"Hey!" Sun Ergou almost floated up, shouting in a high-pitched, childish voice, his voice trembling with sobs: "Sister, where have you been all year!"
"We'll talk about it later."
Wu, the prefect, who had almost wiped out the bandits, ran over breathlessly. "General, what is this—" They're still fighting, and they're already embracing?
Isn't it said that the General Protector of the Nation is not interested in women?
Without even looking at him, Xie Xiao said, "Prefect Wu has made a great contribution. I will reward you with five thousand elite soldiers and one hundred thousand catties of grain to help you rebuild Tanzhou."
Prefect Wu: ! !
The next moment, his eyes welled up with tears of emotion, "On behalf of the people, I thank the general!"
However, that girl... if we don't ask, neither Deputy General Sun nor the six wolves can fit in. If he goes up and disturbs her, she might just take back the girl and the supplies.
Li Ruo pushed Xie Xiao away, saying, "Your armor is hurting me." Doesn't he know how much force he's using? If she weren't physically strong, she probably would have been held to death by him.
"I'm being lenient by not killing you." Xie Xiao finally let go of her, but his hand was still tightly gripping hers. His eyes were deep and dark as he looked her over from head to toe, from her forehead to her eyebrows to her eyes to her cheeks to her lips to her shoes.
If the occasion weren't so inappropriate, he would kiss her right now, kiss her hard, kiss her to death.
She's back, really back. The warm touch wasn't fake. Only then did Xie Xiao feel a sense of reality, his heart pounding so hard it almost jumped out of his chest.
He placed her hand near his mouth and gently bit it, his eyes filled with longing, his movements careful, as if afraid she would disappear in the blink of an eye.
Li Ruo stared at him, equally moved. "You've lost weight, and you haven't shaved." She had so many questions, but who knew that what she said would be so idiotic.
This is clearly not the place to talk.
Xie Xiao looked at Sun Ergou, "Leave the rest to Prefect Wu, let's call it a day."
He held Li Ruo's hand tightly, his gaze refusing to leave her face. Several times he nearly fell off the mountain, but Li Ruo pulled him back each time.
Xie Xiao ordered his troops to set up camp at the foot of the mountain.
The floodwaters in Tanzhou have mostly receded, revealing much of the land. It's springtime now, and in some places, tender green shoots are peeking out. How wonderful!
"Heavens! Look, the sun is out!" someone suddenly exclaimed!
Everyone was startled and looked up. "Yes, the sun is out!"
How long has it been since they've seen the sunlight?
The enormous sun broke through the clouds, a truly breathtaking sight. Everyone watched the sun with excitement; some wept, some cheered, and some prostrated themselves on the ground in gratitude.
Li Ruo felt Xie Xiao's hand tighten.
"The sun is out!"
Xie Xiao held her hand, gazing intently at her, sunlight falling into his eyes, creating countless shards of light.
Sunlight fell on Li Ruo's face, revealing her flawless, fair complexion, full, rose-red lips, and glossy, dark skin that remained unchanged. Xie Xiao felt a tightness in his throat, realizing that they were setting up camp far too slowly today.
"Li Ruo," he called her, lifting her high into the sunlight.
“It’s me.” Li Ruo smiled at him. “I’m back.”
Their eyes, locked in a gaze, were so bright.
Sun Ergou and his other subordinates watched from the sidelines, and they all cried.
Heaven rewards those who are devoted to love; after a year of searching, the eldest brother finally found her.
Li Ruo asked Xie Xiao to put him down, then looked at Sun Ergou and the others. She remembered a few of the brothers, "Da Hei, Xu Yong, Yu Dalang..."
The brothers who were called upon cried tears of joy.
"Our bandit queen has finally returned."
“Go away, return the bandit’s wife. The boss is now the emperor—the wife is naturally—hehehehe.”
"Yes, yes, yes."
The brothers all understood without saying a word, and laughed heartily.
Li Ruoxin wondered, is it reliable to entrust the country to such a group of people?
Congratulations!
Suddenly, Li Ruo became a little nervous again, "Besides me, your principal wife, do you have any concubines or other women—"
The rest of his words disappeared into his fierce gaze: "What do you think? If I had someone as jealous as you, wouldn't it be chaos every day?"
Li Ruo glared at him and was about to twist his ear when she suddenly realized that she couldn't. He was the emperor now, and if she was going to twist him, she should do it behind closed doors.
He had indeed lost weight, his face bore the marks of his journey, his skin was rough and dark, the calluses on his palms were becoming increasingly callous, and his eyes were becoming more and more composed.
Their eyes met, neither of them wanting to look away, as if they were trying to make up for the time they spent gazing at each other that year.
How did you spend this year?
They asked at the same time.
Li Ruo said, "You go first. What happened after I and the Prince of Jiangning sank into the water?"
Xie Xiao was only responsible for watching over her; that task was left to Sun Ergou.
"Sister, after you fell into the water, the Prince of Jiangning was arrested and interrogated, but all he said was that you had gone back to hell, which was of no use. The eldest brother and General Li were so anxious that they searched everywhere for you."
On the water, underwater, on the mountain—especially the eldest brother, they searched tirelessly, practically digging three feet into the ground, but still couldn't find you. The eldest brother only went to rest after being knocked unconscious by General Li—oh dear!
Xie Xiao gave him a big thumbs up, "Stop rambling on and on, just get to the point."
Sun Ergou rolled his eyes at him. "Yes. Xu Dafu, Chen He, Xiao Lizi, Boss, several teams went out to look for you, but they couldn't find you. After a few days, we all thought you might be gone, because ordinary people can't survive in the water for that long. So, everyone asked a Taoist priest to do divination. To be honest, I felt that the Taoist priest was just fooling us. He said that the divination showed that you were still alive and had drifted with the current to some beach in the south. It sounded so fake, but some people believed it. Boss went to look for you without saying a word."
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