Chapter 67 Leaving: "I've come to say goodbye."

The moonlight was soft and pale, the long street was quiet, and the air was filled with the sweet fragrance of osmanthus. In the distance, a watchman walked by, and the clear and melodious sound of his clapper echoed quietly.

Xiao Qiyu carried Cui Ying on his back as they walked down the street, his maroon cloak draped over the hem of his ink-black robe, swaying gently.

His steps were steady, and his broad shoulders made the girl appear exceptionally petite, highlighting the difference in their physiques.

Once Cui Ying's anger subsided, her mouth became lively again. When she mentioned Xiao Qiyu's roundabout attack strategies, she became so excited that she danced around and kept talking about her opinions. Her body involuntarily twisted, and her entire chest pressed against Xiao Qiyu's back.

A beautiful young woman of sixteen or seventeen has a body as soft as butter, and Cui Ying is already well-proportioned, making her more voluptuous than other girls her age.

As Xiao Qiyu carried her on his back, he felt as if he were carrying a soft, fragrant piece of silk. His hard back was being caressed by that softness, and his mind was filled with all sorts of inappropriate thoughts, like bamboo shoots after a spring rain.

"Cui Ying," Xiao Qiyu took a sip of the cool autumn night air, trying to suppress the rising heat in his lower abdomen, and swallowed, "Could you please stop moving around?"

"Um?"

Cui Ying's voice stopped abruptly. She stretched her soft body upwards, pressing her chest against Xiao Qiyu's shoulder blade, and tilted her head to look at him: "What did you just say?"

Lost in her own thoughts, she didn't hear his voice at all.

The moonlight was bright and clear.

Xiao Qiyu looked at the street, but he could feel Cui Ying's gaze on him very clearly. Her sweet breath sprayed on his neck, and her long, curled eyelashes fluttered. Even though she was far away, he felt as if she had brushed against his cheek, sending shivers down his spine.

"nothing."

His voice was deeper than the night, with a barely perceptible low hue.

"That's ridiculous." Cui Ying retorted, oblivious to his strange behavior. Her fingers unconsciously tugged at the fabric of his shoulder as she pressed him for an answer. "By the way, you still haven't answered me. You just said you wanted to infiltrate the bandit suppression team. How do you plan to do that? Tell me about it."

Xiao Qiyu felt short of breath.

The soft pressure on his shoulder blades and the warm breath on his neck almost sucked the air out of his body.

He took another deep breath of the cool autumn night air; the crispness entered his lungs and seemed to dispel the heat within him, allowing him to answer in as calm a tone as possible: "This is not difficult."

"First, try to obtain a fake household registration in a remote place to erase your origins. When the imperial army sets off, find a town along their marching route that they must pass through, and pretend to be a local militia who came to join the army after hearing about the bandit suppression. At that time, you only need to show that you can read and have some skills in martial arts and archery. Since the army is in need of people, they will most likely accept you."

Cui Ying listened attentively, then let out a meaningful "Oh~" and said with a grin, "I see."

Xiao Qiyu paused for a moment, then immediately turned his head warily, his phoenix eyes staring seriously at Cui Ying, the moonlight outlining his sharp gaze.

"Why are you asking this?" Xiao Qiyu said in a deep voice.

Cui Ying smiled brightly, her face completely innocent: "Just a little bit of curiosity."

Xiao Qiyu frowned deeply and said in a cold voice, "Cui Ying, give up on that idea. I will never take you there, and you can forget about sneaking in yourself."

Cui Ying immediately stopped laughing, snorted, and turned her face away: "I have no interest in going to such desolate and barren places!"

As she turned her head, her neck trembled, pressing heavily against Xiao Qiyu's hard spine.

Xiao Qiyu was startled by her unconscious movement, and after a moment of silence, he suppressed the surging fire within him. His voice was low and extremely solemn: "You stay at home obediently, not only for your own safety, but also to cover for me."

“I will have to keep my departure a secret from my family. The army will travel from the capital to southern Jiangxi, which will take at least half a month to more than a month. During this time, you will need to find a way to keep it a secret for me. Once I arrive in southern Jiangxi, I will write a letter home to explain the whole story and report that I am safe.”

"Okay." Cui Ying agreed readily without the slightest hesitation.

Her warm breath brushed against his ear again, filled with absolute certainty and confidence: "Don't worry, I've got it covered!"

The girl's voice was crisp and sweet, echoing in the desolate autumn night, like a gentle breeze blowing into the depths of Xiao Qiyu's heart, instantly making the spring waters ripple and everything bright.

He suddenly felt an indescribable comfort and warmth, as if the moonlight, which was shining all over the sky, had finally fallen solely on him.

But then, another thought surfaced in my mind.

"In that case, I will definitely miss the provincial examination in October."

Xiao Qiyu paused, a barely perceptible hesitation creeping into his voice. After a moment of silence, he spoke hesitantly, even cautiously, "Cui Ying, are you disappointed in me?"

Cui Ying blinked, unconvinced: "What am I disappointed about?"

Xiao Qiyu: "After all, I promised you that I would definitely take the provincial examination."

It's strange, even though whether he goes or not only affects him, he doesn't want to see a look of disappointment on her face.

Cui Ying stretched her waist over his shoulder, shifting to a more comfortable position, with her legs wrapped around his narrow waist and her hands resting naturally on his shoulders.

