Chapter 136

Zhong Ling hurriedly shook her head like a rattle-drum, saying repeatedly, "No, no, I wasn't looking at anything."

Mu Wanqing gave a cold snort. "Don't think I don't know what you're thinking. You must think that since I'm dressed like this, I don't look like a good person, right?"

"N-no, I... I didn't say that."

"You didn't say it, but you thought it."

"Huh? Sister Mu, am I not even allowed to think it?" Zhong Ling drooped her head, listless.

Mu Wanqing, however, said, "You don't need to be afraid to say it. I'm not a good person to begin with—would I still be afraid of others saying so?"

Zhong Ling: "..."

She blinked her big innocent eyes at Mu Wanqing, that look seeming to say: If you're not afraid of people saying it, why are you still being so fierce to me?

Mu Wanqing looked at her pitiful little appearance, her lips pressing together slightly as she held back a laugh.

Zhong Ling didn't dare reason with this most unreasonable Sister Mu either. She pouted, changed the subject, and said, "Sister Mu, we're about to enter Xiangzhou soon. Shall we go see Dongting Lake?"

"Dongting Lake?" Mu Wanqing's brows knitted slightly. "What for?"

"To see if there's really a 'Rain-Covering Sword' there like in the stories!"

"Boring."

"Boring? So are we going or not?"

"If I'm in a good mood, we'll go. If not, we won't."

"..."

【Because Shi Hongying's face was covered, all I could see were those soul-stirring eyes. At first I even mistook her for Lin Shiyin.】

【After all, those eyes were just too distinctive! And far too familiar!】

【On second thought, the bearing wasn't right.】

【Still, for the moment I couldn't recall who she was, but it was obvious this kind of opportunity couldn't be let slip.】

【The Old Man Under the Moon had personally come down to the scene himself; all that was left was for him to tie the two of us together with rebar. Could I really be that clueless?】

【So with one stylish snap of a branch, I wounded the pursuers and rescued her.】

【And then...】

【Then she slapped me right across the face.】

"Pfft!"

Seeing this, the women couldn't help but burst out laughing.

They had expected the cliché hero-saves-the-beauty, love-at-first-sight routine, never imagining the plot would reverse so swiftly.

They were all caught so off guard—one could well imagine Jiang Sishui's reaction at the time.

"Hmph, what hero-saves-the-beauty! Who asked you to save me? Don't think I don't know what dirty tricks you're plotting!"

Shi Hongying was breathtakingly beautiful, and plenty of people had coveted her as she grew up.

If not for the fact that the Liuhe Gang was not easy to provoke, and she herself possessed Grandmaster cultivation, she would long since have been devoured whole.

Precisely because of this, she had been extremely sensitive to the gaze of the opposite sex since childhood. Basically, with just one look exchanged, she could sense whether the other party harbored ill intent.

It was a kind of intuition—utterly unreasonable, yet extraordinarily accurate.

Although Jiang Sishui had done nothing improper in broad daylight, and his act of saving her resembled a chivalrous passerby drawing his sword to right a wrong, her intuition told her this man was entertaining crooked thoughts.

That was why Shi Hongying had been so rude—it wasn't that her own temperament was fiery.

"You saw my eyes and thought of Lin Shiyin?"

Shi Hongying sat down before her dressing table, gazing at her reflection in the mirror, and murmured, "Who is she? Does she really resemble me?"

Jinzhou, Li Yuan.

Lin Shiyin reclined against the headboard, a copy of the diary in her hands.

No lamp was lit in the room, yet the contents of the diary were clearly visible.

At this very moment, a question identical to Shi Hongying's popped into her mind: "He saw Shi Hongying's eyes and thought of me—do I really resemble her?"

"And why did he think of me first? Am I really that famous in the wu xia?"

With a hint of expectation, she continued reading.

【That slap really left me a bit dumbfounded.】

【Although it didn't actually land, it let me know this woman was a rose with thorns.】

These lines still contain untranslated Chinese. Please provide the full text you want translated.

