A Lonesome Fragrance Waiting to be Appreciated 1

2

The memory of a scene, full of fire and cries of battle and fighting returned to her.

"Pingting, wait outside the city. We'll go in to save Father."

"Then...Master, we'll meet again on the cliff at dawn."

Where was the Duke? Master? And what about that mischievous, always-causing-trouble, Dongzhuo?

She remembered that after making the promise, she had set out for the cliff. In her most recent memory, she was definitely already at the cliff. And all of sudden, the back of her head throbbed painfully once before her eyes fade to black...

"You awake?" The curtains were pushed aside, revealing a peering man's face, "You should'a woken ages ago. Any longer, and Zhang Boy would'a beaten ya to death."

Are these people human trafficking troupe? Pingting studied them carefully.

Could it be that I've been caught by human traffickers when Master needs me the most? The number of times Pingting had left the Residence alone throughout her life was scarce and during this exact moment where she was urgently needed, she JUST had to be caught by the human traffickers.

"Okay, I'm gonna ask ya somethin'." The man sat inside the carriage and took out the gag in Pingting's mouth. They must have had placed it in her mouth to stop her from screaming for help in case she woke up along the journey. He gave her an intimidating glare, "If you dun' tell meh the truth, I'll feed ya to the wolves."

Pingting nearly laughed at this child-like threat. Why would she be scared? She'd been serving the Marquess of Jing-An, He Xia, since small and she was the only woman who could follow him on his outings. Although she was young, she'd already seen a lot of battles.

Pingting didn't wait for the man to ask his question, asking one of her own instead. "Did you capture me in the city?"

The man looked surprised at her relaxed expression and chuckled, not angrily. "Yeah."

"How long did I sleep for?"

"Two days and a half."

Pingting went pale when she heard this, stunned in shock.

If she had been sleeping for the last two days, then the king's soldiers would have begun searching around the capital, making it very difficult for her Master and the others to stay at the agreed place, near the cliffs. Her heart sped up as she asked, "Where are you taking me?"

"To the..." the man suddenly stopped, realising something was wrong. "Eh? Yer know I'm the one askin' questions ere, right?" He gave her a ferocious expression. "Say, which rich family have you escaped from, runaway wife? Where's your home?"

Runaway wife?

Pingting hesitated, lowering her head and studied herself.

Although she was only a servant of her residence, her Master had always cherished her and so she'd gotten things that were even more expensive than the ladies of normal households. Her clothes looked expensive and she had been riding away from the city at an odd hour so the trafficker had naturally thought that she had run away from her husband.