Chapter 046: Picking Mulberries (Part 3)
The piled-up lights illuminate the banks of the Yunxiang River, creating a lively atmosphere with bright flowers and a lively atmosphere.
Ni Su pulled Xu Hexue's sleeve and invited him to eat glutinous rice dumplings at the food stall under Hongqiao. The hot mist in the porcelain bowl was quickly blown away by the cold wind. Xu Hexue held a spoon , brushed aside the veil, and took a bite awkwardly.
The thick black sesame filling flowed out, and he thought for a long time, but couldn't remember whether he had eaten this before.
"Did you see the grand ceremony of His Royal Highness Prince Jia's return to the capital today?"
In the oilcloth tent opposite, a young man wearing a straight robe and looking gentle was chatting with his friend at the same table.
Xu Hexue suddenly loosened his fingers, and the spoon fell into the bowl, making a clear sound.
"What's wrong?"
Seeing this, Ni Su looked up at him.
Xu Hexue picked up the spoon again to cover up his gaffe. He shook his head: "Nothing."
The voice of the young man in the oilcloth tent kept falling into his ears, "So many imperial guards are surrounding the carriage, and it's still walking on the Imperial Street..."
"It's been fifteen or sixteen years. Logically, the government should have calmed down by now." said another person who sat at the same table with the young man.
"It's no wonder that the emperor is angry. It was understandable that Prince Jia pleaded for his teacher. But what about Xu Hexue? A traitor who was willing to give up the clothes and hats of our Great Qi and become a straw dog of the Hu people. If it weren't for him, those cities north of Yongzhou would not have been lost. He deserves to be cut into pieces!" The young and gentle scholar slammed the table heavily, filled with righteous indignation.
"Ni Su."
Xu Hexue suddenly put down the porcelain bowl and stood up.
Ni Su was not listening to what was being said in the tarpaulin tent opposite. She only looked up at the fireworks above her head, but his sudden action startled her. She was stunned: "Aren't you going to eat?"
The name "Xu Hexue" is extremely dirty.
Even though sixteen years had passed, this world had not forgotten the filth that clung to him, and Ni Su was only seventeen years old. When she was born, he was on the battlefield, full of ambition, determined to take back the thirteen states that had been annihilated by the barbarians.
When she grew up a little, he had become infamous and had lost his family and country.
Maybe she has already recognized the three words "Xu Hexue" in the market, amid the curses of countless people. Maybe she also hates these three words.
He actually had no regrets, but he still instinctively didn't want her to hear this.
"Well, I won't eat anymore..."
The surroundings were still bustling, but he could no longer keep himself company.
"Then let's go to the tile house in front? Last time we agreed that after I finish my work, we will go to the tile house to listen to the pipa together."
Ni Su paid the money and pointed to the brightly lit theater not far away.
Xu Hexue raised his eyes, but he couldn't see clearly because the fireworks and lights all over the city had nothing to do with him. The only thing that could illuminate his eyes was the lamp he was holding in his hand.
The theater was large and bustling with activity, with storytellers spitting everywhere, musicians plucking their zithers and singing melodious tunes, and women in flowing dresses dancing on the round stage moving like lotuses with every step.
There are also skits, puppet shows, shadow plays and other tricks that are dazzling.
It's not that Que County is without tile houses, but it's not as prosperous as Yunjing. Ni Su and Xu Hexue went up to the second floor and were led to a table by a young waiter. Behind a screen below, a musician was plucking a pipa, and the sound of the strings fell like pearls.
The tea bowl at hand was slightly hot, and Xu Hexue examined everything in front of him through the veil. Although he could not remember much at the moment, he could feel that he had been to such a place before.
And more than once.
"Let's listen to the pipa for a while and then go over there to listen to storytelling, shall we?" Ni Su heard the storyteller's passionate speech when she was downstairs. She only listened to a little bit but also found it fascinating.
"Um."
Xu Hexue responded lightly, and his eyes behind the veil inadvertently swept across the stairs below. His gaze suddenly stopped on the group of people going up the stairs.
The person surrounded by several people in the middle looked not much different from them, but his figure was much more muscular. Xu Hexue carefully examined his every move and noticed that his right hand was always inadvertently touching his waist, which was clearly empty, not even a jade pendant.
Something is wrong.
Xu Hexue silently watched the group of people coming up and listened to their footsteps as they walked around behind him. He turned his head and saw the burly man pushing the door and entering an elegant room, while the others naturally blended into the bustle at the railing.
"That is..."
Ni Su was originally watching the excitement below, but suddenly saw a figure.
Hearing the voice, Xu Hexue immediately followed her gaze.
It turned out to be General Miao.
