Mountain and River Festival

Chapter 129: Presenting Evidence
"Is that Lu Xingzhou, the master?"

Madam Sheng also received news of her daughter's assassination attempt and rushed back from her best friend's house. What she saw at first glance was quite miraculous.

Lu Xingzhou sat in the tea room, brewing tea opposite Sheng Qingfeng, but neither of them said a word.

Since there were chairs available, a wheelchair could be freed up. Sheng Yuanyao then snatched the wheelchair and sat in it, directing A'nuo to push her around the house, claiming she was injured and unable to walk. In reality, she just wanted to experience Lu Xingzhou's wheelchair and the person pushing it; her motivation was unclear.

Sheng Yuanyao was amused, but when Madam Sheng saw her daughter sitting in a wheelchair being pushed around by a child, she thought her daughter was lame and was so frightened that she almost burst into tears on the spot.

Seeing her husband still looking nonchalant while making tea with a young man, she was so angry that she went straight in, grabbed Sheng Qingfeng by the ear, and pulled him out: "Our daughter has a limp, and you're just relaxing! What kind of father are you!"

Sheng Qingfeng had to use a lot of persuasion to convince his wife that their daughter's injury was minor, and then the topic turned to Lu Xingzhou.

"That's right, that's Lu Xingzhou." Sheng Qingfeng's face darkened. "What are you trying to say?"

"Are Yao'er and him really in that kind of relationship? Why did he bring her home..."

"Lu Xingzhou is a fairly skilled alchemist; he's just here to treat my injuries."

“If we go out and shout, we can summon seventeen or eighteen high-level alchemists who could be Lu Xingzhou’s masters. Why would we need to call him, a lone man and woman, to treat his injuries?” Madam Sheng rolled her eyes. “Don’t give me that. Tell the truth.”

"To be honest, I have no idea what Yao'er is thinking," Sheng Qingfeng said angrily. "Look at her, she's even taking care of a child! She's not even married yet and she's already going to be a mother."

Madam Sheng beamed: "I must say, that little girl is so adorable!"

Sheng Qingfeng: "?"

Madam Sheng realized that she might have missed the point and quickly asked, "So, is it true that he and the princess were involved?"

"I don't know, that's just Yuan Yao making things up. Who knows if the nonsense in a young girl's head can be taken seriously? Why don't you go and ask her again? I'll also test Lu Xingzhou. Let's split up."

The couple treated this as a major mission against the enemy, assigning tasks accordingly. Sheng Qingfeng returned to the tea room with a solemn expression. Lu Xingzhou was brewing tea and serving it to the cups, his movements elegant and his demeanor composed.

Sheng Qingfeng's hurried movements were softened by a touch of elegance. He coughed lightly and sat back in the main seat, saying, "My wife was anxious about our daughter and her behavior was inappropriate. Please forgive her."

Lu Xingzhou poured him some tea and said in a low voice, "I envy Miss Sheng."

Sheng Qingfeng was stunned for a moment before realizing that if this guy was Huo Shang, then his mother had died when he was young.

"So..." he asked cautiously, "You're staying here because you actually want to talk to me about the Huo family?"

Damn it, I thought you were going to talk to me about Yuan Yao's marriage!
Lu Xingzhou said, "It's also about Ye Wufeng... I think there's a high chance that the Huo family and Ye Wufeng are colluding to deal with me. They'll each want the other to take the blame, forming a kind of cooperation with ulterior motives. If we handle it well, we can not only successfully capture Ye Wufeng, but also make the Huo family suffer another setback."

It was clearly a very meaningful topic, but for some reason, Sheng Qingfeng felt uncomfortable all over, as if it shouldn't be like this...

He lowered his head and sipped his hot tea, slowly calming his emotions before saying calmly, "Whether the Huo family suffers a setback or not is none of my business."

Lu Xingzhou said, "My uncle is dealing with Ye Wufeng, and I am dealing with the Huo family. We each get what we need."

"As far as I know, the Huo family was still trying to reconcile with you this morning."

"That's just wishful thinking on their part."

Sheng Qingfeng remained calm: "Can I take your words to mean that if I don't target the Huo family, you won't target Ye Wufeng either?"

