Chapitre 14: Bamboo Smell

In his study, Lei Ming summoned a guard and sent a letter to the Head of Fengfu City Guards, Zang Wei, to check on the animals in the city for any unusual behavior.

When Zang Wei received it, he scratched his head. What could have possibly happened on the Governor's wedding night why he sent this letter right after? He should spend this day with his wife and not snooping on animal behavior.

He closed his eyes, recalling the governor. "He was fine during the banquet, although there were no other rituals happened. Hmm," he played with his beard, puzzled with this new and young governor.

"Don't tell me, the governor was busy studying animals and forget about his wife waiting for him in bed? Or he was so energized after his exercise in bed that he still have extra energy left and spent the rest of his time studying the animals within his vicinity. But still… it makes little sense when he is talking about an alarm signal number one."

Zang Wei sighed. "I could be wrong. Maybe the governor is so happy with his new wife and she loves animals." His eyes lit up with the thought and snap a finger. "Yes, the wife loves animals that he wanted the animals checked for abnormalities..." But stopped short. His brows knitted and scratched his head again. "It doesn't add up. Alarm signal #1 means to be given second priority."

Zang Wei shook his head. "What could have happened with the governor and his wife for him to send an alarm about observing animal behavior?"

Zang Wei sighed again and pinned the warning letter on the Alarm #1 bulletin board in the City Guards Headquarters and wrote a letter A on top of the paper. He expected the guards would ask him, so he wrote a short note under the letter, "Don't ask. Just do it."

In Fengfu, because of its diversity of land formations within its area of responsibility, they had this different alarm signal according to the severity of the situation and where it occurred.

#1 was given a second priority for attention.

#2 was for top priority.

#3 was for a lockdown to take place.

Letters signified the area, like A was for the city, B for the villages, C for the riversides and mountains, and D for the mines.

---- o ----

Lei Ming had no inkling what transpired after the guards saw the letter. The Fairy lady preoccupied his mind.

He tried to recall what he saw that night. The woman was naked, but he couldn't see well because it was very dark and the moonlight reflected on his eyes. What he saw was only her body's silhouette. But he admitted that she had a great body figure. No doubt about it and the skin exposed against the moonlight was glowing white. She had long hair up to her waist.

Her face? He closed his eyes trying to make a mental image of her face after he stopped her. However, the only part visible to him was her nose and lips. The rest was covered by her hair. Her nose was long and her lips were a cupid-bow shape. Her voice? No clear recollection.

His mind went to her height. She was tall compared to the average height of girls. Probably, only a finger shorter than him. "Quite tall, indeed. She couldn't be from these parts with that height."

However, he couldn't deny the one that caught most of his attention was on how the fish jumped around her. They seemed to enjoy her company. Also, those birds, just a mere whistle, and they obeyed.

"Even my powers can't be compared. If she'll summon the animals to attack the whole city, it will be a great tragedy." He exhaled. "I hope she's not an enemy and had nothing to do with those spirits. Oh, I forgot to investigate where those spirits went."

He continued to ponder and his fingers fiddled on the table, Lei Ming suddenly smelled something, bamboo, but there's no bamboo present in his residence.

His nose began sniffing as he moved his head around his study behind a huge table. He stood and walked around but the smell's strength remained the same. As if it engulfed the whole room and wherever he went the smell was there too. He opened all the windows and doors but the smell was still present, although it lessened a bit.

"Where is this smell come from?"

Later, he inhaled something and made his nose feel itchy. He reached for his nose to rub it and suddenly, the smell became stronger.

"Ah, from my hand." He sniffed his hand and rubbed his nose using his long sleeve. Then he tried to recall the people and things he touched. Out of the blue, he remembered the only person he touched this morning, the clumsy maid in the Nùfàng Pavilion.

He wondered, "Why is that maid having that bamboo smell? Did she go to the bamboo thicket at the back? Why would she go? I never allowed anyone, aside from the one I can't stop from going there…" He was shocked by what he said and a thought sprang to his mind.

"Don't tell me that maid was...?"

Yes, last night, his wife slept on a pile of grass and probably those were bamboo leaves. If what he thought was true, Ming couldn't believe his unladylike wife was roaming around the vicinity wearing a maid outfit early in the morning.

"Why would she do that?" Then something he missed doing made him ashamed. Lei Ming forgot to tell the maids to bring her food. He blew out his cheeks in equal mixed emotions, shame and annoyance to himself and to his wife.

To himself, for forgetting even providing her with a bit of comfort, like her daily meals. Also, it was out of anger with all this arranged marriage thing without his consent and other concerns that pushed him to do so. Aside from that, he wanted her away from his sight or his anger against the prince and her father would be vented on her.

The last reason was, she wanted her to beg him for mercy or help, so he could make her confess what her father, the prime minister, was planning with the prince on why she was chosen as his wife.

To Xinyi, for shamelessly not acting as a proper noble wife should. Somehow, he couldn't blame her with what he did to her and to think, his mother was coming for a visit to meet his wife.

It never occurred to him to put her back to Nùfàng Pavilion in spite of his mother's visit. However, because of Lei An's irritable tantrums, he conceded. But this was only while his mother was around and send her back to Anjing after his mother leaves. However, if his mother would find out that he forgot to provide Xinyi food, it would be a different story.

Lei Ming had to stop her from walking around that way. He walked fast toward Nùfàng Pavilion to check if Xinyi was still there.

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