Rebirth of a Farming Wife

Chapter 528: Chapter 535: Trapped in the Array
 

As for whether she would get hurt by the mechanisms in the valley, Su Wenyue wasn’t very worried. Her movements could not be hidden from Sikong Ling. Being monitored by the servants of Peach Blossom Valley, since Sikong Ling harbored those thoughts towards her, he likely wouldn’t let the valley’s mechanisms harm her. At least up to now, Su Wenyue had only been trapped in place and then led out by someone, without ever being harmed by the mechanisms and arrays.

After receiving the servants’ report and knowing that Su Wenyue was again ‘recklessly exploring’ the valley, Sikong Ling was somewhat helpless. No wonder Han Yu was a bit troubled—this little girl in recent days was indeed too unruly, bordering on causing trouble. Fortunately, Peach Blossom Valley was his territory. If it had been somewhere else, where mechanisms and arrays were as widespread, this reckless little girl would have been shot full of holes by hidden weapons by now, and she wouldn’t have been fine as she was!

Just two days ago, for instance, she frightened him into breaking out in a cold sweat. The girl had blundered into some highly confidential area in the valley where mechanisms and arrays were even more strict. The servants guarding that place somehow lost their watch and actually let Su Wenyue sneak in. If he hadn’t arrived a few steps earlier, the little girl might have been shot by a hidden weapon—those hidden weapons were filled with deadly poison. Even if it didn’t cause immediate death, it would have been enough to make her suffer greatly. Besides, this little girl’s body was already weak. It had only recently gained some healthy color after much care, and she couldn’t withstand even the slightest accident.

It was since then that, except for a few critical areas, Sikong Ling had deactivated all the mechanisms in the valley, just in fear of Su Wenyue accidentally hurting herself. Without the mechanisms, at most, Su Wenyue would be trapped by an array in place, without any other dangers. As for those critical areas, Sikong Ling had deployed extra guards to prevent Su Wenyue from blundering in again, as well as to guard against Han Yu. Sikong Ling was actually aware of some of Han Yu’s covert actions. However, he wasn’t really keen on keeping them here; he just wanted to give Han Yu a hard time and engage in some strategizing. So without making a sound, he waited to see what Han Yu could do. Yet, deep down, he didn’t truly believe Han Yu had the ability to leave Peach Blossom Valley on his own, else it wouldn’t be listed as one of Jianghu’s forbidden lands.

In the past few days, Su Wenyue had roughly figured out some of Peach Blossom Valley’s layout and vaguely sensed that the exit of Peach Blossom Valley was in this direction, so she had been lingering nearby these two days, trying to see if she could discover anything. However, she had accidentally fallen into an array again.

Su Wenyue didn’t panic. She calmed herself, observing and probing meticulously, searching her mind for the variety of knowledge on arrays she had come across before, trying to see if she could rely on herself to escape the array. After half a day of pondering and attempting, she actually had an epiphany. Speaking of Su Wenyue, in her previous life, she had unintentionally found an ancient book on mechanisms and arrays in the Sikong Family’s study room, which was left behind by an old ancestor of the Sikong Family—not an ordinary item. If learned thoroughly, this little array would be nothing to her.

“Right here,” Su Wenyue thought to herself after much contemplation, feeling that the key was this spot. This tree was the formation eye of the entire array, breaking it should allow her to walk out from the array. Just as she was about to try, she heard the sound of footsteps—someone was coming this way. Her movements paused as she casually found a spot to squat on the ground, looking towards the direction from where the sound originated.

Knowing that Su Wenyue was trapped in an array, Sikong Ling found his way to her, only to see her squatting on the ground, fiddling with a twig, looking utterly bored. She was covered in a fair amount of dust, and her face was smudged with mud from somewhere, appearing just like a grubby little tabby cat. Upon seeing him, she lifted her head, her face bearing a mix of grievance and reproach—a picture of pity.

“What a disobedient little girl. Didn’t I tell you not to run around the valley? What’s this? You trapped yourself in the array again, truly you never learn,” Sikong Ling said with a mixture of amusement and irritation, walking over to pull her up and dust off the chaff and dust clinging to her clothing.

“This is the pot calling the kettle black. A perfectly good place, and you insist on filling it with mechanisms and arrays everywhere. I can’t even properly enjoy a stroll anymore,” Su Wenyue glared at Sikong Ling and retorted sharply, not mincing her words. She had grown accustomed to his presence after seeing him so many times and didn’t feel uncomfortable around Sikong Ling. This guy was somewhat different from his previous life—not as frivolous and flirtatious, at least not to her for now, and the interaction was relatively relaxed and comfortable.

Watching Su Wenyue act petulantly, Sikong Ling shook his head and said, “You really are…”

“Really what?!” Su Wenyue stared at Sikong Ling, her tone somewhat fierce. Due to her grievances from her previous life toward Sikong Ling and Han Yu’s protection, she had always treated Sikong Ling rather badly, yet Sikong Ling didn’t seem to mind at all and always remained good-tempered.Nôv(el)B\\jnn

If Su Wenyue hadn’t known what kind of person Sikong Ling was, she might’ve thought he was actually good-natured. But having served Sikong Ling for so long in her last life, Su Wenyue was quite clear about his temperament, so she was always cautious and restrained around him, not daring to show her temper or be willful. Seeing his good attitude, she couldn’t help but wonder if Sikong Ling was actually masochistic, or if he had simply become a different person—after all, even her own rebirth was an incredible occurrence.

With this thought in mind, Su Wenyue paid close attention, but after observing for a while, aside from Sikong Ling’s nice treatment of her, there seemed no other abnormalities. Especially after the time she had taken advantage of an opportunity to distract the guard and break into a secret area of Peach Blossom Valley, Sikong Ling’s ruthless handling of the guard left her frightened and simultaneously feeling guilty, even her pleas to take the blame didn’t help, and he showed no mercy in dealing with the guard. Thus it seemed Sikong Ling was still the same Sikong Ling, those harsh, fierce measures couldn’t belong to anyone else.

However, having been used to serving Sikong Ling carefully in her previous life, being able to treat Sikong Ling so overtly badly and vent her dissatisfaction on him was indeed cathartic for Su Wenyue.

Sikong Ling saw Su Wenyue puff up in anger, the pitiable little cat from moments ago suddenly bristling, finding her cutely endearing. Succumbing to Su Wenyue’s ‘tyranny,’ he tried to keep from laughing and said, “I just wanted to say, you like this are truly too cute. Even when a beauty gets angry, she is different, always beautiful no matter what.”

When Sikong Ling said this, he looked utterly sincere and added a flattering, ingratiating tone. With his already handsome appearance and knowing just how to strike a balance, even though Su Wenyue knew of Sikong Ling’s true nature, the words still pleased her. Although she didn’t want to show her thoughts in front of Sikong Ling, the corner of her mouth involuntarily curled up.