Chapter 76
Chapter 76
Zhang Mingan swallowed a mouthful of bitter tea and turned sideways, presenting his right arm to Xing Shuwei.
When she removed the binding, a vicious saber wound came into view.
Xing Shuwei fetched a basin of water, soaked a cloth, and carefully cleaned the wound for him.
“You have suffered, doing this sort of servant’s work.” Zhang Mingan turned his head and fixed his gentle eyes on her.
Xing Shuwei was about to answer when he suddenly added in his unserious way, “But I like this.
“You may suffer a little, but it brings you closer to me.”
Why was this man suddenly saying such things today?
Xing Shuwei did not like hearing them, especially with Yan’er present.
She pressed her lips together and said nothing, keeping her head down as she carefully applied medicine and bandaged him.
But Zhang Mingan suddenly asked Xing Shuyan, “Shuyan, how would you like me as your brother-in-law?”
Xing Shuyan looked from one of them to the other. “Huh?”
“You are the head of the Xing family now, so you have a say in your sister’s affairs. Tell me-would you like me as your brother-in-law?”
Zhang Mingan’s tone was serious.
Xing Shuwei instinctively looked up at him. What had gotten into this man today?
For so many days in a row, he had stopped mentioning love altogether…
Yet today, not only had he brought it up, he had asked Yan’er directly!
Xing Shuyan stammered for a long while, his face flushing. “You are teasing me, noble heir. How could I possibly decide anything for Elder Sister?”
As he spoke, he looked at Xing Shuwei, his eyes brimming with reverence and love. “After our parents died, Elder Sister became the sky above my head. In this life, I will only ever listen to Elder Sister. How could I presume to decide for her?”
Xing Shuwei’s eyes reddened.
She knew Yan’er fought on the battlefield because he wanted to become someone she could rely on.
“Silly boy.” She forced a smile and tried to make her voice sound as cheerful as possible. “You are a man who stands tall beneath heaven! How could Elder Sister be the sky above your head?
“Have you forgotten what Elder Sister told you from the time you were little? You must live freely and boldly, open and unrestrained, as your own person.”
Xing Shuyan shook his head. “Every hope and desire I have in this life is for Elder Sister to live hers in happiness and ease.”
He was like a devout believer worshiping the elder sister who had protected him with all her heart.
Elder Sister had saved his life.
He had seen every hardship and torment she endured over the past four years and engraved them all upon his heart.
If asked what he had desired most during those four years, it would be to grow up quickly, win endless rank and honor, and protect Elder Sister for the rest of her life.
The reason he now fought so desperately for military merit after returning to Qizhou was that he had realized only this could give Elder Sister true protection.
Merchants held a lowly status in Great Yue. How could the son of a merchant keep Elder Sister safe?
Only by earning military merit under a new identity and gaining a fief and noble title could he protect Elder Sister properly for the rest of her life.
A smile appeared on Zhang Mingan’s face. “Your elder sister will live her life exactly as she wishes.
“With such a fine younger brother, how could she possibly fail to live in happiness and ease?”
Then he said to Xing Shuwei, “You can rest assured as well. I was the one who took him onto the battlefield.
“As long as I am alive, nothing will happen to him.”
Qiutong, standing beside them, was already streaming with tears and mucus. She wiped her face with her sleeve. “What are all of you doing, suddenly talking like this?
“It was hard enough escaping to Qizhou. We came here to live freely and happily, yet we end up crying every day.”
Ever since Lord Zhang began fighting the enemy kingdom, she and her mistress had watched people die every day.
Some could not let go of their elderly mothers at home and entrusted the women with letters to send back before they died.
Some wept, crying out in pain and begging not to die.
Others cursed the enemy’s cruelty and the imperial court’s inaction…
Over the past month and more, they had witnessed the cruelty of war far too many times.
Lord Zhang had also changed from a carefree wastrel into the fiercest west wind beyond Qizhou’s walls, a man whose name struck terror into the enemy.
With a rip, Zhang Mingan tore a corner from his coarse cloth robe and held it out to Xing Shuwei.
Plop. A falling tear soaked the scrap of cloth.
“Make do with this as a handkerchief for now. Tonight, I will raid the enemy camp and seize some fine silk to make you new clothes and handkerchiefs,” he joked.
Xing Shuwei sniffled, then raised her head and asked him seriously, “Are you infiltrating their camp to steal medicine, weapons, and armor?”
Zhang Mingan shook his head, his smile as radiant as the morning sun rising at dawn. “It is not stealing. It is open robbery.”
* * *
Qiansheng Pavilion.
Military reports from the northwestern frontier and secret letters the enemy had sent Qi Yusheng lay spread across the desk.
Two candles burned upon it. Pei Xianjing’s face was hidden among the shifting light and shadows, making him look like the King of Hell newly emerged from the underworld.
Bracing both arms against the edge of the desk, he forced a sentence through clenched teeth. “It seems it is time I paid this General of Distant Pacification a visit!”
When his hands exerted their strength, the edge of the desk shattered into pieces.
“A wastrel, yet so astonishingly valiant! What an eye-opening revelation!
“He deceived the entire capital, did he?”
“Ha! Such audacity. Did he believe I would fail to find them merely because they changed their names and identities?
“Could that wastrel truly believe the most dangerous place is the safest?”
“Or does he think a little military merit places him above me and gives him license to do whatever he pleases?”
Chengde dared not say a word and merely listened in silence.
He too thought Miss Xing was not only ruthless, but remarkably bold.
Knowing full well that the Eldest Young Master knew Qizhou like the back of his hand, she had still dared flee there and openly move into the Xing family’s ancestral home.
Yet although she had treated the Eldest Young Master cruelly, she had shown genuine devotion to Qizhou’s soldiers.
She had spent a great deal of silver treating the wounded.
The military reports recorded all of it.
Pei Xianjing gathered the reports, picked up his brush, and wrote an eight-hundred-li express dispatch from the Ministry of War before handing it to Chengde.
“Send it out tonight. I will personally travel to Panzhou in the northwest to investigate the inferior armaments case.
“Tell the Chu clan to prepare troops, weapons, and grain for me.
“If I reach Panzhou and do not see them, they can forget about keeping their heads.”
Chengde cupped his hands. “Yes.”
At the end, he could not resist asking, “Eldest Young Master, do you intend to go personally to the battlefield in Qizhou, seize Lord Zhang’s military merit, and bring Miss Xing back to the capital while you are there?”
Pei Xianjing raised his eyes, and his savage gaze scraped across Chengde’s face.
Chengde immediately realized he had spoken out of turn and hurriedly bowed. “This subordinate deserves death. I should not have asked. I will see to it at once.”
He must have lost his senses. Did that even need confirmation?
He had personally witnessed everything-from the Eldest Young Master’s utter despair when he first learned of Miss Xing’s death to his shock and fury upon realizing that she might still be alive.
The memorial tablet and gravestone he had carved with his own hands, the grief that had torn through his very being, and his decision to die for love-all of it looked like a joke in the face of the truth.
Even imagining the Eldest Young Master’s feelings made Chengde’s heart ache.
On this trip to Qizhou, the Eldest Young Master would undoubtedly seize Miss Xing and punish her severely.
Remembering the Eldest Young Master’s recent actions, Chengde felt every hair on his body stand on end.
Surely the Eldest Young Master would not break Miss Xing’s legs and lock her away this time?
He shook his head, not daring to imagine further. He suspected the Eldest Young Master would do something even more unhinged.