Chapter 86: Tempting her to say sweet words Tempting her to say sweet words
At dawn in the northern desert in late autumn, the cold air can penetrate the bone marrow.
Just by stretching out a naked arm, you can feel the sensation of being pierced into the blood by a dense mass of ice needles, traveling all the way to the heart.
Although Zhang Min's arms were tucked into the quilt, he had this feeling for no reason.
His fingertips danced as he raised his hand to brush away the scattered hair from her eyes and tuck it behind her ears.
"I don't believe you want to kill me."
I didn’t believe it before, and I don’t believe it now.
He just...
Facing the soft sword stabbing at him, he unconsciously felt disgusted with himself.
When he was young, his father and grandfather always used him and his sister to control his mother, preventing her from escaping from that hell on earth. They treated her like a well, wishing to squeeze out all her "water" to water the big tree of the second branch of the Zhang family.
My uncle is a kind-hearted man who is a bit naive. He doesn't have much ability and relies entirely on my grandmother for support.
But after he married the Sixth Lady of the Gongsun family, he seemed to have suddenly come to his senses. He immediately reorganized the family business and saved the Zhang family, which was showing signs of decline.
My father is getting more and more serious.
He didn't dare to confront his uncle, nor his grandmother, and even less the Gongsun family, so he acted like a bully at home, trying to find the so-called "pride" in his mother to satisfy his increasingly distorted jealousy and cowardice.
Therefore.
What Zhang Min hated most in his life was that someone used him to control the people he cared about.
"Back then, I was simply losing my mind. I'd rather you hated me and wanted to kill me than..." He wiped away her tears with his fingertips and whispered, "...I don't want you to have any hardship."
I don't want that hardship to involve him.
He didn't even dare to imagine what would happen if someone threatened Tiantian and asked her to choose between him and Aunt Wan.
How painful it would be for her.
Afterwards, Luoying and Xuansun went to investigate, and he also asked Aunt Wan. He was relieved to learn that no such tragedy had happened.
But other than that, he couldn't think of any other misunderstanding that would cause her to point her sword at him.
Ye Jindian opened her palm and placed it on his cheek.
The skin on the palm of his hand was white and delicate. All traces of yesterday's bleeding had disappeared, leaving only the seriously injured area wrapped in cloth, with some bloodstains.
Zhang Min cupped her warm palm, rubbed it against the familiar calluses, and lowered his head to smell the peach blossom scent emanating from her wrist.
Only in this way can he calm his turbulent heart.
Ye Jindian's thumb gently brushed across his cheek: "How could I hate you, and how could I really want to kill you..."
She almost crossed the entire northern part of Dayan, from Mobei to Shengjing, just to find him and respond to the feelings she had when she was young.
When she came, she also thought that if he had changed his mind, she would have no regrets.
No matter what, it won't be a wasted trip.
Ye Jindian closed the distance between them and rested her forehead against his: "Do you still remember when I told you that someone was following you?"
Playing cuju under the red maples was too joyful, visiting Dongshan Temple was too hasty, and after handing over the purse in the snow, he was frightened away by the sudden bluntness of the words. This matter was not revealed until their wedding night, after drinking the wedding wine.
"I remember." Zhang Min gently touched her with the tip of his nose, his eyelids slightly raised, looking at her red eyes, "I checked, that's Da Sikong - my uncle from the side branch of the Zhang family."
The person his father relied on was this uncle.
This uncle had no children and treated his father as half a child.
The fact that his mother wanted to take his father away before she died made his uncle, the Dasikong clan, angry. He transferred his anger to himself and sent people to keep an eye on him.
Ye Jindian: "Then do you also know who sent the assassin that night I fell into the water?"
She didn't know it at first.
After recovering my memory, I sorted out everything and started to make some guesses.
"It's him too."
Including the assassin on their wedding night.
Ye Jindian: "That night, the person standing behind you was neither Luoying nor Fufeng. After waking up, I didn't see him in the Right Prime Minister's Mansion. Did you deal with him?"
Judging from his personality, the other party would not end up in any good situation.
Hearing this, Zhang Min thought of the three arrows last night and suddenly understood.
His throat rolled and he swallowed several times before he could speak normally: "So... you wanted to save me, not... kill me?"
Ye Jindian hummed and responded, "It's just that he was blocked too tightly by you. It looked like my sword was going towards you."
There were so many assassins that night, and I don’t know how many forces were involved.
They chose the day when Zhang Min was training outside the mansion. She didn't know the deployment of the secret guards, but at that time only Xuan Falcon, wearing half a mask, appeared with seven or eight men in black to protect her.
