Earlier, as night fell, on the city wall of Minzhou City, a young city guard was standing there with a long spear in his hand. Almost all his body weight was leaning on the spear, and his body swayed from side to side. His head bobbed like a pecking chick as he dozed soundly.
After a while, he seemed to fall into a deeper sleep. His body slowly leaned forward. Finally, just when he was about to lose his balance, his head suddenly drooped, and he woke up instantly. He suddenly raised his head and looked around. Seeing that no one else had noticed his inattentiveness, he secretly let out a sigh of relief.
At this moment, the sun was setting in the west. He rubbed his eyes and yawned lazily. A fragrant smell wafted over, and he couldn't help taking a few deep breaths. "Hmm, they're cooking beef in the military camp tonight."
Great! He quite liked beef.
Just as he was fantasizing about tonight's dinner, a melodious tinkling of copper bells suddenly came from afar. The young guard was startled for a moment. He took a few steps to the city wall and looked into the distance. He saw a caravan driving camels and horses, carrying heavy goods, walking along the official road that stretched to the horizon. All the people in the caravan covered their faces with cloths. They looked travel - worn, and it seemed that they had come from the northern desert.
The northern desert was the territory of Qimen.
He had heard that there was a war going on there, and a city had been lost, with so many people dead. These merchants were really brave.
The tinkling of the copper bells became clearer. Before long, the caravan reached the foot of Minzhou City. However, due to the war, the city gates of Minzhou City were closed early, and the caravan couldn't get in.
The leader of the caravan was a tall man. He was wrapped in gray - hemp cloth, covering his entire upper body and face tightly. He dismounted his horse, bowed to the officers on the city wall, and flattered, "Sir, could you please do us a favor?"
It was the young guard who was on duty at the city gate today. He looked at them and waved his hand, saying, "No, no. Can't you see the city gate is closed?"
The man rubbed his hands and pleaded, "Sir, please be kind. Our team has been on a long - distance journey for more than ten days. We just want to go to Lige City to sell some goods. You know that there is a war now. We're just doing small - scale business. It's not easy for us to make a living!"
The young guard shook his head and said, "No means no. The city gate has already been closed. There's no reason to open it for you. Wait until tomorrow morning."
The man seemed a bit hesitant. He paced around for a while and then pleaded again, "Sir, we're just merchants. We don't know much. We only know how to do business in Qimen. Now that there's a war in Qimen, our team hasn't had a proper rest in days. Please, sir. Do you think this amount would be okay?"
After saying that, the man made a gesture of two.
When it came to guarding the city, it was really tiring. But in situations like this, guards usually took the opportunity to make some extra money. This was an established practice between many merchants and city guards. However, the young guard was young and didn't dare to do anything when he first started on duty, so he was a bit hesitant. Looking at the number the man showed, he didn't know what to say for a moment.
The man thought the price he offered was not enough, so he added one more finger and said, "Sir, how about this amount?"
The young guard was stunned. Although he had never been a city guard before, he knew that the money the man offered was actually quite a lot, enough for his salary for several months.
The young guard swallowed hard. In the end, he couldn't resist the temptation of money. When the man was about to turn around and leave, he finally relented. He went down the city wall to open the gate.
The man retracted his hand, rode his horse forward, and when leading the caravan into the city, he took out a heavy bag of silver from his bosom, bowed, and handed it to the young guard.
The young guard had never seen so much silver before. He stood there, stunned. By the time he came to his senses, the caravan had already gone far away with the tinkling of the copper bells.
"Senior Brother, when did you become so generous?"
Among the caravan, a man in black cloth rode forward, closely following the leading man. Only his narrow eyes were exposed under the tightly wrapped cloth. If you looked closely, who else could it be but Xu Ruhui, a man with a lot of love debts?
"Humph." The leading man was Lu Yan, who had been on the road for several days. He snorted coldly, turned to look at Xu Ruhui, and said, "We have to reach Lige City within two days. If we don't have a good rest tonight, how can we endure it later?"
"Why can't we endure it?" Xu Ruhui said with a smile, "When we slept in the forest yesterday, Xiao Qi still had the strength to hunt deer!"
A young man following behind the two spat after hearing this and said, "Then don't eat it!"
Xu Ruhui said, "Since you've hunted it, shouldn't you show some respect to your senior brother?"
Qi Qi spat and said, "They're all senior brothers. The Marquis didn't grab any. It's only you who grabbed! You ate all four deer legs!"
"That's because you ate too slowly!"
"Stop arguing." Lu Yan said in a low voice, "Xiao Qi, go find an inn quickly to rest."
Qi Qi got the order, glared at Xu Ruhui fiercely, and spurred his horse forward.
The caravan continued to walk unhurriedly in Minzhou City. The sun gradually set, and soon, it was completely dark. Qi Qi rode back and led the caravan to an inn that could accommodate many people.
Because of the tight schedule, Lu Yan only brought fifty men with him this time to scout the way first. The remaining one thousand soldiers didn't take the official road but took the mountain path to Lige.
