Who among the gangsters wants to fall in love?

Chapter 376: The Princess in Trouble
It was the end of June, the height of summer, the night sky was clear, the moon was like a silver plate, and it was refreshing. However, a wildfire burned half the sky red, startling the villagers in all directions.

They hurriedly put on their clothes, held torches in their hands, and gathered at the entrance of the village to make a noise for a while. Then they rushed down the mountain. Looking from the moonlight, the crowd looked like fireflies.

In the straw stack, Luo Xiangzhu had calmed down and wiped his eyes with his sleeves. When he heard the noise around him, he quickly got up, picked up the inlaid gold Boshan furnace and the bronze bell and put them together in the straw stack to prevent them from being picked up by someone with long arms.

This obviously could not be hidden from the villagers who came closer. When they saw Luo Xiangzhu's dress was disheveled, her hair was messy, her face was also dusty and dirty, and she was still so fond of the "iron pot", they thought she must be a refugee and called out loudly to the people around her.

"A stream of Zhime Zhaolu!"

Luo Xiangzhu frowned slightly and tilted her face... What are these people chattering about?

It obviously doesn't sound like the Central Plains Mandarin...

She pondered for a few seconds, then her face turned pale. Are she and Zhao Wumian going to a foreign country?
Looking at the clothes of the people, they were wearing coarse cloth short jackets with a front opening, or it was late at night and they had no time to tie their hats, so their hair was disheveled. They were dressed like people from the Central Plains, so I guessed they were not from the grassland.

It would be nice if it wasn't grassland...

While she was thinking, the villagers gathered around her with torches in their hands, talking incoherently for a long time, pointing at the wildfire from time to time, with angry faces and a lot of excitement.

Live by the mountain, eat by the mountain; live by the water, eat by the water. Did you set the fire? ?
Among them, the hunter from the west of the village was the most ferocious. He held a torch in one hand and a short knife in the other, waving it up and down, pointing at Luo Xiangzhu and screaming.

The sharp blade looks like the fangs of a hungry wolf.

Luo Xiangzhu had never seen such a scene since she was a child. She was surrounded by villagers and couldn't leave. She wanted to say that she would compensate, but she didn't have any valuables on her, not even a piece of jewelry.

Zhao Wumian didn't have any money on him, and the only thing he could mortgage was the Wuhen Sword, which looked very valuable at first glance. As for the rest, the villagers probably wouldn't recognize any elixir tokens.

But how could Luo Xiangzhu use Zhao Wumian's things as collateral? It seemed that Luo Xiangzhu would not be able to leave unless she handed over something valuable. She was in a dilemma and was afraid. At this moment, the crowd fell silent, and it turned out that the village chief came hurriedly.

The village chief was an old man in his sixties. He looked at Luo Xiangzhu for a few times and noticed that although she looked disheveled, her temperament, appearance and the material of her clothes were not like those of an ordinary person. Instead, she looked like a powerful person in distress, so he couldn't help but look a little cautious.

After saying a few words, he saw that Luo Xiangzhu didn't understand and looked confused. He thought for a moment before speaking in broken Central Plains Mandarin, word by word:

"You are from Central Plains?"

Luo Xiangzhu looked overjoyed and nodded repeatedly, then pointed to his throat and shook his head gently.

The Central Plains in Dali is just an area, similar to Yanyun and Shu, but you don’t need to pay attention to these details in a foreign country... The Central Plains refers to Dali.

"A person who can't speak... a Central Plains person?"

The village chief showed understanding on his face, and couldn't help but look Luo Xiangzhu up and down again. He didn't expect that such a girl with such luxurious clothes would be born so pitiful.

He explained to the surrounding villagers, and then asked: "Are you... a noble?"

Luo Xiangzhu still nodded. This elegant and clean temperament alone was not something that an ordinary wealthy family could cultivate.

