Chapter 73: Take a Look at Your Sword
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The horse trotted through the deep mountains. Its pace was not very fast due to the darkness of the night, making it difficult to see clearly. It was a bit disappointing for He Yan. After finally getting on Green Ear, she didn’t experience the legendary feeling of “crossing mountains and crossing waters as if walking on flat ground.”
She felt a bit cheated.
Starlight and moonlight filtered through the branches and leaves of the forest. As He Yan rode on the horse, she finally had the leisure to take in the surrounding scenery. With a casual glance, she noticed a wolf lying horizontally not far away. It was clearly dead.
She was taken aback for a moment, then walked a few steps further and saw another wolf carcass.
After seeing three such wolf carcasses, He Yan sensed that this was not a coincidence. She swallowed a mouthful of saliva, cautiously asking, “Xiao… Commander, did you do this?”
“Since we encountered them on the road, I took care of them. Otherwise, they would have followed us all the way, which would have been troublesome,” he replied.
He Yan inwardly sighed. Look at that, indeed worthy of being a young killer general. At the drop of a hat, he goes on a killing spree. No wonder they haven’t encountered any wolves on the way; they’ve all been exterminated by Xiao Jue. She looked at the wolf carcasses once more. Each one had its throat cleanly severed with a small, precise wound.
Her gaze shifted slightly downward to Xiao Jue’s waist and the sword hanging there. It was widely known that General Fengyun owned a famous horse named Green Ear and a treasured sword named Drinking Autumn. Her sword, Qinglang sword, emitted a faint green light along its blade, capable of cutting through iron like mud. Rumors said that Drinking Autumn was clear as frost and snow throughout. At this moment, it was sheathed, and its details were not visible.
These wolves were probably all killed by Drinking Autumn. Traditionally, a hero is gifted a treasured sword, and He Yan considered herself a hero of sorts. Seeing this treasured sword, she couldn’t help but want to touch it.
She discreetly reached her hand out to touch it.
Suddenly, she felt the body underneath her stiffen. He Yan immediately let go and exclaimed, “I didn’t mean to touch your waist, I just wanted to feel your sword!”
After a while, a voice behind her, suppressing his anger, said, “You can be quiet.”
“I’ll get bored if I’m quiet,” He Yan responded. “Commander, you don’t have to be so serious. Look at you, killing so many wolves and not taking them with us. These wolves will just benefit the foxes in the mountains. Aside from eating their meat, their fur can be quite valuable. The wolf fur from the one I killed is damaged, only suitable for making boots. But the ones you killed have intact fur, enough to make a fur cloak. Though a fur cloak made from wolf fur might not be suitable for you. I imagine your clothing material is much more precious. So, why not do me a favor and let me have them? Having a wolf fur cloak in winter would be so nice. I could roll around in the snow.”
Xiao Jue seemed a bit overwhelmed by her nonsensical words, yet surprisingly, he continued the conversation, even though his tone wasn’t pleasant. He sarcastically said, “You seem to really like wolf fur. No wonder you clung to that dead wolf in the pit.”
“Not exactly. I’m just cold,” He Yan shook her head. “Commander, you value cleanliness and despise dirt and impurities. You can’t tolerate the blood of beasts staining your clothes. We’re different. Let alone dead wolves, I’ve even slept on a pile of corpses before.”
There was a moment of silence behind her before Xiao Jue asked, “When?”
“It happened when I was young. I can’t recall the details very well,” He Yan looked at the stars in the sky. “Back then, in order to survive, I had no choice. It was a pile of corpses after all. After all was said and done, I was the only one who survived in that pile of corpses.”
She thought Xiao Jue might inquire about the situation and was prepared to fabricate a story, but surprisingly, he didn’t ask, leaving her prepared explanation hanging unused.
He Yan’s thoughts drifted back to the past.
It was not long after she arrived in Moxian when a group of Fuyue soldiers, including new recruits like her, encountered the Western Qiang people at the edge of the desert.
They were all inexperienced and unfamiliar with combat, fueled by youthful fervor. However, that fervor was quickly shattered by the ruthless aggression of the Western Qiang. In the end, the entire squad of new recruits was wiped out.
At the time, He Yan was also severely injured, though she managed to survive. She hid under the pile of bodies and played dead, clutching onto life. The Western Qiang set fire to the bodies and left. In that moment, He Yan felt that she was truly facing impending doom and might die in that desert.
Little did she know, fate had other plans for her survival. Suddenly, in the midst of the ordeal, rain began to pour down from the heavens, extinguishing the flames that had ignited the bodies. He Yan was too weak to move and dared not make a sound, not even a cry.
The young man with whom she had been joking just the day before was now a lifeless body that couldn’t move. Her older brother, whom she had argued with that morning, was now gone. She laid amidst severed limbs and remains, experiencing the cruelty of war for the first time. In that pile of corpses, amidst the stench of blood, she spent the night shedding tears with her eyes wide open.
As dawn broke, a passerby came by. He buried all the bodies on the spot and gave them a proper burial. He discovered He Yan, barely clinging to life, and saved her.
Subsequently, He Yan often pondered on her past in the capital. Although she had lived as a young man, she had always kept a way out for herself in her heart. But after that fateful night, she stopped reserving that retreat for herself. She was no longer just a girl; no one would be there on the battlefield to wipe away her tears. Her only priority was to survive after each life-and-death struggle.
At any given time, survival came first. What did it matter to be stuck with a wolf’s corpse? When necessary, if she truly couldn’t leave, she would even resort to eating wolf meat to survive.
However, Xiao Jue probably couldn’t understand this.
He Yan sighed softly in her heart. It was now truly beginning to feel cold.
The young man in black attire and armor, with a cloak to shield against the chill, made He Yan slightly afraid of soiling his clothes. She didn’t dare to tilt her head too far back, yet she couldn’t help but lift her gaze to look at him. From this angle, she could see the graceful contour of his jawline.
Xiao Jue was indeed very handsome. In this life and the previous one, He Yan couldn’t help but admit this fact. He possessed both beauty and a heroic demeanor. Though aloof, there was a casual charm about him that was hard to resist.
His most striking feature was his eyes—clear and cool like autumn water. They seemed as though they had never reflected anything in the world. One couldn’t help but wonder what kind of tenderness would fill them if they were to gaze earnestly upon someone.
She recalled the hand Xiao Jue had extended to her in the pit. For some inexplicable reason, a phrase crossed her mind, “Fingers as slender as spring bamboo shoots, eyes as clear and azure as autumn ripples.” She felt that this description was incredibly fitting for him.
No wonder he was nicknamed “Jade-Faced Commander.” It was rather unfair, she thought. They were both young generals, so why did he get the elegant nickname while she was stuck with “Masked Commander”? If she had also removed her mask back then, who knows, she might have earned a title like “Military Pan Yue*.”
* famous handsome and elegant writer from the Western Jin dynasty
Lost in her thoughts, she failed to notice that she was alternating between admiring and praising Xiao Jue’s face and sighing in a despondent and disheartened manner. She appeared quite erratic, like a madwoman. From Xiao Jue’s perspective, her behavior was quite perplexing.
And rather foolish.
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