◇ Chapter 67 (67) Heavy rain blocks the road, rumors spread
"It's just right that I'm not going back." Bai Kang smiled happily and was hit on the head by a flying mirror.
Even if he was reluctant, he had to send her back. He still had three days before returning to Beijing, so he had to let Lianzhi rest. After sending her back to the posthouse, Bo Kang couldn't help but hug her again at the door.
This time, as he was going downstairs, he ran into the foreigner. Da Xi Mi had introduced him during the peace talks that day. He was from Mobei, named Arus, and was now Prince Zhulan's personal guard.
Close fitting, tsk.
Arus looked at him unkindly. The two men were of similar height and build, and when they suddenly faced each other, neither would yield, their eyes revealing a similar murderous intent. As the situation became tense, Bo Kang smiled slightly, with the demeanor of an envoy, and bowed, saying, "Envoy Arus."
He had a good attitude and there were many people around, so Arus couldn't make trouble. He just said coldly: "Where have you been these past two days?"
Bai Kang was polite for only a moment before returning to his usual demeanor. He gave Arus a wicked grin and said, "Messenger Arus, you're worrying too much."
"I am Prince Zhulan's personal bodyguard, why can't I worry about it?" Arus retorted, emphasizing the word "personal".
"The Marquis of Lu raised a bird, and the bird became dazed and sad, and died after three days." Bo Kang snorted. "Emissary Arus, please don't interfere too much with Prince Zhulan. Prince Zhulan may not be willing to listen to you. It's best not to meddle in other people's affairs."
After saying this, seeing that Arus didn't understand, he became even happier and laughed. Even though Arus didn't understand Daning culture, he knew that Bo Kang's flowery words were meant to mock him, making him look stupid, and he immediately became furious.
Seeing everyone around them gathering, obviously to watch the fun, Arus couldn't get angry and sneered, "The Shangshu of Daning is just an idiot."
"What do you mean?" Bo Kang frowned.
Did this person want to provoke him?
"I'm laughing at you. Do you think he is sincere to you? I may not be smarter than you, but you are not necessarily better than him either." After saying this, Arus put down his hand on the weapon at his waist and left.
Bai Kang hesitated for a moment. Arus's words were clearly hinting at something... maybe something to sow discord. He was in a good mood and immediately and cheerfully assumed that Arus was the one trying to sow discord between them. Turning around, he saw the crowd still there, so he waved them away.
Five days passed in a flash. October 12th was the auspicious day calculated by the Ministry of Rites, and it was also the day they set out.
For some reason, Bai Kang hadn't discussed with him these past few days about how to avoid the marriage. Lian Zhi was getting annoyed by his constant questions, but he felt unhappy when he didn't ask.
To show Daning's respect for the princess... now a prince, Emperor Jianguang appointed Prince Mu as the envoy for the conferment of the title. The Helan tribe showed no gratitude, and Lianzhi dismissed the offer. He knew well that in previous marriages, vassal princes had also served as envoys for the conferment of the title, using the same rhetoric.
Before leaving, he hesitated to leave, claiming it was muddy outside. He requested that Daning's minister personally carry him downstairs to demonstrate Daning's seriousness about the alliance with the Helan tribe. Daning officials were furious but dared not speak out. Minister Du was even more furious, saying, "We Daning are not without the strength to fight. This Helan brat is being too arrogant!"
"I think what the prince said is polite." Bai Kang interrupted, a smile in his eyes, and followed him. "Indeed, we asked them to come for the marriage, so we should show our appreciation."
"Our master is quite patient and tolerant." The two doctors from the Ministry of Rites at the back discussed in a low voice.
Bai Kang didn't hear. He dismissed the attendants outside the door and went into the house alone. Lianzhi was already prepared. When she heard the footsteps, she said without turning her head, "Princess Mu is quite nice. Your people didn't listen to me, so she was the one who took the initiative to invite you."
"What do you want from me?" Bo Kang asked deliberately, "It's almost the auspicious time, we have to go."
Hearing this, Lianzhi felt even more unhappy.
"I'm going to get married." He said tentatively.
Bai Kang hummed, and then he dragged out his voice: "I'm going to marry someone else. I don't know who Chen Fengke will marry me to, but it definitely won't be you..."
"Baby." Bo Kang held his face and rubbed it, "Do you want to see me angry so much?"
"Who wants to watch?" Lianzhi patted him and said angrily, "Carry me down."
