Outside the Great Hall of Heroes.
Zhong Li watched the figure with his back to her, trying to escape. If she hadn't been tripped by the threshold inside the hall and fallen to the ground in disarray, she didn't know how long he would have avoided her.
"It hurts!" She meant to say something, but changed her mind, exclaiming coquettishly.
As expected, the figure with his back to her hesitated.
Zhong Li bit her lip and shouted again, "Ow, it's broken!"
Finally, Lu Wuxie couldn't stand it and turned around, walking towards her.
"Li'er! I'll help you up!"
He walked gently to her side, took her hand, and then carried her on his back.
Zhong Li buried her head in his neck. It was the familiar scent she loved.
Lu Wuxie stepped over the threshold, walked past the Bodhi tree, and reached the steps. He seemed to be very careful, walking sideways, descending step by step. He was also comforting her, "Still hurting? I'll take you back to get it checked. Where did you get injured?"
Zhong Li didn't make a sound. All her attention was focused on Lu Wuxie's movements as he descended the stairs.
She knew his abilities well. Usually, when he carried her, he could even scale walls and fly over roofs, so why was he so clumsy now?
"Be careful!" She saw him miss a step and quickly cried out.
But it was too late, they both tumbled down several steps.
"Oof... hiss..." Zhong Li clutched her waist, unable to stand up.
"Li'er, are you alright?" Lu Wuxie stood up and walked to her side, checking her injuries.
Zhong Li finally got a clear look at him up close. She now understood why Lu Wuxie had been walking so cautiously. His right eye... had no focus.
"Mo Cang!" She couldn't even bother with her own pain. Looking at his face, she cried out in shock.
Lu Wuxie realized and tried to get up and run.
"Mo Cang!" Zhong Li, with quick hands, grabbed his arm and said, "Do you know how long you've been gone? Almost half a year! Do you also know that I almost died last winter?"
Lu Wuxie felt a sharp pain in his heart.
He looked back and saw that Zhong Li's face was already streaked with tears, like a pear in the rain.
"I don't care what you've become, nor do I want to know how you ended up at Lingshan Temple. All I know is that I've found you, and you're not going anywhere!"
-------------------------------------
The carriage moved leisurely through Suqing County.
Lin Jin was in a good mood, whistling softly, playing with a straw in his hand.
Zhong Li sat in the carriage, ignoring the man behind him who was showing her affection.
Lu Wuxie sighed, his hand holding the bowl of jelly lowered. This was the third day he was trying to coax her, and it seemed she was truly angry, as she hadn't eaten a single bite.
"Li'er, if you're really mad at me, you shouldn't starve yourself." He put down the jelly and picked up the roasted duck on the table, leaning closer, "This is your favorite, hmm?"
Zhong Li glanced at him. Seeing his pathetic expression, she casually took out a letter from her怀 and threw it into his arms, saying, "Is this your handwriting?"
Lu Wuxie opened it. It said "Wait for me" in two characters. However, the paper around his words was crumpled, indicating that the owner had cried.
He felt apologetic.
Zhong Li sneered, "If you hadn't written this, I wouldn't have had to keep any promises. At the beginning of the year, there were even noble sons proposing marriage, humph!"
As she spoke, she suddenly thought of something. She threw her bracelet, the thumb ring she wore on her chest, the rouge box, and the dissection knife at him, saying, "Do you know why I waited for you? I waited for you to come and give you this, and then break off our engagement!"
"Break off our engagement?" Lu Wuxie was stunned.
Zhong Li glanced at him, her expression as if to say, "So what?"
Lu Wuxie sighed and said, "Then if you break it off, what about me?"
"What can be done? The Prince Xian's mansion is now the Prime Minister's mansion. What about you? Will you go back to Lingshan Temple to become a monk?" Zhong Li rolled her eyes at him.
"No!" Lu Wuxie answered this time with absolute certainty. He pulled Zhong Li into his arms, refusing to let go.
They say a woman fears a persistent suitor, and he was banking on that.
The carriage continued on its way, and they were soon to reach the territory of Linzhou.
Zhong Li lay in Lu Wuxie's arms, looking at his ruined right eye. She reached out and gently caressed it, her heart aching. "What happened in Jinzhou?"
Lu Wuxie said, "I was leading a group of men to capture the Crown Prince. It was too dark, and the scene was chaotic. After I was injured, a flying fire arrow shot my eye, and I accidentally fell off my horse.
At that moment, I thought I might never see you again. Who knew something saved me."
"What?" Zhong Li asked.
Lu Wuxie took something out of his懷 and handed it to Zhong Li.
