Chapter 93: Getting To Know Each Other Again
“Actually, it’s not that there’s another secret; it’s that I never truly told you my matters.”
Yang Luo felt apologetic.
Mo Zheng let out an “oh” and smiled again: “Actually, you doing this is good. After all, we were strangers at the beginning. Some things you told me, I might not have believed.”
A smile tugged at Yang Luo’s lips. No matter the time, A Sheng could always consider things from others’ perspectives, neither shocked nor complaining.
“Yes, now after traveling together through so much, you understand me better. If I tell you now, you won’t think what I say is unbelievable or a lie.”
She looked at the young girl in the lamplight shadows.
“Actually, I’m not a prophet; I lived once again.”
“The first time I saw you was actually the second time.”
“But the first time, you escorted me down the mountain, and we parted in White Horse Town. I didn’t ask you to be my guard.”
“Then, five years later, I died in the Capital City.”
“After dying, when I opened my eyes again, I was back five years prior, on the night the fierce bandit slaughtered in White Horse Town, and then I encountered you again.”
Mo Zheng listened quietly. Hearing this, she smiled in realization: “No wonder. That night when you saw me, your expression was strange, as if you knew me. Though you explained it as being a prophet, people seen in divination are still strangers after all.”
“I know my reaction must have seemed strange.” Yang Luo said, “Thank you, A Sheng, for still being willing to follow me despite that.”
With that, she simply recounted how she had died.
“Though Zhu Yunxiao didn’t kill me personally, the fact that Jiang Meng was allowed in, and Zhu Yunxiao’s reaction to my stabbing, confirms that my death was inevitably schemed by him.”
Originally married to Zhu Yunxiao, dying at the hands of the husband she had joyfully wed—indeed hateful enough. Each time she had a nightmare, she gnashed her teeth. Mo Zheng shook her head: “Miss, you were too kind. At the time, you should have let me thoroughly break one of his legs. What a pity, I held back my strength and only made him hurt for a month.”
Yang Luo was amused again. Hearing such an unbelievable matter, A Sheng was still so calm and could even joke.
“Sorry, I lied to you back then, saying he would kill you too.” She said, then explained, “But he and his father are indeed related to your death…”
At this point, she paused and looked at Mo Zheng.
“A Sheng, I don’t know what happened to you. In that life, after we parted, you went to become a mountain bandit. The Imperial Court sent soldiers—Duke Yongwu and his son led the troops to exterminate…”
“In the end, you died, your head hung at the Capital City gate for public display.”
Mo Zheng touched her neck, the smile fading from her face: “Not bad, not bad. So that’s how I died, huh.”
A Sheng seemed never to be shocked. Yang Luo was no longer surprised, but to actually say “not bad, not bad” upon hearing of her own death—was she happy about it?
Mo Zheng coughed lightly.
“Let me tell you why I later became a mountain bandit.” She said.
Why? Yang Luo looked at her curiously. Could there be some unresolved issue she sought?
Mo Zheng looked at her: “Because I’ve always been a mountain bandit.”
Always, a mountain bandit?
Yang Luo was stunned for a moment.
“When you encountered me, I was already a mountain bandit.”
Mo Zheng said, apologetic at this point.
“Actually, I’ve also been hiding something from Miss.”
Yang Luo looked at the guard before her with a complex expression, also finding it somewhat amusing. The two of them were miraculous, mutually concealing from each other yet accompanying each other for so long.
“Miss Yang has been so honest with me, I can’t hide from you anymore.”
“I am indeed an orphan, but the grandfather who raised me wasn’t a hunter, but a mountain bandit, so I’ve been a mountain bandit since childhood.”
“When you encountered me, I sensed mountain bandits invading my territory and came to check, then saved you.”
“The reason I agreed to be your guard was because soldiers were searching for mountain bandits, and I had no choice here.”
She had long known this guard had many peculiarities—like a hunter but not quite. So she was a mountain bandit.
Then many things made sense.
Hearing this, Yang Luo coughed lightly.
“It was good that you hid it from me before.” She said, “Just as you said, we were strangers. If you’d told me then you were a mountain bandit, I probably would have run scared. Now after traveling together, I know your character. You telling me the truth now, I don’t find you scary.”
Mo Zheng touched her nose and coughed lightly: “Miss is wise. Then, there’s one more thing…”
Ah, what else? Yang Luo looked at her. This guard had even more secrets than she did.
