Half in the river wind, half in the clouds

After a few days, Li and Jiang both looked rosy, relaxed and healthy. Jiang Feng felt like he was back to health. Li Longye couldn't help but feel happy about his wise decision. This beautiful time for the two of them was really rare.

The old man with white beard only collected herbs, meditated, and practiced. He worked from sunrise to sunset every day, and his shadow was completely invisible. Li Longye and Jiang Feng looked at each other in bewilderment.

The boy brought five apricot seedlings and said, "The rule of our ancestor is that we don't charge for seeing a doctor. Those who are cured can only plant apricot trees on this mountain. For those with serious illnesses, five trees, for those with moderate illnesses, three trees, and for those with mild illnesses, one tree."

Looking at the five apricot seedlings, Jiang Feng knew that this trip was dangerous. But the rescuer didn't care, didn't ask for thanks or money, and didn't even show his face, which made him admire him even more.

He excitedly pulled Nanny Sun to plant trees. Li Longye said hurriedly, "Nanny Sun still has to prepare dinner, and she can't do this job, so I'll go."

Jiang Feng looked at the shovel, bucket and the apricot sapling that was taller than Nanny Sun, and had no choice but to nod in agreement.

There were already rows of trees nearby, and they walked another five or six miles before finally seeing an open space. In the distance, there was a lush greenery that connected to the sky, and nearby, a stream was flowing. Looking back, the red flowers in the ten-mile apricot forest had fallen, and lovely green apricots were formed. The two of them decided to plant here without any prior agreement.

Dig a hole, put some soil in it, count one, two, three, four, five. Your own field, your own land, whatever you plant will grow RMB.

Jiang Feng muttered something while getting into position. Li Longye couldn't help laughing, not knowing what spell he was chanting.

Jiang Feng had just recovered from a serious illness and was out of breath after a while. Li Longye didn't dare to let her do any hard work. He coaxed her to go to the stream to find some beautiful pebbles to press on the new soil.

When Jiang Feng picked up a pile of large and small stones, Li Longye had already finished planting the apricot seedlings.

Jiang Feng saw Li Longye sweating profusely, and thought of his care for him without taking off his clothes these days, and he still felt a little touched.

When she first came here, she was weak and looked like Daiyu who was terminally ill. Jiang's mother had strategically abandoned her and turned to take care of the equally ill old lady Jiang. She was able to save her life under Jiang Lan's care, which was her first attachment to this cruel world.

After living in the Tang Dynasty for six years, she was on the verge of life and death for the second time. It was Li Longye who single-handedly brought her back to life.

He is a descendant of a noble family and has been living a life of slavery since he was a child. Now he is doing everything for her personally. Even a person with a heart of stone cannot remain indifferent to such a life-saving favor.

Looking at the sweaty Li Longye, Jiang Feng handed him a handkerchief and said sincerely, "Thank you, Your Majesty."

"If you want to thank me, then pledge yourself to me."

The mountain breeze, the fish and grass in the stream, and the flowers and trees all over the mountain swayed and remained silent, waiting for her answer.

Jiang Feng lowered her head and thought for a long time, until the sun was about to set. She walked to the stream and sat down.

Li Longye followed silently and heard her say softly, "My Lord, I'm already engaged. I'm afraid I'm not worthy enough to accept your kindness and affection."

After listening to this, Li Longye smiled strangely and said, "You and your mother have been struggling over the marriage for six or seven years, but you suddenly agreed to it two months ago! You even sent someone to Youzhou right away. It turns out you were waiting for me here."

The awkward and miserable atmosphere that Jiang Feng had painstakingly created collapsed in an instant. She opened her mouth wide in surprise and asked, "How did you know?"

"In order to win the heart of the beauty, I have really put in a lot of effort." Li Longye was confident.

Jiang Feng was helpless, her tricks were not enough.

I could only say awkwardly: "It has always been the parents' orders and the matchmaker's words. My mother wants me to marry my cousin, so how can I disobey her?"

After thinking for a moment, he added, "Besides, my cousin is also very good."

Li Longye could not tell whether he was happy or angry. He just picked up a stone beside him and said calmly, "You and that 'excellent' cousin Yuanhe are not destined to be together."

