By decree and pro

Chapter 104

Feralas was the last to leave, and Ilya went out to take the pastry tray back to the kitchen, and accidentally saw Feralas still hovering in front of the queen's palace.

"My lord, did you forget something? My little one will help you get it." Ilya stepped forward and asked.

"No, it's not..." Feralas seemed to be bitten by fleas, and stood unsteadily, making Ilya uncomfortable.

"What's the matter with you?" Ilya couldn't help staring at Feralas' face, and found that his face was like a pig's liver, and he was really upset.

"Ilya." Unexpectedly, Feralas suddenly raised his eyelids and looked at Ilya's eyes full of doubts. Feralas' eye sockets were deep and his eyes were bright. He just stared at Ilya all the time, as if he was about to There was a hole in his face, and it made Ilya feel uncomfortable.

"My lord, please speak up if you have something to say, you don't want to torture people with your eyes like this." Ilya couldn't bear it anymore and had to ask.

"Ilya, this ruby ​​finger is a gift given to me by the old priest when I finished my studies in the Tower of Priests. It is priceless..." Feralas said, putting red oil on his thumb, making it as smooth as Suet's wrench came off.

"What kind of difficulty are you encountering?" Ilya quickly remembered the day when Feralas was drunk, and asked with concern, "You want me to sell such a close-fitting baby?"

"Sell it?" Feralas was taken aback, and quickly explained, "No, no, this is for your betrothal."

"Ah?" Ilya was even more confused, "What do you want me to do with your engagement?"

"This, this is not..." Feralas has always talked a lot, the king said that no matter how cold the weather is, his mouth can't be frozen, but now he is clumsy, and he can't even explain why.

"You..." Ilya blinked twice, suddenly enlightened, "You don't want to marry me, do you? Just because we slept together for one night?"

"That's right!" Feralas nodded first, then shook his head, "No, it's not just that, I used to think that you are a good person, smart and lively, righteous, and you are also very attentive to the queen, and I am also a big boss... 30 It's time to start a family, so I'm here to propose a marriage to you. It's just that it's not suitable to get married right now, we have to wait for 'that thing' to pass... I just don't know if 'that thing' can survive. Anyway , I'm asking you to get engaged now because I want you to understand that I didn't run away and I didn't deny it, so I'll leave this jade finger in your hands."

"Huh?" Ilya held the expensive finger wrench forced by Feralas, with a devilish expression on his face.I thought Yan was the most honest person in the world, but I didn't expect Feralas to be even more powerful. He once regarded Spring Breeze as a bridal night. To put it bluntly, it was only one night and he wanted to rely on him.

"This, this..." Ilya swallowed her saliva. The thing is a good thing. If you sell it, you can buy a house, a land, and a few more shops, but isn't the meaning too big?there is

What did Feralas mean by 'that'?Why does he look sad like he is about to perish.

Presumably that's why he was so drunk.

Ilya wanted to ask clearly, but Feralas said: "I'll go first." He ran away like burning his butt, leaving Ilya with question marks on his forehead, holding a heavy ruby ​​in his hand, dilemma.

Should I catch up and return it, or talk about it later?

"Ilya, you are here. Your Majesty sent many pots of peonies to the queen, and we can't move them. Come and help me." A little maid came running to say.

"coming."

That's all.Give it back to Feralas later.Elijah stuffed the wrench into the purse and went to help carry the flowerpot.I heard that these graceful and luxurious peony flowers were bought back from the capital city of Dayan with seeds and flower pots by the king, and then asked Xiliang gardeners to carefully cultivate them.

Because there are very few peonies in the Xiliang Imperial Garden, all the flowers and plants in the desert oasis are planted.

"Your Majesty really cares about our queen in every way." A court lady said with a smile as she fiddled with a peony flowerpot on the table.

"That's not true." Ilya responded with a smile, and helped the maid to arrange those gorgeous and picturesque peony pots in the queen's palace.

The day Yan set off was a fine day with a clear sky and a gentle breeze.

The 26 people headed by him were all dressed as merchants: a heavy brown-gray cloak on the outside, a tough old cloth shirt on the inside, thick cloth trousers with leather rope leggings, wear-resistant calfskin stitched on the crotch, and a pair of The low-top sheepskin boots with copper spurs, the rough and bold attire, and Yan's fluent Xiliang dialect made him look like a "foreigner" at all.

Even the well-informed guide Kurdan, who was over fifty years old, applauded and said that the queen's Xiliang dialect was more idiomatic than him.

Admittedly, there is also an element of flattery in it.After all, Kurdan was born as a tomb robber in his early years and was later captured by the government. If Feralas hadn't taken a fancy to his skills, he would have lost his head.Later, for his wife and children to live a safe life, he decided to join the government and serve the monarch, but his ability to worship when he sees high and step down when he sees low is still the same as before.

When Feralas and Yan talked about Kurdan, he made it clear that he was an old thief, but he was also the most powerful guide in Danyang City, who could find the right way out in the dark and stormy sky, so he recommended him .

Yan thought that since this person could be good for his wife and children, his nature should not be bad, so he still adopted him.

As the recommender, Feralas is not in the send-off team at the moment, probably because the palace is busy, so that the queen can go out of the palace to explore the ancient city as soon as possible, he has worked day and night, and now he can be regarded as retired.

Ilya stood beside the steed and kept looking around, and complained to Yan in a low voice: "Master Xiang is really, even the king is here, and he didn't even come to give it away, what a big air."

"No one's airs are as big as yours." Yan held a horsewhip in his hand, and lightly poked Ilya's thin shoulders, "I don't think the king and the prime minister can see each other off together for eighteen miles?"

