Jiang Hanyuan arrived at Yunluo.

Yunluo was not a large place—a small city nestled beneath snow-capped mountains, with no more than a few thousand households. It was so peaceful here. No matter where one stood, simply by lifting one’s eyes, one could see that distant mountain to the south of the city, its peak crowned with perpetual white snow stretching across the continuous mountain range. On clear days, the surface of the lake at the mountain’s base resembled a mirror, clearly reflecting the beautiful faces of Yunluo’s daughters, lovely as flowers.

Over twenty years ago, taking advantage of the chaos and warfare among the various states in the Central Plains, the Beidi had tasted the sweetness of seizing the states of Shuo, Heng, and Yan from the Jin Kingdom. Having savored the marrow, they turned their gaze to the western passes of the Great Wei, attempting to gain tributary rights over the cities in this region, and from there use it as a springboard to blockade Wei’s western passes. At that time, Yunluo, positioned at this strategic crossroads, bore the brunt of the assault.

Jiang Hanyuan’s maternal grandfather had led the entire nation’s two thousand warriors in valiant resistance while simultaneously sending requests for aid to their suzerain state, the Great Wei. At that time, Emperor Wu was too preoccupied with other matters to attend to the northern borders, but he could not tolerate such blatant provocation. He dispatched troops northward to assist Yunluo and repel the Beidi invasion.

The general Emperor Wu sent Jiang Zuwang. Born into a military family, he possessed exceptional military talent. By age eighteen, he had already distinguished himself repeatedly in Emperor Wu’s campaigns, earning a renowned reputation. Like many other sons of the founding noble families from distinguished houses, he was young and hot-blooded, burning with excitement for Emperor Wu’s grand enterprise of conquering the nine provinces. He dreamed of rising even higher, leaving his glorious mark in history and having his name remembered for all ages.

This young general from the Great Wei—handsome, brave, and spirited—attracted the gaze of countless daughters of Yunluo. He fell in love with Yunluo’s most beautiful daughter, Lady Yan, married her, and brought her back to the capital.

The beginning of the story was always beautiful. The young couple was deeply in love, and though they were often separated, they still spent happy days together. Several years later, Lady Yan bore an adorable daughter, fair as jade and snow. She hoped the warfare would end soon, so her husband would no longer need to leave home for campaigns, so she gave her daughter a name expressing this wish: Xixi. The xi was a legendary ancient divine beast—when it appeared, the world would know great peace and stability.

The capital’s prosperity far exceeded that of Yunluo, but Lady Yan gradually began to miss her distant homeland by the snowy mountains and the lake. It happened to be the old city lord’s birthday, and Jiang Zuwang had also returned to Chang’an. He requested leave from the court to personally escort her back. Thus, the couple set out on this journey home with their infant daughter still in swaddling clothes.

Everything had proceeded very smoothly. After a long journey, in just a few more days, they would reach Yunluo. But on this day, people suddenly caught up from behind, bringing news that the newly widowed Eldest Princess Nankang had left the capital for her fief, but for some unknown reason had changed course midway. By such coincidence, she was also heading in this direction. Her imperial carriage was now stopped at Wucheng behind them, and she commanded Jiang Zuwang to come for an audience, claiming she had urgent matters to discuss.

Seven days earlier, the couple had passed through that place called Wucheng.

Princess Nankang was the daughter of the founding emperor. It was said that when she was born, an elk passed by the outskirts of the capital, and diviners proclaimed this an auspicious omen. Indeed, not long after, a small state came to pledge allegiance. The founding emperor thus favored this daughter greatly, especially by building Elk Garden for her and selecting a worthy husband for her to marry. After Emperor Wu ascended the throne, he enfeoffed her as Eldest Princess and granted her every request. At that time in the capital, Eldest Princess Nankang’s power covered the sky, and Elk Garden was a place everyone flocked to.

