Chapter 173.1: This was Meeting with Mishap?
Jing Wan nodded, it’s fine as long as her people are safe and sound. For others, it wasn’t her place to care about, nor did she want to care about.
Shortly after, the servants began putting away the things. The Luo family’s ‘tent’ was ‘built’ quickly, so naturally it didn’t take that much effort to put it away either. Without much effort, it was appropriately taken care of, and they could even use this bit of time before setting out again to rest for a while.
Sun Yi Jia unhesitantly got on Jing Wan’s horse carriage again. She indeed appeared to be not affected at all. The carriage feet continued advancing again.
Aside from the two of them, they also each left a servant girl in the carriage.
“Did elder sister-in-law sleep well?”
“Quite well.” Sun Yi Jia nodded her head, picking up a piece of sour plum from the small table and putting it in her mouth.
Because the window curtains weren’t put down, Jing Wan suddenly saw a horse carriage with the horses removed being abandoned. A rather good horse carriage, but appears to be ordinary, so most likely isn’t some wangye or wangfei’s horse carriage. However, for the princes, there were also other family members, and what they used, naturally didn’t have that high of a standard. And those situated in front of the Luo family also weren’t just members of the imperial family. Jing Wan’s heart stirred. If it was perfectly fine, then naturally this horse carriage won’t just be abandoned like this. Looks like it should be related to that previous matter. “Which family’s horse carriage is this?”
“Should be from the Head Cabinet Minister’s family.” Sun Yi Jia casted a glance, and then retracted her gaze, lacking in interest. However, in the tone, there was a bit of taking pleasure at another’s misfortune. Since the one that met with mishap was Ruan Fang Fei, she naturally was happy. “Heard when Ruan Fang Fei was resting, something very scary and dirty appeared in her horse carriage, and got terribly frightened, even turning a bit deranged.”
Jing Wan was rather speechless. Ruan Fang Fei was her enemy, but even she didn’t feel anything, yet this sister-in-law was rather happy and delighted.
“It’s good if she goes crazy, and best if she thoroughly goes insane. That way, she won’t need to enter Jin Qinwang Manor, so as to avoid disgusting you.”
“Elder sister-in-law……….” Jing Wan was helpless. How come she still remembered this thing.
“Alright, I won’t say anymore. Ruan Fang Fei has been continuously plagued with misfortune lately, saying too much is unlucky.”
Whether it was unlucky or not, Jing Wan didn’t know. She just knew that Ruan Fang Fei indeed has bad luck, and moreover, it was extremely bad luck. Even if it wasn’t something that can drive her insane, it clearly was still for the sake of tormenting her. Jing Wan originally was still thinking of taking revenge, but looking at it now, it was just like as if someone was helping her take revenge. Moreover, it was step by step, little by little, and in a sense, they clearly can just have Ruan Fang Fei crushed to death all at once, yet in actuality, it was using a blunt knife to cut her flesh, not giving up until she has suffered enough torment, and fall apart in pain.
Whether or not this was specifically taking revenge for her, she didn’t know, but someone was targeting Ruan Fang Fei, and this was a fact. Then, who was this person? Was it the one who from the start humiliated Ruan Fang Fei at Gong Qinwang Manor, Jin Qinwang Li Hong Yuan?
For many things, there all exists some specious indications, but when you truly go to ponder over it carefully, you will discover, it completely was unable to withstand the examination, with many holes existing, and completely unable to be linked up. Then, in that case, these indications were just like being purposefully left behind by someone, and in a sense, can be erased.
Perhaps because of the Ruan family’s matter, Le Cheng Emperor’s mood wasn’t too good. Of course, majority of the people all didn’t know that Jin Qinwang even suffered an assassination attempt by ‘rebel traitors’. During the course of the journey afterwards, unless absolutely necessary, they all didn’t stop again. Fortunately, for the next two days, no mishap occurred again. Based on this speed, in another day, they’ll be able to reach Chengde Imperial Residence.
Just, on the night of the first day, as they were passing by a river, something unfortunate happened, the bridge broke.
