The dead body of Li Chaoyang, which was sealed inside the ice, was sent to Changgeng Mountain Pass by Li Min in the middle of the night.
At that time, Xin Mei was sleeping soundly, completely unconscious to all the subtle movements around her. The sense of a war demon was extremely sensitive. When the sound of feet stepping on the snow outside did not seem to belong to any of the soldiers inside the mountain pass, Liu Qianqiao, who was still awake, opened his eyes.
He gently opened the curtain of his tent and the cold wind mixed with thin snowflakes hit his face. He slightly squinted and immediately saw Li Min standing not far away. He was holding a huge full-bodied bluish ice block in his arms, as they looked at each other without any expression.
“Young Master...” His voice was hoarse and even full of despair. “Why did you leave Madam behind?”
Lu Qianqiao suddenly felt uneasy and stared at the ice block in Li Min’s arms—was there someone in the ice block? He seemed to see a familiar-looking Fang Tianji and a white cape.
"...I went after you quietly. I heard your conversation with Madam. You have promised the people of our clan! So why is this happening again?!“
The huge heavy block of ice flew towards Liu Qianqiao and he clasped it in his arms, as he faced the person inside the ice.
Li Chaoyang...her time seemed to stop at the moment when she was being frozen. Her eyes were still opened angrily and her lips were slightly opened as if she was about to roar.
He went stiff.
“Young Master, which is more important to you, the rise and fall of the little lady or our family?”
After the extreme shock, Liu Qianqiao gradually regained his consciousness. He took a look at Li Min and turned a blind eye to his provocative expression and words.
“...she is not dead yet.” Lu Qianqiao held onto the ice and lifted it to another tent next to his, “A perfect war demon won’t die so easily. This ice is a bit strange...let’s talk about it after we break it.“
The ice wrapped around Li Chaoyang’s body was not so much real ice, but rather a kind of extremely fierce and poisonous spell. Even if it was exposed to the sun during dog days, it would not melt at all. If it wasn’t for the mantra to instantly block her five senses, even the hardest ice in the world would not be able to hold Li Chaoyang for a moment, and she would have been able to get out early.
There were too many immortals in this world who were good in spells, but only the Fox Clan was actually really good at them.
It was self-evident what the existence of a perfect war demon meant to the War Demon Clan. It was beyond doubt that this had brought a very heavy blow for this almost divine and leader-like figure to be brought to this point.
Those Fox Clan, was this their purpose from the beginning?
The ice block was placed in the middle of the tent. Liu Qianqiao took off his whip and gently threw it out at the ice. The whip wrapped around the ice in circles as if it was alive. The huge ice block instantly cracked. When Li Chaoyang fell limply, Li Min immediately embraced her, and gently placed her on the couch.
“...why didn’t Madam wake up?” He had faced too many things in one night that he was seriously taken back. Madam’s eyes were still closed and so did her mouth. Her body was soft, but she did not breathe, and she was as cold as ice.
“The ice was just an illusion. She is actually under a spell.”
Lu Qianqiao lit a fire in the tent and calmly added charcoal into it.
Li Min could not stand his calmness that he snapped at him, “Young Master! In any case, Madam is your mother!“
He did not speak.
He treated this woman...without much affection, unlike an ordinary relationship between mother and son in this mortal world. She didn’t bring him up, didn’t cook and wash his clothes, didn’t talk and laugh with him, even...met with each other only a few times, and what they talked about could be counted with fingers.
By now, he was close to turning into a perfect war demon, and he had become more indifferent towards her feelings.
Though he was a little confused. She really shouldn’t be like this...Li Chaoyang should be a mountain-like existence, indestructible, indelible, and without any fragile feelings—she was supposed to be the most perfect existence of a war demon.
Li Chaoyang had always been a strong person. He didn’t need to explain anything to her, because she had no feelings nor would she understand him. They always got along with each other in this way. If they disagreed with each other, they would just start hitting each other. It seemed that it was much easier to be like this. No one wanted to break this routine, or both would be in an awkward situation.
His original plan was, at least, to personally send Xin Mei back to the Imperial Mausoleum and follow Li Chaoyang to their clan.
However, the other side found the gap of this moment and successfully laid their hands on her.
He thought of that day where they were on the top of Mount Li, as they faced the snow-covered peak and the setting sun which was like blood. She had a slight expression on her face for the first time at that moment. It was not joy or relief, but it was more of the deep emptiness of remembering the past. Could she be regretting it?
If, if she did not show that look to him at that time, he would not allow the people of the clan to deal with the Fox Clan altogether.
It was the first time that the two of them did not hit each other when they met, but if she did not wake up, then, it would also be the last time.
Lu Qianqiao closed his eyes and took a deep breath.
“You send her back to the clan.” He then said, “Leave now.”
Li Min still couldn’t accept it, “Young Master, are you still going to stay here and fight for that stupid Emperor? For the sake of that little lady?!”
The whip silently struck Li Min on the chest. He fell and flew out, tearing the tent curtain. He got up in horror and his mouth was bleeding, so he did not dare to say another word.
“Li Min, firstly, you have no right to question me this way.” Lu Qianqiao folded up his whip and looked down at him without any expression. “Second, if you call Xin Mei in a hostile tone again, I will kill you.”
Li Min stared at his eyes in horror. The dark eye was turning red, bloody red and full of cold murderous intention.
He bowed down subconsciously to show his submission.
“Send her back, I’ll be there soon.”
When Lu Qianqiao returned to his main tent, Xin Mei had already woken up. She was holding the quilt around her with her arms while staring blankly. When she heard his footsteps, she quickly turned her head and gave out a bewildered cry, “Lu Qianqiao! You went missing in the middle of the night!“
He dusted the snowflakes off his body and sat on the edge of the bed while feeling a bit chilly. He touched her hair and said, “You can’t sleep well if I’m not here?”
