eurekapd Chapter 123 First Meeting with Li Jiarui
Chapter 123 First Meeting with Li Jiarui
Lu Mubai arrived at Xia Yichen's private room at Yunyi Tower and saw Zhang Jinxuan, Li Jiating, An Chiyu, Meng Xiaoyi, and Li Jiating's younger brother, Li Jiarui, drinking tea in the room.
"Mu Bai, you're such a slowpoke! You've been back for two hours, and you're only just arriving now. We've been waiting for you for ages," An Chiyu gently punched Lu Mu Bai's chest.
An Chiyu is the commander of the Imperial Guards. He commands both the Imperial Guards in the palace and those stationed outside the city to protect the capital. He and Lu Mubai are both military officers, and their relationship is closer than that of the others.
Lu Mubai opened his arms and gave An Chiyu a hug: "Sorry, something came up at home, I'm late."
Meng Xiaoyi, the second young master of the Meng family, said gently, "It's not late, Yichen hasn't arrived yet!"
No sooner had the words left his mouth than Xia Yichen's magnetic voice came from outside the room: "Who is talking about me behind my back?"
"Yichen, has Yuxia arrived yet?" Zhang Jinxuan asked as he stepped forward and opened the door.
"Brother Jinxuan," Wen Yuxia, dressed in men's clothing, called out from behind Xia Yichen.
Lu Mubai's gaze was so intense that even Xia Yichen, standing next to Wen Yuxia, couldn't stand it. He glanced at Lu Mubai, then turned and beckoned to Li Jiarui, "Jiarui, come here quickly, let me introduce you."
Li Jiarui is two years older than Wen Yuxia. He was the person Xia Yichen had chosen for Wen Yuxia. Today, Xia Yichen specifically instructed Li Jiating to bring him over, hoping the two of them could get to know each other better.
Xia Yichen introduced Wen Yuxia and Li Jiarui with a smile, and then introduced Wen Yuxia to An Chiyu and Meng Xiaoyi.
An Chiyu is a martial arts fanatic. After learning that An Yi had been injured by Wen Yuxia, he wanted to meet her. Finally, Wen Yuxia arrived in the capital, but Xia Yichen, Li Jiating, and Zhang Jinxuan were busy with their duties, and no one introduced him to her.
Now that they've finally met, An Chiyu grinned and said, "Sister Yuxia, Yichen said you're even stronger than An Yi. Let's have a go at it sometime."
Wen Yuxia nodded in agreement without changing her expression. Before coming, Xia Yichen had told her that An Chiyu was a martial arts fanatic, and he challenged her to a duel as soon as they met. He truly lived up to his name.
"Stop just standing there chatting, Yuxia, come and sit down," said the handsome and sunny Meng Xiaoyi with a warm and charming smile.
"Brother Mubai, when did you get back?" Wen Yuxia asked with a faint smile. Lu Mubai smiled back and replied simply, "Today."
Everyone sat down again. Zhang Jinxuan thoughtfully arranged for Wen Yuxia to sit between Xia Yichen and Li Jiarui. Lu Mubai kept staring at Xia Yichen, his desire to change seats written all over his face.
Xia Yichen deliberately avoided looking at Lu Mubai, keeping his head slightly lowered as he focused on eating. The Zhenguo Duke's mansion relied on Lu Mubai and his brother to continue the family line, and he didn't want Lu Mubai to provoke Wen Yuxia, so of course he wouldn't give up his position to Lu Mubai.
After the meal, Zhang Jinxuan had tea, snacks, and a fruit platter brought over. Xia Yichen cleared his throat twice and asked, "Mu Bai, what is the situation at Pingyuan Pass?"
"Occasionally, small groups of barbarian raiders would attack villages..." Lu Mubai said truthfully. It was common for the barbarians to rob the border during the winter, and almost no one survived in the villages they attacked.
Wen Yuxia couldn't help but ask, "Didn't anyone warn us when the barbarians entered the village? How could the entire village have been wiped out?"
Lu Mubai said helplessly, "The madmen who enter the village usually choose to attack at night. Their horses' hooves are wrapped in thick cloth, so you can't hear the hoofbeats when they run. By the time they are discovered, they have already entered the village."
