Hearing these words, a flowing light seemed to flicker briefly in Huo Buyi’s eyes. Then, his expression unchanged, he flung down the curtain and resolutely turned to leave. The falling tent flap swung violently, nearly hitting Cheng Shaoshang.

Shaoshang looked toward her brother entering: “…Is he angry?”

Shaoshang suppressed a smile and shook his head, then asked: “Aren’t you going to chase after him?”

Shaoshang scratched her cheek and looked up: “In a bit.” The sweet potatoes were almost roasted through—she should at least tongs them out of the fire and pat off the ashes.

Just as she was about to turn back and continue pretending to be pitiful before the blockhead, the tent flap suddenly lifted again. Huo Buyi strode in like a gust of wind and, without a word, pulled her up and walked outside. Cheng Shaoshang sat down with a grin, ignoring the gaping blockhead beside him, while pounding his own aching thighs and considering how to write the upcoming family letter.

Shaoshang stumbled as she was pulled along, her forehead nearly bumping into Huo Buyi’s arm several times. The guards and soldiers scattered here and there outside, seeing the two of them, hopped away to a distance as if avoiding some mountain demon. Fu Deng did want to come help his young lady, but before he could approach, Liang Qiu Fei grabbed his arm and dragged him away.

Further in the distance, Huo Buyi’s forces had already taken over all camp matters. Several physicians sat under a simple awning treating wounded soldiers. A group of stout-figured mess cooks either clutched lively hopping chickens and ducks, or set up roasting frames and buried rice pots. Others covered their mouths and noses while disposing of corpses…

Shaoshang tried desperately to shake free. The man’s palm was like cast steel—utterly immovable.

“I’m not going! If you’re going to kill or cut me up, just say the word!” Shaoshang was dragged into exasperation.

Hearing this, Huo Buyi made a decisive turn. Shaoshang, prepared in advance, used her other hand to brace against his chest, saying proudly: “If you have something to say, say it quickly. I’m still busy!”

“Busy with what? Busy tearfully complaining that you’re a jinx with a bitter fate?” Huo Buyi’s expression was cold.

Shaoshang felt awkward: “…Ahem, actually I I I was interrogating a criminal. I need to find out Luo Jitong’s whereabouts…!”

Huo Buyi snorted coldly: “These days interrogating criminals requires weeping and wailing?”

“It’s not weeping and wailing—this is a stratagem! A stratagem!”

“What stratagem? Begging people to take pity, and seeing as you’re born so unbearably foolish, they’ll graciously confess?” Huo Buyi was actually no longer angry, the corners of his mouth imperceptibly turning up.

Shaoshang was mortified, furious beyond control, unable to contain herself. She pushed Huo Buyi away forcefully and shouted: “Who’s unbearably foolish! You’re unbearably foolish! You were born unbearably foolish and will be unbearably foolish your whole life! What do you know? As long as that blockhead believes that Luo Jitong and I had a rift due to misunderstanding and that I have good intentions wanting to chase after her to apologize, treat her wounds, and mend our relationship, he’ll reveal Luo Jitong’s hiding place. Do you understand or not?! Without whips, branding irons, or tiger benches, without gouging eyes, cutting ears, or drilling kneecaps—cleanly and neatly extracting the information! This is the most profound ‘subduing the enemy without battle’ in military strategy, the most mysterious ‘winning without moves’ in Daoist arts… You know nothing, so what right do you have to mock me! You you… don’t you dare laugh… don’t laugh!”

Huo Buyi had already collapsed laughing against her shoulder, arms encircling the girl, burying his face in the crook of her neck with muffled laughter. The sweet, warm, familiar scent overwhelmed the blood smell on her clothes, faintly wafting into her nose. He remembered that summer year when the girl planted some unknown variety of sweet melon in the Grand Empress Dowager’s courtyard. When the melons ripened and were shared, the courtyard filled with laughter and sweet fragrance throughout the room.

He laughed joyfully while Shaoshang fell back in anger. After pushing and shoving for a long time without achieving an inch of success, as the breath he exhaled while laughing made her ears hot and neck soft, she heard him mumble indistinctly ‘if only you weren’t so amusing’…

Before she could hear clearly, Huo Buyi lifted his head and shook the brocade box he’d been holding in his hand, saying with a smile: “Hungry?”

Shaoshang said resentfully: “Not hungry!”

Huo Buyi opened the brocade box halfway: “…Really? Then I’ll take it to Shaoshang. He was just clamoring about being hungry.”

Shaoshang could already smell a rich, creamy sweet aroma, her stomach feeling even more famished.

Huo Buyi glanced sideways: “Really not eating?”

“Not eating!” She’d starve to death before eating!

Shaoshang’s angry fire and hunger fire flew together as she furiously turned to leave. Huo Buyi laughed heartily and grabbed her, like leading a flounder with puffed-out cheeks, striding toward the newly erected tent—mm, this flounder was rather likeable.

