Chapter 134 Iron is Sweet

The stall owner was taken aback.

The method of dyeing white hair black has existed since the previous dynasty, after all, who doesn't yearn to be young? But to dye black hair blue is something that has never been heard of before.

Zhao Xiheng tugged at her sleeve, "Why did you dye it blue?"

Wei Li counted on her fingers, "I want to change my hair color, I want something more flamboyant!"

But red and purple don't look good; they're warm colors and not very noticeable. Green is definitely out of the question... I think blue is quite nice, like sapphire blue and lake blue..."

Zhao Xiheng tugged at his hair, "Dye it all?"

"Is that not allowed?"

“I think you can dye a few strands first. I feel that all blue is a bit too bright…” Zhao Xiheng advised.

Let him dye it if he wants; it's his hair anyway.

The stall owner remained silent for a long time, so Wei Li asked him again.

"How about dyeing it blue?"

“It’s possible, the water boiled with butterfly pea flowers can be used to dye hair blue, but this stuff is mixed with wormwood to neutralize the black…” the stall owner hesitated, “I’ve never dyed anyone this color before, sir, do you really want to dye your hair?”

Wei Li, in an intermittent fit of rebellion, immediately sat down on a small stool.

The stall owner rummaged through his barber's basket, "We don't have that many butterfly pea flowers; I'm afraid we can't dye them all."

Wei Li thought for a moment, "Then how about dyeing a few strands?" He turned to look at Zhao Xiheng, "Didn't you say you didn't want me to dye them all?"

The stall owner boiled butterfly pea flower water, applied it to Wei Li's hair, and wrapped it with a cloth.

Wei Li chattered away to Zhao Xiheng, "Do you want to come with me?"

If they dye their hair the same color, everyone will immediately recognize them as a couple.

Zhao Xiheng sat on a small stool on the other side waiting for him. She took a bite of the glutinous rice strip and, when he asked her, she quickly shook her head, looking very disgusted. "I don't want to, you can dye it yourself."

She took a bite, then fed Wei Li a bite.

Who's like him, wanting to try everything?

The hair dyeing process took quite a while, almost half an hour. Zhao Xiheng had already finished a whole bag of glutinous rice strips by the time Wei Li was done.

A few strands of deep blue peek out from his jet-black hair, which was still tied up high as before. It didn't look strange at all; in fact, it had a wild beauty to it.

"Is it pretty? Is it pretty?" He shook his head, making himself very conspicuous.

"It's alright..." Zhao Xiheng nodded.

The stall owner looked at Wei Li's head and seemed to have found a new business opportunity to get rich.

It was getting late, and the lantern festival was about to end. The two walked back hand in hand. He smelled of cooked butterfly pea flowers, and Zhao Xiheng moved away in disgust.

"Why are you standing so far away from me? Am I embarrassing you?" Wei Li grabbed her hand and pulled her back, insisting on staying close to her.

The more she didn't want to be with him, the closer he wanted to stick to her.

The crowds surged, the lights shone brightly, and a scene of harmony and joy unfolded.

The population of non-salt-producing areas has doubled in recent years.

The area boasts a prosperous economy, simple and honest people, peace and stability, and fertile and vast lands, including both large inland areas and coastal ports. Women also enjoy a relatively high status here, making it more attractive than other places. As a result, people are willing to settle here.

If you ask Wei Li from ten years ago what his vision of the future was like, what would it be like?

He may have considered how to torture Zhao Xiheng to quell his years of resentment. But he never dared to imagine that Zhao Xiheng had a wife and children, and a vast and prosperous territory.

The servants led the horse away and pushed the iron gate open with a creak.

Zhao Xiheng had only taken two steps inside when Wei Li pulled her back.

"How many years have you been in Pingzhou?" Wei Li touched the frost on the door.

"It's been eight years, hasn't it?" She came to Pingzhou at the age of fifteen and is twenty-three this year.

"Don't you know that the iron outside in Pingzhou is sweet in winter?" Wei Li smiled at her. "Try licking it, it's very sweet."

Licking metal outside in the dead of night, are you crazy? It looks really shameful.

Zhao Xiheng gave him a strange look, but she was also full of curiosity about what he said about iron being sweet.

Is it really sweet?

"Of course it's sweet, I never lie," Wei Li assured her confidently. "I've tried it myself, it's really sweet."

Could it be that the iron in Pingzhou is different from that in other places? In all her life, this was truly the first time she had ever heard that iron was sweet.

But Wei Li, that old dog, has a history of lying, so she looked at him suspiciously.

"Really, hurry up and lick it, quietly, I'll cover for you and not tell anyone." Wei Li seemed very impatient, coaxing her to lick the iron on the door.

The more eager he was, the more suspicious Zhao Xiheng became. "Let me see you lick it first," she said, nudging him.

Wei Li's smile froze for a moment, and she withdrew her hand. "I've already tried them all. Fine, go ahead and do it. Would I lie to you?"

Zhao Xiheng raised her hand, gesturing for him to go first.

Wei Li's expression stiffened even more, but he still forced a smile and said, "Really? If I lick it, you'll lick it too? Then I'll lick it..."

"Hmm." This time it was Zhao Xiheng's turn to urge him.

Two childish kids were muttering to themselves in front of the door in the middle of the night; anyone who didn't know better would think they were possessed.

