Chapter 35: Someone Wants to Marry Lu Cha?

“Young master, are you awake?”

Seeing Xu Lu Cha open his eyes, Zi Yi quickly put down the tray in his hands and hurried towards him.

Xu Lu Cha propped himself up, but the sudden movement made his head spin. His hand weakened, and he was about to fall back down when Zi Yi rushed forward to support him.

“Young master, you’re not well yet. Don’t get up, just rest well.”

Xu Lu Cha pushed him away and asked in a hoarse voice, “Where’s Zhang Meng?”

He knew she had been here. When he was having nightmares, it was she who held his hand, calming him down.

“Constable Zhang has returned to the magistrate’s office,” Zi Yi replied.

Xu Lu Cha paused, then pushed aside Zi Yi who was blocking his way, and tried to get out of bed.

“Young master, where are you going?” Zi Yi hurriedly supported him.

“I want to find her.”

Xu Lu Cha’s face was as pale as paper, and he was swaying as he walked. Zi Yi couldn’t bear to see this: “Young master, please recover first. Can I ask Constable Zhang to come see you tomorrow?”

Xu Lu Cha pushed away his hand and stumbled towards the door: “No, I want to see her now.”

However, his body couldn’t allow for his willfulness. Soon, he collapsed at the doorway, clutching his chest and coughing violently.

Zi Yi quickly ran to help him up, patting his back and persuading, “Young master, I promise to have Constable Zhang come see you tomorrow. Please rest well now so you’ll have the energy to see her tomorrow. Besides, seeing you in this haggard state will only worry her.”

Xu Lu Cha caught his breath and raised his hand to touch the side of his face. “Haggard?”

He straightened up, pushing Zi Yi: “Bring me a mirror.”

Zi Yi walked back to the room and brought him a round dressing mirror. Xu Lu Cha took the mirror and, upon seeing his face in it, was stunned.

The mirror slipped from his hand and shattered into two halves.

He covered his face with both hands, wishing he could disappear into the ground: “To think I let her see me in such an ugly state…”

The emotional turmoil almost made him faint.

He grabbed Zi Yi’s shoulders anxiously: “When she saw me, did she find my appearance repulsive? She must have, otherwise she wouldn’t have left so quickly.”

“Young master, Constable Zhang didn’t find you repulsive…” Zi Yi tried to comfort him.

But Xu Lu Cha was convinced of his own thoughts. He believed that Zhang Meng already didn’t like him, and now seeing him in this ghostly state, she must find him repulsive and detestable. Now he didn’t dare to go find Zhang Meng, fearing that she would think he was an ugly person making trouble.

His already pale face gradually turned ashen. His dizzy mind went blank, and he didn’t even know how he got back to his room. He lay on the bed, curled up, without saying another word.

Zi Yi looked at Xu Lu Cha’s depressed state and sighed softly. The young master had never been so heartbroken and dejected before; he wasn’t like himself anymore.

After tucking him in, Zi Yi walked out of the room to the kitchen to fetch his medicine.

When he reached the front courtyard, he suddenly heard a commotion outside the main gate. Zi Yi stopped and listened carefully, hearing an urgent voice.

“Let me in, I want to find my Cha’er. I’ve come to marry him!”

Zi Yi was startled, feeling that this voice was very familiar. He tried hard to remember, and the image of a crying woman came to mind. As if shocked, Zi Yi’s beautiful eyes widened, and he hurried towards the main gate…

…

“Haha, Ying.”

When Zhang Meng walked into the cave, a snow-white little beast suddenly pounced into her arms. The force was so strong that it knocked Zhang Meng to the ground. Although her back was painfully pressed against hard pebbles, the beast’s fluffy head was rubbing heavily against her neck, tickling her and making her laugh out loud. She quickly pushed the beast’s head with all her might.

After nuzzling for a while, the little beast raised its head: “Every time we meet, you always leave for a few days. Where exactly do you go? I can’t sense your existence.”

The beast’s voice was hoarse and flat, as if it didn’t really care about her whereabouts and was just asking out of courtesy. But Zhang Meng knew that Ying was very attached to her, almost wanting to stick by her side every moment.

Ying was a very quiet child. Most of the time when he was with her, he was silent. Sometimes, when Zhang Meng entered the dream to find him, he would just follow behind her without saying a word. Having known him for so long, Zhang Meng had rarely heard him speak such a long sentence. So when Ying spoke up, Zhang Meng was a bit surprised, but she quickly responded with a smile: “I went home. My home is not in this world, so naturally you can’t sense me.”

“Not in this world…” The little beast lowered its eyes, hiding the sudden vortex in its pupils, and murmured softly.

“Yes, I live in another world, and I only come here when I enter the dream at night. Once I wake up, I leave,” Zhang Meng didn’t intend to hide it from him, and there was no need to.

The little beast jumped off her body and then squatted to the side, waiting for Zhang Meng to get up.

Zhang Meng sat up and rubbed his head: “It’s been a few days since I last saw you, and Ying has grown a bit bigger.”

