When Yaoying woke up, she had already returned to the inn.
The sky was dark and the house was not lit, it was dark, the flickering lights in the corridor penetrated into the room through the window, and there was a bleak whining sound.
She sat up dizzy, remembering what happened before she fell asleep, and wondered if she was thinking about it every day and had a sweet dream.
The night wind slapped the wooden windows lightly, creaking non-stop.
Yaoying went down to the ground in her clothes and opened the door.
At the end of the promenade, there were bright lights. A tall and burly man was sitting in front of a window sill more than ten feet high in the sky with his back to her, his long legs resting on the narrow edge, the wind blowing his clothes and flying, holding a sheepskin wine in his hand. Sac, is drinking.
"Brother, eat less wine."
Yaoying stayed for a while, then happily walked over.
Hearing the voice, Li Zhongqian immediately turned his head, jumped to the ground, stuffed the wine bag indiscriminately, and reached out to help her.
"It's not wine." He supported Yaoying to stand still and pinched her face, "Brother listened to Mingyuenu's words, it's been a long time since I ate wine."
Ever since he woke up from his injury and knew that she had been sent to be kissed, he had never touched a drop of alcohol again.
Yao Ying didn't believe it, so she pulled up his hand holding the wine bag, pulled the stopper, and sniffed it close. Sure enough, there was no wine smell, only a sour smell. He was drinking sour cream.
She said with satisfaction: "Brother has an injury, so you should eat less alcohol."
This look of earnest exhortation is still vaguely the same as she was before separation.
The cold night wind fills the corridor, and a dim moon in the dark sky. Below the tall buildings is an exotic border city that is completely different from Chang'an. Towers and domes, bunker earth buildings stand, Buddhist temples everywhere, day and night fly sand and stones, and mud on the walls of the buildings peels off. Looking down from the high-rise building of the post house, you can see the tents set up by the diplomatic missions and caravans of various countries on the plain.
Food customs, clothing and clothing are very different from those in the Central Plains.
She has endured hardships in such a remote place.
Li Zhongqian's phoenix eyes drooped down, all the pain and grief in his eyes, the corners of his mouth raised lightly, and he patted Yaoying's head with a smile: "Housekeeper."
Yaoying shuddered.
Li Zhongqian froze, took off the cloak and put it on her shoulders, and took her back to the house, with a hurried tone: "You are sick, don't get up, go back and lie down."
Yaoying was very happy, she put her arms around his arm and rubbed her slightly hot forehead against his arm.
"I'm fine, just take the medicine."
Li Zhongqian didn't speak. She fell asleep for almost a day. He invited all the doctors in the city over, watched the soldiers decoct medicine and fed her to drink. After a busy day, he saw all the soldiers, and he finished asking all the questions he wanted. just woke up.
His heart was burning, and he couldn't bear to wake her up. The soldiers said that she hadn't slept for several nights.
Back in the room, Yaoying took off her shoes and got on the couch, refusing to sleep. Her face was still a little haggard, but at the moment she was in a good mood, full of energy, her eyes were piercing, and she had to sit and talk to Li Zhongqian.
Helpless, Li Zhongqian pulled up a thin blanket and wrapped her around her. He asked the accompanying doctor to check her pulse. He went to the kitchen to ask for hot soup, hot cakes, and miscellaneous vegetables and croquettes, and urged her to eat them.
Yaoying had a big appetite, ate the soup cake and croquettes, sat cross-legged on the couch, looked happy, remembered something, her face flashed with sadness, and insisted that the doctor also check Li Zhongqian's pulse.
"Brother, how is your injury? Have you added another injury these days?"
Li Zhongqian shook his head: "Don't worry, I'm a martial artist, and I have some skin injuries, but I'm much better now."
Yaoying stared at the doctor without blinking.
The doctor checked Li Zhongqian's pulse, smiled and shook his head, indicating that there was nothing serious.
Yaoying's heart finally returned to its original position, she sighed in relief, and when the doctor went out, her eyes fell on the scar on Li Zhongqian's eyebrows.
"Brother, why are you with those horse thieves?"
Li Zhongqian said lightly: "A group of horse thieves and rebels occupied Wuquan and blocked my way. I waited for a few days, eager to see you, and killed their leader, and they followed, and I was too lazy to pay attention to them. , follow them."
After knowing where Li Yaoying was, he was afraid that something would happen to her on the way to find him. It just so happened that Beirong was in great chaos, and there were chaotic troops everywhere. For the sake of safety, he had to avoid the bustling towns and take a detour to Shacheng. He finally arrived at Wuquan. He couldn't wait. The two sides are deadlocked, news is cut off, and no one can leave.
