Ties of Love, Ruan Wan

Liang Kun has lived in this royal city for over twenty years and has long since explored every alleyway, big and small.

So Liang Kun led the way, Ruan Wan walked in the middle, and Lou Qianyuan led the way from behind.

The three could only wander aimlessly through the alley, but this was not a solution. The encirclement was getting smaller and smaller, and they were just waiting to be trapped like turtles in a jar.

Liang Kun was at his wits' end and turned to Lou Qianyuan. "If we stay in the city, we'll still get caught eventually. Why don't we try to break out through the main gate? I'll risk my life to protect you and the young mistress as we get out."

Ruan Wan said, "Should we go back to Uncle Liang's house? They won't expect us to come back."

Lou Qianyuan thought for a moment, looked at Liang Kun, and said, "How about we do as Wan'er said and go back?"

With no other options at the moment, Liang Kun looked around, walked five or six meters forward, and then disappeared into an alley.

Ruan Wan and Lou Qianyuan followed closely behind.

The three of them made several turns, perfectly avoiding the pursuers, and after wandering around for a long time, they returned to Liang Kun's residence.

Liang Kun peeked out from behind the wall, glanced around, and immediately withdrew. "There are guards at the door."

Unexpectedly, they had sent people to guard Liang Kun's house. The three of them wanted to retreat, but they heard hurried footsteps behind them.

They were truly cornered. The footsteps behind them were getting closer and closer. Lou Qianyuan turned around and shielded Ruan Wan behind him, saying, "Right now, we have no choice but to fight to the death. If all else fails, Uncle Liang and I will hold off the pursuers. Wan'er, you run first."

Ruan Wan said, "There are pursuers in front and behind, there's no way to escape. If all else fails, I'll go and negotiate with Meng Cilan. I'm the one who injured him."

The five pursuers behind them saw Ruan Wan and her two companions and Gao Sheng ran over shouting.

Lou Qianyuan rolled up his sleeves, eager to hear their fierce battle, but Ruan Wan pulled him aside, walked over, and removed her veil.

When the guards saw Ruan Wan, they stopped, looked at each other, and muttered something to each other.

Ruan Wan whispered to Liang Kun behind her, "Uncle Liang, tell them to have Meng Cilan come to see me."

Uncle Liang took a step forward, and several guards drew their swords in a defensive stance.

Suddenly, several guards rolled their eyes and collapsed to the ground.

A person wearing a straw hat, judging from her figure, should be a young girl, walked out from behind the guards.

The girl took off her straw hat, and Liang Kun, after seeing her face clearly, opened his mouth in surprise and turned to look at Ruan Wan.

After the girl passed Uncle Liang, Ruan Wan and Lou Qianyuan were also surprised when they saw her face clearly.

Lou Qianyuan pinched himself, looked at the girl and then at Ruan Wan, "Wan'er, do you have a twin sister?"

Ruan Wan's mind went blank; it was just too similar, like looking in a mirror.

Ruan Wan suddenly realized what was happening and pointed at the girl, saying, "You are the Holy Maiden!"

The girl smiled and said, "I prefer you call me Mao Chihua."

Mao Chihua glanced at the unconscious guard behind her and beckoned to Ruan Wan and the others, "Come with me."

Lou Qianyuan was still in shock and couldn't pull himself out of it. When he saw Ruan Wan follow, he hurriedly followed after her.

Mao Chihua stripped off the guard's clothes and neatly put them on herself; Ruan Wan followed suit.

Lou Qianyuan and Liang Kun also changed into guards' clothes.

Mao Chihua kicked open the back door of a house and had Lou Qianyuan and Liang Kun carry several guards inside.

The four men pretended to be chasing them, swaggering around the alley.

They ran all the way to the city gate, where seven or eight guards were stationed.

Mao Chihua glanced at Ruan Wan, then walked forward alone. Liang Kun wanted to follow, but Ruan Wan stopped him.

Although it was their first meeting, Ruan Wan was able to understand the meaning of Mao Chi Hua at a glance.

Sure enough, Mao Chihua said a sentence to the leading guard, and seven or eight guards fell to the ground in response.

Ruan Wan immediately ran over, with Lou Qianyuan and Liang Kun following closely behind.

The three of them followed Mao Chihua towards the outskirts of the city, but the further they went, the more Ruan Wan felt something was wrong.

Ruan Wan grabbed Mao Chihua and asked, "Where are you taking us? This is clearly the direction of the Holy Land."

Mao Chihua broke free from Ruan Wan and said, "Whether I follow you or not is up to you. If I didn't truly want to save you, why would I have gone through all that trouble?"

That's right, Ruan Wan and the others were already trapped.

Mao Chihua continued walking forward, and Ruan Wan and the others followed.

They walked deeper into the dense forest, and after about half an hour, Mao Chihua stopped in front of three bamboo houses.

Ruan Wan and Lou Qianyuan looked at the building in front of them. Wasn't this the holy site?

