cave
The north wind was like a knife, sweeping through the weeds in the mountains and fields, and every now and then the roars of wild beasts could be heard.
A cold moon cast its pale light on a hidden cave, while the firelight inside quietly illuminated two people sitting diagonally opposite each other.
Seeing that the firelight was dim, Jie Xiangsi pulled over some dry firewood and added a few more pieces to the fire in the center of the open space. With enough fuel, the faint firelight immediately grew stronger, illuminating the entire cave brighter.
Zhou Yanzhi rested against the stone wall with his eyes closed. Despite the snow falling heavily outside the cave, an unusual blush appeared on his face. Hearing the crackling sound of burning firewood, his long eyelashes trembled almost imperceptibly.
He was clearly pretending to be asleep.
Seeing that he hadn't recovered yet, Jie Xiangsi thoughtfully refrained from exposing his pretense of sleep. She touched the coat hanging by the fire, estimating it was almost dry, sighed, picked up the coat, and walked towards Zhou Yanzhi.
It's freezing cold, don't freeze yourself to death.
She draped her coat over Zhou Yanzhi, then frowned as she looked at his still untreated arm. She tore off a piece of her coat to help him clean it, but before she could do anything, Zhou Yanzhi opened his eyes first, slightly turning his body to avoid her touch, his eyes darting around. "What are you doing?"
She looked exactly like a respectable woman being harassed by a bully.
Unable to express the pain of unrequited love.
This dignified Minister of the Court of Judicial Review is too... too innocent, isn't he?
Ever since she couldn't kiss Zhou Yanzhi while she was trying to breathe on him, he'd been like this. Not only did he not dare look at her, but whenever she got even slightly close to him, his face would turn as red as if it were about to be steamed, and the heat in his face wouldn't subside.
He was alright when Wu Goulang was there; at least his eyes were open. But ever since Wu Goulang went out to deliver the message, he has been pretending to be asleep, but his act is full of mistakes.
With a sigh, Jie Xiangsi raised the strip of cloth in her hand and pointed to the white, waterlogged scratches on his arm, saying helplessly, "Cousin, if your wounds aren't treated soon, they might rot in the future."
Zhou Yanzhi blushed for a moment, realizing he had overreacted, and stammered, "I can do it myself."
Hearing this, Xie Xiangsi dodged his hand as he tried to grab the cloth strip, and pointed at the sword wound on Zhou Yanzhi's chest with one hand, "Cousin, putting aside how difficult it is for you to treat the wound with one hand, just looking at the sword wound you're bandaging that's still bleeding, I think it's better if I do it."
After saying that, seeing that Zhou Yanzhi still dared not meet her gaze, Xie Xiangsi suddenly had a wicked thought and stared at him, saying in a low voice, "Besides, we've already kissed, and I only kissed you to save you. I'm the one who suffered, not you. Cousin, don't be so withdrawn."
Zhou Yanzhi: "..."
What kind of outrageous language is this?! What do you mean by "they've already kissed"?!
Zhou Yanzhi closed his eyes briefly, then stretched out his arm with trembling hands, whispering, "Don't say anything."
Looking at the arm stretched out in front of her, Jie Xiangsi lowered her head and chuckled silently to herself, "You think I can't handle you?"
While secretly sighing to herself, she wondered why she hadn't noticed before that Zhou Yanzhi was a shy person. If she had discovered this earlier in her past life, it would have been quite amusing.
Pulling open the sleeve that had been slashed by the blade, Jie Xiangsi gently wiped away the surrounding bloodstains. Then she tore off a clean strip of cloth from her inner garment and wrapped it around the wound layer by layer, finally tying it into a pretty bow.
Looking at the white bow that clashed with the color of the surrounding fabric, Jie Xiangsi chuckled softly, "Cousin, it's done."
Then Jie Xiangsi got up to leave.
Hearing the noise, Zhou Yanzhi pulled his arm back under his outer robe, opened his eyes and looked at Xie Xiangsi. As if remembering something, the tips of his ears turned red, and staring at her back, he said, "I will take responsibility for this matter."
Upon hearing this, Jie Xiangsi paused.
After a moment, she turned to meet Zhou Yanzhi's earnest gaze and smiled slightly, "No need. My cousin has no feelings for me. Forcing him to be with me would only waste his days. Besides, my cousin drowned himself to avoid being a burden to me. How could I stand by and watch him die?"
