“Got it.” Cang Ying nodded reluctantly. At the sight of Murong Xue, Cang spat with her eyes blazing with anger, “Wuluo, Murong Xue set me up. Go teach her a good lesson for me.”
“Yingying, calm down,” Duan said word by word with a solemn look in his eyes. “It’s not Miss Murong’s fault.”
“Are you suggesting I should let it go and give up the revenge for my suffering?” Cang asked, looking at Duan in surprise. Thanks to Murong, Cang’s face became swollen and almost went numb. How come Cang’s cousin didn’t plan to seek revenge?
“You started all this, so you’re to blame for everything,” Duan answered coldly as he looked at Cang. “Don’t pin the blame on others.”
Cang said with an aggrieved look in her teary eyes, “Wuluo, you’re being biased. This is unfair!”
The one to blame should be Murong, who gave Cang a push, which struck that ugly man as convenient. How come Cang’s cousin blamed it on her, even without showing any support? Cang was pissed off! She didn’t think that she was the one who had brought about so much trouble!
“If you don’t agree with me, just go back and stop messing around in Mingzhou,” Duan replied sharply with a cold look. “You’ve been stirring up trouble almost every single day ever since you came here. And I had to clean up the mess you made, which is troublesome and tiring. Do me a favour, just go.”
His cold voice hurt Cang’s feelings and sent shivers down her spine. Staring at him in shock, Cang said, “I can’t believe that you mean it. I hate you!”
As she shouted, Cang pushed Duan away. Tapping the ground with her tiptoe, she dashed away like an arrow.
Watching her receding figure, Duan heaved a sigh before he turned round to look at Murong Xue. “Yingying has been spoiled rotten. Please forgive her, Miss Murong.”
“Never mind,” Murong replied blandly in a cold and perfunctory tone, and said no more since she didn’t want to know more about such a moron as Cang Ying.
Duan didn’t take it seriously and said with a gentle smile, “It’s getting late. Heir Ouyang, Miss Murong, would you like to spend the night in my mansion?”
Looking up at the sky, Murong noticed it was getting late since the sun had already gone down. “Thank you for your invitation. But we can find inns everywhere.”
She preferred to keep distance from Duan Wuluo because the war between their countries was in a critical state at the moment.
Duan added with a smile, “Inns are too noisy for you to spend the night, but it’s quiet in my place. The two of you need nothing else but a good rest after the long trip. So it’s way better for you to stay in my place than to go to find an inn.”
No matter how good the mansion was, it was just inappropriate for them to stay there!
Murong blinked before she refused again, but Ouyang interrupted, “We hope that’s not too much trouble.”
“My pleasure. It’s late. Let’s go back to my mansion!” Duan smiled mildly as he dashed towards his pleasure boat nearby.
With her eyebrows knitted, Murong looked at Ouyang. Her confused look implied her question. “Why are we going there?”
“To stay for a night. It’s quiet and safe there, way better than bustling inns.” Ouyang looked at her blandly with a meaningful smile.
Murong shot him a piercing stare before she sailed to the pleasure boat leisurely: Ouyang truly favoured silence. If he preferred the Prefect’s Mansion, then that would be the place to stay.
He smiled gently at the sight of the sullen look on Murong’s face. As he stared blandly at the glittering lake, he caught sight of the ugly man who surfaced and was scrambling onto the boat with his hands reached out towards the side of that boat.
Ouyang put on a weird smile. As soon as he snapped his fingers in the sleeve, his inner power burst out and pierced the man’s throat mercilessly. Blood oozing from his wound, the man stiffened and fell into the lake with a splash.
“What happened?” Murong frowned and turned round, but she found nothing except for ripples quivering on the lake.
“Perhaps something from the boat dropped into the lake,” Ouyang explained casually. “It’s getting late. We should go ashore ASAP. Come on.”
“Okay!” Murong nodded before turning round and rowing to the pleasure boat gently: broken pieces were everywhere on the boat, one of which might have dropped into the lake.
Then the man’s dead body soundlessly surfaced on the lake behind her.
Ouyang took a glance at it blandly with a flicker of coldness in his dark eyes. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Murong’s canoe approach the pleasure boat. He strolled to the edge of it and reached out to help her board the boat.
After they went ashore, they had to spend an hour to go to the Prefect’s Mansion by carriage.
As night fell, the Prefect’s Mansion was still as bright as it was in the daytime, lit up by lanterns. Behind Duan Wuluo and Ouyang Shaochen, Murong Xue walked along the passage paved with flagstones, looking around casually.
In the mansion, exquisite pavilions came into sight first, followed by the bridge over a flowing stream. Across the bridge, the passage, along which pillars finely engraved with famous verses stood, stretched through the garden where rockeries rose one after another.
It put a glint in Murong’s eyes. The mansion was decorated in a magnificent and refined style, which indicated Duan’s taste of beauty.
“Murong Xue!” a surprised voice suddenly rang. Following it, Murong saw the bright-eyed young man who looked refined and mysterious in a black brocade robe with his smooth black hair tied up with a purple and gold crown. He put an innocent smile on his flawless face before he walked to Murong hurriedly and held her hands. “Murong Xue, it is really you!”
With vigilance in his eyes, Ouyang stepped in front of Murong and looked at Gong Qianyu coldly, “Your Highness, a man is not supposed to touch a lady.”