Reborn: Revenge of the Concubine’s Daughter

He Danggui believed Zhu Quan saved her just because of the last remained effect of Spirit and Love Poison in his body and he threw the sedan at last because the effect was used up. She guessed like this in her heart or she just hoped the truth was like this. However, she couldn’t explain it to Lu Jiangbei so she said with a bitter smile, “You can believe whatever you want. Anyway, you’re always stubborn about what you think.”

Lu Jiangbei did believe that was the truth so he took what she said as an implicit confession. He tried to persuade her, “Lord Ning is indeed cruel to women but he is a brilliant man. It will be a pity if he dies so easily. You should think twice.” He touched her hair spread on her back and took out a band used for wrapping fists from his sleeve. He wanted to tie her hair so she could look more spirited. The long hair was like soft silk which glittered like waves in the room with flickering candlelight.

While doing this, he kept saying, “The ‘husband’ of Li Xin Gui controls the ‘servant’ of it is for nothing but sexual desire. A ‘husband’ can have several ‘servants’. In other words, a ‘husband’ can vent the desire on many ‘servants’ while a ‘servant’ can only vent it on one ‘husband’. Thus, the desire of the ‘servant’ will get stronger and it can’t be relieved by the other people. The ‘servant’ can only soothe it by having sex with the ‘husband’ of the same Li Xin Gui. Once the ‘husband’ ignores the ‘servant’ when the desire of the ‘servant’ gets stronger, the ‘servant’ will have to suffer a lot, keep thinking about sex, and get anxious as every woman eagers for it does. And the ‘servant’ will be haunted and would rather die.”

What a weird thing! This was He Danggui’s only thought after hearing his words. Was there really a woman eager for sex in the world? She couldn’t believe it.

“That’s just like the feeling you had when I was doing the treatment for you. Danggui, that grueling but addictive feeling may just be how people feel about sexual desire.” His slender fair fingers went through her hair as some alums moved through waves at night. He sighed and continued, “By the day you get married, you will understand how grueling it is when your desire can’t be satisfied. Thus, a person with the ‘servant’ of Li Xin Gui must follow the one with the ‘husband’ of it forever and only vent the desire on the ‘husband’. The ‘husband’ is the person who feeds the ‘servant’ with the rest of the same Li Xin Gui. If the person is conscientious and can take responsibility for the ‘servant’, they will accompany each other all their life. This is the so-called ‘Lock Heart’ and the ‘lifelong bond’. They will turn a person into another one’s poppy and addiction.”

He Danggui listened to him quietly and then, she showed her thirst for knowledge again. She asked, “Do you mean the person having eaten the stem of Li Xin Gui with alcohol will be the ‘husband’ while the one having eaten the flower and leaves of it will be the ‘servant’? In the legend, right? But based on what I know, Li Xin Gui is gray-green moss without stems or flowers and its leaves are tiny and thin. That’s all. Thus, what you’ve heard must be wrong, Master Lu. As for your theories about ‘husbands and servants’, they are too bizarre. I won’t believe them unless I witness them. About Lord Ning’s condition, I can only say that he is ill. He is ill! Master Lu, if you do care about him, you can find him a famous doctor or Taoist Sage. They will cure him.”

“Taoist Sage?” Lu Jiangbei looked at her while frowning, “You want me to find Taoist Sage and let him cure Zhu Quan? Do you know what disease he has? How can you be sure that Bai Yangbai will cure him?”

He Danggui withdrew her hair from Lu Jiangbei’s hands and took the band as well. She tied the hair herself and said in anger at the same time, “I have nothing else to say. If you don’t believe me, I won’t be able to do anything about it. Stop trying to get information from me, or I may lose my temper.” Different from Lu Jiangbei who spent a long while but still didn’t tie the hair, she did it very quickly. At this time, she had already regained much of her strength. She pushed the quilt away and intended to get out of the bed. Meanwhile, she requested, “I want to go back to Yangzhou City. Go back home. If you can’t make the decision, please help me find Master Gao. I’ll talk to him directly.”

