She hurriedly switched the interface away and cleared her throat at Zai Zai, saying, “I suddenly remembered I have something urgent, I’ll come back later.”
Lu Huan felt a bit disappointed. He had been planning to discuss something else with her, but didn’t expect that she would leave again after not even half a second. But thinking that she probably did have something urgent, he could not stop her.
So he nodded, doing his best not to let his disappointment show, and said with a smile, “All right, see you later.”
Su Xi quickly closed the screen. The scene of accidentally seeing the youth undressing just now still lingered in her mind, impossible to shake off.
She shook her head, jumped off the sofa, and, extremely agitated, did a full set of radio calisthenics toward the air. Then, believing she had burned some fat and therefore would not be afraid anymore, she took two bags of chips from the TV cabinet and began eating them with loud “crunch crunch.”
And Lu Huan, who thought she truly had something urgent and needed to rush out: “……”
Lu Huan also noticed Su Xi had been a bit strange lately. She said she had something to do and hurriedly shut the screen, yet she still stayed at home afterward, bored and eating chips, not looking like someone who had business at all.
Lu Huan could not help doubting whether he had done something wrong, causing her not to want to see him as much as before.
Lu Huan originally wanted to find time to talk to her properly, but the military situation was urgent, and the mission to rescue those more than one hundred elderly, women, and children was pressing. He could only set this matter aside for now and ask her when the situation here was a bit less critical.
The Yan Mountain Gorge was easy to defend and hard to attack. If they directly led troops to approach, the hostages would likely be slaughtered immediately.
At present, the only way was to use strategy. Zhenyuan General decided to entrust the matter to Lu Huan, having him choose ten men to form an eleven-man team, pretending to scout and get caught, falling into enemy hands.
In this way, they would be able to enter deep into the enemy camp and rescue the hostages.
Although dangerous, this was the only method.
The enemy army already recognized Lu Huan’s face; once Lu Huan was captured, he would definitely face retaliation, and such retaliation could not possibly be merely superficial injuries. Therefore, after slipping into the enemy camp, they had to get those hundred-plus people out as quickly as possible, or their safety could not be guaranteed.
This trip was extremely dangerous. Precisely because of the danger, Lu Huan did not want Su Xi to see the process of him getting injured; she would certainly be frightened out of her wits.
After thinking it over, he set the time of action for the late night of a heavy snowfall.
───♡───
The northern border military camp was silent, with only the wails of the townsfolk who had lost their relatives drifting out from within the city. After Lu Huan and several subordinates of Zhenyuan General disguised themselves and put on the enemy’s armor, they bypassed the forest and headed toward Huiyan Mountain Gorge.
Lu Huan gave low instructions: “Finish the matter as quickly as possible. After being captured, find a way to burn the grain stores of the opposite camp. It must not exceed this time tomorrow at the latest.”
The remaining ten who were with him all nodded with solemn expressions.
Lu Huan had calculated very clearly. At this moment she had just gone to sleep, and tomorrow she would attend the academy. Only after returning from the academy would she open the screen. Then on his side, with the time flow being twice as fast, it would be exactly two nights and one day.
By the time it was this hour tomorrow night, he would be able to return to his tent.
The enemy troops had retreated into Huiyan Mountain. Although utterly exhausted now, it was precisely the moment they were forcing themselves to hold on with their last breath. Every soldier entering or leaving the mountain gorge was strictly inspected.
Naturally, the enemy was also worried that the Yan army might circle around from the back of the mountain and go straight into their heartland, so they gathered all the hostages and pressed them into the gorge, making the gorge into an iron fortress.
When Lu Huan and the others infiltrated in disguise, it was nearly impossible not to be discovered by the enemy.
The enemy had already noticed them but kept their composure, only waiting for them to approach the gorge before capturing them all in one sweep.
However, little did they know, this was precisely the Yan army’s trap.
Everything proceeded as planned. The eleven-man squad was quickly captured. Only ten were taken into the gorge as prisoners, but the enemy did not know that the team originally had eleven members. At this moment, the attention of the commander guarding the gorge was entirely fixed on Lu Huan and Zhenyuan General’s directly commanded subordinates such as the Zhonglang General.
He recognized these few men—every one of them brave experts from previous battles, especially a Cavalry Commandant surnamed Lu, rumored to be possibly Zhenyuan General’s successor. If his head were cut off and taken back, or if he were captured alive, there would definitely be great reward from above!
However, just as Lu Huan and the others were being whipped over a hundred lashes in the gorge for interrogation, over there, the enemy’s grain depot in the depths of the gorge suddenly burst into towering flames!
The enemy was caught off guard by this diversion and hurriedly mobilized troops to put out the fire.
Lu Huan and the other nine took the chance to loosen their bonds and rush to the prison to rescue people.
All actions had to be completed swiftly.
