Chapter 71 His burning lips pressed against hers…
Xiao Mingzhang's birthday falls at the end of the first month of winter each year.
When she was at Prince Huan's residence, Yunzhu never forgot, but since leaving Prince Huan's residence, she has never thought of Xiao Mingzhang's birthday.
It turns out it's his birthday again.
That night, a table of delicacies was laid out in the flower hall of the commander's mansion. The bright white candlelight shone brightly, reflecting each other, as if a piece of the ultimate daylight had been torn away from the darkness.
Xiao Mingzhang thus celebrated his twenty-sixth birthday.
He sat quietly at the table, waiting for Yunzhu and his daughter to arrive.
In fact, Yunzhu had not fully agreed to Xiao Mingzhang's request to attend his birthday banquet tonight, but Xiao Mingzhang was certain that Yunzhu would come, and not only that, she would bring her daughter with her.
Sure enough, after sitting at the table for another fifteen minutes, the figures of the mother and daughter, one big and one small, came into his sight.
Xiao Mingzhang was overjoyed and wanted to get up, but Yunzhu scolded him, "Alright, sit down. Why are you still fussing over your body? Do you think you're not recovering slowly enough?"
Xiao Mingzhang then remained where he was.
He stood up straight, his gaze fixed intently on Yunzhu. Even though he could hear the unpleasant tone in her voice, his eyes shone, and his thin lips curled up slightly. He couldn't hide the excitement he felt at her arrival.
"Yunzhu, Azhi, you've arrived." Xiao Mingzhang uttered a useless, pointless sentence, a rare occurrence in his life.
Yunzhu led Mu Zhaozhi to him and gestured for Mu Zhaozhi to hand over the things in her hands to Xiao Mingzhang.
"This is... a birthday gift for me?" Xiao Mingzhang lowered his eyes and then noticed that his daughter was holding a thin piece of paper in front of her.
The paper was turned away from him, and Mu Zhaozhi had firmly covered the writing, so he couldn't see what was written on it.
Only after Mu Zhaozhi nodded and handed him the paper could Xiao Mingzhang see that it contained four large characters—
Happy birthday.
The handwriting was clearly Mu Zhaozhi's. There were four large characters in total, each of different sizes, and many strokes were crooked and haphazard. The four characters, placed side by side on the paper, looked like four crabs of different shapes forcibly bound together.
Xiao Mingzhang stared at the handwriting for a long time, silently letting the joy in his eyes gradually spread across his brows.
He had only thought that he would be happy as long as they came, but he never expected to receive a piece of calligraphy written by his daughter herself.
She's only two years old, and it's already quite impressive that she can recognize all four characters. What kind of expectations could he have for her handwriting?
"Thank you, Azhi! This is the birthday gift Father has received this year that he likes the most!" he said solemnly to Mu Zhaozhi.
Mu Zhaozhi nodded, gladly accepting Xiao Mingzhang's flattery.
Yunzhu, however, frowned slightly when she heard Xiao Mingzhang refer to himself in such a way in front of her daughter. Although she was displeased with his actions, she didn't say anything more.
She led Mu Zhaozhi to a seat and said, "I originally wanted to come directly here, but she insisted on writing this calligraphy for you."
"I will carefully keep Azhi's ink brush and take it back to the palace in the future to frame it in my room," Xiao Mingzhang said.
"..."
He should have done that.
Even though Yunzhu was too lazy to pay attention to Xiao Mingzhang, she agreed that Xiao Mingzhang should cherish Mu Zhaozhi's sincere birthday wishes.
It was getting late, and after the mother and daughter sat down, Xiao Mingzhang began to introduce the various dishes on the table to Yunzhu and Mu Zhaozhi.
Liangzhou is quite different from Hanzhou. It is the largest city at the junction of the Central Plains and the Western Regions. Liangzhou's banquets have many flavors that cannot be found in small towns.
Mu Zhaozhi had never seen most of these flavors before, so she listened to Xiao Mingzhang's introduction with great interest and ate with great relish throughout the entire dinner. However, for Yunzhu, no matter how sumptuous the dishes were today, they were nothing more than the taste of her hometown that she had memorized many years ago.
She ate only so-so, her opinion on the delicious food on the table was so-so, and her enthusiasm for celebrating Xiao Mingzhang's birthday was also so-so.
She had forgotten Xiao Mingzhang's birthday for almost three years. If he hadn't specifically mentioned it today, she probably wouldn't have remembered it for many years to come.
