Don't sabotage us! The crown will fall!
“But Father, a person’s life isn’t just about living,” Cheng Junshi still said. Cheng Du remained silent for a while, his face turning dark and gloomy. Just when Tang Qi thought he was about to explode, Cheng Du suddenly laughed.
“You and your mother are alike.” Cheng Du looked up at Cheng Junshi, his eyes filled with a sorrow that had lingered for over a decade. Cheng Junshi was also taken aback. Cheng Du rarely mentioned his mother in front of him; it was like a taboo between them that no one would deliberately touch upon.
“We share the same blood, so of course our temperaments are similar,” Tang Qi finally chimed in jokingly. However, his words immediately earned him a glare from Cheng Du: “What do you mean by that? Are you saying I’m the ‘outsider’?”
Tang Qi choked and quickly laughed it off at Cheng Du, saying, "Wrong, wrong! It's a direct descendant! Cheng Wang is a precious child who embodies the best qualities of both you and your wife."
After he finished speaking, he met Cheng Du's slightly narrowed eyes, staring at Tang Qi as if scrutinizing her, making Tang Qi freeze in place, afraid to move.
"I was just about to ask, who are you?"
Tang Qi swallowed hard, then glanced at Cheng Junshi and smirked, "Friend! Ha—I'm your son's friend."
Cheng Du still eyed Tang Qi suspiciously. He had just felt that this kid's speech was not simple. He just hoped that the son he had raised with such care would not be led astray.
Cheng Jun nodded in agreement, and as if to corroborate Tang Qi's words, he added, "It's true."
It's more like they were forced into it.
"Forget it," Cheng Du suddenly waved his hand, "I can't keep up with you young people anymore. Anyway, your life is in your hands. If you don't want to cherish it, there's nothing I can do. I can't keep you tied to my side."
He suddenly laughed again: "It was okay when I was a kid, but now that I'm older, I can't tie it up anymore."
Cheng Du looked into Cheng Junshi's eyes again, like a father watching his child leave: "I raised you all these years not so that you would go to your death. But I can't deny that I'm actually quite gratified to hear you say this and think this way."
He chuckled twice, his voice deep and heavy: "You have Yan Zhao's soul, you won't be stopped by anyone, son, your father can't keep you."
Cheng Du suddenly choked up, his voice even making Tang Qi feel a little sad: "If you live, then you're here to keep me company. If you die, then go and be with your mother. You won't be left alone either way."
Cheng Junshi stared blankly, completely unexpected that Cheng Du would be so sentimental. He hadn't done anything yet, so why did Cheng Du treat him as if he had already received a death sentence?
He frowned and looked at Cheng Du again, asking, "Father, what's wrong?"
Cheng Du didn't speak, but just sighed and said to Cheng Junshi, "I know you want to take something from me."
After he finished speaking, he took out a piece of paper from his sleeve, pressed it on the table, and handed it to Cheng Junshi: "If there's nothing else to investigate, go here. Perhaps you can find something that will be of benefit to you."
Tang Qi glanced at the paper, which only had a few words written on it, the first two of which seemed to be a place name—Jinshou.
Tang Qi didn't have a deep impression of this place, only knowing that it was a small town in the north.
Cheng Junshi reached for the paper on the table and was about to pull it back when he realized that Cheng Du hadn't loosened his grip at all. He frowned in confusion and looked at Cheng Du, who seemed to realize something and let go of his grip on his own. Then he looked at Cheng Junshi and said, "Go as far away as you can from Jingzhou. Don't come back here. Go anywhere, until...until...until you've done everything you wanted to do."
Cheng Junshi still frowned. These words made him uncomfortable, not because of the tone, but because of the implication. It made him feel that Cheng Du hadn't made something clear, and this feeling inexplicably frightened Cheng Junshi. It was like the oppressive atmosphere before an impending storm, making it hard to breathe.
When Tang Qi was seen off by Cheng Junshi at the gate, he saw that Cheng Junshi still had a gloomy face and a solemn expression. So, Tang Qi kindly raised his hand and swept it across Cheng Junshi's face. Cheng Junshi blinked and was brought back to his senses.
"What's wrong? Did your dad move you to tears?" Tang Qi teased.
Cheng Junshi shook his head and simply said, "He doesn't often talk to me like this."
He spoke incoherently, but Tang Qi understood him. So she smiled and comforted him, saying, "It's like a fledgling eagle wanting to fly. As a father, of course he'll worry and feel reluctant to let you go. It's understandable for a man to be a little sentimental sometimes."
Cheng Junshi listened to his words, paused for a moment, and then said, "When you first joined the army, was General Tang like this?"
Tang Qi fell silent for a moment after being asked by Cheng Junshi. After thinking carefully for a while, she looked up at him and said, "Of course—no."
“On my first day in the army, he found out and almost beat me to death. Forget about being sentimental, I never heard a kind word from him. The words my dad said most often were: ‘Let’s see how long you can last,’ ‘Get out of the army! Go somewhere cool.’ After hearing those words so many times, I can tell what he’s going to say as soon as he opens his mouth.”
"How did the general eventually agree to let you join the army?" Cheng Junshi asked.
"He didn't agree," Tang Qi shrugged indifferently. "But he couldn't persuade me otherwise. My father initially wanted to get rid of me, but I just kept at it. Later, when he realized he couldn't get rid of me, he turned a blind eye and let me stay in the military camp. I initially followed my father, but later he found me troublesome and kicked me to the Southern Camp. He never expected that I would actually become the commander-in-chief of the Southern Camp." At this point, Tang Qi seemed to remember something and laughed loudly, saying to Cheng Junshi, "You have no idea, the time I led the troops back to meet up with the general after taking over the city, when he saw that the person leading the troops was me, he was so angry that his eyebrows and mustache stood up."
