It's New Year's Eve again. There were several heavy snowfalls in the past few days. The whole city of Wei Bo was covered in silver. People and horses were covered with frost as soon as they went out for a walk.
In the bedroom in the backyard of the Jiedushi Mansion in Yacheng, spring was in the air. There was only a charcoal brazier burning in the room, but the two people in the room did not feel cold at all.
Huan Xuan, many people from the Central Plains found it difficult to adapt when they first arrived here, but Huan Xuan could not experience the extreme cold of the winter in Heshuo.
The morning light shone through the window lattice, illuminating the room with a golden red hue. Huan Xuan leaned over to look at Sui Sui. Her cheeks were also dyed with the bright color of the morning light. Her forehead was covered with fine beads of sweat. Her brows were slightly furrowed. Her lips were slightly swollen, as plump as a rose bud in May. The sound that came out of the petals sounded like pain and joy, so beautiful that it was beyond words.
The priceless black fox fur was placed under her. The inky black fox skin set off her snow-white skin, making her even more captivating.
She was as soft as water and as hot as fire, burning his entire body into hot charcoal.
The sun outside gradually rose higher, and the raging fire in the house had just died down. Sui Sui was too lazy to move, so she let the man carry her to the bathhouse to clean her up.
After changing into clean pajamas and returning to the room, the two of them hugged each other quietly on the couch, enjoying the tranquility of the moment.
Sui Sui lazily leaned in Huan Xuan's arms, her fingertips stroking his chest and waist from time to time: "It's a rare New Year, can't you let me sleep well..."
Huan Xuan hugged her and said, "General Xiao dismissed my three thousand concubines for me, so I will take on the important task."
Sui Sui raised her head and kissed his jaw; "Are you unhappy about being called a gigolo?"
Huan Xuan snorted coldly: "It would be great if you really were a pretty boy. I didn't expect that you would be given a false reputation and I would not see you all day."
The rumors outside were true and false, and about half of them were spread by the people or made up. After Huan Xuan arrived in Weizhou, he was very busy, and the two of them were still rarely together. He couldn't find many opportunities to "seduce the master", and occasionally they would steal half a day to go out together. When they ate Hu Bing on the street, they were stared at by countless pairs of eyes, and countless gossips were made up.
Sui Sui smiled sweetly, her amber eyes seemed to be filled with honey: "Captain Lu, those who are capable should do more work. Who else but you has the ability to train the refugee army into a strong force in just two or three months?"
Huan Xuan was filled with anger when he mentioned this. He had captured Heyang City and recruited 5,000 refugee rebels to help the people out of poverty, help his elder sister out of an emergency, and give General Xiao a big gift. He didn't expect that he would shoot himself in the foot. General Xiao happily accepted these people and horses, and appointed him as a captain, giving him full authority to be in charge of these 5,000 people.
He was the one who brought these people here, and he was responsible for their resettlement, settlement, and training. General Xiao was somewhat cautious about his subordinates, fearing that he would scare them away by exploiting them too harshly, but he was very rude when using him.
Huan Xuan lowered his head and bit her gently: "Stop feeding me the drug of love."
Sui Sui's breathing quickened: "I don't have many useful people around me... If I want to use you, I have to let them see what you are made of..."
Although she was able to cover the sky with one hand in Heshuo, it was still difficult for her to convince the public that she was using a "pretty boy" whose background she didn't know. She originally planned to let Huan Xuan start as a lieutenant, accumulate military merits in one or two years, and then entrust him with important tasks, but he actually came with 5,000 refugees to "surrender", which saved her a lot of time and trouble.
The border is in turmoil right now, and the army will be on the march after the New Year. If he can train this motley crowd into a well-trained regular army within a few months and make military achievements on the battlefield, naturally no one will say anything. Moreover, the 5,000 soldiers were brought by him, and once they are trained, they will be his personal soldiers. There is no better way to train soldiers than directly on the battlefield.
In bed, she often teased him by calling him a "vixen" or a "pretty boy" because she knew that he was capable and ambitious and was by no means her vassal.
Huan Xuan naturally understood her painstaking efforts. He felt relieved in his heart, but he niggled even harder.
Sui Sui pushed his head: "Don't bother me..."
