‘Betrothal?’
Su Li frowned.
“What is a betrothal?”
“Ah???” Shen Huarong was so startled by this question that his eyes widened.
He took a deep breath, waved his fan, found himself a chair, and sat down properly. Judging by his appearance, he intended to have a good chat with Su Li about the matter.
“You don’t even know what a betrothal is? No way! Then do you know what marriage is?”
“Of course. Do I look like an idiot?”
Su Li was too young when he experienced the massacre of the city and left his family, so he didn’t have time to learn many things. Even if he had learned them, he had long since forgotten. His master, meanwhile, was a hermit-like figure who spent all year secluded on a mountain. It was one thing for him to live without worldly concerns himself, but he also constantly forgot to teach the child.
As a result, Su Li was nearly fifteen years old and still lacked a great deal of common knowledge. He didn’t even know what a betrothal meant, which shocked Shen Huarong
“That’s it then. Just understand it from the words themselves. A betrothal is a betrothal: ‘to decide’ and ‘to marry.’ Marriage means a man and a woman bowing in a wedding ceremony, establishing a household, and becoming husband and wife. A betrothal means deciding on this beforehand…determining which family’s son will marry which family’s daughter. Once the betrothal gifts have been sent and the engagement is settled, the man and woman become betrothed. They only have to wait for an auspicious day to complete the wedding ceremony.”
“…” Su Li understood.
He looked at Shen Huarong.
“Have you been betrothed?”
“Of course!” Shen Huarong sounded strangely proud.
“My grandfather arranged my marriage a long time ago. We’ll exchange the formal betrothal gifts after we return to the capital in triumph.”
“Who is it?”
“She’s from the family of my grandfather’s favorite student…” Shen Huarong stopped halfway through, then finally caught on.
“Why are you asking? Even if I told you, you wouldn’t know who she is.”
That made sense.
Anyway, Su Li wasn’t interested in his affairs. Whoever it was, even if Shen Huarong married an antelope, it had nothing to do with him.
So he asked again:
“Who is Qi Changying going to marry?”
“How would I know? I’m staying here with you in the northwest camp. I don’t know any more than you do. That’s exactly why I’m curious.”
As he spoke, Shen Huarong sighed.
“Marriage is something parents should normally arrange for their children. But Aunt Qi passed away early, and Uncle Qi has been bringing Ah Ying along to the border through the years. So neither of them paid much attention to this matter. Now Uncle Qi is gone too, and Ah Ying is about to lead troops into battle. If something happens to him as well… then the Qi family’s line will have no descendants. That’s why his aunt is so anxious. But there’s no use rushing this. Even if he gets engaged now, Ah Ying will have to wait until his three-year mourning period is over before he can bring his wife home.”
“…” The more Shen Huarong spoke, the more unpleasant it became.
Su Li let out a cold snort.
“Why does he need to leave descendants? There’s no throne in his family. Do they have to rush to have sons to inherit the family trade of leading troops and guarding the border? And even if there really were a throne, so what? Giving it to a member of the imperial clan would still be giving it away. As long as someone occupies that position, wouldn’t that be enough? Why insist on marrying and having a child of his own?”
“Hey, you little brat. Listen to what you’re saying.”
Shen Huarong was genuinely amused by him.
“Getting married isn’t necessarily about having descendants. Marriage has its own benefits.”
“What benefits?”
“You’re really making me explain everything to you in detail… If you like someone and want to be with her forever, you marry her and become husband and wife, binding your hair together. From then on, you love each other and never doubt one another. Isn’t that good? You spend your days busy outside, and when you return home, there’s someone who understands your needs and cares whether you’re cold or warm. She’ll ask whether you were hurt today or whether something made you sad. She’ll share your hardships and your joys. The two of you will love each other, share joys and sorrows, and walk hand in hand until your hair turns white. How beautiful is that?”
Su Li tried imagining it according to Shen Huarong’s description.
He still didn’t quite understand.
“Aren’t you and Qi Changying like that too?”
“???” Shen Huarong nearly spat out the tea he had just drunk.
“How are Qi Changying and I like that?! Explain yourself!”
