The northern desert.
A grand bonfire feast had just come to an end.
Dawn was breaking now, the east beginning to lighten, and the clan members, having celebrated through the night, were gradually making their way home, preparing to welcome in the new year!
Xuanyuan Lige had long since moved out of the Yu family’s home, living alone in a corner at the foot of the mountain, under the guise of being Grandma Yu’s adopted son and Yu Xiaomeng’s adopted elder brother—a touch more care shown to him, and a bit less disturbance.
These past few months, life had passed peacefully enough.
Only, in his idle moments, he couldn’t help but long to pick up a qin and compose music, yet he could never find one worthy of his hand. He thought of making one himself, but couldn’t find wood that met his standards either.
Once everyone had dispersed, Xuanyuan Lige made his way alone down toward the foot of the mountain. Yu Xiaomeng kept her distance, far enough that she could only make out his silhouette, blurred in the distance, yet she followed him all the same.
Though his health grew weaker with each passing day, his martial skill remained as formidable as ever. Whenever she followed him, he could always sense her presence—yet he always pretended not to notice!
The girl never actually disturbed him in any way; she always left the moment she saw him safely inside.
This time, as Yu Xiaomeng once again trailed behind him, Grandma Yu, who could no longer bear to watch, suddenly came rushing over from the side and, without a word, seized her by the arm and began pulling her back the other way!
“Mother, let go! Let go!”
“Ow, what are you doing! That really hurts!”
“Good, let it hurt! Maybe that’ll wake you up! If it doesn’t hurt, you’ll keep wandering around like you’re sleepwalking, losing your soul the moment you catch sight of him!”
Grandma Yu had endured this for as long as she could, but she simply couldn’t hold back any longer. She had once hoped that, given enough time, the two young people might naturally fall in love with each other—but instead, that Xuanyuan fellow, for all his gentle appearance, turned out to be as cold as ice underneath.
And this girl, Yu Xiaomeng, for all her lively, cheerful appearance, was stubborn as a rock—never once taking any initiative, only ever watching him secretly, following him secretly!
If pinching could wake her up, Grandma Yu would have loved nothing more than to give Yu Xiaomeng a good, hard pinch.
Only once Xuanyuan Lige’s silhouette had vanished from sight did Grandma Yu finally release Yu Xiaomeng, saying angrily, “Let me tell you something—don’t waste your time on a man like that. He has no feelings in him at all. There are plenty of good men in our own clan far better than him—don’t you go and ruin yourself over this!”
“I don’t like him! Stop saying such nonsense!” Yu Xiaomeng protested immediately. She knew her own mother better than anyone—if she didn’t deny it firmly like this, there was no telling what her mother might do once truly angered!
“Don’t like him?” Grandma Yu immediately burst out laughing. “You wretched girl, do you think your old mother is some three-year-old child? If you don’t like him, why do you follow him around every single day? Why do you keep sneaking off to check on him?”
“His health isn’t good, I’m worried something might happen to him, that’s all I went to check on. He’s… he’s… he’s my adopted older brother after all, the one I worked so hard to save!”
As Yu Xiaomeng spoke, her eyes grew a little moist, a little damp with tears. She was lying, in a way—though not entirely a lie either. For some reason, she always carried this strange, nagging unease, a sense that Xuanyuan’s health seemed to be growing worse by the day, that something terrible might be about to happen.
Only, she didn’t dare say so out loud.
Ever since that unpleasant incident between them, she hadn’t even dared to approach him, hadn’t dared to initiate conversation with him at all anymore.
She was simply too afraid that Xuanyuan might come to despise her.
Perhaps she couldn’t compare to the young ladies of the Central Plains, but here in the northern desert, she too was a proud young woman—there were plenty of fine young men in the clan who courted her, pursued her, doted on her.
She had always been proud and confident of herself. Only after meeting Xuanyuan did she discover that she could actually be so afraid of a man’s disdain, that going even a single day without seeing him could leave her feeling utterly out of sorts.
She had always believed that if you liked someone, you ought to express it, to pursue it openly. But after meeting Xuanyuan, she came to understand that this quiet, undisturbing distance could be its own form of affection—and, without even realizing it, that was exactly what she had been doing all along.
