Climbing on the Sparrow Branch – CH 014

Chapter 14: Swear

An Zhi liked to have a drink alone in the evening. After all, this was the An family, and she didn’t have to worry too much.

After drinking half a pot of wine, An Zhi felt a little light-headed.

She was about to get up and go back to the house, but she tripped and fell backwards into a warm embrace. She smiled and said, “Binglu, luckily you held me up.”

“Binglu?” Pei Que laughed.

Hearing this voice, An Zhi suddenly woke up. She turned around and saw Pei Que. She was so scared that she dropped the wine jug in her hand on the grass, and the remaining half of the wine spilled out. “You… why are you here?”

“Then you’ll have to ask An Rong.” Pei Que smiled, but he didn’t let go of her hand. “She has Pei Yu completely captivated. Now that Pei Yu has escaped, he must be at your house.”

An Zhi broke away from Pei Que and said, “If Fourth Uncle wants to find someone, he can just knock on the door. Why bother dressing up like this?”

Pei Que exclaimed, and said nothing more, but stared at An Zhi.

An Zhi’s face was already hot, and now her feet had no strength at all. Seeing that Pei Que didn’t leave or say anything, she could only give up for the time being, “Fourth Uncle, do you want to find someone else?”

“Whatever.” If it weren’t for the Pei family and his father, Pei Que wouldn’t have specifically looked for Pei Yu.

An Zhi was angry when she heard this, but she didn’t dare to get really angry. She turned her head away and said to Pei Que, “Then Fourth Uncle, wait here for a while. I’ll ask someone to go with you to look for him.”

“Send someone?” Pei Que frowned. “Shouldn’t you come with me to look for them?”

An Zhi was helpless. Even at home, there were still many people who couldn’t stop talking. Drinking was fine, but it was absolutely impossible to bring a man of influence like Pei Que around the house. “Then please wait here for me, Fourth Uncle. I’ll go and look for him.”

After saying that, An Zhi called Binglu, “Binglu, make tea for Fourth Uncle.” She then whispered in her ear, “Watch this place, don’t let anyone else find him.” Otherwise, her reputation would be even worse than An Rong’s.

An Zhi went back to wash her face and change her clothes, then took the servants to An Rong’s garden, and did not go to find Pei Yu as she had agreed before.

“What are you doing?” Pei’er, the maidservant beside An Rong, stopped An Zhi.

An Zhi gave Cuisi a look, and Cuisi stopped Pei’er.

An Zhi rushed directly into An Rong’s room and didn’t let anyone else in.

An Rong was shocked when she saw An Zhi rushing in. After she came to her senses, she immediately shrank back, fearing that An Zhi was here to hit her. “Sister, what are you doing?”

“A thief broke into the house. I was worried that you were timid and scared, so I brought people over to check on you.” An Zhi said as she looked for someone in An Rong’s house without any hesitation. Pei Yu was a troublemaker. She wanted to find Pei Yu immediately and let Pei Que take him back to teach him a lesson.

But Pei Yu was not in An Rong’s room.

This was hard to explain.

Logically speaking, the first person Pei Yu would look for after escaping was An Rong. The security of the An family was not very strict, otherwise Pei Que would not have found her yard so easily, so Pei Yu should have come in.

But she checked the house several times and didn’t see Pei Yu.

Pei Yu was such a loser, couldn’t he even climb over the wall?

Meanwhile, Pei Que stopped after drinking a cup of tea. He sensed something was amiss and asked, “Why did your young lady take so long to change her clothes?”

Binglu was a little intimidated by this gentleman. She lowered her head while speaking, only daring to glance at him from the corner of her eyes. “The young lady asked me to wait on you here. She went to look for someone first.”

“Hehe, I should have known she would be like this.” Pei Que sneered and stood up.

Binglu received her young lady’s order and had to muster up the courage to stop Pei Que. “Fourth Master Pei, since our young lady has promised you to help find someone, she will do her best. You should wait here first.”

