After Exile, I Married the Amnesiac General [Rebirth] Chapter 34

Li Chanxiu’s expression stiffened for a moment. Pei Er’s measurements…

He thought carefully. When Pei Er stood in front of him, he seemed to be exactly a head taller than him. But that was no problem, Li Chanxiu felt he could still grow taller.

After thinking this, he raised his hand above his head and compared the height, saying to the shopkeeper’s wife, “About this tall.”

Then he thought of the morning he woke up that day, when his hand had been resting on the other party’s waist. The tips of his ears grew slightly warm. He made a circle in the air and said, “The waist is about this much.”

As for shoulder width, Li Chanxiu truly didn’t know. Anyway, it was certainly wider than his. So he compared it with his own shoulders and then widened it a little, saying, “For the shoulders, just make it about this wide.”

After hearing this, the shopkeeper’s wife was momentarily stunned. This much, this much, and this much, exactly how much was that?

That was far too vague.

…

The clothes were custom-made. After paying a deposit, they would need to return later to pick them up.

When Li Chanxiu walked out of the clothing shop, the back of his ears was still warm, and he felt a wave of embarrassment in his heart.

He didn’t know how the shopkeeper’s wife had seen that he was making clothes for his “husband.” Could it be that his behavior just now looked very much like a young wife making clothes for her husband?

…But it couldn’t quite be said like that. Pei Er wasn’t exactly his husband. They… should count as friends. The other party had no relatives, had lost his memory, and didn’t know how to take care of himself. Out of friendship, it was normal for him to consider things for him and help a little.

Li Chanxiu told himself this in his heart.

The soldier who had been following beside him saw him come out and stepped forward to ask, “Miss Shen, is there anything else you want to buy? If not, should we go meet up with Physician Hu and the others first?”

The heat at Li Chanxiu’s ears had just subsided. Hearing this, he nodded and said, “Then let’s go.”

After the two left, in the tavern across the street, at a table by the window, a burly man in short brown clothing with a scar on his face withdrew his gaze. He casually tossed a peanut into his mouth, chewing as he asked the person sitting opposite him, “That little lady just now?”

“Yes, yes,” the man across the table had a sharp face and smiled somewhat ingratiatingly. “Lord Jiang said that as long as you get this done, he’ll give you no less than… this amount.”

As the sharp-faced man spoke, he held up three fingers.

Scarface snorted with a laugh and said, “That kid Jiang Chong actually has a good eye. That little lady really is quite good-looking.”

When the sharp-faced man heard this, he immediately became a bit nervous, afraid that Scarface had also taken a liking to her.

“But it’s a pity she’s a woman. If you ask me, men are more exciting.” Scarface tossed another peanut into his mouth and laughed.

The thin sharp-faced man across from him heard this and became even more nervous, his legs unconsciously clamping together.

Scarface noticed and suddenly sneered. “Look at that cowardly look of yours. With your looks, I truly wouldn’t fancy you.”

After speaking, he poured the remaining peanuts into his palm, rubbed off the skins, stuffed them all into his mouth, and chewed loudly. “Go back and tell that surnamed Jiang to have the money ready.”

The sharp-faced man immediately let out a breath of relief and hurriedly wiped the cold sweat from his forehead with his sleeve. Then he said, “Then… while they’re alone now, should we make our move?”

Scarface glanced at him and sneered. “Are you stupid? If we act here, how am I supposed to take the person out of the city?”

“Eh?”

“We’ll wait until they’re outside the city.”

“Eh, alright.” The sharp-faced man nodded repeatedly, then suddenly looked up again. “Hey? That’s not right. Once they’re outside the city, they have a lot of people, there are seven or eight soldiers following them.”

“What’s there to fear about numbers? Do I have only a few brothers under me?”

“This…”

“Relax, I know what I’m doing. Go order two more dishes. With just this little food, what kind of alcohol can we drink?”

“Eh, alright, alright.”

***

Beside the medicinal herb shop, after Li Chanxiu reunited with Physician Hu, not long afterward the soldiers who had gone to buy salt also returned, but their expressions were not very good.

“There’s no official salt left. We checked several shops, and none of them were open,” the leading soldier said with a frown.

Li Chanxiu and Physician Hu were both stunned when they heard this.

Physician Hu said somewhat worriedly, “How could they not be open? Aren’t they usually open?”

“Sigh, it’s just unlucky timing. They said the salt just happened to sell out these past few days, and the new shipment from the government hasn’t arrived yet. It’ll probably take a few days.”

“This… how long is a few days?” Physician Hu asked uneasily.

If it was three or five days, it would still be alright. But if it was too long, the soldiers in the camp couldn’t wait that long. There wasn’t much salt left in the camp. Once it was finished, they couldn’t very well have the soldiers eat plain boiled vegetables in water.

The leading soldier was also troubled and said with difficulty, “The people responsible for selling it didn’t say. They probably don’t know the news either.”

After he said this, everyone present felt somewhat worried.

