Chapter 607 Reunion (Two Updates)
His voice was drowned out by the dense downpour.
No matter how he called out, the figure of Marquis Xuanping disappeared into the rain.
Xiao Heng finally exhausted all his strength at this moment. He collapsed into a puddle by the official road, the torrential rain relentlessly pounding against his back.
He gripped the roadside stone tightly.
The rain was icy cold, but when it entered his eyes and came out, it became scalding hot.
He ultimately couldn't stop him.
He still left.
It turns out that some people and some things, once missed, are truly gone forever.
It was never that he didn't cherish his son properly, but rather that the son didn't cherish his father properly.
He would never have the chance to call him father again.
What did you just call me?
A familiar voice suddenly rang out above his head. Xiao Heng was startled, thinking he had misheard, but still looked up blankly.
He saw Marquis Xuanping dressed in a straw raincoat and wearing a bamboo hat, riding a tall steed that had accompanied him in his campaigns.
Marquis Xuanping looked at him from his horse and asked again, "What did you just call me?"
Xiao Heng lifted his hand, which was pressed tightly in the puddle. His heart sank, and his grief and regret came to an abrupt halt. He turned his face away and hummed, "No... nothing."
"It's nothing, then I'm off." After saying that, Marquis Xuanping tightened the reins and turned the horse around.
"Father! Father!"
Xiao Heng gritted his teeth and spoke.
Marquis Xuanping smirked, turned his horse around mischievously, and looked smugly at his son: "You chased me for hundreds of miles just to call me 'Dad'?"
"It is 113 li."
It's not even a few hundred miles.
Xiao Heng corrected him with a mixture of rigor and annoyance.
Marquis Xuanping smiled in a slightly irritating way, and he leaned down to extend his hand to Xiao Heng.
Xiao Heng was so exhausted that he collapsed and couldn't stand up at all.
He still had the strength to raise his hand, but Xiao Heng didn't want to pay attention to him.
Marquis Xuanping is thick-skinned. If his son ignores him, he can talk to his son. Besides, his son just called him "father," how obedient!
Marquis Xuanping grabbed Xiao Heng's arm and pulled him onto the horse. With his martial arts skills, even if he was injured, he could still easily lift a big man.
The father and son rode together on one horse, with Xiao Heng sitting in the back.
At this moment, the father and son truly recognized each other.
Marquis Xuanping was in a good mood, and the corners of his lips remained upturned: "I'm going to kill someone. Are you coming with me, or should I take you to a village down below to hide?"
Xiao Heng's body trembled. "You're going to drag me down with you when you die! What grudge do you have against your own son?!"
“We can’t go,” Xiao Heng said solemnly.
"I don't want anyone to know that I killed him." Marquis Xuanping didn't deliberately mention who he went to kill, but he guessed that his son probably knew, otherwise he wouldn't have chased him all the way to the Prince of Liang's fiefdom.
Xiao Heng said, "No, it's not that. There will be a landslide ahead soon, which will cause a mudslide. The entire official road ahead, including the village below, will be buried by the collapsed mountain and the mudslide."
Marquis Xuanping asked, "Who told you that?"
Xiao Heng said without changing his expression, "I am a Hanlin scholar. I am well-versed in geography and also know how to observe the stars at night."
Marquis Xuanping said with a half-smile, "Observing the stars at night? Isn't that the business of the Imperial Astronomical Bureau?"
"I can do that too," Xiao Heng said shamelessly.
Marquis Xuanping smiled and said, "My son is really amazing."
This is clearly the tone used to coax a child.
Upon hearing this, Xiao Heng understood that he hadn't taken it too seriously. It wasn't that he didn't believe in himself, but rather that he believed he could overcome the challenge.
The terrible thing about this natural disaster is that it came almost without warning. By the time the landslide began, half of the mountain had already collapsed from the inside.
Xiao Heng said sternly, "I said you're not allowed to go, and that means you're not allowed to go!"
Marquis Xuanping turned his head slightly and said helplessly, "Aheng, stop fooling around."
Xiao Heng protested, "I'm injured, I can't ride a horse, and I can't get wet in the rain!"
