Loving You is My Greatest Sin

28- Bullies

The warm spring air brushes Jing's face as he rides his horse. His body hurts from the constant traveling, even now he still gets to go and buy a thousand years old ginseng for Tao Ru.

"Master Jing, I can go to the mountain to get it, you don't have to." Dudu feels bad for his master, Jing has been doing demanding political matters for days.

"Dudu, she is my wife I got to do it myself."

"But master.." Dudu just don't want Jing to push himself too much. The mountain is very far and the road is hard.

"What is the point if I can't even get what my wife asks for by myself." He says happily, getting ready to go.

"Then please take care." Dudu can only shakes his head, his master is drunk in love.

He nods, "I will be back before sunset."

__

Tao Ru sits under a tree in Jing's back yard. Her eyes is reading the manual in front of her carefully. She is onto the second half of the book already.

Calm, yet deadly.
Obstreperous not this kungfu.
As fluid as the river.
Slow. Cold. Washing away.

"What does these mean?" She tilts her head confused.

Seems like this part is a lot harder to comprehend than the first half.

Knock knock.

She shakes her head, why can't she have a quiet day by herself?

"Yes?"

"It's me!"

"Wei? What makes you come here?" Tao Ru hides her manual inside her robe as she welcomes Lady Wei.

"My mother want to invite you for lunch in her place."

"Oh."

"Let's go older sister."

"Alright, alright." She straightens her clothes to look more presentable, they shouldn't know that she has just finished doing kungfu.

The manor is as busy as usual. People are running around doing their daily exercise, some of higher ranked fighter are doing their kungfu routine, and some others are practicing their sword fight.

The dynamic of this clan and her sect is very different, it is very interesting.

Before she realizes it, they arrived at the Jing's mother's place.

"Bai Fu* have some herbal soup." The mother quickly signals the maids to pour her some soup.  *Bai Fu is Tao Ru's fake name that she uses in Huang Ma Manor to conceal her identity.

"Thank you."

"This is good for pregnant lady, I used to drink it often when I was pregnant."

Tao Ru slurps the soup in one gulp, then immediate frowns. The taste is weird and strong, it is fragrant but also very bitter. The spiciness kicks in after few seconds making her coughs, holding her neck.

"Hahaha, I forgot to tell you that it has very strong flavor." The mother laughs at her.

Wei helps her to take a cup of tea, even by the look on her face, everyone knows that she doesn't like it.

"Don't worry, you will get used to it."

Tao Ru forced a smile on her lips, does she still have to finish drinking this soup?

"Bai Fu, you can look around the manor with Wei if you want, I know it is very overwhelming to be here." The mother holds her hand compassionately. She remembers her days when she first enters the manor, she was lonely and afraid since everyone knows kungfu except her. She just doesn't want her daughter in law to feel the same way.

____

Tao Ru is watching people practicing their martial arts from the second-story platform. She wants to see the essence of Huang Ma Clan's kungfu.

"What are you doing here?" The same group of girls from two days ago walks closer to her, acting tough in front of her.

She exhale a long breath. What do they want to do with her, she rolls her eyes.

"Wow, look at who just rolls her eyes at us!" A girl pulls her by the collar.

"Listen up girls, I am minding my own business here." Tao Ru is tired getting bullied, they are very disrespectful.

"You already know how to talk back huh? Just because you are Master's wife don't think that we will go easy on you."

Tao Ru just turns back and walks away, she doesn't have time to deal with these weaklings.

"Wait! Where are you going?!" Turns out that Tao Ru just agitated the girls by ignoring them. They all follow her and grab her shoulder and force her to turns around.

"Okay, what do you want?" Tao Ru finally ask.

"Oh, look at that confidence!"

Tao Ru knows that she is not supposed to fight with them since they are not in the same level, but the amount of disrespect they showed her is way too much to handle, maybe she should give them a lesson.

She is already in the ready position, waiting the other girl to attack her first. And then she remembers, if she display her martial arts here, everyone would know her identity.

The bully's hand is getting closer to her face, now she has to make a decision, attack back and reveal her identity or just let it hit her.

The hand hits her before she can decide, leaving her with huge red mark on her face.

She really did use all of her energy to hit me. Tao Ru nods, now she knows what to do. She are just going to avoid the attacks until her opponents is exhausted. That way she can still keep her secret and also not get hit.

The bully laughs and prepares her second attack, after the first one she doesn't have that much energy left.

"What is going on?!" A man's voice gets everyone attention, stopping the bully from attacking Tao Ru.

"M-Master Jing.." their voice is shaking when they see Huang Ma Jing sees what they did.

"Are you okay?" Jing quickly runs to Tao Ru and checks on her. Jing knows that Tao Ru won't use her power agains the girls.

The mark on Tao Ru's cheeks is still fresh, "This.." He squinted his eyes when he sees her.

Jing is so angry, his body tensed up and his blood is boiling. Who on earth dare to hurt his wife?!