Chapter 151
Chapter 151
Night had fallen completely.
The Migu Flower blossoms used to light the military camp gave off a cold white glow.
Han Lie stood hesitating outside the tent, a wooden case held in both hands.
Only after he heard Qin Ying grant permission from within did he lift the flap and enter.
Once inside, he saw Qin Ying sitting beside the fire pit, and his eyes instinctively dropped to the ground.
“What’s wrong?” Qin Ying immediately noticed something was off.
He was a tall man, steady and reliable in front of outsiders, but the moment he let his guard down, he could not hide a single thought.
Standing by the entrance with his shoulders slumped and his head hanging, he looked like a dog that had been abandoned by its owner and then caught in a downpour.
At her question, Han Lie finally stepped forward and knelt before Qin Ying.
Yet he still avoided her gaze.
Qin Ying arched a brow. She reached out with one finger, tipped his chin up, and forced him to raise his head.
A layer of short bluish stubble covered Han Lie’s chin, prickling her fingertip.
She said, “Talk.”
Only then did Han Lie say in a low voice, “In Yunwu County, all the rites… have been ordered destroyed.”
The Supreme Deity’s altar and the blank Divine Position had been searched out and destroyed.
Even the spontaneous rites the common people had made and carried out on their own were all banned without exception.
Chief Clerk Li of Yunwu County had been given twenty strokes of the board.
If not for his contributions during the disaster relief, he might already have been beheaded for organizing the rites.
County Commandant Xu Tan had also been punished and sentenced to serve as a beacon-tower soldier.
If not for the Old Physician who had been recruited to the Commandery Governor’s Mansion, treated the disaster victims, and neutralized the Fei Yi poison giving up his own merit to protect them, Chief Clerk Li and Xu Tan would likely have met an even worse end.
Afraid that ears might be listening here, Han Lie and Qin Ying carried out the rest of their exchange on the sheepskin scroll she had brought with her.
Han Lie pinched a charred stick of charcoal and wrote the words one by one.
His handwriting was rushed and scrawled. When he finished the last character, the hand that had once gripped a saber and killed men trembled, dragging the final stroke into a long, twisted tail.
He knelt silently before Qin Ying. Between his fingers, the burnt twig he had been using as charcoal crumbled into powder.
Qin Ying sat on a small stool by the fire pit, the sheepskin scroll resting across her knees.
Great Xia’s script and writing habits made it somewhat uncomfortable for her to read.
But once she made out the words, she completely understood why Han Lie looked as if he had been beaten down by frost.
Everything he, they, and Qin Ying had done during the drought had been erased.
Although she had long since guessed this might be the outcome, Qin Ying still let out a sigh.
She sat on the little stool while Han Lie knelt properly in front of her. Hearing her sigh, Han Lie clenched his hands even tighter.
Shame, humiliation, helplessness, and self-loathing all gathered together into guilt.
Just when his head felt too heavy to lift, a hand pressed onto the crown of his head and gently stroked it once.
Han Lie shuddered, then looked up. Qin Ying had already removed her veil, and the cold light of the Migu Flower fell from above.
“What about you?” Qin Ying asked.
Before Han Lie could avert his eyes again, Qin Ying’s hand slid down. She gripped his jaw hard between her thumb and forefinger, forcing him to look straight at her.
Han Lie pressed his lips together and gave a very soft sound of acknowledgment.
He picked up the wooden case set beside him and placed it on Qin Ying’s knees.
The moment Qin Ying opened it, a sweet fragrance spilled out.
Against the black satin lining at the bottom of the case lay two plants with layer upon layer of leaves, each dotted with vermilion fruit.
It was Yao Grass.
Unlike the miniature version that had appeared when she had sacrificed to summon the Box, these two Yao Grass plants had an overpowering fragrance. Their vermilion fruits were also clearly redder, more numerous, and of far better quality.
Han Lie was still kneeling. He searched the fire pit beside him for a piece of charcoal, then wrote on the sheepskin.
He had ceded the vast majority of his merit to the Prefect in order to protect his comrades in the Jade Balance Army, and to ensure that the achievements of Shang Lin, Wu Er, and the others would not be erased.
As for the remaining merit, General Chen had originally intended for him to return to Luoyang as usual to receive his reward.
Driving out the Hanba was an enormous achievement. Even the little merit left over would have been enough for him to be promoted to Commandant.
But Han Lie had refused. He used his military merit to exchange with General Chen for Yao Grass instead.
