Chapter 106: New Jade Candle (Part 3)
He was cold.
For Ni Su, getting close to him was like walking outside in a snowy night, but she was not afraid at all. Her hands passed over every scar on his body, some with blood scabs, and some that had become light pink scars.
She knew that every time he was punished, the flaying he had suffered in his lifetime would cause more wounds on his body, and his body hidden under his clothes would become covered in blood.
He couldn't see her, but she was always watching him.
His coldness made Ni Su have a deeper understanding of the warmth of her own flesh and blood body. She deliberately teased him and tried to melt the ice with her palms.
The contact between cold and warm not only made him unable to control himself, but also made her tremble.
Ni Su is a doctor. When she was young, she saw wooden figures of different genders in order to identify acupuncture points and meridians. She studied gynecology and knew that many women's hidden diseases came from the bed after marriage, between men and women, yin and yang. As a doctor, she usually treats matters between men and women with an absolutely calm attitude.
But the young general, who was only nineteen years old, had held a pen and fought in the battlefield, but had never thought about love affairs between men and women, didn't understand that so well. He could only obey her and hug her uncontrollably, looking forward to her teaching like he did when he was a student in his youth.
The more he does this,
The more Ni Su kissed him, the more she wanted to kiss him.
She could no longer look at this matter calmly. Stripping away her identity as a doctor, she was a woman who wanted to touch his heart out of love.
Every breath I take seems like a dream.
In the dream, there is clean and bright sunlight shining on a snow-capped mountain. Wherever the light shines, the frost and snow between the mountains are crystal clear. The fusion of cold and warm must be the melting of cold into warmth, with snow on the mountains and trickling streams.
When I woke up again, it was already dawn in the east.
Ni Su was wrapped in two layers of thick quilts. She was held in someone's arms. With the barrier of the quilt, her body became warmer and she stopped sneezing, but the tip of her nose was a little red.
Xu Hexue was still wearing only the cinnabar red inner robe with the collar loose. The dim sunlight at this time shone through the lattice window. His vision was blurry and he could only barely see her long black hair with a few strands of hair spread out. Her neck was white and delicate.
"Ni Axi."
He called.
The slightly hoarse voice still retained a trace of desire.
"Um?"
Ni Su felt drowsy.
"Can you turn around?"
He said, "I want to see you."
Ni Su came to her senses a little more the moment she heard these words. He would never say such a thing. She turned around and looked at him.
The faint light that fell on him made the red of his robe even more intense, while his shoulders and neck looked cold and pale, and his eyelashes were thick.
"Can you see clearly?"
She asked.
In fact, it was not very clear, but Xu Hexue did not say anything. She just stretched out her fingers tentatively and gently touched her brow bone and eyelids.
The warm touch against his fingertips stopped him at the first touch.
"If I had known what would happen today, I would have filled that box," he said suddenly.
It was just a childish act of childhood. What was hidden inside was only the New Year's money given by the elders in the family, and some small gold and jade trinkets prepared for him by his sister-in-law.
There is also his favorite inkstone, favorite wolf-hair brush, and some poems with childish words.
"You were afraid that I couldn't open it, so you pried the lock?"
Ni Su rested her forehead on his chest, her voice filled with laughter.
"……Um."
Xu Hexue responded.
He had long forgotten where he had lost the key to the lock.
“Those are good enough.”
Ni Su's voice was filled with sleepiness.
Her breathing became steady, her eyes closed, and she soon fell asleep in his arms. The room was filled with silence, and Xu Hexue looked at her quietly.
The sky became brighter and his vision became clearer.
She was wrapped in a thick quilt, not bothered by the coldness of his body, her cheeks flushed, and she slept soundly.
Someone was sweeping snow in the yard. When Xu Hexue heard the sound, he carefully got up, sat on the edge of the bed, and gently straightened his clothes and combed his hair.
Qingqiong slept little in the winter. In order to warm up his overly cold body, he imitated Ni Su and boiled water with mugwort leaves. He first soaked his feet in it and then got up to sweep the snow.
When the door creaked open, Qingqiong stood up and looked under the eaves opposite. Xu Hexue was only wearing a cinnabar red robe, and his thin sleeves were blown up by the cold wind in the early morning. His wrists were white, and the bones on the back of his hands were clearly visible.
"General Xu."
A smile appeared on Qingqiong's face.
His facial features were dull and his smile was stiff, but it still revealed something unusual. Xu Hexue's eyes were light and his face was still as cold as ice. He said "hmm".
The stove in the kitchen was lit by Qingqiong, and he added firewood and warmed the fire beside the stove. He stretched his neck to look at the porridge cooking in the pot. He saw Xu Hexue put a clay pot on the stove on the other side. He couldn't help asking, "General Xu, what's in that?"
“Ginger tea.”
Xu Hexue answered calmly.
"Oh..." Qingqiong nodded, and he looked at Xu Hexue's back for a while, "My father said that he and my mother got married like this. There were no one around, just the two of them, but there was nothing wrong with that. "
Xu Hexue turned around.
