freenovelworld Chapter 472 Relying on Favor (17)
Chapter 472 Relying on Favor (17)
In the evening, the soldiers who had gone out to buy potatoes returned one after another.
Most people managed to buy potatoes, ranging from a dozen or so to a whole basket.
Yan Zhen had all the potatoes dumped out, picking out the rotten, immature, and unsuitable seeds. The rest were all packed up, totaling more than 1,500 jin.
This trip to Beijue has been quite fruitful; I bought what I wanted. Yan Zhen doesn't plan to stay in enemy territory for long. After discussing it with Zhao Yuan, he plans to set off for Tingzhou early tomorrow morning.
As night fell, Yan Zhen ate his evening meal and went to his room to rest.
In the next room, Zhao Yuan, dressed in black, led twelve highly skilled soldiers out of the room and silently disappeared into the night.
Yan Zhen drifted off to sleep in the middle of the night and smelled a faint scent of blood in the air.
The original owner of this precious, delicate body was not very sensitive, but the smell of blood was like a danger signal etched into Yan Zhen's DNA, instantly clearing her mind.
By the moonlight streaming in through the window, Yan Zhen noticed someone sitting in the room.
Perhaps noticing that her breathing rhythm had changed, the man lit the oil lamp in the room.
It was Zhao Yuan.
Yan Zhen's gaze swept quickly over him.
Although he looked no different from usual, Yan Zhen always felt that his aura was particularly sharp.
It's like coming off a battlefield, or like you've just killed someone.
Thinking of this, Yan Zhen propped himself up on his arms and sat up, saying in a low voice, "Why are you sitting in my room in the middle of the night instead of sleeping?"
She didn't eat potatoes tonight, so she doesn't need to keep watch.
And where is the increasingly strong smell of blood in the air coming from?
Zhao Yuan stared at her for a while, then suddenly smiled: "I'll give you a gift."
As he spoke, he turned to the side, revealing a square wooden box placed on the table behind him.
"A gift?" Yan Zhen got up and walked over, reaching out to open the box. "What is it?"
Zhao Yuan grabbed her arm: "Don't look."
"Can't I look at the gift you gave me?"
"You just need to know what it is." As if worried that she would be frightened, Zhao Yuan pushed her back a few steps before saying, "It's the head of the Queen of the Northern Kingdom."
After saying that, Zhao Yuan waited for her to show a terrified expression.
Unexpectedly, Yan Zhen's eyes lit up. Without saying a word, he pushed aside Zhao Yuan's hand that was blocking his way, took three steps in two, walked to the table, and opened the wooden box without the slightest hesitation.
Inside the box lay a bloodstained female head, her hair disheveled, her expression frozen in the most terrified moment before her death, her eyes wide open, unable to close in death.
Yan Zhen compared the face of the Northern Queen, who had made things difficult for her in Tan Junzhuo's memory and had given her to a stable boy to play with, and it was indeed this face.
"You sneaked into the Northern Jurchen royal palace at night and killed the queen?" Yan Zhen asked in surprise.
She never expected that after she casually mentioned in Tingzhou that she wanted Zhao Yuan to kill Ji Tu and the King of Bei Jue for her, he would actually do it.
“No, the Northern Jurchen royal palace is heavily guarded. I didn’t have enough men with me to get in,” Zhao Yuan said. “The queen’s brother died, and she went back to her family home for the funeral. I killed her outside the palace.”
"Thank you, I really like this gift." Yan Zhen closed the wooden box, then turned to check on Zhao Yuan, "Are you hurt?"
Zhao Yuan withdrew his arm: "No."
"Really do not have?"
Zhao Yuan hesitated.
“You’d better tell me the truth,” Yan Zhen said. “With the Queen dead, the Northern Jurchen capital will definitely be in chaos. If we’re lucky, we might be able to leave before things get out of hand and the city gates are sealed off tomorrow.”