“She’ll try her best to find someone, but that doesn’t mean she’ll give them to me.” Pei Que had met An Zhi so many times before. He had already figured out An Zhi’s personality. She seemed tough, but in reality, she was quite a bit of a trap, and her mind was full of twists and turns.

Binglu couldn’t stop Pei Que, so she had to follow Pei Que closely to find someone.

An Zhi couldn’t find anyone in An Rong’s room. Cuisi led people to the yard but couldn’t find anyone either. She warned An Rong, “The thief hasn’t been found yet. Don’t go out tonight. Stay in your room.”

“Sister, are you really here to catch a thief?” An Rong’s eyes were already filled with tears. “Or are you here to humiliate me?”

“You’re overthinking this.” An Zhi was anxious to find someone and didn’t have time to play along with An Rong. “Just stay put.”

After saying that, An Zhi left.

After leaving An Rong’s yard, An Zhi saw a figure from afar and thought to herself that something was wrong. She hurriedly asked Cuisi and others to continue looking. She ran over and pulled Pei Que to a deserted place.

“Fourth Uncle, didn’t I tell you to wait?” An Zhi asked.

“Have you found him?” Seeing An Zhi pursed her lips, Pei Que knew she hadn’t found him. “Since you can’t find him, you can’t stop me from looking. Besides, if your An family is determined to let Pei Yu and An Rong elope, how can I explain this to the elders?”

“Fourth Uncle, what are you talking about?” An Zhi really wanted to tear Pei Que’s mouth apart. In front of other people, even if she couldn’t do everything at ease, she wouldn’t lose her composure. But every time she was with Pei Que, An Zhi’s good thoughts would be interrupted by him. “We in the An family also care about our reputation. Now An Rong has been recorded in the family tree. I will not allow such a thing to happen. It’s late tonight. Young Master Pei is not in our house. I think he went somewhere else. Fourth Uncle, you should go look for him among his friends to prevent him from running away.”

“You said no, how can I believe you?” Pei Que looked at An Zhi with a smile.

An Zhi was really annoyed by this gentleman. She swore, “If I hide Young Master Pei now, then I will marry the person I least want to marry in the future… woo woo.”

Pei Que covered An Zhi’s mouth and said, “Girl, don’t swear so harshly. I believe you.”

After saying that, Pei Que climbed over the wall and left.

An Zhi finally breathed a sigh of relief. Binglu leaned against the wall beside her, breathing heavily. “Miss, why is Fourth Master Pei always trying to pick on us? The Pei family lost someone, and instead of going to the door openly to look for him, they had to climb over the wall. If others saw this, who knows what they would say about us.”

“Who said it wasn’t?” After An Zhi recovered, she and Binglu walked out from the corner.

But Pei Que had just given her a very good suggestion. If she wanted to take revenge on Pei Yu and An Rong, she shouldn’t watch An Rong and Pei Yu fall in love with each other because of family prejudice. Instead, she should let the two of them see each other’s true nature and understand each other.

At the moment, An Rong was only interested in Pei Yu’s family background, not Pei Yu himself. If Pei Yu eloped with An Rong without the protection of the Pei family, it would be a difficult escape.

An Zhi planned to give them a chance to fall in love freely. If they could really endure poverty without being tempted, she would pretend that they did not exist and would never bother them again.

“Binglu, send someone else to look for Pei Yu. Be sure to do it quietly,” An Zhi instructed. “Once you find him, don’t say you’re my servant. Say you’re from the Xu family and is specifically looking for him. We can handle the rest after we find him. Remember, be careful and quick. Don’t let Pei Que know.”

Binglu exclaimed, “But didn’t Miss just swear an oath to Fourth Master Pei?”

“Swearing is useless.” An Zhi didn’t believe in random powers or ghosts. “If swearing was useful, there would be many people in this world who were struck by lightning, and your young lady is one of them. Go and make arrangements quickly, and don’t let Pei Que find him first, otherwise your young lady will cry to death.”