Snow falls and the wind blows

Chapter 36

"If that person were to appear before Master Liu again, would you still be able to recognize him?" Duan Chen suddenly asked, but the question was somewhat puzzling.

“Although I’ve only met him once, I’ll never forget his face,” Liu Yichen replied through gritted teeth, each word ringing with conviction. His words seemed to convey affection, but the expression on his face betrayed deep hatred.

For a moment, the large room fell silent. The afterglow of the setting sun slanted into the room, casting a golden-orange hue on the floor. On the blue brick floor, shadows slowly moved forward, swallowing the bright spot. The people in the room stood upright or leaned against something, their expressions indistinct due to their different positions. After a long while, Zhan Yun spoke, breaking the quiet silence: "Young Master, what happened back then may be forgiven, but now, if this person has any further dealings with Wanliu Manor, I'm afraid I can't help you and the Old Master."

Liu Yichen took a deep breath, then turned to look at Zhao Ting. Seeing Zhao Ting nod almost imperceptibly, he cupped his hands in greeting to the group: "I, Liu, guarantee that even if that person reappears, my Wanliu Manor will have absolutely no connection with him."

"Young Master, do you have any impression of the Deng family of Baode?" Zhao Ting asked in a deep voice.

Liu Yichen frowned: "Of course I remember. This time, it was the head and third head of the Deng Family Escort Agency who came. I had dinner with them last night. What's wrong?"

"We'd like to meet these two, is that alright?" Zhan Yun said gently.

“Of course.” Liu Yichen nodded without hesitation, then turned his gaze to the empty wooden frames, his eyes filled with deep sorrow.

"Second Master Liu, I'm afraid I'll have to trouble you to inform the guests later that they should try not to stay in the room alone tonight. It would be best if three or more people slept in one room to make do," Duan Chen said softly. "Because tonight, the murderer might use one of the weapons to kill again."

Chapter Seven: Merlin's Honesty

That night, Duan Chen took some clothes to Lou Yueru's room. Liu Manyie and Yue Yiyi lived next door. Liu Yichen sent more people to patrol outside the two rooms at night, and many courtyards were lit up all night.

The fire in the stove inside the room was burning brightly. After bathing, Duan Chen was only wearing a moon-white cotton undergarment, his hair swept forward, and he gently patted a towel to absorb the water. Lou Yueru, dressed in a light blue silk robe, sat at the table, sipping her bird's nest porridge spoonful by spoonful. Hearing Duan Chen's footsteps approaching from behind the screen, she didn't look up, but paused slightly in her movements: "Come and have some porridge. My uncle had two portions sent over."

Duan Chen dried his hair for a while, then placed a cloth behind his neck and sat down at the round table: "Thank you."

Lou Yueru picked up a silk handkerchief from the table and wiped her mouth. She glanced at Duan Chen, her gaze lingering on his fair and smooth neck: "What's that?"

Duan Chen followed her gaze and subconsciously reached out to touch it, then immediately realized, "It's nothing. I accidentally scratched it a few days ago." After peeling off the disguise to make his Adam's apple appear, a small, faint mark remained on his neck, which would take at least a month to disappear. Duan Chen couldn't help but smile wryly to himself; he figured he'd have to put it back on in less than a month. Although his master had minimized the damage to his skin, the skin underneath was always covered and never saw the sun, so its color would always be slightly different from the rest of his body.

Lou Yueru frowned slightly, staring intently at the pale pink mark about the length of a little finger in the center of Duan Chen's neck. After a long while, her gaze slowly moved upward, meeting Duan Chen's eyes: "What exactly is your relationship with Zhan Yun?"

Duan Chen paused slightly, holding the small spoon, before putting the porridge into her mouth again. "He's my distant cousin." Since they had agreed to enter the manor as cousins, she couldn't just casually admit that she had no relation to him. Otherwise, she wouldn't be able to explain it to Zhan Yun or the Liu family. Besides, such a big mess had already occurred after only one day of arrival. If she revealed her true identity at this critical juncture, it would only arouse suspicion and benefit no one.

“Distant relatives? How distant?” Lou Yue Ru’s voice held a hint of sneer: “Distant enough to form a marriage alliance?”

Duan Chen's expression remained unchanged, but his eyelashes trembled slightly. He swallowed another mouthful of porridge, and his voice was a few decibels lower than usual: "This kind of thing is not up to me to decide."

The person at the opposite table was silent for a moment, then asked coldly, "So, do you like him?"

Duan Chen finished the last half bowl of bird's nest porridge, picked up a handkerchief from the table and gently wiped his mouth. His phoenix eyes, which had been lowered, stared fixedly at the person who had asked the question: "If you like him, you shouldn't be asking me this question. You should be asking him. If someone else is interested, then you shouldn't be asking this question either, and I don't need to answer you."