If we were unlucky, the city gates would be closed early in the morning, and as foreigners remaining in the city, we would inevitably have to undergo repeated checks.
"Are you injured? What is the extent of your injury? My soldiers and I need to prepare contingency plans in advance to deal with any unexpected events."
Zhao Yuan was persuaded. He rolled up his sleeves, revealing a hastily bandaged wound on his right arm: "It's just a minor injury."
Blood seeped through the gauze bandaging the wound, and Yan Zhen frowned slightly.
She turned around, took out her first-aid kit, and began to treat Zhao Yuan's wounds again.
The lamp on the table emitted a faint light. Zhao Yuan looked at Yan Zhen, who was applying medicine to him, and the more he looked at her, the more he felt that this princess was truly detached.
She has an ethereal face, and her skin is so delicate that wearing a linen maid's uniform would chafe her skin, and walking for an hour would leave her feet bloody.
This is clearly a pampered princess who has been spoiled in the palace since childhood, never having suffered hardship or experienced any storms.
At the same time, she was incredibly bold—she escaped from the marriage procession with her maid and found her way to Tingzhou City to seek refuge with her, who was now the enemy.
She stares directly at a man's naked body without feeling the slightest bit ashamed.
No matter how much she was humiliated, she accepted it calmly and without flinching.
He asked her to dig up her family's ancestral graves and resell the ancestral funerary objects.
They traveled a long way to the north to find potato seeds.
There was a human head next to her, yet she could still calmly treat her wounds.
She possesses both delicate and resilient qualities.
How could there be such a woman?
Zhao Yuan's mind was filled with all sorts of random thoughts when he suddenly heard Yan Zhen say, "Alright."
He looked down and saw that the re-bandaged wound was no longer bleeding. He wondered if it was just psychological, but he felt that the pain had lessened.
"The wound is quite deep, but thankfully it didn't break the bone. Don't get it wet for seven days, and try not to exert any force on your right hand. Come to me every night so I can change your dressing."
Zhao Yuan nodded: "Okay."
Seeing Yan Zhen begin tidying up the medicine box on the table, he suddenly asked, "Aren't you afraid?"
"Ok?"
"Heads," Zhao Yuan said.
Yan Zhen glanced at the wooden box on the table: "You have something that I also have, so what's there to be afraid of?"
Zhao Yuan: "..."
He was speechless.
"Dispose of the heads," Yan Zhen instructed. "Go back and tell the soldiers to leave the city first thing tomorrow morning."
"it is good."
-
Early in the morning, before dawn, the caravan was fully prepared and waited at the city gate to leave the city.
Before long, a long queue formed behind them, ready to leave the city.
As dawn broke, the city gates slowly opened.
Zhao Yuan led the caravan forward for inspection, and then they left the city in an orderly manner.
The caravan successfully left the city, but after traveling some distance, a commotion broke out at the city gate, which was then closed.
Hearing the commotion, Yan Zhen, who was sitting in the carriage, lifted the curtain and saw the city gate closing in the distance. She subconsciously looked at Zhao Yuan, who was riding at the front of the procession.
Zhao Yuan also turned around and was looking at her.
The two men looked at each other across half a caravan and smiled knowingly.
Compared to the outward journey, the return trip was much easier for the caravan. Zhao Yuan no longer had to travel under the stars and moon, and Yan Zhen could even ride around to scenic spots along the way.
The caravan traveled for more than a month before returning to the city where Fu Xue had been settled.
When I saw Fu Xue in the city, I noticed that she had been eating and drinking well during her recovery period, and she looked even more plump than before.
The master and servant were overjoyed to see each other, and Fu Xue eagerly told Yan Zhen about the delicious food and fun things to do in the city.
Seeing that Yan Zhen was interested, and considering that this place was only seven or eight days away from Tingzhou, Zhao Yuan simply let the caravan transport the potatoes back to Tingzhou first, while he and more than ten soldiers stayed behind to accompany Yan Zhen to rest here for a few days.