Huan Xuan frowned and said, "Why are you making trouble? I want to show General Xiao my true abilities."
Sui Sui hissed softly: "Huan Ziheng!"
I don't know which fortress was captured. Her voice suddenly softened and she said with a nasal tone: "Tomorrow is New Year's Eve, and we haven't prepared the New Year's Eve banquet yet..."
If this goes on, I will have to lie in bed all day.
"General Xiao doesn't need to do this kind of thing himself," Huan Xuan said coldly, "This is real material... This is real material. Are you satisfied, General Xiao?"
General Xiao's fragmented protests were drowned in the wind and waves.
After a long time, Huan Xuan finally calmed down, hugged Sui Sui in his arms, and closed his eyes contentedly.
He just rushed back from the military camp last night. He had been busy showing off his true abilities to General Xiao the entire night. It had been less than two hours since he closed his eyes. At this moment, he was already very sleepy and fell into a deep sleep in a moment.
Sui Sui felt sleepy for some reason and stared at the sleeping culprit with a bad look.
He looked very obedient when he was sleeping, like a docile cat, but it was a complete illusion. This man was just a tiger and a hungry wolf pretending to be docile and lovely. Calling her "sister" pitifully did not stop him from ruthlessly tearing her bones and eating her flesh.
She pinched his slender waist to vent her anger, and poked his tight and flexible abdomen.
Huan Xuan frowned in his sleep and snorted softly.
Sui Sui stroked his back and kissed him gently on the lips. His brows slowly relaxed and his breathing slowed down and became heavier again.
Sui Sui stopped moving and quietly looked at his sleeping face. Her eyes fell on the scar on his cheek.
He was not the type of person who would easily leave scars, so there was only a shallow white mark left, which was easy to miss if one did not look carefully. But every time she noticed it, her heart still felt like it was pricked by a needle.
There were also a few slightly raised scars on his arms. When they were in physical contact, he either wore an undershirt or was careful not to let her see or touch them. He thought he had covered them up well, but he didn't know that she had already discovered them.
Sui Sui put her hand into the left sleeve of his shirt and gently rubbed the scars with her fingertips, as if to smooth them out, but scars can never be smoothed out, whether it is his or hers. Scars do not need to be smoothed out, because the wounds have healed, and the scars are like the long road they have walked with bumps and bruises.
She straightened his sleeves, clasped his fingers tightly, and leaned against his warm chest. In his sleep, Huan Xuan reached out and hugged her familiarly.
Sui Sui slowly closed her eyes and felt a lazy satisfaction overflowing from the bottom of her heart, wrapping around her like warm water until it slowly melted her.
…
Huan Xuan slept until dark. When he woke up, it was dark in the room and he didn't know what time it was.
His eyes were hazy and he unconsciously reached around him, but found nothing. Sui Sui was not by his side.
His heart suddenly sank, as if he had missed a step and fallen from a great height. Every time he woke up and found that she was not beside him, he would feel a moment of panic.
Just then, the door curtain rustled and familiar footsteps sounded, and his heartbeat slowly calmed down.
She lit the candle on the table, walked around the screen, and lifted the brocade curtain. She found that the man's eyes were open, but his eyes were a little blurry.
She curved her eyebrows and said, "Just woke up?"
Huan Xuan hummed, sat up from the bed, hugged her waist, and sniffed the scent of frost and snow on her body: "Where did you go?"
Sui Sui said: "I went to the barracks. It's the end of the year, so I went to see the soldiers."
Huan Xuan nodded.
Sui Sui added, "Granny Gao came when you were asleep during the day."
Huan Xuan immediately felt as if he was facing a formidable enemy, and said nervously: "She is old and likes to worry about things that are not necessary. Don't take her wrong words to heart."
Sui Sui couldn't help but smile: "Mammy didn't say anything, she just gave me some newly cut ribbons."
Huan Xuan breathed a sigh of relief.
Sui Sui said: "But she has reason to worry."
Huan Xuan's heart instantly rose in tension.
Sui Sui dragged out a long narrow wooden box from under the bed, opened the lid, took out a scroll of silk book from it and handed it to him: "Here."
Huan Xuan felt that all the blood in his body was rushing to his head, and his voice trembled involuntarily: "This is..."
