Qin Zheng heard Lin Yao address Chu Chengji as “Your Highness” and knew that he must have already learned Chu Chengji’s identity.
On the way back to the village, when Lin Yao asked about the situation in Qingzhou, he praised Chu Chengji, talking non-stop.
“The night we captured Qingzhou City, Your Highness only used his words to persuade the high-ranking officials who came to support the city, causing them to defect and bringing in a thousand troops.
When the besieged imperial army was trapped in the city, Your Highness repeatedly came up with clever strategies. When the enemy attacked aggressively, Your Highness defended resolutely.
After several unsuccessful attacks, morale plummeted, and then I was ordered to lead the troops in a night attack, keeping the imperial army on edge at night and secretly sending Zhao Kui and his brothers to guard the essential road to Mengjun County, hijacking their supply route.
Only then did we launch a counterattack when the imperial army was exhausted, and it was truly a swift victory...”
Lin Yao’s description was brief, but Qin Zheng could imagine Chu Chengji’s strategic planning.
Their enemy, with twice as many elite soldiers, was undoubtedly a difficult city defense battle no matter how you looked at it.
Even if they resisted the attacks, in the face of such a huge disparity in forces, it was very difficult to launch a counterattack in a short time.
When the imperial side recovered, it would only be more unfavorable for them.
But Chu Chengji not only seized the fatal flaw of the enemy’s lack of food and grass, but also harassed them by sending troops to attack at night, keeping the imperial troops in a state of high alert, ultimately wearing them down.
If it weren’t for an experienced veteran, it would be really hard to withstand his psychological tactics.
Qin Zheng’s lips curled up slightly, afraid of revealing anything, and said, “This battle was dangerous, and the chief and brothers worked hard.”
Lin Yao waved his hand repeatedly, “Without you and His Highness, there would be no Qi Yun Village today.
My brothers and I followed His Highness, to be honest, we were all chasing after a bright future.
How can there be any hard work? Speaking of danger...”
Lin Yao stopped halfway, suddenly realizing that he might not have should’ve said the latter part.
He stopped abruptly, making Qin Zheng suspicious.
With a clear and worried look in her eyes, Qin Zheng looked at him, making Lin Yao feel even more guilty.
He broke the silence and said, “That night, a soldier aimed a crossbow at His Highness, but luckily His Highness intercepted it. It was a close call.”
When Qin Zheng heard the words “aimed a crossbow,” she remembered some unpleasant memories, her expression changed slightly.
Shen Yanzhi had already left Qingzhou for Minzhou, so it shouldn’t have been him who shot at Chu Chengji.
As soon as she and Lin Yao’s group descended the mountain, they saw Chu Chengji and a large group of people appearing at the entrance of the village.
He was already tall, and today he was wearing a suit of black armor.
The iron pieces on the armor were shining dimly in the sun, his hair was all tied up, making him look even more handsome and majestic.
His naturally pale skin made his eyes appear even darker, adding to the sense of alienation emanating from him.
He was followed by more than ten armored and sharp soldiers, each of them tall and imposing.
The old and young in the village who came to greet him could only look from afar, and their discussions were kept extremely low.
The usually flamboyant Lin Zhao followed behind him, and even from a distance, one could see her discomfort, as if she had been abducted and forced to keep silent.
When she saw Qin Zheng and Lin Yao, her eyes lit up again.
“Brother!” Lin Zhao called out loudly.
It had been more than half a month since they left the village, and Lin Yao was naturally delighted to see his sister again.
But now that everything was on the right track, rules had to be followed.
He approached and gave Lin Zhao a glance, “Don’t shout and scream in front of His Highness, have some manners.”
Chu Chengji glanced at Qin Zheng and said, “It’s okay.”
Lin Zhao immediately made a face at her brother, but she still restrained herself a bit.
Approaching Chu Chengji, Lin Yao saluted and reported the results of the battle, “General, I am fortunate not to have disgraced my mission. All the officials besieged in the rear mountain have been captured.”
Chu Chengji’s attitude hadn’t changed much from before, “There are no outsiders here, General Lin, there is no need for too much courtesy. Count the number of prisoners of war and recruit as many as you can.”
Lin Yao complied.
After they finished their exchange, Qin Zheng finally called out to Chu Chengji, “Your Highness.”
It was a greeting after not seeing each other for many days, and it was also a welcome for his triumphant return.
