She hurried outside.
It was already noon and would soon be time.
Old Shang answered back at the same time she walked out. “Old Shang, prepare the carriage,” she said to him.
“Aye.”
It was a fine day.
Snow had melted into slush on the streets of Nan’yang. Only the deep ditches still had some remaining white traces.
Chen Rong clasped the invitation under her sleeves. Even though she had repeatedly rejected him, a telling blush spread on her cheeks.
Slowly, the carriage drove out of the city gate and headed to the lake.
As time went by, their surrounding grew quiet and people’s voices receded to the distance.
At long last, Old Shang informed her: “We’re here, miss!”
Chen Rong poked her head out from the carriage.
She frowned – nobody was around. Well that’s strange, she had met Wang Hong and Huan Jiulang here last time.
Chen Rong gave the scene a sweep and gestured ahead where a few shadows were seen: “Go over there.”
Once they got near, Chen Rong’s frown worsened. She looked at those people and said, “Still not him.”
Old Shang also frowned. “The snow had only melted and it’s so windy out here. I told you, Wang Hong wouldn’t be strolling on the lake right now.”
Chen Rong shuddered as soon as she heard him. She immediately said, “Turn around, Old Shang. Let’s go home.”
She had barely spoken when a gruff laughter rang from the hillside behind the woods: “Ain’t you in a hurry, sweetheart? You arrived so early. Damnit, I would’ve gotten here too late!”
“Old Shang, turn around,” cried Chen Rong in alarm.
She leaned forward and grabbed the whip she had taken with her out of habit.
“It’s too late.”
The one to laugh this time was a thin, sallow man. He widened his rat eyes to gawk at Chen Rong while cackling: “That man was right, you’re quite a stunner.”
Eyes glued to her full chest, he quite salivated when he said, “I’d be damned, I don’t think I’ve ever played with such a pretty woman before, old as I am.”
While he was speaking, six other men darted out from the foothill; the two or three who had been standing nearby were also making their way over.
Old Shang repeatedly flung his whip and shouted, “Yah – yah – ”
The horse sprang forward.
This place was different from the city, however. The unpaved ground had turned muddy from the newly melted snow. How could they run with the carriage rocking back and forth?
The wheels got stuck in the mud. While they were unable to extract themselves, the six men had closed in on them and blocked the carriage’s path.
Old Shang was so fretful that he was sweating buckets. “Yah, yah –” His right hand continued to fling the whip, but the more anxious he was, the worse the carriage shook. It leaned to the side several times, almost throwing Chen Rong outside.