Han Lie had also wanted to exchange for a piece of Jinyu Jade, but that item was rare and could not be found in such a short time.
There was also one Xixi Fish, but it could only be obtained after returning to the Jade Balance Army’s main camp in Luoyang.
Qin Ying had not expected him to still remember the Xixi Fish meant to treat Qin Zhiguo’s illness. Something in her heart softened even further.
“That’s enough.”
Qin Ying let go of his cheek, intending to draw her hand back.
But he was kneeling there with his head lowered, looking so dejected that he had a certain… beautiful, strong, tragic handsomeness to him. Her fingers itched, and she patted the top of his head again.
Han Lie, however, grew agitated. “How could that be enough?”
The Supreme Deity had saved an entire city and county, yet the incense and offerings she should have received had been erased. How unjust was that?
Qin Ying lifted her index finger, signaling for him to be quiet.
The parchment used for writing had already been filled. Qin Ying found a blank corner and wrote: The spark of faith has not gone out.
She wrote in simplified characters. Han Lie studied them seriously for a while before looking up in astonishment.
Qin Ying raised an eyebrow at him, then tossed the parchment into the fire pit and said, “Light the fire.”
Those sacrificial offerings, the people kneeling, the heads knocking against the ground-none of that was what Qin Ying needed.
What Qin Ying wanted was sincere faith, to deepen her connection with this world.
When she had drawn the infinity symbol, she had seen with her own eyes countless points of light, bright and dim, within the black fog.
Although the altar and Divine Position had been destroyed, the people who had once believed in her had not forgotten her.
The light of faith was still very bright.
Han Lie looked at her, and only then did he seem to understand something. All at once, he became cheerful.
He leaned forward, touched his forehead lightly to Qin Ying’s knee, then looked up and said, “I’ll light the fire right away! And fetch water!”
“Mm.”
Seeing how easily he was coaxed and how quickly he perked up, Qin Ying waved him off.
Han Lie soon returned with an armful of dry firewood, dead branches, and a few coal-like things, then started a fire in the pit.
In the flames, the piece of parchment gradually curled, blackened, and finally burned to ash.
Qin Ying’s toes, which had been stiff with cold, slowly warmed up again.
Han Lie worked diligently and efficiently. Holding a small knife, he cut meat, washed vegetables, and cooked porridge outside the tent.
In the black pot hanging over the fire pit, water for washing was heating.
He refused to let Qin Ying do anything, as if letting her hands so much as touch water would be a grave offense.
Qin Ying sat by the fire pit. With her finger, she rubbed a bit of soot from the stones of the stove and drew a symbol.
She closed her eyes, and black fog surged.
There were many points of light in the fog. Each point of light was one of the Believers connected to her by fate.
Qin Ying sifted through those lights, searching.
Aside from the brightest ones, there were several nearby.
She tried to extend her consciousness in the direction of Yunwu County and search there.
The black fog was like a thin veil, parted by her touch.
She suddenly froze. She saw a small, round point of light bouncing about happily.
This point of light seemed to bear a marker: a four-pronged set of antlers. It was the white deer, Fuzhu.
Qin Ying tried to touch it. In the next instant, it was as though she had been pulled into a world made entirely of dotted lines.
Fuzhu was a flat silhouette formed from gray, misty lines, hopping along over the sand dunes.
As it traveled, whenever it spotted a branch poking out of the sand with a few tender leaves on it, it ran over to eat.
For a bud no bigger than the tip of a thumb, it was willing to climb halfway up a slope.
Thinking of the way it had watched TV at home and eaten cucumbers and spicy sticks, Qin Ying could not help feeling a little sorry for it.
Fuzhu suddenly looked left and right, as if it had sensed it was being watched.
When Qin Ying tried to reach out and touch it again, the black fog surged, and she was pushed out of that state.
Her eyes throbbed, her head ached as well, and physiological tears spilled from the corners of her eyes.
She lowered her head and took a while to recover before opening the box Han Lie had given her.
There had to be something unusual about the wood of this box. When the lid was shut, not a trace of scent could be detected, but the moment it was opened, the fragrance of Yao Grass filled the air.
Qin Ying hesitated, then plucked a vermilion fruit from the Yao Grass.
She placed the tiny fruit, about the size of a small red bean, into her mouth.
With a press of her tongue, a sweet fragrance filled her mouth.
She drew the symbol again and searched for points of light in the black fog.
At last, in the direction of Yunwu County, she found many bright points of light.
Qin Ying touched them and heard the voices within the light.