Chapter 162: You and Gu Changxiao
Jinsui didn’t know how Liu Yun had caught up. They had been traveling for over half a month, and Liu Yun was still injured. How could he have rushed here alone in this icy, snowy landscape?
Yan Jiu was worried about her going alone. What if it wasn’t Liu Yun but an assassin or a bandit?
He also got out of the carriage, mounted his horse, and, with his bodyguards and Jinsui, went to the end of the procession. Waiting for the person to appear wouldn’t help. Jinsui took a deep breath, feeling the icy air pierce her lungs and make her shiver.
She shouted loudly, “Liu Yun, come out!”
There was no response. After a while, Jinsui called out again, “I know who you’re looking for. Come out, and I’ll take you to him!”
Still no response, Jinsui could only look at Yan Jiu, “You call out. Maybe he won’t believe my promise.”
Yan Jiu’s eyebrows twitched slightly. He sat perfectly straight on his horse, unlike Jinsui, who was shivering and rubbing her hands.
He looked at the empty wilderness and called out loudly, “Liu Yun, I, the Head of the Family, guarantee you will see him.”
With a ‘swoosh,’ a person popped out from the ground in the wilderness.
Jinsui jumped in fright. Are you Sun Wukong?
The Yan Clan bodyguards were also startled. They had been ambushed so close by, and they hadn’t noticed at all. If this person were an assassin, the Head of the Family would be in danger.
Liu Yun’s eyelashes and eyebrows were covered in ice, his face a deep red from the cold. He looked directly at Yan Jiu, “Is that true?”
Jinsui’s mouth twitched. As expected, he didn’t trust her, a woman’s, promise.
Yan Jiu turned his horse’s head. “Why would I lie to you?”
He looked at Jinsui, “I’ll leave him to you. I can let him travel with us, but he has to be obedient.”
Jinsui agreed on Liu Yun’s behalf, nodding repeatedly, “He’s very obedient!”
Liu Yun was brought to the carriage carrying the goods. Jinsui had already cleared enough space for two people to sit. He was frostbitten and not suitable for being near a fire.
She first gave him a hot water bottle to warm up, then a foot warmer, and told him to take off his shoes and socks to warm his feet. His toes were already purple from the cold; any later, with black blood, they would have to be amputated.
She then gave him hot ginger and date tea, and told him to eat some energy bars and oatmeal first. He couldn’t eat meat for now.
Liu Yun found this young lady very familiar. Seeing her take care of him like she would a brother made him a little embarrassed. “Thank you, young lady. However, I wish to see Daoist Ji first.”
Jinsui was speechless about the blindness of men in this era.
“Why are you chasing Daoist Ji?”
“To protect him! I promised the Prince that I would ensure his safety.”
Jinsui’s heart skipped a beat. Not to mention Gu Changxiao, but the fact that Liu Yun almost froze to death chasing after her touched her deeply.
“How did you know Daoist Ji was here?”
Liu Yun said firmly, “Although Lord Cheng said he didn’t see Daoist Ji in the Yan family’s convoy, I am certain he is here.”
“Does he not want to see me? Is he blaming me for not saving that coachman boy?”
Liu Yun rarely spoke before. In the border city, he was like a shadow, appearing and disappearing.
Having been in the border city for so long, Jinsui had never spoken as much to him as she had now.
Jinsui sighed softly, “Of course, he doesn’t blame you! You were seriously injured, why didn’t you rest properly? What are you doing here?”
Liu Yun started coughing. He was relying on his youth, not having recovered from his injuries and enduring the cold. If he had been any weaker, he would have died on the way.
“Thank you for your concern, young lady, but I really need to see Daoist Ji immediately. Can you help me ask him to come over?”
Jinsui looked at him helplessly. She changed her appearance in front of him, took off her hairpin, tied her hair into a high ponytail, drew thick eyebrows, and lowered her voice, “Liu Yun, I am Daoist Ji.”
