In the wail of the cold wind, lanterns began to light up in the corridor below the small building and under the eaves. Search: \(¨Complete¨Book¨God¨Station¨) to read quality literature for free.

A few orange lanterns illuminated the dim courtyard. Tan'er, hugging her arms, looked down from the railing. Ning Yi came up with a lantern: "The first time I came here, I felt it was very similar to that small courtyard in Jiangning."

Tan'er was a little puzzled at first, but now she laughed: "What are you going to do?"

"What else can a couple do? You just happened to be here, so I brought you to take a look—I brought food." Ning Yi said with a smile, picking up the package and pushing open the door to the side.

The furnishings inside the room were simple—like a woman's boudoir—with tables, chairs, beds, cabinets, and other items. Perhaps preparations had been made before, as there wasn't much dust. Ning Yi pulled out a brazier from under the table, drew his knife, and chopped the two benches in the room into firewood with a series of swift motions.

Tan'er found his actions amusing. It had been many years since she had seen Ning Yi acting so spontaneously. She took a few steps forward, squatted down to help unpack, and said, "This house still belongs to someone else. It's not good for you to mess around like this, is it?"

"It's not very good, so I didn't bring anyone else with me."

The knife skills learned from Hong Ti, Xigua, and others were used to chop firewood with great fluidity, and the branches were very neat. Soon, a fire started burning, making the room feel warmer. Tan'er opened the package and took out a pile of food from the small box inside: small pieces of steamed buns, marinated chicken wings, slices of meat, a few串起来(chuàn qǐ lái - skewered) meatballs, half a piece of fish, a small amount of vegetables...two plates of stir-fried dishes prepared in advance, and wine...

She couldn't help but smile. When the family gathered, Ning Yi would occasionally organize a barbecue. With his painstaking research on food, the taste was quite good. However, in recent years, the Huaxia Army's supplies were not abundant. Ning Yi set food quotas for everyone, taking the lead himself. Even if he wanted to save some meat for a barbecue and eat it in big bites, it often took some time to accumulate. But Ning Yi never tired of it.

Having been together for so many years, although there were days of separation, they were familiar with each other's rhythms. Tan'er placed the wine and dishes on the round table in the room, then looked around the room, which had little decoration. The world outside seemed dim, but this part of the courtyard was immersed in a warm yellow because of the lights below.

Ning Yi held a slice of fish over the fire: "This house is quite similar to that building that burned down."

Tan'er turned her head: "The one that burned down in the fire."

"Yes." Ning Yi nodded.

"You're so familiar with this place. How many people have you brought to scout it out?"

"Not many. Hong Ti... Juan'er... Xiao Hu and Xiao Zhang from the secretariat... Aunt Tian Tian from the women's association, and..." Ning Yi counted with his fingers in the dim light of the fire, looking at Tan'er's eyes, which were starting to widen but also contained a hint of a smile. He couldn't help but laugh himself. "Okay, I just came here once with Hong Ti last time..."

"You're so happy after winning a battle," Tan'er said softly. "Don't get carried away."

"It's elation, but not really." Ning Yi sat on the stool, looking at the grilled fish in his hand. "This battle with the Jurchens, there were many assumptions. When mobilizing, I could be very heroic, thinking of 'burning the boats,' but now, there's finally some development. The battle of Rainwater Creek gave Zong Han a severe blow. They won't retreat. Next, these guys who will bring disaster to the world will gamble their lives in the southwest. Every time like this, I want to detach myself from the whole situation and look at these things."

As he said these words, the expression on his face was not elation but solemnity. Tan'er sat down. She was also a decision-maker who had experienced many major events. She knew that when people were in the game, they inevitably lacked clarity due to the involvement of interests. Ning Yi's state might be that he was really distancing himself from a higher place and discovering something. Her face also became serious.

Ning Yi smiled: "I recently remembered when I was in Jiangning, before the building burned down. Sometimes... you would come back in the evening, and we would chat together on the corridor outside. At that time, we shouldn't have imagined what would happen later: the Fang La affair in Hangzhou, the Liangshan affair, the anti-Jin affair, the affair of killing the emperor... You wanted to do magic tricks, at most, you would become the helmsman of the Su family in the future and run the cloth shop successfully. Am I... disrupting your whole life?"