"That's not bad. Yan, you wish you could travel eighteen miles, no, eight hundred miles away." Ilya smiled very wickedly.

"Don't be so talkative." Yan Fei got on his horse and ordered to everyone, "Let's go."

"Yes." Everyone got on their horses one after another, and Ilya also supported the saddle and stepped up. Looking back, there were no more than ten people standing in front of the palace's stables, including Junshang, Yalta, Jinayali, Shen Fangyu and others.

Because Yan said that since it is Weifu, don't send it out of the palace with great fanfare, the less people who know about it, the better.

Yan slept alone last night, and Ilya felt that Yan was more terrifying than his stepmother when he became cruel.

It was probably because he was afraid that the king would say something to persuade him to stay, even now, Yan was deliberately avoiding the eyes of the king.The same is true for the emperor, afraid of Yan's anger, he dare not provoke him too much, his eyes are slightly lowered, they are like an old couple who have been together for decades, they are very polite.

As soon as Yan set off, the team galloped out along the horse path of the palace in an orderly manner.Behind packers and camels loaded with dry food, living utensils, tents and other supplies.

They flowed into the city naturally like a stream, and among the caravans of wealthy businessmen, they walked out along the main road, entered the gate of the city underground, and left the city smoothly with the order written by the emperor himself.

When the horseshoes of the expedition team stepped on the dusty Gobi Desert, Ilya found that Yan really hadn't looked back, even if he knew that the king would stand on the turret of the palace and look into the distance, he would not turn his head .

"I'm afraid Yan's heart is made of black iron, right? No, it's just a lack of insight." Ilya thought, "It's the same as that Xiangye."

A month later-

This team of explorers was no doubt carefully selected by Yan and Usman. They had no risks along the way, and they arrived at a place about fifteen miles away from the first ancient city ruins, Kule.

If you want to talk about why you stop here instead of rushing directly to the ancient city, it is because the guide Kurdan reminded that the crow spirit cemetery is the mound about three miles in front of you.

They didn't dare to disturb the black crows who took away the undead and sent them to the world of rebirth. They would be cursed by the crow spirits. It can be said that ordinary business travelers would turn around when they came here, knowing that they had gone the wrong way.But they are different, they just want to go in that direction, they must go through the cemetery.

Regarding this, everyone has no objection, but there must be some sacrifices.Kurdan decides to let the cook slaughter a fat sheep and bleed the blood in an iron pot. First worship the crow spirit here, and then the undead. Finally, they will walk through this natural cemetery while sprinkling raw blood and raw meat.

It’s just that the ceremony of worshiping in situ is over, and it’s already dark. The pot full of raw sheep’s blood and the aroma of lamb attracted many crows to hover and descend. The guards didn’t dare to offend them, so they hid away. From a distance, watching them lower their heads and wantonly peck at the blood and mutton.

"Let's go to the cemetery tomorrow, and everyone will rest tonight." Seeing that they were not relentless in killing thieves but were so afraid of crows, Yan knew that he would not be able to leave tonight.

"Okay." Both Ilya and Kurdan, who were full of fear, heaved a sigh of relief.

In the middle of the night, it was chilly, and even the crows that had been yelling for a day were silent. Yan lay on his side in a tent made of wool felt, with a burning stone-lacquered copper stove behind him.

Ilya's grunts and crackling burning mingled into an out-of-key tune.

Yan turned over, no sleepiness at all, not because of Ilya's snoring, but because of the flood of longing for Usman.

The glowing red fire carved his silhouette on the wall of the tent. His drooping head and slightly hunched back formed a scene of "the sun sets, and the heartbroken man is at the end of the world".

Seeing that he was so "lonely", Yan had a wry smile on his lips, and muttered to himself: "If you don't love lovesickness in your life, you will love it, and you will hurt lovesickness."

He learned this song Zhe Gui when he was young. At that time, he only knew that he was not that sentimental son. Even if he liked the emperor brother, he would express his affection and stop at courtesy. , Love and hate people.

At this time, it would be good to have a jug of hot wine. When he was away from home, Yan seldom drank for fear of delaying things.

During the day, he was busy here and there, looking at his head and tail, and there was no time to "look at his shadow and feel sorry for himself", but in the dead of night, Yan especially wanted to see Usman, probably because he had seen him in dreams many times, When he woke up and found that it was just a dream, when he was far away from Usman, the gap in his heart was very big, and it was uncomfortable.

"When did I become a sentimental and sticky person." Yan even felt that if he played a sad erhu or something right now, he could cry into tears.

"Chunyu Yan, I order you to cheer up!" Yan gave the military order to himself.Strange to say, during this period of time his mood was surging and fluctuating, like that of a young girl Huaichun.

"Tomorrow we will pass through the Raven Spirit Ranch. This matter cannot be delayed. It is best to pass through in one go, otherwise those people... will be scared." If you can do it with confidence, you still have to obey the customs and taboos you should have, otherwise it will shake everyone's confidence.

Some important officials in the palace also knew about the expedition to the ancient city. Some of them agreed, while others hesitated. After all, what Yan excavated was their ancestor's home.

"Since those ancient cities have already been buried, why bother to dig them out? It will disturb the ancestors instead." Some veterans meant this.

Yan also understands, but he has to dig. Although the members of this expedition team are loyal to obey the "Queen's Arrangement", they also have their own considerations and will not disrespect their ancestors.

And if he doesn't do it properly and offends the ancestors of Xiliang, not only will he lose his status as the queen of Xiliang, but he will also lose the hearts of the expedition team, and it will be difficult to go on the road of exploration .

"Tomorrow will be a very important 'battle', so we have to conserve our energy." Yan thought to himself, put away the overflowing emotions, lay down again, closed his eyes and fell asleep.