Perhaps because she had been calling him “husband” all the way during their escape, and later addressing him by his courtesy name in private, now that the word “Your Highness” came out, Qin Zheng herself felt awkward.
Chu Chengji also seemed startled for a moment, glanced at her with an indeterminate meaning, and then nodded slightly, “You have worked hard these days, A Zheng. Today, returning to the village, is also to take you to Qingzhou.”
She called him “Your Highness” in front of others, but he directly called her “A Zheng,” which was obvious to anyone with insight.
Qin Zheng inexplicably felt her face heating up, but in front of so many people, her face remained calm.
After parting ways with the Lin siblings, she and Chu Chengji returned to the courtyard to pack up.
As soon as they entered the courtyard, Chu Chengji glanced at the window.
Following his gaze, Qin Zheng saw the messenger pigeon on the windowsill as expected.
She thought Chu Chengji was busy with military affairs and someone had contacted him again, so she asked, “Someone sent a messenger pigeon to you. Is there another change in Qingzhou?”
Chu Chengji glanced at Qin Zheng, and in her puzzled eyes, he took the letter from the pigeon’s leg without looking at it and stuffed it into his pocket, saying only,
“No.”
Qin Zheng: ???
She didn’t quite understand, but he seemed to be in a bad mood.
Unable to understand the reason for his bad mood and unwilling to talk about it, Qin Zheng tactfully refrained from asking more and focused on packing up her things.
Although they had been in the stronghold for a long time, there was really nothing much to pack.
Qin Zheng’s clothes, except for the one taken away by Shen Yanzhi and worn in the other courtyard, were all old clothes that the women in the stronghold didn’t wear, so there was no need to take them away.
She only had one jade hairpin and one wooden hairpin as jewelry.
Chu Chengji’s things were even simpler, as half of his clothes belonged to Lin Yao.
Qin Zheng didn’t think it was wrong that they had so few things.
She was even a little happy that moving was so easy and relaxed, after all, it wouldn’t be too tiring.
Chu Chengji watched as she put the copper mirror, wooden comb, and hairpins into a small box, and the box remained empty.
His eyebrows furrowed slightly.
Qin Zheng stood by the wooden box folding clothes, her back to him.
She didn’t see his furrowed brow and asked, “Most of your clothes belong to the Chief. I’ll pack two sets for you to change, and we’ll leave the rest, okay?”
Now that he had taken Qingzhou City, he naturally didn’t need another set of clothes.
Chu Chengji suddenly said, “I don’t need any, let’s just go like this.”
Qin Zheng turned around in surprise to look at him, noticing that his mood seemed even worse.
She hesitated, “What’s wrong?”
Chu Chengji avoided her gaze and said, “Everything is available in Qingzhou City.”
There was a subtle and uncomfortable feeling in his heart, filled with a kind of guilt.
She had never actively asked him for anything.
When she saw him treat the copper mirror and wooden comb as treasures and put them in the jewelry box, he felt a heavy pressure in his heart.
She had never cared for the treasures of the Eastern Palace, but now, the only things she cared about taking with her when moving were these few items.
Although Qin Zheng noticed his emotional fluctuations, there was indeed no need to take those clothes.
She then took out the two golden hairpins she had taken away when she left the capital and the hundred copper coins that Chu Chengji had earned from selling fish, and put them in the wooden box.
Looking at these things, she could still recall their ragged appearance when they fled at first, feeling only confusion then, but now, it was more of a sigh.
A smile appeared on her lips involuntarily, as she held the box like a treasure in her arms. “The rest can be left behind, but these things I must take with me.”
All the memories of their journey, through storms and trials, were encapsulated in these items.
Chu Chengji looked at her smiling eyes and felt even more guilty in his heart.
He said, “I will give you something better in the future.”
Qin Zheng glared at him. “Then these things must not be lost.”
In that moment, he suddenly understood what Qin Zheng meant.
His heart swelled inexplicably, and Chu Chengji didn’t say anything more.
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He just sat on the bamboo chair, watching Qin Zheng counting the copper coins in the box with a sudden surge of emotions in his heart, emotions that only he could understand
“... One hundred and eighteen, one hundred and nineteen, where did it go? I remember there were one hundred and twenty coins.” Qin Zheng muttered as she counted the copper coins, unwilling to give up.
She was about to recount them when Chu Chengji grabbed her wrist.
“How many are missing? I’ll make up for them,” he said, leaning in a bit too close, as if he was genuinely curious about how she was counting.
“... One coin.”
The atmosphere was off.
