Chapter 21#
Reunion (V)#
This whirlwind named Pei Mingqi swept Le Wuya straight into the back hall.
Le Wuya was viciously thrown onto the only cushioned stool in the hall.
Pei Mingqi pressed down on him, demanding directly: “What is your birth date and time?”
Le Wuya gritted his teeth and rubbed his waist: “To answer General Pei, this humble official has idled away twenty-five years.”
Pei Mingqi insisted: “I want your birth date and time.”
Le Wuya: “…”
He began to regret boasting to Wen Renyue that he could handle this alone.
His eyes shifted slightly, his gaze softening, and he deliberately adopted a teasing tone, trying to brush the matter off: “Is General Pei asking for my birth date and time because you want to exchange marriage certificates with me?”
Who would have thought Pei Mingqi wouldn’t fall for it: “What marriage certificates? Stop rambling!”
Le Wuya: “…”
He had forgotten that this phoenix had never been good at studying since childhood.
But even if he didn’t like to read, hadn’t he discussed marriage in these past few years?
Faced with the awkward situation of a scholar meeting a soldier, Le Wuya’s face turned cold: “So, you’re planning to practice sorcery then?”
Hearing the word “sorcery,” Pei Mingqi’s expression darkened slightly: “You…”
“General, you have been disrespectful to this humble official time and again. I may be low in rank and status, but I am not entirely without heart, to be trampled upon by you again and again!”
Seeing the other’s serious expression and hearing his accusations, Pei Mingqi sobered up a bit.
His head throbbed as if pricked by needles, his voice and heart softened first, but his actions still forcefully trapped him in the chair: “You… are quite similar to an old acquaintance…”
Le Wuya straightened his back, staring fixedly at him: “Which old acquaintance?”
“My…” The usually straightforward Pei Mingqi was actually at a loss for words, “My…”
Le Wuya sneered in his heart.
In his eyes, he was ultimately someone he couldn’t speak of…
Pei Mingqi gritted his teeth and slapped the armrest of the chair: “My wife!”
Le Wuya: “…………” I think you’ve really lost your mind.
Only after he reacted did ripples slowly spread in his heart.
He thought, Little Phoenix has gotten married.
As children, they watched the stars together at the house in Shangjing.
As teenagers, they watched the stars together out on the frontier, outside the military tent.
Back then, they would still talk about the future together.
The sky was full of stars hanging over the Milky Way, a truly spectacular sight of a celestial river in flood.
Le Wuya pillowed his head on his arms, counting them one by one.
Unfortunately, his mind was restless, and he often messed up after counting to a hundred or so.
He draped one leg over Pei Mingqi: “Hey, what are you thinking? Stop thinking and help me count the stars.”
“What’s the point of counting them? They just hang up there, neither more nor less.”
Le Wuya: “I feel like it.”
Pei Mingqi: “Don’t crows like shiny things?”
Le Wuya kicked his thigh: “Count.”
Pei Mingqi raised his hand and patted his head one by one: “One crow, two crows, three crows…”
Le Wuya grabbed his hand and put it under his head.
Pei Mingqi looked up at the sky: “My mother said that when we go back to Shangjing this time, she wants to arrange a marriage for me.”
Le Wuya bit off the grass stalk in his mouth.
The taste of grass juice splashed in his mouth, bringing a refreshing fragrance.
Le Wuya casually pulled another fresh one, put it in his mouth, and asked in a nonchalant tone: “Whose daughter is it?”
Pei Mingqi: “I don’t know. She told me to go back and take a good look.”
As if struck by a sudden whim, he turned sideways, propped his cheek up, and looked at Le Wuya: “Hey, if I married someone who looks like you, would that be okay?”
Le Wuya closed his eyes and said: “Get lost, get lost. Where in the world would you find someone as handsome as me?”
He reached out his finger, lightly touching the small mole at the corner of Le Wuya’s mouth: “My wife just needs to have a mole like this. She would look…”
Le Wuya was a bit annoyed and closed his eyes without looking at him.
But he waited and waited, and Pei Mingqi’s unfinished sentence never came.
He had been drilling the troops all day and was tired now, so he simply closed his eyes and went off to dreamland to pull Pei Mingqi’s ears.
Years later, his words had come true. He really had married someone who looked like him.
Le Wuya was speechless for a long while before retorting: “So what do you intend to do? Marry this humble official as a concubine to take your wife’s place?”
Pei Mingqi, being a soldier, thought in a straightforward, single-minded way and completely ignored Le Wuya’s teasing: “I’m only asking for your birth date and time. Since I’m asking, you have to answer.”
Le Wuya: “Is it the act of a gentleman to use one’s authority to bully others?”
Pei Mingqi grabbed his wrist tightly: “First, I’m no gentleman. Second, so what if I do bully you?”
