Musician (VII)
After the white light, Chu Mo waved his long sleeves, and Xiao Lin and Mu You changed time and space again.
According to Chu Mo, the place they are currently in is Fujue five months later.
At this time, the spring chill has passed, the grass is growing, the warblers are flying, the breeze is blowing gently, the grass fragrance is everywhere, the sheep in the distance are floating like clouds, and pastoral songs are echoing among the blue sky and white clouds.
In a blink of an eye, Li Chiyin had been in Fujue for four or five months, but during these days, she was unable to send any letters and had not received any letters from home.
Although she knew her fate as a princess married to a foreign country, she could not bear her increasingly strong homesickness.
Fortunately, with the assistance of Aili, the ramie farming in the garment workshop has improved. During this period, they also successfully made a piece of dyed linen cloth with the ramie brought by Li Chiyin.
This good thing alone made Aili happy for three days. Seeing her like this, Li Chiyin felt much more relieved.
Another fortunate thing was that Prince Fujue had ignored her these days and was immersed in the service of his other concubines all day long, so he did not cause her any trouble.
However, the only unbearable pain she was experiencing at the moment was her stomach, which had been damaged by the strong liquor. It often ached dully at night when she was alone, leaving her sleepless.
Thanks to the textile skills brought by Li Chiyin and some ready-made cloths in the dowry, the royal family members were able to get some shade in this increasingly hot summer and no longer had to wear animal skins to survive.
But even with the cool thin clothes, the tradition of the Fujue royal family would not change.
"Hunting in the snow mountains?" Li Chiyin's voice rang out in the bedroom.
"Yes, my lady," the maid explained. "In the past, people went up to the snowy mountains to hunt to escape the heat, but it gradually became a custom to welcome summer."
"But I don't know how to ride and shoot."
"The king said that you and the eldest prince share a horse. He is better at riding and shooting, so he can protect you."
"Can……"
Li Chiyin was about to retort, but when she saw the maid's serious face, she could no longer refuse and could only agree.
Even so, she still couldn't calm down about riding and shooting.
Xiao Lin and Mu You did the same.
When the two heard about the snow hunt and realized that ordinary people could also participate, they couldn't help but feel happy and worried.
Fortunately, they had this opportunity to get close to Li Chiyin and find out what happened in the snow hunt, which was enough to disrupt their fate.
Because it was snow hunting, they had to ride and shoot. Riding a horse was easy, as Mu You was familiar with it, but it was absolutely impossible for him to catch and shoot prey.
What can I do? I can only ride without shooting!
The next day, the entire royal family gathered at the foot of the snow-capped mountains. Each prince was given a horse and stood by holding the reins.
The rest of the people all followed behind the royal family members.
Since the people of Fujue have learned riding and shooting skills since childhood, snow hunting is not a difficult task. Therefore, at this time, most of the participants are young people, and it is not crowded.
Mu You and Xiao Lin rode the same horse and stayed at the end of the team.
Xiao Lin was sitting in the front, so he kept watching for Jiang Yu's whereabouts.
But things turned out not to be the case. After looking around, Jiang Yu was nowhere to be found.
This was strange. Wasn't this snow hunt supposed to be a turning point in their relationship? How could things have taken a sudden turn for the worse when Jiang Yu hadn't even shown up?
Xiao Lin was confused and scratched his head, then he had to focus all his attention on Li Chiyin.
Wearing thick riding clothes, Li Chiyin was also looking around at this time, just trying to find Huyan Hu's horse.
She struggled to get a glimpse of the tall figure as she made her way through the crowded crowd, and finally came to Huyan Hu's side.
The two looked at each other in silence, and Li Chiyin then bent his knees and saluted him.
Standing awkwardly beside Huyan Hu, she could only pretend to look into the distance and wait for King Fujue to give the order to set off.
Suddenly, Hu Yanhu spoke up: "Your Majesty, you haven't received any riding training in the Central Plains, right?"
"Ah...ah yes..." Li Chiyin replied stutteringly.
As soon as she finished speaking, a horn sounded from the right. Hearing the command, Huyan Hu quickly jumped onto the horse's back, adjusted his riding posture with a few adjustments, and then stretched out his hand to Li Chiyin to signal her to get on the horse.
