Divine Doctor Daughter of the First WifeDivine Doctor Daughter of the First Wife
Jian Er did get her reward, and Lu Ping did have her own destiny.
The horse carriage headed west, setting off early and stopping late at night. After three days, when they reached the bottom of a mountain, the driver told her: “Madam, This Humble One can only send you over this mountain and cannot proceed any further, needing to return. On the other side of the mountain, there is a small town. Another horse carriage can be hired there, This Humble One will help you to hire the carriage, you can just continue your journey like this.”
Lu Ping nodded, not saying anything else, only looking up at this tall mountain in front of her, feeling a little timid. She felt a slight uneasiness, this uneasiness did not come from the mountain, but the hidden disease behind her which had not broken off.
Her only worry was the Lu family catching up. Even though there had not been much movement after three days, this did not mean that there would be no movements afterwards. From the capital to Ji An Prefecture, it would still take half a month at the earliest. The duration was too long, she sighed inwardly. Half a month was more than enough time for many things to happen.
“Leave quickly!” She put down the carriage curtain and instructed the driver, “Mountain roads are not easy to travel on, we should prioritise safety, even if we are in a rush, there is no point rushing at this point.”
The driver answered energetically and reassured her, saying: “Do not worry, Madam, even though mountain roads are not easy to travel on, This Humble One has travelled on this path many times, nothing bad will happen. This mountain is a road which must be passed when heading west, many people have travelled on it and the road has already been trodden on by the horse carriages until it is very flat, nothing bad will happen.” After he said this, he spurred the horse to start climbing the mountain.
Lu Ping sat in the carriage, and that anxious feeling became stronger, she pulled open the carriage curtain and looked behind. There were no special movements on the meandering small path, and only eagles would take flight occasionally chasing each other. She stared for a while and was struck with fright.
She did not look anymore, returning to the inside of the carriage to rest her spirits, trying her best to calm down. The road up to mountain was on an upwards slope, and the carriage leaned back slightly, jostling a little. Lu Ping leaned against the back of the carriage, hugging that large bag of hers tightly, thinking that for her life from now on, she had to depend on the things she had packed in her bag and the silver which was not considered a lot.
Even though she was the Eldest Miss of the Lu family, she was not favoured. Moreover, she had a hidden condition all these years, so the family did not care about her. Her monthly allowance was still given, but those silver was still not enough for her to reward the servants and she was unable to save much. All these years, she only saved slightly over 300 taels, and even gave part of it to Jian Er to live on. What she could take out now was only silver notes amounting to slightly over 100 taels and a few dozen shattered silver. But she hoped that Ji An Prefecture would be able to provide her with a place to belong. She heard that the Ren family’s Young Master and Young Miss was still there. Lu Ping though, she did not go to Ji An Prefecture because Ren family’s Young Master was there, it was just that a desire to go there grew within her. If they met by coincidence, she hoped that the other party would not misunderstand.
Without realising it, Lu Ping thought of Ren Xitao, but she did not know, because of Xuan Tiange’s marriage, the two siblings Ren Xitao and Ren Xifeng were also in a horse carriage, rushing back as quickly as they could. The driver of the Ren family already spurred on the carriage to its fastest speed, and the two large horses pulling the carriage were specially raised in General Ping Nan’s manor for these two young masters to use. But even if it was like this, Ren Xifeng still felt that the speed was too slow, complaining constantly: “Based on this speed, when we reach the capital, Tiange would be close to reaching Gu Shu.”
Ren Xitao showed a troubled smile, “It’s not that bad, do you think the capital is close to Gu Shu? But counting the days, Princess Wuyang should have left the capital already, and we are late by more than one step. Let’s return to the capital first and get some information! If you really cannot let it go, we can just go south give chase. The marriage procession will not travel that quickly, if we use swift horses, we might be able to catch up.”
Ren Xifeng looked unhappy and complained to her own older brother, “It’s your fault, insisting on taking me to the mountain to hunt, if we could set off together with Furong, we will definitely make it in time for Tiange’s wedding.”
“Why are you blaming me now?” Ren Xitao felt wronged, “Wasn’t it you who insisted on going? You argued with me for two whole days, if I did not bring you along, you would have torn the roof open?”
Ren Xifeng was rendered speechless and lowered her head, quiet. The mountain road was bumpy, but once they crossed this mountain, it would only be flat road ahead and they will reach the capital in three days at most. Once she thought of this, her mood improved. She asked Ren Xitao: “Older brother, what should I give to Tiange to add to her dowry?” After saying this, she sighed lightly: “Sigh, I don’t know if we can still catch up to her marriage procession, why don’t we not return to the capital first and head to the south directly!”
Ren Xitao laughed at her: “Just now, you were still pondering on adding to her dowry. If you do not return to the capital, what are you going to give? Are you going to buy something on the way to give her? It will not match up to the collection at home.”
“That is true.” Ren Xifeng started to calculate what good things General Ping Nan Manor had, and as she calculated, she said: “I don’t even know if Father gave anything.”
“It’s impossible to not give anything! That is the marriage of the Princess, our manor has a good relationship with Wenxuan Palace, not only will Father give gifts, the value of the gifts will definitely be hefty.” As Ren Xitao replied his younger sister, he pulled open the curtain to look at the scenery outside. However, he did hear the sound of hoofbeats approaching quickly. The carriage was fast and would brush across their horse carriage in at most 30 paces.
He did not think too much about it, this was a mountain path which must be crossed when heading west from the capital, there was many people who took this path, so encountering one or two horse carriages was a normal thing. It was just as he watched, they arrived at a turn, the driver slowed down and reminded them: “Young Master, Young Miss, the road ahead is narrow, and we are driving a two-horse carriage, we cannot avoid this and have to proceed carefully.”