Lou Yueru was rendered speechless by Duan Chen's slow, deliberate words. A faint blush rose to her fair cheeks, gradually turning her face bright red. After a long struggle, she could only grit her teeth and squeeze out a single word: "You!" All day long, from morning till night, she hadn't seen this man speak more than three sentences, and each sentence was no more than ten words. Lou Yueru had originally thought Duan Chen was not good with words, but those words, spoken slowly and deliberately, had not only caught her off guard but were also overwhelming for most people.

"The porridge was delicious, thank you." Duan Chen got up and walked towards the bed, casually adding, "Can I sleep on the left side?"

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Early in the morning, Duan Chen washed and dressed in a light blue women's outfit. He simply styled his hair into a simple bun, adorned it with his white sandalwood hairpin, and then left the house. He used his light-footed skill to travel towards the plum garden, carefully recalling the detailed map of the manor he had seen in Zhan Yun's room after dinner the previous night. Because of yesterday's events, security was heightened throughout the manor, and everyone was on high alert. Liu Yichen had a map of the manor drawn and sent to Zhan Yun and the others, just in case.

On the surface, the map seemed perfectly normal, showing all the courtyards, houses, lakeside pavilions, flowerbeds, and plum groves. But the more perfect it appeared, the more problematic it became. The house opposite the old willow tree had been demolished, but no new attic had been built to store the ancient books. Or rather, the new attic still existed, just not on the map.

While recalling the map, Duan Chen pondered that the only possible place with hidden buildings was this plum grove within the manor. His shoes glided lightly across the snow as he used his light-footed skill to travel deeper into the plum grove. This plum grove was about an acre in size; if a few houses were built inside, most people wouldn't have the opportunity to enter such a deep place, making it difficult to discover—truly a perfect spot for storing rare books.

After walking for about the time it takes to brew a cup of tea, a patch of plum blossoms, the same color as snow, appeared before them. Behind the plum trees, the outline of a wooden house was faintly visible. Duan Chen was overjoyed, but in the next instant, he ducked and slid a distance of ten feet across the accumulated snow.

Just then, a whip mark appeared where Duan Chen had stood, lashing through the snow to reveal dark brown soil beneath. White snowflakes flew everywhere, clinging to Duan Chen's clothes and hair. Another sharp crack echoed past his ear. As Duan Chen turned, he reached out and grabbed one end of the whip, using the momentum to pull the person towards him. He looked up and saw a beautiful, indignant face.

"Sneaking into this plum grove so early in the morning, what are you trying to do?" Lou Yueru flicked her wrist, and Duan Chen suddenly released her, simultaneously flashing behind her. The thirteen-section soft whip slid through the air, snapping away at empty air with a "crack": "Despicable!"

Lou Yueru turned to retract her whip and lash it again, but Duan Chen was too agile, only defending and not attacking. He circled around her back, and each time the whip was about to touch the hem of her clothes, it would strike the snow or a nearby plum tree. In an instant, white snow and plum blossoms danced in the air, snowflakes and petals falling one after another. The two figures, one in green and one in purple, moved back and forth, their hair and clothes covered with snowflakes and broken petals.

Seeing that her whip was ineffective against this man, Lou Yueru simply threw it aside and struck Duan Chen's face with her palm. Unexpectedly, Duan Chen's forearm slid in the opposite direction, hooking around her right elbow. With a flick of his wrist, he spun around. Their skills were evenly matched, but Duan Chen's superior lightness skill and agility, coupled with the "Eighteen Falling Techniques He had recently learned," left Lou Yueru frantic, her face flushed, unable to even grab onto his clothes. Each time she seemed about to land a blow, a flash would occur, and he would either use her momentum to spin behind her or slip and retreat several feet.

As they fought, they gradually moved away from the wooden house. Duan Chen once again lightly touched the ground with his toes and slid back two or three zhang, but in the next moment, someone grabbed his waist, and his back pressed against someone's warm, firm chest. Duan Chen panicked and struggled to break free from the person's embrace, simultaneously raising his elbow and striking backward with fierce force. He heard a muffled groan from behind, and then his arms were firmly encircled. Warm breath brushed against his ear, and a familiar voice made Duan Chen tremble: "Chen'er, don't be afraid, it's me."

Lou Yue Ru caught up and saw this scene: Duan Chen, dressed in a light blue jacket and long skirt, was being held in the arms of Zhan Yun, who was dressed in a snow-white brocade robe. His face was still pale, but the tips of his ears were slightly red. Behind him, Zhan Yun smiled and his eyes shone with soft light as he leaned close to Duan Chen's ear and whispered something.

"Let go!" Duan Chen's voice was low, but the warning was strong.

Zhan Yun obediently released his grip on the beauty in his arms, took a small step back and stood behind Duan Chen, while looking at the disheveled Lou Yueru with a half-smile: "Miss Lou, good morning."