“You’re together every day, sharing joys and sorrows. When he attacks a city, you offer him strategies. When he wins a battle, you’re happy with him. When he stays up late, you advise him to take care of his health. How are those things different from what you just described?”
“…Of course they’re different!”
Shen Huarong was truly going to be scared to death by this child.
“Qi Changying and I grew up wearing the same pair of trousers. We’re friends, we’re brothers. That’s friendship, brotherly affection. It’s not the same as love!”
“What’s the difference?”
“This…”
Su Li successfully stumped him.
After all, Shen Huarong wasn’t much older than Su Li. He was still rather confused about the matter himself. How could he explain it clearly?
“In short… it’s different! Ah Ying is my friend. If he gets married, I’ll be happy for him. But if Ah Ying were my lover, I’d get angry if he got married.”
The more Su Li listened, the less he understood.
“Why is that?”
“Because love can’t be shared with someone else. If you love someone, you want her to have eyes and a heart only for you, to smile only at you and treat only you well. If she’s also good to someone else and is intimate with someone else, wouldn’t you get jealous? If her heart isn’t with you, and you love her but she doesn’t want to marry you and turns around to marry someone else, wouldn’t you be angry?”
“…”
‘Angry?’
Su Li was a little angry.
So he told the truth.
“I’m angry that Qi Changying is getting married. What about it? Are you going to say that I want to marry him as well?”
“You?” Shen Huarong looked Su Li up and down.
“You’re an exception.”
“Why?” Su Li raised an eyebrow slightly.
“Because you’re angry every day. You’re angry with everyone.”
Shen Huarong shrugged.
“Your possessiveness is too strong. When little Shoumo was still a cat, he turned over and showed me his belly, and you got angry with him, didn’t want him anymore, and wanted to drive him away. Ah Ying is such a good person. Everything he says and does accommodates you and goes along with you. He tolerates your temper without any limits. Now, if he has someone special, someone he has to love and treat wholeheartedly, and he starts being good to someone else, of course you’ll be angry, too.”
“?” Su Li narrowed his eyes slightly.
He repeated Shen Huarong’s words.
“Someone special, to love wholeheartedly and treat with care?”
“Of course! A wife manages the household for you and bears your children, so naturally you have to cherish and respect her in every possible way. You have to love her more, protect her more, and be good only to her, never letting her feel sad or upset. That’s how it should be. A wife is family, the most important person. Ah… Come to think of it, if Ah Ying takes a wife, my position will probably have to drop a little, too.”
“…”
For some reason, the more Su Li listened to Shen Huarong, the more irritated he became.
He ended the topic and asked something else.
“Who will he marry?”
“I don’t know! But with Ah Ying’s appearance, character, and family background, there are only a few eligible young ladies in the capital who would match him. It’s not difficult to guess.”
“Such as?”
“For example, the granddaughter of Duke Ning is outstanding in both talent and appearance. There’s also the youngest daughter of Minister Li of the Ministry of Works. I saw her at a poetry gathering last year. That girl fell for Ah Ying at first sight and kept asking my younger sister about him, both openly and discreetly. Then there’s the legitimate eldest daughter of the Marquis of Su’an… Tsk, if my younger sister were another year or two older, she’d be a good match, too. As the saying goes, fertilizer shouldn’t flow into outsiders’ fields. I trust Ah Ying’s character, and the two of them have known each other since childhood and understand each other well. By then, our two families could become even closer through marriage…”
Su Li sneered.
“There really are quite a few.”
“Of course! How many ladies in the capital admire Ah Ying’s bearing? Not to mention the daughters of dukes, marquises, and other powerful families. Even a legitimate princess would be worthy of our Ah Ying. Ah, but a princess’s consort can’t hold real power, so marrying a princess is out of the question. It’s no, no good…”
Shen Huarong waved his fan. Seeing that Su Li seemed to be in a bad mood, he offered some words of comfort.
“Don’t be anxious. In another year or two, you’ll have to start considering these matters yourself. How about this? I’ll offer you a plan. When the time comes for you to take a wife, look for someone with Ah Ying’s temperament. Someone else might not be able to tolerate your temper.”
Su Li’s brows knitted tighter and tighter. In the end, he bestowed two words upon Shen Huarong.
“Get lost.”
Qi Changying was going to get engaged.