Tang Qi laughed and talked non-stop. After laughing enough, she slowly straightened up, exhaled, and whispered, "I told him a long time ago that people should avoid getting angry or they will die young, but he just wouldn't believe me."
His eyes darkened again, and he curled his lips into a smirk, deliberately feigning indifference: "Now it's finally peaceful, no one will continue to curse me."
Cheng Junshi didn't call him out, but instead asked again, "Do you... want to come to Jinshou with me?"
Tang Qi stood at the bottom of the steps, arms crossed, looking at Cheng Junshi, then deliberately smiled and asked, "Can I take this as an invitation from the Junior Minister?"
Cheng Junshi also smiled and said, "To clarify, it wasn't you, Shaoqing, who invited me—it was me who invited you to come along."
Tang Qi burst out laughing again, his eyes crinkling as he said, "Since Brother Junshi has spoken, I'll consider it."
Actually, Tang Qi didn't hesitate much when he said he was considering it. After all, Jin Shou was in the north, and if he were to go to the northern frontier, it would be on the same route as Jin Shou. Since that was the case, he had no reason to refuse Cheng Junshi, and besides—he didn't want to refuse at all.
He wasn't sure if it was just his imagination or what, but Tang Qi felt like he was starting to get used to having two people around. If Cheng Wang wasn't by his side, he always felt something was off.
Habits are a terrible thing.
When he entered the gate, Hu Xingche was sunbathing in the courtyard. Tang Qi stepped in, took the palm-leaf fan from Hu Xingche's face, and started fanning himself, saying, "You're quite leisurely."
Hu Xingche pouted: "Boss, you're always busy and never take me with you. I can't just wander around the streets, so I can only lie down wherever I want."
"You'll be busy from now on." Hu Xingche followed Tang Qi into the room, and upon hearing this, his eyes immediately lit up as he rushed in front of Tang Qi and asked, "Boss! Are we going to do something big?"
“There’s nothing important to do,” Tang Qi tapped his head with a palm-leaf fan before going to pack his clothes. He then looked up at Hu Xingche and said, “Don’t just sit around, pack your things too. Come with me to the Northern Frontier first thing tomorrow morning.”
Hu Xingche paused in packing his clothes, then stared wide-eyed at Tang Qi, exclaiming, "So fast?!"
"Fast?" Tang Qi glanced at him and chuckled, "I think it's slow." Hu Xingche said "Oh" and continued packing his clothes, then said to Tang Qi, "But didn't Brother Chi say he and Sister Shen would see us off together?"
"Don't always rely on others for everything. They have no obligation to help you all the way." Tang Qi continued calmly without stopping what she was doing, "Besides, they also have their own lives. In the final stretch, try not to drag them down with you."
Hu Xingche nodded, seemingly understanding but not quite, and then said, "But I feel that Brother Chi and the others don't seem to see it as a burden."
Tang Qi chuckled twice, tied the bundle in his hand, and looked at him with a smile, saying, "Of course, I, your boss, will never be a burden wherever I go. However, when a person has the ability to support himself, there is no need to rely on others all the time. Although they may not mind, I do."
“You have hands and feet, why don’t you walk the road yourself?” He then patted Hu Xingche’s head and ruffled it a few times: “Forget it, why bother telling you so much?”
Hu Xingche, his face full of thought, clutched his hair, which Tang Qi had messed up: "Boss, what are you talking about? I don't understand a word."
Tang Qi looked at him with a mixture of amusement and exasperation for a while before saying helplessly, "I've told you to read more books in your spare time. I shouldn't have sent you straight to the army when I found you. I should have sent you to school for a few years."
"No way—boss!" Hu Xingche put his hands on his hips and snorted smugly, "I've read quite a few books too." Tang Qi rolled his eyes and wanted to punch him on the head: "Friendly reminder, your storybooks don't count, at most they can be considered as cultivating one's character."
"Having ideals is enough!" Hu Xingche said, arms crossed, his face full of dissatisfaction.
Tang Qi chuckled again and glanced at him: "Then you'd better try to use your brain this time. If you lose face in front of others, don't mention my name. I'm afraid I'll die of shame."
"People? Boss, who else are we going to travel with?" Hu Xingche asked, completely ignoring Tang Qi's warning.
"Yes, Cheng Wang."
Tang Qi said to Hu Xingche in a low voice, and for some reason, after saying Cheng Wang's name, he didn't even realize that the corners of his mouth had slightly turned up.
He seemed... particularly looking forward to this trip north.
"Boss, if we're leaving first thing tomorrow morning, shouldn't we wait for Brother Chi to come back and tell them?"
Tang Qi shook his head: "They're not in Jingzhou right now. By the time they come back, we'll have already left. There's no need to wait. If we leave a note, Ye Qian will understand."
After saying that, Tang Qi pulled out a pen and paper from the side, hastily dipped it in ink, and then, without any hesitation, scribbled wildly on the paper.
"Done." He pressed the paperweight up, then casually tossed the pen aside and walked away without looking back.
Hu Xingche stared at the messy, illegible writing on the paper: ...?
"Boss, did you really go to school?" he asked sincerely as he caught up with Tang Qi.
"Of course, I'm a top student in the school," Tang Qi said proudly.
"Boss, isn't Cheng Shaoqing in the same year as you? Shouldn't he be the top student?"
"no."
"How come I heard that's true?"
You misheard me.
"...Boss, you can't afford to lose face now because you've already lost all your face at school, so you have nothing left to lose?" Hu Xingche chuckled, covering his mouth.
"......"
He couldn't refute it!
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