Chapter 140

Chapter 140: If You Can Do That, Why Didn’t You Say So Earlier

The air in the room instantly turned tense. No one was willing to give an inch.

The Village Chief had not expected things to get this bad. He secretly cursed his bad luck, but still had to bite the bullet and step forward to play peacemaker.

He hurriedly said: “Don’t be angry, don’t be angry. This really was my mistake. I didn’t confirm things clearly with Shou Ye beforehand. But since it’s already come to this, can you give me some face and each take a step back?”

“How are we supposed to take a step back?”

The Village Chief said: “Shou Ye, you already took their money, so you have to agree to let them stay the night. As for you, Miss Du… Shou Ye’s grandmother is upstairs recovering and needs peace and quiet. You all can stay on the first floor and stop thinking about running upstairs. It’s one thing to disturb her rest, but if the old gentleman in your group is weak and catches Elder Madam’s illness too, you wouldn’t be happy about that either, right?”

There is a saying: the strong dragon does not crush the local snake. Even though the Nanny did not like a few more people suddenly appearing in the house, she still had to give the Village Chief some face. She shot Qin Shou Ye a vicious glare, then reluctantly agreed.

“Fine, I’ll do it for the Village Chief’s sake, but this is an exception. Not again.”

Du An Rao and the others were still thinking about finding a chance to sneak upstairs, so of course they were not going to leave now. They agreed as well.

But both sides wore unhappy faces. Clearly, neither was pleased with this result.

After all this fuss, Du An Rao and the others lost any interest they had in going to the hot spring. On top of that, the old gentleman really was getting on in years, and he was tired after traveling all day. Once they were settled, everyone went back to their rooms to rest.

Qin Shou Ye had just made a windfall, but then had been embarrassed in front of so many people by the Nanny. He badly needed to go out and have some fun to fix his mood. As soon as he saw Du An Rao and the others go back to their rooms, he turned around and headed out the door.

But in fact, after Du An Rao and the others went inside, none of them slept. They kept a close eye on any movement upstairs.

Sure enough, around eight or nine o’clock, they heard sounds from above. The Nanny had gone downstairs to heat medicine for Elder Madam.

Even through the door, Du An Rao could hear the woman complaining in annoyance: “That damned old hag, so stubborn. Now I have to stay here and suffer with her. Once she coughs up that painting, just wait and see how I deal with her!”

The voice got farther and farther away. Du An Rao guessed she had already gone into the kitchen, so she quickly opened her door.

She did not expect that as soon as her door opened, the two doors next to hers also opened.

“You guys…”

Du An Rao stuck her head out, glanced in the Nanny’s direction, and gritted her teeth: “No time to explain. I suspect there’s some secret hidden upstairs. There might even be a woman or child who was trafficked and locked up. You wait here. I’ll go up and take a look.”

Everyone already knew the truth and thought: “…” They silently decided to cooperate and pretend not to see through her act. But this excuse was really a good one. If anyone asked later, they could just repeat it.

“It’s too risky for you to go alone. We’ll go with you. A’Ming, let’s go.” Du De Sheng had already waited so long he was losing his patience. The moment he heard Du An Rao say that, he grabbed his cane and ran upstairs. His legs were so steady he didn’t look like a man in his seventies at all.

Du An Rao didn’t even have time to say that going up alone wasn’t dangerous at all, and that this big group was more likely to drag her down. Before she could speak, Du Jun Yan had already grabbed her and pulled her upstairs. She could only follow, feeling helpless.

Fine. Grandma Qin had just been betrayed by her family. If she didn’t see her granduncle, she probably wouldn’t trust a stranger enough to leave with her. The Nanny would only be downstairs heating medicine for ten or twenty minutes at most. They had to hurry and make the most of this chance.

The layout upstairs was about the same as downstairs. As soon as they reached the second floor, they heard a soft cough. Following the sound, they quickly found Miss Qin’s room. Du An Rao pressed down on the door handle. Locked?!

“This…” Du De Sheng’s face changed slightly.

[This Nanny Auntie is really cautious. She just went downstairs to heat up medicine and still locked the door!]

“What do we do?” His lover was just a wall away. Giving up now felt impossible to accept.

“What if we try to kick it open?”

But one look at the door showed it was solid wood, very sturdy. Everyone’s gaze naturally turned to the Head Bodyguard.

A’Ming: “…” He thought: Thank you all so much for having this much faith in me!

He thought this, but he could see how anxious they all were. He gritted his teeth and said: “I’ll try!”

Under everyone’s expectant stares, A’Ming used all his strength and kicked the door.

There was a loud bang, but the door did not move at all. Only his face twisted in pain.

Du Jun Yan and the others looked at him with sympathy: “If it hurts, you can say so.”

“…No, it doesn’t hurt.”

[Tsk tsk, a real man never says it hurts. Awesome!]

Everyone nearby: “…” [Our little ancestors, this is really not the time to clown around!]

“Who… who’s upstairs?” The noise above had finally caught the Nanny’s attention.

Seeing that she was about to come up and cause trouble, Du An Rao thought this was bad. Without time to think, she rushed forward and twisted the door handle. With a crack, the stainless steel handle that had looked so firm suddenly bent into a lump. In just a moment, it had become a pile of scrap metal.

Everyone: “!!!”

Poor A’Ming, who had just suffered a heavy blow: “…” “If you could do that, why didn’t you say so earlier? My leg!”

After that simple and rough bit of violent lock-picking, the door swung open and revealed the Elder Madam who had been watched over for so long.

Because of her illness, Elder Madam’s face looked a bit drawn, and her spirit was not very good. But the natural grace and calm that ran in her blood, the gentle, elegant scholarly air around her, still grabbed everyone’s attention at first glance.

Du De Sheng had imagined meeting his lover again countless times. But it was only now, seeing her in real life, that he finally understood what it meant to feel timid when home is near.

In this moment, he seemed to go back to Bianjing City forty or fifty years ago, back to being that young boy who had nothing, with only a heart full of true feelings to offer.

“Yan Qing…” Just saying her name seemed to use up all of Du De Sheng’s strength. His eyes turned red as he stared greedily at the lover he had finally gotten back.

Time had flown by and things had changed. The years had given them not only long waiting and torment, but also faces and clothes that were almost nothing like what they remembered.

But even so, these two lovers, who had never forgotten each other, still recognized each other at once.

When Grandma Qin heard Du De Sheng softly call her name, her whole body trembled. She timidly looked over the veteran in front of her, then carefully called: “A Sheng?”

She seemed afraid he would deny it, and also afraid of waking up from the beautiful dream she had been dreaming for so many years.

“It’s me, it’s me, I’m A Sheng. I came to find you!” Du De Sheng clutched the fine-tooth comb he always carried with him and rushed to her side.

When Grandma Qin saw the comb, she finally confirmed his identity. Tears filled her eyes. She rarely showed weakness, but now she complained: “What took you so long to come?”

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry. It’s my fault. I came too late and made you wait so long.”

A reunion between lovers after many years apart was surely touching. But at such a touching moment, of course there had to be someone who couldn’t read the room and came over to ruin it.

“What are you doing here?”