Her whole body was shaking and after Lu Jiangbei pulled her lightly with a finger, she fell weakly to the bed. He helped her rest her head on the pillow and said with a smile, “You can’t go back home like this. Why do you want to find Gao Jue? He’s your cousin-in-law but I’m your uncle. You’re very naughty. How can I be not worried? It’s fine if you want to go back to Yangzhou City. You just rest here these days to recuperate. Today’s the eleventh day of the first lunar month and we can take you with us when we go back to Yangzhou City three days later. But if you didn’t rest well and was still do weak at that time, we would just go back and leave you alone here.”

At first, He Danggui thought Lu Jiangbei had used some trick to push her, but now she found she just fell easily and no trick was needed. Even Brother Zhu could push her down now. She quivered because of coldness so she asked, “You said after the poisonous part of He He Qi Ri Qing was eliminated, I would be immune from most poisons and fear no coldness or hotness, right? Why am I feeling cold now? Is there still some of it left in my body? Do I need to take two more of the antidote?”

After tucking her in, Lu Jiangbei replied, “You do fear no coldness or hotness now. Every drop of water becomes ice in this icehouse and I even need to wear two double coats but you can fall asleep here. You fear no coldness, don’t you? I should’ve continued treating you with Ba Huang Finger so that you won’t feel cold anymore, but first, you said you couldn’t take it, and second, I’m a bit tired now. Let’s call it a day and we’ll continue tomorrow.”

Finishing his words, he turned around to leave the icehouse. Glancing at the glistening top of the room and the candles around, He Danggui guessed it was still daytime so she asked, “Can you bring the book about venomous insects to me? It’s too boring to lie quietly here.”

Without looking back, Lu Jiangbei just answered and left. The intimate attitude he had before was completely gone.

He Danggui stared at his back in confusion and couldn’t figure out why he became cold suddenly. She also didn’t understand why he paid so much attention to the things about Zhu Quan. According to what she knew, Changye Tower of Imperial Guards and Wuying Tower were deadly foes for years. Moreover, Zhu Quan recuperated in Luo’s Mansion last time just because Lu Jiangbei hurt him very badly. At that time, he firmly denied that he knew Lu Jiangbei and also tried hard to hide his relationship with Feng Yang, namely Chang Nuo. Maybe he was just afraid someone would find the fact that he had left the fief without permission and made trouble in Yangzhou City.

Anyway, the whole thing was weird. She shook her head and decided not to think about it anymore. What else should she be worried about except recovering quickly and going back home? There were countless things to be worried about every day in the world, but what did that have to do with her? She did so many things for Meng Xuan for the first time, but she got herself in such a big mess by being poisoned, having coldness remained in her body, and staying in this icehouse to bear the treatment named Ba Huang Finger. She also had to get married within three months, or the coldness couldn’t be eliminated and she would suffer from its lingering effect for the rest of her life.

After lying still for a while, she heard some footsteps behind. She said, “Leave the book aside. I’ll read it later.” Then, she covered her head with the quilt and didn’t want to talk to Lu Jiangbei anymore because he always seemed to be interrogating her. However, she got no response. About ten minutes later, she poked her head out of the quilt but saw no one or any book. She was still the only one in the icehouse.

She became very confused while at the same time, some footsteps sounded again. She turned her head to check and saw Lu Jiangbei walking toward her so she asked, “Was that you coming here just now? I heard someone was coming but I didn’t know when he left and saw no one else here as well.”

Lu Jiangbei shook his head and replied, “You must have misheard. I start my meditation here every year and there is no one else around. I also often hear some footsteps but I’m already used to them. Here is the bottom of a lake and those footsteps are from people somewhere ashore.”

“No.” He Danggui wide opened her eyes and refuted, “I heard them clearly in this room. I heard the person walking toward me but when I turned around, I saw no one!” She searched the room anxiously and wide opened her eyes again suddenly. Pointing at the left side of the foot of the bed, she screamed, “There are footprints on the ground and that’s not the tread patterns of your boots! And I remember I saw no footprint there before you left!”