She bent down, gritted her teeth and helped Zhao Wumian up, pointed at the blood at the corner of his mouth, then flipped her small hands in the air, as if counting silver bills.

This is her companion. Could you give her some food? It would be even better if we could have a doctor. I will definitely reward her handsomely in the future.

Seeing her temperament, the village chief believed it a little. Mainly, he was afraid that if this girl was really a noble from the Central Plains, and they did not treat her well enough, her family would come to ask for punishment. The imperial court would not offend the Celestial Empire for the sake of their small village.

No matter whether he is a liar or not, it's just some food, just give it to him, it's no big deal. The village chief will weigh the severity of the matter.

Luo Xiangzhu watched as the village chief said a few words to the surrounding villagers, and the villagers dispersed, but most of them looked somewhat unwilling.

The mountain was burned down, but there was no explanation, so they were naturally dissatisfied.

As for putting out the fire... they don't have the ability to do so. They can only hope for a rainy day, otherwise they can only wait for the wildfire to burn everything around.

Luo Xiangzhu looked slightly happy. She supported Zhao Wumian and followed the village chief. She didn't have the strength to carry the bronze bell and the gold-inlaid Boshan furnace, so several little kids came jumping over to help her carry them. It seemed that they rarely saw her as a stranger and were excited.

The village chief's house has an architectural style of three courtyards, one screen wall, four courtyards and five patios. There are many four-sided courtyards in the Central Plains, and it is obvious that this country has been deeply influenced by the Central Plains.

Luo Xiangzhu helped Zhao Wumian into the side room, put him on the couch, and pushed him again... but he still didn't wake up, only his face was covered with mud.

She wiped it carefully with her sleeve. Someone pushed the door open and asked in broken Central Plains Mandarin: "Is this you, man?"

Luo Xiangzhu quickly turned around and saw an old woman in a coarse tube skirt holding a tray and a headscarf on her hair. She must be the village chief's wife.

Tube skirt, headscarf... Luo Xiangzhu had traveled to many places when she was a child, so she felt that these things looked familiar.

It seems to be the clothing worn by people in the western part of Miaojiang...

After pondering for a few seconds, she finally reacted and waved her hands.

He is not my man, and we are both innocent.

The old lady smiled indifferently and put down the plate. There were obviously no delicacies in the village. There was only simple food, white rice, wild vegetable soup, a few pancakes, a plate of pickled vegetables, and the only meat was a small plate of sliced ​​bacon.

But the aroma of the simple meal, along with the hot air that rushed into Luo Xiangzhu's nose, still made his mouth dry and his appetite whetted.

When people are extremely hungry, everything tastes delicious.

However, with her upbringing, she couldn't just pounce on it and eat it. She suppressed her hungry urge and looked at the village head's wife, then stood up and bowed to express her gratitude.

The village head's wife did not disturb her, thinking that the little girl would be uncomfortable sitting next to her, so she put down her plate and turned away, closing the door. However, she could hear some gibberish from outside the door, and then the footsteps gradually faded away.

Luo Xiangzhu then picked up the chopsticks, held up the white rice, took a deep breath, and the aroma of the food seemed to rush straight to his head. He picked up a ball of rice and was about to put it into his lips, but suddenly paused, thinking of Zhao Wumian, and put down the bowl and chopsticks, first helped Zhao Wumian up and let him lean on his shoulder.

He picked up the rice and put it to Zhao Wumian’s lips.

"what----"

Luo Xiangzhu slightly opened her pink lips and stretched out her tone, signaling Zhao Wumian to open his mouth.

But Zhao Wumian was still unconscious and had no reaction at all.

Luo Xiangzhu frowned, feeling troubled, and subconsciously glanced at Zhao Wumian's mouth... Did he want her to chew the rice into pieces and feed it mouth-to-mouth?

How can this be possible? They are both innocent...

Luo Xiangzhu put down the rice, picked up the wild vegetable soup, and leaned close to Zhao Wumian's lips again. He thought, "You can always eat liquid food."