"Mother..." Just as Yunzhu was lost in thought, Mu Zhaozhi's call pulled her back from the boundless illusion.
Yunzhu lowered her eyes and saw that her daughter was holding a piece of soy milk candy cake on her chopsticks and handing it to her.
"Is this your favorite food?" Mu Zhaozhi thoughtfully placed the sweet cake into Yunzhu's bowl.
Like white jade, the glutinous rice cake is sprinkled with a thick layer of soybean powder. The texture of the soybean powder neutralizes the blandness of the glutinous rice flavor, and the middle is bound together with delicate soy milk. With one bite, you get three layers of flavor, which complement each other perfectly.
Yunzhu stared blankly. It was indeed her favorite snack, but this soy milk cake was not a food from the Western Regions or Liangzhou. It was a specialty of the cooks in Yunzhou. How did Mu Zhaozhi know that?
Suddenly, she looked up at Xiao Mingzhang: "Did you tell this?"
“Every time we set off from Yunzhou, the army brings along a few cooks from our hometown. You haven’t had this soy milk sweet cake in a long time, have you? Try it.” Xiao Mingzhang’s hopeful gaze hadn’t left Yunzhu’s bowl ever since Mu Zhaozhi put the sweet cake in it.
"..." Yunzhu hadn't eaten this sweet cake in a long time, but she didn't miss the days when she could eat it.
Ignoring the fact that Mu Zhaozhi had personally placed the sweet cake in front of her, she pushed it away slightly and said, "Thank you for your kindness, but I haven't liked sweet cakes for a long time. You don't need to go to such lengths in the future."
"Azhi, have you finished eating? If you have, Mother will take you back to rest."
The disappointment in Xiao Mingzhang's eyes was instantly apparent. Seeing that Yunzhu was about to leave with her daughter without saying a word, he hurriedly used all his strength to grab Yunzhu's wrist.
He asked, "Yunzhu, have I done something wrong again?"
“You did nothing wrong, it’s just that I really don’t like this sweet cake anymore,” Yunzhu replied calmly to Xiao Mingzhang.
"..."
It's because I don't like it anymore.
Or is it because you no longer love the person you used to be?
Xiao Mingzhang dared not ask such a question in front of Yunzhu. He could only try his best to remain calm and asked, "After you sent Azhi back, will you come back? I also asked someone to prepare wine from the Western Regions. You said that wine from the Western Regions needs to be brewed for forty-nine days to taste good, and the longer it is stored, the better it tastes. Today I specially asked someone to prepare a jar of fine wine that has been stored for ten years, and I haven't even drunk a drop yet."
She no longer liked the pastries from the Central Plains, and she no longer cared much about the wine from the Western Regions. Yunzhu didn't think Xiao Mingzhang would be unaware of these things. What she didn't understand was why he would still tirelessly make such futile efforts when he clearly knew.
She thought that she had made everything very clear when she arrived here on the first day, and that Xiao Mingzhang should no longer have any inappropriate thoughts.
She wanted to refuse Xiao Mingzhang, but when she saw his eyes filled with endless melancholy, Yunzhu was stunned.
In front of her daughter, she and Xiao Mingzhang looked at each other for a long time before she finally spoke, saying, "We'll talk about it later."
"Then I'll wait for you." Xiao Mingzhang was always willing to push his luck. Since Yunzhu hadn't said she definitely wouldn't come, he was always willing to gamble on that one in ten thousand chance.
Yunzhu gave him a deep look, then ignored him. After confirming with the young girl Mu Zhaozhi that she had finished eating, she led her away first.
—
Xiao Mingzhang sat alone in the flower hall for another hour.
Yunzhu left without saying she would come back, nor did she say she wouldn't, so he just waited here.
Meanwhile, the servants came up, took the food off the table, reheated it, and brought it back up.
Xiao Mingzhang watched as the food in front of him, which had been stale, was brought back to a steaming heat thanks to the cooks' efforts. A cool breeze brushed past his ears, but he still felt no warmth in his heart.
This was not the first time Xiao Mingzhang had spent the winter in Liangzhou. In the past, when his father was appointed as the commander and led the army to be stationed in Liangzhou to guard the peace of the border for the country, he often followed him.
But this was the first time he had personally led troops, and the first time he realized that Liangzhou was already so cold in early winter.
The bright moon hangs high, yet it does not shine on people.
Its serene beauty blends seamlessly with the night in Liangzhou, as if it had never been there before, yet it truly hangs high in the sky, inviting people to look up at it.