Xin Mei rolled her eyes and said, “I woke up because I’m hungry! My clothes all had been torn by you. Without clothes on, it will be hard for me to heat the food!“
He smiled, “I’ll heat them up. You should go back to sleep.”
This meal on the first day of the first lunar month was a disaster. When Lu Qianqiao brought the foods out from the hot box and prepared some bowls and spoons for them to start eating, it was almost dawn.
Xin Mei was curled up in the quilt. With her eyes closed, she murmured weakly, “Are you done?”
She was so dizzy with hunger that she felt her mother, who had been dead for many years, beckoning at her in the dark.
Lu Qianqiao put the food on top of the cabinet at the head of the bed and scooped up a piece of chicken leg meat. “Open your mouth.”
Her clothes had been torn to pieces, from the inside out. Having no clothes to wear, she had to stay in bed all the time and enjoyed the taste of being served by the General himself.
He fed her a spoonful of cabbage, a spoonful of fish soup and a spoonful of chicken—Xin Mei vaguely asked him as she chewed, “Where is the tofu?”
Lu Qianqiao looked uneasily at the bowl of tofu which had lost its shape. The tofu was too shattered beyond help. After a long journey, it fell off the cliff and was reheated again and again. Finally, it broke into dregs in his hand.
“Eh, how did it break to pieces like this...” Xin Mei felt it was a great pity.
With a serious look, he said, “It’s okay, I will eat them all.”
She got up while wrapped in the quilt. She tossed the chopsticks inside the bowl, and finally picked up tofu that looked like a head, and sent it to his mouth with a smile, “The head is still intact, so here you are!”
.....Why did this scene always appear over and over again? Lu Qianqiao stiffly swallowed the head, which was Xin Mei tofu’s head, and somehow he was so overwhelmed with joy.
“Lu Qianqiao, are you still going back to the War Demon clan?”
During their relaxing and happy mealtime, she suddenly asked the question casually.
He stopped feeding her, and after a while, he answered in a low voice, “Um...I have some things to settle there and it’s too dangerous to bring you along.“
“Then, when will you leave?”
“...once the sky turns bright.”
“Is it dawn already? Are you leaving at dawn?”
“Um.”
A warm and soft hand suddenly caressed his cheek. Lu Qianqiao looked at her with a shallow smile, “What’s the matter? Are you already full?“
After staring at him for a long time, Xin Mei tightened her arms that were circling his neck. As a result, the quilt slipped down from her chest. That...spring sunshine emerged to bring the world alive. He immediately felt his arm which was holding the rice bowl suddenly turn stiff.
“What’s the matter with you? You don't seem very happy.“ She leaned in and asked in a low voice.
She was surprisingly sharp at times.
He pulled up the quilt and wrapped her tightly. spring sunshine emerged to bring the world alive was a trifled thing. If she caught a cold again, then it would be a big problem.
“Just a little reluctant to part with you.” He said.
Xin Mei opened her mouth in surprise and suddenly reached out to touch his forehead. Then she looked at the sky outside and murmured, “No fever...and the sun didn’t come out from the west...”
“.....”
It was rare for him to be this honest and say something this sweet. Why did she react like this?
“While it’s still dark outside, I’ll read you the letter that everyone wrote to you while you eat.”
Meigan Cai
Image Credit | Sjschen via Wiki
Image Credit | Sjschen via Wiki
There was still a long string of words at the back of what she had read. Out of every monster in the mausoleum, he wrote the most, occupying nearly half of the small paper. Recently, Silan has become more and more like Zhao Guanren’s true legacy.
She continued to read, “Zhao Guanren said, General, come back soon. I can’t bear to be alone in the Imperial Mausoleum.”
All-day long, he would eat a lot but never work. When he had nothing to do, he would write about wind, flowers, snow and the moon. What did he have to bear?
“Yinglian Jiejie said, I live inside the Imperial Mausoleum, you live outside the Imperial Mausoleum. Day by day I miss you, but you are not in view, only to stream down a thousand rows of tears.”
This poem didn’t rhyme at all...
Tao Guoguo and his brother couldn’t write, so they could only just press their handprints on the paper. The fat handprint of his brother glowed faintly in the dark. As he touched it with his fingers, a line of flashing words locked in by consciousness immediately appeared on the handprint, 【Big Brother Qianqiao! Remember to bring back delicious food! 】
They only remembered about eating in their minds.
.....
She finally finished reading the long letter and the day was already bright. Xin Mei folded the letter and looked back. Lu Qianqiao’s facial expression was hard to come by, it looked gentle and soft as if he were lost in thought.
“Everyone is waiting for you to come back.” She grabbed his face, first with one of her hand, then together with her other hand, as she seriously said, “Lu Qianqiao, you should remember to go home often.”
Noob Translator's Musing
Wow, did LQQ just change into a perfect war demon? If I remember correctly, his eyes were one black and one red. So, if the black one also turned red, doesn't this mean he has become just like his mom? Wow!
So, Li Chaoyang was not dead. Okay...then, what about Xiao Feng Li? Did you leave it behind, Li Min? (╬ಠ益ಠ)
And that moment when they read the letter from the monsters, it made me seriously miss them. Though, if I have to say, I miss their funny moments. LQQ and his clan had made the story a bit serious. ( ￣＾￣)
From the letter, Silan seemed to have been influenced by the dramatic Zhao Guanren.
Yinglian was copying from 2 poems. The first four lines were from Li Zhiyi's poem called Song of Divination, though she changed the first two sentences of the poem. The last line was from a poem by Su Shi called River Town. If you want to read the full version of both poems, you can click on the title.
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A Match Made In Heaven