With pen in hand and sword at the ready, I roam the world.
Tang Qi rushed back to the Marquis's residence. It was already noon. Qin Jianzhi had already set out the food. Tang Qi had just arrived when he sat down at the table. He ate his meal rather hastily, and after finishing, he locked himself in his room to start packing.
Tang Yan followed behind him, carrying a bowl of pastries and placing it on the table in Tang Qi's room: "Osmanthus pastries, they smell very good."
Tang Qi walked over, picked up a piece, put it in her mouth, and smiled at Tang Yan: "Mmm, it really smells good."
"What are you doing?"
Tang Yan looked at the pile of clothes behind him and asked nervously.
"Your brother is naturally doing something important."
He picked up Tang Yan and walked towards the door, chuckling, "So, you'd better stay outside until things are done."
Qin Jianzhi happened to be looking for him too. Standing at the door, he glanced behind Tang Qi and suddenly asked, "Xiao Qi, are you leaving again?"
Tang Qi was amazed by Qin Jianzhi's intuition, paused for a moment, then nodded, confirming that he hadn't lied.
Qin Jianzhi was not surprised by this answer at all. Tang Qi at this moment was exactly the same as Tang Mian who was ordered to go to war back then.
She just looked at Tang Qi, her eyes filled with indescribable emotions. She still didn't say anything. Anyway, she always understood them.
"Alright, Mom, I'm not leaving right away. I'll stay home for a few more days until you can't stand it anymore and have to kick me out."
Tang Qi deliberately spoke to Qin Jianzhi, making Qin Jianzhi laugh for a while before nodding and saying, "That's good. You just came off the battlefield and rushed back from Jingzhou. You need to rest well."
Tang Yan, however, was unhappy. She struggled to break free from Tang Qi's grasp, jumped back to the ground, and stood with her hands on her hips, looking angry.
"What's wrong? Are you angry again? How about your brother takes you out to play?"
Tang Yan was still unhappy and said angrily, "I haven't even been home for a few days and you're leaving again? Then don't come back next time! I don't miss you at all!"
Tang Qi squatted down again, pointed to her cheek, and coaxed her, "How about this, you give your brother a kiss, and after that you won't go anywhere else, you'll stay home with me, okay?"
Tang Yan turned to look at Tang Qi, stared at his face for a while before finally turning her head away again, and muttered, "Liar, even if you kiss my brother, he'll still leave. I won't fall for it."
This time it was Tang Qi's turn to laugh. He stood up and said to Qin Jianzhi with a smile, "Mother, look at our Ayan, he has become so smart. It's rare, truly rare."
Qin Jianzhi laughed as he watched them, and finally said to Tang Qi, "Don't provoke your sister. She's finally back. If she gets angry and hits you, I won't stop her."
Tang Qi smiled again, it was alright, he had his own ways of coaxing children.
That very night, he took Tang Yan on a shopping spree, buying everything from food and drinks to entertainment! Tang Qi also experienced the joy of "spending lavishly," but the subsequent empty wallet made him feel a pang of regret for a few moments.
In the remaining days, Tang Qi made some arrangements with Haozi, and also invited Lin Jiacuo to Baibu Tower to have a few pots of tea with Shen Zhiqing. After tidying up at home, he asked someone to bring his horse to prepare for the journey.
Even as he was leaving, Tang Yan still had a long face and looked unhappy.
However, just before he stepped off the steps, Tang Yan suddenly called out to him. The little pinky ran slowly closer, stopped in front of Tang Qi, raised her head, and beckoned to him arrogantly.
Tang Qi smiled and lowered his head. Tang Yan tiptoed and whispered in his ear, his voice still muffled, but surprisingly warm: "Go home early."
"good."
Tang Qi chuckled, then shook his head helplessly after watching her run away, muttering, "Where did she learn such an awkward personality?"
The journey from Luocheng to Jingzhou was long, and even though Tang Qi was a fast traveler, it still took him three days to arrive on horseback.
He parked the horse and handed it to the servant, then went to knock on the gate of the mansion.
Tang Qi knocked only two or three times before the door was opened. The person who opened the door was a young man dressed in a light green robe. He was surprised to see Tang Qi for a moment, but quickly stepped aside and entered the mansion with Tang Qi.
"Please sit down."
The young man led Tang Qi to a seat, served him tea, and then asked, "Why did you think of my place?"
Tang Qi picked up the teacup on the table and pretended to clink it with the person opposite him before smiling meaningfully and replying, "To congratulate you on your marriage."
Ye Qian smiled, drank his tea, and replied, "Then I really must thank you, Young Marquis."
"I met Shen Zhiqing in Los Angeles."
Tang Qi suddenly changed the subject.
Ye Qian paused, blew on the tea in his cup to cool it down, and then asked hesitantly, "Is she... alright?"
"Don't you know best whether Shen Zhiqing is good or bad?"
Ye Qian did not answer.
"Impressive, Ye Qian. I never expected you to be so capable."
Tang Qi's words contained a hidden meaning, but Ye Qian remained oblivious.
"Why exactly?"
He finally couldn't help but ask, but Ye Qian took another sip of cold water and smiled at Tang Qi: "What? Why?"
Why did you choose to marry Shen Zhiqing?
Ye Qian put down his teacup and looked at Tang Qi with a smile in his eyes: "Because I love her."
He looked at Tang Qi with a serious expression and said, "He has been like this since he was a child."
"You're too late. You used General Ye's military merits to marry Shen Zhiqing. Do you know what your fate will be with her?"
Ye Qian poured water into Tang Qi's cup, pushed it in front of him, and said in a flat, emotionless tone, "I know." Tang Qi was still smiling.
"She will hate you."
"unimportant."
