Chapter 395: Returning to Gan Province

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation  Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

Yan Liqiang calmly watched the young lady under the tree. She tried to stay strong while struggling to beat and wash the clothes by the river.

At this moment, Yu Qing was still a twelve or thirteen-year-old girl with a pale face and slightly brownish hair. Due to long-term malnutrition, her figure was like a bean sprout wrapped in ill-fitting old clothes, causing her to look quite uncouth and far less of a beauty she would become four years in the future. Even so, Yan Liqiang could still see the familiar features on her face, particularly her eyes. They were gleaming with the same determination, which was rare for girls around her age.

When Yu Qing was born, her mother passed away due to excessive blood loss after childbirth. Two years later, her grandfather passed away. When she was five, her grandmother passed away. Last year, which was the 12th year of the Yuanping reign, her bedridden father finally passed away after being tormented by sickness for two years. Since then, this naive young lady had been labeled as an ‘unlucky star’ who brought ill luck upon her entire family in this little town on the outskirts of the Imperial Capital city.

While Yu Qing’s father was bedridden over the past two years, her family’s field and several huge houses were sold in exchange for her father’s treatment. Not only that, but her family also ended up owing a lot of money to the people in town for the sake of treating her father. After her father’s death, Yu Qing had to do needlework and laundry for several inns, laboring under everyone’s disdain to pay off her debts.

Yu Qing spent five years doing all the needlework and laundry in town before she finally cleared her father’s debt.

If Yan Liqiang didn’t do something, then Yu Qing would meet her aunt, who hadn’t come back to visit for more than a decade, right after she paid off her father’s debt. She would then leave the Imperial Capital and follow her aunt to Jinling City. Only after staying a few days there, her aunt and uncle would start planning to marry her off to a mentally-challenged son of a fabric store owner in Jinling City. The third day after her aunt and uncle received six hundred taels of silver as a betrothal gift, a calamity would strike everyone around her, once again reducing them into corpses under the ruins. In Jinling City where the laws were lost, the lonely young lady would fall prey to a bunch of thugs and scums who lusted over her beauty and she would meet a tragic end…

….

As the sky gradually darkened, the women who had been washing their clothes by the river left with their laundry. Only Yu Qing was left, repeatedly beating the clothes in her basket with the wooden stick in her hands. The strenuous work had caused beads of sweat to form on her forehead.

Several boys from town passed by the river and saw Yu Qing washing her clothes. They exchanged looks with each other, then one of them quietly walked down the stone steps and shoved Yu Qing hard on her back…

PLOP…! Yu Qing fell into the water and the boys ran away while laughing loudly and chanting, “Unlucky star, jinx, unlucky star, jinx…”

The water at the edge of the river wasn’t deep, and it only reached up to Yu Qing’s waist. However, she was soaked from head to toe when she got up.

“My clothes…!”

Realizing that the clothes in her hands had been washed away and were drifting downstream, Yu Qing rushed out without even thinking. After taking a few steps, the water reached her neck, causing her to choke on a mouthful of water. Even so, it seemed like Yu Qing wasn’t aware of that. Her eyes were still affixed on the clothes that were drifting along the river’s surface. She continued walking in the water with her outstretched hands, trying to grab onto the clothes. In just the blink of an eye, she was fully submerged in the river water…

PLOP…! Yan Liqiang plunged into the river without a second thought. He grabbed onto Yu Qing and the clothes that were being washed away by the river before slowly making his way back up to the stone steps.

Yu Qing’s wet hair clung to her pale face. She raised her head and strangely looked at Yan Liqiang who had jumped into the river to rescue her and her clothes. She simply couldn’t imagine meeting someone in this town who would willingly jump into a river to rescue her.

Yan Liqiang was also soaking wet from head to toe; his hair was still dripping and water plants were hanging on his body. He handed over the clothes to Yu Qing. “Nothing is more precious than your own life. Don’t ever do something stupid like this again for only a piece of clothing!”

Yu Qing took the clothes and held them tightly in her hands. She bit her lip and didn’t say a word, seemingly shy or she didn’t know what to say to a stranger at a time like this. Her body was slightly trembling from the cold.

Yan Liqiang smiled and looked at Yu Qing gently. He fished out a gold ingot and placed it on her hand. “My name is Yan Liqiang. I will be leaving the Imperial Capital the day after tomorrow. Here’s ten taels of gold, it should be enough to fully pay off your father’s debt. If you wish to leave Lihua Town, I can take you along with me!”

Yu Qing was completely stunned. She looked at the gold ingot in her hand, then at Yan Liqiang. “W-Why… are you helping me?” she asked shyly.

Yan Liqiang sighed and lifted his head to look at the first star that had begun to glow faintly in the sky. “I had a dream. In that dream, I met a young lady also named Yu Qing…” When Yan Liqiang noticed Yu Qing’s eyes widened at his words as she stared at him intently. He then he realized that this reason might be too foreign and too deep for a twelve or thirteen-year-old girl, so she might not be able to understand.

He smiled awkwardly and picked off the water plants on his body. “It’s alright if you don’t want to go with me. I won’t force you either. Take that ten taels of gold as a gift, no need to return anything to me. If anyone finds trouble with you, tell them that the person who gave you this gold ingot was a commandant surnamed Yan who serves Eunuch Liu in Deer Villa. Those who don’t value their lives may come after me!”

Yu Qing only stared at Yan Liqiang in silence and didn’t utter a word.

“What? You don’t believe me? I know it’s kinda hard to believe too. After all, it’s our first time meeting. But I promise you I definitely won’t bully you like those people!”

Yu Qing was still silent…

“Well, alright. If you don’t want to leave the Imperial Capital city, then perhaps we will meet again in the future!” Yan Liqiang smiled and reached out to pick off the duckweed on Yu Qing’s head. He then turned to leave. If Yu Qing wasn’t willing to leave with him now, it wasn’t like he could kidnap her either.

“Wait…”

A voice suddenly rang out from behind him. Yan Liqiang turned around and saw Yu Qing summon all her courage to look at him. There was a look of determination on her pale face. “I will go with you…!”

Yan Liqiang smiled…

“But I have to finish washing these clothes and send them back to Changrong Inn. C-Can you wait for me…?!” Yu Qing quickly spoke nervously and earnestly.

“I’ll help you. It’s faster if two people do the work!” Yan Liqiang rolled up his sleeves and went back to Yu Qing again. He squatted on the stone steps by the river, took the wooden stick, and started beating an article of unwashed clothing. Yu Qing squatted down beside him too and rinsed the clothes Yan Liqiang had beaten.

Just like that, both of them finished doing the laundry by the Ten Steps Bridge. After delivering them back to the inn, Yan Liqiang brought Yu Qing to every household her family owed money from and paid off all the debt…

……

When the moon was high up in the starry sky, Yan Liqiang left Lihua Town with the frail and skinny girl. She carried her small luggage and walked behind him.

When they exited Lihua Town, the girl’s footsteps suddenly stopped. She turned back to look at the lights of town. Wiping her tears away, she left with Yan Liqiang without turning back again…

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