Jiang Rao blinked and looked at him. He smiled, and the canine tooth that disturbed her sight was exposed again. "Can I take you to a place?"

Jiang Rao looked at his picturesque face under the light and found it difficult to say no.

She couldn't sleep anyway.

She sighed, grabbed the quilt to cover her body, which was only wearing a shirt, and said, "Go out and wait for me first."

Rong Ting smiled happily, placed the lantern beside her, and went out first.

Jiang Rao put on her coat and cloak, came out with a lantern, and walked behind him. "Where are you going?"

"Look at the stars." Rong Ting waved at her, motioning her to follow him.

He first walked into the woods beside the camp.

Jiang Rao used a lantern to illuminate the ground, fearing that he was walking too fast. The road was full of potholes and uneven, and the lantern could not reach the ground. She said to the figure in front of her, "Slow down. I have a lantern in my hand. Follow me."

Before she finished saying "I", Jiang Rao's lips rounded and she heard the rustling of leaves in the wind. The sound was very loud and the lantern swayed in the wind. She was stunned.

Destroyed.

Just like that it was destroyed.

Jiang Rao stared at the lantern in her hand as if she had seen a ghost. She stopped in her tracks. Once the fire went out, she could not see anything clearly. She stood there with a frown on her face.

Rong Ting turned back and asked, "The lantern is out?"

"Going back to find the flint?" He took the lantern from her hand and held it in his own.

Jiang Rao thought about how long it took them to walk and felt a little lazy. They had finally walked here, and if they had to go back and forth again, it might be dawn by then.

Although he couldn't see where the road was, he took two cautious and tentative steps forward. His steps were not staggering. Jiang Rao didn't plan to go back. He groped for a long branch on the ground to explore the way, "Let's just go this way."

But she was worried about falling down, so she looked at Rong Ting, "I can't see the road clearly. If we pass by any bumpy places, you can remind me if you see them, okay?"

She learned a lot from Hu Tang. Some people with good martial arts skills have much better eyesight than ordinary people and can see at night. The old doctor in Yecheng told her that he had a good foundation in martial arts. She thought that he might be able to see more clearly than her.

In the thick night, a cunning light flashed in Rong Ting's eyes. He looked at her without looking at the road, and said in a deep voice: "Okay."

Seeing that he agreed readily, Jiang Rao immediately felt at ease and walked beside him. Wherever he went, she would go. She was sure that she would not fall. After walking a few steps, there was no problem. The small wooden stick in her hand that she used to explore the way gradually became a decoration.

After just two steps, he hit a big pit and missed a step. Jiang Rao screamed and his heart almost jumped out.

But she didn't fall.

Rong Ting's strong arms wrapped around her waist.

Although her body did not fall into the pit, Jiang Rao broke out in sweat on her forehead and took a step back.

She stood firmly on her feet, feeling a little embarrassed but also a little strange.

She looked at Rong Ting and asked suspiciously, "Can't you see the road clearly?"

If he had reminded her of the pit just now, she wouldn't have stepped on empty air and wouldn't have to be held in his arms so awkwardly.

“It was clear before.”

previously?

"And now?" she asked.

"Some of the medicine I used to heal my leg injury... caused some loss of my internal energy."

Jiang Rao frowned.

His hands moved to her waist, with such strength that she even had the illusion that he could lift her up with one hand.

Is this called loss?

"I vaguely saw it just now, but it was too late. I was wrong."

"Stay closer to me so I can remind you." His voice was weak, but he took the initiative to pull her towards him. Her body was warm, but he was cold from the medicine. The difference was so obvious that when Jiang Rao got close to him, she felt ashamed and wanted to hide back, but when she heard some sounds from the forest, she suddenly stuck close to his arm.

It's the sound of frogs.

She was most afraid of animals with wet skin and no fur at all.

Just the thought of it is terrifying.

The moment she came closer, Rong Ting's body stiffened. Jiang Rao was so close to him, so she naturally felt it and hesitated whether to let go of her hand, but the frogs kept croaking, so she not only did not let go, but held on even more nervously.

"I'm afraid you'd fall." Her tone was serious, but the fingers that were holding his arm were trembling slightly.

