"No Wedding Unless Enemies and Lovers" 《不是冤家不拜堂》Chapter 211

 Applause arose, "Great, lady Mu Dan dances very well!" "Lady Mu Dan is really beautiful!"

Ji Ling Xue turned to look at Mu Dan holding her pipa and bowing, under the large red lanterns, Mu Dan's skin was smooth as jade, red clothes looked very good on her, just as gorgeous as her name.

It was at this moment, the pleasure boat suddenly swayed, lady Mu Dan was shaken to paleness and almost fell into the river, fortunately Ru Ge who stood to the side promptly helped her.

"Thank you young lord!" Mu Dan took the opportunity to lean into Ru Ge's arms, red lips placed beside Ru Ge's ear breathing.

Ru Ge frowned, he was about to push Mu Dan away when there was a shout: "Let go of Mu Dan, she's mine!" A fat man dressed in splendour rushed to the front of the boat pulling on Mu Dan's slender arm.

This sudden incident had made many people turn their heads, watching the play with wide eyes, they had thought it was a hero saving the damsel, but in a blink it became two men fighting over a woman.

"Young lord, save me!" Mu Dan seemed to be afraid of this fat man dressed in splendour, moving constantly into Ru Ge's arms, her originally pale complexion was even paler now.

Even though Ru Ge didn't like to meddle, but seeing lady Mu Dan shiver in fright, he could only be sympathetic.

"Young man, let go of her, I'm warning you not to meddle!" The fat man pointed at Ru Ge's nose in warning.

Ji Ling Xue's lips twitched, "Who is that man?" Such an eyesore.

Chi Feng waved his fan, looking like he wished for the whole world to be in chaos, "This is a rich man, the richest person in the capital Liu De, he lacks in appearance, but his family is very wealthy, he already has eight wives in is residence."

Ji Ling Xue looked at Chi Feng in admiration, not bad, knowing all the big and small individuals in the city.

Ji Ling Xue said: "That Liu De is lady Mu Dan's customer?"

Chi Feng nodded, "Of course, lady Mu Dan has a countenance of a flower, a face like the moon, she naturally has a lot of admirers, all the wealthy young lords in the capital have spent quite a lot of money on her, but lady Mudan is a virgin, she sells art not herself."

"Such a principled and incorruptible woman in a brothel is rare to see, she must have had no alternative to end up in a brothel." Ji Ling Xue sighed. 

Chi Feng nodded, "Not bad, this lady Mu Dan did indeed suffer a reversal of fortune, she was sold into the brothel by her family to pay off debts."

On the pleasure boat came Ru Ge's clear and cold voice, floating over, "If I stick my nose into other people's business, then what will you do about it?"

The fat man was angered by Ru Ge's words that his two strands of moustache trembled, turning to fiercely stare at Mu Dan: "Tonight I bought her first sexual encounter, she's now mine, she has to come with me." Having spoken he pulled on Mu Dan's arm and turned to walk away.

Having just taken a few steps, the fat man halted, he turned to see Mu Dan was being held by the waist by Ru Ge, he waved his sleeve in his direction, the fat man frowned as the back of his hand turned cold, he let go in pain, he saw a fierce looking cut on his hand, blood didn't stop flowing.

The fat man's face sank, his finger dripping with blood pointed at Ru Ge as he shouted: "Someone come, grab this young man, I will give you two thousand silvers!"

When there's a reward there are brave men, the fat man's guards and a group of busybodies who knew some martial arts rushed forward to surround Ru Ge.

Lady Mu Dan looked worryingly at Ru Ge, apologising: "I'm sorry young lord, I involved you in this, that is the richest man in the capital Liu De, you don't have to worry about me just quickly go."

Even though Liu De was known to use his wealth to strongly control people, but he had a secret hobby, that was one of the reasons Mu Dan was so against him, but she didn't think Liu De would cause trouble on the pleasure boat after not being able to get what he wanted.

On the small boat nearby, Ji Ling Xue stood up but was pushed back into her seat by Xiao Yi Chen, "Stay calm, these people aren't Ru Ge's opponent."

Xiao Yi Chen: You a pregnant woman still wanted to get in on the action, sit here quietly and watch the show.

Ji Ling Xue said: "Ru Ge had just recovered from serious injuries."

Chi Feng also looked like he was going to watch the show, his fan lightly fluttered his black hair, "Empress don't worry, nothing will happen to Ru Ge."

On the other side, Ru Ge was about to say something, Liu De's guards swarmed him, he carried Mu Dan and rapidly avoided them, with a raise of his foot, a plank went flying towards the approaching guards, there was only a loud scream, several guards fell onto the floor, some guards tried to sneak up on Ru Ge from behind, Mu Dan was so scared she screeched, Ru Ge held her and jumped into the air to the second floor of the pleasure boat.

When her feet touched the floor again Mu Dan returned to her senses, lowering her head to look at the group of people below, she then turned to Ru Ge who had already let her go, his silver hair fluttering in the wind, his figure had already disappeared from her sight.

The female brothel keeper quickly hurried to Mu Dan's side asking: "Mu Dan, are you alright, why did you offend rich man Liu, we work in this business, no one cares if you're willing or not...let's go, mama will bring you to rich man Liu to apologise, serve him well tonight, it'll be fine once his anger dissipates, you'll be good, we'll all be good!"

Mu Dan was pulled inside by the brothel keeper, on the other side Ru Ge flew from the boat to the shore, his figure had disappeared.

On the small boat, Ji Ling Xue empathetically looked at the back of Mu Dan, not understanding my Ru Ge walked away, what was he doing on that boat?

