Three days later, on the eve of their departure, Zhou Si skipped the military camp and waited early at the entrance. Holding a horse’s reins in one hand and stroking its back with the other, he watched the magistrate and his entourage emerge from the front gates of the residence. He immediately strode over to Yun Zhensong’s side, subconsciously took the baggage from Yisheng’s shoulders, and made his one-hundred-and-eightieth plea: “Master, please let me go with you!”
Yun Zhensong said, “Zhou Si, the military camp needs someone to hold down the fort. You’ve spent the most time by my side, and everyone recognizes your face. Only by leaving you behind can we stabilize public morale.”
Zhou Si pondered for a moment, still feeling anxious and afraid that Heke and Deng Hua wouldn’t be able to protect the master properly. Although the two of them possessed martial arts skills far superior to his own, he was the only one willing to risk his life. Yisheng took out a handkerchief to wipe the sweat from Zhou Si’s temples and whispered, “I know what you’re worried about, but I’m going too. You surely wouldn’t betray the master’s trust.”
Hesitating for a moment, Zhou Si finally nodded and silently helped them load the luggage. The county was poor, with only a single horse. Wanting to do some final tasks for his master, Zhou Si refused help from the others. Fortunately, there wasn’t much luggage, so it didn’t require much effort.
Yun Zhensong sighed inwardly: Good thing I didn’t let Yisheng prepare too much, otherwise, if he had to carry all this alone, he wouldn’t have any energy left for training. This kid was both loyal and stubborn.
Qi Jianfang and Deng Hua leaned nearby, casting a sidelong glance at Yun Zhensong’s worried expression. “Learn not to feel sorry for them,” Qi Jianfang said flatly. “In the days ahead, there will be much more hardship.”
Deng Hua teased, “Magistrate, what does a little chore like this matter when wars are fought? This kid has resilience and can endure hardship.”
Yun Zhensong looked at her, feeling comforted by her words.
“Besides,” Deng Hua said, the corners of her eyes curving as she jerked her chin toward a spot not far away, “someone cares for him.”
“Huh?” Yun Zhensong followed Deng Hua’s line of sight. As their conversation stopped, Yun Zhensong finally caught Yisheng’s gentle, kitten-like instructions.
“…I put the medicinal wine in your room, in the usual spot. If you bump or bruise yourself, you have to rub it in hard. If it bleeds, wipe it clean before applying the medicine, okay?” Yisheng was half a head shorter than Zhou Si. At that moment, he tilted his head up, meticulously lecturing Zhou Si, who usually lived roughly. “No matter how tired or busy you are, you must eat! Having no appetite or no time is not an excuse. If you’ve lost weight when I come back, don’t ever think about eating with me again!”
He feigned anger, puffing out his cheeks. Zhou Si couldn’t help it; he raised a hand to cup Yisheng’s face, a smile touching the corners of his mouth. “I know.”
“…Cough, and another thing,” Yisheng said, looking embarrassed but refusing to turn away. He simply lowered his gaze to avoid meeting Zhou Si’s ambiguous, lingering look. “I’m raising a few orchid plants in the side courtyard. Orchids are delicate and need careful daily attention. I don’t trust anyone else, so you look after them for me. Take a look at them morning and night and water them.”
Zhou Si understood that Yisheng was expressing his care in a roundabout way.
Yisheng always wanted to train harder and grow up faster. Once, he had stayed at the training grounds overnight. The next day at noon, taking advantage of the lunch break, he rushed back to the residence wanting to wash up and change into clean clothes. The moment he pushed open the gate of the side courtyard, he found Yisheng sitting outside his room with red, tear-rimmed eyes.
When Yisheng saw him, he sprang up with a start and ran right up to Zhou Si, panting heavily. He pointed a finger at him to vent his frustration: “Where did you go! Didn’t you come back to sleep last night? Look at you, covered in dirt and sweat, you stink to high heaven!”
Yisheng yelled at him, pushing him unceremoniously into the wooden barrel where he always kept hot water prepared. By the time Zhou Si finished washing, food, dishes, and clean clothes were already set out on the table, but Yisheng was nowhere to be seen.