【No matter—this makes it even more interesting.】

【Just as I was about to reason with her, those pursuers closed in around us.】

【The first one, a great beauty, came up and immediately accused Shi Hongying of stealing something from the Liuhe Gang.】

【I knew the Liuhe Gang well—the villain faction from the TV drama 'Xia Gu Dan Xin'.】

【And with a target range in mind, I quickly guessed Shi Hongying's identity.】

【But since I wasn't a hundred percent sure, I deliberately said nasty things about her brother Shi Bai right in front of Shi Hongying.】

【Whether or not Shi Bai actually did those things didn't matter—just smear them all onto him.】

【Sure enough, the moment Shi Hongying heard it, she got anxious on the spot!】

【Then there was no doubt about her identity.】

"You bastard—so you did it on purpose!"

Shi Hongying gritted her teeth in fury, wishing she could bite Jiang Sishui herself.

..... 0

Earlier, when she had seen Jiang Sishui deliberately provoke Jin Lingzhi to probe her background, she had already felt this man was full of cunning tricks.

Now that it had happened to her, she could truly appreciate how cunning this fellow was.

Because at the time she hadn't noticed at all that the other party was testing her.

……

At the same time, some women who had heard Shi Bai's name couldn't help but wonder: "Shi Baidu is the leader of the Liuhe Gang, and Shi Hongying is his sister — why would she steal from her own family?"

【Shi Hongying is the female lead of *A Knight's Heart*, and also the sister of Shi Baidu, leader of the villain faction Liuhe Gang】

【At the start of the story, just like today, she stole something from her own family】

【But this wasn't her being unreasonable — it was to stop her brother from clinging to the powerful】

【Story background: the eunuch Wei Zhongxian held sway over the court and wished to unify the jianghu】

【With his birthday approaching, the major jianghu factions, eager to curry favor, presented birthday gifts one after another】

【Shi Baidu of the Liuhe Gang was one of them】

【Shi Hongying thus took matters into her own hands — first seizing the thousand-year purple sandalwood, then stealing the dark iron】

【But her two strikes also accidentally exposed her identity】

【Shi Baidu knew an "inside saboteur" was at work and flew into a rage, but Shi Hongying stood her ground, accusing her brother of betraying their father's teachings and colluding with Wei Zhongxian — acknowledging a thief as father】

【Shi Baidu had no reply, yet still did not give up the idea】

【Later, to cut off Shi Baidu's retreat and bind him to the pirate ship for good, Wei Zhongxian spoke personally, demanding Shi Baidu marry his sister off to his adopted son Shuai Mengxiong】

【Shi Baidu did not dare disobey, ignoring Shi Hongying's objections and forcing his sister into the marriage】 up.

151 Shi Hongying plus Lin Shiyin — an irresistible double dose of joy

"My brother forced me to marry? How could that possibly be?!"

Shi Hongying sprang up in shock, nearly knocking over the dressing table.

Ever since their parents passed away, the siblings had depended on each other; when she was young she had even saved her brother's life, so Shi Baidu had always been deeply protective and doting toward her.

To say her brother would force her into marriage — she refused to believe it no matter what.

But the siblings had indeed done something strikingly similar to the story —

One delivering a gift, one robbing a treasure.

Only the object of Shi Baidu's flattery had changed — not that dead eunuch Wei Zhongxian, but the Abiluo King of the Xueyueshen Sect!

And what he offered was neither some thousand-year purple sandalwood nor some dark iron, but something a hundred times more precious!

The reason Shi Hongying interfered was that the Xueyueshen Sect's reputation was utterly terrible.

Blood Moon claims the soul; those who defy it have their souls severed.

Once the "Blood Moon Soul-Reaping Warrant" was issued, who knew how many had their families destroyed and households annihilated.

Xueyueshen Sect, Xueyueshen Sect — just hearing the name tells you this is an evil force that kills like flies.

The Liuhe Gang was certainly no good thing, but compared to the Xueyueshen Sect, it was utterly a case of a small sorcerer meeting a great one.