Chapter 235: Perilous—A Life-Saving Grace
Just as the sedan chair was about to pass in front of Zuiyue Pavillion, Nan Xun suddenly felt the window she was holding begin to shake. Her heart skipped—she was about to pull her upper body back when the person behind her shoved her hard.
The carved wooden wall beneath the window had long since loosened. With that shove, there was a loud crash—the window wall collapsed, and Nan Xun fell straight out of the second-floor private room.
As Nan Xun plummeted, she glanced back and caught sight of Peony’s face, twisted with jealousy.
Tsk. In a place like this, scheming and backstabbing were inevitable. She was already preparing to leave, yet still got calculated against.
Nan Xun figured that falling from this height wouldn’t kill her—at worst she’d injure an arm or a leg. With one miracle pill from Little Eight, she’d be lively and kicking again the next day.
So the white-robed woman falling from the second-floor private room of Zuiyue Pavillion let out a brief startled cry at first—but after that, there was no shrill screaming. Her descent was almost graceful: white skirts billowing, three thousand strands of black hair fluttering freely, truly like an immortal descending into the mortal world.
Nan Xun didn’t scream, but the people lining the street gasped in fright.
Everything happened in the blink of an eye. Just as Nan Xun was about to smash into the ground, her body suddenly stopped.
At a distance of one inch above the ground, she froze in midair.
The crowd was stunned.
After hovering for a few seconds, Nan Xun descended—not falling, but gently settling onto the ground.
She rose gracefully, then bowed toward the eight-bearer sedan chair before her. “Thank you, National Preceptor, for saving my life.”
The figure behind the white gauze curtains neither spoke nor moved.
Suddenly, a sharp, pain-filled scream rang out from where Nan Xun had fallen.
In the next moment, a woman in a purple gauze dress crashed down from above.
Before anyone could react, the woman had slammed hard into the ground—dead on the spot, blood streaming from her seven orifices.
Her eyes were wide open in death, still reflecting terror and agony.
Silence fell over the surroundings.
Nan Xun glanced at Peony’s miserable corpse, then her gaze shifted to the figure inside the sedan.
There was no doubt—it had been his doing.
After a brief pause, a cold, detached male voice came from within the sedan: “Those who deliberately harm others deserve death.”
The voice was like a winter stream on the verge of freezing—slow and clear, pleasant to the ear, yet chilling to the bone.
All sound around them vanished, even the townspeople’s breathing stopping in an instant.
Only after the National Preceptor’s procession had gone far away did the people dare to breathe again, their eyes falling upon the grotesquely dead woman.
She was Peony of Zuiyue Pavillion—many recognized her. And the masked woman in white who had fallen earlier must have been Rose, the rarely seen courtesan of the same house.
Rose lived because of the National Preceptor; Peony died because of him. Coupled with his earlier words, the crowd quickly pieced things together.
“Pah! A vicious woman like that deserved to die!”
People spat on Peony’s corpse one after another.
Nan Xun watched the direction the procession disappeared in, only looking away once it was completely out of sight.
She felt no sympathy for Peony. You could envy her for being smarter or more talented—but envy to the point of wanting her dead crossed the line.
Little Eight clicked his tongue. “Dared to scheme against you—she got what she deserved.”
Nan Xun smiled faintly, in rather good spirits. “I was just wondering what excuse I could use to enter Mo Ran Hall as a Gu tester. This is perfect—life-saving grace outweighs the heavens. The National Preceptor personally handed me the reason.”
Carrying her small bundle, Nan Xun went to bid farewell to madam Zhang of Zuiyue Pavillion. As for the other flower sisters, she didn’t bother. What happened with Peony once again made it clear to her: the one who smiles the brightest at you is often the most vicious at heart.
Madam Zhang cried rivers of tears. “Rose, are you really abandoning Mama? If you stay, I guarantee you’ll eat and drink the finest—don’t leave, alright?”
As she spoke, she hugged Nan Xun’s leg tightly.
Nan Xun: “……”
“If I stay, people will die. Didn’t you see how viciously Peony shoved me today? If the National Preceptor hadn’t intervened, I’d have died from the fall. So don’t try to keep me. I’ll come back to see you when I get the chance—how about that? And if you don’t let go, I really won’t be polite.”
Madam Zhang’s heart trembled. The National Preceptor had personally saved Rose—this truly shocked her.
Since she was someone the National Preceptor had intervened for, forget it. She’d originally planned to use force.
After that, madam Zhang not only stopped trying to keep Nan Xun, she even prepared some loose silver for her.
Nan Xun didn’t stand on ceremony and took it. “Thank you, Mama! I knew you were the best!”
Then she slung the small bundle—containing only a few changes of clothes—over her back and left without looking back, her retreat impossibly carefree.
Watching her go, madam Zhang finally wailed in earnest, her heart aching. That girl was just too heartless.
Nan Xun found an inn to stay at, gave the waiter some silver and a tip, and asked him to help purchase a set of men’s robes.
“Darling, what are you planning to do—cross-dress as a man?” Little Eight asked.
Nan Xun replied, “Obviously.”
Little Eight burst into manic laughter. “You’re kidding, right? With curves like yours, even binding won’t help! Skin so fair, waist so slim, lashes so curled—do you think everyone’s blind? Those TV dramas where women cross-dress and no one notices are pure lies, and you actually believed them? Hahahaha—”
Nan Xun: “……”
In the end, Nan Xun had the waiter take the men’s robe back to exchange it.
As for what it was exchanged for—judging from Little Eight’s stunned expression, it was definitely nothing good.
Nan Xun stayed holed up in the inn for five days. On the sixth day, she finally saw the notice posted by Mo Ran Hall.
Like a gust of wind, Nan Xun smeared filthy mud all over herself, then put on the patched clothes she’d bought, still reeking of sour stench. Even her little white boots were replaced with ragged straw sandals.
Little Eight was so moved it cried. “Darling, I never thought you’d be this dedicated. I used to say you didn’t use your brain—that was really unfair.”
Nan Xun had no time for it. She rushed straight to where the notice was posted, ready to “go die.”
When she arrived, there was indeed already a long line—mostly ordinary folk from modest backgrounds. Only one or two well-off fanatics of the National Preceptor appeared, and even they were forcibly dragged away by their families.
“I won’t leave! I won’t leave! I want to serve the National Preceptor as an ox or a horse! Ahhh—let me go—!”
Nan Xun: “……”
