Tang Dynasty: Starting at Xuanwu Gate, this prince is better off not being one.

"snort!"

The old man never speaks against his conscience.

Li Yu's poem was indeed elegant, and its imagery perfectly matched the current scenery. So Sun Simiao didn't know what to say for a moment, and could only snort coldly and turn his head away angrily.

"Ugh!"

Li Yu let out a long sigh.

Unfortunately, Tang Dynasty literati mainly focused on composing poems and essays, and they always looked down on those who wrote "ci" (lyric poetry) with varying line lengths, let alone "Yuanqu" (Yuan Dynasty opera) hundreds of years later.

"Having memorized so many songs, I'm afraid only I can enjoy them..."

Li Yu muttered to himself, then looked out the window again...

.........

The sun gradually disappeared into the deep mountains, and it grew darker and darker.

Fortunately, Li Jing found a suitable open space for the team to set up camp before it got completely dark, thus saving Li Yu and his group from having to travel day and night.

After setting up the tent, Li Yu lay comfortably on the bedding laid out by the green-clad woman.

Cheng Chumo had taken on the hunting task voluntarily since he was stationed at the garrison. However, he didn't go far, because with Li Jing's orders, he only dared to look for wild animals in the nearby forest.

"The army is not short of food for the time being," this was Li Jing's reason for stopping Cheng Chumo.

If Li Yu and Li Tai insisted on going, he certainly wouldn't dare to stop them; he would only send more people or go with them himself. But Cheng Chumo, this greenhorn with no official rank or title, was someone he could still control...

.........

Cheng Chumo still dragged the two wild boars back to the camp. No one knew where this guy got them from.

"If we take this stuff out and handle it, the tents will smell of blood everywhere. How are we supposed to sleep at night?"

Covering his nose, Li Yu spoke to Cheng Chumo in a muffled voice.

"Why are you making such a fuss? If you're so capable, then don't eat them later!" Cheng Chumo threw the two wild boars out of the tent and said angrily.

"hey-hey!"

Li Yu didn't take Cheng Chumo's words to heart, and just chuckled and said, "I don't have to eat it, but if you're so capable, then don't use me to grill it."

Li Yu's words left Cheng Chumo speechless. He was a skilled hunter, but he was completely clueless when it came to cooking. Having grown up in luxury, he had no idea how to cook meat properly.

Just as the two were arguing, a series of hurried footsteps suddenly sounded outside the tent.

Noticing something amiss, the two stopped arguing, pulled Li Tai, who was still covering his nose, and walked straight out of the tent.

Outside the tent, the soldiers who had been there during the day were now all moving towards this side, and one group of them even surrounded Li Yu's tent.

"General Li Jing, what is the reason for this?" Li Yu asked, somewhat puzzled, looking at Li Jing, who was fully armored in the center of the formation.

"Your Highness, I just noticed someone following our group. Although I don't know their intentions, I apologize for disturbing you both for your safety."

Upon hearing this, Li Yu didn't care about Li Jing's concern about being alarmed, but instead exclaimed in shock, "Who has such audacity? Daring to covet the Tang army? Are they courting death?!"

As soon as he finished speaking, Li Yu immediately went on high alert. Since the other side dared to covet even a large army, the number of people coming must be considerable.

"Return to your highness."

At this moment, Chu He, who had been out of sight, emerged from the shadows, his face grim, and said, "Although this old servant discovered that person, he escaped at an unusually fast speed, and even this old servant was unable to catch up with him."

At this point, Chu He paused and continued, "However, in the darkness, this old servant vaguely saw that there seemed to be only two people on the other side."

"Two people!?"

Li Yu was almost stunned by Chu He's words. After a long while, he finally recovered and asked, "Who exactly are those two people? And why are they following us?"

When Li Yu asked, Chu He shook his head and said, "Judging from their actions, those two should just be wandering knights in the martial arts world. It's just that one of them is very skilled. If they were to fight head-on, he probably wouldn't be much weaker than this old servant."

"The other one wasn't particularly skilled; in fact, you could say she wasn't a martial artist at all. And judging from her figure, she was probably a woman."

"As for the intentions of those two wandering knights, I'm afraid this old servant has no way of knowing."

Chu He's words shocked Li Yu even more.

Two wandering swordsmen? Or perhaps a man and a woman? Could they be some legendary duo of bandits?

After thinking for a moment, Li Yu shook his head. In martial arts novels, the two notorious thieves, both male and female, are always highly skilled in martial arts. But from Chu He's words, one was extremely skilled, while the other knew nothing of martial arts. Clearly, such a combination couldn't possibly be a notorious thief couple…

Because of the appearance of those two people, Chu He stayed by Li Yu and the other two's side almost every step of the way, while the three of them chose to stay in their tents and refused to come out for the sake of their own lives.

"Little Fish, it's not the dead of winter, why are you making so much charcoal?"

Watching Li Yu roast the pieces of black charcoal until they were red-hot, Li Tai asked, puzzled.

"Barbecue, what else can we do?" Li Yu replied, giving him a look as if he were an idiot.

"Grilling meat over charcoal?"

Upon hearing this, Li Tai shook his head repeatedly and hurriedly said, "It can't be roasted, it can't be roasted. Xiao Ke and I tried it in the palace before, and the meat turned out black and had a burnt smell. It looked disgusting."

"That's because you don't know how to bake..."

Although Li Yu didn't look up, his expression was very smug: "The taste of meat grilled over charcoal is indescribable. It's just that our conditions are limited. Otherwise, if we marinated the meat in advance and then grilled it over charcoal, I guarantee you'd bite your tongue off."

After hearing Li Yu's description, Cheng Chumo couldn't help but feel a sense of longing, and even Li Tai was eager to try it. After all, Li Yu's grilling skills were truly undeniable; the meat just tasted better than others...

Just as everyone was discussing the barbecue, a figure completely covered in black clothes stealthily approached them under the cover of darkness.

His gaze was fixed on the two wild boars that Cheng Chumo had left outside the tent, as if he were ready to steal one of them out without anyone noticing.

As he drew closer to the tent, he suddenly heard faint conversations coming from inside.

For some reason, he felt that the voices of these people were somewhat familiar.

Just as I was about to get closer to listen, the black-clad man's stomach involuntarily emitted a few rumbling sounds.

Clutching his stomach, he sighed inwardly, deciding it was best to fill his stomach first. As for the noise, he could worry about that once he was full and had the strength.

With that thought in mind, he no longer hesitated and approached the two wild boars with extremely quiet steps.

"You audacious thief! Let's see where you can run to this time!"

.........