“Even if my uncle is still unwilling to get involved in the Huo family’s affairs, I will not let Ye Wufeng get away with harming Miss Sheng.”

“If the Demon Suppression Division doesn’t take action, I don’t see how you have the ability to deal with Ye Wufeng on your own. There’s no point in making such boasts.”

Lu Xingzhou simply smiled and said nothing more.

"The matter of Ye Wufeng is a major case for the Demon Suppression Division, and it doesn't require outsiders to interfere. Your affairs with the Huo family are even less related to this matter," Sheng Qingfeng said calmly. "So if you're just going to talk about these things, then there's no need to talk about them."

Lu Xingzhou replied politely, "Okay. What would you like to talk about, Uncle?"

Sheng Qingfeng hesitated, as if he wanted to say something but then stopped.

Damn it, how could you not know what I want to talk about?
After hesitating for a long time, he finally sighed: "Yao'er has no brothers or sisters, only this one son. She has been raised as a boy since childhood, so it is inevitable that she is a bit unruly. But we will not have any intention of taking her in as a son-in-law... I have always believed that Yuan Yao is excellent and deserves a good husband. If we were to take her in as a son-in-law to carry on the family line, it would be unfair to Yuan Yao."

Lu Xingzhou nodded and said, "Uncle is enlightened and truly kind to Miss Sheng."

"So although we worry about her marriage, we never want to force her to choose someone she doesn't like. We've arranged so many blind dates, and if she says she doesn't like someone, then she doesn't like them." Sheng Qingfeng sighed, "The main reason we're anxious is her age. In this world, people marry at sixteen, and many girls are engaged at fourteen. Yuan Yao is already twenty this year... She doesn't think it's a big deal now, but once she gets older, no good families will be interested in her, and she'll have to settle for less. And then where will she find a good match?"

Lu Xingzhou asked cautiously, "What does Uncle mean by telling me all this?"

"First of all, as a friend, you can help persuade Yuan Yao." Sheng Qingfeng observed Lu Xingzhou's expression and thought to himself, "If you two have an affair, wouldn't you explode if I said that?"
As expected, Lu Xingzhou immediately said, "Actually, Uncle has misunderstood."

Sheng Qingfeng, concealing his inner chuckle, said calmly, "What do you mean by that?"

“Uncle was referring to ordinary women in the mortal world. But Miss Sheng is a cultivator, with a long lifespan. Even the royal family isn’t in a hurry to arrange marriage for Princess Chaohuang, precisely because Princess Chaohuang is a gifted genius. Once she breaks through to the third rank, she’ll be like a young girl even in her seventies or eighties. When to arrange marriage is irrelevant…” Sheng Qingfeng retorted angrily, “You know that it requires breaking through to the third rank? I was almost forty when I broke through to the third rank, so do I look like a teenager to you?”

Lu Xingzhou said with a forced smile, "Uncle is very young, very young..."

"Don't give me that." Sheng Qingfeng said, "Yuan Yao is no match for Princess Chaohuang's talent. Even if she can break through to the third rank, she'll be past her prime by then. Will she ever get married?"

Lu Xingzhou forced a reply: "That's not necessarily true...it might be soon..."

Sheng Qingfeng stared wide-eyed.

Lu Xingzhou quickly changed the subject: "Uncle said that's the first thing, what's the second?"

"Secondly, we are also worried that she might go looking for someone on her own. We don't want her to get too involved in the political vortex, but we are also worried that she might be deceived by sweet words. If the blind dates are arranged under our watchful eyes, we can help to check them out. If we let her go looking for someone on her own, she might end up with someone who ruins her life, and then it will be too late to regret it."

Lu Xingzhou lowered his head and drank his tea.

Sheng Qingfeng said calmly, "So, your Huo family identity..."

“Wait a minute…” Lu Xingzhou said helplessly, “First of all, the Huo family matter is being resolved.”

Sheng Qingfeng: "Hehe."

You're in a hurry... We haven't even revealed your identity as a princess's lover yet.

