Chapter 83: Fallen Petals

"Then I'll change my clothes first."

He stayed at the inn every day, and although he wasn't exactly disheveled, his clothes weren't particularly fancy either.

But when going out to admire the flowers, one should dress more formally. He looked through the clothes he had brought on the trip; they were all plain-colored, and two of them had been torn on the way.

He flipped through the clothes until he found only one decent-looking garment. His hand hovered over the garment for a long time before he finally decided to take it out.

This red garment was the one Xie Pei gave him. After receiving it, he thought the color was too bright and put it away. However, before coming to Jizhou, he took it out again while packing his clothes, for some unknown reason.

This outfit is appropriate for enjoying the flowers, but it's too flashy. His cheeks felt hot, and he was still struggling with the decision.

Xie Pei seemed to see through his thoughts and explained calmly, "The people of Jizhou especially like red, and there are more than a dozen varieties. People of all ages and genders in the city love to wear red clothes."

Zhu Mingyue noticed that even if people on the street weren't wearing red outer garments, they would still have clusters of embroidery sewn on their cuffs or chests, just like Aunt Huayi wore when she fled. So, Xie Pei probably just wanted to send him this garment as a local specialty of Jizhou, right?

After Xie Pei's explanation, Zhu Mingyue was no longer so embarrassed to wear the dress out.

He looked at Xie Pei with a puzzled expression.

Xie Pei: "Hmm?"

Zhu Mingyue: "I'm going to change my clothes." So why are you still standing here instead of leaving?

Xie Pei coughed twice. "I'll wait for you downstairs."

After the door closed, Zhu Mingyue quickly changed into a red dress. There happened to be a bronze mirror in the room, only the size of a washbasin. Zhu Mingyue tied her belt and turned around twice in front of the mirror, just enough to see her waist.

I must say, it really looks good on. Although it's red, it's clearly a men's style, so it doesn't look feminine at all. Instead, it gives off a more refined and scholarly vibe.

Zhu Mingyue was quite satisfied with the effect of his upper body, and on a whim, he became a little vain. He noticed that his hair had grown a lot, so he imitated a scholar and tied it up casually with a rope, letting it hang loosely on his back. Before leaving, he washed his face again.

Li Zhengyang was giving the horse water when he saw Zhu Mingyue gracefully descending the stairs in a long red dress, and a hint of amazement flashed in his eyes.

He had long ago deeply appreciated that Zhu Mingyue looked good in red. Since coming to Jizhou, he had become accustomed to seeing men wearing red on the streets, but none of them could wear the clothes as fresh and elegantly as Zhu Mingyue.

"Where are you going?" Li Zhengyang asked hesitantly.

Zhu Mingyue's brows were filled with barely concealed excitement: "I'm going to admire the peach blossoms along the Jizhou River."

No wonder, she's dressed like a blooming peach blossom, which is quite fitting for the occasion.

"Am I going too?" Li Zhengyang looked at Xie Pei expectantly. He had benefited from Zhu Mingyue's help today and had a rare opportunity to relax outside the military camp, so he naturally wanted to stay out longer.

Let me go! Let me go! He prayed in his heart, hoping that Xie Bapi would make an exception for him in front of Zhu Mingyue.

Xie Pei gave him a deep look: "You know how to appreciate flowers?"

If anyone else had said that, Li Zhengyang would have exploded long ago. Actually, he's not much better off now, but Xie Pei is in a superior position to him, so he can't speak out even if he's angry.

What do you mean he understands flower appreciation? Is he blind? Or is it that he can't stomach fine chaff?

That being said, it's true that he lacks that kind of refinement, but how much better is Xie Pei? They're pretty much evenly matched, in fact, Xie Pei is the one who's evenly matched.

Zhu Mingyue also felt it was inappropriate. After all, Li Zhengyang was her friend, and her friend just wanted to go flower viewing with them. How could she refuse?

He considered pleading with Xie Pei on behalf of his friend.

Xie Pei said in a cool tone, "A batch of black armor was sent to the camp a few days ago, only about fifty pieces."

Li Zhengyang instantly understood and his expression changed: "I suddenly remembered that there is a training exercise today. I really need to go back early, otherwise those kids will cause a huge uproar."

