Chapter 435   Running into an Old Acquaintance in the Mountains

Ning Xueyan felt that her head was heavy. It was so heavy that she could hardly lift it. She had a sudden burst of fuzzy awareness, and after a long while, she remembered what had happened just now. She took Qingyu to jump out of the carriage. Although the carriage’s speed was not fast, they really still could not resist it compared to the two ladies with weak strength. Especially for Ning Xueyan, she had never kept a good body since childhood.

Being pulled by the sharp speed, how could she grab Qingyu? Her hand was released and she fell to the ground heavily, rolling around quickly. Then she didn’t know what she had bumped into and passed out. Now she only felt pain all over her body, and also wondered whether her bones were broken or not after being hit.

She looked at the sky over her head quietly. There were still white fluffy clouds floating in the very blue sky—how beautiful it was! She tried her best to move, but during this period of time, the strength she had recovered was only enough to allow her to move a little. This body was still too weak. She turned her head slightly and looked at the surroundings.

Fortunately, this place was fairly flat and it was also a meadow. With the summer’s arrival, the grass and trees were flourishing. However, the reason why she paused was that she was blocked by a lush bush. But even so, she still felt light-headed and her vision was dark, as if she had been stepped on by someone fiercely.

Seen from afar, it was full of verdant trees and Ning Xueyan could not see above it. When she looked down, it was very deep. She wondered why the hillside was so deep, and she could not help laughing bitterly inside. If there was not a bush here, she perhaps would have rolled down and lost her life.

Ning Xueyan looked around, but she didn’t see Qingyu. Now she wondered where Qingyu was! But compared to Ning Xueyan, Qingyu’s body was at least a little better, so her life wouldn’t be in any danger. There were so many trees here, so something should have stopped Qingyu from falling down the hillside directly.

However, if an overweight carriage rolled down, these bushes and trees would not be able to hold it up. It would definitely roll to the bottom of the hillside. With such weight and speed, it would be difficult for the people in the carriage to survive. This was the reason why those people had schemed against her.

After accumulating some strength with difficulty, this time Ning Xueyan supported herself with one hand and struggled to sit up. She tried to move her hands and feet, and found nowhere that had any unusual pain, so she could not help sighing in relief. There should not be any place on her body that was broken. She picked up a branch on the ground to support herself and walked a few steps forward.

When she descended the mountain, it was still early, but now, the sun was setting in the west. She looked up and found that it was a steep road here. With her current body, it was impossible for her to climb up. However, she didn’t dare to move under her feet. If her feet slipped a little, she might fall down directly.

She sat on the ground again and looked at her surroundings, then knitted her brows. She couldn’t go up or down, so she could only try to walk sideways.

After being certain of the direction, Ning Xueyan propped herself up again and walked to the right. That hillside road seemed to be flatter and only some shallow grass grew on it. She could stay light on her feet, so she wouldn’t miss a step and fall down. If she fell and rolled down again with this body, she would really die.

After walking along the road carefully for a while and turning around a big tree, Ning Xueyan was dumbfounded to look at everything in sight and froze there for a moment. She never expected that there would be a household in such a wilderness that touched neither the sky nor the ground.

This place looked more like it was on a mountain rock. The protruding mountain rock was lying in the middle with green grass growing on it, while the hut was above the mountain rock. It was big, but looked very elegant. An old tree grew strongly there, with more than half of its roots exposed. Now it just had luxuriant foliage and matched the spotless hut, giving people a sense of elegance with simplicity.

It was really weird for such a hut to be located in such a place. However, what made Ning Xueyan even more uneasy was that there seemed to be human footprints here. But seeing that the yard surrounded by a bamboo fence was cleaned up and several blooming orchids were placed on the windowsill in the sun, Ning Xueyan knew that this hut had to have an owner.

With Ning Xueyan’s nature, she would never walk close to such a strange place, but now, she had to get close. Although everything in sight had an owner, she could see that the hut’s owner had to be an elegant person. Maybe she could ask the owner to deliver a message for her and have Ao Chenyi come to save her.

Thinking of this, Ning Xueyan’s nerves eased a little, but she still didn’t walk over immediately. She thought that she had to see the inexplicable danger clearly, so she took a few more steps forward and got behind the big tree. She couldn’t hold on any longer and then sat down to rest with her back against the tree trunk. With that, she turned her head and observed the area. She tried to see the hut’s owner come out and then she would find a way after seeing the situation clearly.

She had just narrowly escaped death, so she certainly was more cautious at this time.

“Fifth Young Lady, why are you here?” A chuckle with some lightness came from behind, and a hand reached over to pat her on the shoulder. Ning Xueyan suddenly turned around in shock and her watery eyes widened immediately.

“Fifth Young Lady, how can you not recognize me?” A man in splendid clothes was standing behind her smiling more brilliantly than a flower. He was Wen Xueran, the Princely Heir of Commandery Prince Min. Now he was looking at Ning Xueyan with his amorous eyes, as if he was happy to see her here.

“You... Why are you here?” Ning Xueyan asked alertly and slightly drew back her body.

She knew distinctly that Wen Xueran was absolutely not so innocent before her eyes. At this time and in this place, if he really held hostility against her, then she would not know how she would die.

