Chapter 41: Worldly Affairs And Heavy Worries.

After telling Mu Zhiming to immediately return to the Capital, Gu Heyan returned to the Commander-in-Chief’s tent. However, Gu Heyan spent the entire day with dim eyes and was completely distracted.

The next morning, Xu Zhiwei asked for an audience, and Gu Heyan let him enter his tent.

As soon as Xu Zhiwen walked in the Commander-in-Chief’s tent, he said: “General, Lord Mu….”

Gu Heyan softly interrupted him: “There’s no need to say it. I already know.”

‘I know that Mu Zhiming left the barracks yesterday without saying goodbye.’

“General, you know?” Xu Zhiwei was stunned.

“Mm-hmm.” Gu Heyan nodded.

Xu Zhiwei said in a hurry: “General! You should quickly go over there!”

Gu Heyan was puzzled: “Go? Go where?”

Xu Zhiwei thought: ‘Didn’t you say that you knew? You know shit!’

“Lord Mu’s carriage is waiting at the entrance of the barracks! General, won’t you go see him off?”

Gu Heyan suddenly stood up and was frozen for a long time before he could mutter: “He hasn’t left yet?”

Xu Zhiwei: “Not yet!”

Gu Heyan nearly ran out of the tent in a panic. Before he could leave, he hesitated and suddenly stopped: “I… I’d rather not go. You go see him off for me.”

Although Gu Heyan didn’t know why Mu Zhiming hadn’t left in a rage the day before, like in his past life, Gu Heyan still believed that his cold words had made Mu Zhiming angry anyway.

But it really wasn’t Gu Heyan’s intention to say what he had said. It was just that Gu Heyan didn’t know how to tell Mu Zhiming that he should return to the Capital right away because the cold winter at the border was so severe. If Mu Zhiming stayed any longer, his illness would definitely get worse.

Xu Zhiwei was astonished: “General, why don’t you go send off Lord Mu yourself?”

Gu Heyan: “There was a little conflict yesterday. He shouldn’t want to see me at this moment.”

If it wasn’t for the fact that Xu Zhiwei was worried about dying because Gu Heyan was his own Commander-in-Chief, Xu Zhiwei would have yelled at the top of his lungs what he yelled inside his heart: ‘What has happened to the man, who knows how to release his killing aura in front of the enemy in the battlefield without blinking an eye?! You have to send him off majestically! You won’t be able to get a wife with that attitude, you know? Go quickly!!!’

Military Advisor Xu, however, said: “General, think over it again. There are some things that if you don’t do them now, you will regret it for the rest of your life!”

—

A moment ago, at the guard tower of the military camp, Mu Zhiming stood beside the carriage, quietly waiting for Gu Heyan. However, he had already waited for a long time.

When Xiahou Hu and Xu Zhiwei came to see them off not long ago, Mu Zhiming thanked them then tentatively asked: “Why hasn’t General Gu come yet? Is he too busy with military affairs this morning that it’s inconvenient for him to come?”

Xiahou Hu said: “General Gu has been quite busy. He….”

Xu Zhiwei interrupted him loudly: “No! He’s not busy at all!!!”

‘Why can’t you figure out the situation?! Feel it with your fucking heart! Swallow all of the damn feelings down into your fucking stomach, you dog!’

Xu Zhiwei added: “Since Lord Mu has been waiting here for so long, I think General Gu has forgotten the time. I’ll go check on him right now.” After that, Xu Zhiwei hurriedly dragged Xiahou Hu towards the Commander-in-Chief’s tent.

Mu Zhiming then stood at the side of the carriage and waited silently again, looking towards the military camp, eager to see Gu Heyan.

Beside him, Mu Zhiming heard Wen Heyin say: “Tch, what ‘forgot about the time’? That General clearly doesn’t want to come! Young Master, let’s stop waiting. We certainly can’t keep waiting, we have to go back to the Capital. It’s getting late.”

After pondering for a short time, Mu Zhiming suddenly started to walk towards the military camp.

“Hey, hey! Where are you going?!” Wen Heyin hurried to follow Mu Zhiming.

Mu Zhiming said: “Even if I don’t go to see you, can’t you come to me1?”

Wen Heyin was confused: “What are you talking about?”

Mu Zhiming replied: “I’m going to find him myself, to say goodbye.”

Wen Heyin shouted: “Are you out of your mind?!!!”

Mu Zhiming laughed out loud and replied: “Yes, you can think of me as being out of my mind!”