Li Zhongqian didn't want to be impatient, and waited patiently for a few days to find the opportunity. Who would have thought that the chaotic army would not leave. He was afraid that Li Yaoying would be in a hurry, so he risked killing the horse thief and the leader of the chaotic army in a fit of rage. The people on both sides were in chaos, and he took advantage of the chaos to grab the horse and headed straight to Shacheng.
The group of horse thieves lost their leader, the dragons were leaderless, and a group of people chased after him shamelessly, elected him as the new leader, and swore allegiance to him.
He just wanted to be reunited with Li Yaoying.
The horse thief hung behind him, and when he saw Li Yaoying and his party, he was overjoyed, and shouted that he wanted to rob them to please him.
Li Zhongqian went to Shacheng wholeheartedly, and didn't want to meddle in his own business. Then he was on his way, and he glanced at the hills inadvertently. When he saw the Han soldiers, his heart jumped, and when he saw the flying flags, he immediately realized that Li Yaoying had come out of the city to look for him. .
Thinking of this, Li Zhongqian's face was dark, and he looked at Yaoying's two gloomy and majestic eyes: "Didn't I let you wait in the royal court? It's so chaotic outside, why did you leave the city?"
Yaoying has never been afraid of him, and said, "I'm afraid that something will happen to you. Wuquan is not far away. I have brought hundreds of people with me. You can go back and forth within a day, and there will be no major incident."
Li Zhongqian frowned: "What if you encounter Haidu Aling? Beirong is so chaotic, the old khan and several princes fled all the way under the pursuit of the royal court army, only Haidu Aling took the elite away from the battlefield. It may appear at any time."
He had already heard from Yang Qian and the others that Haidu Aling was bound to win for her.
Yaoying shook her head: "Brother, Haidu Aling will never appear near Shacheng. I have full confidence in this, so I dare to leave the city."
Li Zhongqian's face softened a little, "Next time, don't take any risks, wait for your brother."
And... don't sacrifice yourself for him anymore, he is muddleheaded, wanton indulgence, and asks for nothing but a happy life for her.
Yao Ying hummed, hugged her knees with her hands, rested her chin on her knees, smiled and stared at Li Zhongqian sitting on the edge of the couch, as if she couldn't see enough.
Li Zhongqian's throat choked.
He had thought that when he found her, he would have to give her a hard lesson and make her swear to never do such silly things again. Whether she cried or acted like a spoiled child, he would never soften his heart.
But he really found her, and he found her again. He was full of pity and love, lest she suffer another grievance, how could he harden his heart and scold her
Li Zhongqian sighed, closed his eyes, and glanced at Yaoying's dark circles.
"Honey, go to sleep, Brother A doesn't leave, I'll be here with you."
Yaoying gave a low hum and sat still.
"Brother."
She called him softly, smiling.
"Um?"
Li Zhongqian responded with a smile, his expression gentle.
Yaoying said, "Brother has lost a lot of weight, so I need to make up more."
"Um."
"Has your brother's martial arts recovered?"
Li Zhongqian said calmly: "There is more than one kind of exercise in this world, without the golden hammer, brother can practice other..."
At the beginning, he could abandon martial arts and follow literature, and then abandon literature and follow martial arts, and he was not afraid to start all over again. The martial arts he had practiced for many years were useless, and the fundamentals were still there. He knew that he could no longer pick up the double hammer in this life, and he had already decisively switched to holding a sword.
"...Slave Mingyue, don't worry about me."
Yaoying responded and asked curiously: "Brother, when you were in Beirong, how did you provoke Wakhan Khan and the eldest prince? You almost shot the old Khan with one arrow? You were injured, how could you heal? Okay, really no internal injuries?"
She looked at Li Zhongqian and asked a series of questions like every time he returned from an expedition when he was a child.
As if she had never suffered.
Li Zhongqian lowered his eyes and touched the top of her hair, "The day I found Yizhou, Princess Yiqing detained us..."
The wind roared outside, and the lights dimmed inside.
Li Zhongqian relaxed his tone, and talked about his experience after he left Beijing. All the thrills and dangers in it were just trivial matters when he thought about it at this time.
Yaoying listened, making a soft cry from time to time, and a nervous and worried expression flashed on her face.
I don't know how long it took, the candle wick crackled twice, and a wisp of blue smoke rose up.
Li Zhongqian bowed his head.
Yaoying curled up into a small ball, leaned beside him, fell asleep, and held a silk hidden sac in her arms.
Just like when I was a kid.
She was brought up by him, no matter how old she is, in his eyes, she will always be a child.
"Mingyue slave..." He stroked her hair with his fingers, "Are you afraid when you are sent to Ye Lu's department?"
Yaoying was sleepy, "a little scared."
Li Zhongqian slowly closed his eyes.
During the days when Bei Rong was recovering from his injury, he had listened to Tali.
Yaoying said she was just a little scared.