Marquis Xuanping glanced at the village below, and Xiao Heng immediately said, "The villagers have already evacuated, and there are no doctors."
Marquis Xuanping finally gave in: "Alright, I'll take you to the post station first."
He remembered that there was a small post station ten miles back.
Xiao Heng secretly calculated the speed and distance in his mind. He figured that if he delayed a little when he got there, he could avoid the landslide.
He did not object.
Marquis Xuanping rode his horse back with his son.
As expected of a First-Rank Martial Marquis's horse, while other horses were too scared to move, it could still bounce around so happily, easily carrying an extra person.
The last time Xiao Heng rode on Xuanping Marquis's horse was when he was a child. He sat in front, his small body held in Xuanping Marquis's arms.
Marquis Xuanping always believed that if a tiger is subdued, his son must also be a tiger!
The horse was taller than a person. Poor little Xiao Heng was riding a horse for the first time and was so jostled around that he questioned his existence and cried loudly!
Princess Xinyang arrived just in time and rescued Xiao Heng from his horse. From then on, Xiao Heng never dared to ride a horse again.
"When did you learn to ride a horse? Was it during those years in the countryside?" Marquis Xuanping asked.
This was the first time the father and son had seriously brought up those years. Marquis Xuanping had asked about it, but Xiao Heng had never given him a response.
Tonight, he responded, "Yes, I learned it from my older brother."
Marquis Xuanping said, "Your elder brother..."
He paused at this point.
Xiao Heng said in a low voice, "Call him Xiao Su."
Marquis Xuanping frowned: "Isn't his surname Cheng? And his name... Cheng... Gou Dan?"
“Gou Dan is his nickname,” Xiao Heng said. “My older brother changed his surname.”
Chen Yunniang changed it. After Cheng Su's father died, Cheng's family came to his door to take Cheng Su to his uncle's family to raise, but his uncle's family had no sons.
Chen Yunniang couldn't bear to part with her, and Cheng Su was also unwilling to leave his mother, so the clan severed ties.
After the horse had gone a while, Marquis Xuanping suddenly spoke up: "I'm sorry about what happened back then."
Marquis Xuanping was a shameless man, but that doesn't mean he could say whatever he wanted.
He has an awkward side to his personality, but ordinary things don't trigger his awkwardness.
Xiao Heng didn't ask whether the year he mentioned was the year he was born or the year Xiao Liulang had the accident.
Some things can be discussed openly, but others don't need to be; it's enough that both sides understand each other.
Marquis Xuanping said, "Hold on tight, I need to speed things up, or you'll fall."
"I won't—ah—"
Before Xiao Heng could finish speaking, Marquis Xuanping suddenly spurred his horse, and the horse, understanding, galloped forward at full speed.
Xiao Heng was thrown backward and almost fell off. He instinctively grabbed Xuanping Hou's waist and abdomen.
Where Xiao Heng couldn't see, Marquis Xuanping raised an eyebrow and smiled!
"Wait." His smile suddenly vanished, and he tugged at the reins, causing the horse to stop nimbly.
"What's wrong?" Xiao Heng asked.
"Did you hear that?" Marquis Xuanping asked, frowning.
"What did you hear—" Xiao Heng's voice trailed off, "It sounds like a baby is crying."
Marquis Xuanping turned his head and looked around: "In that village!"
Wasn't the entire village evacuated?
He didn't hear any crying when he rushed over.
"There is a child." Marquis Xuanping listened for a while longer, confirming that he hadn't misheard. "You go first."
He dismounted.
He didn't care about natural disasters when he went to the official road, but when it came to his son, he believed in the power of natural disasters.
“Riding a horse is faster!” Xiao Heng said.
"Is there still time?" asked Marquis Xuanping.
"If we search quickly, we can find it," Xiao Heng said.
"Alright, hold on tight." Marquis Xuanping's eyes sharpened, he tightened the reins, turned the course, and sped towards the village below.
But when the two entered the village, the crying stopped again.
Xiao Heng said seriously, "That child must have been tired from crying. He cried for a while and then stopped. I didn't hear anything when I passed by the village just now."
