#hulijing

🪷 Postcard from a travelling Li Lianhua, wishing you a peaceful Summer Solstice~ We agreed that the three of us and the dog would wake up early to go fishing, but it seems like we woke up too early again!

I'm currently taking a weekend trip into another fandom, but in the meantime, have a bite from the next chapter of its first cold blossom

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Fang Duobing dashes towards the road. He thinks he can hear more than one horse, but not many. No one passes through Tianji Manor on their way elsewhere, so the trespassers have a purpose here. A small distraction force, or a very misguided raiding party?

More arrows hum overhead, fired down the slope. Warning shots, but only barely. The archers have the advantage of elevation.

"Stop!" Fang Duobing gains the road and, in a hasty glance, the sight of two horses closing in, about thirty paces away. "Stop, for your own sake! You'll be—"

"Young Master, please step back!" The guard's voice is keen. "That's one of our horses, but we don't know the rider!"

Neither of the animals is in Tianji Manor livery, but Fang Duobing trusts the lookouts to know their business. Only one has a rider: a broad-brimmed hat obscures his face, and his cloak is thick blue wool, without decoration. At last, he reins in his horse. When he dismounts in one smooth sweep, uncaring of the arrows pointed at him, Fang Duobing feels his heart skip. His urgency is replaced by dumb, ardent relief.

"Stand down!" he barely remembers to call out. "He's not a threat."

Removing his hat, Di Feisheng hangs it on his saddle. Both horses blow and shake their heads, their flanks steaming into the air. Di Feisheng's face is lined with stern resolve, his brows cinched together as he looks at Fang Duobing.

Fang Duobing narrowly avoids grabbing him into a hug in full view of the guards.

It's been seven months, he wants to say. Seven months, and then you nearly cause an incident storming the gates?

He's spared from blurting out anything unwise as a bark echoes under the trees. Hulijing comes pelting up to Di Feisheng, her tail whisking, leaping against him like she's forgotten every bit of manners instilled in her.

Di Feisheng squats down to let her sniff his hand and press her head into his palm. "Hello, dog. You look well."

"She's marvellous, I'll have you know," Fang Duobing cuts in. "Would you like to tell me why you tried to ride into a volley of arrows in front of my ancestral home?"

After patting Hulijing one more time, Di Feisheng rises. The impulse to touch him has not left Fang Duobing, but he stuffs it under more immediate concerns. "And why do you have a Tianji Manor horse with you?"

"We need to speak," Di Feisheng says, as hammer-blunt as ever.