Chapter 67: Eternal Joy (VI)
She was crying for him.
A thin layer of wind and sand blew on her face. Xu Hexue was sure in his heart, but remained silent. He just leaned over to pick her up, and followed the vague light, walking closer step by step.
Qingqiong and Fan Jiang, father and son, watched him carry Ni Su onto the horse's back. Then his body turned into flowing mist and condensed into shape behind her in an instant. He grasped the reins with his pale finger bones and gently stroked the horse's mane. It exhaled and walked forward obediently.
That is General Yujie.
It was the name on the broken monument behind them.
Xu Hexue wrapped Ni Su's loosened scarf back around her face, "The wind and sand are strong in Yongzhou. If you cry again, your face will hurt."
Ni Su's emotions were still unsettled. She held the broken gun in one hand and grabbed his sleeve with the other. Her eyelashes were wet. "Can I hold your hand?"
She raised her head and looked at him with tearful eyes. Xu Hexue pursed her pale lips, but could not say no. He silently wrapped her hand, which was tightly grasping his sleeve, in his palm.
There were scratches on the palm of her hand. Xu Hexue's force was very light, but just this light touch made him suddenly face up to his own selfish desires.
In fact, he also missed her warmth.
But he said nothing, and rode on, holding her hand so carefully and with such restraint.
"I dreamed that you went back to Youdu to find your teacher, and then when I woke up, you were gone." Ni Su's voice was a little hoarse.
"Um."
Xu Hexue's Adam's apple rolled slightly, "But I didn't see him."
He originally thought that if he stopped Dong Yao, the teacher would notice something was going on. As long as the fake certificate in Dong Yao's hand was not delivered to the government, the teacher would be fine.
But he never expected that the teacher was determined to die.
The sky was dark, the wind and sand were hard to stop, even in summer, the night in Yongzhou was still cold, his eyes fell on her black hair, and he couldn't help but say to her: "Ni Su, I will never see the teacher again."
The day the guillotine fell, he and his teacher would never see each other again.
"You can see it when you go back."
Ni Su endured the sourness in her nose and when she looked up, she found that there were no stars or moonlight tonight.
Xu Hexue followed her gaze but remained silent for a long time.
He won't go back.
"Why did you come to Yongzhou when I wasn't here?" His voice was cold and withered as the horse's hooves clattered, and it didn't even have the warmth of life in her ears.
"Your story is not over yet. I know you will come back. I want to wait for you here and treat your injuries. Also," Ni Su looked at the mountains in the distance under the dark blue sky. Further away was the vast plateau. They were all dark shadows. "I want to know your past."
Xu Hexue's eyebrows were calm, always soaked in the coldness of death, but the palm of his hand against the back of her hand became even stiffer, "I should have told you earlier that you didn't have to come here."
After his death, all the past has turned to dust.
"Is it that night? You told me that you really wanted my trust," Ni Su looked at his chin, "At that time, you really wanted to tell me, right?"
The glass lamp lightly bumped against the saddle, and Xu Hexue lowered his eyes to meet her gaze and agreed.
"You want to say sorry?"
Ni Su saw his lips move slightly, but she spoke first, "Because when you met me, you didn't tell me your name was Xu Hexue, and you didn't tell me that you were the General Yujie?"
"But I'm glad you didn't confess to me right from the start."
Xu Hexue stared at her, but she suddenly leaned over and rested her back against his chest. He stood still, like a solitary jade mountain, with his clothes fluttering in the wind.
"I should thank you for keeping it secret."
Ni Su thought that if she had known who he was from the beginning, she would have regretted lighting that fire in the Big Bell Temple. "It was because of your concealment that I couldn't be like them and examine and blaspheme you in the world's rumors."
That broken stele stood on the top of the mountain, and it was never used for memorial services. Instead, the superiors used his death to warn the subjects of Da Qi. For sixteen years, the people of Yongzhou had been resentful of Xu Hexue not only because they had been massacred by the Hu people and lost their loved ones because of his betrayal to the enemy sixteen years ago, but also because there were always people reminding them to never forget the fate of traitors.