However, upon closer inspection, these three bamboo houses seemed to have been abandoned for a long time and were not the bamboo houses where Ruan Wan and the others had lived before.

Ruan Wan walked up to the row of Mao Chi flowers and asked, "What place is this?"

A strange emotion flickered in Mao Chihua's eyes—a lingering reluctance and a longing for "this is the sacred ground of the previous Holy Maiden."

Mao Chihua continued walking forward. This place had been abandoned for a long time, with weeds growing everywhere and piles of withered branches and fallen leaves covering the ground.

Mao Chihua walked directly into the bamboo building in the middle and said, "Make yourselves at home."

Liang Kun walked towards the bamboo house on the left, and Lou Qianyuan followed behind him.

Liang Kun frowned as he looked at Lou Qianyuan. "Young Master, why are you here? The Young Madam is over there."

Lou Qianyuan turned around and glanced at Ruan Wan, but Ruan Wan didn't react at all, so Lou Qianyuan could only follow her.

Ruan Wan lay on the bamboo bed, and Lou Qianyuan lay on the ground. Both were on bamboo, so there was no difference between them.

The direction in which things are progressing is becoming increasingly unpredictable.

Liang Kun, who had been undiscovered for decades, was discovered this time.

The saintess, who had been missing for several years, reappeared after the ceremony.

At this moment, Ruan Wan felt that her brain was not working properly; all the events were like a tangled mess of threads with no end in sight.

Lou Qianyuan asked, "How do you think they discovered the mechanism at the back door?"

Ruan Wan thought for a moment, "Could it be that you didn't press the bricks into place properly when you put them back?"

"That shouldn't be the case. I checked carefully, and Uncle Liang also checked it. There was nothing unusual. Uncle Liang has been able to remain hidden in the southern border region for decades; he's always been very cautious."

Ruan Wan couldn't figure out how they had discovered it either.

Lou Qianyuan took a few deep breaths and said, "Your medicinal bath is so effective; the aroma is still so strong after seven or eight days."

The fragrance... Could it be this fragrance? Ruan Wan sat up from the bed and walked outside, heading straight for the bamboo house in the middle.

Ruan Wan opened the door and saw Mao Chihua sitting cross-legged on the master bed.

Ruan Wan asked, "Did Meng Cilan find me by the scent on my body?"

Mao Chihua opened her eyes and laughed, "You're not too stupid."

Ruan Wan looked anxious. "Could they find this place by following my scent?"

Mao Chihua tilted her head, looking at Ruan Wan, "Guess why they can't find me?"

Ruan Wan looked at Mao Chihua, who was acting all high and mighty, and was really angry. She was just a seventeen or eighteen-year-old girl, why did she have to talk like that?

Suppressing her anger, Ruan Wan asked, "Tell me, what do you want us to do for you?"

Mao Chihua sat upright, looking at Ruan Wan. "I hope you can help me find the altar."

Ruan Wan frowned as she looked at Mao Chihua. "Isn't the altar right in the center of the plaza? With your abilities, you can come and go as you please."

"It's an ancient altar, an ancient altar capable of communicating with the gods."

Ruan Wan asked, "Why do you think that I, a person from the Great Xia, would know about the ancient altars of your Miao region?"

"You know, and you absolutely must know, that only by finding the ancient altar can you successfully return to Great Xia."

Seeing how decisive Mao Chihua was, Ruan Wan was almost convinced that she knew where the ancient altar was.

Ruan Wan sighed and said, "Can you stop playing riddles and be more specific? I really have no clue right now. I don't even know what the ancient altar looks like."

At this moment, Lou Qianyuan also caught up and heard the words "ancient altar" when he reached the door.

Lou Qianyuan said, "Your Miao people's ancient altars are not in Yuedu."

Ruan Wan looked at Lou Qianyuan and asked, "Do you know where the ancient altar is?"

Lou Qianyuan looked at Mao Chihua with a puzzled expression. "Don't your ancient books all record that the ancient altar is in the Moon Capital?"

Mao Chihua shook her head. "The altars of both Yuedu and Richeng were built after the capitals were established, not ancient altars."

Lou Qianyuan asked, "So, is it true that the Miao region changes its capital every 777 years?"

Mao Chihua nodded. "Yes, so the ancient book you were looking at only talks about when the capital was still in Yue Du."

Ruan Wan, who was standing to the side, lowered her head and pondered for a while. Then she looked up and asked Mao Chihua, "Do you know where your Miao region originated?"

Altars that predate modern altars are the altars of the place of origin, aren't they?

"We don't know where it originated. The ancient Miao region had no written language, and its history was severely fragmented. Now, nobody knows where it originated."

Ruan Wan glanced at her feet and asked, "Why is this place called a holy land?"

Mao Chihua also looked at the ground; she had never thought about this question before.

Why is this place called a holy land? Her master told her that this place is a holy land, and all the people of Miao territory know that this place is a holy land.

