Chapter 200 Returning to Yunzhou, Night Chat at the Inn
"Your Highness." Mu'er's voice sounded outside the central army tent.
"Come in."
Mu'er walked into the tent, came to the side of King Zhenbei, and respectfully placed a letter on the table.
"This is the letter they left for the little princess."
King Zhenbei glanced at the thin paper, but did not reach out to take it, and only raised his eyes slightly.
"Did you say anything you shouldn't have said?"
"I have read the contents. They are just some parting words. There is nothing wrong with them."
"Yeah." King Zhenbei retracted his gaze, and the faint murderous intent that just flashed across his eyes gradually faded away.
"Have they had any contact with other people since they came back from Yunzhou?"
"No, I have someone watching over it."
"Okay, we'll send them away tomorrow. Remember, send them back to Jiangzhou before you come back."
…
"Zhu Lan, do you feel like we are being monitored?"
Zhu Qingyan and Zhu Lan were walking on the grass covered with tents, and they kept glancing at the two guards who were following them not far behind.
"Do you even need to ask this?" Zhu Lan pretended to relax and stretched, then said quietly, "King Zhenbei doesn't seem to want us to leak out what we found in Yunzhou, so he doesn't allow us to contact other people."
"But why is this happening?" Zhu Qingyan didn't understand. "Ah Jing obviously feels very bad for those great exorcists. The King of Zhenbei is her father. Now that there is a clue, why isn't she in a hurry at all?"
"I dare not draw a conclusion now." Zhu Lan's expression suddenly became a little complicated, "Perhaps... the court has other considerations."
Keeping enemies to protect oneself is nothing new throughout history.
Zhu Qingyan wanted to say something else when he heard Mu'er's voice.
"You are here." Mu'er walked towards the two of them with a smile on her face.
"Have you packed your bags? Oh, I've already packed the letter. I'll give it to the young lady as soon as she returns from Uzbekistan."
"Thank you very much." Zhu Qingyan also smiled at her, but Zhu Lan did not speak, his deep eyes resting on Mu'er.
"Are you all here?" Another young voice sounded. Gu Chaoyang, who was wearing light armor and had just returned from the training ground, walked towards them.
Gu Chaoyang had just heard after leaving the training ground that the guests brought back by the young princess would leave tomorrow.
He had been in the Northern Frontier Camp for a long time and missed his classmates very much. Unexpectedly, before he had the chance to ask Zhu Lan a few more questions about the recent situation of Liang Zhou, Zhao Sicheng and others, Zhu Lan had already left.
Gu Chaoyang walked up to Zhu Lan and was about to speak, but he saw Zhu Lan suddenly take a step back solemnly, bowed to him and said:
"Meet General Gu."
Gu Chaoyang was stunned for a moment. They were all family, so why did Zhu Lan suddenly become so distant and act as if he was not familiar with him?
The next second, he saw Zhu Lan's eyes flickering towards Mu'er.
"Miss Zhu, thank you for your courtesy." Although he didn't understand why she suddenly acted like this, Gu Chaoyang still cooperated.
Afterwards, Zhu Lan chatted with him for a few words and left with Zhu Qingyan.
Mu'er and Murong Jing entered Longchang Academy relatively late that year, and did not know that Gu Chaoyang and they had been in the same Ding class in the academy for a long time.
Murong Jing knew that Gu Chaoyang had some friendship with her, but it seemed that she did not tell Mu'er.
Now both he and Zhu Qingyan were under surveillance. The more distant he was from Gu Chaoyang on the surface, the better it would be for him and for what he was going to do next.
…
The next day, Zhu Lan and Zhu Qingyan embarked on the journey back to Jiangzhou under Mu'er's escort.
However, Ding Xiaoqiu and Master Xie remained in the Northern Frontier Camp for the time being and did not travel with them.
After all, Ding Xiaoqiu's father, Ding Wangyuan, is about to take up the post of prefect of Yunzhou, so there is nothing wrong with him staying in the northern border. Master Xie said that he also wanted to continue to appreciate the local customs and culture here.
Zhu Lan thought that perhaps it was because he and Zhu Qingyan had obtained information about the great purification ceremony and the mysterious sacrifice from Yunzhou, and had not had the opportunity to contact Ding Xiaoqiu and Master Xie alone after returning to the Northern Frontier camp, so the two of them were completely unaware of it.
King Zhenbei naturally hoped that as few people as possible would know about this matter, so he simply went with the flow and agreed that Ding Xiaoqiu and Master Xie would not travel with him.
Zhu Lan, Zhu Qingyan and Mu'er rode three horses and arrived at Yunzhou City again a few days later, still staying in the largest inn.
It was late at night when the three of them entered the inn. Mu'er stayed in a single room, while Zhu Lan and Zhu Qingyan lived together.
After they entered their separate rooms, Zhu Qingyan finally couldn't help but say what she had been holding back all the way, but Zhu Lan suddenly made a gesture to silence her.
Zhu Lan pulled her to sit at the table, lit the oil lamp on the table, took out the writing brush, ink, paper and inkstone from the bag, and cut a piece of rice paper into many small strips.
Zhu Lan wrote a few words on a piece of paper and pushed it in front of Zhu Qingyan. After she saw it clearly, he held the paper between two fingers and placed it above the oil lamp.
In a short while, the note and the words on it turned into ashes.
At the same time, there was a slight noise coming from the window of the room next to them, and a figure climbed out of the window in the cover of night, with its slender and agile body deftly sticking to the wall outside the window.
Soon, the sound of conversation in the house could be heard.
"The last time I came to Yunzhou, I didn't know if the mutton soup restaurant you took me to is still open at this time."
After Zhu Qingyan finished speaking, he pushed the written note in front of Zhu Lan.
"I told you that the lamb in Yunzhou is delicious, but you didn't believe me at first. But it's late at night and they've already closed. Why don't we go eat there tomorrow?"
Zhu Lan read Zhu Qingyan's note, burned it, and then picked up a pen to write on another piece of paper.
"Yes, I must go tomorrow. It's really worth the trip. The errand is easy and I learned a lot along the way."
"Yes, the prince is right. Northern Frontier's affairs are handled by him and Princess Ningyue. Why should we worry about them?
Now that the mission is completed, the headmaster should have a way for us to participate in next year's spring exam. We should hurry back to Jiangzhou and make use of the last two months to prepare!"
Mu'er listened to the relaxed conversation between the two people in the room from outside the window for nearly an incense stick of time. Both of them seemed eager to return to Jiangzhou, so she climbed back to her room through the window to rest.
…
Zhu Qingyan was still chatting with Zhu Lan, but his eyes were fixed solemnly on the note in front of him.
This time, there were many words written on the note, which were about Zhu Lan's plan. She needed to remember every detail in her mind over and over again.
Whether the message can be delivered to Murong Jing depends entirely on tomorrow.
It is early winter, and the nights in the northern border are even colder. Gusts of cold wind blow through the streets, and the sound of the wind howling can be heard.
Zhu Lan wrapped her shawl tightly around her shoulders, gently pushed open the window, and slowly spread out her five clenched fingers in the cold wind.
The paper ashes flowed out from between the fingers like flying snow, scattered into the wind, and disappeared in the blink of an eye.
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