A pure heart in a jade pot - Chapter 170
"Lord Yelü?!" Mo Yan seemed pleasantly surprised to see him. "Why haven't you rested yet?"
Zhan Zhao remained silent. He couldn't very well say that he deliberately didn't go back to his tent to rest in order to avoid her, but unexpectedly ran into her here.
Seeing his cold expression and silence, Mo Yan scratched her ear and suddenly realized, "You weren't waiting for me, were you? Want to hear what I didn't finish saying this morning..."
“No.” He interrupted her, saying calmly, “Miss Mo, you should rest early. I still have to patrol the camp.”
"I'm not sleepy yet, so..." she said cheerfully.
"I'm sleepy."
He interrupted her again, then strode away, keeping an eye on his back. When he heard no footsteps following, he secretly breathed a sigh of relief.
Mo Yan stood there, looking down at his back. After a moment, she yawned and went back to her tent.
Fortunately, the weather was relatively fine along the way, and the journey, which was originally expected to take four days, was completed in just three days, and we arrived at the spring hunting grounds on the banks of the Duck River.
When Ning Jin first saw the Liao people's tent palace, although he couldn't show it on his face, he was full of admiration in his heart. He couldn't have imagined that the tent could be made so magnificent and splendid, with even corridors and courtyards.
Not long after everyone was settled, someone came to fetch Ning Jin to see Yelü Zongzhen. The messenger also conveyed Yelü Zongzhen's decree, instructing Zhao Yu to rest well and bestowing upon her some precious medicinal herbs. Ning Jin insisted on going with Zhao Yu, but seeing how haggard Zhao Yu looked after several days of bumpy travel, she couldn't bear to force her any further and went alone with Wu Zichu.
That night, Ning Jin returned home completely drunk; when it came to drinking, he was no match for the Liao people. The next day, he was invited to go hunting with Yelü Zongzhen, a trip that would take several days to complete.
Yelü Hongji was still hunting in the mountains and had not yet returned. Hearing that Xiao Guanyin and Xiao Xin had also gone with him, Zhao Yu felt much relieved. In the following days, before she had fully recovered, she asked Mo Yan to accompany her to dig a hole in the marshland to fish, hoping to catch a five-colored divine turtle.
The cold wind was howling, and even though I was wrapped tightly in a fox fur coat, it was still so cold that my teeth were chattering.
“Princess, you’re still not well, so…” Mo Yan was increasingly confused about what she was trying to do. “Why do you have to catch a turtle to play with? Wouldn’t it be more fun to keep a cat or dog?”
Zhao Yu shook his head and coughed a few times: "You don't understand, I didn't buy this turtle for fun."
"What was the purpose of that?"
"To give away."
"Who are you going to give it to?" Mo Yan asked curiously. "Do you perhaps want to give one to Prince Ning to take back to Song as a souvenir? But I don't think he would like this thing."
Zhao Yu smiled faintly: "It wasn't him, I wanted to give it to Yelü Hongji."
"Why give it to him?" Mo Yan frowned, leaned closer and whispered, "I want him to live a long and healthy life, like a turtle that lives for a thousand years."
Zhao Yu chuckled at her words, shook his head, and slowly said, "No, actually I hope he will be grateful to me."
Mo Yan was taken aback for a moment, then she understood: "Are you afraid that he will marry Xiao Guanyin again in the future?" After coming to Liao, she had heard some things and knew that Zhao Yu's situation was not good.
"Whether he marries Xiao Guanyin or not makes no difference to me. What I care about is my importance in his heart," Zhao Yu said softly. "If things continue like this, even if we perform the grand ceremony, I will still be insignificant in his heart. If one day he decides to raise an army in the Central Plains, what can I do?"
"He...no way." Mo Yan bit her lip. If that really happened, it wouldn't be hard to imagine Zhao Yu's situation.
"Besides, if that day really comes, the first person they'll have to guard against is me, along with the people under me. I'm just a weak woman, and even if I have the will, there's really not much I can do."
"But what does this have to do with sending a tortoise to Yelü Hongji?"
“I heard before the New Year that Yelü Hongji had sent people to look for this five-colored divine tortoise, intending to present it to Yelü Zongzhen as a birthday gift, but they failed to find it. I guess he wanted to use this to curry favor with Yelü Zongzhen and make Yelü Chongguang give up his ambition for the throne. If I can find this five-colored divine tortoise for him, he will surely be grateful to me.”
"What good is his gratitude to you? If the two countries are at peace, that's fine, but if the dynasty wants to wage war against the Central Plains, why would it treat you kindly because of a little turtle!" Mo Yan thought Zhao Yu's actions were too foolish.
Zhao Yu shook his head: "Do you think I'm doing this for myself?"
"Then what is it for?" Mo Yan asked, puzzled.
Zhao Yu looked at the ice, a faint sadness on his face, and after a long while said, "Let's not talk about this anymore. You will understand in the future."
Mo Yan didn't want to force her, and looked at her and said, "Princess, you are really different from before."
A cold wind swept by, and Zhao Yu coughed a few times before he was about to speak. But when he looked up, he saw someone moving in the bushes a little further away, looking in his direction.
"Xiao Qi, look over there, isn't there someone?" Zhao Yu was a little scared and tugged at her sleeve.
Mo Yan glanced at it, then picked up a stone and threw it over, while loudly asking, "Who's there, sneaking around like that?"
The person in the bushes was hit by a stone and cried out in pain. It was the voice of an old man. After he slowly walked out of the bushes, Mo Yan and Zhao Yu could see clearly that he was an old man gathering firewood. His face was covered with a messy beard, making it difficult to make out his features, and his clothes were also very shabby. Seeing that he was limping and had difficulty walking, the two of them immediately felt very guilty.
"Are you alright?" Mo Yan rushed over and asked apologetically.
The old man glared at her angrily, then ignored her and bent down to pick up the firewood that had fallen. Mo Yan quickly helped him pick it up.
At this moment, Zhao Yu also arrived.
The old man looked up at her twice, said nothing, and then went back to picking firewood. After he had finished picking the firewood, he tied it up and carried it with difficulty on his back.
"Old man...you..."
Zhao Yu wanted to say something, but after being stared at by the old man, she swallowed it back.
After the old man had walked away, Mo Yan blurted out, "It's made of wood."
"What?" Zhao Yu didn't understand.
"That person had a wooden leg."
Upon hearing this, Zhao Yu's gaze fell on the old man's faltering back, and she sighed softly.
Volume 3, Chapter 16
As night fell, a few stars twinkled intermittently in the cold wind.
Zhan Zhao had just returned from Yelü Chongguang's place and had drunk quite a bit of wine. Although he wasn't drunk, his head was a little fuzzy. He had just entered the tent, taken off his cloak, picked up a flint, and before he could even light a lamp, he realized something was wrong—there seemed to be someone in the tent!