Ruan Wan continued, "Where is the next bamboo house?"

Mao Chihua looked at Ruan Wan with disbelief, then ran out of the bamboo house.

Mao Chihua swept a patch of ground with her foot, found a dead branch, and drew circles on the ground.

Ruan Wan and Lou Qianyuan also ran down and stood aside to watch. As more and more circles were drawn, it looked like a painting from a distance.

"Isn't this the bullying totem of the Miao region?"

Liang Kun appeared behind me without my noticing.

All three of them turned to look at Liang Kun.

Liang Kun continued, "Look, those four at the bottom are the feet, and the one on top is the head."

Mao Chihua stared blankly at the circle on the ground and drew an X on the circle representing the Qilin's right eye.

Lou Qianyuan said, "In the legends of Miao territory, the sun and moon in the sky are transformed from the eyes of a Qilin, with the moon on the left and the sun on the right."

Lou Qianyuan looked at Mao Chihua and asked, "Aren't there two ancient altars, one in Sun City and one in Moon Capital?"

Mao Chihua looked at Ruan Wan with intense eyes, "As expected, only you could find it."

Ruan Wan felt embarrassed by the stares. This didn't seem to concern her; it was just normal human thinking.

Ruan Wan wanted to leave this place as soon as possible, so she asked, "Shall we set off for the Eye of the Sun now?"

Mao Chihua shook her head. "Not yet, the Lin Lotus hasn't finished blooming."

"What does this have to do with Lin Lianhua?"

"The reason your fragrance lingers is because you add the juice of the Linlian flower to your bathwater every day. This is also why Mengcilan can find you. The lotus insects that live alongside the Linlian flower can pinpoint the location of the fragrance."

Ruan Wan smelled the scent on her body; it didn't seem as strong as before. Mao Chihua must have done something to her halfway through.

Ruan Wan said, "Don't you have a way to get rid of this smell? Besides, if the whole forest smells like this, they won't know which way to chase after us."

Mao Chihua sighed and said, "I also want to find the ancient altar as soon as possible, but there are too many lotus flowers blooming in this forest, which creates miasma and makes people get lost in the dense forest."

Lou Qianyuan, standing nearby, interrupted their conversation and asked, "Aren't there two ancient altars? How do you know that the one you're looking for is the Eye of the Sun?"

Mao Chihua said, "The capital is in Sun City, and the altar I'm looking for is in the Eye of the Sun, and vice versa."

Liang Kun, standing to the side, was completely bewildered and asked, "What are you all talking about?"

The four people returned to their respective bamboo houses. Although there were wild vegetables and prey in the forest, they could not light a fire there.

The smoke from the cooking fire will attract the pursuers.

Unable to sleep on an empty stomach, Ruan Wan thought she would feel better once the hunger subsided, but once she was awake, she couldn't help but think about other things.

Along the way from Pingjiang Town to Southern Xinjiang, one event followed another, as if by some unseen force, I was destined to reach this Southern Xinjiang.

When Ruan Wan left Beijing last year, she also passed through Linyuan Ferry, but she had no intention of getting off the boat at that time.

This time, they arrived in southern Xinjiang just one month before the sacrificial ceremony.

Ruan Wan, disguised as a saintess, completed the sacrificial ceremony, and the real saintess appeared, then pushed herself to the next step.

At this moment, Ruan Wan was beginning to doubt whether she had actually transmigrated into this world, but rather entered a game, and was simply following the plot under the power of the program.

Ruan Wan felt increasingly that something was wrong with her brain.

Lou Qianyuan, who was standing to the side, was also awake. Ruan Wan turned to look at Lou Qianyuan and asked, "You always say you like me, so what did you feel when you first saw Mao Chihua? Could you tell the two of us apart?"

Lou Qianyuan, who had been staring blankly at the roof, immediately replied upon hearing Ruan Wan's question, "You and she don't actually look alike at all; you just look somewhat alike from a distance."

Ruan Wan chuckled softly; even she thought it looked very similar.

Lou Qianyuan continued, "You're half a hand's length taller than her, and your skin is fairer. You have a mole at the corner of your left eye, and you have an oval face, while her face is rounder."

Ruan Wan was somewhat surprised; she herself was unaware of these differences during their brief time together.

Lou Qianyuan also turned to the side, looking at Ruan Wan with a firm gaze. "After you jumped off the ship that time, do you know why I ended up in your house?"

Looking back, Ruan Wan realized that Lou Qianyuan did indeed seem to be standing next to her father, but she hadn't paid much attention to it at the time.

Lou Qianyuan continued, "I'm here to propose marriage. You may not care, but in the social norms of the Great Xia Dynasty, a woman who falls into the water will have her reputation severely damaged and will find it very difficult to get married."

Even when Lou Qianyuan hadn't seen her face yet and was planning to propose marriage, Ruan Wan found it hard to believe it was love.

In Ruan Wan's mind, how could there be love between people she had only met once or twice and hadn't even exchanged a few words with?