Gurgle, Gurgle————

Zhao Wumian followed his instinct, his throat moved slightly, and although some soup overflowed from the corners of his mouth, he was able to drink it.

As expected! Luo Xiangzhu was delighted, and used chopsticks to pick up a small piece of vegetable leaf and passed it through the soup into Zhao Wumian's lips, asking him to eat it together.

Then she soaked some rice in the soup, tore some pancakes and bacon, and fed them to Zhao Wumian in the same way.

Luo Xiangzhu knew that Zhao Wumian had a big appetite as a warrior, so he fed Zhao Wumian five or six bites before eating one bite himself.

She fed Zhao Wumian most of the food with the wild vegetable soup. When he finished the soup and couldn't feed her anymore, she stood up, picked up the teapot on the table, poured water into the bowl, and then mixed it with rice and fed it to Zhao Wumian.

As for the matter of two people eating with one pair of chopsticks, she obviously didn't care.

The food sent by the village chief was quite a lot, but after eating, Luo Xiangzhu felt that he was only 30% full, and was too embarrassed to ask for more.

Luo Xiangzhu gently stroked her belly. From childhood to adulthood, she had always lived a life of luxury and had never suffered such an injustice... But the current situation was difficult and she could only endure it.

She was about to use her sleeve to wipe Zhao Wumian's mouth, but she found that her sleeve was already dirty, so she pulled the cuff forward and wiped it with the cloth on her forearm.

The only doctor in the village, an old man who looked to be over a hundred years old, came slowly with a medicine box. He carefully felt Zhao Wumian's pulse and took off his clothes to check for any external injuries.

Luo Xiangzhu glanced at Zhao Wumian's muscular body and her face turned slightly red. She looked away and stared at the beams.

The village head's wife, who was acting as an interpreter, found it hilarious and began to listen to what the doctor said, and she conveyed his words on his behalf.

"Is this your bodyguard? A man? His physique is so strong that I have never heard of it. Even if you want to poke him with a needle, you can't pierce him. He must be a martial arts expert. I am afraid he can be a guard in front of the emperor in Beijing. Although he has some external bruises, his pulse is stable and he has no internal injuries. I don't know why he fainted..."

Luo Xiangzhu then looked at Zhao Wumian with a red face. The bruises on his body were so horrifying that she did not care about the difference between men and women. She sat beside the couch, gently stroking Zhao Wumian's bruises with her small hand, and looked at the doctor earnestly.

The doctor had lived for nearly a hundred years and had never seen Zhao Wumian in such a condition. He could only apply medicine to the external wound, shook his head and left, leaving behind a sentence.

"Maybe he is too tired. Why not wait a few days and see. If he still doesn't wake up, I'll have to ask for help from someone else..."

Hearing this, Luo Xiangzhu's expression darkened. After thinking for a while, he looked at the inlaid gold Boshan furnace placed at the bedside. Suddenly, he remembered that Zhao Wumian had said that when he found this thing, he could restore his memory and connect the bridge between heaven and earth...

Could it be that this is the reason why Zhao Wumian couldn't wake up from his sleep... It is very likely.

The little mute thought that Zhao Wumian must be dreaming now, reliving the memories he had forgotten in the dream... It must be like this!
Luo Xiangzhu comforted herself in her heart, and then she saw the village head's wife taking out charcoal pencils and straw paper and putting them on the table. She thought that she must be well-informed and could even recognize Zhongyuan's characters.

Luo Xiangzhu was overjoyed and quickly picked up the pen to write "Thank you, I will definitely reward you handsomely in the future!" Then she asked where this was.

The village head's wife secretly thought that this little girl from a noble family was well-educated, and then she said:
"Hetuo Kingdom... Oh, in your Central Plains language, this should be Nanzhao... How come you came here without knowing this is Nanzhao? Our village is hundreds of miles away from the boundary stone!"

