Chapter Eighty-one In the Carriage

  The autumn is high and refreshing, it's really a good weather for traveling.

  After the Lantern Festival party last night, Xiao Huangzi and others performed a noisy play on stage. Today, Chu Hao, the son of King Weiyuan of the Cloud Sky Empire, will head north to Duolai City. However, the send-off was unusually cold and quiet, with only officials from the king's side and Gongzi Ge like Sun Haoran and Zou Buxu present. But what surprised King Weiyuan was that Wu Ceng, a palace craftsman, secretly sent a farewell letter, which left him somewhat perplexed.

  Outside the city gate, a yellow leaf on the official road, showing desolation.

  This time going north, the only ones following were Liu Li, Huang Hong and nine others, as well as twenty soldiers from the Wang Fu, all of whom were elite warriors clad in leather armor. Originally, Chu Hao didn't want these people, but he couldn't refuse the prince, so he reluctantly agreed.

  At the beginning of the fourth watch, Chu Hao's convoy set off, with a total of two double-yoke horse-drawn carriages. Liu Li and twenty-nine other guards also rode horses. With a loud noise, they headed in the direction of Du Rui City. The officials from the capital who had come to see them off had all dispersed, leaving only Sun Hao Ran and Old Liu from the Wang Ye Fu to see them off for a long distance, reluctant to part ways.

  Chu Hao had two horse carriages, but he himself rode a horse. The people who saw him off were all puzzled, but the prince's behavior was always eccentric and strange, even the king didn't mind, so no one asked questions.

  As autumn arrived, the fields were all yellow. On this day, the weather was fine and clear, with distant mountains and nearby trees looking like a painting. Chu Hao rode a majestic black horse, leading the way, and had already gone far ahead of the carriage team. The figures of Sun Haoran, Liu Lao, and others who came to see him off were no longer visible.

  Suddenly, a pure and bright singing voice rose from the ground, like extremely fine silver threads piercing the sky, then rapidly fell, rising and falling, undulating, repeating, like a colorful ribbon flying in the air, like fireworks suddenly bursting...

  "Last year during the Lantern Festival, the flower market was as bright as day. The moon reached the willow tips, and people made dates for after sunset. This year during the Lantern Festival, the moon and lanterns are still here. But I don't see last year's crowd, tears fill my spring sleeves..."

  Whose song is this, so mournful and desolate? The meaning of these words is like the rustling of fallen leaves, a sorrowful whisper.

  The whole team seemed to have solidified in this singing voice. Chu Hao also closed his eyes, slightly raised his head, and waved his hand to stop Liu Li and others from getting off their horses to check.

  After a long while, the singing stopped, and with the creaking of wheels and the neighing of horses, they continued on their way.

  ……

  This time going to Duoluo City, Chu Hao's preparation was still quite adequate. He still had 500,000 silver tickets from the auction on him.

  His original intention was to attend the Lantern Festival and then lay low for a while. Now that he has Tao Ranju's guarantee, his original intention hasn't changed. He just added the goal of becoming stronger as soon as possible.

  The guards of the Wang Fu were all elites of the Wang Fu, although they didn't have the kind of power that Chu Mo had, with abilities approaching the Xiantian stage, or having refined their skin to nine layers or achieved great perfection. However, each and every one of them was extraordinary, with the strongest being a warrior who had refined his skin to five layers. But in Chu Hao's opinion, this five-layer skin-refined warrior absolutely couldn't defeat Liu Li, who had only refined his skin to four layers.

  Liu Li and others took the Tiger Tendon Pill early this morning, and except for two people who have not reached the Refining Skin stage, the other seven are all first-level warriors in the Refining Skin stage. As for this result, it is somewhat different from Chu Hao's original plan of promoting three levels within twenty days for each person, with some achieving it and others not.

  However, Chu Hao did not make things difficult for them, which made Liu Li feel even more uneasy. After taking the tiger tendon pills given by Chu Hao, they worked even harder and got up early today without wasting any time, practicing before coming out dressed neatly.

  Even so, they hurried on their journey. Not long after leaving Kyoto, they dismounted and put on 300 kilograms of heavy loads, starting to walk forward while leading the horse.

  As for this, the twenty imperial guards felt a bit strange, but Chu Hao nodded in approval.

  At this moment, the horse team moved forward slowly. Half a day later, the pink carriage curtain of a horse cart was lifted slightly. Chu Hao coughed in a pretentious manner and ordered the horse team to continue moving forward before jumping from the horse onto the carriage.

  A woman in a plain dress was sitting upright on the soft cushion of the carriage, lifting the curtain and looking around, with an excited look on her delicate face.

  It was Lin Yuemei.

  When Chu Hao came in, the woman hastily put down the carriage curtain, her face turned red, and then she lifted her head again, glaring at him with hatred, saying: "What did you come in for?" Later, feeling that her voice was too weak, she raised an eyebrow: "Who let you in?!"

