At the bridgehead, Zhuge Yue was dressed in a brocade robe, sitting high on his horse.
Fang Chu said in a deep voice: "Master, Miss Chu is here."
Just as he finished speaking, a group of people suddenly appeared on the horizon. The girl in the lead was wearing a white cloak, with a smile on her face, riding a horse against the wind.
"Miss!" Meixiang was originally sitting on a rock, and when she saw Chu Qiao, she jumped up happily.
Chu Qiao and others appeared in front of them in a flash. She jumped off the horse and hugged Mei Xiang. Meixiang cried and said, "Miss, I thought you were lying to me. I thought you really weren't coming."
Jingjing, Ping'an and others also ran over happily and asked about their previous experiences. Ping An even described the great battle of that day in vivid detail, looking quite proud of himself. He Xiao had no family and was unwilling to stay in Bian Tang, so he came with Chu Qiao. Although he and Yue Qi and others had never met each other, they had already heard of each other's names, so they became familiar with each other in a short time.
Only Zhuge Yue stood there with a sullen face, looking coldly at Chu Qiao who was asking Mei Xiang about her well-being, his two rows of teeth almost breaking from biting.
Finally, that inhuman gaze shattered someone’s joy at the long-awaited reunion. She smiled and walked forward. As soon as Zhuge Yue moved, she immediately raised her hands obediently and shouted, “Surrender! For the last time! I promise!”
Zhuge Yue stretched out his hand, wanting to hit her and teach her a lesson, but after gesturing for a long time he still didn’t know where to start. Seeing her shrinking her neck and closing her eyes, he angrily asked awkwardly, "Why don't you fight back?"
Chu Qiao opened her eyes and pouted, looking very pitiful. "I am admitting my mistake."
“You still know you’re wrong?” Zhuge Yue squinted at her, ignoring the looks of his subordinates watching him. He inhumanely reached out and pinched Chu Qiao’s cheek, which didn’t have much flesh to begin with, and said in a deep voice, “You dare not reply to my letter, you’ve become so capable, haven’t you?”
"I'm busy!" Chu Qiao defended herself with a bitter face.
"You don't have time to reply but you have time to burn my letters?"
Chu Qiao raised her head and continued to defend herself, "If I don't act like I have deep hatred and deep grievance, Sun Di won't believe it. If he doesn't believe it, Prince Jing'an and the others will definitely not believe it either."
Zhuge Yue stared at her and continued to ask sharply, “Then why didn’t you give me the news earlier, so that I could travel so far with my troops for nothing?”
Chu Qiao shrank her neck and blinked, not knowing how to answer.
"Why don't you tell the truth?"
"Li Ce asked me to do this. If you have the ability, go find him."
Zhuge Yue gnashed his teeth and thought for a long time, and finally said coldly: "You guys are smart, otherwise I will lead the troops to destroy Li Ce's lair and see who you will become the imperial concubine!"
Just blow it. Chu Qiao whispered in her heart, but on the surface she said sensibly: "Of course, how could I? I keep my word and will never go back on my word."
Zhuge Yue raised his head cockily, his male pride greatly satisfied.
“Wow!” A loud cry of a child suddenly came from a carriage that came with Chu Qiao, and Zhuge Yue and the others were startled. Chu Qiao quickly ran over and opened the curtain of the carriage, only to see two wet nurses holding a baby of four or five months old. The child had obviously just woken up and was doing his daily compulsory lesson: crying.
Chu Qiao quickly held the child in her arms and began to coax him skillfully.
“What is this?” Zhuge Yue asked coldly with a gloomy expression.
Chu Qiao looked at him in surprise and answered honestly, "Child."
“I know!” Zhuge Yue was getting more and more angry, and asked angrily, “Whose child is this?”
Chu Qiao then remembered that she had not explained to everyone yet, and said, "This is Li Ce's third son, named Li Qingrong, but we may need to change his name in the future. His mother is Zhan Ziming. Before Li Ce died, he entrusted him to me. He was worried that the child would be persecuted in the palace in the future, so he asked me to take him out of the palace."
“Li Ce’s son?” Zhuge Yue frowned and stepped forward to take a look. He saw that the child had red lips and white teeth, and a pair of dark eyes. He was pouting and playing with the tassels on Chu Qiao’s windbreaker in a wronged manner. His little eyes were rolling around. He really looked like the deceased old friend.
He felt a little desolate in his heart, and when he was about to speak, the child suddenly saw him. His dark eyes rolled around, and he immediately let out a loud cry that was earth-shattering and weeping, kicking his hands and feet, obviously extremely unhappy.
"What's wrong? Why are you crying?" Chu Qiao wondered to herself.
Meixiang also ran forward and asked the nurse, "Is the child hungry?"
The wet nurse quickly shook her head and said that she had just finished eating. Meixiang turned over the baby's swaddling clothes, but didn't see any wetness.
Chu Qiao suddenly had an idea and turned to Zhuge Yue and said, "The child may hate you."
Zhuge Yue's face turned pale and he angrily asked, "Why do you hate me?"
"Try walking farther away, maybe that's the case."
Someone really couldn't accept it, frowned and said: "Why? I didn't hit him."
"Some people are just unpopular, maybe you are one of them."
"Yes, brother-in-law, just stay away. Maybe Rong'er will be scared when he sees you." Jingjing added fuel to the fire.
"Why?" Yue Qi retorted weakly in a low voice, defending his master very loyally, "In fact, the young master looks quite approachable and amiable..." Unfortunately, he himself lacked confidence, and his voice became smaller and smaller as he spoke.
