Chapter 165: Back Mountain

The water of the small river behind the mountain is clear, and the white pebbles at the bottom of the river are clearly visible.

Song Mo stood by the river, quietly gazing at the shadows of the trees reflected in the gurgling water.

With a stone-blue brocade robe, a jasper hairpin, an upright figure and a tranquil aura, he seemed to have turned into a tree in the woods behind him, blending into the clear breeze and blue sky. The loneliness and desolation were filled with the clarity of the refreshing autumn air.

Dou Zhao paused after getting off the sedan chair.

Song Mo turned around upon hearing the voice and said with a smile, "You're here!"

His eyes were gentle and his smile was sincere, but Dou Zhao was speechless: "Why are you so thin?"

His originally flawless facial features became even more distinct due to his thinness, making him look solemn and stern even when he was smiling.

"Really?" Song Mo smiled, "Why didn't I think so?"

Dou Zhao sighed quietly in his heart.

Anyone who encountered such a thing would probably be tossing and turning and unable to sleep or eat, not to mention that he was injured. It was not easy for him to stand in front of her.

She couldn't help but ask, "How's your injury?"

"Not bad!" Song Mo was obviously reluctant to talk about it and said simply, "I asked Gu Yu to help invite the best physician in the Imperial Hospital. He said that I can't be impatient and I can only recuperate slowly. I have been lying in bed these days, eating and drinking, and haven't been anywhere." Then he smiled and asked her, "I heard that the coming-of-age ceremony is very lively. It's a pity that I can't come to congratulate..." There was a hint of regret in his eyes, and he really felt it was a pity.

Dou Zhao couldn't help but complain in his heart.

Even if you hadn't encountered this shit, even if you weren't injured, would you be able to come? With what identity and excuse would you come?

The thought flashed through my mind, and I felt that I was worrying too much.

What can Song Mo not accomplish?!

Maybe it's a good thing that he can't come to congratulate.

If she allowed him to find an excuse to have an open relationship with her, how could she avoid the Song family's affairs in the future?

Then I thought of Ji Yong.

How come every person she met had such a temper? !

Then she thought of Wu Shan and Wei Tingyu... She felt that Song Mo and Ji Yong both gave her a headache.

She simply didn't think about anything, looked around, pointed to a large bluestone not far away, and said to Song Mo, "Let's go over and sit down?" As soon as she finished speaking, she felt that this was a bit inappropriate - it was said that Song Mo's injury was very serious, and she didn't know how he was now? She hurriedly said, "Forget it, let's talk while standing?" She couldn't help muttering in her heart, wondering if it was hard for him to stand like this...

Song Mo looked at Dou Zhao and smiled, the smile flowing from the depths of his eyes to the corners of his eyes and eyebrows.

He said softly, "I'm fine. The external injuries have healed long ago, but the internal injuries... My uncle thinks that learning external martial arts is too domineering. Our Song family is close to the emperor, so it's not good for me to learn this. In my early years, he specifically found a master who told me to practice internal martial arts. This kind of martial arts is like a tea brewed over a low fire. It takes time to learn, and there's no need to rush."

"That's good!" Dou Zhao thought of how Duan Gongyi said when he first met Song Mo that Song Mo seemed to have learned some special martial arts. Thinking that both the Jiang family and the Song family were prosperous families with a history of hundreds of years, they must have some self-defense and life-saving skills that outsiders didn't know about, he responded casually.

Song Mo smiled slightly and said, "You told me last time that there were wild vegetables on the farm. Are they growing on the hill behind this? Why can't I see any?"

Dou Zhao couldn't help but ask, "Do you know any wild vegetables?"

"Yes!" Song Mo said with a smile, "I didn't know them before, but after I went back, I asked someone to pick some for me... I didn't know the rare ones, but I know most of them now."

Not really!

Dou Zhao blinked.

Song Mo nodded at her seriously.

Dou Zhao looked around, pulled out a plant with oval leaves and brought it back: "What is this?"

"This..." Song Mo had never seen this before. His forehead suddenly broke out in sweat. He murmured, "It should be... Ye Liao?"

It really worked!

Dou Zhao muttered to himself.

"No!" she said solemnly, "It's sorrel."

Sorrel and Polygonum multiflorum look very similar, but one has narrower and longer leaves, while the other has rounder ones.

Song Mo wiped the sweat off his face in embarrassment.

Dou Zhao laughed out loud.

That smile, with a hint of cunning and a hint of slyness, had a kind of unbridled elegance that brightened Song Mo's gloomy heart.

He couldn't help but laugh along.

The smile softened Song Mo's features, revealing some of his youthful beauty.

Dou Zhao secretly sighed in his heart what a pity.

Song Yichun turned such a handsome boy into a killer.

"This is also called sorrel." She shook the sorrel in her hand, "It is a wild vegetable that grows in the summer. After picking it, wash it with clean water, blanch it in boiling water for a while, and then you can eat it. It has the effect of clearing heat and cooling blood."

Song Mo took the sorrel from Dou Zhao and said with a smile, "Last time we ate okra. You seem to know a lot about these things."

"Yeah." Dou Zhao looked up at the three wild peach trees on the other side of the river and smiled. "I grew up here. When I was young, I often went up the mountain with the children in the village to pick wild vegetables and go down to the river to catch fish." She pointed to a corner by the stream. "See? In summer, there will be a lot of wild fish there..." Dou Zhao turned around and asked him with a smile, "Can you walk?"

