Rugged Banquet
Tiger Fjord has complex terrain and rugged mountain roads.
To this end, Gui Yao carefully packed her homemade disinfectant, ointment, rope, and the dagger she carried with her, which was the one given by Ren Beixi. After checking everything, she put the bag on her back and prepared to set off.
She tied her hair up and wrapped it tightly into a bun with a headband, then threw the hairpin back on the bed and looked at the bronze mirror with her hands.
For a moment, it was hard to tell whether the person standing here was Gui Yao or Gui's mother.
These days she kept dreaming about the original owner's past. Thinking of this, Gui Yao touched her face, turned around and walked out.
In the small courtyard.
The man sat upright, holding a pigeon feather in his hand.
Gui Yao leaned over to take a look and saw that he seemed to have nothing on him except the sword.
No, it seems like we should bring Momo along too.
But Mo Mo didn't want to move. He said that the time it took him to run from Xiaohe Village to Huxia Bay was enough for him to go back to the General's Mansion.
Ren Beixi followed Gui Yao's gaze and looked at Mo Mo, who didn't even want to shake his tail at his feet.
"Don't want to go?" the man said in a deep voice.
The big black dog wagged its tail, rested its chin on its front paws, and whimpered a few times.
The meaning is very clear.
Gui Yao looked up and saw that it was probably the afternoon. If they wanted to catch a car to Tiger Bay, it would take at least two hours.
She wanted to take advantage of the dark night and strong wind to go to the bandit’s camp and take a look.
Ren Beixi turned and looked at her.
"There is a banquet being held tonight in Tiger Gorge Village."
Guiyao: ...
So this was the reason why he agreed to let her go out at night.
Two people and one horse set out from the village entrance.
Gui Yao sat behind Ren Beixi, hugging his firm waist. The mountain road stretched all the way north, and there were scenery that she could not see on a normal day. She leaned her head on his back. The wind from the horse's passing was blocked by the man's body, so she stuck her head out and looked around curiously.
She asked him, "You're not going to doze off, are you?"
The man didn't say much, just "hmm".
The horse had been running for a long time, and she felt a little bored, thinking about the clues of this line in her mind.
Gui Yao was a little confused. She moved forward and asked, "Ren Beixi, tell me something. Do you recognize that deserter? Is he as tall as you? No, maybe a little shorter, with a darker complexion and round eyes... Hey!"
The originally stable horse suddenly shook, and Gui Yao subconsciously held Ren Beixi tightly.
"Hold on tight." Ren Beixi held the reins with one hand and held Guiyao's fluttering hands with the other, asking her to hold the corset in front of his abdomen.
Guiyao nodded.
Realizing that he couldn't see, she could only reach under the back of his neck and said seriously, "Just ride your horse well. I won't bother you anymore."
So Guiyao touched Ren Beixi's abdominal muscles all the way.
Occasionally, she would touch his chest muscles and feel his whole body tense. For safety reasons, Gui Yao had to take her hands back.
The sky gradually darkened.
The mountain road was not as smooth as the one in her world. There was no asphalt and no guardrails.
Only the sound of the wind blowing through her disheveled hair while she passed by the top of the mountain and the sunset in the distance, trapped in this illusory world, were the most real things Guiyao could feel at the moment, apart from the person she was holding in front of her.
She narrowed her eyes and, with Ren Beixi's reminder, she could clearly see the mountain stronghold in front of her.
Their horses rode over and stopped to the side. Most of the people who came to the banquet seemed to be from the underworld, and many of them had a murderous aura. The bandits in the mountain stronghold were not much different from what she had imagined, and almost all of them looked like bearded thugs.
Guiyao seemed to have forgotten the most important question to ask.
"Why are they having a banquet today?"
Ren Beixi said in a calm voice: "Congratulations on the complete pacification of the war in the Northern Barbarians." He held Gui Yao's hand and looked at her slightly rounded face, as if asking, don't you believe it?
Guiyao chose to pull him inside.
"The two of us are here for the banquet."
The lady in a blue coarse cloth dress smiled as bright as the crescent moon in the sky. The bandit guarding the door could hardly lift his knife. He said in a dazed voice, "Please, please come in."
"What a pig's brain." The bandit on the other side said rudely, "Where's the invitation? Show it out."
Ren Beixi stood silently in front of Gui Yao and took out the invitation from his bag. Gui Yao leaned over and took a sneak peek. The rough paper invitation was indeed not rough at all and looked like the real thing.
She walked into the village and looked at the scenery curiously.
The aroma of roasted lamb could be smelled from afar. There were about a hundred guests in the courtyard, plus the bandits around, so it was a big scene. Fortunately, there were people with restrained looks and temperaments at today's banquet, which made the two of them seem less conspicuous.
But as soon as they sat down, Guiyao still felt that many eyes were on them.
She looked up at Ren Beixi. The man's expression was nothing special. After noticing her gaze, he just handed her the leg of lamb he had just cut.
It has come to this.
Let’s eat.
After Gui Yao and Ren Beixi cut a lot of meat, they sat at the outermost edge. After about an incense stick of time, a noise was heard from the crowd.
The man at the table held the other man's head in one hand, walked from inside to outside, and jumped onto the watchtower in two or three steps. With the sound of drums all around him, he lifted the man high with his tight arm muscles, his eyes not full of anger, but scrutiny.
Shouts were heard all around: "Kill! Kill! Kill!"
There might be some scholars in the audience, raising their glasses: "You have traveled thousands of miles across the wilderness, fleeing from your crime to avoid seeing the moon. This glass of wine is for you on your journey."
The cup was hanging upside down and the wine spilled all over the floor.
