Chapter 62: Missing my husband in the New Year?
Lu Tingwan poured a cup of hot tea and moved it towards him.
Looking at the wounded Xie Zhao, Lu Tingwan was full of doubts. He was proficient in archery, good at making weapons, and had a strong body, so why did he choose to go down a path of no return? With his talents, he joined the army, made great achievements, and had a bright future.
"Thank you." Xie Zhao took the tea, and his steady voice brought her back to reality.
Snow flakes were drifting down Qingyao Mountain. The cold wind would occasionally lift a corner of the tiger-skin curtain, and the snowflakes would sneak in quietly.
"Didn't you promise not to come down the mountain before the New Year?" Lu Tingwan asked directly after seeing that no one was in the main hall. "Is there something bothering you that you can't tell the people below?"
Xie Zhao looked as if he had been seen through. Lu Tingwan caught a glimpse of his evasion and confirmed his guess.
The candlelight hit his brow, and he looked terrifyingly heroic: "We are bandits, so we do what bandits do, burning, killing, and looting..."
He fixed his gaze on Lu Tingwan. "Burning, killing, and looting are commonplace. We used to enter the city and rob directly. Bringing you down the mountain to intercept them was just a playful trick."
"Are you scared?" His voice suddenly softened. He glanced at Lu Tingwan and asked, "Do you regret coming down the mountain to exchange goods for me and getting yourself into this mess?"
Lu Tingwan was confused, unable to guess what he meant. "It wasn't my choice. If I hadn't been captured by the Second Incommand, how could I have gotten stuck here and been unable to escape? The First Incommand gave the order."
"Oh no, the boss made me a member of Baita Village, and I also got a share of the intercepted goods."
"You left me in the village to help the villagers with farming and produce and sell goods. Actually, these things won't be worth much compared to what you'll get the next time you go up the mountain, but it gives me peace of mind. You were injured tonight, but one day you might be carried back not as a wounded person, but as a cold, stiff corpse, or perhaps even a head hanging on a high wall."
"If after my death, the people of the village are willing to build a tombstone for me, Xie Zhao will go through fire and water without any complaints."
Lu Tingwan didn't understand his intention. Baita Village was so important to him.
The oil lamp behind him dimmed Lu Tingwan's deep eyes, and she couldn't see clearly.
The candle flame swayed in the wind. Cheng Xianzhi lowered the window to block the drifting snow. Han Zhou boiled hot tea around the stove and placed a few sweet oranges on the charcoal fire, which were roasted red by the charcoal.
"The secret sentries have been searching for her for almost three months. It seems like the Second Madam disappeared out of thin air after arriving in Tanzhou. There is no news from her at all." The freshly boiled hot tea was handed to Cheng Xianzhi's palm.
He sat back down on the stool by the stove and fiddled with the pliers in his hand.
"Duke Jiang has been back in court for almost ten days. His Majesty has issued an edict to reward his meritorious service and has also held a banquet in the palace. This time, Duke Jiang has been granted a title, and the Queen Mother has issued an edict to allow the Jiang and Lu families to marry before the New Year. The relationship between the two families has become even closer. The Jiang faction has become more powerful. As for Lu Tingwan, the Queen Mother will no longer pay attention to this abandoned child, and the Lu family has never mentioned him a word from beginning to end." Cheng Xianzhi turned the teacup, his body warmed by the charcoal fire, and his pupils were bloodshot.
Han Zhou pondered: "Should we continue to post these secret sentries to search for people?"
Cheng Xianzhi didn't respond immediately. Instead, he pondered for a long time before silently saying, "Has Jiang Ling investigated?"
"We've sent people to check." Han Zhou shook his head. Even Jiang Ling was nowhere to be found.
"Can a person really disappear out of thin air?"
This was all he knew about Lu Tingwan. As for Luo Yunchu, he also sent people out to look for her, but Cheng Xianzhi's widely deployed secret sentries were nowhere to be found, let alone Luo Yunchu.
"Let's retreat." Finally, a trace of loneliness flashed across Cheng Xianzhi's eyes, his outline reflected in the tea, and he sighed deeply into the tea.
He seemed to be unable to see himself clearly. In the past few months, Yingyue Pavilion sent people to the study every now and then, but Cheng Xianzhi still did not stay in Yingyue Pavilion on the grounds of official business.
Gongsun Xue also couldn't understand why a man who always said and expressed his deep love for her was unwilling to get close to her.
She wondered if Cheng Xianzhi had some hidden illness that he couldn't tell anyone, or if someone had disturbed the heart he had placed on her.