Originally, he had intended to wash with freezing well water and hadn’t even planned on eating lunch.
“Okay,” Zhou Si said in a slightly hoarse voice. “Don’t worry.”
“Alright, alright, I won’t nag you anymore… Umpf!”
Zhou Si reached out a hand, cupped the back of Yisheng’s head, and buried Yisheng’s face right against his chest. His other arm wrapped tightly around Yisheng’s waist as he murmured in a volume only the two of them could hear: “I’ll look after the orchids for you, and you take good care of yourself for me.”
Yisheng froze for a moment, then after a long pause, gave a muffled response.
“Tsk… We’re only leaving for a short while, we’ll be coming back. Why does it feel like I’m breaking up a pair of mandarin ducks?” Yun Zhensong turned around, only to find that the two of them had gone off to tie the reins at some point and were no longer by his side.
The world was chaotic, carriages moved slowly, and when partings came, one had to voice their love aloud, because the next meeting might be a remote and uncertain prospect.
Yun Zhensong only came to understand this truth much later.
Qi Jianfang told Yun Zhensong it would take at least five days to reach Hancheng, at which Yun Zhensong exclaimed, “What?!”
He had almost forgotten that this was the backward ancient era; a journey of a mere hundred miles that used to take under two hours now required a full five days.
“Fine, fine,” Yun Zhensong waved a hand. “Five days it is.”
At first, it wasn’t too bad. Inside the carriage, Yun Zhensong played chess and read books with Yisheng, occasionally exchanging a few words with Deng Hua and Heke who were driving the carriage. Time wasn’t too difficult to pass after all, this was a man who could lie in a hospital bed staring at a ceiling all day.
Soon enough, however, trouble struck. Yun Zhensong had ultimately overestimated his own physical condition. The carriage rocked and swayed; as the evening wind picked up, the huge temperature drop brought on a fit of coughing. His lungs itched unbearably, and the coughing refused to subside after a long while, prompting Qi Jianfang to immediately call a halt.
The party stopped in the middle of a barren wilderness with no village ahead and no store behind. Seeing that night was falling fast and wolves or tigers might well spring out from the woods, Yun Zhensong forced himself to endure and shook his head. “Let’s keep going first. We’ll talk when we find an inn. I’m fine.”
Deng Hua looked at Qi Jianfang, waiting for orders.
Without a word, Qi Jianfang took off his cloak and tossed it to Yisheng. “Wrap up in this and drive the carriage with Deng Hua. Deng Hua, keep an eye on Yisheng.”
“Order received!” Deng Hua grinned and said to Yisheng, “Come on, let’s not disturb their two-person world… er, I mean, there isn’t enough room for three people.”
Feeling the cold, warning glare from Qi Jianfang, Deng Hua shrank her neck, obediently dropped the carriage curtain, and turned away to roll her eyes where Qi Jianfang couldn’t see.
“Heke?” Yun Zhensong covered his mouth with his sleeve and coughed, feeling as though he might cough up his internal organs just to slightly ease the itch in his chest.
“Hold it in. You’re not allowed to cough,” Qi Jianfang said imperiously, patting his back.
Yun Zhensong remembered the doctor’s instructions: the more you cough, the more you want to cough, so it’s best to hold it back.
Seeing that Yun Zhensong actually obediently pressed his lips together, Qi Jianfang frowned deeply, quite surprised. He had never considered his words to be all that effective on Yun Zhensong, which naturally softened his tone as he offered a specific explanation: “It’s for your own good…”
“I know.” Yun Zhensong slowly exhaled, took a sip of water, and clutched his chest.
“…Lean on me and sleep for a bit. I remember there’s an inn around here; it shouldn’t be far now.”
“Alright.” Yun Zhensong nodded, trying several different postures against Qi Jianfang before finally finding a slightly comfortable one, and closed his eyes to rest.
Qi Jianfang barred his arm across the outside of Yun Zhensong’s body to prevent him from falling, using his other hand to straighten Yun Zhensong’s clothes whenever the rocking disheveled them, lest he catch a chill.
