144 Chapter 144
"The love between husband and wife has long since vanished."
"I just hang out outside or read in the house, I don't do anything else." Lin Xiao replied.
Xu Qinghe lowered her eyes, subconsciously stroking her belly, and couldn't help falling into deep thought.
"The doctor told me not to overthink things, but you still won't listen?"
Just as he was thinking this, he saw Princess Jing'an walk in with the freshly boiled medicine.
She hadn't slept well these past few days and looked a little haggard.
Xu Qinghe simply put aside his previous thoughts and coaxed her with a smile: "Okay, I don't want to think about it anymore. Whether that person is dead or alive is none of my business. I only care about whether our Jing'an can sleep well these few days, okay?"
As soon as she said this, she couldn't help but be stunned.
It was such a familiar teasing tone, as if he had said it a thousand times.
However, she was not the type of person who liked to tell jokes like this before. Instead, it was Xie Qi who often joked with her like this after making her angry.
It turned out that her life had been branded by that man without her knowing when.
Even though that person has long since left, the habits they left behind have not changed.
Jing'an was still angry and didn't notice that she was acting strangely for a moment.
"I'm just mad at you. Thousand-year-old ginseng is hard to find, how could you just give it to someone else? It would be fine if your pregnancy had been stable, but you've been having trouble these past few days..."
She didn't finish her words, but turned her head and said vaguely, "Anyway, you're not in good condition yourself, and you're always thinking about that unfaithful man from the Xie family. How can you just give away the thing that will save your future life to someone else?"
Xu Qinghe came back to her senses. "I have plenty of time to recuperate and to search for that thousand-year-old ginseng, but Madam Liu is on the verge of life and death. We are both women, so we should help each other."
Although he gave the life-saving item to others in a hurry, Xu Qinghe himself was also afraid of sudden changes, especially now that there was no news from Xie Qi and he didn't know whether to be happy or sad.
The next morning, she ordered someone to prepare a new supply of the precious medicinal materials that had been prepared before. However, the thousand-year-old ginseng was hard to find, and there had been no news.
She hadn't been able to eat or sleep well these past few days, and her heart was always worried, which made her temper worse and worse, and sometimes even Jing'an suffered innocently.
Fortunately, on the night of July 29th, she finally received Nanzhi's letter.
The letter first stated the situation of the war in the south, which she was most concerned about. She said that the fighting on the border had stopped, but the army was still on alert and had almost cut off all contact with the outside world, making it impossible to find out any news.
Xu Qinghe subconsciously felt a little flustered.
The conversations of the people on the street on the Qixi Festival were still fresh in her mind. She took a deep breath and wrote a letter to Nanzhi with trembling hands, asking whether the army was really preparing for the funeral.
In the letter, she warned: If you dare to hide the truth from me, the master-servant relationship of the past twenty years will be of no use.
I believe that after seeing this, Nanzhi will not hide anything from her.
In addition, the letter also stated the reasons for not being able to reply in the past few days.
It turned out that Nanzhi wrote a reply immediately after receiving the letter, but she never received any letters since then. At this time, she knew that someone must have intercepted the letters between the two of them on the way.
Therefore, this time she ordered someone to deliver the letter to the Qi Mansion in Beijing first, and then have someone from the Qi Mansion deliver it to Princess Jing'an personally. She changed the route of communication and only then was the letter successfully delivered to her.
Xu Qinghe's hand holding the letter gradually tightened.
For some reason, she still thought of Yang Ye.
The time they've been together for these days always made her feel that this person wasn't as simple as she first saw. Just like Xie Qi, this person was really good at hiding things.
However, whoever intercepted their letters must have read their contents. Fortunately, she and Nanzhi always used code words when communicating about important military matters, so even if others got their hands on the letters, they might not be able to understand them.
Otherwise, if the military intelligence fell into the hands of others, Xu Qinghe would really hate himself.
At the end of the letter, Nanzhi mentioned the current situation of the Southern Border Army.
Since the Southern Border Army was handed over to Wei Yiqun, its strength has been greatly reduced. Wei Yiqun not only transferred military equipment to the Nanyi Kingdom in recent years, but also embezzled military funds, resulting in insufficient military funds. Warhorses and weapons are still several years old. Furthermore, his lax governance has led to numerous desertions, and the army now has fewer than 80,000 soldiers.
Xu Qinghe remembered that when his father and mother were still alive, there were at least 150,000 soldiers in the army. Later, 50,000 soldiers were killed. With the recruitment of General Xie, there were at least 130,000 soldiers left.
It can be seen how badly the Southern Border Army has fallen in the hands of the Wei family over the past five years.
When Xie Qi first arrived in the Southern Border, he was faced with such a battered Southern Border Army. In fact, it was understandable that he would suffer a defeat if he encountered a surprise attack.
But Xu Qinghe still felt that there must be something else fishy about this matter.
She burned Nanzhi's letter, then picked up her pen to write back to her, arranging several things for her to do in the southern border.
"Give the letter to someone in Qi Mansion and have it sent to the southern border."
Lin Xiao took the letter and was about to leave when Xu Qinghe suddenly stopped her: "Wait."
She frowned and thought for a moment, then picked up her pen and wrote another letter: "Send the two letters separately. This one will still be sent as before."
"yes."