When the Eldest Princess suddenly appeared in this place and summoned her husband for an audience, Lady Yan naturally understood the reason. Previously in the capital, the newly widowed Eldest Princess had frequently shown favor toward him.

Jiang Zuwang was extremely unwilling, but fearing her status and authority, he ultimately dared not disobey.

Not far ahead from where the couple was located at that time was a city called Chang Le, which had maintained friendly relations with Yunluo for generations, watching over each other. Jiang Zuwang had no choice but to send his wife and daughter to Chang Le, instructing Lady Yan to wait peacefully for his return, then hurriedly turned back toward Wucheng.

He did not know that from the moment he made the decision to turn back, disaster had descended upon him, forever changing the fate of his life.

The old king of Chang Le had died, and the new king who succeeded him had been swayed by secret envoys from the Beidi, becoming tempted by the prospect of expanding his power in the future. Several months earlier, he had begun secret communications with them. When such an opportunity presented itself, they plotted to act under the cover of night and hand the people over to the Beidi. Fortunately, the plan was discovered by someone who had old ties with Yunluo’s old city lord. That person informed Lady Yan, who removed her fine clothes, disguised herself, and quietly left with her daughter, slipping out of the city. But luck did not continue—they had not fled far before pursuers caught up.

The accompanying guards grew fewer and fewer, until finally only Lady Yan remained, holding her swaddling infant daughter, retreating to the edge of a cliff with no further path of escape.

Below the cliff lay jagged rocks and a deep abyss.

Lady Yan was fierce by nature—she would not fall into Beidi’s hands, nor would she allow herself to become a tool to coerce her loved ones.

She removed her thick outer garments and wrapped them layer upon layer tightly around her beloved daughter in the swaddling cloth. In the last moment of her life, she prayed to the sacred spirits of the snowy mountains to protect her daughter. Then, using all her remaining strength, she hurled her daughter far toward a dense forest with thick branches below the cliff, before leaping down herself.

When Jiang Zuwang returned, it was already more than half a month later. Lady Yan was found at the bottom of the cliff, her body naturally shattered into pieces. Not only that, but her remains had been successively gnawed and carried away by wild beasts. Only a few remnant corners of clothing and scattered bone fragments remained in the vicinity—the sight was too horrible to behold. The infant was also nowhere to be found. Only some scattered wolf tracks and a swaddling cloth that had fallen in the distance were discovered in the nearby dense forest. Everyone believed she had been eaten by wolves, leaving no trace of her remains. Unexpectedly, several months later, she was discovered still miraculously alive, found in a lone wolf’s den in a wilderness dozens of li away.

She was discovered by accident when a hunter was tracking wolf tracks. It was said that at the time, she was covered in filth, sleeping beside a mother wolf. When Jiang Zuwang heard the news and rushed there, he recognized his daughter only by her birthmark. After the mother wolf was driven away and she was forcibly taken, that mother wolf still refused to leave for a long time, following from afar. Jiang Zuwang ordered that it not be harmed, so it followed for a long distance. Finally, perhaps understanding that it could not reclaim her, it departed with mournful howls.

As for that day when the newly widowed Eldest Princess had summoned Jiang Zuwang, the so-called “urgent matter” was reportedly that she had encountered wild beasts on the road the day before, causing the princess to fall ill from fright and suffer sleepless nights, requiring this brave general of the Great Wei to escort her on the journey.

Jiang Zuwang vomited blood and fell gravely ill. Later, after he recovered, Emperor Wu granted him marriage to Eldest Princess Nankang as compensation. Jiang Zuwang refused the marriage, citing his oath to his deceased wife never to remarry in this lifetime. Emperor Wu did not force the matter further, instead arranging another suitable husband for the Eldest Princess, and the matter was considered closed.

Later still, when his former companions achieved their dreams and distinguished themselves with brilliant accomplishments in Emperor Wu’s wars to unify the nine provinces, he requested to come to the northern frontier for garrison duty. With wind and sand as his companions, he spent twenty years there, never again setting foot in the capital.