I'm afraid that the other party appeared when the Right Prime Minister's Mansion's visible and secret guards were in a mess.
That night, even Zhang Heng was not there.
She felt that she couldn't hide for long, so she might as well show up and get a grasp of the enemy's situation.
When Ye Jindian heard that those people were planning to kidnap her to threaten Zhang Min, she simply made up a story about "marrying the enemy for revenge" and took the initiative to show up to conspire with those people.
"The Right Prime Minister mistook me for his childhood sweetheart and even obtained an imperial decree to propose marriage. If I were to take action, he wouldn't be on guard."
But the enemy is not stupid, and of course they won't believe her completely.
She couldn't play dumb or innocent either, so she had to act cautious and approached them with suspicion, testing each other's limits.
In the end, no one could figure out each other's true identity.
At that time, there was a burly man in the group who looked like a small black tower and disagreed with this: "We have our own people, why do we need to..."
Unfortunately, before the man could reveal more, he was stopped by the leader.
The other party shut his mouth in disbelief, his half-open chest rising and falling, and glaring at Ye Jindian, as if scolding her for her eloquence and persuading the leader.
Because of this, Ye Jindian was able to catch a glimpse of the red hidden on his chest.
She had lived in troubled times for so long and had been in a military camp, so of course she knew what this meant.
No one would carry such a conspicuous red cloth on their body during an assassination in the dark, unless this was their way of distinguishing friend from foe during a melee in the dark.
Just like in the early years, when the various civil organizations that overthrew the corrupt imperial court were causing trouble, the "Black Stone" organization would tie black cloths on their heads, the "Blue Mountain Army" would tie blue cloths, and the "Cangtou Army" would tie green cloths...
In order to verify her guess, she looked at the waists and arms of other people calmly.
As expected.
There were also several people who could be confirmed to have carried red cloth.
The reason why Ye Jindian knew that there was something fishy about the person following Zhang Min was because of a little red on the other person's chest, which exposed the identity of "one of them".
As for the person who pushed her, causing her to hit her head on the rockery and fall into the water, it was the strong man with a small black tower who was full of anger.
Although he is reckless, his intuition is surprisingly sharp and he is not too stupid.
But as soon as he pushed her, Zhang Min immediately rushed towards her and jumped into the water to save her. However, by chance, he avoided the vital parts on his back and was only stabbed in the waist and abdomen.
"Speaking of which..." Ye Jindian was afraid that he would overthink things and blame herself for misunderstanding him, so she rubbed his chin with her thumb, messing up his other thoughts and focusing them all on her question, "Have you avenged me?"
Zhang Min raised his head and kissed her moist eyelids: "Of course I reported it."
He used all the interrogation methods that he should and could use on the other party.
As for the other party's exaggerated story of "marrying the enemy for revenge" and his wild thoughts and self-pity, there is no need to mention them.
"Then you..." He frowned a little aggrievedly, "...when you told those people that you didn't really want to marry me, you just wanted to gain their trust. Wasn't that the truth?"
Ye Jindian blinked: "Which secret guard told you?"
She holds a grudge.
Zhang Min evaded the question, "Well...I just heard about it."
It is not easy for the secret guards to work for him and hide in the darkness all year round.
It would be difficult for him to sell the person out to win his wife's favor.
"My lady, why don't you answer me?" He twisted her black hair scattered on the bed with his index finger and asked again, "My lady, are you sincere in marrying me?"
A barely perceptible smile flashed across Ye Jindian's eyes.
She heard it.
The man in front of her wanted to seduce her into saying some affectionate words.
"Then I have a question for you too." Ye Jindian did not answer but asked, "It's fine if Da Sikong ruined your reputation, but why did you completely ignore those rumors and even fuel them?"
The reputation of the "God of Killing" that she first knew of did not come from the rumors spread by the Grand Marshal and Ajian Lashamu, but from word of mouth among the neighbors near the Prime Minister's Mansion.
With his ability, it is not difficult to put an end to the rumors.
But the rumors are getting more and more intense, which shows that he doesn't care and even welcomes it.
Da Sikong and his men probably took advantage of this opportunity.
The reason why people like Fu Feng who were so perceptive didn't notice it at all was because they tacitly assumed that this was the work of their prime minister.
Zhang Min's eyes flickered for a moment.
Why else? He wants to scare away those families who want to marry him off because of his great achievements.
But my wife will definitely not be satisfied with this reason.
After the misunderstanding was resolved and they were sure that their feelings for each other had not changed, he simply played dirty, hugged Ye Jindian and groaned a few times, kept crying out in pain and calling her "wife" in an attempt to cover up the matter.
