CH 71

Chapter 71: He Was Unexpectedly In Bian Zhonghua’s Arms!!!

‘The scenery is clearly different, how can there be nothing strange?’

The Secret Servant was confused, clasped his fist in a salute, and said: “Lord Bian, please enlighten me.”

Bian Zhonghua looked into the distance and said: “Look at the terrain, there are eight mountains surrounding the valley. Think about the mountain forest we just walked through, there are many waterfalls and streams converging into the lake inside this valley. Finally, think about the Feng Shui direction of this mountain forest. Do you understand now?”

The Secret Servant meditated and murmured: “The direction is at the north, the Kan Palace1—”

Bian Zhonghua laughed and reminded him: “It’s winter.”

As if struck by lightning, the Secret Servant’s body shook. Suddenly looking around, he recited: “To the north, the Kan Palace belongs to the element of water, which is prosperous in winter.”

Bian Zhonghua nodded and looked at Qi Ci, who was still sleeping in his arms. After hugging him tightly, he said in a lower voice: “Yes, this is the Gate of Rest. To the northwest, there lies the Qian Palace, at the Gate of Opening. To the northeast, there lies the Gen Palace, at the Gate of Life. At the east, there’s the Zhen Palace, at the Gate of Harm. To the southeast, there’s the Xun Palace, at the Gate of Restriction. To the south, there’s the Li Palace, at the Gate of Scenery. To the west, there’s the Dui Palace, at the Gate of Fear. At the southwest, there’s the Kun Palace, at the Gate of Death. This is clearly the Nine Palaces and Eight Trigrams2 array laid by the mountains!”

The Secret Servant was so dumbfounded that he couldn’t say another word.

Bian Zhonghua continued: “The Gates of opening, rest, and life are auspicious. The Gates of restriction and scenery are average, not good but also not bad. The Gates of death, harm, and fear are dangerous. I’m afraid that the scenery you encounter will depend on the mountain road you choose to walk by. I wonder what kind of monster could arrange this Eight Trigrams array by moving the mountains. As for what is their reason for doing so, it—”

Bian Zhonghua’s words came to an abrupt end.

Because Qi Ci had moved in his arms.

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At that moment, Qi Ci woke up in a daze, discovering to his horror that he was no longer inside the carriage.

However, what was even more frightening….

He was unexpectedly in Bian Zhonghua’s arms!!!

Qi Ci thought that he was dreaming, so he stood dumbfounded for a moment. Right when he was about to pinch himself hard, he heard Bian Zhonghua say: “Your Highness, you’re finally awake.”

The Secret Servant at the side was afraid that Qi Ci might think that Bian Zhonghua was offending him, so he hurried to explain: “Your Highness, the road was too narrow for the carriage to pass and we had to advance by foot. When Lord Bian saw that His Highness was sound asleep, he didn’t want to disturb His Highness, so he was forced to take this action. Please don’t blame Lord Bian!”

Qi Ci didn’t care what the Secret Servant had to say, he simply grabbed Bian Zhonghua as tight as he could and said nervously: “Don’t throw me!”

Secret Servant: “?”

Bian Zhonghua: “I only threw you once….”

Qi Ci: “Twice!”

Secret Servant: “??”

Bian Zhonghua said helplessly: “Why are you always thinking about the time I threw you?”

Qi Ci, with a terrified look, slightly collapsed and said: “Do you even know how high you throw people? The last time you threw me, I was able to see the top of the Residence!!”

Secret Servant: “???”

Bian Zhonghua smiled and said: “Then I promise that I will hug you properly from now on. I won’t throw you out again. How about that?”

Qi Ci was still dazed from just waking up from his sleep, so he couldn’t think about Bian Zhonghua’s words carefully. He blurted out: “When a true man says words of enormous weight, these can’t be taken back even by a four-horse carriage3!”

The Secret Servant: “????”

As Qi Ci spoke, Bian Zhonghua put him down, leaving the Secret Servant behind, who stood foolishly in place without understanding a single thing from their conversation.

Qi Ci then noticed the scenery in front of him. His eyes widened slightly, and he stood speechless for a long time. His gaze was actually fixed on the lake in the valley, as if in a trance.

The serene lake looked like an ornate white plate, and when the sun poured its light on it, the lake shone with a golden hue.

However, the sudden idea that something was hidden in the depths of the lake appeared at the bottom of Qi Ci’s heart. The roots of this intrusive idea soon took hold of him, making him unable to get rid of it.

Qi Ci couldn’t help but take a step forward, feeling that his fingertips were trembling. As if feeling helpless for the boundless affairs of life and everything happening in the world, his throat tightened, like a choking sob at the end of a long sutra.

However, Qi Ci couldn’t understand why he was feeling this way.

As if to confirm something, Qi Ci took another step forward.

All of a sudden, someone clutched his arm, bringing Qi Ci back to his senses. Only then did he find out that he had reached the edge of the valley ridge. If he had taken another step forward, he would have fallen down.

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Bian Zhonghua pulled him tightly, frowned, and asked: “What’s wrong?”

At that instant, the eerie feeling Qi Ci felt not long ago disappeared into thin air, making him puzzled.

‘Huh? What was that?’

“Ah!” Qi Ci shouted softly, only to add next: “There’s nothing wrong. I got distracted without realizing it.”

“Are you still feeling tired? Wait a bit longer until we reach the village. There you can rest all you want,” Bian Zhonghua said.

Qi Ci nodded and retreated to Bian Zhonghua’s side, not daring to wander by the cliff.

The farmer who led the way earlier shouted: “My lords, this way! There’s a way down here!”

After the group of people lamented the shocking path in front of them, they followed in the farmer’s footsteps. The farmer was as talkative as ever, nagging everyone along the way: “Everything is good for us here! But even though the scenery is quite beautiful, there are way too many mountains nearby. Sometimes, we would get confused with the way and walk the wrong path, it’s really troublesome. Because of it, we don’t usually go out, but today I heard that a road in a mountain had collapsed, so I went to see if I could be of help.”

Bian Zhonghua and the other Secret Servant looked at each other.

It seemed that the villagers around here weren’t aware of the Feng Shui array. They may have settled here by chance.

Once again, the path was extremely difficult to walk, and the group of people struggled to reach the valley. After shuttling through the woods for a while, they finally saw a village from afar, with its wooden houses close to each other, as well as chickens and ducks running around.

The people in the village were as warm and simple as the farmer said. Even if Qi Ci hadn’t revealed his identity as a Prince, no one hesitated to lend a helping hand.

Of course, there were no inns in this village, and the people accompanying Qi Ci were quite numerous. After several families discussed with each other, they decided to vacate a house for the group to squeeze all together. Although they were embarrassed with this solution, it was better than sleeping in the wild in winter.

After accommodating the group of people and instructing them what to do, Bian Zhonghua asked the villagers: “Excuse me, is there a physician or an herbalist in this village? I would like to buy some medicinal herbs.”

A villager replied: “Huh? Are any of you injured? Come, come! I’ll help you find our grandma healer. But don’t bring too many people, only the injured can come. Grandma healer hates big crowds.”

Although only the injured were allowed to go, how could Bian Zhonghua let Qi Ci walk alone? Of course, he followed along. Since two people were not much, the villager said nothing and led them towards the lake.

Ahhh y’all have no idea how hard it was for me to translate the part about the array, idk if I did a good work with that but I hope it’s understandable enough(?

Qi Ci is getting soooo sus!!! What’s going on??! Before he was able to get rid of the snake on his own… and his birthmark??? Is magical???? And now he seems to have a kind of… feeling? For that lake… sus sus!