Going on a temple pilgrimage to fulfill a vow shouldn’t be so ostentatious, yet Fan ijiao seed afraid that others wouldn’t know she was about to marry into the Mu Family, as if she wanted to bring all the servants in the mansion with her.
The temple where the Zhao Family ancestors and descendants went to fulfill their vows was Bao Hua Temple, located fifty miles east of Jing City. Bao Hua Temple was the largest within Jing City, where all the ladies and young misses liked to go and pray. If they ran into each other there, there was inevitably so private comparison.
Fan ijiao, worried about being looked down upon, got up before dawn to get ready. At this mont, she sat in the extravagant carriage at the rear, dressed in splendid clothing and adorned with jewelry. She kept instructing the coachman to go slower to avoid ssing up the hair ornants on her head.
Little did she know that the Buddhist temple was a place of serenity, where people compared the character and inner qualities of the ladies or young maidens, not these worldly possessions. Fan ijiao’s actions were bound not to fulfill her desires. Of course, she also wasn’t lucky enough to smoothly make her way to Bao Hua Temple.
The carriage quickly left Jing City and once outside, the roads were not as smooth as within the city. Even moving slowly didn’t prevent the bumps, and Fan ijiao, who was delicate by nature, couldn’t endure this and kept commanding the coachman to slow down.
With no other choice, the coachman had to slow down even more, to the point where they were hardly faster than walking.
Mada Zhao at the front, however, was worried about missing the auspicious ti and didn’t wait for her dawdling granddaughter. After sending a maid to inform Fan ijiao, she urged her coachman to hurry along.
In this way, the two carriages gradually increased their distance, and before long, Mada Zhao’s carriage was out of sight.
There were more than one family going to Bao Hua Temple to pray and fulfill vows that day. Like Mada Zhao, they all wanted to go early and show their sincerity to Buddha. Thus, the carriages that were initially following each other slowly left until only Fan ijiao’s carriage remained.
Fan ijiao, oblivious to this, was resting against her maid, eyes closed in rest, when suddenly, the carriage jolted violently. The master and servants were thrown harshly against the carriage walls, imdiately thrown into chaos!
"Ah—"
Fan ijiao was caught off guard, and as she hadn’t braced herself with her hands or feet, she was thrown the hardest, her forehead striking the carriage wall and quickly swelling up.
Outside, the horse that had been docile before now ran wildly as if mad. The coachman clung to the horse’s reins with all his might, but couldn’t overpower the strength of the horse. The reins cut into his flesh, blood streaming down, yet still unable to restrain the frantic horse. The guards were left far behind and quickly disappeared from sight.
The carriage tossed and turned violently, and it wasn’t just the people inside who suffered; even the coachman almost fell from his seat.
"What has happened, what in the world has happened?" Fan ijiao lay in the carriage, thrown around with it, clutching her forehead in excruciating pain and screaming. She pushed her maid beside her to inquire about the situation from the coachman.
As if to respond to her, the coachman’s voice, tinged with a cry, called out loudly, "Miss, it’s the horse, the horse got scared. I, I can’t control it. We can only wait for it to run out of energy before it can, it can stop."
Upon hearing this, Fan ijiao erupted in anger and cursed fiercely, "You useless dog of a servant, you can’t even control a horse. What use are you? After three days, when we return to the mansion, I will beat you to death, you useless dog of a servant."
The coachman knew Fan ijiao’s temper well, and her words were no joke. Thinking of his decades of dedication to the Zhao Mansion, even if he had no great achievents, he had suffered hardships, and it wasn’t his fault the horse got scared. Yet to be threatened with violence by his master, he felt utterly disheartened and couldn’t care less about trying to stop the runaway horse anymore.
So, the horse kept running wild, with the screams of the three individuals inside the carriage piercing the skies. Passersby watched this scene with terror, quickly moving away; no one dared to take the risk.
Soon, a large forest appeared ahead. The horse, perhaps not realizing the carriage behind it, dashed into the trees, with the carriage getting stuck between two of them, finally coming to a stop.
However, the horse’s strength was so great, the two ropes tying it to the carriage neck snapped, and the horse, now free, quickly disappeared into the dense forest. The four people on the carriage were finally safe.
The carriage now wedged between two trees was disfigured beyond recognition. With the help of two maids, Fan ijiao struggled to crawl out.
At that ti, Fan ijiao’s clothes were torn in several places, disheveled and in disarray; her hair had completely co loose, her headdress gone without a trace, and her swollen, bruised face underneath made her look like a madwoman, nowhere close to the dignified lady she was before.
Knowing without looking what state she must be in, Fan ijiao was furious and blad everything on the coachman. Limping over to him, she slapped him hard across the face: "You dog of a servant, you can’t even drive a carriage right. Why are you still standing there like a fool? Go and find the horse imdiately. If you dare delay my ti to fulfill my vow, don’t bother coming back."
"Yes, yes, I’ll go right away!" Feeling the burning pain on his face, the coachman buried his resentnt and quickly ran in the direction where the horse had disappeared.
Fan ijiao, sowhat pleased, touched her disheveled hair and scolded the other two maids, "Are you logs? Why aren’t you quickly fetching my makeup box from the carriage for to fix my hair?"
Hearing this, the two maids hurriedly climbed into the carriage in search of the makeup box. The carriage was in utter chaos; it took a while for them to find it.
Just as they were about to climb out, a piercing scream from Fan ijiao ca from outside. By the ti the two maids scrambled out in a panic, there was no sign of Fan ijiao!
Reviews
All reviews (0)