Seeing that it was getting late, Li Chanxiu suggested, “Why not return first and report this matter to General Chen. Aren’t there other counties nearby? If necessary, tomorrow we can go to another county and see whether there’s salt for sale.”

After hearing this, the few of them discussed it with each other and felt there was nothing else to do but this.

So they loaded the medicinal herbs onto the cart and hurried back before it grew dark.

Several soldiers rode on horseback in front, while the cart carrying Physician Hu and Li Chanxiu followed behind.

On the way here everyone had occasionally joked and chatted, but on the way back each person felt heavy-hearted.

When the convoy had traveled halfway, suddenly a sharp whistle rang out.

The soldier riding in the very front changed expression abruptly and quickly pulled his horse to a stop, but he was already a step too late.

From the snow-filled ditch beside the road, more than twenty figures suddenly leapt out. Each of them had their faces covered and swiftly blocked the convoy.

Li Chanxiu instantly tensed. The hand resting beside his leg instinctively untied a short dagger from his leg wrappings and quietly hid it in his sleeve.

This was a habit he had developed during the drifting hardships in his dream, when he had wandered to Western Qiang, and later when he commanded troops in battle.

He looked around warily. The seven or eight soldiers traveling with them had already protected the flatbed cart and drawn their gleaming long blades.

The leading soldier shouted toward the group, “Who are you people? Do you know that what this cart carries are military supplies? Robbing military supplies won’t just cost you your own heads, your families will lose their heads too!”

The group looked at one another but said nothing. After a while, a man in black spoke, his voice coarse and unpleasant: “Is the one sitting on the cart Physician Hu of Yongfeng Town, along with his female apprentice?”

Female apprentice?

Li Chanxiu froze for a moment before realizing that the title referred to himself.

When the cart had been blocked, Physician Hu had already been frightened senseless. Now he trembled and said, “Y-yes, it is this old man. Several heroes…”

Before he could finish speaking, the twenty or so people opposite suddenly raised their hands together and scattered a large cloud of white powder.

They happened to be standing at the upwind side. With the wind at their backs, the powder was blown by the cold wind and instantly rushed toward the convoy.

The seven or eight soldiers on horseback were caught completely unprepared. The powder immediately blinded their eyes, causing sharp pain and blurring their vision. Hearing people charging from the opposite side, they hurriedly swung their blades instinctively toward the sounds they heard.

Because Li Chanxiu had been sitting sideways, only a small amount of powder touched his eyes. At this moment his eyes stung slightly.

Sensing figures rushing toward the cart, he gripped the dagger in his sleeve tightly. But suddenly someone came up behind him. A hand strike landed at the back of his neck. A dull pain shot through him, and darkness fell over his vision.

The attacker did not linger to fight. He quickly abducted Li Chanxiu and Physician Hu, leaving the items on the cart completely untouched.

“Go!” the man said in a low voice, blowing another whistle.

Immediately the group came like the wind and left just as quickly.

…

In the haze, Li Chanxiu felt a burst of jolting movement. Perhaps because of the vigilance he had long cultivated, not long after falling into darkness he gradually regained a bit of consciousness through the muddle.

He was still clutching a dagger in his sleeve, struggling to wake up. Suddenly he vaguely heard someone riding a horse, speaking in a lowered voice, 

“Fourth Boss, are we really not taking the things on that cart? Isn’t the stronghold short of medicine right now?”

“Take what? Do you want to die?” The person riding the horse while hauling Li Chanxiu up barked in a low voice. “Remember this, we’re only here to invite the two physicians to go treat Second Boss’s injuries. We’re not here to rob military supplies, understand?”

Hearing this, Li Chanxiu felt somewhat relieved. So these people were asking physicians to treat someone’s wounds. It seemed that he and Physician Hu were not in mortal danger.

Only…the way they were “invited” was somewhat…hard to put into words.

Perhaps knowing there was no danger, the taut string in his mind suddenly loosened. He no longer had the strength to struggle, and his consciousness completely sank into darkness.

Not long after this group left, another seven or eight burly men dressed in the same black clothing arrived. The man leading them had his face covered; along the edge of the black cloth one could vaguely see a blade scar, and his whole body carried the smell of alcohol.

When this group rode up and saw the situation before them, they were all stunned.

“This isn’t right, Third Boss. There’s no one on the cart, the young lady isn’t here,” someone beside him said to the liquor-reeking man.

The big man let out a drunken burp. Because the evening light was dim, he wanted to move closer to take a look.

Just then, the seven or eight soldiers’ vision had recovered. Their eyes were red and streaming with tears from the powder that had blinded them. The moment they saw the big man and his group, they immediately mounted their horses, raised their sabers, and charged forward, shouting, “Bandits! Where do you think you’re running! Hand over the people you kidnapped at once!”

“D*mn!” Seeing the situation was wrong, the scar-faced man immediately turned his horse around and ran. As he fled he shouted to his men, “Go! We’re too late, someone else already snatched them!”

Hearing this, his subordinates hurriedly spurred their horses in panic and galloped away in a cloud of dust.