It was already midsummer and the days were very long. The group walked until the sun was setting in the west before setting up camp in a valley and making a fire to cook.
Chu Qiao and Zhuge Yue were assigned a small tent, which was so short and small that their heads would touch each other when they sat up.
Living with them in the outer camp were some servants. After asking around, they found out that this team included not only the Xianyang Liu family, but also the Wang family, the Jia family, the Ouyang family and others.
After a day of bumpy ride, Chu Qiao felt even weaker. The air in the tent was not good, so Zhuge Yue helped her out and leaned against a short tree stump to rest. He then bought a freshly shot rabbit from the guards and started a fire to roast the meat. In a short while, the delicious smell of meat filled the air.
He tore off a piece of meat and passed it to Chu Qiao. Chu Qiao opened her mouth and wanted to take it, but she felt a pain on her head. Zhuge Yue flicked it on her forehead. The man said with a sullen face, "It burns your mouth!"
"Oh." Chu Qiao smiled knowingly, puffed up her cheeks and blew gently twice, then raised her fingers to take it. The rabbit meat tasted delicious. Chu Qiao couldn't help but give a thumbs up and said, "I didn't expect you to have this skill."
“I learned this in the past few years in the mountains,” Zhuge Yue said casually, pulling out a dagger, cutting the rabbit meat into small pieces, and handing them to Chu Qiao piece by piece.
At this moment, night fell, the sunlight was slowly swallowed by the darkness, the starry sky was bright, cicadas were chirping, and occasionally there were larks and cuckoos returning home at night. The valley was quiet and in the distance, a large number of guards were busy coming and going, full of peaceful warmth.
Chu Qiao sat in a patch of green grass and took a deep breath. Then she smiled intoxicatedly, like a simple child, and suddenly sighed, "I miss it so much!"
Zhuge Yue casually asked, “What do you miss?”
"I miss this feeling," Chu Qiao said quietly, leaning against a tree stump, with a peaceful expression and a smile on her face. "I miss camping in the wilderness with long grass and green trees, a group of people gathering together to make a fire and cook, and after dinner, we would sit around a bonfire and chat, drink some wine, and eat the wild rabbits we shot. I miss the days when we didn't have to worry about tomorrow or fight for survival."
Zhuge Yue looked at her quietly and said, “Have you ever experienced a day like this?”
"Of course," Chu Qiao raised her head and smiled quietly, saying, "It was a long time ago that three good friends and I ate roasted rabbits like this in a valley like this, but our cooking skills were better than yours, and we also had more seasonings than you."
“Humph!” Zhuge Yue snorted disdainfully and turned his head away.
"Xiao Shi learned cooking from a famous French chef. She has first-rate skills and is especially good at barbecue."
Zhuge Yue raised his eyebrows and said in a deep voice, "France? Is it a restaurant?"
"Hmm?" Chu Qiao smiled and nodded, "Yes, it's a restaurant."
Zhuge Yue curled his lips in disdain, "I've never even heard of it, so it's probably not a famous restaurant."
In the distance, a huge bonfire was burning, making a loud noise and creating a lively atmosphere.
"Go on."
"Huh?" Chu Qiao was stunned.
“Go on, you’re free anyway.” Zhuge Yue lowered his head and continued to cut the rabbit, “Tell me about your friend.”
"Oh," Chu Qiao nodded. For some reason, she felt a little heavy tonight. Perhaps it was because the actions of the elders of the Datong Guild hurt her heart, and she had to think of something else to divert her attention.
The grass swayed, night fell, and she said calmly, "They are all better than me in kung fu."
Zhuge Yue raised his eyebrows, "Are they all women?"
"Yeah," Chu Qiao glanced at him sideways, "You look down on women."
Zhuge Yue remained silent, Chu Qiao continued, “But that was back then, if we were competing now, I would probably be about the same as them. Xiao Huang is good at shooting, well, even bows and arrows. Xiao Shi is the best at close combat, once she defeated seventeen agile men by herself. Mao Er is not as skilled as them, but when it comes to killing skills, she is the best.”
Zhuge Yue raised his eyebrows slightly, "What about you?"
"Me?" Chu Qiao laughed, "I'm a versatile person."
The man glanced at her impatiently and said, "How shameless."
Chu Qiao was not angry either, she turned around and asked, "Zhuge Yue, do you have any wishes?"
Zhuge Yue frowned and looked at her, finally snorting coldly: “I hope you can go back immediately and never let me see you again. It’s best if you stay in the mountains of Yanbei and never come out again in your life.”
"Impossible," Chu Qiao smiled, as if they were talking about something very ordinary, "Even if you don't come to Yanbei to fight, we will still take it down."
"Then I hope that Yan Xun will be disgraced, Yanbei will be annexed by the Batuha family, and you will wander around and end up begging at my doorstep."
Chu Qiao glared at him, "What a vicious man. But this is impossible." Chu Qiao smiled softly, "If such a day really came, I would have died in the battle. I would definitely not come out to beg for food."
Zhuge Yue was stunned, and immediately stopped talking.
"The four of us also asked this question at that time." Chu Qiao looked far away, quietly recalling the past that existed in her mind, holding her chin with both hands, and said softly, "Xiao Shi looks cold on the outside, but she is actually the most vulnerable person among us. She likes to collect dolls, the kind of very expensive dolls, and always makes her monthly expenses very tight. Her biggest wish is to get a large sum of consolation money after leaving the organization in the future, and then marry an ordinary good man and be a good wife. She has a friend who grew up with her, such as If nothing had happened later, she might have gotten what she wanted. "Chu Qiao's smile suddenly became a little sad. She curled her lips and said, "The little yellow man is the most noisy. She has a good family and is very adventurous. She was planning to climb a high mountain at that time. Her wish was to carve her name on the top of the mountain." Chu Qiao paused and continued, "Mao'er's wish has always been simple, that is, to make money." At this point, Chu Qiao suddenly smiled softly, "She is the most greedy for money and has a big courage. She dares to take any business. She has never been loyal to the organization. In her words, she is just supporting her family."
