Chapter Three: Where Are You Touching?

"Your lordship, please don't take offense. Our second brother here is a bit muddle-headed." The medium-sized man quickly pushed forward, offering an awkward explanation and repeatedly winking at the burly man. The latter then tightly hugged the tall and thin man and dragged him backward as if he were a dead pig. "When the three of us picked up Ah Hua, we were only ten years old. It was a bit too young to be fathers. And we thought that in the future, we could teach her a craft to make a living, so we all took her as our apprentice together. I'm her master." The medium-sized man said, then pointed at the burly man, "This is her third master. As for this one..." He looked at the tall and thin man with great resentment, "He's Ah Hua's second master." "No, I'm the head mistress." The tall and thin man corrected in all seriousness. Le Piaopiao had just escaped a disaster and now couldn't help but laugh at this situation. Fortunately, she was choked by the wind and snow and started coughing continuously, which covered up her strange laughter. Lord Yan also couldn't help but smile and cleared his throat to hide it. Then he waved his hand to let Le Piaopiao and her group leave. Le Piaopiao was frozen stiff like a stick and couldn't walk at all, so the burly man carried her on his back. Third master, huh? His shoulders and back were broad and warm. Leaning on them made her feel very secure. Le Piaopiao even stretched her icy hands into the collar of his clothes, which made the third master shiver, but he endured it without making a sound, making her secretly praise him: What a tough guy! However, what did it mean that his ears turned red? "Cold, I'm still cold." She whined. "Poor little thing, frozen like this." The second master said and took off his tattered cotton-padded coat and wrapped it around Le Piaopiao's back. He was only wearing a cotton jacket inside and didn't even have an undergarment. Well, although he looked dirty on the outside, his body was clean, his skin was smooth, and although he was thin, his muscles were firm and looked quite elastic, as if he was well-developed. "Second master, you'd better put your clothes back on. It won't be good if you catch a cold." Le Piaopiao said insincerely while tightening the cotton-padded coat around her. It still carried his body heat and made her feel comfortable. "Good girl, I knew you were filial." The second master winked at her. His face was covered with mud and dust. God knows where he had fallen. One could only infer that he must have fallen flat on his face in a really clumsy way. So except for his white teeth and the occasional roll of his white eyeballs, there wasn't a single clean spot on his face. In fact, the first master and the third master were the same. Coupled with their messy hair that looked like a chicken coop, it was impossible to see their real appearances clearly. But... why? That wink somehow gave a charming and alluring feeling, making her heart flutter. Before being reincarnated, she used to like flirting with people. Now, her "wolf claws" were a bit out of control. Looking at the second master again, he really wasn't afraid of the cold. He walked on the snow-covered ground bare-chested, and there wasn't even a goose bump on his skin. The situation was really strange. "Remember, call me mistress next time. A child is the apple of their mother's eye. If I don't dote on you, who will?" However, just this one sentence made Le Piaopiao feel like she was going to collapse. "His mind..." The first master came closer, pointed at his own head, and spread his hands helplessly, "Isn't always like this. When he gets excited, he can't tell the difference between men and women and will think that he's my wife. You almost got killed, and he was so stimulated. This time, maybe his episode will last a bit longer." Great, BL (boys' love), gay, buddies. This was a strange world that was magical and had advanced and avant-garde ideas. "Ah, your feet must be cold. Shall Master warm them up for you?" The first master suddenly said. But what was that expression on his face? It was as if he had discovered a new continent... No, correction, it was like a wolf seeing meat, with his eyes shining with excitement. Well, her feet were indeed freezing cold and had lost all feeling, so she was willing to accept this offer. But the next moment, she let out a startled cry and glared angrily at the medium-sized man, "Where are you touching?" There was a hand on her buttocks, belonging to the man called the first master. Okay, although they were all parts of the lower body, but the buttocks were far from the feet, right? At least three feet away! The key was that after he put his hand there, he didn't take it away and even rubbed it a bit, which made Le Piaopiao so angry that she didn't know where she got the strength from and slapped his hand away angrily. "Brother, if you do this again, I'll beat you up. You're even taking advantage of your apprentice!" The third master, who was carrying Le Piaopiao on his back, roared loudly. Tough guy, do you have to shout about this kind of thing so loudly? Could you consider the feelings of your female apprentice? "What do you know? I was just testing to see if she had a normal reaction. Didn't you guys notice that Ah Hua isn't an idiot anymore? She's said so many words and is so coherent. Before, she never said more than three words in a sentence." The third master suddenly stopped in his tracks. The second master let out a happy whimper, "Ah Hua, Ah Hua, tell mistress, you're really smart now. Thank heavens!" "First of all, I don't want to be called Ah Hua. Who came up with this name? It's so ugly!" Le Piaopiao said word by word, "Starting from today, I want to be called Le Piaopiao!" "Nice name. So happy that you're floating with joy. How cheerful that must be." The third master happily waved his hands, but forgot that there was someone on his back. As a result, someone didn't float up but instead fell into the snow with a plop. However, the tough third master was extremely strong and instantly picked her up again. This time, it was a princess carry. He knelt on the snow-covered ground, held Le Piaopiao in his arms, and used one hand to rub her feet that had lost feeling, "Quick, tell Third Master how you became smart." "I was never an idiot in the first place. It's just that my intelligence was clouded." Le Piaopiao lied without blinking an eye, "Just like Third Master