Rong Ting lowered his eyes and looked at her approaching figure. Under the cover of the night, he did not even hide the smile in his eyes. He helped her to cover up the lie, "I'm scared too."

Jiang Rao was terribly scared but she used a small wooden stick to feel the way and moved forward in small steps.

Gradually we reached the center of the woods, where the trees were sparse.

Without tall and lush trees blocking the moonlight, the view is much wider and brighter.

There is a small pond there.

“We’re here.” Rong Ting said.

Jiang Rao looked at the fireflies rising above the lake and exclaimed, "Wow!"

Those bright fireflies were like stars falling from the sky. The light emitted by their small bodies fell into her eyes, making her eyes sparkle, and she gradually loosened her hands.

If she could see such a beautiful scene every night, she would be willing to lose sleep for several nights.

Her surprised expression caught Rong Ting's eyes, and he smiled faintly, "Do you like it?"

Jiang Rao nodded, but when she looked at the mirror-like lake, she didn't move forward no matter how much she liked it.

The noisy croaking of frogs in the pond frightened her.

Why are there so many frogs in autumn?

He looked at her thoughtfully and said, "It's better not to go forward."

"There are frogs and snakes in the pond." He subtly tried to find out why she was afraid to move forward.

Jiang Rao's body tensed up when she heard that. Just now she was thinking how nice it would be if she could see fireflies every night, but now she just wanted to go back to the tent.

Rong Ting paid attention to her reaction, and narrowed his eyes slightly, looking extremely cunning. He reminded her seriously, "Watch your instep, don't climb up anything, you won't know what's happening."

She looked down at the back of her feet and nearby, but didn't see anything scary. Her gaze then turned to the lake in the woods, where the stars were reflected, sparkling and glittering, making people unforgettable at first sight.

Jiang Rao raised her eyes to look at the sky full of stars. They were no different from the stars in the sky above Jinling, except that they seemed brighter because there were no people around and only trees.

The scenery here is so clean, so clean and peaceful. There is a piece of sandy land with no grass or trees by the lake. Although the trees are tall, the night sky above the head is full of stars, so vast and deep that it seems to be within reach.

She was so fascinated that she took a step forward and suddenly felt her instep sink.

The heavy feeling made Jiang Rao's scalp tighten in an instant.

She jumped up in a panic, picking up the hem of her skirt.

When the heavy feeling on the back of her feet disappeared, she couldn't get rid of the tight feeling on her scalp. She always felt that thing would jump up again. She screamed and jumped, and then hung herself on the person next to her.

She hugged Rong Ting's neck, her legs and feet weak from fear and she couldn't jump very high. She couldn't even wrap her legs around his knees and could only weakly wrap her legs around his calves. But the sense of security of her feet leaving the ground made her breathe a sigh of relief, as if a heavy burden had been lifted off her shoulders. The fear that had given her goose bumps was finally gone.

"Are you really that scared?" There was a relaxed smile in his voice, but when you listened carefully you could hear some childish mischief. He lifted her body up with all his strength, and asked her to wrap her legs around his waist, while his hand continued to rest on her back, stroking lazily as if to comfort her.

Jiang Rao hung there neither up nor down, not daring to let go nor to take a look to see if the thing that jumped onto her instep had slipped away. The area behind her ears was red, her chest was heaving, as if she had run a long distance, and she was panting and her breathing was unsteady.

The watery moonlight poured down like silver gauze, covering the sandy ground beside the lake.

There was nothing on the sand except Rong Ting's gray-rimmed boots that sank slightly into the sand and the shadows of the two people blending into one.

Jiang Rao closed her eyes and dared not look. Rong Ting calmly moved his feet and kicked away the cake-shaped mud as big as a child's fist.

His smiling eyes were full of brilliance and passion. His deep voice rang beside her ear, and his hot breath hit her ear tip, making her ear slightly numb. When he moved, she thought he was going to put her down. She hummed uneasily and said timidly, "Let me hold you for a while."

She said in a serious and reasonable manner, just as he had spoken to her during the day, "Anyway, you are my future husband."