Zhuge Yue raised his eyebrows slightly, "What about you?"
"Me?" Chu Qiao was slightly stunned. After a long while, she slowly said, "I don't know. I was planning an operation at the time. I just hoped that the operation would go smoothly and the mission would be completed as soon as possible."
Zhuge Yue snorted, his voice full of disdain.
Chu Qiao turned around and said with a faint smile: "In fact, I have always been like this. I don't have any aspirations. I am very dogmatic and rigid. I just hope that my beliefs are correct and worth having this goal in my life, and I will fight and work hard for it."
"For example..." Chu Qiao thought for a while and said, "If you owe me something, I will take it back. If I owe you something, I will pay it back to you."
“I admire that Mao’er more,” Zhuge Yue said calmly, “The organization you are talking about is the Great Guild, right? If you have the chance, you can introduce her to me.”
Chu Qiao shook her head quietly and smiled bitterly, "I'm really surprised that I would tell you this."
Zhuge Yue snorted, “I didn’t force you to say that.”
At this moment, a sound of cautious footsteps suddenly came from the distance. Both of them were so alert that they looked up at the same time and saw a little girl who was no more than five or six years old, wearing a red jacket, with two pigtails and a chubby face. She was staring at the rabbit meat in Zhuge Yue's hand, biting her fingers.
They knew that in addition to the masters of the major wealthy families, there were also many servants of these families, and some of the servants brought their own families with them. This child must be the child of a servant here.
Zhuge Yue frowned and was about to speak when Chu Qiao suddenly waved her hand and said, “Come here!”
The child suddenly laughed, opened his two little hands, and ran over staggeringly.
The little girl's eyes were like grapes, big and bright. Chu Qiao asked with a smile: "How old are you?"
The child glanced at Zhuge Yue nervously, then said timidly, "I'm six years old."
"What's your name?"
The child seemed to find this sister very kind, so he put down the finger he was biting and said, "My name is Xingxing."
As soon as the child finished speaking, the two of them were slightly stunned.
Zhuge Yue glanced at the child impatiently and said in a deep voice, “Go back and tell your parents not to call you by that name anymore!”
The child was startled. Seeing Zhuge Yue's sullen face, he suddenly pursed his lips and blinked his eyes, as if he was about to cry.
"Why are you scaring the child!" Chu Qiao frowned, pulled the child over, and spoke to her in a low voice. After a while, she made the child laugh.
Zhuge Yue sat to one side, watching Chu Qiao and the child laughing and joking, and suddenly felt something was strange. The Chu Qiao in his memory should not be like this. She was calm, silent, unflappable, smart and cunning, and seemed to have never had the emotions that a normal woman should have. But this time when they met again, he saw more and more things in her. Perhaps, he smiled at himself, she really had been acting all along. She treated him as an enemy, and that had never been the case in the slightest. Even now, that might not be completely true for her. Otherwise, why would she still keep her weapon with her and be cautious in her defense even when she was so seriously injured?
There has never been any trust between them. Perhaps it's just as she said, if I owe you something, I must pay it back.
Zhuge Yue sneered, his eyes gradually becoming gloomy.
But damn, for some reason, he was obsessed with this feeling.
At this moment, the child suddenly walked up to him, tugged at his sleeve in a naughty way, pointed at the half-eaten rabbit meat still in his hand, and asked in a baby voice, "Do you want more?"
Zhuge Yue impatiently handed the thing in his hand to her.
The little girl immediately beamed with joy and said to Zhuge Yue, "You are so kind!" Then she returned to Chu Qiao's side, stretched out her chubby legs, sat on the ground, and generously shared the piece of rabbit meat with Chu Qiao.
After a while, someone came and called the child’s name. The child jumped up and ran towards the person. As he ran, he turned back to say goodbye to Chu Qiao and Zhuge Yue. His sweet laughter echoed in the night breeze...
In this peaceful moment, a panicked scream suddenly sounded, like a loud thunder exploding in everyone's ears! That night, not only in this valley, but also in Xianyang City thousands of miles away, there was a deafening sound of fighting.
A handsome man in a purple and gold robe was reclining on the couch, with two charming dancers leaning in his arms, their eyes as charming as water and their bodies as graceful as snakes. Their white jade fingers pinched a crystal clear grape and put it into the man's mouth.
"Fourth Master!"
The guard outside the door was wearing a black night suit, with a little red on his face. Even though the color of his clothes couldn't tell anything, he brought in a nauseating smell of blood. The man knelt on the ground and said in a sonorous tone: "It's done."
The famous Fourth Master Feng of Xianyang City raised his eyebrows slightly and said calmly: "Now that it's done, let's all go home and sleep."
That night, the entire Xianyang City suffered a great disaster, and countless blood flowed into the Chishui canal. Listening to the screams, the people of Xianyang City stayed awake all night. The guards of Xianyang City Yamen seemed to be dead, and turned into deaf-mutes in an instant. They closed their eyes and turned a blind eye to the people who fought desperately to break out of the siege and knelt in front of the gate of Xianyang Military Yamen, covered in blood.
As a result, those people became more and more violent, and the government had to notify some "local protection forces". When Master Feng Si heard that someone had the audacity to disturb the city defender's sleep, he immediately dispatched a large number of his men to bring those people back, intending to "reason" with them.