Chapter 8

A heart beating heavily, Zhou Xian Yang walked closer and said without moving, “No need to be polite, you guys eat.”

This is the store where the City God Temple pays out the Lantern Festival, ordinary people can receive a bowl, but if they want to sit down and eat, the price is not high.

Rong Xiangwang said to the shopkeeper again, “Ask for three more bowls.” He was also busy introducing Xian Yang: “My elder brother you know, this is my third sister, and this is my sixth sister.”

After meeting him one by one, Zhou Xian Yang’s gaze passed over the Rong family’s third girl’s face seemingly unintentionally. After so many years, her eyebrows hadn’t changed much.

He was amused in his heart: with a name and a surname, how could he lose it?

“Where did fourth sister go? Quickly call her back ah, let her come and meet!” Rong Xiangwen was agitated and ordered the maid standing behind her. Rong Xiangzhi held her down, “Be steady, don’t make jokes in front of King Yu.”

Rong Xiangwen had to give up, and unwrapped the cloth pocket on the table, taking out a few roasted sweet potatoes and handing them over, “Fourth Highness, freshly roasted sweet potatoes, they are delicious.”

“Sixth sister, this kind of vulgar food, how can you take it to your highness?” Rong Xiangzhi was a bit embarrassed and smiled, “Your Highness, don’t mind, my sister is young.”

Where would Zhou Xian Yang mind, he took it with a smile, “I won’t, many thanks.” Then, he handed two sticks to Xiao Nan and Xiao Bei: the baked sweet potatoes you’ve been longing for.

Baked sweet potatoes should be eaten in winter, holding in the hand is the warmest, tear open the sweet potato skin, a warm sweet fragrance pouncing, the center is red, the sweetest kind.

Rong Xiangwang ate a big mouthful, hot straight haha, said vaguely: “How would he mind it? You do not know, in West Qin, just want to eat a mouthful of hot sweet baked sweet potato. The mountain forests there are cold and wet at night, so I didn’t dare to build a fire to cook for fear of exposing my movements, so I could only eat hard, cold, dry food, and my stomach was all eaten up.”

Zhou Xian Yang nodded with a smile, deeply sympathetic. At that time, when I raised my head, I could only see the dark canopy of the dense forest and the occasional faint moonlight.

Now, looking at the sky full of flourishing lanterns and flowers, it was really like a lifetime ago.

Yuanxiao came up in bowls, and as everyone ate and chatted, another colorful float of lanterns was brought out of the great hall to be sent outside.

“It’s a white elephant!” The men and women of the Rong family put down their bowls to go and watch the fun, Xiao Nan and Xiao Bei also had their necks stretched out, and Yang Xian said, “You guys go and watch, I’ll sit here and not go.”

The two siblings immediately ran away.

Zhou Xian Yang sat alone at the table, watching the crowd in the City God Temple laughing and clamoring, feeling that all this jubilation had nothing to do with him at all.

He stirred the soup dumplings in his bowl with a spoon, thinking that he wondered what his mother was doing now. Being secluded in the imperial tomb, can there be Yuanxiao to eat?

Not long after, the Rong family’s third girl returned and sat on Zhou Xian Yang’s right hand side. Xian Yang looked at the side of her face, which indeed looked quite similar to her childhood.

This was probably the only time they would be able to speak alone, so Zhou Xianyang did not hesitate: “Third girl, thank you.”

Rong Xiangzhi’s hand holding the spoon gave a start. It was only under the dappled light that she dared to take a closer look at this highly decorated Fourth Highness.

Even without the status of a prince and with his military achievements, Zhou Xian Yang was someone who made her heart flutter. Handsome appearance, extraordinary instrument, with the military’s austere atmosphere, but look at her eyes but sincere and gentle, very different temperament in his body neutralization is very good, is she quietly read those words on the book, can not be written out of the man. It is also the temperament of Wen Zhongqing, a pampered son of Jinling City, that he does not have.

Rong Xiangzhi felt an indescribable flutter in her heart, “Your Highness, why are you thanking me?”

“In the winter of the 12th year of Longzhi, has the girl ever been to Yonghua Palace?”