This was the outcome of the story.

Last year, Jiang Hanyuan’s grandfather, who had defended this small mountain city time and again throughout his entire life, completed his life’s journey and passed away. Her uncle Yan Zhong became the city lord. He was a man with a fierce temper and a booming voice, inheriting the generations of bravery and loyalty of the Yan clan. He was especially proud of Jiang Hanyuan, and upon learning of her arrival, personally went out of the city to meet her that very day.

When people near the city gates saw her, they all stopped what they were doing and flocked from all directions, vying to pay their respects to her.

Her strange childhood experiences might seem to others like an ominous incarnation or terrifying symbol, but in the eyes of Yunluo’s people, she was a divine maiden blessed by the spirits.

Indeed, if it were not so, how could an infant in swaddling clothes have survived, and how could she have become such a fierce general who made enemies gnash their teeth in hatred today?

Seeing this scene, her uncle laughed heartily, raising his whip to point at the citizens welcoming his niece. “Xixi, look! Our people of Yunluo respect brave warriors! They honor you even more than me, their uncle! Everyone hopes you can stay forever! This is your home!”

Jiang Hanyuan smiled and thanked the citizens, then spurred her horse into the city amid the surrounding enthusiastic cheers.

Qingmu Sai was geographically important, but after Wei recaptured it, the Southern King Chi Shu had personally stationed himself in Youyan and other regions because of that defeat. Last year, when her grandfather passed away, Jiang Hanyuan was leading troops in a campaign against Beidi forces attempting to retake Qingmu Sai and could not return in time. Therefore, this year for Memorial Day, she had planned to come early, but unexpected complications arose in between, and only today had she finally been able to make the journey.

Yan Zhong prepared to personally take her to the memorial ceremony.

“Uncle, let me go alone. I couldn’t make it last year, and this year I’ve missed the proper day. I want to spend a few days alone with my grandfather.”

Yan Zhong knew she had deep feelings for her grandfather, so he did not insist on accompanying her and nodded in agreement.

The old city lord’s resting place was located in a valley outside the city. This was also the ancestral burial ground of the Yan clan for generations. On clear days, from the valley entrance, one could see the opposite snowy mountains and Mirror Lake.

Jiang Hanyuan lived alone in a crude grass hut, sleeping on the ground, keeping company with her grandfather and her mother, whose appearance she could not remember. But she knew her mother had truly existed—here was her tomb, burying those few fragments of cloth and scattered bones. She should have had the fragrance of orchids, warm skin, and a gentle voice. She was the most beautiful woman at the foot of the snowy mountains. The mirror lake preserved the reflection of that beautiful face.

Yes, Jiang Hanyuan could see all of this, just as she could always see in her dreams that mother wolf who had once nursed her.

An infant wrapped in layers of swaddling clothes, carrying all her mother’s blessings, passed through a canopy of lush treetops. When falling, she caught on a tangle of vines and hung suspended in the air. So small, all alone, for a full day and night. She cried incessantly from hunger. Her memory told her that whenever she cried like this, a gentle person with a pleasant fragrance would hold her close, letting her mouth touch that warm, soft breast, and sweet milk would feed and satisfy her. But this time, that person never came again. Finally, she struggled, using her tiny hands and feet to break free from the swaddling clothes, falling from the treetop and landing in the thick undergrowth below. This was her first time facing the world alone, searching everywhere for that woman. She cried until her voice was hoarse and broken, until she could crawl no more and was on the verge of death, when a mother wolf came.