As for why the schedule was so tight, one reason was the letter from Shen Qingfeng, and the other was that Lu Yan missed Shen Qingfeng too much.
Lu Yan was sitting in the room. He took off his cloth robe, revealing his handsome face. Many days of marching and fighting had made him look a bit war - worn and dusty. Different from when he was in Lige City some time ago, now Lu Yan was like a wild hawk returning to the wilderness, exuding sharpness and arrogance.
Lu Yan took off his clothes, reached into his inner garment, rummaged for a while, and took out an envelope.
The envelope seemed to have been treasured by him for some time. Although he had protected it well, the four corners were still a bit worn. Lu Yan slowly opened the envelope, unfolded the letter paper, and gently stroked the familiar words with his hand. Finally, his fingernail landed on a few words:
"A Yan, I miss you."
Lu Yan didn't know how many times he had read these words, but every time he saw them, he couldn't help but curl his lips.
He hadn't seen Shen Qingfeng for a long time. During these days, whenever he was free, he couldn't help but think of that person.
He thought of the figure of that person dozing in front of the window, the breath of that person snuggling tightly into his arms on a snowy day, the look in that person's eyes when he stood on the outskirts of Lige City looking at him that day, and the soft moans of that person in the red silk curtain.
One day apart feels like three autumns.
Lu Yan missed him so much that he was almost going crazy. Especially in the dead of night, in the military camp in Fengping, Qimen, he gasped for breath to relieve himself. His hot cheeks were tightly pressed against the letter from Shen Qingfeng. The words that overflowed from his mouth along with the low growl were filled with infinite longing.
He missed that person's eyebrows and eyes, missed that person's tenderness.
Lu Yan had fantasized about their reunion countless times. He wanted to hug that person tightly, kiss his lips deeply, make him keep calling his name, and engrave his mark deeply in that person's soul.
He would never leave him again. Lu Yan thought.
Missing was too painful, like having his heart and lungs being torn out, like being gnawed at by countless insects and ants that devoured his reason.
"Qingfeng..." Lu Yan murmured, his voice tender.
"Click." The door was pushed open. Xu Ruhui came in with dinner. He looked at Lu Yan sitting on the bed, staring intently at the letter in his hand, and sighed, "Senior Brother, you should take a look at yourself now. You look more like a boudoir girl waiting for her husband to come home."
Hearing this, Lu Yan was stunned for a moment. Maybe his longing for Shen Qingfeng was too deep and heavy. He couldn't pull himself out of it for a while. Even when he heard what Xu Ruhui said, he didn't get angry. He just sat still for a while. After calming down his mood, he said, "Have the others had their dinner?"
"Yes, they have. You're the only one left." Xu Ruhui said, "There aren't many rooms. We'll sleep in the same room, so I brought your dinner up."
"Thank you." Lu Yan was surprisingly calm.
Xu Ruhui turned to look at him and said, "I should be able to sleep on the bed tonight, right? Last time when we shared a room, I slept on the floor."
Lu Yan put away the envelope, picked up his chopsticks, and started to pick up the dishes, saying, "No."
Xu Ruhui was going crazy, "Why not!"
"Respect the elders." Lu Yan chewed on a piece of meat.
"But you should also love the young!" Xu Ruhui roared.
"Are you young?"
"You're not an elder either?!"
Lu Yan looked at him, pointed at the knife on his waist, and said, "Tell me the origin of that scimitar, and I'll let you sleep on the bed."
Hearing this, Xu Ruhui, who was still gesturing wildly, suddenly seemed to have been hit in his weak spot. He suddenly deflated, sat down, and cursed in a low voice, "Damn it! Here we go again!"
"So precious? You still won't tell me after so long?" Lu Yan looked at him with a half - smile.
Xu Ruhui said hatefully, "I've already said that I picked it up!"
"That scimitar can cut hair like mud. The blade is noble and exquisite. You tell me you picked it up? Who are you kidding?" Lu Yan raised his eyebrows and smiled, "Come on, who gave it to you? Your sweetheart?"
"Bullshit! What sweetheart!" Xu Ruhui was furious. Although his actions were very exaggerated and he wanted to deliberately cover up his embarrassment, his ears still couldn't help but turn red.
Lu Yan knew at a glance. He smiled mischievously, "Our junior brother has a sweetheart. Let me think... Is it Miss Du from the village next to the military camp? Or Miss Chen from the northern capital city? Or Miss Feng who does odd jobs in the next military camp?"
"None of them! Shut up!"
"None of them? Then... is it someone from Lige City?"
As soon as these words were spoken, Xu Ruhui seemed to have been suddenly burned by a hot iron. He jumped up like a startled rabbit, which really gave Lu Yan a big scare. He shouted, "If you want to sleep on the bed, then sleep! I won't accompany you anymore!"
After saying that, he slammed the door and left.
Lu Yan stood there in front of the table for a long time, then murmured, "What the hell? Did he eat gunpowder?"
He paused for a moment, lowered his head, and thought, "Could it really be someone from Lige City? Who could it be..."