The Villainous Classmate is My Lucky Star Chapter 184
Happy Chinese New Year Everyone!
Translated by Pure
Chapter 184 The Girl that Disappeared
Wen Yantong was feeling elated and cheerfully asked Mu Yang, "Then what should you do if the girl you fall in love with doesn't match your family status? Will your father let you marry a poor girl?"
As soon as the words fell, Chi Jingxi's hand, holding a pair of chopsticks, indiscernibly halted for a moment. He then casted his eyes on Wen Yantong.
"My father doesn't care about those." Mu Yang muffledly replied with his mouth full of food.
"What if he cares?" Wen Yantong continued to ask.
Mu Yang thought for a while and then said, "Then I will give her some money and make her a rich girl."
Wen Yantong thought for a while, and realized his words made some sense, so she stopped asking any more questions and lowered her head to eat her food.
Chi Jingxi had already stopped eating. He picked up the teapot next to him, poured a cup of hot tea and placed it gently by his hand, close to Wen Yantong's right hand. Cheng Xin had always been attentive and immediately noticed his little movements.
Just when he was about to speak, Chi Jingxi asked, "Yang'er, do you want to go to the hot spring tonight?"
Mu Yang nodded. "It’d be perfect to do it tonight. I will definitely have a good night’s sleep after taking a dip."
Wen Yantong felt a headache when he mentioned the hot spring. She didn’t know what excuse Chi Jingxi would come up with to help her abstain from going. If nothing else worked, she would pretend to have leg pain, and blame it on the residue pain that had remained from being hit by the carriage.
By the time they finished their meals, the sun had already set. The temporary imperial palace was full of lanterns, the flickering myriad of different colored lights looked extremely gorgeous.
Everyone went back to their rooms to unpack their things, change their clothes, and prepare to go to the hot spring. Wen Yantong slumped into her bed as soon as she returned to her designated room. She usually didn't do anything, there was always someone waiting on her, so she had grown quite lazy.
Before she had transmigrated into this book, she had never enjoyed this type of treatment.
Not long after she lay down, someone knocked on the door. After Mo Li opened the door, Chi Jingxi walked in.
Mo Li was an observant maid, she quietly left the room and closed the door behind her.
Wen Yantong sat up, stretched her back, and asked, "Little Marquis, why hadn’t you gotten ready yet to go to the hot springs?"
Chi Jingxi did not answer her question, but asked, "Are you full?"
Wen Yantong replied, "Of course I'm full. I've eaten quite a lot."
He walked up to the bed and seemed to have something to say, but was hesitant to speak. Wen Yantong couldn't hold herself back and took the initiative to ask, "Does the Little Marquis have something to say to me?"
Chi Jingxi sat down next to her, his handsome face remained calm, but his voice was substantially lowered, "I suspect the temporary imperial palace is not safe."
Wen Yantong was shocked and whispered back, "What do you mean?"
He pondered for a moment, and then said, "The landslide on the mountain road was probably not an accident. Someone deliberately blocked the way to Xuanlin Palace."
Wen Yantong nodded and asked, "Then why isn't the other road also cut off?"
"The landslide happened before this year while the other path was constructed during the fourth lunar month of this year. There’s quite a difference in time between the two. If they take action on the road that was just created, it would expose their purpose of preventing others from entering Xuanlin Palace." Chi Jingxi calmly continued, "This means there are people hiding around the temporary imperial residence."
Wen Yantong was a bit fearful, "Who could it be?"
Chi Jingxi's thoughts were only speculations, and without any conclusive evidence. Fearing that his words would frighten Wen Yantong, he softened his voice and confronted, "There are many guards in the temporary imperial palace, so they shouldn't dare to barge in directly."
Wen Yantong retorted, "That's not necessarily true. What if these were bandits with stupid and straightforward minds?"
But after saying that, she also felt things were quite strange. Originally, the only group bandits near Chaoge were the mountain bandits once led by Mu Yuan. Since Mu Yuan took refuge with the government, there should be no more bandits in this area. Who was so reckless as to become bandits in this area?
Seeing her in the middle of thinking, Chi Jingxi reached out and patted her forehead. "Don't think too much, I came here to ask if you wanted to sleep in my room tonight?"
Wen Yantong was dumbfounded. "Huh?"
This kind of invitation... She had no resistance to!