It was a young mother wolf experiencing motherhood for the first time. Unfortunately, when she returned from foraging, she discovered her wolf cubs were gone, with only a pool of blood remaining in the den. The mother wolf who had lost her cubs was both sad and angry, the pain of swollen milk making her even more agitated. She searched everywhere for her children, breaking into this place and discovering a human infant on the ground. She pounced, her sharp claws piercing deeply into the tender skin of the infant’s back. Just as she lowered her head to bite the infant’s neck, the human child caught the scent of milk continuously dripping from the teats beneath the mother wolf’s belly. That was the scent of mother. Driven by hunger and a powerful survival instinct, she forgot the pain from her back, opened her mouth wide, bit down firmly, and sucked with all her strength, swallowing in great gulps. The sudden pleasure of milk flowing freely made the mother wolf cease her desire to tear and bite. She gazed down at the human infant beneath her, who was drinking her milk, the fierce light in her eyes gradually fading. She stood quietly, allowing this cub to nurse from her. When the infant finally ate her fill and fell asleep with closed eyes, the wolf licked away the blood from the wounds she had just clawed on the infant’s back, picked her up in her mouth, and dragged her away…

The dream shifted, and Jiang Hanyuan saw a beautiful woman tightly holding the infant in her arms, fleeing in panic, disheveled and desperate. Finally, she reached the end of the road, standing atop a cliff as her pursuers closed in.

Stop. Don’t continue the dream—she didn’t want to dream further. The Jiang Hanyuan in the dream told herself this, struggling to wake up. But each time, the dream was so deep, pulling her in. She was like someone caught in a whirlpool, unable to break free.

“You killed Aunt! That’s what they said! Aunt had already hidden, the bad people had already passed, but you started crying! You killed Aunt!”

A four or five-year-old boy wailed heartbrokenly, shouting at Jiang Hanyuan with his shrill voice.

He could not understand why his grandfather and father treated this older sister, who had taken several years to begin speaking after her arrival, better than they treated him.

Stop. Don’t continue the dream!

The Jiang Hanyuan in the dream again forced herself to wake up. But the dream still would not end.

Jiang Hanyuan saw again that familiar Iron Sword Cliff outside the Xixing Pass military camp. She stood at its peak, leaping down into the wind just as she had done so many times before. The pool of water below the cliff had once again turned to jagged rocks in her dream. Once more, she crashed heavily upon them. Blood sprayed like red silk, her body shattered, and every part of her limbs, bones, and soul’s depths was filled with extreme pain.

That gentle, beautiful woman must have felt exactly this way in the moment of her death.

How agonizing it must have been for her.

The blood grew more and more abundant, until at last she could no longer distinguish whether it was that woman’s blood, the blood of fallen comrades in battle, or blood shooting from enemies’ necks after their heads were severed by a single blade stroke. Only a sky full of blood rain remained, drenching her from head to toe, turning her into a person of blood.

That thick, fishy smell penetrated deeply into every pore of her skin, never to dissipate, never to fade away.

Her body convulsed, curling tightly into a ball, rigid as a frozen stone in ice and snow.

Must not cry. The self in the dream reminded her again.

From the moment she learned it was her crying that had killed that woman, she had sworn never to cry again.

Mount the horse, draw the strongest bow, grasp the firmest blade!

Only thus could she protect all those who needed her protection!

Jiang Hanyuan’s tightly closed eyelids suddenly moved. Before even opening her eyes, she reflexively drew the knife from her body, suddenly sitting upright from that nightmare she had repeated countless times since childhood.

“Sister! Wake up!”

“It’s me.”

The evening light was dim. A thin young man stood several steps away, and seeing her reaction, stepped back slightly.

“Father sent me to ask my sister to return.”

Yan Cheng looked at those bloodshot, murderous eyes before him and spoke carefully.

It was her younger brother who had come.

The killing intent in Jiang Hanyuan’s eyes receded, and she looked around somewhat bewildered.

The sun was setting in the west. She had been leaning against her mother’s tombstone and had fallen asleep.

She closed her eyes, slowly exhaled, and sheathed her knife.

“Has news come from my father’s side?”

She asked. Her voice was hoarse and weary, like torn silk.

“Yes. General Fan has come to escort his sister.”

“He says the wedding envoys from the capital have arrived and want to take his sister away.”