Wei Li leaned closer to the metal block on the door, glancing at her sideways, "See, I really licked it..."

"Then lick it!" Zhao Xiheng was now certain that there was a trap involved. If there wasn't, why would this old dog be dawdling and not moving, insisting that she lick it?

"..." Wei Li hadn't expected Zhao Xiheng to be so difficult to fool, and his plan fell through.

"Maybe we should just forget about it, it's not that sweet anyway..." Before he could react or finish his sentence, he felt a weight on his head as Zhao Xiheng pressed his head against the iron door.

“Ugh, ugh, my tongue…” he mumbled incoherently.

"Why aren't you getting up?" Zhao Xiheng asked.

Wei Li was on the verge of tears. He had harmed others, but in the end, he had harmed himself. His tongue was stuck to the door by Zhao Xiheng, "Libiekang..."

He placed his palm on the patch to melt and warm the frost.

I'm too ashamed to face anyone.

My tongue was ripped off the iron, but it hurts, it hurts terribly, and I can't speak fluently anymore.

"Let me see? What's wrong with you?" Zhao Xiheng pried his hand away.

Wei Li stubbornly covered his face, refusing to let her see, and ran away.

How embarrassing! Zhao Xiheng must never know what he was doing leaning against the door just now.

Zhao Xiheng looked at the iron block embedded in the door; it was wet with water stains and was about to freeze.

A guess in her heart was about to emerge.

Because of that silly thing he did, Wei Li didn't say another word that night, and hurriedly pulled up the covers and went to sleep. When he woke up the next day, the pain on his tongue had completely disappeared.

"Deputy General Chen, I heard that the iron in Pingzhou is sweet in winter?" Zhao Xiheng asked Chen Ruojiang, who had come to deliver something to Xiao Tao, while Wei Li was away.

Chen Ruojiang shuddered. "Which bastard farted? Don't you dare lick it, that iron rod is so cold, it'll freeze your tongue if it touches it."

Zhao Xiheng thought to herself with a cold smile, "That bastard is Wei Li."

She said that he insisted on making her lick a piece of iron last night because he wanted to see her make a fool of herself, but he ended up getting what he deserved.

Zhao Xiheng wrote this down in her little notebook, since it was something worth bringing up from time to time.

She could talk about Wei Li from his youth until he died.

The moment Wei Li stepped into the house, Zhao Xiheng's mocking voice rang out, "Oh~ who is this? Isn't this our lord who licks iron in the dead of night amidst freezing snow? You're back?"

Wei Li stumbled, his face quickly turning red. "Keep your voice down, my daughter's still asleep." He gestured with the things in his hands. "I just passed by a clothing store, and the owner said Zhizhi's new clothes were finished, so I brought them back. Do you think they look good?"

He tried to change the subject.

Alright, let's not talk about him licking iron in the middle of the night last night. We can talk about other things, but there's a lot to say about his daughter, Zhao Xiheng. She flipped through her notebook and recited, "If I had a daughter, I would drag her out of bed before dawn to practice her kung fu, and I would only make four sets of clothes for her a year."

"Ah~ Who said that back then? I have no recollection of it at all? Getting up before dawn to practice martial arts, and having four sets of clothes a year?"

It's already Chen Shi (7-9 AM), but Zhi Zhi is still young and can sleep a lot, so she's curled up in the blankets like a little piglet.

As for her new clothes, who knows how many outfits she's worn this year?

These words sounded incredibly familiar, and Wei Li tried to argue, "She's still young and growing, what's wrong with sleeping a little longer? As for clothes... isn't the reason she has so many clothes because she always wears them torn? It would be so embarrassing for my daughter to wear torn clothes every day!"

"Keep making things up, let's see what other tricks you can come up with. Is iron sweet?" Zhao Xiheng closed the notebook, stood up and pressed closer, and Wei Li subconsciously shrank back, clutching his clothes.

“Um… the villa in Qingzhou is finished. How about we go to Qingzhou to see the osmanthus flowers next autumn? I had osmanthus trees planted in the courtyard.” Wei Li racked his brains to change the subject. “Just get over this, don’t keep bringing it up.”

Before Zhao Xiheng could say anything, a servant hurriedly entered from outside, greeted her, and handed the secret letter to Wei Li.

"What?" Zhao Xiheng noticed that his expression was becoming increasingly serious.

"The Xianbei king is ill." Wei Li frowned, then suddenly looked up, his eyes filled with complex emotions. "I..." I have to go.

Zhao Xiheng understood what he meant. On one hand, she wanted to avenge her father, but on the other hand, she was afraid that Wei Li would be in danger. The Xianbei were skilled in riding and archery, and even though the Pingzhou army had developed rapidly in recent years, she still felt it was not safe enough.

"How about we postpone it for another two years?"

Wei Li shook his head. "Six years have passed. With the military strength of Pingzhou, we can contend with the Xianbei." What he wanted was the head of the Xianbei king. What if the Xianbei king died of illness before his time? Was he supposed to drag him out of his grave and whip his corpse?

Zhao Xiheng fell silent, fidgeting with her fingers and bowing her head without uttering a word.

"What's wrong with you?" Wei Li walked up to her and poked her.

She shook her head. She felt like she had placed a lot of burden on Wei Li; if he had married someone else, he would have been more at ease.

Wei Li tapped her on the forehead, "Why are you looking so long-faced? I'm not going to die, and you're not going to be a widow."