Chapter 168

Chapter 168

The morning of the seventh day of the ninth month.

At the government office in Zhicheng, Tong Sui was accompanying the old master, listening to the newly selected local loyal civil officials report on the land situations across various regions. Suddenly, a sentry arrived, followed by Xiao Ye, Xiao Yan, and others who had rushed over upon hearing the news.

Sentry: "General, the second master and the others have reached the eastern outskirts!"

The majority of the Right Route Army consisted of troops from seven counties, and they were accustomed to addressing the young masters of the Xiao family by their rankings. The new troops they led had also picked up this habit.

Xiao Mu nodded.

Xiao Ye, anxious, said, "General, I want to go out of the city to welcome Second Brother!"

Xiao Yan, Xiao She, the Qiao brothers, and even Sun Dian, Qi Yun, and Tong Gui were clamoring to go. Only Zhang Wengong and Sun Wei, burdened with civil duties, had been busy these past few days.

Xiao Mu: "Go, take five hundred men with you, and be careful of any ambushes."

The group of young men rushed out like wild horses. Xiao Ye had already run out but suddenly returned, looking at Tong Sui: "General Tong, want to come along?"

Tong Sui glared at him.

Xiao Ye then left again.

Xiao Mu instructed the civil officials to continue their reports. After the officials had left, Xiao Mu, glancing at his daughter-in-law who seemed engrossed in reviewing accounts, asked with a smile, "Not seen each other for over a hundred days, can you really focus on those accounts?"

Tong Sui's ears turned red, and she lowered her eyes, saying, "Fourth Younger Brother is already gossipy enough, and now you too, sir?"

Xiao Mu: "I don't want you to harbor resentment against me. Well, Wen Gong and the others are here. If you don't want to leave the city, go back to the residence and wait. Otherwise, when they return, they might bother you again."

Tong Sui indeed found it hard to concentrate. The day the army left Shuozhou was the seventeenth of May. Since then, she and Xiao Zhen hadn't been alone together. A few days later, Xiao Zhen was sent to Niangzi Pass to ambush the Shizhou reinforcements. It had been a hundred days since they last saw each other.

Leaving the government office, Tong Sui was escorted back to the temporary residence by eight guards.

The neighbors next door were still the Zhou family.

The Zhou family's men were busy in the medical camp, and although Tong Sui wanted to visit her cousin, upon learning that her cousin had gone out, she had no choice but to return to the Xiao family's side.

Entering the room, Tong Sui subconsciously walked to the dressing mirror.

After traveling south through the scorching summer and dry autumn, her neck and face had inevitably darkened. Of course, this darkness was only in comparison to her previous self. When she stood among the young men like Xiao Ye, Tong Sui still appeared strikingly pale. Xiao Ye had even joked about it, saying that even if Tong Sui wore armor and it was hard to distinguish male from female, the enemy only needed to aim at the fairest person to hit their own divine archer.

Her face looked decent, but when Tong Sui pulled down her collar, revealing the inside, the contrast in skin tone became immediately apparent.

The quiet front yard suddenly had footsteps, followed by Zhou Gui's cheerful inquiry, "Sister, are you in the room? I heard you're back."

Tong Sui quickly adjusted her collar and left the room.

Zhou Gui had already passed through the decorated gate, holding a package, and mysteriously led Tong Sui back to the inner room. She then opened the package, revealing a set of silk clothes, a beautiful combination of sky-blue and peach-pink, colors Tong Sui had hardly seen since joining the army.

Zhou Gui urged, "Brother-in-law is coming back today, and you haven't seen each other for so long. You can't wear those dull clothes to meet him again. Quick, while he hasn't entered the city, sister, change into these."

Tong Sui: "That would be too deliberate. I'm not without women's clothes."

Zhou Gui: "The ones you have, brother-in-law has seen. This time, I must make him astonished."

Tong Sui found the scene awkward just imagining it and turned away, saying, "I won't change."

