Rebirth of a Star General Chapter 76
THE QIXI FESTIVAL/TANABATA
He Yan held the mandarin pot in a daze.
As she was pulled back from her thoughts by a voice in front of her, “Can’t use it?”
She looked up, and the young man in the dark blue robe had already sat down on the stool in front of her bed and took the pot from her hand.
The mandarin pot had a secret, it could hold two kinds of wine and was an essential tool for poisoning people. He pulled a piece of white cloth and poured little by little. The first to flow out was the medicine, and then the powder. A small spoon was embedded next to the pot’s handle. Xiao Jue took out the spoon to smoothen out the mixture.
As he looked down while doing these , and his long eyelashes hanging down his profile was handsome and compelling, with his youthful beauty, making people dazed, she even forgot whether she was in Liangzhou Wei at the moment or in the Xiang Chang Hall that was thousands of miles away.
When He Yan was in a daze, he had already wiped the ointment on the white cloth and threw it to He Yan, with an extremely indifferent tone, “Smear it on yourself.”
“Oh,” He Yan had already expected it, and muttered softly, “I didn’t expect you to help me.”
When he heard it, he stared at He Yan with a smile but not a smile, “I dare not delay you in keeping your body like jade.”
“It’s good that you know.” He Yan smiled and said, “But thank you, General, for such an expensive medicine.”
“There is a shortage of medicine in the guardhouse unless you want to die.” He said.
He Yan looked at him solemnly, “That also saved my life. I didn’t expect the General to be such a compassionate person.”
Xiao Jue said, “If there’s nothing else…” and then he stood up and left.
He Yan saw that he had really left this time, she leaned against the head of the bed and sighed softly. Xiao Jue’s medicine was very effective, it was refreshing and cool, and the pain relieved a lot after applying it.
He Yan looked at the pot, his thoughts drifting away.
On that snowy night at the age of fourteen, Xiao Jue was not as indifferent as he was now. At least when He Yan said “I don’t know how to use it” at that time, he not only helped to open the mandarin pot but also personally applied medicine to her.
It was strange that the image of that time was already blurred, but today when Xiao Jue came, those forgotten details slowly unfolded before He Yan’s eyes, as if it had only just happened, and the clarity was incredible.
She was sitting on the stone bench in the yard, as the lazy and indifferent teenager patiently applied medicine to her, creating an unusual scene. His eyebrows were picturesque, and his face was right in front of He Yan, as she could almost feel his warm breath, which faded away from the sharpness of the past, with soft warmth, completely covering her cold and trembling heart.
The mask covered her face, and the other party could not see her expression, nor could he feel her throbbing at that time.
It was difficult for anyone to be unmoved by a person like him, especially when such an indifferent person was treating them tenderly. He Yan was young at the time and had no resistance at all.
He left after helping her with the medicine, and He Yan whispered to him, “Your medicine.”
“Give it to you.” The young man replied casually, “You are so stupid. the chance of you getting hurt might happen a lot in the future. Keep it for yourself.”
From his prediction, the chances of her being injured were really countless. The ointment in the mandarin pot had long been used up, and the pot was later lost by her in a war, which was quite a pity to think about it.
By the next day, the teenagers went to the academy and found that the copybooks on their desks were wet with water, they couldn’t even recognize the handwriting, and it was a mess.
“Who did it? Come out, otherwise, you wait and see if I’ll kill you or not!” they roared fiercely.
“Isn’t it simple? Just see whose copybook is clean, look for it inside, and you can always find the one who has a grudge against us.” Someone offered a clever trick.
He Yan’s heart tightened, and she was extremely annoyed. No wonder she was stupid, and she didn’t even think of such a thing. Her copybook was neat and tidy. After a little investigation, wouldn’t they find it was her work?
Forget it, it has happened, be a man, and be brave to face consequences. She was heartbroken, and could only admit to her fate, as she watched the teenagers still asking the students in the academy to take out the copybook for checking.
