As the night deepened, Lao Qi's snoring had changed several times, but Qin Rui still kept his eyes open, quietly staring at the top of the tent.
The blanket was draped over him, but he still felt a bit cold, as if there was draft everywhere.
Qin Rui recalled how, when he slept next to Qin Chu, Qin Chu would always reach out and hug him to keep him warm. Qin Rui used to think it was unnecessary and was even afraid that his turning over in bed would wake Qin Chu.
But now he longs so much for Qin Chu's embrace.
After opening his eyes for a while in the darkness, Qin Rui felt a strange sense of grievance.
Why can't he go with Qin Chu? Why is he so short and small? He's already ten years old, but he's much shorter than most people his age.
There were also people in the military camp who had joined the army at the age of eleven or twelve. They were not much older than him, but they were all taller and stronger than him.
Qin Rui extended his left hand, looking down at the irregular birthmark on his palm. Was it because he was a boy?
He then thought of what Doctor Su had said: the young master cannot be with the young master.
Clenching his teeth and gripping his fists, Qin Rui had never hated his status as a young master as he did now. Even when he learned that the court officials wanted to send him to the border for a political marriage, he felt little emotion; his disgust was mixed with thoughts of how to use his status to survive.
But now he doesn't want to be a young man at all.
Whether it was because of his frail body or Dr. Su's curse-like words.
Qin Rui didn't quite understand what Dr. Su meant. He didn't even know that the "being together" Dr. Su meant was completely different from the "being together" he was thinking of.
But he didn't want to take even the slightest risk of being separated from Qin Chu.
After lying in bed with his eyes closed for a while, Qin Rui couldn't bear missing Qin Chu any longer. He quietly sat up and looked at the sleeping seventh brother.
He quietly crawled out of the covers, making a bulge inside. Then he slipped out of the tent, dodged the night watchmen, and ran all the way back to Qin Chu's military tent.
Qin Rui looked at the empty tent and still felt a pang of sadness.
After thinking for a moment, he simply pulled open the bedding and crawled inside.
The bedding, folded and left out all day, was cold and stiff, devoid of any warmth. But as Qin Rui buried his head in the blankets, he could smell the comforting scent left by Qin Chu.
He was finally satisfied and curled up in front of the blanket to keep warm.
Surrounded by the familiar environment and the aura of Qin and Chu, Qin Rui gradually calmed down.
Now that Qin Chu is not here, he must protect himself well and maintain his best condition.
This time, without asking for help, Qin Rui reached to the side of his neck and pressed on a vein that he often pressed. Soon after, he became confused.
He didn't faint for long this time, and without Qin Chu by his side, he quickly woke up alert.
Before dawn, Qin Rui rolled up the blanket and sneaked back to Lao Qi's tent in the dark. Lao Qi was awake when he returned, but he thought Qin Rui was just getting up in the middle of the night and didn't think much of it, quickly falling back asleep.
Qin Rui's life became much more relaxed.
With Qin Chu absent, he had no interest in staying at the training ground, so he simply went back to the kitchen to help out.
As time passed, nothing much happened when Qin Chu first left, but a few days later, some rumors began to circulate in the military camp.
The kitchen has always been a hub for all sorts of news, and Qin Rui, staying there, could feel the evolution of the rumors every day.
At first, it was just some hesitant whispers. The gossipy cooks would exchange glances, start a conversation but then swallow it back down and continue working as if nothing had happened.
As more and more people seemed to know about it, the discussions began to become more open.
Qin Rui sat by the stove, helping the cook watch the fire. He was small, and when he huddled in the firewood pile, he was basically invisible to others, so some words were freely spoken over the stove.
"Hey, did you hear? That... he's really a guy?"
"Who knows? But which family doesn't cherish their son? Who would send him to the army?"
"That's true..."
"But it does look like it, look at the appearance..."