“He’s nothing but a walking medicine jar. Even after all those tonics he refused to take before, nothing’s changed—why are you fretting over him for no reason!” Grandma Yu said with displeasure. Having found no hope where Xuanyuan Lige was concerned, she naturally shifted her focus elsewhere—after all, what she wanted most was to see her daughter marry well.
Yu Xiaomeng didn’t want to hear any more of this. She pulled her arm free and turned to leave.
“Stand right there! Where do you think you’re going, if not home?” Grandma Yu demanded loudly.
“Up the mountain!” Yu Xiaomeng snapped back. She had known for a long time that Xuanyuan was searching for wood to make a qin, and had quietly gone and asked the clan scholar, quietly gone through what few books the clan possessed, until at last she’d learned which types of wood were suitable for making a qin!
The finest wood to be found in the northern desert had to be purple sandalwood—she knew there were a few small-leaf purple sandalwood trees deep in the mountains to the west, among the very finest specimens of that wood.
The quiet, ancient stillness of this sandalwood was something no other wood could match—and it happened to be perfectly suited for making a qin as well!
These few trees were hidden deep in the mountains. Though she had seen them once before, they weren’t easy to find again. She had already made up her mind—once the bonfire feast was over, she would head up the mountain to search for them, and bring the sandalwood back as soon as she could, as a surprise for Xuanyuan.
At the mention of “up the mountain,” Grandma Yu grew furious. “Have you lost your mind? Going up the mountain at a time like this? Don’t you know the mountains are covered in snow right now? What are you going up there for?”
“Hunting! A few of us made plans to head up the mountain tonight, to catch a purple sable to present to the clan chief!” Yu Xiaomeng said with a bright smile.
Grandma Yu was still suspicious, but by then the girl had already darted off in a flash!
“Hey, be careful up there! Your mother will have rice cakes waiting for you when you get back!” Grandma Yu called after her hastily. As long as it wasn’t for Xuanyuan Lige’s sake, she was still willing to allow it.
Once the northern desert’s grand feast had passed, it marked the beginning of the new year for the northern desert, and the arrival of winter in the north.
In years past, this feast would always continue until broad daylight, but this year it had ended early, because the Nangong clan had sent only a few of their young masters to attend—Nangong Feihong, the clan head, had not attended in person.
It was for no other reason than that Madam Situ, the clan head’s eldest daughter, Nangong Mei, had brought terrible news with her—and at the very same time, news had come from the Xijing battlefield that none of them were willing to accept!
“Leading the army into battle personally! Wonderful! What a fine son I have!”
Madam Situ had only just arrived at the Nangong estate when the scouts immediately brought the latest news: the Emperor of Xijing had proclaimed to the world that he would join forces with Da Zhou to resist Xiliang’s savage invasion, with Nangong Haonan personally leading the campaign.
The moment he heard this news, even the clan head, Nangong, took a long moment to recover. “Ha, since when did Haonan become one of Da Zhou’s own?”
“Father, he wants to marry Yelu Qianqian—how is that even possible? Unless he marries in as a live-in husband, would the Xijing royal family ever let him go?” Madam Situ demanded, gasping with fury.
“Someone, bring the young lady some tea.” Nangong, true to his role as head of the household, remained perfectly composed.
“Father, I want to immediately reclaim the authority over his three western-border estates—let’s see what he plans to use to lead a campaign then!” Madam Situ was in no state to sit still and drink tea.
The purpose of this visit was precisely to reclaim every last bit of power currently in Situ Haonan’s hands, to rein him in completely!
And as it happened, all of that power had originally been granted to him only because of the clan head’s own indulgence, pressuring Situ City into ceding authority to Situ Haonan in the first place. Situ Haonan even held no small amount of influence at the western border, secretly granted to him by the clan head himself—something no one else knew, but Madam Situ certainly did.
The clan head gave Madam Situ a meaningful look but didn’t answer right away.
Madam Situ immediately continued, “Father, and another thing—I want to use your name to rally our fellow practitioners in the martial world to denounce him! Pull him off that battlefield! He’s broken the rules of the martial world!”