Although the formal wedding ceremony would have to wait until the three-year mourning period was over, Su Li heard that once a betrothal was settled, the matter was practically decided. The two people were already halfway to being husband and wife.
Su Li was eager to find out which family’s daughter Qi Changying had been matched with. Because of this, he even began appearing around Shen Huarong more frequently. Unfortunately, Shen Huarong, that blabbermouth, was useless. After that day, he didn’t receive any more useful news.
As the days passed, Su Li spent another entire spring in the military camp.
The hardest part of summer arrived. The temperature gradually rose, and the date of Qi Changying’s return to camp drew closer and closer.
According to Shen Huarong, Qi Changying wouldn’t return until the latter half of July.
The latter half of July.
It would happen to miss his fifteenth birthday.
Qi Changying still owed him a gift and a horse. He wondered whether that person even remembered.
Su Li counted the days one by one. During this time, another interesting thing happened.
It was one day in early July when the main camp was hit by a heavy rainstorm.
The rain poured down in torrents for an entire day and night. In the northwest, where drought was common throughout the year, this was a rare occurrence.
That day, Su Li unusually lifted the tent flap and moved a small chair behind it. He sat there, smelling the damp earth outside and watching the raindrops patter down. He watched for the entire day.
When it grew a little darker, Su Li was about to lower the flap and go back inside to light a lamp and read when he suddenly heard another faint sound mixed in with the rain.
It seemed to be someone’s startled cry coming from far away.
After confirming that he hadn’t imagined it, Su Li went to investigate, only to discover that a giant black python had actually entered the military camp.
The python was as thick as a strong man’s upper arm. Its eyes gleamed fiercely as it slithered through the rain like a ghost, searching for prey to its liking.
Pythons like this did not appear in the northwest.
So Su Li quickly determined that this was no ordinary python.
It was a demon.
Su Li was a spirit master of the Nether Path and didn’t know how to deal with demons. But since it was alive, he could simply kill it.
In the end, the black python died at Su Li’s hands.
Su Li spent the entire night stripping all the flesh from its body, then carefully removing its bones intact and washing them clean.
Demon bones were also good materials for making magical artifacts. This was especially true because Su Li deliberately slowed down the process when killing the python, stretching its suffering and torment out for as long as possible. As a result, the python died carrying an extremely heavy resentment. If refined into a magical artifact, it would certainly be effective.
But he still needed to think carefully about what to make with it.
By the time he finished thinking, another ten days had passed.
It was the fifteenth day of the seventh month again, Su Li’s fifteenth birthday. Although he waited a long time for this day, he wasn’t in the mood to celebrate it.
Shen Huarong, on the other hand, was enthusiastic. Early in the morning, he sent someone to deliver a broken fan, claiming it was his birthday gift. It wasn’t even worth using to prop up a table leg.
Su Li felt he should take Shen Huarong’s gift box to him and slap the fan hard across his face, telling him never to stuff useless trash on him again.
But he didn’t get the chance to put this idea into action, because soon afterward, he heard Shoumo say that the commander-in-chief had returned.
Qi Changying was back.
Just two days ago, Shen Huarong said he probably wouldn’t reach the main camp until the twenty-first day of the seventh month. Who would have thought he would arrive on the fifteenth, several days ahead of schedule?
Shoumo asked Su Li whether he wanted to go and welcome him, but Su Li rejected the suggestion without even thinking.
What was there to welcome him for? It wasn’t as if they had never met before.
But after saying this, he still got up and left his tent.
Su Li thought he was going to find Shen Huarong and slap that broken fan across his face.
But he wasn’t carrying the fan, and he wasn’t heading toward Shen Huarong’s tent either.
After that heavy rainstorm, the northwest had been blessed with an unbroken stretch of sunny days, and today was no different.
The sun overhead was scorching, and its light made the skin feel as though it were burning.
Su Li was scorched by the sun, and was probably a little dizzy from the heat because before he knew it, he had walked all the way to the pass.
Perhaps because they were welcoming the commander-in-chief back to camp, several people had gathered around the pass.
Su Li walked straight toward them. When the people gathered there saw him, they all turned aside, making way for him.