At first, Qin Rui thought that his birthmark had been accidentally discovered and that the rumors were about him. Later, he realized that something was wrong. He didn't have much of a position in the military camp. If they knew he was a boy, they would have taken him away long ago, and they wouldn't have been so secretive about gossiping.
Qin Rui had a bad feeling at the time, and the rumors that followed proved his premonition to be correct.
Unlike the initial veiled references, later rumors went so far as to name names:
"I never expected him to actually be a gangster, and one who had been wanted by the authorities before!"
"Isn't this ridiculous? What kind of young man can become a general? He leads his men away, and if thousands of people lose their lives because of him, wouldn't that be a terrible tragedy..."
The two men were chatting idly when they suddenly sensed something was wrong. Turning around, they saw a child staring at them with wide, dark eyes. Startled, they quickly waved their hands at Qin Rui, saying, "You—what are you doing standing here instead of working?!"
Qin Rui didn't move, just stood there watching them, his dark eyes carefully scanning their faces, as if trying to memorize their features.
That look immediately made the two gossipy helpers feel uneasy. Just as they were about to say something to ease the tension, Qin Rui smiled at them with his eyes crinkling, then turned and walked away.
The two exchanged a glance, both looking somewhat surprised and uncertain.
"Is this the kid Qin Chu brought? He won't tell Qin Chu what happened, will he?"
"He's so young... what could he possibly understand? Besides, how could Qin Chu possibly come back?"
The next day, both kitchen helpers took leave.
While chopping vegetables, someone somehow cut their hand; late at night, while returning to their tent, they tripped and fell, scraping their forehead.
Qin Rui continued to loiter around the kitchen during the day, helping the cooks with small tasks, and even getting extra food because of his small stature and sweet talk. Given his appearance, no one would suspect that the injuries to the two helpers were related to him.
However, Qin Rui's methods were insufficient to stop the spread of rumors.
Qin Chu was just a commoner. Even though he had earned some military merits during the last attack on the Donghu, he was still considered unworthy of respect by many people with powerful connections.
Yet this very person was parachuted in and became a general personally appointed by the emperor, and there were many people who disliked him.
It's no secret that Qin Chu ran away from his arranged marriage and was wanted by the police; anyone who investigates carefully will eventually find out.
Furthermore, they later killed Prime Minister Lin. Fortunately, Qin Chu dealt with the servants who witnessed their actions, so the Prime Minister's mansion only knew that a villain had killed Prime Minister Lin, but could not identify the villain.
When Qin Chu was around, these people were somewhat restrained because of the imperial edict in his hand, but now that Qin Chu is gone, all sorts of monsters and demons have emerged.
The rumors intensified, ranging from Qin Chu's status as a young master to the certain failure of his attempt to seize the city, causing a chorus of boos to erupt whenever Qin Chu's name was mentioned in the military camp.
Qin Rui was furious and wished he could kill all of them.
Only one group of people remained silent, no matter how much gossiping the people around them were.
These were all people who had experienced the previous battle. They had witnessed Qin Chu's performance on the battlefield. When they heard these people arguing about being "brothers," they immediately thought of the shameful thing about losing a bet with Qin Chu and having to become a "brother."
However, these words still reached the ears of Qin Chu's two remaining brothers.
The burly third brother didn't believe it at all, thinking that these idiots were talking nonsense.
When Qin Chu first joined the army, he looked down on Qin Chu's small arms and legs and talked nonsense a few times. Later, he was taught a lesson by Qin Chu on the training ground.
Poor guy, he was two heads taller than Qin Chu, but Qin Chu beat him so badly he cried. From then on, whenever someone called Qin Chu a "brother," he thought that person was either blind or had something wrong with their brain.
Only the seventh brother, upon hearing the news, forgot to knock Qin Rui unconscious that very night.
He tossed and turned in bed, unable to sleep, so he pulled Qin Rui up and asked, "Rui, have you ever showered with your brother? Is he really...?"