"I cut a Chinese character for happiness for you . Even though it's not cut well, it adds some color to it." Qingqiong looked at him. "General Xu, did you see it?"
“Yes.”
Xu Hexue nodded and poured him a bowl of ginger tea. "Thank you."
Qingqiong took the ginger tea and drank it in small sips. He felt much warmer and talked more. He talked to Xu Hexue about what happened in Yongzhou after he turned into a small ball of light.
Xu Hexue listened quietly.
He heard him say that Ni Su brought back the light from the reeds, he heard him say that Ni Su hid in the felt tent crying, he heard him say that Ni Su beat Tan Guangwen severely in the prefectural government.
Listen to him,
Ni Su mentioned the name "Xu Hexue" in front of the clan leaders of the two surnames and even the people of Yongzhou.
She collected his broken guns and, like his teacher, helped him to patronize his reputation after his death.
"But Tan Guangwen is dead, and he hasn't told the truth yet."
Qingqiong's voice became very low.
"Whether he says it or not, it doesn't matter."
"Why?"
Qingqiong didn't understand.
"Because from the bottom up, there are too many people who hope he won't speak."
Qing Qiong held a cup of ginger tea, the fire was burning scarlet, and sometimes a faint flame was reflected on Xu Hexue's pale cheek. Qing Qiong looked at him, his throat tightened, "General Xu... Is it possible that even if the truth is found out, there is no way to restore your innocence? I don't understand, what is the reason?"
Xu Hexue fiddled with the charcoal fire. "The word 'truth' is only important to those who know it and practice it."
"But……"
Qingqiong paused for a moment, the fire was burning, and the white snow outside the door was blown down diagonally by the cold wind. He looked confused, "Is there really no way out?"
"have."
Xu Hexue nodded.
In fact, since returning to the world of the living, Xu Hexue has never expected to clear his name after his death. The 30,000 heroic souls in the Youdu Pagoda are the meaning of his existence here as a residual soul.
He doesn't care about his own life and death, or his good reputation after death.
But he could not watch those soldiers who protected him with their flesh and blood in their lifetime turn into evil spirits forever and never be able to be reincarnated again.
He was their general.
Even if he dies, he will still be responsible for their afterlife.
"Really? What's the solution?"
Qingqiong's dark pupils lit up and he asked quickly.
However, light footsteps were heard on the eaves. Xu Hexue and Qingqiong turned around almost at the same time. Ni Su had her hair tied up with a white jade hairpin and was dressed neatly. The snow particles blown by the wind were brushing against the hem of her skirt.
Qingqiong was watching the fire in the kitchen, while Ni Su was sitting on the porch with ginger tea in her hand. Xu Hexue wrapped her in a cloak and said, "Let's go to the kitchen, it's warmer there."
Ni Su shook her head, "Just sit here, the wind will make my mind clearer."
"I plan to go to the palace later."
Xu Hexue was stunned when he heard this.
"You don't know yet, but Prince Jia and his wife have been imprisoned by the government. I heard you say that Prince Jia had a hard time in the palace when he was young. Now that the imperial concubine is pregnant, it's like a replay of what happened to him in his childhood." Ni Su placed her hands on the bowl wall, her palms warmed up a lot, and she looked at the profile of the person beside her. "I have received the grace of the government and can go in and out of the Imperial Medical Bureau. Xu Ziling, if possible, I would like to take you to see him."
"I know the path you are going to take. You are a general supported and trusted by the 30,000 Jing'an Army. I can't stop you," Ni Su smiled at him, "but I also know that Prince Jia is your best friend and he is very important to you. The emperor doesn't like him and the imperial concubine sees him as a thorn in her side. I don't know what's going on in the court, nor do I know how many people are hoping for his death. Since there is still time, let's save him first, okay?"
Xu Hexue looked at her, his Adam's apple moving slightly, "I..."
"I will never regret choosing you as my husband."
Ni Su reached out and fiddled with his eyelashes. "Are you going to regret this?"
There were ripples in Xu Hexue's cold eyes. What happened last night was due to his being guided by her, and he couldn't help himself. He hugged Ni Su into his arms and rested his chin on her shoulder.
After a while, "No regrets."
He hugged her tightly, "Ni Axi, I don't regret it."
Why in this world, there is such a good woman like her, so good that even as a residual soul, he always wishes how great it would be if he had a body of flesh and blood.
He once told himself that they were different, that he could not taste sweetness, that he did not have the warmth of a normal person, and that he could not walk upright with her on the streets of Yunjing... But she always resolved the differences between them in her own way, so quietly and subtly.
"We can be husband and wife for as long as we can."
Ni Su hugged him back and said to him gently and calmly, "But Xu Ziling, I don't want to give up. I still want to do something, for you and for the Jing'an Army."
"Even if you are gone, I don't want to give up in this life."
