His Peasant Wife : Yao Ling

She was the one who gave him the medicine and she should have been the one who healed him, and yet... she fell asleep in a heartbeat. A few days of treating Qing Hui indeed took a toll on her body. She needed her beauty sleep.

Yao Ying smiled. "I’m fine." He patted Yao Ling’s head dotingly.

"I’m sorry. I should have been the one who..." She trailed off.

"It’s okay. You can give me a compensation next time," Yao Ying said mischievously.

Yao Ling blushed but she still nodded shyly. "Okay..." Yao Ling remembered how last night she had behaved braver than usual and somehow bewildered by herself. She didn’t know that it was because of the perfume’s effect. If she knew, she would probably throttle Xiao Fang to death.

To distract Yao Ling’s mind from her guilt, Yao Ying told her what happened at the corridor. She laughed when Yao Ying told her how they accused them doing sexual endeavor at the corridor. "Serve them right!" She said cheerfully. It lightened up her mood.

Yao Ying sighed in relief when he knew that Yao Ling was now in a better mood. He didn’t blame her about the medicine so he also didn’t want her to blame herself.

"Do you still need to give acupuncture to Qing Hui later?"

Yao Ling shook her head. "No... he has passed the critical moment and he already gets better. I put him into a deep sleep for a few days. Yesterday, I tried to wake him up, but his mind was still disorderly and it’s not safe for him to stay awake until his condition is a bit better. I think in a few days... he should be able to talk." She explained Qing Hui’s latest condition.

Yao Ying nodded. "We are not in a hurry, so it should be fine." They had another urgent matter to attend to first, Qing Hui’s matter could wait --- at least, they had Hei Yue to tend to him.

After finished eating breakfast, they prepared to set out when someone was looking for them. Xiu whispered to Yao Ying about the man’s identity and Yao Ying quickly let him in. "Ling-er, the man has come back. I hope he will tell us a piece of good news."

"Which man?" Yao Ling asked in confusion.

Yao Ying gave her a pointed look and she seemed to understand this man’s identity.

Yao Ling was surprised. "This fast?"

"I think he’s a bit desperate," Yao Ying guessed. "Besides, he’s all alone so it must be easier for him to move around."

"Hmm... probably..." Yao Ling nodded.

The man entered and this time, he didn’t wear his black assassin clothes. Yao Ying wouldn’t know who he was if Xiu didn’t tell him his identity in the first place. The man was quite handsome but they knew that he was a bit of a coward, however in his ordinary clothes, he looked like a fine young man with a gentle personality. Too gentle perhaps and it made Yao Ling wonder why he chose to become an assassin.

"This servant greets Young Master and Young Mistress," the man said politely.

Yao Ying and Yao Ling looked at each other, not knowing what to think of his sudden politeness. "What do you mean by this?" Yao Ying asked without beating around the bush.

"This servant wants to follow Young Master and Young Mistress. After finishing the job, I thought hard about it and I choose to follow Young Master and Young Mistress for life." The man humbly said while kowtowing to them.

"What is your name?" Yao Ying asked.

"This servant name is Zhuo Li, Young Master."

"Why do you want to follow us? Don’t you remember how we kill your brother and comrades?" Yao Ying asked without any hesitation. He wanted to get the bottom of his request and then asked the result of his mission. He wouldn’t want to raise a white-eyed wolf on his side.

Zhuo Li sighed but honestly answered Yao Ying’s question. "Actually, this servant used to be a scholar with a bright future. However, my family was being framed and stripped off from our rank, becoming slaves. We had a hard life and in order to survive, my brother who was good at martial arts taught me and..."

Zhuo Li trailed off, feeling quite ashamed with his bad deeds. He wasn’t willing to but he was forced by his brother and their own condition. Their mother was sick and they needed the money for a doctor. They used to live in luxury and it was hard for them to find a job with their blackened name --- they could only choose to become assassins to survive. Even though their mother had been dead, becoming an assassin had become his permanent job --- his martial art skills were mediocre at best, but he was getting better.

His talent was in his brain...

Zhuo Li explained everything without trying to hold something back. After her mother had died, there was only his brother left. Now... his brother is also gone, so he was at a loss at what to do. It would be better if he followed this couple after witnessing their capabilities.

"Don’t you blame us for your brother’s death?" Yao Ying asked curiously.

Zhuo Li shook his head. He had seen the ugly truth in life when he lived as an assassin, so he knew that the couple did it for their own survival --- it was just that at that time, they weren’t on the same side so they needed to kill his brother. "This one doesn’t dare to blame Young Master. We were the one who attacked first and Young Master only retaliated because of that."

Zhuo Li had always been had a strong sense of justice and he inherited this from his father. The latter was framed because he was too strict, upright, honest when doing his job. However, his older brother didn’t have this trait and he wasn’t a good person anyway. Zhuo Li understood this part clearly.

"Who is your father?" Yao Ling asked. She needed to find information about this man’s background before she could fully trust him.

"My father is Zhuo Wei. He used to serve the Emperor as the ministry of justice," Zhuo Li divulged his father’s name frankly.

Yao Ying was surprised. He had heard about that name before and known as an upright person who served loyally to the court, but he got a bad ending. He was too stood out from the mass and his popularity on the people’s heart irked the Emperor. He was framed and the result was his demotion --- it was all the Emperor’s doing. Those were the facts that Lin Jian found out through Mi Hui. Zhuo Wei used to be one of the princes’ followers.

"A good man... too bad..." Yao Ying muttered to himself, but Zhuo Li was able to hear it. The latter’s eyes started to redden. At least, someone still knew and remembered that his father was a good man. It was enough for him... He knew that his father’s efforts and hard works weren’t in vain.

Yao Ying didn’t want to dwell on this matter because he was in a hurry, but he decided to take Zhuo Li under his wings --- whether he could be trusted or not, only time would tell. "Then, you will follow us from now on. However, we have a matter to attend to today, so we will talk more about this later. You can follow Xiu later... For now, I want to know about the task that Young Mistress gave you..."

Yao Ying asked, "Did you successfully do your mission?"