Night fell, and Jing Zhe sat alone on the edge of the bed in the main room of the post station, recalling the recent events with a dazed expression.

Earlier, the Princess had been very concerned as she pulled her to sit down and asked if she had hit her head when she was injured before. Naturally, she could confidently affirm that she had not.

Later, when the military physician came in to check her pulse, the Princess asked him if there was any possibility of memory loss if she hadn’t injured her head.

The physician said there was one possibility—that after her injury to her tendons and bones, she had taken too much medicine to alleviate the pain. As medicine could be toxic, this might have left some hidden ailment.

…Was that so? Could she have consumed so much medicine that her mind became unclear, causing her to lose some memories? But apart from matters concerning the Princess and Young General Shen, she remembered everything else perfectly clearly.

The Princess said that her private affair with Young General Shen was known only to her and her maid. Was this a case of a rope breaking at its thinnest point—only she knew the secret, and now she had forgotten it, with no one able to confirm it?

With a click, the door opened, and Gu Yu, having finished helping Jiang Zhiyi bathe, supported her as she walked out of the bathing room.

Jing Zhe quickly stood up from the small stool, feeling deeply ashamed. “Princess, your servant has been like a guest here today, not even attending to you…”

Jiang Zhiyi waved her hand dismissively. “Gu Yu is here, so don’t worry about it. Didn’t you hear what Physician Li said? You might have a lingering ailment—rest well.”

“Princess, is this Physician Li truly so skilled? Could he have misdiagnosed?”

“Of course. Last year, when I sprained my ankle, he determined just from checking my pulse that I had blood stasis and even discerned that I had consumed alcohol a few days prior. He is the most reliable physician.”

Could that be true? With her mind in turmoil, Jing Zhe helped Gu Yu assist Jiang Zhiyi to lie down on the bed, covered her with a quilt, tucked in the corners, and asked, “Then besides your servant, does anyone else know about your past with Young General Shen?”

Seeing how difficult it was for her to accept her memory loss, Jiang Zhiyi thought for a moment and understood—after all, a person might doubt anything, but what they never doubt is their memory.

“Not just you—my aunt also knows. You don’t remember, but back then, my aunt went to great lengths to sabotage my relationship with Brother A-Ce. At that time, Brother A-Ce and I were sending messages by carrier pigeons, but my aunt had someone shoot the pigeons dead. When we sent a servant boy to deliver messages and gifts to Brother A-Ce, the boy followed my aunt’s orders, took the gifts and the silver, and ran away. And once, when I took a carriage to meet Brother A-Ce privately, just as I was leaving the mansion and stepping on the sedan stool, it collapsed, and I sprained my foot…”

As Jiang Zhiyi reminisced, detailing each incident, Jing Zhe’s expression changed from confusion to gradual hesitation. “Princess, I think I have some impression of these things…”

“You see? Look at you—as soon as I mention it, you remember.”

With wide eyes, Jing Zhe nervously swallowed and said, “Princess, did your aunt also… steal your new clothes from the tailor’s shop, and put half a dead rat in the gift box that Young General Shen gave you?”

Jiang Zhiyi’s eyes lit up with delight. “You’ve remembered it all!”

Jing Zhe felt dizzy as she looked into Jiang Zhiyi’s confident eyes.

Yes, she remembered now. She hadn’t forgotten at all. These things were all stories from a novel scroll that the Princess had read four months ago…

“What’s wrong?” Jiang Zhiyi blinked.

“Princess, I’ll go… go think about this matter…”

“It’s fine if you can’t remember. Brother A-Ce and I have finally achieved our happiness now. These trivial matters from the past aren’t important anymore. Rest early—we need to continue our journey tomorrow morning.”

Jing Zhe retreated in a daze. When she reached the outer room, she stood still for a moment, then slowly slid down against the wall and began to recall…

Four months ago, to break her aunt’s malicious prescription, the Princess had repeatedly read that novel scroll in her warm chamber—that “Tale of Yi Yi,” where the male protagonist’s story was quite similar to Young General Shen’s, and the female protagonist’s background resembled the Princess’s.

After breaking the prescription, guided by a wandering Taoist’s advice, the Princess went to the Taiqing Temple to fulfill a vow. Halfway there, she woke up startled from a dream in the carriage, calling out “Brother A-Ce,” as if she had dreamed she was Yi Yi from the story.

Later, when bandits suddenly attacked, during the fighting, the carriage fell apart, and the Princess’s head hit the carriage wall…

Trembling, Jing Zhe covered her mouth with her hand.

…The person who had lost her memory wasn’t her—it was the Princess!

The Princess had projected the story of the novel’s protagonists onto herself and Young General Shen…

Jing Zhe suddenly stood up and walked toward the inner room. After just a few steps, she encountered Gu Yu coming out, who made a hushing gesture to her.