Lin Xiao didn't understand the trick, but just did it.
Just as he was about to send the reply letter off, Lin Xiao suddenly remembered something: "Should we send out the letters Madam wrote a few days ago as well?"
She was talking about the words she wrote to Xie Qi when she couldn't sleep on the night Mrs. Liu gave birth.
Xu Qinghe shook his head without hesitation: "Burn it, no need to keep it."
Those are nothing but empty complaints when one is weak and helpless. They are of no use at all and will only make people feel burdened if they are kept.
Lin Xiao took the order to deliver the letter, but did not take the order to burn the other letter.
She put the letters written to Major General Xie one by one into her small wooden box, and finally left it on the bedside for safekeeping.
As long as one day, this letter can be delivered to the right person, who knows, it might be of great use then.
**
The night was as cool as water, with tiny stars dotting the dome and a crescent moon hanging high in the sky.
In the main room in the front yard, Yang Ye asked someone to move the table to the window so that he could continue to observe the map in the moonlight and candlelight.
"lady."
At this moment, a servant's low voice came from outside.
He immediately put away the map and pretended to be idle while looking at the moon in front of the window, but after waiting for a long time, no one outside knocked on the door and came in.
After a while, there was a knock on the door from the servant.
He let the person in, and the servant was holding a food box with the steaming Sanmiao soup that had just been taken out of the pot.
"Autumn is dry, and Madam heard that my husband has been coughing these past few days, so she specially sent him San Miao Soup to soothe his throat."
The color of the Sanmiao Soup is like aged amber, with a few rouge-colored wolfberries suspended in the thick soup, and golden sand-like particles settled at the bottom.
Yang Ye just took a light sniff, and the steaming aroma of wine wrapped in the fragrance of wolfberries hit his face.
"Where is the lady?"
The attendant replied, "Madam handed the soup to me and then left."
I sent him soup but he didn't show up. What was the plan?
Yang Ye was puzzled tonight, and later found that it had been like this for several days in a row, which made him even more confused.
When he could no longer bear it and was about to ask, he heard the servants whispering outside before he even went out.
"What's wrong with Madam these days? Why is she suddenly so attentive to this person inside?"
"Why else? Of course I have a request for you, my dear."
"If you have something to ask for, why don't you ask for it yourself? Instead, you keep sending soup and rice. It's really confusing."
"I guess Madam is too shy to ask for help."
…
Yang Ye listened to these words, kept them in mind, and then spoke them out loud when he saw Xu Qinghe.
Xu Qinghe was a little annoyed at first, and scolded the maid beside her: "When did the people below become so talkative?"
Only after the maid apologized did she lose her anger and whispered with lowered eyes, "I do have a request for you, my lord, but I am ashamed to speak up because I have rejected your kindness before."
The beauty lowered her eyes, looking very weak.
Yang Ye's doubts were relieved, and his voice became softer involuntarily: "What do you want from me, Madam?"
"My dear...are you really willing to let bygones be bygones?"
Then he saw the beauty in front of him raise her eyes, and joy appeared in her pair of black and white eyes, just like the bright stars he saw in the dome in the past few nights.
Yang Ye was momentarily mesmerized by those beautiful eyes, and it took him a moment to regain his composure. He calmed his mind and said gently, "Of course. If Madam can reconsider my previous proposal, Yang Ye will definitely give it his all."
The person in front of him immediately controlled his emotions and became a little hesitant.
Yang Ye sighed in his heart, forget it, this matter cannot be rushed after all.
"Madam, please speak frankly if you have anything to say. No matter what happens, Yang Ye will definitely do his best."
Xu Qinghe then slowly told the story.
"I have a relative in the Southern Territory. On Qixi Festival, I learned that there was a war there. I was extremely worried and immediately wrote to that relative to inquire about the situation. However, I didn't receive a reply for several days. I wonder... could you please go to the Southern Territory for me and help me confirm that my relative is safe and sound?"
"Is that relative of yours the father of the child?"
Xu Qinghe lowered his eyes: "...Yes."
Yang Ye laughed and said, "Madam, you know that I have feelings for you, but you still want me to work for your sweetheart?"
Xu Qinghe pursed her lips, as if unwilling to talk about the past, and whispered, "He and I...divorced a long time ago. From the day we separated, the love between husband and wife has long since disappeared. This time, I just wanted to confirm for the child whether the father is well. If he is really dead, I can move on without any burden. But...if my husband doesn't want to, I...will find someone else."
"As long as Madam wants, I can certainly make a trip for her."
Fearing that she would actually look for someone else, Yang Ye quickly said, "I hope Madam will also keep Yang Ye in mind. Madam, if that man can do it, Yang Ye will definitely do it better than him."
The beauty in front of him smiled, a rare expression: "As long as my dear is willing to go to the southern border for me, I will pray for your safety in front of the Buddha regularly in the future."
Yang Ye couldn't help but laugh: "Okay, I promise my madam."
As long as someone can keep him in mind, that's enough.
Now it was almost dusk and night was about to fall, but because of Xu Qinghe's repeated requests, Yang Ye agreed to set off immediately.
However, after leaving the town, he did not go south, but turned around and went to an abandoned City God Temple in the west.
Inside the City God Temple, three or five attendants came towards him, calling out "Your Highness" in unison.
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