Chapter 390: You're also busy pecking millet for us, aren't you?

How long does it take to have a dream?

Perhaps, one night.

Then, how long does it take to piece together someone's silhouette?

He Lian Bo Bo used a full seven snowfalls.

In these seven snowfalls, he not only learned her name, age, background, and what she had done...

He even caught a whiff of a familiar scent.

This familiar scent, if it were on someone else, He Lian Bo Bo would not find anything wrong with it.

After all, he had been familiar with this scent since childhood.

However, it turned out that this scent came from a woman.

However...

And yet, the name of this scent is called 【Ambition】.

Too familiar.

Too familiar.

Xuan Feixing said so much, things like "settling refugees" and "relieving disaster victims"...

Actually, it is just a kind of 【coercion】.

That Atuma from the far south, using the people as an excuse, pried open the gates of Dun Cheng and openly took over Dun Cheng.

She understood livelihood, improved waterworks, invented the waterwheel, saving great amounts of manpower and material.

She understood tactics, balancing offense and defense, with proper tension and relaxation; if she wished, she could capture a city without breaking a sweat.

Weapons, and even more weapons.

Although Xuan Feixing harbored affection for her, the moment that weapon was mentioned, his fleeting fear could not be deceived.

He Lian Bo Bo had never personally seen that kind of weapon, but...

He was certain that he might have truly found the Atuma he had been thinking of.

Not just a woman, but one capable of overturning everyone's expectations...... Atuma.

Under heaven, most men harbor a heart that wishes to be emperor.

Under heaven, most also take this as the foundation of their actions.

However, after too long of something being taken for granted, many have forgotten one thing——

Being emperor has never been something only men can do.

Now, He Lian Bo Bo's eagle-like intuition tells him that the woman far in the south also wishes to be emperor.

Not the same.

Not the same.

That Atuma is very different.

Not like the women of the plains, big-armed and thick-waisted, who serve Eternal Heaven and fall into demonry, taking Eternal Heaven's words as their lifelong devotion, having no thoughts of their own.

Even less like the ordinary women of the south, delicate and frail, bound by Dao, law, rites and etiquette, who regard chastity as life itself, and who, upon being teased, would bite their tongues and kill themselves.

That Atuma......

Perhaps, she must do something unprecedented, something no one has done before and none will do after.

An ordinary winter is very long.

However, after realizing this matter, He Lian Bo Bo again felt this winter rather satisfying.

The weather beyond the frontier is bitterly cold; after winter begins, wind and snow grow more rampant, and today it has even begun to snow goose-feather flakes across the sky.

Fine, snow-white down flutters everywhere, covering the entire camp; heaven and earth are a blank white, the cold wind rolls snow particles and beats against the tent walls, making a rustling sound.

The heavy tent flap is slightly lifted by the cold wind, letting in a bite of freezing air, which is instantly dispelled by warmth.

In the center of the tent stands a neat ring of stone stoves; the fire inside blazes, open flames crackle and burn, warm heat fills the whole tent, dispelling the bone-chilling cold of the frontier.

He Lian Bo Bo stands beside the stone stove, like an ordinary hungry grassland youth, personally roasting a whole plump lamb leg.

The flames repeatedly lick the seared, tender lamb; oil continuously seeps out with a sizzle, golden layers of oil shimmer, and the rich, fragrant meat aroma instantly fills the tent, irresistibly tempting.

He lowers his gaze, turns the lamb leg with practiced ease; when the meat is roasted to a crisp exterior and cooked through, he lifts his hand, draws the curved blade he wears at his side—its edge bright and sharp—and with a light slash cuts off a large chunk of thick, satisfying lamb.

He Lian Bo Bo, with generous and natural motion, steadily places that steaming lamb into the wooden bowl before Xuan Feixing, his expression calm, gesturing for him to eat while hot.

Outside the tent, wind and snow howl without cease; inside, warmth spreads, the fragrant aroma of roasted meat lingers at the nostrils, sealing out the frontier's bitter cold and harshness.

Not to mention that this place hasn't had such good food for a long time; even in Yongzhou, such a substantial meat dish isn't something you can just eat whenever you say.

Even Xuan Feixing, at this moment, cannot help but feel a stir in his heart and unconsciously swallows his saliva.

However, the very next instant, he hears He Lian Bo Bo indeed say:

"After eating the meat, you have to tell me again how Atuma rescued you that day."

Here we go again!

Here we go again!

Before, he clearly found it most annoying when he casually brushed it off, but lately he has already retold this story over and over, dozens of times, without tiring—how can He Lian Bo Bo still not be bored!

What on earth is wrong with this person!

Could it really be that someone in this world falls in love with another just by listening to their narration?

How could such a hasty thing be possible!

Xuan Feixing feels as uncomfortable as ants crawling all over him; even looking at that fragrant lamb, he has lost his appetite.

He thinks left and right, but still feels he must give the other a strong dose today:

"Stop calling her Atuma; you and she are destined not to be together, she already has a child."

The fact that Du Shanü is pregnant, he had never previously told He Lian Bo Bo.

It's not that he deliberately concealed it; it's just that this matter......

He himself always found it hard to accept.

Du Shanü to him was the fire within stone, the form in dreams, the moon in the cup, the scar on the heart.

Everything about her, to him, was something he could hope for but never obtain.

He could never bring himself to believe that she had married, that she had met her lifelong true love, and that she had even borne a child with someone......

Moreover, he couldn't even imagine what status he would have if he were to stand by her side.

Xuan Feixing only knew that if he couldn't do it, then others certainly couldn't!

He had never been intimate with her, yet He Lian Bo Bo pestered him all day long, demanding he tell her story—what kind of thing is that!

Xuan Feixing felt a surge of anger in his chest, and thus he glared at He Lian Bo Bo.

He Lian Bo Bo was gnawing on a tender, juicy lamb leg, completely unaware of Xuan Feixing's anger, and instead gave him a look as if he had seen a ghost, glaring back:

"I see you don't even have a beard, yet you've become one of those old fogeys... oh no, I mean an old pedant who lectures on rites!"

"You don't think giving birth to a child is a disadvantage for women, do you?"

The two of them are roughly the same age, glaring at each other—the scene is utterly absurd, far more than just the two words "ridiculous".

Xuan Feixing stared at him for a long time before barely regaining his voice, and he cried out:

"Could it be... not?"

He, he had always thought that the South's development in scholarship was somewhat better than the North's!

But now, looking at it, it seems the North is actually being surpassed by the South......

He Lian Bo Bo put down the lamb leg, roasted to golden crispness, and snorted with a laugh:

"Of course not! How could that possibly be a disadvantage for women!"

"Compared to women who haven't borne children, naturally those proven able to bear children are more desirable; otherwise, if you marry a wife only to discover she can't bear children, what a hassle!"

"On our steppes, the practice of adopting sons is widespread, and there's a popular saying: 'No matter whose child it is, as long as it's raised under my tent, it's my child.'"