A few days ago, Ying was only as big as a cat, but now he had grown to the size of a Samoyed, which was why he could easily knock her down. Ying’s lifeless red eyes were like a dead pond, without any ripples, just staring at her fixedly, making Zhang Meng a bit uncomfortable.

But Ying quickly averted his gaze, his snow-white body slowly emitting a soft white light, his body slowly changing shape.

After the white light faded, his form had changed from a Samoyed to a naked white-haired youth. His soft white hair was as bright as moonlight and as smooth as flowing water. His snow-white skin was as smooth as white porcelain. Although his features still had baby fat, they were stunningly beautiful, seemingly emitting a soft light, making it impossible for one to look away after just a glance.

After that great fire, Ying had turned into his primitive beast form. But as his body was slowly recovering, he would occasionally turn back into human form.

Ying had transformed into human form in front of Zhang Meng before, but that was over ten days ago. At that time, when he changed into human form, he was still a six or seven-year-old boy, and Zhang Meng didn’t feel awkward, even taking off her outer garment for him to wear. Now he looked about fifteen or sixteen years old, and Zhang Meng almost cried out in shock when she suddenly saw him naked.

Zhang Meng quickly turned her body away, facing away from him, took off her outer coat and threw it to him who was squatting behind her: “Ying, put on the clothes quickly.”

There was a rustling sound of dressing from behind, and soon the sound stopped. Ying’s arms wrapped around Zhang Meng’s neck from behind, and his hoarse, flat voice sounded by Zhang Meng’s ear: “I will keep you by my side.”

Zhang Meng was suddenly embraced around the neck by Ying. She reflexively pulled his hands away and pushed him back.

“Ying, you’ve grown up now, we can’t be so intimate anymore,” Zhang Meng said seriously.

Ying was pushed to sit on the ground. He supported himself with one hand on the ground, his knee-length silver hair falling down, covering his beautiful face. Zhang Meng couldn’t see his expression, only noticing that the soft light surrounding him dimmed slightly.

When he raised his head, his face was still expressionless as usual, his calm red eyes staring at her steadily.

Zhang Meng coughed and was about to speak when a somewhat rough voice came from outside the cave.

“There’s a cave here, let’s go in and rest for a while.”

A clear and gentle voice responded: “I see the grass outside the cave has been neatly arranged, there might be someone inside.”

Zhang Meng stood up and called out: “Indeed there is, you may come in.”

She didn’t notice that when she invited the two people in, Ying, sitting behind her, suddenly clenched his fists, and his usually calm red eyes rippled.

Ordinary people couldn’t see Ying, so Zhang Meng wasn’t worried about others being scared by Ying’s unusual appearance, which was why she invited the two people in.

Two tall men walked in, wearing simple linen clothes with animal skins around their waists, seeming to be hunters from nearby. They had thick eyebrows and big eyes, bronze skin, and dignified features.

Zhang Meng thought they looked a bit like Lin Hao, which made her feel more friendly towards them. She smiled and said, “You must be hunters from nearby, please sit down and rest as you like.” She then turned to take some fruits placed on the rock and handed them over, “These fruits are very thirst-quenching, try some.”

The men thanked her hurriedly: “Thank you, miss.”

Zhang Meng wasn’t much of a talker. After chatting with them for a few sentences, she let them be at ease and went to sit with Ying.

As soon as she sat down, Ying grabbed her arm tightly, immobilizing her. She looked at him in surprise, but he said nothing, his red eyes fixed on her.

The men rested here for half an hour before leaving. Ying, who had been tightly gripping Zhang Meng’s arm, finally let go of her.

When Zhang Meng got up to tidy things, she found that Ying had disappeared. She went out to look for him for a long time but couldn’t find him.

Even until she left the dream, Ying didn’t appear.

…

In the morning, after breakfast, when Zhang Meng went out for her street patrol, she heard some familiar uncles and aunties gossiping: “Yesterday, a woman barged into the Xu mansion, saying she wanted to marry Xu Lu Cha.”

“She also said that Xu Lu Cha had privately promised to marry her, and that she had returned from the imperial examinations, having passed as a Juren, and had come to marry Xu Lu Cha.”

“That person must be out of her mind. If she really passed as a Juren, how could we not know about it? Could it be that she couldn’t pass, couldn’t accept it, and went mad?”

Upon hearing their words, Zhang Meng recalled her first meeting with Xu Lu Cha. It seemed that at that time, Xu Lu Cha was bidding a reluctant farewell to a woman at a long pavilion, promising that when that person passed the Juren exam, she would come back to marry Xu Lu Cha.

That woman was called Chen Cheng. Although she was somewhat sentimental and clingy, her character wasn’t bad.

Hearing that she had returned, Zhang Meng was slightly startled.

Although the uncles and aunties said that Chen Cheng couldn’t pass the Juren exam and that she had gone mad, Zhang Meng believed that Chen Cheng had indeed passed the Juren exam this time.

A few days ago, when she went to Zhong Huo’s study to call her for dinner, Zhong Huo had received a letter from above, saying that Yun City had produced a Juren, and asking Zhong Huo to entertain her well.

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