54 Su Ying, Your Eyes Are Dirty
When Su Ying returned to the encampment, she found Xiao Jin sitting outside the carriage.
She walked to the side of the carriage, placed her hands on the seat, and easily pushed herself up onto the carriage and sat down. “Why are you not sleeping? ”
In the darkness, Xiao Jin pursed his thin lips tightly. “You woke me up and I couldn’t sleep anymore.”
Su Ying yawned and lay down near him. “You must have slept too much during the day.”
Su Ying turned over and fell asleep straight away.
As Xiao Jin sat there outside the carriage, he saw Jiang Yang running back in the darkness.
When Su Ying was walking up the hill, Xiao Jin instructed Jiang Yang to follow her.
Jiang Yang ran back to the side of the carriage. “Your Highness, is Mistress back?”
Xiao Jin raised his eyebrows slightly. “She’s back. You didn’t see her on the way?”
Jiang Yang shook his head. “No, but I heard a strange commotion in the forest. By the time I went over, I only found some blood stains on the ground and nothing else.”
Xiao Jin nodded. “Is there any news from Lin Kun?”
“Lin Kun left a message saying that he had already passed on the message from Your Highness to the people in Jin City. No matter what happened, General Sima must be protected, even in the worst-case scenario.”
“Mm-hmm.”
A ray of golden light passed through the curtains and landed on Su Ying’s eyelids.
Su Ying turned over lazily and opened her eyes to see the twins’ magnified faces hovering before her.
“Mother, you are awake.”
Su Ying didn’t get up. Instead, she hugged the two toddlers and played with them for a while before jumping off the carriage while holding them.
Su Ying ran to Hea Shouyi immediately. “Uncle Hea, what are we having for breakfast?”
Hea Shouyi was kneading some dough. When he heard Su Ying’s voice, he raised his head and said, “I’m making dough bits soup for everyone this morning.”
“Alright.” Hea Shouyi had made dough bits soup a few times before. He had made both the sweet and salty versions. Personally, Su Ying preferred the sweet version. The dough bits were sticky and sweet, and they were especially delicious.
Aunt Zhao scooped out some water from the bucket for Su Ying and the kids to wash up. Before this, Aunt Zhao would have said that it was a waste of water, but Su Ying said that she didn’t want her children to be disheveled even if they were to be exiled. Hence, she would help the children wash up every morning.
After the dough bits soup was done, Bai Shuang ladled out a big bowl for Su Ying.
Su Ying held the bowl and ate contentedly. Uncle Hea knew that she liked sweet food, so he added some sugar just for her. Slurping down a bowl like this early in the morning was immensely satisfying.
Su Ying suddenly thought of something and asked Xiao Jin, who was beside her, “By the way, do you know any organization that tattoos some character on the inner thigh?”
Xiao Jin’s expression froze, and a sense of foreboding welled up in his heart. “What character?”
Su Ying thought for a while and picked up a branch nearby to draw a pattern on the ground. It looked like a written character, but on closer inspection, it didn’t look like any recognizable character.
After Xiao Jin saw the symbol clearly, his dark eyes turned ominous.
“Whose inner thigh did you see it on?”
Su Ying tossed the branch away and took a sip of the sugar water. “Last night, when I went to answer nature’s call, the man Lin Zhuyu mentioned before followed me. I saw it on his body.”
Xiao Jin’s eyes darkened more ominously. “How did you see this mark on his inner thigh?”
Su Ying didn’t notice Xiao Jin’s increasingly low voice at all.
“He took off his pants right in front of me…”
Crack!
Su Ying’s eyebrows twitched. She turned around and saw that Xiao Jin’s expression had become very intriguing. The bowl in his hand had somehow broken into two. If he hadn’t finished the soup, she would have definitely scolded him. She had spent money to buy this bowl!
“Can you not cause me any trouble!” Why did he have to use some much force to hold a bowl? Did he have a grudge against this bowl?
Xiao Jin’s dark eyes were locked on Su Ying, but she simply stalked off grumbling in annoyance to get more dough bits soup!
