Chapter 116: The City is Here and the People Are Here “I’m here.”
Lin Meizhu was very familiar with this smell. She wouldn't mistake it.
She rose to put on her clothes and saw her small floral quilt had fallen to the floor. She picked it up, paused, and touched the couch. Holding the oil lamp, she walked toward the window and gently opened it. A biting, cold wind blew in, diluting the room's odor. The stench of gunpowder and blood from outside filled her nose. She couldn't tell if the smell was already there or had come from outside.
When she looked up, she caught a glimpse of a faint crimson light by the window frame. Just as she was about to take a closer look, snowflakes fluttered down and landed on her eyes. When she opened her eyes again, the area was covered with gray-black artillery ash, and she could no longer distinguish its original color.
The north wind was fierce and stinging, and it hurt my face. It was almost November, and the first snow had come so early this year.
Lin Meizhu gazed at the drifting snowflakes, touched the pendant beneath the red string, and suddenly felt a surge of unease and panic. As if to confirm her foreboding, intense artillery fire echoed from the city walls.
The rebels launched a new round of attack.
Though the King of Chu was suspicious, a series of defeats quickly convinced him that Shen Changfeng was stalling for time. The battle for the ferry intensified, with the Xiangyang navy also engaging the rebels on the water. Several times, the rebels seized the ferry only to be repelled by Xiangyang reinforcements. The King of Chu, driven to despair, had received secret reports that cavalry from various locations were urgently rushing to his aid. He could not afford to delay any longer. He made a decisive decision: even if it meant sacrificing some troops, even if it meant heavy casualties, to contain the Fu Bo army and move on to attack Xiangyang. Xiangyang was the key; capturing it could turn the tide of the war.
The King of Chu used this desperate tactic to win back a game. Fancheng could not resist and the ferry fell. The King of Chu breathed a sigh of relief and left some troops to besiege Fancheng. He led the main force, prepared to take down Xiangyang and march south.
Shen Changfeng ordered his men to hang various flags on the walls of Fancheng, and sent out the few people who had cursed the most foully in the military tent that day to stand on the top of the wall and shout out the manifesto loudly, starting from the three generations of Chu's ancestors, counting the "evidence" of their ancestors' betrayal of the previous emperor's ancestral teachings, denouncing their wolfish ambitions and conspiracy to usurp the throne. He also copied the manifesto on cloth and distributed it to the people of the two cities. The other prefectures followed suit, calling on the people to fight against the rebels together.
The King of Chu is not leaving.
He was completely enraged, and he scolded Zhang Yixin and others who had urged him to go south, saying, "You can't even capture a small city like Fancheng! What's the point of talking about Nanjing! What's the point of talking about the whole world!"
He decided to capture Fancheng and have the perpetrators of the crime hacked into pieces and torn to pieces. He wanted to hang Shen Changfeng's head high up, so that those along the way would shudder at the sight of it, thus boosting morale and intimidating all. But before that, he wanted to capture Shen Changfeng alive to hold him hostage to a certain force.
But after days of fierce fighting, Fancheng's defense line remained strong.
In the eyes of many people, Shen Changfeng is like a rock or a mountain, an iron wall that is impenetrable.
Lin Meizhu also felt so, until that day when she saw Shen Changfeng wiping the horse's body, and the clothes on his back were shining wetly in the sunlight.
It's almost winter, how could he be sweating so much? When Shen Changfeng turned his back again, Lin Meizhu noticed that his clothes were slightly raised at the shoulders, the edges fitting smoothly. She realized belatedly that it was blood. He was injured.
But she had never heard him call for a doctor.
The weather was very cold, so the place for washing horses was changed to a straw hut by the river. There was too much blood on Achou's body. Sometimes when he came back from the battlefield, the blood would condense on his eyelashes, making it difficult for him to see. Usually, he would just wipe it off hurriedly. Shen Changfeng would come every few days and do it himself, washing the dirt for him with warm water.
Lin Meizhu would sometimes run into him, and their conversations would always be about Xiao Man'er or the jade lion. While Shen Changfeng was wiping the jade lion, Lin Meizhu would sit down on a nearby cart to rest.
He would often say words of encouragement to Achou, such as "Achou, you did a great job today", "Achou, you are a rare and majestic horse", or "Achou, there are very few horses like you nowadays", and the one he said most often was "Achou, you are such a good horse." Achou would always be disdainful when he heard it, but every time he heard it, he would walk away with his tail wagging and his ears shaking.