She had never worn silk clothes.

Zhou Gui, thinking, hugged her sister and coaxed, "If you don't want to wear it, at least try it on? If it's not suitable, I'll need to return it. The silk shop hasn't dared to open for business recently, and I had to knock for a long time before they accepted my order."

Tong Sui didn't want her sister to have made a wasted trip and agreed.

Zhou Gui, sniffing near her sister's shoulder, said, "You've been riding horses again, accumulating dust. Take a bath first, so you don't dirty this fine fabric."

She then instructed the maid to heat water and continued to show her sister the new clothes.

Zhou Gui picked out a complete set from inner to outer garments, introducing and matching them as she went. What was presented before Tong Sui was a lotus-colored bodice, an unfastened sky-blue outer garment, a peach-pink pleated skirt, and a pair of light-blue embroidered shoes.

Tong Sui stared at the bodice, incredulously asking, "Is this supposed to be worn outside?"

Zhou Gui: "Yes, the ladies and young mistresses of wealthy families all dress like this. They don't need to work, so their clothes focus on lightness and beauty."

Tong Sui compared the neckline of the outer garment to the edge of the bodice: "Won't all of this be exposed?"

Zhou Gui: "Yes, I used to dress like this too. Once you get used to it, sister. When we reach the capital, we'll have to dress like this."

Tong Sui: "..."

As the sisters talked, the maids had prepared the water.

Zhou Gui, holding the set of clothes and several bottles, ushered Tong Sui to the bath.

The young girl sprinkled some floral essence into the bath, and a light fragrance wafted up with the steam. Tong Sui, her face red, sat down, closing her eyes and leaning her head against the edge of the barrel, allowing her sister to apply something to her face and gently massage it.

"Fortunately, sister has a good foundation. If not, after being tanned for so long, it would be hard to recover in a short time."

Tong Sui, puzzled, asked, "Are you saying that using what you applied today can restore it?"

Zhou Gui: "Whiteness might not be achievable, but at least it can regain its previous moisture. A friend of mine comes from a family that makes rouge and powder. I learned from her how to make rouge and experimented with combining it with nourishing herbs. I actually created something useful."

Tong Sui: "...Has Grandfather checked it? Make sure there are no hidden issues."

Zhou Gui laughed: "Rest assured, how dare I use shoddy products on General Tong?"

After soaking for two periods and masking for one, Tong Sui was finally allowed to put on clothes by her sister.

Once dressed, Tong Sui first checked her neckline, relieved to see that not as much skin was exposed as she had imagined.

Zhou Gui pressed her down onto the chair again, helping her comb her hair and dress up. Although the two sisters had sent the majority of the rewards back to Wei County, they had still kept a few things to play with at night. Zhou Gui rummaged through Tong Sui's jewelry box and put a white jade hairpin and a pair of pearl earrings on her.

Tong Sui could hardly recognize the person in the mirror.

Zhou Gui urged, "You look so beautiful like this. Just wear this, I guarantee Brother-in-law will forget how to walk when he sees you."

Tong Sui bit her lip, neither agreeing nor refusing.

---

The ten-mile journey would be quick on horseback, but Xiao Zhen insisted on entering the military camp with the food supplies, which caused the delay.

This journey was enough for the brothers to catch up. Xiao Zhen asked Xiao Ye and the others to stay at the camp for duty while he would enter the city himself.

Xiao Yan said, "As if we don't know. You're just afraid we'll delay your reunion with Second Sister-in-law."

Xiao Ye said, "Ever since Second Sister-in-law came into the family, this younger brother of yours has become less and less valuable."

Sun Dian said, "Are you two really not afraid of getting beaten? By the way, if the two of you team up, can you beat him?"

Xiao Yan was eager to try, and Xiao Ye smiled at Sun Dian, "Why don't you spar with us first on Second Brother's behalf?"

Xiao Zhen just smiled and left the group of brothers behind.