Not far away, Liang Qiu Qi stood hidden beside a tent pole, secretly watching this way. Liang Qiu Fei returned after sending Fu Deng to the physicians. Seeing this situation, he asked what was happening. Liang Qiu Qi sighed: “These years, the Young Master hasn’t laughed like this.”

Liang Qiu Fei watched the two enter the tent, his expression darkening.

Huo Buyi’s tent was the standard configuration for a campaigning commander, needing to both provide comfortable quarters and accommodate at least a dozen or so deputy generals inside for discussion. Lamps were already lit inside the tent. Pale orange light gently filled the interior. The girl sat beside the enormous table normally used for spreading out maps, chewing on pastries with gusto. Huo Buyi stood beside her pouring water and patting her back, occasionally advising her to eat slowly and not choke.

Even counting the entire world, the number of people Huo Buyi would personally serve food and drink to numbered no more than three at most: Imperial Uncle counted as one, Marquis Cui counted as one, and the third was young Miss Cheng.

“…That day, why didn’t you come find me?” Watching and watching, Huo Buyi suddenly spoke.

Shaoshang paused: “Which day?”

“The second day after Yuan Shen left the Court of Judicial Review, he came to Yong’an Palace to find you.”

Shaoshang put down the pastry in her hand without answering.

“Later I asked the palace maids. Yuan Shen spoke with you before leaving Yong’an Palace—didn’t he tell you?” Huo Buyi was referring to how he used Yuan Shen’s father’s name to ambush and kill Gongsun Xian.

Shaoshang used the back of her hand to wipe pastry crumbs from her mouth. After a long silence, Huo Buyi didn’t rush her, only waited quietly.

“…Shen told me everything.” Shaoshang said in a low voice. “For my sake, you killed Gongsun Xian and his party in place of Governor Yuan. That day I actually wanted to go find you immediately, but I held back. I hid behind a corridor pillar, secretly watching you, but just didn’t walk over.”

“Why was that?”

“I hoped that in the future, if I married you, it would only be because I wanted to marry you—not because I coveted power and influence, feared intimidation, or was grateful for your feelings toward me. Only because my heart delighted in you.”

The girl’s tone was calm, but Huo Buyi’s heart surged listening to it, as if traveling through endless ice and snow, enduring countless hardships, finally arriving at a warm and sweet oasis. His voice trembling, he said: “You—you’re not angry with me anymore?”

Shaoshang’s heart turned a hundred times, finally becoming one sentence: “How dare I be angry with you? I fear you being angry with me more than enough.”

Huo Buyi extended his long arms and pulled her into his embrace, holding her tightly.

Shaoshang was met with a full embrace of masculine scent mixed with the fresh fragrance of medicinal herbs. She involuntarily reached out to embrace him back, crying and laughing: “You still say! Who provoked Luo Jitong here? If not for my heaven-sent extraordinary talent, my bones would have been scattered long ago! At least your people followed me closely and arrived fairly timely. I’ll let this pass then!”

Huo Buyi grasped her small fist and was silent for a moment: “Actually, this time I didn’t come following you.”

“What?!” Shaoshang pushed him away forcefully.

Huo Buyi rubbed her head, saying helplessly: “I asked you to come with me—you refused. I wanted to send you a guard team—you wouldn’t accept. Not only that, you also forbade me from sending people to follow you, or else you’d never speak to me again… So I could only have people follow Luo Jitong instead. When I heard in Yan Province that Luo Jitong had disappeared from her family estate, I immediately felt something was wrong and hurried to track her down.”

Shaoshang was somewhat displeased: “…Since we’re talking about it, we might as well reason this through. You let Luo Jitong off so easily back then, causing me to nearly lose my life today. Tell me—do you still have lingering feelings for her!” Thinking of those five years they spent in the northwest, her spirits were unsettled.

Huo Buyi smiled bitterly: “This time I miscalculated. Luo Jitong saved Fei’s life, and I used her as a shield for several years, so I let her go once to settle accounts. I thought Luo Bin was a reasonable man who, upon learning his daughter had a vicious heart, would understand how to deal with it…” He paused. “When the family head fails to act decisively, it seems the Luo family truly is finished.”

“Don’t change the subject!” Shaoshang said resentfully. “You settled accounts with her, but I nearly met with disaster!”

Huo Buyi looked at her steadily for a while, then said with a smile: “With your ‘oil fire bombs,’ ordinary forces would have great difficulty harming you. Just now I examined the post-battle traces—you should still have things you didn’t reveal, right?”

“How do you know?” Shaoshang was greatly shocked. “I didn’t even tell Father and Mother in detail.”

Huo Buyi placed her on his lap to sit, saying gently: “Three years ago, you searched everywhere for a peculiar fire tinder without success, until finally purchasing it from a merchant who’d come all the way from the Western Regions.”