Luo Xiangzhu didn't pay attention to the following words.

She knew where Nanzhao was. It was a vassal state of Dali to the west of Miaojiang. However, the actual controller of this country was Jiuli...

Her heart beat faster. Didn't that mean she and Zhao Wumian had run into the enemy's base camp?

No, no, Jiuli didn't know she and Zhao Wumian were here, so she couldn't panic...

"You seem very scared? Have you offended someone?" the village chief's wife asked curiously.

Luo Xiangzhu shook his head slightly, changed the subject, and wrote on the paper: "Why are there no young and strong people in the village?"

The village head's wife's eyes brightened when she heard this.
"All the kids have been summoned to the court! Dali would gather young men from all over the country every year to teach them internal skills! Those who can learn can stay in Dali and have no worries about food and clothing for the rest of their lives. Those who can't learn can still learn a few moves and come back strong and healthy to be a constable, which is also considered an official!"

Dali is the capital of Nanzhao and must be the hometown of Jiuli.

Luo Xiangzhu certainly didn't dare to go to Dali, and he casually chatted with the village chief's wife about some topics, which helped him to understand the current situation a little better.

The village is named Yishui because there is a stream next to it. It is located on the west side of Nanzhao and is considered the hinterland.

Nanzhao was divided into five routes, each of which was a province under the jurisdiction of a Jiedushi. The Jiedushi held administrative, military, and financial power, and the three powers were combined, giving him great power. Yishui Village was located in Yongchang Road, and the Jiedushi of Yongchang was named Cui Xiangwei.

The village head’s wife only knew this, and as it was getting late, the two of them didn’t talk much. She enthusiastically brought hot water and clean clothes and then left.

Being in a foreign country, Luo Xiangzhu did not dare to take off her clothes to take a shower. She simply wiped herself and Zhao Wumian with a towel, changed into coarse cloth clothes, turned off the lights, and went to sleep in her clothes.

There was only one couch in the room, and Luo Xiangzhu couldn't let Zhao Wumian sleep on the floor. However, she was too tired to care about the details. She just took the Wuhen Sword and placed it between the two of them, and then she fell into a deep sleep.

An unknown amount of time had passed when a loud noise suddenly rang in his ears. Luo Xiangzhu was startled and quickly straightened up, looking around in confusion.

boom!
There was another loud bang, and someone was throwing stones at the window.

Luo Xiangzhu picked up the Wuhen Knife, got off the bed, put on her embroidered shoes, and walked timidly to the window. There was another muffled sound, which frightened her so much that her body trembled. Then she mustered up the courage to push open the window.

crunch————

The evening breeze blew into the wing room. There was no one in the yard, and only a few hurried footsteps could be heard...

Luo Xiangzhu knew that someone must have seen her setting fire to the mountain and held a grudge against her, so he came here secretly to take revenge.

Luo Xiangzhu was in the wrong and was living under someone else's roof, so she was afraid in her heart and did not dare to say much. She closed the window, got on the bed timidly, then turned over in front of Zhao Wumian and slept on the inside. This seemed to make her feel a little more at ease.

Before Luo Xiangzhu fell asleep, another muffled sound came from the window.

She did not stand up again, but she was really afraid of being wronged. After a moment, she could not help but raise her hand to move Wuhen Knife away, and put her arms around Zhao Wumian's neck, buried her little face in his shoulder, and silently covered herself with the quilt...

It was obviously impossible for Yishui Village to take her in.

I will set off tomorrow, head east, find a post station, and try to contact the court.

The next day, at dawn, Luo Xiangzhu got up, washed, and pushed the door open, seeing a lot of gravel under the bed.

The village head's wife was drawing water from the well. Seeing Luo Xiangzhu coming out of the house, she stepped forward to apologize, saying that she heard the noise in the middle of the night and had already taught those people a lesson and sent them away...