The melancholy anger in Le Cheng Emperor’s heart still haven’t vanished, so this while, encountering something unlucky, it was inevitable for him to be furious inside. One has to know, ahead of the procession, there were people opening up the paths first, and along the way, have all the unrelated people cleared away, prohibiting people to pass through. Since they didn’t receive any news of the bridge breaking beforehand, at this time, how could one not get angry.
Unfortunately, no matter how big one’s anger was, this bridge was already broken, so there was nothing one can do about it, and it won’t be fixed any time soon either. Since they can’t turn around and return to the capital, then they can only chose to take a detour. And the result of the scouting was that upstream, there was a rope bridge. Obviously, this can’t be used, and going further up, they temporarily haven’t discovered anything. And going downward two li[1], it was still just a rope bridge. Finally, about seven to eight li away, another bridge was discovered, barely manageable for the horse carriage to pass through.
Thus, the carriage fleet turned back, mainly because it was impossible to travel along the river bank, so they could only move back one li, and then head downstream.
However, that was also just a path that was barely manageable for the horse carriage. As they traveled, they even needed to smooth out the path, so their speed naturally slowed down. In short, it can just be summarized by one words———stressful.
Nearly every year you all need to escape from the summer heat, and every year you all need to walk this path, so naturally it was also maintained year after year, yet in the end……………
The more uneven the path was, the more Jing Wan suffered in the horse carriage. Unfortunately, because Luo Jing Bo needed to take care of his wife, and also because the bright sun was high overhead, aside from the horses for pulling the carriage, they didn’t prepare extra horses. So to want to come down and ride on horseback was also impossible.
And it was precisely at this time, when An Yi lead a horse over, its purpose, understood without saying.
Jing Wan fell silent. Truthfully speaking, whenever Jin Qinwang is being considerate, it really makes one somewhat unable to resist and difficult to refuse.
However, Jing Wan’s gaze lingered on An Yi momentarily, “You’re Jin Qinwang’s head of the bodyguards?”
“Replying to Miss Luo, yes.” He didn’t know Jing Wan’s intentions, but still obediently answered.
Jing Wan didn’t want to continue suffering in the horse carriage, thus accepted Li Hong Yuan’s goodwill, “Thank wangye for me.”
“Miss Luo is too polite.” An Yi left behind the horse and left.
Jing Wan climbed down from the horse carriage. She naturally knew how to ride a horse, just she wasn’t completely proficient. In flat areas, she can ride running around, but for uneven paths, as well as some small trails, slopes, and mountain roads, she could only walk around on horseback. Compared to the riding skills that Jin Qinwang showed off at the Grand Elder Princess Manor, the disparity was more than light-years apart. Fortunately, the traveling speed right now was also slow, so to want to keep up on horseback wasn’t anything hard.
Afterwards, Jing Wan put on a gauze hat[2], stepping on the stirrup and flipping onto the horse. As soon as she stabilized herself, Jing Wan noticed something peculiar. This horse saddle’s cushion’s tactile sensation was the same as the cushion in the horse carriage, soft and also slightly cool. And judging from the shape of this horse saddle, one just knew, it definitely was prepared long ago, and not something devised last minute. Moreover, this horse was a precious breed, yet appeared very docile, and completely didn’t kick its hooves because a stranger was on its back. Nine times out of ten, it was long prepared prior to leaving the capital, and perhaps was even specifically prepared for her, in case of a possible need? Jing Wan didn’t want to be a narcissist, but it has been proven more than once that Jin Qinwang really did it for her sake.
Even for her, this imposter, he was all able to be this meticulous, then what about for the original true version? To what degree was Jin Qinwang good to her to? However, under normal circumstances, the treatment towards a substitute, aside from forcibly seizing, shouldn’t it also be having one’s every word and action all based on the original as the standard? Especially for Jin Qinwang this kind of tyrannical and unreasonable person. However, this really wasn’t the case in reality. He has never asked her of anything before, and instead, everything was all according to her own preferences.
Really can’t make sense of it……………
[1] 1 li = approx. 500m
[2] Gauze hat – See image below