In Search of Love

Translator: KongoIsamu

Editor: KongoIsamu

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Su Xiao Pei was shocked. She blinked her eyes, just as she was about to say something, Sima Wan Ru interrupted her, “I am looking for Miss to talk.”

You brought a sword to have a talk with me?

Su Xiao Pei frowned. Sima Wan Ru did not move either, it seems like she was waiting for Su Xiao Pei to invite her in.

Su Xiao Pei thought about it and move sideways to let her in.

Sima Wan Ru went into the room and immediately sat on the chair, near the table, making herself comfortable.

Su Xiao Pei continued to frown, this lady, just because she is from some big family, she’s so rude! Su Xiao Pei was not comfortable being alone with Sima Wan Ru, therefore, she said, “Please wait.” Then she left the room, walked towards Ran Fei Ze’s room.

But, no one answered the door.

Su Xiao Pei remembered, Bai Yu Lang told her, during dinner, that he would bring Ran Fei Ze to meet his colleagues, everyone wanted to meet his Uncle Ran. It can’t be that they were out fooling around and have not come back? Su Xiao Pei thought about it and went downstairs to find one of the waiters, asked him to send a pot of tea to her room, and told him that if the man that stayed beside her room came back, asked him to go to her room instead.

The staff agreed, but he was judging Su Xiao Pei. For this eccentric woman to let a male to enter her room at night, and to tell it him, an outsider. He was looking down on her, to think that Su Xiao Pei was this shameless. But he did not say anything, just promised her that he would do it and ran to the kitchen to make a pot of tea.

Su Xiao Pei returned to the room, and saw that Sima Wan Ru was still sitting at the same spot. She can’t help but frowned again,

“I asked one of the waiters to bring a pot of tea, let’s talk while we drink.” Su Xiao Pei explained, looked at the sword that was on the table, went forward and sat opposite of Sima Wan Ru.

Sima Wan Ru did not speak and stared at Su Xiao Pei for a long while, and said, “What are you guilty of?”

Guilty? Su Xiao Pei pursed her lips, she did not like Sima Wan Ru at all.

Just then, one of the waiters brought the tea in, he placed the pot and two cups on the table before pouring tea for the two ladies. He was curious and kept looking at Sima Wan Ru. There was no change in Sima Wan Ru expression, and Su Xiao Pei started to relax.

One the staff poured the tea, he immediately went out, closing the door behind him.

At this time, Sima Wan Ru spoke again, “Why is Miss afraid of me when you did not do anything wrong? I didn’t plan to do anything to Miss, a lot of people have seen me, even the waiter saw me. Miss, please relax, I just came to ask Miss some questions.”

“Does Miss Sima usually bring her sword when she is finding someone to chat with?” Su Xiao Pei did indeed relax a lot, she deliberately used a similar tone of speech with Sima Wan Ru.

Sima Wan Ru took a look at her sword that was on the table, did not answer the question and continued to ask hers, “Miss said that the murderer who killed my sister was not the same murderer in the reward notice. What I want to ask Miss is that who is my sister’s murderer?”

“I know, and I already said my answer in your house.”

“But after one day, does Miss not have a clearer picture? What is the identity of the murderer? Why did he kill my sister? What was his motive?”

Su Xiao Pei shook her head.

Sima Wan Ru bit her lips and stared at Su Xiao Pei, said, “Can’t Miss see the hearts of people? Weren’t you able to know the details of the murderer just from knowing what happened? Why when it come to who killed my sister, you don’t know anything? Who killed me sister? Can’t Miss deduce it?”

The more she say, the faster she speaks, the more agitated she become.

“Miss Sima!” Su Xiao Pei called out and interrupted her.

Su Xiao Pei looked at Sima Wan Ru’s red face, and she suddenly softened her voice and asked, “Have you had any rest since you came back?”

Sima Wan Ru did not answer, she just stared at Su Xiao Pei, not saying a word.

“Compared to the murderer’s whereabouts and his identity, Miss Sima would be more inclined to believe that your sister murderer is the serial killer, right? At least, this way everything is clear, don’t have to worry about it, don’t have to figured out who is the killer, am I right?”. Su Xiao Pei stared at Sima Wan Ru’s face. “You find my words make sense, but you are not willing to believe it, don’t you? If the murderer is another person…”

Su Xiao Pei’s voice was light, dragging the last word out and stopped

After a while, she asked again, “Miss Sima, what do you want to tell me?”