Zhou Yanzhi tried to explain, "But...we already...have..."
He wanted to say that they had already been intimate, but he felt that saying it would make it seem like he didn't have her in his heart and was only proposing "responsibility" because of worldly etiquette.
The more I tried to explain, the worse it got; for a moment, I didn't know what to say.
For the first time in his life, Zhou Yanzhi felt that he really didn't know how to speak.
Xie Xiangsi walked back to her original seat and interrupted Zhou Yanzhi, smiling slyly, "If you really feel bad about it, cousin, why don't you agree to take Xiangsi with you to Yangqu to investigate the case?"
"good."
Suddenly, Zhou Yanzhi lowered his eyes and agreed.
Realizing what she had just heard, Jie Xiangsi looked at him in disbelief, "Really?!"
She'd asked him so many times before, and he'd never agreed once. Why was he so quick to agree this time?!
She pursed her lips and thought to herself, "Could it be because we kissed once?"
If she had known that a kiss could solve everything, why would she have bothered with all that effort? She could have just kissed him directly!
Through the blazing firelight, Zhou Yanzhi stared intently at the extremely excited expression on her face, feeling a little disappointed. He whispered, "I won't lie to you."
Since Jie Xiangsi is also being hunted, and the enemy is in the shadows while she is in the open, sending her back to the capital rashly might put her in danger again.
Moreover, he was not actually going to arrive in Yangqu on the tenth day of the first lunar month, but on the third day. However, only a few people knew this news.
Regardless of tonight's assassination attempt, he would leave the city early tomorrow morning.
If he wasn't mistaken, the purpose of this assassination was to prevent him from going to Yangqu and investigating the case there. If he died, the Emperor would naturally send someone else, but the person sent wouldn't necessarily be under the Emperor's command.
From this perspective, the problem lies with the upper echelons of the imperial court.
Zhou Yanzhi couldn't help but fall into deep thought. Yangqu, was the problem really just with the disaster relief funds?
Thinking of something, he turned to Jie Xiangsi across the fire and asked, "Cousin, do you know why you are being hunted down?"
Jie Xiangsi paused in her warming-by-the-fire motion, thought seriously for a moment, and shook her head. "I fell ill before I went to the capital. After the high fever, I forgot many things, including my time in Danzhou."
She spoke sincerely, after all, she woke up in Jie Xiangsi's body and truly knew nothing about Jie Xiangsi's previous life.
Zhou Yanzhi, having worked in interrogation for many years, could naturally see that Xie Xiangsi was not lying.
That's strange.
Through the flickering firelight, the girl's appearance was even more hazy. Zhou Yanzhi carefully asked, "They say that illness comes like a landslide and goes like pulling silk. Are you fully recovered now?"
“It’s been almost a month, so it’s naturally healed.” Xie Xiangsi said, adding a few more pieces of firewood to the fire.
"That's good then." Zhou Yanzhi nodded.
For a moment, the two were silent.
...
After a while, several cries of eagles finally came from outside the cave.
Wu Gou Lang is back!
A gust of wind swept by, stirring up the sand and stones on the ground. When Xie Xiangsi opened her eyes again, she saw an exceptionally large eagle perched on Zhou Yanzhi's uninjured arm.
Wu Goulang had a bundle hanging around his neck, slightly smaller than his own body. Zhou Yanzhi opened it and saw that it contained some medicine for injuries, money, two sets of clothes of the same style, and a token.
The eagle's claws were still tightly gripping a narrow knife, which looked like Zhou Yanzhi's personal sword.
Zhou Yanzhi drew his sword, and a neatly folded letter fell out.
After unfolding the letter and glancing at it, Zhou Yanzhi threw it directly into the fire. The scorching flames quickly licked the thin paper, turning it into light ashes.
Seeing Xiangsi looking at him curiously, Zhou Yanzhi said frankly, "Mother already knows about our assassination and disappearance. Rumors of our deaths are circulating in the capital. I have asked Mother to close the door to guests to confirm these rumors."
"Does your aunt know that I'm going to Yangqu with you?"