She was pleased to see Liu Yun stare at her blankly, as if he had gone senile, his brain seemingly frozen.
After a while, he raised his hand towards Jinsui’s face. Perhaps he felt it was rude, so he curled his index finger and poked Jinsui’s cheek quickly, like poking a cat, and exclaimed:
“It’s real!”
Jinsui’s forehead was covered in black lines. She was speechless. The border city seemed like a giant dye vat, turning any cool handsome guy, gentle handsome man, or sunny youth into a clown.
Was this an action an adult man would make? Uh, Liu Yun didn’t seem to be an adult yet; he was younger than her.
“Daoist Ji, how did you become a woman?”
Jinsui lowered her head to gather her emotions, then looked up with a serious expression:
“The Yan family has a medicine that can turn eunuchs into women. You’d better be obedient, or we’ll become sisters.”
Liu Yun’s pupils contracted sharply, but he quickly recovered. “You’re lying. There’s no such medicine.”
“Then how do you explain that I became a woman?”
Liu Yun’s lips were tightly pressed together. His ears, purple from the cold, were heating up. He also realized he had just said something foolish.
“You were always a woman.”
This was a statement, not a question.
Jinsui raised an eyebrow. “You’re smarter than Yan Shiyi!”
Liu Yun didn’t feel this was a compliment at all. Being smarter than that idiot wasn’t something to be happy about.
“If I hadn’t gone north, what would you have done?”
“Chase the Prince! They are fighting hard in the Northern Frontier. I can’t just lie around sleeping in the Plum Blossom Villa.”
What a pure child, Jinsui’s heart softened. It was precisely because she kept encountering such people that she couldn’t leave decisively.
Thinking of Han Xing, Hei Hu, and Liu Yun, if they died in the Northern Frontier, she would never have peace for the rest of her life.
“Your injuries haven’t healed yet. Stay and recover in the Yan family’s convoy. When we reach the Northern Frontier, we’ll go find the Black Feather Army together.”
Liu Yun softly hummed in agreement, which surprised Jinsui. “You’re listening to me so easily?”
Liu Yun nodded. “The Prince said to listen to Daoist Ji.”
Jinsui’s heart fluttered, then her expression turned cold. “Your Prince doesn’t trust me, so why send you to follow me?”
Liu Yun quickly said, “That’s not it! The Prince said that as long as you are alive, he can rest in peace even if he dies.”
Jinsui scoffed. “Then let him die without peace! I gave him the Black Feather Camp so he could lead the brothers to promotion and wealth, not to their deaths!”
Liu Yun didn’t know how to respond and quietly lowered his head to eat. Jinsui gave him some clean cotton clothes. “Change your clothes and get some sleep.”
Liu Yun glanced at Yan Jiu’s luxurious carriage. “Are you sharing a carriage with Yan Jiu?”
Jinsui rolled her eyes at him. “What are you thinking, you child? I’ve even slept in the same bed as your Prince! When traveling, convenience is key. We both came from military camps, why be so particular?”
Liu Yun asked in a very normal tone a very shocking question. “Will you marry the Head of the Yan Family?”
Jinsui stepped forward and felt his forehead, he wasn’t feverish. Then she replied in the same normal tone, “I am a Taoist nun, I don’t get married.”
Only then did Liu Yun nod in relief. “That’s good. In the future, ask the Prince to build a Taoist temple for you in the border city, and you can be a Taoist nun there.”
Then, he asked another question. “Does the Prince know you are a woman?”
Jinsui shook her head. “I’m very successful at disguising myself as a man. Your Prince has poor eyesight and didn’t notice.”
Liu Yun nodded. “That makes sense.”
It was unclear whether he was referring to her successful disguise or his Prince’s poor eyesight.
“Can you turn back? The Prince will be angry if he knows I didn’t send you away.”
Jinsui pointed at the Yan family bodyguards outside. “Can you defeat these thousand people? If you can, I’ll go back.”