With an expressionless face, Su Li passed through the back of the crowd and made his way to the front. One by one, the people blocking his view moved aside, and at last, he saw the person who had everyone’s attention.
That person still looked the way he did in Su Li’s memories. His long hair was tied into a ponytail, and he wore red robes and silver armor. The cape on his back was embroidered with a qilin soaring among flying clouds.
He had his back to the main camp, and his back to Su Li as well. It wasn’t until Shen Huarong beside him smiled and reminded him that he turned around and met Su Li’s gaze.
Perhaps it was just Su Li’s imagination, but Qi Changying seemed a little more haggard and a little more mature.
And while Su Li was briefly distracted, that person had already strode toward him, his eyes curving as he smiled at him.
“Long time no see.”
As he had done before, Qi Changying raised his hand and rubbed the top of Su Li’s head.
“You’ve grown taller again, Ah Li.”
“Is this how you speak to Lord Qiyueban?” Su Li tilted his head to avoid his hand and raised his chin.
“Offending your superior. Are you looking to die?”
Qi Changying knew the child was being difficult again. He smiled and continued indulging him.
“All right, my lord. This subordinate admits his mistake.”
The more he spoke, the more carried away Su Li became. He immediately put on the airs of Lord Qiyueban.
He looked Qi Changying up and down and asked:
“Shen Huarong said you wouldn’t arrive until the latter half of the month. What date is it now? Why did you come back so early?”
“The main camp is still stationed outside Tianshan and hasn’t withdrawn. Every day of delay brings uncertainty. There was nothing to do on the road anyway, so I came back early. One day earlier is one day gained. I wasn’t paying attention to the date.”
“?”
Su Li raised an eyebrow slightly, the corners of his mouth pressing down almost imperceptibly.
He turned his face away, his tone becoming even colder and harsher.
“I came to find Shen Huarong. Tell him to take his broken fan and get lost.”
After saying that, he turned and walked off. But before he could even take half a step, someone grabbed his wrist.
Qi Changying’s amused voice came from behind him.
“I haven’t forgotten, Ah Li. Happy birthday.”
“.”
Su Li understood now. Qi Changying deliberately said those words earlier to tease him and amuse himself.
What did this person take him for?
Su Li was a little annoyed.
He tried to shake off Qi Changying’s hand, but Qi Changying gently pulled him back.
“Come with me. I’ll show you something.”
…Show him what?
Su Li frowned. With his wrist in Qi Changying’s hand, he couldn’t break free, so he could only let himself be led toward Qianshan, not far away.
Shen Huarong waved his fan and watched the spectacle from the side. When he saw Su Li approaching, he even joked:
“Whose horse is this? It’s so beautiful. It really makes others envious.”
“…”
Actually, Su Li had noticed it earlier. Qi Changying was leading two horses, one black and one white. The white one was Qianshan. The black one looked unfamiliar, but it was very beautiful.
Qianshan was already tall and well-proportioned, but the black horse was even taller. Its limbs were long and strong, its mane long and smooth, and its coat sleek and glossy, reflecting the sunlight.
“The little horse I promised to give you. I thought you liked black, and liked beautiful things even more, so I chose this one.”
Qi Changying handed the reins to Su Li.
“Ah Li, it’s yours.”
Su Li’s eyes widened slightly. He looked at Qi Changying, then at the little horse.
He tentatively raised a hand and stroked the horse’s nose.
The sun was very strong today, and the horse’s coat was hot from the heat.
“What’s its name?”
Su Li looked at Qi Changying. As it happened, Qi Changying was looking at him too, his eyes slightly curved with a hint of a smile.
“I haven’t named it. Since it’s your horse, naturally you should choose its name yourself.”
Hearing this, Su Li fell silent for a moment before quietly saying one word.
“…Wanshui.”
“Wanshui?” Qi Changying thought for a moment.
“Wanshui Qianshan…thousands of rivers and mountains. It shares the same mother as Qianshan, so the name is quite fitting.”
“Who wants it to be fitting with your horse?”
Su Li raised an eyebrow slightly.
“Wan(ten thousand) is greater than Qian(one thousand). Water can overwhelm mountains.”
He looked at Qi Changying and lifted his chin slightly, looking utterly arrogant.
“You and your horse both have to listen to me.”
