Chapter 77 — Entering the Manor (Bonus Update for 600 Pink Votes)
Purple Streets of Chang'an · Page 2 of 4
Bie Suxin's expression shifted. "You're going beyond the pass on escort with Cripple Chen? Do you know what kind of escorts Cripple Chen runs? Few who go with him come back alive—and you're your family's only son!" Quick as lightning, she plucked the purse from his sleeve. "No wonder you suddenly had money..." She loosened the drawstring, revealing four gleaming silver ingots.
"It's not with Cripple Chen," Chen Shixiong protested in embarrassment. "It's with some other men..."
But Bie Suxin would not let him gloss over it. Her face grew stern. "If not with Cripple Chen, where would you get so much money? How many years of a life-and-death contract did you sign with him?" Her manner turned grave. "Chen Shixiong, if we knew the money you gave us was your life's blood, do you think we could take it in peace?"
Chen Shixiong lowered his head and murmured, "I know... I've no other skills... The master said never to use martial arts against others. Apart from a bit of boxing and kicking, I know nothing else..."
Bie Suxin simply told him: "Father has already entrusted me and my sister to the Dou family's Fourth Miss. Shixiong need not worry about us."
"Entrusted to the Dou family's Fourth Miss?" Chen Shixiong froze, then cried out, "Entrusted? In what way entrusted?"
Bie Suxin put it tactfully: "We are to attach ourselves to the Fourth Miss."
"How can that be, how can that be!" Chen Shixiong was frantic with agitation, his face red. "How could the master let you go be someone's bondservants!"
Fearing Dou Yan might take offense, Bie Suxin hurriedly glanced at her, and seeing Dou Yan smile at her in understanding, she was reassured.
By then Chen Shixiong was already shouting, "Shimei, you can't go! You—you... why not just marry me? My mother would care for you and our young shimei properly, and I would protect you both and never let anyone covet you again..."
Everyone in the courtyard was struck dumb.
Dou Yan could not help grumbling inwardly.
This Chen Shixiong looked to be twenty-two or twenty-three—how could he be so naive as to think that once a woman married, no one would cast a covetous eye on her! Perhaps when Shan Jie saw that Bie Suxin had married a commoner with neither power nor influence, he would plague her all the more. Why else would some of the noble young lords of the capital take pride in carrying on with married women?
Bie Suxin was mortified beyond words, and Bie Sulan fairly jumped up. "Chen Lanxu, have you lost your mind? My sister would never marry you! You can't even beat my sister..."
So this was Chen Lanxu!
Dou Yan watched with interest as his face turned red as a bolt of cloth. "I, I..." he stammered for a long while without managing a word, until Chen Yanzhou came to his rescue: "Marriage is a matter for life. How can it be treated as child's play? Since you're here, come in and have a cup of tea!"
Chen Lanxu did not dare look at the Bie sisters. Head down, he followed Chen Yanzhou into the firewood shed.
Bie Gangyi lay motionless on the bed; but for the faint rise and fall of his chest, he might have been dead.
Chen Lanxu kowtowed to Bie Gangyi.
Bie Suxin was plainly worried that Chen Lanxu's one-sided ardor would leave her in an awkward position. After he had kowtowed to her father, she solemnly introduced Dou Yan to him: "This is the Dou family's Fourth Miss. Father was able to leave prison entirely because the Fourth Miss spoke for him before the elders of her house, and so he escaped danger. Father feared Shan Jie would not give up and would keep pestering us, so he entrusted us sisters to the Fourth Miss. The Fourth Miss is kind and generous, and wished to keep us sisters safe—that is why she took us in."