Shaoshang was shocked and uncertain: “That—you found that for me?” That fire tinder was used to make fuses.

“Nonsense.” Huo Buyi brought his face close, using his own nose to nuzzle the girl’s tender nose tip. “Though that thing can catch fire, it doesn’t burn with sparks and has difficulty igniting firewood and grass. What ordinary household would want it? What merchant carries such things, and who would they sell them to? And that black saltpeter that can be ground to powder—I’ve seen some people in the countryside occasionally collect it to start fires for warmth, but that quality wasn’t good. I had people dig all the way to the former Zhao territories to find suitable material.”

Shaoshang covered her nose, her heart aching softly. She said stuffily: “So you’ve been watching me all along.”

“…I didn’t know when I could return. I wanted to let you properly marry someone else and be done with it. I would secretly protect you for life.” Huo Buyi’s voice gradually lowered.

Thinking of his despair and loneliness at that time, Shaoshang felt a hidden pain in her heart. Holding back tears, she teased: “That idea was pretty good. Why didn’t you carry it through?”

“As soon as I saw you, I changed my mind.”

Shaoshang smiled until tears fell, then spoke again with a choked voice: “After all these years, I finally understand your heart. You delight in me only because I am me. Even if someone is better looking than me, more intelligent than me, better at causing trouble than me—you still wouldn’t spare them a second glance. I hope to be able to reciprocate in kind.”

“In the future, even if someone has more power and influence than you, it won’t do. Even if someone treats me better than you, it won’t do. Throughout all lands under heaven, within the four seas, in both capitals and thirteen provinces—only you, just you. Regardless of changing winds and clouds, shifting circumstances, I’ll marry you only because my heart delights in you.”

Huo Buyi was moved beyond words. He could only hold her even tighter, speaking incoherently: “…Aunt, she—she wasn’t truly mad at first. In the beginning she was pretending. Ling Yi was good at scheming and had some achievements, but as long as she remained mad, His Majesty would forever detest the Ling clan. She abandoned the son she loved like her own life. Whenever she thought of it, her heart was pierced and stabbed. Later she became somewhat truly mad. When no one was around, she would curse and remind me over and over, telling me I must never forget to take revenge!”

It was a twisted hatred as anxious as burning fire. Hating until the end, Huo Junhua herself didn’t know exactly who she hated—her beastly former husband, or her own poor judgment. Regardless, ultimately all of this fell upon the young Huo Buyi’s head.

“I know, I know.” Shaoshang stroked his face. “I know it all.”

Humans are not grass or wood—they cannot remain forever rational and calm without making any mistakes. Even wise and sagacious monarchs inevitably grow muddled in their later years. Even powerful ministers who maneuver strategically will have moments of confusion, making one wrong move.

Day after day of regret and fear, year after year of bone-deep hatred—exterminating the Ling clan had become the aunt and nephew’s obsession. Huo Junhua’s death was the final horn call urging Huo Buyi to act quickly. So he took desperate risks, staking everything on one throw.

…

When Cheng Shaoshang slipped into the tent, he saw his sister sleeping on the soft couch with flushed cheeks and fine perspiration on her forehead, half-covered by Huo Buyi’s dark feathered golden-threaded cloak. Huo Buyi sat beside the couch gently fanning her, watching the girl intently without blinking, his expression satisfied.

Shaoshang remembered one day when his sister was napping and Huo Buyi suddenly visited. Both parents happened to be away, so the troubled Zhu came to call him to handle the matter. When he arrived, he saw exactly the same scene—Huo Buyi, under the anxious gazes of a roomful of maids, sitting beside the couch just like this, quietly fanning the girl.

Cheng Shaoshang’s heart softened. He said gently: “Yangyang has been awake for a full day and night already. She’s like this—the more worried she is, the less she can sleep.”

Huo Buyi hummed softly in acknowledgment, his gaze toward the girl full of loving focus.

That night, to avoid a lone man and woman spending the night together, Cheng Shaoshang wanted to make a floor bed in this tent but was warmly yet politely ‘carried’ out by Huo Buyi. So he went to find a place to write his family letter.

“To Mother above: My sister and I are both well. We haven’t caused trouble, haven’t eaten recklessly, and have been traveling properly on the main road all along—only these past two days had some unusual circumstances. We encountered a band of bandits. We killed over a hundred enemies, wounded over a hundred enemies, and captured over a hundred enemies. This is but a trifling matter—Mother need not worry. The details can wait until your son returns to report. There is one more matter: today Marquis Huo caught up with us. From this point forward, regarding all trivial matters concerning my younger sister, Mother would do best to inquire of Marquis Huo. Even if your son devoted himself utterly, I fear I would be powerless to manage her—respectfully submitted with obeisance.”