Glancing at the footprints, Lu Jiangbei said indifferently, “Seven or eight men have taken turns to stay here for several days so it’s normal to see footprints here. You said you didn’t see them before. That’s also reasonable because people who practice kung fu may weigh a lot but walk quietly and their footprints on the ice always disappear very quickly. It’s nothing strange.” He put a book near the pillow and continued, “I can’t find Introduction to Venomous Insects for now. I’ll look for it more carefully tonight and you can read this one first. It’s about the legend of Li Xin Gui and very interesting. You’ll like it.” He turned around to leave as soon as he finished his words.

“Stop!” He Danggui shouted and glared at him, “There’s another person here! I’m serious! I heard the breathing a moment before! Please don’t go! The person will hurt me as soon as you leave!”

Lu Jiangbei’s expression slightly changed. After a pause, he put on a hollow smile and replied, “Don’t be ruffled, Danggui. Uncle hasn’t slept for days and I still have lots of documents to read. Don’t make a fuss, okay? I’ll ask Liu Sui to accompany you at night and cook you some hot soup. Your stomach is weak so you can just drink soup these days and keep away from greasy food. So…” He took a long sigh, “I have to go now. Enjoy your reading. Some pages of it are really interesting and I hope you can read them carefully.”

He Danggui was so angry that she punched the quilt and said furiously, “I won’t! I’m done with it! I’ve never seen Li Xin Gui or Zhu Quan! I want to read Introduction to Venomous Insects but not this one. I don’t want to stay in this hateful icehouse. Get me out of here now. Don’t leave me alone!”

Lu Jiangbei pointed out the flaw of her speech calmly, “You said you’ve seen Li Xin Gui before and it had no flower or stem. That’s my mistake. I checked it just now. Sure enough, I have a worse memory than you do. But why does your memory get bad now? You’ve definitely seen the kind of grass before, haven’t you? Master Prophet Qi Xuanyu said he once ran into Senior Lord Luo Maitong in a mountain in the north while the lord was picking Li Xin Gui four years ago. Suppose Senior Lord had stored it in Luo’s Mansion and you had seen it and known its use, everything could be explained, then, right?”

He Danggui was too shocked to say anything. Luo Maitong picked it and she used it to poison Zhu Quan? They conspired to trick Zhu Quan? Was Lu Jiangbei kidding her? She had only seen Senior Lord once so far and never talked to him. People who had a mind to beat their dogs would easily find their sticks! She was really wronged.

Lu Jiangbei still replied in a calm tone, “Don’t worry. Between Zhu Quan and you, of course, I care more about you. Even if you keep silent and have made him eat Li Xin Gui without preparing to marry him, I won’t interfere with your decision. Just have a good rest and stop imagining things. You’re safe in this icehouse. We’ve paid a lot of effort to save you so it’s impossible for us to harm you.”

He Danggui got more furious and lost control of her clear mind. She began to talk wildly, “Save me? Stop saying this! You just suspect that I have something to do with the man running away from Shui Shang Temple. You knew he attacked you again in Yangzhou City. You are suspecting I asked for the antidote of cold poison just to save him! Huh, you’ve said this before. His kung fu is indeed brilliant so he can never hide his identity. There aren’t more than five young people in the world who can be powerful like that! You’re right. I know the man and I plan to marry him. Do you have any word about it? Lu Jiangbei, you keep trying to get information from me and lock me in this icehouse. Are you going to trap me here? Are you using me to catch him?”

After she stopped shouting, Lu Jiangbei was shocked to be in a daze. He Danggui also got startled by her own words and immediately covered her mouth with her hands. Gosh! What was she talking about? Why did she say all of it? Why would she become like this?

Lu Jiangbei kept silent for a long while and then, he sighed before saying, “It turns out that this is the truth. You did ask for the antidote for him.”

He Danggui became numb because of the shock. Was the secret between Meng Xuan and her about to be exposed now?