Zhong Li took it and narrowed her eyes. "This is the family token that Tuo Bai gave me. How did it get into your hands?"
Lu Wuxie said, "I saw him giving you something back then, and I felt uncomfortable, so I took it."
"Uncomfortable? That's because you're petty!" Zhong Li said coquettishly.
Lu Wuxie shrugged noncommittally. "Fortunately, because of it, the Tuo family traveled all over the world. Coincidentally, they passed by and saw this token, mistaking me for a member of the Tuo family, and saved me."
"Then how did you get to Suqing..."
"After that, I met Tuo Bai. He thought Jinzhou was dangerous, and since my eye was ruined, I couldn't always wear an eyepatch. He took me near Linzhou. Linzhou had Tuo family shops, and he used a secret Tuo family technique to make me a prosthetic eyeball.
After bidding farewell to him, I stayed in Suqing temporarily. Partly to adjust my body, and partly so I could go to Lingshan every day to admonish my mother and pray for your safety.
Lu Wuxie spoke in a light and casual tone, but Zhong Li's heart was cut like a knife. She really couldn't imagine how much pain it would take to have a rotting eyeball dug out.
"I'm sorry!" Zhong Li hugged his waist tightly. "If only I had been there then."
Lu Wuxie shook his head and lowered his head to kiss her smooth forehead. "What about you? What happened in winter?"
Zhong Li sighed and told him everything that had happened in Jincheng. "Mo Cang, do you know? My greatest comfort is... that your father is still alive, and I managed to protect the Prince Xian's mansion."
"Li'er!" Lu Wuxie was touched. He lowered his head and kissed her lips deeply. He no longer cared how she would think of him now that he was crippled. Even if she threw him out of the carriage, he would never leave her again.
The night was long, and the carriage wheels made crisp striking sounds on the gravel.
After April came May... when flowers would surely bloom and birds would sing.
Epilogue:
Spring of the thirty-first year of Anhe in the Southern Yue Kingdom.
Emperor Jing announced his abdication due to illness, and the new Emperor Lu Yuanfeng ascended the throne, changing the reign title to the first year of Yinghe.
In the second year of Yinghe, the Northern Di returned the city of Linzhou.
In the third year of Yinghe, the new Emperor crowned Nangong Xiaodie as Empress, announcing that the new Empress was six months pregnant.
In the fifth year of Yinghe, Prime Minister Zhong Li passed away. The new Prime Minister was someone the public had never heard of, named Pei Qing.
In the tenth year of Yinghe, in a small dwelling in the southern suburbs of Yongcheng.
"Lu Qingzhou, are you completely ignoring what I say? Your father and I are just staying here temporarily, and we'll be leaving tomorrow to continue our travels. Who is that young girl at the door? Why is she clamoring to marry you again?"
Zhong Li, dressed in a pink pleated skirt, tugged at a child's ear with one hand, asking sternly.
Gu Qingzhou looked at the young girl standing outside the small dwelling, gazing at her eagerly. "Mother, you're too domineering. You control Father, and now you control Qingzhou. Qingzhou just finds her cute and said a few heartfelt words, and she wants to marry me. What can I do?
Besides, if Qingzhou is going to marry, he'll marry someone as coolly beautiful as Mother."
"Oh!" Zhong Li's eyebrows furrowed. Looking at Gu Qingzhou, Lu Wuxie's philandering, glib nature was gone. She thought it was a good thing, but she didn't expect it to be passed on to the next generation.
Lu Wuxie walked out of the small dwelling and, seeing the scene before him, smiled sincerely. He took Gu Qingzhou's ear from Zhong Li's hand.
As Gu Qingzhou let out a yelp of pain, he said, "Someone like your mother is a once-in-a-thousand-years occurrence. You were born a few years too late, so just swallow that thought.
As for the girl at the door, you handle it yourself. We're leaving tomorrow, understand?"
"Oh!" Lu Qingzhou rubbed his pitiful little ear and mumbled an acknowledgment.
As he walked to the courtyard entrance, Lu Wuxie's warning words followed, "Remember, don't hurt her feelings. Speak clearly."
"Oh!"
Zhong Li looked at the scene and chuckled.
Lu Wuxie walked to her side, put his arm around her slender waist, and said, "Wife... let's go inside..."
"Go inside for what?"
"To paint eyebrows?" Lu Wuxie said, taking out the rouge box he had given her earlier.
Zhong Li sneered. Recently, Lu Wuxie had learned a new trick to deceive her. Under the guise of painting eyebrows, he harbored designs on her! And intended to commit improper acts...
--- End of the story ---