For a while, we received news of barbarians entering villages every few days. In villages close to the military camp, the soldiers were able to chase after them and save many villagers' lives. In villages far from the camp, the soldiers could only collect the corpses of the villagers.
Xia Yichen frowned: "What are the patrol team members doing? Don't they patrol at night?"
When Xia Yichen was about to open Pingyuan Pass, he formed a patrol team. The patrol team members were villagers from nearby villages.
Lu Mubai smiled wryly: "The patrol team disbanded long ago." The team lacked cohesion; some villagers complained about the low compensation, while others disliked the strong winds and sandstorms at night and didn't want to patrol at night. The patrol team was formed and disbanded in less than three months.
Wen Yuxia asked in confusion, "The villagers should be more familiar with the terrain than the madmen. Even if they hide in the mountains, they will be wiped out."
Lu Mubai shook his head helplessly: "Before the madmen enter the village, they will send some people to detour and block the mountain road, so the villagers will not have a chance to run up the mountain."
Of all the seasons, winter is the hardest for the barbarians. In the other three seasons, with enough food and drink, they wouldn't risk plundering the territory of the Great Xia. In winter, the villages on the border serve as their granaries.
Wen Yuxia suddenly remembered the tunnel warfare she had seen in her past life. Half-jokingly, she said, "I once had a dream where barbarians were robbing a village, and the villagers built houses underground to hide from them..."
Xia Yichen pondered for a moment and said, "Build houses underground to store grain, and villagers can live directly in the tunnels at night. In this way, if the barbarians attack the village, they can only burn down the houses at most."
Lu Mubai said, "That's a good idea. Dig cellars under the fields; the madmen will never imagine that the villagers will spend the night underground."
Every household has a cellar. After entering a house, the thugs will carefully search for the cellar entrance. They would never suspect that a cellar could be dug in the fields.
Next, Zhang Jinxuan and the others joined in, and the group discussed animatedly until dusk before heading home. Xia Yichen assigned the task of taking Wen Yuxia home to Li Jiarui.
Li Jiarui was young, but quite gentlemanly. He extended his right hand in a gesture of invitation, letting Wen Yuxia board his carriage. He then jumped onto the carriage shaft and sat next to the driver.
The carriage moved slowly, and Li Jiarui's gentle voice drifted into the carriage: "Sister Yuxia, there are some snacks in the hidden compartment on the right." He wasn't familiar with Wen Yuxia and it wasn't convenient for him to enter the carriage, so he could only tell her to get them herself.
Wen Yuxia said softly, "Brother Jiarui, are you hungry? Would you like some snacks? My cook makes really delicious brown sugar pancakes, and I just happened to bring two with me today."
"Sister Yuxia, you eat it yourself, I'm not hungry," Li Jiarui said. He was a foodie, and his favorite food was sweets. His eyes lit up at the mention of brown sugar cakes, but he resisted the temptation and refused.
When he left home, his older brother told him to behave well and leave a good impression on his younger sister, Yuxia. He didn't want to be scolded by his brother for being greedy when he got back.
Wen Yuxia said with a smile, "I brought these brown sugar cakes especially for you; I put them in the hidden compartment."
Wen Yuxia was telling the truth. The brown sugar cakes were indeed for Li Jiarui. When Xia Yichen came to pick her up, he tasted a piece of brown sugar cake and then said that Li Jiating's younger brother couldn't live without sugar, so he asked her to bring all the brown sugar cakes on the table.
As they chatted, the two went from strangers to acquaintances. When the carriage arrived at the gate of the Princess's mansion, Li Jiarui said reluctantly, "Sister Yuxia, can I come to visit you next time I have a day off?"
Wen Yuxia said with a faint smile, "My younger brother, Wen Yunhong, is studying at the Imperial Academy. He'll come to my house next time he has a day off, and I'll introduce you to him."
The Li family is a scholarly family, and the renowned "Shengshi Academy" was founded by the Li family. Apart from Li Jiating, who once served as Xia Yichen's companion in the palace, all the other members of the Li family are students of "Shengshi Academy".