Ten Months On

Chapter 9: Forest

In the evergreen glade forest, two suspicious figure roamed.

"Mi-- Master, this servant feels troubled. Deeply troubled."

"Hush on your complaints already. Hadn't I already told you earlier that we will no longer be living comfortable lives? Yet you still insisted to follow me."

A suspicious voice replied back. If one were to listen closely, one would realise that the voices sounded unnatural, as if the voices were too hoarse and low to be normal.

Sniffs and mutters of complaints follow behind the shorter figure of the two.

Yuan looked at her mistress resentfully.

"Mi-- Master, but why do we need to change into male clothing? These clothes are so smelly. We didn't need to pick these clothes off those bandits. And and--"

Yuan pointed at the slim figure that stood leisurely under the tree.

"Why does Sui get to wear female clothing?"

Su Chen rolled her eyes for the umpteenth time.

She spun around and glared at her maid.

"Yua- Yun. I have already told you that we would need to travel as males for the time being until we reached North Wind district. It wasn't entirely my fault that someone," she glared at Yuan, "someone forgot to pack male clothing for us. It was to our fortune that some kind bandits came and offered us their clothing that we could get away from that carriage and continued on with our plan."

At the mention of these "kind" bandits, Steward Mo smiled reluctantly. Only their Miss would say that the threatening attitude of those coarse bandits were "inviting" them to take the clothes off their backs and leave them on the roadside half dead. Then again, Sui, the silent female with her hair worn in a high ponytail, gave him a fright when she easily took down the 7 bandits that recklessly came after them. He never knew that the silent maid who served tea in Wang- erm, Miss' room was so formidable.

"Our wise "Master" Chen is right, Yun. Heading to North Wind with females in the group is asking for more trouble. It's already fortuitous that only one bandit group caught sight of us. Let's not ask for more," a lazy voice replied back.

Up on the tree, Yun Yang gave his two cents as he twirled the piece of grass he had been chewing aimlessly.

Yun Yang had the choice to stay and manage the few establishments under Ninth Prince. But under the threa-- peaceful conversations he had with Su Chen, he realised that without a backer in Ninth Prince's Residence, Yun Yang was one of the many disposable employees the Ninth Prince was not aware about.

Rather than to risk death once the new Wang Fei was married in, Yun Yang fle-- followed Su Chen along this adventurous and fun journey Su Chen had planned.

"Yua-- Yun, unless you can defeat 7 men with one hand, you too can wear female clothing. If not, then zip your mouth. We are still 5 miles from the waterfall. We need to get there by nightfall," snapped Su Chen. She will never admit that yes, the clothes she wore truly smelt. And she needs to get to that damn waterfall to wash the smell off herself.

The party of five trudged their way past the forest and into the thicket of bushes overhead.

As they made their way, nobody realised that a certain someone was watching them. Not even Sui realised that someone was perched high above watching and listening onto their every move.

"What an interesting find."

The figure smirked before deciding to follow the group.

***
Night approached and the group set up a simple tent and a small fire.

Despite living the high life the past 17 years and ten months,  Su Chen was already used to roughing it up. It had been five days since the "accident". No one had bothered looking for her, nor had she seen anyone around these few days besides the bandits.

At the thought of the items she had the foresight to ship over first to North Wind, she felt a teeny bit better over losing such a fine carriage and the few boxes of her "dowry" in the accident.

Yuan had bugged her incessantly on her decision to fake her death. Even though she was a divorced woman, she at least had a place to stay and freedom. The money the prince had given her was enough to last her a lifetime.

But Yuan didn't understand.

Even though she separated from Ninth Prince, she was still tied to his boat. Should any troubles appear, she would still need to consider both the Sun family and Ninth Prince Residence.

No no.

Better to start afresh somewhere and live a happy life. Who knows, with all the money she'll earn, she'll probably be able find a man to marry and support.

But for now, survival is her first priority. She had underestimated the treacherous forests. With more people streaming in to visit the capital and view the Autumn Tournament, more bandits too roamed the forests, preying on wealthy weak merchants or innocent citizens.

The group of bandits she met were rather weak, and she became the bandit that robbed them instead. Yet, when she trawled through their loot, she realised that the bandits she had met had at least robbed three other groups. In fact, she was worried that the bandits belonged to a bigger group and that the other members of the group would search for the people who had robbed their friends.

With this in mind, Su Chen ran over her escape plan.

It would take at least 5 more days to get to North Wind. If they travel with haste, they should reach the outskirts of North Wind in 3 days. There, they could rest up at an inn and stock up on their diminishing resources.

Although Steward Mo had planned their resources well, one should still take precautions. Furthermore, as she travelled the roads, she planned to use this time to find out more about North Wind. Her plans for the future were hazy at best. She knew she wanted to venture into business. But what business would flourish in the mountainous regions of the North left her blank.

"Master. The bath is ready!"

Yuan's voice woke Su Chen up from her reverie.

A piping hot bath after five days was a luxury. The fact that Yuan insisted to bring the barrel of wood from the bandits' loot proved to be the best treasure there was there. With warm water gathered from the waterfall inside the barrel, heated by the stones that they had left near the fire, Su Chen quickly undressed and slid into the warm pool of water with a sigh.

She closed her eyes in bliss as her muscles relaxed before a soft whistle broke her peaceful moment.

Immediately, Yuan threw the clothes she had near her towards the barrel and glared around her while Sui drew her sword. Sui was on alert but yet she could not sense anything. Her nervous state could be seen in the tight grip she had on her sword.

The three women were on guard.

"Apologies, ladies. I did not mean to alarm your young miss, but the pipsqueak really surprised me. She was more... delectable than I thought."

A tall brawny figure emerged from the trees and jumped down. Yet he remained hidden within the shadows.

"Who are you?"