Marquis Xuanping dismounted.
The father and son searched house to house. When Marquis Xuanping found the bedroom of the eighteenth household, Xiao Heng shouted loudly from the well in the backyard: "Here it is!"
Marquis Xuanping hurried to the backyard.
This is a dry well. The wellhead is covered with a cover, but it is not sealed and can be turned over. The child must have climbed onto the cover, stepped on it, and fell in.
The manhole cover blocked most of the rainwater, but some still flowed into the dry well.
Xiao Heng went inside and found an oil-paper umbrella, which he placed over the well. Marquis Xuanping removed the well cover, intending to go down into the well to rescue the person, but found that the well opening was too narrow and he couldn't go down at all.
Xiao Heng still had the physique of a young man, tall and slender, and could barely squeeze through.
"I'll go down," Xiao Heng said.
Marquis Xuanping took a rope from the saddle, tied one end around his son's waist, and wrapped the other end around his own waist and abdomen.
Xiao Heng opened his mouth: "Your back injury..."
"Go down," said Marquis Xuanping.
The child's cries and breathing were already very weak. No one knew how long he had been at the bottom of the well, especially since he had fallen from such a height.
Xiao Heng shifted his gaze from his waist and abdomen, turned around and sat on the edge of the well, but as soon as he swung one leg in, a cat's meow suddenly came from the bottom of the well.
Xiao Heng's hair stood on end!
Marquis Xuanping's expression turned solemn as he stared intently at his son, "Aheng."
Xiao Heng's legs began to tremble. He was someone who wasn't even afraid of poisonous snakes, yet he was terrified of cats.
A few years ago, Marquis Xuanping would have said to him, "You are my son, Marquis Xuanping. Don't you even have this much courage?"
But he didn't say that tonight.
He said, "Get down, I'll think of another way."
There's no other way, and there's no time left.
Right now, we must save the child immediately, otherwise they will either abandon the child or die with the child.
Xiao Heng gripped the rope in front of him tightly, gritted his teeth, and resolutely jumped down!
This seemingly ordinary jump made Marquis Xuanping's heart pound.
His son has grown up.
They've really grown up.
It wasn't his height or age, but the fact that he had truly grown into a towering, upright man; he was a promising young scholar-official.
He didn't fight on the battlefield, but he used his blood to protect the people of Zhao.
"I've found him, we can go up now!"
Xiao Heng's trembling voice came from the bottom of the well.
He was afraid.
But he did not succumb to his fear.
He really is my son, Xiao Ji!
Marquis Xuanping quickly pulled the rope and pulled Xiao Heng and the child up from the bottom of the well.
Xiao Heng was very careful, after all, the well opening was so narrow, and the child could be scratched or injured if he was not careful.
He lifted the child high above his head.
Marquis Xuanping took the child with one hand and placed him on the fallen umbrella, while pulling his son up with the other.
Only then did he realize that his son was holding a cat curled up in his arms.
Xiao Heng's body stiffened, his face deathly pale, like a small, immobile statue: "Could you please remove it quickly?"
Marquis Xuanping laughed out loud, picked up the cat, and threw it into the bundle hanging on the saddle.
The child is not in good condition; he has multiple injuries from the fall and needs to be taken to a doctor as soon as possible.
Xiao Heng found a strip of cloth in the house and wrapped the child in his arms.
Marquis Xuanping was quite surprised: "Oh, you're quite knowledgeable, aren't you? Ready to be a father anytime?"
Xiao Heng rolled his eyes at him: "There's a Gu Xiaobao at home."
This child is older than Gu Xiaobao, but probably no more than a year old. The same method used to scoop Gu Xiaobao's clothes will work for him.
The father and son, along with a child, a horse, and a cat, headed towards the official road.
Just as they were about to leave the village, a section of the mountain in front of them collapsed with a deafening roar, like a muffled thunderclap in the dark night, and the ground at the village entrance seemed to tremble.
The landslide itself didn't reach the village, but the resulting mudslide was a disaster for the village.
"drive!"
Marquis Xuanping gave a stern shout.