Sima Wan Ru closed her eyes and avoided Su Xiao Pei’s gaze. A while later, she asked, “Miss Su, my father asked someone to check, my sister was not poisoned. She did not call for help, did not struggle, does that mean that her acupuncture was pressed? Was it because she knows the murderer, that was why she wasn’t aware?”

Su Xiao Pei did not answer, and asked, “Miss, do you have any evidence?”

“Even though my sister has always been a good person, whenever she met anyone, they would like her.”

“You are a skilled person, haven’t you left home for a long time? Maybe something happened to your sister in the past few years, just that you didn’t know about it.”

“I have been away for 3 years; my sister and I had communicated with each other through letters. She told me everything, but she had never once complained about anyone. She had been obedient since young, never once cause trouble.”

“What about Miss?”

Sima Wan Ru raised her head.

“Does Miss cause trouble?” Su Xiao Pei asked, “Did Miss offend anyone?”

Sima Wan Ru glared at her and said, “What does Miss mean?”

Su Xiao Pei noticed that when she said this, she had clenched her sword. Su Xiao Pei quiet down and asked her, “How old is Miss?”

“About to be 18.” Sima Wan Ru

“18 ah, not young.” Su Xiao Pei said. In this era, marriage at 18, is that old?

“Then, what about Miss’s elder sister? 19? 20?” Su Xiao Pei asked, “I heard that the eldest Miss Sima is engaged with her childhood friend, Young Master Chang. Why did they delay till now to be engaged?”

Sima Wan Ru looked at Su Xiao Pei, “Miss, this is a private matter, don’t you find that it is impolite to talk about it?”

“Oh.” Su Xiao Pei nodded. “My apologies” In fact, from what Su Xiao Pei see, the one who is visiting late at night with a sword in hand is the one who is rude.

“How much does Miss know about Young Master Chang? You and him should also be childhood friends, right? From Miss’s point of view, how is your sister and his relationship?”

Su Xiao Pei did not finish her sentence, Sima Wan Ru jumped up from her seat, shouting, “MISS! My sister has not been buried yet, how can you ask this type of question?”

Su Xiao Pei leaned back and looked up at her.

Sima Wan Ru let out a sigh of relief, calm down a little, “Miss, please speak cautiously.” She took a look at her sword, as if she was going to leave, but she said, “Miss, I went to the Chang residence today is because I wanted to talk to Brother Chang about my sister… Hopefully, Miss does not make the matter bigger than it is. My sister was unfortunate, Miss, please think of her reputation.”

Su Xiao Pei nodded.

“Please pass along my pleasantries to Soldier Ran.”

Su Xiao Pei nod her head again.

Sima Wan Ru bowed her head, Miss, sorry to bother you.”

She turned to leave but Su Xiao Pei stopped her, “Miss Sima, I still have one question.”

Sima Wan Ru frowned and turned back.

Su Xiao Pei asked, “Why do you feel guilty over the death of your sister?”

Sima Wan Ru’s expression changed, but soon, she calm herself, and stared at Su Xiao Pei, “I was delayed, and arrived a day later. If I had came back sooner, my sister and I would have stayed in one of our room and chat the whole night, that day, if she wasn’t alone…maybe… this would not have happened.”

Su Xiao Pei didn’t talk, and Sima Wan Ru asked, “What else does Miss wants to know?”

Su Xiao Pei still has many questions that needs to be answered but she knew that now is not the right time to ask. She just smiled and replied, “It’s dark now, please be careful on your way back home.”

“Many thanks, Miss.” Sima Wan Ru replied back coldly and turned around.

Su Xiao Pei did not get up and sent Sima Wan Ru, she just sat in the room and watched the teapot, thinking, recalling the conversation she just had. After a while, she jumped up and went to find her brush and paper to jolt down her idea, but before she could do it, there was a sound coming from the door. Su Xiao Pei sighed, she thought that Ran Fei Ze had came back and quickly ran to open the door. Just as she arrived at the door, it was pushed open and a bottle of alcohol came flying in, next came a drunkard.

Su Xiao Pei did not recognize the person.

Sima Wan Ru just left, and she did not get up to lock the door, a moment of negligent. Su Xiao Pei did not expect someone to break in like this.

The drunkard was surprised to see Su Xiao Pei, and muttered lowly, “Why is it a nun?” But he quickly grinned and closed the door. He reached out and touched Su Xiao Pei’s face, “A nun is also good.”