Finally, Zhuge Yue walked away from the crowd, and Li Qingrong really stopped crying suddenly. Although she had cried too hard just now and couldn't stop for a while, she was sobbing softly, but there were already faint smile lines on her lips.
After a while, the group of people suddenly burst into laughter. It turned out that the little guy hit his head while playing with Yueqi's sword handle, and was biting Yueqi's shoulder angrily.
Zhuge Yue sat on a large rock far away, looking at the people in the distance, and muttered in his heart: You bastard, you look just like your father.
Chu Qiao ran over at some point and sat down next to him.
Yue Qi and a group of people who would shake the world if they moved their feet were still busy with a baby. After a while, they heard Mei Xiang pointing at the usually dull Fang Chu and shouting, "Oh, the baby has been pooped, you hold it first, oh! I told you to hold it, so you hold it!"
Chu Qiao hugged Zhuge Yue's arm, put her face on his shoulder, looked sideways at him, and said with a long sigh, "It's finally over."
"Are you tired?"
"It's fine." Chu Qiao closed her eyes, the golden red light sprinkled on her face, "I was just afraid that you would worry, so I kept competing with myself and told myself to go faster and faster."
Zhuge Yue still couldn't let go of his resentment and continued to ask, "Why didn't you read my letter?"
“I didn’t know if I could succeed,” she raised her head slightly and smiled at Zhuge Yue, “I didn’t have any confidence at the time. I was afraid of failure and death. I was afraid that after reading your letter, I would no longer have the courage to persevere.”
Chu Qiao smiled like a flower. It seemed that she rarely smiled like this in her life. She had no worries and no burdens. She smiled and said, "You are my weak spot, which makes me unwilling to be strong."
Zhuge Yue looked at her, his expression gradually softening. He stretched out his hand and put it around her waist, and said in a low and light voice: "You don't have to be strong when you are with me." After that, he lowered his head and kissed her on the lips.
"Oh! So embarrassing!" Jingjing's scream suddenly rang out.
The world is so vast, and the late autumn season is a bright yellow splendor. Chu Qiao had never seen Zhuge Yue sleep like this before. As soon as he got on the boat from Cangzhou, he fell asleep and did not open his eyes for a whole day and night. He did not even notice Chu Qiao coming in. Yue Qi said that he had not had a good night's sleep since the day he set out from Zhenhuang, and he had not even closed his eyes after switching to the land route from Xianyang. He must be extremely tired at this moment.
Zhuge Yue's health was not very good. During the past few days of traveling, she had seen him secretly taking a black pill. She asked Yue Qi privately, but he was vague. Mei Xiang knew a little about pharmacology, and later told Chu Qiao that Zhuge Yue must have been overworked, lacking blood in his heart, and catching a cold.
Overwork and cold...
Chu Qiao sat on the chair with her chin propped up. The boat was moving steadily and the weather was good, with no wind or waves. The windows were closed, but she could still see the green mountains and clear waters outside disappearing into the distance through the window paper.
She recalled the time when she was forced to flee to Bian Tang by Zhao Chun'er. At that time, the brother and sister Zhan Ziyu and Zhan Ziming were still unknown and down-and-out people. Li Ce was still alive and well, serving as the handsome prince of the Tang Dynasty. Mr. Wu, Miss Yu and others were still working hard for their ideals. Yan Xun was still her best friend and lover who grew up with her. She is also full of confidence in the future, and believes that she can contribute to this devastated world on her own with the help of a group of like-minded friends.
It’s a pity that time is the most ruthless killing weapon in the world. Li Ce is gone, Mr. Wu was killed, Miss Yu died in her arms, Zhan Ziyu killed all her relatives because of her ambition, and those like-minded friends she thought were not as loyal as she imagined. Many people gradually left her, even Yan Xun drifted further and further away from her and eventually became strangers.
The country has fallen, the ambition of hegemony is no longer worth mentioning, and the ideals have turned to ashes in the wind, like the wormwood in late autumn, shaking its barren and yellow leaves and mocking the vows of the past.
Yes, who can remain unchanged? Even if she is the same today as before, is she the same?
She turned her head gently, and saw Zhuge Yue was still sleeping quietly. He was really an awkward and stubborn person. Even when he was asleep, his brows were frowned. His always sharp eyes were covered by his eyelids, which further highlighted his distinct facial features: a high nose bridge, thin lips and clear contours.
I heard that people with this kind of face are always heartless and ungrateful, but he is the only one who is so persistent and stubborn, so stubborn that it makes people feel distressed.
The Bian Tang court was surging, with undercurrents accumulated over thousands of years. It was nothing like the sharp edge of Daxia and Yanbei on the surface. Instead, it was waves of invisible cold arrows, wrapped in layers of splendid plans and warm breezes, which could kill people inadvertently.
Later, she learned from the old director of Bian Tang Imperial Hospital that the death of Li Ce's father was also caused by Li Ce's mother.
Over the years, she has been trying to kill the Tang Emperor, using poison, assassination and everything in between. She almost succeeded several times, but the old emperor has always protected her and did not make the matter public. He was also angry and resentful, threatening her with the Prince of Luo, taking her family as hostages, favoring other concubines, confining her to her room, and even sending her to the cold palace three times. However, he was ultimately unable to overcome his own heart, and in his later years, he dismissed all the concubines in the palace, leaving only her. He treated her with great love and care, and she seemed to be influenced by him, giving him several years of happiness and comfort.