Chapter 23

Several days ago.

The day of the madman’s incident.

After Qiao Ling finished her meal at Lady Liang’s place, she went back to her courtyard with her hands behind her back.

It was lunchtime, and the weather was hot. Qiao Ling didn’t ask anyone to follow her, she just walked with Zhang Yuying, picking out shady spots and walking in a crooked way, enjoying the cool air and digesting her food.

Zhang Yuying rarely advised her lady, but she couldn’t help herself this time. She looked at Qiao Ling’s expression and said very tactfully, “Actually, Lady Liang’s theory of ‘reverence’ also makes some sense…”

Qiao Ling nonchalantly “Oh”

Seeing this, Zhang Yuying couldn’t help but feel a little helpless, but she refused to show any urgency, and said softly, “Madam, you must know that there are always people better than you, and there’s always someone stronger than you. The capital is the imperial city, a place where talented and extraordinary people emerge…”

She was worried that her lady would one day accidentally step on a landmine like the Duke of Lu.

She didn’t say it clearly, but Qiao Ling understood.

She accepted Zhang Yuying’s good intentions and said with a smile, “Yuying, I’ll tell you a secret—a secret I’ve never told anyone else!”

Zhang Yuying was slightly taken aback, then said, “Please tell me, Madam?”

Qiao Ling told her, “Although my surname is indeed Qiao, I’m not the daughter of some minor official in the south. I grew up in a small mountain village, and I learned my skills from masters since I was a child…”

Zhang Yuying thought, “Of course!”

That’s how it’s written in the storybooks!

Among the masters, there was a divine doctor, a sword immortal, and maybe a granny from the Miao region.

Then she said knowingly, “Is it when you’ve finished your training that you can come down the mountain?”

Qiao Ling gently shook her head.

Zhang Yuying couldn’t help but be puzzled, “Is it not?”

At that time, they were passing by a path paved with flower bricks. Qiao Ling’s eyes lit up, and she hopped like a rabbit onto the brick shaped like a four-leaf clover. Then she told her, “The door has always been open. Almost all the masters haven’t said I can’t come down the mountain.”

Zhang Yuying was quick-witted: “If that’s the case, then there must be one master who decides when you can come down the mountain?”

Qiao Ling furrowed her brows in thought, a bit conflicted, then shook her head again.

She hopped onto another brick with a flower pattern and said, “Actually, that master doesn’t care when I come down the mountain—oh, I haven’t told you yet, he’s the master who taught me divination.”

Zhang Yuying was getting closer, but she felt like a crucial part was missing, so she couldn’t put together the logic chain yet.

Qiao Ling gave her the answer: “When that master first started teaching me, he told me that the world is big and wonderful, and the people outside the village are very interesting, but also very dangerous. He taught me to calculate my own fate…”

Zhang Yuying understood, and she felt a chill, looking at her in disbelief.

Qiao Ling seemed not to notice, she was looking around for the next brick she could hop on: “When I calculate that I’ve reached my peak, I can come down the mountain—if I calculate wrong, then I’m not skilled enough. If I come down the mountain and foolishly lose my life, then it’s my own fault.”

Zhang Yuying was silent for a moment, then she couldn’t help but ask, “What does ‘peak’ mean?”

Qiao Ling tilted her head and looked at her with a smile, “The day I calculate that no one in the world can kill me, that’s when I’ve reached my peak, and I can come down the mountain.”

Zhang Yuying was terrified, her face turning pale: “This, this is too…”

Now that her lady has come down the mountain, doesn’t that mean that she calculated a fortune when she came down the mountain, and that no one in the world can kill her?!

Zhang Yuying was still uncertain, but Qiao Ling was already laughing. She turned back and looked at her with a mischievous smile, “You really believe it!”

Zhang Yuying couldn’t help but say weakly, “Madam…”

But Qiao Ling had already turned her head and hopped on the flower bricks like a rabbit again, “Let’s go!”