Shen Yujiao turned her head, trying to dodge. But how could such a small movement escape the bandit chief’s eyes?
Her delicate chin was immediately caught in a large hand. The rough, burning touch of his calloused fingers carried the faint metallic stench of blood, pouring straight into her nose.
Instinctively, Shen Yujiao struggled. “Let go, don’t touch me!”
“Don’t move.”
The grip on her chin tightened. The man’s sharply cut, handsome face lost its smile, and those bright black eyes bore into her. “Or else, you can test it, will I let go first, or will your jawbone shatter first?”
Shen Yujiao froze. Then the damp cloth was pressed unceremoniously over her face, rubbing back and forth.
“You, how many days has it been since you washed your face? So filthy?”
Xie Wuling’s thick brows furrowed. At first, thinking she was just a little woman, he had lightened his movements, but the grime on her face was like layer upon layer of plaster, he had to scrub hard to get it off.
To be grabbed by the jaw and have her face forcibly wiped was humiliation enough. Now, hearing the bandit leader’s words, Shen Yujiao burned with shame and anger, wishing she could die on the spot.
If it weren’t for the need to keep a low profile, would she ever have made herself look like this? His words made it sound as though she were simply unclean by nature.
She pressed her lips together, refusing to speak.
Xie Wuling raised a brow slightly, not minding her playing mute. After wiping once, he poured more water, wrung out the blackened filth, and continued.
By the third round, it was as if a pearl fallen into dust had its thick dirt brushed away, its pure brilliance revealed again, lighting up the broken-down temple with radiance.
“Wow…”
The bandits around all stared, dumbfounded. None of them had expected that this filthy beggar woman would turn out to be so beautiful.
“She doesn’t look that old, does she?”
“Probably a young wife, newly married. Look, the baby in her arms is only a month or two.”
“Didn’t think she’d be this good-looking, she could rival Little Red Lotus, the top courtesan at Drunken Immortal Pavilion!”
“I’d say she’s prettier than Red Lotus. And that’s with her wearing rags, face hollowed from hunger. If she were fed and dressed like Red Lotus, tsk, even the Flower Queen of the Qinhuai River would be replaced.”
Top courtesan? Flower Queen?
Did they mean to sell her to a brothel?
Shen Yujiao’s frail body trembled, and Xie Wuling, caught off guard, let her slip free.
Even so, the panic-stricken woman’s features could now be clearly seen, though the grime wasn’t fully gone: willow-like brows, lips red as cherry, skin fine and white as the best porcelain. Most striking of all were her dark, luminous eyes, brimming with tears, crystals clinging to her lashes, about to fall. Pitiful and lovely.
Only… she was far too thin.
When he had hauled her out with the child just now, she had been as light as a sack of feathers.
Xie Wuling’s gaze dropped from her face to the infant in her arms. At once, she shrank back and hugged the bundle tighter. His lips twitched faintly.
Protective of her cub, was she.
With that thought, his eyes didn’t avoid her, but openly and forcefully swept down her figure, from her narrow shoulders, to the threadbare men’s robe she wore…
The robe hid her shape, but with a face that small, her waist beneath must be slim as well.
Shen Yujiao felt that gaze traveling over her from head to toe. Her body curled in on itself, her head ducked so low it nearly buried in the ground. “Great sir, I truly was only passing by. I heard nothing, saw nothing. Please, out of mercy, spare me and my child!”
As she spoke, she bent her knees to kowtow.
But before her forehead touched the ground, a large hand caught her and lifted her up.
The next instant, her gaze collided again with those bright, burning black eyes.
The man in a blue-green robe squatted before her, as if looking at something highly amusing. His thin lips curved: “I knew I wasn’t wrong. With eyes this beautiful, the rest of the face couldn’t possibly be bad.”
Before Shen Yujiao could grasp his meaning, the bandits chimed in one after another:
“Boss has eyes like a torch!”
“Boss’s judgment is unmatched!”
“Boss, what will you do with her? With her looks, selling her to Qinhuai River would fetch at least eight hundred taels!”
So they really did mean to sell her!
Shen Yujiao’s heart plummeted. The tears hanging on her lashes spilled down as she looked in panic at the man before her: “No, please, don’t sell me! I’ll kowtow, I’ll beg you for mercy…”
Seeing her face pale as snow, Xie Wuling frowned and cut his eyes toward the one who had spoken: “Running your mouth, are you? Did I say I’d sell her?”
The man called Sparrow jumped, stammering, “B-Boss, I…”
“Shut it!” Skinny Monkey jabbed him hard in the ribs, lowering his voice: “Been following Boss half a year and you still don’t know? He hates traffickers more than anything.”
Sparrow muttered, “Didn’t know that…”
Xie Wuling ignored them, looking once more at the pitiful woman before him. His voice lowered: “I won’t sell you. But, you stole offerings I set for the Earth God, and you overheard our talk. If I just let you go like this, wouldn’t I be at a loss?”