Le Wuya wished he could kick him to death, but he was pinned down by him. His palm was rough and full of heat, pressing against his wrist without needing much force, yet it was a great deterrent.
“Born in the Xinwei year, on the twenty-fifth day of the first month, at the hour of Yin, quarter past three.” He sighed, pretending to be utterly defeated. “Anything else you want to ask?”
Le Wuya knew that if he hesitated, Pei Mingqi’s stubborn nature would act up, and he would have to investigate thoroughly.
By lying so frankly, on the other hand, he could dispel his doubts.
Even if Pei Mingqi wanted to get to the bottom of it and find out he was lying, he still had things to say. Either the official records of his birth year didn’t match, or his birth date was actually inconvenient to disclose. He had plenty of ways.
Pei Mingqi looked up, staring fixedly at Le Wuya.
Because they were so close, Le Wuya could clearly see the light in his eyes dim.
Le Wuya, who had just smoothly fabricated a fake birth date, dropped his eyes: “General, missing your deceased wife is a legitimate human emotion, but please don’t be too overbearing. This humble official’s hand is about to break.”
Pei Mingqi finally came to his senses and abruptly let go.
The wrist he had been clutching was bright red.
Pei Mingqi took a step back, not knowing why he always lost his composure in front of this man.
Perhaps it was starting from the night before, when his carefully nurtured little purple sandalwood incense burner shattered on the ground for no reason, he had already lost any sense of reason.
“…My apologies. This general overstepped.”
Le Wuya stood up, smoothing his rumpled sleeves: “Just don’t let it happen again.”
Pei Mingqi explained: “County Magistrate Wen Ren resembles an old friend of mine, so I…”
Le Wuya sneered: “Just now it was a wife, now it’s an old friend. General Pei’s taste is remarkably consistent.”
Pei Mingqi didn’t argue, but probed cautiously: “Do you know… Le Wuya?”
Le Wuya nodded slightly: “Oh, I’ve heard of him. Is General Pei comparing me to this man? Do you wish for this humble official to die young, or do you wish for me to commit treason, create three thousand evil deeds, and bring calamity upon the nation?”
“He is not like that!” Pei Mingqi wanted to defend him, but stopped himself at the last moment, an expression of undisguised disgust seeping out. “…What do you know!!”
Le Wuya stared back at him with a face full of loyal indignation, until he stormed off in anger. Only then did his gaze slowly soften.
From afar came County Clerk Sun’s earnest question: “General Pei, you’re leaving?”
Pei Mingqi’s hot temper flared as usual: “Scram!”
But since he said this and then swept out like a whirlwind, it seemed like he was voluntarily “scramming” himself.
County Clerk Sun wiped his sweat and came to the back hall: “Your Honor, General Pei is…”
Le Wuya: “Oh, I made him angry and chased him away.”
Quarrel or not, it didn’t stop him from bullying others by borrowing the general’s authority.
County Clerk Sun instantly felt a surge of respect for him.
Just now, Pei Mingqi had brushed past him with raging fury. With a stature like that, one slap from him could send him flying over the wall.
County Clerk Sun was recalculating Le Wuya’s standing in his mind when Le Wuya fixed his gaze on him and gave a bright smile.
For some reason, Sun Ru’s back suddenly broke out in a cold sweat.
Le Wuya: “County Clerk Sun, we didn’t finish our talk yesterday. Let’s have another heart-to-heart, shall we?”
…
Full of resentment, Pei Mingqi stormed out of the government office, taking the steps two or three at a time.
His second-in-command was used to this and handed him the horsewhip.
Pei Mingqi instructed with a gloomy face: “Buy some good wound medicine and send it to that Wen Ren fellow.”
The second-in-command was startled: “You, sir…” Could it be that the young general had gone mad and chopped up the county magistrate?
But seeing that Pei Mingqi wasn’t carrying any weapons, he relaxed a little and tentatively asked: “Medicine for knife wounds or for cuts and bruises…”
Pei Mingqi said irritably: “Buy them all! If you say another word, I’ll make you pay out of your own pocket to buy him a whole pharmacy!”
The second-in-command didn’t say another word and boomed out: “Yes, sir!”
Then, with a serious expression, he said: “Young General, since the imperial envoy has left, I can handle the affairs at Nanting. The routine military matters…”
Pei Mingqi cut him off: “I’ll stay here.”
The second-in-command boomed again: “Yes, sir!”
“Prepare a brush and ink.” Pei Mingqi paced a few times restlessly by the horse. “Find the address of Minister of Rites Chang’s mansion. I need to send a letter.”
The second-in-command was startled and lowered his voice: “Young General, Minister Chang is already sixty. He’s so old, you really shouldn’t send him a scolding letter!”
Pei Mingqi pretended to whip him with the horsewhip: “If I were Minister Chang, I’d scold you two hundred times a day! I’m going to ask him for the truth!”