Gu Yu said, “Sister Jing Zhe, the Princess has been too tired from traveling recently and fell asleep as soon as her head touched the pillow.”

Looking at Jiang Zhiyi’s sleeping face from a distance, Jing Zhe’s thoughts were in chaos as she contemplated this absurd situation, her brow furrowing with worry.

At the first light of dawn the next day, low sobbing suddenly came from the inner room of the main chamber.

Jing Zhe, who had not slept all night, hurriedly entered upon hearing the sound. When she reached the bedside, she found Jiang Zhiyi crying in her sleep, her eyes still closed.

Jing Zhe quickly bent down and gently patted Jiang Zhiyi’s shoulder. “Princess, Princess?”

Jiang Zhiyi frowned and slowly opened her teary eyes. When she recognized who was before her, she cried out, “Jing Zhe—”

“I’m here, Princess. Did you have a nightmare?”

Jiang Zhiyi’s tears paused as she sniffled hesitantly and looked around. “…Was I just dreaming?”

“Yes, Princess, don’t be afraid. There are no bad people here…” Jing Zhe tucked a handkerchief to wipe her face.

“I didn’t dream about bad people…” Long lashes heavy with teardrops, Jiang Zhiyi seemed not yet recovered from her sorrowful dream. “I dreamed… dreamed that what you said was true, that Brother A-Ce and I never had any private affection in the past. It would be one thing if he didn’t like me, but he even scared me with crickets… This is the second time I’ve had this dream…”

Jing Zhe paused in wiping her tears, her gaze flickering as she withdrew the handkerchief. Sitting on the edge of the bed, she took a deep breath. “Princess, have you considered that you’re having this dream because these things happened? That in reality, you and Young General Shen…”

“What is it?” A male voice suddenly sounded from behind, as Shen Yuance crossed the threshold and entered.

Jing Zhe’s back stiffened, and she stopped mid-sentence.

Hearing the voice, Jiang Zhiyi turned her head and immediately sat up in bed, extending her arms toward Shen Yuance. “Brother A-Ce—”

Shen Yuance stepped forward, edging the maid at the bedside aside, embraced Jiang Zhiyi, and cast a piercing glance upward at Jing Zhe, who had been forced to stand back.

It was just one look, but it felt like a sharp sword aimed at her heart. Jing Zhe froze in place, her hair standing on end, feeling chilled to the bone.

However, in the next moment, his gaze shifted away with ease, lowering to look tenderly at the person in his arms. “Had another nightmare?”

Jiang Zhiyi clung to Shen Yuance’s waist, pouting as she nodded.

“I’ve told you before, dreams are always the opposite of reality.”

“…Then why did I have this dream again?”

“Last time, the Marquis opposed our engagement, and you feared it wouldn’t happen, so you had wild thoughts. This time—” Shen Yuance glanced at Jing Zhe, “—your maid has been whispering nonsense in your ear. You think about it during the day and dream about it at night. What’s strange about that?”

With a nasal voice, Jiang Zhiyi asked, “So it’s just a dream, not real, right?”

“Of course.”

Jing Zhe stared at Shen Yuance, her hand hidden in her sleeve, clenched into a fist.

This Shen Yuance knew everything, absolutely everything, yet he deceived the Princess like this. Not content with just securing the engagement, he had even lured the Princess thousands of miles away to the frontier…

Shen Yuance looked down at the person in his arms and asked, “Having this dream, were you very upset?”

Jiang Zhiyi wiped away her tears. “Do you even need to ask?”

“Then do you—do you like being with me now? Do you like the current me?”

“Of course I do… why else would I come to Hexi with you?”

Looking at Jing Zhe, Shen Yuance continued speaking to Jiang Zhiyi: “Then just be happy like this. Don’t think about things that make you sad.”

Jing Zhe’s gaze faltered.

“You can leave now.” Shen Yuance raised his chin toward Jing Zhe.

Jiang Zhiyi raised her eyes and looked at the hesitant Jing Zhe. “It’s fine, I just need to talk with Brother A-Ce. You don’t need to worry.”

After standing rigid for a moment, Jing Zhe bit her lip, nodded, and withdrew.

With only the two of them left in the room, after a moment of silence, Shen Yuance suddenly said, seemingly out of nowhere: “Jiang Zhiyi, you said, your father chose your imperial uncle over you, your mother chose your father over you. I’ve never been chosen either.”

Jiang Zhiyi raised her head curiously. “Hmm?”

Shen Yuance lowered his head and looked into her eyes. “If you choose me once, I will treat you well.”

“Haven’t I already chosen you?”

“I’m talking about the future.”

“Was it you or I who had a nightmare? Why aren’t you comforting me, but instead I’m comforting you?” Jiang Zhiyi frowned. “Rest assured, be a hundred times assured, I’ll choose you in the future too, always choose you!”