Li Chiyin nodded slightly to show his gratitude, and then used the force to sit on the saddle.
After getting on the horse, with Hu Yanhu's loud command of the horse, the horse rushed towards the snow-capped mountains ahead like an arrow.
Amid the loud sound of horse hooves, the whistling cold air, the dust kicked up by the horses' hooves, and the black hair flying in the wind, Li Chiyin felt a freedom that he had not experienced for a long time.
As the car was bumpy, her eyes widened.
Mu Youyi took Xiao Lin and hid behind the crowd, quietly following the horses of Li Chiyin and Huyan Hu, but vigilantly kept a certain distance for fear of alerting the enemy.
"Your Majesty has never seen such a scene!" Huyan Hu's voice suddenly came from above Li Chiyin's head.
"The Central Plains is not like this!" The whistling wind in his ears forced Li Chiyin to raise his voice and reply.
"Of course!"
What followed was Huyan Hu's roaring laughter. His every word and action was full of the masculine spirit of Fujue, majestic and outstanding.
Gradually, the two men's horses walked onto the area with a little vegetation on the snow-capped mountains.
At this time, the main force had dispersed, leaving only two people riding slowly on horseback.
Huyan Hu was extremely tall, like a mountain standing directly behind Li Chiyin.
The quiet and silent mountains made the two of them feel awkward, and Li Chiyin also felt a little embarrassed at this time.
Just as he was about to speak, Hu Yanhu preemptively said, "I heard that the queen is teaching my people how to grow ramie or something like that?"
"Yes, I think the textile skills from the Central Plains can help the people of Fujue live a better life." Li Chiyin replied indifferently.
Seeing her apathy, Hu Yanhu quickly continued, "But my second brother said that if we can achieve self-sufficiency in these cloths, it will indeed save the royal family a considerable amount of money. Thank you very much for this."
"It's not worth mentioning. Ultimately, this still depends on the manpower of your people."
At this point, Huyan Hu didn't know how to find another topic to continue the conversation, so there was silence between the two for a long time.
But suddenly, Hu Yanhu opened his mouth again and asked the question that Li Chiyin had always been reluctant to answer directly -
"But your majesty is still so young, and you are willing to marry my father?"
"I'm forced to do so by my mission." These few words were Li Chiyin's reply. She didn't know why Huyan Hu suddenly asked such an embarrassing question.
Besides, they should be able to guess the reason behind this matter.
"But when I ascend the throne, you will become my Queen."
Li Chiyin was choked by Huyan Hu's words.
Become his concubine? What does that mean?
She had never heard of this custom in any book and quickly asked about it.
Hu Yanhu also patiently explained: "This is our royal tradition. After the previous King Fujue dies, the next King Fujue will inherit his childless concubine as the Grand Concubine. So, if you don't have a concubine before I ascend the throne, you will become my Grand Concubine."
"No...that's not right...I've already married your father, and I'm half your mother. How can you still marry me as your concubine..." Li Chiyin's words were full of confusion and inexplicable anger.
"It's a custom." Hu Yanhu didn't think there was anything wrong with it. "Legend has it that a long time ago, our ancestor, the then King Fujue, married a fairy. It was thanks to that fairy that the Fujue clan enjoyed good weather and success. But not long after, the then King Fujue passed away..."
"In order to keep the fairy, the next King Fujue, the son of the previous King Fujue, once again took the fairy as his Grand Consort. Because the fairy was unable to bear a child when she was the concubine of the previous King Fujue, but gave birth to a son with the next King Fujue, from then on, the concubines of the previous King Fujue who were unable to bear a child would be taken as Grand Consort by the next King Fujue. This was in the hope that a certain Grand Consort would be the reincarnation of the fairy, and the son born by the Grand Consort would naturally be enshrined as the True King Fujue."
After hearing this, Li Chiyin felt it was ridiculous.
Regardless of human affairs, let's just talk about the fairy legend. Their clan has been planning for generations, not to thank the fairy for her kindness, but to lock the fairy in this wilderness.
They will indeed not lose the blessing of the fairy, but because of their fairy bodies, they will be trapped forever.
"Then if I give birth to a child for Huyan Nu before you ascend the throne, then I won't have to marry again?"
"That makes sense, but I don't think it will happen to you."