"Yeah!" Song Mo nodded, "I can walk."

"Come on, I'll take you somewhere!" Dou Zhao walked forward with a smile, saying, "If you find it strenuous, just tell me." He paused and said, "Don't force yourself, that's boring."

"I understand!" Song Mo smiled, and he and Dou Zhao crossed the river by stepping on the stones.

Dou Zhao climbed up the wild peach tree nimbly.

Song Mo didn't hesitate and climbed up immediately.

He saw large tracts of farmland and two villages. The one to the east was Dou Zhao's farm. A brick-and-tile house stood in the middle of the village, surrounded by some low mud and thatched houses. The other one looked very unfamiliar. The two villages were similar in size and layout. He could even clearly see the shadows of farmers working in the fields and people walking in the brick-and-tile houses.

Dou Zhao pointed to the village that seemed strange to him and said with a smile, "That's the farm of the Lang family. People from the Lang family rarely come here. The one who manages the farm is a skinny old farmhand. He has a fat white wife who likes to drink. Every time she drinks too much, she chases the old farmhand and beats him. The old farmhand curses at her while running to the fields, and the people in the farmhand all run out to watch the excitement..."

Song Mo couldn't help laughing.

He seemed to see little Dou Zhao, crouching here with a frown on his face, watching the fight between the Lang family’s husband and wife… That ridiculous noise, like a warm current, flowed through his cold heart and warmed his soul.

Dou Zhao's expression suddenly became serious.

She stared into Song Mo's eyes and said in a deep voice, "I don't know why your father wanted to frame you!"

Song Mo's smile froze at the corner of his mouth.

Dou Zhao turned his head and looked again at the two villages that seemed to be not far apart.

"You know my mother hanged herself, right?" In her previous life, she often stood here and looked at the two villages, but in this life, she rarely had such an opportunity. "I often wondered why she had to hang herself? Am I not worthy of her staying? Who in this world would care about me? Who would protect me at the risk of their life? Am I not as good as Lai San at the head of the village? He is bullied outside every day. His mother treated him like a treasure..." A trace of confusion flashed in her eyes, "Sometimes I was going crazy thinking about it, so I would run around in the mountains... One Mid-Autumn Festival, my third uncle gave me a box of Beijing-style mooncakes. I don’t know why, but I felt very confused. As soon as my third uncle left, I ran to the mountain, raised my head suddenly, and saw these three wild peach trees... I was wearing new clothes at that time... I was like a village girl. "Just like the children in the book, they climbed up the tree and got their clothes torn, but they saw the old man of Lang's village being chased and beaten by his wife..." Perhaps thinking of the scene at that time, Dou Zhao smiled, and then pointed to a house at the westernmost end of Langjia Village and said, "There are two daughters in that house. Their father would go from village to village with a pole carrying groceries during the leisure time of the farmers, and would always bring back two baked cakes for them when he came home. Then he pointed to another family, "The mother-in-law of that family is very powerful. If her daughter-in-law is a little slow, she will stand under the eaves and scold her. But once her daughter-in-law was sick, she immediately went to the city to invite a doctor and made medicine for her daughter-in-law..." Dou Zhao stared at Song Mo with his eyes sparkling, "You see, there are bad things in this world, but there are also good things. If you see more people or things, you will find that there are more good things than bad ones!"

Is she trying to persuade herself not to take her father's frame-up seriously?

Song Mo's vision was a little blurry.

I don’t know whether it was because of what Dou Zhao said or because of her intentions towards me.

"I just don't trust my own father," Dou Zhao's voice rose and fell in his ears, "so when I heard that Mr. Yan and Xu Qing were being hunted, I was on guard and asked Duan Gongyi and Chen Xiaofeng to go to Beijing to find out the news. If you are really framed by your father as I expected, I will lend a hand. If not... it's better to be safe than sorry, just consider it as a unnecessary worry on my part!"

Song Mo smiled, but his smile was bitter: "Fortunately you did this, otherwise I would have died a long time ago."

Dou Zhao didn't say anything. She looked towards the two farms at the foot of the mountain.

It was almost noon and wisps of smoke were rising from the village.

Song Mo followed Dou Zhao's gaze.

The women who delivered the meals walked in groups of two or three, saying hello and going to the fields happily.

The laughter added a bit of liveliness to the quiet village, making people feel that it was not noisy but full of vitality.

Song Mo felt that his heart had become peaceful and light, just like the village.

He turned his head to look at Dou Zhao beside him and said "thank you" softly.

"You're welcome." Dou Zhao smiled, "You will find that time flies. Whatever made you feel miserable a moment ago, you will soon forget it once that moment has passed, even the pain."

Xia Lian, who was hiding behind the trees and looking at Song Mo and Dou Zhao from afar, was filled with worries: "What exactly did the prince and the fourth lady Dou want to say? Why did they climb up the tree?"

Chen He pursed his lips when he thought of Dou Zhao's warning to him not to make this an example next time.

Miss Dou Si must be telling the Crown Prince why she discovered that the Duke of England had designs on him.

He was a little absent-minded because of this, and said, "Maybe there is something important. He must not want to be overheard when talking on the tree."

"Really?" Xia Lian was very skeptical. "Not even a mosquito can fly into this back mountain. Who can eavesdrop on the conversation between the prince and the fourth lady?"

Ever since the robbery at the Duke of England's mansion, both the Duke of England and the Crown Prince have been surrounded by many skilled guards. Even when he came to Zhending, the Crown Prince still brought enough people with him.