Yongzhou is a border town and the throat of the northern border. Not only the city must be impregnable, but the people's hearts must be as strong as iron.
The hatred and contempt of the people of Yongzhou for traitors were the means used by those in power to strengthen people's hearts and unite them against the common enemy.
Ni Su leaned in his cold arms, "I got to know you first, then your name. This is good."
The night is dark and the wind is blowing.
No matter how hard Xu Hexue tried to avoid her, he could not force himself not to listen to her every word and every sentence. If he didn't listen, he wouldn't sink into it.
But he didn't do it.
During the long silence, his heart was shaking uncontrollably.
When he came back to his senses, he opened his lips to say something, but saw her leaning in his arms, her eyes closed. The glass lamp revealed a tired light blue color under her eyelids, and she was still holding the broken gun wrapped in a shawl.
As if it was her treasure.
She also protected it with a dagger.
Xu Hexue looked at her face, half of which was covered by the veil. Her eyes were red and a little swollen. There was a scratch on her forehead, and she looked fragile and pitiful.
Ni Su took a nap. As she walked from the outskirts of the city into the city, she smelled the aroma of baked Hu cakes. She mumbled something in a half-asleep state, but she didn't know what it was. Until the person holding her in his arms touched her eyelids with his fingers. She felt a chill, and she opened her eyes blankly, and saw a face so close to her.
Fine bones and clear eyes.
The cinnabar red collar was neat and clean, and the round-necked robe had a soft, frosty luster.
Ni Su stared at him in a daze.
"Come down."
He first turned over and dismounted.
Ni Su was dazed and opened her arms towards him.
Xu Hexue was stunned and looked at her for a moment. Without saying anything, he put his arms around her slender waist and carried her off the horse.
Ni Su did not live in the well with Qingqiong and his son. The well was not big, and it was inconvenient for her, a woman, to live with them. When she came to Yongzhou, Qingqiong cleaned up the house where their family had originally lived.
Ni Su lay on the clean and tidy bamboo bed, tugged at Xu Hexue's sleeve, and soon fell asleep again .
Xu Hexue was sitting on the edge of the bed, while Qingqiong and his father were looking over here from the corner. Fan Jiang had seen General Yujie once before, on the execution platform. At that time, his hair was disheveled and his face was unclear, but Fan Jiang could not bear to look at him.
He had heard that General Yujie was very young, but he didn't know he was so young. He thought that he must be about the same age as his child Qingqiong...
Xu Hexue turned his head suddenly. Before he could say anything, he saw Fan Jiang trembling and pulling Qingqiong to his knees.
"General Xu! I know you were wronged!" Fan Jiang was a little excited. "It was your deputy general Xue Huai who rescued my wife A Shuang from the Hu people. A Shuang was sunk into the well, and it was you who saved her..."
Xu Hexue actually forgot a lot of things, but he listened quietly to Fan Jiang's chattering about the past without interrupting him, and seemed to have some impression, "I don't think I could save her."
"A Shuang said you saved her, but she just jumped into the well because she couldn't think straight."
Fan Jiang choked up, "General Xu, these years we have been managed by the Qin and Wei families. They built your tombstone. They were afraid that we would sell out the city's information to the Hu people for a small profit, so they have been using you to warn us all these years. Even if I wanted to tell others about your injustice, no one would believe me..."
The Hu people would come to harass the border town from time to time. Although the noise was not big each time, there were some who wanted to make a move inside the city to spy on the military defense. Qin Jixun and Wei Dechang were extremely vigilant about this. Not only did they put all their efforts into military defense, they also had some means to educate the people of Yongzhou.
Xu Hexue figured out the reason, his pale face showed no emotion at all, he just said: "You guys stand up, you don't have to kneel to me."
"This matter has nothing to do with you. There is no need to offend them because of me."