Liu Yun looked at her with a wronged expression, as if saying, ‘You’re bullying me.’
“Your Prince will be angry whether I go back or not, so just rest and recover. We’ll go to the Northern Frontier together. Didn’t you just say you’d listen to me?”
Jinsui added some sleeping ingredients to his medicine and took two animal hide blankets. She didn’t dare to use a charcoal basin, fearing that if no one was around and he slept too deeply, he might suffer from carbon monoxide poisoning.
Liu Yun seemed like he hadn’t slept in a long time. He curled up in the animal hide mat and quickly fell asleep. However, Jinsui noticed that his hand, placed under his pillow, was gripping a short knife.
She couldn’t imagine how this child had been resting lately. He probably slept with one eye open!
Jinsui closed the carriage door and returned to Yan Jiu’s large carriage.
She said in a pleading tone, “Can we bring Liu Yun along? No one in the Northern Frontier knows him, so they won’t discover he’s Li King’s man.”
Yan Jiu chuckled. “Since he chased after us, we have to bring him.”
“The journey will be monotonous. Having an old friend from the border city for company will make Miss Ji feel better.”
He interpreted Jinsui’s constant sleeping as her being in a bad mood or not wanting to interact much with the Yan family.
At this moment, the captain reported that they had arrived at the Yan merchant post station. Jinsui’s heart leaped. “I’ll go inquire. There should be news of Miss Yan.”
The post station was small, with only twelve rooms in a courtyard. It was semi-underground, warm against the wind and snow.
Yan Jiu and Jinsui, along with a few bodyguards, went in to inquire. The shopkeeper was from Yanzhou and naturally recognized the Head of the Yan Family, treating them with great respect.
Upon hearing they were looking for a young girl, Jinsui described her with several features: “Wearing red clothes, riding a spirited horse, with a silver whip, tall stature, an oval face, large eyes, and extremely beautiful.”
Yan Jiu even glanced at her, rarely seeing a woman praise another so frankly.
Thinking of his own foolish sister who had confessed her feelings to Miss Ji multiple times, Yan Jiu felt a headache coming on. His younger siblings, neither of them reliable.
The shopkeeper shook his head. “Let alone an extremely beautiful girl, no woman has passed through here in the past month.”
Jinsui and Yan Jiu both felt a pang of panic and quickly asked, “Did Li King’s convoy pass through here?”
The shopkeeper nodded. “They passed five days ago, but we didn’t dare to do business with the military, so we closed the shop early and moved the road markers.”
Besides merchants familiar with the terrain, one wouldn’t find this place without the road markers. The Northern Border was desolate for a thousand miles; roads were identified by carriage tracks.
At this point, Yan Jiu asked, “After the army passed, did any lone individuals pass by? Regardless of gender.”
The shopkeeper’s eyes lit up. “Yes, there was. Three days ago, a young gentleman, carrying a Jin Family waist token, riding a spirited horse, asked us to prepare horse feed, cotton clothes, and a tent for him.”
Jinsui joyfully said to Yan Jiu, “This must be Miss Yan!”
During the polo match, young masters from the gentry of Yandi gathered. It was easy for her to obtain another family’s waist token to avoid being caught by the Yan family. Disguised as a man and changing her name, wasn’t this exactly what Jinsui had done before!
The foolish girl actually chased all the way here alone! Even more stubborn than Liu Yun. There were wolves out tonight; how would she spend the night alone?
Jinsui felt even more heartache. She never expected that the only romantic entanglement she would have since her transmigration would be with a girl, and such a devoted one at that.
When she found her, she would sincerely apologize. Even if she was cut once in anger, Jinsui wouldn’t flinch.
Alas, she should have been honest with Miss Yan back then. She was too cautious and had too many concerns.
Seeing Yan Jiu frown, his eyes filled with worry. His elder brother truly acted like a father, but his sister had entered adolescence and was a stubborn personality. He truly didn’t know what to do.
