Lou Ying wants to laugh, but opens her mouth to cough.
Chi Xiaochi propped one hand on the armrest of the wheelchair, smoothing his back: âWhy did you choose such a configuration?â
Lou Ying bent down, âThatâs the only way to go.â
He had tried many times, but an anomaly had been added to his selection system, and no matter what identity he chose, he was a debilitated man who was bad at walking and vomiting blood three times.
He tried to go back, to reason with Lord GOD, to promise to talk, to try to keep his hands to himself, but found that he could not send a docking signal.
His attempt to return to Chi Xiaochiâs body also failed.
And in a world where the internet does not exist, information is basically obtained by mouth, and information is basically found by hand.
However, Lou Ying was unable to explain in detail to Chi Xiaochi what this glib âonly thisâ was all about.
Itâs a good thing Chi Xiaochi is quick-witted.
He said, âDog brain flower.â Anyway, call Lord GOD and be done with it.
Lou Ying smiles, âHmm.â
Chi Xiaochi points to the corner of his eye.
âThis?â Lou Ying stroked the ink tattoo at the corner of his right eye, and changed his tone, âI am Yu Fengmian, the character Jiu Ge, when I was young, there was a severe drought. The emperor was furious and sentenced the whole clan to be embroidered and exiled to the border. When the General was guarding the border, he went into town in disguise to look for traces of his scouts and met me by chance. I was fortunate enough to win the generalâs attention, so he reported to me that he had hired me as his teacher and sent me back to the capital to live in the generalâs residence.â
When he was done, he asked Chi Xiaochi, âDid you like the script?â
Chi Xiaochi said, âItâs okay.â
He distracted himself by looking at the branded lines at the corners of the manâs eyes.
The branding is nicely shaped, like a flower blossoming out of the side of the eye.
But the meaning is not so beautiful.
For the benefit of the border people, the word ânational traitorâ is engraved in southern Wen, a very dirty and insulting term.
But with Lou Yingâs almost transparent white skin, itâs not so harsh.
Especially when he had coughed too hard and slowly took his breath with his eyes closed, there was an otherworldly beauty in the mixture of filth and holiness.
Back to business.
Chi Xiaochi got up, â Lord GOD gave the world line to ignore?â
âObscure.â Lou Ying said, âAt least I donât receive it here.â
Chi Xiaochi said, âGreat. Iâm now the meat bag that fell into the dogs.â
Lou Ying : âNo fear, Iâll rob you.â
Chi Xiaochi took off his clothes and put them on him: âOh, youâre in such a state, youâre still robbing. Take care of your body.â
Lou Ying said, âFor your sake, I have to take care of it and live a long life.â
Then he saw Chi Xiaochiâs face change for a moment.
Lou Yingâs heart stabbed with a sharp pain.
â¦â¦ He seems to have stepped on a mine.
But Chi Xiaochi didnât even give him a chance to console him.
He looked as normal and said, âI will start with the news I have here. The original owner Shi Tingyun , the son of a general, ostensibly had two close minions and was not on bad terms with the two princes. â¦â¦ The original owner was quite a good mixer. I got a sudden headache when I saw a few of them, and saw something that should be the memories of the original master himself, but the information is incomplete and doesnât have much reference value for now. What about on your end?â
Lou Ying nodded and said, âI know a little more than you do.â
He swung his wheelchair back half a metre: âAfter I went to see you, I went through the books here briefly.â
Chi Xiaochi is a bit dizzy looking at the thousands of antique books on seven or eight shelves here, and inevitably blows his brother Lou out of the water.
Chi Xiaochi is quite distinguished this time around.
His father was Shi Jinghong, a Confucian general and hereditary general of the state, and his ancestors fought with the king in his battles and built a kingdom, setting the capital at Wangcheng.
The king did not doubt the general, and the general was loyal to the king. In this way, the Shi family leapt to become the most prominent family in Wangcheng apart from the royal family.
The ancestral motto of the Toki family is to serve the king in blue blood.