Qin Zheng didn’t dare to look up, staring at the wooden box in her hands as if trying to bore a hole into it.
Just as Chu Chengji was about to lift her lowered head, there were two soft knocks at the window.
They both looked over and saw that the window was only slightly ajar, but they could still see the pigeon standing outside, looking at them with its beady eyes.
As the pigeon realized they had finally noticed it, it quickly pecked at the window frame twice.
Earlier, after Chu Chengji had taken the letter from the pigeon, he had closed the window.
He hadn’t expected the pigeon to still be there.
Qin Zheng set the wooden box aside, stood up, and opened the window.
The pigeon cooed twice at her.
Qin Zheng cleared her throat to hide the awkwardness from earlier and asked, “Did you forget to feed it crushed rice?”
Chu Chengji, whose hand had held Qin Zheng’s wrist and still felt the warmth from her, absentmindedly rubbed his fingertips and glanced at the pigeon. “No need to feed it. It’s heavier than the other pigeons, so it’s slower in delivering messages.”
Qin Zheng glanced at the pigeon, noticing its increasingly round shape.
She felt that what Chu Chengji said was not a lie.
Afraid that feeding it more would harm the pigeon, she reached out and gently touched its head with a finger. “You’ve gotten fat, delaying the delivery of messages. I can’t feed you anymore.”
The pigeon tilted its head, looking at her, “Coo?”
A voice came from outside the courtyard, asking how they were doing with their packing.
Chu Chengji stood up from the bamboo chair and said to Qin Zheng, “Let’s go.”
Qin Zheng placed Chu Chengji’s homemade purple-haired brush into the wooden box before carrying it out.
Chu Chengji teased, “Take those two rabbits with you as well.”
Qin Zheng nodded at him, “That’s exactly what I was thinking.”
The rabbits, which she had been feeding, had grown attached to her.
So, the basket with the rabbits under the eaves was carried away by a soldier who came in from outside.
There were still many people outside the gate who wanted to see them off, but they were afraid of the armed soldiers, so they stood at a distance.
Although they hadn’t stayed in this place for too long, Qin Zheng still felt some indescribable emotions as they were about to leave.
Aunt Lu had prepared a lot of dried goods and smoked meat. “Madam, once you leave, you probably won’t come back here. This smoked meat was smoked by me before the new year, take it with you.”
Qin Zheng felt inexplicably sad at Aunt Lu’s words. “Auntie, aren’t you coming with us?”
Aunt Lu wiped her eyes and shook her head. “Auntie’s roots are here, I won’t go with you.”
Qin Zheng knew that elderly people, even when faced with natural disasters, sometimes refused to leave their homeland, so she bid farewell to Aunt Lu.
Outside the courtyard, many people called her “Master Qin” or “Lady General,” carrying either mountain produce or eggs and meat, expressing their goodwill for her to accept.
Qin Zheng refused, promising repeatedly to come back to see them in the future.
There were people following them all the way out of the stronghold, only stopping when they reached the cliff cave.
Qin Zheng felt a mix of emotions in her heart, her eyes moistening slightly.
Chu Chengji wiped the corner of her eye with his hand. “Ah Zheng, I am honored to be with you.”
The people in the stronghold respected Qin Zheng even more than they did Chu Chengji.
He knew what she had done with everyone in the stronghold, what she had taught them.
The respect and reluctance of the people in the stronghold towards her didn’t surprise Chu Chengji at all.
In fact, there was even a sense of pride in him for her.
After the crisis in Liangshan was resolved, in addition to Qin Zheng and her group leaving for Qingzhou City, the Wang family and their descendants were also driven out of the stronghold.
The Wang family and their descendants were only sent up the cliff after Qin Zheng and her group had left.
Compared to the lively scene when Qin Zheng and her group were seeing off, when the Wang family and their descendants left the stronghold, except for the man who dropped the rope at the cliff cave, there was no one else around.
After the men from the stronghold rowed them to the shore, they threw a bag to the Wang family and their descendants and left without looking back.
The Wang family and their descendants stood at the intersection, looking at the vast sky and earth, but they couldn’t move their feet.
They had lived in the stronghold all their lives, and they had never been down the mountain.
They didn’t know where they could go or how they could live.
Wang Xiu looked at the large boat in the distance with tears streaming down her face, recalling the scene when everyone in the stronghold had come to see off Qin Zheng.
After the feelings of reluctance and jealousy had passed, she just stared blankly in that direction, tears flowing endlessly.