Chapter 40: There is a flower thief in the wolf training!
Zhou Heng arrived in Yan'an Prefecture on the day of the first snow.
The first snow was as fine as powder and dotted like stars, and tiny white flowers bloomed on Zhou Heng's hair, making his features and temperament look even more picturesque. He was also wearing a Taoist robe, and ordinary people would think he was a god from heaven when they saw him.
He did not alert the officials of Yan'an Prefecture and headed straight for the courtyard where Zhou Xian was staying. This time, he only brought a few personal guards with him, while the rest of the accompanying officials went to Yulin Guard, Huamachi, and Ningxia Guard first.
The small courtyard was quiet and peaceful, blanketed in a blanket of fine snow. As dusk fell, a lantern was lit in front of the courtyard door, its warm, yellow light making the snow look like falling golden fragments.
Zhou Heng dismounted, handed the horse to a servant to take to the stable, and then went into the backyard alone.
"Hello, Your Highness Prince Rui." A pretty maid emerged from the room. It was Qianshan. She lifted the thick felt curtain and said with a smile, "The princess was just now muttering, thinking he wouldn't arrive until at least tomorrow morning. Unexpectedly, he's here tonight! Dinner is just around the corner. I'll ask the kitchen to prepare some delicious dishes and warm up some good wine."
Zhou Heng asked her, "Is the princess feeling better?"
Qianshan replied, "She's almost all right now, but as you know, Your Highness, the princess can't sit still. She went to the mountains to get some fresh air a few days ago, and she started coughing again yesterday. It's really worrying."
Zhou Heng said indifferently, "I'll go talk to him right away."
Qianshan led him into the house. When he saw Zhou Shan leaning on the kang, he secretly stuck out his tongue behind Zhou Heng. She had sold her own princess again. Zhou Shan would be scolded later.
"Sixth Brother!" Zhou Xian smiled when she saw Zhou Heng. He had been writing in his room all day without leaving. He wore a cloak casually draped over his body, and there was a rabbit pattern on his forehead. Every time he moved, the fur on the rabbit pattern trembled, making it look like a little rabbit lying on his forehead.
"Sixth brother?" Zhou Heng sneered, sat down next to Zhou Shan, and pinched Zhou Shan's face. "If you still think of me as your brother, then you should get me medical treatment and medicine. Look at how spoiled I've become."
Zhou Xian's expression changed. "Did that girl Qianshan complain to you?"
"Why do you need to complain? Don't I know what kind of person you are?" Zhou Heng released his hand that was pinching her cheek and lightly tapped Zhou Shan's forehead. Zhou Shan let out an "ouch" and looked at Zhou Heng pitifully.
Zhou Heng couldn't bear to scold him anymore. He glanced at the paper and pen on the table and asked, "What are you writing?"
Zhou Xian rubbed his head and said, "Hmm... I'm writing back to Zhang Jinwei. That guy is so annoying. He sends someone to bring back a letter every few days, full of nonsense. He gets upset if I don't reply!"
Zhou Heng smiled: "Why are you telling me all this? I don't have time to help you scold him." After that, he took out a bulging bag from his sleeve, opened it and placed it in front of Zhou Shan. It was shining with gold, and it was actually a big bag of gold.
"My family is not so poor that we need Sixth Brother's help..." Zhou Xian didn't understand what he meant, but he was also greedy for the pile of gold and didn't know whether he should accept it or not.
Zhou Heng knocked his head again: "Didn't you hire that monk named Fang Yuan before? He said he couldn't fulfill the agreement and asked me to return the money you paid him."
Zhou Xian was surprised: "You... know each other?"
Zhou Heng didn't want to say more, just said: "Just a friend."
friend……?
Zhou Xian suddenly remembered the Daxinglong Temple incident in April. If Baldy was Zhou Heng's friend...
