Twenty six

Yes, she was the esteemed daughter of the village chief, which man could easily compare?

Cang Mang went on, "Dong Mei, Gu Wuque is a farmer but he tends to hunt in his free time although there really isn't any free time for a farmer."

Gu Wuque bowed to Dong Mei again. Dong Mei smiled, not knowing why he was bowing.

Still bowing he said, "this one farms and sometimes herds the animals. The most hunting this one has done is maybe for a wild rabbit. But other times, it was simple chasing down the farm animals that needed to be slaughtered."

Dong Mei laughed a little, amused. Did he need to bow so respectfully just to tell her that? Even if it were a lie that he was a hunter, she wouldn't be bothered to find out the truth.

"Ah! Okay. Don't bow so much, people only bow like this to my father," Dong Mei encouraged, feeling herself relaxing.

Dong Mei thought of her father. She had only attended a few meetings with him and learned how respected he was first hand. And because of that, people's respect for him brushed off on the rest of the family.

With how madly she behaved, if she was someone else's daughter, she probably would have been shunned by everyone, beaten to a pulp by her parents and forced to do all the hard labor as repentance for her sin.

He protected his family so much so that they were unaware of it and though it to be normal. Not only that but he gave them a peaceful home.

Dong Mei was sure that they had the biggest farming land in the village. She had seen it on a few occasions. It was only the maid that was taken to the garden to ploughing during the busy season and her mother when she felt like it. During the harvesting season, Dong Mei was asked whether she wanted to join in.

She recalled that her father had once taught her how to hunt. He brought one of the chicken home, tied it to a tree and asked her to shoot. She shoot and failed until she got tired of failing then stomped angrily away.

She smiled warmly, it seemed Gu Wuque was also the kind to catch his families small animal.

Gu Wuque raised his head and looked at her before quickly looking away. He seemed a little uneasy and there was a slight blush on his cheeks.

Looking at him, Dong Mei decided that she liked him enough to bare a conversation.

She turned to Cang Mang, "didn't you say you're leaving?" she asked.

Cang Mang seemed surprised. He raised his eyebrows and pointed at himself.

Dong Mei nodded.

Gu Wuque seemed to start to sweat.

Cang Mang nodded back mechanically, "I won't be far."

He gave Dong Mei a questioning look before slowly walking away.

When Cang Mang's figure had completely disappeared, Dong Mei turned back to Gu Wuque.

"Why did you decide to do this?" she asked him directly, "did that goose head that just left pay you?"

"Uhhhhh!" Gu Wuque really started to sweat.

"You seem rather young. And even for a son of a big family, you're rather small. How old are you? Ten and three years?" she continued to ask.

"As a son of a big family, you should know that your parents would rather that you got a girl from a family they knew. Taking home a random stranger would only cause commotion,"she gave her analysis.

"So either, you're abandoned by your family, considered insignificant or this this something you shouldn't be doing," she said, "so speak. Why are you here?"

Gu Wuque laughed nervously, "this one never thought he'd be interrogated today."

Dong Mei had never seen her father do an investigation but from what she could tell, the key was to be fierce and show them that she was capable of slicing a neck open if she had to.

So she put on an very fierce look and said, "don't make me say it again."

Gu Wuque cleared his throat, "this one was promised to see the most beautiful girl in the world."

Dong Mei: ... 

What would any girl reply to that?

Dong Mei wasn't the type to fight for the title of ugliest but she was also too shy to say that she was indeed the most beautiful. Her pride did not allow her to say she was average or ask for his opinion. She would have given him time to voice his opinion but since he hadn't done it immediately, she felt that he would have done so out of politeness. In conclusion, the best course of action was-

"Cang Mang!" she mumbled a curse, "may you be a glorified eunuch in your next life and two more after that."

Suddenly, there was a loud sneeze from a tree not too far away and at the same time Gu Wuque also sneezed.

"Gu Wuque, let's go this way," Dong Mei pointed in a random direction.

"But the bridge," Gu Wuque started.

"This way," Dong Mei was already walking.

Gu Wuque looked back at the tree before following.

"And you! Are you mad?" she asked when they arrived in a relatively secluded spot surrounded by trees, "did you really travel so far just trusting a strange man's words? What if you met a band of bandits?"

Gu Wuque paused, seeming in thought. From the look on his face, he clearly had not thought about it.

Dong Mei sighed, "what are you doing all the way in my village?"

Gu Wuque explained, "this one was escorting the brothers to sell goods."

Escorting met he was probably not old enough to go on his own. And listening to his voice, it was easy to tell that it was still maturing.

"How old are you?" she asked again.

Gu Wuque fiddled around a bit, "this- is not so important."

Dong Mei was already inwardly cursing Cang Mang to love a woman so much older than him she could be considered thousands of years old before he was of age. In that case, she would be dead.