He was about to walk in front of her.
He Yan plucked up her courage and was about to stand up and shout, “I did it.” Suddenly, someone came in and put the book on the table.
The movement was so loud that everyone looked to the other side, and saw the handsome young man in a white robe leaning against the wall with his arms folded, his expression lazy, and he said casually, “I did it.”
There was an uproar.
“Brother Huai, Huai Jin Brother, was it really you who did it?” someone asked cautiously.
Xiao Huaijin was unlike He Rufei. No one in the capital dared to provoke him, furthermore, the Xiao family alone could crush the people to death, not only the gentleman had to protect him, but also someone whom the emperor personally praised.
“It’s me.” He answered confidently.
“But why?” the man asked with a sobbing face.
“No reason,” the boy glanced at him, and replied in an unsatisfactory way, “slippery hands.”
“Poof”, He Yan couldn’t hold back her laughter, noticing everyone’s gaze, she hurriedly turned around as if nothing had happened.
And after that?
After that, the matter was left unresolved, because it was Xiao Huaijin, so other people didn’t dare to say anything and could only admit that they were unlucky.
Coming back to the present, with a “creak”, the door was pushed open, and Shen Muxue walked in. She took the empty medicine bowl and water basin away and asked He Yan not to press the wound before she left.
From the narrow window of the room, one can see the sky from all four corners, with a bright moon hanging in the sky, and the stars shining brightly.
She whispered, “Today is Qixi* Festival…”
[Editor’s note: for those who don’t know, the Qixi Festival is also known as the Chinese valentine’s day.]
She had never celebrated a festival. Before she used to dress up as a man, this kind of festival had nothing to do with her. Later, when she married Xu Zhiheng, she was looking forward to it at the very beginning. No matter how a girl pretended to be a man, once she had makeup on, a girl just wanted to be like an ordinary girl, going to the riverside with her beloved to set flowers and boats, worship Xianhe/Immortal harvest[1], steam the fruit, and visit the temple fair. She had heard that there are fireflies on the mountain.
She mustered up the courage to request Xu Zhiheng for the first time, Xu Zhiheng smiled and agreed, “Okay.”
But before the Qixi Festival, she went blind. So this matter seemed to have been forgotten, Xu Zhiheng didn’t take the initiative to mention it again, and He Yan also didn’t mention it, thinking that Xu was overwhelmed by her illness and lost this thought. Until the next day, He Wanru passed by her door, smiling and making her put away the lantern Xu Zhiheng gave the previous day.
She only knew that Xu Zhiheng was not at home on the Qixi Festival, not because of official business, but to accompany He Wanru to the temple fair.
Human life is nothing but a morning dew filled with all kinds of white clouds.[2] She didn’t know how she was doing as a man, but she knew, she did a terrible job as a woman.
Just when she was thinking about it, Hong Shan came in from the outside and saw the mandarin pot in her hand at a glance, and casually joked, “Oh, our General gave you a gift for the Qixi Festival! What a good wine, let my brother taste it!”
He Yan was stunned for a moment, then suddenly laughed.
Be it the past or present, now thinking about it, this Qixi Festival, was in fact not that bad. She shared a ride with the General of many women’s dreams, touched his waist, rode his horse, walked the mountain roads while watching the stars, and finally got a pot of elixir for nothing.
This life was not in vain.
[1] Before the arrival of the festival, the girls prepare all kinds of exquisite playthings in advance, using grass, color paper, sesame seeds, rice grains, etc., to make various kinds of flowers and fruits, ladies, artifacts, palace models, and other things. The seeds of grain and mung beans are soaked in a small box to make them sprout, and when the sprouts are more than two inches long, they are used to worship the gods, called “worshiping Xianhe” and “worshiping the vegetable God”
[2]Life is short-lived be short-lived, fleeting, ephemeral, transitory with all kinds of ups and downs
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