"I really wasn't prepared..." Tan'er thought for a while. "Especially after the rebellion, all the preparations in the first half of my life were in vain. Later, I was forced to walk... Before you killed the emperor, I had thought of many plans for the Su family. After getting rid of the imperial court, our family would return to Jiangning. After experiencing those major events, with family and children, there was nothing to fear in the world anymore."

"At that time." Thinking of these things, Su Tan'er, who had been the mistress of the house for more than ten years, had shining eyes. "...Those ideas were indeed some of the most practical thoughts."

More than ten years ago, during the days before the regicide, although she also encountered various difficulties in the capital, as long as the difficulties were solved, everything would be settled after returning to Jiangning. These were all ideas within the plan. Su Tan'er said these words, feeling something in her heart, but she did not quite understand the purpose of Ning Yi mentioning it. Ning Yi reached out and held Tan'er's hand.

"Thank you," he said.

"Xiang Gong..." Tan'er hesitated slightly, "You just... remembered this?"

"Over the years, the decisions I've made have changed the lives of many people. Sometimes I can take care of some things, and sometimes I don't have time to take care of them. In fact, it has more impact on my family. Your husband suddenly changed from a merchant to a leader of a rebellion. Yunzhu and Jin'er probably also wanted a stable life. These things are valuable. After killing Zhou Zhe, I went to the front, and you had to go up too. There was no buffer period, and more than ten years have passed like this."

Tan'er's face turned slightly red: "You actually... don't need to say these things..."

"It's not an apology. Maybe there aren't many more choices, but there are still some regrets..." Ning Yi smiled. "Think about it, if there could be such a world, where there were no Jurchens from the beginning, you might still be running the Su family now, I would teach and be lazy, and see a bunch of fools writing poetry at gatherings from time to time. During the New Year and festivals, the streets would be full of lights and fireworks, and the fish and dragon dance all night... It would be very interesting to continue like that."

As Ning Yi said this, Tan'er's eyes suddenly turned red: "You're just... trying to make me cry."

"The New Year is coming soon. Thinking about these things from when we were young is also very interesting."

Ning Yi was grilling the food in his hand. Realizing that her husband had really come out with a mood of reminiscence, Tan'er finally put aside the mood to discuss serious matters. She helped Ning Yi grill some things and talked about the recent situation of the children in the family. The two picked up their wine glasses and clinked them together at the round table.

Day had quickly entered the boundary of night, and only distant lights were floating through the open door of the room. The lanterns below the courtyard were swaying in the wind. Suddenly, there was a sound like a blanket of rain, but bigger than rain. The crackling sound enveloped the house. The brazier in the room shook a few times. Ning Yi threw in firewood. Tan'er got up and walked to the corridor outside, then said, "Rice-sized snowflakes are falling."

Ning Yi's eyes flickered, and then he nodded: "It's already snowing in other parts of the world."

At this time, the Central Plains and Jiangnan had already been covered with heavy snow, but only the Chengdu Plain had been rainy this year. But it seemed that the time had also arrived. Tan'er returned to the room. The couple ate and drank while chatting under the falling snowflakes, talking about interesting things at home and gossip in the army.

Ning Yi talked about Xu Shaoyuan and Yong Jinrou:

"Speaking of Xu Shaoyuan from the secretariat, he's a bit dull, but his ability to handle affairs is still very strong. Before, he took a fancy to Master Yong's younger sister, Yong Jinrou, you know, in her early thirties, very beautiful, knowledgeable and reasonable, widowed for seven or eight years, and now a teacher at He Deng. I heard that many people in the army have taken a liking to her, but it's useless to propose marriage to Master Yong. He said he wanted her to choose herself..."

"Xu Shaoyuan fell in love with Yong Jinrou at first sight, but how could he know how to woo a girl? He asked the guys from the General Staff to give him ideas. None of those lunatics were reliable. Zou Lie, you know him? He said I was more opinionated, and secretly came to find out what I thought, asking how to please a girl. How would I know that Xu Shaoyuan wanted to woo Yong Jinrou? I told them a few stories about heroes saving the beauty. Then Xu Shaoyuan went to He Deng, and for three days, it was a complete mess, from writing poetry, to finding someone to play a hooligan, to pretending to be internally injured, to confessing his love... he almost used force... Li Shishi saw it, found a few female soldiers, and beat him up..."