“Good.”

After holding her for a while, Shen Yuance let Gu Yu come to attend to Jiang Zhiyi’s washing and dressing, then stood up and walked out.

The moment he stepped out of the room, a flash of blade light appeared before him—an unsheathed dagger thrust straight at his face.

Shen Yuance leaned backward, spinning to avoid the blade’s edge, while kicking the door behind him shut.

Jing Zhe, gritting her teeth, fiercely swept her dagger at him again. Shen Yuance sidestepped once more, keeping his hands behind his back.

Attacking relentlessly again and again, Jing Zhe grew more determined. Shen Yuance kept retreating and dodging, his hands remaining behind his back, never raising a finger.

Even so, she couldn’t harm him in the slightest.

After countless thrusts, Jing Zhe gasped for breath, her strength failing. She pointed the dagger tip at him and glared with clenched teeth. “What exactly are your intentions toward the Princess?!”

Shen Yuance glanced at the dagger tip beneath his chin and lifted his eyelids. “A mere maid like you, able to travel alive from Chang’an to Hexi, and still daring to point a dagger at me right now—what do you think my intentions are toward her?”

The hand holding the dagger trembled slightly.

Shen Yuance raised two fingers, caught the blade, and pushed it away. “I thought I’d made myself clear earlier. She wants a beautiful dream, and I’m accompanying her in this dream. It’s a win-win situation—why must you wake her up?”

Jing Zhe blinked, momentarily lost, hesitating to act further.

With a creak, a door in the distance was suddenly pushed open from inside.

Jing Zhe quickly hid the dagger behind her, turned around, and looked toward Jiang Zhiyi stepping out of the room.

Jiang Zhiyi smiled and waved to them both. “I’m ready. Let’s set off!”

Jing Zhe stood silently in place, watching as Shen Yuance went forward to take Jiang Zhiyi’s hand and led her out of the post station. Her expression gradually darkened, doubt filling her eyes.

With two days of journey remaining and one more post station to stop at, perhaps Jing Zhe’s arrival had disrupted this trip. That day, the carriage traveled day and night without rest, heading straight for Guzang City.

It was Jiang Zhiyi’s first time sleeping in a carriage, and despite having her two accustomed personal maids at her side, she still couldn’t fall asleep for a long time. Every bump woke her, and it was only near dawn that she finally succumbed to exhaustion and fell into a deep sleep.

When the group entered the city, it was during the hour of the morning market opening. The streets outside the carriage were bustling with noise, but it didn’t wake her.

When Jiang Zhiyi finally felt herself settling into soft bedding, she opened her eyes to see a familiar nanmu wood-framed bed. Golden gauze curtains swayed before her, and overhead was an elaborately carved and painted canopy.

“Huh?” Jiang Zhiyi blinked in surprise, turning to look at Shen Yuance sitting beside the bed. “What dream am I having now? How did I suddenly return to Chang’an?”

“Look more carefully. This isn’t Chang’an—it’s Guzang.” Shen Yuance gestured with his chin.

Jiang Zhiyi looked around and realized that although the furnishings and arrangements were similar to her Yaoguang Pavilion bedchamber, the roof structure and the shape of the room were different, as was the scenery outside the window.

Shen Yuance said, “It’s only been two months since you agreed to come. I only had time to modify these things. If there’s anything else you want, we can add it gradually.”

Jiang Zhiyi sat up and looked around the room, discovering that a water wheel had also been installed. When it turned, it added moisture to the air, preventing her face from hurting due to the dry climate of this region. She had almost forgotten when she had mentioned these things to him.

Not far away, on a table, sat a whole row of lacquer trays displaying clothes and jewelry in the Western Regions style. Even to her eyes, which had seen the world’s treasures, they appeared to be superior quality items.

On the dressing table were many exquisite bottles and jars—some were her usual rouges, powders, perfumed ointments, and fragrances, while others she didn’t recognize, possibly local specialties from Guzang.

So during the first month, when he was busy with the engagement, his frequent visits to her Yaoguang Pavilion bedchamber had been to prepare all these things.

Jiang Zhiyi looked amazed. “Enough, enough… You’ve already given plenty in your betrothal gifts. I’m afraid if you spend any more money, you’ll have nothing left for your next meal.”

“…” Fortunately, he had sold some of the property left by his father and brother, and it was barely sufficient.

Jiang Zhiyi suddenly remembered something. “Wait, so this is the Shen Mansion in Guzang? I’ve already entered the city?”

Shen Yuance nodded.

“Didn’t you promise to show me around Guzang City properly? Did I sleep through the entire entry into the city?”

“What’s the rush? Now that you’re here, there’s plenty of time.” Shen Yuance pulled up the quilt, making her lie back down. “You didn’t sleep all night. Rest first. I’ve just returned and have many matters to attend to. I’ll take you out tonight.”