Even though Ru Ge had left, the angry Liu De was in no mood to accept the brothel keeper's apology, he took the men to chase after Ru Ge.

The pleasure boat once again returned to peace, very soon another pleasure boat cut in front of this one, the leaves on the deck flew about, a woman in white began to dance, everyone's attention was very soon attracted, just now Liu De's disturbance was just a short play.

The most popular courtesans in the four greatest brothels all finished their performances, people began to buy flowers to gift to them, whoever got the most flowers, the winner will be her, whoever gave the highest bid would be able to spend the night with the queen of flowers.

This was a game the rich played, Liu De wasn't here, the competition were only some rich young men, Chi  Feng had already prepared paper and pen to note down the sons of officials who were willing to spend a hundred silvers to buy flowers for the courtesans.

Ji Ling Xue turned to ask Xiao Yi Chen: "Did you get Ru Ge to lead Liu De away?"

If Liu De was here, as the richest man it was inevitable he wouldn't spare any money to buy the first night of Mu Dan, and these sons of officials only had a limited monthly budget, of course they couldn't compete against him.

Xiao Yi Chen nodded, "En, empress has become clever, they say each pregnancy leads to three years of stupidity, we think that's not true."

Ji Ling Xue's lips twitched, glancing at the four beauties on the pleasure boat, red, white, blue, green, each wore something to their own merit, right now Mu Dan had the most flowers in her hands, even though Liu De wasn't here she couldn't avoid losing her chastity.

Ji Ling Xue said: "I'm hungry, let's walk around on shore."

Xiao Yi Chen nodded, instructing the boatman to take the boat to shore, he held Ji Ling Xue and flew to shore, leaving Chi Feng on the boat, Chi Feng shook his head in exasperated sadness: Paying more attention to a lover than a friend!

Ji Ling Xue pulled on Xiao Yi Chen's sleeve saying: "You don't know, pregnant women get hungry easily, usually I have to eat something before going to be in order to sleep, just now we spent so long on the small boat, the baby in the stomach is crying out in hunger."

Xiao Yi Chen's lips twitched, just now on the small boat, Ji Ling Xue had eaten two plates of snacks, why was she hungry again so quickly.

Ji Ling Xue walked to Qing Shu's stall, knocking on the table she asked: "Boss, what's good to eat?"

Qing Shu turned his head, seeing Ji Ling Xue's face he was both surprised and terrified, "Emp..."

Ji Ling Xue made a silent gesture, winking, telling him not to be excited, "Give us a portion of everything that's good."

Wanting to show off in front of Ji Ling Xue, Qing Shu nodded, turning he walked to the stove to cook, after a short while he presented a multi-coloured cake in front of Ji Ling Xue, this last half a year he had spent a lot of time learning two dishes.

"This is the stall's featured dish, multi-coloured cake, there's sesame, mung bean, red date, yam and flour, it's very chewy, try it." Qing Shu finished speaking and served a sweet soup, smiling: "This is the stall's featured soup, papaya and white fungus soup."

Ji Ling Xue spooned a mouthful to try and nodded: "It's good, why are you here by yourself?"

Qing Shu scratched his head in embarrassment:  "That...I wanted to make a bit more money to help the refugees...so they won't have to starve again."

Ji Ling Xue said: "This is a good motive, but did you think, this won't solve the root of the problem."

Qing Shu cupped his hand, "Please impart your wisdom..."

Ji Ling Xue turned to look at Xiao Yi Chen, Xiao Yi Chen nodded: "Come with us, we'll tell you later what you need to do."

Qing Shu cupped his hands in obeisance, "I will follow your orders."

Xiao Yi Chen had already thought of taking Qing Shu in, unfortunately Chi Feng couldn't persuade him, Ji Ling Xue had to step in, he didn't think just a few words could sway him.

Three days later, Xiao Yi Chen had listed the spending of each son of officials at the brothels to criticise the officials to educate their children, then mentioned the flooding in Jiangnan and the urgent need for resources, the treasury was empty after buy twenty thousand picul of rice and grains, as a result each of the officials donated supplies.

Qing Shu was bestowed the title of inspector-general by Xiao Yi Chen, together with Chi Feng they headed south to the disaster area, in passing they visited the refugees outside the city, settling them down.

Ru Ge came to Chenhua palace to give his farewell, he had been in Dongqi for a while, he ought to go back, his and Ru Yi's wedding was set for three month's time on eighth of September, the wedding was also being intensely organised, Ru Ge ought to also return to Dayan to prepare.

Ru Ge said: "Yuchi Gong Ru's body has always been sealed in ice, I'll bring him back to be buried in his homeland, even though he committed a lot of wrongs in his life time, but he is still the third prince of Dayan, I probably won't come back to Dongqi ever again after returning, you have to write to me."

Ji Ling Xue nodded, "When the baby is older, I'll let her see her uncle."

Ru Ge looked at Ji Ling Xue's swollen belly, only then did he realise why Ji Ling Xue was stroking her belly randomly before.

Ru Ge said: "Can I have a touch?"

Ji Ling Xue nodded magnanimously.

Ru Ge cautiously placed his hand on Ji Ling Xue's belly, feeling his hand tingle, his lips curved into a surprised smile, "This little guy is kicking me."

Life was so wonderful, that little guy was interacting with him through her belly.

Ji Ling Xue's face was full of maternal love, "It seems she really likes you, baby this is your uncle!"

Ru Ge retracted his hand, looking at Ji Ling Xue who looked more mature: "Take care of yourself."

Ji Ling Xue nodded, she thought of something to ask, "Three days ago, you had a clash with Liu De at the moat, what happened afterwards?"