Chapter 30 How Many Times Have Old Friends Returned Amidst the Stars and Frost (Part Six) "Do you know...?"
Princess Chonghua's voice carried a hint of helplessness and persuasion, "But you must understand that from beginning to end, you have always been the child your father cherishes most and feels most indebted to. Everything he is doing now is to make it up to you."
"Your Highness is mistaken!" Chu Huaili abruptly interrupted her, his voice rising sharply, filled with long-suppressed resentment and pain. His usually deep eyes were now sharp as knives as he stared directly at Princess Chonghua. "I was never their most cherished child! I was the child they abandoned with their own hands, the child no one wanted!"
The moment his words fell, she could clearly feel Ye Yixiang's fingers, which were tightly gripping her hand, tremble violently. She seemed to want to break free, to escape this suffocating confrontation.
However, Chu Huaili not only didn't let go, but instead gripped her hand even tighter, even forcefully pulling her closer to him, so that her slender body was almost completely pressed against his side. With an air of absolute protection and possession, he faced Princess Chonghua and declared, word by word, with crystal clarity and resounding force:
“And my wife will always be just one person, she was, she is, and she will always be—” He turned his head and looked deeply at Ye Yixiang, whose face was pale beside him, his gaze firm yet gentle, “Only Yun Rao!”
The name "Yun Rao" struck Ye Yixiang's heart like a thunderclap.
She shuddered violently, looking up at him in disbelief. That name… that name carrying the purest reliance of the mountains and forests, that address, now uttered by him with a certainty that transcended five years, instantly shattered all her feigned composure. Her eyes suddenly stung and burned, her vision blurring rapidly. She could only bite her lower lip tightly to keep the tears from spilling.
Princess Chonghua's dignified smile finally froze completely, a clear look of astonishment flashing across her eyes, but it was quickly covered by a deeper mix of emotions.
Princess Chonghua took a deep breath, trying to maintain the dignity of an elder, "Shuoqing, do you know what you're saying? Royal bloodline, patriarchal clan laws and etiquette, how can you treat this so lightly!"
"Of course I know!" His voice was deep and cold, each word resounding. "I know she is my wife, we have bowed to heaven and earth, drunk the nuptial wine, and it is all rightfully hers!"
His gaze was sharp as an arrow. "As for the 'status' that you and His Majesty care about—when I was struggling to survive in the muddy countryside, starving and naked! May I ask Your Highness, where was my noble 'royal bloodline' at that time? Where was the 'patriarchal system and etiquette' that I was entitled to?! Now, you want to erase everything with a casual 'compensation' and even take away my wife?!"
Having said that, he no longer looked at Princess Chonghua's face, which had suddenly turned pale. He gripped Ye Yixiang's hand tightly, turned, and left. His steps were quick and steady, carrying a resolute determination to cut off all escape routes.
"Your Highness, should we stop them?" the guard beside him asked in a low voice.
Princess Chonghua watched the two figures leaving side by side. The man was as tall and straight as a mountain, completely shielding the woman in the shadow beside him. She closed her eyes slightly, and when she opened them again, a deep calm had returned, leaving only a barely audible sigh: "Let them go."
The corridor winds and turns, and the cold wind sweeps through the withered branches, making a whistling sound.
Ye Yixiang was firmly protected by him, almost forced to follow his steps. Her wrist was gripped so tightly by him that it hurt, but beyond that clear pain, there was a surging, unfamiliar heat that burst through the ice wall of reason in her heart from his tightly clenched palm.
Her heart was pounding like a drum, and her thoughts were in complete disarray.
He led her out of the Nie residence. Outside the gate, a magnificent warhorse was impatiently pawing at the ground.
Chu Huaili nimbly mounted the horse, then bent down and wrapped his arms around her waist without giving her a chance to refuse. With a slight effort, he lifted her light body onto the horse's back and held her firmly in front of him.
"Hold on tight." His deep voice rang in her ear, carrying an unquestionable command. He then flicked the reins, and the horse shot off like an arrow.
Even though it was his hot, firm chest behind her, and she could feel the vigorous heat and steady heartbeat through the fabric, Ye Yixiang's heart was still filled with a cold, bewildered feeling.
A cold wind swept across her cheeks, bringing a chilling clarity.
If he were just an ordinary military general, she, a widow who had lost her husband, would not be worthy of him.
Moreover, he was a royal nobleman who had returned from exile, a prince who might ascend to the throne! And she… was an orphan who had miraculously survived the fall of the previous dynasty, an unwelcome "remnant" of the world…
The horse galloped wildly, kicking up dust, and finally stopped at the back of Lutai Mountain.
The place is located on high ground, rarely visited by people, and is quiet all around, with only the sound of the wind rustling through the withered grass.
The mountain stream beside them was covered with a layer of bluish-white ice, which reflected a cold, hard light in the thin winter sunlight.
Looking down, one can see the majestic Liangzhou city wall in the distance. However, the section of the wall near the north gate seems to be different in color and shape from the rest, with a rough, repaired feel.