“I’ve heard that the bandits who are entrenched in southern Jiangxi are extremely vicious,” Cui Ying said. “They not only intercept caravans and plunder government grain, but they also prey on unarmed civilians.”

“Killing people and slaughtering villages, setting fire to houses, were commonplace for them. They left no one alive wherever they went, and even took pleasure in torturing people, disemboweling them, cutting off their ears and limbs as if it were child’s play.”

Cui Ying enunciated clearly and solemnly, her voice trembling slightly: "I also heard that they invented a cruel torture called 'lighting the sky lantern,' which involves wrapping a living person in cloth, soaking them in oil, and then burning them alive."

"Absolutely outrageous!"

Cui Ying took a deep breath, and when she spoke again, her tone became extremely firm. She whispered in Xiao Qiyu's ear, "If you can really find a way to eradicate this scourge and restore peace to the people, how many people would that benefit? Isn't that much more important and meaningful than you taking the provincial examination and earning a title?"

"So how could I possibly be disappointed?"

Cui Ying smiled and said, "I only think that you are a man of integrity who can take things in stride and is a true hero."

Xiao Qiyu did not stop walking, nor did his expression change.

Yet, my heart felt as if a huge boulder had been thrown at it, and waves of turmoil surged forth.

He was dizzy from Cui Ying's words, his heart pounding like a drum, and the words he heard were fragmented and disjointed. A sentence that was clearly coherent and complete became, in his ears, as:

"I feel...you...are my husband..."

Xiao Qiyu nodded, her ears burning red, completely forgetting what they had been talking about, and said earnestly, "You're right."

Although their marriage was in name only, as long as they were not divorced, he was her husband.

Cui Ying's husband.

...

Ten days later, the troops dispatched by the imperial court to suppress the bandits set off as scheduled, their banners waving, leaving the capital and heading south.

Having spent a considerable amount of time on the matter, Cui Ying had forgotten about Xiao Qiyu's plan, continuing to eat and drink as usual, playing with cats and admiring flowers, living a carefree life.

That night, dew dripped from Qiyun Pavilion, and stars twinkled everywhere.

Before going to bed, Cui Ying ate a bowl of longan and bird's nest soup that had been kept warm in the small kitchen. She was fast asleep, with a crab roe dumpling at her feet, snoring away. The room was quiet and peaceful, with a faint aroma of goose pears lingering inside and out.

In a state between sleep and wakefulness, Cui Ying felt a stinging discomfort on her face, as if a gaze was watching her.

She struggled to open her eyes and, in the dim light, looked out of the curtains. There stood a blurry black figure, silent and still, almost blending into the desolate night outside the window.

"Who is it?" She sensed that the other person's gaze was not malicious, so she assumed it was one of the maids on duty and asked lazily.

But as soon as he finished speaking, Cui Ying realized that he had never had a maid with such a tall stature beside him.

She sat up abruptly, her sleepy eyes widening suddenly, and she opened her mouth to scream.

"Don't be afraid, it's me." A deliberately lowered, yet incredibly familiar voice rang out just in time.

The figure took half a step forward, carrying the damp scent of night dew, and parted the curtains, its outline gradually becoming clear.

Xiao Qiyu changed into a coarse linen outfit, dark in color, which wrapped around his tall and strong body, tightly binding his broad shoulders and narrow waist to create a neat silhouette.

His long hair was tied up with an ordinary strip of cloth, and even his face was covered with a special kind of black ash, which concealed his originally fair complexion. From head to toe, he was covered in ash and dirt, losing all the noble and noble air of a young master from a prominent family.

Only those narrow, phoenix-shaped eyes that looked at Cui Ying were deep and unfathomable in the dim light, their emotions unreadable, yet beneath their calm surface radiating a burning intensity.

"Xiao Qiyu?"

Cui Ying recognized him at a glance, and her heart finally settled back into her stomach. Her body went limp back into the bed.

She glared at him fiercely, but her voice, surprisingly soft and nasal, carried the gentle tone of someone just waking up: "Why are you here in the middle of the night, playing tricks on me instead of sleeping?"

The hazy moonlight streamed through the window, outlining the slender figure of a young girl lying in bed, her nightgown slightly open due to her movements, revealing a small section of her delicate, jade-like neck, her collarbone exquisite, flushed with a faint pink.

Xiao Qiyu's gaze lingered on her face for a moment, then shifted somewhat awkwardly to the twinkling stars outside the window. His Adam's apple bobbed almost imperceptibly, and his voice was heavy:

"I've come to say goodbye."

Cui Ying felt sleepy as soon as her head hit the pillow. Her eyes were already closed, and her mind was not clear. She didn't hear what Xiao Qiyu was saying, so she yawned and said, "Okay, okay, you can go now."

Don't disturb her sleep.

A gentle breeze enters through the window, causing the curtains to sway lightly.

Xiao Qiyu's brow twitched, as if stung by a bee, and even the veins on his forehead bulged.

He strode into the bedchamber, bent down, and pressed his tall frame against the girl's soft body. His thin lips were close to her ear, and his voice was icy: "I said, I'm saying goodbye to you."

Not satisfied, he reached out and gently pinched Cui Ying's cheek, speaking slowly and deliberately:

"I'm leaving."

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Author's Note: Meibao: The number you dialed is not in service area.