Chapter 39 Grandparent Overthinking.

Chapter 39: Grandfather and Grandson - Overthinking.

Zhong Yao was mortified for ages.

Although "vulgar," "stinky," and "humble woman" were terms she had first used on herself, hearing it from someone else still stung, especially that "stinky" part.

As for Xie Chi calling her annoying, Zhong Yao didn't mind at all.

She was used to it—her parents, her two elder brothers, and her close friends often said the same. But no matter how much they complained, didn't they still have to put up with her?

Zhong Yao believed actions spoke louder than words.

But Xie Chi calling her stinky really got to her. She felt he didn't see her as a girl at all; maybe in his eyes, she was just like Xue Fang.

But being treated like a little brother in this situation was a good thing for a girl, right? Shouldn't she be happy?

Confused by her own feelings, Zhong Yao curled up in a corner for a bit, then silently picked up a fallen book and started flipping through it.

After a couple of pages, she heard Xie Chi ask, "Feeling hurt?"

Zhong Yao didn't answer, keeping her eyes glued to the official documents in her hands.

The carriage went quiet again, just the sound of hooves, the rumbling wheels, and Xue Fang's apologies from up ahead.

After another quiet moment, a shadow fell beside Zhong Yao. She stayed still until Xie Chi said, "Really that hurt by one word?"

Zhong Yao slowly turned, still not looking at him, and mumbled, "I'm not hurt, and I sure as heck ain't crying."

Xie Chi paused, then let out a heavy sigh. "Fine, I'm the stinky one, okay?"

Zhong Yao didn't lift her head, just said in a low voice, "What did you say? I can't hear you."

Xie Chi frowned, stared at the top of her head for a moment, then bent down and spoke louder. "I said, I'm the—"

Before he could finish, Zhong Yao suddenly looked up, her eyes sparkling with a bright, mischievous light that caught his attention.

Distracted, Xie Chi didn't react in time as Zhong Yao lunged forward and wrapped her arms around his neck.

She was so close her face was almost pressed against his neck, and his chin was forced against her ear.

Maybe it was the angle, but Xie Chi caught a faint, nice scent from her again. He instinctively followed the scent, his gaze trailing down her slender, fair neck and slipping into her collar.

A jolt went through him. He quickly grabbed her arms and pulled her off him.

"What are you doing?" he snapped, his face dark.

Zhong Yao's hands were pinned, but she was still laughing, her cheeks pink. "Making you hate me! I'll stink you out!"

Xie Chi's face went through shades of green and blue before he finally snapped, "Laugh again, and I'll have Xue Fang bark like a dog!"

Zhong Yao immediately stopped smiling. "I won't."

That didn't help Xie Chi's irritation. He added, "If you dare touch me again, don't come crying to me if I break your arm."

That was a bit scary, so Zhong Yao quickly said, "Got it."

Xie Chi glared at her for another moment, then let go of her hands.

He regretted it again. Zhong Yao was too soft and unpredictable—impossible to figure out by normal standards. He resolved never to feel sorry for her again.

With that thought, he moved to get away, but when he saw her lurch forward as if to pounce again, his heart jumped, and he instinctively raised a hand to stop her.

The moment he moved, she stopped.

She didn't lunge, just looked at him and laughed, like a kid who'd successfully pulled a prank, her body swaying and her eyes shining.

Xie Chi got it now. His face darkened. "Are you annoying or what?"

Seeing he was mad, Zhong Yao slowly stopped laughing, lowered her head, and stayed quiet for a moment. Then she peeked at him, faked another lunge, and started laughing again.

No matter what he did, he couldn't get her to behave. Unable to stand being alone with her any longer, Xie Chi stormed out of the carriage and got on his horse.

Zhong Yao watched him leave, then couldn't help lifting the curtain and calling out softly, "Heir Xie, you're so kind to leave the big carriage all to me. I'm so grateful!"

Without looking back, Xie Chi cracked his whip and rode away.

After this test, Zhong Yao was sure Xie Chi really didn't think of her as a girl.

She felt a bit disappointed, but his avoiding her also amused her.