"After the beating, he ran to me to complain, saying that the people from the secretariat were acting like hooligans. So I asked about it, called Xu Shaoyuan out, and confronted him with Yong Jinrou. After the confrontation, I asked Xu Shaoyuan to make a sincere review in front of Yong Jinrou... I also helped him organize a sincere confession, of course, I didn't help him write it, I helped him sort out his feelings, and confess again with a review... Wife, am I smart? Li Shishi cried at the time, so moved... As a result, Yong Jinrou, 'ten moved, but refused,' tsk, really..."

"'Ten moved... but refused...'" Tan'er interjected, "What does that mean?"

"Very moved—then rejected him."

"Is there such an idiom..."

"I invented it recently." Ning Yi said with a smile, "Then, I asked Miss Shishi to help solve Yong Jinrou's emotional problems. She has a good relationship with Yong Jinrou. After asking around, I learned one thing..."

The couple talked about these trivial matters in the room. They didn't know how long had passed. The dishes were cold, and they were slightly drunk. Ning Yi sat on the stool and looked at the falling snowflakes outside, saying:

"Before the battle of Rainwater Creek, the overall strategy of the Southwest Campaign was just to defend first and then wait for the other party to reveal flaws. After the battle of Rainwater Creek, Wanyan Zonghan is really our enemy. The next idea is to use every means to defeat his army and cut off his head—of course, that's also his idea." Ning Yi chuckled, "Thinking about it, I feel a little excited."

Tan'er turned her head to look at him, and then gradually understood.

She took his hand: "Don't have anything happen to you."

"Of course."

In the past ten years, starting from the small Su family in Jiangning, to the imperial merchant incident, to the dangers of Hangzhou, to Liangshan, disaster relief, regicide... Ning Yi had been somewhat estranged from many things for a long time. After the regicide, in the eyes of outsiders, he had more of a domineering attitude towards the world. Many people were not in his eyes—perhaps in the eyes of Li Pin and others, even the entire Wu Dynasty era and the glory of Confucianism were not in his eyes.

When facing the powerful Western Xia and Jurchens, he would show a hypocritical attitude, but that was just a formulaic approach.

When facing Li Qianshun leading an army of 100,000, Ning Yi only said one sentence to the envoy sent, "People of Huaxia do not surrender to foreign lands," and then defeated the entire Western Xia army.

Wanyan Loushi came to the northwest aggressively. Fan Hongji sent the heads of Lu Yannian and others to show his power. Ning Yi said to the Huaxia soldiers: "The situation is stronger than people, be friendly." When Loushi approached Yanzhou, Ning Yi said to the team, "From today onwards, the entire Huaxia Army will start fighting against the Jurchens."

After killing Loushi, there was no room for reversal. The Jurchens fantasized about winning without a fight and came to persuade them to surrender, threatening to turn Xiaocang River into a mass grave. Ning Yi directly said that this would not be a mass grave for ten thousand people, but a mass grave for one hundred thousand people, a million people.

When showing weakness was useful, he would show weakness in words and some small strategies. But in action, Ning Yi was extremely strong no matter who he faced.

For a long time, the Huaxia Army had been at a disadvantage against the entire world, but her husband had never been at a disadvantage in his heart, and he had boundless confidence in the future. In the Huaxia Army, this confidence was also passed down layer by layer to the people working below.

Facing the aggressive southern expedition of Zonghan and Xiyin, the Huaxia Army, infected by Ning Yi's attitude, only regarded it as a "problem to be solved." But at this moment after the end of the battle of Rainwater Creek, when Tan'er looked at Ning Yi, she finally saw a little tension in him, which was the activity and tension that a contestant began to maintain before entering the arena.

From the perspective of the entire world, after Wanyan Aguda, Zonghan and Xiyin were indeed the most powerful and terrifying giants on the stage of this world. For twenty or thirty years, no one could match their sharpness in the places they focused on. In recent years, the Huaxia Army had some achievements, and at the level of the entire world, it had made many people feel overemphasized. But in front of Zonghan and Xiyin and others, the Huaxia Army and the devil Ning Yi were always one or even two levels lower.

The other party was a world-suppressing devil king who could crush the world, and the world still had a huge, immortal monster like the Wu Dynasty. The Huaxia Army was just a powerful armed force gradually transforming into a country.

But at this moment, Ning Yi had murderous intent towards Zonghan. In Tan'er's eyes, if Zonghan was the most terrifying giant of this era, her husband had finally stretched his muscles and was going to meet the other party with the same giant posture...

Such an image flashed in her mind, and the ice pellets falling outside the window gradually became smaller.

Heavy snow was about to fall, and the world was about to become what the Jurchens used to be familiar with...

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