Chapter 34 Parting Gifts We agreed to share both good times and bad, but...
When Yu Nie returned to the temple, the sun had not yet reached noon, and the sunlight was quite dim, not as bright as it had been in front of the county government an hour earlier.
Lang Xi, who was carrying a sword and was about to go into the city to find her, quickly moved to her side when he saw her return.
He pulled her around in a circle and examined her closely.
Seeing that she was unharmed, Langxi relaxed and gently scolded, "Junior sister, why didn't you ask me to come with you when you went to Huaiyuan City? You have no idea how worried I was when I saw your letter this morning."
“It’s just that…” Ah Hui gestured, “If you don’t come back soon, and Aunt Liu is advising us to wait a little longer, saying that it takes us a long time to walk there, and if we miss each other, we might get mixed up, and one of us won’t be able to find the other. Going there would be pointless. Right now, Lang Xi and I are preparing to go to the city to look for you.”
Ah Hui gestured a lot, showing how anxious he was, despite his taciturn nature.
Langxi then said, "If something happens to you, how am I supposed to explain it to my martial uncle?"
For Yu Langxi, explaining things was secondary; his real concern was her safety.
It was wrong of her to sneak away from the temple alone. Yu Nie didn't argue. She sincerely admitted her mistake and put her arms around the shoulders of the two people on either side: "I'm back safe and sound. It's not that I didn't want to call you, Junior Sister and Junior Brother. You two came back from Saibei Tower yesterday and helped me mix paints until so late."
She looked around and said, "I didn't want you two to be too tired, so I secretly went into the city by myself. In general, I'm fine. You two... please forgive your sincere and lovely junior sister this time, okay?"
She was also good at acting cute, especially in front of Langxi and Ahui.
Fortunately, both of them were soft-hearted. She spoke some gentle words, and Langxi's originally furrowed brows gradually relaxed: "You... this time, Ah Hui and I will not pursue the matter for the time being, but this kind of thing cannot happen a second time. No matter how dangerous the situation is next time, you cannot abandon us."
She said softly, "The three of us grew up together and promised to share both good times and bad, so we can't break our promise."
Ah Hui echoed him from the side, his expression solemn.
Their actions warmed Yu Nie's heart.
She smiled and nodded vigorously.
Seeing that she had agreed, Langxi felt relieved.
In the blink of an eye, she noticed the small cage that Yu Nie had placed in the courtyard when she entered, and asked, "This little guy... did you buy it from the market?"
Yu Nie waved her fingers back and forth: "No, no... I picked this up on the road. It was injured, and the doctor who treated it said that even if the rabbit's leg heals, it will be left with a limp."
“I originally planned to wait until it recovered before sending it back to the wild, but given its current condition, I’m afraid it won’t be able to survive in the wild, so I brought it back.”
She walked over, picked up the cage, and solemnly introduced it to Langxi and Ahui: "From today onwards, it is a member of our family, and its name is Xuenu."
"Snow Slave?" Lang Xi leaned closer, carefully examining the little creature in the cage, and teased it with his finger: "Snow-white as cotton wool, it's a good name."
"Now that it's part of the family, we should at least give this little snow slave a comfortable home."
Langxi straightened up: "What do you think, Qiqi?"
Yu Nie was overjoyed, revealing a set of neat, white teeth: "What Senior Sister said is right, then... why don't we arrange its nest in the backyard, right next to the wall where Aunt Liu grows vegetables, and build it for it?"
“Okay, I think that place is good too. After lunch, Ah Hui and I will go to the back mountain to cut some bamboo. We probably won’t have enough wood at home. You stay here and continue to work on the peacock blue. The Rong family needs it urgently, so we don’t want to be unable to deliver the goods to them.”
Yu Nie replied, "Let's do as Junior Sister says."
Ah Hui had no objection to Lang Xi's arrangements. As a junior brother, he listened to his senior sister Lang Xi, but as a senior brother, he also listened to his junior sister Yu Nie.
His family all perished in that famine. If his two younger sisters and older sister had survived, they would probably be around the same age as Langxi and Yune.
He didn't see Langxi and Yu Nie as substitutes for his sisters at this moment. It was just that the two of them allowed him to feel the warmth of home, to feel... that he was not alone in this ever-changing, magnificent world.
Not being alone means not being lonely. He had experienced the loneliness he felt while wandering from Taixin Town to Huaiyuan, and he didn't want to experience it a second time.
After arranging things for the afternoon, Yu Nie and Lang Xi went to the backyard. The paint in the medicine pot was still boiling. They had been too anxious and worried about her, so they had planned to go to the city and entrusted the paint to Aunt Liu.
However, Aunt Liu didn't know the details of the pigment-making process and the control of the heat as well as they did.
To avoid any problems, they didn't linger in the front yard.
As they walked toward the backyard, Langxi asked about Zijing and Yu Nie about the current situation in the city. He asked if it was true, as Manager Wang of the Rong family had said, that the Huaiyuan garrison and the Qianzhou Iron Cavalry might be at each other's throats.
Langxi's words reminded Yu Nie of the scene when she brushed past Zhao Shuhuai and his group as she left the city. The group was a large and imposing entourage. Xie Cheng, who was following on the right, saw her and deliberately reined in his horse to stop, and spoke with her for a while.
Judging from the way the Prefect's mansion looked... it wasn't like they were about to fight, but rather Zhao Shuhuai was showing off his power to Zijing and the others.
She hesitated for a moment before replying, "On my way back, I unexpectedly ran into Zhao Shuhuai and his gang. Judging from their demeanor, a fight shouldn't break out right now."