Lin Meizhu noticed that Ah Chou no longer relied on his antics to attract attention. Many people who saw him couldn't help but exclaim, "This black horse has such shiny fur and is so handsome!"
Achou is not ugly anymore.
Shen Changfeng would also talk to Jade Lion, but he would always do so with his back to her, intentionally or unintentionally. Whenever this happened, Lin Meizhu would feel a little indignant. Jade Lion was so close to her, and if she wanted to know, would Jade Lion not tell her? He spoke so quietly, as if afraid someone might eavesdrop.
Aside from the first time he washed his horse, Shen Changfeng never took off his clothes in front of Lin Meizhu again. Instead, he wore more and more. After the first snow, he put on his cloak early. Even when washing and wiping the horse, he didn't take it off. As time went on, he became less and less talkative. Most of the time, he just watched quietly.
He washed the horses and let them run by the river again. When the horses ran past Lin Meiju, he would look at her, then slowly retract his gaze and follow the horses away. He did the same when the horses came back, repeating this back and forth. At this time, he actually hoped the horses could run slower.
Lin Meizhu noticed that he washed the jade lion slowly and patiently today. After washing the horse, he took another towel and wiped its face and body, brushed its coat with a soft brush, and checked its hooves again. After making sure everything was done, he leaned over the jade lion's face and said a few words, then patted its neck and signaled it to go play. For some reason, the jade lion refused to go, hesitating around him, seeming a little restless and meowing softly. Ah Chou urged him several times before the jade lion reluctantly left.
He was busy all the time. Even when he was standing by the river listening to the wind, soldiers would run over and report military reports to him.
The north wind was cold and sharp, lifting a corner of his cloak. But within ten days, he had changed again. He had been strong and thin before, but now he was just tall and thin.
At this time, the two armies temporarily ceased fighting, but the ashes from the artillery fire on the horizon had not yet dissipated, and the gray-red with a smell of sulfur invaded most of the sky. The setting sun became bleak, and there was little left when it fell on the river. It was blown away by the wind, leaving only the turbid oily sheen left after the gunpowder ravages.
Everyone in the city was on edge, and Lin Meiju was no exception.
The horse ran away, still playing freely in the sunset. The splashing sand sparkled with gold, but the laughter of the past was no longer heard. Lin Meiju's eyes became sore as she watched, and suddenly she felt her feet loosen, and she turned her head back.
Shen Changfeng came up to him at some point, holding a pair of new shoes in his hand.
Lin Meizhu asked him, "What are you doing?"
Afraid that Lin Meizhu would not accept it, Shen Changfeng moved quickly and said, "It's easy to walk."
Lin Meizhu retracted her foot and said, "It doesn't hurt."
Shen Changfeng quickly grabbed her ankle and said, "But I can."
I know you are not in pain, but the thought that you might be in pain makes my heart ache.
After these words were spoken, neither of them responded.
Such silence was like a blunt knife to Shen Changfeng, scraping at his already broken heart again and again, and the ulcer-like pain spread in his chest again.
Shen Changfeng hid the old shoes where she couldn't see them and said, "Liu Niang made them and asked me to give them to you."
Lin Meizhu examined the dense, neat stitching on the shoes and said, "You're saying that Liu Niang specifically asked Suozhu to find out my shoe size, and then had Tiezhu's own shoes altered to make them smaller for me. Then she had someone bring them to Suozhu at the barracks. Suozhu gave them to you, and you're going to give them to me?"
Shen Changfeng had already made up his mind to default on the debt and said, "That's right."
Lin Meiju stared at him, obviously not believing him.
Shen Changfeng was afraid that she would say something to refuse, afraid that she would notice the abnormality in his expression. He lowered his head and continued, "These shoes are made in the back. This is just one pair. Others will have them too."
Lin Meizhu asked, "Since everyone has it, why mention it specifically?"
Shen Changfeng didn't answer directly, but just repeated, "Everything will be there."
"Shen Changfeng."
"Um."
Lin Meizhu said softly: "Chen Changfeng, you have made an oath, aren't you afraid?"
Shen Changfeng wanted to say, I just said I was leaving Jiangling and Jingzhou, I just said I was free to marry, but I didn't say I didn't love you anymore. But in the end he said nothing, just smiled, said "hmm", and said: "I will not die well."
