Chapter 203 Excitement
Zhu Qingyan finally withdrew his gaze, and another layer of worry enveloped his heart.
"Since the King of Zhenbei doesn't want us to reveal the news to Ajing, and now we have violated his wishes, do you think the King of Zhenbei will let us go?"
Zhu Lan was silent for a while. "After all, he is the dignified King of Zhenbei. Now that things have come to this point, I think he should deal with the little princess first. Even if he sends someone to assassinate the two of us now, it will be useless.
What's more, we are sent by the prince, he will not fall out with the Sixth Prince because of us two."
After saying this, Zhu Lan's tone became a little depressed, and there was a hint of guilt in his voice.
"Although our lives are safe, there is another thing I must tell you now. Qingyan, I hope you won't blame me..."
"Isn't it just that you may not be able to take part in the imperial examination next year?" Zhu Qingyan looked away and said in a nonchalant manner, but there was a sadness in his eyes.
"You know?"
"Do you think I'm a fool?" Zhu Qingyan snorted.
"The things we found in the book, the King of Zhenbei clearly didn't want Ah Jing to know, but we told her anyway. Even if the King of Zhenbei didn't really want to kill us, how could he let it go?
Not to mention that the memorial requesting merit is hopeless, even if he could just find a pretext to say a few bad things about us to the court, with his power, many ministers would surely agree with him.
If the court wants to make an exception for us at that time, I'm afraid it will be met with a lot of resistance."
Zhu Lan smiled bitterly, "I didn't expect you to be so thoughtful."
"Yeah, I figured it out a long time ago, so I did the same as you." Zhu Qingyan said in a muffled voice, "But if I don't tell Ah Jing about this, I don't know how many innocent people will die at the hands of those great exorcists. For you and me, the worst that can happen is that we will be delayed for three years in taking the imperial examinations, but for those people, once they die, they can never come back."
The two looked at each other in silence for a moment, and Zhu Qingyan let out a long sigh, "Now that things have come to this, we can only go back to Jiangzhou first."
The two looked ahead and saw a vast expanse of dust and sand on the official road. They wondered what was waiting ahead.
…
The two men walked until the evening. Zhu Qingyan's horse seemed a little listless, perhaps because it had an upset stomach the night before. So the two men found a nearby family to stay at.
The two girls were originally a little worried that it would be inconvenient if they stayed in a man's house, but when a woman's face appeared behind the half-open wooden door, Zhu Lan breathed a sigh of relief.
She was a young woman holding a baby, looking at Zhu Lan and Zhu Qingyan with curiosity and vigilance in her eyes.
When she heard that the two of them wanted to stay overnight and there was no one else following them, the woman relaxed a little and invited them into the house.
There was a large square cage in the woman's yard, with some chickens and ducks, and a few unknown trees.
"Sister, are you the only one in this house?" Zhu Qingyan asked curiously when she saw that the furnishings in the house were simple and full of women's things.
The woman held the child and smiled awkwardly, saying that her husband had died of illness a few months ago, and she had been raising chickens and ducks, and taking the eggs they laid to Yunzhou City to exchange for some silver.
When guests came, the woman took a freshly laid egg from the chicken coop. There was obvious heartache in her eyes, but she still prepared to fry an egg for the two of them.
"Sister, thank you for bothering me. Here is the money." Zhu Lan took out a piece of silver from his bosom and stuffed it into the woman's hand. The woman was a little frightened, as if she had never seen what silver looked like before.
"The child is still young, so we need to buy more food to nourish his body."
The woman then smiled gratefully and carefully accepted the silver.
Dinner was very simple, with only eggs and some wild vegetables. After eating, Zhu Lan and the others helped to clean up the dishes. They also planned their itinerary. At this moment, a soft singing sound came from outside the door.
When Zhu Lan walked out of the house, he saw the woman sitting by the door holding the child, rocking her arm gently and singing nursery rhymes, as if she was trying to coax the child to sleep.
Zhu Lan listened for a while, then carefully sat down next to the woman. Seeing that the child had fallen asleep with her eyes closed, he asked softly:
"The tune you sing doesn't seem to be the style of Zhongyuan."
The woman tilted her head to look at her strangely, "Really?"
After saying that, he retracted his gaze, lowered his head and continued singing. Being so close, Zhu Lan finally heard the content of the nursery rhyme clearly.
"The wood wolf shines on the desert, and the solitary smoke rises straight into the Cloud River.
The wood wolf in the sky is slowly turning, and the grace of the Lord God is all over the world~"
Wood Wolf!?
Zhu Lan was startled, sat up straight and asked: "What is the 'Wood Wolf' you sang?"
"What wood wolf?" The woman was confused for a moment, then realized, "That's how it's sung. I don't know."
"Where did you learn that?"
The woman tilted her head. “I don’t know.”
Zhu Lan asked her to sing it again. This time the woman sang very slowly and Zhu Lan heard every word clearly. Not only did she mention "wood wolf" but also "desert".
"You've been to the desert? Have you encountered the Great Purification...ghost soldiers?"
Hearing the word "ghost soldier", the woman stood up suddenly, which scared Zhu Lan. The baby in the woman's arms was also awakened and let out a shrill cry.
"Ghost...ghost soldiers..." The woman's eyes widened in horror, and she began to pull her hair into a mess with one hand.
"Woman!" She suddenly rushed in front of Zhu Lan, and behind her loose black hair appeared two pupils that almost popped out of their sockets.
"Those women are dead! All of them are dead!"
"ah--!!!"
She took two steps back, squatted on the ground and began to scream. The sound was like shouting, but also like a female ghost crying.
Zhu Qingyan rushed out of the house and asked Zhu Lan what was wrong.
Before Zhu Lan could say anything, the courtyard door was suddenly pushed open from the outside and an older woman walked in.
"Ayu, what's wrong with you? Come, give the child to me, don't hurt the child..."
The aunt walked up to the woman named "Ayu" and coaxed her softly while carefully taking the child in her arms. After a long time, Ayu's emotions finally calmed down, she took the child back, and returned to the house without saying a word.
With a "bang", the door was closed tightly.
"Aunt, what... happened?" Zhu Lan finally had the chance to ask.
The aunt sighed when she learned that she and Zhu Qingyan were here to stay overnight.
"Alas, Ah Yu is also a poor man. He was captured by the ghost soldiers a few years ago. Later, he escaped and came to us. He seems to have forgotten a lot of things.
Normally she's fine, but sometimes if something irritates her, she'll be like this. Did I scare you? If it doesn't work, why don't you stay at my house..."
Zhu Lan declined the other party's kindness. After Auntie left, Zhu Lan took Zhu Qingyan out of the courtyard and walked straight to the two horses tied outside the house.
"What exactly happened just now? Why did she suddenly behave like that? What did you say to her?" Zhu Qingyan asked behind Zhu Lan.
"I just mentioned the ghost soldiers and accidentally irritated her."
Zhu Lan untied the rope that tied the horse and looked at Zhu Qingyan with a serious expression.
"I'll tell you exactly what's going on on the way. Now we have to go back to the Northern Frontier Camp immediately."
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