Cold Year (7)
Chapter 22 Cold Years (7)
Li Qi's mind was filled with mixed emotions. Honestly, there wasn't a single day in Qianzhou when she didn't miss Mingrong. But if she really came back, and they actually met in person, she would be incredibly nervous.
It's like climbing on a cliff and picking a flower that you have longed to pick for a long time. When you really pick it, the joy and satisfaction are real, but the fear of falling off the cliff and breaking the flower is also real.
Dong Mingrong is the flower that she is afraid of breaking.
Perhaps it was because Dong Mingrong had always been delicate and beautiful around her since she was a child. She would get tired if she had too much homework, if she studied for a long time, and even if she slept for a long time.
That's why she always felt that Mingrong needed her care.
Li Qi raised her whip and spurred her horse forward. The scenery on both sides of the street quickly receded in her eyes. She had walked this street for three years and could walk home with her eyes closed. Thinking that she was about to leave, she felt a little reluctant.
She was always like this, easily becoming sentimental towards all good things, from a city to a flower.
The iron gate of Qianzhou Prison gradually appeared before her eyes. She reined in her horse in time and walked to the outside. The gatekeeper wanted to stop her, but Wang Mo came out and said in a frivolous tone: "Hey, isn't this Li Leren? Come on, come on, I've been waiting for you for a long time."
He pulled the whip in his hand, as if warming up for hitting someone: "I want to see how you protect him this time!"
He walked inside and Li Qi hurriedly followed. This time no one stopped her.
The prison was cold and damp, with people imprisoned in almost every cell. If you listened carefully, you could even hear the squeaking of mice.
Li Qi followed Wang Mo and stopped outside a cell.
She saw Feng Siji sitting inside, his back against the wall with his head down, his blood-stained hair hanging down from his temples and sticking to his cheeks. Hearing the noise, he looked up and his eyes met Li Qi, who was dressed in a fiery red dress. He was stunned for a moment.
The dim yellow oil lamp illuminated the dark cell, and a little light came in through the window as if alms. Everything was hazy, but her red dress was surprisingly bright.
"Miss Li?" he asked, his voice dry. He stood up from the haystack, the shackles on his wrists and ankles clanging against each other with a jingling sound.
Wang Mo opened the cell door, and Li Qi stepped in. She took Feng Siji's hand naturally and smoothly. "How are you? I heard they said you stole something from the Jiedu Mansion. What did you steal?"
Feng Siji watched her hold his hand for a long while, then slowly pulled it back. He looked at her seriously and said, "I didn't steal it."
His clothes were half open, revealing several hideous and shocking whip marks inside, and the blood flowing out had dyed his coat red.
Li Qi clenched her hand, which had lost its grip, and said to Wang Mo, "What did he steal? You have to produce evidence. How can you just hit someone like that?"
Wang Mo sneered, raised the whip and was about to hit again, but Li Qi grabbed it. He pulled it back, but it didn't move, and the whip just froze in the air.
Wang Mo said impatiently: "It was Lord Wei who ordered the beating. I was just following orders. If Li Leren is unhappy, he can go to Lord Wei."
Li Qi gripped the thick whip tightly, and even though her palms were rubbed hot and painful, she did not let go: "Let him go."
Wang Mo chuckled and said, "Lord Wei knew you would say that, so he told me to let him go, but you have to become my concubine."
He leaned over to Li Qi and whispered arrogantly in her ear, "Li Leren is so proud of her own integrity that she has refused to submit to Lord Wei for years. I don't believe you would lower yourself to become my concubine for someone like Feng Siji."
The contemptuous voice was neither too loud nor too soft, just loud enough for the three people in the cell to hear.
Feng Siji clenched his handcuffed hands into fists and stared at the fiery figure. "I was exiled to Qianzhou, destined to die. You don't have to submit."
She didn't even glance at him, but just looked up at Wang Mo for a long while before she said word by word: "I agree."
Wang Mo was stunned for a moment: "What?"
"Isn't it just to be a concubine? I agree, as long as you let him go."
Wang Mo looked at Li Qi in disbelief, then took out the key and tossed it to her, licking his teeth and laughing, "I was wondering why Li Leren hadn't followed the Wei Jiedushi for so many years. So you like Feng Siji and his gang. Ha, take care of yourself."
He took the whip and left with his men.
Li Qi used the key to unlock Feng Siji's shackles. Her fingers inevitably scraped across his ankles. He shrank noticeably and froze in place.
"Can you still walk? Let me help you."
Li Qi extended her hand, but he waved it away: "No need."
Li Qi followed him and slowly walked out of the cold and gloomy cell.
Her horse was tied outside the prison. She walked over, patted the saddle and said to Feng Siji: "Master Feng, can you still mount the horse?"
Feng Si walked over quickly, compared the height of the horses, and then nodded.
Li Qi took off her cloak, put it on Feng Siji, and tied the two straps at the collar into a butterfly knot on his chest.
The cloak was too big for her, but it barely covered his calves. In comparison, he looked even taller and more slender, standing tall like a mountain. But the exposed part looked ridiculous no matter how you looked at it.
