Chapter 396 Paradise
"It's a new day again."
Pei Jingyun walked slowly along the city wall, her eyes glancing at the rising sun as it leaped above the sea. The rising light first cast a golden glow like fish scales on the black sea, then dyed it a deep blue.
On the sea, several large ships, their white sails lowered, were slowly approaching the harbor. Flocks of seagulls soared beneath the azure sky, flying over the busy dock, past clusters of coconut palms, the checkerboard-like lush green rice paddies, past farmhouses emitting smoke, and finally over her head, chirping away into the distance.
The humid sea breeze blew up her white hair draped behind her shoulders, like thousands of silver threads dancing in the wind.
Since the death of Emperor Ming of Qi, Xiao Ming, she no longer wore any jewelry and wore plain clothes all day long to express her mourning for her late husband.
In the corner of the city wall, Xu Yan, as usual, held up an exquisite repeating crossbow and examined it carefully in the sunlight.
He was a descendant of Master Xu, the master who forged the Yanque Sword. He was about fifty years old, reaching the age of knowing one's destiny. But unlike ordinary old men, he still had strong and sturdy muscles, able to swing a heavy hammer and forge exquisite iron tools.
Seeing Pei Jingyun coming, Xu Yan put down the crossbow in his hand, bowed respectfully and said: "Master, you are out so early."
Pei Jingyun smiled and said, "Are you still admiring this?"
Xu Yan nodded, picked up the crossbow again, and caressed it lovingly. His fingers touched the smooth receiver and said, "The exquisiteness of this crossbow astounds me. I really want to meet Shen Yuexi."
Fifteen years ago, he was invited to this island by a mysterious figure. Having forged Black Light Armor and a flint-fired musket, he considered his forging skills unrivaled. However, when he saw the repeating crossbow crafted by Shen Yuexi, he was still astonished, believing its craftsmanship to be on par with his own.
He couldn't believe a young woman could possess such forging skills. He even believed that Xiao Zhuo had secretly asked a famous craftsman to forge it. After all, there are always people better than you. Perhaps somewhere in Dayan there are skilled craftsmen doing the same thing as him.
Pei Jingyun said: "She will be here soon, you can have a good talk then."
Xu Yan paused, then looked up and asked, "Didn't the master already send 'Nitian' to assassinate her? Could she still be alive?"
"She won't die so easily," Pei Jingyun shook her head. "Maybe there really is a god protecting her. I think she will definitely come here."
Xu Yan didn't believe it and shook his head repeatedly, saying, "Even if she could evade the assassin's attack, she couldn't escape the interception of the gunboats at sea, and she would never be able to get here."
On the one hand, he believed that Shen Yuexi would definitely not survive, but on the other hand, he secretly hoped that Shen Yuexi could arrive safely, which was quite contradictory.
Pei Jingyun saw what was on his mind, and just smiled slightly, saying without comment: "You stay busy here, I'll go look somewhere else."
She walked down the stone steps from the city wall and came to the city square. A thin old man in a gray robe was teaching several young girls how to attack and kill with swords.
He was Jiang Tongshan, the teacher of the "God-Defying" assassin, and also Xiao Beiheng's teacher. He taught Xiao Beiheng all his sword and archery skills. He had always been with Pei Jingyun in Anzhou, and after Xiao Ming's death, Pei Jingyun brought him to the island.
The two chatted for a few words, and then a maid came quickly with a whistle-sized bamboo tube in her left hand, and a pigeon landed on the maid's right arm.
"Master, the carrier pigeon has brought news about Xun." The maid handed the small bamboo tube to Pei Jingyun.
Pei Jingyun turned the bamboo tube upside down, spilled out a scroll, and unfolded it to read. Jiang Tongshan gestured for the girls to practice on their own, and stood beside Pei Jingyun and said, "Master, what's the news about Xun?"
"Xun's assassination attempt failed," Pei Jingyun handed the note to Jiang Tongshan. "I ran into Heng'er again when I was climbing over the Leshan city wall. I managed to escape with great difficulty."
Jiang Tongshan frowned slightly, his eyes swept over the note, and said, "Young Master has become our enemy, what good plan does Master have?"
Pei Jingyun did not answer, but closed her eyes and thought.
Jiang Tongshan said, "If the young master insists on protecting Xiao Zhuo and Shen Yuexi, and they don't dare to hurt the young master, then it will be difficult to succeed."
"I know," Pei Jingyun said, "Let them try again. Just try to avoid Heng'er."
Seeing Pei Jingyun had made up his mind, Jiang Tongshan said, "Master, what if the young master stays with them and can't succeed? It's easy on land, but if they sail to our side and our gunboats encounter them, I'm afraid both sides will perish..."
Pei Jingyun said: "What you said makes sense. I will send a message to Heng'er right away."
A maid came over with a brush, ink, paper, and inkstone. Pei Jingyun picked up the brush and carefully wrote a few lines of small words on a piece of paper. She handed it to the maid and said, "Send a pigeon to Long. Long will naturally know what to do."
At this time, another maid came hurriedly, let the maid who delivered the letter pass, and said, "Master, Mei Dai wants to see you."
"Please ask her to come to the city wall," Pei Jingyun bowed slightly to Jiang Tongshan, "You stay busy here."
Pei Jingyun first went to the city wall to look at the scenery, and soon two maids came with Mei Dai.
Mei Dai had just disembarked and knew Pei Jingyun was there. Seeing that the people escorting her and Shen Lan were very polite, she immediately asked to see Pei Jingyun.