Finally, Xiao Mingzhang sat in the flower hall for another half an hour, but Yunzhu still hadn't come. The maids cautiously came forward to ask if they wanted the cold food to be reheated a second time.
Xiao Mingzhang pursed his lips and didn't speak, so everyone around him didn't dare to breathe.
As the sound of a woman's footsteps gradually returned from outside, their eyes followed Xiao Mingzhang as they looked out, finally realizing that they had been saved.
Under the moonlight, Yunzhu slowly returned to the flower hall, a place even more dazzling than the bright moon.
Even without Mu Zhaozhi present, she still chose to sit one seat away from Xiao Mingzhang, not right next to him.
The gloom on Xiao Mingzhang's face dissipated, and in an instant, a smile emerged, spreading from the corners of his eyes to his eyebrows. In a moment, his bulging Adam's apple and the unseen chest were filled with the words "ecstatic joy."
He tightly restrained himself from grabbing Yunzhu's hand, and managed to ask as calmly as possible, "Why did it take so long?"
"Ah Zhi needs to wash and bathe tonight. Do you think it's too long to wait?" Yunzhu asked in return.
“No!” Xiao Mingzhang immediately replied.
As long as she can come, it doesn't matter how late it is.
He poured Yunzhu a glass of fine wine that he had prepared beforehand and said, "Have a small drink first, and I'll have someone reheat the dishes."
"Aren't you still injured? Can you drink alcohol? Will the doctor allow it?" Yunzhu finally dared to look at Xiao Mingzhang's chest, which was only an inch or so in size. She remembered that the wound was very serious.
“It’s permissible.” Ever since Yunzhu returned, Xiao Mingzhang’s smile had never faded. “The doctor said that I can drink a little bit, which will help me sleep.”
Xiao Mingzhang always went to bed very late and got up very early, and Yunzhu knew this. Even when he was injured, she heard that he continued his daily duties without interruption, and even when he was lying in bed, he still needed someone to report to him.
She didn't say anything more, picked up the small glass of wine that Xiao Mingzhang had poured for her, and drank it down in one gulp.
"Drink slowly," Xiao Mingzhang advised her.
Yunzhu didn't listen. The pleasure of swallowing all the fine wines and delicacies in one gulp was something that many people couldn't understand, but she loved it.
She reached out and snatched the wine pot from Xiao Mingzhang's hand, quickly filling herself a large cup.
Xiao Mingzhang finally suppressed the smile on his face and stared silently at Yunzhu.
When she returned just now, Yunzhu pondered for a long time whether she should come back to drink with Xiao Mingzhang again.
She didn't want to come again, feeling there was no need for her to put on any more pretense or give him false hope. But she hadn't drunk alcohol in a long time. Yunzhu hadn't tasted strong liquor since Azhi was born.
She finished another large gulp of wine before looking at Xiao Mingzhang, who had been holding the wine cup the whole time but hadn't touched a drop.
She asked, "Why aren't you drinking? Didn't you ask me to come and drink?"
"I'll drink." Xiao Mingzhang paused, raised the wine cup in his hand, and without the slightest hesitation, drank it all down in one gulp.
Yunzhu scoffed softly.
The men and women of the Western Regions are born with a knack for drinking. They are used to drinking and eating heartily. Yunzhu first drank wine when she was twelve years old. She secretly dipped her chopsticks into the nectar in her mother's cup and put it in her mouth. Just one drop of the nectar was enough to make her savor the taste. From then on, she fell in love with the grape wine of the Western Regions.
After arriving in the Central Plains, Yunzhu initially couldn't get used to the local wines. Later, Xiao Mingzhang learned that she was accustomed to drinking wines from the Western Regions and ordered many to be prepared in the cellar of the Prince's Mansion, so that she could often enjoy them to her heart's content.
The last time she drank so freely... it seemed to have been with Xiao Mingzhang.
Suddenly realizing this, Yunzhu's slightly upturned lips relaxed slightly.
She stared intently at Xiao Mingzhang, her eyes flickering slightly.
Xiao Mingzhang raised an eyebrow, unaware that Yunzhu had remembered something through him.
But his intuition told him it wasn't a good thing; otherwise, why would she take back her mockery so stingily?
He quietly moved to a spot in the middle and sat down next to Yunzhu.
He couldn't hold back anything he had restrained countless times, and placed his hand on Yunzhu's hand.
“Yunzhu…” Xiao Mingzhang murmured.
Yunzhu looked up and suddenly felt two hot lips pressed against her full lips.
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