She held his neck tightly and was determined not to let go. She hid her head on his shoulder, more timid than a turtle, but her tone carried a confidence that could not be refused, a confidence of bluffing.

He kissed her during the day, but she just didn't follow him.

Her lips were pursed, and the more she thought about it, the more her fake majesty became, and the tighter her hands wrapped around his neck.

Rong Ting stood as tall as a tree, firmly on the sand, his hands protecting her back, a smile on his face even in his breathing.

He couldn't help but loosen one hand and pinch her red earlobe. It was really great that only he could see her like this. He smiled faintly and said "yes".

Learn quickly.

So cute.

The feeling of fear came quickly and went away slowly. It took a long time before Jiang Rao finally mustered up the courage to look at the ground.

I glanced at the ground. There were no frogs, toads, or snakes. Only the faint moonlight illuminated the fine sand on the ground. There were footprints of different sizes, and nothing else. Her panic just now immediately seemed to be caused by her own confusion. Jiang Rao's face immediately turned red. She crossed her feet and leaned her head to look at the uppers of her embroidered shoes, trying to see if it was really because she was too nervous and lost her composure and saw it wrong.

There was a layer of mud on the embroidered shoes, as if a toad had jumped onto her feet just now.

I didn't expect something would actually jump up.

Jiang Rao shuddered and put her feet back

Hug tightly.

A low voice came to my ear, "Nian Nian."

His voice sounded hoarse and suppressed, "Don't move."

She was not heavy, so it was easy to pick her up, and it didn't even take much effort.

But it wasn't so easy to hold her in my arms and not think about anything else.

Jiang Rao calmed down.

After all, she was not as panicked as when she first jumped up. Although she knew that a toad had jumped onto the back of her foot, there was nothing on the ground after all.

She was no longer panicking. All the things she had done and said in a hurry just now came to her mind, and the shyness that had been suppressed by panic and fear also surfaced. The redness not only covered the area behind her ears, but also gradually covered her neck and face. She felt so ashamed that she wanted to get down and step on the ground, but his hands holding her waist were so tight that he didn't seem to get tired. Jiang Rao buried her face in his shoulder like an ostrich and whispered in his ear, "Put me down."

Rong Ting followed her wishes, loosened his grip, and put her down. Just as Jiang Rao's toes were about to touch the ground, he said slowly, "It seems like something is jumping over here again."

Jiang Rao raised her toes that were about to touch the ground, crossed her legs, looked around fearfully, and heard him sigh guiltily, "I was mistaken."

Jiang Rao finally fell to the ground, staring at the grass and the pond nervously, afraid that the things she was afraid of would jump out again.

"Did I really see it wrong?" Her confused vision didn't see anything, so she turned back to confirm with Rong Ting.

The ground was so empty that she thought he was teasing her.

Rong Ting looked innocent, "I saw it wrong."

He bent down and picked up a stick.

"Did you see clearly just now..." Jiang Rao moved closer to him. When she asked him, her little head looked left and right, front and back at the ground alertly, with a timid tone, "Did you see clearly what jumped onto my instep just now?"

“I didn’t see it clearly.” Rong Ting said innocently, “Maybe I ran away too fast.”

Jiang Rao kept staring at the bushes and the pond in fear.

Rong Ting said to her: "If you stayed in Jinling, you wouldn't be scared by these things."

"But if I stay in Jinling, I won't be able to see the beautiful fireflies and stars here." Jiang Rao frowned when she heard that he seemed to want to ask her why she followed him, and followed up with a clever sentence.

Rong Ting smiled faintly, and his smile fell into Jiang Rao's eyes. She actually felt that there was some bitterness in his smile. She ignored the things that scared her and walked in front of him and looked at him. He raised his hand and pulled her close. Jiang Rao hesitated for a moment, but finally did not struggle and let him hold her obediently.

"After I arrived in Chuzhou, it was too far from Jinling, so there were bound to be people who would stir up trouble. Three people can make a tiger. I don't know what will happen in the end."

His tone was a little depressed, and Jiang Rao said in his arms, "If I were in Jinling, I would never let others say this about you."