Jiang Yang, who was silently eating a bowl of dough bits soup, suddenly felt a chill on his neck. He raised his head and his eyes met Xiao Jin’s gaze, which looked murderous enough to swallow a person alive.
Jiang Yang held his bowl and froze in place. Could it be… His Highness wasn’t full?
Jiang Yang hesitated for a moment, but he still handed the bowl to Xiao Jin with trembling hands. “Your High… Master, would you like some more?”
Xiao Jin’s eyes narrowed. “Come over here after you’re done eating!”
Jiang Yang hurriedly gulped down his food and rushed over in a fawning manner.
“Master, what’s wrong?”
Xiao Jin’s expression was frosty. “Those guys are the mercenary army.”
Jiang Yang was shocked and his expression became serious. The so-called mercenary army comprised military soldiers who could be hired by anyone. They did not belong to any state. As long as someone could afford to pay them, they would work for that paymaster.
In the past, the Chu State would never allow mercenary troops to appear within its territory for fear that they would disrupt the law and order of the Imperial Court. “How did Your Highness find out their identities?”
Every mercenary soldier had a marking on his body. Anyone who joined the mercenary army had to have a tattoo on their inner thigh. The symbol Su Ying drew was the insignia of the mercenary army.
Xiao Jin’s expression turned even more unpleasant. “There’s a man with a knife scar at the corner of his eye in that group. He appeared in the group of exiles the day after he attacked Lin Zhuyu. Something strange is afoot. Find an opportunity to bring him to me tonight.”
“Yes, Sir. I understand.”
After eating and drinking their fill, the officials got the group ready to set off. In the morning, Hea Shouyi and Cheng Ming led the oxen and goats, so Su Ying sat in the carriage in comfort.
To her surprise, the moment she sat down, she heard Xiao Jin say, “Su Ying, your eyes are dirty.”
Su Ying didn’t understand and wiped her eyes with her hands. “Where? What’s stuck there?”
Xiao Jin held her wrist as his dark eyes looked on solemnly. “Don’t move. I’ll help you wash them.”
Sure enough, Su Ying remained still. She couldn’t see where the dirt was anyway, so she might as well let Xiao Jin help her.
With a solemn expression, Xiao Jin asked the older toddler Ji to help him uncap the water bag. Then, he poured the water into his hands and rinsed Su Ying’s eyes continuously.
“Ah! Hey, what are you doing? What kind of dirt is it? Why do you have to waste water like this? You…”
“Very dirty! It’s very dirty!” Xiao Jin didn’t have any intention of stopping at all.
Su Ying wanted to push Xiao Jin’s hand away, but she heard Xiao Jin say, “Aren’t you afraid that dirty thing will frighten the kids?”
Su Ying stopped moving again. She simply gave in and allowed Xiao Jin to keep rinsing her eyes until he had used up all the water in the water bag.
Su Ying used her sleeve to wipe the water off her face before glaring at Xiao Jin furiously. “So, are my eyes clean now?”
Xiao Jin put down the water bag expressionlessly and said in a low voice, “If you have nothing to look at, look at me more often and your eyes can be considered borderline clean.”
Hmph!
“Based on what you said, you are pretty useful for washing eyes.”
Xiao Jin raised his head, his dark eyes looking straight into Su Ying’s eyes. “Yes.”
Su Ying felt that Xiao Jin not only had a problem with his legs, but he also had a problem with his brain.
The two little ones and the clueless little Lin Sheng all stared at the two. Three pairs of eyes and six eyeballs were looking back and forth between the two of them.
“Big Brother, Father seems very displeased?” The younger toddler Ling leaned against the older toddler Ji and muttered softly.
The older toddler Ji also whispered, “You can remove the word ‘seems’.”
“Why?”
“I don’t know. Maybe… Mother’s eyes are dirty, I guess?”
“But there’s nothing on Mother’s eyes at all.”
The older toddler Ji acted all mature and replied, “Be good. If Father says they’re dirty, then they’re dirty.”
“Okay!”