She went back and forth between laughing and feeling sad, but eventually decided she couldn't let these little things distract her. She turned her thoughts back to the Misty Mountain Bandits.

From then on, whenever she got near Xie Chi, she would tease him like this.

He always gave her a cold glare and kept his distance on purpose, and so they traveled all the way to Changping County.

Zhong Yao couldn't stand the sweat on her skin anymore and insisted on bathing as soon as they arrived.

She thought Xie Chi would make fun of her, but he didn't. He guarded the door for her, and only after she had quickly washed did he have the guards escort her out, then turned to handle official matters.

When Zhong Yao had freshened up and went to find Xie Chi, she found no suspicious bandits in the room—just a sixty-year-old man and a six- or seven-year-old boy, along with the guards.

The old man was hunched over, his face lined with wrinkles, his hands covered in brown cracks and dirt. The boy was no better, looking like a muddy loach that had crawled out of the mud.

"...The kid was running around and found this in some corner somewhere. Just this one," the old man said, bowing apologetically. "We poor folk have no use for such fine things. If you, noble sir, want it, take it."

He was referring to a lingzhi mushroom.

It was freshly picked, a deep red with only a hint of orange at the edges. Zhong Yao recognized it as blood lingzhi—not particularly rare among the wealthy, but worth several years' income for a poor family.

Finding one by chance wasn't impossible, but lingzhi grew in deep, shady mountains, and Changping County was flat and open, with no mountains at all.

This mushroom could only have come from someone else, and within the past few days.

Zhong Yao looked at Xie Chi, who weighed the mushroom in his hand and studied the boy. "One hundred taels. I'll take this one. If you can find more, I'll pay even higher—I'll buy them all."

The boy hid behind the old man and shouted, "This is the only one! There's no more!"

Xie Chi said, "Or take me to where you found it. That works too."

"I don't remember where I found it! Take it or leave it—I'm not selling!" The boy was rude, stepping forward to snatch the mushroom back.

Xue Fang, who had been tricked before and was wary of children, had been watching the boy like a hawk. He lunged forward and shoved the boy hard.

He was about to hit him again when the guards grabbed him by the neck and pulled him back.

But the move had already scared the old man. He grabbed the boy and knelt, pleading, "Noble sir, please calm down! The child doesn't know any better! Spare him this once!"

The boy knelt too, but he was defiant, glaring at Xie Chi with hatred.

Xie Chi narrowed his eyes slightly and said, "I have no intention of making things difficult for you. Just tell me where this lingzhi mushroom came from."

The boy was about to speak but was held back by the old man.

The old man kowtowed twice and said, "The child is naughty and only remembers the general area. If you, sir, don't mind, this old man will take you there."

Xie Chi nodded and called over a guard, saying, "Go with the old man, please."

The old man pulled the boy to his feet, muttering endless thanks as they prepared to leave, but were stopped.

"The old man can go alone. This child catches my eye. He can stay until you return."

This was basically imprisonment. Neither the old man nor the boy was willing, but Xie Chi was determined to play the unreasonable villain, forcing the grandfather and grandson apart.

After the old man was forced to leave with the guard, Xie Chi ordered the boy to be locked in the next room and sent someone with a token to summon the county magistrate.

Soon, the magistrate arrived with officers, kicking up a fuss and surrounding the whole inn.

After all that commotion, it wasn't until nightfall that the officers dispersed.

Shu Feng still hadn't caught up, so as usual, someone needed to stay with Zhong Yao tonight.

But tonight, Xue Fang didn't want to be the witness. He said, "That little brat looks shady. I need to keep an eye on him!"

Figuring he had the most experience with the vicious kids raised by the Misty Mountain Bandits, he insisted on watching the boy himself.

Xie Chi didn't want him stirring up trouble, so he quietly told a guard to take him away.

With Xue Fang gone, only Zhong Yao and Xie Chi remained.

Ever since she'd made Xie Chi so mad he rode off on his horse, Zhong Yao could clearly tell Xie Chi was avoiding her again, kind of like when he first wanted to cut ties with her.

Zhong Yao figured he was furious at her.

What's there to be so mad about over something so small?

Men were really hard to understand.

But it didn't matter. She had a good nature and could take the initiative to talk to Xie Chi.

