"He... is probably a strategist in the army."
In short, he could not be Yuwen Sheng. The marriage certificate and household registration book that she and he signed under the witness of the village official clearly state the name "Liu Fengmian".
Furthermore, she had never heard anyone say that Yuwen Sheng would have an eye disease, so could it be that Yuwen Sheng had anticipated the ambush and deliberately used Liu Fengmian as a target to shield him from harm?
This leads us back to the incident where he nearly drowned near the camp; perhaps he encountered a similar crisis.
Qiu put her down, his face blank and sullen. He felt that he had prepared for so long, but in the end, he had failed, which was a disgrace to an assassin.
Are you sure he's not Yuwen Sheng?
Zheng Quchi considered for a moment and then asked in return, "Back in the camp, I had close contact with Yuwen Sheng. His eyes were unfathomable, more terrifying than a corpse. But Liu Fengmian has an eye disease. Didn't you see that his eyes were covered with gauze?"
“…Oh,” Qiu replied weakly.
Zheng Quchi walked away in a daze for a while, then turned around and asked in surprise, "Why have you been following me?"
If the mission fails, shouldn't he just go about his business as usual? Whether he reports on someone or reports the mission normally is up to him.
Qiu lowered her eyes: "I have nowhere to stay."
"so what?"
He turned his face away, speaking with an air of self-righteousness: "I've seen it. Your new house is beautiful. I want to live there too."
"..." Zheng Quchi took a deep breath.
What a shameless scoundrel!
She still clearly remembered that not long ago, because she intended to refuse the assassination mission, he regarded her as a traitor and planned to eliminate her from his household. How could he now want to move into her house without any remorse?
He's dreaming.
Zheng Quchi decisively refused: "There are no extra rooms."
That's the absolute truth.
At the time, her family urgently needed a place to stay. Being both poor and anxious, she could only plan three single-story houses as their basic needs, and would build more if the population grew in the future.
But this wasn't a big problem for Qiu: "I can continue to live in the same room as you."
“My older brother and younger sister are timid. Your background is unclear, and you often appear and disappear mysteriously, which will scare them.”
"Your parents are disciples of the Mohist school, as are you and your siblings. So why have you been keeping it a secret from them and not letting your eldest brother know that you are working for the Mohist school?" Qiu didn't understand.
Zheng Quchi was unaware of this matter, but she knew that Brother Sang loathed and avoided everything about their past, the death of their parents, and even the name she had used in the Mo family.
If he knew she was an assassin for the Mo family, she didn't know what he would do.
She didn't want to talk to Qiu about these things anymore and was about to change the subject when she suddenly remembered something she had overlooked.
She said urgently, "You said before that the people of Julu Kingdom led Yuwen Sheng and his group to Chunchudu because they had already set up traps and mechanisms there?"
"Um."
"What kind of ambush could those thirty-odd cavalrymen have broken through? What if it wasn't Yuwen Sheng who went into battle, but someone else?"
Qiu: "Sima Moye of Julu Kingdom is not even one-tenth as skilled in martial arts as Yuwen Sheng, but every time the two fight, he manages to escape from Yuwen Sheng's grasp by sheer luck, thanks to his unpredictable and ingenious techniques."
This sentence answered all of Zheng Quchi's doubts.
“Even a child with a sharp weapon can kill a hungry, vicious dog.”
Even Yuwen Sheng couldn't handle the mechanical weapons of Julu Kingdom, let alone the others.
"What's wrong with you?" Qiu tilted her head and stared at her, feeling as if she was facing a very difficult choice.
With a last glimmer of hope in his eyes, Zheng Quchi asked Qiu, "How old are you? Are you married? Do you have a proper household registration in Ye? Are you willing to marry into the family?"
Qiu was stunned for a long time by her series of questions before she finally said, "Fifteen, no, no, I don't want to."
Zheng Quchi was very disappointed because she had finally convinced herself that since Qiu dared to offer himself up, she was willing to take advantage of the young man and not think about the unlucky son-in-law who had deceived her. Let him die.
But she never dreamed that this tender shoot wasn't even sixteen years old; even if she were ruthless, she couldn't bring herself to bite into it.
"Shit!"
Zheng Quchi cursed under his breath, turned his head and took a turn, then mustered all his courage and unknown anger and ran towards the road leading to Chunchu Ferry.
The wind lifted her face towel and the hem of her clothes; she was like an angry little bird, determined to snatch back the "bird eggs" stolen by the "green pigs."
Qiu was startled and chased after him: "Chizi, where are you going?"
Zheng Quchi gritted his teeth, his eyes flashing with uncontrollable rage.
She cursed inwardly, "That bastard Yuwen Sheng, he knows how to avoid danger himself, but he insists on sending his weak and helpless husband to take risks. He even has an eye disease."
If he dies on this trip, wouldn't she, a newlywed, become a widow in no time?
Of course, that's not important. What's important is that Ye is a country that pushes people to marry without regard for their lives, so even young widows have to join the wedding procession to contribute to the country by having more children.
And next time, she doesn't know if she will be so lucky to meet someone as suitable as "Liu Fengmian".
So she set a bottom line for herself.
I will not easily abandon him unless my own safety is endangered.
——
Chunchu Ferry is a ferry crossing in the suburbs of Fuxian County. Due to the continuous drought in recent years, the river has dried up and the place has long been abandoned.
When Zheng Quchi arrived at the ferry, he did not go up immediately. Instead, he found a higher, more concealed spot and planned to observe the situation first.
She saw the dock where the riverbed had been exposed, with blood meandering and spreading in the shape of vines. Many people had fallen, and it was clear that two groups of people had fought each other here not long ago.
She only ran over after making sure there was no one else around.
She took a deep breath and scratched the person lying on the ground. The coldness and bloody smell on the person made her fingertips go numb.
She rummaged through the lattice with a heavy heart, not knowing whether to breathe a sigh of relief or feel a headache coming on, but her unfortunate husband wasn't there.
Clang, clang, clang! The sound of metal colliding violently could be faintly heard from the riverbank to the east.
Zheng Quchi glanced around, looked at the riverbank with no cover, and chose a roundabout way, carefully approaching from the tree-lined slope on the riverbank.
The craftsman's caution and meticulousness are ingrained in her very being.
She crouched beside an oak tree, kicked away the fallen acorns, deftly parted the waist-high, withered yellow grass in front of her, and looked down—
On the riverbank, a thrilling battle was taking place. One side of the black-armored soldiers raised wooden shields to block the ranged attacks of the other side. They did not retreat even if they were dying or wounded, because behind them was a man whose hands and feet were bound, and whose wrists and ankles were covered in blood.
The man put on a black and white mask again, but judging from his clothes, it should be "Liu Fengmian".
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