He spoke of Nie Chong, and naturally included Shang Ruyi, who shouldn’t be here, and Shantong’er, who was always cautious and didn’t dare to breathe.
Nie Chong imdiately replied, "Yes."
After speaking, he turned and walked out, but when he reached the entrance and lifted the tent flap, he looked back at Shang Ruyi. As expected, Shang Ruyi also caught the implied aning from Yu Wenye and just looked at his back, then at Shen Wuzheng’s shoulder, and said nothing more. She called Shantong’er, and the three of them left the Central Army Tent.
As they walked out of the tent, a cold wind suddenly blew.
Shang Ruyi was already sowhat uneasy, and at that mont, she was directly swayed by the wind. But the chill in the wind cald her chaotic thoughts instantly. Suddenly as if realizing sothing, her eyes brightened. She looked back at Yu Wenye’s sowhat stiff back inside the Central Army Tent, and Shen Wuzheng’s shoulder. As the tent flap fell, the light quickly dimd, and her previously bewildered expression slowly sank at this mont.
Nie Chong gave her a salute, then hurriedly went to pass on orders.
Shang Ruyi stood motionless outside the tent, the cold wind howling, yet no longer moving her slender body. She silently parted her lips, seemingly saying sothing.
Nie Chong, already far off, felt his steps falter slightly.
Standing next to her, Shantong’er widened his eyes in surprise and asked, "Sister Ruyi—oh no, Princess, what are you saying? I can’t hear you."
Shang Ruyi smiled and said, "I wasn’t saying anything. You should go back to rest."
"Oh, then I’ll go back."
After finishing, Shantong’er also walked towards the resting tent, and Shang Ruyi watched their backs, saying nothing, then returned to her own tent.
However, after returning, she still didn’t sleep, but sat alone by the low table, staring coldly, quietly at the flickering candlelight, as if waiting for sothing.
After about the ti it takes to drink a cup of tea, footsteps approached the entrance and stopped.
Then, Nie Chong’s very light, very soft voice sounded—
"Princess?"
Shang Ruyi imdiately lifted her head, her eyes even brighter than the flickering candlelight, saying solemnly, "Co in."
As soon as she spoke, Nie Chong lifted the tent flap and entered.
His expression was sowhat hesitant, sowhat bewildered, as if knowing he shouldn’t be here—in fact, he really shouldn’t be visiting Princess Qin’s tent at such a late hour. But Shang Ruyi’s nearly silent words in front of the Central Army Tent earlier were ant for him; he couldn’t pretend he hadn’t heard.
So, he walked to Shang Ruyi, bent down to salute: "Greetings—"
"No need for formalities."
Shang Ruyi gently raised her hand to stop him, simply saying, "It’s not good for you to stay in my tent too long."
Nie Chong glanced at her, then silently lowered his head.
Shang Ruyi still sat behind the low table without moving. Her gaze seed to look through the candlelight, but her eyes were cold as if there was no warmth at all: "You don’t have to worry. I am a person approved by His Majesty to participate in the battle. Even if I ask about the news you gathered tonight, it should be done. If anyone asks, you are not leaking military secrets."
"..."
"Moreover, I’m not asking about what you found out tonight."
"..."
Though she said this, Nie Chong’s expression beca even heavier.
Clearly, he already knew what Shang Ruyi wanted to ask, and this was what he avoided on Cangbai Mountain. So he went down the mountain on the pretext of gathering local news to dodge it, but unexpectedly, after returning, he still had to face her inquiries.
In the next mont, Shang Ruyi firmly asked, "I’ll only ask you one question—did you really encounter little thieves tonight?"
"..."
Nie Chong bowed his head even lower.
Shang Ruyi squinted slightly at him, observing not only his cautious, silent deanor but also noting that though he was covered in grass and dirt, his clothes were wet from the dew and were not disheveled, he was uninjured.
In this silent scrutiny, the two spent what felt like a long mont.
Finally, Nie Chong heard Shang Ruyi sigh deeply.
Then she said, "All right, I understand. You should rest."
Nie Chong looked at her, and although the candlelight on the table continued to flicker, casting the entire tent in a warm orange light, Shang Ruyi’s eyes at this mont completely froze, as if covered in frost.
Yet he could say nothing more, only giving her a salute, then silently retreating.
After that, the entire camp beca quiet.
Especially in Shang Ruyi’s tent, as the candle wick burned to the end, struggling twice before finally going out with a puff, the whole tent imdiately sank into suffocating darkness, and the silhouette curled slightly on the bed lay motionless, as if subrged into slumber.
After an indeterminate ti, footsteps sounded.
Almost identical to the previous careful, sowhat hesitant footsteps of Nie Chong, but this ti it was Yu Wenye who lifted the tent flap and approached this nearly pitch-black darkness.
His handso face had been swallowed entirely by the dim light, yet his eyes remained unusually bright.
In those shining eyes, there was clearly sothing struggling, entangled.
Once he lifted the tent flap, the light from the burning campfire instantly shone in. However, as he stepped inside, his towering figure blocked the already faint light, with only a sliver illuminating the bedside as it barely outlined the familiar slender silhouette on the bed.
It was Shang Ruyi.
She lay quietly there, facing inward, with half a thin blanket covering her, the other half trailing down.
Though all was silent, the tent seed stifled by the night, devoid of sound, yet Yu Wenye could hear his breath becoming heavy.
He stood there silently for a long ti, before finally stepping forward into the tent and letting down the tent flap. The light was once again obstructed, the tent again plunged into darkness, yet he seed to have committed the scene he glimpsed earlier to mory, as step by step, those heavy yet deliberately light steps led him to the bedside.
This ti, everything beca clearer.
For instance, the familiar, graceful outline before him, and the light fragrance exuding from her, both calming and captivating.
Yu Wenye’s hand hanging at his side moved slightly, his fingers seed spasmodic, the joints bore several scrapes from instinctive actions just recently, now faintly splitting open, not agonizing, yet causing him an unbearable sensation.
His fingers unclenched, then tightened repeatedly, finally moving.
He leaned over slightly, gathering up the half of the blanket trailing on the ground, gently covering the person on the bed with it, then straightened and took a deep breath, turning to leave the tent.
However, as he was about to reach the entrance, he heard a rustling sound, not particularly loud, yet shockingly abrupt in such a quiet setting.
It was the sound of soone suddenly sitting up in bed.
Tidy, crisp, with no hesitation at all, clearly she wasn’t just waking, more like a long-suppressed action.
Yu Wenye’s steps paused.
In the next mont, Shang Ruyi’s familiar yet chillingly unfamiliar voice rang out from behind, as she asked, deliberately and clearly, "Yu Wenye, did you fight—did you and my brother brawl?"
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