Rong Xiangzhi nodded. Noble Consort Shu gave birth to the emperor’s first child after he ascended the throne and was quite favored with King Qing’s mother and son. Her mother had always wanted her to marry His Highness King Qing, so when she was eight or nine years old, she would from time to time look for opportunities to bring her to Shujiwei’s palace.

When Zhou Xian Yang got the confirmation, he asked, “Do you remember helping a little chambermaid in the flower garden outside Yonghua Palace?”

At this point in the conversation, Zhou Xian Yang stopped. The matter of Princess Shu Gui secretly sending him to see his mother was a major offense of disobedience, and it was inconvenient to tell anyone, so he did not go into further detail.

Rong Xiangzhi actually didn’t understand what he was asking, but it was many years ago, and a noblewoman like her accidentally helping a lackey that King Yu cared about with a single word was a very common and trivial matter, so maybe she didn’t even notice it herself.

Not knowing if it was out of vanity or what, she ghostly nodded her head and smiled, “It’s a matter of old times, Your Highness doesn’t need to say thank you.”

Zhou Xian Yang was very happy, and even though he had a thousand words, he could only say one, “I can’t do it without the help of the girl who helped me back then. If there are any future orders, I will do whatever I can.”

Rong Xiangzhi’s face changed slightly, the weight of these eight words is not ordinary.

Still wanting to say something else, he was interrupted by his sixth sister.

“Why don’t you guys go see the lights, how beautiful!”

“Later there is a green dragon, phoenix …… good looking a lot!” Rong Xiangzhi laughed and pulled this hairy silly sister to sit down.

Rong Xiangwen stared at Yulong and scrutinized him, smilingly picked up a bowl of Lanterns and made a toast, “Your Highness Yulong, thank you for avenging my father’s death, and in lieu of wine with wine-brewed Lanterns, I’ll drink!”

Zhou Xian Yang froze for a moment and was amused.

The little girl’s voice was brittle, staring with round eyes, not to mention how adorable, but she intentionally spoke like an adult.

He picked up a bowl and returned the favor: “The Rong family’s business is my business.”

The infiltration of Western Qin was a plan that Grand General Rong reported to the Emperor when he was alive, but unfortunately, he was gone before it was implemented. When Zhou Xian Yang was in the palace, he had been taught riding and archery for a while, and now that he had taken down Western Qin, he felt that he had benefited from him even more.

Rong Xiangzhi is unaware of King Yu’s gratitude to the Rong family, but just recalls what he just said, “If there is an errand, I will do whatever I can”, and feels his heart fluttering.

After eating the Lantern Festival, the crowd gradually separates into different halls to pay their respects. Xian Yang didn’t believe in ghosts and gods, so he just watched the colorful floats and lanterns parade around the city.

In the middle of the night, someone shouted that there was a fire!

Before the crowd could discern the direction, they saw the fire in the sky along the lanterns’ dragnet, snaking away from the eastern side of the hall. Overhead, all the bright and beautiful, instantly engulfed in flames, reduced to ashes, dangerous but extremely beautiful moment of destruction.

Crowds of frightened straight to the outside, fall trampled and cursed one after another.

The Lantern Festival is a top priority to prevent water from escaping, and a fire-fighting team arrived as soon as we spoke. The leader said, “Stop the fire from spreading.”

These halls are not far away from each other, and there are lanterns strung together, if burned open can be very bad. The one that caught fire first was bound to have damage, and the practice of stopping the damage in time was correct.

The fire-fighting team was well-trained and started to take action, and Xian Yang wanted to go up to help when he heard someone shout, “There are still people in that hall who haven’t run out.”

Zhou Xianyang took Xiao Nan and Xiao Bei with him and headed for the northeast side of the hall, where the fire had broken out.

In the side hall, all kinds of lanterns and colorful cars are stored, and there is the biggest green dragon colorful car, which has just been lit before it has time to be transported out, and it caught fire first, and then several lanterns and colorful cars next to it were quickly set ablaze, and then the fences and finishes inside the house were burned into a sea of flames, and a few of the people who were enjoying the colorful cars were blocked in the corners and couldn’t get out.