Disgusting! Su Xiao Pei was shocked and angry. She waved her hand to get rid of the man’s smelly claw and shouted, “Who are you? Get out of my room!”

The drunkard held his hand that was hit but he did not leave. His stinking mouth went up to Su Xiao Pei’s face and said, “Are you playing? Come, I will make you comfortable.”

Su Xiao Pei screamed and pushed him away, “Go away, I will call someone to come!” she shouted out loudly, but did not hear anyone

The drunkard was pushed to the wall, he was pushed quite hard, he felt the pain in his back. This caused him to be angry and slap Su Xiao Pei, “Whore, dare to hit me?”

Su Xiao Pei was prepared this time, and step back twice. The drunkard was angered by Su Xiao Pei and swore, he lunged at Su Xiao Pei again. Su Xiao Pei was even more angry than him, she knew that she could not defeat him, so she decided to kick him. The drunkard was not expecting Su Xiao Pei to kick him therefore, he was too late to dodge it. Su Xiao Pei had used quite a bit of her strength, the drunkard, that had just been kicked, screamed and clutch his crotch and fell to the floor.

Su Xiao Pei began to scream and rushed to the door, shouting, “Help!”

Ran Fei Ze, who had just entered the inn, heard Su Xiao Pei screaming, immediately rushed up and saw that her room’s door was opened. Inside the room, the drunkard man was holding onto his crotch, whimpering on the ground. And Su Xiao Pei, stood at the door, screaming for help, without a single injury.

Ran Fei Ze was shocked.

Su Xiao Pei saw him and immediately closed her mouth.

At this time, people were gathering outside the room, they came because they had heard Su Xiao Pei shouting ‘help’

The drunkard that was in the room had came to his senses, still holding onto his crotch, rushed toward Su Xiao Pei, shouting, “Slut, you dare to kick me!”

Ran Fei Ze asked, “What happened?”

“He came in and wanted to rape me.” Su Xiao Pei’s face showed a disgusted look and wanted to vomit.

“It was this girl to told me to come in.”

“Don’t listen to his f**king nonsense” Su Xiao Pei was extremely angry and swore.

Ran Fei Ze turned to look at her, “What?”

“A greeting to his mother.”

[Chinese vulgarity is scolding one parents]

Ran Fei Ze does not understand, but he did not know what to say, so he did not ask. He took a few steps and picked up the drunkard. The drunkard shouted, “She told me to come to her room, the waiter can testify.”

The waiter that had sent the tea to Su Xiao Pei came up and shook his head, “No, no, I just told him a joke.” He was downstairs with the other waiters, telling them that Su Xiao Pei had ordered him to ask the man next door to look for her. They were joking around. The drunkard was just listening to them talk, coincidentally, he stayed next to Su Xiao Pei, the other side of her room. They laughed and said that the drunkard was probably the one that she was waiting for. The waiter did not care, but he did smile secretly and laughed at a few of their jokes. He didn’t specify that Su Xiao Pei was indicating that she was finding the Soldier that had come with her.

So, the drunkard came up with alcohol and his madness. The drunkard saw that the door was unlocked, and he thought that she had wanted him. He just did not expect this to happen.

Ran Fei Ze did not speak, Su Xiao Pei’s face turned black, the waiter was so scared that he was shivering, he did not expect the guest took his words so seriously when he was just joking.

The drunkard does not dare to cause a scene once he realized that the situation had became so serious. Ran Fei Ze dragged him out and chased away the on-lookers, and closed the door for Su Xiao Pei. After a while, he came back, knocked on the door. He heard Su Xiao Pei walking towards the door and saw the door opened a little. He walked in and saw that Su Xiao Pei was using all her strength to wash her face, till her face was red.

Ran Fei Ze did not move, asked her, “Why is Miss looking for me?”

Su Xiao Pei was still angry, she still wanted to kick the drunkard a few more times. Since she did not answer Ran Fei Ze’s question, he came in and took a sit at the table.

Once Su Xiao Pei was done scrubbing her face, she forcefully used a towel to dry.

“Is Miss injured?” Although Su Xiao Pei looks spirited, Ran Fei Ze was still worried if she had suffered, but it was not a question that he can directly asked, therefore, he changed his question

“No.” Su Xiao Pei turned around and sat opposite of Ran Fei Ze.

Ran Fei Ze no longer said anything, patiently waiting for her to start the discussion.