Qin Rui stared at him quietly for a while, then asked with a smile, "Of course not, Seventh Brother, why do you ask that?"
Hearing his answer, and knowing that children don't lie, Lao Qi finally breathed a sigh of relief.
He explained, "I definitely don't believe that, but today I was on guard outside the general's tent and saw someone take a notice inside. One of the notices fell to the ground, and the portrait on it really looked like Brother Qin, so I..."
Qin Rui's eyes darkened; he hadn't expected there to be even a notice.
He pulled the blanket up and said casually, "Anyway, my brother definitely isn't one; he doesn't have a birthmark."
“Besides…” He looked up at the seventh brother, “Don’t you know how capable my brother is? Let’s not talk about whether he is a brother or not. Even if he is, were all the bows he drew, the arrows he shot, the enemies he killed, and the people he saved fake?”
These words made Lao Qi blush. He had been saved by Qin Chu on the battlefield. When the enemy's knife was about to cut his neck, Qin Chu took the blow for him.
The seventh brother was young and didn't know what to say. He hesitated for a while before finally humming out, "That's not what I meant. I remember Brother Qin saving me. I just thought that if Brother Qin really is him, then we have to find a way to send him away and not let him go back to the military camp to be punished."
Qin Rui lowered his head, his expression indifferent. In any case, Qin Chu was definitely not Qin Chu. Even if he was Qin Chu before, he wasn't Qin Chu now that the birthmark was gone.
Thinking of this, Qin Rui suddenly realized, "That's right, without the birthmark, he's no longer a boy!"
He immediately clenched his fists.
Having figured this out, Qin Rui felt much better. He turned to Lao Qi and smiled, "Seventh Brother, you're so silly. Even I, at such a young age, knew that the announcements were drawn by people who could draw whoever they wanted. Maybe he deliberately drew these things for you guys to see!"
Upon hearing this, Lao Qi couldn't help but slam his fist on the table: "You're right! Damn it, it must be that Zhang guy who's been up to no good. He's been disliking Brother Qin for a long time!"
The seventh brother grumbled and cursed for a while before turning over to go to sleep.
Someone surnamed Zhang?
Qin Rui took note of the form of address.
He stayed in Lao Qi's tent that night, neither secretly returning to Qin Chu's place nor knocking himself unconscious.
In the darkness, Qin Rui looked at his palm while secretly keeping an eye on Lao Qi's movements.
He wouldn't believe everything Lao Qi said.
He knew this man was a subordinate Qin Chu trusted implicitly, but the more someone is trusted, the more painful it is to be betrayed. Qin Rui wouldn't let Qin Chu experience that kind of pain.
He had told Lao Qi everything he needed to say. If the man still had any doubts, he would eliminate any signs of betrayal for Qin Chu.
Fortunately, this seventh brother was just simple-minded and a bit stupid. After he figured it out, he slept like a log all night. When he got up the next day, he had forgotten everything and had no idea that he had just been on the verge of death the night before.
Qin Rui went to the kitchen as usual during the day.
Logically speaking, with so many rumors circulating now, he shouldn't be going there so frequently anymore.
However, Qin Rui must ensure that the current rumors only focus on the suspicion that Qin Chu is a boy. If it were to spread that Qin Chu was the murderer of Prime Minister Lin, that would be disastrous.
Moreover, he has some extra tasks today.
The cooks, after putting the porridge in the pot to simmer, thought they'd go outside for a chat, and Qin Rui volunteered to watch the fire. The weather wasn't so cold anymore, and the kitchen was even warmer with the fire burning, so the job wasn't too hard to get.
The pot boiled, releasing white steam that made it difficult to see clearly.
In the white mist, Qin Rui took the fire poker out of the stove. He looked at the red-hot tip and then pressed it against the palm of his left hand.
Author's Note:
Qin Chu will be back in the next chapter.
Chapter 69, Fourth Story (15)