"Why are you being so pretentious? I can't stand your behavior." Perhaps a big knife would fall on the table, and someone with a loud voice would raise his head, his lips as red as blood, saying that deserters should be cut into pieces and thrown into the back mountain to feed the tigers with wounds all over their bodies.
That doesn't make sense.
Gui Yao held up her face and looked at the two people's faces from afar under the moon. The deserter was wearing tattered clothes. He was not thin, but extremely short. He was so scared that he seemed to be about to faint. She could not remember Huang Shiyu's face clearly, but could only judge his height. This was definitely not him.
It seems that there is no need to stay this time.
Gui Yao threw the lamb leg bone she had been gnawing on back on the table and whispered to Ren Beixi, "It feels like the next scene is going to be bloody. Let's go."
Ren Beixi said in a faint voice: "I can't leave."
Why? Gui Yao raised her head in confusion, and suddenly her eyes met with the man who was holding a person at the top.
She blinked, and with the hand that was not stained with oil or water, she squeezed Ren Beixi's hand tightly.
"You knew...why didn't you tell me?"
Gui Yao lowered her head and spoke to Ren Beixi in the lowest voice.
Finally, the man's voice, as deep as a pond, was heard: "Yaoyao, we are already married. If there is anything important in the future."
"Ask me first." Then he said.
Everyone in the courtyard followed the man above, from the deserter, to the young couple sitting far away, who were dressed simply but could not hide their dignity.
The man suddenly laughed.
"Since the distinguished guest has arrived, why not take a seat at the main table?"
Ren Beixi nodded slightly.
"I was passing by with my wife, and happened to have an invitation from the village chief in my bag."
Seriously speaking, I'm here to have a free meal.
Gui Yao pursed her lips and wiped her hands vigorously on the handkerchief. When Ren Beixi discovered her, he took her hand away in public. He lowered his eyes and wiped her hand carefully. She became a little angry again, so she pulled her hand away and hid behind him.
Suddenly, the surroundings were so quiet that only the sound of torches could be heard. A scholar-like figure rushed to the door in the distance. "Huh? Why is it so quiet? Has everyone left?"
He ran over in two or three steps and waved to the village chief: "Brother!"
"Guess who I just saw."
Gui Yao's gaze quickly stopped on this person. His back and the expression when waving were very similar to Huang Shiyu, but... he looked too young.
The village chief frowned, cut off the lamb leg on his table, and handed it to him: "Go and have fun."
"Ah, General Ren, Ren, Ren, Ren, you really are here for the banquet!"
The young scholar just turned around and blinked.
Sure enough, I couldn't leave.
The guests no longer cared about the deserter and came to toast one after another with a smile. The scholar Zhang started to speak: "Who will spend my golden years with me? Only spring knows where it is. That day, the ten miles of red wedding dresses were brought to the Jade City. I was also lucky enough to drink a glass of wedding wine."
As soon as these words were spoken, everyone began to congratulate Ren Beixi on his great victory and his new marriage, which was a double blessing.
Gui Yao sat aside and stared at Ren Beixi.
She didn't often see him like this. Was he approachable? That couldn't be said. He was cheerful, but that was too much. It was as if he was really happy to sit here and chat with them, as if he hadn't come here just for her.
Wait, can you ride a horse after drinking?
Ren Beixi seemed to have noticed Gui Yao's silence. When his cold eyes met her slightly red cheeks, the alcohol in them was much less noticeable.
"Don't you want to ask me anything?"
Gui Yao glared at him and felt that he smelled very drunk.
She sat on a small bamboo stool, holding a glass of cold water handed to her by the village chief, and listened to their conversation. Only then did she realize that Ren Beixi knew most of them.
The martial arts world was also what he longed for before the war. Someone wanted to learn sword techniques from him, but was pushed away by others. Someone also asked about things in the north.
Ren Beixi didn't answer much, and most of the time he was playing with his wife's hand beside him.
The wind made me feel a little sleepy.
Someone wanted to invite Guiyao to drink, but before Guiyao could say that she was not feeling well, Ren Beixi stopped her. After the guests finished eating, the bandits in the village also ate some.
Gui Yao was awake and suddenly raised her head, only to see that the village chief had suddenly sat on the watchtower again.
She could only see his back, and she tilted her head, not understanding why he was hiding there.
Hiding? Is it hiding? Gui Yao didn't know. She didn't think about it anymore and just continued to listen to other people's stories.
"The General's wife is tired from listening to all this!" The man had already slung his sword over his shoulder. Others didn't dare to look closely at the pretty young lady. As a woman, she felt that staring straight at her wouldn't be enough. "Madam, why don't you tell me your story?"
"My story?" Gui Yao was stunned for a moment.
She thought about her previous life, which she didn't know whether it was in the future or the past, and also about the time before and after her marriage when she was concentrating on solving cases and accumulating points in the general's mansion. Then she couldn't help but think of the system that she had deliberately forgotten.
Finally, it was the wedding night.
The fireworks seen outside the window, the breath kissed on the bed.
She had no choice but to please.
"We came here from Xiaohe Village, which is at the foot of the mountain, along the river. The scenery is beautiful. We've lived a very peaceful life these past few years. It's summer now, and the village is much cooler than outside."
"Hey, who wants to hear this, Madam, Madam, is General Ren treating you well?"
Guiyao's ears turned red.
She was about to speak as she was considering it, when suddenly, a stone fell from somewhere and landed in the soup in the bowl of the person who had just spoken, splashing water all over his back. He yelled and asked for someone.
Gui Yao followed Ren Beixi's gaze.
The man on the lookout rested his hands on his knees and turned his head.
"I want to hear it, any comments?"
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