According to the pace of Zhu Jiayu's group, it would take about two days to travel south from Suiping to Heling.
Fortunately, the group had a peaceful day.
It was already late. Zhu Jiayu lit a candle and looked at the map. They were in the middle of nowhere, and it would take at least two hours to get to the nearest inn.
By then it would be almost dawn.
Zhu Jiayu thought for a moment and said, "Let's stop here and rest for the night, then continue our journey tomorrow morning."
This is beside the official road. Although there are deep mountains and dense forests behind it, they are currently on the outskirts of the forest and there is not much safety risk.
No one objected, so they followed her instructions to gather firewood nearby and start a fire. After a while, Changsheng returned with three fish speared on a stick and put them on the fire to roast.
Zhu Jiayu watched his movements for a while, then sighed, "You're doing it wrong. Who grills fish in one spot all at once?"
Changsheng was stunned for a moment before realizing that Miss Biao was talking to him. He looked up and stared blankly at Zhu Jiayu.
Zhu Jiayu took the branch from his hand with a look of exasperation and kept turning it over the fire. The flames licked the plump mandarin fish, and the oil evaporated, sizzling and crackling. After an unknown amount of time, a fragrant aroma slowly rose from the fire.
She took out the well salt and pepper she carried with her and sprinkled them on the branches. Then she returned the branch to Changsheng and sat back down next to Lüzheng, still silently gazing at the sky.
She didn't consider Changsheng as one of her allies, so naturally she didn't feel that the fish Changsheng caught belonged to her. The reason she intervened was because she couldn't stand seeing someone waste such a precious resource.
But Changsheng clearly didn't react. He stared blankly at Zhu Jiayu, quite surprised: "Miss, aren't you going to eat?"
Zhu Jiayu shook her head.
Chang Sheng said regretfully, "If I had known you didn't eat fish, I would have gone to hunt wild rabbits instead."
As soon as he finished speaking, he heard a rustling sound behind him, as if it were coming from the bushes. He immediately perked up, forgetting the grilled fish in his hand, and turned around to rush into the bushes behind him.
The next instant, his scream rang out unexpectedly: "There's a dead person! There's a dead person lying here!"
Upon hearing this, the group immediately stood up from beside the fire.
Zhu Jiayu walked over and helped Changsheng up. Then she saw Wei Qinglou lying in the grass, his face pale.
"Shut up." She hissed, stepping forward to help Wei Qinglou up. Realizing she wasn't strong enough to lift him, she said coldly, "What are you standing there for? Give me a hand!"
The firelight illuminated Wei Qinglou's pale eyebrows and eyes, adding a touch of warmth to his face. Zhu Jiayu's face was ashen as she bent down to pull off his clothes.
Changsheng seemed even more terrified than when he saw the dead body in the grass. He exclaimed in horror, "Miss! He's a man!"
"You know how to bandage and apply medicine?" Zhu Jiayu asked him.
He shook his head.
He grew up in a poor family and was often left to fall and get injured as a child. He was never properly cared for.
"Then why are you yelling like that? Do you want him to die here?" Zhu Jiayu glanced at him, then looked down and continued to undress Wei Qinglou, finally seeing the wounds on his body.
It was a knife wound, not deep. Zhu Jiayu guessed that the reason he fainted was because Wei Qinglou was too pampered and his physical condition was too poor.
She lowered her head to treat Wei Qinglou's wounds, and then asked Lüzheng to fetch medicine from the carriage so she could apply it and bandage him.
Wei Qinglou woke up at this moment. His eyelids twitched, and the first thing he saw was Zhu Jiayu's unreal beauty in the firelight.
He had always known that Zhu Jiayu was beautiful, but it seemed that he had never felt this so deeply before.
It was as if something had been hit.
His heart pounded wildly, then calmed down. All the anxiety he had felt throughout the day turned into peace of mind.
"It's you again." He pursed his lips, his voice hoarse.
Zhu Jiayu glanced at him, her face expressionless: "You owe me two lives."
Wei Qinglou looked pleased.
He sat there, doing nothing, just smiling with relaxed eyes, like a lotus in spring or the bright moon over the southern mountains, the most beautiful sight.
"Zhu Jiayu," he said calmly, "is there anything you want?"
Compared to the last time he asked, "Do you want to go to Yujing?", this time his words clearly carried more sincerity.
He truly came with complete sincerity, and for a moment, he even thought that if Zhu Jiayu asked for the moon in the sky, he would be willing to work hard to get it for her.
However, Zhu Jiayu only glanced at him indifferently.
Wei Qinglou then belatedly realized that she seemed to have always had this indifferent expression. It wasn't that she was without desires or wants, but rather that she seemed to be born without any passionate emotions, with a detached appearance as if everything had passed her by like the wind, and her life was just a dream.
But how could this be?
She grew up in Suiping City, untouched by scheming or hardship. How could a girl her age possess such a detached and aloof demeanor?
“Zhu Jiayu,” he said with a serious tone, “my father is the Duke of Zhenguo, and my mother is the eldest daughter of the Langya Wang clan. Everything you have been painstakingly planning in Suiping City these past few days can be settled with just a word from me.”
"I don't like making promises, but today is an exception. You can think carefully about what you want."
He didn't know what he was doing, but at least one thing he understood: he wasn't repaying Zhu Jiayu for saving his life; that debt would be handled by his parents.
How to repay kindness in a way that shows respect without giving the impression of taking advantage of it is a skill, and at least until he is in a position of authority, it is not his place to learn this skill.
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