After Rebirth, She Becomes the Revenge Queen-Chapter 189 - 188: Ballad Beyond the Border (Second update, please vote)

Chapter 189: Chapter 188: Ballad Beyond the Border (Second update, please vote)

Fu Zhen had dinner with Mrs. Ning and Ning Jia.

Mrs. Ning came back early. It turned out that Xie Yu came over today, and Xie Zhang had already informed Mrs. Ning in advance, so Mrs. Ning waited there until the afternoon.

Starting tomorrow, Mrs. Ning will go to the store in the morning, and in the afternoon she will teach Xie Yu at home.

Fu Zhen remembered Xie Yu’s conspiratorial thoughts and glanced at Mrs. Ning several times.

Mrs. Ning said, "What are you looking at?"

Fu Zhen pursed her lips and shook her head. After a while, she said, "Have you considered remarrying, mother?"

Mrs. Ning looked shocked: "What nonsense are you talking?"

Fu Zhen chuckled: "Just talking nonsense. But if you have this idea, I wouldn’t oppose it either. — Jia, what do you think?"

Ning Jia picked up a piece of fish, not lifting his head: "Whatever sister says, that’s what I say. If you think it’s good, I definitely think it’s good too."

Fu Zhen rubbed his head: "You’re quite clever."

But Mrs. Ning knocked on his forehead.

Fu Zhen didn’t continue on the topic.

Whether Mrs. Ning chooses to remain single or remarry, Fu Zhen would support her, as long as it was what Mrs. Ning wanted.

After enduring the ruin inflicted by Fu Jun’s family for many years, who could still have expectations for marriage after finally gaining freedom?

Just like her, she poured her heart into a man, only to be killed by him. Although not all men are bad, she clearly was a poor judge of character and not good at choosing men. It’s better to just let it be.

After dinner, she changed her clothes and went to see Pei Zhan.

There had been an awkward moment by the lakeside at the temple during the day, but this time she had to go.

She needed to secure this partnership, to discuss marriage negotiations with Pei Zhan. After thinking about it for a few days, if this were to succeed, it would only benefit her, with no harm. And even if there were, it would be negligible, whereas Pei Zhan wouldn’t gain much. She had to think about how to persuade him.

The large houses in the neighborhood made it quiet at night, and the alley was as silent as midnight.

The wind in early summer was becoming more pleasant, and the moonlight overhead was still bright.

The tofu shop was at the entrance of the neighborhood, and Fu Zhen walked on foot, accompanied by the sound of her footsteps.

After only a few steps, a sound of a flute came from somewhere, melodious and lingering, with a touch of melancholy, like walking in the desert sands under the moonlight.

Fu Zhen’s steps slowed and she stopped.

It was a Northern Frontier tune, rarely played in the capital city.

Xu Yin was from a family of scholars, a landlord in Tanzhou before his family was ruined.

When Liang Ning found him, he had already studied for several years, could write beautifully, and play the qin. The flute hanging on the wall in the old strategist’s room, he could play as soon as he picked it up.

He could play the music of the Xiang region, one after another.

Later, on Liang Ning’s birthday, the strategist asked what gift she wanted. Liang Ning asked for the flute and gave it to Xu Yin.

The moonlight in the northwest was always especially clear, and Liang Ning often sat on the sand dunes, listening to him play.

She asked if he could play the tunes of the frontier?

He said no.

But three days later, he took her up the sand dunes again and played a complete piece.

Liang Ning asked how he learned it.

He said he found a trade caravan coming through the pass. There was a singer from the frontier in the caravan, and he spent two taels of silver to learn from her.

When Liang Ning took him in, he only had about a dozen copper coins on him, and later, all his money was earned bit by bit in the military camp by brushing horses, carrying water, writing home letters for people, and such.

Liang Ning wasn’t stingy with her money, and her two elder brothers always gave Xu Yin a share when they gave her pocket money.

Although Xu Yin never rejected them harshly, he never asked for it either. Each time he got the money, he’d buy things for Liang Ning, and in the barren northwest where resources weren’t abundant, he would sometimes just put the money he couldn’t spend into her savings jar.

He said, after all, what is mine is yours. You keep it for me, and I’m more at ease.

Fu Zhen looked up at the moon, then turned her steps toward the source of the flute sound.

At the other end of the alley, on the other side of Ning Mansion, there was an ancient camphor tree, and under the tree, there was a large black canopy carriage parked.

A man in a sapphire blue robe sat at the head of the carriage, playing the frontier tune. freeweɓnovēl.coɱ

The night wind lifted his robe sleeves high, and the shadows on the ground swayed like smoke.

The piece ended.

He turned his head, his gaze stopped on Fu Zhen’s face for a moment, and his body slowly turned around.

His left knee was bent, and the left hand holding the flute casually rested on his knee, his dark eyes stained with the color of moonlight.

He opened his lips to speak, but somehow closed them again.

Though separated by a distance of two zhang, it felt like the distance between two lifetimes.

"You came."

Xu Yin said in a low voice.

This voice was so light it seemed like he was greeting himself.

Fu Zhen walked closer, stopping at the distance when he poured the lamp oil back then.

"It was you who played the tune."

Pei Zhan had been sitting in the tofu shop early.

But he had already eaten two bowls of tofu, and Fu Zhen still hadn’t arrived.

The street was empty of people.

The store owner’s couple had already boiled three rounds of tea.

Pei Zhan stood up, leaving Guo Song to watch over the place, and then headed toward the alley leading to Ning Mansion.

Just as he walked in, he saw Fu Zhen.

She stood silently under the moonlight, looking lost, as if turned into a statue.

"Miss Fu."

He called her once, but she didn’t hear!

Instead, flute music suddenly reached his ears.

It was a frontier tune.

In the northwest those years, this was a tune he’d heard so much it almost became a callus in his ears.

So she was listening to the flute.

Who was playing such a tune at this time?

Before Pei Zhan could figure it out, Fu Zhen had already turned around.

"Taiping..."

The name he had practiced thousands of times on his tongue slipped out of his mouth.

Fortunately, she didn’t hear it, so nothing was revealed.

Unfortunately, she didn’t hear it. It seemed the flute music was more important to her than anything or anyone else.

She reached the other side of Ning Mansion, and she saw Xu Yin; Pei Zhan saw Xu Yin too.

"Did I disturb you?"

Xu Yin’s voice was still light, with the downward tone, not as arrogant as usual.

His voice wasn’t like that of a high Assistant Minister, but rather like a familiar acquaintance.

Pei Zhan focused intently on Fu Zhen’s back, hearing her say, "You weren’t waiting for me, were you?"

Pei Zhan turned around, looked up at the moon, and stepped back into the night he had come from.

The alley was so peaceful that one could clearly hear their own heartbeat.

Fu Zhen’s hands were clasped in front of her abdomen, which made her look more reserved than she did in the daylight, but beneath her sleeves, her hands were clenched into her flesh.

The dagger that Su Xinger gave her was still in her left arm.

Xu Yin looked at the flute in his hand: "If I say yes, what would you do about it?"

"Vice Minister Xu is a married man,

if you say that, then it makes you a womanizer. Wouldn’t that reputation you’ve built up make you a fame-seeker instead?"

"I think you wouldn’t be that foolish."

Xu Yin smiled: "Such insight. Doesn’t seem like a merchant’s daughter."

New novel chapt𝒆rs are published on free(w)ebnovel(.)com