  In order to separate the two of them, Chu Hao had put in a lot of effort and specially prepared two horse-drawn carriages, letting that little loli go sit in the other carriage. Of course, as for the coachman, Chu Hao didn't even consider hiring one, directly using his voice to command, with the aura of a martial artist in the tempering stage, if he couldn't even subdue a horse, he could just go crash into a wall instead.

  And the carriage was also decorated with finery, and even brought along the special tea utensils that Lin Yue'er used. Of course, if it weren't for Chu Hao not having a storage bag, he wouldn't have bothered to bring so many things.

  At this moment, Chu Hao sat down on the soft couch with a big slap, smelling the sandalwood fragrance emitted by the crane-mouthed stove in the carriage, and said leisurely: "It's still more comfortable to sit in the carriage, riding horses is too bumpy."

  Now Lin Yu'er has walked out of her heart knot, she was originally an outgoing woman, but in the Wang Fu, in order to protect herself, she had no choice but to put on a cold face. At this moment, she came out and restored her lively personality as a young girl.

  After hearing Chu Hao's words, Lin Yue'er said in a bad tone: "Then this horse carriage is given to you, I'll go with Xiao Die."

  Chu Hao chuckled and pulled Lin Yue'er's small hand, saying: "Yue'er, let's just sit here for a while. The autumn air is crisp, I'll recite some poetry for you."

  After last night's events, this young master is getting bolder and bolder. Lin Yue'er's face turned red, but she couldn't bear to withdraw her hand. To hide her racing heart, she forced herself to calm down: "You must be going to say some nonsense again, I don't want to listen."

  "Who else could it be?" Chu Hao thought to himself, knowing that only Yue'er would understand him. But on his face, he sincerely said: "Then I won't recite poetry anymore. Anyway, we still have more than ten days of travel time ahead of us. The journey is long and boring, so let me tell you a story instead. Do you want to hear it?"

  The story in Chu Hao's heart was ready to be told at any moment. In his past life, he had been a great killer with no place to hide.

  Lin Yue'er lowered her head, deliberately avoiding eye contact with him, but in her heart, she was particularly interested in the stories that Chu Hao had told before. She said, "You can talk if you want to, I don't want to listen."

  Chu Hao smiled slyly and began to speak. At first, he spoke very seriously, telling some supernatural stories that he had heard in his past life. This kind of story was especially effective when told by a young man to a young woman who lived alone. Unfortunately, Lin Yue'er, although a young girl, seemed not to be afraid of such stories. After listening to Chu Hao tell two stories, she still looked at him with her beautiful and clear black and white eyes, without any reaction.

  The saliva was almost used up, and Chu Hao had to reluctantly turn off the attack. He put Lin Yue's small hand between his two hands, feeling the scorching temperature, and then said: "Yue, let me tell you another story about a fox spirit."

  Lin Yue'er nodded and said: "Okay, but don't be as boring as the two stories just now. The story of Ling Gongzi and Mu Niang you told before was pretty good."

  Chu Hao smiled with satisfaction and thought to himself that he was indeed the young master Ling, so naturally Mu Gu Niang was her.

  She smashed her mouth and told a story of "Jianna" that she had heard in her previous life. She told the story until the scholar Kong Xueqian was struck by lightning to save Jianna's family. Jianna spat out the red dan (elixir) from her cultivation, using the tip of her tongue to send it into Kong Xueqian's mouth...

  Lin Yue'er finally raised her head. Her eyes were wide open, exceptionally bright, staring at Chu Hao's lips and said: "Isn't that a kiss?"

  Chu Hao was taken aback and said: "You also know that's a kiss?"

  Lin Yue'er's face turned slightly red as she coquettishly said: "I knew it, what's wrong?"

  "Is this what your mother told you? What else do you know?" Chu Hao knew that Lin Yue'er was only seventeen years old, and in the Cloud Heaven Empire, marriages were usually arranged around fifteen or sixteen years old. These matters of the boudoir were naturally passed down by Lin Yue'er's relatives.

  "I won't tell you!"

  Lin Yue'er's heart was racing as she thought back to her 9th chapter a month ago, Chu Hao didn't want to participate and politely declined so as not to disturb the people.

  He stayed in the inn, drinking and composing poetry, tasting tea and talking about flowers. Lin Yue'er was by his side, brewing tea and occasionally exchanging a few jokes with him, living a very comfortable life.

  Liu Li and others practiced diligently, the entire courtyard was filled with their vigorous arm swings and kicking sounds. The twenty guards who came from the Wang Fu stood at the corners of the courtyard, taking turns to rest and keep watch.

  At night, Chu Hao thickened his face and wanted to stay in Lin Yue'er's room, but was driven away by Yu Zhong's little loli with a stern expression. He couldn't bring out the dignity of the young master, and could only sneak back to his room with his tail between his legs.

  After taking three tiger tendon pills, Chu Hao sat for a while and then went down to practice with Huang Hongjin. It wasn't until late at night that he finally fell asleep.

  Chapter Two: Unity