Chapter 368 "Lieutenant Li, greetings."
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Li Shiyue didn't really know much about Xie Mingyue, the girl whose name also contained the character "Yue" (moon) like hers.
Or rather, Li Shiyue didn't care about Xie Mingyue at all.
After all, in Li Shiyue's opinion, even if the incident of Zhenbei Wang being strangled to death by Zhao Changying had not happened, she would have found an opportunity to kill Liu Shu!
So even if Xie Mingyue and Liu Shu get married, so what?
At that time, if Xie Mingyue had not given birth to Liu Shu's child, as a noblewoman from a prominent family, she most likely would not have stayed in the Prince's mansion as a widow.
Even if she had a child with Liu Shu and gave birth to the child, she could still remarry if she wanted to.
After all, the title of the eldest granddaughter of the Duke of England is quite useful.
Even if the current Duke of England dies, the next Duke of England will be her biological father, and the title of the eldest legitimate daughter of the Duke of England might be even more useful.
Therefore, in Li Shiyue's opinion, she didn't need to care about Xie Mingyue.
Xie Mingyue will not stay in the Prince's Mansion, and most likely she will not stay in Andong either; she doesn't need to care about this person.
However, Li Shiyue overlooked two points.
First of all, Xie Mingyue is not an ordinary young lady from a secluded family;
Secondly, behind Li Shiyue's back, Xie Mingyue had already begun planning for herself.
Xie Mingyue, who wanted to make her stay in Andong more comfortable and also to bring some benefits to the Xie family, had already started paying attention to Li Shiyue.
However, it must be said that in recent years, Li Shiyue's reputation in Andong has indeed grown significantly.
It's gotten so big that even people in Xingshenglou are using her information to do business.
Of course, the real power behind Xingsheng Tower has now changed from the Prince of Zhenbei to Liu Tan.
When Liu Tan instructed Manager Jin to spread information about Li Shiyue, he only asked for one thing: that the information spread should deliberately obscure Li Shiyue's martial arts skills and instead focus on promoting the fact that Li Shiyue is a woman.
For Liu Tan, what mattered was Li Shiyue's martial arts skills, not that she was a woman.
But what about selling the news to outsiders?
Naturally, one should keep what one cares about and push what is unimportant to others.
However, this message clearly explains how Li Shiyue came to Andong and how she gradually became the first woman to serve as a military officer in Andong.
Actually, before Jin Zhanggui even put the order number on the website and started selling this information about Li Shiyue, he had already sent Li Shiyue a manuscript.
After all, the friendship between Li Shiyue and Yan Jiuniang still exists, so it's acceptable for Manager Jin to give Li Shiyue a heads-up within his capabilities.
Li Shiyue carefully read the manuscript about herself. She only picked up her pen and erased some of the information about her family members, especially the part about Shi Tou's mental disability, which she blacked out.
Therefore, what Xie Mingyue saw at this moment was actually the version of herself that Li Shiyue wanted the outside world to see.
"Li Shiyue, aged twenty-one, was originally from Ruzhou, Henan Province."
Six years ago, a severe drought struck various parts of Dalong. Li Shiyue and his family fled from Ruzhou, first arriving at Dongmou Port in Dengzhou, and then the people of Lijia Village boarded...
...She single-handedly fought eight Turkic princes without being at a disadvantage...
He was granted the military honorary title of Sixth-Rank Colonel by the Prince of Zhenbei on the battlefield!
......”
"My lady, it's past midnight."
Xie Mingyue's thoughts were interrupted by the maid's voice. She put down the paper in her hand and looked at herself in the mirror.
Just when everything is proceeding according to plan, fate always seems to play a trick on people, taking a detour and changing the course of events.
The third day of the third lunar month is the Shangsi Festival.
This festival was gradually forgotten after the people of Lijia Village came to Andong.
If it were in Henan, on the third day of the third lunar month, people would pick shepherd's purse to eat, wear shepherd's purse flowers in their hair to ward off evil spirits, and sprinkle water on themselves with willow branches by the river to pray for blessings.