Li Longye bit his back teeth and spat out the word "excellent". Jiang Feng retorted: "You are not the matchmaker. It is not up to you to decide whether we are destined to be together or not!"

Li Longye said nothing, looking at the girl calmly. Jiang Feng suppressed his emotions, thinking that the lord should not be angry and the general should not be upset, and the two armies should not panic when confronting each other, so he taunted: "If the prince had not taken advantage of the situation, my cousin and I..."

"Although your cousin sincerely wants to marry you, and your aunt is also trying hard to make it happen. But I heard that your uncle's boss's daughter has fallen in love with Wen Yuanhe." Li Longye interrupted.

"Don't lie to me! My aunt and mother have always been honest with each other. I have never heard of this." Jiang Feng said.

"Your aunt is superior to your uncle. If it were in the past, these problems would not be a problem. But now..." Li Longye paused, threw the stone in his hand, clapped his hands and continued: "Now that I want to marry you, I have to take care of your uncle."

Jiang Feng was angry, anxious and afraid. If such a powerful person became her husband, she would be left with no chance of survival.

Li Longye saw the girl's serious expression and said softly, "I will treat you well."

Jiang Feng suddenly asked: "What do you think is good for me, Your Majesty?"

Li Longye was not prepared for the girl's question and was stunned for a moment. What would be considered good for her? Of course, marry her back to the palace, pamper her and love her.

Seeing Li Longye was speechless, Jiang Feng said, "Cousin can only marry me for the rest of his life! Can Your Majesty do that?"

Li Longye hesitated to speak. He really didn't expect that Jiang Feng would have such thoughts.

With his status and position, how could he marry only her?

Jiang Feng continued, "I once had a dream. I dreamed of a world that was completely different from this one."

Her eyes were filled with excitement. "Men and women there don't marry blindly or at the behest of their parents or matchmakers. They fall in love freely and get married of their own will. Each man can only marry one wife, and before the wedding they must swear to the gods that they will be loyal to the marriage and will never betray each other. If one day they no longer love each other, both men and women can file for divorce, and everyone will go their separate ways and live their own lives."

Jiang Feng looked into Li Longye's eyes and decided to have a frank and constructive communication with him: "I long for that kind of marriage. My sister laughed at me for being a fool, and my mother scolded me for being rebellious and rude. What do you think, Your Majesty? Is such a lifelong faithful marriage just what girls in the boudoir wish for?"

Li Longye was stumped by the question, stammering, not knowing how to answer. In his palace, he had a principal wife, four concubines, and a lot of casual relationships. He had never thought about living with one person for the rest of his life. Jiang Feng was not the first person he had fallen in love with, and she would never be the last.

He probed: "From what I know, you and Wen Yuanhe are not in love with each other. You would rather die than marry him. Now that you have made up your mind to marry him, why can't you marry me?"

The light in the girl's eyes gradually dimmed, and her cold voice came out: "My cousin is a coward, and he always gives in. My father said he is not worth much. But all these years, he has never given in for me. Because I refused to get married, my aunt had other ideas. But my cousin swore to heaven that if I don't get married, he will never marry me!"

Since she came here, she and Wen Yuanhe have only met twice, and they didn't say a few words in those few meetings. One reason was that Gao Hui was interfering and tried every means to disrupt their private interactions. The other reason was that her cousin was not very motivated. Every time he saw her, his face turned red and he spoke incoherently. His aunt was angry at him for not trying hard, so she hit him with a broom twice, and he couldn't even say a complete sentence.

She once thought he had a stutter, but he could speak fluently to others.

Jiang Feng privately thought that it was because he valued her too much, which had the opposite effect.

"There are many powerful, capable and handsome men in this world, and there may be a few who want to marry me. But I have only met one person who is sincere to me and will marry me," Jiang Feng added.

"But you don't like him!"

"But I don't like you either!"

"So, in order to reject me, you agreed to the Wen family. Isn't it the lesser of two evils?" Li Longye asked.

"Your Highness, I am just an unloved daughter of a ninth-rank official. The farthest place I have ever been to in my life was Weiwu, the highest official I have ever met was a governor, the most absurd dream I have ever had was to travel around the world, and my longest-term plan is to marry an ordinary man, have a few acres of meager property, three meals a day, four seasons a year, and live my life to the bitter end."

