A husband found in the village? I bought a regent for a penny!

Meng Chengping clasped his hands in a fist and said loudly, "Please get in the car, Mr. Gu!"

Gu Xixi has never liked being in the spotlight, but now she is being watched like a monkey by a group of villagers.

She was so embarrassed she wanted to turn back immediately. "General Meng, could you please keep your voice down?"

Gu Xixi's voice was too soft for Meng Chengping to hear clearly, so he asked louder, "What did Boss Gu say?"

Gu Xixi took a deep breath to calm herself down. "I said please keep your voice down."

Not wanting to stay there and be watched any longer, she quickly boarded the carriage and jumped inside.

She felt much better now. She was too lazy to think about what people were saying about her in the village, how much curiosity she would have to face when she got home, and how many explanations (or fabrications) she would have to make.

Just take it one step at a time.

But just as Gu Xixi sat down, another person followed her in.

She looked up, somewhat surprised, "Why are you here?"

Mu Nanzhao sat down opposite her, looking down at himself, and said, "Oh."

Oh? Gu Xixi hadn't figured out what he meant when the carriage started moving.

Once outside the village, the official road was wide, and Meng Chengping rode his horse alongside the carriage.

He knocked on the window frame from the outside. "Under the seats inside the car, open the drawer, there's water and dry food."

Gu Xixi lifted the curtain and spoke the words she had been holding back, "Doesn't this trip need to be kept secret? General Meng is acting so ostentatiously, aren't you afraid that the news will leak out before we even begin to explore the land?"

Meng Chengping burst into laughter, leaving Gu Xixi completely bewildered. What was so funny?

Then Meng Chengping said, "This area in the Northwest is the General's territory. Here, if the General doesn't want to send out a message, not even a fly can escape from the eyes of the brothers in each pass."

He smiled and turned to Gu Xixi, "If we didn't have this ability, even if Boss Gu agreed to drag us into this mess, some people would still not agree."

Meng Chengping glanced at Mu Nanzhao from afar, revealing a meaningful, wicked smile.

Gu Xixi followed his gaze and looked back. Her heart skipped a beat, and she awkwardly changed the subject.

Are there many wastelands within the pass? Why don't people cultivate them?

Meng Chengping said, "The wasteland we are going to see was originally occupied by Beili ten years ago, but three years ago, a capable minister emerged in our Great Cause and persuaded the late emperor to support the general's military campaign against Beili."

"With this capable minister in charge of the court, the Northwest Army has ample food supplies, and the soldiers' pay is always paid on time without delay."

"This person also collected a lot of military intelligence from the Northern Li and secretly handed it over to the General."

"Thanks to his cooperation with the general, one a civil official and the other a military commander, one in the court and the other in the field, the Northern Army suffered a great defeat and retreated around this time that winter, and our army recovered those lands."

"It's a pity I only joined the army two years ago and missed the opportunity. I only heard those things from the general."

“However,” Meng Chengping smiled, “Daye and Beili have been engaged in constant battles, large and small, for nearly ten years, and the people of the Northwest are already afraid. Even if we take back these lands, they are still on the front line of the border, and no people dare to go and cultivate them.”

Gu Xixi was initially engrossed in listening, but as she listened, she seemed to realize something and looked across at the person opposite her.

"The capable minister General Meng mentioned, could he be sitting in the carriage right now?"

Meng Chengping chuckled softly, "We understand each other perfectly, we understand each other perfectly."

Mu Nanzhao turned his head to look out the window, seemingly not hearing the conversation between the two.

Gu Xixi looked at him, unable to express her feelings.

This was the first time she had learned about Mu Nanzhao's past from someone else.

No wonder he went to great lengths to get in touch with the Meng family. With his current status, he might not even be able to meet the General if he went directly to him, and he might even risk being killed by leaking information.

At this moment, a soldier came to report that traces of a cavalry caravan had been spotted ahead.

Meng Chengping told Gu Xixi to lower the curtain, and he rode his horse to the front to check.

The carriage fell silent. Gu Xixi said in a low voice, "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have spoken to you like that after I became acquainted with Madam Meng."

After a while, Mu Nanzhao finally spoke, "It's not your fault, we just have different perspectives."

"Actually, I wasn't sure at the time whether the general would still recognize me as an old friend if he knew I was alive, or whether he would just tie me up and hand me over."

“If that were true, you would have been implicated by me back then, so you did not wrong me.”

Gu Xixi paused for a moment, then said, "But from what you and General Meng said, that general seems to be an upright and good person."

“People’s hearts are fickle,” Mu Nanzhao said. “When your situation or status suddenly changes, you will find that everything around you has changed.”

He looked up at her. "But I finally won my gamble."

The sound of horses' hooves approached from afar.

Meng Chengping shouted through the window, "A caravan is passing by ahead, but they are not from Beili."

"The border is too long, and there are mountainous and forested areas. No matter how diligent the patrol soldiers are, occasionally a small group of northern cavalry will sneak in to spy on military intelligence, rob caravans, and harass the people."

Gu Xixi said, "I see. So we might encounter these people on this trip?"

Meng Chengping responded, "That's why we let Boss Gu ride in the car. First, it saves him some energy. Second, it's easier for us to protect him if he encounters any danger."

Mu Nanzhao crossed his arms and leaned back, closing his eyes to rest. "Now you're explaining things in detail."

"But why didn't you mention Gu Xixi at all before you invited her here?"

Meng Chengping chuckled, blatantly feigning ignorance, "I forgot."

Anyway, the general only sent him to invite Gu Xixi, and told him to be polite and not to force her.

But I didn't tell him he couldn't hide anything at all.

Around noon, Gu Xixi drank some water and ate two bites of a flatbread.

The carriage had been traveling for an unknown amount of time when the sound of brakes instantly snapped Gu Xixi back to reality.

"Reached?"

Mu Nanzhao glanced outside. "Probably."

The carriage curtain was lifted, revealing Meng Chengping's smiling face. "Boss Gu, we've arrived at our first stop."

As her feet touched the ground again, Gu Xixi was stunned by the sight before her.

The vast wilderness stretches towards the distant mountains, and the afternoon sun shines on the snow-covered peaks, creating a magnificent scene.

After admiring the scenery, Gu Xixi's heart was quickly filled with ecstasy.

"So much land, not slopes, not hills, but real plains!"

Before she came, she didn't expect there to be so much uncultivated land!

Mu Nanzhao looked at Gu Xixi, a smile playing on his lips.

She must be really, really happy to be farming.

Meng Chengping, an outgoing person, was infected by Gu Xixi's emotions and became very cheerful.

"Right, right? When the general came up with this idea, I thought it was great!"

"If we plant grain everywhere, will our Northwest Army ever have to worry about going hungry again?"

However, when he turned around, he found that Gu Xixi was not listening to him at all.

She squatted down, dug through the snow, grabbed a handful of soil, and looked at it intently.

Meng Chengping leaned closer, puzzled. "Isn't this just dirt? What's so interesting about it?"