"Many are willing to lay down their lives for His Majesty."
"What does His Majesty want with a life laid down? Can it be refined into an elixir for immortality? He wants someone to share his burdens, and clearly, you are the most suitable."
"Are you complimenting me?" Yi Yanguan asked suspiciously.
"Am I not complimenting you enough?" Xie Jiang was deeply shocked.
Yi Yanguan's lips curved upwards. Fine, he would assume she was complimenting him.
"Although your Emperor is intent on cultivating immortality, and by his demeanor, he likely believes he will ascend, he does not wish to leave a bad reputation behind. Therefore, he will not carelessly employ those who are willing to lay down their lives."
Yi Yanguan remained the Emperor's most useful mule.
Xie Jiang pulled open the hem of her clothes and peeked inside. After picking for so long, she had only gathered this much. She quickly urged the mule Yi to speed up and stop dawdling.
Yi Yanguan: "..."
Why not call more people over to pick tea?
This thought, as soon as it surfaced, was immediately and cleanly extinguished.
He would rather be disliked and urged on by her.
Than have their rare leisure time together disturbed.
"So, how many days can you stay?"
Xie Jiang would only pick for a moment before feeling that the tea tree beside her had even more tender buds. Fickle, she would move to the next one.
"Can you finish one before switching?"
"Why stare at one tea tree and strip it bare? Does it look good when it's bald?"
"Don't you think the number of tender buds on each tree is about the same?"
"I don't think so."
Yi Yanguan could only resign himself to following behind her. "His Majesty thinks I've left the capital to find a poison doctor for treatment."
The fact that he had vomited blood outside the palace gates that day had already reached the Emperor.
"Then you should be given a few more days of leave. This is something His Majesty would like to see. You can use this as an excuse to visit Ninghe more often."
The Emperor wished Yi Yanguan's illness would never be cured. A sickly Yi Yanguan made the Emperor feel more at ease and secure.
"When do you plan to leave Ninghe?" Yi Yanguan's brow furrowed slightly. The mention of this place always made him uncomfortable.
Xie Jiang, while plucking tender buds, thought for a moment. "It should be around when the sweet potatoes are ripe."
"So long."
He remembered their sweet potatoes had only just been planted.
*Their*?!
He had actually grouped her and Xu Hengyan together!
Yi Yanguan's face turned cold, and he yanked off the branches of the tea tree.
"That's four to five months."
The maturity period for sweet potatoes isn't long. As long as the climate conditions are suitable, planting two crops a year is not a problem.
"Half a year isn't enough?"
He was so reluctant to part with Xu Hengyan! Yi Yanguan told himself to calm down, that things weren't what he thought, but if not what he thought, then what were they!
She and Xu Hengyan had spent so many days together in the deep mountains and old forests, their relationship had progressed by leaps and bounds; anyone with eyes could see it!
After half a year... who knew what would happen!
Xie Jiang corrected him, "Four to five months, less than half a year."
"What's the difference?" It was still a very long time!
"A month or two difference, thirty to sixty days. What difference do you think there is?" Can you even count?
"You're calculating so precisely!" Counting days and being so meticulous!
Xie Jiang inexplicably turned to look at him, her tone so sharp, had she eaten gunpowder?
Yi Yanguan remained outwardly calm. He was just asking casually; he didn't mean anything else.
Xie Jiang's forehead was filled with question marks. "Didn't you ask me first?"
Yi Yanguan's face soured, and he grumbled a muffled "yes." He shouldn't have asked!
Xie Jiang silently turned back to continue picking tea.
The tender buds, still plump and juicy, were much more endearing. Unlike men, they didn't throw inexplicable tantrums; they lay there obediently, allowing her to pluck them.
Yi Yanguan stared at the back of her head, his face as dark as if he had just emerged from an ink pool. "Half a year is enough for you to do what? Why don't I just transfer Xu Hengyan back to the capital?"
Xie Jiang's forehead was filled with so many question marks that they almost couldn't fit. What was with Yi Yanguan's tone? It was sour, like pickled cabbage that had been aged for eighteen years.
Suddenly, a flash of inspiration struck her!
She understood what was going on!
No wonder!
"That would be great, hurry and transfer him back to the capital." Xie Jiang, with a mischievous intent, decided to tease him.
The scoundrel actually dared to think that! Yi Yanguan glared at her fiercely, a chill emanating from him.
Only when he saw her struggling to suppress a twitch at the corner of her mouth, her eyes full of mischief, did Yi Yanguan realize he had been teased.
"You—"
"Hahahaha... Yi Yanguan, are you jealous... you're actually jealous..."
Xie Jiang finally couldn't hold back a burst of laughter. Seeing Yi Yanguan's increasingly dangerous gaze, she clutched the pouch made from her clothes and ran.
Her laughter scattered across the mountainside.
Xie Jiang hadn't run far before Yi Yanguan tackled her to the ground.
"Ah! My tea leaves! My tea... mmmph mmmph..."
Pinned to the ground and roughly manhandled, Yi Yanguan still felt unsatisfied.
"Are you still being naughty!"
"How am I being naughty? How was I supposed to know you were so jealous? And so inexplicably jealous, who could have guessed?"
Men's thoughts aren't hard to guess, but the thoughts of a man in love are simply an eternal mystery!
"...You're staying in Ninghe for more than half a year, is it because of the sweet potatoes in the fields?"
"What more than half a year? How is it more than half a year!"
"Counting the days after this, it will soon be more than half a year!"
"...Why do you keep thinking about Xu Hengyan?"
"Am I thinking about Xu Hengyan!" Yi Yanguan wanted to devour her!
"Then I'm not thinking about Xu Hengyan either. Don't you see who is most important in my heart?" Xie Jiang clutched her chest, feigning heartbreak.
Yi Yanguan almost let out a cold laugh. "Perhaps my eyes are not sharp enough."
"Of course, you are the most important! Everyone else is insignificant. How can others compare to you."
Yi Yanguan leaned down, staring into her eyes, wanting to know how much truth her words held.
"Don't you have so little confidence in yourself? How can you have so little faith? In my heart, you have always been the best..."
Such words coming from her mouth were too deceptive; Yi Yanguan was almost convinced.
"In the future, when we are together, please don't mention those insignificant people again, alright? I don't have enough time with you..." lest she have to rack her brain to figure out why he was jealous.
A corner of Yi Yanguan's heart began to crumble.
The soft touch beneath his hands felt familiar. Xie Jiang suddenly remembered something and got up to look. The hem of her clothes, which she had rolled up, was already a mess. The tender buds she had picked were scattered everywhere.
The tender buds were all crushed!
Some were mixed with the grass on the ground, so crushed that it was impossible to distinguish grass from tea. Some had already become the pattern on her clothes!
"My tea! Yi Yanguan!"
Yi Yanguan felt a little guilty and wanted to pick some up from the ground, but he couldn't find any intact ones. "We can just pick some more."
Xie Jiang was furious. "I picked for so long, and only got this much, and you ruined it all!"
Yi Yanguan's attitude was very proper. "I'll pick! I'll pick!"