At the government office, Xiao Mu, after not seeing his grandson for a long time, examined him from head to toe, making sure he was alright, and asked about the situation on the left wing of the army before sending his grandson off to rest.

Just as Xiao Zhen was about to ask where Tong Sui was, he heard the old man add, "By the way, I saw Aman has no interest in looking at the accounts, so I sent her back too."

Meeting the old man's teasing gaze, Xiao Zhen, holding back a smile, took his leave.

A servant led the way, and Xiao Zhen soon arrived in front of a two-courtyard house.

The guards at the gate respectfully invited Second Master inside.

The courtyard was quiet, and there were some water stains on the way to the west wing room, as if water had spilled while being carried inside.

Xiao Zhen walked straight over.

There were two bedrooms, one to the south and one to the north. Xiao Zhen stood in the central hall and tried calling, "General Tong?"

After a moment of silence, a response came from the south room, a mix of shyness and annoyance, "Not here."

The voice was so soft, and it had been so long since he heard it, that Xiao Zhen actually felt a sense of unfamiliarity. But reason told him, in his own yard, who else could it be but Tong Sui?

He strode over, lifted the door curtain, and before he even stepped inside, he caught sight of a girl in silk clothes sitting with her head lowered by the kang. Before he could clearly see her face, Xiao Zhen had already dropped the curtain, stepped back, and asked in a low voice, "Who is there?"

In the past few months, following Lu Gong from Shizhou to Anzhou, some small counties had surrendered directly. When the generals entered the city, some county magistrates, thinking they were clever, would arrange for beautiful women to pretend to be maids waiting in the courtyard to "serve." Xiao Zhen didn't know if others had accepted, but he had driven all those from his side away, and had reported any confirmed corrupt officials to Lu Gong for imprisonment.

This time, as the grand army marched south, they aimed to eliminate not only the corrupt officials in the capital but also the corrupt officials and local tyrants along the way.

At this moment, Xiao Zhen was unsure if one of the temporary maids he had selected had been so bold.

The neighboring house belonged to the Zhou family; maybe Tong Sui had gone to find her cousin again.

Xiao Zhen turned to leave when he suddenly heard the person inside say angrily, "Don't tell me you really don't recognize me, or are you playing tricks on me again?"

Xiao Zhen: "..."

This time, he heard it clearly. It was indeed his Xiaoman's voice.

He returned to the doorway, paused, and lifted the curtain again. The figure in silk clothes was still there, but her head had lifted, her dark eyes glaring over before she lowered her head again, her face turning red.

Xiao Zhen stood still, looking her over from head to foot, then from foot to head.

Tong Sui, being looked at like that, didn't know where to put her hands. She was just thinking he might rush in and hold her tight, but instead, he asked in a very indifferent voice, "Madam, did you come to the wrong place, or did I enter the wrong home?"

Tong Sui: "..."

It was the first time she had heard Xiao Zhen speak to her in such a tone. Whether it was real or not, her heart was in suspense, and she couldn't just sit there anymore. She stood up and looked inquiringly toward the door.

Xiao Zhen's expression remained blank, but there was a familiar fire in his eyes that Tong Sui recognized, and even his Adam's apple bobbed!

Tong Sui was truly angry this time. She walked over with a stern face and, placing a hand on each side of the door frame, tried to close the door.

Xiao Zhen wouldn't let her. He pushed the door hard, causing Tong Sui to stagger back two steps.

Tong Sui was stunned.

Xiao Zhen moved in close, holding her waist, and buried his face to kiss the area below her collarbone.

The stubble on his chin prickled Tong Sui, each movement filled with heat.

To keep her balance, Tong Sui had to grab his shoulders, still annoyed that he was deliberately scaring her, and pushed him, saying, "I don't know you, let me go."

Wanting to hear him apologize, instead, he ripped off her newly changed silk shirt and breathed, "Take a good look, and you'll recognize me."