The seven generations of the Toki family, including Shi Tingyun, are all Confucian and brave.
When he was sixteen, Shi Tingyun was the only son in his family, his mother having died young, he learned to play with the bow and arrow, and he became the companion of Yuan Heng, the thirteenth prince.
Even though Shi Tingyun was so competitive, he still caused his father a lot of headaches.
He was a gregarious man who liked to make friends, and was not afraid of status. If you could join him, even a street gangster could share a sip of his wine.
If that was all there was to it, General Toki was afraid he wouldnât be so troubled.
When he was young, General Toki also served as an accompanist to the current Emperor, and he followed his fatherâs teachings and was careful in what he said and did, not daring to overstep his bounds in any way.
But Shi Tingyun never listened to him.
Not only did he have close personal relationships with seven or eight of the emperorâs sons, he had close personal relationships with two of them.
General Toki often heard that Shi Tingyun invited the two princes to poetry contests, racecourses, polo matches, and an occasional visit to the Flower House.
Every time General Toki heard about it, his eyes went black.
Yan Yuanzhao, the sixth prince, was born of the late Empress, and was uninhibited, intelligent enough, but fun-loving and foppish by nature. However, the emperorâs love for the late empress was so strong that he did not make a queen after her death, which gave him enough capital to run amok without offending the royal family.
The thirteenth prince, Yan Yuanheng, whose mother was once a third concubine, was punished for jealousy and made a concubine of a lower rank. However, the Emperor did not treat his youngest son harshly and found him a companion, Shi Tingyun.
Yan Yuanheng also lived up to this expectation, with his extraordinary spirit, Wen and martial arts training, and his unforgettable readings.
However, probably because of his motherâs punishment, Yan Yuanheng was a highly disciplined man who was afraid of making mistakes, so he kept to his manners, did not drink, did not get close to women, got up at dawn and rested at dusk, and was a young man who made goji berries in his thermos.
Shi Tingyun doesnât mind this, he likes to make fun of him when he gets drunk, he always says, âOld fogey, come on, letâs give you one for Master Shi.
In the elegant seat filled with the scent of powder, Yan Yuanheng held his cup of tea with plums, not moving like a mountain, his expression calm as if he was offering incense, so that the girl who sang the song wondered if she was not in the Drunken Moon Residence but in the Bodhi Temple in the countryside.
Fortunately, General Shih did not hear such treacherous words from Aiâer, otherwise he would have suffered a cardiac arrest.
On a certain occasion when he returned to Wangcheng to report on his duties, Shi Jinghong was so terrified that he submitted a form to the emperor to ask for his sins.
âGeneral, donât worry about it.â The emperor was open-minded, âSu Chang has been brought up by me, he has a great future ahead of him, and he is young and frivolous, so it is fine for him to be a little out of the ordinary. Yuan Heng and Yuan Zhao are also adults and have their own decisions, so why should you and I interfere?â
The current Emperor is in his prime, gentle and benevolent, and is a very qualified ruler.
The royals at the bottom all looked well behaved too, and nothing seemed wrong.
However, in Shi Tingyunâs fleeting fragments of memory, Yan Yuanzhao, the sixth prince, died kneeling on a plaque that was on fire.
That backdrop, how it looks, is not like a time of peace and prosperity.
Chi Xiaochi : âWhere are the two boys.â
Lou Ying said, âWhen I visited you, I pretended I didnât know them and talked to each of them. A Ling was fine, he was from the Middle Kingdom and had all the slaves and deeds. But that Ah Shu is from the southern border.â
Chi Xiaochi whistles.
It doesnât look like it.
âItâs not like that.â Lou Ying said, âHe didnât shy away from saying that his parents had died young and that he had gone to the border with his grandparents when he was young, and that after they died of an epidemic and had no means of subsistence, he had become a slave and was bought by the generalâs family because he was clever. Shi Tingyun learnt his southern language from him.â
â Where is A Ling?â
Lou Ying asks, âYou suspect him?â
Chi Xiaochi thought of the half-hearted âstop cloudâ she had heard from A Ling during her dizzy spell and said, âI doubt anyone.â
He even suspected Yan Yuanzhao, the sixth prince, before everything was clarified.