Tang Qi wanted to say something more, but in the end she just took a sip of tea, looked at him and said, "You shouldn't have done this. Fine, since you've made up your mind, I won't say anything more."
He then asked Ye Qian, "Did you know that Zhou Ziye has returned to Beijing?"
Before Ye Qian could answer, he suddenly coughed, and Tang Qi quickly got up to support him.
Unlike Tang Qi, who was skilled in wielding swords and spears, Ye Qian rarely practiced martial arts.
He was frail from childhood, with weak hands, making him a rare sickly child in a family of military generals.
The main residence of the Tang family is in Jingzhou. When Tang Qi was a child, he was beaten and scolded by his father for not allowing him to go to the military camp and skip school. So he went directly to Jingzhou to stay with his grandmother for ten days or half a month.
Ye Qian and the others were the friends Tang Qi met in Jingzhou.
"Is it getting worse again?"
After a moment, Ye Qian smiled and comforted Tang Qi, saying, "It's alright."
Tang Qi then noticed that Ye Qian's face was very pale: "What's wrong with you?"
Ye Qian shook his head and simply said that he was fine.
Tang Qi frowned; he had only seen Ye Qian in this state more than ten years ago.
That year, Tang Qi and a few others went hunting in the mountains. Shen Zhiqing went missing somewhere in the mountains. When the news came, Ye Qian left the camp without saying a word. He was not good at riding horses, so he walked step by step in the snow to look for her.
No one knows how long Ye Qian searched. When Tang Qi found him on horseback, Ye Qian's face was just as pale as it is now. He quietly collapsed in that mountain. By the time Tang Qi brought Ye Qian back, Shen Zhiqing had already been sent back.
The person who brought her back was Zhou Ziye.
It was during this time that Shen Zhiqing fell in love with Zhou Ziye.
Ye Qian, however, was slow at one step, and slowed down at every step.
Apart from Tang Qi, no one knew how painful that snowy night was for Ye Qian.
After returning home, Ye Qian fell seriously ill and almost lost his life. From then on, the Ye family tightened their control over Ye Qian, and Ye Qian was eventually cut off from hunting and other activities.
"You're late? You didn't secretly practice martial arts again, did you?"
He had secretly practiced martial arts without letting General Ye know.
Holding the tree branch, Ye Qian imagined himself standing on the battlefield, sword drawn, invincible. Even after the action was over, he felt as if someone had choked him, and he lay on the ground panting for a long time, but he had never lived so vividly in his mind before.
"It's alright."
Ye Qian steadied himself and suppressed his cough. Tang Qi sat back down, frowning as he looked at him: "I shouldn't have agreed to teach you martial arts back then."
Ye Qian added some more water to the cup, and as the hot tea slid down his throat, he smiled and said, "You will."
That's true. Like Tang Qi, Ye Qian was born into a family of military generals. Perhaps they both had a special obsession with killing enemies. Even with a serious illness, they were still willing to take up their swords and defeat the enemy.
"I know Zhou Ziye has returned to Beijing."
"What did he come back for?"
Ye Qian paused for a moment, then said, "Let's get married."
Tang Qi choked on the tea in his mouth and coughed several times before looking at Ye Qian and saying, "Do people from Jingzhou like to rush into getting married?"
He then asked, "Who did Zhou Ziye marry?"
"Wei Fan".
Tang Qi paused for a moment. The Wei family was a merchant family, and even had more influence than the Shen family. Zhou Ziye got married as soon as he returned to the capital. He was a merchant who also became an official. The emperor really had a lot of peace of mind.
“Zhou Ziye shouldn’t be here. He was transferred by General Ye to guard Crane City.”
Ye Qian wasn't surprised. Tang Qi stared at him blankly for a moment before realizing what he meant and asked, "You know? Then who is the garrison commander of Hecheng now?"
"It's Ye An."
"Second Young Master?" Tang Qi nodded thoughtfully. "That makes sense, but how did you know?"
Ye Qian did not answer, but remained silent. Tang Qi noticed that his complexion was extremely bad, and upon closer inspection, there were some scars on his hands and face.
"You're here too??"
"Not long after my father transferred Zhou Ziye to Hecheng, the imperial censor's order came down. It just so happened that Ye An was about to change troops, so he took Zhou Ziye's place."
Why are you in Crane City?
Tang Qi was still confused.
"Hecheng is under the jurisdiction of the Ye family, so it's not surprising that I'm there, is it?"
Ye Qian looked at him and responded.
"Hasn't General Ye always forbade you from getting involved in these things?"
Seeing Tang Qi's serious expression as he questioned him, Ye Qian laughed: "Didn't General Tang forbid you from entering the barracks before? As a result, you skipped classes and ran away. I didn't know that the young marquis was such a disciplined person."
"That's different, Ye Qian, you—"
"The same."
Tang Qi was interrupted by Ye Qian. He looked at Ye Qian for a long time before finally sighing, "Fine." He then suddenly laughed self-deprecatingly, "I've grown up after all. I almost became the kind of lecturing adult that I hated the most when I was a kid."
"Does General Ye know that you went to Hecheng?"
“He knows.”
"So he sent you to follow the Second Young Master?"
Ye Qian nodded again.
"Go to battle and kill the enemy?"
Ye Qian chuckled and tapped his head with his finger: "Young Marquis, you must allow people on the battlefield to use this."
Tang Qi glanced at his wounds again; they were definitely marks left from the fighting.
"Has Crane City been embroiled in war?"
Ye Qian noticed his expression and nodded to himself.
"Why is there no news at all, not even a single word about Hecheng?"
Ye Qian looked at Tang Qi and said, "The news has been completely suppressed."
"Why? Who pressed it?" Tang Qi asked, somewhat surprised.
Ye Qian looked at him, his eyes dimmed for a moment, and slowly said, "Ye An and I."
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