Guanshan Muyu

chapter 21

At night, the carriage arrived in Binzhou.

Binzhou City was not large, and the inns in it were far less luxurious than in the capital.

The place Qi Hui found was surrounded by jujube trees, full of flowers but not in fruit yet.

They had dinner in the lobby, surrounded mostly by travelling merchants. They spoke various dialects, mostly the ones Xia Xun didn’t understand.

One of the tables, though, made him take a few extra glances.

—They spoke Bai Yue, the local dialect of Lingnan.

Under their table, there was a straw basket. Xia Xun was very familiar with this kind of basket. He had carried it up the mountains to pick medicine and catch snakes, and he had woven many of them with his own hands.

The first real money he and his eldest brother made was by selling their own hand-woven straw baskets.

Qi Yan was concentrating on eating. The injuries on his back were not completely healed and his every move was very slow.

Xia Xun didn’t know what his purpose for going to Qingzhou was.

Qi Yan was so calm and unruffled that Xia Xun could not tell from his face whether what he was going to do in Qingzhou was easy or difficult.

Qi Yan noticed that Xia Xun was looking at him and slowly raised his eyes to meet his gaze.

Xia Xun’s fingers that he had bitten began to ache faintly again.

He looked away.

Qi Yan suddenly smiled at him:

“I’m afraid I’m going to have to ask you to share a room with me for a few days.”

Xia Xun dropped his chopsticks on the table:

“Is Lord Zhongshu so rich that he won’t even pay for an extra room?!”

Qi Yan said mildly, unperturbed:

“Let me ask you, if I let you live alone, what would you do? I’m afraid you will be gone before it’s time to go to bed.”

Xia Xun replied straight back:

“Why would I run away if you didn’t catch me? Since you know that I want to leave, why don’t you let me go back to Lingnan? When I return to Douzhou, we will be far from each other and comfortable, and there will be no need for Lord Zhongshu to bother so much!”

Qi Yan was not angry, holding his chin and looking at him with a smile.

Xia Xun’s heart throbbed suddenly, and he immediately looked away.

Qi Yan was very good-looking, far better-looking than him.

Xia Xun had grown up in the capital since he was a child. He has seen countless princes and nobles. Born into families of bells and whistles, they each had their own temperament.

But no one could match Qi Yan.

The emperor’s favorite daughter, Princess Jin, was a great beauty that captivated the world. Xia Xun was fortunate enough to meet her when he was a child.

Her eyes were like autumn water, she was slender and graceful, and her smile was heavenly. She was a national beauty who lived up to her name.

But she was still not as beautiful as Qi Yan.

Xia Xun’s favorite thing was Qi Yan’s eyes. His eyes were deep, always with a faint red tinge under them, and there was a small mole at the corner of his eye.