In the end, Lord Meishan still didn’t stay for dinner that day. Just as unremarkably as his entrance, he departed unnoticed at some point, waving his sleeves without taking away a single cloud.
No one had time to care about him. Lu Qianqiao’s early return by one day had turned the Imperial Tomb upside down with excitement. Xin Mei rallied her spirits and made seven or eight tofu sculptures: General Tofu, Xin Mei Tofu, Xin Xiong Tofu, Official Zhao Tofu, and so on. For a moment, chopsticks flew everywhere as everyone showed sharp eyes, quick hands, and ruthless hearts, grabbing their own heads to deliver to the general’s bowl.
Xin Xiong was overly excited and drank too much, so Tao Guoguo and her brother dragged and pulled him back to the guest room to sleep. Any demon with some sense also quietly withdrew one after another, leaving space for the young couple to be alone. Only Official Zhao, belching contentedly, approached them, pulling out the lower volume of “Fated Resentful Couple” that he had rewritten hundreds of times, insisting on reading it to them both.
“General, young lady, based on your recent experiences, I’ve polished and revised the latter part again. After Little Mei tearfully leaves General Qianqiao, she encounters a graceful celestial monk who falls in love with her at first sight, and from then on heavenly thunder ignites earthly fire in an unstoppable way…”
“Thud” – a crisp sound interrupted his endless flow of words. Official Zhao fell flat on the ground, unconscious from mouse affairs.
Xin Mei casually threw the weapon in her hand – a wooden bucket – on the ground, smiled slightly at the silent Lu Qianqiao: “Come, let’s go back to our room.”
Thoughtful little demons had already drawn hot water from the bathing pool in the room. Lu Qianqiao sat on the bedside, quietly watching her wring out a warm towel, then come over to wipe his face and hands.
“Lu Qianqiao, have you been so busy again that you haven’t had time to eat or sleep?”
Xin Mei held his head, looking left and right. He had become thin and dark again, with faint dark circles under his eyes, clearly symptoms of poor rest. She figured he had originally planned to return tomorrow, but missing her too much, he had traveled through the night to reunite with her one day earlier.
He smiled nonchalantly: “…I’ll definitely pay attention next time.”
Xin Mei made the bed and patted the soft quilt: “You should pay attention now. Sleep. I’ll wake you for dinner.”
The sky outside the window was still quite bright. She closed the moon-shaped window and drew the curtains. Turning back, she saw that this general who had traveled thousands of miles to return home refused to sleep, sitting at the head of the bed in his inner robe with loose hair, staring at her.
“Not sleeping?” she asked.
Lu Qianqiao coughed quietly, looking somewhat bashful as he turned his face away, saying in a low voice: “Do you… want to sleep together?”
Ah, so he still couldn’t bear to part with her.
Xin Mei took off her outer garment, kicked off her shoes, and jumped onto the bed to burrow into his arms: “Come here, let’s sleep together.”
She had a nostalgic and intoxicating scent about her – not the kind of body fragrance that stirred one’s emotions, nor the clamorous smell of cooking smoke. It was hard to describe exactly, but holding her in his arms immediately brought peace and comfort. The frantic war ghost blood gradually calmed, and all the deadly spikes from the outside world were sheathed.
Each time brought him feelings of strangeness, nostalgia, joy, and warmth.
“Lu Qianqiao, what exactly is happening in your clan? Do you have to fight battles every day too?”
Although she knew he had important matters when returning to his clan, she had no idea what specifically they were. Lu Qianqiao never spoke to her about these bloody and violent affairs. However, seeing him more haggard each time, she still felt quite sorry for him.
“Mm… fighting every day. Much busier than being a general for the Qiong Kingdom’s emperor.”
As a cavalry general, he only had to deal with ordinary people. Back in the clan, he faced the entire fox clan, which was far more prosperous than their own people. With Li Chaoyang still unconscious, being overwhelmed with busyness was unavoidable.
“When will the fighting be finished?”
If it doesn’t end soon, she feared Lu Qianqiao would be worn down to skin and bones.
He thought for a moment: “…It should be soon.”
That day when he ambushed the great monk outside the Imperial Tomb, before dying he had dropped two words: “Break curse.” Afterward, he found a wax pill on his broken corpse, wrapped in paper listing various unheard-of medicinal herbs and animal fur, sinews, organs, and the like. At the end were two sentences: 【You’re not elegant enough! Until we meet again!】
He immediately knew that the cunning fox had definitely found an opportunity to escape, and what was written on the paper might be the key to breaking the curse cast on Li Chaoyang.
Unable to fathom what medicine this great monk was selling, anyone with half a brain, after killing the perfect war ghost, would know to find a hidden place to lay low, never swaggering around openly, let alone personally escorting Xin Xiong from Xinxie Manor, which was guarded by the fox clan, to the Imperial Tomb. Such unnecessary action was simply… simply like coming specifically to see him and incidentally deliver the curse-breaking method.
Whatever his motives, the curse-breaking method was real. Li Chaoyang’s awakening was just a matter of time, and the fox clan’s affairs would soon be concluded.
Xin Mei’s face came close, staring with wide eyes and asking: “How soon is very soon? Half a year? One year?”
He smiled and touched her head: “I think… it can definitely be resolved within five years.”
Her face immediately fell: “Five years… In five years, I’ll be an old woman in her twenties.”
…In her mind, being in one’s twenties could already be called “old”? In the war ghost clan, there were plenty who could still marry and have children at fifty. The war ghost general, twenty-five years old and nearly twenty-six, felt very depressed. This feeling was like having a young beautiful wife point at his nose and shout “You decrepit old man!” – equally unpleasant.