"Aren't you afraid of being seen?" Bai Kang said with a smile.
"They won't say anything anyway." Lianzhi curled her lips. Bai Kang carried him on his back. It had been raining intermittently recently, and the ground outside was indeed slippery. This place was close to the city gate, and Lianzhi definitely didn't want to walk. Even if she didn't let him carry her, she would definitely let someone else do it.
But he won't give others this opportunity.
The sky was gloomy and it looked like it would rain. They were afraid of wasting time, so they had to speed up their pace and try to reach Qizhou tomorrow.
Once outside Rongcheng, we discovered the situation nearby was even worse. Torrential rain had fallen for days, turning the official road into a quagmire, with carriages and horses stuck and unable to move forward. As it stood, we'd be lucky to get even a few miles out of Qizhou tomorrow, let alone into the city.
"Your Highness, my Lord, we've already scouted the area ahead. The Qizhou prefect is leading his men to clear the road, but it will take at least three days." A personal guard returned from scouting the road and reported in a low voice, "There's an inn nearby. While it's a bit rudimentary, it's still a good place to stop and rest for a day."
King Mu pondered for a moment. "That's not right. I've already sent a message to the capital, and I'm sure His Majesty will soon receive the letter announcing our departure. If we fail to arrive in the capital on time, I'm afraid you and I will be punished. Better tell everyone to hurry on."
After saying this, he looked at Bo Kang and said, "I'm afraid Prince Zhulan and Princess Yuyao will be wronged."
He always felt that there was something wrong with Helian Zhulan, and that she looked similar to Bai Kang's missing wife, or perhaps they were the same person. As long as she didn't cause trouble for them, he could pretend not to notice any plots.
After a while, the guards who had just left came back and said, "Your Highness, there is a huge rock blocking the road ahead. Our carriage cannot pass through."
If they were alone on horseback, traveling light, they could still get through. But the huge rocks blocking the road and the broken trees and branches that had been blown away almost blocked the passage of all the carriages. Furthermore, the mud and water were surging, and they were afraid that the prince and princess' carriage would be soiled.
King Mu felt a headache and had to order his men to turn around and go to the nearest post station. No one else complained, only Lianzhi was a little disgusted by the post station's simplicity, but she didn't say it out loud.
What was even more terrible was that there were quite a few disaster victims staying in the post station. They were all ragged and skinny, gathered in a corner. It was really scary to see them at night.
"Is the rain so heavy here?" Ashina Yuyao asked in surprise. It was a heavy downpour, but compared to the snowstorms in their North Sea Territory, it was just a drizzle.
The officials of Daning were well aware that the rain was not to blame. The famine in the north had been prolonged, and food and fodder were scarce. Most of it was sent to the army, and some was collected from the people.
Even if they borrowed food from nearby cities, it would be difficult to survive the winter.
After much difficulty, they managed to find a few guest rooms for them. The two princes, princesses, and King Mu's entourage had their own rooms, but the rest of them had to squeeze in. Lianzhi lay on the hard bed, feeling the room was filthy and damp, making it uncomfortable to stay in. He clung to the little white cat in his arms, trying to sleep but unable to. Just as he was about to knock himself out, the window opened from the outside.
Bo Kang jumped in and closed the window tightly. He was a strong man, and when he landed he made a thud that made Lianzhi laugh.
"Why are you here?" Lianzhi sat up. The room was damp and smelled musty. He held his breath, his face flushing slightly. "Isn't Minister Du here?" Minister Du was a conservative man. He knew that Bai Kang was coming to see him, and he was going to make a scene.
"You're afraid you can't sleep when I'm not around," said Bai Kang.
"How is that possible? I can sleep well alone." Lianzhi said, and walked towards Bai Kang very honestly, hugged his waist and took a deep breath. The musty smell at the tip of her nose dissipated a little. The little white cat was squeezed in the middle and meowed.
Lianzhi was already feeling very sleepy, but he couldn't fall asleep. Bai Kang noticed this and without saying anything, he carried him to bed. With Bai Kang as a cushion, he fell asleep quickly.
The next day, before dawn, they were awakened by shouting downstairs.
Judging from the sky, they had only slept for two hours. Downstairs was a mess, and Bo Kang went out to check. He found that the disaster victims on the first floor were quarreling. As he changed into casual clothes and prepared to go find out what was going on, Lianzhi walked up behind him and said, "I want to go too."