"Don't let your imagination run wild." How could Zhou Heng not know what Zhou Xian was speculating about? He explained, "I did interfere in that matter, but not much. Fang Yuan didn't just do things for me. We were friends, but not accomplices."
Zhou Xian said softly, "Oh." He felt a little lost for some reason.
At this time, Yu Xi came in to greet Zhou Heng and helped Zhou Shan clear the table. She smiled and said, "Dinner will be ready soon. I'll ask the maids to come in and serve the dishes. Your Highness, would you like some wine? The kitchen has warmed up some rice wine from Guanlong, but I'm not sure if Your Highness is used to it."
Zhou Heng said, "I don't drink, but you can ask them to bring some up. By the way, where's Mu Guang? Ask him to come in for dinner. I have something to ask him."
Zhou Xian, who was drawing small flowers on a piece of letter paper for Zhang Jinwei, suddenly started coughing when he heard this. Zhou Heng had no choice but to help him smooth his back and asked, "What are you doing again?"
After Zhou Xian finished coughing, he said in shock, "Don't you hate him?!"
Zhou Heng looked calm and said, "If you hate me, can't we eat together?"
That's true.
But Zhou Xian inexplicably felt that the meal would not be very delicious.
The atmosphere froze the moment Mu Guang entered the room.
As lively and active as a thousand mountains, he didn't even dare to breathe while serving food and pouring wine, and hurried out of the house to talk to someone. So the only ones left in the room were the calm Zhou Heng, the silent Mu Guang... and the restless Zhou Shan.
Zhou Heng picked up his chopsticks, picked up a piece of wild rice, and placed it in his mouth gracefully. He then picked up the almond milk and gestured to the two people in front of him, saying with a smile, "Why don't you eat it?"
He did not eat meat or drink alcohol, so most of the dishes on the table were vegetarian. There was also a pot of roasted lamb and a large bowl of rice wine, which were specially prepared for Mu Guang.
Zhou Xian also wanted to eat mutton, but her chopsticks were circling around the pot, but she didn't dare to pick them up.
"Want to eat?" Zhou Heng smiled at him. "Mutton is an irritant. If you eat it, will you cough to death? Isn't there stewed chicken on the table? Stewed chicken is no worse than mutton. Speaking of which, I've asked a friend from the martial arts world to come and treat you. He'll be here in a few days. Just take the medicine and you can eat whatever you want from now on."
Zhou Shan had no choice but to gnaw on the chicken leg in humiliation.
The chef in the kitchen, taking his health into consideration, had made the stewed chicken extra light, a match made in heaven for the rich, richly sauced roasted lamb. If Zhang Jinwei were present, he would have insisted on having a small piece of lamb, but the man before him was Zhou Heng, who never conceded when it came to Zhou Shan's health.
"Your Highness."
Mu Guang took a big gulp of wine, and the alcohol rose to his face, making it flush red. He was a tall and strong man, sitting upright on a stool, his back straight, like a cautious wolf. He said, "You're looking for me, but what happened in the capital?"
"Do you know why His Majesty wants to negotiate peace?" Zhou Heng said calmly.
"Please give me some advice, Your Highness." Mu Guang lowered his head and said respectfully.
Zhou Heng stood up and walked around behind Mu Guang. He placed his pale, graceful fingers on Mu Guang's shoulder and said with a smile, "It's not a complicated matter. His Majesty has been obsessed with alchemy and cultivation lately. He suddenly realized the meaning of warmongering, but the war has already started, so he had no choice but to ask me to come and negotiate peace... This is a good thing, but the alchemy he made is not a good one..."
This scene made Zhou Xian inexplicably feel that his brother was training a wolf. He watched Zhou Heng's hand pressing on Mu Guang's shoulder, but Mu Guang was shaking constantly, and his handsome face was covered with sweat.
"May I ask, Your Highness, who instigated the Emperor to make the elixir?" Mu Guang asked in a low voice.