Luo Xiangzhu shook her head slightly. She didn't fall asleep in the second half of the night. There was constant noise last night... Well, she was just a passer-by. Why should the village chief make the villagers unhappy about this matter?

Let the villagers vent their anger, and prevent them from doing other bad things...

After Luo Xiangzhu fetched some water for himself and Zhao Wumian to wash up, he shamelessly lowered his eyes and wanted to ask the village chief to borrow another horse.

The village chief burst out laughing. "How can there be horses in our small village? There are only donkeys and old cows..."

He thought about it for a while, and the old woman gave him a look again, and the village chief generously lent her a donkey cart.

Obviously, it was also compensation for what happened last night.

It is called a donkey cart, but in fact it is just a broken wooden cart with a donkey tied to the front with reins.

The wooden board was old, with bits of raw wheat still clinging to many places.

But Luo Xiangzhu was grateful enough and bowed repeatedly.

She asked for some weeds and spread her own clothes on the cart before helping Zhao Wumian lie down on the grass. She also did not forget to bring the bronze bell and the gold-inlaid Boshan furnace.

Luo Xiangzhu couldn't ride a horse, and had never driven a horse-drawn carriage, let alone a donkey cart. He pulled the reins with both hands for a long time before the donkey finally moved forward.

But when they arrived at the village entrance, the crowd of villagers surrounded the donkey cart, glared at them and pointed at the mountains behind them.

Looking back, the lush forest had already turned black.

Luo Xiangzhu looked at the angry villagers and wondered who among them had been throwing stones at her window last night.

She felt wronged. If she didn't burn the mountain, she and Zhao Wumian would be eaten by wolves. But burning the mountain now would ruin many people's jobs. After all, she was in the wrong. She could only swallow her tears and write a document on straw paper.

It is said that there will be a heavy compensation.

The villagers knew that she had no money, and with the help of the village chief, they let her go.

Being in a foreign country, written documents are definitely useless, but it is enough to show the villagers our attitude.

They are not human traffickers, so how could they kidnap her?
The village head's wife felt that it was inappropriate to make things so difficult for a little girl in distress. She held Luo Xiangzhu's hands with both of her own, wishing her a safe journey while secretly stuffing a few taels of silver into her palms.

Nanzhao was deeply influenced by the Central Plains. Although it had its own unique currency, silver and gold have always been hard currencies.

Luo Xiangzhu stroked the few taels of silver with her small hands, which were still warm.

She used to be frugal, but she never took these small changes to heart. But at this moment, she didn't know how much these small changes could make her situation better.

The village head's wife saw the grievance and anxiety about the future in Luo Xiangzhu's heart, and couldn't help but sigh and glanced at Zhao Wumian.

"Since he is not your man, it will be very difficult for you to keep him with you at this moment... Have you ever thought of abandoning him? Live for yourself, no one will blame you."

Luo Xiangzhu looked back at Zhao Wumian, then slowly shook her head and smiled sweetly.

How could she abandon him? There was no need to even mention it.

It was the first time that the village head’s wife saw Luo Xiangzhu smile, and she never thought that she could still smile in such a situation.

It was for this man that I laughed.

Luo Xiangzhu set up the donkey cart, and the wheels rolled over the official road compacted by loess, heading east. The first breeze of summer blew by, and the wheat on both sides of the road swayed gently in the wind, swinging the hair tied behind Luo Xiangzhu's waist and also blowing the bell on the donkey's neck.

"Jingle Bell……"

On Penglai Island, the sea breeze is fierce.

Xiao Yuanmu and others searched the island thoroughly but couldn't find Zhao Wumian, so they had to leave.

The sailors of the Jade Palace muttered about how the fog seemed to be much thinner, and sailed away.

Marquis Weiming disappeared for some reason, and the faces of these marquises and their wives became uglier than each other. They didn't dare to ask more questions and just drove the boat carefully.