A tragic ending doesnât mean anything.
Lou Ying said, âShi Tingyun loved him.â
Chi Xiaochi waited for Lou Yingâs next Wen: âHmm.â
Lou Ying : âNo more.â
Chi Xiaochi : ââ¦â¦ eh?â
It was only after the explanation that Chi Xiaochi realised why the phrase was so simple.
Because itâs that simple.
A Ling came even later than Shu.
He joined the school at the age of thirteen and learnt everything at once, from marksmanship, calligraphy and painting to chess, archery and military skills.
Shi Tingyunâs love of talent was the same as his fatherâs, and he was so fond of him that he took him with him when he first went to war, a clear sign of promotion.
And A Ling didnât lose Shi Tingyunâs people either.
Although he didnât actually go into battle and kill the enemy, he did have a decent job as a liaison officer.
On his return, Shi Tingyun took him with him everywhere he went, playing games, practising his spear and riding horses, with the intention of training him and removing him from slavery.
Chi Xiaochi thought for a moment, âDoes Shu, who entered the house before A Ling, have a problem with such favouritism?â
Lou Ying has thought of everything that Chi Xiaochi could think of.
Lou Ying said, âShu himself said that his talent for serving people was higher than his talent for marching to war, and that there was nothing wrong with each one looking after his own. â¦â¦ Of course, the truth of this statement is for reference only.â
Chi Xiaochi let out a breath.
So much for the current situation.
Things didnât get any better, but it was good to know some information.
It was the tradition of the Shi family to marry only one wife and not to have concubines. Since the death of Shiâs mother, General Shi Jinghong had not married again and was stationed at Zhennan Pass all year round, and now that he, the eldest son, was in charge of the generalâs residence, he had not less freedom.
So he decided to exercise his sovereignty first and take his brother Lou out for a walk.
Itâs a beautiful spring day outside and itâs not good for your health to stay inside all the time.
Lou Ying obeyed and found a black triple hedge to put on herself.
He explained, âMy eyes get upset when I see light and wind.â
Solidly crunchy.
At Chi Xiaochiâs words, it suddenly occurred to her that Lou Ying had just been wearing a power fence, rocking over to him alone, gently touching his forehead, and rocking back again alone.
Lou Ying tilted her head and asked him, âWhatâs on your mind?â
Chi Xiaochi, whose mind is filled with PSAs for widows and orphans, denies it: âNo.â
Lou raised his hand and stroked his right eye, which was covered by a power hedge: âThis is also not convenient for people to see, so I can only show you.â
Chi Xiaochi : ââ¦â¦â
He suddenly found this tattoo erotic.
Lou Ying sighs gently, âIf we werenât going for the full drama, we should have used Southland Wen with the words âChi Xiaochiâ tattooed on it. It would look better that way.â
Chi Xiaochi : ââ¦â¦â
Lou Ying : âIâll try to make it look like a rose.â
Before he could finish his sentence, he coughed and asked himself if he had molested too much and was condemned by God, so he simply shut his mouth.
Chi Xiaochi tightened his own garment for him and dunked a tambourine for him to hold.
The day has warmed up, but his hands are still cold and clammy.
Once fully prepared, he pushed Lou Yingâs wooden wheelchair out of the dimly lit Lou Wah Court.
Outside, the grass is long and the wind with its warm fragrance stirs the hedge, revealing the slightly pointed and thin chin of the man in the curtain.
Chi Xiaochi pushed slowly: âSir, tell me about the war on the frontier.â
Lou Ying smiled, rubbed his fingertips slowly over his knee and spoke one sentence at a time.
