A Lonesome Fragrance Waiting to be Appreciated 1

42

"Straight ahead. Can you see that strip of land where those sheep are grazing on? Go through there and at the fork, go right. You'll get there in about half a day by horse." The old man was holding preserved foods for the winter. He looked up, "It's so cold, yet you still have to go?"

"Yep!" She thanked the old man, then mumbled, "Sheep on a strip of land..."

It was right ahead.

She thought of her master's smile and wondered how he would react when he saw her.

She couldn't suppress the joy in her heart; she pushed the horse to go a little faster.

Arriving at the thin strip of grass, she saw that her path was a valley wide enough for three horses to pass through simultaneously, but the sky up ahead was still a relatively thin gap.

Grey-white light shone through the gap.

Pingting stopped at the entrance.

The wind that came from the valley was bitter, bone-piercingly cold. The cold matched the sound of crunching gravel.

The air was like a morbid omen.

"Pursuers..." Pingting's delicate mouth sighed, as if to feel the danger. Pingting suddenly jerked her horse and whipped it, hard.

"Go!"

The little black horse seemed to have also felt the danger. It reared up, before bounding into the valley.

Then came their eerie predators.

They could hear the rumbling of hooves behind them. Figures suddenly appeared, like demons arising from the earth.

Pursuing soldiers, pursuing soldiers!

The Duke of Zhen-Bei's soldiers were here!

It was like they were trying to overpower the white earth.

They were getting closer and closer, it was almost deafening. It was difficult not to imagine that murderous intent in the air, with soldiers and their swords flashing in silver light.

Pingting didn't look back, just galloped forward.

Something roared within her, but it was immediately replaced by dismay.

"Yangfeng!" Came the rich voice, sweet to her ears.

Chu Beijie was here.

Her slender body trembled, but Pingting pretended not to hear, she continued to gallop forward.

Faster, faster! The wind whipped against her face, it hurts.

"Bai Pingting!" The same voice, except this time it was adorned with anger.

Pingting was shaking.

She knew this person's sweet voice very well.

He said that they will never be apart.

He said that when spring came, he would personally pick a flower for her every day.

But now he was angry, like the lions, who sought blood.

All she could picture was a battlefield. When a powerful army strikes to defeat an enemy, the blood thirsty cry like demons commanding a massacre.

The hooves seemed to get closer, as if they were right behind her.

She tried her best to speed up by using the whip again.

But before the whip had actually gone down, someone had already pulled the whip out of her hands and had wrapped his arms around her waist, as if trying to prove some point.

"Ah!" She exclaimed as she fell into an embrace that smelled of gunpowder.

Opening her eyes, she saw a pair of very dangerous looking black pupils.

"You sure ran away far." He used one hand to guide the horse, the other to hold his captive. Chu Beijie forced a smile, "Look at you, so disobedient, escaping this far."

Despite knowing the danger, Pingting had to ask him something. "When did you realize I was Bai Pingting?"

"All right, not too late." He peered down at her, as if calculating her.

Slender neck, white hands, delicate face.

Her eyes were too calm. She certainly didn't know what real torture was, nor did she know how dangerous the angry Duke of Zhen-Bei was like.

How am I going to punish her?

"Where's Dongzhuo?" she gave up struggling because she knew that it was impossible to escape from his arms.