My stepmother is here, all the rebellious sons and evildoers should kneel down!

"I do not remember."

The masked man remained calm and composed: "Girl, you may have caught a cold and burned your brain! Tsk tsk, what a pity! How could such a beautiful girl be so stupid?"

He looked at Die Jiu: "If your young lady can't get married in the future... I can't just stand by and watch. Who made me peek at your young lady taking a bath that day? I did it reluctantly, so I..."

"You are talking nonsense again! Be careful, my lady will show no mercy with her sword and take your life!"

Die Jiu was anxious: "Hurry up and answer properly? Do you... do you know Ye Guitu, General Ye?"

"Night Return... this name sounds somewhat familiar."

The masked man paused, then raised his lips and said, "Is it your lady's sweetheart?"

Wen Qiqi's arms fell down weakly.

It seems that I really thought too much...

That year, General Ye was attacked by a beast tamer. She discovered that this person could also tam beasts, and she thought that he might be related to what happened back then.

After all, beast taming is a rare secret skill, and very few people know how to do it.

It is said that perhaps many years ago, it only existed quietly in a few ancient villages near Dongcheng...

"Yes...I'm sorry..."

Wen Qiqi looked at the man's bleeding back and felt guilty.

Indeed, although beast taming is a secret, there are definitely more than one person who knows it.

The masked man in front of him was walking alone in the mountains, and he only got some wild game. Moreover, he had an aura of being at peace with the world and being free and easy. He didn't look like someone who could launch a sneak attack on General Ye.

"But why aren't you afraid when I use a dagger against you?"

Wen Qiqi still had some hope left. The masked man turned around, and his deep eyes seemed unfathomable under the mask.

"If I say that I fell in love with you at first sight that day, and that I am willing to die under your knife today, will you believe me?"

"You..." Wen Qiqi's cheeks turned slightly red and she turned away.

Die Jiu had become more familiar with him in the past few days, and hurriedly told Wen Qiqi: "Miss, he speaks frivolously, but he is a gentleman. I have met him several times, and he is not an arrogant person who bullies others by taking advantage of his power."

"You were bribed by just giving you some game? Diejiu, you are usually careful and cautious. The young lady always praises you for being more cautious than me. Why did you do such an unreliable thing without telling the young lady this time?"

Xinyi muttered to herself.

Die Jiu pulled her and said, "Stop talking! I... I just want the young lady to recover quickly... Never mind, you can scold me if you want, it's wrong for me to lie anyway!"

"Ha ha……"

Seeing Xinyi and Diejiu arguing, the masked man smiled slightly, looked at Wen Qiqi and said, "You are lucky. Even though you are in such a miserable state, you still have two loyal girls following you. I see that you look good, so you must be almost well. Why don't you go to my house today, so that I won't become a bad guy in your heart."

"Go to your home?"

Wen Qiqi frowned slightly, half believing and half doubting: "Are you from this village?"

"Climb over this hill and walk down the hill, and you will find my home in the mountain cave. It depends on whether you girls dare to go there or not."

He still looked cynical, and sat down to play the flute. The two turtledoves followed him like possessed and crawled into the small bamboo cage next to him...

The man picked up the cage and looked at Wen Qiqi: "Are you going or not?"

"You are injured. I... I'll give you some money. You can find a doctor to bandage your wounds first. I apologize for any offence I have caused you today."

Wen Qiqi thought for a moment and said, "We won't go to your house. Thank you for your help these days."

After saying that, she took out a silver ingot and placed it in the man's palm.

The masked man weighed it and said, "Not bad, I can exchange it for some wine."

"Your injury..."

Wen Qiqi saw that he had no intention of looking at the doctor, and frowned slightly: "You should buy some medicine and apply it."

"I know you're showing mercy and don't want to hurt me. It's just a little skin break... just like being pecked by a turtledove, don't feel bad, young lady."

He was teasing her again, but at this time, Wen Qiqi already felt that Die Jiu was right.

Although the masked man in front of him spoke in a sarcastic and cynical manner, he was a very sensible person.

He didn't blackmail anyone, nor did he bear a grudge. He even said this on purpose to alleviate Wen Qiqi's guilt...

Watching the masked man walk away, Xinyi asked in a low voice: "Miss, since you have doubts, why don't you go to his house to check? Are you worried about any danger?"

"That's not the case."

Wen Qiqi shook her head. “I saw some water grass hanging on his pants. He smelled fishy. He obviously went to the river to fish… He said he lived in a nest on the other side of the mountain… He must be a local.”

She swallowed her saliva and said with some self-blame: "I was reckless today! But when I saw that he could tame beasts and secretly contacted Die Jiu, I couldn't help it..."

Wen Qiqi sat on the stone, looking a little sad.

Diejiu took one look and said hurriedly, "Miss, don't be angry. It's all my fault! I shouldn't have lied to you and caused you to misunderstand others!"

Wen Qiqi held Die Jiu's hand: "You even gave up your reputation for me! You wanted me to recover and eat some game in peace, and you lied to me that you did it yourself. What's wrong with that? After all, I am now near East City. These mountains, water, air, flowers, grass, and trees... all make me wonder if he also passed by here and saw these things..."

Tears flowed down Wen Qiqi's face and dripped onto the dagger, on which bloodstains were still visible.

"Forget it, let's go back and prepare some things, then go over the mountain the next day and sincerely apologize to this big brother wearing a mask."

"So the reason why the young lady didn't want to go today is because she came empty-handed?" Die Jiu rubbed her eyes and said, "I thought the young lady was holding a grudge because she was peeped at while bathing that day?"

"Haha, you little girl! He didn't mean to offend me that day, I won't take it to heart. Besides, although he talks nonsense, I can feel that he is not a vulgar villain... Never mind, let's go back!"

Die Jiu then burst into laughter, and Xinyi and she dragged the fat little musk deer back to Old Lady Chen's house.

On the way, Wen Qiqi said to the two men, "Since we are going to visit someone, we must buy something decent. But now we are pretending to be poor and living here, and we can't just take out money. Why don't we just stop eating the deer and find a buyer to buy some money."

Die Jiuhe nodded and said, "I left a bowl of pheasant soup for you yesterday...it's okay to sell the musk deer."

There was a hunter in the village who made a living by hunting. Old Lady Chen asked for the price for the three people. When she came back, she said, "What a wicked man! This deer is so good and fat, but he only offered three taels of silver."

"Three taels is three taels, sell it!"

It was Wen Qiqi’s first time selling something, and he excitedly took the money and put it in his pocket.

As luck would have it, there was a market in the village today, so the three of them disguised themselves and used the three taels of silver to buy some ox tongue fruit and dried almonds in a low-key manner!

The cow tongue fruit was left for Old Lady Chen, who was so excited that she was speechless...