He had thought his sister would retreat midway after enduring hardships, but he never expected her to pursue all the way here alone without giving up.
Jinsui comforted him with a lack of confidence. “Many people in the Black Feather Camp know Miss Yan. As long as she catches up to the Black Feather Camp, she’ll be fine.”
Yan Jiu nodded slightly and asked the shopkeeper to prepare hot water, as he would be staying the night.
The entire inn could only accommodate a hundred people sleeping on communal beds at most. The others were prepared to sleep in tents, but the shopkeeper said there was a large semi-underground warehouse in the back that could barely fit them.
Thus, after traveling for over half a month, the convoy slept indoors for the first time. There was enough firewood, and they didn’t need to fetch water; burning it produced hot water. From noon until dark, the large pots never stopped, and everyone soaked their feet in hot water.
Jinsui, feeling guilty, was too embarrassed to show her face to Yan Jiu and kept helping in the kitchen. She checked on Liu Yun midway and was relieved to see he wasn’t feverish and was sleeping soundly.
She quietly asked the shopkeeper again about the lone man she had seen that day. How was he? Did he eat much? Was he frostbitten?
The shopkeeper respectfully replied that because he had the Jin Family waist token, the shop had served him attentively. He had taken a hot bath, eaten two large bowls of lamb noodles, and took twenty flatbreads with him when he left.
There was no sign of anything wrong; his hands and ears had not developed frostbite.
When Jinsui brought Yan Jiu his meal, she selectively told him what the shopkeeper had said.
Unexpectedly, Yan Jiu seemed unconcerned and said, “Miss Yan is too stubborn. This long journey can temper her a bit. Miss Ji doesn’t need to worry too much.”
Jinsui shook her head. “It’s my fault after all.”
Yan Jiu didn’t think so. “But you never gave her any promises from beginning to end, nor did you have feelings for her. It was her own one-sided affection. Must you be responsible for everyone who likes you?”
Jinsui shook her head. “But I did deceive her. If she knew I was a woman, she wouldn’t have done such a thing.”
Yan Jiu chuckled. “Then you’ve deceived quite a few people. Do you have to be responsible for all of them?”
Jinsui looked at him. “I’m not a cold-blooded person. Miss Yan’s sincerity towards me is evident. Now that something like this has happened, I can’t just stand by and do nothing.”
Yan Jiu suddenly asked rapidly, “What about Gu Changxiao?”
Jinsui froze, lowered her eyes, and said angrily, “Why bring him up? I’m going to the Northern Frontier for the sake of the Black Feather Camp brothers!
If I didn’t know, it would be one thing, but now that I do, I can’t just stand by and watch them be led to their deaths by Gu Changxiao!”
Yan Jiu was not satisfied with this answer. “Miss Ji, you should be well aware that Gu Changxiao asked you to leave the border city at that time to protect you.
Do you truly have no romantic feelings for him?”
Jinsui looked up and met Yan Jiu’s gaze. Neither of them backed down. “Does Jiu Lang think that admiration between men and women in this world is only romantic love and no other feelings?”
“I admit, I admire Gu Changxiao’s character, and we’ve been through a lot together. But if you say I’m going north for him, then I can only say, Yan Jiulang, you underestimate me.”
“In my heart, Hei Hu, Han Xing, and the brothers of the Black Feather Camp who once entrusted their lives to me, fought Tartars, exterminated bandits, and captured Zheng Yun with me, are more important!”
“Although I, Ji Sui, am a woman, I understand righteousness. If Gu Changxiao dies in the Northern Frontier, the people of the border city will inevitably become refugees again, which is what I least want to see.”
“Doesn’t Yan Jiulang have something in his heart that he would risk his life to protect?”
“There are always things that are more important than others. And romantic love is just an embellishment.”
My dears, the recent chapters are transitional moments on the road. Soon, our Sui Sui will start causing trouble.