Hearing he had no intention to sell her, Shen Yujiao’s heart steadied. She hurriedly wiped her tears and said earnestly: “Rest assured, I’m from elsewhere, a stranger here. Once I leave this temple, I’ll forget all I saw and heard today, I won’t utter a word. As for the offerings…”
Thinking of the two cakes and fruit already in her belly, her voice weakened: “The cakes were dusty, the fruit shriveled anyway…”
Xie Wuling arched a brow: “Still, they were my offerings to the Earth God.”
Shen Yujiao choked, then bit her lip, peering cautiously at him: “Then… will you allow me two days? Tomorrow I’ll beg on the streets. Once I get money, I’ll repay you at once.”
“To beg enough for a couple of cakes, you need two days?” Xie Wuling sneered. “Not planning to run, are you?”
“No, no, I won’t.”
Shen Yujiao shook her head rapidly, her dark eyes filled with grievance and helplessness: “It’s just, the beggars in Jinling are too fierce. Wherever I go, they drive me off. I truly couldn’t get a thing…”
To lose even to beggars, and now, at night, to run into bandits in a temple. How unlucky could she be?
Shen Yujiao’s heart was a jumble of grief and indignation; she felt that no matter how vast the heavens and earth were, everywhere seemed to be against her.
Xie Wuling, seeing this little woman pitifully complain about not even being able to compete with the beggars of Jinling, couldn’t help but laugh. With her bashful, timid demeanor, she’d be lucky to beg even a single copper coin.
“The beggars of Jinling band together and deliberately push out outsiders like you. Never mind giving you two days, even if I gave you twenty, you might still not manage to beg enough for two plates of pastries.”
“Ah?”
Shen Yujiao lifted her eyes in a daze, panic flashing across her face. “Then… what should I do?”
Xie Wuling’s dark eyes narrowed slightly. She actually believed him?
So easy to trick, how had she managed to escape all the way here from the north?
“What else can you do? Begging won’t work. Selling yourself, then…”
But before he could finish, he caught sight of her face turning deathly pale. His thin lips pressed together, and he swallowed back the words meant to scare her. “That kind of vile thing, Laozi wouldn’t do, of course.”
Then, catching sight of her looking up at him with tearful, timid eyes, something stirred in his chest. Suddenly, he tilted her chin up, peach blossom eyes carrying a lazy, mocking smile. “The little lady looks quite good. Why not pay your debt with yourself, become my wife, hm?”
Shen Yujiao’s already-large eyes went wide and round at his words. “No…”
She hadn’t even finished the word when her eyes rolled back, her head tipped sideways, and she collapsed straight down.
Xie Wuling’s expression changed at once. Quick as lightning, he caught her. That delicate body, boneless and limp, fell softly into his arms.
At first, he suspected she was faking, but when he saw both her hands, still holding the swaddled infant, droop weakly, he realized she had truly fainted.
“Boss, wh-what’s going on?”
“How the h*ll should I know!”
One arm holding the suddenly unconscious woman, the other grabbing the endlessly crying infant, Xie Wuling’s handsome face was black as the bottom of a pot. “I’m nine feet tall, handsome and debonair, broad of frame and fine of looks. Is marrying me really that terrifying?”
When he’d threatened to sell her off to the Qinhuai brothels, she hadn’t fainted. But at the mention of marrying him, she passed out instantly? Did he have no dignity left!
In the temple, his men looked at each other, all wearing awkward expressions.
Finally, Wildcat smacked his forehead. “Boss, she must’ve fainted from happiness!”
The others nodded in a rush. “Right, right, who’s our boss? The little overlord of Jinling, the number one gentleman of Qinhuai!”
“She’s just a penniless refugee, already married once and with a child. To be chosen by our boss, that’s the luck of a lifetime!”
Flattered left and right, Xie Wuling’s face eased slightly.
Looking again at the pale woman in his arms, his brows furrowed once more. After a moment of thought, he bent down and picked her up.
His men hurried forward to help. “Boss, let us do it.”
“Get lost.”
Xie Wuling swept them a cold glare. “The wife I’ve chosen, naturally only Laozi can carry.”
The infant, still wailing nonstop in its swaddle, he instead tossed to Wildcat. “Didn’t your wife just give birth half a year ago? Take this brat back and have her nurse it. Look how hungry he is, he’s about to cry himself hoarse.”
Wildcat caught the child, staring blankly. “Uh…”
Watching the tall figure stride off with the woman, he couldn’t help but blurt, “Boss? Where are you going? We haven’t even split the silver yet!”
“Taking your sister-in-law to Old Li’s to get some medicine.”
Without turning his head, Xie Wuling’s tone was as lazy and offhand as ever. “Split the silver as agreed before the job. My share, Wildcat keeps safe. I’ll fetch it when I’ve got the time.”
His words faded as the tall figure disappeared into the endless night.
The remaining ruffians scratched their heads.
“Could the boss be serious about this?”
“Who knows?”
“Forget it, let’s divvy up the money first. The brat’s about to cry himself to death.”
Wildcat waved his big hand, looking down at the baby in his arms with puzzlement.
The boss was never one to be lustful or greedy for women. Even if that little lady was pretty, she was still a refugee of unknown background, already married and with a child. Surely the boss wouldn’t really marry such a one?