That's a Xuanjia armor! It's something that soldiers in any military camp would envy.

Before Zhu Mingyue could finish speaking, Li Zhengyang cheerfully bid him farewell and then grinned as he climbed onto the horse's back.

Zhu Mingyue watched him walk away, bouncing from side to side. "Your military camp is really intense. You can still train even like this. Are you sure you're okay?" It's too cruel to treat your own backside like this.

Xie Pei remained silent for a few seconds before speaking: "It's alright."

Xie Pei nimbly flipped and leaped onto the horse, then extended his long, strong hand toward him.

The moment Zhu Mingyue touched his palm, she was instantly lifted up by a powerful force and landed steadily on the horse's back.

The horse trotted through the streets with crisp, light steps, and soon after leaving the bustling city, it reached a desolate place. Xie Pei lightly flicked the reins, and the horse neighed as if it understood, its four hooves suddenly accelerating.

"So fast!" Zhu Mingyue felt as if everything on both sides had become an illusion. She felt both bewildered and extremely excited, as if the blood in her whole body was clamoring.

A gust of wind swept by, and Zhu Mingyue's hair was already disheveled, even her red clothes were fluttering in the air and hitting Xie Pei's hand holding the reins.

"Hold me tight," Xie Pei said gently.

Upon hearing this, Zhu Mingyue changed her grip on Xie Pei's clothes to wrap them around his waist, subtly tightening her grip. Horseback riding was exciting, but falling off would be disastrous.

He peeked out from behind Xie Pei, curiously observing everything. As they approached a riverbank, he warned, "Xie Pei, there are ditches all ahead."

Xie Pei smiled, yanked the reins, and the horse's hooves leaped into the air, tracing a graceful arc before landing steadily and continuing its gallop without splashing a drop of water.

"So cool!" Zhu Mingyue was overwhelmed with excitement. No wonder poets of the past wrote verses like "In my youth, I was dashing and spirited, and in a single day I saw all the flowers of Chang'an." Zhu Mingyue had never found them interesting before, but now she could finally appreciate them.

Before Zhu Mingyue had had enough of riding, the horse had already reached the edge of the peach blossom grove.

Xie Pei dismounted first and helped him down. Zhu Mingyue walked to the horse's head, touched its face, and praised, "What a fine horse!"

The horse's tail swayed gently, and it nuzzled him with its head, blowing hot breath from its nostrils into his palm. Zhu Mingyue felt a tickle in his palm and giggled for a while.

Xie Pei led it to the riverbank, where it leisurely lowered its head to graze.

The peach orchard in front of us was like a boundless expanse of rosy clouds. Even before entering the depths of the orchard, we could smell the sweet and refreshing fragrance in the air, strong but not unpleasant.

Seeing that he seemed to be staring blankly, Xie Pei reminded him, "Go inside and take a walk."

Zhu Mingyue nodded, "Of course we should go in and take a look, otherwise the trip will not have been in vain."

The two walked side by side into the peach grove. After walking for an unknown amount of time, Zhu Mingyue felt her eyes were getting blurry. Ahead of her was a peach tree that had fallen to the ground for some unknown reason. Zhu Mingyue also felt tired after walking for so long, so she pointed over there and said, "Let's go over there and rest for a while."

A peach blossom slowly fell to the ground. Zhu Mingyue picked it up and played with it in his palm. Xie Pei didn't say anything, but just sat with him and enjoyed the scenery.

"Xie Pei," Zhu Mingyue suddenly asked, "Is it very tiring in the military camp?"

Xie Pei replied, "It's alright." For him, being able to eat his fill was not bad. He didn't feel it was hard, nor did he feel it when he was fighting the enemy. He didn't even feel it when he was chasing enemy spies deep into enemy territory.

But every time the night is still and quiet, in the dead of night, my mind is filled with the image of someone—his laughter, his tears, his talkativeness, the times I confided my grievances to him, and the times I shared with him…

But no matter how vivid a dream is, it can never compare to the real person. He yearned even more to experience that thrilling, tangible sensation in reality.

He often thought that there was probably no one in this world who tormented him more than the person before him. Zhu Mingyue was like both poison and antidote, capable of both driving him to the brink of death and bringing him back to life.

