Chapter 500
Chen Fu was so startled that the teapot in his hand slipped straight out of his grip. With a crash, the white porcelain kettle shattered into pieces, and the tea inside splashed everywhere, soaking both master and servant's shoes and the hems of their robes.
"Old... Old Master! This... this..." Wasn't this a ghost wandering around in broad daylight?
Chen Fu looked toward the door — the sun was blazing high, the day even hotter and drier than yesterday. Yet at this moment, he felt cold from the inside out, as if submerged in ice water.
His back was covered in sweat, not from the heat but from sheer terror at what he had just witnessed!
Zhou Zhifei's state of mind was no better than Chen Fu's. The large, pitch-black characters "To Zhou Zhifei, personal" on the pale blue envelope scared him out of his wits, nearly making his liver and gallbladder split.
This mysterious letter, appearing out of thin air, was addressed to him by name. He couldn't even deceive himself into thinking it had been misdelivered.
"This!" His terrified gaze finally landed on the bright moon in the upper right corner of the envelope. Calling it a bright moon was one thing — it was actually a perfectly round white ring, and around its edge seemed to linger a hazy, wispy aura.
Why did Zhou Zhifei immediately recognize it as a bright moon rather than a sun?
Zhou Zhifei: Intuition!
Zhou Zhifei swallowed hard, his hand trembling like that of a man with ten years of Parkinson's disease, and slowly reached for the letter on the table.
"Old Master!"
"Uncle Chen, rest assured!" Zhou Zhifei, upon seeing that bright moon, seemed to be reminded of something — that was the only reason he dared to reach out right away.
Even though he guessed in his heart that there was likely no danger, his body still tensed up instinctively, his hand shaking like a decade-long Parkinson's patient.
Zhou Zhifei swallowed hard again before carefully opening the envelope. Once he saw what was inside, his eyes widened as if he'd just had eyelid surgery — they grew massively bigger!
Yue Fuguang naturally had no idea that her unique method of delivering letters had scared the prefect and his servant half to death.
By now, they had already left Nanzhao and entered the territory of Nanyue.
[Master, great victory at Jialing City!]
"What, it's already over so soon? What are the casualties for Dayan?"
[Because there was no commander in Jialing City, the defending soldiers' morale was scattered. Dayan took the entire city without much effort. Dayan's side had over two hundred wounded and less than a hundred dead. Jialing City had over two thousand casualties, with more than ten thousand prisoners captured.]
"The next city is Sui City, right?"
[Yes, that's the one — Nanyue's granary!] Taking it would sever half of Nanyue's food supply. Sui City and the surrounding territories under its rule were, aside from Gan City, the second-largest city in Nanyue.
"Who are the defenders of Sui City?"
[This person, Master, you've definitely heard of — they are the You family, the military clan of Nanyue, who in the original historical timeline of Gan Tang were her husband's family. The defenders are You Hui and his son You Hong. One would have been Gan Tang's father-in-law, the other would have been Gan Tang's consort.]
"So it's their family! Now that Gan Tang has married the Sixth Prince, that You Hong must still be a bachelor, right?"
[Master, isn't your focus a bit off? Shouldn't you be asking how capable the troops led by this father-son pair are?]
Yue Fuguang waved her hand dismissively. "What's there to worry about? If Generals Xu and Wei, armed with gunpowder, still can't take down the You family, it just means the two of them lack ability — better to replace them early!"
Hearing Yue Fuguang's words, Feng Tang and the other two silently lit a memorial candle for Wei Shouyi in their hearts.
After all, they had spent over a month together, so there was some friendship. Should they remind Wei Shouyi to fight this battle well? As for Yue Fuguang's words — as long as they didn't involve national secrets, such casual remarks would only be recorded in the files. They wouldn't breathe a single word to anyone unrelated.
[Once Dayan takes Sui City and Ye City, most of Nanyue's territory will be in our hands. This speed is a bit beyond what I predicted, which means those two do have some ability, and they have merit for Dayan.]
The group rarely heard the Divine Artifact praise anyone. To earn the evaluation of "some ability" and "merit for Dayan," Generals Xu and Wei had secured their status. No need to worry about the suspicion of overshadowing the sovereign after conquering Nanyue.
This was practically a death-exemption medal! Feng Tang's eyes rolled — this had to be spread around.
"Of course, generals who expand territory are all worthy of..."
"What right—" Yue Fuguang's words were cut off by a sharp, piercing cry that shot through the sky and drilled straight into her ears.
Before they could figure out what was happening, the voice continued: "What right! What right do they have to get rain... We... what did we do wrong..."
Yue Fuguang raised an eyebrow. Even without knowing the full story, she could guess the gist from those two brief sentences.
Fuming about something like this was truly bizarre!
"Go down and take a look!"
"Yes, ma'am!" The other three were all sharp-minded people and could guess roughly as well. Their brows furrowed involuntarily.
The flying vehicle descended invisibly. Soon, they saw a crowd gathered on a street. This was a town called Heshui, under Nanping Prefecture in Nanyue, less than a hundred li ahead lay Gan City.
This street was one of Heshui Town's main thoroughfares. The one who had just spoken was a woman covered in dirt and grime. Her head was lowered as she wept, making it hard to tell her exact age.
Beside her, several other women cried along with her, one after another, like a row of knocked-over dominoes.
Some crouched, some sat slumped on the ground, some leaned against the wall, their bodies slowly sliding down.
A young man, just over twenty years old, stood to one side, staring fixedly at the crying figures in the middle. The flesh on his face twitched, his jaw muscles clenched tight, bulging in and out.
Both hands were balled into fists, his knuckles white from the pressure. His whole body was like a drawn bow pulled taut.
A woman's voice was hoarse as she shouted with all her might toward the sky: "My child is dying of thirst! Why hasn't it rained? Why hasn't it rained?!"
Whether by coincidence or not, the direction she faced as she looked up was exactly where Yue Fuguang's flying vehicle was invisibly hovering.
That young man suddenly lowered his head, bent down, and with his clenched fist, slammed it into the dirt road with a dull thud.
The skin on his knuckles was scraped off, and blood seeped out. He didn't look at it. His forehead pressed against the ground as he gasped for breath, his chest heaving violently.
His shoulders slowly sagged, his whole body as though his spine had been pulled out. Bent over, hands braced on the ground, droplets fell to the earth — indistinguishable between sweat and tears.
His voice rasped as he repeated the same words as the woman earlier: "Why hasn't it rained? Why won't the Divine Maiden make it rain?!"
"The Divine Maiden is Dayan's Divine Maiden, not Nanyue's!" A young woman stepped out from the crowd. She looked to be sixteen or seventeen years old, with slightly sallow skin and cracked lips, but her eyes were exceptionally bright.
She wore a plain cloth garment that, while no longer clean, was still neat. Behind her followed a young man of similar age, with darker skin, also dressed in coarse, somewhat soiled clothing.
The kneeling young man suddenly raised his head, a hint of hostility in his eyes. "Third brother, third sister-in-law!"
"Big brother." The young man behind the girl reached out, trying to pull the one on the ground to his feet.
He shook his head in refusal. "Third brother, don't worry about me. If the Divine Maiden doesn't make it rain today, I... I'll kneel here until I die!"