Fan Jiang stood up with the help of Qingqiong. Seeing Xu Hexue sitting on the edge of the bed, his figure sometimes dim and sometimes thick , he was surprised and said, "General Xu, you..."
Xu Hexue hurriedly returned to the world of the living from the underworld after being reminded by Tu Bo. His damaged soul was extremely fragile, and he was barely able to maintain his body shape. He lowered his eyes to look at Ni Su's hand tightly holding his sleeve, then took the jade hairpin from his hair and said to the father and son, "Please buy me some medicine for my injuries."
After a pause, he remembered the unclear murmur of Ni Su on horseback just now, and added: "If possible, buy another roasted Hu pancake, and the rest of the money will be given to you."
"I don't dare to ask for the general's money. I'll go right away!"
Fan Jiang walked over with a crutch and carefully took the jade hairpin from Xu Hexue's hand.
Ni Su had already spent a lot of energy trying to retrieve the dead fetus during the day. These days, she had been suffering from the climate in Yongzhou and had not been able to rest well. When she confronted people at the ruins of the Sangqiu monument, she had been exposed to the cold wind for too long and felt even more drowsy.
Xu Hexue opened the ointment that Fan Jiang had bought, dipped his fingertips in it, and gently applied it to the wound on her forehead. He then pried open her fingers that were clutching his sleeve one by one and was about to apply the ointment to the abrasion on her palm when the candle in the glass lamp burned out and his eyes suddenly became dark.
Qingqiong was hiding in a corner eating Hu bing with his father, his dark pupils always watching Xu Hexue's movements. He was very meticulous and careful in applying medicine to the girl, but Qingqiong saw that he was holding Ni Su's wrist and suddenly stopped moving.
He pursed his lips, put down half a Hu pancake, and walked to the edge of the bed.
Xu Hexue raised his eyes when he heard the footsteps. Only then did Qingqiong realize that there was no light in his eyes, but they were empty and distracted.
"General Xu..."
Qingqiong spoke.
"I remember you, on the streets of Yunjing." Xu Hexue fumbled, dipped the ointment, and continued to apply it to the wound on Ni Su's palm.
"I'm sorry General Xu."
Qing Qiong lowered his head. He was not wearing a scarf at the moment, and his head was bald. "If I hadn't sent a letter to Mr. Zhang, maybe he... wouldn't have died."
"But if I don't give it to him, I don't know to whom I should give it."
He just heard from his father that his mother asked him to give the letter to Mr. Zhang, who was General Xu's teacher and was the only one who would feel sorry for General Xu.
"It's not your fault,"
Xu Hexue shook his head, "The teacher didn't want to die just because of your letter."
Qing Qiong didn't know what else he should say. He felt a little awkward, so he had to sit aside and watch Xu Hexue apply medicine to Ni Su. Seeing his fingers stray from the wound, Qing Qiong couldn't help but remind him: "A little to the left, General Xu."
Xu Hexue said "hmm", moved his finger a little to the left, and put the ointment on the palm of Ni Su's hand.
I heard Ni Su crying out in pain in her sleep.
He stopped.
After a while, holding her hand, he leaned over and blew gently.
The extremely awkward comfort stopped her mumbling in her sleep.
Qingqiong had no hair on his body, but he still had some sparse eyelashes. Seeing this scene, he blinked his eyelashes, scratched his head uncomfortably, and looked away.
"During my journey, Miss Ni bought me a lot of delicious food. I have gained weight because of the food. She also gave me acupuncture. I don't feel the pain in my body as before, and I am not as cold anymore..."
Qingqiong spoke slowly, but he secretly glanced at Xu Hexue. The general did not look impatient at all and seemed to be listening quietly. Qingqiong also talked a lot.
Finally, he added, "Miss Ni is really a very good person."
Xu Hexue fumbled to straighten , but he touched the broken gun wrapped in a shawl under her sleeves. He half-closed his eyes, his Adam's apple rolling slightly:
"Yeah, she's fine."