After all, their life plans are inconsistent. One wants a husband, children and a warm bed, while the other wants all the beautiful women in the world.

The girl's face flushed with excitement, then she collapsed again, murmuring, "I... I know that the prince has fallen in love with me. I... I heard that His Royal Highness the Prince of Shouchun fell in love with the wife of the baker in the palace, and His Royal Highness the Prince of Linzi fell in love with a flower girl at first sight when he was in Yongzhou, and both of them kept their mistresses in their golden houses. Some people admired the two princes' romanticism, and some lamented that the two women had transformed into noble ladies. But Prince, that would never be my choice."

Li Longye opened his mouth slightly, wondering how she knew these secrets?! But seeing her sad expression, he did not ask further. He just comforted her and said, "I treat you differently from them..."

Jiang Feng said fiercely: "Your Majesty, don't you understand?! I would rather have a simple life with simple meals, a cloth skirt and a thorny hairpin than be a canary in a noble mansion!"

Li Longye was stunned. He never expected Jiang Feng to have such a strong character.

He thought for a moment, the pair of sad eyes disturbed his heart, he held her hand tightly, lowered his voice and said word by word: "Even if I like you, is it not okay?"

Jiang Feng sighed and said helplessly: "The prince has probably never met someone like me. I am good-looking, short-sighted, erratic, and I look down on wealth and honor. I am humble but I don't belittle myself. It's okay to find it fresh and interesting for a while, just like seeing the peony in the garden, it's also interesting to pick a bunch of wild flowers and put them in a vase. But is this love? Although I am young, I never believe in the lies of love at first sight. Even the storybooks are counted, those love at first sight plots are just lust. I have only met the prince a few times, so it's a bit of a stretch to say that I like him. Moreover, after a long time, when the prince removes this layer of painted skin, he will inevitably be disappointed: it's just a woman who looks okay, how could he be obsessed with her?"

Li Longye was so angry that he laughed: "You are so cunning! You really tried so hard to fool me. Now you even reject my love for you? Don't I know my own heart?"

Jiang Feng extended his slender white fingers and gently touched Li Longye's chest, feeling the heart beating faster and faster: "Are the prince's confidantes still as happy as when they first met? It's easy to fall in love at first sight, but it's really hard to love someone for a long time."

"You don't believe in love at first sight, but I think that all long-lasting relationships must start from the first meeting." For the first time, Li Longye felt that chasing a woman was very brain-consuming.

"I know you are in a difficult situation at home, and you have to live cautiously, feeling aggrieved and depressed. Are you really willing to marry Wen Yuanhe? To spend your life under that cramped roof with a timid husband? Moreover, you can't guarantee that he will only love you for the rest of his life! Life on earth is but a moment. Wouldn't it be good to see a bigger world, have higher power, and live a more unrestrained life? I dare not say that it will be a thousand times better for you to follow me, but it will be better than now, better than marrying that man." Li Longye was unwilling to give up, and still appealed to her emotions and explained the situation to her.

The patriarchal ideology was deeply rooted in Li Longye's mind. Having three wives and four concubines was a common thing for him. As a prince, it should be easy for him to marry the daughter of a ninth-rank official.

He stubbornly believed that Jiang Feng found so many ridiculous reasons to reject her because the girl already had someone else in her heart.

Yes. Li Bei found clues of the secret love between Shen Guxing and the Jiang family. This discovery made Li Longye ignore the huge difference between his and Jiang Feng's views on marriage: Jiang Feng's obsession with monogamy and mutual affection actually reflected her yearning for an equal and respectful relationship between the sexes.

It is very difficult for Li Longye, who stands at the top of the patriarchal pyramid, to understand this. Women have always been his accessories, like beautiful jade and silk clothes. He will cherish and protect them, but he may also replace them at any time, because no matter how exquisite the jade pendant or how beautiful the clothes are, they cannot be worn all the time. He lingers in the flowers, and never thinks about which flower he stays on for too long. If he likes it, he will pick a flower, and after the novelty wears off, he will pick another one.