Sui Sui said: "Open it and take a look."
Huan Xuan's hands trembled slightly as he untied the silk rope and unfolded the silk. He took a look at it in the light of the oil lamp and saw that it was an imperial edict from the court, appointing him as a third-rank general of Yunhui.
His boiling blood cooled down in an instant.
Sui Sui smiled and said, "It's not a good idea for you to follow me without any status like this, so I asked the court for a title for you a while ago. When you come back from the border after the New Year, I plan to hand over the Chengde Army to you."
Huan Xuan hummed, unable to hide the disappointment between his brows.
Sui Sui's eyes flashed with mischief: "Why, did you think this was a marriage certificate just now?"
Huan Xuan blushed and denied it flatly: "Of course not."
Sui Sui said: "That's good, I thought you wanted to marry me."
Huan Xuan said: "This is good enough for now."
"So you don't want to," Sui Sui pretended to be disappointed, and then dragged out another long and narrow sandalwood box from under the bed like a magic trick, "I wanted to tell you that the marriage certificate is in this box, since you don't want it, then burn it..."
Before he finished speaking, Huan Xuan had already snatched the box away and held it tightly in his arms: "No!"
Sui Sui smiled and said, "So do you want to or not?"
Huan Xuan was just anxious to grab the marriage certificate and had no time to think about it carefully. Only now did he truly understand it. It seemed as if thousands of firecrackers were crackling in his mind at the same time.
He came back to his senses after a while and squeezed out two words from his throat: "Why?"
He knew that Sui Sui had no plans to get married, and all the guards close to her knew it, so he had never thought of bringing it up.
Sui Sui couldn't help but burst out laughing: "Isn't it natural to want to marry the person you love?"
Huan Xuan was unable to utter a word. He was completely engulfed by a huge wave of ecstasy, and his heart fluttered in his throat as if it had wings.
He carefully unfolded the silk, and the handwriting on the marriage certificate was obviously hers.
Huan Xuan read the few short lines again and again, and he almost stared holes into the words "become husband and wife".
Sui Sui said: "Don't read it, I just wrote it casually."
Huan Xuan said: "This was written by the governor of Heshuo himself, and it was stamped with the official seal. There is no other marriage certificate like this in the three towns."
Sui Sui said: "Then you better keep it well."
Huan Xuan looked at it for a long time before happily putting it away and solemnly placing it back in the box, but he still held the box tightly, as if he was afraid that she would regret it.
Sui Sui didn't know whether to laugh or cry: "Even with a marriage certificate, we can still get a divorce..."
Before he could utter the word "Li", Huan Xuan glared back at him fiercely.
Sui Sui said: "After the first month of the year, the army will set out, and the wedding ceremony can only be held after the enemy is driven away."
She paused and said, "Tomorrow we will have a family dinner on New Year's Eve. Let's get together with our close relatives. That will be our wedding banquet."
Huan Xuan's eyes moved slightly.
Sui Sui continued, "While Prince Yuzhang is still here, your family members are also present."
Huan Xuan raised his eyebrows and said, "Why is he everywhere?"
Sui Sui smiled and said, "Tonight it's just the two of us, wait a minute..."
As she spoke, she turned and walked away from behind the screen. After a moment, she returned to the couch, holding a rosewood tray inlaid with mother-of-pearl, on which rested a pair of golden wine glasses.
Huan Xuan said: "This is..."
"Drink the wedding wine first."
Sui Sui put down the tray, put a wine glass into his hand, picked up the other one, and hooked his wrist: "What are you daydreaming about? Hurry up."
Huan Xuan drank the wine in the glass in one gulp, his expression still a little dazed, as if he was in a beautiful dream and didn't want to wake up.
Sui Sui threw the cup away, put her arms around his waist, and leaned her face against his chest. "Are you happy?"
Huan Xuan lowered his head and kissed her hair.
Sui Sui leaned her face against his chest and said, "I know you don't like New Year's Eve. From now on, when you think of New Year's Eve, remember that this is the day we get married."
Huan Xuan hugged her tightly, as if he wanted to embed her into his body.
He knew that every New Year's Eve for the rest of his life, he would only remember the cup of wedding wine and would never think of the bowl of mutton noodle soup again.