"Do you think that lingzhi came from the bandits?" Zhong Yao asked.

This time, they were staying in the inn's largest room, with the inner and outer rooms pretty far apart. Zhong Yao was worried her voice wouldn't carry to Xie Chi.

Luckily, she was overthinking it.

Xie Chi said, "That old man's son was a no-good, notorious gambler. Three years ago, he swindled a big pile of money from a gambling den and ran off, leaving his old dad and little kid behind."

Once he explained, Zhong Yao got it.

The official records said that a lot of gamblers and street thugs were hot-headed. After offending someone or committing a crime worthy of prison time, some would run off to Misty Mountain to avoid getting caught.

But what they didn't know was that it was easy to get in but hard to get out.

A lot of criminals who only needed a few months in prison ended up in the bandits' hideout out of ignorance, eventually getting mixed up in murder for one reason or another, going down a path of no return and sinking deeper.

That old man's son was probably one of them.

The guards had spotted someone who looked like a Misty Mountain bandit in Changping County and confirmed he was in town, but after days of searching, they couldn't smoke him out.

Just then, a poor grandfather and grandson showed up with a blood lingzhi, which could only be found deep in the mountains, and tried to sell it. It was pretty obvious what was going on.

"Kids can't keep their cool. Seeing the officials come for you, he'll definitely think you're here to arrest his dad..."

Xie Chi was waiting for the boy or the old man to tip someone off.

"Tricking a kid," Zhong Yao said.

Xie Chi fell silent. After a while, Zhong Yao said, "Heir Xie, you're so hard to please."

Xie Chi still ignored her.

During these days on the road, Zhong Yao either read or slept during the day, so at night, she wasn't the least bit tired.

Unable to sleep, with the lamp in the room already extinguished, she couldn't read either. She tossed and turned alone, occasionally pulling open her nightgown to smell the lingering fragrance from her bath, sometimes counting the days since leaving the capital, and other times listening for sounds outside, guessing in her mind whether the boy had escaped under cover of night.

Hearing no noise for a long time, she thought of something else and whispered, "There must be many rare herbs in Misty Mountain. If not for those bandits, the common folk could go in and gather them..."

No one responded to Zhong Yao.

Zhong Yao assumed Xie Chi was asleep and continued thinking to herself, murmuring softly, "But they say deep mountains have poisonous miasma, blood-sucking insects, and flowers that drive people mad. These things are too terrifying. If they spread out, who knows how many they'd kill. It's better for the people not to go in."

Especially those flowers that drive people mad. The documents recorded that once, when the government sent troops into the mountains to suppress the bandits, the bandits used such a powder to ambush them.

The soldiers who stormed the stronghold went mad, slashing wildly with their knives, causing heavy casualties among the imperial forces in that campaign, failing to wipe out the bandits completely.

Zhong Yao thought this behavior was even more terrifying than a vicious dog hurting people.

"Luckily, that kind of hallucinogen is rare. If they carried the powder around to harm others, making many people go mad and injure their parents and children, how regretful that would be."

"That drug has a smell. Once detected, moving to a ventilated area or covering the mouth and nose with a wet cloth can counter it," Xie Chi suddenly spoke up, then added, "You don't need to worry. If you went mad, you'd at most bite people."

Zhong Yao smiled sheepishly, admitting it.

She was indeed weak, but it was always good not to harm those close to her.

"Heir Xie, you're finally willing to talk to me again?"

As soon as Zhong Yao spoke, Xie Chi fell silent again.

Zhong Yao understood—he was still angry, only willing to enlighten her on important matters, not to engage in idle chatter.

She didn't mind. After a moment's thought, she said, "If I went mad, I probably couldn't hurt anyone. But you, Heir Xie, must be careful. You absolutely can't fall under that terrifying drug."

Hearing her worried voice, Xie Chi glanced in Zhong Yao's direction through the darkness and thought she was overthinking it.

That drug could indeed briefly cloud one's mind, but it was easy to counter. Besides, he had already experienced it firsthand—if one's will was strong enough, even under the influence, one could control oneself.

Zhong Yao's worry that she might hurt him was indeed unnecessary.