To reassure Langxi, she added, "Guard Xie told us not to worry. No matter what the Prefect's Mansion does, they have a backup plan. Even though Prefect Zhao Shuhuai is the son of the Prince of Yan, he has no chance of escaping."
Lang Xi nodded slightly and pondered for a while: "In that case, I am relieved. After all, Guard Xie and Colonel Huan have been in officialdom for a long time, and they are more clear about the situation than we are."
"As long as they are both safe, that's good." With that, the two of them went into the pavilion. Langxi walked to the makeshift table and continued to pack the paints she hadn't finished packing.
Yu Nie thought so too. She squatted down and turned the fire under the medicine pot up a bit more: "That's right... as long as we pay more attention to the situation in the city, it's not too late to help them if something happens."
The fire under the pot gradually grew bigger: "Anyway, I gave Huan Zijing quite a lot of things, enough for them to defend for a while, at least enough to hold out until we go to ask for help."
Mentioning Huan Zijing, she couldn't help but recall that he was leaving Huaiyuan the day after tomorrow.
She didn't need to hide this from Langxi and the others. She then revealed the whole story.
And with a worried look on her face, she asked, "Senior sister, you said... he's leaving the Northwest, what kind of farewell gift should we give him?"
Giving gifts is a challenge for her.
Upon learning that Zijing was going to take up his post in the capital, Langxi was shocked. He stopped what he was doing and after a long while, he said, "Commander Huan is being transferred away from the border... This is too sudden. I originally thought he would stay on the frontier for a long time..."
"As for what parting gift to give him, I... can't think of anything suitable right now." She and Yu Nie were somewhat similar in temperament when it came to parting, and they were both saddened at the same time.
This sense of loss stems purely from the fact that we've spent so much time together.
Everyone understands that this departure of Zijing is most likely a final farewell, and it will be difficult to see him again.
Their voices drifted into the kitchen, where Aunt Liu, busy making sugar cakes, poked her head out of the window: "The junior officer has been promoted, that's a good thing. No matter how good Huaiyuan is, it can't compare to Jian'an." She knew that Zijing had a brighter future; after all, working for the emperor in Beiye was far better than staying on the harsh border. Ordinary people didn't understand the intricacies of power dynamics.
Aunt Liu was much less worried than the two of them, and her tone sounded very open-minded.
“That’s a good thing…” Yu Nie chimed in, “But we certainly can’t go to the send-off ceremony empty-handed the day after tomorrow.”
“Aunt Liu…” She walked to the window, rested her elbow on the windowsill, and discussed with the people in the kitchen, “You are very experienced, why don’t you give us some advice?”
Without even thinking, Aunt Liu replied, "Well, let's bring him some of Huaiyuan's local specialties so he can enjoy them on the road."
Yu Nie pondered for a moment: "Jian'an has all sorts of good things. Would it seem...shabby for us to send local specialties?"
"Silly girl, what's so shameful about this?" Aunt Liu laughed as soon as she heard this. "As the old saying goes, 'A gift of a goose feather from a thousand miles away is a small gift but carries great meaning.' Giving gifts is about the sentiment, not about comparing whose gift is more expensive."
She spoke with great confidence in Zijing's character: "Besides, that junior officer is definitely not the kind of person who is snobbish. If he were really that kind of person who despises the poor and loves the rich, he wouldn't be standing up for the people of Huaiyuan and putting the He family in jail to be punished according to the law."
After listening to Aunt Liu's words, Yu Nie and Lang Xi exchanged glances and nodded. They felt that what Aunt Liu said made sense, so they decided to do as she suggested.
They decided that when they went into town tomorrow to deliver the peacock blue to the Rong family, they would also take the opportunity to browse the shops on the street and pick out some items they liked.
Knowing that Zijing was about to leave, Aunt Liu sighed deeply after finishing talking about sending the local specialties. Her tone was full of regret. She glanced at Yu Nie and said, "I was thinking of... telling you about this young captain, but who knew he would be promoted and leave the Northwest... What a pity... what a real pity..."
Although Lang Xi was far away, she vaguely caught the key point and a hint of confusion appeared in her eyes: "Aunt Liu, what did you say to Qiqi?"
Fearing that Aunt Liu might ramble on, Yu Nie quickly returned to the table: "It's nothing, it's nothing... Aunt Liu was just talking nonsense, Senior Sister..."
She steered the conversation to paints, and Langxi immediately stopped asking questions, his attention drawn away by her. He momentarily forgot what he had been saying and joined her in counting the number of peacock blue paints in the wooden box.
*
Just past noon, the once bright sun was somehow obscured by thick, dark clouds.
The sky outside the carved window suddenly darkened, as if covered by a gray cloth, and the atmosphere in the hall became gloomy.
The maidservant carried a wooden tray and placed the tea from the tray in front of Zijing and Zhao Shuhuai, who was sitting in the lower seat.
I had just stepped inside the gate when everything changed in the blink of an eye.
For Zhao Shuhuai, who has always believed in celestial signs as warnings, this was not a good omen.
Looking at the dark sky, he frowned involuntarily, picked up the tea beside him, put it to his lips, and muttered under his breath, "What kind of awful weather is this?"
Zijing sat casually on the long couch in front of the screen, one leg propped up, his long fingers idly playing with the wolf-hair brush in his hand.
Upon hearing this, he suddenly raised his eyes and replied with a smile: "Prefect, you are mistaken. As the saying goes, a dark and windy night is the perfect time to kill."
The brush he was twirling suddenly stopped: "Although it's still early before nightfall, with this oppressive atmosphere, killing someone would be enough."
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
