Vol 6 Chapter 177

XH 177

The Third Prince must have planned this outing beforehand because when Xiao Hua entered her room, the clothing for today's outing was already waiting for her.  

Duan XiYing's movement was quick and smooth like her true form as she helped Xiao Hua changed into a light pink attire made of thinner cloth, matched with plain dark pink shoes that were made thicker for long walks. 

Next, her hair was tied into double side plaits, just like a countryside girl. There were bells tied at the end of the plaits which let out a tiny sounds whenever she moved. 

"XiYing, let's not use the bells, okay?" Xiao Hua asked with an awkward 'haha'. She can tolerate the double pigtails, but not the bells!

"Master specially choose these lovely bells for Xiao Hua~"

Xiao Hua: '...' I feel like a cow ah.

But she no longer complain about it since the Third Prince insist on it. Duan XiYing steered Xiao Hua out of the room and to the entrance of the courtyard, where the Third Prince was already waiting. 

Xiao Hua was taken aback when she took in what the Third Prince was wearing. The royal blue robes with plain pattern displayed his tall and fit figure well. His hair was completely tied up into a high horse tail style but what surprised Xiao Hua was the silver mask that covered the top part of his face. The right part of the mask have a longer length than the left with a bell hanging on it, alike to those that was tied around her hair.

It was a weird mask, but if it was supposed to act as a disguise to hide his pretty face, he failed! Everyone will be attracted to his sharp and strong chin, along with his white long neck teased by his ponytail at every move! 

Even this young lady wants to remove the mask when I already know what's beneath it!

The Third Prince smiled fondly at Xiao Hua, his eyes taking in her new attire. "Xiao Hua looks adorable."

"Thank you for the outfit."

He reached out and tug one of her plaits lightly. "I am just indulging one of my own desire."

Xiao Hua: '...' What kind of desire are you talking about?

Sadly, the Third Prince have no intention of explaining it. "Only Da Liu will come along. The rest of you, stay behind." 

"Will Sir Da Liu be enough?" Xiao Hua asked, concerned. They were talking about the Third Prince's safety after all! No matter how strong he was, the attacker might use dirty tricks or overwhelm him with large numbers. 

"If I'm not strong enough to protect my fiance, I would not be a worthy husband-to-be."

Xiao Hua blushed and no longer want to argue with him! How could he easily said such sappy things without getting embarrassed?

They will be travelling using a small and plain carriage, but the interior was as luxurious as the other Third Prince's carriage. Even if they were travelling incognito, they still have to travel in comfort!

By now, Xiao Hua knew better than peeking out of the window. After An Jing had explained why she should not do so, Xiao Hua felt like an ignorant kid. 

To show her face out, what if someone recognized her as the Third Prince's maidservant? Such manner was undisciplined and invited danger. In contrast, Third Prince was just worried that she would accidentally drop out of the window. 

Xiao Hua: That's just ridiculous! I'm not baby size!

"Where are we going?" She was curious what does dates consist of in this time era. In most chinese novels she had read, most of the true dates were usually unknown by others because it happened during the night where the hero will slip into the heroine's bedroom. 

Fortunately the Third Prince was a gentleman and would never commit such a shameless thing.

"We just had our afternoon meal, so we shall go and walk around to visit some shops."

Xiao Hua nodded. Speaking of shops, it reminded her about the heroine. "Third Prince, do you know anything about an information exchange shop? It's new but it's fame is slowly rising."

Long Zhu decided to put away his little flower's disuse of his name for now and focused on her question. "I had not heard about it. Xiao Hua wants to know about something? You can just ask me to find out about it."

"No, that's not it." Xiao Hua hurried to explain. "I remember that the heroine wanted to start up a special information gathering business around this time right before her wedding. It is a secret base, hidden under the disguise of a pawn shop."

Le XiaoTing does not even bother remembering the name of the shop or whatever description of its location written in the novel. It was a normal habit of hers to skip lengthy description about places she has no interest in.

"If I'm able to recall correctly,《A pair of genuine eye》 is the name of the pawn shop under Long Shan's name. That should be the place. Do you want to go and take a look?"

"No! Don't even go there! They will find us suspicious and then kill us!"

The Third Prince was amused. "You think too much. We are just looking around as customers, they would not kill us."

His words do nothing to calm her anxiousness. "But not if they found out who you are. The hero will immediately think you are planning against him and then the heroine will encourage him to stop you. They might plan small in the beginning, but emotions would make them go overboard. They are also petty, so don't get close to them."

Previously when Le XiaoTing was still a fan of the hero and heroine, she was blind to their faults. But now that they were enemies, she suddenly able to point out plenty of their flaws. 

"If you are worried about it, then we won't go. I will have Duke Heng go and look around instead. He can visit in pretense of pawning some of his treasure."

Passing the death trap to Duke Heng… I feel pity for you, handsome duke!

Da Liu stopped the carriage at an empty alley and the occupants stepped out, accompanied by the tinkling of bells.

Her blush renewed when the Third Prince grabbed onto her hand and entwined it. "W-What are you doing?"

"Holding hands. It would be bad if we got separated."

She remembered that she had held hands with An Jing and Long Lian in the past as well when they walked around the crowded street. "Yes, that would be bad."

They stepped out of the alley and Da Liu disappeared from view to secretly follow them. 

Xiao Hua had fully expected that everyone would stare at Third Prince, but strangely, no one gave him a second glance!

Is it normal for one to wear such a strange mask?!

Da Liu had dropped them at the street with shops that sells higher quality products. Familiar with the habit of window shopping, Xiao Hua admired all the lovely hairpins, accessories and clothes as they passed by. 

The first time the Third Prince caught her expression of admiration, he nearly brought the item that caught her eyes if she did not stop him in time.

"Just because I like it does not mean I need to buy it," Xiao Hua explained and feel a sense of nostalgia when he gave her a pitying gaze. 

Xiao Hua: Fudge! This is called saving money, you rich prince!

It does not help when those flattering shopkeepers praised them to encourage them to buy their products!

"This young master, this butterfly hairpin would look great on your beautiful wife's hair!"

"You two are such a perfect couple! Matching with these gold bracelets, the two of you will look even more matching!"

Xiao Hua had to pull the Third Prince's arm back to stop him for buying them! She does not understand how he could let those flattery get to him when he was normally levelheaded!

With no other choice, Xiao Hua had to open her mouth to say, "I have an even better butterfly hairpin and that gold bracelets are too mature for our age."

The shopkeeper's face became a little funny but it gave her the opening to drag the Third Prince away. 

With a relieved sigh, she searched inside her spatial dimensional bracelet. She had stored all of her treasures in it as it felt safer than storing it inside a large chest where people could enter her room easily. 

Finding a perfect pair of bracelets, she took them out and with a grin, she carefully took his left hand and insert a beautiful bangle similar to the bright blue sky on his wrist. 

Then she inserted the matched pair onto her left wrist, right on top of her spatial bracelet. When they lightly hit against each other, they produced a light clunking sound. 

"There! Does this not look better than the gold bangles? And see this! There's tiny bird around it, just like the clear sky!"

He raised his left wrist to look at bracelet carefully and find that her words were true. "You gotten this from Duke Heng?"

Xiao Hua flinched before quickly regained her composure. "I bought it from Duke Heng in the same way a customer purchased goods from a merchant. But in my case, Duke Heng accepted my tea as a form of payment."

She sighed in relief when the Third Prince smiled and rubbed a hand on her head. "Thank you for the gift, Xiao Hua."