Wen Xueran seemed to be amused by her alertness. As he looked at her black-ink, jade-like eyes full of carefulness and caution, she had the alertness and loveliness of an animal that had been captured by someone. He waved the folding fan in his hand twice, and the smile on his handsome face became more gentle. “Fifth Young Lady, don’t worry. I’m a vegetarian.”

A hint of surprise flashed in Ning Xueyan’s eyes. She didn’t understand what he meant by this and her long eyelashes blinked, looking like she failed to understand.

Wen Xueran couldn’t help laughing, then said, “Fifth Young Lady, why do you look like I am going to eat you? This is a hut in Cold Mountain Temple, and I’ve come here to study in peace and quiet for a few days. I won’t do anything bad to you. But what’s wrong with you, Fifth Young Lady? You can’t get yourself into this even if you wanted to search for seclusion and to explore beautiful sceneries.”

Wen Xueran looked Ning Xueyan up and down a few times as he spoke. Ning Xueyan really looked bedraggled now. Her skirt was torn in serial places and was like a torn-off piece of cloth. Fortunately, her underskirt inside looked fine. Otherwise, Ning Xueyan would have been even more ashamed by that.

“Is this the meditation place of Cold Mountain Temple?” At this point, Ning Xueyan’s face certainly turned red, but she caught a break from the bottom of her heart and her whole person calmed down. She had heard before that there were several meditation places in Cold Mountain Temple, and the places built were to be very quiet to provide peace for others to enjoy.

However, Cold Mountain Temple did not open these few places to ordinary people. When Xia Yuhang talked to her about it before, he expressed that if he could study in such a quiet place, he would get twice the results with half the effort.

Ning Xueyan thought to herself that it was certainly the best to meditate and study in such a place, especially now that the Spring Metropolitan Examination was coming. Reading books in a calm and stationary manner here without being disturbed by others was still close to the time to get the book. But could the man before her eyes really calm down to have a read?

Ning Xueyan’s eyes couldn’t help falling on the fancy clothes he wore. The clothes were not only gorgeous, but there were also a few jade pendants hanging on his white jade belt. At first glance, she could tell that they were treasures. The folding fan in his hand was waved to dance in the air. What’s more, he had a handsome appearance like that of a good girl. No matter where she looked at him, she felt that he looked like a colorful butterfly and not like a person who was quiet and stationary that would study hard here.

“This place certainly is a meditating place of Cold Mountain Temple. I’d already read a book for a while and then came out for a walk, but I didn’t expect to run into a beautiful woman here. I’m really so lucky!” Seeing the doubt on Ning Xueyan’s face, Wen Xueran was unhappy. He snapped the folding fan in his hand closed and smilingly moved his face over with an ambiguous look.

With such a stunning appearance and a pair of smiling and charming eyes that were so affectionate, no matter which Young Lady ran into him, she would involuntary blush. There was a rumor in the capital city that the Princely Heir of Commandery Prince Min was the most beautiful man.

“Princely Heir, can you help me to send a letter to people outside to notify them that I’m here now? Please make my family rest assured.” Ning Xueyan seemed to not see his handsome face and affectionate eyes. She blinked her long eyelashes and fell down feebly to lean against the tree trunk behind her. She showed a weak smile and spoke faintly.

She thought that even if she had not gotten hurt earlier, it would also be useless for her to fight with the Princely Heir of Commandery Prince Wen.

“Since the beautiful lady has said so, I don’t dare disagree. But Fifth Young Lady, are you sure you want to rest here? If I go up to deliver a message, I won’t be able to come down soon.” Wen Xueyan knocked the fan on his palm and tilted his head to look at Ning Xueyan. Seeing that her face was not red and she was not breathless, he didn’t lean over to tease her anymore but replied with some embarrassment.

Ning Xueyan looked around at this place. Indeed, for her to sit here for a while was not a solution. She gnashed her teeth and propped herself up with a tree branch. Her body swayed, and she almost lost her footing for a moment. Wen Xueran subconsciously reached out to help her, but he retracted his hand under Ning Xueyan’s watchful eyes.

In the past, when the Young Ladies saw him, they only wanted to suck up to him. Once upon a time, he was actually rejected by a Young Lady like that. It really broke this handsome man’s heart.

“Princely Heir, I’ll go ahead and have a rest. You... you help me to send a message quickly, otherwise, my uncle will be worried there.” Ning Xueyan gritted her teeth and struggled to support her body. Although her face was pale, Wen Xueran could still see her tenacity. When she fell from above, she did not break her bones, but she had received many other pains. Wen Xueran distinctly saw a trace of blood seeping out from beneath her pale skirt on her wrist where she was holding the tree branch, and his eyes became darker involuntarily.

Such a weak young lady with a body full of misfortune, she must have been through some hardships. But until now, she hadn’t mentioned anything. Looking at her complexion, he knew that she was not doing very good. But even so, she still stood there alone, and showed a faint smile on her face.

Wen Xueran had never seen another Young Lady that looked like this. If she were not really standing in front of him with an injured body, then he even would have thought that she had just returned to her own courtyard after hanging out in the garden. She was as indifferent as a colored glaze, but she was as delicate as a spring flower. But even so, he could still find her persistence from her delicateness like a spring flower.

She was a strange woman, but she made his heart palpitate inexplicably. The pair of his charming eyes with love slowly started to exercise restraint...