There are no internal problems, but there are many external problems, the southern border, which has been repeatedly pacified, is one of the biggest, and the Xiongnu in the north, which is in decline, but also has disobedient intentions. Fortunately, they are not powerful enough, so as long as they can keep the Southern Pass and prevent the Xiongnu from joining forces with the Southern Border, there will be no major problems.
The two men, one teaching and the other listening, looked like a pair of teachers and students on a stroll.
When the business was finished, the two of them arrived near Chi Xiaochiâs bedroom.
Chi Xiaochi has been in Louâs presence for so long that he suddenly wants to make a mistake that he canât stop.
Lou Ying talked too much, inhaled some cold air and started coughing again.
Chi Xiaochi took the opportunity to smooth his back: â Brother Lou?â
Lou Ying looks up at him with a cough.
He came up to his ear and purposefully puffed, âWhy donât you come back inside me if youâre so uncomfortable?â
Lou Ying is coughing harder.
Chi Xiaochi was just thinking she had gotten one back when she heard Lou Ying coughing with laughter in her voice.
He took a breath and looked up earnestly, âConditions didnât allow it this time. Fight for it next time.â
Xiaochi drove to the north-east and crashed.
The driver of the car went rogue, didnât run, and sat where he was and played rogue.
All in all, veteran driver Chi Xiaochi pronounced an eight-car pile-up and a very ugly death.
Lou Ying naturally knew to take what she could get and, noticing that both his ears were red, withdrew the handkerchief into her palm, âBut there are advantages to being uncomfortable.â
Chi Xiaochi looks down at him.
He said, âI am sick for once to set an example and I hope that in the future a certain patient will also listen to medical advice and be treated well.â
Chi Xiaochi says: âIt depends on what medical advice is given.â
Lou Ying says: âItâs not good to be picky.â
Chi Xiaochi says: âIâm not picky about anything else, but this. So I have to keep my husband well, so he can control me when the time comes.â
Lou Ying looks up.
Having spent so much time with him, he knew exactly which of Chi Xiaochiâs words were intended as teasing and which were meant as a joke.
When Chi Xiaochi said the words âmy husbandâ, he was just trying to get a buzz.
But such thoughtlessness is much, much cuter than when he drives on purpose.
Meanwhile, Chi Xiaochi pauses in front of his bedroom.
ââ¦â¦ So, of course, the rose is to be picked back and carefully kept.â Chi Xiaochi said, âIt is in the studentâs heart to leave the gentleman alone in the gloomy Luhua Court.â
Lou Ying couldnât help but laugh: âMy bedding is still at Luhuagui.â
âItâs good to have people over, things are always available.â Chi Xiaochi bowed his back and smiled with his eyebrows, âMostly I want to ask you sir to keep an eye on people for me.â
He was referring to Ah Shu and A Ling.
Lou Ying acquiesced, of course, and acknowledged and complimented him on his somewhat unreasonable comment earlier, âYou really look like a dude.â
Chi Xiaochi shrugged, âIâve been in it.â
Lou Ying remembers.
He was a young man in the Republic of China, who loved to smoke cigarettes and love beautiful women. After his familyâs downfall, he became the second in the bandit mountain, but he was also a noble man who owed people money and was always lazy, which made the boss want to clean him up.
But Lou Ying will always just want to hug him.
Lou Ying tries to shake Chi Xiaochiâs hand on the side of the wheelchair when A Ling comes rushing in from the side.
When he saw Lou Ying, he was slightly stunned and bowed to âMaster Gongziâ before saying, âGrand Duke, the Thirteenth Prince is here.â
Chi Xiaochi : â¦â¦ Oh no, this hasnât been played.
He said, âSay Iâm bedridden.â
A Ling said worriedly, âI tried the Thirteenth Prince, but he said that if you were still sick, he would come in to see you. I didnât know when you would return from the Masterâs place, so I had to tell him the truth, for fear that the Thirteenth Prince would be disappointed.â
At the end, he added, âThe Thirteenth Prince says there is no rush and is waiting for you in the Flower Hall.â