A pure heart in a jade pot

Chapter 108

Inside the boudoir, behind the screen, a maid was helping Zhao Yu remove her hair ornaments and carefully combing her beautiful hair. Following Zhao Yu's instructions, Mo Yan found Zhan Zhao and led him in through the curtain.

"Guard Zhan, you've had a hard day," Zhao Yu said from behind the screen, her voice weary and slightly downcast.

"Zhan Zhao was defeated by Yelü Pusa Nu. Please punish him, Princess."

Zhao Yu was silent for a moment, then sighed softly, "Victory and defeat are common occurrences in war, you don't need to blame yourself. I just heard that Yelü Pusa Nu was originally one of the top archers in the Liao Dynasty. You are not used to using arrows, and it is already remarkable that you only lost by one cup today."

"Zhan Zhao is ashamed."

"What exactly happened with that last arrow? I didn't see it clearly," Zhao Yu asked. "How could you miss?"

Zhan Zhao explained, "With the last arrow, Yelü Pusa Nu's arrow pierced through two Kongming lanterns in succession, while my arrow missed, so two lanterns went out, while one lantern only flickered and did not go out."

"Did you really make a mistake?"

"Zhan Zhao is ashamed."

Zhao Yu recalled the image of Yelü Pusa Nu holding a bow and sighed, "You are not yet confident in your ability to handle things, yet Yelü Pusa Nu was able to pierce two lamps with a single arrow. This man is truly not to be underestimated. You must be careful in your future actions and avoid any conflict with him."

"Zhan Zhao, remember this."

Upon hearing this, Mo Yan smiled, realizing that this was exactly what Zhan Zhao had told her before the banquet.

"Go and rest," Zhao Yu said.

"Zhan Zhao takes his leave."

Zhan Zhao left the tent, and Mo Yan followed closely behind him, almost stepping on his heels as she came out.

"Big brother..."

She had barely opened her mouth when Zhan Zhao interrupted her, asking softly, "You barely ate anything at the banquet, are you hungry now?"

"Yes." She nodded. "Big brother..."

Before she could finish speaking, Zhan Zhao pulled her toward his tent and said with a smile, "What's the rush? I haven't eaten much either. Let's go get something to eat first."

"Oh." Mo Yan asked curiously, "You have food in your tent?"

Zhan Zhao shook his head.

"Then wait for me, brother, I'll go get some food." Feeling extremely hungry, Mo Yan skipped away. Zhan Zhao smiled slightly and had no choice but to return to his tent first.

A short while later, Mo Yan came in with a smile, carrying a red lacquered food box. She said, "Luckily we brought a lot of food with us, otherwise I wouldn't be able to eat any more meat, no matter how hungry I am."

She opened the food box and laid out several dishes: snow-white shredded rolls, pickled mushrooms, a bowl of clear egg drop soup, and even two bowls of steaming rice. "The maids didn't like the food here, so they cooked rice for themselves." She handed him chopsticks and smiled, "Luckily there's some left, otherwise it would be too much trouble to cook more."

Zhan Zhao took the chopsticks, aligned them neatly, and looked at the two bowls of rice, saying, "Only two bowls left?"

"Um."

"Then send some more over."

"No need, one bowl is enough for me."

Zhan Zhao looked at her and smiled, "I remember you always eat a lot, how could one bowl of rice be enough?"

Mo Yan shook her head: "I've thought about it, I'll eat less in the future."

"Why?" Zhan Zhao asked curiously.

“In our Sichuan region, there was a woman,” she sighed, “who was divorced by her husband’s family because she ate too much.”

"..."

"So I think I should eat less in the future, at least not more than you," she said earnestly.

Zhan Zhao couldn't help but smile. He looked at her for a long time but didn't know what to say. If he said he wouldn't divorce her, it would be a bit strange to say such a thing since they weren't married yet.

"Just eat it without worry," he said gently, pushing the bowl towards her.

Inside the stronghold, most people had already rested, with only a few squads of guards patrolling back and forth.

Yelü Pusa Nu was wide awake, sitting comfortably in his tent, meticulously trimming the fletching on the arrow. Beside him was a full quiver of arrows. In between, he looked up and gazed into the distance. In the night sky, wispy clouds drifted by, dotted with a few stars, and beneath the clouds, a lone Kongming lantern floated.

"How could there only be one lamp?" His heart skipped a beat.

He tightened his grip on the arrow, stood up, and searched the night sky with his eyes, but could only see one lamp and could not find the other one.

After a short while, a dark figure slipped past the patrolling guards and quietly headed outside.

Scattered across the dimly lit wilderness lay broken Kongming lanterns, their white paper gleaming conspicuously in the moonlight. The shadowy figure approached, picking up each lantern for close examination until he found one—the candle inside was extremely short, shorter than any of the others he had seen, and the wick showed no signs of burning; it had been pierced by an arrow. Zhan Zhao's arrow had struck the middle of the candle, not the tip, which explained why the lantern flickered without the flame going out—clearly, it was intentional.

He slowly lowered the flickering lamp, and a smile slowly spread across his face, which had been sculpted by years of hardship: "Zhan Zhao..."

Inside Zhan Zhao's tent, the two had finished eating. Mo Yan put the bowls and chopsticks back into the food box, and suddenly remembered something she had wanted to ask outside the tent.

"Brother, what exactly happened with that last arrow? Did you deliberately let Yelü Pusa Nu win?"

Zhan Zhao simply smiled and did not answer.

"Did you shoot down those two lights? You're deliberately saying he shot them down."

Zhan Zhao shook his head: "I did miss the target; I didn't hit the lamp."

Mo Yan tilted her head and looked at him probingly, asking, "Did you deliberately shoot off course?"

Zhan Zhao asked with a smile, "Why do you think that?"