In the end, she overturned all her thoughts and reorganized them. Cheng Xianzhi was a man of bright and noble character, who was determined to pursue a career in officialdom, not an ordinary person who indulged in love.
But she was alone in an empty bed every night, which was difficult for even a woman to feel at ease, and he, a man, had such an unbreakable willpower. After thinking about it, she seemed to be trapped in a cycle.
Question him, trust him.
Lu Tingwu stood in the small courtyard where Lu Tingwan had lived before she got married. There was no trace of her having lived there. Snow covered her shoulders. A maid held an umbrella over her head. Lu Tingwu raised her hand to push it away. Snow covered the bluestone slabs. She would get married in a few days.
She finally got to marry her beloved young master. She and Lu Tingwan had once sat on this very staircase. That night, she had agreed to marry into the Cheng family for her, and she had even asked, with a delighted smile, if she already had someone in mind.
Her expression showed that she knew everything, yet she was willing to go to the tiger's lair to fulfill her own wish, and ultimately ended up in a miserable and miserable situation. As her sister, she didn't even know her whereabouts at this moment.
Lu Mingqian and Liu believed that Lu Tingwan had died outside, but she refused to believe it. When she left that night, she was injured and she said she didn't blame her sister.
But the guilt in Lu Tingwu's heart grew with her departure, day after day, just like the snow, slowly piling up into a mountain, and finally turning into a pool of stagnant water.
"Where is Ah Wan?"
"Awan is most afraid of the cold..."
"My sister is getting married... If you knew, you would definitely be happy for me."
Melancholy is hidden in the darkness, lingering far and wide, like a regret that never ends and cannot be forgiven.
She knew that entering the Jiang family with this guilt was unfair to Lu Tingwan, so she wanted to hear Lu Tingwan's words of blessing with her own ears so that her conscience could be at peace.
But Lu Tingwan no longer blamed herself. If it happened again, she might still do the same as that night. Even though she knew it was a trap, she had to stand up and marry in her elder sister's place.
Even though she was a concubine, even though she was a chess piece offered by her father to gain the trust of the Queen Mother, she still held on to a glimmer of hope that she could find a trace of sincerity in the family affection that she had lost for many years.
But her father always treated her as a pawn.
Lu Tingwan sneezed, and Xie Zhao saw that she was still wearing thin clothes under her cloak. He picked up his old cloak and threw it to her. Lu Tingwan had no time to catch it, and the cloak covered her head. She pulled off the cloak, and her hair fell down. She glared at Xie Zhao angrily.
Xie Zhao turned his head guiltily and glanced into the distance.
Lu Tingwan couldn't help but sneer, and obediently covered himself with his cloak. As he walked out of the curtain, he said, "I'll return it to you tomorrow."
The snow-covered Bai Ta Village was hung with red silk for the New Year. Lu Tingwan wrote a couplet herself. She seldom wrote after coming to Bai Ta Village, and even seldom read books. Xie Zhao had several military books, and she thought she could borrow them to kill time when she had nothing to do.
But she was so busy until the end of the year that she forgot about it. She had said she would return the cloak she had brought back the next day and hung it on the wall. She had forgotten about it when she went to the back mountain, and Xie Zhao had to go get it himself. When he left, Lu Tingwan saw a hint of ridicule between his eyebrows.
It was as if she wanted to take it for herself.
He obviously stuffed it in himself.
The thatched cottages in the village are decorated with bright red, which looks particularly dazzling and festive among the withered yellow and white.
Baita Village also hung up New Year decorations.
The city is full of flowers, and the moon shines on the clothes.
This was the most sumptuous meal Lu Tingwan had ever had in Baita Village. It was all prepared by Xie Zhao and his men who came down the mountain for New Year's Eve. Some of the food was from a list Lu Tingwan had made. There was nothing of his own in it, only decorations prepared for the village.
According to the previous plan, she had already spent New Year's Eve in Jiangling.
The brothers of Baita Village raised their glasses to celebrate, and she was toasted a round at the banquet. In her hand, she held a blessing bag given by the villagers. The bag was made of straw rope and tied with a red ribbon. There were a few copper coins in the bag to ward off evil spirits. It was a blessing from the villagers for her.
Xie Zhao and Bai Tu drank uncontrollably amidst the crowd, the full moon over Qingyao Mountain cast a shadow over the thatched cottage. For months in Baita Village, she found work and comfort, but gradually, the fragmented events of Kyoto's past began to take on a veil of darkness, a memory that would eventually fade away, perhaps in a sleepless night or after a boisterous drinking session.