Deng Hua possessed exceptional hearing, and the rustling sounds from inside the carriage were exceptionally clear. She let out a couple of soft clicks with her tongue. Pulling on the reins to control the horse’s pace, she leaned close to Yisheng’s ear and whispered, “Keep an eye on your master, don’t let him get stolen away by any bad guys.”
Back in Zhongzhou, Qi Jianfang had been a notoriously profligate young scion, wild and fickle—stories of him filled every street and alley. Even when those tales reached Qi Jianfang himself, he couldn’t refute them. It was only in recent years, with the outbreak of wars, that he had broken the habit of his playful and flirtatious ways or more accurately, ever since the new emperor ascended the throne.
“Huh? What bad guys?” Yisheng asked with a look of pure innocence. “Sister Deng, you and the Vice-General promised Brother Zhou that you’d definitely protect the master well!”
“Hey, hey, hey, Little Sheng, don’t panic,” Deng Hua coaxed in a hurry, terrified the boy would burst into tears the next second. “By bad guys, I mean flower-picking bandits, not bad guys holding knives to chop off heads.”
Qi Jianfang wanted to interrupt several times, but since Yun Zhensong was using him as a pillow and had finally managed to fall asleep, he didn’t dare make a sound.
Suddenly, Deng Hua lifted her head to look at the sky, her expression sinking as she immediately whipped the horses into a faster pace.
Yisheng gripped the crossbeam tightly and asked nervously, “What is it?” The moment he finished speaking, a blinding flash of light pierced the horizon, followed instantly by a deafening thunderclap.
“A rainstorm is coming.” Deng Hua finally answered, then raised her voice to shout back, “Hold tight to your person, Little Sheng, and hold on steady yourself!”
Too lazy to dignify her with a response, Qi Jianfang exerted force in his arm and pulled Yun Zhensong closer into an airtight embrace. Yun Zhensong remained entirely oblivious to the outside world, sleeping soundly in Qi Jianfang’s arms and letting out faint, gentle snores.
Qi Jianfang looked down in sheer disbelief.
Curled up in a ball, rocking violently, with lightning flashing and thunder roaring—how could anyone still sleep this soundly?
Deng Hua’s driving skills were superb; even with the horses spooked, she maintained steady control. Fortunately for them, just as the first heavy raindrops began to smash down, they caught sight of candlelight flickering through the gaps in the roadside tree branches.
“Whoa”
Deng Hua pulled tight on the reins and urged Yisheng to help unload the baggage. Qi Jianfang scooped up Yun Zhensong in his arms and leaped down, using most of his own body to shield the other from the rain as he hurried toward the shelter.
Hearing the commotion, the innkeeper came running out holding an oiled-paper umbrella. “Quickly come inside, honored guests! This rain is wicked!”
The rain poured down in sheets, the wind thrashing the branches in the woods until they nodded frantically. Leaves were beaten down by the rain under a canopy of dark, heavy clouds; looking up at the sky, one felt only a sense of oppression.
The rolling thunder frightened mountain birds into fluttering frantically in all directions. Before long, a damp, fishy stench of rotting vegetation filled the woods. Suddenly, with a crisp crack, a thick tree was struck straight down by lightning, blasting a deep crater into the earth.
The innkeeper herded the horses into the stable, rushed back inside, shook the water from his body, and muttered in complaint, “Things are really strange this year! It keeps raining these evil rains!”
Qi Jianfang interrupted, “Two rooms.” Their traveling funds were limited and needed to be spent sparingly.
The innkeeper acknowledged the request a few times. After registering them, as the group was about to head up the stairs, he warned, “Find me downstairs if you need anything, and try not to go out at night. This area frequently has headless corpses.”
“Got it!” Deng Hua swept a glance over him and cheerfully accepted.
After a night’s rest, Yun Zhensong should have started recovering, but who could have expected him to run a low-grade fever instead? Unwilling to delay the journey, he kept his mouth shut about it. After eating breakfast, the group pressed on through the rain.
Later, although the rain stopped, the mountain paths were muddy and rugged. Finally unable to bear it any longer, Yun Zhensong leaped hurriedly out of the carriage, braced himself against a roadside tree, and threw up miserably.