Chapter 104 Confinement
Although it was June, the spacious tents were cool and breezy, without a trace of stuffiness.
After safely retreating from Nanban to Guandu that day, Yuan Shao continued to press forward, and the two sides remained locked in a stalemate at Guandu.
"Mommy...Mommy..." Holding the little dumpling, I sat on the makeshift mat, mouthing exaggeratedly as I spoke to the dumpling, "I'm Mommy..."
A snicker came from the side.
I turned around and glared at Hua Yingxiong, not wanting to pay him any attention.
"Please, he's only a few days old, and you already want to teach him to talk?" Hua Yingxiong finally couldn't help but slap his thigh and burst into laughter.
I gritted my teeth and opened my mouth to start cursing.
"Please keep a happy mood during your postpartum period, otherwise it will have a negative impact on your health, and incidentally, on Chong'er," Hua Yingxiong said seriously.
"Steamed buns! Steamed buns! It's steamed buns!" I emphasized.
“A name is just a title. Even if a name is changed, the trajectory of fate will not be affected in any way,” Hua Yingxiong’s voice suddenly became very calm, with a feeling of an old monk in deep meditation.
I deliberately ignored the chill in my heart, disregarded that jinx, turned around, made a face at Baozi, and tried to make him laugh.
"Didn't you say you wanted to become a monk? Why are you still hanging around here?" I asked again after a while.
"The opportunity has not yet arrived."
Good grief, you dismissed me with just four words.
"You said that if you could save three hundred lives, you would attain enlightenment. Last time you said you had already saved two hundred and ninety-nine people, with only one left. Why are you still dawdling here?"
"The time is not yet ripe." Hua Yingxiong's mouth was tighter than an oyster shell, and not a single secret could be pried out.
"I haven't seen Cao Cao much lately. Is the war going badly?" I asked, changing the subject.
"Do you miss him?"
"You can't expect anything good to come out of a dog's mouth," I rolled my eyes again.
"Be mindful of the example you set for Baozi," someone reminded him.
"You seem to have a lot of free time, staying here with me while I play golf," I said sarcastically.
"This is a military order. It's a pity that I, a military doctor, am being wasted on such a task, being ordered to take care of a new mother..." Hua Yingxiong said with a look of reluctance.
"Alright, alright, I'll talk to Cao Cao tomorrow and get you into battle." I grinned menacingly.
"NO! It is my honor to be able to serve my husband during his postpartum period." Hua Yingxiong's ability to change his mind according to the wind was becoming increasingly powerful.
"Shameless!" I said dismissively.
"Thank you for your kind words, Madam." Hua Yingxiong looked pleased with himself.
I had no choice but to give up and turned back to hum a little tune to the steamed bun.
In the afternoon, I took a nap. When I woke up, it was already evening. Baozi had been smuggled out by Hua Yingxiong again.
Someone lifted the tent flap and came in; a very light footstep stopped in front of my bed.
"Cough cough..." The person covered their mouth and made a muffled cough, very softly.
Guo Jia?
I opened my eyes and looked at him.
A thin sliver of moonlight shone through the open tent flap.
Under the moonlight, he wore a blue robe, his eyes were as dark as ink, and his figure appeared increasingly thin.
"A fortune teller?" I propped myself up, trying to sit up.
A slightly cool hand gently pressed on my shoulder. Guo Jia coughed lightly and smiled, "Sorry to wake you up."
I had no choice but to lie down, and I smiled and tilted my head to look at him. "It's been a long time. That guy Cao Cao has been preventing me from getting out of bed, and you haven't come to see me."
"Cough cough... My body isn't very strong, and I've been lying in bed for a few days." Guo Jia said with a light cough.
"If you're not feeling well, why not stay in Xuchang instead of embarking on a long march and fighting?" I frowned.
“Brother Mengde, your foundation is not yet secure, Sun Ce in Jiangdong is eyeing you covetously, and Liu Bei is no pushover either. If we cannot defeat Yuan Shao in this battle, the situation will be perilous… cough cough…” Guo Jia sat down on the edge of the couch, coughed for a while, and smiled faintly, “Besides, I don’t know how much longer my body can hold on…”
"What nonsense are you talking about!" I was slightly annoyed. I sat up and patted his back, feeling how frail he seemed, as if he would fall apart with a single pat. "Where's your medicine? Did you take it? You're coughing like this!"
"Hehe, that medicine tastes awful," Guo Jia laughed.
"Good medicine tastes bitter!" I glared at him. "If you cared about your health as much as you do about military strategy, you probably wouldn't be like this!"
"How fierce!" Guo Jia pretended to shrink his neck and chuckled.
"Then why did you come here to be scolded!" I scolded lightly, sounding annoyed.
"Ah? Hehe..." Guo Jia laughed, then paused for a moment, lost in thought. "I really did come here to be scolded..."
Seeing him muttering to himself, I raised my hand and placed it on his forehead, then touched my own forehead with the other hand. "You don't have a fever, do you?"
“Pei Xiao.” Guo Jia looked up at me, his clear eyes gazing at me with a look that seemed to penetrate to the very bone.
I was exasperated. "Could you please stop calling me by my full name?!"
“Pei’er… Xiaoxiao…”, Guo Jia was slightly lost in thought, “Xiaoxiao… Xiaoxiao… Ruo… Ruo… Ruo Ruo…”
"Ruo Ruo... Ruo Ruo..." he murmured, stood up, turned around and walked out.
He murmured the name softly, as if he had found a priceless treasure.
The cold moonlight cast a long, blurry shadow.
I watched him walk out of the tent, full of doubt. What's wrong with the Half-Immortal? I've never seen him so lost and dejected. Even before, even when he was heartbroken and desperate, he always maintained that detached and calm demeanor. What has made him like this?
Did anything happen that I don't know about while I was away?
While I was still in a daze, the tent flap was opened again, and I instinctively closed my eyes.
It was Cao Cao. Even though he didn't open his eyes, I knew it was him. He had a faint, sweet, metallic scent about him.
It tastes like blood.
Is the war very tense?
A slightly rough hand gently stroked my cheek.
"Wah..." Baozi's voice was crying.
He brought steamed buns? I almost instinctively opened my eyes, only to see Cao Cao nervously hiding the buns in his arms. "Keep your voice down, don't disturb your mother's sleep!"
I was both amused and exasperated. "You want to suffocate my son?"
Cao Cao turned to look at me, stuffed the steamed bun into my arms, and then turned to light the lamp.
I held Baozi in my arms, gently shook my head, and coaxed her. Then Baozi stopped crying and obediently looked at me with her black, jade-like eyes, as pure as the stars in the night sky.
Feeling Cao Cao's gaze, I looked up at him and saw him looking at me thoughtfully, with a serious expression and a hint of warmth that was hard to detect.
"What are you looking at?"
"Look at you."
nonsense.
I said this to myself, but I didn't have the guts to provoke him.
"There are some scores between us that haven't been settled yet..." Cao Cao drawled out, his eyes half-closed, looking at me lazily like a fox.
I started to get a chill down my spine. Was he going to hold me accountable for running away with the baby?
I chuckled twice, then prepared to change the subject.
"My lady, do you know how much effort I've put into finding you?" The fox clearly wasn't going to let me off so easily and was planning to settle scores later.
"Well, there's a saying, 'You can search high and low, but then it comes to you effortlessly,'" I said through gritted teeth, somewhat unwillingly. "But I turned myself in, didn't I?" I rolled my eyes and muttered.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com