Chapter 51: Sneaking Home to Make Noodles

“Prince Qi has rebelled. Chaos has erupted in Qizhou. Conscription has begun. Disaster looms. This goes against the will of Heaven. If you want to live, flee immediately. Spread the word.”

The voice was calm and cold, devoid of emotion. Every word sounded like it came from a pre-programmed machine.

He Yanxin believed that, to the people of Da’an who had never heard a mechanical voice before, this kind of sound and message must have come as a huge shock.

Indeed, this eerie voice, so bizarre to the ears of the people of Da’an, was actually just a standard voice system on a modern tablet.

As long as you input the text, the tablet could repeat it in a mechanical female voice.

After playing the message three times, he stopped. Too much would be overkill.

With such loud and strange noise, there was no way that no one in the village woke up.

As long as one or two people heard it and spread the message, his goal would be accomplished.

He calmly retrieved the drone, slung the basket onto his back, and prepared to leave.

This place was not safe for a long stay—time to slip away.

He Yanxin turned up the brightness on the tablet and quickly retreated through the mountains.

He was worried someone might be bold enough to ignore the warning and come chasing after the “supernatural” source of the voice.

But clearly, he was overthinking it. Those who woke up in the village didn’t even dare to step outside, let alone come after him.

“Old… old man, what the hell is going on?!”

“That was terrifying! What kind of sound was that?”

“Wife, did you hear that? Just now…”

“What happened?”

“Prince Qi has rebelled. Chaos in Qizhou. Conscription has begun…”

Some with better memory repeated the message word for word.

Some even fell to their knees, trembling and kowtowing, believing that the Heavens were sending them a sign.

Sure enough, He Yanxin’s tactic had stirred up a great wave of panic in the small mountain village.

But for the message to truly spread, it would still take two or three days. After all, transportation was limited, and gossip didn’t travel as fast as in modern times.

He Yanxin took the ox cart back to Anshan Village, one ox pulling and the other tied behind.

At around 1 a.m., he jumped down from the cart and patted his frozen cheeks.

Before he could figure out a way to climb over the wall and unlock the door from the inside, the front gate creaked open.

It turned out Song Yeqing hadn’t gone to sleep and came out when she heard movement.

“Hey, why aren’t you asleep yet? Don’t tell me you were waiting for me?”

He Yanxin asked in a low voice, his breath puffing out clouds in the cold air.

By the time he said the last sentence, his tone had turned noticeably cheerful.

He couldn’t help it. Coming home in the dead of night and finding someone waiting for you—it felt warm and comforting.

“Come in first.” Song Yeqing didn’t respond to his teasing. She gently opened the gate wide to let the ox cart in.

The two of them tried to make as little noise as possible, leading the ox cart to a corner of the courtyard and tying the oxen beside the shed.

“Brother Ox, you two behave and stay here, okay!” He Yanxin took a bunch of fodder from the cart and placed it on the ground, then followed her into the main hall.

Inside, the stove was burning brightly. Song Yeqing sat on a stool, next to a large basin filled with something—he couldn’t quite tell what.

He Yanxin went to warm himself by the fire and tilted his head, spotting a basin full of meat.

“What delicious thing are you making? Roasting meat?”

So much meat—and the color looked just right. It would smell amazing if roasted! Just looking at it made his mouth water.

“No, I’m making smoked meat for the road.”

Seeing how he was staring at the meat like his eyes were glowing green, Song Yeqing paused a moment before breaking his illusion.

Grilling meat in the middle of the night? Might as well prevent the whole village from getting a good night’s sleep.

After all, barbecue had an indescribably tempting aroma that could waft for miles.

She chose to smoke the meat because it didn’t smell too strong—either while preparing or eating it.

“Oh…” He Yanxin sounded a little disappointed.

Lately, all they’d been eating were bland medicinal meals. They didn’t dare cook anything greasy or fragrant.

It was honestly pretty miserable.

But Song Yeqing didn’t let him stay disappointed for long. She pulled out a small pot from her space, poured water in it, and set it on the stove.

“Making noodles. Want some?”

She wanted some too. He’d been gone a long while—he must be starving.

And on a cold night like this, a bowl of hot noodle soup was exactly what one needed.

“Yes!”

While waiting for the water to boil, Song Yeqing told him how the talk with their neighbor didn’t go very well that day.

“I’ll go talk to them tomorrow,” He Yanxin said, rubbing the hair at his temples—he was starting to get used to having long hair now.

“Let me tell you, today…” As he talked, he pulled his basket over and took out the drone and knife, handing them to her.

“You didn’t get caught, right?”

Song Yeqing dropped the noodles into the pot, then pulled out a vacuum-packed piece of marinated beef from her space, opened it, and sliced it.

“Nope, went very smoothly.” He Yanxin seemed reluctant to put down the tablet.

When she handed him the tablet earlier that day, he had been thrilled—he hadn’t expected to ever touch such a thing again after coming to the past.

Though she said he could use it freely, he was worried about draining the battery and messing up, so he only used it for light, checking the time, and playing the announcement.

She had originally given him a headlamp too, but it was too bright and made sneaking around difficult, so he didn’t use it.

He lit up the tablet. It still had 70% battery. “Hey, do you have any downloaded movies or shows on this?”

Besides discussing serious matters, the two of them rarely spent time alone together.

He Yanxin felt a bit awkward and thought maybe they could watch something.

“A few, not many.” Most of the videos were stored on her computer.

After slicing the beef, Song Yeqing wiped her hands and handed him the tablet with the video directory open.

“Let me see.” He scrolled through and found a classic movie. “Let’s watch this one.”

Song Yeqing had no objections. She even took a stand out from her space and gave it to him, along with some bok choy and scallions, which she was going to wash at the well.

He Yanxin saw and paused the video. “I’ll go wash them.”

“Okay.”

Watching him shiver as he stepped outside, Song Yeqing lowered her head and stirred the noodles.

In truth, before choosing to cooperate with this man, and even in the early stages of their partnership, she had mentally prepared for things to get complicated—filled with trouble and drama.

People were unpredictable. Who could tell what kind of person lurked beneath a good-looking surface?

Differences in personality or temper were the lesser concerns. The scariest thing was if the person harbored ill intentions.

But so far, things had been going well.

He Yanxin was much better than most people she had encountered before.

Polite and well-mannered—honestly, quite the gentleman. He never took her supplies for granted and always helped out around the house, including with He Chengze and the kids.

You could say their cooperation was smooth and pleasant.

But what about the future?

Once they got to Zhaozhou, would they still have to pretend to be a married couple in front of others? Or find an excuse to stage a “divorce” in front of the Wu family?

There were a lot of problems to solve—really not a small amount.

For now, she could only take things one step at a time. Even she didn’t know what she wanted to do in the future.

She couldn’t be a Celestial Master anymore, and to be honest, she wasn’t keen on continuing Lady Song’s embroidery trade either.

She chose Zhaozhou simply because, thanks to Lady Song’s memories, she was most familiar with the place.

Plus, Zhaozhou was prosperous and full of opportunity.

Once out there, she’d need to find some kind of livelihood. The supplies in her space wouldn’t last forever.

She had to start planning for the long term now.

(End of Chapter)