Chapter 94 - Entering Yuanyang at Night

When Xue Qiming pushed the door open, he saw Xue Niang sitting by the bed. She carefully took clothes from her bundle and folded them neatly on the bedside table.

The small figure by the bed looked a bit frail. She was already small and thin, and spent most of her days out in the wind and rain as she followed Xue Qiming for so long. She hadn’t gained a few pounds but had become even thinner.

"

Ah

, um..." Xue Qiming took a couple of steps closer. "Xue Niang..."

"

Hmm

?" The girl looked up at her nominal teacher. "What’s the matter?"

"We should go now." Xue Qiming turned his head to the side, his gaze subconsciously avoiding the neatly folded clothes on the bedside.

"Okay." The girl didn’t say another word. She just nodded and began to pack the already folded clothes back into the bundle, not even asking why.

The two of them took their ox cart and left the Great Peng Inn. As they turned the street corner, it sounded like the inn was getting rowdy.

Xue Niang turned back from the ox cart and vaguely heard someone screaming, "There's been a murder... quick, report to the authorities!"

Xue Niang looked up at the man beside her.

When Xue Qiming looked down, he saw Xue Niang blinking her big eyes and staring at him. "What’s the matter? Why are you looking at me?"

Xue Niang shook her head, her shoulder-length hair belatedly following her movements. "Nothing... Where are we going now?"

Xue Qiming thought for a moment and vaguely remembered that the man named Qianliguang from the Qihuang Society had mentioned that a message seemed to be addressed to the King of Northern Qiang, Yelu Jiejia. So, in that case...

"We’re going to Yuanyang, the capital of Northern Qiang." Xue Qiming patted the girl’s hair beside him and smiled warmly in the sunlight.

The ox cart was slowly moving along the official road, and Xue Qiming lay back down in the cart, shading his face from the sun with a conical hat.

"

Ahhh... haaaa

..." Xue Qiming yawned and rubbed his eyes, squeezing out a few tears. "This sun makes a person want to sleep..."

Xue Niang sat on the yoke of the cart, holding a whip to steer their way. She turned her head to look at her "teacher" who was about to take a nap behind her, and asked, "What are we going to Yuanyang for?"

"

Um...

looking for someone, no, I should say looking for something." Xue Qiming smacked his lips. He was starting to feel sleepy.

Xue Niang tilted her head and asked, "What kind of thing?"

"How would I know?" Xue Qiming mumbled as he turned over. "Actually, I’m just a bit curious... But it should be something important, I suppose..."

Xue Niang looked at the sleeping Xue Qiming, blinked her big eyes, and didn’t ask anymore.

Tuxue City was not far from the capital, Yuanyang. The ox cart reached its destination in less than a day. However, the two encountered quite a problem while they were trying to enter the city.

Perhaps due to the capital's status or other reasons, the inspection at the city gate became stricter. People from the Ruen Dynasty, especially, faced even more scrutiny.

This gave Xue Qiming quite a headache. Naturally, they didn’t have official trade certificates to pass through. For the past few days, they had relied on either bribing the city guards or skillfully sneaking past to get closer to the capital.

Xue Qiming looked up at the unusually tall city walls, which were three times higher than usual, and filled with soldiers in cold metal armor. He frowned in frustration.

"Why don’t we stay outside the city?" Xue Niang tugged at the sleeve of the worried man. "I saw a village over there on our way here."

"It seems we have no choice." Xue Qiming assessed the high city walls. "When it gets dark, I’ll sneak in myself."

Xue Niang flicked the whip, urging the ox cart to turn around and head towards the village.

It turned out that the Northern Qiang people still liked money. The ox cart was a good example, and now there was another. After Xue Qiming doubled the price, a homeowner finally agreed to rent his house to them for half a month.

"The owner of this house isn’t all bad," Xue Qiming admitted while he rummaged through the kitchen. He had found some rice and a few pieces of meat. "At least he left us some food."

Xue Niang nodded inside the house while she was busy tidying up the bed for sleeping.

"Why isn’t there any wine..." Xue Qiming continued rummaging through the kitchen. "Who could have guessed that there are actually people in Northern Qiang who don’t drink? Looks like I have another mission tonight."

By the time they had dinner, it was completely dark outside, and the atmosphere at the dining table was a bit dull. Xue Qiming was planning out what he had to do that night, while Xue Niang seemed equally distracted.

Xue Qiming hurriedly finished the rice in his bowl, placed the bowl on the table, and announced, "Well, I’m off."

Xue Niang looked up at the man sitting opposite her, not saying a word. She stretched out her little hand and brushed off a grain of rice stuck at the corner of his mouth. "Hey, you... be careful."

Xue Qiming was taken aback for a moment, then smiled. He reached out his large hand to tousle the girl’s hair, making her smooth short hair messy again.

"Don’t worry... your master is very strong."

***

That night, Xue Qiming quietly arrived at the foot of the city wall. Looking up, the wall was brightly lit, and it was clear that even in the dead of night, the soldiers guarding the city were not letting their guard down at all.

Xue Qiming reached a corner of the wall, took a deep breath, and began to run. His figure grew faster and faster, and at the moment of contact with the wall... he leaped!

Xue Qiming shot up like a black swan, soaring upward in a trajectory that was nearly parallel to the wall!

But after all, this was Yuanyang, and the wall was absurdly high. When he had just reached halfway up, his momentum began to wane, and his speed gradually slowed. He soon stopped ascending and even began to fall!

Just as it seemed too late, Xue Qiming quickly pulled something from his lower back and dug it into the mottled rocks of the wall. He used this momentum to continue flying upward.

It was a pickaxe! A common pickaxe found in ordinary farming households. Xue Qiming had brought it from the house when he left. After lodging the pickaxe in the wall to boost his momentum, he easily reached the top of the wall.

Once he climbed over the parapet, Xue Qiming rolled onto the ground, hiding his body directly in the shadows. Not long after he concealed himself, he heard voices nearby.

"I think I heard something..."

"Really? Where?"

"It seems to be coming from there, outside the walls..."

Two armored soldiers walked over quickly. Holding torches by the parapet, they looked down for any irregulaties.

"Nothing..."

"

Uh

... maybe I’m just overthinking..."

Xue Qiming remained silent in the shadows behind the two soldiers, watching as they gradually walked away.

Once the two had gone far, Xue Qiming stepped out from the shadows. He grabbed his gourd and popped open the stopper, only to shake his head and sigh helplessly. " I might as well go find some wine first..."