On the contrary, Chi Jingxi’s face remained serious as he said, "Although I speculate that those people dare not go directly into the palace, but it is best to take caution. Yang’er said that he would sleep with Fu Zixian at night. Fu Zixian would protect him, and there were palace guards watching over Qianyuan. You are the only one without any protection."
Wen Yantong immediately raised her hands and said, "Let's sleep together at night, I'll sleep in your room, I'll feel at ease when I'm with Little Marquis."
The corner of Chi Jingxi’s lips curled up, he couldn't help but reach out and tapped the tip of her nose. "Then I'll go first, otherwise Yang’er will become too anxious from waiting."
Wen Yantong nodded, and said obediently, "Then I'll wait for you to come back."
After hearing this sentence, Chi Jingxi smiled inexplicably, then turned and left.
While the others went soaking in the hot springs, Wen Yantong asked a servant to boil some water and took a hot bath herself. After a comfortable wash, Wen Yantong went for a walk around the surrounding areas. There were many guards in the small courtyard, and there was one guard every two steps, so she was not afraid of the appearance of an intruder.
As soon as she walked out of the door, she heard the sound of a qin and zither. She followed the sound, and saw a group of girls in coral-colored dresses dancing lightly and gracefully in the open space in front of the entrance of the farther away house, as if rehearsing a dance.
Wen Yantong was afraid of disturbing them, so she didn't approach, and stood on the side to watch. She counted carefully and found that Mu Yuan was really generous. He gifted a total of seventeen girls as if afraid Mu Yang wouldn’t indulge in wine and women.
Wen Yantong thought, if she had such a father, she would probably have to hold her philtrum down all day from anger[1].
If it were Chi Jingxi, he would definitely not raise his children this way. He minded his own business and kept out of trouble, had an upright personality, and did everything earnestly; he was excellent in all aspects. If he became a father, he would be the best role model for his children.
When she reached up to this point, Wen Yantong couldn't help but flush red. Inwardly scolding herself for thinking too far.
After watching for a while, she turned and went back to her room, wrapped herself in a quilt and waited for the others to come back after soaking in the hot spring.
During the wait she had also unknowingly fallen asleep, it wasn’t until Mo Li came to knock on the door, calling her to the main hall, did Wen Yantong wake up.
Wrapped in a light-colored robe, Wen Yantong rubbed her drowsy eyes, and entered the main hall only to find that several youngsters had already taken their seats. They were all happily chatting with one other.
As soon as Mu Yang saw her, he yelled, "If you cut the sole of your foot, just say so earlier. I thought you didn't want to attend my birthday party!"
Wen Yantong was stunned for a moment, and then quickly realized that this was the reason Chi Jingxi used for her. Thus, she smiled and said, "I thought it would be fine by now, so I didn't say it."
Mu Yang worriedly asked, "Does it hurt to walk?"
Wen Yantong shook her head. "It's much better, as long as it doesn't soak in water."
Mu Yang curled his lips again, and said in disgust, "Then you haven't washed your feet for a long time, stay away from me."
Wen Yantong wanted to smack Mu Yang with a mallet, this dog-of-a-boy couldn't say anything nice.
She sat beside Chi Jingxi, and asked in a low voice, "Little Marquis, was the hot spring comfortable?"
Chi Jingxi's skin was so silky that it almost could reflect light, his eyes were slightly curved as he replied softly, "You will know when you give it a try next time."
This was obviously a normal reply, but it inexplicably tugged at Wen Yantong‘s heartstrings, and the roots of her ears turned a little red.
Just when the two were whispering, an orchestra of string instruments sounded outside the door. It was the girls Wen Yantong had seen earlier, they were holding pipas[2] and walked in slowly in an uniformed formation.
The hall fell silent for a moment, and Wen Yantong also raised her eyes to look at them. All of these girls were beautiful in their own way. Although they couldn’t be described as breathtaking, they were still very attractive, especially in terms of their figure.
But soon, Wen Yantong realized something was amiss.
She studied the group of girls repeatedly, carefully looked at them several times, and soon found out the reason.
There were only sixteen girls in the hall, where was the last one?
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Footnotes:
[1] holding down one’s philtrum (掐人中) - this pressure point is believed to increase blood pressure and provide pain so that you'll snap/stay awake
[2] pipa (琵琶) - or pípá is a traditional Chinese musical instrument belonging to the plucked category of instruments. Sometimes called the "Chinese lute", the instrument has a pear-shaped wooden body with a varying number of frets ranging from 12 to 31.
