After he finished speaking, Yu Tang realized that what he said sounded like... complaining?
As expected, Xiao Lin was silent for a while, then smiled.
"So, General, you really are jealous." Realizing this, his anger subsided quickly, and he said softly, "Do you know that if you just say one thing and tell me not to go, I won't go. If you forbid me from doing something, I won't do it."
"But if you don't tell me, how can I know what you mean?"
I'm not jealous, you're the one who's jealous, your whole family is jealous.
Yu Tang silently complained in his heart, but he didn't call him out on it.
After all, he felt it was best not to argue at this critical juncture.
"Hmm...I understand." He replied, "Your Highness, please let me go. I'll put my clothes back on."
"Otherwise, it wouldn't be good if the soldiers saw us like this."
The two were deep in the woods, while the soldiers were splashing each other in the river, having a great time. In fact, no one would notice them.
Xiao Lin narrowed his eyes slightly, said he understood, and relaxed his arms.
But just as Yu Tang was about to leave him, he turned the man's face and kissed him.
He placed his other hand under Yu Tang's back to prevent the rough tree trunk from chafing the man's skin.
The handsome young man closed his eyes and kissed passionately.
The two were very close together, and it was very hot.
When he looked up again, Xiao Lin had already released his lips, his dark eyes staring at him.
"General, what do you suggest we do next?"
I tried to pull my hand away from his grasp, but I couldn't.
His face immediately turned bright red.
Seeing his face turn red, Xiao Lin's eyes darkened, but he smiled and asked, "General, do you still remember the contents of that book?"
He glared at Xiao Lin.
Damn! So much time has passed! You still remember!
"Cough, I don't remember." Yu Tang wished he could disappear into a crack in the ground.
“It’s alright if the general doesn’t remember.” Xiao Lin didn’t let Yu Tang off the hook just because he said he didn’t remember. Instead, he smiled close to Yu Tang’s ear and whispered, “It’s good that you remember.”
"General, all you need to do is cooperate with me."
Half an hour later, Yu Tang and Xiao Lin took a quick bath upstream of the river, away from the soldiers. Yu Tang could still feel his legs burning with pain when he was getting dressed.
Watching the boy with his trousers rolled up and spearing fish in the river with a tree branch, Yu Tang covered his face with his hands, overwhelmed with shame.
With my eyes closed, I could still hear Xiao Lin's suppressed, hoarse voice echoing in my ears.
Yu Tang felt extremely hot on his face, so he quickly ran to the riverbank, scooped up some water, and washed his face before he felt a little more refreshed.
"General, I've caught a fish!"
Hearing Xiao Lin's excited shout, Yu Tang looked up and saw that the boy had already walked up to him through the water, with a palm-sized fish stuck in the tip of a branch in his hand, and he held it out to him to show off.
He looked at Xiao Lin's smug smile, water droplets sliding down his hair, his cheeks were fair, his features were delicate, and he looked good no matter how you looked at him.
It makes people unable to get angry.
Feeling helpless, Yu Tang took the branch and said, "Your Highness is too amazing."
"But let's hurry up and go find Li Wen and the others, so they don't worry."
“Okay…” Xiao Lin reached out and pulled Yu Tang, who was squatting by the river, up. The two walked back downstream.
They discovered that the soldiers had already finished bathing and were now shirtless, grilling fish by the river.
As soon as they saw the two of them walking over from a distance, hundreds of eyes immediately turned to them.
She turned her face away guiltily.
He greeted her, "Are you all eating?"
Li Wen and Zhao Lin exchanged a glance.
Li Wen quickly greeted them, "Your Highness, General, you're finally back! Come and eat with us."
His words eased Yu Tang's embarrassment.
Relieved, Yu Tang led Xiao Lin to sit down.
Xiao Lin was skilled in cooking, so he took a dagger and worked with the soldiers who knew how to grill fish to prepare the fish.
Li Wen, Zhao Lin, and Yu Tang sat together.
Zhao Lin asked curiously, "General, where did you and His Highness go?"
After a half-second silence, he replied, "I was afraid His Highness wouldn't be used to bathing with you bunch of roughnecks, so I took him upstream alone."
"Oh, oh, oh! I get it!" Li Wen slapped his thigh, stared at Yu Tang, and concluded: "You've abandoned us to take a bath with His Highness!"