Three people make a tiger, bah. If two people dared to say something bad about him, she would find a way to cut them off.

She felt his chest vibrate, and he seemed to laugh softly. Jiang Rao raised her eyes and looked at him. He sighed and tapped her forehead, "It's a pity that you are not in Jinling."

He looked at her with a sad face, suddenly loosened his hand, bent down to pick up a wooden stick, and drew something on the ground. Jiang Rao followed and saw that it was two circles.

"Huaizhou is here, Chuzhou is here." Rong Ting drew another line near the two circles, "This is Yitong Mountain."

Jiang Rao was confused and repeated obediently, "Huaizhou, Chuzhou, Yitong Mountain?"

Rong Ting said, "The damaged cableway mentioned in Xi Zimo's letter is located at Yitong Mountain."

Jiang Rao only knew that Xi Zimo had used the excuse that the cableway was damaged to force Rong Ting to go, but she could not see Xi Zimo's letter asking Emperor Zhaowu to send troops, and she did not know which mountain's cableway was damaged. When he said this, she understood. Looking at the location of Yitong Mountain, it seemed closer to Huaizhou, but not far from Chuzhou. She did not know much about military tactics, but she had a hunch that this was a very important pass, so she asked, "Does anyone need to guard this place?"

"Yes." Rong Ting couldn't help but laugh at her look of wanting to help, "But I'll figure it out."

Rong Ting drew the location of Jinling on the sand far away from the two circles, pointed at it and asked Jiang Rao, "Look at Chuzhou and Huaizhou. Are they close to each other?"

"Close." Jiang Rao didn't quite understand what he was going to say, "What's wrong?"

"Even though Taoyuan is sparsely populated, it may be affected by the war. The cableway at Yitong Mountain was destroyed. If someone wants to enter the Central Plains, they might target Chuzhou."

Jiang Rao frowned, "But Chuzhou is not the only way to go."

"You don't have to take a single path to catch someone by surprise."

Rong Ting dropped the stick in his hand, suddenly approached her, rested his head on her shoulder, put his arms around her, and whispered to her while holding her, "Chuzhou is very dangerous."

"Even if you come, I'm happy, but Chuzhou is not the place you should go."

His eyes were as dark as ink.

He said stubbornly, "You should go back to Jinling."

Jiang Rao wanted to refute him, but suddenly her head felt dizzy, her eyes went dark, and her consciousness faded.

Rong Ting withdrew his hand from pressing her sleep point, and when she was about to fall, he reached out to catch her. He lowered his eyes to look at her, smiled bitterly, and murmured, "How can a man carry his weak points with him when he marches to war?"

…

Jiang Rao didn't know how long she slept. She vaguely remembered someone coaxing her to take medicine. When she regained consciousness, her eyelids were heavy and she couldn't open them for a while. The sounds around her that fell into her ears made her feel very strange.

The sound of people talking.

It was her mother's voice.

"Niannian was given medicine, which is why she slept for such a long time. The medicine is not harmful to her body. The doctor said that she will wake up within half an hour."

Her eyelids were so heavy that she couldn't open them at all. Even so, she heard footsteps approaching her. It seemed that someone came up to her and looked at her for a while. Then, he said with satisfaction, "Humph, I guess Niannian was right."

It was her father's voice. She tried several times and finally opened her eyelids this time.

Looking at the familiar curtains and surrounding furnishings, she turned over and sat up.

She slowly turned her head and looked around.

There are no more lush forests and the almost reachable night sky, nor are there any more fireflies and stars in the sky.

There was only her father standing in front of her and her mother sitting beside her couch.

It was dark, but this was her own room.

She gradually realized something and her expression changed from dazed to sad.

She looked at Jiang Xingzhou and Jiang Qinshi for confirmation, "How did I get back?"

…

The caravan heading from Jinling to Huaizhou passed Kaizizhou one day later.

At night, they set up camp in the pastoral area. Rong Ting ordered people to buy dozens of sheep and roast them on the fire. The guards who followed him to Huaizhou shouted vigorously to distribute the lamb legs to the soldiers, "His Highness the Ninth Prince ordered that you have a good rest after eating this meal. We will have to travel tomorrow night, so we can rest well when we reach Qingzhou."