Ye Jindian: “…”
*
After dawn, both of them had to get busy and couldn't stick together anymore.
Zhang Min needed to arrange for people to clean up the battlefield, handle the spoils, record military achievements, write documents and send them to the court urgently, reorganize the army, balance the overly excited military morale, and negotiate with the little prince Nuhara to establish friendly relations between the two countries and a twenty-year peace agreement.
If Dayan won this battle, they would have the initiative. If they wanted to negotiate peace, they would have to get Beiwan to pay tribute every year to maintain the friendly "brotherly" relationship between the two countries.
But what to pay tribute to and how much it should be was another matter that the envoys of the two countries argued about and wasted their time on.
As representatives of the two countries, Zhang Min and Nohara had to sit there and listen.
Even if both parties have reached an agreement, the matter is not over until Xiao Min has stamped the seal.
Nuhara thought about it and suggested going back to Beijing with them to show his respect for the "Heavenly Kingdom".
Fu Feng glanced at the expression of their prime minister, and seeing that he had no objection, he remained silent and let him discuss the matter with the civil servants.
Both countries have concerns about this move.
Nuhara's subordinates were worried that he would be detained, and Dayan's civil servants were also afraid that he would play some shady tricks.
In addition, before Zhang Min could withdraw his camp and return to Beijing, he had to hand over all matters to the local prefect and the envoys sent by the court, including but not limited to the re-measurement and demarcation of the border between the two countries.
In comparison, Ye Jindian felt that he was a little idle because he had been repairing damaged weapons for days.
Even after their identity as the general was exposed, the soldiers in the camp became overly enthusiastic about her. Every time they saw her, they would praise her by saying, "The weapons made by Engineer Ye are still the best."
She participated in the light cavalry's assault on the royal court over 600 miles away, and she praised the convenience of the crossbow she made to her comrades.
"Disassemble the crossbow and assign it to a few people. The horses can carry it, so it won't be too heavy. We'll be six hundred paces away, assemble it in a few quick swishes, and then fire down on their granary!"
"Of course, after we shoot it, we can dismantle it and take it away. The Beiwan people won't be able to catch up even if they ride horses."
"I've only heard of this kind of magical weapon before when the Prime Minister was talking about that book called 'X National Strategy'. Now that I have it in my hands, I know the rumors are true."
"Yes, this is much more powerful than the crossbow we used to destroy Chunxiao Tower last time!"
"But as far as I know, the crossbow used last time was also made by Engineer Ye."
"Engineer Ye is so terrifying!"
…
Mr. Ye who was passing by: "..."
Luo Dong, who was in charge of repairing weapons in the logistics department, teased her for a long time.
She couldn't afford to offend him, so she simply joined in praising herself. As she kept praising herself, Luo Dong felt annoyed and didn't let her have her way, so she naturally shut up.
Ye Jindian finally had some peace and quiet and could concentrate on repairing the weapons. After counting them, she handed them over to Fufeng.
After she had some free time, she felt a little uncomfortable, so she simply went for a wander outside the city.
The wind and sand outside the city were too strong, so after a few strolls, she decided to wander around the city and do some shopping. Mobei was rich in furs, dried fruits, and dried meats, and she planned to bring some back for everyone. Winter was approaching, and the furs would come in handy.
While selecting furs, Ye Jindian's eyes met the eyes of the shopkeeper behind the counter, and both of them exclaimed—
“Sweet!”
"Sanniang?"
After a brief moment of daze, Liu Sanniang was overjoyed and rushed out to hug Ye Jindian.
The two held hands and reminisced about the past while leaning against the counter.
The other party changed her previous gentle personality and became very bold and straightforward. She opened this shop alone with her daughter, selling some fashionable goods, and lived a happy life.
She even spent a lot of money to learn archery and horse riding.
"I'm not someone you can mess with now," Liu Sanniang joked.
Before leaving, fearing that they would not have the chance to see each other again, Liu Sanniang packed two baskets of dates for Ye Jindian as a farewell gift.
Ye Jindian had nothing to give her, so she made two small crossbows that could be fastened to the wrists in her free time and gave them to the mother and daughter to carry with them for use in emergencies.
Liu Sanniang put away the crossbow and wiped her face hard with the back of her hand.
"How come you're still the same as before? Really..." Her fake complaints were cut off in her throat when she met a pair of smiling peach blossom eyes. She could only mutter softly, "We just met by chance, and we have only a superficial friendship. Why are you being so nice to me?"
Ye Jindian just rubbed the side of her head and said, "We will meet again if we are destined to."
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