“I find that I am very stupid, really really stupid.” Su Xiao Pei calmed down and felt embarrassed. Although, this is the fault of the drunkard, but the root of the cause was her fault. In the eyes of everyone, is she shameless? She felt very sad.

“Why is Miss looking for me?” Ran Fei Ze took it as he did not hear her blaming herself.

Su Xiao Pei rubbed her face, “Second Miss of the Sima family came to find me, she was holding a sword and she looked fierce. I panicked and went to find you, but you were not in your room. I thought of a way, asked the waiter to serve a pot of tea and also to ask you to find me once you’ve came back. I want the waiter to see Miss Sima, maybe if she knew someone saw her, she won’t dare to do anything. If it did not work, you will come back and find me, I will feel safer.”

Ran Fei Ze poured her a cup of tea. “Why did Miss Sima look for you?

“Nothing much. I think her main purpose was to not let me spread the news of her leaving the Chang Residence today, she also asked to tell you this. But she had said something else, we chatted… I mean we had a conversation.”

“Did you notice anything unusual?”

Su Xiao Pei took a deep breathe. “Yes. I think that there were some problems with her sister’s marriage. Both sisters and Young Master Chang were childhood friends, they should have been closer, but why didn’t the marriage occur earlier? Soldier, an 18, 19 years old female that has not been married, is that considered old?”

“That is true, but there are people who married at 18 or 19 years old.” That means that this is not a valid clue.

“Miss Sima was very nervous. There are some people, when they are nervous, they would use a cold expression to mask their nervousness, and I know that she is using it. She is hiding a secret, she likes to use rhetorical question, this is obvious that she is dodging the question and is guilty. Especially, when I asked if she had caused any trouble, she asked me what I meant. I asked why her sister and Young Master Chang marriage had delayed if they were childhood friends, in returned, she asked if I knew if I was rude. I asked if she knew Young Master Chang, how he felt about her sister, and she asked me to speak cautiously.”

“Miss, these questions are really…” Ran Fei Ze thought how to describe these questions. “Well, it is not appropriate.”

Su Xiao Pei pursed her lips and felt that there was nothing wrong with it. When she thought of what she had said to the waiter, she was ashamed and embarrassed, started to feel sick again.

“What did Miss find suspicious about Miss Sima?” Ran Fei Ze pulled back Su Xiao Pei’s attention.

“I said that she has secrets. So, she often asked questions to avoid answering them. Out of the three question I asked, she was not only evasive but also aggressive. This is important. She is tired, violent and is pretending, as well as guilty.

“Guilty?”

Su Xiao Pei nodded, “I asked her directly. She said that she was delayed and came back one day later. If she had returned home earlier, her sister might not have died.”

Ran Fei Ze touched his chin, “Does Miss think she is lying?”

“Hard to say.”

Ran Fei Ze looked at her, Su Xiao Pei shrugged, “I am not a facial-reaction specialist, I only know some.”

Ran Fei Ze frowned, revealed an expression saying, ‘I do not understand what you are saying’.

Su Xiao Pei waved her hand, “It means that my ability is not enough to determine if she is lying. But I do know that she really wants me to believe her. it means that even if she did not lie, this is not her real reason.”

“Miss.” Ran Fei Ze suddenly said, “Miss is the smartest person I have ever met. Why are you so stupid?”

Su Xiao Pei blinked her eyes and noticed that he was comforting her. Her heart starts to feel warm, the word ‘stupid’ that had come out of his mouth was weird, it was so weird that she wanted to laugh.

“However, stupid to which level?”

This time Su Xiao Pei smiled.

“Did Soldier beat him for me?”

Even though Ran Fei Ze had never heard her way of speaking before, he still understood what she meant.

“En, punched him a few times. He didn’t dare to fight back, immediately packed up and checked out of the inn.”

“Why?”

“I crushed a cup into pieces in front of him. he was probably afraid that if he didn’t run, I would do that to him?”

Su Xiao Pei laughed loudly, “I should’ve kicked him a few more times, using more strength as well!”

“Cough.” Ran Fei Ze coughed twice.

Su Xiao Pei looked at him, what was he going to say? That this is an indecent thing, Miss should not say it again?

“Miss” Ran Fei Ze spoke up.

“Yes?!” Su Xiao Pei continued to look at him.

“This indecent move…”

Just as she had expected.

“If Miss encountered this situation again, Miss is allowed to do it again.”

Eh?

Su Xiao Pei was stunned, when Ran Fei Ze saw that she was surprised, it was his turn to start laughing.