"You sleep a little longer, I'll be back soon." Somehow, Bai Kang instinctively felt that he couldn't let Lianzhi go downstairs.
The innkeeper was there, helping to dissuade—or rather, to separate—the two groups of victims who were scuffling. Bo Kang inquired and learned that someone, starving to death, had eaten the rations hidden close to their bodies. The people around them were already starving, their eyes gleaming with hunger. Whenever they saw food, they would grab it, regardless of whether it was someone else's.
Fortunately, the victims had been starving for a long time and had little strength, so the shopkeeper easily stopped the two groups of people and no one was injured. After hearing this, the doctor of the Ministry of Rites asked worriedly, "Then we don't have any food in the post station?"
"Maybe there are some in Qizhou City, but here..." The shopkeeper laughed bitterly, "I haven't eaten for two days."
"Ah? Then we have no food to eat this morning!" said another doctor from the Ministry of Rites.
Why are you still thinking about eating? Bai Kang asked the shopkeeper to walk a few steps away with him, secretly took out a few silver coins, and asked the shopkeeper to help settle the victims, at least to give them a comfortable place to stay. The first floor suddenly became much quieter. Bai Kang rummaged through his wallet again, turned around and ordered: "Yuan You, Lu Ming, go see if you can buy some dry food nearby."
There is no food in the post station, so they have to eat the dry food they brought with them for the next few days. Even if they can leave this place within three days at the earliest, the situation in Qizhou City is probably not good.
The two men received the order, took the silver, and left. As daylight brightened, the sounds outside became clearer. The militiamen shouted slogans as they moved broken logs blocking the road. They also used wooden shovels and stone slabs to diagonally dig into the accumulated mud, laboriously shoveling away the silt on the ground. However, the mud and water reached up to their calves, and even a nine-foot-tall Qizhou man had difficulty exerting any strength in the mire.
The Qizhou prefect had personally joined the effort to clear the mess, and now he was in a mess. Seeing Bai Kang, he didn't care about the dirt on his body and hurried over to pay his respects. Bai Kang waved his hand and said, "Your Excellency, there's no need to be so polite. We're here to help too."
Lianzhi didn't sleep long after Bokang left. The commotion outside was getting to him, and the noise was getting to him. Geerer came to deliver food, but it only contained the steamed buns and dried meat they had brought with them.
"Why is that all?" Lianzhi frowned.
"Qizhou has no food," Geerer complained. "There's no food at the post station, and there are disaster victims outside! Luckily we brought some dry food, but I don't know how long it would have lasted."
Lianzhi said nothing. Since Baikang wasn't around, he didn't bother to complain. He shared his steamed bun with Geerer. He looked out the window and saw that only a small portion of the road had been cleared. Thick mud had accumulated on both sides, barely clearing the road to the public.
"Where is Bai Kang?" Lianzhi asked.
"Lord Bai and his men have gone to help with dredging. I heard they'll have to leave in three days at most." Geerer said, looking around and whispering, "Rumors are spreading everywhere outside!"
"Natural disasters have been frequent in Daning over the past two years. Didn't Liangzhou also experience months of drought? Many people say that the current emperor came to power illegitimately, murdered his brother and the emperor, and was punished by heaven. Coincidentally, the Beihai and Mobei regions have been plagued by constant turmoil over the past two years, and natural disasters have also hit them. The people are suffering the most."
"When our Majesty ascended the throne, many people knew that he was from the royal family, not the legitimate lineage. The Empress Dowager spent so much money to find a wife for Prince Yuan..."
Lianzhi's lips curled up slightly. "What's wrong with that? Chen Fengke is inherently unkind and unjust. The people have the sharpest eyes. Even we at the post station have heard about it. I'm afraid more people will know. At the very least, we need to let King Mu know and let him deal with the rumors."
Geerer understood and nodded in agreement.
Although the rain had stopped, the musty smell in the house had not yet dissipated, mixed with the smell of food. Lianzhi felt a stomachache and was about to go out for a walk when the maid beside Yuyao asked him to come over.
Thinking Yuyao was bored, she invited him over to talk for a few minutes. Unexpectedly, when she got downstairs, she saw several disaster victims surrounding her, cursing and swearing. An old man behind her even raised his hand, not knowing what he was about to do. Lianzhi frowned and quickly stepped forward to block her: "What are you going to do?"