Although he was dressed casually, his face could not be concealed. Xu Hexue watched General Miao go upstairs with his clothes lifted up. He suddenly turned around and glanced at the elegant room.
He immediately said to the girl beside him: "Ni Su, go stop General Miao and hide him."
Ni Su looked surprised and suspicious. Although she didn't know what was going on, she immediately stood up and walked quickly to General Miao who had just come up the stairs. She called in a low voice, "General."
General Miao raised his head, and when he saw the girl in front of him, there was a hint of surprise in his eyes: "Miss Ni?"
"Master Taiwei, it's too late to go ahead. Please follow me."
Ni Su grabbed General Miao's arm, looked around, and immediately pulled him into an elegant room on the other side.
Seeing this, Xu Hexue stretched out his hand under the table, and the thin dust silently condensed into a sword. He stood up and walked towards the elegant room.
Many pairs of eyes in the bustling crowd stared at his every move as he approached, but they did not move for a long time, watching him push open the door.
There was only the tall man in the elegant room. Under the warm yellow light, the color of his face and neck was not much different. He stared at the young man in white who opened the door with his hawk-like eyes and frowned, "Who are you?"
"Isn't that the person you're waiting for?"
The face beneath the veil was unclear and his voice was cold.
"I'm not waiting for a young man like you."
The man became alert and reached for his waist again, but then realized there was nothing there.
"Why can't I be entrusted by someone to come here on their behalf?"
Xu Hexue took her time to sit down at the table and asked, "Aren't you waiting for General Miao?"
When the words "General Miao" were mentioned, the man's expression became a little strange. Perhaps his expression should not have been so unrestrained, but the layer of skin on his face that did not match his overly deep bone structure magnified his expression.
"The person I want to see is General Miao."
The man stared at him with gloomy eyes.
"Why don't you tell me what your hands are looking for?" Xu Hexue put the lantern on the table and raised his eyelids slightly, "Looking for your scimitar?"
"I mean, the scimitars used by the Hu people."
As soon as these words came out, the man's face changed drastically. He immediately wanted to stand up, but was dazzled by the unsheathed sword of the young man opposite him. In just a moment, the sword pierced through one of his palms and even penetrated the table top.
"ah!!!"
Bright red blood flowed out and the man screamed. The next moment, the sword blade was pulled out from his flesh and blood, and only a light scratch on his face was made, breaking a piece of skin and revealing the rough and dark skin underneath.
Several people outside the elegant room heard the noise and rushed in. They drew out the swords hidden under their robes and attacked the stranger in the snow-white robe and the veiled hat.
Xu Hexue met the attack with a sword in hand, his moves were swift and fierce. He leaped forward and stabbed one person, then turned over and cut the knife-wielding hand of the person behind him.
The wind briefly blew aside his veil, revealing a pair of cold eyes.
The bustle in the tile house briefly drowned out the noise in the elegant room until someone passed by and the door collapsed, and he was knocked to the ground by a person who flew out from inside. Many people standing at the railing turned around and saw a corpse lying in the elegant room and blood all over the floor.
The screams of men and women mixed together, and the house suddenly became chaotic.
Soon, the incident in the tile house alarmed the military patrols who were on night patrol nearby, and they cordoned off the tile house. The sound of footsteps from the military boots was heavy and continuous.
Ni Su took General Miao to a room where the musicians changed their clothes and made up, found a loose-fitting, less conspicuous dress, and handed it to him: "If you don't want to be discovered that you are here tonight, this is the only way."
“…”
Having lived for several decades, General Miao never frowned at the golden swords of the Hu people as he did at the woman's dress.
"Hurry up, or the musicians will leave and you won't be able to get away."
Ni Su urged.
Miao Taiwei felt very heavy in his heart, but who made him fall into a trap set by others tonight? He took the clothes and thought of the back of the young man who was originally with her. He always felt a little familiar in his heart, "That young man is your..."
Before he could finish his words, he heard the sound of the door opening. General Miao turned around immediately, and his originally solemn and nervous expression suddenly collapsed.
"General Miao?"
"Imperial Censor Jiang?"
The two spoke almost in unison.
But the two of them looked at each other with some hostility. Censor Jiang even looked at Ni Su and him and asked, "I wonder what exactly is General Miao doing here tonight?"
General Miao smiled wryly: "I was just wondering what you, Censor Jiang, are doing here. You don't seem to like places like Wazi."
Jiang Xianming's expression froze for a moment, but he had no time to confront her. He did not know Ni Su, and was considering what to do in this situation when he heard Ni Su say, "Is Censor Jiang in trouble too? Are you here to look for clothes?"
Jiang Xianming knew that the people from the Night Watch would be here soon, and he couldn't tell them anything he hadn't figured out yet, but he would certainly not tell these to a strange woman.
