Lava

Kapitel 141

Mo Yan agreed, blushing as she quickly changed her clothes.

Unable to sleep any longer because her quilt was soaked, she grabbed a robe to use as a blanket, rolled over, and lay down.

Upon seeing this, Zhan Zhao felt a pang of heartache. Without thinking much, he naturally said, "Xiao Qi, the ground is quite cold. Come and sleep on the bed."

Mo Yan hesitated, "But, your injury..."

"It's alright, you can sleep on your right side." His chest wound was on his left side.

"……good."

Mo Yan climbed into bed and lay down next to Zhan Zhao, her hand clasped with his under the covers. The two lay there quietly, listening to the torrential rain and thunder outside the window, both feeling peaceful and joyful.

For a long, long time...

Mo Yan asked softly, "Big brother, are you asleep?"

Zhan Zhao replied softly, "Not yet."

"Big brother."

"Um?"

"Getting married is wonderful."

"……yes."

Chapter Seventy-Three

When Zhan Zhao woke up at dawn, Mo Yan was no longer by his side. The rain had stopped sometime earlier, and he could faintly hear her busy in the kitchen, and then he could hear her cooing as she fed the pigeons in the yard. He suddenly felt as if he were in a dream.

Recalling their words from last night, he couldn't help but smile bitterly. They had become husband and wife so hastily and haphazardly; only Mo Yan could have done such a thing. He had shared a bed with her for a night, though they hadn't consummated their marriage, how could he possibly refuse her again?

"As long as my injuries heal, getting married probably isn't such a bad thing," Zhan Zhao comforted himself.

"Big brother, you're awake!"

Mo Yan entered the room with a smile, carrying a bowl of steaming white porridge. She complained, "I wanted to cook you a bowl of chicken porridge, but Lord Yelü said your wound hasn't healed and you can't eat chicken, so I had to give up. You must be starving after eating only plain porridge and side dishes for days, right?"

Zhan Zhao smiled and shook his head: "It's good enough to have porridge."

"Big brother..." She was about to say something, but paused after calling out, and then said, "What should I call you now, husband, sir, or master?" After saying that, she scratched her ear, frowned and muttered to herself, "These titles all sound very awkward."

"Call me whatever you like," Zhan Zhao said with a smile. "We didn't adhere to any formalities when we got married, so why bother about how we address each other?"

Upon hearing this, Mo Yan smiled happily and said, "That's right, I still prefer to call you Big Brother, what do you say?"

"If you like it, then that's fine."

Mo Yan smiled, then remembered what she was about to say: "I don't know how to style my hair yet, so I just braided it and put it up. Doesn't it look strange?"

She turned her head to let Zhan Zhao see the back of her head. Sunlight streaming in from the window dappled half of her body, casting a hazy glow on her face and hair, slightly dazzling. Zhan Zhao stared at her, lost in thought, a smile playing on his lips.

"Big brother?"

"...I don't know either, but you look very good with your hair styled like this."

Mo Yan smiled contentedly.

The days passed quickly. Zhan Zhao, having married Mo Yan, was determined not to be a burden to her and had to heal his injuries. With Yelü Pusa Nu helping him circulate his internal energy to solidify the poison every day, in just a few days, the purplish-black discoloration on his limbs had faded, and the poison had solidified. The next step was to expel the poison from his body.

Zhao Yu's injuries have healed considerably, and he can even chat and laugh with Mo Yan sometimes, a stark contrast to his worried appearance a few days ago.

That day, Mo Yan bought vegetables and returned home, squatting on the ground in the yard to pick them.

When Yelü Pusa Nu came out to transfer the merit for Zhan Zhao, he saw that when she was picking vegetables, the leaves and stems were all mixed up together, so he knew that she was not paying attention.

"Hey, Madam Zhan, even if your Master Zhan doesn't eat this food, you can't just waste it like this." He kicked the basket with his foot.

Mo Yan, distracted by him, finally came to her senses and realized she had mixed everything up. She quickly and hurriedly rearranged them. As for Yelü Pusa Nu, she was too grateful to have healed Zhan Zhao's wounds, so naturally she wasn't angry.

"By the way, Lord Yelü, is this small town we're staying in within the territory of your Liao Kingdom?" she asked, looking up. She wasn't very clear about the Liao Kingdom's territory either.

Yelü Pusa Nu nodded noncommittally, looking at her as if she were an idiot.

“Oh…” Mo Yan lowered her head thoughtfully again, but said nothing more.

"What's wrong?" he had no choice but to ask.

Mo Yan scratched her ear before saying, "I saw some people on the street today that I found rather strange."

Who is it?

"I think it must have been a Song dynasty person."

Yelü Pusa Nu frowned: "What do you mean by 'you think'?"

"Because those people were all dressed in Liao clothing, as if they were trying to disguise themselves as Liao people selling furs."

How did you figure that out?

“Judging from the skin color on their faces and hands, they don’t look like people who hunt in the mountains all year round. In addition, although they changed their clothes, they didn’t change the horses’ gear. The saddles used on the horses were obviously from the Song Dynasty.”

Although Yelü Pusa Nu was already very suspicious, he still said calmly, "Perhaps the saddle was bought in Song territory, which is not surprising."

Mo Yan shook her head: "I have observed the knots on the reins of you Liao people. They are different from the way we Song people are used to tying them. If those people were Liao people, they wouldn't even have different knotting methods."

How many of them are there?