But Li Qi couldn't laugh now. She wanted to help Feng Siji get on the horse, but he gently refused: "I'm not that unable to get on yet."
He held onto the horse's back and climbed up. Just as he was about to whip the horse, he saw Li Qi flying onto the horse and sitting behind him, brushing off her clothes. He could feel her warmth and the hot breath on his back.
He was stunned and didn't even know when she took the reins from his hand. When he reacted, they were already galloping on the long street.
Feng Siji quietly moved forward, trying to avoid the heat on his back, but he didn't expect the person behind him to catch up with him. He even put a hand on his shoulder, and breathed warm air into his ear: "Master Feng, please don't move. This is a busy city. If you scare the horse, it will become a busy city horse."
After saying this, Li Qi felt Feng Siji stiffen and stop moving.
The Pegasus galloped, the cold wind whistled past their ears, and light snow fell on the two of them. His cloak was rustled in the wind.
The scene before his eyes slowly changed from the bustling city to the snow-capped mountains and loess of the suburbs. As he was about to reach home, he couldn't help but ask, "Why did you agree to Wang Mo?"
"What did you say?" Li Qi asked from behind.
Feng Siji pursed his lips and repeated it.
"The wind is so strong, I can't hear you clearly! Turn around and speak!"
Feng Siji turned around without thinking too much, but at that moment, his lips were brushed by another pair of lips. The warm and soft touch struck him like thunder. He was startled on the horse and fell down without paying attention.
Li Qi hurriedly reined in her horse and reached out to grab him, but the cloak brushed past her fingertips and she was unable to hold him, and Feng Siji fell heavily to the ground.
"Are you okay?" Li Qi jumped down and saw him sitting motionless on the yellow earth. He looked terrified. He looked at her with shocked and apologetic eyes, and spoke incoherently: "You, I..."
Li Qi supported him: "Get up first, the ground is cold."
Feng Si staggered to his feet and looked at her lips in a trance, feeling a little confused.
what to do?
His father taught him since he was young that he should be a good official and a good person in the future, and he should respect women he did not intend to marry.
"My cloak is dirty." She pulled the cloak over, and he looked over and saw that one corner of the cloak was covered with mud.
"Sorry, I, I'll go back and wash it for you." Feng Siji didn't dare to look at her, his face was very red.
"But I have to wear it tomorrow."
"Then I'll light a fire tonight and dry it for you."
"Yeah, that's fine."
Li Qi got back on the horse and held out her hand to him: "Come on up and go."
Feng Siji looked at the hand reaching down from above and did not move. He felt that he could not escape. No matter what, he had kissed her accidentally.
He looked up at Li Qi and said seriously, "I will take responsibility for what happened just now. But I am penniless now and cannot delay you. When I return to Kyoto, I will definitely write three letters and six engagements and marry you formally."
"Oh," Li Qi said, crossing her legs on the horse's back. She didn't seem to care about the incident. She crossed her arms and looked at him suspiciously, "Master Feng, do you still want to return to Kyoto?"
Feng Si nodded quickly.
"Why?"
“Because there are still many things I want to do.”
"For example, what you said last night about investigating Yunzhou? Overturning the verdicts of all the wrongly accused people in the world?"
"Um."
Li Qi was silent for a moment, because after the fall, his cloak had fallen to one shoulder and his trouser legs were covered with mud. The wound on his chest seemed to burst open, bleeding more, but he seemed to feel no pain and stood there straight.
Behind him stretched endless farmland, and at the end of the farmland were towering mountains. Everything was so magnificent, and he seemed insignificant standing there. If the mountain collapsed, if the farmland failed to produce any grain, he would die without a trace of breath.
But he was so stubborn, his expression firm, his eyes serious. He fell into her trap of kissing him secretly, and foolishly wanted to take responsibility.
Li Qi gripped the reins tightly, questioning herself in her heart how she could have the heart to plot against someone like him.
But the world is unfair, if he wants to blame someone, he should blame himself. People who are too kind will not be rewarded.
"Today you promised Wei Ming to redeem me, and I will find a way to make this matter invalid." He suddenly said.
"Aren't you curious about why I would pay so much to save you?" Li Qi reminded him to think. There is no kindness without reason in the world. As long as he sees it, points it out, and questions her, she can stop immediately. Then maybe everyone can still be saved, and she won't have to blame herself so much.
But he didn't say anything.
Li Qi had no choice but to stop herself. She looked into his eyes and said slowly, "Because I feel that a good official and a good person like Lord Feng shouldn't end up like this."
Feng Si moved his lips quickly as if to say something, but she was afraid that he would go on and on, so she sat up straight and interrupted him: "Let's go, it's getting late, and this is not the place to talk."
Feng Siji looked around. The mountains were shrouded in pale white snow mist. The farmland at the foot of the mountain stretched as far as the eye could see. A muddy path stretched between the ridges of the fields into the distance. It would take several more miles to reach Tingzhu Garden. Fearing further offense, he really didn't dare to ride with her again, so he said, "I'll walk back."
Li Qi did not force it, and rode his horse at full speed on the muddy road in the field, heading towards Tingzhuyuan.
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