Once the people were rescued and the enemy could no longer use them as leverage to threaten the Yan army, elite archers suddenly surged out from Huiyan Mountain, arrows tipped with fire, unleashing a rain of flames. Large rocks were used to block the road, wiping out the forces trapped in the gorge in one fell swoop!
By the time Lu Huan and the others brought the more than one hundred women, children, and elderly out of the gorge, the outside had long been prepared with forces from Zhenyuan General to receive them. Zhenyuan General was overjoyed and personally came to meet them.
These hundred-plus people were mostly relatives of the townsfolk. Their family members had long been waiting outside the city with the army. When they saw the returning group from afar, the people could barely contain their excitement, tears streaming uncontrollably as they rushed forward to receive them.
However, in the end, not everyone could be saved. Some hostages who had been extremely weak to begin with could not withstand the torture they suffered during those days under the enemy and did not survive until Zhenyuan’s forces rescued them.
Many were also only holding on to their final breath; once they returned inside the city, they fainted and collapsed. The city’s physicians rushed about in chaos to treat them.
The remaining rescued townsfolk who were still relatively conscious knelt down in a large mass, kowtowing repeatedly to thank Zhenyuan’s forces for their lifesaving grace.
Outside the city, flames soared into the sky; inside the city, chaos reigned. But no matter what, after today, the war in the northern border would diminish significantly. The enemy had suffered heavy losses and would not dare act rashly for the time being. For at least half a month, the army could take a short rest and reorganize.
“Cavalry Commandant!” A physician from the military camp came over carrying a medicine box, wanting to treat Lu Huan’s injuries. But since the physicians in the city were lacking at this moment, Lu Huan instructed him to tend to others, and besides, Lu Huan was not used to having his body touched by others. He hurriedly took his leave from Zhenyuan General and returned to his own tent, intending to treat his own wounds before she came.
Lu Huan had not added any serious injuries; only after pretending to be captured were several new whip marks added to his back and neck. These whip wounds were nothing unbearable to him, but after falling into the hands of the enemy stationed at Huiyan Mountain, the enemy, wanting to pry open their mouths to obtain the northern border topography, sprinkled salt onto their wounds.
This resulted in the wounds being so bloodied that they looked somewhat frightening.
Before he removed his inner clothing, one could only see the white inner garment stained with blood; after removing it, one could see the wounds where the flesh was split open.
Lu Huan had someone bring water. After skillfully rinsing the wounds, he applied the wound-healing medicine. Although the pain in his flesh had numbed somewhat, Lu Huan felt faintly pleased in his heart. After completing this mission successfully, he should gain more than a dozen points again. In that way, the day he could meet her would come closer and closer.
Thinking this, he did not pay attention to his strength, and the wound on his shoulder split open again. Lu Huan could not help but furrow his brows.
He had originally wanted to finish quickly, but because there were too many whip wounds on his body, his movements had to slow a little. When he saw the clock on Su Xi’s wall turn to five-thirty, he hastily put on his clothes, tied his belt, gathered the bloodstained bandages on the ground, and ordered the people outside the tent to dispose of them.
He sat down at the desk and began copying military reports. Other than the new wound on his neck that was difficult to conceal, there was absolutely no sign of him having been severely injured.
───♡───
Su Xi usually, the moment she came home from school, would quickly take out her phone and go online. But ever since she accidentally saw Lu Huan’s naked body last time, she had been more cautious when logging on.
After opening the game, she first covered her eyes, secretly opened one eye into a thin slit to peek whether Zai Zai was bathing again. Seeing him fully dressed and sitting properly at the desk, Su Xi finally let out a sigh of relief and put down her hand completely.
Her feelings were strange… Mainly, Zai Zai had suddenly become a “seventeen-year-old who could marry and have children,” a handsome youth. This made her unable to be as shameless as before. Weren’t ancient people all very concerned about their reputation and virtue? Zai Zai would surely care as well. He would still need to take a wife in the future—his innocence could not be sullied by her.
Su Xi walked over and greeted Zai Zai: “What are you writing?”
She glanced over and saw that Zai Zai was copying the military reports for submission. His handwriting was as beautiful as ever.
Lu Huan found her earlier gesture of covering her eyes quite strange—what was wrong with her, were her eyes uncomfortable? But he could not ask, so he just stared at the screen before him for a long moment. After confirming that her eyes had no problem and were still as dark and bright as always, he finally relaxed.
Lu Huan smiled at her and said, “You’re here. I think in a few months, the army stationed at the northern border will return to the capital. At that time…”
Before Lu Huan finished speaking, he was interrupted by Su Xi.
Su Xi suddenly enlarged the interface toward his neck and exclaimed, “Lu Huan, what happened to your neck?!”
Lu Huan realized she seemed to have finally stopped blurting out the word Zai Zai when addressing him. He did not know whether that was good or bad.