Rong Ting sat alone by the campfire and did not participate in the sheep-dividing activity. Some people wanted to get close to him, but retreated because of his indifferent expression.

His indifferent lowered gaze seemed to be looking at the campfire or something else.

He was still suffering from the disease, and although his strength had recovered and even increased a bit as he aged, he was always cold and had to wear heavier clothes than others.

The bonfire wood is burning vigorously, hissing

The flames reflected his fair and cool face, and also illuminated his left hand as he was playing with a pearl earring. His fingers were slender and the earring was small. His movements were very gentle and beautiful.

The sound of horses neighing came from behind.

The secret guard who rushed back from Jinling saw Rong Ting here, jumped off his horse and said, "I galloped my horse and sent the fourth young lady back. It was only the yin hour when we arrived at the Ning'an Marquis's mansion, and it was not even daybreak yet."

Rong Ting's eyes, which had been cold all day, finally showed some warmth. He curled his lips and said, "It's good to go back."

…

Jiang Rao also learned from Jiang Qinshi and Jiang Xingzhou that she returned to Jinling at the hour of Yin.

After coming back, he slept all day and couldn't be woken up even if we shouted.

She knew that Rong Ting had fed her the same medicine as last time.

She had been harmed by his medicine once, and this time she fell into his trap again.

Jiang Qin touched Jiang Rao's head and asked him, "Niannian, do you want to go?"

Jiang Rao's face was gloomy and he said nothing.

But she felt in her heart that she might not go again.

Only then did she understand the meaning of what he had said to her.

He had already planned to send her back to Jinling, and even thought of a reason to prevent her from leaving Jinling.

He never thought of letting her go to Chuzhou, but he blocked her way!

The saying "three people make a tiger" clearly wanted her to stay in Jinling with peace of mind.

It had already been two days since he left Jinling. If she went to look for him now, even if she knew which route he took, she might not be able to catch up with him.

What's more, she didn't even know the route he was going to take.

Obviously, I have already promised her, so why not let her go?

Jiang Rao lowered her head in frustration, and after thinking carefully, she realized that he had never expressed his opinion or said anything when she said he couldn't kick her out.

He never really promised her.

But the way she looked at him was not one of complaint or blame, she just felt that way one-sidedly.

Jiang Rao felt extremely frustrated for a moment.

Recently, he had clearly returned to the gentle and docile self that she was familiar with, but she gradually felt that her heart and eyes were not enough in front of him.

Although I feel disappointed, I really can't get angry.

She was just a little sad in her heart, sad because she couldn't disobey the emperor's order, and sad because of the natural disasters and man-made disasters.

She lowered her head and suddenly felt something wrong with her left ear.

I raised my hand and touched my earlobe, but it was empty.

She remembered that she was wearing a pair of pearl earrings and touched her right ear.

The touch of the pearls was lustrous and she changed the earring on her right ear. It turned out that she was wearing a pair of pearl earrings.

But left

The one on the ear is missing.

She thought about it carefully, but couldn't figure out where she had lost the earring. She slowly stroked her earlobe twice, then suddenly put her hand down and raised it in front of her eyes to take a look.

When I raised my wrist just now, I unexpectedly felt it was heavy, as if there was something extra.

When she saw the thing on the wrist, she exclaimed in her heart again, "As expected."

Sure enough, there was an extra string of things that she didn't wear herself.

But she was a little stunned when she saw it.

She recognized the extra thing.

This was the Buddhist beads she was given after she donated incense to the young monk in Sanqing Temple more than half a year ago.

At that time, she felt sorry for him because he couldn't even live a normal life like an ordinary child, so she put the Buddhist beads on his hands herself.

The color of the Buddhist beads has become somewhat mottled, as if they have been worn by their owner for a long time.

Jiang Rao remembered that she told him to take it off and throw it away when he got tired of wearing it, but he never threw it away. She couldn't help but curl the corners of her lips, but after she smiled, her lips shrank again and her eyes turned red.

This is probably the only object on him that can bring him blessings and avoid disasters.

It wrapped around twice and returned to her wrist.