Jiang Zhiyi nodded contentedly. The drowsiness that had partially subsided returned, and before long, under the maids’ care, she fell asleep.

Jing Zhe sat at the edge of the bed, looking at this elaborately prepared golden chamber and Jiang Zhiyi’s face, smiling even in sleep, and sighed with difficulty.

As lanterns began to light up, the streets of Guzang City filled with people. The night market’s lights illuminated the entire street as bright as day.

Lively music rose and fell around them. Men and women of all ages dressed in Western Regions attire moved through the crowd. Roadside stalls selling goods and food, magicians performing tricks, and acrobats displaying their skills—each stall was surrounded by people, and everywhere one looked, there were novel sights to behold.

On the ornate, colorfully painted pavilions with upturned eaves lining the street, bare-bellied dancing girls jingled and jangled as they performed whirling dances. Young men and women leaned against railings, holding silver wine vessels, drinking and singing.

“Sister Jing Zhe, I never imagined Guzang City would be so lively and prosperous. This night market is no less impressive than Chang’an’s!” Gu Yu exclaimed as she walked along the street. Turning her head, she noticed Jing Zhe’s preoccupied expression. “Is Sister Jing Zhe tired from walking?”

Jing Zhe shook her head, gazing silently ahead.

Not far ahead, Jiang Zhiyi wore a gold-embroidered red dress, her black hair braided, with a kingfisher feather ornament on her forehead, a lapis lazuli necklace around her neck, and pearl tassels hanging from her waist. The colorful jewels adorning her made her appear bright and beautiful, like a celestial butterfly that had flown into the mortal world.

Beside her, Shen Yuance was dressed unusually lightly in a white gold-embroidered robe with a turned-down collar, cinched at the waist with a gold-jade leather belt. His straight back and half-loosened black hair made them look truly like a divine couple.

Having followed the Princess since childhood, no one understood her better than Jing Zhe. From her observations over the past two days, she noticed that in front of Shen Yuance, the Princess seemed to have returned to her childhood before her family troubles—carefree as a child, laughing when she wanted to laugh, crying when she wanted to cry, showing anger when she wanted to be angry. Even with her thorns, she remained soft.

Over the years, having seen the Princess maintain her dignity and keep a distance from others in social interactions, it had been a long time since Jing Zhe had witnessed the Princess expressing her emotions so openly on her face and trusting someone completely.

Should this beautiful dream remain unbroken?

“I want to look at every stall, but how can we see them all? Guzang’s city that never sleeps could truly be explored for an entire night!” Jiang Zhiyi held onto Shen Yuance’s arm, and amid the noise, she had to raise her voice to speak with him. “Have you ever explored this place before? Do you know which parts are the most interesting?”

Shen Yuance shook his head. “This is also my first time walking openly here.”

“First time?” Jiang Zhiyi was surprised for a moment. “Oh, you’ve been fighting for the past three years, so you probably didn’t have the opportunity…”

He hadn’t had the opportunity for the past nineteen years.

Shen Yuance answered her in his heart while watching their surroundings, occasionally pulling her closer when the crowd surged.

Jiang Zhiyi joined in the excitement everywhere, stopping frequently along the way. When they reached a stall selling grass-woven ornaments, she paused with great interest, looking at a rabbit being woven by the vendor: “How can grass be woven so vividly? I want this one!”

The elderly woman vendor continued her nimble weaving and looked up with a smile, saying a few words in the local dialect that Jiang Zhiyi couldn’t understand.

Shen Yuance explained, “She says it will be finished soon, just wait a bit.”

Jiang Zhiyi nodded and crouched down to look at the other grass-woven items on the ground. She noticed two children, about six or seven years old, playing nearby, seemingly the grandchildren of the stall owner.

Their heads close together, each held a thin grass stem, poking at something on the ground, engaged in what appeared to be an intense contest.

Unable to see clearly what was in the shadows, Jiang Zhiyi turned to ask Shen Yuance, who had crouched down beside her: “What are they playing?”

“They’re fighting with grass-woven…”

Halfway through his explanation, Shen Yuance remembered something, his expression changing. He was about to pull Jiang Zhiyi away—

A lifelike grass-woven cricket was flicked up by a grass stem, landing on Jiang Zhiyi’s dress.

Jiang Zhiyi stared blankly, looking down at the plump, grotesquely patterned, long-whiskered brownish-black insect on her clothes, too shocked even to scream.

In the next instant, Shen Yuance pulled her to her feet.

Though Jiang Zhiyi was standing, the image of the cricket seemed to linger before her eyes.

Similarly, nauseating memories resembling this scene crashed into her mind like a collapsing pavilion. Jiang Zhiyi’s stomach suddenly churned, nausea rising to her throat. Amid overwhelming sickness, her vision darkened, and she fainted.