Heaven is the shore of mortal dust - Chapter 41
"Do you want to kill me or take the secret manual?" Wei Zijun asked.
"Whatever you think is best, I... I'll listen to you." Liu Yunde seemed a little shy and lowered his head slightly.
Wei Zijun was somewhat surprised by his reaction. Listen to her? Could it be that he really thought of her as a wife? Thinking of this, she chuckled angrily.
Liu Yunde looked up in surprise, "You're not angry anymore?"
"If you kill someone, I will be angry!" Wei Zijun said with a smile.
"As long as you don't get angry, I won't kill anyone." Liu Yunde stared blankly at her smiling lips.
"Is that really true!" The unexpected smoothness made her slightly suspicious, but when she carefully examined the expression on his face, she was overjoyed. "I will return the manual to you immediately."
"I'll leave it with you for now," Liu Yunde said shyly, touching his nose. "Consider it... a token of my love for you."
The person who was about to retrieve the manual swayed upon hearing this. Did this idiot think that a kiss sealed their love?
He had to stop her, feeling dizzy: "No! Your ancestral possessions must be returned to you. As for you, if you want to resolve your inner conflict, you should go to your uncle's grave and talk to him. I believe he will agree, and I guarantee with my life that the descendants of the Yin family will never harm anyone from your Liu family."
"You've thought it through." Liu Yunde suddenly became coy, twisting his two fingers together incessantly until they looked like a pretzel. Wei Zijun was a little stunned. How could he have been so fierce yesterday? Why hadn't she seen him so shy? People really can't be judged by their appearance.
Around noon, Die'er and her father arrived.
As soon as the old man entered, he saw Wei Zijun in the hall and stepped forward to bow, saying, "Old Zhang greets the young master and begs the young master to take in Die'er."
"Uncle Zhang, please don't be like this. Didn't I tell you to come find me a long time ago? Why did you only come today?"
"Alas! My old body is useless, I've been a burden to Die'er, and I've been sick for more than ten days before I'm feeling a bit better. I heard that Young Master Wei's Juyun Tower is doing very well, so I was thinking of sending Die'er over here to be your servant, to serve you tea and water and take care of your daily needs. With you taking care of her, I can rest assured."
“Uncle, my shop is short-staffed, and the kitchen is also short-staffed. Let Die’er do whatever she likes.” Wei Zijun turned to Die’er. “Whatever Die’er likes to do, she’ll only get three taels a month. Let her do whatever she likes.”
Three taels of silver a month is neither high nor low here; you can't give too much, otherwise the other employees will have something to say. You can only help them out privately.
"Thank you for your great kindness, young master. One or two ounces is enough for me. I only want to serve you," Die'er said softly.
"Three ounces isn't much; it's just enough for you and the old man to live comfortably. I'm used to living alone and don't need anyone to wait on me. Just do whatever you need."
She really wasn't used to having someone wait on her; it was too inconvenient.
"Does the young master despise me?" This butterfly was truly made of water; as she spoke, tears were already welling up in her eyes.
Wei Zijun couldn't bear to see anyone cry. "Not at all! If Die'er doesn't find it hard, then stay by my side."
Anyway, we don't need her to do anything; keeping her around is just doing charity.
"Thank you, young master!" Die'er smiled happily, her eyes still glistening with tears.
"Uncle, what will you do without Die'er to take care of you?" Wei Zijun was a little worried about the old man's health. "How about this, since I don't live here anyway, Die'er will come over every day at 9 am and go back to take care of you at 3 pm. You can come here for lunch at noon."
"No, sir, we can't accept your kindness any longer. This old man has no way to repay you." Old Zhang was moved to tears.
"Sir, you're overthinking it. There are a lot of people eating lunch here, so one more or one less won't make a difference. Please come over without worry. It'll just be a little late for lunch, but there's plenty of food here, so you can fill your stomach anytime. Please don't refuse, sir, let's make a reservation."
A little past noon, only a few guests remained, and the large group gathered together for a meal, enjoying themselves immensely. Old Man Zhang, seeing such a sumptuous meal for the first time, kept muttering, "Young Master Wei is such a kind man! How can I, an old man, ever repay him?"
Wei Zijun smiled and said, "Uncle, please eat more. You've been talking all day and haven't eaten much. Liulang, please help the old man pick out some more food."
Liu Lang, who was sitting next to the old man, responded and almost poured the plate into the old man's bowl.
After dinner, Wei Zijun strolled outside, watching the slanting sunlight spill across the bustling street. Looking up at the ancient sky, she couldn't help but sigh. She sighed at the vicissitudes of fate, at the unpredictability of life. Who could have foreseen that a promising young talent would be thrown into ancient times like this? What awaited her ahead?
Just as he was sighing, someone appeared beside him. He turned his head and saw that it was Liu Yunde.
Seeing Liu Yunde staring at her, making her feel a little uncomfortable, she asked, "What are you looking at? Is something wrong?"
Liu Yunde smiled憨厚ly, "I didn't expect you... to be so kind... I... I..." He stammered for a long time, and finally just smiled憨厚ly again. His憨厚 smile was completely at odds with his handsome appearance.
For some reason, ever since that kiss, Liu Yunde has been so shy and bashful whenever he sees her. It's easy to imagine how much that kiss affected him.
Wei Zijun chuckled. What an idiot!
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Note: "刻" (kè) refers to a period of time. In ancient times, a two-hour period was called a "時辰" (shíchén), and each "時辰" was divided into eight "刻" (kè). Each "刻" was approximately 15 minutes (not the 30 minutes some people claim; otherwise, my lips would be in terrible condition, haha, so I'm clarifying this). A more detailed division was that a day and night was divided into 100 "刻" (kè), each 14.4 minutes.
[Volume 1, Deer City Chapter: Chapter 36 The Villain]
In the border region during the tenth month of the lunar calendar, the cold is biting. Since a light snowfall last night, the ground has begun to freeze.
Two hundred thousand troops gathered outside Yiwu, resisting the repeated invasions of the Turks, recapturing the occupied cities of Yiwu, and driving the Turkic bandits all the way through Shiluoman Mountain.
Li Tianqi originally intended to press his advantage and conquer Gaochang in one fell swoop, but Li Luan was worried that the expanded territory would be difficult to manage. In addition, he had always been on good terms with the Western Turks, and the Western Turks proposed peace talks and paid a large amount of gold, so he had to give up the idea, and the border returned to peace.
Li Tianqi should be able to return to the capital in a few more days.
In the biting cold wind, two tall and muscular figures emerged from the military tent and strolled through the camp, facing the northern wind.
The night was so quiet you could almost hear the stars twinkling. The soldiers were already asleep, but those on night watch were still diligently enduring the bitter cold.
Walking across the icy road, the crunching sound broke the silence between the two.
"I thought this war would last for half a year, but I didn't expect it to end so quickly," Li Tianqi sighed. "I'll be returning to the capital in a couple of days. Before taking up my post, I want to visit Wu County. I really miss my fourth brother!"
"I have no way to see my fourth brother. I can only wait here for the imperial edict. The general stationed here has died in battle, so I guess I will have to stay here." Chen Chang said with some helplessness.
How could he not miss his fourth brother? Indeed, they hadn't spent much time together, so why did he miss him so much?