“Where is she?!” The leader of the group hadn’t expected to see his comrades’ corpses upon entering the tent. He kicked the owner of the tents to the ground.
The owner was scared silly. His whole body trembled as he knelt.
Those were people lying dead in that tent! Not just some livestock!
The leader stared at the corpses with a grave expression. He immediately summoned his subordinates, “Ten, Thirteen, chase after her! The rest of you, follow me back to Su City.”
He Changdi was trudging his way back with the supply group. Even with the snowboat, they couldn’t go any faster.
The horses needed to rest and the snows had never stopped. The weather in the north was actively trying to kill them.
Xiao Hongyu jumped into the warm pen of the snowboat. He immediately rubbed his body all over and warmed himself at the brazier for a long time before finally coming back to life.
He covered his reddened and frozen ears with his hands, complaining, “It’s so cold outside. Brother He, how many more days before we reach our camp?”
He Changdi had slid his gloves back on upon seeing Xiao Hongyu enter the pen, “Hongyu, rest here with Brother Zhang. I’ll go take a look outside. If my guess is right, we should be able to reach camp in two days at the most, going at this speed.”
Xiao Hongyu heaved a sigh of relief upon hearing He Changdi’s words. He never wanted to pass his days getting frozen outside anymore.
Zhang Mai was grilling some beef slices over the fire. While cooking the meat, he shook his head with regret. “Although we used the same beef, but how is it that the ones I grilled are so different from Sister-in-Law’s?”
He Changdi had been about to step out of the warm pen. When he heard Zhang Mai’s mumbling, he completely stopped moving for an instant.
Xiao Hongyu shot a disdainful look at the beef slices that Zhang Mai was grilling. When he saw that half of every slice was already completely charred black, he rolled his eyes.
He would rather starve to death than eat Brother Zhang’s cooking. It was too scary.
He Sanlang sat on his horse’s back and stared out into the pure white horizon that stretched as far as the eye could see. There was a black veil attached to his hood to make his vision a little obscured.
When travelling over a snow-covered surface, if the human eye continued looking at the blank white expanse, their eyes would be hurt by ultraviolet rays reflecting off the white snow and they might become snow-blind. This was especially true for the grasslands of the north where everything turned white the moment it snowed. The thin black veil acted as a rather effective protective shield for his eyes so he wouldn’t become snow-blind.
The veil was similar to the modern protective snow goggles.
Ever since he had given each soldier in his group a single piece of black muslin, not a single one of them had suffered from snow blindness.
This simple solution had been something that Chu Lian had mentioned to him offhandedly.
He Changdi gripped the reins in his hands tightly and felt the tension from the leather gloves covering his hands. These gloves were different from the standard gloves issued by the army.
Each finger of the glove was sewn separately and there was an extra tough layer of leather added to the palm. The whole glove was not only waterproof, it was also extra warm inside thanks to a thin layer of fleece. Compared to the simple gloves given by the army, which only had two parts for the thumb and four fingers, it was much more convenient and practical for use. Xiao Hongyu had been drooling over his gloves for a long time.
He looked down at the gloves and recalled what Chu Lian had said to him when she had given him the gloves, “Keep these. They’re better than what they issue in the army.”
They weren’t just better. He didn’t even have to take them off when he was fighting in close quarters.
He Changdi abruptly stiffened up.
He shut his eyes, as if trying to pull himself out of this sweet dreamscape.
What was going on? Why was Chu Lian like a constant shadow by his side?
The most disgraceful part of it was that he didn’t hate that kind of feeling at all. He even continuously replayed memories in his mind as if addicted to them. For some reason, he still remembered every single word that the Chu Lian of this lifetime had said to him, down to the simplest greeting.
He Sanlang’s thin lips pressed together tightly as the depths of his eyes turned into the fathomless sea. His emotions crashed against his heart like the fierce waves of the azure ocean.
A crack appeared in his blank mask and turned into a bitter smile. He had really been ‘poisoned’ by Chu Lian’s drug.
That woman must be eating and drinking happily in the main camp while he was out fighting for the lives of the fifty thousand border troops. She just had a strange kind of power; no matter where she ended up, she was able to live just as well.
This gave rise to a feeling of dissatisfaction in He Sanlang’s heart, as if he had been thwarted by her tricks and half of his heart had been stolen away.
Just as his thoughts were about to meander into daydreams, a few black dots appeared on the horizon.
As the dots grew bigger and bigger, He Sanlang’s brows drew together slightly. He waved at the troops behind him and a small group broke off to pursue those little dots.
Soon, he could see the scouting group and three additional people headed their way.
Once the newcomers had drawn close, He Changdi recognised the leader straight away. He was one of the guards that Princess Wei had sent to keep Chu Lian safe.
For no reason at all, He Sanlang’s heart sank and he got a bad feeling.
Li Xing ran up to He Changdi and immediately raised his hands in a cupped first greeting. Without giving himself time to catch his breath, he panted as he reported, “Third Young Master He, Honoured Lady has an urgent message for you. One day ago, the Tuhuns launched a major offensive against the northern army.”
What?!
He Changdi’s expression turned stormy. He quickly took the message from Li Xing’s hands and opened it up.
Chu Lian’s letter was short, but it explained all the necessary details he had to know about the whole situation in a concise and succinct manner.
She told He Changdi to return as fast as he could to the main camp once he read the letter. The stores of the northern army had already run empty. The Tuhuns might really defeat them if the supplies didn’t reach in time.
Although both of them knew what was going to happen from their previous lives, there had been too many changes in this world. Neither of them could guarantee that events would happen exactly the same as they had in the past life. They weren’t as silly as to leave the decision up to fate. That would be completely brainless.