"King Xuan." Zhou Heng released his hand and wiped his fingers carefully with a handkerchief. The smile on his face gradually faded.
"Your Highness wants me to return to the capital... to keep an eye on Prince Xuan?"
"Is Lord Mu willing? After all, Lord Mu is also needed on the front line, and it may not be easy for him to get away." Zhou Heng sat back on the kang and picked up a piece of vegetarian food with chopsticks and put it into Zhou Shan's bowl.
Zhou Shan was reluctant, but he couldn't disturb Zhou Heng at the critical moment, so he had to swallow his pride and eat the vegetarian food.
"...Your Highness, please allow me to think about it." Mu Guang said vaguely.
"No rush." Zhou Heng smiled.
Zhou Xian breathed a sigh of relief when he saw Mu Guang.
After finishing this extremely difficult dinner, Zhou Xian handed the letter to Mu Guang, who seemed a little drunk. Seeing that he was already unconscious, she couldn't help but ask with concern, "Are you okay? I'll ask the kitchen to make you some sobering soup."
"It's nothing, thank you, Princess." Mu Guang smiled at him, but his body was staggering from side to side, which made Zhou Shan tremble in his heart.
It’s just a few bowls of wine, how could you get so drunk?
Fortunately, Mu Guang hadn't forgotten Zhou Shan's letter, so he tucked it away safely and stumbled away. Zhou Shan stood in the corridor for a moment, his heart moved. He turned his head and saw his brother standing not far away, his cold eyes looking somewhere unknown.
…
At the border between Shanxi and Shaanxi, a group of people were resting by a fire beside a forest. Suddenly, a dark shadow jumped out of the carriage and started to run.
In the vast snow, the black shadow ran very fast.
"Catch him! Don't let him get away!"
"This old guy! So annoying!"
"Don't run away, old man. You can't outrun us!"
The eunuchs from the Eastern Depot leaped to their feet upon seeing this. With a few quick moves, the dark figure was tethered and tied up. He laughed heartily in the snow, and when he had laughed enough, he suddenly burst into tears: "You rotten eunuchs! I didn't do anything wrong, yet you tied me up in this freezing snow. You said you were taking me to see my grandson, but where is my grandson? You're going to kill me out there and make sure my body isn't found!"
"Okay, okay, old man, behave yourself. We will be here in a few days. You are running, running, running. You ran away when I wasn't paying attention. I don't know how you broke the rope." An eunuch from the East Factory picked up the old man and threw him back into the carriage. There was a shivering young man huddled in the carriage. When he saw the old man, he was so scared that he almost cried.
The eunuch complained to his colleagues, "Oh, seriously! If Eunuch Wang hadn't told us not to knock this old man out, I would have knocked him unconscious. I dug three feet deep in the capital to find this old man. I thought he would be quiet, but he ends up running around on the road every day!"
A colleague said, "It will be here in a few days! Let's go quickly. Maybe we can even go back to the capital to celebrate the New Year."
The eunuchs' voices gradually faded away. Sun Yi fell into the carriage, staring at the thin layer of snow outside, and suddenly heaved a long sigh.
…
After seeing Zhou Heng and Mu Guang off, Zhou Shan continued writing his works.
He could write and draw. He wrote and drew while the snow outside the window fell and stopped, and the war on the front line remained at a stalemate. This went on for half a month.
It was the middle of the night, and he was half asleep when he suddenly felt someone lying on him. The person kissed him and his hands were touching his waist.
Zhou Xian cursed, "Where did this flower-stealing thief come from! Auntie—Qianshan—come quickly!"
"Shh." The flower thief whispered in his ear, "I'll only be back for one night. I have to leave tomorrow morning. Let me kiss you, okay?"
Zhou Xian struggled: "No, if you touch me again I'll call for help!"
The flower thief pinned him down, pulled down his underwear, and asked softly, "Then why did you tell me not to write to you?"
Zhou Xian felt that Zhang Jinwei was indeed sick.
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