"First, send a letter to the court to inform Luo Chaoyan. If you are a dignified empress and can't even find someone, you might as well not sit in that seat." Xiao Yuanmu's face was extremely gloomy.

"We will act separately, which will be more efficient."

The faces of the girls were not very happy. Xiao Lengyue had the most experience in the martial arts world and the best character, so she used the demeanor of an elder to comfort them:

"My father spent most of his life looking for my mother but couldn't find her because he was hunted by the imperial court. He was alone and helpless. But look at us now. The righteous, the evil, the imperial court, the underworld and the black and white, united together, it's not an exaggeration to say that we can cover the sky with one hand. If we really want to find someone, we are not afraid of not getting anything."

After the words were spoken, the women still looked unhappy and remained silent. The atmosphere was still depressing.

There was no way. Xiao Lengyue didn't want to talk now, so he didn't say anything more.

In this atmosphere, the Beloved Wife sailed inland.

On an isolated island near Penglai Island, the sea was filled with fog. The sunlight shone through the fog, revealing battle scars and bright red bloodstains on the ground.

A broken sword was stuck upside down on the ground, the blade was full of gaps, and the sword guard was in the shape of a yin-yang fish...it was the Tai Chi sword of Master Guiyi.

But the Taoist Guiyi himself is nowhere to be found.

“Gurgle———”

Mo Jingxue's black cloak with gold patterns had long been tattered, and there was a bloody hole on his chest, with blood gushing out. He was alone, sitting on the reef, holding a wine gourd in his hand, pouring wine into his mouth, and bloodstains flowed along the reef and onto the beach.

Crash---

The tides rose and fell, and Mo Jingxue was the only one left in such a vast ocean.

Until a middle-aged man in Confucian robes suddenly appeared behind him.

It was the 'thief saint' who gave the shaman the sky map.

The middle-aged man looked around, then frowned and asked, "What happened?"

Mo Jingxue smiled faintly, took a deep breath, and said intermittently:
"Zhao Wumian won. After the three of us losers escaped from the underground palace, we were all here. How could we let Shamantian, the grassland Tartar, escape? I teamed up with old Guiyi to kill him... You saw that we failed and all three of us were injured."

After saying that, Mo Jingxue casually threw the wine gourd backwards. After it slid in an arc in the air, the man in the Confucian robe raised his hand to take it and took a sip of it.

"Is the Sheath of Retreat hidden? Wen Wuzheng..."

"Are you still not confident in my work?" Wen Wuzheng wiped the corner of his mouth with his sleeve and threw the wine gourd back, "Tinglan wine?"

"Of course, Zhao Wumian is a good person, and the wine he brews at home is also good."

Wen Wuzheng's eyes twitched and he took a deep breath, "You knew that I had a grudge against him, but you didn't help me solve this problem."

"Don't I want to?" Mo Jingxue curled her lips.

"I did help, but I just didn't succeed. So let it be. Although I didn't get the Cuojin Boshan Furnace and the Donghuang Bell, fortunately I stole the Sheath from the Taoist Guiyi. So this trip to the East Sea is not completely fruitless."

Mo Jingxue stood up, jumped off the reef, and drew out the Tai Chi sword of Guiyi Zhenren. He was silent for a few seconds, then said:

"When Zhao Wumian regains his memory and realizes something is wrong, he will guess that you have stabbed him in the back and will come to kill him. You may not be his opponent. Why don't you leave the Jade Palace and be a wanderer with me? Wouldn't that be more fun?"

Wen Wuzheng snorted coldly, said nothing, and his figure slowly disappeared into the mist.

"You don't care about Huanzhen Pavilion, but I can't help but care about Feicui Palace. This is the foundation left by our parents..."

"If Zhao Wumian hadn't helped you, would you have been able to build the Jade Palace?"

No answer came from the mist.

Mo Jingxue shook his head and laughed, looking down at the Tai Chi sword in his hand. After thinking for a moment, he put it away and flew away soon...

(End of this chapter)