Lu Qianqiao felt it necessary to prove he was still at the peak of youth and vigor. He extended his young and powerful claws toward the soft body squirming in his arms, touching and kneading, holding and caressing. With blood boiling, he didn’t forget to lower his young and handsome head to give her a kiss full of youthful passionate ardor.
His lips didn’t capture the familiar softness but instead pressed against something rough and cold. He pulled back in amazement, focusing his eyes, only to discover Xin Mei was grinning strangely while holding the long-absent Mutual Hearts Mirror between them. Could it be… she had been hiding the mirror in the bed all this time?
“Come, come, let’s resolve my doubt first.”
Xin Mei held the Mutual Hearts Mirror high. Last time at Changgeng Pass it hadn’t shown any reflection, and she had been brooding about it ever since. This time, having finally waited for him to return home, she was determined to get a good look.
The rough mirror surface of the Mutual Hearts Mirror remained unresponsive for a long time. Xin Mei impatiently slapped it: “Is it broken?”
…Could you please not be so impatient? The Mutual Hearts Mirror wept tears. A moment later, the mirror surface suddenly rippled with water-like waves, and tiny points of light danced like fireflies across the mirror.
Xin Mei was delighted: “Ah! Something appeared!”
But those points of light only danced restlessly, no longer quickly showing the image of the two embracing affectionately as before. Xin Mei held her breath and waited for a long time. The mirror surface suddenly went dark, then only reflected her alone, eyes tightly closed, expression peaceful, as if in deep sleep.
The hands of the Xin Mei in the mirror were shrouded in black clouds… or rather, her entire body was enveloped and embraced by thick black mist. The humanoid black cloud also had two blood-red eyes flickering. This image was truly terrifyingly spine-chilling.
Xin Mei looked at the mirror with suspicion and uncertainty, then looked up at Lu Qianqiao. His expression was very calm, his voice very low: “Don’t be afraid… I’m no longer an ordinary person. It’s normal for the Mutual Hearts Mirror not to reflect me.”
No longer an ordinary person?
She touched his cheek – warm and soft to the touch, breathing faintly, with a lock of hair falling across his forehead which she gently smoothed away. Where was anything special about him? He was just an ordinary man with a bit of facial paralysis and few words.
“Come here,” she directly threw the Mutual Hearts Mirror under the bed, opened her arms wide, and hugged his head tight. “Let’s sleep. I’ll make duck blood soup for you tonight.”
He closed his eyes, indulging in her pleasant scent, not wanting to extricate himself.
The Mutual Hearts Mirror flashed once on the ground. The Xin Mei in the mirror smiled, the blood-red eyes of the humanoid black cloud slowly closed, and the image vanished in an instant.
The two of them no longer needed the Mutual Hearts Mirror to prove anything. Her previous obsession with this problem had been truly pointless.
“…Let’s sell this broken mirror tomorrow… We can probably make a few taels of silver.”
Xin Mei murmured drowsily.
The Mutual Hearts Mirror on the cold floor wept rivers of tears.
In May, when lilac flowers bloomed, the usually busy Lu Qianqiao was rarely not rushing around in the clan, planning how to find the fox clan that had three burrows like cunning rabbits for the various war ghost groups he had dispatched.
He was in a town dozens of miles away, facing a box of bracelets presented by the jewelry shop owner, picking and choosing.
That pure gold shrimp whisker bracelet was quite delicate – would it suit her snow-white wrists? No, no, gold was too vulgar. Better change to another one.
This mutton-fat white jade one was very exquisite, but the jade quality was impure. How could something with minor flaws be given to her?
The one inlaid with pearls was quite beautiful, but she was so active – what if she knocked the pearls off? She would definitely be sad for several days.
…
The general was very troubled, the shop owner very depressed.
May third was Xin Mei’s seventeenth birthday. Since he was often away and couldn’t spend much time with her, he followed Li Yan’s suggestion and decided to buy something to give her. Although Li Yan said she might prefer it more if he made a doll, firstly he really didn’t have time, and secondly, giving dolls seemed too cheap…
Lu Qianqiao spent a full half hour choosing, finally shaking his head: “…Forget the bracelets, bring out some hairpins to look at.”
The shop owner collected the box with tears streaming down his face. This customer was too difficult – he had been lingering in the shop for several hours, looking at necklaces one moment and earrings the next, yet wasn’t satisfied with any of them. If it weren’t for his blood-red eye making him look very dangerous, he would have had the assistants throw him out long ago.
Two boxes of carefully selected hairpins in the latest styles were brought out, complete with kingfisher feathers, pierced flowers, filigree work, and everything else.
Lu Qianqiao gave them a cursory glance when his eyes suddenly lit up, gently picking up an amethyst hairpin. Setting aside the style and craftsmanship of the hairpin body, the amethyst was lustrous and transparent throughout, without a single impurity or crack – it was of the highest quality.
That’s right, when he returned last month, Xin Mei seemed to have just made a new garment in exactly this light purple color. With this hairpin to match, she would definitely love it…
Just as Lu Qianqiao was about to pay, he suddenly heard Lie Yunhua neigh loudly outside, followed by Li Min rushing in with a face full of alarm that finally disappeared upon seeing him.
“Young Master!” He strode over, about to speak when he suddenly glanced at the shop owner beside them who was waiting with eager anticipation for payment. The owner was so frightened by his two blood-red eyes that he rolled and crawled away, screaming as he rushed into the back room, not daring to come out.
“What is it?”
Lu Qianqiao took out two silver notes and threw them on the table, carefully wrapping the amethyst hairpin and placing it in his chest.
Li Min steadied himself before saying: “It’s about Madam! Madam… she seems about to wake up!”