Tully said she couldn't close her eyes all night and kept the blade in her hand.
"Does the eldest prince scare you every day?"
Yaoying said in a daze: "Brother, it's okay, I have personal protection, he doesn't dare to mess around."
What Tali said was: the eldest prince was reckless, and in broad daylight he pulled the slave girl into the tent in front of her, and the voice could be heard in almost the entire camp. He deliberately broke into her tent several times because of drunkenness, and once touched the corner of her skirt.
"Did you suffer a lot on the way to the Yelu Department?"
Yaoying subconsciously denied: "No..."
Tully told him that she was not used to riding on steep mountain roads, her legs were dripping with blood, and when she got off the horse, it was so painful that she could not move, and needed the support of two maids to stand firm.
"Haidu Aling tortured you?"
Yaoying shook her head, "Brother, I'm fine... He locked me up, I tried to escape... "
Tali: "The prince was polite at first, and the princess was unmoved, so the prince asked the princess to brand the horses... Every spring, the foals in the tribe were branded with horses to distinguish which tribe's property belonged. The herdsmen All the horses are surrounded, and the foal is branded by the most skilled and experienced warrior of the tribe..."
"The red-roasted iron marks are branded on the horses, and the horses will surely struggle and easily kick and hurt people, so men do all the work of branding the horse marks. The prince asked the princess to brand the horse marks, trying to scare the princess, and the princess tied it up. The sleeves are gone, the foal neighs every day, and the princess's hands are all scalded, bruised and bruised..."
"Then the horse branding was over, but the princess still didn't give in. The prince was very angry. He didn't allow the princess to ride with the army and let her walk with the slaves. The princess' shoes were worn out and the soles of her feet were rotten..."
"The guards didn't give the princess anything to eat. The princess was very hungry, so she digs grass roots to eat with the slaves... Every time she finds something to eat, the princess will be very happy and find a way to hide some..."
"The prince is impatient with women. He stays in the tent if he likes it, and he rewards his subordinates for what he doesn't like. The princess has always refused to bow her head... and tried to escape..."
Li Zhongqian remembered every word and every sentence Tali said.
Countless nights, he saw her in his dreams.
I dreamed that she was sitting on horseback wiping her tears.
I dreamed that she was curled up in the corner of the tent and shivered.
I dreamed that she was disheveled and squatted on the wasteland with a bunch of slaves to dig grass roots.
I dreamed that she was tied and tied behind the team, and the soles of her feet were bloody.
In the dream, she was bullied in every way, crying and calling him: Brother, I'm afraid.
Every time he wakes up, Li Zhongqian suffers more than the self who witnessed her suffering in the dream, because he knows that what Tali told him happened.
Yaoying has been sensible and well-behaved since she was a child. She has never done a single bad thing and saved countless people, but she has to go through these hardships.
When Tang Shi died, Li De and Li Xuanzhen were not happy. He knew that the knot in his heart was difficult to solve, and he could give up everything and just take his mother and sister to live in seclusion, but Li De refused to let them go.
Knowing this, at the age of eleven, he should have perished with his father and son, and ended everything.
Only by killing Li De and Li Xuanzhen would she not be drawn into the whirlpool again.
Li Zhongqian opened his eyes, and in the dark night, his eyes shone with a cold, cruel light.
He pulled up the thin blanket, wrapped Yaoying who was sleeping on her side, and stuffed a pillow under her neck to make her sleep more comfortable.
Yaoying's eyelashes trembled slightly, she raised her eyes, half awake, and clutched Li Zhongqian's sleeve.
"Brother... I met someone later... "
Li Zhongqian leaned over, "Who?"
"A very good man..." Yao English said softly, "he is a monk and treats me very well."
Li Zhongqian hummed lightly.
The monk she was talking about was, of course, the son of the Buddha of the Royal Court.
In Beirong, he could not understand the language, and he could not understand what the Hu people said. It was different in Gaochang, where there were many Han people, and he heard too many rumors. When those Hu businessmen gathered together to talk about the world, they liked to mention the affair between the Buddha and the princess of Handi. The words were fragrant, obscene and obscene, and they described Yaoying as a dissolute person without shame. He endured it and endured it several times. Unable to bear, he flipped the table and knocked the nonsense person to the ground, causing trouble.
Later, when he heard the businessman talking about the Buddha, he would avoid it, so as not to hurt others and delay his journey.
Today, he asked the personal soldiers, and the personal soldiers said that the Buddha's son took good care of Yaoying, and that the Buddha's son was an eminent monk, not close to women, and had no contempt for Yaoying, so he was relieved.
Family members are different.
"Brother... The Master knows that I have found you... He will definitely be happy for me... "
Yaoying's voice was hoarse, "Let's go to the holy city to see him, okay?"
