Daughter of the Jianghu (Part 9)
In the past, Bian Hongqiu was treated like a delicate flower. If he got a little scratch on his skin, Mr. Zhou would run to his room three times a day. Qin He Qiuhe would also treat these minor injuries as a serious threat. He would nag him when he was getting dressed or washing, telling him not to get wet and to avoid certain foods. If he went to the study to practice martial arts, Shao Zheng and Mr. Liu would ask him about it.
So it's natural for the Prime Minister to feel vulnerable.
When I first followed Lao Ju, I was so hungry and dizzy that I thought I saw the Naihe Bridge.
Now, in this small courtyard that wasn't too shabby, but not particularly refined either, Lao Ju watched over him as he ate and took his medicine, not caring about anything else. Sometimes, he wouldn't even close the window at night, often waking him up from the cold even though he was hanging on to his life. But he had to admit, he wasn't as delicate as he thought.
He was nearly fatally injured, but after just over half a month, he was able to get out of bed and walk. However, his broken ribs had not healed yet, and it hurt every time he breathed.
Bian Hongqiu had a smooth upbringing, with no serious addictions, and had always been in good health. However, she had been plagued by nightmares, and after her mother's death, she was plagued by deep inner demons. She didn't get enough rest, and much of her focus was on battling dreams that were difficult to distinguish between real and imaginary. Naturally, she had little energy to clear her mind, and she felt groggy and prone to illness.
He sat by the window, casually throwing on a coat. A cool breeze blew in, and the begonias fell all over the table. He lowered his head and blew the delicate flowers away, then continued to grind the wood. At this moment, a bowl of steaming medicine appeared in his peripheral vision, and Lao Ju's usually steady and calm voice rang out: "Drink the medicine and then go to rest for a while."
Bian Hongqiu looked up and smiled at him: "Thank you, Uncle Ju."
He drank the medicine in one gulp. "I'm in good spirits. I won't rest. I'll pack up this board. I want to leave as soon as possible."
He still had no time to treat the scars on his face, and all the medicine was focused on treating internal injuries. However, you could see a rosy color on his cheeks, and his lips no longer looked pale. He was recovering in a vibrant direction.
Lao Ju could see clearly that this was different from Meng Shizhuang's initial "overdraft" recovery. Even though Meng Shizhuang had the strength to lift the sword, he still had dark gray eye sockets, a bloodless face, and lifeless eyes. It made people wonder where he got the strength to stand up.
Bian Hongqiu brushed away the sawdust, lifted the wooden board and compared it to himself. When he found that the size was about right, he began to drill holes in the four corners.
His most troublesome injury was his broken ribs. After experiencing the young man's extraordinary recovery ability over the past two weeks, he didn't want to wait any longer and decided to take a risk. He asked the owner of the escort agency to find him two wooden boards of appropriate weight. He slowly ground them into a curve and placed them on his body to support his body and prevent any bones from being broken by the bumps on the road.
Lao Ju took the empty bowl away and said, "Why worry? Taking good care of your body is the most important thing."
Bian Hongqiu lifted one end of the wooden board and threaded the silk from the bottom up. As the sunlight shone through the window, she looked like an embroiderer in her boudoir. His tone was steady, and there was no hint of anxiety, but his words were firm: "I have a very important person waiting for me in Beijing to do something very important. It's a matter of life and death, and I dare not delay any longer."
Old Ju still saw the same man who was almost out of breath that night on Menghu Ridge. Just as he was about to say something, Zhuang Ji, who had come and gone like the wind and had not been seen for many days, came in with a smile on his face, "Mr. Ju, Miss Hong."
She cupped her fists and nodded slightly at the two men, then turned to Bian Hongqiu. "Miss Hong, I've lived up to your trust. I've searched the entire city and bought two thousand-mile horses from a passing merchant thirty miles west of Lanling City." As she spoke, her eyes darted around Bian Hongqiu's restless hands, worry evident in her brows. "But can your body withstand it? A thousand-mile horse is fast, but riding skill and energy are essential. Your injuries aren't fully healed yet, so I'm afraid this might backfire."
Bian Hongqiu stood up and thanked her with the same words.
He was two years younger than Zhuang Ji, but for various reasons, even though Zhuang Ji was about the same height as him, when she stood in front of him, she was not interacting with him as a peer. In fact, Zhuang Ji was more like a person of equal status to the "head of the family", Lao Ju. All people and things in the escort agency were under her control. She could easily use two thousand-mile horses as gifts for her friends.
Bian Hongqiu looked at her, and the old man beside her once mentioned "Ashi" who supported the family alone. She finally understood what Song Jingyan meant by "standing tall and upright".
A man who stands tall and proud does not need to be very old or do anything earth-shattering. It is enough for him to just be able to make his own decision and say, "I want to eat white rice today."
So he didn't want to wait any longer.
Bian Hongqiu confidently patted the two pieces of "tortoise shell" he had worked out. "My riding skills are decent. With these two pieces of armor, going to the capital won't be a problem."
Zhuang Ji didn't ask any more questions. She had followed her family's escorts on their travels at a young age, and she knew there were many things she shouldn't ask. So she simply clasped her fists again and said, "Whether we meet again in the future or not, I thank you both for saving my life. If you need me again in the future, I will definitely not refuse."
She spoke from the heart.
If it weren't for Lao Ju and Bian Hongqiu, two chivalrous men who met her halfway and offered to join her, she would probably be dead by now, and my grandmother would probably have no one to rely on for the rest of her life.
Bian Hongqiu polished the "tortoise shell" and tied the silk ribbon on it for a few days to get used to it. Aside from some wear marks on the edge of the board and the neck where the ribbon was hung, there were no other problems. With the two pieces of wood as a support, he felt no vibration in his chest and abdomen when he walked, and the pain from his broken ribs was much relieved. He took a few laps on the horse, and, having cast aside his previous fear of riding, which had always come from a lack of skill, he found riding quite comfortable.