As soon as Mu Zhiming said those words, the sound of horses’ hooves riding on the ground was heard from a distance. Mu Zhiming turned his head to look where the sound was coming from, and fixed his eyes on a silhouette.

The same way in which both of them met again at the border, the young General, dressed in white, stopped his horse in the distance. Then, he jumped off his horse in an abrupt, but beautiful manner.

This time, Mu Zhiming didn’t wait in place. Instead, he strode towards Gu Heyan.

As the wild geese fly south2, the north wind has swept the ground, causing the white grass to fold3. Once the two of them were standing face to face, Mu Zhiming’s eyes shone brightly. Beaming with delight, Mu Zhiming bowed and saluted: “General Gu, you’re here.”

Gu Heyan looked at him with eyes that refused to look elsewhere for even a second: “Mm-hmm.”

Mu Zhiming sighed with a slight sadness: “In the past, I was the one to see you off at the outskirts of the Capital, but now, you’re seeing me off at the border. Although it is a long journey through the mountains and rivers, there will be a time when we will meet again in the future.”

Gu Heyan: “Be more careful on your way back to the Capital.”

Mu Zhiming: “I will. General Gu should also take care of himself at the border. I wonder if General Gu has any messages he would like me to deliver to the Capital?”

Gu Heyan: “Say hello to Aunt Liang and the others for me.”

Mu Zhiming: “General, rest assured. I will deliver your message to them.”

After the courtesy words, both looked at each other in complete silence for a moment. Finally, Gu Heyan said: “You….better go now.”

Gu Heyan said these few words very lightly, as if he was worried about upsetting Mu Zhiming. Or maybe it was that he was severely concerned about the affairs of the world.

Mu Zhiming once again saluted Gu Heyan and left. When Mu Zhiming finally returned to the carriage, Wen Heyin couldn’t stop himself from saying: “You waited for him for half an hour with the wind blowing on your face, just to exchange a few pleasantries?”

“Hmm, it was quite worth it.” Mu Zhiming lowered his eyes and smiled.

Wen Heyin was horrified: “When we go back, I’m going to call Physician Kuang to examine your head!”

Mu Zhiming didn’t reply to him and just smiled.

The carriage then headed south and ran over the yellow sand of the desert, leaving several deep ruts as it went. At the far end, someone stood looking into the distance at the ruts marked in the sand, refusing to leave until these marks were covered by the sand moved by the desert wind. Only then, did that person turn around and leave.

Ahhhhhhhh Gu Heyan stood there, watching at the distance, at the marks left by Mu Zhiming’s carriage until these disappeared 😭😭😭😭 my heart!!!

Footnotes
纵我不往，子宁不来 zòng wǒ bù wǎng, zi níng bù lái; From the poem《国风·郑风·子衿》from the Book of Songs (诗经 shī jīng). This poem is about unrequited love, and depicts a woman missing the person she is in love with. Every time she sees something with a greenish color, the woman would remember the clothes and green jade pendant worn by the man she loves. She would often climb the tower of the city gate, only to see the shadow of the person she loves. If she can’t see him one day, she will feel as if she has been separated from the person she loves for three months.
胡雁南飞 hú yàn nán fēi; I believe this is a reference from the poem《古從軍行》by (李颀 lǐ qí) Li Qi from the Tang Dynasty [618-907]. A translated excerpt of the poem: “The land on the border is an endless desert, with only this lonely military camp with no citadel in sight. Rain and snow filled both the sky along with the land, connecting the sky with the desert. The wild geese flew south, and their mournful wailing broke across the sky of the borderlands, night after night. Although the wild geese could return to the south, the people on the border couldn’t. As the soldiers couldn’t stop the tears from falling from their eyes, the desert became a desolate place.” I think it’s a reference to MZM (the wild goose) returning to the Capital (South), while GHY has to stay at the border (now without MZM present, he sees the desert as a ‘desolate place’, and his tears won’t stop falling).
北风卷地白草折 běi fēng juǎn de bái cǎo zhé; From the poem《白雪歌送武判官归京》by (岑参 cén shēn) Cen Shen from the Tang Dynasty [618-907]. The poem depicts the magnificent scenery of snow falling in Autumn in the Western Regions, expressing the feelings of farewell and sending off guests in the snow outside the fortress, as well as expressing the sorrow of departure as well as homesickness. The poem uses the change of the snowy landscape as a clue to narrate the process of sending off the envoy, who is returning to the Capital.