"Okay, the Buddha saved you, and sincerity and reason, brother should thank him in person."
A smile appeared on Li Zhongqian's face.
Then, he can take Mingyue slave home.
Li Zhongqian covered Yaoying with a thin blanket, tucked her arm under the blanket, and touched a hard object with her fingers, like a string of Buddhist beads.
He didn't think much, stood up and went to sleep on the couch in the cubicle.
…
The next morning, Li Zhongqian woke up first.
He has been running around for too long, and he has developed a habit. He will wake up when he hears a sound, quickly put on his clothes and get up, and first go to the cubicle to see Li Yaoying.
She slept soundly, eyebrows stretched.
Li Zhongqian pulled up the blanket, walked out of the house, went downstairs, frowned and asked the soldier, "What's the sound outside?"
The soldier replied, "Alang, all the horse thieves who were with you have surrendered... They are clamoring to see you."
When those horse thieves saw Li Zhongqian returning to the city with Yaoying, they immediately put down their weapons and surrendered, and followed them into the city, but they couldn't drive them away.
Li Zhongqian said coldly: "If you come up to entangle you, don't be polite, just beat them away."
Soldiers should be.
…
Yaoying hadn't slept for several nights. She had a good night's sleep. She didn't wake up until three poles in the sun. She opened the door and saw Li Zhongqian who was practicing swordsmanship in the courtyard downstairs.
Thinking of the pair of golden hammers he used since childhood, the smile on her face faded.
When Li Zhongqian practiced hammering as a child, she watched, curious and wanted to try it. Li Zhongqian lifted a golden hammer and handed it to her. She reached out to pick it up, and with a thud, she fell face down.
The golden hammer was too heavy for her to carry with both hands.
Li Zhongqian laughed, and later a pair of cloth hammers stuffed with chaff was made for her. She lost interest in playing for a few days and used it to scratch her itch.
His golden hammer is gone.
Yaoying was lost for a while.
The personal soldiers came to report that more and more people gathered outside the door. In addition to the few horse thieves, there were also a large number of refugees who had entered the city these days.
"They recognize Alang and want to follow Alang."
It turned out that Li Zhongqian killed several bandit leaders and bullies who took advantage of the chaos along the way. He was silent every day, dressed in tattered clothes, and the refugees did not know his identity. Hearing the horse thief said that he knew the Western Army, he believed that he must be a big man, and rushed over to defect to him.
These refugees were not from Wang Ting, and Wang Ting allowed them to enter the city to avoid disaster. After that, they returned to their original tribe, hoping that Li Zhongqian could take them back.
Yaoying rolled her eyes, waited for Li Zhongqian to finish practicing the sword, brought him a cup of tea, and said, "Brother, when this is over, we will meet with Ah Qing, Ah Qing will ask you a lot of things."
Li Zhongqian wiped his sweat and said, "Let's talk about it, now that Beirong is in chaos, it's a good time for us to return to the Central Plains. After meeting the Buddha, we will leave immediately."
Yaoying was stunned: "Brother, we can't go back to the Central Plains now."
Li Zhongqian raised his eyebrows.
"What did you say?"
Yaoying said earnestly, "Brother, I am the leader of the Western Army now, and it is impossible to leave the Western Army alone."
Li Zhongqian frowned: "You shouldn't be responsible for these things. How can you just carry the burden of the Western Army? A brother will take you back."
Yaoying looked serious and said, "Brother, I have already carried this burden. Since I have started, I have to fulfill my promises and responsibilities. I can't say no and don't care... And the Xie family has long since lost its soldiers. I'm going back like this, isn't it a mermaid? We can't just go back like this."
Li Zhongqian's eyebrows jumped: "Where is the Western Army now? You are alone in the royal court, Yang Qian is in Gaochang, and the soldiers in Guazhou and Shazhou are farther away."
Yaoying shook her head, "Brother, now the Western Army is not with me because they are where they should be."
She picked up Li Zhongqian's scabbard and drew a few lines on the ground.
"In the east, Li Xuanzhen led the troops to intercept Beirong's rescue soldiers, and in the west, Yang Qian was guarding Gaochang."
"A Qing is guarding a more important place for me..."
"The royal court's army pursued Wakhan Khan and other remnants, and Beirong was too busy to take care of himself..."
The scabbard in Yaoying's hand drew a large circle on the sand, drawing a large area of land into it.
"Brother, now is not the best time for us to return to the Central Plains, but a great opportunity for us to regain lost ground!"
"These places will be filled with the flags of the Western Army."
She whispered softly, in a calm tone.
A few beams of light poured down and wrapped around her. In the golden light, her expression was calm, and she was obviously used to planning these things.
Li Zhongqian stared at her, silent, his palms numb.
He used to be afraid of her being like a mother.
Now he found that he was more afraid of her being like an uncle.