It would take at least a month to travel to the capital at the fastest pace. He did not dare to be careless and adjusted the tightness of the "tortoise shell" several times. When he no longer felt any discomfort, he said goodbye to Zhuang Ji.
Grandma also rode the Qianliju with him and Lao Ju to the capital.
Grandma's exact words were, "You stole my travel permit and you're going to abandon me? How could that be possible?"
Not only did she not worry about whether she would feel uncomfortable riding a horse, but when she heard that Zhuang Ji had found a thousand-mile horse for them, her eyes immediately lit up and she kept asking, "Will that get us to the capital faster? When can I see Liu Lang?"
Zhuang Ji, who was seeing them off outside the city, replied, "This Thousand Mile Horse is like a warship sailing on the water. Lanling City is only three states away from the capital. Miss Hong is injured, so even if she slows down a bit, she can still reach the capital in a month or so. If her injury heals better, I'm afraid she'll be able to reach it even faster."
This was a much better surprise than grandma's original thought that they would have to wander around for more than half a year before they could go to the capital in a disheveled state.
She and Bian Hongqiu rode together, while Lao Ju rode a horse alone to keep pace with them.
Bian Hongqiu was fine. Although he hadn't studied hard during his years at Shangyang, he had never missed his classes. Even with injuries, this swift and steady horse was still able to keep going after more than a day of sleepless marching. Grandma, however, was even more excited than Bian Hongqiu. When she stopped at a post station to rest, she dismounted easily, her legs not shaking at all.
Seeing Lao Ju and Bian Hongqiu both looking at her, she puffed out her chest proudly: "Why? Do you really treat me as your wet nurse?"
Bian Hongqiu smiled and continued, "Aren't you a wet nurse?"
Grandma snorted softly, "A wet nurse is a wet nurse, of course, but she's no ordinary wet nurse. Back then, I followed the Madam... and Liu Lang's own mother, sailing to sea and beyond the Great Wall. Neither the desert sand nor the storms could harm me." Thinking of things she hadn't thought of in decades, her expression darkened, but she took a deep breath and pulled herself together. "A good man doesn't brag about his past achievements. Anyway, it's not my fault that I've forgotten. When His Majesty abolished the system of female officials, how many places intensified their oppression of women?"
"Married women were forced to bind their feet again, and those who dared to show their faces were drowned... In short, Your Majesty and those men are not good people."
Lao Ju didn't want to respond to her and took the horse to the stable to feed it grass.
Bian Hongqiu stopped smiling thoughtfully.
They didn't have much money, so they rented a room and asked Grandma to sleep there. In the middle of the night, Bian Hongqiu strolled outside the post station and saw Lao Ju staring blankly at the moon. He continued to stroll past silently. Lao Ju, aware of his presence, didn't turn back, sitting cross-legged and quietly regulating his breathing.
Bian Hongqiu has never been a talkative person, but he is obviously not as taciturn as Lao Ju.
All along the way, he was the one who couldn't hold back and spoke first, and this time was no exception.
What he wanted to say was too abrupt, so he went around in circles before finally uttering, "Uncle Ju, you want to, don't you?"
Lao Ju's eyes moved away from the bright moon and looked at Bian Hongqiu without answering.
Bian Hongqiu felt uncomfortable being stared at. After a while, he asked again, "Uncle Ju, is the difference between men and women in this world really that big?"
Lao Ju didn't want to answer the question of "Where do people come from and where do they go?", and he didn't know the answer at all, so he just threw the question back to him: "What's the difference between being a boy and a girl? Do you prefer to be a boy or a girl?"
Bian Hongqiu thought about his words but couldn't figure it out.
He'd first met Lao Ju wearing a skirt, but Lao Ju had already seen through him as a "fake girl." Later, along the way, some people seemed to automatically mistake him for a girl, others for a boy—but it made no difference. His current path was called "exile," and most of the people he encountered had only one goal: to survive. Just as those who achieve great things don't dwell on petty love affairs, these passersby didn't cultivate two different appearances just to meet a boy or a girl.
Bian Hongqiu thought for a moment and said, "I don't know."
He thought about the attitudes of everyone in Prince Liang's Mansion. Except for Song Jingyan who never forced anything, most of them could be summed up in one sentence, "My family wants me to be a capable person." Whether it was embroidery or sharpening needles, they didn't want him to hide behind Song Jingyan without accomplishing anything.
He sighed, feeling that he was wasting his time thinking about such meaningless things.
So he said "excuse me" to Lao Ju and went back to his room to rest.
With Dayu nearing stability, the closer they got to the capital, the more peaceful it became, and the stricter the identity checks for travel permits became. Bian Hongqiu and his companions made their way safely into the capital under false identities. By this time, it was November, the osmanthus flowers had faded, and the winds of approaching winter were blowing through the capital. Bian Hongqiu and Lao Ju were still wearing only a single layer of clothing.
The wooden board he used to stabilize his body was removed halfway, and he looked unhappy after days of running around.
After entering Beijing, he stopped.
The capital was not a place where news was kept secret. After just two cups of tea, he'd heard quite a few people mention that His Majesty had just conferred the title of "Princess Shangyang." This meant that Song Jingyan had already managed to resolve the crisis that had befallen the Liang Palace. The capital was full of spies, and he couldn't rush to the Liang Palace rashly. If his identity was exposed, all the hard work of everyone in the palace would be wasted.
After some hesitation, grandma took the token and led Lao Ju and Bian Hongqiu to the residence of an old friend entrusted by Liu Lang's mother.
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