Jie Xiangsi was somewhat surprised, but after thinking about it, it wasn't particularly unexpected. After all, they didn't know who had attacked them, so it was better to remain hidden in the shadows and perhaps lure out the person behind the scenes.
Zhou Yanzhi nodded, then shook his head. "She knows you're going with me to handle the case, but she doesn't know it's to Yangqu."
Jie Xiangsi breathed a sigh of relief, but then hesitated and said, "Then Aunt..."
Will you blame her?
After all, Zhou Yanzhi only accompanied Jie Xiang to the street because she wanted to go out and have fun.
Seemingly knowing what she was thinking, Zhou Yanzhi chuckled and comforted her, "You're overthinking it. Mother feels a little sorry for you. She thought those three were all there to kill me, but she never expected anyone to come to kill you."
After tying up the bundle, Zhou Yanzhi patted Wu Gou Lang, signaling it to fly over to Jie Xiangsi's side.
Confused, Jie Xiangsi untied the bundle and found a set of women's clothing lying quietly inside.
Zhou Yanzhi took Wu Goulang, who had flown back, and turned his head somewhat embarrassedly, saying, "My mother asked me to take good care of you. This is a dress she had prepared for you."
For some reason, Xie Xiangsi felt inexplicably shy, and holding her clothes, she whispered, "I know." Seeing that Zhou Yanzhi remained motionless, Xie Xiangsi looked at him, hesitant to speak.
Seeing that she didn't move, Zhou Yanzhi was initially puzzled, until Wu Goulang let out a cry, and he suddenly realized that something was wrong.
After pulling Wu Goulang down and tucking him into his arms, Zhou Yanzhi hurriedly walked out of the cave. Before leaving, he blushed and stammered, "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'll go out now, don't worry, I'm sorry... I'm sorry."
As the hurried footsteps faded into the distance, Jie Xiangsi closed her eyes and cried out silently. After a while, she buried her head in her clothes, her ear tips, hidden among her hair, turning red.
How embarrassing!
...
After changing her clothes, Jie Xiangsi carried the clothes she had taken off to the outside of the cave and whispered to Zhou Yanzhi, who was standing guard outside the cave, "Cousin, I'm changing... um, it's your turn."
Zhou Yanzhi nodded with a dart in his eyes, then put Wu Goulang on the ground and instructed it, "Don't run around."
For some reason, Jie Xiangsi always felt that he was saying those words to her.
Watching Zhou Yanzhi enter the cave, Jie Xiangsi looked around to make sure no one was around, then lowered her head to meet Wu Goulang's gaze.
Then, under Wu Goulang's bewildered gaze, Jie Xiangsi slowly squatted down and tentatively poked it.
Seeing that Wu Goulang didn't resist, Jie Xiangsi boldly placed her whole hand on the falcon's back and began to groom its feathers along the direction of the feathers.
It feels so good!
The feathers are neatly overlapping each other, with a glossy black surface and a certain degree of stiffness, but when you touch them gently, they feel soft and delicate.
Looking at Wu Goulang's imposing appearance, Jie Xiangsi felt a pang of envy and wondered if she should raise an eagle herself.
Zhou Yanzhi acted quickly. When he came out, Jie Xiangsi was preparing to try to communicate further with Wu Goulang, hoping to get a response from him, even though Wu Goulang didn't really pay attention to her.
Seeing the harmonious interaction between the person and the eagle, Zhou Yanzhi couldn't help but smile and walked to their side, saying, "Let's go inside and warm ourselves by the fire."
Upon hearing its master's voice, Wu Goulang flapped its wings and flew onto Zhou Yanzhi's arm, proudly raising its head and looking down at Jie Xiangsi.
It's an eagle that its owner has carefully trained. It only listens to its owner and only plays with its owner. It won't listen to you!
...
Inside the cave, the firelight flickered. Zhou Yanzhi had already thrown his clothes into the fire, and Jie Xiangsi followed suit, throwing her own clothes in as well. Instantly, the flames grew much stronger.
He poked at the fire with a stick, sending sparks flying into the air.
Jie Xiangsi looked up at Zhou Yanzhi and asked, "Cousin, you are now officially a missing person. Do we still need to go to Yangqu with our real identities?"
Zhou Yanzhi shook his head, a glint of light flashing in his eyes. "Of course not. From now on, whoever is sent to Yangqu, I will be that person."
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