Zhu Mingyue said "Oh," knowing it must have been tough, but Xie Pei was used to crying, or perhaps she just didn't want to tell him.

The atmosphere seemed to have become a bit heavy, which Zhu Mingyue didn't like. With such beautiful scenery and such good weather, they should be saying things that would make people happy.

It was only then that he remembered that he had something important to say: "Not long after the beginning of spring, I demolished your original house and built a two-courtyard house, just as we had discussed beforehand."

“I built two main rooms and two side rooms on the east and west sides. I made the courtyard very large so that you won’t feel restricted when you practice martial arts in the courtyard after you come home.”

"Er Ya no longer has to stay on the eaves when it's windy or rainy like before. Now, when she has nothing to do, she likes to fly low and play in the corridor, which is quite funny. Since you came to Jizhou, no one has accompanied her to hunt in the mountains. The shop is very busy, and sometimes I am so dizzy that I can't take care of her. So she hunts by herself, and sometimes she can even bring back a little rabbit for me to eat."

"By the way, since I'm the only one living here now, I haven't prepared all the furniture. I've only prepared the room for the two of us. As for the rest, you can arrange it according to your own preferences after you get married and have children."

Upon hearing this, Xie Pei's smile froze, and his previously relaxed brows slowly furrowed.

When he spoke again, his voice seemed to be tinged with coldness: "I will not marry anyone else in the future."

"Huh?" He said it so suddenly that Zhu Mingyue didn't even react for a moment.

Xie Pei looked at him with utmost seriousness: "In short, I will not marry. Don't worry about someone who doesn't exist."

He paused, his tone cold and hard: "Arrange the east and west wing rooms according to your own preferences." He even offered his own suggestions: "They can be used as studies or woodsheds, it's up to you."

"Huh?" Zhu Mingyue heard clearly this time, but was so surprised that she didn't know what to say.

Xie Pei: "From now on, there will only be the two of us in the Xie family, so two main rooms will be enough."

Zhu Mingyue hesitated, "Isn't this a bit inappropriate? What if we don't have enough room later..."

Xie Pei slowly turned his head, his deep black pupils staring intently at him, and said almost word by word, "Does sister-in-law intend to marry someone else in the future?"

Zhu Mingyue quickly shook his head. For some reason, he always felt that Xie Pei's expressionless face seemed to conceal a murderous intent, which would erupt if he said something wrong. Of course, he knew very well that this murderous intent was not directed at him.

Zhu Mingyue swallowed hard and asked calmly, "You don't want me to get married in the future?" That's true. Not to mention that he doesn't have such plans at the moment, he has already registered his household in the Xie family and even caused Xie Pei to take his place in the army. Just for this affection, he will take good care of the Xie family for Xie Pei until Xie Pei returns.

Xie Pei didn't answer him. Lost in thought, he suddenly laughed. A low laugh escaped his throat, seemingly carrying some ambiguous emotions.

Just then, a gentle breeze blew by, causing the peach branches to sway slightly, and the peach blossoms fell like raindrops, a breathtakingly beautiful sight. Zhu Mingyue was completely captivated by this stunning scenery.

By sheer coincidence, petals fell all over her head without her noticing.

Xie Pei reached out and smoothed the stray hairs from his forehead before Zhu Mingyue snapped out of his shock. "I can do it myself," he said.

Xie Pei sighed, "Don't move." The petals had been completely removed.

It was getting late, so Zhu Mingyue suggested heading back. On the way back, Zhu Mingyue chatted with him casually.

"Xie Pei, you just said you don't want to get married, why is that?" He didn't have any desire to control other people's lives, he was just simply curious.

Xie Pei replied without hesitation, "For no reason."

He then added, "It's not that I'm unwilling to get married."

Zhu Mingyue didn't understand. He was willing one moment and unwilling the next, which seemed contradictory. But he was just asking; it would be impolite to pry.

Xie Pei escorted the person to the inn. Zhu Mingyue dismounted and whispered to the horse, "Thank you for your hard work."