said, after being scared and frozen, it was like the clouds cleared and the sun came out. Naturally, I've returned to normal." Anyone would be suspicious if they heard this, but these three masters actually believed it immediately and started dancing with joy in the snow, unable to hide their genuine affection. This situation made Le Piaopiao decide to follow these three men she had never met before without worry. She knew nothing about her new identity or the new world, but these three men who claimed to be her masters had saved her from the execution platform, which already said a lot. They were the relatives of this new body. After all, causing a scene at the execution ground was risking their lives. She had seen clearly that at that time, that Crown Prince wanted to kill the three masters. If it hadn't been for Lord Yan, four lives would have been lost by now. After that, she did have some doubts. After all, the first master seemed like a lecher, even touching his apprentice's buttocks. The second master was mentally ill and couldn't tell the difference between men and women. The third master was nice to her, but seemed to have a violent streak and didn't seem very reliable. But at this moment, seeing their genuine and uncontainable happiness, Le Piaopiao knew that at least these three men were truly sincere to her and didn't seem to have any ulterior motives for now. So she decided to go back with them! Anyway, she had nowhere else to go and didn't even know how to survive in this new environment in the future. No matter where it was, having a family was better than having none. This was the truest feeling in Le Piaopiao's heart as an orphan. Thinking of this, she looked up at the gray sky. Large snowflakes were falling down, landing on her face, melting and bringing a cool and damp feeling that was refreshing. She told herself that no matter where it was, since she had narrowly escaped death, she should live her life to the fullest! New world, here I come! However, just as she was motivating herself, she suddenly noticed a large mass of snowflakes in the air, floating slowly and not clearly visible. She didn't pay much attention to it and just tugged at the third master's clothes, "Let's go back and talk about it, okay? It's freezing cold outside." The first master looked around and saw that there wasn't a single person on the snow-covered plain, so he quickly whispered, "There's no one around. Why don't we use the Swift Movement Technique to go back? I think Ah Hua... No, I think Piaopiao can't take it anymore." "Great idea!" The second master happily agreed. Then he bent down, rummaged around in his shoes, and finally pulled out a few talismans, "Stick these on your knees. Wait for mistress to cast the spell, and we'll be home in the blink of an eye." Le Piaopiao was stunned. What was going on? These three people knew magic? Did they have licenses? Judging from their sneaky looks, they definitely didn't. That meant they were criminals, and she was also part of the gang now. Good heavens! She had transmigrated twice and ended up on the execution platform. She had narrowly escaped death and now was leaving with criminals. What a life! Oh well, beggars can't be choosers. She had to survive first! "Piaopiao, Master will help you stick the talismans." Looking up, the first master with a face covered in black mud smiled and stretched out his hand. "I'll do it myself." Le Piaopiao snatched the talismans and slapped them onto her knees. It was amazing. There was no paste or glue, but they stuck on just like that. Just now, when the first master wanted to warm her feet, he pinched her buttocks. Now that the talismans were supposed to be stuck on the knees, judging by his inaccuracy, he might have directly put them on her chest! Then she waited for a while and found the second master standing bare-chested on the snow-covered ground, gesturing with his hands and muttering incantations, which made her suddenly feel less certain. Were they cultivating immortals or just performing shamanistic rituals? No... Shouldn't they just leave after chanting the incantations? This was really unreliable. "Piaopiao, here's an umbrella for you. Your second master is slow. It'll take another half an incense stick's time for him to cast the spell successfully." The third master took out a tattered oil-paper umbrella from his sleeve and handed it to Le Piaopiao. Eh, he could pull out such a big umbrella from his flat sleeve. It seemed that he also had some supernatural powers. What was it? A storage bag? Looking at that umbrella, it was in a really pitiful state. The umbrella surface was brownish-yellow and a bit grayish. The umbrella handle was black. God knows how old it was. There were circles of dark red patterns on it, as if there had been flowers on it before, but now they had faded. Besides the bad color, half of the umbrella was damaged and it looked like a broom. However, it was better than nothing. Le Piaopiao opened the umbrella and found that there were also patterns inside, but they were dark green. "Thank you, Third Master." She had complaints in her heart but still said sweetly. The third master scratched his messy hair in embarrassment, "You like it? Then consider it as a gift to celebrate your recovery of intelligence. I'll give it to you. I think it should be a magic weapon, but I don't remember how I got it or how to use it." She didn't like it, but it's not nice to reject someone's kind offer. Besides, Third Master was so sincere, so she accepted it first. "Get ready, it's almost done." The happy shout of the second master came from beside her. Le Piaopiao quickly grabbed onto the third master. She had a hunch that if something went wrong during the journey, the third master would definitely be her cushion. But in fact, it wasn't that scary. At first, the scenery in front of her eyes changed rapidly, and then there was just a bright white expanse. There wasn't even any bumping. Soon, she was sitting on a cold earthen kang. None of the four masters and apprentices noticed that the large mass of snowflakes that Le Piaopiao had accidentally seen never fell. Instead, after the four of them disappeared quickly, it spread its wings in the air. It turned out to be a strange bird with a snow-white body, a human face, a bifurcated tail, and bright red eyes. It looked in the direction where Le Piaopiao had left, then turned around and flew in the opposite direction, disappearing quickly into the snowflakes.