"Here is another dress that will suit Censor Jiang's figure." Ni Su took out another set from the cabinet and handed it to him.
Jiang Xianming was a little suspicious of this woman, but seeing that General Miao was standing in front of her without any hesitation, she thought that she should be credible, so she took it and said, "Thank you."
He was not as shy as General Miao. He picked up his dress and went quickly into the inner room to change. General Miao had a sullen face and had no choice but to go in as well.
"What an ugly thing..."
Ni Su was standing outside and heard General Miao's sneer from inside. There was no need to guess, he must be laughing at Jiang Xianming.
"Aren't you ugly?"
Jiang Xianming was also very harsh in his words.
Ni Su was worried about Xu Ziling and had no time to listen to their bickering inside. She urged them twice, and the two of them quickly put on women's dresses and came out.
“…”
Ni Su looked at their faces for a moment, "How about... shaving your beard?"
Jiang Xianming and General Miao's faces were a little chapped.
No matter how reluctant they were, the two men finally shaved off their beards that they had grown for a long time, styled their hair into a simple woman's hairstyle, and put on veil hats. Jiang Xianming was fine, but General Miao was from the military after all, and was much taller, so he could only bend down and follow the musicians out through the back door.
The people from the Night Watch Office had not arrived yet, and the musicians could not leave the Jiaofang Office for too long. A military patrol asked the woman in front a few questions, and then glanced at the two people behind who were obviously not young women. He felt very strange and was about to ask a question when he heard another loud noise from the tile house.
The musicians were so frightened that they immediately rushed out. Jiang Xianming and General Miao pushed and shoved each other, taking advantage of the chaos to run behind.
The military patrol had no time to pay attention to them. After entering the house, they found that the huge copper lamp on the ceiling had fallen down and almost smashed through the round table below.
Ni Su kept searching for Xu Ziling in the crowd. She was afraid that the distance was too far. What should she do if the wound on his body reappeared?
"Ni Su."
A familiar voice came from behind her, and she turned around immediately. A young man in a snow-white round-necked robe was standing behind her without her knowing.
She breathed a sigh of relief, but then she heard someone at the gate shouting, "Master Zhou!"
Ni Su turned around and saw Zhou Ting walking in. She was at a loss. In desperation, she turned around, lifted Xu Ziling's veil and buried her head in it.
At such a close distance, he didn't breathe, but he could feel her warm breath gently brushing his cheek. Xu Hexue's pale face revealed a hint of surprise and panic.
She was too close.
It was so close that he could see every inch of skin on her cheek, even the fine hairs.
"We can't let him find us..."
Ni Su was a little embarrassed. He had just made an excuse that he was writing medical records at home, but the next moment he was caught in a clay pot. What was going on?
"Hurry up, step back."
Ni Su tugged at his sleeve.
Xu Hexue moved stiffly like a puppet under her control until they both hid behind a half-drawn curtain.
Her breathing almost disturbed Xu Hexue's mind. He turned his face slightly and deliberately avoided her gaze. However, under the veil, such intimacy had already broken his calmness.
"Don't move..."
Ni Su warned in a low voice.
At this moment, Xu Hexue looked up and saw Zhou Ting coming towards the stairs, so he immediately grabbed Ni Su's arm, pushed her into a shadow in the corner in three or two steps, and stood in front of her.
Zhou Ting was about to go upstairs when he inexplicably felt that the color that flashed by in his peripheral vision was a little glaring. He raised his head and glanced, only to see the man with his back to him, wearing a snow-white robe.
Zhou Ting suddenly thought of the piece of satin that Chao Yisong had described to him. Was it really like this?
But he didn't look at it any further and went upstairs quickly.
Ni Su squatted beside the wooden stand where the vases were placed, her eyes were red. Xu Hexue leaned over and lifted her veil, only then did she notice that something was wrong with her. "Did I hurt you?"
"no,"
Ni Su shook her head. "I squatted down too quickly, and the injury in my lower back hurts a little."
"Ni Su, if we don't use magic, it will be difficult for us to escape from under Zhou Ting's nose," Xu Hexue lowered his eyes and thought for a moment, explained to her, and then said: "Go back, you can light the lamp for me again."
"You can disappear in front of people. If he finds me, then let him find me."
Ni Su frowned and shook her head.
She said she was unwilling to use his self-harm to resolve the embarrassment of being discovered by Zhou Ting, but suddenly she found that there seemed to be some blood on the edge of his sleeve. She immediately reached out to lift his sleeve, but saw that his wrist bone was cold and white, without any wound on it.
"this……"
Ni Su looked up.
Xu Hexue turned his head, and the veil covered his face again. His eyes fell on the elegant room upstairs surrounded by the personal servants of the Night Division: "It's not my blood."
"It's from the Hu people."