Mo Zheng didn’t speak, turned and walked to the door, put her hand to her mouth, and made three short birdsongs.
Moments later, a low voice sounded outside the door: “Young Master.”
“It’s fine, I asked you to come meet Miss Yang.” Mo Zheng said, reaching out to open the door.
The dim lamp flickered. Yang Luo saw two figures at the doorway, one in front of the other, one tall and sturdy, one slight and soft.
Even without seeing their faces clearly, having been neighbors so long, Yang Luo recognized them at a glance.
These were the butcher couple next door.
Mo Zheng coughed lightly: “Let me reintroduce them. They are my companions, also mountain bandits.”
Yang Luo was stunned.
Tao Hua walked in with a smile, sheathed the dual sabers in her hand behind her waist, then pulled Zhang Sheng You: “Don’t just stand there, come greet Miss Yang.”
Zhang Sheng You also sheathed the axe in his hand behind him and walked in.
“Miss Yang.” They said, cupping hands in respect.
She had said it before: since rebirth, the one bringing her the most shocks was this guard… Yang Luo couldn’t help laughing, shook her head. No wonder she always felt something off about these two neighbors—they were with the guard, so many things made sense.
“Big Brother Zhang, Sister Tao Hua.” She smiled and returned the courtesy.
Mo Zheng said: “I’ve already been frank with Miss Yang about my identity. This way, it’ll be more convenient for what comes next.”
She looked at Yang Luo.
“They’ve always been assisting me, guarding you, guarding this house. For any emergencies, you can find them and trust them.”
Yang Luo nodded, smiling again at the butcher couple in respect: “Thank you for your trouble.”
……
…….
“Then the beggars on the street…”
“Those aren’t mountain bandits. It’s our mountain bandits’ method—when arriving at a place, we use beggars to scout all kinds of news.”
To avoid waking the Liu Family master and disciple, Zhang Sheng You and Tao Hua quickly left.
Yang Luo and Mo Zheng continued talking.
“But I don’t have much more to say.” Yang Luo smiled bitterly. “Though I’ve lived once before, I lived in a daze, not even knowing why I died.”
She recounted the process of her death once more.
“After rebirth, I thought carefully about many things, plus the old matters of Duke Ding’an’s Yang Family I investigated after arriving in the Capital City. I have a guess about my own identity and the cause of my death.”
At this point, she pointed to Mo Zheng’s front.
Mo Zheng took out the jade pendant hanging from her neck and looked at it under the lamp, listening to Yang Luo’s soft voice.
“I guess my mother was once wed to the Emperor, and my birth father is the Emperor.”
Mo Zheng looked up at her: “So your death is related to this.”
“Everyone knows the Emperor and Empress are childhood sweethearts. If he was wed to my mother and had me as a child, if this got out, both the Emperor and the Chai Clan would lose face…” Yang Luo looked at her.
“So Duke Ding’an and his wife went to such lengths to conceal your identity.” Mo Zheng continued softly, “That’s why after your last trip to the Capital City, you were confined at home, cut off from the outside world until marriage, then killed, with the cause being the younger sister of the previous wife killing her sister’s husband’s remarried wife out of jealousy.”
So this marriage was deliberately arranged, the purpose being to have her die in an absurd but plausible domestic affair.
The murderer also died, and this matter and this tragic bride vanished silently from the world, unmentioned and uncared for by anyone.
“But this matter shouldn’t just be schemed by Duke Ding’an and Zhu Yunxiao alone. Before dying, I heard them say they needed to report to the Imperial Palace.” Yang Luo said softly. “Though in the previous life I didn’t know what happened, this time, with us disguising identities as princess companion readers, it shows that with my uncle’s family’s power, they couldn’t arrange it at all, so… someone in the Imperial Palace must know of my existence.”
Mo Zheng looked at her: “So you guess the Imperial Palace punishing me wasn’t an accident, but deliberate.” At this, she realized, “No wonder Duke Ding’an said the Empress doesn’t like me…”
Yang Luo lowered her gaze to the jade pendant cradled in A Sheng’s palm under the lamp. She extended her finger and gently stroked it.
“If my identity is really as I guess, the Empress certainly wouldn’t like me.”
“The Emperor… can he tolerate me?”