The old man was startled, and when he saw his face clearly, he started cursing again, leaving Helian Zhulan stunned. Behind him, Yuyao broke the steamed bun in her hand into small pieces and said softly, "Eat this."
In front of her, a skinny woman was holding a child who had fainted from hunger. Both of them were almost as thin as bones. Looking at the steamed bun in Yuyao's hand, the woman wanted to reach out to take it, but she looked around anxiously.
Something was wrong. He'd been hungry for so long, why wasn't he eating? Before Lianzhi could figure out what was going on, Yuyao urged her urgently, "Please eat! Your child doesn't look well!"
Just as the woman was about to take it, the surrounding victims' eyes widened. An equally thin man suddenly flipped the steamed bun out of her hand and said, "How dare you eat food from the people of the North Sea? If it weren't for them, we wouldn't be out of food!"
"That's right! Who knows if they poisoned us!"
The crowd erupted in a commotion. Someone raised their fist and hit Yuyao on the shoulder: "Go back to your grassland!"
"She was kind enough to give you food, why hit her?" Lianzhi shouted. The crowd fell silent for a moment, then, realizing he was also a foreigner, fists immediately fell on the two of them. Neither Lianzhi nor Yuyao was willing to attack the victims. Geerer and the maid tried desperately to stop them, but they were outnumbered. Seeing they were all foreigners, the victims' anger intensified.
The broken steamed buns were scattered all over the ground, trampled by the crowd, and were no longer edible. Lianzhi protected her head impatiently, and was just hesitating to knock everyone around her unconscious when she heard a roar from behind: "Enough!"
Everyone stopped and looked behind them. Princess Mu was accompanied by two guards, holding two bags of dry food. Instructing the guards to distribute the dry food, Princess Mu said, "I asked you to distribute the food to everyone."
After saying this, he held up the empty cloth bag and said, "Please look, there is the official seal of Rongcheng on the bag. The grain is definitely not poisonous."
Since the famine, Qizhou had borrowed a lot of grain from Rongcheng, and Prince Mu and Princess Mu also had some in Qizhou, so his words would be more trustworthy to the people. Even so, some people still didn't dare to believe it: "But what if they secretly poisoned the dry food..."
Before she could finish her words, Yuyao suddenly picked up the dirty steamed bun on the ground and stuffed it into her mouth.
"I ate it. It's not poisonous," she said.
Seeing this, no one finally said anything more. Some even expressed regret that they hadn't grabbed the steamed bun. After watching them take their rations and return to their guest rooms, Princess Mu sighed, "They are starving. I hope the princess and prince won't blame them."
Yuyao and Lianzhi wouldn't mind. Lianzhi knew that the Daning people's hatred for the Beihai Territory wouldn't dissipate in a day or two. Furthermore, most of the grain sent by the court went to the army, which was indeed related to the Beihai Territory.
"I would also like to thank you, Princess, for your assistance to the people of Daning." Princess Mu bowed lightly.
Lianzhi looked at him, thoughtfully.
When Bo Kang returned, he was covered in mud. Afraid of offending Lianzhi, he took off his coat. Even so, when he entered the guest room, Lianzhi still noticed: "You stink."
"Baby, did you get into an argument with the victims?" Bo Kang asked anxiously, not even bothering to change his clothes. "Did they fight? Are you hurt?"
"I'm fine." Lianzhi turned her head and gestured for him to change clothes first. Seeing that he was calm and composed, Bo Kang finally felt relieved and changed into casual clothes. He found Zhulan feeding the little white cat in her arms with dried meat, and his eyelids twitched.
"Why did you come back just now?" Lianzhi complained softly. To Baikang's ears, it seemed that she just wanted him to accompany her, and he was immediately delighted. Holding him in his arms, Baikang asked, "You feed the cat with dried meat. What do you eat?"
Lianzhi glanced at him and said, "I don't eat much."
It’s unknown how long their rations can last. Bo Kang has already sent people to sell food. He won’t let anyone starve, but it still hurts to see him give the precious rations to the kitten.
"Feed it my food," said Bo Kang.
Lianzhi looked up at him again. What Bai Kang wanted to say was that he was strong and healthy, so it was okay to eat less, but he couldn't bear to let his baby starve.
The kitten had a small appetite, and after finishing a piece of dried meat, it fell limply to sleep. Bo Kang turned his hand and passed the taro to Lianzhi's mouth.
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