The two masters in the carriage did not have any opinion on this, just that when they were turning, they happened to meet up with the horse carriage Ren Xitao heard earlier. It was a very normal horse carriage, probably rented. He was not too concerned, only reminding the driver to be careful and do his best to make way for the other party so that the horse carriage which looked very flimsy would not lose its footing and fall off the cliff.
Ren family’s horse carriage took the initiative to move on the outside, which would be next to the cliff’s edge. The driver opposite saluted with his fists towards Ren family’s driver in gratitude. As the two carriages passed each other, it was done safely and peacefully. But unexpectedly, at this moment, in the direction which the Ren family’s carriage was heading in, there were suddenly signs of movements, it was the sound of countless hoofbeats. This scared the birds in the mountains in to taking flight.
Ren Xitao could hear from the sound that there were at least more than ten horses. There were no wheel sounds, so it should be one person riding on each horse. He thought it was strange and looked back at the horse carriage which had just passed by them, and saw that inside the carriage, there was a dark skinned madam who also pulled open her curtain to look back with worry. Clearly she had heard the loud hoofbeat sounds, and she also looked very bothered, Ren Xitao even heard her rush the driver, saying: “Quickly! Go quickly! Go faster!”
It was this sentence that caused Ren Xitao to get a huge shock! Why was he so familiar with this voice? For him who rarely interacted with women, he was only familiar with the voices of two women, one was his own mother, one was his own younger sister. But suddenly, there was a day where he remembered another woman’s voice. Even though they had only spoke a few sentences to each other, he had not forgotten it even now.
He shouted to the driver on reflex: “Stop!” Then looked at that dark skinned Madam in surprise. Coincidentally, that Madam also heard him shout stop and also looked in his direction in surprise. Their gazes met, and they saw surprise in each other’s eyes.
Lu Ping did darken her face, drew a mole and even styled her hair into a bun which was usually used by older women. If people who did not know her glanced in her direction, she would just be a normal person. Even though she looked rather good, she was not that attractive due to her darker skin. But Ren Xitao was different, he was already attracted to Lu Ping when he was in the capital. Ren Xifeng forced him to go to Ji An Prefecture to cut off further interaction between him and the Lu family. Summer arrived as he lived in Ji An Prefecture, but he discovered that he was unable to erase Lu Ping from his mind.
Because of this, Ren Xitao was able to recognise Lu Ping immediately, and Lu Ping naturally recognised Ren Xitao.
But what could they do? Behind them, the pursuers from the Lu family had arrived. These people were sent by Lu Song and there were more than ten of them. Half of them were guards from Lu Manor and the other half were experts hired by Lu Song with silver. In order to capture Lu Ping, the Lu family spent a lot of money. In fact, to prevent Lu Ping from running, they specially made the arrangements to give chase on this mountain path. With one side being the mountain wall, the other side being a cliff, Lu Ping would have nowhere to run.
Seeing so many people and horses approach, Lu Ping tensed, knowing that she would not be able to avoid this. She firmly believed that these people would not harm her, because the Lu family still wanted a whole and live person to complete the family’s glory, but she was not willing to become a pawn of the Lu family. At this critical time, she had to quickly make a decision.
She just did not expect to meet Ren Xitao here, she looked at this person who was also looking at her, and not knowing the reason, her heart started thumping. A feeling she never felt before swelled up, such that she could not identify the feeling. It was rather sour, rather said, a bit like the joy of meeting, but also the sorrow of parting. The pursuers have arrived and Lu Ping pulled her gaze away from Ren Xitao in reluctance, getting off the horse carriage without being asked to, then she heard the person at the front of the group say loudly: “Eldest Miss, even though you have darkened your face, we can still recognise you. Go back! Master is still waiting for you at the manor, please do not let us take action, that would be too disrespectful.”
With these words, Ren Xifeng also reacted, saying with some surprise: “The Prime Minister’s Young Miss? That Lu Ping?” After she said this, she also went to the window to take a look.
Ren Xitao was squeezed to the side by her and decided to stand up and leave the carriage. Ren Xifeng became anxious, “Brother! Why are you going down? This does not concern us, we still have to return to the capital quickly!”
Those pursuers also noticed this horse carriage. Seeing that the plaque hung outside the horse carriage had the word “Ren” written on it, some people recognised that it was a carriage belonging to General Ping Nan’s Manor, so they did not actively cause trouble, acting like they did not see it.
But at this moment, Ren Xitao had already got off the horse carriage, walking straight towards Lu Ping.
Seeing that he was coming over, Lu Ping was shocked and she backed up a few steps on reflex. When Ren Xitao stopped, the two were five to six paces apart. Seeing Lu Ping shake her head slightly at him with tears in her eyes, the black rogue was no longer able to cover up her extremely beautiful appearance. This caused Ren Xitao to remember the slight amazement in his heart when he first saw Lu Ping in Lu Manor.
But Lu Ping hated her own face, she looked at Ren Xitao, then looked at those pursuers, then she laughed suddenly, laughing in a mournful manner. She said: “Ever since I was born, I was Lu family’s pawn, there was never a day when the Lu family treated me with sincerity. Currently, they are forcing me to do what I do not want to do and marry someone I do not wish to marry. My face is a curse, my life is also a curse. Since it is like this, then I will return my life to the Lu family. From today onwards, this world will have no Lu Ping.” After saying this, she looked towards Ren Xitao, opening her mouth. It seemed like she had something to say but could not produce any words.
Ren Xitao saw Lu Ping’s tears fall one by one, and just as he had to urge to approach and wipe them away, he saw that on the face of the woman opposite him, an expression of determination had appeared. She jumped up vigorously, and the direction she jumped, was the direction of the extremely high cliff.