Yu Tang: ¿ ¿ ¿ ¿ ¿
Chapter 30
He died for the villain for the fourth time (30)
"Hahaha, a bath for two!"
The system couldn't help but burst into laughter: [Host, Li Wen is hilarious!]
Yu Tang felt like a million grass mud horses were galloping through his mind, utterly stunned by the description.
He twitched his lips and slapped Li Wen on the head: "You talk nonsense all day long! Can't you think of anything normal?"
"I'm not talking nonsense!" Li Wen was thick-skinned and took the beatings like a tickle. He leaned closer to Yu Tang and whispered, "General, a bath together is so nice, it can even enhance your relationship. I always take a bath with my wife..."
Yu Tang stuffed his sweaty clothes into his mouth: "You'd better shut up! Don't you feel ashamed to say things like that!"
Zhao Lin, who was listening nearby, also scolded Li Wen: "Mosquito, really, how could you say such things to the general!"
After saying that, he looked at Yu Tang with a serious expression: "General, although I don't know if it's appropriate to say this, we all agree that when it's time to strike, we should strike. A man can't be a coward!"
In your relationship with His Highness, your brothers have always been your strong support!
Knock knock—
He punched Zhao Lin and Li Wen twice.
His face flushed red, he scolded, "You two are hopeless!"
Xiao Lin's grilling skills were impeccable; Yu Tang ate with his mouth full of crumbs, yet still clamored for a fourth one.
Xiao Lin wiped his mouth with a handkerchief and rejected his request: "General, this stuff can cause internal heat if you eat too much. It's best to eat less. Three pieces are enough. Let's eat dinner when we get back tonight."
Yu Tang smacked his lips and reluctantly accepted the suggestion.
When they turned around, they saw hundreds of eyes staring at them.
After realizing he had noticed, they quickly withdrew.
Li Wen and Zhao Lin took a big bite of the fish and looked at each other.
They saw the same emotion in each other's eyes.
Damn it, it doesn't taste good anymore!
Li Wen wiped his eyes: "Linzi, I miss my wife."
Zhao Lin stuck the branch with the fish spear into the ground, unable to eat another bite, and replied, "Who isn't?"
Yu Tang was unaware that his and Xiao Lin's actions had given these rough men a mouthful of dog food (a Chinese slang term for witnessing public displays of affection), and on the way back, he was still looking forward to what delicious food Xiao Lin would cook for him.
Days passed, August was over, and September arrived, the weather gradually cooled down.
It's almost harvest time.
But for some reason, the closer it got to this point, the more the wind and rain started to blow.
Strong winds and heavy rains, one after another.
The sky was gloomy all day.
The people could only watch helplessly as the crops in the fields were blown about, broken by the wind, or flooded and drowned.
When everything calmed down, Yu Tang led his soldiers to the fields to check on the crops that had grown well in the summer, only to find a scene of desolation and ruin.
"Damn it!" Li Wen gritted his teeth, pointing to the sky: "You damned God, how could you do this to us!"
Zhao Lin patted him on the shoulder, his expression also quite unpleasant.
He asked Yu Tang, "General, what should we do?"
The military rations sent by the imperial court were too little, not enough for the soldiers in the nine northern cities.
All they could rely on were the fields they cultivated themselves, so that their massive army could survive the cold winter.
But this year, of all people, this kind of thing happened!
It's hard to imagine how they would cope if winter came and foreign tribes attacked.
"Dig up the usable grains from the fields, load them onto trucks, and replant a new batch of sweet potatoes and potatoes."
Yu Tang frowned and gave the order. After the soldiers around him left, he saw Xiao Lin squatting in front of the corn stalks, supporting the broken crops, his face looking very bad.
Yu Tang squatted down beside him, and before he could speak, Xiao Lin said, "General, I had only heard that when natural disasters struck, crops were destroyed, people couldn't pay their taxes, and some even had to go hungry."
"Now that I've seen it with my own eyes, I finally understand how hard it was."
He said, "The crops we planted with such care in the spring have been destroyed in an instant because of a month of wind and rain."
"Without support, we are heading down a dead end."
"If the soldiers are not well-fed, how can they defend this land?"
He put down the corn stalks in his hand and looked at Yu Tang: "General, I need to go back to the capital."
He said earnestly, "No matter what, we must get the military rations back for the soldiers to prepare for winter."
Xiao Lin had a vague premonition that this winter would not be peaceful in Beijiu City.