Lin Meizhu's expression suddenly changed, and she kicked his hand away. "This is not funny at all."
Shen Changfeng put on the shoe that was kicked loose for her and slowly stood up. "I'm not joking."
Perhaps he noticed her gaze, and almost the moment she looked at him, he turned his face away and looked at the wall of Fancheng.
The bricks and stones had been smoked to a dark brown, and the walls near the ground had turned an ugly earthy yellow, the result of the hastily filled-in earth after the bombardment. The arrow tower had been burned black, and a severed red halberd tip leaned against the west wall. The wind carried heavy smoke, and the flames dyed the sky red, but could not illuminate Shen Changfeng's face.
Lin Meizhu had never seen him like this before, so low-spirited, so depressed and repressed. In the stillness of the night, his back was unusually silent, unusually calm, like a weathered, dilapidated stone statue, gradually becoming part of the rubble behind him.
She was frightened by his appearance, and the panic in her heart suddenly became more severe. She called him: "Shen Changfeng...?"
Shen Changfeng came back to his senses and turned back slightly, "Yes, I'm here."
Lin Meizhu asked in a trembling voice, "Do you know what it means for a city to be broken?"
At this time, reinforcements from various regions were rushing towards Fancheng. The King of Chu had no way to retreat. If he could capture Xiang and Fan, he could attack or defend. The two armies would inevitably fight to the death, with Fancheng bearing the brunt of the attack. If Fancheng were captured, the rebels would likely massacre the entire city to vent their anger.
Shen Changfeng knew that even if he died, he would never let such a thing happen.
"I know. As long as the city survives, we will survive. I will defend it until the last moment."
There was a commotion coming from the direction of the city gate, it was too loud, and the wind was too noisy, so the rapid and unstable breathing was easily suppressed.
The footsteps of the soldiers behind him became clearer and closer, and Shen Changfeng's speech speed also increased. "Fancheng is no longer safe. I will arrange for the evacuation of military families in the next two days. Someone will meet you in Xiangyang. We may set off at any time. Be prepared."
He pressed a short knife into her hand and said, "Keep it for self-defense."
Lin Meizhu held the dagger, still warm from his words, and didn't know if she had heard him at all, but her tone had returned to calm. She asked, "Are you done?"
Shen Changfeng nodded.
Lin Meizhu turned her head away, looking a little angry: "Then you can leave."
After that, the two horses returned and it was time to go. But he still didn't move. He felt that Lin Meizhu seemed a little different today, and he felt that she had something to say.
In today's situation, no matter what sweet words she said to cheer him up, he would not believe them. They were all lies, just charity out of sympathy and pity. When the crisis in Fancheng was over, everything would return to the starting point, and it would only make him more painful.
But since she has something to say, let's just listen.
The sound of the wind gradually slowed down, and the occasional crackling sound of burning torches could be heard faintly. Lin Meiju stared at the motionless figure at her feet and slowly turned around.
She lifted her eyelids slightly and looked up at him.
From Shen Changfeng's perspective, she looked tiny, her almond-shaped eyes shimmering like a soft mist. Despite the large hood, she was still cold. Her palm-sized face was warm and clear, her straight nose tinged with red, and her dark eyes seemed to be about to speak, making her particularly endearing. Lin Meizhu noticed that every time she called his name, the dullness in his lifeless pupils faded a little, until now, there was even a faint light in his eyes.
She called out again: "Chen Changfeng..." The tone was a little different from before, it was light and soft, and it took a detour, as if she was a little aggrieved, and also coquettish.
Shen Changfeng's heart skipped a beat, and he unconsciously leaned towards her, his fingertips slowly touching her face, and said, "I'm here."
He saw her blinking those innocent, moist almond-shaped eyes, gazing at him intently. He could clearly see the thought and turmoil on her face. An outrageous thought popped into his mind, a thought that made his heart pound. Was she comparing? Weighing? Feeling embarrassed? It was human nature, human nature. After all, both were good, so it was only natural that she would feel embarrassed.
Lin Meizhu bit her lip lightly and said, "I also have a few words to say to you."
Shen Changfeng's heart beat faster and he said, "Okay."
While he was thinking about how he would respond if Lin Meizhu made such an outrageous request to him, he urged in his heart: Ask quickly! Ask quickly! Ask quickly!
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