The warm sun of early summer was gradually setting in the west, and the girl was shrouded in a strange red, as if she was full of strength but extremely fragile. She knew that it was almost impossible to stop Li Longye with just a few words. He was obviously well prepared, interfering in her marriage and finding out about her situation at home. Who knew what else he had done and what information he had mastered!

She had to think about it carefully and pretended to be angry: "My father and mother treat me very well! My aunt's mansion has three courtyards and it's not cramped at all! If I marry you, it won't be good if you are not very good to me!"

Li Longye was surprised at the girl's rapid change of mood. Seeing her cheerful expression, he did not pursue her relentlessly. He just smiled and said, "Whether it is really good or not, you will know only after you marry her."

Jiang Feng didn't dare to answer, he just picked up a pebble and said jokingly: "Your Highness, please don't be sentimental, it's more important to arrange these stones first."

Li Longye was ready for a protracted war, so he stood up and covered the new soil under the tree with small stones one by one!

Seeing a pebble that was round and lovely, Jiang Feng borrowed Li Longye's short knife and carved eight words on it: "Just do good things, don't worry about the future." After carving, he refused to show it to Li Longye and buried it under the apricot tree.

She tried her best to fulfill her inner desire.

The two of them thought about their own things and smiled at each other tacitly. Li Longye saw the green mountains and the beautiful woman beside him, and his melancholy was swept away.

The two walked and laughed all the way, and it was already dark when they returned to the thatched cottage. Nanny Sun was rubbing her hands and walking back and forth in front of the door. When she saw the two of them coming back, she hurried over and pulled Jiang Feng and said, "Miss, why did you take so long? You need to rest more after recovering from a serious illness."

Jiang Feng ignored the smile on Li Longye's face, hugged Nanny Sun's arm and said, "Don't worry, Nanny, I'm fine. That place is really far away, so that's why we were delayed. I'm starving, let's eat quickly."

Naturally, Nanny Sun had no choice but to obey.

After dinner, Li Longye saw Li Xian waiting outside the thatched cottage, so he gave Jiang Feng a slight signal and left. When he came back, he looked unhappy. Jiang Feng didn't want to ask more, but he thought it was an important matter.

Then he said to Li Longye: "Why don't we go back to Liangzhou tomorrow? I am fully recovered now."

Li Longye was thinking the same thing, and the two of them went to pack up and not mention it anymore.

The next day, the two said goodbye to the miracle doctor, and General Suo was still guarding the door! What a strange and lovely old man! How could those doctors who collected silk banners everywhere feel embarrassed?

The more anxious you are when you come, the more comfortable you will be when you return. Jiang Feng has been in this world for five or six years, and he has only been to his mighty aunt's house fully armed. It is the first time that he feels free like today, so he took the opportunity to treat the return trip as a self-driving tour.

She felt uncomfortable in the car and insisted on riding a horse, but she also refused Li Longye's unreasonable request to ride with him.

Finally, Li Zan had no choice but to hand over his mount obediently. Under Jiang Feng's thanking and apologetic gaze, he sat on the gorgeous carriage reluctantly and stared at Nanny Sun.

Jiang Feng thought it was funny, and ignoring the boy's aggrieved look, she whipped her horse and galloped across the vast Gobi Desert, which was desolate but not barren. She rode faster and faster, the wind blew her skirt, and the distant mountains and nearby waters flew backwards.

In her mind, she recalled the horse riding tips Gao Hui had taught her: hold a rein in each hand, control the direction, looseness and tightness determine the speed, sit upright with chest and waist straight, keep upper arms and upper body overlapped, and lower arms and reins in a straight line. She naturally turned theory into practice, and Li Longye would never know from her riding posture that she had only ridden a few laps in the horse farm before.

Jiang Feng was born with a talent for horse riding. She now felt that there was no difference between riding and driving. She once set a record of getting a driver's license in just one and a half months.

Her cheerful mood infected Li Longye, so he decided to put aside his grand plans for the time being! Li Longye tightened the reins, clamped his legs around the horse's belly, shouted "Go!", and rode after her.

The two horses galloped away, carrying the young man and woman respectively. Li Zan was filled with envy and thought that he must teach his weak little cousin how to ride a horse.