She arrived at the city wall and immediately recognized Pei Jingyun's white hair. Although the two sides were hostile, she did not lose face and saluted, saying, "Mei Dai greets Madam Pei."
Pei Jingyun turned around, looked at Mei Dai with a smile, and said, "Queen Xiliang, you must have had a hard time on the boat."
It was their first meeting, but Mei Dai felt incredibly familiar. Pei Jingyun looked exactly like the Wen Yi she had met in the palace. If it weren't for her white hair, she would have thought Wen Yi had returned from the dead.
But if you look more closely, you can see that Pei Jingyun and Wen Yi have different temperaments. Wen Yi is more gentle, while Pei Jingyun is more decisive.
Mei Dai was very intelligent and knew that Pei Jingyun hated Wen Yi, so she didn't mention Wen Yi at all. She said, "I'm fine, but Chen Lan got seasick and vomited all the way, so she had to rest in the house. I didn't expect there to be such a magnificent city on the island. I wonder what Madam Pei's intention was in sending us here?"
"I just wanted to meet you," Pei Jingyun said, taking a few steps closer. "I wanted to see what kind of remarkable person Mei Dai is, who was able to become the King of Xiliang despite being a mere girl."
Mei Dai saw that she was gentle and had no ill intentions, so she stood still and said, "Mei Dai is simply carrying on the wishes of her father and brother. Madam Pei is overpraising you."
Pei Jingyun smiled, looked down at the metal mask hanging around Mei Dai's waist, and said, "This is your brother Meipu's mask, right? You always carry it with you?"
Mei Dai said: "Carrying it with me is a way to constantly remind myself not to forget my goal and what I should do."
"Well said," Pei Jingyun turned to face the outside of the city wall and reached out to smooth her hair. "You and I are the same kind of people. We both have our own unchanging goals in this world. You willingly became Emperor Yongde's concubine to protect the Xiliang Mei family. And I did the same thing. To be with my beloved, I planned everything you saw."
Mei Dai walked to the city wall and looked down at everything on the island. Although she had seen a lot since she was a child, she was still amazed by the scene before her.
"This is a real town," she said, looking at the people working in the rice fields and the children running between the houses. "Has Madam Pei been building here for a long time?"
Pei Jingyun said, "I started when you were just born. After so many years of operation, we have reached the scale we have today."
Mei Dai calculated in her mind that it was the second year since Pei Jingyun married Xiao Ming, and Xiao Beiheng was also one year old.
She could vaguely guess Pei Jingyun's motive for building this island, but before she could ask, Pei Jingyun slowly told her the story as if recalling the past.
"All of this is prepared for my husband. I have already helped Wen Yi successfully enter the palace. My next goal is to help my husband regain the throne that is rightfully his."
"Tiger Crouching Cannon, Iron Pagoda?"
"Of course, there's also this island," Pei Jingyun said with a sad look on her face. "At that time, I thought I would create invincible cavalry and invincible artillery to help my husband, but I didn't know how long it would take to build them. If my husband failed, our family would have to have a place to stay."
Hearing this, Mei Dai couldn't help but admire Pei Jingyun.
She had been running this massive project since she was nine years old. Despite the loss of countless lives, she had spent over twenty years to achieve this level of success. Even the proud Mei Dai had to admire her for her generosity.
"If I hadn't seen it with my own eyes," Mei Dai ran her hand over the sun-warmed bricks of the city wall, "I wouldn't have known there was such a paradise in the southern waters of Dayan. It's truly a miracle."
"This isn't a miracle, is it?" Pei Jingyun smiled and turned around. "Didn't Shen Yuexi also build Shengjing in Xiaogang Village? When I went there and saw the scale of Shengjing, I couldn't believe it either."
Mei Dai's heart moved, and she asked, "Then Madam, do you also admire Shen Yuexi?"
She discerned two key points from Pei Jingyun's tone. The first was that Pei Jingyun seemed to admire women who shared her resoluteness and courage. The second was that she also seemed to admire Shen Yuexi's efforts in building Shengjing City.
It seems that the hatred between the two sides is not unsolvable.
"Of course." Pei Jingyun admitted without any reservation, "Chen Yuexi is just like you and me. I admire women who can fight against fate the most. I did it, you did it, and she did it too."
Mei Dai said: "Then Madam..."
She didn't say the following words, but Pei Jingyun seemed to have guessed it and said with a smile: "You want to know why I poisoned her? The reason is very simple. She is pregnant with that bitch's blood. That's why I want to kill her."
Pei Jingyun's tone was gentle and natural in the first half of the sentence, but became fierce in the second half, and even her eyes became sharp.
Although she was farsighted, she was also a human being with emotions and desires. She could not tolerate Xiao Ming and Xiao Zhuo reconciling, nor could she tolerate Xiao Beiheng and Xiao Zhuo becoming brothers.
Mei Dai noticed Pei Jingyun's unfriendly tone and quickly changed her words: "Madam, how long will we stay here?"
"It won't be long," Pei Jingyun said, softening her tone and looking out at the sea. "Shen Yuexi will be here with Xiao soon, and then everything will be over."
Mei Dai also followed her gaze and looked at the corner of the white sail exposed on the sea surface.
Why did Pei Jingyun say that was the moment when everything would end? She didn't know. The only thing she knew was that Pei Jingyun seemed to be looking forward to Xiao Zhuo and Shen Yuexi coming here.
Here the grievances and hatreds between the two sides will come to an end.
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