Chapter Thirty-Six: Zhu Jiumei Is Zhu Yingtai

I cast him a look of utter disdain, unceremoniously. Xin'er hurried over to help me up. "Young Master Liu, are you alright? It is all my fault; I should not have asked you to catch that fish."

I waved my hand, "I am fine, just choked on a bit of water." I shivered uncontrollably. "The lake water here is freezing!"

Xia Yu'nuo stood to the side, pursing her lips with a smile. "I just dried your clothes, and now they are soaked again before even a few hours have passed." She turned to Xin'er and instructed, "Xin'er, bring the two sets of men's clothing we bought at the market for the two young masters to change into."

"Yes, please follow me, young masters." Xin'er helped me toward the bamboo building.

I cast a suspicious glance at Xia Yu'nuo. Could I call her heartless? My life had just been hanging by a thread; even if she didn't care, how could she still be smiling?

Xia Yu'nuo helped Ma Wencai walk behind me. "Wencai, your wound has reopened. Go change first, and I will tend to it afterward."

Ma Wencai nodded, his brow furrowed.

Hearing this, I turned around and saw a large bloodstain seeping through his left trouser leg. Only then did I recall his strange gait when he left the room that morning; he had truly been injured.

After quickly changing into the clothes I got from Xin'er, I ran up to the bamboo building. Xia Yu'nuo was cleaning Ma Wencai's wound. With his pant leg rolled up, I could clearly see a large, festering gash. To think he had plunged into the water to save me despite such a severe injury—Ma Wencai, our half-year of sharing a bed was not in vain. I approached the bed and asked, "Miss Xia, is Brother Wencai's wound serious?"

"It is nothing major; he will recover after a few days of quiet rest. The wound festered because you stayed in the water too long. You must absolutely avoid getting it wet again." Xia Yu'nuo finished re-bandaging his wound.

"Since Wencai's wound has not healed, you should stay here for a few days until it closes," Xia Yu'nuo said, looking at Ma Wencai as if seeking his approval.

I certainly needed to stay for a few days; my face would take another five days to heal, and I could not show my face like this. Ma Wencai surely felt the same; having finally reunited with his heart's desire, he would naturally want to stay as long as possible. "Then we shall trouble you, Miss Xia."

Xia Yu'nuo smiled faintly. "It is no trouble, but my bamboo house is small and there is only one spare room. You will have to bear with sharing it."

"This..." In truth, it would normally be fine, but since Ma Wencai had already guessed my identity, how could I sleep next to him without a shred of guilt? Just as I was feeling conflicted, Ma Wencai spoke up: "Yiqing, Yingtai's whereabouts are unknown; we should return to the academy sooner."

"Yingtai?" Xia Yu'nuo looked at Ma Wencai thoughtfully and asked, "Is Yingtai..."

"No," Ma Wencai interrupted her urgently before she could finish. "It is not her."

It seemed Xia Yu'nuo certainly knew Zhu Yingtai, and they were childhood playmates. Was it time for me to pull back the curtain on this drama? Hehe, I admit I am being wicked!

"Yingtai is Zhu Yingtai from the Zhu family estate in Shangyu. We fell off the mountain while looking for her. Does Miss Xia know her too?" I asked deliberately, turning to look at Ma Wencai with a triumphant grin.

Ma Wencai frowned, looking displeased. He must have wanted to help hide Zhu Yingtai's identity. It seemed he was truly devoted to his fiancée.

"I suppose you could say I know her. I remember when we were young, my aunt would take Wencai and me to play at the Zhu estate in Shangyu. The ninth daughter of the Zhu family treated me like an enemy. She even told me that she would be Wencai's future wife and warned me to stay away from him. We were only seven or eight then; thinking back, it is quite laughable." Xia Yu'nuo recalled the past with a joyful expression. She and Xin'er must have been very lonely living in this desolate place for ten years.

Aunt? What was this situation? Sometimes Xia Yu'nuo called Ma Wencai "brother," and I had assumed it was a term of endearment. It turned out they were cousins. In ancient times, cousins usually fancied one another—that was how these television plots always went.

Haha, "Ninth Sister," Ma Wencai, let's see how you explain this now. "Ninth Sister, Ninth Sister, beautiful sister..." I chuckled to myself.

"Is 'Ninth Sister' Zhu Yingtai?" I asked tentatively.

Xia Yu'nuo nodded. "Has Wencai not mentioned it? Zhu Yingtai is the ninth-born, and everyone at the Zhu estate calls her Ninth Sister. But... you are students at the Nishan Academy; what interaction do you have with her?" Xia Yu'nuo looked at Ma Wencai with a puzzled expression.

Ma Wencai frowned, his face turning ashen as he stared at me. I pursed my lips and smiled, "For that question, you should ask Brother Wencai. I know nothing of it."

Xia Yu'nuo suddenly smiled, looking at Ma Wencai. "I see. She must have followed you to the Nishan Academy. You must be married by now, right?"

It seemed more like Ma Wencai had followed Zhu Yingtai to Nishan.

Dizzy. To think people in ancient times could bring their wives to school—that would be too blissful! But Ma Wencai and Zhu Yingtai had not reached that point yet. "Miss Xia, if Brother Wencai were married to Yingtai, why would he be sharing a room with me? It is just that she..."

"She disguised herself as a man to study at the academy. Yesterday, she had a falling out with a classmate, slipped down the mountain, and her whereabouts are unknown," Ma Wencai finished my sentence, his face full of indignation.

It seemed he knew he could no longer hide it, so he simply admitted it. But Ma Wencai could never have guessed that I had known all along. I, the great Master Liu, can foresee five hundred years into the past and... how many years into the future? I should calculate that...

"Disguised as a man?" Xia Yu'nuo frowned, looking quite surprised. "Zhu Ninth Sister is far too bold to do something so outrageous."

Ma Wencai snorted. "That is nothing. She has done things a hundred times more outrageous than that."

"Why doesn't brother keep a tighter rein on her, instead of letting her act so recklessly?" Xia Yu'nuo looked displeased, her tone flat, clearly devoid of the cheerful atmosphere from moments ago.

"Hmph, I can no longer control her, and I am tired of trying. In a while, I will let her family come to deal with her." Whenever this topic came up, Ma Wencai was filled with rage.

It was truly strange. If Ma Wencai really intended to have the Zhu family discipline Zhu Yingtai, more than half a year had passed, yet no one from the Zhu family had appeared. What was this Young Master Ma planning?

"Brother, what are you and Zhu Ninth Sister...?" Xia Yu'nuo asked, hesitating.

"We are nothing to each other," Ma Wencai denied.

Damn, this Ma Wencai, to actually say he and Zhu Yingtai were nothing? Was he trying to have his cake and eat it too? What a scoundrel! My 24-karat eyes have been blinded!

Ma Wencai remained lying on the rattan chair to rest. Xia Yu'nuo would not allow him to move about, and he seemed to obey her quite well, spending the entire afternoon lying obediently on the chair. Xin'er and I busied ourselves in the kitchen with dinner; I had no intention of eating only greens.

The pity was that there really was nothing good to eat here—it was all vegetables. I really suspected they were all part rabbit.

Unfortunately, I was not much of a cook, though I had learned a few snacks from watching television. I grabbed a pumpkin; the night would depend on you.