The Voyage In The Blizzard - Chapter 41
“And where did you learn this?” Lei asked as he lay on the already warm branch. Unable to get up and collect his thoughts, and because Longwei was lying right on top of him, Lei repeated the question again, “Where did you learn this?”
To which Longwei, gasping for air and breathing quickly, replied, “I am perfect in everything.”
“That’s for sure.” Lei embraced him and smiled, his red face so happy that he forgot about everything in the world.
“Shall we continue?” Longwei suddenly asked.
Raising his face, Lei peering into his eyes laughed and said, “Is this not enough for you?”
“Yes.”
Looking down and then around, Lei, brushing the snow from Longwei’s hair, he said with tenderness in his voice, “I would love to, but if we stay a little longer, I think we will freeze. You can get cold, well, me too. So let’s continue a little later.. ”
Arriving at the village of the Second Clan at night, Lei stopping Longwei, took several quiet steps forward and hiding behind a large stone, looked towards the high stone house. Watching the figures in the windows, he nodded his head and they both quickly ran past the house.
The village of the second clan, like the other two villages, looked normal. The same rows of houses, one big house of the head of the clan, but according to Xing Fu, the most important part of the village was the courtyard which was well guarded. According to him, Sun spent most of his time there. In the courtyard, he had a gazebo where he kept his collection of swords and also received guests. And if you manage to get into the courtyard unnoticed, then you can easily see everyone and hear everyone’s conversation. Especially Sun’s.
Presenting the plan in front of their eyes without a word, Lei pointed in the direction of the houses, and after waiting for the two soldiers to turn away and leave in the opposite direction, he ended up with one somersault behind the first house.
Longwei, not following him, waited a little longer, and when the two soldiers turned away again and left in the opposite direction, he did the same somersault, and when they turned around he was already behind the house. Bending down and quickly running past the house, Longwei looked out and noticed that a bunch of soldiers were standing at the next house. Hearing that the door of the house behind which he stood opened, he sat down and hid behind a wooden barrel.
After waiting a few minutes, trying to breathe as little as possible, Longwei slowly raised his head and noticed that the soldiers at the neighboring house were already inside. Taking advantage of the moment, he imperceptibly ran a few meters and finally was already behind the second house. In total, he had to run past eight more houses and then get to the courtyard.
Without wasting a minute, Longwei easily left several houses behind, and now after waiting only a few minutes until three soldiers entered the house, he looked around. The light in other houses had already been extinguished, which was just good for him, having plunged into darkness, Longwei could now advance with confidence without fear of being noticed.
Easily leaving all ten houses behind him, Longwei reached the stone gate behind which was the courtyard. Looking around and making sure that no one was around, Longwei took a stone out of his pocket and threw it against the stone wall of the gate. With a light sound, the stone fell silently onto the snow.
In the next second, Lei, throwing the rope from the opposite side of the gate, made it clear that he could proceed.
Climbing up the rope, Longwei, finding himself on a high gate, almost fell down, but catching him Lei whispered, “Careful. No one noticed you?”
“If they noticed, I wouldn’t be here.”
Pulling off the rope, Lei whispered, “Now, we need to go together. If we get lost, there is a chance that they will find us. Try not to leave me.”
“So this way you want to keep me next you?! Great Master Lei…”
Covering his mouth with his hand, Lei bent down and pressed himself against the stone wall.
A tall soldier in a long cloak, staring in front of him, froze in place. Hidden in a dark corner by the gate, Lei tightly hugging Longwei to him did not take his eyes off the figure frozen in one place.
“Who is here? Cheng is it you?” he suddenly asked in his hoarse voice.
After waiting a little more for an answer from the darkness, the soldier turned away and walked away.
Still standing still, Lei whispered, “Be as fast as possible.”
Taking a step forward, Longwei bent down and ran to the wooden barrel. Faint candle lights burned in the distance. Seeing a faint flicker around the gazebo, Longwei pointed to the nearest tree and, slipping on the ice, he quickly climbed it.
Lei followed him.
“See those lights over there? This is Sun’s gazebo and there, is the Main house. We need to get there no matter what.” whispered Longwei.
Adjusting his backpack, Lei said, “Fortunately, there are a lot of trees here. Let’s wait here a bit and then move on.” Looking up at the sky, Lei added, “I think this night will be very cold. But if only there was not that strong blizzard, or all these trees will be torn off by the roots.”
Abruptly pressing him close, Longwei, burning Lei’s ear with his breath. Whispering to him something and making him blush again, Longwei slyly smiled and nodded his head.
“Right here?” asked Lei.
“What is it? Or are you scared? Everyone in the village is asleep, the guards are not walking around here.” whispered Longwei unbuttoning his vest.
Looking down and then towards the flickering lights, Lei inhaled with a smile on his face and lightly touched Longwei’s cold cheek.
Through the rustle of leaves, trying to make as little noise as possible, Longwei did not hold back his voice and shouted softly, and immediately a light came on in one of the houses nearby.
Closing his mouth, Lei bent down and froze.
When the lights went out Lei whispered, “You don’t care where we are right?”
“I care. But I could not hold back my cry.” Longwei answered laughing, and again felt Lei’s hot hand in his mouth.
“Speak more quietly.”
“Master Lei, are you tired?” suddenly Longwei asked.
Lei tenderly hugged him and replied, “We now have an important business. We should think about what happened that night. What was that cry and why the soldiers of the Second Clan were in our village, where Boqin came from. We have a lot to do, we need to be careful. ” Fastening the waistcoat belt and wrapping a scarf around Longwei’s neck, Lei said with a grin in his voice, “And in general, I didn’t think you were like that. I thought you were shy, quiet and very serious. But now, getting to know you better, I realized that you are very different.”
Through the howl of the wind the question was heard, “And what am I then?”
Catching two sparkling eyes that concealed billions of stars through the thin veil of night, Lei replied, “You are like a star. You conceal light in yourself, but the more I look at you, the more I realize that your light is far away. Far but so close.”
Holding his breath in a happy moment, Longwei slid his finger over his forehead, along the majestic lines of a straight nose, over warm lips, over a pointed chin. Forgetting all his sadness and grief, forgetting even about himself, about his ambitions and prejudices, Longwei was simply grateful that he had found such a person in his life. And graciousness prompted him to talk, talk a lot, as well as act, do everything so that the person who sits in front of him was always happy and light in his soul.
Closing him in his arms, Longwei said, “Master Lei, you have the soul of a gentle poet. And I am a little afraid of your soul, afraid of its light and warmth.”
Without saying anything, Lei stroked his long hair and suddenly somewhere below someone’s voice was heard.
“Have you tried feeding it?”
“Whatever we give, it does not accept.”
“Have you tried giving it Snowball? Maybe it eats meat.”
“Not yet. And by the way, what are you doing here?”
“I was passing by.”
As he tried to discern who the two were, one of the voices seemed very familiar to Longwei. But he could not remember who this voice belonged to.
“You shouldn’t be here if the Master sees you …”
“I don’t think the Master will be angry at the sight of me.”
“If you don’t remember, you were never welcome here.”
And on this the conversation was interrupted. As if knowing that they were being heard, two people standing near the trees whispered something to each other and then one of them quickly left.
After waiting for the other one to leave, Lei said warily, “Master Xing Fu was right. Something strange is happening here.”