A bird's head peeked out from the second floor. Er Ya had gone off to play somewhere earlier and there was no sign of the bird. Li Zhengyang hadn't seen Er Ya before he left and had been muttering a few words of dissatisfaction. He never expected that the bird would fly back to the inn from somewhere.

It still remembered Xie Pei, and flew to Xie Pei's shoulder. Knowing that Xie Pei didn't like it rubbing against him, it cackled to express its affection. Xie Pei somewhat awkwardly stroked Er Ya's head with his hand, but he didn't control his strength well and almost pressed Er Ya's head into his furry chest.

Zhu Mingyue chuckled. The two serious faces, both expressionless, were juxtaposed, creating an incredibly cute scene. He thought to himself that if only he had a camera, he could take a picture to remember the moment.

As the sun slowly sank behind the western mountains and darkness gradually fell, Zhu Mingyue urged, "You should hurry back to the military camp!"

"Yes," Xie Pei replied. "Wang Zongxiu said the caravan will depart for the capital the day after tomorrow."

“Yes,” Zhu Mingyue nodded, “I will have to go back to Ganzhou with them then. Actually, I should have left two days ago, but I couldn’t find you and Li Zhengyang, so I delayed. Now that I’ve finally seen you, I’m relieved. I’ll pack up tomorrow and set off the day after. I can’t delay them any longer.”

Xie Pei lowered his eyes and said, "I'll come see you again tomorrow." After saying that, he mounted his horse. Er Ya stood on the horse's head as if it were her right to ride it.

Zhu Mingyue's heart stirred and she said, "Can Er Ya come with you to the army camp for a while? It will remember to come back when it gets tired. If it can't remember the way, you can come back tomorrow and take it with you."

"It's just a big bird, nothing's impossible," Xie Pei nodded in agreement and rode away.

It was quite lively on Li Zhengyang's side.

Several former teammates sat together, including Sun Kan, watching him show off the things his family had asked Zhu Mingyue to send, and they were all filled with envy.

In this day and age, it's common knowledge how difficult it is to send things from one's hometown to Jizhou. Not only are the prices exorbitant, but most merchants don't even dare to enter the city gates of Jizhou.

Apart from Li Zhengyang, everyone else present had lost contact with their families after leaving their hometown.

Li Zhengyang couldn't hide his joy and handed each of them a white flour pancake: "Here, this is a pancake my mother made herself, made with fine flour."

Everyone accepted it without hesitation. White flour cakes were a good thing; they ate millet porridge in the army camp, which the imperial court was reluctant to provide. They had never tasted refined rice or flour since joining the army.

Sun Kan took a bite on the spot. Actually, after sitting for so many days, it was quite tough to eat, but he still looked nostalgic and, after savoring it carefully, exclaimed, "Delicious!"

"Nonsense," the tall Yuan Fei rolled his eyes at him, "How could noodles made with thin noodles not taste good?"

Seeing his brothers praising things he used to dislike, Li Zhengyang said somewhat embarrassedly, "It's alright! You guys haven't tried Mingyue's pancakes. They're even better than my mother's."

"That must taste amazing!" someone exclaimed.

Li Zhengyang tilted his head and thought for a moment: "Hmm, Mingyue is very skilled and generous with his ingredients. He rarely makes this kind of plain white flour pancake. The pancakes he makes are all filled with a lot of meat filling with a good balance of lean and fat. They are fried in oil and the aroma when they come out of the pan is intoxicating. One bite and your lips and teeth are filled with the rich, oily fragrance."

Sun Kan corrected him: "It should be 'the fragrance lingers on the lips and teeth.'" He even boasted about being educated!

Li Zhengyang chuckled, "They're all the same, they're all delicious. The noodles are soft and fluffy, and they don't gnaw on your teeth at all. I can eat eight of them in one sitting."

Yuan Fei quickly replied, "Then I can eat ten in one meal."

The sounds of frantically swallowing saliva filled the air, even Li Zhengyang silently swallowed; he'd made himself crave it. Unfortunately, Zhu Mingyue said these cakes didn't keep well and she hadn't brought any for them.

Only Sun Kan wasn't focused on eating. He silently observed the others' pathetic gluttony for a while, then slowly voiced the question that had been nagging at him:

"So, who is Mingyue?"