Chapter 388 — Metamorphosis into Adulthood
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 1 of 4
At Mishui Pass, lanterns and colored silks hung everywhere, and Feng Xiuyun was brisk in her work: before long Si Yunxiang had been dressed up beautifully by a gaggle of soldier-girls and crowned with the phoenix crown and bridal veil, and Shen Mu, a great red flower pinned to his chest, had his head pressed down by main force and was made to bow through the wedding rites with Si Yunxiang. "That little Feng girl is quite good too — quick in her work, and she spares me the trouble.
" Blind Grandpa was so pleased his mouth would not close, and he thought, 'I wonder whether she's married yet.
.
. ' At the wedding feast, the little girl Xue Hu'er had turned into wept until it was a very rain of pear blossoms, clinging to the wine jar and unable to straighten up, sobbing again and again that Blind Grandpa's word did not count and that he was a lying old man.
The many officers and soldiers of Mishui Pass who had come to offer congratulations only looked at one another, at a loss to know why a little girl of six or seven should cry so bitterly.
After all the merriment, the bride and groom entered the bridal chamber; Si Yunxiang had quietly hidden a dagger on her person, waiting only for Shen Mu to come and lift her veil, and then she would stab him and fulfill the long-cherished wish of a Holy Maiden — to assassinate the lecherous, tyrannical Cult Master. She waited a good while, but Shen Mu never came, and her heart turned rather bitter: 'Am I not even the equal of that plump girl Ling Yuxiu?
Blind Grandpa is blind in the eye but not in the heart, yet some are blind in eye and heart alike — and don't they just favor the ones plumper in the chest? ' She waited a while longer, and still Shen Mu did not come to sit beside her, nor did he lift her veil.
Stealing a look from under it, she saw Shen Mu seated at the table, poring over a book.
Si Yunxiang was sorely aggrieved: on her wedding night a beauty lovely as a flower sat by the bed, and the fool was reading — truly a spring night thrown away! She pulled off the veil, tossed it aside, stepped forward and said with a smile, "What book has the Cult Master so engrossed?
" "The Mystic Maiden's Classic of Calculations.
" Shen Mu looked up, asked her to sit, and said with utter sincerity, "Blind Grandpa is forever up to his mischief, and it has dragged you into marrying me.
I know he fears for my safety — he wants me to take a wife and beget sons, to hobble me with a wife and child, so that I won't go back to Jingping, so that I won't have to face the dangers to come. Sister Xiang, I've made you suffer along the road with me, and I beg your pardon for it. " With that he rose and bowed. Si Yunxiang hurriedly returned the courtesy and said gravely, "All along the way you treated me with the respect due a guest, and never once took advantage of the peril the princess and I were in; I saw it all, and I know well enough what manner of man the Cult Master is.
You are the Cult Master, half a generation above me — there's no need for such ceremony. " She was younger even than Shen Mu, a girl of a little over fourteen, with bright eyes and white teeth.
Si Yunxiang had always borne herself with a certain flippant, world-weary air, but grown serious she showed instead a poised and stately grace; for the Holy Maiden of the Si family was heir presumptive to the Nether Demon Cult Master, and should the Cult Master meet an untimely end, the Holy Maiden would take the seat — hence her uncommon bearing. "The Cult Master still has not said why he reads the Mystic Maiden's Classic of Calculations," she said, smiling.
Shen Mu read on, and said, "If I mean to escape Blind Grandpa's palm, running for it is useless — I could never outrun him — and poison is out of the question; he is my grandfather.
So I mean to use the Teleportation divine art.