209, Sharing Secrets (4 more)
“You all?” the villager asked in a low voice.
“We’re just passing through and will leave soon,” Xie Zhinuan said warmly.
“Then be careful, there are snakes on the mountain!” the villager kindly warned.
“Thank you!”
After thanking the villager, Xie Zhinuan said to Li Hengyi, “If we really find a snake, we’ll catch it, bring it back, skin it and stew it in a pot. Add a chicken to the stew, and it’ll be a ‘Dragon Phoenix Soup’!”
“…”
Li Hengyi couldn’t help but smile.
He knew that Xie Zhinuan was different from what he had imagined, and even more different from the young ladies in the capital.
“Have you ever eaten snake meat?” Xie Zhinuan asked.
Li Hengyi fell silent, his face pained and nostalgic. Only after a while did he nod, “Yes, I have. It’s not very tasty!”
“?” Xie Zhinuan looked at him, feeling that this must be a very sad story.
She felt it was wrong to continue on this topic.
Li Hengyi had already started to speak, “Together with Xie Qian, over a hundred of us were chasing the enemy and entered the desert. We knew nothing about the desert, whereas the enemy was very familiar with it. They ambushed us several times, seizing our provisions and water bags!”
As he spoke, he headed up the mountain.
Xie Zhinuan hurried to follow him.
“Every war claims lives. After they died, Xie Qian and I wanted to bring them with us but gradually, there were fewer and fewer of them. Our horses also started falling, we ran out of rations and water, and had to eat horse meat. We couldn’t bear to eat the living horses, so we ate the dead ones, raw and without fire, drinking the fetid horse blood, and eating the rotting horse flesh. Their dying wishes were not for me to someday take them back home, but for me to survive…”
Li Hengyi’s eyes reddened.
With his back to Xie Zhinuan, his eyes brimmed with tears.
“Actually, there are quite a few living creatures in the desert, and there are many venomous snakes. Xie Qian and I also ate snake meat, roasted under the sun. Poisonous insects, centipedes, ground mice…”
When they were parched and starving, they really ate whatever they could find. That’s how they barely made it out of the desert alive, and since then, he could no longer stomach anything else.
Li Hengyi let out a soft breath.
He had never spoken of these things, not even to his emperor father or empress mother.
Many people misunderstood him and Xie Qian, believing they had killed people for cannibalism. That’s why he could no longer bear to eat properly, and Xie Qian’s personality had greatly changed.
Only Xie Zhinuan’s bowl of spring onion tofu soup had touched his heart. It made him feel she was a kindred spirit, a savior sent by heaven.
Like a drowning man clutching at a log, he clung desperately to Xie Zhinuan.
He followed her from the county town to Xiaohe Village, where he built a residence opposite her house, his pride preventing him from visiting her first, hoping she would come to seek him out instead.
He was cautious, hiding himself, and stealthily monitoring, afraid that she would learn his secret, mock him, and ridicule him.
Yet she behaved generously and appropriately, never thinking of making his acquaintance.
Xie Zhinuan, upon hearing this, moved closer to Li Hengyi and comforted him softly, “Innocence clears itself. Those people were willing to die for you, hoping earnestly that you would survive and return. You’ve done it, and thus you haven’t betrayed them. It’s hard to stop the mouths of the world, but as long as your conscience is clear, that’s enough!”
Li Hengyi heard this.
His heart felt very warm, and very soft. He turned to glance at Xie Zhinuan with a smile.
“Now that I’ve also told you my secret, and I know yours, we’re even, aren’t we?”
“…” Xie Zhinuan was taken aback.
Her secret? She might never speak of it in her lifetime.
She smiled and nodded.
“Yes, we’ve shared each other’s secrets. You keep mine, and I keep yours. We are even.”
Li Hengyi looked at Xie Zhinuan’s gentle and charming face, tenderness like water in his eyes, “That’s wonderful!”
Chapter 210