but fortunately right now we are in the Tai Yuan imperial palace. Thirty steps out are the palace guards. With only one call from me you’ll become meat paste, Meng Fuyao, how about you watch yourself instead.”
Crossing her arms, Meng Fuyao leisurely rested against a hallway column. “Come then, smash me into meat paste, or will you be like last time and quietly try to kill me? Then, congratulations, you will never know who the true nemesis who ruined your life is.”
“My true nemesis is you.” Pei Yuan’s eyes flashed as she looked Meng Fuyao up and down. “In front of me, you don’t have to waste your time playing tricks.”
Tilting her head, Fuyao suddenly smiled. Straightening her waist and standing up, she coquettishly beckoned with her finger. “Pei Yuan, what are you doubting about? How about you just attack me now, why are you still talking rubbish? You’re not stupid, you naturally know that that night I already had serious wounds on my body. Even if I fell down and survived by a fluke, you also know that it isn’t possible for me to recover my strength and a.s.sa.s.sinate you in that short amount of time, right?”
Pei Yuan’s pupils contracted, this was exactly the source of uncertainty in her heart. Yet, that night the only one she had made enemies with was Meng Fuyao, after which Fuyao had suffered serious harm. If it wasn’t her, how could there be such coincidental timing?
“I’ll tell you the truth.” Meng Fuyao constantly observed her expressions, and had long seen through her thoughts. With an even more careless laugh, “That night I was saved by someone, yet that person who saved me was already your enemy. Saving me was along the way, killing you was their prerequisite.”
“Who?”
“Why should I tell you? Let you kill me after I tell you?” Leaning against the column, Fuyao fiercely shook her head. “Pei Yuan, did you think I was the same as you, my IQ lacking?”
Pei Yuan couldn’t understand what Fuyao was saying, but she felt that it wasn’t anything good. With a furrow of her brows, she angrily said, “I’ll capture you first!”
Meng Fuyao’s hands spread.
“Come, come on. Do you believe me when I say, that in the moment when you call for the guards, I’ll definitely have enough time to help you draw another X.”
Pei Yuan’s voice almost came out of her mouth before she swallowed it. Her mouth was still opened, in that instant suddenly hesitating.
Opposite, Meng Fuyao smiled flippantly and with insolence, her eyes full of self-confidence. In her spread hands, her pinky was slightly bent while three fingers lay flat in a completely mysterious starting technique. Pei Yuan had never seen this form of hand position before, and even more so was suppressed by Meng Fuyao’s casual att.i.tude. That call of “Someone come!”, was stuck on the tip of her tongue rolling around several times, yet still didn’t come out.
From start to end Fuyao had on a smile. That smile lit up under the sunlight like a piece of high quality Polaris snow satin flying in the wind, pure and clean, expansive like the clouds. That type of smile drifted in Tai Yuan imperial palace’s vivid deep purple hibiscus and resplendent golden emperor chrysanthemums, as if a flowing spring. Nearby, uncountable numbers of lush green flora grew.
No one knew that in the s.p.a.ces between her spread out fingers, a thin layer of sweat had long formed already.
With a gust of wind, coldness ran from her fingertips down to under her feet.
Pei Yuan’s character had always been malevolent. Even if she believed that she wasn’t the perpetrator, she would still want to seize her, and with the perverse state of mind she was in now, it would be hard to prevent her from giving her an X as well.
Fuyao could only struggle and act as a large tailed wolf, entrusting her hopes in Pei Yuan’s cautiousness.
Pei Yuan’s vision didn’t leave Fuyao’s face for even a second. Her eyes flickered, and her feet finally slightly moved.
She retreated backwards a step.
Meng Fuyao stood still like a boulder, repressing her impulse to flee when she saw Pei Yuan walk back.
Pei Yuan stared at her infinitely mysterious “Breaking Nine Heavens” starting hand position. Her eyes fluctuated, and she retreated again, and again.
Gradually, she walked out of range of each other’s attacks.
Silently releasing a held breath, Meng Fuyao noiselessly s.h.i.+fted her body. Her back sweat clung to her clothes, and was itchy from it trickling down.
Pei Yuan coldly looked at her, then said “Tell me, who harmed me. I will promise to never harm you in this life. If you don’t, then even if I will get injured, I still won’t let you leave with a whole body.”
Meng Fuyao blinked. “Really?”
“Of course.” Pei Yuan haughtily said, “The words of this Princess, have never been false.”
“You have to take an oath.” Meng Fuyao laughed. “If you go back on your words, the X on your face will split into more Xs, your whole body will be full of Os and Xs, your whole family will be full of Os and Xs.”
“You —” Pei Yuan was so furious that she tilted her head back to look at the sky. After grinding her teeth for a while, she actually truly followed along and pledged. After hearing the phrase “my whole family will be full of Os and Xs,” her stomach was filled with crazy laughter. On the surface, however, she solemnly said, “Hey, once I tell you, you can’t say that I was the one who told you. That person basically isn’t even human, I definitely don’t want to offend him.”
“Who?” Pei Yuan’s question leapt out from the gaps of her teeth, and almost seemed to cause sparks to fly out.
“His surname is Yuan, name is Bao.” Meng Fuyao replied with a straight face.
At some faraway place, Master Yuanbao suddenly sneezed.
“Yuanbao?” Pei Yuan frowned while repeating, then softly said, “This name …”
“A master of the wilds, that name is only an alias. I heard that this person was an aloof expert whom your family’s rivals, the Yun family, had asked to come. Common people have never heard of his name.” Fuyao lightly smiled. Yuanbao oh Yuanbao, who told you to bully others? I’ll frame you for this crime. Besides, you truly are not a human, and besides, you truly did have a part in Pei Yuan’s wounds.
After hearing her explanations, Pei Yuan started to gradually believe her. With chilly, savage eyes she said, “Who cares about some aloof master. If this debt isn’t repaid, I swear that I am not human!”
She watched Meng Fuyao, not reconciled in her heart. Thinking of how despite Yan Jingchen not knowing that her appearance was destroyed, he still seemed like his mind didn’t belong when he was with her, she felt deep hatred inside. It was unfortunate that this woman’s martial arts were stronger than her’s, and Jingchen was nearby as well. She had no a.s.surance of being able to kill in one strike, otherwise …
Her thought had not yet finished, when in the distance a figure’s sweeping voice came. The person’s voice was like metal and rocks, and containing a bit of anger he shouted in a deep voice:
“Meng Fuyao! You sure can run! Looks like sealing your true qi was not enough, I should break your legs instead!”