Chapter 996 Reunion with an Old Friend
As if struck by lightning, Lei Yu was startled, while He Du, who was being held tightly in her arms, was completely bewildered. He opened his eyes wide to look at her, then at Ashina Zhuxie, his small face showing utter confusion.
After a while, He Du reached out his little hand and gently touched his mother's ear.
Lei Yu seemed to wake from a dream, and when she met Ashina Zhuxie's deep wolf eyes again, her gaze became somewhat evasive. She lowered her head and said, "What I mean is, the child is too young. We shouldn't feed him with a knife; it will hurt him."
"..."
Ashina Zhuxie looked at her for a while and said, "Alright, then we won't use a knife."
As he spoke, he sheathed the knife.
Lei Yu breathed a sigh of relief, but the next moment, Ashina Zhuxie said, "However, he will eventually have to learn to eat with a knife."
"..."
“He is my son, and he is a Turk.”
"..."
“In the future, he will inherit my position as Khan.”
Lei Yu took a deep breath, looked up at him, and said, "That's a matter for the future."
After saying that, she silently moved the child and the plate of meat to her dining area, picked up a small piece of meat with her chopsticks and brought it to He Du's mouth. He Du was already drooling with desire, and immediately bit into the fragrant piece of meat, chewing it in big bites.
Looking at her son's adorable appearance, a hint of a smile appeared in Lei Yu's eyes. However, because there was a third person present, she kept her mouth down and her lips were pressed into a thin line with tension, making them look a little pale.
It was clear she didn't like having him in her tent, but Ashina Zhuxie stayed and sat back down on the couch, watching the mother and son eat their food, one bite at a time. It was a very heartwarming scene—in fact, for the past year or so, this was the life he, the Western Turkic Khan, and this Han Chinese Khatun had been living, forced and unwillingly, but now, their relationship was settled and they had a child.
He suddenly said, "You still prefer the life of the Han people."
Lei Yu finished the last sip of soup, took out a handkerchief to wipe the corner of his mouth, and said, "I am a Han Chinese."
Ashina Zhuxie said, "You Han people all say that a woman follows her husband after marriage. Now that you've married me, you're a Turk. You should try to get used to the Turkic way of life, such as eating more meat, and also—"
As he spoke, he reached up and touched the knife at his waist.
Lei Yu glanced at him coldly and said, "If you want me to get used to the Turkic way of life, why don't you take all of these away?"
She was referring to all the furniture and utensils in the tent.
These were prepared by Iasu to please her when she was still the little queen of the Western Turks. Later, she was forced to follow Ashina Zhuxie. Not only were these things preserved, but in the past year or so, Ashina Zhuxie, like Iasu, has been buying more clothing, food, housing and transportation items from passing merchants in the Central Plains so that she could maintain her past lifestyle.
Ashina Zhuxie looked at her for a while and said, "In that case, you won't laugh."
"...!"
Lei Yu was taken aback, and then her eyes looked to the side with a hint of panic.
Ashina Zhuxie stared at her pale face, a faint smile appearing on his face. He leaned back on the couch in a more comfortable position and said, "We'll be in Xia Prefecture soon. Once we've taken Xia Prefecture, if you'd like, I can take you into the pass to see the Central Plains. You must really want to go back and see it, right?"
Lei Yu's eyes lit up.
But after thinking for a moment, she did not answer the other party's question. Instead, she said indifferently, "The Central Plains is not like the Turkic lands. You can't just come and go as you please."
Ashina Zhuxie tilted his head slightly as he looked at her: "Could it be that anyone can stop me?"
Lei Yu said coldly, "You seem to have forgotten that someone went to the Turkic camp before, returned unharmed, and even took someone with him."
"...!"
Upon hearing this, Ashina Zhuxie's expression darkened slightly.
He certainly hadn't forgotten Yuwen Ye, the Prince of Qin of the Great Sheng Dynasty. Although he led a large army into the grasslands, he single-handedly stormed into the Turkic camp and brought back his Princess Qin unharmed.
In Ashina Zhuxie's heart, this matter may not be a disgrace, but it has always been a regret.
From the moment they met, he knew that this Yuwen Ye was no ordinary person. He was even more terrifying than the man who had ambushed him with heavy armored cavalry in Shouyang and greatly weakened his fighting power. This was because this man was fearless, or rather, when he was on the battlefield facing the enemy, he seemed like a different person altogether.
Ashina Zhuxie intuitively felt that this person might be the greatest enemy of the Western Turks.
He should be eliminated.
Unfortunately, the time they met was the most crucial moment in his struggle for the Khanate. Had he been even slightly distracted, he might have been defeated and reduced to a bandit. For the sake of his Khanate and the future of the Western Turks, he had no choice but to let Yuwen Ye go, and allow him to take Shang Ruyi with him.
At this moment, when Lei Yu brought up the old story, Ashina Zhuxie's eyes turned cold, and he said, "I haven't forgotten. It would be even better if I could see him this time."
Upon hearing this, Lei Yu's eyes flickered: "Where is he?"
Her anxious expression made Ashina Zhuxie's face darken. He said, "Why are you so concerned about him?"
Lei Yu said, "I'm just concerned about an old friend."
Ashina Zhuxie stared at her and said, "You have quite a few old acquaintances. First there was Shang Ruyi, and now there's Yuwen Ye. Who else?"
Lei Yu heard the sarcasm in his words, frowned as if to say something, but before he could speak, a series of hurried footsteps sounded outside the tent, and someone stopped at the door and asked, "Khan?"
Ashina Zhuxie said, "I'm here. Come in."
The tent flap was pushed open, and his trusted maid Zhenzhen walked in from outside. She first bowed to the Khan and the Khatun, then presented a letter in her hand to Ashina Zhuxie, saying, "This is a message sent back by our scouts at the front."
"oh."
Ashina Zhuxie took the letter. Because it was close to Xia Prefecture, news of the battle there came back almost three times a day. In fact, he already knew the outcome. After all, he had used three times the number of troops to besiege Xia Prefecture, and the enemy had no choice but to surrender. So when he opened the letter, he was quite interested.
But after reading just one sentence, his eyes immediately lit up, and he sat up straight on the couch.
Lei Yu frowned slightly, wondering what the situation was like ahead, and asked, "What happened?"
Ashina Zhuxie's lips curled into a faint smile. After putting the letter back in the envelope, he looked up at her and said slowly, "You may be about to reunite with your old friend."
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