"It's been a long time since I've been here." Chu Huaili tightened his arms around her waist, his deep voice carrying a hint of barely perceptible sigh, his warm breath brushing against her earlobe. "Four years have passed, and the scenery here seems even more beautiful now."
He paused, gently resting his chin on her slender shoulder, and pointed down the mountain, "Do you see that city wall over there?"
Ye Yixiang looked in the direction he pointed, her heart tightened for no reason, and she nodded slightly.
"Four years ago, right here, I confronted the Right Tuqi King of the Northern Di for over a month." His tone sounded nonchalant, as if that brutal battle, with its mountains of corpses, was nothing more than a simulation on a sand table for him.
He raised his hand and pointed to the dark-colored section of the city wall dozens of feet away, his voice steady yet carrying an invisible weight: "That place is where the Northern Di people, unable to breach the city after a long siege, desperately carved out a gap with their swords and blades."
"The situation was critical at the time. If the breach wasn't plugged soon, it would only get bigger and bigger, and the defending troops would be stretched thin..."
He paused, as if the horrific scene of that day flashed through his mind, and his voice deepened, "It was Huai Zhang who led the people of Liangzhou City, braving a rain of arrows, setting fire to and killing the enemies who rushed in, while using their own flesh and blood to move bricks and stones, that barely managed to plug the breach."
Ye Yixiang was secretly alarmed. Although she knew nothing about military affairs, she had heard that the Northern Di people were born warriors, brave and fierce, but they often fought independently, advancing when it was advantageous and retreating when it was disadvantageous, lacking strict discipline.
The fact that they were forced to abandon their cavalry advantage and resort to the most clumsy and barbaric methods of hacking and slashing at the city walls shows how fierce the battle was that day and how desperate they had become!
And... what about him?
It is said that Chu Huaili was a brilliant strategist, especially skilled in cavalry raids. He always charged ahead, using offense as defense, and rarely found himself in a passive situation of holding a city.
His "Black Armored Iron Cavalry" was renowned, its combat strength enough to rival the Northern Di's proud steppe cavalry, once reversing the weakness of the Central Plains dynasty's cavalry. This time... why was he forced into such a desperate situation?
A terrible thought creeped uncontrollably into her mind—was he injured?
And it was a very, very serious injury? That's why he couldn't lead his cavalry out to attack and could only defend the isolated city?
Chu Huaili seemed to be able to see the turbulent waves surging in her heart. He slowly rested his chin more heavily on her thin shoulder. His hot chest pressed tightly against her back, and the burning heat of his body almost ironed her heart through the layers of clothing.
She instinctively tried to break free from this overly intimate embrace, but his strong arms around her waist pressed her back into his embrace even more forcefully, rendering her unable to move.
Are you wondering where I went back then?
He asked in a low voice, his hot breath brushing against her sensitive neck. Before she could answer, he revealed that bloody past with an almost cruel calm.
"Before being forced to retreat to Liangzhou City and hold it, I personally led the Xuanjia Iron Cavalry deep into enemy territory, directly attacking the Chanyu's golden tent and capturing tens of thousands of cattle and sheep in an attempt to force them to retreat. Unexpectedly... after learning that our army was outnumbered, they pretended to surrender."
He paused slightly, and Ye Yixiang's heart sank.
“I was caught off guard and fell into an ambush,” he continued, his voice devoid of emotion, as if he were telling someone else’s story. “I was hit by several arrows, and in my back… I was also stabbed several times.”
The more casually he spoke, the more tears streamed down Ye Yixiang's face, instantly blurring the cold mountain scenery before her.
She knew! She knew exactly why he was taking such a risky gamble, why he was so reckless with his life!
He had awkwardly comforted her when she could only utter breathy sounds, whispering his hopes to her.
He wanted to achieve unparalleled military merit as soon as possible so that he would have enough confidence to ask for the imperial decree to bring his "wife" who had been living away from home back to him, according to his own wishes.
Chu Huaili lifted her chin with a force that left no room for refusal, forcing her to turn her head slightly and meet his eyes, which were as deep as a cold night but now swirled with fiery magma. "A'Rao," he called her by her nickname, his voice low and husky, carrying a fatal allure and an unyielding strength, "If you think of pushing me away because of a few words from others, then all the swords and arrows I have taken, all the merits I have earned on the battlefield over the years, will have been for nothing."
Her heart trembled violently, burned by the undisguised pain and obsession in his eyes. She hurriedly turned her head away, avoiding his overly intense gaze, and raised her hand to wipe away the tears that seemed to never dry.
But the deepest resentment in her heart still lingered like a poisonous thorn—she was Lu Qingyuan's nominal deceased wife, an indelible fact…
"Do you know... what I used to be..." Her voice choked with emotion, filled with the difficulty of speaking.
“I know,” he interrupted her decisively, as if it were nothing more than a speck of dust. “I don’t care.”
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Author's Note: I'm revising Chapter 36 again... and it's failed the review again.
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