If it were someone like Nian Jinghao, he would have spare money to send his whole family to a grand temple fair.
But the winter in Andong is really too long. During the March 3rd festival, let alone shepherd's purse, there are still many places on the Daheishan Mountain where the snow hasn't melted yet.
However, if you can't eat shepherd's purse, you can eat wild garlic.
After spending the night in Lijiatun, Li Shiyue got up early and saw Laowan (a type of stuffed pasta dish similar to dumplings or wontons) made with a filling of scallion and mutton on the dining table.
Their group had stayed at the two large inns at the entrance of Lijiatun Village last night, so they ate breakfast in the inn's lobby.
The people of Lijiatun, especially Zhao Min, who was in charge of cooking in the inn's kitchen, in order not to embarrass Li Shiyue, led the women in the kitchen to make the dumplings very large, and put a lot of chopped mutton inside.
It can be said that the filling of this dumpling contains more mutton and less scallion.
Therefore, for a while, the lobby was filled with the sounds of people slurping soup and eating dumplings.
Let alone ordinary soldiers, even Zhou Yiran, who was used to eating exquisite food in the Prince's mansion, kept eating the dumplings in his bowl.
Just as everyone was enjoying their meal, a caravan arrived at the main gate of the inn.
Guess where this train convoy came from? And who is leading it?
Hehe, that's right!
This train convoy is Xie Mingyue's family's convoy, which has come all the way from Sanshan Port!
Supported by a maid, Xie Mingyue, dressed in a moon-white dress, stepped down from the carriage and stood at the entrance of the inn.
Just as Li Shiyue was receiving the third bowl of prison pills from her mother, Li Shiliang walked over and whispered a few words in her ear.
"It's alright, just ask around. If they can wait, the people who finish eating the first batch will go to the livestock shed to get the carts and clean up ahead of time."
"Just find a room for the guest to rest in on the second floor."
Li Shiyue glanced around at the people, then turned back to Li Shiliang and said, "We'll be leaving in a quarter of an hour."
Having received Li Shiyue's words, Li Shiliang naturally repeated the same response to Mr. Zhou, who had come to inquire with Xie Mingyue.
Mr. Zhou then returned to consult Xie Mingyue's opinion, but what about Xie Mingyue?
She certainly didn't mind!
Or, one could say that she was actually quite happy that her convoy had indeed run into Li Mingyue and the others in Lijiatun.
However, or rather, it should be said that this was not a chance encounter, but rather that Xie Mingyue deliberately timed her arrival at the inn in Lijiatun right at the breakfast time.
Xie Mingyue naturally had her own agenda.
So, what is she after?
The purpose, of course, was to get to know Li Shiyue, and ideally, to hitch a ride with him on the way to the Turks.
Therefore, while Li Shiyue ate the tenth bowl of prison dumplings under the astonished gazes of Wang Datou and Gao Jin, Xie Mingyue gracefully walked into the inn.
She walked directly from the door to the table where Li Mingyue and the others were sitting. Under the surprised gazes of everyone at the table, Xie Mingyue smiled at Xie Mingyue, who looked up at her.
She had a beautiful smile, like a lovely little fox.
"Colonel Li, greetings."
Li Shiyue naturally didn't recognize Xie Mingyue, but before Li Shiyue could ask, Xie Mingyue immediately spoke up: "I am Xie Mingyue, the granddaughter of the Duke of Yingguo!"
I have obtained the permission of the eldest son of the Prince's mansion, and have come here specifically to meet with Commandant Li!
The first three sentences upon entering the room left Li Shiyue somewhat bewildered.
However, even if she didn't quite understand it, Li Shiyue still had a good grasp of the slickness of officials.
After hearing what Xie Mingyue said, Li Shiyu immediately stood up and returned the greeting with a cupped-hand salute to Xie Mingyue.
Then she quickly invited Xie Mingyue to sit down and have some tea, and called out to Li Shiliang, "Third Brother, hurry up and feed the Xie family's horse, and give the Xie family some food. They must not have had breakfast yet on their way here."
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