Li Chiyin frowned: "Why?"
Hu Yanhu paused for a moment and took a deep breath. "He will not let you, a princess from the Central Plains, have a descendant of my Fujue royal family. He wants his son to be covered in the blood of Fujue people."
At this point, Li Chiyin's eyes were gloomy.
She didn't understand why she had to be passed from her father to her son like an object. Is a woman's life so worthless in Fujue?
Although women in the Central Plains were required to obey their husbands, they did not have to "inherit" their husbands' rights to their children after their husbands' death.
Ridiculous, absolutely ridiculous.
She couldn't help but laugh out loud, but this laugh was only for herself.
Seeing Li Chiyin's hesitation, Huyan Hu half-jokingly said to her, "Don't worry. My father will abdicate soon. He has already assigned the affairs to the three of us princes. He prefers being surrounded by beauties to the country. As for me, I don't care about bloodline. I swear to you that when I ascend to the throne, our son will be the crown prince..."
Before Hu Yanhu could finish his words, he was interrupted by the sound of something unknown moving through the bushes.
He looked to his right and saw, out of the corner of his eye, a red deer with a wound in its abdomen.
Seeing this good opportunity, Huyan Hu quickly picked up the heavy bow hanging on the saddle, took out a feather arrow from the quiver behind him, put it on the string, and aimed the arrow directly at the sika deer's neck.
At this moment, Li Chiyin didn't dare to breathe, for fear that his breathing would cause Huyan Hu to perform poorly.
The bow was extremely heavy. Even a strong man like Huyan Hu would have his veins in his arms bulged when he lifted it.
She remembered that Huyan Hu held a bow, Huyan Xiao used a crossbow, and only Huyan Jun was equipped with a sword and a dagger.
The three princes of Fujue were all different.
In such a quiet environment, all she could hear was the sound of Huyan Hu drawing his bow and her own heartbeat.
The next moment, the sound of an arrow breaking through the sky rang in her ears. Suddenly, she felt a sharp pain on the back of her neck, and Huyan Hu's body was getting farther and farther away from her.
The loud sound of falling scared the horse, and Li Chiyin was thrown to the ground by the horse.
After that, she felt dizzy and subconsciously protected the back of her neck, and finally fell to the mud in the mountains.
She forced herself to open her eyes, and was immediately horrified by the scene before her.
Huyan Hu was lying on the ground with blood gushing from his chest.
Li Chiyin froze in place, his breathing becoming shallow.
After a long time, she finally came back to her senses and was about to crawl forward, but the sharp pain in the back of her neck stopped her in her tracks.
I raised my hand and touched it, and it felt wet.
When she turned her hand over, she saw her bright red blood!
She was at a loss again.
Even though the pain in the back of her neck was unbearable, the more important thing at the moment was Huyan Hu.
So she hurriedly crawled to Huyan Hu's side to check whether he was dead or alive.
In an instant, she was still gasping for breath, but still unconsciously placed her hand on Huyanhu's chest where the arrow had hit it.
She covered his wound tremblingly, but still couldn't stop the blood from gushing out.
Inadvertently, Huyan Hu's blood seeped through her fingers, then slid down the back of her hand and fell onto the snow.
The blend of dazzling white and deep red seems so contradictory.
Huyan Hu was obviously seriously injured, but he still looked like he wanted to get up. However, the blood gushing out of his mouth and nose made him unable to do so.
The next moment, he even lost the strength to speak. He could only lie on the ground, watching his blood flow away and be stolen away by the white snow on the snowy mountain.
Looking around, apart from the sika deer pierced by the arrow shot by Huyan Hu, there were only Xiao Lin and Mu You who were hiding in the depths and witnessed everything.
In order to hide, the two men tied their horses somewhere else and chose to chase Li Chiyin and Huyan Hu on foot. Although it took a lot of effort, fortunately they were not discovered by them.
From afar, Huyan Hu's huge body suddenly fell to the ground, and the blood surging around him dyed the filth covered with snow red. In Xiao Lin's eyes, this scene was more terrifying than anything she had experienced before.
But her reason told her that she could not scream and must not let Li Chiyin discover their presence.
Therefore, when she and Mu You saw Huyan Hu fall to the ground, they tacitly reached out to cover each other's mouths.