Zhao Ting and Zhou Yufei stood beside the two men. Zhou Yufei, having thoroughly enjoyed watching the spectacle, suddenly turned around as if remembering something, observing the young prince's expression. He saw that Zhao Ting's face was as black as the branches of the plum tree beside him, his fists clenched so tightly they cracked, and his eyes glared fiercely at Zhan Yun, who was dressed in white, looking as if he wanted to devour the handsome young man alive.

Lou Yue Ru didn't bother to observe the expressions of those around her, nor did she have the mind to greet them. She rushed to Duan Chen and angrily questioned, "Why did you come here? Why did you look for that little..." She swallowed the word "wooden house" back down. Lou Yue Ru took a deep breath, her voice as cold as the snow of winter: "You sneaked into this plum grove so early in the morning, what exactly are you up to?"

Before Duan Chen could speak, Zhan Yun spoke first: "I'm so sorry to have startled Miss Lou. We spent a long time last night discussing this, and planned to walk around the manor early this morning to check things out, including this plum grove. Chen'er is impatient and arrived before us. She absolutely meant no harm; she was just eager to find the three stolen weapons." With that, Zhan Yun stepped forward and bowed: "Xingzhi is here to apologize to Miss Lou on Chen'er's behalf."

Lou Yue Ru was still a little out of breath, one hand on her chest trying to calm herself down, while she glared at the four people in front of her: "Really?"

“Absolutely true.” Zhou Yufei raised an eyebrow, smiled, and stepped to Lou Yueru’s side, blinking his deep, captivating peach blossom eyes as he asked, “Why would we lie to you?”

Lou Yueru blushed at his wink and the way he smiled. She turned and glared at Duan Chen. Just as she was about to say something, Zhou Yufei interrupted with a laugh, "It's so early in the morning. You haven't had breakfast yet, have you? Perfect, let's have breakfast together."

After breakfast, having coaxed Lou Yueru away, Zhou Yufei bolted the door, turned around, and smirked as he looked at Duan Chen, who was still sitting at the table: "You've got some skills! With your mediocre abilities, you actually dared to run alone into that forest so early in the morning! It's only because of that girl earlier; her skills are average and easy to fool. If it were anyone else, I wonder what you would have done today!" With that, he lifted his robe and sat down opposite Duan Chen in a very uncouth manner, his peach blossom eyes flashing with cold light as he glared at the man before him with a gloomy expression.

Duan Chen remained silent, his phoenix eyes half-closed, neither looking at Zhou Yufei nor the two people beside him. Zhao Ting kicked Zhou Yufei's shin, while Zhan Yun gently shook his head, signaling him to stop talking. The anger that Zhou Yufei had just suppressed surged up again. Just as he was about to speak, he saw the two of them glaring at him, as if to say, "You're not allowed to speak." Zhou Yufei was no pushover either. He stood up, kicked the stool, and said, "I'm really fed up with you two," before opening the door and leaving the room.

Zhan Yun stood up and went to close the door. Zhao Tingzheng stared intently at Duan Chen: "That was indeed quite dangerous. Lou Yueru's whip technique wasn't up to par. Otherwise, with the Lou family's ancestral 'Thirteen Astounding Whips,' you definitely wouldn't have gotten the slightest advantage." Seeing that Duan Chen remained silent, Zhao Tingzheng frowned in annoyance. After thinking for a moment, he added, "What I mean is, there are quite a few people in this manor whose martial arts are superior to yours. You could easily run into one and be in trouble. You'd better not act alone in the future, okay?"

“We know you have your own business to attend to at this manor. We also trust you and believe you would never do anything against your conscience.” Zhan Yun sat back down and said gently, “But given the current situation, actions like this morning are far too risky. You don’t have to tell us what you’re going to do, but at least tell us where you’re going before you leave, so we can find you if anything happens. Just now, when we went over there to look for you and found that neither you nor Miss Lou were there, we knew something was wrong. Going to Meilin’s place was half a gamble. If we had been a moment later, she would have made a scene and leaked the whole thing…”

"I'm sorry." Duan Chen suddenly interjected, then remained silent for a long while before continuing, "What happened today was my fault. I went into the manor to find something. It's not valuable, and no one in Wanliu Manor would care about it, but to others, it's more precious than life itself. I promised that person that I would find it and deliver it to her."

At this point, Duan Chen raised his eyes and looked at the two of them: "If in the future, we fall out with the Liu family over this matter, I will definitely explain to Second Master Liu that I, Duan Chen, have nothing to do with the three of you. I will bear all the consequences of this matter, even if it means losing my hands or feet." Duan Chen curled his lips and lowered his voice: "As long as you can spare my life and deliver the things to the right person, that's fine."