The second-in-command dodged behind the horse, gathered his courage, and still risked a beating to whisper: “Young General, you can’t trust those wandering Taoists completely. Since your incense burner broke, just let that person… go with the wind.”
Pei Mingqi lowered his brows and eyes, making the crease of his double eyelids appear even deeper, as if lost in thought.
After a long moment, he said in a low voice: “You’re right.”
“I won’t write to Minister Chang. This matter has nothing to do with him. It was his son, the one who lives like a hermit, who found the connection. There’s no need to trouble him anymore.”
Just as the second-in-command showed a relieved expression, Pei Mingqi gnashed his teeth and said fiercely: “…Could it be that He Lianche deceived me? Does he hate Wuya that much?”
Thinking of this, Pei Mingqi pointed at his stunned second-in-command: “Still prepare the brush and ink. I’ll write a letter, and you memorize it. Go find the Jing tribe’s envoy and, word for word without changing a single character, curse him out!”
He added: “While delivering the letter to the envoy, also send a message to our spies still in the Jing tribe’s territory. Tell them to investigate carefully whether the Jing tribe is secretly contacting our dynasty’s private coal mines to smuggle small amounts of coal into their territory, drop by drop, building up a large amount. I suspect the Jing tribe intends to start another war.”
The second-in-command: “…Yes, sir.”
After giving these two orders together, he could no longer tell if his young general was a brute or a genius.
Pei Mingqi grabbed the reins, ready to mount his horse.
Then he remembered something else, turned around, and asked: “By the way, what are marriage certificates?”
The second-in-command, who was about to mount as well, nearly lost his footing and fell off the horse.
After recovering, he almost wept for joy.
Although the young general was still incredibly fierce and all over the place, he was finally starting to think about serious matters!!
He asked eagerly: “Which family’s daughter has caught your eye, Young General?”
Pei Mingqi gave him a disdainful look: “Are you sick?”
A moment of silence fell between them.
A subtle change occurred in Pei Mingqi’s eyes: “…What does ’exchanging marriage certificates’ mean?”
…
Le Wuya finished his second heart-to-heart with County Clerk Sun, leaving Sun with a truly pale face.
Le Wuya couldn’t care less about County Clerk Sun’s well-being.
He stretched with a relaxed mind, thinking it was about time to go to sleep.
In his previous life, he never had a fixed time for rest. Going to court, working, socializing—he had only five days off a year at most. He had long developed the habit of being able to fall asleep wherever he could curl up.
His longest period of rest had been waiting to die in the prison circle he had created himself.
Therefore, when he slept a long afternoon nap and woke up to find the world completely dark, with only a single red gauze-shaded lamp burning, he could hardly get used to such comfort.
In a daze, the scenes of the past and present before Le Wuya’s eyes were somewhat confused.
It was as if he was still pillowed on Pei Mingqi’s arm, waking from a light sleep, with scattered starlight and dewdrops falling onto his eyelashes together, cool and clear.
The field was open, the sky low, and the stars flowed like a stream.
He pursed his lips. There still seemed to be the lingering cool fragrance of grass between them.
Pei Mingqi said softly to him without rhyme or reason: “One thousand eight hundred and sixty-two.”
Le Wuya was still groggy from sleep and didn’t understand what he meant. He just stared blankly at him, moved his head, and got a scream of agony from Pei Mingqi: “My arm! It’s numb! Numb!”
Now, lying in his quilt, Le Wuya suddenly realized what Pei Mingqi had been saying.
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-two stars.
He really had counted them.
Just as Le Wuya was lost in thought, he heard someone tapping on the window from outside, the same rhythm as last night.
Le Wuya narrowed his eyes and got out of bed. Opening the window, he saw the stars spread across the ground, and he saw him.
Le Wuya rubbed his eyes: “You’re here?”
Wen Renyue: “Yes.”
Le Wuya opened his mouth and immediately asked: “What’s your birth date and time?”
Wen Renyue looked slightly puzzled but answered readily: “I was born in the Xinwei year, on the second day of the second month, the Dragon Heads-Up Festival… at the hour of You, quarter past. What’s wrong?”
Le Wuya was stunned. That doesn’t match mine either.
But he quickly let it go.
He himself didn’t know exactly when he was born. In any case, he was about a year older than Little Phoenix.
Le Wuya’s hair was loose. Perhaps because he had slept so long, his hair had formed beautiful large waves, making his originally refined features look even paler and more strikingly vivid.
Wen Renyue looked down and saw that he was actually standing barefoot on the stone floor. Becoming worried, he reached out and touched his forehead: “What’s wrong?”
At this moment, Le Wuya finally sensed something was off.
Without a word, he cupped Wen Renyue’s face with both hands, squeezed and kneaded it left and right, and asked suspiciously: “…Why hasn’t your appearance changed?”