At this moment, Xiao Lin could even hear her violent heartbeat.
Knock, knock, knock, getting more and more impatient.
Mu You's palms also began to sweat, and soon their palms became cold.
At the same time, deep despair suddenly arose in Li Chiyin's heart.
The corners of her eyes were already blurred with tears, and in order to stop the bleeding from Huyan Hu, she had to kneel on the ground.
"Is there... is there anyone... is there anyone? Help... Help!"
Li Chiyin cried out for help repeatedly, his voice echoing through the valley, but the rest of the people never showed up.
How could a woman like her, a woman of seclusion, have ever witnessed such a horrific scene? The bloody wounds made her stomach churn.
The rescue failed. Seeing Huyan Hu's breath getting weaker and weaker, she immediately realized that she could not just sit there and wait for death.
Then, she endured the discomfort and tried to carry Huyan Hu away, but when she lifted Huyan Hu's arm, she suddenly lost her strength and fell backwards.
At this moment, Li Chiyin regained her consciousness - she was absolutely unable to move him with her weak body. All she could do was to shout for help loudly on the spot, begging someone to hear her cry.
Therefore, she dragged Huyan Hu's body with great effort while roaring around.
Every sound is made with all one's strength, but every sound without exception is scattered over the mountains, rivers and valleys.
For a long time, she still couldn't get the response she wanted. Not only did her throat gradually become dry, but the blood flowing from her neck also silently dyed the fox fur on her collar red.
The place was located on a snowy mountain, and the temperature was too low, so Huyan Hu's body became stiff in the snow.
Li Chiyin's voice was hoarse from crying. It was she who watched Huyan Hu bleed to death with her own eyes, and she could do nothing about it.
As she crawled, she lost her strength again and fell into the snow.
With nothing else to do, she hurriedly turned around to look at Huyan Hu.
At this time, beads were hanging on the tip of her fur collar, and blood was about to fall. Through the fishy-smelling fur collar, beyond the blood, was the stiff and pale corpse of Huyan Hu.
The man was gone, and she had no choice but to close his eyes. Then she straightened her legs that had been kneeling for a long time and staggered forward a few steps.
Suddenly, the road in front of her darkened and a shadow blocked her view.
Li Chiyin slowly raised his eyes and finally saw the person in front of him - it was Huyan Jun.
But at this moment, she no longer had the strength to continue holding on. The frightened heart and the coldness had already made her physically and mentally exhausted.
She was not suited to the environment here, and she muttered a few words before falling down in front of Huyan Jun.
Fortunately, Huyan Jun reacted quickly. He jumped off his horse, reached out and grabbed Li Chiyin's forearm, then used the force to pull and hold him in his arms.
He lowered his eyes to look at Li Chiyin's eyelashes that were flickering with fear, and his fingertips happened to touch her bloody fur collar. So he stretched out his fingers and pinched the slippery blood on them.
After that, Huyan Jun turned his gaze away and stared coldly at Huyan Hu's body lying in the snow without saying a word.
Xiao Lin and Mu You hid themselves so well that Hu Yanjun didn't notice anything unusual.
But the two people in the bushes were now as pale as snow, with fear in their eyes, but they forced themselves to grit their teeth, clench their hands into fists, and dig their nails deep into the flesh, for fear of making any sound.
From the moment they saw the murderer, Xiao Lin and Mu You immediately knew why this snow hunt would change the lives of Li Chiyin and Jiang Yu.
An unknown amount of time passed before Li Chiyin felt extremely panicked. The scene of Hu Yanhu's death replayed in front of her eyes again and again, and Hu Yanhu's mute cry for help echoed in her ears...
She suddenly woke up and found herself lying on the bed in her bedroom, with Jiang Yu sitting next to her.
"Cough... cough cough... Ah... Ah Xie! Ah Xie! Where are they! Where are they! Huyan Hu is dead! Huyan Hu died in front of me!" Li Chiyin grabbed Jiang Xie's arm tightly and shouted in excitement.
Jiang Yu didn't have time to explain to her, and stammered, "They are all discussing this in the hall..."
As soon as he finished speaking, Li Chiyin climbed down from the bed in a panic, stumbled and pushed open the bedroom door and ran towards the main hall.
How could this happen? Who was it that killed Hu Yanhu?
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