But Lu Xingzhou continued, "Secondly... Uncle is really overthinking it. Miss Sheng and I are truly just close friends, and I have absolutely no designs on her. Uncle can rest assured."

“I really have nothing to do with Lu Xingzhou. I’m closer to A’nuo than to him!” At the same time, Sheng Yuanyao was saying the same thing to her mother.

Sheng Qingfeng and his wife said at the same time, "Remember this testimony you gave in court. If you recant it later, you two will be in big trouble."

In fact, there's no need for them to recant their testimony later.

During lunch alone, the Sheng couple felt that something was wrong.

Sheng Yuanyao sat down next to Lu Xingzhou, smiling, and secretly poked his arm with her finger: "What did Lao Sheng say to you just now?"

Lu Xingzhou replied in a low voice, "He said his family's cabbages were hard to grow."

"Tch." Sheng Yuanyao said in a low voice, "Don't you think these parents are a little crazy? Back when they sent me to the Demon Suppression Division's Martial Arts Academy for advanced studies, their eyes were practically glowing with lust, afraid that I'd be snatched away by some little brat. But after I graduated, before I even started working, they were already frantically looking for a husband for me. All that previous precautions, don't you think, were completely pointless?"

Lu Xingzhou couldn't help but laugh.

"It's the same this time. On one hand, you're arranging blind dates for me, but on the other hand, you're keeping a close watch on me. Is there something wrong with you?" Sheng Yuanyao said, giving Lu Xingzhou a disdainful look. "Tell me, what is it about you that I would like to see? Is it that you and Shen Tang weren't loud enough in the carriage? Or is it that you already have a personal maid after only a few days of going out?"

Lu Xingzhou said in a low voice, "Hey, give me some face. Your father's cultivation is so high, he can hear you."

Sheng Yuanyao quickly looked up at her parents, then lowered her head to eat.

The Sheng couple's faces remained dark, and they had no appetite.

Forget about the way the young couple whispered sweet nothings to each other. In the past, when other young and handsome men came to the house for dinner, Sheng Yuanyao's face was always stern, as if someone owed her eight million. When had she ever been so affectionate and whispering sweet nothings to each other? Judging from her expression, she was incredibly happy to see Lu Xingzhou coming to the house for dinner and chatting and laughing with her parents.

No matter how much you complain verbally, it's useless. Are you sure you know what you really think?

But then again, they seem like a really good match, and their daughter gets along very well with him... If he really likes her, maybe they should consider it...

The couple exchanged a glance, their minds a jumbled mess.

Lu Xingzhou originally intended to stay at the Sheng family to discuss the Huo family and Ye Wufeng's issues, but seeing that Sheng Qingfeng was unwilling to cooperate, he gave up and politely took his leave after the meal.

Sheng Yuanyao, who was originally full of energy, looked sickly after seeing Lu Xingzhou and his apprentice off: "I'm injured and need to rest, don't bother me..."

"I've never seen you with a sour face when someone's around." Madam Sheng gritted her teeth, pointing a finger at her daughter's head: "I think it's not your back that's injured, it's your little heart!"

"Tch~ No way." Sheng Yuanyao lay on the bed, covering her head with a pillow: "Get out, get out, I need to rest."

She genuinely felt that neither she nor Lu Xingzhou had those kinds of feelings for each other...

But for some reason, when the room quieted down and the noise around me stopped, the scene of Lu Xingzhou descending like a god and carrying me away at the last second kept replaying in my mind.

Then it turned into them embracing and rolling around, and finally it froze into him pressing down on her, his breath brushing against her cheeks, tingling and itchy, like the wound on her back.

Wounds heal easily... but I wonder if these memories that make my heart flutter will fade away quickly?

Sigrún has taught at the Iceland University of the Arts as a part-time lecturer since and was Dean of the Department of Fine Art from -. In – she held a research position at Reykjavík Art Museum focusing on the role of women in Icelandic art. She studied fine art at the Icelandic College of Arts and Crafts and at Pratt Institute, New York, and holds BA and MA degrees in art history and philosophy from the University of Iceland. Sigrún lives and works in Iceland.

PS: Please vote for me~
(End of this chapter)