She tried to accept becoming a member of the White Pagoda Village, but in her heart, she could only observe the future of the White Pagoda Village from the perspective of an outsider. Lu Tingwan knew that Xie Zhao, Bai Tu and the others would not have a good ending. The bandits would not stop their looting and would eventually lead to a direct confrontation with the imperial court.
In this deep water, she could only find a small boat to cross the long river and reach the other side.
If Bai Ta Village was not dominated by bandits, perhaps this would be a good place to go.
Because she fell into Bai Tu's hands and failed to reach Jiangling, the people in Kyoto could not find her whereabouts.
As her thoughts were stretched into a long river, countless stars seemed dim in the brightly lit village. She raised her glass to the moon and took the last sip.
Xie Zhao looked through the crowd, his eyes fixed on the lonely figure on the railing in the distance, and his figure stood silently behind her again.
Lu Tingwan only felt that the wind behind him stopped, and the wine glass on the railing was pressed down by a force and sank.
The palm of her hand holding the cup suddenly clenched, and she looked up and saw Xie Zhao pouring wine into her glass.
The deep facial features appeared particularly three-dimensional under the blend of light and moonlight, wrapped in a melancholy that was rarely seen in daily life. Lu Tingwan seemed to understand something from a pair of deep eyes, but seemed unable to read it thoroughly.
"You, what are you thinking about?" Xie Zhao supported his elbows on the railing. Lu Tingwan clearly felt the entire railing pressing down. She reduced her weight on the railing and straightened up.
From the roof of the main hall, you can see the entire village.
Lu Tingwan didn't know where to begin, so she just asked, "Why can't the full moon always be there?"
Xie Zhao wondered who she was thinking about, "Are you missing my husband?"
The cold wine that had entered his throat spurted out of his mouth. Lu Tingwan wiped it away hastily, hiding his uneasiness. "What did the boss say?"
"If you want to leave, it's impossible. However, there are many good men in this village. If you like anyone, I can help you find a partner."
Marriage?
Lu Tingwan was still thinking that her divorce in Kyoto had not been finalized yet.
If Cheng Xianzhi hadn't teased her again and again, she would have taken the divorce papers and run away long ago. There are many good men in the world, but she has an invisible chain hanging on her body, and she could be pulled back at any time, and by then, she might no longer have anything to talk about.
Lu Tingwan showed a hint of self-mockery, and Xie Zhao couldn't see through her.
She heard some of Xie Zhao's experiences from the villagers and asked, "How long have you been in Baita Village?"
Xie Zhao drank the wine, poured another, and his eyes fell on the distant watchtower. "I can't remember clearly."
This was his fifth year in Baita Village, and he remembered it better than anyone else.
Lu Tingwan took advantage of New Year's Eve to ask about the doubts that had been lingering in his heart, "You clearly have a lot of skills. You could join the army and fight for fame on the battlefield. Or with these skills, you could open a blacksmith shop. At the very least, with your brute strength, you can find work anywhere. Why do you choose to rule the mountains and make a living as a bandit?"
When she looked up, she could only see Xie Zhao's profile. It was not as flawless as Cheng Xianzhi's, nor as soft as Luo Yunchu's. Xie Zhao was more sharp and showed a bandit spirit. Beneath that bandit spirit was an unknown justice that came from his bones. Others could not see it, but Lu Tingwan could see it. It was Xie Zhao's unique temperament that was different from other people in Bai Ta Village.
Lu Tingwan firmly believed that Xie Zhao did not belong here!
"What about Miss Jiang? You are smart, capable, quick-witted, and have extraordinary ideas. If you hadn't gone up the mountain, what would you have done?" Xie Zhao didn't move his eyes.
The bamboo lamps on the roof were blown by the mountain breeze, making rustling sounds.
Maybe she would open a shop and live a stable life as a shopkeeper, or maybe she would contract a flower field, inherit her mother's makeup skills, and live a stable and worry-free life in Jiangling.
"At least I won't have to hide in this dark Qingyao Mountain for the rest of my life." She concealed her longing and tried to uncover Xie Zhao's inner thoughts.
Under the light, the big hand clenched unconsciously.
Xie Zhao turned around, put away his arms that were supporting the railing, leaned his back against the railing, stood casually, and supported his body with his long legs.
He turned his head to look down at Lu Tingwan. Lu Tingwan did not dodge, but looked up at Xie Zhao.
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