The horses galloped onto the official road, and just then, the old banyan tree at the village entrance snapped with a crack, its massive trunk crashing down on them!
At the critical moment, Marquis Xuanping stepped on the stirrups and leaped into the air, grabbing the thick tree trunk with both hands and forcefully smashing it open.
The tree trunk was successfully smashed open, but he was trapped underneath it.
His back injury flared up instantly, and the wounds on his thigh and back also flared up immediately. His face turned deathly pale in an instant.
Xiao Heng tightened the reins and stopped the horse.
He dismounted and, ignoring his sprained right ankle, charged toward him.
Despite the pain, Marquis Xuanping said to Xiao Heng, "Let's go quickly."
"Let's go together! I'll move the tree!" Xiao Heng bent down and tried to lift the tree, which was even thicker than himself.
No matter how hard he tried, the tree pressing down on Marquis Xuanping remained completely still.
He then took out a rope from the bundle hanging on the saddle, tied one end to a big tree and the other end to the horse, and the man and the horse pulled with all their might.
Unfortunately, this tree was simply too heavy and too thick.
Xiao Heng's palms were worn raw, and mottled blood dripped down the rope.
The mountain ahead continued to collapse. Marquis Xuanping looked into the distance and said with his last remaining strength, "You go first. I'll be able to push it open by myself after a while."
Xiao Heng's eyes reddened, and hot tears welled up in his eyes: "You're lying!"
Marquis Xuanping gave a weak smile: "Don't distrust your father so much... Your father is a First-Rank Martial Marquis... He could lift this little tree with just one hand..."
Xiao Heng gripped the rope tightly, choking back tears as he roared, "Then lift it up! Lift it up!"
Marquis Xuanping chuckled nonchalantly, "I told you I needed to rest for a bit... You go first... Don't let this child get soaked... We finally managed to rescue him from the bottom of the well..."
"I'm not leaving!"
The rope was deeply embedded in the flesh of Xiao Heng's palm, but he still couldn't pull it.
"I regret it!"
"I should learn martial arts!"
"I shouldn't have gone to school! I should have grown up in the army!"
"You're right! Scholars are utterly useless!"
"I'm useless!"
He cried out in despair, tears streaming down his face.
The smile on Marquis Xuanping's face vanished. He looked at Xiao Heng through the thick rain and said, "I said that on purpose... I'm your father... I don't even know as many characters as you... I couldn't save face... so I always wanted you to learn martial arts... I'm good at martial arts... You'll definitely admire me..."
Xiao Heng had never heard these words before, nor had he even considered them.
Even someone as proud as Xiao Ji could have such a self-conscious side.
Perhaps sensing that their time was near, they felt that if they didn't say these things today, they might never have the chance to say them again.
Marquis Xuanping tilted his head slightly so he could get a better look at his son one last time: "Aheng, I've never told you this before, but I'm actually quite proud of myself... to have a son like you... those roughnecks always brag about how capable their sons are... pshaw... are they as capable as my son?"
"My son could recite poems in the imperial palace when he was only three years old... Could their sons do that?"
"My son entered the Imperial Academy at the age of four... Can their son do that?"
"My son is a thirteen-year-old junior chief priest, those greenhorns, right?"
"My son is the newly crowned top scholar at the age of eighteen, is their son?"
"My greatest pride in this life is not my military achievements, nor my title. It is you. You are my proudest son, always have been."
Xiao Heng's heart was being torn apart.
Marquis Xuanping's eyes welled up with tears, and he smiled, "If we don't leave now, it will be too late. Don't let me sacrifice myself in vain."
After saying that, he used his last bit of strength to strike Xiao Heng with a palm.
Xiao Heng was propelled onto the horse by his internal force.
Marquis Xuanping said to his mount, "Take him away—"
With a loud bang, the last section of the mountain collapsed, and a mudslide rolled in from behind.
The horse reared up and galloped away.
Marquis Xuanping looked at his son with a smile as the mudslide rushed down.
Xiao Heng turned around and cried out in alarm, "No—"
With a deafening roar, a mudslide swept into the village.
Just then, a tall, dark figure emerged from the torrential rain!
(End of this chapter)
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