At this moment, the power of the Fengjing noble families was manifested, and the exclusive skills of the aristocratic families made Jiang Sheng awed and Xu Mo's heart heavy.
Zhu Zhi's marriage was annulled and his reputation was completely ruined. It was set in stone.
But with the Zhu family protecting him, he was still a degree holder and could even be sent to a minor official position. His life would still be carefree and comfortable.
How unfair!
The county prefect Xu and his wife of Xieyang County, because they were clean-handed and had no backer, were wrongly accused and could only prove their innocence through suicide.
Xu Mo was really angry.
He suppressed his emotions as love and hate surged in his heart, which made his days at the Imperial Academy even more dispirited.
Zhao Yuan, who admired Xu Mo the most, was the first to come up and care, "Brother Xu, are you okay? Did something big happen at home? Or are you short of money?"
Xu Mo waved his hand.
Qi Huai said strangely, "What else could it be to make our diligent great scholar Xu turn his books upside down?"
Xu Mo quickly turned his books right side up, only to find that he hadn't actually turned them upside down until now when he really did turn them over.
Zhao Yuan and Qi Huai laughed until they bent over.
Only Zhu Sihuan sat silently in the corner with a gloomy face.
After Xu Mo set the books right, he decided to shift the trouble and said, "Why is Brother Zhu so quiet?"
Before Zhu Sihuan could open his mouth.
Zhao Yuan pranced around gesturing, "I know, something lively happened in the Zhu family. Your cousin has been keeping a concubine outside, and his son is already quite old, yet he still wants to marry the Tao family’s girl. Now the marriage has been called off by the Tao family’s girl and he has become the laughing stock of the entire Fengjing."
After speaking, he threw his head back and laughed loudly on his own.
Xu Mo also raised the corners of his lips in a sardonic smile.
In the eyes of the Fengjing noble families, becoming the laughing stock of Fengjing was a very serious matter, but in the eyes of him, a commoner, the most regrettable thing was the loss of life.
"So it's the Tao family." Qi Huai also seemed to recall something. "This marriage between the Zhu family and the Tao family is probably a necessary alliance. The most aggrieved thing for the Tao family girl is that after calling off the engagement with Zhu Zhi, she still has to be engaged to another member of the Zhu family."
Xu Mo was stunned.
He didn’t know that marriages between Fengjing noble families were not simply about courtship, but an alliance between the two families, or even a partnership, to show their sincerity by arranging marriages between the younger generation, only to strengthen ties.
"Calling off the engagement with Zhu Zhi means she can only settle for a lesser choice among the younger generation," Zhao Yuan stared wide-eyed and nudged Zhu Sihuan, "Brother Zhu, you also have a chance."
This was meant to be a joke, and others would have laughed it off.
But Zhu Sihuan barely managed to curl his lips into a smile and hissed, "That won't happen. The Tao family's requirement is at least a successful candidate in the imperial examination."
The Zhu family had many offspring, but few among the younger generation were even licentiates or students, let alone successful examination candidates. Otherwise, the Tao family would not have chosen Zhu Zhi who was in his prime.
But what was most eye-catching was still Zhu Sihuan who uttered these words.
After a little speculation, turbulent waves churned in Xu Mo's heart.
In October, the northern border.
As Jiang Sheng had guessed, this place was indeed both bitter and cold.
In the season when thin clothes could still be worn in Anshui Prefecture, the northern border had to be bundled up early on with thick clothes and padded jackets.
It was also this season that the nomadic tribes, suffering from hunger and cold, chose to raid the villages on the border to plunder food from the villagers and ravage innocent women in order to survive.
As the squadron captain of the 10th team of the 5th platoon of the 3rd Battalion, Fang Heng often took his men to patrol the borders on horseback, protecting the common people while deterring the nomadic tribes.
The area he was responsible for protecting was called Laigu Village, which had more than a dozen children around eight years old who often followed them on broomsticks, nominally to "patrol".
Fang Heng did not dislike these children, especially a girl with braided pigtails who closely resembled his sister Jiang Sheng, so much so that at meals he would always save a loaf of bread to sneak to the little girl when no one was looking.
Today the 5th platoon was eating mutton, and Fang Heng specifically set aside a fist-sized piece of meat, wrapped it in oiled paper and tucked it into his clothes. When he rode to Laigu Village, more than a dozen children rushed out on their brooms again.
"Ajie." The girl with braided pigtails affectionately called him, "You guys are here again."
There were also nomadic tribes on the border, and not everyone spoke standard Mandarin.
Fortunately, after staying here for a while, Fang Heng could understand it. He smiled and waved his hand.
This was their secret code. Whenever he waved, it meant there would be something delicious.
The girl with braided pigtails happily left the group and waited in the corner. Not long after, Fang Heng walked over and handed her the meat, also rubbing her head.
It was as if across time and space, he was rubbing his sister Jiang Sheng's head.
"It's meat!" The girl with braided pigtails was overjoyed. "I’ll save it for Dad and Mom to eat together."
Fang Heng never interfered with such things. What he gave was theirs, and he had no right to meddle.
The teenager mounted his horse again and instructed his men to spread out and pay extra attention to movements in the north.
Jiang Yi and the others took their orders and left.
He continued to wander around Laigu Village, watching the girl with braided pigtails mixing into the crowd riding her broom, unable to help laughing until his eyes curved.
Until there was a signal flare in the east, which was specially made throughout the military camp, a distress signal when nomadic tribes were encountered and help was urgently needed.
Fang Heng immediately spurred his horse and galloped east.
But after half a teapot of time, there was no movement at all, no voices, no clamor, and no earth-shattering fight.
The nomadic tribes rode horses, and so did the 5th platoon. Every time the two sides met, the commotion could be heard from two kilometers away. They hated to stomp the ground into pits on the spot and would never be this quiet.
Fang Heng reined in his horse. His instinct told him something was wrong, very wrong.
But oddly enough, he didn't know what the problem was.
Just as he was anxious, his father's teachings flashed through his mind. He immediately jumped off his horse and lay on the ground listening.
Sure enough, there was the sound of horses coming not from the east, but from the west where he had just galloped over.
A bad premonition surfaced in his mind. Fang Heng raced back to Laigu Village almost immediately.
The scene that met his eyes made them bloodshot.
The children who were still lively and riding brooms just now lay lifeless on the ground, their faces pale and breathless.
The meat bun wrapped in oiled paper rolled out of the arms of the girl with braided pigtails, revealing the cold mutton inside.
A starving nomad bent down to pick it up and threw it into his mouth to chew noisily.
"Delicious, really delicious."
He commented, and kicked away the obstructing girl with braided pigtails.
Fang Heng's eyes turned from blood red to bloodshot. He didn't remember how he drew his blade or how he slashed and hacked.
Even though his opponents were seven or eight nomad strongmen and he was just a slender youth.
All he knew was to slash, blade, break, and wound.
The noisy cries of shock and angry curses of the nomads rang in his ears, finally turning into unwilling eyes and cold corpses.
At the end of the fight, Fang Heng's strength quickly faded, and only two nomad strongmen remained.
But they held long knives and revealed fierce grins, clearly thinking the winner had been decided.
Fang Heng knelt on one knee, holding the knife in his right hand, his chest heaving slightly, as if catching his breath, or exhausted waiting for death.
Just as the two blades hovered over his head, about to fall.
Fang Heng's ears twitched, hearing the sound of movement in the distance.
It seemed... his brothers and sister had come.
"Third Brother..."
Someone was calling, like a hallucination before death.
