At this moment, Wei Ying felt extremely strange.
It was only because after Chu Qing woke up again, her eyes fixed on him without a blink. Different from her previous gentle, inquisitive or coquettishly angry looks, he couldn't understand this look in her eyes, yet... it made him uneasy.
"Qingqing?" Wei Ying tentatively called out to her.
Only then did Chu Qing seem to come back to her senses. A deep look flashed across her eyes, which was keenly captured by Wei Ying.
Did Qingqing have something... to hide from him?
"Zizhan, you..." What's your relationship with the Grand Empress Dowager? But she didn't ask in the end. It wasn't appropriate after all.
"What's wrong?"
"You look really good today. I got distracted just looking at you." Chu Qing immediately became beaming again.
Wei Ying raised his eyebrows and also buried his concerns.
It seemed that something was budding between the two of them.
The first one to feel uncomfortable was Chu Qing. She thought there was no need for her to think so much. After all, this was just a clue. Wei Ying might be more or less involved in her death in the previous life, but he wouldn't kill her. Thinking of this, Chu Qing reached out and hugged Wei Ying actively. Her voice softened a bit. "Actually, I just had a nightmare."
Wei Ying hugged her back and said gently, "What kind of nightmare did you have?"
"I dreamed... that you killed me." Chu Qing pouted.
It should be okay for her to say so.
Wei Ying was stunned for a moment, then said helplessly, "You, what kind of crazy dream did you have? Even if I go mad and don't recognize anyone and kill everyone, I'll still know who you are and won't lay a finger on you." This might sound a bit arrogant, but Chu Qing was quite pleased.
After they talked for a while, Chu Qing finally fell into a deep sleep, and Wei Ying slowly closed his eyes.
The feeling of holding her was really reassuring.
...
Chu Qing had been in a daze these days. When they reached Qingzhou City, she didn't even know how many days had passed.
After Wei Ying helped Chu Qing out of the carriage, he looked at the towering city wall, his heart filled with mixed feelings.
"Shall we go in?" Chu Qing looked up at the closed city gate.
It was already night. Moreover, everyone was on guard against a sudden attack from the Xiliang people, so the city gate had been closed at dusk.
Wei Ying shook his head and replied expressionlessly, "If I go in now, they'll just think I'm sent by the Xiliang people."
"Then..."
"Let's go to the Fengyue Villa first." Wei Ying continued.
Hearing this, Chu Zhan also said, "Right, right. Let's go to the Fengyue Villa."
As soon as he finished speaking, Chu Qing gave him a sidelong glance and said with a hooked lip, "Tsk, so impatient?"
Chu Zhan's face instantly turned red when he was blocked like this.
Wei Ying, who had been watching silently, held back his smile and said seriously, "Qingqing, don't be naughty. Brother must have something to discuss with someone."
"Right, right!" Chu Zhan felt that his brother - in - law looked quite pleasing to the eye for the first time when he helped him out.
Wei Ying smiled gently and continued, "But what they're going to discuss has nothing to do with us."
Chu Zhan: "..."
He felt that he should take back what he just said. He still found this brother - in - law extremely annoying!
Then Wei Sheng squeezed in and said with a beaming face, "By the way, speaking of the Fengyue Villa. Young Master Chu, do you know if that Miss Qu is married? If not, could you introduce her to me?"
There was still a trace of embarrassed smile on Chu Zhan's face. After he heard what Wei Sheng said, even that last trace of smile disappeared. His face instantly turned cold. "I don't know if she's married or not, but you... are too young. Ling'er doesn't like men who are younger..."
Wei Sheng's beaming face also disappeared. He narrowed his eyes and walked towards Chu Zhan step by step. "Who are you saying is young?"
"Your appearance..."
Seeing that the atmosphere was getting worse, Chu Qing quickly poked Wei Ying, who was watching the show. Wei Ying had no choice but to step between the two of them and gently push them apart. He explained, "Wei Sheng is already over thirty. It's just that because of his martial arts practice, his appearance looks... younger."
Seeing his master step in person, Wei Sheng snorted and stopped talking.
Only then did Chu Zhan realize that he might have said something wrong, so he didn't say anything else.
The atmosphere suddenly became quiet. Wei Ying also stopped talking. No matter how you looked at it, it was still a bit awkward.
Chu Qing sighed silently in her heart and then broke the silence. "Brother, when are you going to send someone to call those horses back?"
After hearing Chu Qing's words, Chu Zhan's eyes instantly lit up. Then, the corner of his mouth lifted into an excited smile. "Those obedient horses should run away today."
...
Outside Chuanzhou City, Hu Yan Longhao specially sent people to open up a large piece of grassland for raising horses.
The horses bought from the Anduo family a few days ago, together with the more than 400 horses they originally had, a total of more than 800 horses were all mixed here.
The ones in charge of watching the horses were a pair of brothers. They were subordinates of Hu Yan Longhao and relatives of Wu Shi.
The elder brother was called Wu Da, and the younger brother was called Wu Er.
At this moment, Wu Da was lying on the grass, daydreaming about having enough money to go back and marry a wife after this battle.
Wu Er walked over and sat beside him. He said, "Big brother, are you sure we don't need to reinforce the fence?"
Wu Da was disturbed from his beautiful dream, so he waved his hand impatiently. "No, no. I've said it many times. No! These horses are very well - behaved. Look, they're all grazing there. They won't run away on their own. Why are you worrying for nothing?"
Wu Er was dampened. He pouted and lay down too.
Since his big brother said so, it would be just asking for trouble if he thought about these things anymore.
Just as the two brothers were having beautiful dreams together, a sudden sharp sound came from afar.
It was hard to tell what it was, but it made people feel a bit flustered.
"Big brother!" Wu Er sat up abruptly.
Wu Da opened his eyes and said, "What are you panicking about? Maybe it's a stray wolf."
"A wolf?"
Wolves are scary too, okay!
But before he could say anything, there was suddenly a commotion in the horse herd. And at this moment, that sharp sound rang out again.
Wu Da finally sat up. The two brothers listened attentively with a guarded look on their faces to figure out what the sound was.
Just then, two of the most robust black horses in the herd suddenly started running. Before Wu Da and Wu Er could react, the two black horses actually jumped over the fence and ran out.
Next, both Wu Da and Wu Er watched in shock as what was happening in front of them.
Because...
All the horses actually followed the two black horses and ran out.
In a mighty and dust - raising manner, even if Wu Da and the others reacted, they couldn't stop them at all.
Because if they tried to stop them, they might be trampled into minced meat in an instant!
In a short while, almost all the horses in the field had run out, leaving only a few skinny old horses in place. They probably wanted to run but couldn't.
"Quick, quick, quick! Go and inform the Second Prince and the others! The horses have all run away!!!"