His Peasant Wife : Yao Ling

"Then... we will see when she arrives here... Our plan will start from there..." Yao Ling said. Yao Ling didn’t mention that it was a part of their second plan. To Xiao Fang’s knowledge, this was only the beginning of their plan.

When the trio was alone, Yao Ying asked Lin Jian bluntly, "What do you think of this matter?"

He sighed. "I don’t know what to think anymore. Xiao Fang’s maid has a really crazy theory about Han Xiang... but I..." Lin Jian trailed off the last part. He was confused.

"You don’t want to believe that what she said is true... don’t you?" Yao Ling asked.

He nodded hesitantly. "I’m not sure how to think about all of these," Lin Jian said. "After all, I always thought of her as my sister. What if...she’s gone? What if... she’s not what I thought of her to be?" He didn’t even dare to add his last doubt --- what if she wasn’t his mother’s daughter at all?

Yao Ying could only give him a little advice. "Just open your eyes and your heart. Even if she’s really what you are not expected to be, you have to accept the truth. We don’t even know whether Han Yi was correct or not... So far, it’s just her assumption, right?" He tried to cheer Lin Jian up.

They weren’t stupid. They didn’t want to listen to only one side of the stories. What about Han Xiang? Maybe there was a justified reason for her to suddenly change.

Lin Jian nodded. "I know..."

Yao Ling decided to be blunt too. "Besides, you are also not a hundred percent sure that she is your sister. I hope we can also find the truth about your mother’s disappearance too..." Yao Ling said the thing that Lin Jian wanted to keep to himself, but he couldn’t blame her for being blunt with her words. Even if she wasn’t his sister, he would help her get out of this marriage as a part of his mission.

"Haiyah~ there are so many mysteries in this mission. This is also the first time I’ve encountered such a complicated problem in one go," Lin Jian admitted. He usually didn’t have any attachment to his previous missions, that’s why he was able to finish those missions easily. Lin Jian could make a sound plan and judgment with a calm mind, unlike this mission.

Yao Ying laughed. "At least, we will get a lot of experiences from this mission..."

"That’s true..." Lin Jian bobbed his head up and down in agreement.

"Is there any news about Han Xiang? When will she arrive?" Yao Ling asked curiously.

"My subordinate already gave me a report. Han Xiang has been saved by the general and our subordinates already know that they are not allowed to hurt the princess, so they don’t chase them and let them run away. Han Xiang’s position isn’t that far from here, but the general who escorts here has been badly hurt so it would take a while for them to arrive --- probably two to three days," Lin Jian answered.

"Why do I feel that it’s so easy for us to attack the entourage?" Yao Ling felt that attacking a wedding entourage of the royalty was supposed to be hard because of their powerful defense, but it didn’t seem so in this case.

"It’s not that it’s too easy, but the Han Emperor is underestimating our kingdom and they are too confident of their own plan. Thus, they have a flaw," Yao Ying answered Yao Ling’s question.

"How so?" Yao Ling was too busy with Qing Hui’s treatment so she didn’t have time to pay attention to Yao Ying and Lin Jian’s side. She had been too tired for the past few days. However, Qing Hui’s condition was improving quite fast and the time for Yao Ling to give him treatment started to become lower. For the first day, she took more than one night. The second day, it took only three shichen. She estimated that today she would only need two shichen and then she would be able to get a good night sleep.

"The general that the Han Emperor sends to protect Han Xiang is only a mediocre one, hence he couldn’t really protect themselves from our experts. The Han Emperor would never think that we have the gut to attack him by pretending to be Han Bandits," Yao Ying explained. "He’s also feeling too confident that because of his agreement with the Qin Emperor and someone from our kingdom... no one would dare to attack the entourage or make it difficult for him."

Yao Ling nodded in understanding. "Meeting Xiao Fang and Hei Yue are unknowingly really giving us a lot of advantages. What’s left is to rescue Han Xiang and see whether she is really worth the trouble or not. After that, we can peacefully go home!"

This time, Lin Jian could only murmur his agreement. What Han Yi said made him become more cautious about Han Xiang, even though he was still slightly skeptical with that maidservant. Yao Ying and Yao Ling sighed in relief. At least, they had already put some senses into Lin Jian’s mind and let him think without his biased perspective.

Yao Ling’s job for the day was only treating Qing Hui. After finishing her treatment and feeling satisfied with the way Hei Yue had taken care of Qing Hui, she went back to the inn. She didn’t forget to prepare Yao Ying’s medicine and they slept peacefully. Yao Ying didn’t have the energy to tease Yao Ling at night because he also had a lot of things to do, besides, he also knew that Yao Ling was indeed really tired.

The next day, they didn’t really have anything to do --- except waiting for Han Xiang to arrive. Their preparation had finished so they were leisurely sightseeing Lin Zhou’s wonderful scenery. This was the last time they could relax before they did their mission so they wanted to enjoy it to the max --- Xiao Fang was included too.

When Yao Ling took a look at the place where Lin Jian usually guarded the borders, she was able to see the difference between the three kingdoms’ conditions. The Shu Kingdom had the most abundant resources between the three kingdoms. The soil was more fertile and it made the Shu Kingdom was the most prosperous between the three and by having this advantage, the Shu Kingdom was able to build its kingdom nicely --- including, the military power.

When she looked at the Qin Kingdom’s direction, she would still able to see lush vegetation because it was still springtime right there. However, their condition at winter time was pretty bad. Their place was higher than the two kingdoms so their winter climate was especially colder than the rest of the kingdoms. This was the reason they weren’t able to become prosperous all year long.

Yao Ling looked at the Han Kingdom’s direction, she could only see barren dessert and it made the Han Kingdom the least prosperous of the three.

Yao Ling asked Xiao Fang, "Is it also this barren at the capital of the Han Kingdom?"

Xiao Fang laughed and answered, "Even though we are surrounded by the desert, our capital is quite prosperous. There’s not much difference with Lin Zhou --- only the people’s outfits are different. We are dressing with more freedom --- not as conservative as you, probably because we don’t really care about the rules."

"Hmmm...? So you aren’t usually dressed like this?" Yao Ling asked.

"No... I have this dress because my mother is from the Shu Kingdom and she made a few for me," Xiao Fang said with a laugh. Then her eyes were full of mischievousness and said, "I have an idea!!"

"What idea?" Yao Ling asked, feeling suspicious.

"Why don’t you try our Han Kingdom’s clothes?" Xiao Fang asked.

"Er... let me see first?! How open the clothes will be?" Yao Ling asked. She felt curious about the clothes and she would probably let Yao Ying take a look at it!