Chapter 1333 - 1009: He Du Was Born Premature

After a long silence, it was Shang Ruyi who spoke first again. She looked at Lei Yu’s beautiful face, filled with mature charm under the glow of the fire, and said with a smile, "But I’m still happy to see you here. You—"

As she spoke, her gaze instinctively shifted towards Lei Yu’s belly.

She hadn’t forgotten that before she left the Western Turkic Yatai, Lei Yu was already more than two months pregnant. Not long after, she herself became pregnant with Yuan Qian. Now Yuan Qian is ten months old, then—

Looking up and meeting Shang Ruyi’s gaze, Lei Yu understood what was going on.

But she didn’t speak immediately, rather she glanced cautiously behind her. The Turkic soldiers were still busy setting up tents and searching for water, but Ashina Zhuxie was not in the Turkic camp and it was unknown where he had gone. So she leaned slightly forward, cautiously whispering, "My, my son’s name is He Du."

"Son? You’ve had a son!"

Upon hearing this, a joyful smile immediately appeared on Shang Ruyi’s face, although at the same time, an indescribable, strange emotion welled up in her heart. Nevertheless, she cheerfully said, "He’s called He Du? Ashina Hedu?"

"Yes."

"Where is he?"

"Left near Xiazhou. He’s just one year old, following us here is indeed inappropriate. But Ashina Zhuxie insisted he comes along, saying he should see the world. However, coming to Sui State this time was done in a hurry, traveling day and night using fast horses, and I worried the child is too young to handle it, so I left him in Xiazhou."

"Oh..."

Shang Ruyi breathed a sigh of relief and nodded, "I see."

No wonder Princess Qiancheng could send three SOS letters, and Yu Wenquan considered it for so long before setting out after she volunteered. And the main force lead by Ashina Zhuxie still hadn’t taken Xiazhou. It turns out this delay was because the Turks were traveling with this child, having to consider the mother and child’s health; naturally, they couldn’t travel as fast as they would during wartime.

Shang Ruyi felt both relieved and somewhat regretful, sighing, "If only I could see him, he must be very, very cute."

She recalled the appearance of the Turkic Prince she had seen in memory. Yiasu, though a Turkic, was born charming, and Lei Yu was a radiant beauty, surely their child is extremely adorable.

Yiasu...

Suddenly recalling this person, Shang Ruyi’s mood sank again. She abruptly thought of something and lowered her voice, asking, "This child is—"

Lei Yu’s expression immediately turned serious.

Before she could finish, Lei Yu interrupted her words, "He Du is a premature child."

"..."

Shang Ruyi’s breath caught.

Lei Yu’s eyes were pitch-black, staring at her closely, "He was born two months early."

Shang Ruyi only felt a huge stone pressing on her chest, struggling for a long time before whispering like a mosquito, "You, you must have suffered a lot."

Upon hearing this, Lei Yu’s eyes immediately reddened.

She opened her mouth, her hoarse voice seeming to be filled with endless bitterness and hardship, "I—"

Before she could say this sentence, she suddenly seemed to sense something and shut her mouth tightly, while Shang Ruyi looked up just in time to see Ashina Zhuxie slowly walking towards them not far behind her.

Clearly, there was still some distance, only the faint sound of footsteps could be heard, but Lei Yu seemed very familiar, already sensing it.

Ashina Zhuxie walked beside her, and just like before, gently placed his hand on her shoulder, his gaze intensely fixated on Shang Ruyi, "What are you talking about? What hardship have you endured?"

Lei Yu’s complexion paled slightly, luckily obscured by the orange firelight.

She whispered, "I was talking about having a child."

"Oh,"

Ashina Zhuxie slowly squatted, glancing at her somewhat distracted eyes, then turned to Shang Ruyi, "We have a son, named He Du."

Shang Ruyi said, "Just now, Lei Yu already told me."

"Oh."

"It’s a shame you didn’t bring him along. I’d really like to see the child."

"I wanted to bring him, but Ah Yue said the child is too young to withstand the journey, so we left him there."

Saying this, a sharp light flashed in Ashina Zhuxie’s eyes, "You seem completely unsurprised about us—and about us having a child."

Shang Ruyi said calmly, "There are a few things in the world that can’t be hidden, poverty, a sneeze, and the eyes of someone who loves."

"..."

"The Khan, even when he was the Crown Prince, couldn’t hide the look in his eyes."

"Oh..."

Hearing her words, Ashina Zhuxie seemed to ponder for a moment, then turned to look at the equally solemn and thoughtful Lei Yu beside him and said, "It’s already late, the tent over there is ready, you should go rest early."

Lei Yu didn’t look at him, only nodded lightly and then raised her head to look at Shang Ruyi, "Then I—"

Shang Ruyi immediately said, "You just said you traveled day and night to get here, you must be exhausted, and your complexion doesn’t look good either, you should rest early. After all, we have plenty of time to reunite these days."

Ashina Zhuxie also said, "Exactly."

Not only could the two of them understand each other’s deeper meaning, but Lei Yu was even clearer. She just nodded to Shang Ruyi, then stood up and walked towards the Turkic camp.

Once they walked away, Shang Ruyi finally took a deep breath.

But this breath was not a sigh of relief, her heart was always weighed down by a large stone, only she didn’t know whether this stone was called He Du or the Left General’s Tomb. And just as she worked hard to calm her emotions, a fragrant breeze hit, looking up, the person who had been sitting aside, Lu Xiao, walked over and sat next to her.

Seeing her, Shang Ruyi turned to glance at the Turkic camp again.

In the distance, Wang Shaoqiu’s figure stood in front of a tent. He lifted the tent flap with one hand, seemingly about to enter, but remained standing, facing in their direction, not knowing what he was watching.

And when she looked over, Wang Shaoqiu immediately slipped into the tent.

Shang Ruyi frowned slightly, then when she turned back, she met Lu Xiao’s frost-covered gaze, she said, "He actually came as well."

"..."

"I truly was careless."

Only at this moment did she recall, just when Wang Shaoqiu fled to Luoyang after his defeat at Shuishen Mountain, he aligned himself with Liang Shide. And now near Luoyang, fierce battles were raging. Yu Wenye had captured several passes, if Liang Shide didn’t want Luoyang to fall, besides direct confrontation, another solution was seeking reinforcements.

And clearly, the Turks were his best foreign aid.