"What’s wrong?"
Lei Yu imdiately turned her head, following Shang Ruyi’s gaze northward, only to see the grassland vast and empty, the distant horizon almost rging with the gray sky, void of anything.
She turned back to Shang Ruyi: "There’s nothing there."
"..."
"What did you see?"
Shang Ruyi frowned, rubbed her eyes with her hand and looked again, murmuring: "I think I saw a few people just now."
"People?"
Lei Yu turned to look again, only to see so grass bits swept up by the wind, whistling into the sky, the grassland still desolate with no sign of people.
Lei Yu said: "You must have seen wrong."
"..."
"The Turkic Yatai is hundreds of miles away from here, they wouldn’t send people this fast; besides, if they really had a military coming, our people would have detected it early on."
Hearing this, Shang Ruyi thought about it and agreed, then smiled: "Maybe my eyes were just playing tricks."
As they continued the journey forward, indeed they didn’t encounter anyone, and by evening, they finally reached their destination, which was the broad flat land with the sweet water well Shang Ruyi recalled, and even the iron nails and wooden stakes from last year’s northern patrol tent setup were still there.
So they set up tents on the spot, and soon settled down.
At this ti, the complaints around had started to echo, and it would be bearable if it were just the officials, but this ti the Emperor brought along so officials’ families too, and most of the noble ladies and young maidens from noble families had never lived in such harsh environnts before: the ground was uneven, mice often appeared, there were no sculptures or painted beams and pillars, only simple tents to shelter from wind and rain, especially since the grassland’s winter ca earlier than in the Central Plains, and at night, without a brazier, even bedclothes felt cold.
It wasn’t until deep into night that the complaints started to subside.
However, although the complaints subsided, Shang Ruyi still couldn’t sleep, worrying over nurous things along the way; although they had settled down, there were likely more troubles ahead.
After all, Yu Wenye still hadn’t arrived yet.
Where was he now? Was he with Princess Xinyue?
What were they doing at this mont?
Just thinking about it made her chest feel more stifled, so she got up, dressed, and prepared to go out for so air.
But just as she lifted the tent flap, she saw Tushere and Mu Xian sitting around the fire in front of the tent, murmuring about sothing — they had beco familiar with each other over this journey.
She heard Tushere complain: "Where has your young master gone to? When will he arrive?"
Mu Xian chuckled: "What do you an ’your young master’? Isn’t he your family’s son-in-law?"
Tushere pouted: "What kind of son-in-law leaves his wife behind, with not even a shadow to be seen!"
"..."
Mu Xian seed sowhat at a loss, awkwardly shifted his gaze, and just happened to see Shang Ruyi standing at the tent’s entrance, quickly said: "Young Madam, why are you up?"
Tushere also hurried over: "Miss, what do you need?"
Shang Ruyi smiled: "I can’t sleep; just going out for a walk."
Tushere said: "What’s there to walk in this cold? You better hurry back to the tent and sleep, don’t catch a cold."
Unable to resist, Shang Ruyi rolled her eyes at her.
Mu, standing by, laughed softly and said: "I understand now, the Young Madam is reminiscing about the tis you visited the grassland before, and can’t sleep, so you want to revisit old places?"
Shang Ruyi rolled her eyes at Tushere again: "See, you’ve been with for so long for nothing."
Tushere didn’t mind her teasing, hurriedly ran into the tent and fetched a blanket, insistently wrapped it on her: "The wind is strong here, be careful not to catch a cold."
Shang Ruyi couldn’t help but laugh.
She obediently wrapped the blanket tightly and sat by the fire, the warmth of the flas finally brought so warmth to her slightly cold heart, took a deep breath, and looked around. In reality, this late, the scenery was gone, but the sparkling starry sky overhead was, as it was over ten years ago, as if the ti that flowed in between were just a mont.
Mu Xian said: "Young Madam, does this place look the sa?"
Shang Ruyi said: "How could it be different?"
"..."
"What changes is always just the people."
Seeing her cold gaze even though she stared at the fire, Tushere softly said: "Miss, are you missing Mr. Shang? Please don’t be too sad."
Shang Ruyi inwardly bitterly laughed.
Her father had passed away so many years ago; the overwhelming sadness that almost crushed her back then had long since cald.
She was just, sowhat missing him.
Noticing her emotions affecting everyone around, making them slightly downhearted too, Shang Ruyi stood and smiled: "Alright, I’m going over there for a walk, you two keep doing what you need to do."
Tushere imdiately said: "I’ll go with you."
Shang Ruyi said: "I just want to walk alone, don’t follow, go to sleep early."
"But—"
Tushere was still hesitant, Mu Xian also urged: "Madam, with it being so late, let us accompany you to avoid danger."
Shang Ruyi smiled: "This camp is so large, with the Imperial Guard patrol nearby, how could there be danger? I want so ti alone, don’t follow ."
Hearing her say this, the two couldn’t say more, so Tushere reluctantly warned repeatedly to be cautious, then finally let Shang Ruyi walk away from the camp alone.
Just as she stepped out, a gust of cold wind nearly blew the blanket wrapped around her.
Shang Ruyi hurriedly hugged her arms tightly, securing the blanket.
Though cold, the wind blowing cleanly made her mind clearer than before, with the rustling sounds of stepping on the dry grass as her only companion, unwittingly she reached the edge of the camp, where the fence wasn’t yet built, only a few sturdy flagpoles stood on the ground, the northern wind blowing the flags to rustle loudly.
Shang Ruyi slowly walked to a flagpole and leaned against it, looking back to see countless campfires still burning, turning the vast sky above into a shade of orange-red.
This reminded her of days spent at the Turkic Yatai, where she often saw such scenes.
Back then, her father would even take her to attend the Turkic people’s evening banquets. Calling it a banquet, there wasn’t really any particular arrangent, just groups of people gulping wine from jars and singing loudly.
Those song voices even drifted further than the firelight.
Unconsciously, those songs from mory started flowing out of her mouth, she sang softly as though returning to that ti.
But just as she was singing to herself, suddenly footsteps sounded beside her.
Shang Ruyi imdiately stopped singing.
"Who’s there?"
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