To save people will have to endure the fire. Rong Xiangwang in the doorway anxious round and round, firefighting team of water gun are busy extinguishing the fire outside the spread of the fire, he managed to snatch one, was the firefighting team to hold down: “can not use this, the lanterns in the float is not ordinary candles, in order to sustained combustion of the point is the oil, sprayed into the water splashed in the oil is only afraid of even more trouble!”

“What can we do?” Xiao Nan and Xiao Bei were so anxious that they jumped straight to their feet. Through the fire, Zhou Xian Yang was able to see that the woman with the child was the one trapped inside. Instantly thought of her cart, used to wrap sweet potatoes insulation quilt, busy rushed out the door, will be turned out of the quilt, thrown into the firefighting team’s water tank soaked, back on the body rushed straight into the burning temple.

Xiao Nan Xiao Bei froze for a while, before reacting to the one who just rushed in is their fourth highness, anxious to leap straight to the inside. Rong Xiangwang pulled them both back, “Don’t go to your death!”

Zhou Xian Yang held his breath and lowered his head to look at the road, entered the hall and went straight to the east, suddenly kicked a person, and busily lowered his body to pull up an arm, but no matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t pull the person.

Lift up a corner of the quilt to see, it turned out to be two people tightly embraced together, chest and abdomen in the middle of the protection of that small baby.

“You quickly take the child away.” As he spoke, one person had already let go of his arm, and Zhou Xian Yang immediately pulled the woman holding the child into the quilt, shielding them from the tongues of fire, and assisted them to the entrance of the hall, where Xiao Nan and Xiao Bei immediately took the person over.

He turned around and went back into the inner hall to find the last stranded person.

When he was only a few steps away from her, he suddenly heard the phrase “get down”, and Zhou Xian Yang subconsciously did so, only to hear a loud bang, smashing in front of him.

When he lifted his head to look, sparks of fire hit him straight in the face.

It turned out to be several beams that had been burned and broken, and they all came crashing down. Luckily, there was a big drum in front of him, which rolled over and took a solid hit for him, and he continued to shorten his body to pass under the burning beams.

Not caring about the difference between men and women, he pulled the man into a quilted wrap. Behind him was another earth-shattering collapse, and the way to the door was completely blocked.

“There’s a window on the north side that isn’t on fire!” The man immediately said.

Zhou Xian Yang hurriedly braced himself some and looked in the direction, and the two of them ran towards the window with their heads full of flames. He split the window with a palm, wrapped his arm around her waist, and directly pushed her out wrapped in her quilt, before leaping out himself.

The fire behind him spread rapidly, and the tongues of fire followed closely, burning out the window.

Luckily, there was a ditch behind it, which was built to prevent the City God Temple fire from affecting the residents of the city, and there was water, mud, and all kinds of unspeakable filth in it.

Zhou Xian Yang had long been accustomed to these, and he hurriedly pulled the quilt and moved it farther away to ensure that he would not be burned by the flames again, before he breathed a sigh of relief and asked the person who had been wrapped up tightly in the quilt, “How are you doing?”

Rong Xiangmian had just been so smoked that he could barely draw breath, and dizzily felt pulled into a man’s arms, intuiting that he was going to be finished. Even if he survived, he would be talked about endlessly, and I’m afraid that he would also involve his family.

At the moment, he was so confused by the fall that he wanted to play dead and hid under the blanket without making a sound.

Seeing that this person did not speak, Zhou Xian Yang thought it was hopeless, and lifted the quilt with his hand, and by the light of the fire, the scene suddenly fell into a strange silence.

Isn’t this the fox girl who just guessed the lantern riddle? Although the face was smoked black, but the pair of bright eyes will not lie, her mask is also hanging on the chest. So, it was her that I met outside just now.

Xiang Xiang looked at him and also felt familiar, reacting a moment later, wasn’t this, the youth beside the old general Qi that he saw at the South China Gate?

“You are the …… fourth girl of the Rong family?”

“You are the …… Fourth Highness?”

“I am.”

“I am.”